Tag: Nintendo

Retro game fans are shocked over Nintendo trade-in price video

Trade-in prices are hit and miss at the best of times, but retro game fans could hardly believe how little one customer recently received

Trade-in prices are hit and miss at the best of times, but retro game fans could hardly believe how much, or how little, one local games store paid for a hefty haul that included classic SNES games. Twitter user hasanito posted the video of a retail representative at the game store – which one commenter identified as Hey Bro Video Games in Houston, Texas – panning a camera around to take in everything a customer traded in and said they offered a $700 payout.

The haul included a limited-edition, Pikachu-themed Japanese Nintendo 64; a complete-in-box Nintendo Entertainment System action set; and boxed versions of Super Mario 64, Goldeneye 007, Super Mario Kart, and Super Mario Bros. All-Stars. The customer used the payout to purchase a Tears of the Kingdom Switch OLED, but folks on Twitter were more than a little upset over how comparatively small the payout was.

Some posted images of online listings asking several hundred dollars for the Nintendo 64 console alone, while the NES set could fetch upwards of a few thousand dollars. These don’t necessarily seem to be normal listings, though. The average asking price for the NES set seems to hover around $200, while the N64 system ranges from $200 to $400 depending on the seller.

Still, the customer got what they wanted, agreed to the deal, and was happy about it. Whether the store underpaid them or not, at least it was worth it to them and they left with a smile.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

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Super Smash Bros. creator regrets the series’ online multiplayer functions

Super Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai thinks it was a mistake for the multiplayer game to go online

Super Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai thinks it was a mistake for the multiplayer game to go online. Sakurai made the comment in a recent YouTube video as part of his series about game development and said he always had concerns about how online competition might make players lose confidence (thanks, Eurogamer).

“I don’t think online play and Smash Bros. are a very good fit for each other,” Sakurai said. “One of the best parts of Smash Bros. is how players can become champions among their friends. But being subjected to online competition can cause people to lose confidence, which isn’t great.”

The technical strain of hosting matches online with synchronous inputs – where games register inputs for every player across every frame simultaneously – also presented issues. Sakurai called it a “major disadvantage” since it created a situation where players are almost forced to play with people as close to them as possible, or else put up with significant choppiness and lag.

The video is about Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii, though some of the same issues – including the lag – still plague Ultimate on the Switch.

Unlike some popular fighting games, Nintendo never implemented rollback netcode in Smash Bros, a function that reduces lag and choppiness. It seems Sakurai didn’t really have a choice in the matter, though.

“When it comes to technical issues, it doesn’t really matter what I personally think,” Sakurai said.
“If my job is to do it, I’ll do it. And you never know, it could be fun in its own way. In fact, when we got online play working, I remember thinking. ‘Wow, it’s actually possible.'”

Lag aside, Smash Bros. Ultimate still sold over 30 million copies between its launch in December 2018 and February 2023 – not quite as impressive as Tears of the Kingdom perhaps, but a respectable number nonetheless. 

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

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How and where to stream the Super Mario Bros. movie from home

The Super Mario Bros. movie is streaming now, but only on select platforms – and not in every country. Here’s where to stream it

The Super Mario Bros. movie is streaming now, so even while the theatrical version continues to rake in record-breaking profits, you can watch Nintendo and Illumination’s first joint effort from the comfort of home. Not every streaming platform is hosting the movie, but you can either buy or rent it from platforms where it is available. Just bear in mind that the rental price is close to the purchase price.

U.K. viewers have to wait a little longer, though, and if you’re keen to pick up a physical copy for yourself, you’ll have to wait even longer. There’s currently no DVD and Blu-Ray release date for the film.

 

Tears of the Kingdom Mayachin Shrine solutions

The Tears of the Kingdom Mayachin Shrine solution is hidden in the middle of what looks like a complex puzzle – but really isn’t

The Tears of the Kingdom Mayachin Shrine solution is a bit deceptive. This early-game shrine looks complicated and gives you half a dozen objects to mess around with – and that’s half a dozen more than you actually need. Granted, this is Tears of the Kingdom, so you can make whatever your brain dreams up and probably solve the puzzle in a completely different way. However, if you’re just wanting to breeze in and get the orb as quickly as possible, here’s what the Fixed Device solution requires.

