The Blog

Nintendo has just launched the next waves of user icons exclusively for Nintendo Switch Online members. This wave of icons spotlights Donkey Kong Country 2, Super Mario and Animal Crossing.

The Donkey Kong Country 2 icons will be available until December 2nd, the Animal Crossing icons are up for grabs for the entire month of November, and this wave of Mario icons will leave on Nov. 11th, 2024.

As per usual, the character icons themselves are 10 Platinum Points, while the borders and backgrounds are 5 Platinum Points a piece.

Last week, Nintendo mentioned that they would be updating Nintendo Music with new tracks this week. Turns out today is the day for that update, as the soundtrack for Donkey Kong Country 2 has been added.

Nintendo Music is a brand-new app that brings Nintendo soundtracks to your smart devices, from the iconic beats of Super Mario Bros. and the grand soundscapes of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, to the tentacle-tapping tunes of Splatoon 3 and beyond. Exclusively for Nintendo Switch Online members at no additional cost, anyone with a membership can use the app to start their own musical tour through nearly 40 years of Nintendo history.

With Nintendo Music, you can stream songs right from the app or download them to the app for offline listening. Search for songs by game title, track name, playlist name or even browse by screenshot. Need background music while you work or study? You can loop songs or extend select tracks to 15, 30 or 60 minutes for uninterrupted listening. No need to worry about game spoilers either, because you can filter out soundtracks that may spoil certain moments for you.

WA-based Echidna Studios have announced their upcoming party game Ricochet Rodeo is launching on Steam on November 12, with Switch launch slated for 2025.

Ricochet Rodeo is a 2D platform PvP brawler game set in the wild (pixel) west. Up to eight players can enter the fray, wielding 6-shooters, knives, TNT and dancing shoes. But be on your guard, it’s one hit kills.

This is Echidna’s first title since incorporation and has been in development since 2020 as a part-time hobby project. The team consists of two team members who have a love for local multiplayer games and the chaos that ensues from them.

In Ricochet Rodeo all projectiles, explosions and interactions are physics based which multiplies the chaos and opens the doors to competitive skill. In a game where bullets bounce and 1 hit kills, you may just as likely take yourself out.

Dodging ricochets is only half the battle - you need to use all the available tools to survive and win. Your knife is the best choice to dominate CQC between reloads and if you’ve got the reflexes, you can even deflect bullets, but no knife can deflect a well-timed stick of dynamite.

Couch & Online Multiplayer

Up to 8 friends can enter the fray from the same couch or join you on Steam. Each round you’ve got three minutes to rack up the most kills in free-for-all, death matches.

Pixel-rendered West

Set in a classic spaghetti western theme and tumbleweed backdrops, Ricochet Rodeo features pixel-rendered art that produces a chunky low-res feel with bullet trails and bits of debris.

Competitive Mastery

As you immerse yourself in the chaos, angles become your friends. Elevate the mayhem by placing the ricochets where you want them, flip tables to tank bullets and learn the art of shooting dynamite out of the sky.

Just last month, Ubisoft confirmed that Ubisoft Montpellier and Ubisoft Milan are in the “exploration phase” on a new Rayman project, and the development is said to be in the early stages. Ubisoft stopped short of sharing any specifics on the Rayman game, but another insider might already have the scoop.

Along with that, Ubisoft mentioned that Michel Ancel, the creator for Rayman, is being used as a consultant for this new Rayman project. This comes after Ancel was let go from Ubisoft back in 2020 following accusations of bullying and being hard to work with. Now weeks later, Ancel has spoken on the matter and then some.

Taking to his personal Instagram, Ancel first corroborated with Ubisoft said about his Rayman involvement:

“Regarding Rayman, I’m very happy to have been consulted and it’s a real pleasure to know that he and his pals are back!”

Ancel didn’t stop there though, as he also shared some thoughts on Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. As was shared recently, the game will not be getting a sequel and the teams involved have been moved to other projects. Ancel feels that Ubisoft is making a mistake with this direction.

“For the Lost Crown POP team, let’s hope they can reform and produce a well-deserved sequel. Ubisoft needs to realize that the success of such a project is associated with the birth of a strong collective. This is priceless. Maybe some day leaders will understand this!”

We can only imagine how Ubisoft feels about Ancel commenting on the Prince of Persia matter, as it’s no doubt going to stir the pot a bit more.

There was a time when videogames used sprites and nothing else. Platforms like the NES and Super Nintendo feature games made exclusively with sprites. You absolutely had to have multiple people on your team who knew how to craft and animate sprites to make games, and that’s how things remained for nearly 2 decades.

