Category: Nintendo

Following Paper Mario pre-order cancellations.

Ahead of the launch of Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD for the Nintendo Switch next week, Walmart in the US has reportedly been cancelling customers physical pre-orders.

As highlighted by GoNintendo, the “exact same situation” that played out with pre-orders for Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door last month is now happening with Luigi’s new release. The retailer is once again offering a discount code of $25 on the next purchase over $45 as an apology.

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From familiar faces to creative controls.

Our initial reaction to The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom reveal at the June Nintendo Direct was something along the lines of “Ahhhh-WHHHAAAAAAAAA”.

If you had asked us for some of the game’s distinguishing features after that first watch, we’d probably be able to mutter, “Hero Zelda, er, magic rod,” and, after a long pause, “… beds“.

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Stranger stuff.

Developer Cococucumber has established itself as a dependable indie studio over the past few years. Specialising in accessible throwbacks, it adds a fresh spin on old genre formats. Although its latest title Ravenlok is (pun intended) locked away behind Xbox exclusivity, Switch owners can finally try the second in the dev’s self-styled ‘Voxel Trilogy’ – Echo Generation.

A nostalgic and charmingly funny adventure/RPG hybrid, it takes the beautiful voxel style of the developer’s 2019 title Riverbond, and applies it to the bizarre summer holiday of a group of suburban kids. Tipping a hat to the point-and-click classics of Ron Gilbert and Tim Schafer, there’s also more than a little reminder of EarthBound in its creepy view of suburbia.

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Can we get a new amiibo too, then?

It looks like The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom will have amiibo support when it launches on 26th September 2024. At least, that’s what the game’s Japanese website says.

Near the bottom of the official page on Nintendo’s Japanese website, we and many other fans have spotted the little amiibo symbol next to the game’s box art and release date. We’re not too surprised, given that the Link’s Awakening remake — which uses the same art style — also has amiibo support, but it certainly has us thinking “Hey, can we get a Zelda amiibo in the same style as the Link’s Awakening one?”.

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And it looks absolutely stunning!

We’ve been lapping up every detail of the new Zelda game, and now to top it off, Nintendo has shared a first look at the box art of this new outing which puts Princess Zelda in the spotlight instead of Link.

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It seems to link back to a previously announced deal.

Donkey Kong Country Returns is returning for a third time early next year and it seems we might already know who is behind the latest HD iteration. According to some official documentation which has already been spotted by many fans online, the Polish team Forever Entertainment SA (Panzer Dragoon: Remake) is helping out with the upcoming Switch release – with today marking the “launch of the marketing campaign for the game”.

While the original developer Retro Studios currently has its hands full with Metroid Prime 4: Beyond (due out at some point in 2025), Forever Entertainment has been busy visually enhancing the original Wii release and also adding in some other extra bonuses like the extra levels from the Nintendo 3DS outing.

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Zelda historians are already linking the dots…

One of the most exciting games announced during the latest Nintendo Direct was The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom – a brand new entry in Link’s top-down adventures, where you’ll be taking on the role of Princess Zelda after Link goes missing.

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The trailer and Collector’s Edition give some hints.

How are all of the RPG fans doing after that Nintendo Direct, hey? One of the highlights of the show was Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake, which made its long-awaited return after years of silence. We got music, a new trailer, and a release date of 14th November.

We also know some new features are coming to the game. Nintendo Life had the opportunity to go hands-on with the remake, and we were told by Square Enix that the job system will be “modernised”. We weren’t told what that meant exactly, but today’s trailer — and the newly-revealed Collector’s Edition — may provide a few hints.

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So much more than “Sanrio meets Animal Crossing”.

“One World, Connecting Smiles.” That’s the tagline Sanrio, the company responsible for creating Hello Kitty, established back in 2021. Its brand is all about ‘Minna Nakayoku’, which means ‘all of us friends’ or ‘Getting Along Together’. Unity, friendship, and love encompass the world of Sanrio, and it’s worked. For me, Hello Kitty has always been that unifying figure – an icon, kind of like a cuter Barbie, who is capable of anything but always puts her friends first. I had Hello Kitty Dream World figures, where the eponymous cat had a mushroom house, a pineapple juice bar (complete with a pineapple-costumed figure), and even a dolphin yacht. There was also a bee costume figure with detachable bee wings. What’s not to love?

Hello Kitty is one of the biggest brands in the world (for context, Hello Kitty grossed more merch money than Frozen, Batman, and Sesame Street in 2018). So it might be a surprise that she’s never really had a successful video game, despite starring in many, dating all the way back to the Famicom. That is, until 2023’s Hello Kitty Island Adventure.

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Round Up: Everything announced in the June ’24 Direct.

Well, the June 2024 Nintendo Direct has been broadcast. Nintendo warned us that there was definitely a Summer Direct coming (as is typical), and the 40-minute presentation was packed with Switch announcements for games coming in the second half of 2024, plus a select few for 2025. Metroid Prime 4 news, finally!

No mention of ‘Switch 2’ (again, something Nintendo flagged beforehand), but there’s still plenty on the horizon for Switch as the console cruises through its eighth year.

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