Tag: nintendo

Pico Park 2 shows the Switch is still getting great new games

Posted on by faz_business


Given the excitement around the rumored Nintendo Switch 2, it’s easy to miss new games released to current Nintendo Switch consoles. Recent Nintendo Direct presentations seem to rattle off a bunch of random titles with little attention to each game, and the console hasn’t gotten any big new releases in a while, save for the recent The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. However, amid both the excitement for a future Switch and the slow death of the current one, I’m writing here to make sure one special game in particular doesn’t get buried: Pico Park 2.

Although the gameplay can vary depending on what mode you play, or even what set of levels you take on, the general pitch of Pico Park 2 is pretty straightforward. You and your friends will team up and take on various platforming challenges collaboratively. You’ll jump on each other, hit switches for each other, and work together to solve each short level. Pico Park 2 allows up to eight players to join in at once, but you can play with as few as two, and the game automatically tailors the design of the levels to accommodate the number of people playing.

In my opinion, the more people you have, the more fun it gets, and having at least four players is ideal. A lot of the fun comes from the chaos (and the coordination required) of having eight players jumping around the screen simultaneously. You might have to carefully stack up on each other to create a bridge to cross a large gap or figure out how to cross thin platforms with everyone connected by one bungee cord. The gameplay varies considerably, and some sets of levels even feature co-op bullet-hell arcade gameplay where you’re shooting down monsters together.

Each time the level screen loads, you don’t know what awaits. Still, everything can be played with a simple control scheme and a single Joy-Con. There might be a special gimmick, like a vacuum gun that you use to suck up your friends and complete a challenge, but the controls stay pretty simple. In my experience, this made the game enjoyable because of all the variety, but also approachable for all kinds of players.

The game has different groups of levels organized by theme and gameplay, so if you get stuck on one set of levels, you can always try one of a dozen others. If you don’t want to work together, you can opt to play some basic competitive minigames. I played it with my partner’s parents, who hadn’t touched a video game controller since Wii Sports, and my 8-year-old Mario-loving cousin, and everyone was able to easily pick the game up and have a fun time. Regardless of the range of skill levels, the high that came from successfully beating a challenge as a team never got old, no matter how much shouting was involved.

So if you’re looking for a fantastic gem of a game to pick up and tide you over until the Switch 2 comes out, or just want to remind yourself that the Nintendo Switch is still so good, I would suggest picking up the slept-on Pico Park 2.

Pico Park 2 is available to play on Mac, Nintendo Switch, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.

Nintendo Switch consoles are cheaper than ever for Black Friday

Posted on by faz_business


Nintendo’s making a huge splash ahead of Black Friday with the first big discounts on Switch consoles. Both the regular model and the Switch OLED are $75 off for a limited time, selling for $224.99 and $274.99, respectively. These price cuts are in effect for the seasonal bundle that includes $79 worth of extras like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and three months of Nintendo Switch Online service for online multiplayer, cloud saves, access to retro games, plus access to the Nintendo Music mobile app.

Neither console has gotten a serious discount following their respective launches, save for retailer-specific promos that typically sold out in hours, or required subscriptions to Costco. To avoid cutting prices, Nintendo has instead opted to enrich the value of console bundles by include games or trials to its online service, but now we have actual price cuts without losing out on the added goodies. Whether these discounts return after Cyber Monday remains to be seen, though it wouldn’t be surprising to see the prices fall as the official unveiling of the Switch 2 nears in early 2025.

Nintendo has other fantastic gaming deals on accessories and games including $20 off its stellar, long-lasting Switch Pro wireless controller, $20 off pairs of Joy-Con controllers, and the lowest prices we’ve seen on some of the Switch’s must-play games. There are simply too many good deals to list here, so check them (and many others) out in our roundup of the best early Black Friday gaming deals, which will be updated regularly before Black Friday on Nov. 29.

Stuck in Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom? Try a bed

Posted on by faz_business


Princess Zelda wields an enormous toolkit in The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. With the flick of a wand, she can summon perfect copies of anything from a household pot to a a living, moving monster that fights for her. These objects, called Echoes, help her navigate the terrain and fight baddies. And while it’s no Master Sword, the Tri Wand has something Link never did: The ability to wield a nice plush bed. And now as I play, I’m convinced the bed is the main solution to all my problems in Echoes of Wisdom.

