Unbullievabull!
Can you believe we’re basically in the middle of July already? Madness… Well anyway, days of the year be damned, it’s time to play some games.
It’s been a relatively quiet one this week, arguably boosted by the strange and ominous ‘Emio’ trailer posted by Nintendo, indicating that the company may be dipping its toes back into the world of horror gaming…
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Feat. Squid Sisters, Off the Hook and Deep Cut.
Alongside this weekend’s Splatoon 3 ‘Summer Nights’ Splatfest, Nintendo has released a special new interview featuring all of the past and present groups and idols featured throughout the series. This includes ‘Deep Cut’, the ‘Off the Hook’ crew from Splatoon 2, and the ‘Squid Sisters’ from the first Splatoon game.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
“You won’t see a 30th or 40th anniversary”.
Certain series never stop, but it seems the Trails games (which are now 20 years old) are getting to the point of completion.
Speaking to GameSpot recently, the Nihon Falcom president Toshihiro Kondo (who is also one of the key devs behind Trails) mentioned how the main story is now “about 80-90% complete” and while there could be “another arc”, whatever happens next wouldn’t continue much longer and don’t expect to see a “30th or 40th anniversary”. Here’s the full exchange:
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Greetings Xbox Insiders!
We wanted to give a few quick updates to the community about what’s going on with the program while we are currently doing our best to weather an early summer heatwave and keep ourselves cool and safe.
Your Feedback Matters
As with the last update, we want to continue to draw attention to more Community-driven fixes made possible by your feedback. Users reported unexpected behavior with game clips and your feedback was vital to implementing a fix that was released with a recent update to Alpha Skip-Ahead, Alpha and Beta.
The Future of Community Updates
We expect things to pick up over the next few weeks/months where we’ll have more to discuss with our Xbox Insider community. Also, we’re looking to have other members of the Xbox Insider Team bring their voices to the Community updates, so be on the lookout to hear from other members of the team you haven’t heard from before.
A Gracious Thank You
It’s been our pleasure to bring you this latest Community Update for the Xbox Insider Program. If you’d like to chat more about this update (or anything Xbox Insider) be sure to head to the r/XboxInsiders subreddit or follow @xboxinsider.
The post Community Update July 2024 – Summertime Edition appeared first on Xbox Wire.
Forgotten Gems is a regular column about notable games that have moved out of the public eye and may not be easily accessible anymore. To see all the other games I’ve covered so far, be sure to check out the 12 previous issues of Forgotten Gems in our Columns section.
In an alternate universe, HAL and Nintendo’s beloved Kirby series never made it out of Japan. As the pink puffball conquered one platform after the other with his adorable pals, the Kirby games slowly emerged as the more forgiving, kid-friendly alternatives to Mario. If Mario missed a jump, he was a goner. Kirby? Just pump the button to float and you’ll get another chance at redemption. Kids had no problems jumping into Kirby games and completing the main campaigns – but older players looking for a little more also found some surprisingly devious challenges on the path to 100% completion.
But in our timeline, Kirby’s Dream Land hit Game Boy in the US and Europe a mere months after Hoshi no Kirby debuted in Japan in 1992. While the original game was a huge sales success that subsequent releases couldn’t quite replicate, Nintendo stuck with Kirby. The faith it placed in the franchise designer Masahiro Sakurai (of Smash Bros. fame) built paid off. A full 30 years later, Kirby Star Allies and then Kirby and the Forgotten Land blew up on Switch, selling almost 12 million copies between them.
Which brings us to The Legendary Starfy. The series shares more than a passing resemblance to Kirby’s. Its cute, starfish-like hero looks like he’s ripped straight out of a Kirby or Mario game. The developer, Tose – like Kirby’s creators at HAL – appear to share rights to the character and games. And Starfy games are very easy to get into and easy to complete. But unlike Kirby, Starfy has been one of those Nintendo franchises mostly released and promoted in the Japanese market.
My first experience with Starfy goes back all the way to the year 2000. At Nintendo’s annual Space World expo, also known as Shoshinkai, the publisher showed a playable demo of a game named “Densetsu no Stafy” for Game Boy Color. I recall playing it briefly at the time, of course unaware that that game would never see the light of day. With the release of its next handheld hardware a mere year away, the developers retooled the game for release on GBA instead.
