Nintendo Just Made The Switch's 2022 Line-up An Absolute Killer

And just like that the Nintendo Switch was set to have its biggest year since launch. The pieces moved into place slowly (and might not hold), but on paper at least, the portable console’s 2022 is set to be bookended by Pokémon Legends: Arceus and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2, with a whole lot more between. It’s 2017 all over again, but bigger.

That year saw the Switch launch with BOTW and then follow-up with Splatoon 2 and Mario Odyssey in the months that followed. It seemed like an accident, in part because BOTW was supposed to come to Wii U years earlier, and one unlikely to be repeated. And yet, as the Switch hits the middle of its hardware lifecycle, that seems to be what’s happening.

The Nintendo release calendar has a way of sneaking up on you. That’s what happened last fall when a seemingly sleepy season for Switch ended up holding its own against the competition, thanks to a steady stream of breakouts from Metroid Dread to Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. It’s happening again this year following a sudden one-two punch that began with a Nintendo Direct earlier this month, and ended with the latest Pokémon Presents over the weekend.

The first event revealed a slew of new games and confirmed Splatoon 3 would hit this summer. The second shocked fans by announcing 2022 would see the release of not just the most ambitious Pokémon game in years, but also an open world Gen 9 in the form of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet

There are a decent number of smaller ports and remakes slated to arrive this year as well. Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp appears in April. The Octopath Traveler-style 2.5D version of previously unlocalized classic JRPG, Live A Live, will release in July. Hello Games is somehow putting No Man’s Sky on Switch. Mario Kart 8, the top selling game on two different consoles, is basically doubling in size over the course of the next year.

Nintendo started quietly laying the groundwork for this back in 2021 with updates on Splatoon 3, Bayonetta 3 and BOTW 2. But the lowkey way it dropped solid dates in recent weeks has made it feel like it’s hitting all at once. The Mario-maker is often masterful when it comes to starving its audience, then under-promising and over-delivering. This year, however, it’s already tipped most of its hand and it could be the strongest it’s had in years, if it actually gets the chance to play it.

That is, of course, a big if. When Pokémon Scarlet and Violet got announced yesterday, more than a few fans took it as an admission that BOTW 2 won’t end up hitting this year after all. In the age of covid, Nintendo also seems to have struggled with production delays more than most. At the same time, it has had chances to remain noncommittal in the past but keeps re-affirming the 2022 window.

Comments

Genshin Impact: Best Nahida Build Guide

The best build for Nahida in Genshin Impact is quite complicated as players need to balance her stat out. So far, Archons in Genshin Impact have not been disappointing. Venti is still a top-tier crowd controller, Zhongli is the best shielder in Genshin Impact , and Raiden Shogun is a tremendously powerful Sub-DPS and battery. Sadly, while many expect Nahida to take a whole new role, she, like Raiden, is also a Sub-DPS. For the Dendro Archon to become a powerful Sub-DPS, players must be familiar with Nahida’s best build in Genshin Impact . The best build for Nahida in Genshin Impact highly relies on her team composition and how good players’ artifacts are. To put it simply, Nahida has an obvious diminishing return, so Travelers must consider all sorts of stat buffs from Nahida’s team before determining her best build . This is because Nahida’s fourth-ascension passive (A4) allows her to buff her Skill DMG based on her Elemental Mastery (EM)...

NASCAR Heat 5 2022 Season Update available as of 22nd June

An update to NASCAR Heat 5 that includes the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season and the NASCAR NEXT Gen car released in DLC form on 22nd June for $9.99. The long-awaited 2022 Season Update to NASCAR Heat 5 has finally released as of Thursday (22nd June). Links to the DLC were made public on Steam and the PlayStation Store earlier in the week and the content unlocked around 10:00 pm BST / 5:00 pm EST on PlayStation, Xbox and PC via Steam. Originally planned to release in October of 2022, the update to the title from 2020 was delayed for quite some time. The predecessor to NASCAR 21: Ignition has been the base for the last two releases from Motorsport Games, in the NASCAR Heat Ultimate+ and NASCAR Rivals releases on the Nintendo Switch the last two years. Here’s what is included for the price point of $9.99. This DLC will be playable in Race Now, Career and Online Multiplayer modes. What this DLC will include is, first and foremost, the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series in terms of the cars. That’...

Pokémon Dev Job Listing References R&D For Next-Generation Hardware

It seems the Pokémon developer Creatures could already looking toward the future of the long-running series. A new job listing at the Japanese company for a 3DCG modeler references "research and development for other next-generation hardware". The same application also mentions the use of Unity and Unreal Engine for project development. Creatures Inc. is one of the major Pokémon developers alongside Game Freak and Nintendo. It previously helped out with Pokémon Sword and Shield and Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! on 3DCG modelling. It also worked on Detective Pikachu and is currently developing a sequel. In September, a senior programmer job profile at Creatures referenced work on "one unannounced project" and Detective Pikachu 2 which is apparently "nearing release".

Warzone 2.0 Is Ditching 2v2 Gulags For Boring 1v1 Showdowns

First came the much-requested changes to loadout drops , now Warzone 2.0 is messing with the gulag. With season two’s arrival on February 15, the gulag will no longer make players team up in pairs of two after suffering defeat on the battle royale map. Instead, as in the original Warzone , it will now focus on 1v1 skirmishes. Unlike in other battle royales, Call of Duty ’s Warzone allows players a chance to jump back into the action after dying. If you’re killed by another player early enough in the game, you’ll get sent to the gulag (there had to have been a better name for that). Here, you’ll square off in a quick deathmatch mode to earn your place back on the main map. Warzone 2.0 ’s gulag has two teams of two face off, with both members of the winning team rejoining the game. Around halfway through the gulag match, a high-damage-output, bullet-spongey NPC called “the Jailer” will emerge. If the Jailer is defeated, bot...

Gran Turismo 7’s Next Update is Coming This Week, With Four New Cars

Gran Turismo series founder Kazunori Yamauchi has taken to Twitter to announce and tease the next update to Gran Turismo 7 , which will arrive on consoles this coming week. It’s coming a little sooner than anticipated, landing around three weeks after the previous content update on September 29. That’s the shortest interval between content updates yet, with most coming four or five weeks apart — and, with the exception of 1.15 and 1.17, on the last Thursday of each month. Another unusual facet is that the update, which we’re temporarily dubbing 1.25, will bring four new cars instead of the three we’ve seen teased for every update thus far: This set of cars looks relatively easy to identify, although with some qualifiers. Probably the most straightforward is the one in the bottom-left, which looks to be a 1973 Nissan Skyline GT-R. Often dubbed “Kenmeri”, due to a promotional campaign featuring a couple named Ken and Mary, Nissan only produced 19...

Search This Blog