Echoes of Wisdom embraces a more open and less restrictive design approach when compared to previous top-down Zelda games. A puzzle in a dungeon might have multiple solutions instead of a single one. Because the game has been designed in this way, players are encouraged to think for themselves and tinker freely with all kinds of potential solutions rather than finding a specific path. In an interview, said that “having the excitement of solving puzzles in your own unique way makes the game ‘Legend of Zelda-like,’” so the team increased the degree of freedom to achieve that goal.

Generally speaking, this allows players to flex their creative muscles and find unique ways to get around the world, but for me, I’ve just defaulted to bed. It gives you a bit of additional height, extends out the length of roughly two blocks or so, and only costs one little triangle — so beginners can stack as many as three beds across a gap. I’ve used it to scale cliffs, cross gaps, and solve puzzles in dungeons. Before I get discouraged, I ask myself: Can this be solved with bed? And more often than not, it can be.

When you don’t want to use bed, you don’t have to. The furniture can make a lot of the puzzles easier, but it is about your own creative solutions at the end of the day. Forcing your way through a dungeon with a bed might be more simplistic, but not as exciting. A lot of times, it can be more fun to take advantage of newly learned Echoes, and that’s great! But if you find yourself hitting a wall and not knowing what to do, maybe see if it’s time for Zelda to take a little snooze.

Why Malcolm X’s voice plays in a Sonic game

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I think video game history will remember Hideki Naganuma for many reasons. Fans might lovingly bestow upon him the title of “Twitter weirdo.” Others — especially modern music producers — might cite him as an important influence in video game composition. That’s more than fair; the man is responsible for his fair share of video game bangers. Tracks like Jet Set Radio Future’s “The Concept of Love” — which stuffs warped vocal samples, bright electric guitar riffs, and rushing synthy drums — still turn heads when they come on the playlist.

Check out our special issue Polygon FM, a week of stories about all the places where music and games connect — retrospectives, interviews, and much more.

But for me, I’ll always remember him as the video game composer who put a sample of a Malcolm X speech in a Sonic the Hedgehog game.

The song appears on the soundtrack for Sonic Rush, a 2D Sonic game Sega released in 2005 for the OG Nintendo DS. It’s called “Wrapped in Black” and it plays during the final boss fight with Doctor Eggman. The track opens up with rushing violins and operatic vocals that convey the evilness of Doctor Eggman, but soon a sharp repeating vocal sample cuts through it all. The sample repeats “Too black, too strong” a few times and then comes back later in the song.

The audio for “Too black, too strong” comes from a 1963 speech given by Malcolm X titled, “Message to the Grassroots.” Naturally, his talk had nothing to do with Sonic, and dealt with far more serious matters. In the talk, the Black revolutionary outlined his idea of a Black nationalist philosophy and criticized the Civil Rights Movement. In the sample quote, Malcolm X used the image of coffee and creamer to explain what happened to the movement. He said:

“It’s just like when you’ve got some coffee that’s too black, which means it’s too strong. What you do? You integrate it with cream; you make it weak. If you pour too much cream in, you won’t even know you ever had coffee. It used to be hot, it becomes cool.”

That a Sonic game sampled this feels like nothing short of a fever dream. The composer commented on it once back in 2014 when he said, “‘Wrapped in Black’ is a song about coffee. lol.” And while the sample isn’t a joking matter, he is technically correct that the quote is, at least in part, about coffee.

Naganuma’s intensely stylized music fits his history as a composer and work on the Sonic series. Similar to how video games were a form of emerging media at the time, Naganuma experimented freely and didn’t limit himself to an idea of what art should be. He sent his first application to Sega in 1998, after which the first game he ever composed was a handheld toy called Hip Jog Jog. In 2000, he worked as the main composer for Jet Set Radio where he broke out as a composer. His uneven beats and screechy sounds brought influences from hip hop, electronic, dance, funk, jazz, and rock music into the fuzzy speakers of CRT the televisions of the 2000s.

An image of Blaze the cat in Sonic Rush. She’s running through the Carnival-themed stage. The image shows the upper and lower image since the game was for the Nintendo DS.

