Best Of 2022: How Do Game Developers And Artists Feel About The Rise Of AI Art?

Should we all be worried, or is it just a fad?

Over the holidays we’re republishing some choice features from the last 12 months. A mix of talking points, interviews, opinion pieces and more from NL staff and contributors, you’ll find our usual blend of thoughtfulness, expertise, frivolity, retro nostalgia, and — of course — enthusiasm for all things Nintendo. Happy holidays!


If you’ve had your ear to the ground for the past couple of years, you’ll have heard at least some of the rumbles of debate over the ethics and impact of AI art. You may have even heard the names of some tools used to create AI art, like Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, and DALL-E. But you may also be wondering why these tools have spawned such strong opinions in the news, on social media, and even among people you know. After all, haven’t we been having the “robots will take our jobs” discussion for decades, now?

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

The Official Hori Taiko no Tatsujin Drum Controller for Nintendo Switch Has Dropped to the Lowest Price Ever

If you’ve been eyeing the official drum controller for the Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum ‘n’ Fun! but shied away at the steep price, look again. Right now it’s on sale for the lowest price ever.

Official Taiko no Tatsujin Controller for Switch

Right now you can pick up the officially licensed Hori Taiko no Tatsujin drum controller from the Bandai Namco Store for only $62.99, a 10% price drop from the original $70 MSRP. This drum kit is almost never i stock at Bandai Namco, and the only way to normally get it is via 3rd party vendorslike on Amazon. They are usually more expensive, between $80-$100. Note that the game isn’t included with the drum kit, so pick up the heavily discounted Taiko no Tatsujin Rhythm Festival game over at Amazon at the same time.

Taiko no Tatsujin is an extremely fun and challenging drum rhythm game for the Nintendo Switch. Taiko no Tatsujin might not be well down in the United States, but the franchise is hugely successful and popular in Japan. There, it’s a common presence in arcade galleries where you’ll often see maestros performing superhuman combos on the highest difficulty levels. The Nintendo Switch game emulates this game in everything but its controls. Whereas in the arcade version you’re banging away on drumsticks, you’re relegated to using the button controls or the touchscreen interface in the Switch version. This official drum kit from Hori is as close to the arcade version as you’re going to get. It’s responsive, it’s durable, and it will make Taiko no Tatsujin feel like a whole new (and better) game.

For more deals, take a look at our daily deals for today.

Daily Deals for Nintendo Switch Gamers: Switch Online Membership, Memory Cards, Taiko No Tatsujin Drum Kit, Ring Fit, and More

Welcome to 2023! Switch gamers get first pick at deals with these great bargains. You can get a 1 year Nintendo Switch Family Membership plus a 256GB memory card for only $49.99, Ring Fit Adventure for only $55, or the officially licensed Taiko no Tatsujin Drum Kit from Hori for only $62.99. These deals and more below.

Nintendo Switch Online Family Membership and 256GB Memory Card

Amazon is offering a free officially licensed Nintendo Switch 256GB Micro SDXC memory Card when you pick up a 12 month Nintendo Switch Online Family Membership. Nintendo Switch Online lets you play online against other people in games like Super Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Super Smash Bros Ultimate, or Splatoon 3, download custom levels in games like Super Mario Maker 2, play free retro SNES games, save your game data to the cloud, and much more. The “Family” membership allows for up to 8 different account holders, not necessarily in the same household. Split the price among your friends for even greater savings (and keep the memory card for yourself).

Samsung 512GB Micro SDXC Card (Nintendo Switch and Steam Deck Compatible) for $49.99

If you’ve started compiling a collection of digital games, you probably already know just how limited the Switch’s base storage capacity. With only 32GB of starting space (and some of it reserved for the OS), you’ll barely fit The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Pokemon Sword or Shield, which tap out at 13.5GB each! There’s only one expansion slot in the Switch console so you want to make sure you get the biggest card you can afford. The Samsung 512GB Micro SDXC card is fully compatible with the Switch and Steam Deck. Since this card boasts faster speeds than your standard Micro SDXC card (it’s rated for U3 A2 speeds), it also makes an excellent expansion card for your SLR camera, GoPro, or smartphone.

Ring Fit Adventure for Switch

Do you want to work out but simply don’t enjoy working out? Ring Fit Adventure is one way to get around this hurdle. Ring Fit incorporates a huge variety of excellent workout exercises disguised as an RPG game. An epic adventure awaits you slaying monsters and dragons, tackling new levels, traversing different environments, acquiring powerups and skills, all the while toning your abs and burning calories.

Official Taiko no Tatsujin Controller for Switch

Taiko no Tatsujin is an extremely fun and challenging drum rhythm game for the Nintendo Switch. The franchise is hugely successful and popular in Japan. There, it’s a common presence in arcade galleries where you’ll often see maestros performing superhuman combos on the highest difficulty levels. The Nintendo Switch game emulates this game in everything but its controls. Whereas in the arcade version you’re banging away on drumsticks, you’re relegated to using the button controls or the touchscreen interface in the Switch version. That’s where this officially licensed controller comes in. The Drum controller from Hori is a miniaturized copy of the arcade version. It’s responsive, it’s durable, and it will make Taiko no Tatsujin feel like a whole new (and far better) game.

No game is included so pick up the heavily discounted Taiko no Tatsujin Rhythm Festival game over at Amazon at the same time.

WD Black SN850X 2TB PS5 SSD for Only $199.99

The SN850X is one of the best SSDs you can buy for your PS5 upgrade. The SN850X is the successor to the SN850 SSD. It has newer flash chips (BiCS5 vs BiCS4) and an updated firmware, which combined offer improved sequential and random read/write speeds. For PC gamers, there’s also an updated Game Mode 2.0 utility that’s designed to tune the SSD for better performance during gaming sessions. It even includes a beefy preinstalled heatsink.