Starfy may have the shape of a Luma, the face of Kirby, and the color of Pikachu, but you may have spotted him before via his cameos in Mario & Luigi: Super Star Saga, Super Mario Maker, and Super Princess Peach. But he’s likely most familiar to many a Nintendo fan thanks to his appearance as an Assist Trophy in the Super Smash Bros. games. The entry reads: “Starfy is the absentminded prince of the Pufftop Kingdom, and the hero of The Legendary Starfy. Is he a star? A starfish? His commitment to helping you when summoned is obvious, even if his species isn’t. He’ll use a Star Spin attack, which isn’t all that powerful. It’s the thought that counts!”
Developer Tose (“toh-seh”), headquartered in Kyoto not far away from Nintendo’s own HQ, has been around for more than 40 years. IGN’s database lists more than a hundred titles across a dozen platforms that Tose has worked on, from wrestling games to anime-licenses, to titles Nintendo fans will instantly recognize, like Game & Watch Gallery and Super Princess Peach. Many publishers, such as Square, enlisted Tose’s help during the GBA and DS eras to help port their classics to the handhelds, including Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, Front Mission, and Dragon Quest.
But the real tally of games Tose has worked on is likely much higher. Tose is one of a few Japanese development studios that have signed away their development credit on games it’s worked on – a practice that essentially obfuscates the real authors of games in favor of pushing the publisher brand. See also my piece on Sky Odyssey, a game that was in greater parts made by phantom devs CAProduction and Future Creates. This sometimes leads to awkward gameography entries on their Japanese corporate pages, listing their past works as “action game for major publisher” or “game design for PlayStation 4 game”.
This is all to say, Tose may not be a household name, but it’s an experienced team with more than four decades of experience designing games or working on adapting and converting games. That experience shows in the Starfy games. They feel and look like Nintendo games – or, more accurately, a mixture of HAL games and Capcom’s SNES platformers. If you haven’t played one of them yet (which, you likely haven’t – this is Forgotten Gems, after all), you’ll notice how much Starfy looks like Kirby’s brother from another bubblegum mother.
Instead of relying on the ability to float, Starfy’s adventures are mostly aquatic. You pump the A-button to swim faster underwater, use spins to destroy blocks, and you can of course dash upwards to catch some air and soar above the waves as well. What starts with simple block-pushing and platforming puzzle challenges eventually gets more complex, with Breakout-style mini-games, auto-scrolling stages, and even vehicles. You’d be hard-pressed to call the first Starfy game – Densetsu no Starfy (or Stafy, see sidebar), a top-tier platformer in Nintendo’s overall library, but it’s competently made and enjoyable.
Densetsu no Starfy was successful enough in Japan to get a sequel. And another one. And another one. Despite not seeing a release in the west, Starfy gained some appreciation from import gamers, with the third GBA game in particular turning heads and leading to questions why the series continued to be landlocked in Japan despite the popularity of platform games on Nintendo’s handhelds and consoles. With Densetsu no Starfy 3 in 2004, Tose had seemingly perfected its formula. Although developed in record time in just a year, Starfy 3 feels like something HAL would’ve made – from the clever puzzles and adorable characters (Starfy’s sister is playable in this one – and looks even more like Kirby!) to mini-game multiplayer challenges and even Wario appearing and giving Starfy quests. There’s no doubt that Starfy 3 would’ve released to positive reviews in the west, but Nintendo made us wait another four years for his stateside debut.
Starfy – and the confirmation that, yes, there’s an “r” in his name – started his world tour in earnest in 2009 with The Legendary Starfy for Nintendo DS. Despite the title being a literal translation of the first game’s name, it is not a remake. First released in 2008 in Japan, The Legendary Starfy for DS is an all-new quest that uses the dual screen setup for tutorial and character interactions on the bottom screen as well as for expanded playfields during mini-games, but other than that, it’s vintage Starfy gameplay. Our reviewer loved it when he first played it and said that it unified the “best elements from games like Kirby, Donkey Kong Country, Little Nemo, and Mario himself”. But there were already signs that Nintendo hadn’t forgotten about Starfy when the little yellow star made his debut as assist trophy in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
Despite the positive reviews, Starfy did not ascend to become a mainstream hit on Nintendo’s DS. In Japan, it sold fewer copies than its predecessors – perhaps a sign that interest in lesser-known, traditional platformers was waning in favor of new, touch-screen-centric experiments. Or perhaps the mascot platformer genre was just too crowded on Nintendo’s handhelds. Whatever the reason, instead of being the start of a beautiful friendship, the Legendary Starfy ended up becoming the last bow for the series.
