Overcooked: Special Edition Impressions

The act of cooking is an integral part of our everyday lives and one that many enjoy partaking in. So why don’t we have any good cooking-based video games? Sure, cooking on the surface isn’t as exciting as shooting zombies, racing go-karts, or swinging a sword, but someone has to eventually find a way to make a compelling cooking game, right?

No disrespect intended towards BurgerTime or Cooking Mama, but Overcooked might be the riveting cooking game that we never knew we wanted. A hit indie title last year on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, the game finally makes its way to the Nintendo Switch in a special edition. Is this port a worthwhile addition to your Nintendo Switch library?

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A Look Back at WarioWare Inc.: Mega Microgame$!

From R.O.B. the Robot, to Wii Music, to ARMS, Nintendo is no stranger to all things weird. Back in 2003, their most unusual contribution to gaming was WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$! In a time when mini games were still hot, Wario and his new friends starred in a Gameboy Advance game would push the genre to ridiculously short lengths.

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ARMS Makes a Strong Sales Debut

Nintendo’s oddball fighter proved to be a heavyweight at retailers worldwide. First, it debuted at #2 on the U.K. charts, only behind an on promotion Horizon Zero Dawn. Then, its debut in Japan almost outsold the debuts of Tekken 7 and Street Fighter V combined. Most recently, NPD data shows that ARMS performed extremely well in the US, reaching #5 with 256,000 units sold physically and digitally. For a game that left many of us scratching our heads when upon its reveal in January, ARMS has become a hit.

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Out Now: Splatoon 2

Years after shocking the world with a spectacular debut on the Wii U, the Inklings are back with Splatoon 2 on the Nintendo Switch! This one seems to feature more of everything you love, with a few big new additions, such as a horde mode and a beefier single player campaign.

I enjoyed the original a great deal, but for some reason it fell out of my rotation fairly quickly. This time around, I hope to play a lot more of it. My copy is in the mail and hopefully it will arrive later today. Are you picking this one up today as well?

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ARMS is Confirmed to Appear as a Tournament Game at EVO Japan 2018

The biggest name in fighting game tournaments is heading to Japan in 2018 and they’re taking Nintendo’s latest fighter with them. Alongside of the likes of Tekken 7, Street Fighter V, and King of Fighters XIV, EVO will be hosting an ARMS tournament as part of its lineup.

Over the past month or so, I’ve been batting around a post about the eSports viability of ARMS. In short, as much as I love the game, I think it has an uphill battle to cultivate a scene around it. However, a presence at EVO Japan is a great step forward. Maybe this is the perfect excuse to finally take my wife to Japan for our dream vacation!

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Breaking Down the ARMS 2.0 Patch

The latest update for ARMS is a doozy. Featuring the inclusion of a new playable character, a new stage, and balance changes, this is the biggest shake-up to the game to-date. If you want to see the full patch notes, head over to Nintendo for those. Otherwise, come with me for my breakdown of what’s new!

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NBA Playgrounds FINALLY Gets Patched on the Nintendo Switch

NBA Playgrounds launched in a rough state. Featuring blurry visuals in handheld mode and a confusing shooting system while lacking online play, the game fell short of rekindling the NBA Jam fire. Not all hope was lost when developer Saber Interactive promised a patch that would magically fix everything. Unfortunately for Switch owners, the patch just arrived, months after the fact.

The wait has been terrible. I’m guessing by this point, everyone who bought the game has moved on. But maybe this patch will at least give those players incentive to try it again. The game now looks a bit better in handheld mode, sports online play, and now has a shot meter to make it clear when you need to release the button in order to make the basket. Furthermore, accuracy has been tuned in order to make layups easier and 3-pointers harder.

At some point, I’ll stream this game again to show off the new updates. I might write some sort of impressions piece as well as a means of closing out my review. Not sure if I can recommend prospective buyers from jumping in now, but at the very least, fans who felt burned by NBA Playgrounds the first time around may finally get the game we were hoping for.

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Ninjara throw spam in ARMS is easily countered. Here’s how you do it!

As a perfect continuation about the miseducation of fighting game players post from a few days ago, a post from Kotaku perfectly highlighted my point about how misinformed opinions can take life and spread. In it, author Cecilia D’Anastasio highlights a common tactic that Ninjara players use in ARMS to score grabs. She even provides an example in the above gif.

Let’s use this as teachable moment to break down how to counter this particular tactic while breaking down the notion that throws are not cheap in ARMS.

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Pokemon Go: One Year Later

Exactly one year ago, Niantic and the Pokemon Company unleashed Pokemon Go onto the Earth. It became a supernova of a game that everyone was talking about and playing. Then, almost as quickly as it arrived, it fizzled out. While the game will never hit the highs of its early days, it still has a large and loyal following, including yours truly.

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Mighty Gunvolt: Burst Review

Mighty Gunvolt: Burst is the amalgamation of two indie franchises that were heavily influenced by the Blue Bomber. Despite being conceived by Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune and backed by a multi-million dollar Kickstarter campaign, Mighty No. 9 will go down in history as one of the largest flops in gaming history. As for the Gunvolt half, Azure Striker: Gunvolt has been a more successful IP in terms of critical reception, though I’d never heard of the franchise until this mash-up.

Wouldn’t blame you for feeling skeptical about any game featuring the now-toxic Mighty No. 9 brand, even if it looks like the 8-bit platformer backers of the original Kickstarter wanted in the first place. While I can’t speak for the quality of that game, I can say that Mighty Gunvolt: Burst is actually a pretty decent game.

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