Hey,
here’s issue 118 of Switch Weekly, with your Nintendo round-up, and boy do we have a lot to unpack this week.
Nintendo held the first Direct presentation of the year, and it was a good one! We got the reveal of Super Mario Maker 2
(not the Wii U port many suspected)
, a bizarre Tetris battle royale game out of nowhere, a remake of Game Boy classic Link’s Awakening, and so much more. If you missed it, I’ve linked up a bunch of highlights below, in addition to reaction, thoughts and more on everything showed off. Many expected Nintendo to offer up a glimpse at the upcoming Animal Crossing game, but that didn’t happen this time — I think it’s safe to say the Link’s Awakening reveal saved Nintendo from any moaning.
Watching this Direct did get me thinking about Nintendo’s emerging strategy, and it seems to me they are increasingly taking a page or two from the Disney playbook in how they handle their properties. Sure, the obvious one is the theme park investment, but I can see other similarities. The Switch Online NES app, keeping retro titles on a slow trickle release to the most loyal (subscribers) harks back to
the Disney vault
method of legacy content availability. Whereas the Link’s Awakening remake draws a parallel to the current crop of remakes Disney are making of their classics. Take an old, loved film and reimagine it for easy money — for the most part, it’s working for Disney, so why not Nintendo. Anyway, it was a little thought I had, so there you have it.
…and finally from me, as I mentioned a few weeks back, the State of Switch survey will be returning:
and here it is
! The 2019 survey asks about what games you’ve got, if you’re an Switch Online member, what you think about a potential Switch redesign and more. I’d love if you could fill it out — subscribers
(that’s you!)
are the first to know about this survey. I’ll be telling the rest of the world tomorrow, so feel free to get the jump on me, and spread the word!
Taking apart the Super Mario Maker 2 trailer (with GrandPOOBear)
Here’s one way to make sure you don’t miss any of the new features coming to Mario Maker 2. GrandPooBear is a Twitch streamer I often watch who has sunk over 5,000 hours into the original game, so his keen eye does a great job of spotting everything new here.
Kotaku
//
YouTube
REVIEW
At Sundown: Shots in The Dark
The Switch only has a handful of good online shooters, so I took a look at this offering from Mild Beast Games. It didn’t quite hit the mark for me:
“the core gameplay doesn’t feel quite right – and that’s mainly due to the stealth mechanic at its heart”
.
Chris Brandrick
//
Switch Weekly
Upcoming Releases
All dates are EU & US unless otherwise stated.
Monday, 18th February:
Trine 2: Complete Story
— This award-winning fairytale platformer arrives on Switch, with online and local co-op for up to three players.