But don’t count a good platformer out. This week, Nintendo surprisingly added the first three GBA Starfy games to its Nintendo Online with Expansion Pack tier. The surprise isn’t that these games returned to the spotlight in Japan – after all, nostalgia is fueling an ongoing barrage of rereleases, remasters, and remakes the world over.
The surprise is that all three also got added to the US and European GBA collections on Nintendo Switch.
As of July 11, 2024, Densetsu no Starfy is back in active distribution after more than two decades. Pour one out for game preservation, folks! Physical copies of the five existing Starfy games are not hard to find via auction services on eBay, but with the exception of the 2008 Nintendo DS release, you should know that they’re all in Japanese and do contain quite a bit of Japanese text. Now, the Nintendo Switch Online releases aren’t localized, either. Nintendo is expecting players to put up with quite a lot of expository text from NPCs in Japanese, but the core game is easy to grasp even if you don’t read kana. So this is definitely an instance of not looking at the proverbial gift horse’s teeth too closely. And if you’re looking to learn Japanese, know that the language used in the games is simple: you don’t need to learn kanji to be able to read what is being said.
Giving Starfy wider exposure is a wonderful thing to see. I wish it was a more concerted and serious effort – surely, localization of games without voice acting and cartridge space constraints isn’t all that expensive. Plus, dropping three very similar games at once isn’t exactly a carefully curated introduction to an unknown franchise. But as a lover of the obscure and forgotten, I’m excited to see Nintendo experimenting with its back catalog more and daring to bring back the stuff of even the tiniest legends.
Peer Schneider heads up IGN’s Guides, Tools, and Map Genie teams and is excited about Nintendo’s recent additions to Nintendo Online. Not every game’s a gem, but preserving games, even by adding them to subscription services, is a welcome trend.
Forgotten Gems is a regular column about notable games that have moved out of the public eye and may not be easily accessible anymore. To see all the other games I’ve covered so far, be sure to check out the 12 previous issues of Forgotten Gems in our Columns section.
In an alternate universe, HAL and Nintendo’s beloved Kirby series never made it out of Japan. As the pink puffball conquered one platform after the other with his adorable pals, the Kirby games slowly emerged as the more forgiving, kid-friendly alternatives to Mario. If Mario missed a jump, he was a goner. Kirby? Just pump the button to float and you’ll get another chance at redemption. Kids had no problems jumping into Kirby games and completing the main campaigns – but older players looking for a little more also found some surprisingly devious challenges on the path to 100% completion.
But in our timeline, Kirby’s Dream Land hit Game Boy in the US and Europe a mere months after Hoshi no Kirby debuted in Japan in 1992. While the original game was a huge sales success that subsequent releases couldn’t quite replicate, Nintendo stuck with Kirby. The faith it placed in the franchise designer Masahiro Sakurai (of Smash Bros. fame) built paid off. A full 30 years later, Kirby Star Allies and then Kirby and the Forgotten Land blew up on Switch, selling almost 12 million copies between them.
Which brings us to The Legendary Starfy. The series shares more than a passing resemblance to Kirby’s. Its cute, starfish-like hero looks like he’s ripped straight out of a Kirby or Mario game. The developer, Tose – like Kirby’s creators at HAL – appear to share rights to the character and games. And Starfy games are very easy to get into and easy to complete. But unlike Kirby, Starfy has been one of those Nintendo franchises mostly released and promoted in the Japanese market.