 

All Tears of the Kingdom Stable locations

Finding the Tears of the Kingdom stable locations helps with more than just fast travel, as many side quests start at these humble hostels

Finding Tears of the Kingdom stables is about more than just giving your equine friends a nice place to shack up for the night. Stables are where you register your horse, of course, but they’re also a magnet for the people of Hyrule – and their problems. If you’re looking for a new side quest, whether it’s a Stable Trotter quest or something else, or if you need to help the Great Fairies, then stables are where you need to be. 

There are fifteen stables hidden throughout Hyrule – some glaringly obvious and some of hidden out of sight. You can usually spot one in the distance thanks to a telltale plume of smoke, and when you get closer, you’ll see a little wooden horsey head sticking into the air far above the stable itself.

If you’re having trouble finding a horse to begin with, check our guide on how to register a horse. 

 

All Tears of the Kingdom English voice actors

The Tears of the Kingdom voice actor list is full of recognizable names from video games and anime, with several returning BotW actors too

If you thought your recognized some Tears of the Kingdom voice actors, you were probably right. While some Breath of the Wild voice actors reprise their roles, some turn up in new capacities, and some newcomers to the video game scene are established figures in film and television. Tears of the Kingdom is a bit more story-heavy than its predecessor, and there’s a strong roster of veteran voice actors to help pull off the narrative. We’ll break down every officially confirmed actor in the Tears of the Kingdom cast.

 

Breath of the Wild’s early playtests were a disaster for Nintendo

While it may be a modern classic now, Breath of the Wild’s first playtests showed Nintendo’s vision for the open-world game had failed

While Breath of the Wild may be a modern classic now, its first playtests showed Nintendo’s vision for the open-world game had failed. The news comes from YouTube channel Game Maker’s Toolkit, which found and translated records from a Computer Entertainment Developers Conference in Japan shortly after Breath of the Wild released, where Nintendo gave a rare interview about designing the Zelda game and some of the challenges the team (thanks, GamesRadar).

One of the most significant issues Nintendo faced was getting players to actually explore the world. In the early versions of BotW’s Hyrule, players could see Shiekah Towers or other notable landmarks from their starting point. They look important, so naturally, the testers’ prioritized reaching them by the fastest, easiest road possible. 80 percent of them followed Hyrule’s actual roads without stopping to explore anywhere else.

Nintendo didn’t like that, so the design team followed what they called the triangles theory and blocked players’ line of sight with objects. Those hills and trees crowding the horizon aren’t just there to make Hyrule look natural. They’re meant to force you off the beaten path, into the wilds, so you eventually lose sight of that original objective and stumble on new secrets.

Such a struggle is hardly surprising. Breath of the Wild was Nintendo’s first in-house open-world game, after all. There were bound to be bugs in the process, and that may be why they enlisted Xenoblade developer Monolith Soft to help the team.

Whatever the case, Tears of the Kingdom certainly didn’t have a similar problem for reviewers. As of the day before the Breath of the Wild sequel launches, it has the highest rating of any game on OpenCritic.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

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Tears of the Kingdom has the highest review scores ever on OpenCritic

Tears of the Kingdom review scores are in, and the impressions are so positive that it has the highest rating ever on OpenCritic

Tears of the Kingdom review scores are in, and the impressions are so positive that it has the highest rating ever on OpenCritic. The open-world Zelda game is currently sitting at 97 on OpenCritic, with 61 reviews and 100 percent of critics recommending it.

Its closest competition is Super Mario Odyssey, which also ended up with an aggregate score of 97, though of 157 reviewers, 98 percent recommended it. It’s a tiny difference, and it might change as more publications log their reviews after Tears of the Kingdom launches.

Breath of the Wild and Red Dead Redemption 2 take the third and fourth spots, each with an aggregate score of 96, while Elden Ring is at number five with a 95 score. Both versions of Persona 5, God of War, The Last of Us, and Hades round off the top 10 with 94s.

