Welcome back friends! Amazingly enough, we're only a little over a week away until the Nintendo Switch finally launches. What'll there be to play on it, though? While excitement might've waned a little since the delay of the (awesome looking) physical release of The Binding of Issac: Afterbirth+, there're still some really exciting launch window games for the Switch. For this list, I'll be excluding Breath of the Wild to highlight some lesser-discussed titles. With that caveat out of the way, let's dive on in! Honorable Mentions Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, April 28th It's understandable that a lot of Wii U owners are disappointed with the lack of new tracks being added to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. For many who already have all the DLC, a battle mode (no matter how extensive) and five new characters won't be enough to warrant double-dipping. However, I'm one of the few who never bought MK8 on the Wii U. Thus, this deluxe package of 48 tracks, tons of characters and a real battle mode is an insane value for me and the millions who skipped out on the Wii U altogether. Now if only Smash got an ultimate Switch edition... Graceful Explosion Machine, Spring This little indie arcade shooter looks like it'll be a great deal of fun for short play sessions. The hook here is the extensive combo system and deep stat tracking that begs for high score runs--in fact, it even features a separate score attack mode. GEM has a simple but attractive arcadey visual style that really pops off the screen, and if it's anywhere near $10 it'll be a day one purchase for sure. 5. Snake Pass, March 28thThere's little doubt in my mind that Snake Pass will be a super fun little action-puzzler. The limited movement options has me curious to see how exactly they pull it off--the whole idea is so unique that I think it may be worth supporting just to promote unique game design. Aside from the gameplay, the production values look fantastic: beautiful, vibrant graphics, an original soundtrack composed by David Wise of Rare fame, and a sizeable 15 levels across four unique worlds. As a downloadable indie title, Snake Pass looks like the perfect high quality companion to more expansive full-priced releases. 4. ARMS, SpringARMS is a game I've written extensively about on both Goomba Stomp and this very blog. It has all the potential of being an fan-favorite fighting game in the vein of Pokken Tournament or Blaz Blue and, if the fandom already forming around the game is any indication, it'll definitely achieve that status. What I need to see, though, is a solid story mode. Purely multiplayer-focused fighting games are fun for awhile, but they're usually not worth it for me without interesting single-player content. I know a single player mode has already been confirmed, but I want to see life breathed into these colorful characters with cutscenes and story arches. It doesn't have to be anything crazy, I just want the ARMS universe to be fleshed out a bit. I'll honestly take anything beyond the standard arcade mode found in most fighting games. Throw me a bone Nintendo! 3. FAST RMX, March 3rdI've been waiting to buy this game for a year and a half. FAST Racing Neo, which originally released on the Wii U, both looked amazing and handled well according to the reviews. However, the one hang-up I had with it was its brutal difficulty curve. It had the track variation, the visuals, the gameplay depth--it was just soul-crushingly difficult past its initial speed tier. With the revamped FAST RMX, however, Shin'en has confirmed that they've tweaked the difficulty to make the whole experience more enjoyable, and I'm right back on board again. Aside from the difficulty adjustment, FAST RMX also includes the DLC that brings its track total to an impressive 30 tracks and 15 racers, all running at a silky smooth 1080p 60fps. 4-player splitscreen (along with 8-player online) is also supported, which means another game in the first month (along with Snipperclips) where you can use the Joy Cons as individual controllers for local multiplayer right out of the box! 2. TumbleSeed, Spring"TumbleSeed?" you might ask. "What's a little arcadey game like that doing above ARMS and FAST RMX?" Well, my friend, allow me to enlighten you. Taken on first glance alone, I have a feeling many will write TS off as a throwaway budget title. But the devil is in the details, and the details are gorgeous. The core gameplay of carefully balancing a ball through environments filled with holes is simple enough, but that's not a bad thing. It's perfect to pick up and play for a few sessions here and there, and anyone can really get a grasp of the controls. It's the presentation of it all that really sets it apart though. The beautifully drawn art style, the soothing, mellow music, the sheer variety of enemies and power ups and the promise of HD rumble support all come together for a very attractive package. My only concern is that TumbleSeed may be too difficult to enjoy for more relaxed play sessions--the aesthetic makes for a perfect wind-down. Either way, I can't wait to get my hands on this hidden gem of a game. 1. Disgaea 5 Complete, May 29thDisgaea 5 is lauded by many who've played it as one of the best (and longest) RPGs ever made, and RPGs are easily my favorite gaming genre. The fact that we get such a personality-filled game with 100+ hours of content (plus all the DLC) is amazing, and it'll easily keep me occupied (along with all the other games on this list!) during the wait for Splatoon 2. If the reception of the PS4 version is anything to go by, we're in for a real treat.