My first experience with Starfy goes back all the way to the year 2000. At Nintendo’s annual Space World expo, also known as Shoshinkai, the publisher showed a playable demo of a game named “Densetsu no Stafy” for Game Boy Color. I recall playing it briefly at the time, of course unaware that that game would never see the light of day. With the release of its next handheld hardware a mere year away, the developers retooled the game for release on GBA instead.
Starfy may have the shape of a Luma, the face of Kirby, and the color of Pikachu, but you may have spotted him before via his cameos in Mario & Luigi: Super Star Saga, Super Mario Maker, and Super Princess Peach. But he’s likely most familiar to many a Nintendo fan thanks to his appearance as an Assist Trophy in the Super Smash Bros. games. The entry reads: “Starfy is the absentminded prince of the Pufftop Kingdom, and the hero of The Legendary Starfy. Is he a star? A starfish? His commitment to helping you when summoned is obvious, even if his species isn’t. He’ll use a Star Spin attack, which isn’t all that powerful. It’s the thought that counts!”
Developer Tose (“toh-seh”), headquartered in Kyoto not far away from Nintendo’s own HQ, has been around for more than 40 years. IGN’s database lists more than a hundred titles across a dozen platforms that Tose has worked on, from wrestling games to anime-licenses, to titles Nintendo fans will instantly recognize, like Game & Watch Gallery and Super Princess Peach. Many publishers, such as Square, enlisted Tose’s help during the GBA and DS eras to help port their classics to the handhelds, including Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, Front Mission, and Dragon Quest.
But the real tally of games Tose has worked on is likely much higher. Tose is one of a few Japanese development studios that have signed away their development credit on games it’s worked on – a practice that essentially obfuscates the real authors of games in favor of pushing the publisher brand. See also my piece on Sky Odyssey, a game that was in greater parts made by phantom devs CAProduction and Future Creates. This sometimes leads to awkward gameography entries on their Japanese corporate pages, listing their past works as “action game for major publisher” or “game design for PlayStation 4 game”.
This is all to say, Tose may not be a household name, but it’s an experienced team with more than four decades of experience designing games or working on adapting and converting games. That experience shows in the Starfy games. They feel and look like Nintendo games – or, more accurately, a mixture of HAL games and Capcom’s SNES platformers. If you haven’t played one of them yet (which, you likely haven’t – this is Forgotten Gems, after all), you’ll notice how much Starfy looks like Kirby’s brother from another bubblegum mother.
Instead of relying on the ability to float, Starfy’s adventures are mostly aquatic. You pump the A-button to swim faster underwater, use spins to destroy blocks, and you can of course dash upwards to catch some air and soar above the waves as well. What starts with simple block-pushing and platforming puzzle challenges eventually gets more complex, with Breakout-style mini-games, auto-scrolling stages, and even vehicles. You’d be hard-pressed to call the first Starfy game – Densetsu no Starfy (or Stafy, see sidebar), a top-tier platformer in Nintendo’s overall library, but it’s competently made and enjoyable.
Densetsu no Starfy was successful enough in Japan to get a sequel. And another one. And another one. Despite not seeing a release in the west, Starfy gained some appreciation from import gamers, with the third GBA game in particular turning heads and leading to questions why the series continued to be landlocked in Japan despite the popularity of platform games on Nintendo’s handhelds and consoles. With Densetsu no Starfy 3 in 2004, Tose had seemingly perfected its formula. Although developed in record time in just a year, Starfy 3 feels like something HAL would’ve made – from the clever puzzles and adorable characters (Starfy’s sister is playable in this one – and looks even more like Kirby!) to mini-game multiplayer challenges and even Wario appearing and giving Starfy quests. There’s no doubt that Starfy 3 would’ve released to positive reviews in the west, but Nintendo made us wait another four years for his stateside debut.
