Category: Nintendo

Wave 1 is available now.

To celebrate the recent launch of Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition, a new batch of icons have been released for the Switch Online service.

The first wave is now officially underway and will be available until 31st July 2024. NSO Icons Alerts on social media has shared a closer look at what’s on offer in Wave 1, with each icon available for 10 Platinum Points. As you can see, you can get retro icons based on Super Mario Bros., Kirby, Metroid, and more.

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“If you make a protagonist who just stands there, they will look like an idiot”.

The silent protagonist is a hotly debated topic among RPG enthusiasts. Usually acting as a stand-in for the player, this character is usually the lead, although they have no (or very little) dialogue, and can only interact with characters through basic dialogue options. And the creator of Dragon Quest, Yuji Horii, has weighed in on the difficulties of using silent protagonists in modern video games.

In a chat with the director of the Persona series Katsura Hashino published in Denfaminicogamer (and translated by Automaton Media), Horii admitted that “increasingly-realistic” graphics have made silent protagonists “increasingly difficult to depict”.

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Giant cube-shaped cat fights and “The Schrödinger System”.

BitSummit, held in Kyoto every sweltering hot summer, plays host to an incredible amount of indie developers from across the globe. As you might expect, it can be rather hard to stand out – so much so that it was even difficult for us to curate a list of impressive Switch games down to only 10 titles this year. However, Cassette Boy, with its muted Game Boy-like color palette, exuded so much retro charm that we couldn’t help but play it more than once, chatting with the sole developer Kiyoshi Honda whenever he had a moment to spare from the hordes lining up to play his game.

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More tea, vicar?

Metroidvania fans seem to be living through a golden age. Hollow Knight and the Ori series, indie hits of the last decade, have established themselves as all-time classics, spurring on a horde of imitators, tributes, and new ideas. Even just 2024’s entries range from the imaginative, lo-fi hit Animal Well to the lavishly presented Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus may be yet another Metroidvania, but, remarkably, it’s yet another one worth your time.

The story opens with an atmospheric animated cutscene, in which a “Tentaihana” celestial blossom crashes down from the heavens into a lotus flower. This introduces Bo, a little fox-like creature draped in petals. Although the narrative doesn’t go very far, the tone of the world is developed effectively, with a cheery cast of characters ranging from a two-headed clairvoyant toucan to a fishcake–headed ramen chef. Dialogue never takes itself too seriously, whether it’s referencing classic memes, breaking the fourth wall, or going very tongue-in-cheek.

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Insists it is “not shutting down”.

The entire staff of Humble Games, the publisher behind such games as Unpacking, Slay the Spire, and Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus, has been the subject of a mass layoff, according to LinkedIn posts from affected staff members. The news came to light after staff posted announcing that their time with the studio has come to an end (thanks, Eurogamer).

Nicola Kwan, a business development manager at the studio, wrote, “At 9AM this morning, all 36 employees of Humble Games were told that we were being let go and that the company is shutting down.”

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Includes a “free ROM download”.

Well, here’s something you don’t see every day! The arena shooter Xeno Crisis, which launched on the Switch eShop in 2019 (and has already been released on multiple retro platforms), is getting a “physical and digital” release for the Game Boy Advance in Q4 2024.

Pre-orders are already live on the Bitmap Bureau online store. The package comes with a “region-free” GBA cartridge, cardboard tray/inserts, instruction manual, and you’ll also receive a “free ROM download”.

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Test your speedrunning skills in five different games.

Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition has been out for less than a week and Nintendo is already moving onto a new batch of weekly challenges. This time you’ll be competing in games like Metroid, Super Mario Bros., and Donkey Kong.

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Multiple customer details compromised.

Red Art Games has announced that it has fallen victim to a significant cyberattack in which multiple customer details have been compromised.

The company confirms that all bank details are safe, but details including email addresses and shipping addresses have been affected. It has also confirmed that shipments, order changes, and refunds will be paused for the next few days while it investigates further.

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“Thank you for your continued support”.

Genius Sonority has announced that its free-to-play title The New Denpa Men surpassed 100,000 downloads on its release day.

The publisher and developer shared this news on Twitter, thanking “all those who have downloaded the game so quickly”.

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Remastered strength.

After a brief delay, the latest UK charts are in and while all of the familiar faces remain at the top, Prime Day sales have shaken things up elsewhere.

The top three are unchanged this time around, with Hogwarts Legacy, EA Sports FC 24 and Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD claiming the podium. The only real surprises in the top ten this week are the inclusion of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown at ninth thanks to some recent sales — considering it hasn’t even made the top 40 for a while, that’s not bad going — and The Witcher III: Wild Hunt Complete Edition making the jump from 37th to tenth.

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