Image: Dimps, Sonic Team/Sega

Making a splash in the canon of Sonic the Hedgehog music and Sega games in general is no small task. Modern Sonic fans tend to remember the Chemical Plant Zone theme or later songs like the easy breezy rock theme of “Escape From the City” from Sonic Adventure 2. Because of this, I think it’s relatively easy to miss the soundtrack on Sonic Rush. Sega shipped it early in the lifecycle of the nascent handheld, and its roughly 1.62 million copies sold never made it the most popular or well-known game of the Sonic series

But Naganuma went off with the Sonic Rush soundtrack. He samples the British DJ Fatboy Slim’s reggae remix of Tribe Called Quest’s famous track, “I Left My Wallet In El Segundo,” to create a mariachi band-like holler for the theme of a Brazilian Carnival-esque level in “Ska Cha Cha.”

And while the nostalgic charms of the original Green Hill Zone theme will never wear off on me, there’s something uniquely thrilling to starting Sonic Rush off to the blaring horns and cascading twangy guitar of “Right There, Ride On.”

The eccentricities of Naganuma’s work have infected my brain and continue to shape my media tastes as an adult. So maybe that’s why I won’t let myself — or anyone else — forget the time when he put Malcolm X on a Sonic game and into the ears of an impressionable video game-loving child.

Lego Super Mario World: Mario & Yoshi: where to pre-order

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While the gamified version of Lego Super Mario continues to expand with new and , more traditional Lego Sets inspired by the red plumber are somewhat rare. However, we can expect a new set featuring a caped Mario astride his trusty mount Yoshi to join the Lego Super Mario catalog on Oct. 1. The $129.99 set isn’t quite as cool as the or as iconic as the , but it still includes some fun features and surprises.

A stock image of the fully assembled Lego Super Mario World: Mario & Yoshi set on a coffee table

Image: Lego

Normally pre-orders of new Lego sets are exclusively available through, but this 1,215-piece set can also be reserved at Target ahead of the Oct. 1 launch.

This flat, pixelated Mario and Yoshi are based on the 16-bit versions as they first appeared in Super Mario World for the SNES. The base of the set features a small crank which, when turned, animates Yoshi’s legs and arms, while a dial behind Yoshi’s head animates his mouth and tongue. Also, just like the and sets, Lego Super Mario & Yoshi includes an action tag that provides unique reactions for , , or figures.

Wildermyth will conclude with its final expansion, Omenroad

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Wildermyth is an incredible procedurally generated RPG that leads players through a series of narrative quests. As you build bases, battle foes, and learn more about the world, you’re able to build up your cast with new decisions and sacrifices. A hero might die, marry another party member and have children, or turn into an increasingly feral beast. It’s a tremendously cozy, satisfying RPG experience.

Wildermyth has a core campaign, and additional adventurers that introduce new stories and new enemy factions. The game’s first DLC pack was focused around new cosmetic skins and armors for heroes, whereas the upcoming Omenroad expansion includes a roguelike-style challenge mode and a new story campaign called Walk in the Unlight. While Omenroad brings lots of new bosses and challenging fights, it also represents an end to development for Wildermyth. Worldwalker Games announced the conclusion on May 29 on the game’s official X account.

“We will continue to support the game and fix critical bugs, but don’t expect new content going forward,” co-owner Nate Austin wrote. “We will be saying farewell to many of our team members. Worldwalker Games is going into hibernation for now.”

Austin clarifies that the team still intends to port Wildermyth to other platforms, and the hibernation does not affect that “in any way.” He also commits to continuing a Kickstarter that will record the game’s music live and integrate it into the game, French and Spanish translations for Omenroad, and to maintain the game’s Discord, wiki, support email, merch store, and social media.

“Wildermyth has been wonderful, but nothing goes on forever,” wrote Austin. “We wanted to ship Omenroad, and having done that, we’re ready to move on. This was the plan, and it doesn’t have anything to do with how well Omenroad is doing. (It’s doing well! We’re extremely proud of it.)”

He added, “I’m pretty sure we’ll eventually find something else to pour our passion into, and we’ll let you know about it when the time comes.”

It’s sad to see an end to Wildermyth, which has become one of my staples when I want to play a narrative RPG adventure. But it’s also a tremendous game, and it’s good to see the studio end on a high note and walk away from the project of their own choice. While we may never see another title from the Worldwalker team, I’ll treasure Wildermyth and the stories it effortlessly spins for years to come.

Nintendo’s online servers for Wii U and 3DS shut down today

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We knew it was coming, but that doesn’t . Nintendo shut down the online servers for both the Wii U and 3DS today. This means the end of online multiplayer gaming for both consoles, turning Mario Kart 7 for 3DS and the original Splatoon for the Wii U into single player or couch co-op experiences. The first Super Mario Maker is also effectively dead, as there’s no way to browse for and download player-created levels.

