Category: Nintendo

EarthBound turns “adults into kids, and kids into adults”.

Over the holiday season, we’re republishing some of the best articles from Nintendo Life writers and contributors as part of our Best of 2024 series. This article was originally published in August. Enjoy!

Soapbox features enable our individual writers and contributors to voice their opinions on hot topics and random stuff they’ve been chewing over. Today, Nile celebrates the innocence of youth, the pain of growing up, and the magic of a cult classic SNES RPG, which celebrates its 30th anniversary on 27th August 2024…

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Biggest surprise! Most long-winded title! Crappiest Switch publisher!

The end of 2024 is nigh, but before we get there it’s time to look back on what has been a surprisingly chonky year for Switch, software-wise, in the eighth year since we first got our hands on the thing.

We’ve listed our personal Switch GOTYs, you’ve ranked yours – now it’s time to round up the stragglers with a light-hearted celebration of the year’s highs (and a handful of lows). Yes, it’s time for this year’s round of NL’s Alternative Game Awards.

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“It’s feast or famine, really”.

If you are the proud owner of a Nintendo Switch (and if you’re reading this, we’d wager that you are), then it will come as no surprise when we say that the eShop is a wild place in 2024.

While gaming may have never been better, Nintendo’s storefront has never been worse. Discoverability is a thing of the past with new titles added in waves of 30 or more each week, and keyword-dumping scam games are more prevalent than ever.

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Better late than never.

One of our biggest gripes with Antonblast on the Switch was its performance at launch. In our review, we noted that slowdown during more chaotic moments of gameplay can “cheapen the experience enough to be disappointing”, which isn’t really ideal for a 2D platformer in which speed is a key factor.

Thankfully, a new update has gone live which provides a welcome performance boost, amping up the framerate to a much more palatable 60fps. According to the announcement, bug fixes have also been implemented, but developer Summitsphere has not elaborated on what kind of issues these specifically target.

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Send out the year of Shadow with a bang.

Sonic X Shadow Generations is arguably one of Sonic’s best outings ever and if you enjoyed the soundtrack in Shadow’s new campaign as much as we did, you might be interested to know Sega has now officially released the entire album on all “major” digital services.

This includes sites (and apps) like Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music and the iTunes Store. You’ll also be able to listen to Dark Beginning’s “Without You” and other hits like Escape from the City. All up there are 52 songs and there’s a runtime of more than 2 hours.

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Available for a limited time.

Nintendo has released all sorts of icon designs for Switch Online subscribers throughout 2024 and now to wrap things up it’s bringing back select designs you might have missed.

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Here’s another look.

Earlier this year, LEGO announced it was extending its Nintendo range with the addition of a new Mario Kart line and more Animal Crossing sets. Nintendo’s Japanese website has now issued a reminder that three new Animal Crossing sets and six new Mario Kart sets will be launching on 1st January 2025.

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“We want to make one of the most accessible and playable RPGs of all time”.

Over the holiday season, we’re republishing some of the best articles from Nintendo Life writers and contributors as part of our Best of 2024 series. Enjoy!

Couch co-op and JRPG are two genres you don’t often see together. Secret of Mana is one of the earliest examples of the genre, with most of the Tales of series also allowing fans to play together while sitting side-by-side. But outside of those examples, playing JRPGs with your friends in the same room isn’t a common experience.

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Tea leaf!

Strolling down the road in a brand new, unfamiliar town, taking in the sights, you stop in front of a pleasant-looking house. Lovely big oak door, ruby red slate tiles, stone brickwork stained by sunlight and mud. It’s quaint and cosy, the idyllic village house, perhaps home to a young mother who’s just returned home from the local item shop.

You walk up to the door. Do you knock? Shout? Leave the residents alone? Of course not – you just walk right in, barge into the kitchen, and start shuffling through the shelves. And what do you find? Ah, yes, 50 gold pieces. Perfect.

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Some shinies that may have slipped through your fingers.

2024. It was a bit of an odd one for Switch, with the impending announcement of Nintendo’s follow-up console. It never materialised, but its shadow has been looming over the entire year. Still, if there hasn’t been an absolute avalanche of games to dig into!

Nintendo had many first-party releases — some weird and surprising, others long-time-coming remakes or new series entries — but it’s also been an outstanding year for smaller, independent games. And with the sheer variety, there’s bound to be many some you’ve missed.

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