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[Review] Monark

Posted on 2 years ago by in Reviews, Switch | 0 comments

monark review

System: Switch
Release date: February 22, 2022
Developer: Lancarse
Publisher: NIS America


The air hangs thick with mist, the shrouded school halls hard to navigate in the ever-present haze. You don’t remember anything. Not your name, your grade, or anything about what caused this to happen. You descend the stairs to clean air and students like yourself attempting to remain calm. Panic does no one any good, after all. The Shin Mikado Academy is enshrouded in a mysterious barrier, and its going to take a lot of work to get to the bottom of this ordeal in Monark.

Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires review

System: Switch
Release date: February 15, 2022
Developer: Omega Force
Publisher: Koei Tecmo


Around four years ago to the date, Dynasty Warriors 9 released globally and introduced a new perspective for the franchise with an open world format, though the feature seemed partially unnecessary. It was a neat idea that was unfortunately poorly implemented and left a bad taste in a lot of players’ mouths. Could an Empires edition – which many thought would be skipped – be able to unlock the original game’s potential? I truly believe that was the plan, and though this is a version that’s packed with all the content and changes Dynasty Warriors 9 spent years building post-launch, Empires is just a stripped down reminder that the title had a lot of its issues deep-rooted in its foundation that simply can’t be changed by adding more stuff as a distraction, and to make matters worse, the Switch version is borderline unplayable with how it runs.

There’s a huge contrast between Xenoblade position as a series today and twelve years ago when it started. Early on in the series, Nintendo didn’t even consider releasing the first game in North America, which led to the creation of “Operation Rainfall” – a campaign in which fans asked for the western release of 3 Wii games, including Xenoblade Chronicles.

Well, things are very different right now. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was just announced and the level of popularity has increased considerably. Taking all of this into consideration, I discuss the good place that Xenoblade is in right now and why Nintendo is promoting the series so much. You can check out the video down below.

One of the big pieces of Nintendo news this week concerns the eShop, as in one way, the digital store will be ending on both Wii U and 3DS. Starting in late March 2023, it will be closing down for business on these platforms. New purchases will no longer be possible.

Many Wii U and 3DS games have made their way over to Switch, but a ton have also stayed behind. That means a lot of hidden gems will be left behind without a way for new players to get their hands on them once March 2023 rolls by.

With that in mind, we want to hear about some of your top picks that you’d suggest Wii U and 3DS owners should pick up. Are there any particular games you feel flew under the radar? Let us know in the comments below.

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Pokemon Legends Arceus review

System: Switch
Release date: January 28, 2022
Developer: Game Freak
Publisher: Nintendo


The Pokemon games have always been traditionally known for their turn-based “catch ’em all” mantra that sees a trainer take on a new adventure set in a region with many different types of creatures, attaining badges and friends along the way before making it to the Pokemon League and inevitably becoming champion. For over 25 years now this has been a steady formula with each new generation that has been consistently released in two separate versions containing different Pokemon in each, with sometimes a third tagged-on entry, and has also brought with it many new spinoffs to take Pokemon into a different direction. However, nothing has ever been done so drastically different as it has now with Pokemon Legends: Arceus. For a formula that has become tried with little known innovation outside of debut generations on each new platform (despite consistent fun) from entry to entry, this new Switch game reinvents the wheel of what Pokemon has become and can be moving forward in the most exciting way possible. It’s not just a matter of catching them all as a personal goal, but it’s also become a gameplay element that incorporates research into it as well.

For a long time now, Directs are the primary channel in which Nintendo communicates with its fans. These presentations provide updates about what’s being developed internally and always keeping the cycle of hype alive.

With more than ten years of producing these videos, Nintendo evolved a lot, changing the format and trying to create better and more entertaining presentations. Since 2017 it seems that they finally found a good formula, usually bringing a lot of new and exciting announcements. In the video below I analyze Directs to understand how Nintendo managed to refine the formula. You can watch it down below.

EGGLIA Rebirth interview

Shinichi Kameoka has had a pretty distinguished career. One of his most notable achievements was Mother 3, of which he worked on the game as a producer. He was also a system designer, character designer, and scenario writer for the original Mana series, including Secret of Mana and SaGa Frontier.

Kameoka’s studio Brownies just put out a new title on Switch in the form of EGGLIA Rebirth. We were recently given the chance to speak with him about releasing the game on Nintendo’s console as well as a few other topics.

You can check out our full discussion below. 

A new February 2022 Nintendo Direct aired this week, and it was quite the juicy one. Nintendo itself had its fair share of announcements per usual, and third-parties jumped in with some news as well.

Looking strictly at what Nintendo brought to the show, the company revealed Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Mario Strikers: Battle League, Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Houses, and Nintendo Switch Sports. We also found out that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe will be getting some pretty big DLC in the form of 48 remastered tracks that will drop in six waves through 2023. EarthBound and EarthBound Beginnings joined Switch Online, Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp got a new release date, Kirby and the Forgotten Land unveiled Mouthful Mode, and Splatoon 3 showed off its Salmon Run mode.

mother 3 localization worldwide release

It’s been over 15 years since Mother 3’s original debut, but the RPG has never received an official English localization. However, one important developer that worked on the project hopes to see that happen someday.

Producer Shinichi Kameoka recently told Nintendo Everything that much like the fans, he’d “also love to see Mother 3 released in the US and Europe.” He added: “As a lover of games, I will continue to wait for Mother 3’s release worldwide release (in English).

february 2022 nintendo direct live stream

The February 2022 Nintendo Direct will be kicking off in just a bit, and we’ve set up a live stream. We actually have separate embeds ready to go for North America, Europe, and Japan.

As was announced yesterday, the event will begin at 2 PM PT / 5 PM ET / 10 PM in the UK / 11 PM in Europe. We mentioned this previously, but it’ll focus on Switch games launching during the first half of 2022 – though Nintendo could go beyond that window for some games. In any case, we’re in for 40 minutes of news.

You can watch the February 2022 Nintendo Direct as it happens with the live stream below. We’ll also have a live blog going throughout the event plus additional coverage on the main site during and after it airs.


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