Gallery: An Intimate Look Inside Nintendo’s Latest Theme Park – Universal Epic Universe

Needs more Dixie Kong.

Now that multiple Nintendo theme parks have been built (with potentially more coming down the road), it’s likely on the minds of many whether they should save up the large amount of funds to make a trip out for this.

While we can’t make that decision for you, we’ve written in the past about the overall experience you’ll find visiting the smaller scale version of Super Nintendo World located in Hollywood, California, and we’ve just visited the larger park in Orlando, Florida.

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Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (24th May)

Ready..? Fight!

Well folks, the weekend is finally here… Wait, what do you mean it only feels like yesterday when we did our last What Are You Playing? Yeah… time flies, huh? The Switch 2 will be here before you know it!

Anyway, this week saw the release of four new titles for the Game Boy app on Nintendo Switch Online, which is awesome. We also finally got an explanation from Shigeru Miyamoto as to why Donkey Kong has gone through such a major redesign. Spoiler: it’s not as dramatic as you might think.

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Video: Here’s A Sneak Peek Of Mario Kart World’s Start Screen

Press L and R to start racing this June.

Nintendo has been revealing all sorts of details about Mario Kart World each week in the leadup to the Switch 2 launch and we’ve now got even more footage.

First up is a glimpse of the game’s official title screen which features the driver (in this case, Mario) zipping about the world of the new game. It seems you’ll be able to jump straight into the action from this start screen and roam about the new open world by simply pressing the L and R buttons.

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Rune Factory: Guardians Of Azuma Lets You Hop Between Timelines To Date Multiple Characters

Love is in the air.

Having trouble deciding who to romance in Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma? Well fear not, as Marvelous has a solution for you — timeline and world hopping (thanks Siliconera!).

No, we’re not joking; the official Rune Factory PR account announced that you can date and marry multiple different characters in the upcoming Rune Factory game by using the “Technique to Travel Between Worlds”. The mechanic doesn’t have a name in English just yet.

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Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Dev Used Procedural Generation To Manage 100,000 Different Assets

No, it’s not generative AI.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 developer Monolith Soft has revealed that it used significant procedural generation to cope with the vast increase in assets required to build the world of the critically-acclaimed Switch RPG.

As detailed by CG World (thanks, VGC), Monolith Soft’s map model designer Yoichi Akizuki, support engineer Mitsuhiro Hirose, and programmer Takashi Shibahara all discussed how the studio started incorporating software such as Houdini to aid in procedural generation.

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Random: ‘Koholint Redrawn’ Breathes New Life Into Zelda: Link’s Awakening

Gooooorgeous.

You might remember the Kanto Redrawn project we covered back in 2024, and the Johto Redrawn project in 2021. Well, we’ve got another.

It’s not Pokémon this time, though. Nope. This latest effort from dozens of artists tackles Koholint Island from The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, breathing new life into the Game Boy classic. The whole piece is now live via the ‘Retro Redrawn‘ website thanks to the efforts of Blindeduif for organising the whole thing.

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‘Shadow Labyrinth’ Injects Some Pac-Man Nostalgia Into Its Latest Trailer

Waka-waka, eh ehhh.

Bandai Namco has released a new trailer for its upcoming Pac-Man re-imagining Shadow Labyrinth, and if previous glimpses of the game perhaps didn’t convince you, then this latest effort may just bring you on board with its nostalgic elements.

The new trailer showcases a series of mazes that look a lot more like the traditional Pac-Man experience you’re perhaps more used to. There are a few interesting elements, mind you, including boost pads that speed Pac-Man (or “Puck”, as it’s known here) along a straight line, along with the ability to jump and bash into platforms, thus causing them to move or fall down.

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Video: First Look At ‘Wild Hearts S’ Four-Player Gameplay On Switch 2

Featuring online and local support.

Koei Tecmo will be showing its support for the Switch 2 this year with some of its games and launching in July is Wild Hearts S – a monster hunting-style game, which originally made its debut on other platforms in 2023.

This updated version coming to the Switch 2 will include some updates to the gameplay and perhaps most notably is the increase of three to four players for both local and online play. This means you can now hunt with three other players.

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Nintendo Expands Switch Online’s Game Boy Library With Four More Titles

Available today.

Nintendo has today released a new update for its Switch Online ‘Nintendo Classics’ base tier subscription service – adding four more titles to the Game Boy and Game Boy Color library.

This includes the Konami side-scrolling shooter Gradius: The Interstellar Assault (1991/92) and Survival Kids (1999), Kecmo’s RPG The Sword of Hope (1989/91), and the Kirby puzzle title Kirby’s Star Stacker (1997).

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