Starfy – and the confirmation that, yes, there’s an “r” in his name – started his world tour in earnest in 2009 with The Legendary Starfy for Nintendo DS. Despite the title being a literal translation of the first game’s name, it is not a remake. First released in 2008 in Japan, The Legendary Starfy for DS is an all-new quest that uses the dual screen setup for tutorial and character interactions on the bottom screen as well as for expanded playfields during mini-games, but other than that, it’s vintage Starfy gameplay. Our reviewer loved it when he first played it and said that it unified the “best elements from games like Kirby, Donkey Kong Country, Little Nemo, and Mario himself”. But there were already signs that Nintendo hadn’t forgotten about Starfy when the little yellow star made his debut as assist trophy in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
Despite the positive reviews, Starfy did not ascend to become a mainstream hit on Nintendo’s DS. In Japan, it sold fewer copies than its predecessors – perhaps a sign that interest in lesser-known, traditional platformers was waning in favor of new, touch-screen-centric experiments. Or perhaps the mascot platformer genre was just too crowded on Nintendo’s handhelds. Whatever the reason, instead of being the start of a beautiful friendship, the Legendary Starfy ended up becoming the last bow for the series.
But don’t count a good platformer out. This week, Nintendo surprisingly added the first three GBA Starfy games to its Nintendo Online with Expansion Pack tier. The surprise isn’t that these games returned to the spotlight in Japan – after all, nostalgia is fueling an ongoing barrage of rereleases, remasters, and remakes the world over.
The surprise is that all three also got added to the US and European GBA collections on Nintendo Switch.
As of July 11, 2024, Densetsu no Starfy is back in active distribution after more than two decades. Pour one out for game preservation, folks! Physical copies of the five existing Starfy games are not hard to find via auction services on eBay, but with the exception of the 2008 Nintendo DS release, you should know that they’re all in Japanese and do contain quite a bit of Japanese text. Now, the Nintendo Switch Online releases aren’t localized, either. Nintendo is expecting players to put up with quite a lot of expository text from NPCs in Japanese, but the core game is easy to grasp even if you don’t read kana. So this is definitely an instance of not looking at the proverbial gift horse’s teeth too closely. And if you’re looking to learn Japanese, know that the language used in the games is simple: you don’t need to learn kanji to be able to read what is being said.
Giving Starfy wider exposure is a wonderful thing to see. I wish it was a more concerted and serious effort – surely, localization of text-only games isn’t all that expensive. Plus, dropping three very similar games at once isn’t exactly a carefully curated introduction to an unknown franchise, but as a lover of the obscure and forgotten, I’m excited to see Nintendo experimenting with its back catalog more and daring to bring back the stuff of legends.
Peer Schneider heads up IGN’s Guides, Tools, and Map Genie teams and is excited about Nintendo’s recent additions to Nintendo Online. Not every game’s a gem, but preserving games, even by adding them to subscription services, is a welcome trend.
And it’s confirmed for Switch.
Canari Games, the studio behind 2023’s fantastic cinematic platformer Lunark, revealed an adorable Link’s Awakening-inspired adventure earlier this year. Back then, the game was only confirmed for PC, but today, the developer has revealed that the game is indeed coming to Switch — and soon!
Castaway launches on Nintendo Switch and all other platforms on 16th August 2024 and will only set you back USD $7.99 / GBP £6.99. In the game, you play as Martin, an adventurer who crash-lands on an island. His pet soon gets kidnapped (pet-napped?) and he has to go and save him.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
MLB The Show 24 is gearing up to be your source for all things All-Star. From the Futures Game and Skills Showcase to the 2024 Draft, Home Run Derby, and All-Star Game, you can count on finding all-new content, including Programs, Moments, and Missions that let you relive some of the biggest plays from All-Star Week, as well as plenty of brand-new player items featuring some of the biggest 2024 All-Star athletes. So be sure to pick up those sticks and get into a game with MLB The Show 24 during All-Star Week to experience All-Star excitement from the comfort of your own home.
Diamond Dynasty* rolls out the red carpet in Team Affinity Season 2: Chapter 2 as we celebrate the 2024 All-Stars!
Find 2024 All-Star Series players like Marcus Semien, Juan Soto, Christian Yelich, and one player from each of the 30 MLB clubs in TA S2:C2. Play different single and multiplayer** modes to earn the player card rewards in the six division programs.
Complete 2024 All-Star content, including missions for PXP, multiplayer stats, and more, to start earning TA points towards progression in each division reward path. Other ways to earn All-Stars in Team Affinity include exchanging players from your inventory. Plus, play the fan-favorite single-player mode – Conquest – where you grow your fanbase on a map to take over opposing teams in 3-inning games against the CPU.
