The World Ends with You: Final Remix – Complete the mission…or face erasure. That’s all Neku knows after regaining consciousness in the middle of a busy intersection without his memories. Now he and his partner must fight to survive a life-or-death game in this twisted tale with more turns than the urban labyrinth of Tokyo they’re trapped in. This definitive version of Square Enix’s RPG classic brings the dark story to life on the Nintendo Switch system along with an extra chapter, exclusive two-player combat, and some killer, new remixed music. The World Ends with You: Final Remix game will be available on Oct. 12.
Starlink: Battle for Atlas Digital Edition – In the Starlink: Battle for Atlas game, you’re part of a group of heroic interstellar pilots, dedicated to free the Atlas star system from Grax and the Forgotten Legion, an evil robot force. Assemble your fleet and mix and match your pilots, Starships and weapons to create your own play style and defeat the enemy. The Nintendo Switch console version even features characters and vehicles from the Star Fox series! Starlink: Battle for Atlas Digital Edition will be available on Oct. 16.
LEGO DC Super-Villains – It’s good to be bad. Embark on a new DC/LEGO adventure by becoming the best villain the universe has seen. Players will create and play as a new super-villain throughout the game, unleashing mischievous antics and wreaking havoc in an action-packed story. Joined by renowned DC Super-Villains the Joker, Harley Quinn and countless others from the Injustice League, players will set out on an epic adventure. The LEGO DC Super-Villains game will be available on Oct. 16.
The Jackbox Party Pack 5 – It’s the return of the classic pop culture trivia mash-up game, YOU DON’T KNOW JACK: Full Stream; the game of hilarious hypotheticals, Split the Room; the lyric-writing, robot rap battle, Mad Verse City; the inventive drawing game, Patently Stupid; and the outer space fling-fest, Zeeple Dome. Use your phones or tablets as controllers and play with up to eight players, plus an audience of up to 10,000. The Jackbox Party Pack 5 game will be available on Oct. 17.
NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 – NBA arcade action is back with the NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 game. The sequel to the original smash hit takes street balling to the next level with a massive roster of current and retired NBA players, improved online matchmaking with dedicated servers, four-player online matches, three-point contests, new playgrounds and custom matches. NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 will be available on Oct. 16.
Super Mario Party – The original four-player Mario Party series board game mode that fans love is back, and your friends and family are invited to the party. Freely walk the board, choose where to move, select which Dice Block to roll and compete to win the most Stars in skill-based minigames. And wait till you see the 2-vs.-2 mode* with grid-based maps, the creative new uses of the Nintendo Switch system and the series’ first online minigame mode. The Super Mario Partygame launches on Oct. 5.
https://youtu.be/9g-876nvJ1Q
Mark of the Ninja: Remastered – In Mark of the Ninja: Remastered, you’ll know what it is to truly be a ninja. You must be silent, agile and clever to outwit your opponents in a world of gorgeous scenery and flowing animation. Marked with cursed tattoos giving you heightened senses, every situation presents you with options. For the first time, enjoy the critically acclaimed game, as well as the additional Special Edition content, on the go. Mark of the Ninja: Remastered launches on Oct. 9.
Disgaea 1 Complete – To celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Disgaea series, the game that started it all returns in HD. Relive the expanded adventures of Laharl, Etna and Flonne in Disgaea 1 Complete, launching on Oct. 9.
Fortnite Battle Pass Season 6 – Fortnite Battle Pass Season 6 is here! Jump in now on your Nintendo Switch system and start playing. With every new season comes new locations, new gameplay items, a new Battle Pass and more!
FIFA 19 – FIFA 19 delivers a champion-caliber experience on and off the pitch. Led by the prestigious UEFA Champions League, FIFA 19 offers enhanced gameplay features that allow you to control the pitch in every moment. There are new and unrivaled ways to play, including a new mode in the ever-popular FIFA Ultimate Team and a new Kick-Off mode experience. Champions rise in FIFA 19. FIFA 19 is available on Sept. 28.
Mega Man 11 – To save the day, the Blue Bomber must battle Robot Masters and take their powerful weapons, which now changes the hero’s appearance with added levels of detail. The innovative Double Gear system lets you boost Mega Man’s speed and power for an exciting twist on the satisfying gameplay the series is known for. Mega Man 11is available on Oct. 2.
