Nintendo Labo aims to create entertaining new video game experiences with the latest in cardboard technology. Specifically targeted for children, these experiences don’t appeal to me beyond my general curiousity of the tech. However, I hope that kids of all ages have fun with their future cardboard creations!
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I finally got GameCube streaming to work! We start things off with a launch classic, Super Monkey Ball!
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Featuring Super Mario Bros. 1, 2, and 3, Balloon Fight, Dr. Mario, and more!
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As much as I love my Switch, my biggest gripe with it to-date is the lack of a d-pad on the left-hand side. It’s the reason why I can’t play Ultra Street Fighter II on the go and why I haven’t bought the otherwise excellent Puyo Puyo Tetris. Thankfully, it seems like Nintendo and Hori have heard our prayers, as a left Joy-Con with d-pad is headed to Japan in July, retailing for about $25 US.
The stream was a bust, but that didn’t stop me from playing ARMS while quickly running down the news from the latest Nintendo Direct! Also, Smash Bros.!
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A cult hit when it was originally debuted on the Wii about a decade ago, de Blob is set to make its triumphant return to a Nintendo platform in 2018! If you’ve never played it before, imagine a game where Splatoon is a pure platformer before Splatoon became a thing. I have a soft spot in my heart for it due to how much I enjoyed it at the time, on top of the fact that it was a diamond in the rough of the Wii library. I picked it up for dirt cheap from a Blockbuster clearance bin and was surprised by how fun it was.
This remaster is already out on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One if you can’t wait for a Switch version. Before this announcement, I actually came across this at Walmart and almost bought it. However, I think I’ll hold out on a Switch version if the price differential isn’t too much. Would love to play this on the go. Regardless of which version you’d prefer, I’d certainly recommend giving de Blob a shot!
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Finally!
One of the biggest knocks against ARMS was the inability to play a local versus match with all arms unlocked. This greatly hampered the tournament scene, as tournament organizers simply didn’t have the time to unlock every arm for every copy of the game. As such, tournaments up until now have been forced to use default arms for each character, undermining the core game design and severely limiting the meta.
Now with the 5.1 patch, players will have access to a Tournament mode that unlocks all arms. You will be locked out of other modes and records will not be kept, but that’s fine for the purposes of running a local tournament.
This is great news for a fighter that continues to get better. Plus, with the game having sold about 250,000 copies in Q4 2017, the game now has an install base of 1.6 million, making it a great success for a new fighting game IP. Now if they could only fix the lag in LAN play…
Nintendo’s foray into the mobile market continues with Mario Kart Tour. The only real info we have is the above tweet from Nintendo, but the thought of mobile Mario Kart is enough to put many into a tizzy. Nintendo’s mobile output has been hit-and-miss as they attempt to tailor each game for mobile, but in theory, this should be a straightforward process of putting the proven gameplay onto a mobile device where countless others have attempted to copy the formula.
It’s going to be a long wait, but I’ll gladly twiddle my thumbs till then if that means Nintendo gets it right!
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…what?
In a world where companies are racing towards 4K resolutions and virtual reality, Nintendo’s next technological innovation is…cardboard.
Nintendo Labo is a line of kid-focused games that incorporate the use of cardboard in a variety of different ways. In the example video shown, cardboard is used to make a piano, where the tablet sits in the middle. There’s a bug with Joy Con controllers on the sides that moves through HD rumble and inputs from the tablet. The most insane example is a full-on cardboard mech suit with a headset to mount the screen directly in front of your face.
…WHAT?!?!?
After the hey day of Wave Race 64 and Jet Moto in the mid 90s, jet ski racing games fell off the face of the earth. It’s a shame that they did, as the inclusion of water physics makes for a racing experience unlike anything else on the marketplace. Originally released last year on other consoles, Riptide GP: Renegade aims to take advantage of this deficiency by being more or less the only game in town. While I’ve only played a few hours of the single player, I did want to note down some early thoughts on this one.
In Third Person 