As the industry moved on, the focus shifted over to polygons instead of sprites. While there was a time when it seemed like spritework would be a lost art, indie devs pushed back hard. That helped shift the tide to the era we’re in now, where both big-name game devs and indies alike recognize sprites as not an antiquated method of showcasing visuals, but an art style in and of itself that’s more than worth continuing.

One brand-new game that’s showcasing sprites front-and-center is Metal Slug Tactics, which has been obvious from the various trailers and screens released. The Metal Slug series is known for its absolutely gorgeous spritework, and Tactics very much keeps that tradition alive. As a matter of fact, in an interview with Nintendo Life, developer Leikir Studio and creative director Aurélien Loos pulled back the curtain on the insane amount of pixel work the game features.

According to the team, Metal Slug Tactics features 181,511 in-game sprites and 217,701 lines of code, including 158,337 for gameplay only. Some gamers may think of sprites as an “easier” method of game development due to their retro nature, but those in the industry know they can be as taxing as polygons, if not more so in some instances. With nearly 200k sprites featured in Metal Slug Tactics, we can only imagine how stressful it was crafting every pixel-perfect asset.

An update for Risk of Rain 2 is coming soon to Switch, and now Gearbox has shared a look at what we can expect once it drops. This update addresses bugs that have been reported by players on other platforms, and that includes tackling some of the larger reported issues like the overabundance of elites.

In addition to that update, Gearbox shares their more wholistic plans for Seekers of the Storm. The team’s ultimate goal is to build Seekers of the Storm into something that can be celebrated by the community for years to come.

Over the next few months, significant changes will come to Seekers of the Storm. The updates that Gearbox is exploring are expansive, so they won’t happen overnight. But the scope of the changes should underline the seriousness the team is approaching this challenge with.

The updates have been divided into three release phases:

• Phase 1: Items & Elites
• Phase 2: The False Son Boss Fight
• Phase 3: Survivors

If you’d like to read more about the future updates and the roadmap, you can find full patch notes here.

Tomb Raider I-III Remastered “Update 4” is now available. You can see the patch notes for this update below.

Nintendo shut down online play for 3DS and Wii U games earlier this year, not letting new players jump in for any internet-related activities. In advance of that shutdown, a number of players decided to connect online in various games in order to see how long they could stay active on the network. Sadly, the last connected player has now fallen.

Fishguy6564 was single-handedly keeping the Nintendo Network alive by staying online with Mario Kart 7. He had been up-and-running since the service shuttered back in April, which means his poor 3DS had been chugging along 24/7 to keep services alive. Other players were also playing various titles to stay connected, but they dropped one-by-one due to internet hiccups and hardware issues.

6+ months after Nintendo shut down services, Fishguy6564 has now been disconnected. After putting in a ridiculous amount of time, the dedicated fan’s 3DS finally crapped out. That means the Nintendo Network is officially done and dusted when it comes to 3DS and Wii U activity. All we have left now are our memories of the service!

There was a lot of hype for Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket leading up to launch, but it appears the game has already been much more successful than many anticipated.

According to Sensor Tower’s Sam Aune (h/t Game File), Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket achieved 1.2 million downloads on launch day, amounting to $1.9 million in revenue worldwide. To put things in perspective, if that revenue figure is correct, that would make Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket the third-largest mobile release in terms of money made.

While launch day was big in terms of revenue, the second day was even bigger. Data from Sensor Tower shows that Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket raked in a staggering $2.8 million. You can bet Pokémon Co. is happy to see the figure climb higher on day two, but the real test from here on out will be staying power.

Is Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket going to be a flash in the pan that comes in hot and fizzles out, or will it have the long tail like Pokémon GO managed?

UPDATE: We have some more revenue and download data, courtesy of market research company Appmagic.

• Pokémon TCG Pocket made roughly $3 million per day over its debut weekend
• the app has made over $12 million in just four days
• for comparison, Pokémon GO makes around $1 million a day
• Japan accounts for 45% of Pokémon TCG Pocket’s revenue
• The U.S. accounts for 25% of Pokémon TCG Pocket revenue
• Hong Kong and Taiwan each account for 4% of Pokémon TCG Pocket revenue
• South Korea, New Zealand and France account for 3% of Pokémon TCG Pocket revenue
• The U.S. accounts for 7.5 million downloads, which equals 29%
• Brazil accounts for 11% of the total
• this is followed by Mexico with 6%, and Japan, Germany, UK and France all around 4%
• iOS accounts for $10.5 million of the $12.1 million
• Google Play accounts for $1.6 million
• Google Play accounts for 4.2 million installs, and iOS accounts for 3.3 million

SMT V: Vengeance has been updated to Ver. 1.03, which has been dubbed the “Free DLC” update. You can see the patch notes for this update below.

