Nintendo Switch

Perhaps the second biggest surprise of Nintendo’s E3 Direct presentation was Advance Wars is coming to the Switch. Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp is not a new title, but instead a ground-up remake of the classic Game Boy Advance strategy titles. It will be the first new title in the series since 2008’s Advance Wars: Dark…

One of the biggest surprise announcements during this morning’s E3 Nintendo Direct was Metroid Dread. It’s a brand new, 2D Metroid game starring series heroine Samus Aran that leans into the series’ original horror roots. Dread by name and dread by nature, the game sees Samus working her way through a facility patrolled by hunter-killer robots….

Mario Party Superstars is a collection of the franchise’s greatest hits. Nintendo says the game stacked full of fan-favourite boards and minigames. What does that truly mean? We’ll tell you. It means this game has undergone rigorous community testing to ensure every minigame is a friendship ender, guaranteed. The Mario Party series is a competitive…

The first announcement off the rank at this morning’s Nintendo E3 Direct was that Tekken mainstay Kazuya is coming to Super Smash Bros Ultimate. Tekken developer Bandai Namco was one of the primary devs on Smash Ultimate, and hasn’t had many of its own characters in the game so far. Kazuya joins Pacman as the…

Mario, Peach, Luigi and the Rabbids have taken to the stars in Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, the sequel to the biggest surprise hit of 2017. Touching down on a mysterious new planet, the team encounters a new foe, Cursa. And so the battle begins anew. For those who may have forgotten, Mario + Rabbids…

New Pokemon Snap is the 22-year sequel to a cult-favourite Nintendo 64 game. The original, released in 1999, was an inventive, if ultimately shallow, brand exercise. Players hopped into an on-rails rover and took photos of Pokemon in the wild. You had no control over the rover itself, it would wind through each level at…

It disturbs me just how often Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is overlooked and underrated when it comes to talking about the great action-RPGs of the past decade. Skyrim? Sure. Dark Souls? Definitely. The Witcher 3? You betcha. All three games were superior of KoA, but that doesn’t at all diminish just how intensely playable and…

With the EPOS GTW 270 Hybrid earbuds, EPOS is showing serious interest in trying something new. Many have tried to create gaming earbuds but none have ever had the punch of a decent set of cans. EPOS is a partner brand of audio maker Sennheiser. They are tinkerers and inventors, they like to throw ideas…

Bravely Default 2 is a long, bland parade of JRPG cliches, presenting one after another for 50 consecutive hours. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before From the moment its protagonist awakens on an unfamiliar beach, suffering amnesia, the groans and eye rolls began in earnest. Things do not improve from there. You are…

Nintendo is allegedly preparing to reveal a new model of its Nintendo Switch hardware. The new Nintendo Switch will feature a larger Samsung OLED display capable of outputting 4K ultra-high definition visuals when docked. The news comes from a new Bloomberg report which claims Nintendo is looking to reveal the new model, banking on the…

Fortnite adds cool new skins every other day, but the Lazarbeam skin is especially cool. The newest in the Icon Series line features Australian YouTuber Lannan “Lazarbeam” Eacott in quintessential tradie garb. When real-world Fortnite players like fellow Aussies Loserfruit and Lachlan have their likenesses recreated in-game, they opt for a fashionable look. Cool clothes,…

Epic Games has formally acquired Tonic Games Group, the company behind Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout. News of the acquisition came via Epic’s official blog, with a promise to players that “your gameplay isn’t changing and Epic will continue to invest in making the game a great experience for players across platforms.” To wit, the current…

Mario Golf Super Rush will be the next title in the long-running Mario Golf series. Announced during today’s Nintendo Direct broadcast, the game updates the series with all-new courses, powers, and characters. Like the best of Nintendo’s party-based games, Super Rush will be the perfect game to play with friends once the threat of Covid…

Today’s Nintendo Direct opened with a new Smash Bros fighter, Pyra, from the Xenoblade Chronicles series of JRPGs. Also Mythra from the same series, who will be her shadow fighter. Smash Bros fans have long lamented the game’s growing reliance on sword-based characters, and Pyra and Mythra won’t help that situation. That said, their move…

Looking for every announcement from today’s Nintendo Direct? You’ll find them here. Ninty dropped a plethora of new trailers and kicked the 2021 hype train into motion. After announcing the broadcast only yesterday, we’ve quickly laid out everything Nintendo had to talk about, in chronological order.     Pyra blazes into battle! Super Smash Bros…

A massive hour-long Nintendo Direct broadcast drops tomorrow, but when can you see it in Australian times? Don’t worry — no matter which state you’re in, we’ve got you covered.   Where can I see the new Direct? You can watch it live on the official Nintendo YouTube channel, or on Nintendo’s official Twitch channel….