Thus ends my list of the 5 games I'm most looking forward to playing soon after the Switch launches. For all the complaints of its software lineup, there's actually a good bit of quality releases in the first few months here. Hopefully this helped you discover a new game or two to get excited about! Until Sunday, have a great week guys! --Brent
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Welcome back friends! Sometimes, reeveryone needs a break. Especially following those more intense gaming sessions, you just want to kick back and relax. Whether you're stressed, lazy, or just taking it easy for the day, we all have those go-to games that we can zone out playing and . Here are my absolute favorites--hopefully they'll be just as good to you. 5. Animal Crossing: New LeafNew Leaf holds a divisive place in my heart. On the one hand, it's incredibly relaxing if you have no goal in mind. If you just hop in and go fishing or catch some bugs, it can be a supremely calming experience. On the other hand, if you're like me, you can't help but feel a constant pressure to earn bells to pay off those massive loans. Sometimes I didn't feel it, and other times it was so great that it pushed me away from playing entirely. 4. Mario Party 6Mario Party 6 is, in my humble opinion, the best Mario Party game ever released. Long before the franchise strayed from its classic board game roots, Mario Party 6 introduced orbs into the fray, had a robust array of unlockables, and touted some of the best minigames the series has ever known. Nothing beat teaming up with my friends against a pair of Hard computers and duking it out for a couple hours. Where the relaxing part comes in, though, is from all those summer afternoons spent playing long sets or minigame challenges with computer partners. The partner AI was great, and it was a really nice option for those who didn't have a bunch of friends to play with all the time. 3. SplatoonPlaying any shooter is a great way to blow off some steam. However, because I never played got into any other shooters, I can only really relate to Splatoon. Have a rough day? Come home and play a few games. Girlfriend/boyfriend getting on your nerves? Play an aggressive weapon time and let loose! If I ever have a podcast or YouTube discussion I want to listen to, I always have it running in the background while I play a game. It's the perfect game to zone out and play while thinking about or listening to something else! 2. Mario Kart 7Similarly to Splatoon, Mario Kart 7 is perhaps an even better game to zone out and play. Once you've played it enough the racing becomes second nature, and if you're someone who needs to be doing something with their hands while listening to an album, podcast, or whatever, it's a perfectly relaxing option. Though the game itself can get repetitive after awhile with its relatively short selection of tracks, playing it without really focusing on it makes the game have practically endless replay value (as silly as that may sound). I highly recommend you give it a shot! 1. Poochy and Yoshi's Woolly WorldTwo words: Mellow Mode. Yes, it makes it super easy, but it's not just for kids, I promise. The addition of wings, extra hearts and less aggressive enemies all make this the most relaxing gaming experience I've ever had. Little-to-no stress while still navigating expertly-crafted platforming levels? What more could you ask for?
I hope these helped you find just the games you were looking for. It's great to play intense games with action, suspense and challenge, but sometimes it's nice to take it easy and enjoy the ride. Have any suggestions of your own? Tweet me them and I'll mention the best ones in the next post! Your friend, Brent In the wake of the new Tower Control mode that's being added to Ranked battles today, I decided it'd be fitting to make a list of the top 5 Splatoon updates that I really, really want. I put a lot of thought into this list, but there's only so much I could fit. Let me know if I missed anything! NUMBER 5: Raising the Level Cap When I first started playing Splatoon I was initially driven to reach level 10 to unlock Ranked mode, and then level 20 because, well, it was there. Having a level to reach gives you a goal to work towards and provides more of a reason to keep playing Turf Wars. Instead of 20, the level cap should be 40 (with the amount of points you have to attain continuing to double with each additional level). It's fairly easy to reach the current level 20 cap, but twice that would take many, many more hours. NUMBER 4: New Rare Gear Similar to the low level cap issue, it's fairly easy to get all the available gear in a week or two or intense play sessions. What we need is rare gear that's much more difficult to attain and more costly than standard equipment--the high cost being especially important so players can spend the ridiculous amounts of extra cash many have accumulated over matches. These rare pieces could be especially valuable by having four unlockable abilities instead of three. NUMBER 3: Bottoms The outcry for pants and other bottom wear has been real. It's just strange that we can buy hats, shirts and shoes, but not bottoms (the only exception being the schoolgirl uniform, which comes with a skirt). I could see Nintendo releasing pants in the winter as part of a special update, announcing something like, "It's getting cold out, and the Inklings are freezing in their shorts! They're so cold, in fact, that there's a new trend spreading throughout Inkopolis of wearing pants!!!" These could be made extremely expensive to--once again--give players something to spend their money on and to encourage players to play more and earn even more money. NUMBER 2: All Game Modes Available for Ranked and Unranked Making all game modes available for both ranked and unranked play allows more casual players to experience Splat Zones and Tower Control (and other future Ranked-only modes) while allowing ranked players to practice casually without fear of being tossed around and losing rank just for wanting to enjoy the mode. But ranked play doesn't really matter until... NUMBER 1: Team Requests & Team Names We know that we're going to be able to form friend lobbies and teams in the big August update, right? Well, if the update is only going to allow us to be able to add people on our Friends List, a nice option for those without friends who play Splatoon would be the ability to send Team Requests to players worldwide at the end of random matches. That way teams could form naturally based on appreciating others' skills and extending friendly invitations. To ease Nintendo's worries about inappropriate messages or bullying, the invites could be simple "Yes or No" notifications without space to include a personal message. Also, imagine being able to register team names! Certain teams would become infamous among the Splatoon community. And to combat the potential issue of inactive accounts, It could be that if a team is inactive for 30 days they lose their name. With the addition of Team Requests it would crucial to have team leaderboards so players could see the top teams in the world. And with the advent of team leaderboards, the only logical step forward would be tournaments! But that, my friends, is for another post. Thanks for reading friends! There's so much potential for Splatoon to be even more amazing--we just have to hope Nintendo is listening. If you liked any of these, tweet the link to @NintendoAmerica and let's see what we can do!
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