Arena of Valor – Build the ultimate team with your friends to crush your opponents in the first MOBA game on the Nintendo Switch system. Explore and command a roster of more than 39 fearless heroes, with roles including Tank, Assassin, Mage, Support, Warrior and Marksman. Discover and dominate all the gameplay modes, including 5-v-5, 3-v-3, 1-v-1 and a unique “Hook Wars” mode that will challenge your skills and prove your hero as a true champion.
DRAGON BALL FighterZ – DRAGON BALL FighterZ is born from what makes the DRAGON BALL series so loved and famous: endless spectacular fights with all-powerful fighters. Partnering with Arc System Works, DRAGON BALL FighterZ maximizes high-end anime graphics and brings easy-to-learn but difficult-to-master fighting gameplay. DRAGON BALL FighterZ is available on Sept. 28.
Paradox Interactive’s critically acclaimed city building game Cities: Skylines might be available on almost every platform (PS4, Xbox One, PC) but Nintendo’s console/portable hybrid has been devoid of the city building/management genre for the past year and a half. All of that has changed with the unexpected release of Cities: Skylines on the Switch.
Skylines is pretty much a spiritual successor to EA abandoned Sim City franchise (and no the waiting clock that is Sim City: Build It does not count) – as Skylines makes use of several core mechanics that originated in EA’s games. Concepts like zoning (industrial, residential and commercial), building parks and other leisure activities, managing city policies and budgets are all present. The base game alone improvements like definable districts, custom bus routes and even bonuses for making your municipality run on 100% green energy.
Above: The PC Version of Cities: Skylines
The PC version of Cities: Skylines has been out for years now and has had six paid expansions to date (After Dark, Snowfall, Natural Disasters, Mass Transit, Green Cities and Park Life). Each of these expansions add things like new weather patterns (Snowfall), a Day / Night cycle (After Dark) or massively overhaul the transit options available within these virtual cities (Mass Transit Add-on). This means that the version of Cities: Skylines is very different from the initial launch. On Nintendo Switch owners are given the base game, the After Dark Expansion and the Snow Fall expansion. Paradox also overhauled the user interface and controls to intuitively with Joy-Cons.
I reviewed the base game of Cities back in 2015. Here is my conclusion on the game from that time:
“Despite a few nitpicks here and there – including the lack of an ability to automatically bulldoze abandoned buildings and no pre-defined end game – Cities: Skylines is an absolutely fantastic city simulator. If you are looking for a city simulator with moderate system requirements, large maps and a lot of micromanagement including the ability to plan bus routes than Skylines is the game for you. It is easily to get lost for hours in the planning and perfection of your own metropolis. “
Paradox Interactive has provided a digital copy of Cities: Skylines for Nintendo Switch for our consideration. We will have more coverage about this unexpected port later on this month.
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, which originally launched for Wii U back in 2014, has been ported and released for both the Nintendo Switch and the Nintendo 3DS. While some have been critical of Nintendo for doing this with several of their games from the Wii U era, I’m grateful for the ports. Captain Toad is one of the games that I had always been interested in and had been meaning to play, but for one reason or another never got around to checking it out. And let’s be fair – it’s unlikely that I’m going to go back and look for a Wii U copy of the game. With the limited battery issues I have with my Wii U gamepad, that system isn’t seeing much use these days.
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker is a puzzle platforming game where you take control of Toad. The game’s narrative is split up into levels which are strung together in a book. The game starts off with Toad and Toadette finding a power star before the monstrous, greedy bird, Wingo grabs the power star and Toadette along with it. It’s up to Captain Toad to reclaim the treasure, Super Gems, and Power Stars and save Toadette.
Unlike the play style of Mario and Luigi, you won’t be able to jump with Captain Toad. Gone is the play style of hopping to and fro and you must instead figure out how to reach the goal and capture the power star. Here’s a tip – you’ll be doing lots of running around and away from enemies.
With the game coming right around the time of Super Mario 3D World, the look and feel of the game is taken right from that game. You’ll find many enemies from 3D World, and some of the game mechanics from classic Super Mario Bros. 2 are in here as well, like plucking up turnips to throw at your enemies. Though it’s ironic since, in Super Mario Bros. 2, Toad could jump the highest of all of the playable characters.
The game is also filled with a lot of classic, retro, and iconic Super Mario music which is great. There is also plenty of new and unique music in the game, which is also very well done.
