It’s not exactly much of a secret that a lot of indie devs are struggling to stay afloat these days given the economic *gestures vaguely at a world map.* No one has an exact solution either, but last December, just before the release of its latest game Hyper Light Breaker, noted indie developer Heart Machine announced that they were opening a Patreon. I won’t act like this is exactly a novel concept, I’ve seen a few other devs, typically on the smaller or solo size, try the same thing. But it still felt like a sign that Heart Machine needed a bit of a boost to keep things going.
Well, that was a week, wasn’t it? We Nintendo lifers finally got an influx of info, a deluge of details about Switch 2 and the games we can expect to be playing on it. And soon!
Yep, 5th June is exactly two months away, and we’re champing at the Joy-Con Strap to get our hands on the launch lineup. We’ve had a taste, but we’re hungry for more.
Fishing! It’s a feature that’s been included in many games over the years, one that varies in quality from game to game. Sega Bass Fishing? Probably top of the line, as long as you have that unique fishing rod controller. Stardew Valley? I like it, but I know plenty of people that hate it. Personally I normally find it quite a relaxing thing to do, particularly in games that are otherwise combat focused. Fallout 76 is one such game that’s more about shooting rather than chilling out, but over on the public test server you can now try out its version of fishing.
After years of speculation, Switch 2 finally exists. It’s got a launch date, a price, a bunch of accessories, and — most importantly — a lineup of games large and small, all showcased in an hour-long Direct which answered a lot of questions.
The Switch 2 generation is upon us and Nintendo has been updating all sorts of things including its Parental Controls video animation featuring Bowser Jr and his Dad.
This new video is quite the facelift – with Bowser’s Switch swapped out for a brand-new Switch 2 (yes, he’s already playing it) and Mario Kart World now featured in all of the gameplay footage. And noticably Bowser has updated his Peach wallpaper…to another photo of Princess Peach.
Following the announcement GameCube titles would be coming to Switch Online, Nintendo’s Treehouse event provided an update about what exactly is on offer across both tiers.
Nintendo this week announced “Game-key cards” for the Switch 2, which are described as “different” from regular game cards as they don’t contain the “full game data” and are instead used as a “key” to download the title onto your system via the internet.
As fans are quickly finding out, a lot of third-party titles scheduled for the launch window of the Switch 2 will be using these game-key cards, and now it seems like Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition by FromSoftware will be joining this list.
The Switch 2 has officially locked in a release date and while a lot of games have already been confirmed for the platform, it looks like we might have one more.
It seems Konami will be releasing its Suikoden 1 & 2 HD Remaster package on the Switch 2, with listings for this game already popping up on sites like Play-asia. It will apparently be made available alongside the launch of the system on 5th June 2025 and it’s priced at $34.99 USD (or your regional equivalent) with pre-orders now live.
I feel like we’ve earned a reprieve today from the news chaos of tariffs and Nintendo Switch 2 pricing, so here’s something fun (?) for your Friday: IGN played Mario Kart World at a Nintendo event in New York this week, and confirmed that yes, the new Cow character can in fact eat burgers and steak (and many others things as well).
If you’re wondering what on earth we could possibly be talking about, allow me to point you to the recent announcement of Mario Kart World, which included the introduction of the Moo Moo Meadows Cow as a playable racer. The Internet, of course, is thrilled about this, already coming up with dozens of memes and fanart of the adorable Cow that, until recently, was nothing more prominent than a fun background character in a single Mario Kart track.
However, as news of Cow spread throughout the land, fans began pointing out a potential, erm, problem, with another element of the Mario Kart World reveal. In the Nintendo Direct 2 trailer from Wednesday, Mario eats a burger. Burgers are (typically) made of beef. Would Cow, whose people are ostensibly a source of beef, consume beef herself? Fans really wanted to know.
Well at the Nintendo preview event, we found out. You see, the food items we saw in the trailer are obtainable in Mario Kart World at Yoshi’s diner locations scattered across courses. They function like a drive-thru, allowing racers to drive up and grab a bag of take-out just like they would an item box. There are a lot of different food items that can be inside, including burgers, steak kebabs, pizza, and donuts.
During our session we also saw Cow eat a number of other items, including the burger. We’re still a little hazy on what these items are actually doing for Cow — other racers change costumes when consuming them, but Cow doesn’t seem to experience any effects. Could she be eating beef just because she enjoys it? Is there a secret power-up she gets from burger consumption that we just don’t know about yet because Nintendo hasn’t revealed it? Or perhaps are these veggie burgers and Beyond meat kebabs?
IGN reached out to Nintendo to try and clear all this up, but we haven’t heard back yet. I’m sure it’s because they’re busy at their New York event, and not because this is an unhinged question to ask their PR about. Yeah, that’s probably it.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
Mario Kart World looks to be the most ambitious game in the series to date, with 24 racers per course, more game modes, open-world driving and a host of other fresh features.
But after a decade of Mario Kart 8, we’re most excited for a fresh batch of courses. Nintendo is yet to lift the lid on every track at our disposal in the Switch 2 launch title, though we have combed through the trailers, screenshots and Treehouse Live footage to bring you the following list of every track confirmed so far.