Earn extra TA progress by delivering in the clutch during key games in March to October. If you’re up for a difficult challenge, try your hand at the Optional Extreme Moments featuring the Bosses in some of the most exhilarating plays of their careers. Start playing today to earn those shining All-Stars for your Diamond Dynasty squad.
If you’re in Arlington, TX, attending the 2024 All-Star Week festivities, be sure to stop by the MLB The Show booth to learn about current and future game content, and play games with friends and other attendees for a chance to take home some MLB The Show prizes.
For an encore to All-Star Week festivities, get ready to honor the National Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 2024 in MLB The Show 24! Relive various moments from Adrian Beltre’s, Todd Helton’s, and Joe Mauer’s careers through their own Hall of Fame programs, arriving on July 21 in Diamond Dynasty mode. As you experience their journeys and complete moments and missions, you will unlock a Diamond 99 OVR version of each new Hall of Famer.
*Internet connection required to play Diamond Dynasty mode and for content updates.
**Console-specific online multiplayer subscription required.
Official Nintendo Switch Joy Cons aren’t discounted very often, but Walmart is bucking that trend. Walmart is offering the Nintendo Switch Joy-Cons Bundled with Super Mario Party for only $69. This bundle usually retails for $99, and the cost goes up even more if you were to purchase each item separately. It was originally part of Walmart’s larger sale that competed with Amazon Prime Day. That sale has now ended, but this deal is one of few that are still avaialble. We are pretty certain that Amazon will not match or beat this deal on Prime Day proper.
This bundle includes a pair of Nintendo Joy-Con controllers and the Super Mario Party game. The Nintendo Joy-Con controllers are functionally identical to the ones that came with your Switch console. A nice bonus is that the Joy-Cons are decked out in a colorway that’s exclusive to this bundle; there isn’t any other easy way to secure a pair of Mario Red and Mario Blue controllers.
Anyone who owns a Nintendo Switch console should be familiar with the Joy-Con controllers. The Joy-Cons are unlike any other controller on the market. There are three ways to use them; connected to the Switch console, separated with each Joy-Con as its own controller, and combined into a gamepad with the Joy-Con grip that came with your console. They have a lot of fun features like a built-in accelerometer, gyro sensor, independent motion controls,. HD rumble, and NFC touchpoint for amiibo compatibility. Most 3rd party controllers don’t support amiibos at all.
The included Super Mario Party game is the definitive party choice for the Nintendo Switch, with up to 80 mini games that take full advantage of the quirky tech of the Switch controllers to keep things feeling fresh. The game supports up to four players, and in most cases a single Joy-Con controller is needed for each player. That means, alongside your original Joy-Con controllers, this bundle is all you need to max out the player count in Super Mario Party.
Other Nintendo Switch related sales and news that might interest you:
WWE is coming to Call of Duty for a heavy-hitting crossover in Season 5, which now has a release date of July 24.
It’s about to be a smackdown 💥@WWE is bringing its best to the ring in Call of Duty Season 5 starting July 24 🤼♂️ pic.twitter.com/AXkfo7Xdcl
— Call of Duty (@CallofDuty) July 12, 2024
In a brief teaser today, the official Call of Duty account revealed both the crossover and the release date for Season 5, but stopped short of showing exactly what the crossover entails.
At the very end of the teaser, we see silouettes of what appear to be multiple wrestlers, though it’s unclear exactly who. But a lack of details hasn’t stopped fans from speculating. The community is throwing out their guesses: could we be getting skins for wrestlers like Roman Reigns? Cody Rhodes? Seth Rollins? Rhea Ripley? John Cena? There are tons of exciting possibilities here. And it’s not clear just yet if the wrestling ring in the teaser will make an appearance or, if so, how.
This is the first real info fans have gotten on plans for Call of Duty Season 5, but Warzone did just get a patch earlier this month featuring some nerfs to certain weapons. It also looks like, based on datamining, a Deadpool & Wolverine crossover event is in the works too, following crossovers with Fallout and Gundam just last month.
Roadmaps for each season are typically released roughly a week ahead of the season itself, so expect more details on both WWE in Call of Duty and all of season 5 relatively soon.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