Anker 300W Portable Power Station Generator

Need plenty of juice while you’re out camping? This Anker portable power station will fit the bill quite nicely. Weighing in at only 10 pounds, this oversized power bank will give you 388.8Wh of power. In layman’s terms, it will charge an iPhone about 20 times, a MacBook Air 2020 about 5 times, or an iPad Air 11 times. There are several connectivity options, including a 60W USB-PD (Power Delivery) port and a 110V AC outlet.

Crucial P5 Plus 2TB M.2 PS5 SSD for $164.99

Crucial’s newest M.2 SSD meets all the requirements for your PS5 SSD upgrade. It supports transfer speeds of up to 6,660MB/s which is well above the 5,500MB/s minimum threshold. Yes there are faster SSDs out there, but if your intention is to put this in your PS5, then that extra speed is worthless because you’re bottlenecked by the original PS5 SSD. If you’re worried about opening up your PS5 case, don’t worry it’s very easy. Crucial has an official YouTube PS5 SSD install guide to see you through the process.

Bowflex SelectTech Adjustable Dumbbells for $379

Amazon has the best price on a pair of Bowflex SelectTech 552 adjustable dumbbells. Each dumbbell is adjustable from 5 pounds all the way to 52.5 pounds, or a total of 105 pounds for both dumbbells. This is a excellent practical gift for the muscleheads in your family.

Alienware Aurora R14 AMD Ryzen 7 5800X RTX 3080 Ti Gaming PC for $1999.99

There’s a $200 off coupon code that drops the price of this RTX 3080 Ti equipped gaming PC to under $2K. This PC will be able to push just about any game at 60fps+ speeds, even at 4K resolution. Sure, the RTX 4080 and RTX 4090 video cards are more powerful, but they are also hundreds of dollars pricier and their performance is wasted on pretty much anyone who doesn’t run the absolutely most demanding games at 4K with raytracing enabled or VR gamers with 8K headsets.

PS5 God of War Bundle in Stock

The PlayStation 5 console is, thankfully, getting a little easier to find this holiday season. It’s still sold out at most places, but not all. Walmart has the PS5 Disc Edition console bundle with God of War: Ragnarok in stock right now. There’s no queue or invitations to wait for. No guarantees that they’ll stay in stock for much longer.

The Best Deals of the Week

These deals are definitely worth your attention.

Best Of 2022: After 10 Years I Finally Got A Wii U, Here’s What I Thought

The good, the bad, and the ugly.

Over the holidays we’re republishing some choice features from the last 12 months. A mix of talking points, interviews, opinion pieces and more from NL staff and contributors, you’ll find our usual blend of thoughtfulness, expertise, frivolity, retro nostalgia, and — of course — enthusiasm for all things Nintendo. Happy holidays!

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Best Of 2022: Which Zelda Game Should You Play First?

Where should you start if you’re new to The Legend?

Over the holidays we’re republishing some choice features from the last 12 months. A mix of talking points, interviews, opinion pieces and more from NL staff and contributors, you’ll find our usual blend of thoughtfulness, expertise, frivolity, retro nostalgia, and — of course — enthusiasm for all things Nintendo. Happy holidays!


The announcement of a solid release date for BOTW2 The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom marked the beginning of a new, more intense phase of enthusiasm for one of the most anticipated sequels of the decade. Sure, a new Zelda game is always big news, but when it’s a follow-up to one of the most warmly-received video games of all time — and one that gave the Nintendo Switch a launch title to rival the likes of Super Mario 64 — excitement levels will be reaching fever pitch in the coming months as we approach its May 2023 launch.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Best Of 2022: Professor Layton And The Lost Franchise: Where Did The Beloved Puzzle Series Go?

This reminds me of a puzzle…

Over the holidays we’re republishing some choice features from the last 12 months. A mix of talking points, interviews, opinion pieces and more from NL staff and contributors, you’ll find our usual blend of thoughtfulness, expertise, frivolity, retro nostalgia, and — of course — enthusiasm for all things Nintendo. Happy holidays!


From the late 2000s to the mid-2010s, my gaming experience was all about learning to become a gentleman. This was a central topic which ran throughout the Professor Layton series. If Professor Hershel Layton wore a trench coat, I wore a trench coat; if he drank fruity tea, I drank fruity tea; if he was reminded of a puzzle during the most inappropriate of times…well, you get the idea. This is to say that the Professor Layton games were a huge part of my formative gaming and indeed, my self-education. So why is it that, today, my views of the series are so often tainted?

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Best Of 2022: How Stardew Valley Grew The Farm Sim While Harvest Moon Went To Seed

The Concerned Ape and the Golden Egg.

Over the holidays we’re republishing some choice features from the last 12 months. A mix of talking points, interviews, opinion pieces and more from NL staff and contributors, you’ll find our usual blend of thoughtfulness, expertise, frivolity, retro nostalgia, and — of course — enthusiasm for all things Nintendo. Happy holidays!


In August of 1996, the same year that Spice Girls released their debut single and The English Patient swept awards season, a little game called Bokujō Monogatari came out in Japan on the Super Famicom. All signs pointed to it being a flop: its development had been plagued by bankruptcy and downsizing; it came out on a last-generation console just after the release of the Nintendo 64; and worst of all, it was a game about… farming. This was an era where kids wanted to fly spaceships and save princesses, not till soil and pull weeds.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com