The story is a bit different on Metacritic. Tears of the Kingdom is sitting at 96 there, which puts it one point lower than Breath of the Wild in the 28th position on the site’s best games of all time list. Metacritic scores also go back to 2000, so the site includes several more games, such as Tony Hawk, which seems to have been a big hit with critics in the early naughties, and even the original Soul Caliber on Sega Dreamcast.

Both aggregate sites also pull reviews from different publications, hence the difference in scores, however minor. It’s just another reminder to look at more than the number when you’re trying to figure out if a game is for you.

Some fans already decided Tears of the Kingdom is for them before reviews went live, though, and decided to camp out in New York City to get their hands on it as soon as possible.

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Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

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Nintendo’s new Tears of the Kingdom trailer is giving fans the feels

Nintendo released a new Zelda Tears of the Kingdom trailer, and the way a sad man finds joy in the Zelda game is hitting fans in the feels

Nintendo released a new Zelda Tears of the Kingdom trailer, and it’s hitting fans right in the feels. It’s also a much different approach to promotion than we usually see from the company.

The trailer opens with an adult man in work wear sitting on a bus, looking tense and generally unhappy. He glances out the window at the dusk-lit sky and finds no joy in it. He comes home late, to a partner who immediately goes to bed, and then he sees the new Zelda game sitting on the coffee table.

The sad man becomes a little less sad as he loses himself in the wilds of Hyrule, creating outlandish contraptions and exploring the sky. He plays on the bus – without headphones, as some commenters noted with displeasure – gets absorbed in fighting Moblins, and looks out the window, this time with a smile on his face.

Nintendo called the trailer “recapture your sense of adventure,” and it certainly struck a chord with Zelda fans.

“Jesus lmao I mean they certainly know their audience,” one Twitter user said in a quote-retweet.

“Dude, we know we’re sad adults [sic] no need to make it rougher,” another said.

“Ngl this is what BotW did for me,” JediJenna wrote on Twitter. “I was going through a low point in life and it pulled me through bc I had something to look forward to and some beauty to appreciate. It made me shift perspectives. I have no doubt ToTK will do that for many others.”

“It’s not the usual ‘family bonding over crazy game moments'” another user said. “They show what the game can do for YOU as an adult, emotionally, this is such a radical demographic setting for a Nintendo game.”

Several referenced the “He just like me for real” meme, and one even posted it. Others said it made them outright tear up, and one said it was heartwarming to see the man find simple joy again.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom launches for Nintendo Switch on May 12, 2023.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

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No new Switch console planned for 2023, Nintendo says

Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa said in the company’s earning reports that new Switch hardware is still a ways off

If you were hoping for a new Nintendo Switch console sometime in 2023, it looks like you might be disappointed. Despite rumors of new Switch hardware releasing sometime in the near future, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa said in the company’s earning reports that new Switch hardware is still a ways off (thanks, Bloomberg).

Furukawa said the company’s projections for the current fiscal year, which ends in March 2024 don’t include new hardware. It’s possible a console could launch in March 2024, as the Switch did in 2017, but either way, there’s at least another 10 months before Nintendo plans to release a new console.

Some analysts believe it might be longer. Bloomberg said that USB securities analyst Kenji Fukuyama sent a letter to clients before Nintendo’s earnings call outlining what to expect, where he said he believes a Switch successor is at least a full 12 months away. Fukuyama also said he expects Nintendo’s valuation to drop before then, likely a result of lower forecasted sales.

While Nintendo Switch software sales have passed the 1 billion mark and 125 million Switch units have been sold, hardware sales are beginning to decline. Nintendo sold 18 million Switch units in the year ending in March 2023 and expects to sell 15 million in the current fiscal year. That’s still a significant number of units for a six-year-old-system, though Bloomberg’s analysts don’t believe new software such as Tears of the Kingdom will help reverse the downward trend.

GiantBomb host Jeff Grubb also said he doesn’t expect a showcase full of announcements from Nintendo during Summer Game Fest, when Xbox is hosting its big Starfield presentation, so it looks like a quiet year for the Big N after the new Zelda launches.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

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