Nintendo has announced a Nintendo Direct broadcast for tomorrow, February 18, at 9am AEDT. The broadcast will feature “roughly 50 minutes of information focused on available games like Super Smash Bros Ultimate and games coming to Nintendo Switch in the first half of 2021.” The broadcast will be the first “full size” Nintendo Direct since…

Three years have passed since Square Enix abruptly cut ties with Hitman 3 developer IO Interactive. The good news is that there appears to have been some measure of reconciliation. Though IO is self-publishing Hitman 3 in many territories, Square Enix is the publishing partner for Hitman 3 in Oceania. Without getting into specifics, reconciliation…

Age of Calamity is the latest in the Hyrule Warriors series, revolving around The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. I don’t know about you, but I’ve spent the whole of 2020 waiting for more sequel news. And I’m gutted that I haven’t heard anything yet. While Age of Calamity may act as somewhat…

Pikmin 3 is an excellent game. An exceptional one even; perhaps the best possible expression of the cutsey, puzzle-strategy since the first one was released in 2001. Any Nintendo owner worth their salt scrambled for a copy when the original Pikmin 3 when it was released for the Wii U in 2013, and hold fond…

Immortals: Fenyx Rising is Ubisoft’s first original AAA IP in god only knows how long. Ubi has a built a reputation as a publisher that likes a safe bet. Ubi’s franchises are guaranteed to sell. This makes launching new IP a big risk. That it comes at the dawn of a new hardware cycle is…

As crammed as the name suggests, WWE 2K Battlegrounds introduces yet another entry to 2K’s “Grounds” series, off the heels of NBA 2K Playgrounds 2. The crux of these experiences revolves around the fact that they never take themselves too seriously. Over the top game play and stylised visuals keep this game from feeling like…

I reckon Super Mario 3D All-Stars will give video game preservationists a lot to think about. I find myself thinking about video game preservation a lot lately. I imagine this is because I’ve reviewed a lot of remasters and remakes in the last few years. Super Mario 3D All-Stars is neither a remake nor a…

Last week Nintendo revealed the next long-awaited release in the Zelda series – Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. The upcoming title was announced in a 6-minute video, presented by its developers, including Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma and Hyrule Warriors series producer Yosuke Hayashi. Age of Calamity follows the gameplay of 2014’s Hyrule Warriors; however,…

After a crazy year, it’s safe to say the NBA has followed suit, enduring a long suspension, resulting in the introduction of the NBA bubble, a facility located in Disneyland, Orlando, solely created to see through the completion of this season. It’s unfortunate that NBA 2K21 isn’t as much as a departure from the norm;…

No Straight Roads is a rhythm-based, action-adventure game created by Malaysian-based studio Metronomik, created by two cool dudes who worked on Final Fantasy XV and Street Fighter V respectively. Rock your way through Vinyl City as Mayday and Duke to rid the world of the EDM empire! I’ve been looking forward to playing this game…

With the next generation of consoles looming, developer Visual Concepts has decided to shed some light on the current generation’s version of NBA 2K21, highlighting some new and improved features, updated modes and revamped locations. While much of the next-gen version is still under wraps, our sneak peak has given us a positive feeling about…

For the dad that likes to stay mobile, but still squeeze a bit of gaming in, there’s no better platform than the Nintendo Switch. An ideal Father’s Day gift idea, the Switch can be a constant entertainment companion. Hardware Nintendo Switch Lite This one’s for the dad who doesn’t spend much time in front of…

Upon seeing PGA Tour 2K21’s reveal, I immediately thought back to all the great memories I had playing golfing games; a sport which I admittedly don’t care that much for. Be it Microsoft Golf, Tiger Woods’ PGA Tour, or even Outlaw Golf, (I bet you forgot that existed) there was something so satisfying about measuring…

Harvest Moon was the shiz when I was growing up, I played the very first Game Boy version and basically played every handheld iteration afterwards. I loved that game to bits and it’s no wonder that I was immediately drawn to Stardew Valley. Now reverting back to its original Japanese name, Story of Seasons released…