The game has a lot of content and is full of quite a few levels to play through. Actually after you finish what seems like the end boss level of the game, a second book opens up with even more levels to play. And (spoiler) you’ll get to play as Toadette through the second book. Each of the levels you collect not only the power star to finish the level, but also three power gems are also hidden in the level. They aren’t essential to beat the level, however later levels need to be unlocked with these gems.
Each level also has another optional challenge objective, like finding a hidden item, getting through a level unseen, or collecting a set number of coins. These optional tasks add to the replay of levels. There is also another “Find Pixel Toad” challenge for each level where you replay the level without the power star as the end goal. To complete the level you’ll need to spot and tap the tiny pixelated Toad. He can be surprisingly tough to locate, but when you’re close you can hear him call out.
As with many adventure games in the Mario series, there are a wide variety of level types in the game. There are underground levels, underwater levels, and of course ghost house levels.
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker was released for both the Switch and 3DS with the former having some small control issues to deal with depending on whether you’re playing in handheld or TV mode. For example in the game you will come across cranks which you will need to turn to rotate parts of the level around. When Toad is on the right spot a large crank wheel will appear in the centre of the screen. If you’re playing in TV mode you need to hold [ZR] and rotate the right analogue stick. When you switch to handheld mode, for some reason you can’t use this control. Nothing will happen if you do this. Strangely you are forced to use the touch screen, similar to what you would do in the 3DS version of the game. It’s really awkward to let go of the Switch with your right hand to do this motion.
Another oddity between the two modes, when you are in TV mode you can set the camera to react and move around with the gyro sensor so that you can move the camera by moving the whole controller. This can’t be done in handheld mode which makes for a frustrating adaptation when you go to handheld after playing in TV mode for a period of time.
Other than these minor control oddities, the game is pretty slick and fluid to play. Maneuvering Captain Toad and Toadette around the level, and moving the camera up and around the level soon becomes a breeze.
A new addition to the Switch/3DS version of the game includes new miniature courses based on various Kingdoms in Super Mario Odyssey. They can be unlocked with Super Mario Odyssey amiibo or through regular gameplay. The Toad amiibo can also be tapped in game to unlock an invincibility mushroom into the level. All other compatible amiibo figures & cards can be tapped any other compatible amiibo to receive an extra life.
The game also has a two player assist mode thrown in with use of both Joy-Cons. The second player can stop enemies, move objects, and throw turnips at enemies.
If you’re not sure which version of the game to check out there is a demo for both in the Nintendo eShop. And to top it off, both the Switch and 3DS versions of the game are the same price of $49.99 CAD. I’m impressed that Nintendo chose to give this Switch title a value price and not charge the standard $79.99 CAD for a first party AAA Switch title.
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker is great fun to play. It feels oh so familiar and yet so different at the same time. The levels are classically Super Mario 3D World and are both fun and challenging enough to keep you interested.
SNK HEROINES ~Tag Team Frenzy~ – The SNK HEROINES ~Tag Team Frenzy~ game brings the party home! Play online or with friends as SNK’s iconic heroines in this new 2-v-2 fighting game. Choose one of the many heroines from SNK’s history, like Athena, Kula and Shermie, and customize her look before letting her battle it out. Who will be the Belle of the Brawl? SNK HEROINES ~Tag Team Frenzy~ is available on Sept. 7.
NBA 2K19 – The NBA 2K franchise celebrates 20 years of redefining what sports gaming can be, from graphics and gameplay to unique game modes and an immersive open-world “Neighborhood”. The NBA 2K19 game continues to push limits as it brings gaming one step closer to real-life basketball excitement and culture. NBA 2K19 is available Sept. 11 and the NBA 2K19 20th Anniversary Edition is available Sept. 7.
Hyper Light Drifter – Special Edition – Explore a beautiful, vast and ruined world riddled with dangers and lost technologies. Echoes of a dark and violent past resonate throughout a savage land, steeped in treasure and blood. Hyper Light Drifter is an action-adventure-RPG in the vein of the best 16-bit classics, with modernized mechanics and designs on a much grander scale.
Gone Home – You arrive home after a year abroad. You expect your family to greet you, but the house is empty. Something’s not right. Where is everyone? And what’s happened here? Unravel the mystery for yourself in the Gone Home game, a story exploration game from The Fullbright Company.
The Messenger – As a demon army besieges his village, a young ninja ventures through a cursed world to deliver a scroll paramount to his clan’s survival. What begins as a classic action platformer soon unravels into an expansive time-traveling adventure full of thrills, surprises and humor.