Both consoles are relatively controversial. The 3DS was originally considered a , though it eventually . This was thanks to a glut of incredible titles, from Super Mario 3D Land and The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds to more niche fare like Kid Icarus: Uprising and Fire Emblem Awakening. The portable console also had a robust lineup of online exclusive titles, like Pushmo and BoxBoy!.

The Wii U, on the other hand, never quite found a significant audience and is largely considered one of Nintendo’s biggest missteps. It was the next home console after the culture-defining Wii, so it had large shoes to fill. However, the company went with a name that was an absolute nightmare for the Wii’s core audience of casual gamers. Was it an accessory to the original Wii? A new console? A crappy iPad? Those of us glued to gaming media knew the answer, but the casuals never stood a chance.

There was also the console itself. The company never delivered a compelling use case for the “asymmetric gameplay” offered by the device. Simply put, the Wii U gave you two screens. There was the TV, of course, but also a touchscreen tablet. This was supposed to lead to unique gameplay mechanics that gave the person holding the tablet a different task than those holding traditional controllers, but only a few titles truly explored this concept.

Just like the 3DS, however, the Wii U was buoyed by a robust selection of first-party classics. I found the first-party offerings of the Wii era to be mostly underwhelming, with desperate attempts to shoehorn in finicky and gimmicky waggle. I still get panicked when remembering just how horrible it felt to fly Link around in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. The Wii U, on the other hand, brought Nintendo back to a novel concept called “just make good games.”

The console brought us Mario Kart 8, which is still the gold standard for digital kart racing, and the underrated Super Mario 3D World. There was also Super Mario Maker, a great Super Smash Bros. title, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Pikmin 3 and Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, among many others.

Even if you never owned a Wii U, you’ve probably played some of these games. Nintendo knew the console itself was a flop, but the games were good. This led to numerous re-releases on the Switch. It’s worth noting that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild . Also, it had Miiverse! Nintendo, for the love of Bowser, . It was the only pure social network.

Of course, there’s a strong case to be made that both the design of the Wii U and its failure led to the Switch. Both devices allow for portable play, but the Wii U required people to be tethered to a bulky console. The Switch, on the other hand, is the (not bulky) console. Nintendo’s smash hybrid , as of December. The Wii U sold under 14 million devices throughout its lifespan.

Nintendo already for the 3DS and Wii U last year, so this is the final goodbye. Luckily, speedrunners a Super Mario Maker level that was long thought to be impossible just a few days ago. Life always finds a way. Sleep well, my two old friends.

Japanese police arrest suspect Nintendo threat-maker

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Police in Japan arrested on April 3 a 27-year old man suspected of threatening Nintendo staff, events, and spectators. Due to these threats, Nintendo announced in December it was canceling several events, like Nintendo Live and the Splatoon Koshien 2023 finals, and postponing others. Japanese newspaper the Kyoto Shimbun first reported the arrest. According to the report, the man admitted to the threats.

Nintendo of America confirmed the arrest in a statement to Polygon, where a representative also said the Japanese headquarters “was receiving constant threats targeting its employees, and most recently, received threats targeting the spectators and staff of the Splatoon Koshien 2023 Grand Final.”

Here’s the full statement:

Nintendo’s Japanese headquarters was receiving constant threats targeting its employees, and most recently, received threats targeting the spectators and staff of the Splatoon Koshien 2023 Grand Final. Given the threats, Nintendo postponed and cancelled the series of events, and has been in contact with the police ever since. Nintendo is extremely thankful for the investigation and effort made by the police on arresting the suspect. Nintendo’s Japanese headquarters will continue to cooperate fully with the police’s investigation.

Nintendo Live, the event that was canceled in December, is a big, multi-day celebration of everything Nintendo. It was set to be held at the Tokyo Big Sight exhibition center in January. The Splatoon grand finals were slated for December at the Tokyo Ota Ward General Gymnasium.

News of Nintendo’s event cancelation came during the trial for the devastating 2019 Kyoto Animation arson attack that killed 36 people and injured many others. The attack was one of the deadliest in recent Japanese history. The suspect plead guilty and was sentenced to death in January. In the aftermath of the attack, Japanese police have treated threats with “heightened seriousness,” according to Japan Today. Police have also arrested several people who’ve made threats against both Sega and Square Enix.