Niantic is excited to share the dates for Pokémon GO’s next Season of Community Days!

• Saturday and Sunday, December 21–22, 2024
• Sunday, January 5, 2025
• Saturday, January 25, 2025 (Community Day Classic)
• Sunday, February 9, 2025

Community Days aren’t the only events on the horizon for the coming Season—there are other fun in-game events on the way, and their dates are as follows!

• Saturday, December 7, 2024 (Research Day)
• Sunday, December 8, 2024 (Max Battle Day)
• Saturday, December 14, 2024 (Raid Day)
• Sunday, December 29, 2024 (Hatch Day)
• Saturday, January 11, 2025 (Raid Day)
• Sunday, January 19, 2025 (Shadow Raid Day)
• Saturday, February 1, 2025 (Max Battle Day)
• Saturday, February 15, 2025 (Raid Day)

Stay tuned for more details about December Community Day and beyond.

Please be aware of your surroundings and follow guidelines from local health authorities when playing Pokémon GO. Upcoming events are subject to change.

Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet players in South Africa can now take part in sanctioned events at local Play! Pokémon retail locations. Like the Pokémon Trading Card Game events already taking place at these locations, Pokémon Video Game Championships (VGC) events offer players an opportunity to meet other members of the community, develop skills, and win prizes.

Pokémon VGC League Challenges are competitions held regularly at game stores that host Play! Pokémon events. They are small, entry-level tournaments on a local scale that provide a great way to understand the fundamentals of battling in Pokémon VGC while testing your skills against other Pokémon VGC players. Pokémon VGC League Cups are more robust tournaments held regularly at the same locations as Pokémon VGC League Challenges. Pokémon VGC League Cup tournaments give players an opportunity to earn Championship Points and practice their skills for larger competitions.

With the launch of Pokémon VGC League activities in South Africa, the top five players—meaning those who earn the most Championship Points—per age division (Junior, Senior, and Masters) from the Middle East & South Africa rating zone will now receive invitations to the Pokémon World Championships.

Find a Play! Pokémon event near you and start playing!

Speedrunners at the ready! This week, Nintendo Switch Online members can take on Competition #17 in Nintendo World Championships: NES™ Edition. The following five challenges feature in the World Championships and Survival modes:

• Key of the Keese (The Legend of Zelda™)
• Hammer Bro KO (Super Mario Bros. 3™)
• Heating Up (Excitebike™)
• Over & Out (Super Mario Bros. 2™)
• Parapa Palace Pro (Zelda II: The Adventure of Link™)

These challenges will be featured from now until 11/11 at 1:59 a.m. PT. Show the world what you’ve got!

Oh, and did you participate in last week’s competition? Be sure to check the game to find out how you placed overall and against other players in your birth year, and to watch replays of the top run for each challenge. (The replays might even show you ways to improve your own times!)

Somehow, October 2024 has come and gone, and we’re already into the start of the next month. October went by so quickly it’s enough to make your head spin, and there’s no doubt you missed a few of the great releases that came to Switch. Thankfully, Nintendo UK is here to remind you of what’s now available!

Join a jam-packed celebration in Super Mario Party Jamboree, discover how the dragon was born in Yakuza Kiwami, watch the past and present collide in Sonic X Shadow Generations, and more!

As always, there are plenty of other games that came to Switch last month. This is just meant to be a look at some of the bigger-name games, but do yourself a favor and dive into the eShop to dig up some of last month’s hidden gems!

Outright Games released SpongeBob SquarePants: The Patrick Star Game on Switch recently, and now they’ve got a new trailer. Ready to flip some patties? Dive into the Krabby Patty action in The Patrick Star Game! Help Patrick cook and serve up gigantic Monster Krabby Patties at the bustling Krabby Patio. Earn sand dollars and prove you’re the ultimate patty chef!

You can skydive with just a parasol (or nothing at all), search for buried treasure in the Dump, or release the rage in Mrs. Puff’s Rage Room. Use almost any item you find, - from the reef blower to a paint can, - to make the world more Patrick. And take on challenges only Patrick would attempt, set by up SpongeBob, Sandy Cheeks, Mr. Krabs, and more.

So become the Star of the show, put your silliest ideas into action, and enjoy the physics-based chaos that unfolds all around you!

• THIS IS PATRICK! - Create hilarious mayhem in the open world of Bikini Bottom.
• FUN WITH PHYSICS - Take things and push them somewhere else. Physics!
• ICONIC STYLES – Unlock classic Patrick outfits with your crazy stunts and collectibles.
• EVERYONE’S HERE - Get silly with SpongeBob, Squidward, Sandy, and more.