Into the Breach – The remnants of human civilization are threatened by gigantic creatures breeding beneath the earth. You must control powerful mechs from the future to defeat an alien threat. Each attempt to save the world presents a new randomly generated challenge in this turn-based strategy game from the makers of the FTLgame.
The Walking Dead: The Complete First Season – Play as Lee Everett, a convicted criminal, who has been given a second chance at life in a world devastated by the undead. With corpses returning to life and survivors stopping at nothing to maintain their own safety, protecting an orphaned girl named Clementine may offer him redemption.
Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate – This critically acclaimed action RPG series makes its debut on the Nintendo Switch system. Choose from 14 different weapon types, mix and match them with unique Hunting Styles and Hunter Arts, or even play as an adorable but ferocious Felyne in Prowler Mode. The Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate game features the largest cast of monsters for any game in the series, from returning fan favorites to mysterious never-before-seen monsters. Monster Hunters Generations Ultimate will be available on Aug. 28. A free demo of the game is available to download now on Nintendo eShop.
Blade Strangers – A malevolent force known only as Lina is devouring data from a vast, interdimensional network of servers overseen by sentient computers called “motes.” In desperation, the motes summon heroes from a variety of parallel game worlds to face off against each other in one-on-one combat. Fighter roster includes popular characters from previous Studio Saizensen and/or Nicalis games, including Code of Princess EX, Cave Story+, the Umihara Kawaseseries, and The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+. Other surprise entrants include the well-known indie superstar characters, Shovel Knight and Gunvolt. The Blade Strangers game will be available Aug. 28.
Prison Architect: Nintendo Switch Edition – In the Prison Architect: Nintendo Switch Edition game, you will see the impact of your grand design on the lives of your inmates, be it a utopic center for rehabilitation, a brutal Super Max Prison, or anything in between. Acting as both architect and governor, you control every detail of your Prison – from building new cells and facilities to hiring staff and creating reform programs – all while dealing with informants, contraband smuggling, gang warfare, full scale riots and more!
Telltale’s The Walking Dead has been going for 6 years now, you’d think that it’d been ported to every platform imaginable but there’s still at least one that hasn’t caught the undead plague – the Nintendo Switch. Potential survivors will be able to play Telltale’s inaugural season when the whole thing drops onto the E-Shop next Tueday – August 28th. Purchases of The Walking Dead: Season One on Switch will also include the previously DLC only add-on 400 days and upgraded visual performance.
Season One isn’t the only chapter in this long running series to get the Switch treatment. The Walking Dead: Season 2 and The Walking Dead: A New Frontier will both be ported to Switch by the end of 2018 with further details being released in the future. Earlier this month The Walking Dead: The Final Chapter episode 1 was released on all major consoles including the Switch!
Tencent games confirmed today via an official trailer that their free to play MOBA Arena of Valor (known as Honor of Kings in China) will be officially launching on the Nintendo Switch this September. Features enhanced from the original mobile phone release for this Switch port include enhanced graphics, physical controls via the system’s Joy-Cons and the option to play a single world wide server.
Having played the mobile version of Arena of Valor quite a bit, I’ve found the gameplay to translate fairly well from other MOBAs on PC, which arguably have much more fluid control options than on touch screens. Offering over 30 heroes, several of which are unlockable for free with minimum grind thanks to the ‘Road to Glory’ tutorial system, Arena of Valor does make a genuine effort to make AOV accessible for those of us who do not wish to put down any cash initially. Each hero has a unique set of abilities and passive traits, as you would expect – from ranged assassins that utilize physical weapons to dangerous spell casters capable of attacking multiple enemies from afar, a lot of different archetypes within the MOBA genre are present and accounted for. One other thing that has stuck out about AoV when compared to other games like Heroes of the Storm or League of Legends is the number of different modes on offer. Only have 5 minutes to play AoV before heading out? No problem there’s a 3v3 deathmatch mode for that! AoV does a good job of offering up a number of different modes that offering varying lengths and objective types.
Arena of Valor will launch on Switch this September.
OKAMI HD – Take the role of Amaterasu, the Japanese sun goddess who inhabits the form of a legendary white wolf Shiranui. Use magical abilities, attacks, and Celestial Brush techniques to restore the land of Nippon to its previous glory full of life and color.
Minit – Minit is a peculiar little adventure played 60 seconds at a time. Journey outside the comfort of your home to help unusual folk, uncover countless secrets and overcome dangerous foes, all in the hope of lifting a rather unfortunate curse that ends each day after just one minute.
2064: Read Only Memories INTEGRAL – When Turing, the world’s first sapient machine, teams up with a struggling journalist, the unlikely duo find themselves drawn into the shadows behind the dazzling lights of Neo-San Francisco. The secrets they uncover could shake the very foundations of society. 2064: Read Only Memories INTEGRAL fuses a classic-style adventure game with lush pixel art and a catchy electronic soundtrack that explores modern-day issues of individuality, freedom and identity. The 2064: Read Only Memories INTEGRAL game will be available on Aug. 14.
DRAGON BALL FIGHTERZ – Open Beta – Go head to head in VS Online* with no fewer than 23 characters and 13 stages. Don’t forget to also stop by the Battle Tutorial to sharpen your skills and master all kinds of devastating techniques. The Open Beta servers are scheduled to be on between 9 p.m. PT on Aug. 9 and 11:59 p.m. PT on Aug. 11.
Nintendo has annouced that there will be a Super Smash Bros. Ultimate planned for Wednesday.
The Direct will be a worldwide presentation and the brief notice states that the direct will start on August 8th, 2018 at 10:00am ET. The direct will feature new game information delivered by game director Masahiro Sakurai.
Will there be an announcment of any new fighters for the game? While the game features the return of every fighter from previous games, and there have already been a few new fighters already announced, the addition of even more fighters would be welcome.
The presentation will likely touch base with how the game will integrate with Nintendo Switch Online, which launches next month.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will be released for the Nintendo Switch on December 7th.
WarioWare Gold – The infamous schemer Wario is back! Play his new microgame collection, where you’ll have seconds to complete 300 different microgames. Better think fast to succeed! You’ll use the touch screen, tilt the system, push buttons and rock the mic as you laugh through fully voiced stories featuring new and classic characters. The WarioWare Gold game will be available on Aug. 3. Read More
Nintendo users can redeem their Gold Points for some of the great indie games on Nintendo platforms. Four Nindie games have been added as Gold Points rewards on My Nintendo, three for 3DS and one for Wii U
Runbow Pocket (New Nintendo 3DS)
Developer: 13AM Studios – 110 Gold Points
Runbow Pocket is a fast, frantic game where you can conquer over 145 levels in Adventure and The Bowhemoth, or go head to head in Run, Arena, and King of the Hill online. The world changes with each swipe of colour, so you’ll have to stay on your toes as platforms and obstacles disappear.
Noitu Love: Devolution (Nintendo 3DS)
Developer: MP2 Games – 80 Gold Points
”Noitu Love: Devolution” stars Xoda Rap – the new Peacekeepers prodigy – who has to protect the city from the onslaught of the evil Darn horde, thought to have been vanquished a hundred years ago! But this time, they bring with them more than just their grins, as the city is bending and deforming into different times and places! What could be going on? Use Parental Controls to restrict 3D mode for children 6 and under.
Severed (Nintendo 3DS)
Developer: Drinkbox – 110 Gold Points
Take control of a one-armed warrior named Sasha, wielding a living sword on her journey through a nightmare world in search of her family. Swipe-based touch controls will let you solve puzzles, find secrets, and do battle with a host of disturbing monsters. As the journey goes on, you’ll unlock abilities, ascend an RPG-style upgrade tree, and tease apart the mysteries of the dark fantasy universe Sasha finds herself in.
Freedom Planet (Wii U)
Developer: Galaxy Trail – 110 Gold Points
Fight your way across the celestial world of Avalice where cats are green, motorcycles drive up walls and monster girls do most of the buttkicking! Freedom Planet is a cartoony, combat-based platform adventure that pits a spunky dragonoid and her friends against an alien attack force.
Go Vacation – Welcome to Kawawii Island, a paradise resort where friends and family can enjoy 50+ co-op and competitive activities. There are all sorts of exciting ways to explore the island, from horseback to buggies, snowmobiles to in-line skates. And to add to the fun, up to four players can enjoy visiting and discovering every corner of the island together. Go Vacation will be available on July 27. (Additional accessories may be required for multiplayer mode. Sold separately.)
Banner Saga 3 – Banner Saga 3 is the dramatic final chapter in the mature, story-driven Viking RPG series, which has won more than 20 awards and has been nominated for four BAFTAs. As the world continues to crumble around you, who can you trust, how will you protect your allies and what choices will you make as the Darkness draws near?
