The Blog

OG Pokémon fans will surely remember the Pikachu Volkswagen Beetle. In 1998, Nintendo partnered with Volkswagen to have ten of these cars produced. They were used in various Pokémon events and promotions over the years, then eventually given away as contest prizes.

Just recently, one of those rare Pikachu bugs went up for sale on Facebook Marketplace in Madison, Wisconsin. The vehicle is being listed for $125,000 with 170,000 miles on it. In addition to being a functional car, it also comes with a remote that can make trigger four different Pikachu sounds. Unfortunately, some aspects have been changed from the original model, including the engine, wheels, and some decals. The originally included playable N64 hookup has also been removed.

Speaking to The Drive, current owner Kerry K. says that she originally bought the car for her two sons, but took a liking to it herself eventually. It’s a manual car, so buyers will need to be able to drive stick if they’re serious about driving the thing!

Click here to view the Pikachu bug’s Facebook listing for yourself. If you’ve got $125,000 and a Pikachu Beetle shaped hole in your heart, this could be your big moment!

All the way back in 1998, gaming magazine EGM played an April Fool’s joke on its readers. They claimed that players could unlike Street Fighter character Akuma in Resident Evil 2 by beating the game six times with an A rank using only the handgun and knife, then entering the name Akuma in a lab computer. This is the type of classically elaborate video game hoax that spread like wildfire on school playgrounds back in the day, but now one fan has turned it into a reality.

Modder Snipzu has created a mod for Resident Evil 2 that actually allows you to play as Akuma, just as EGM promised decades ago. No elaborate tricks are required for this unlock, and you’ll even be able to use Akuma’s elite Street Fighter skills to take down zombies and monsters. Check out some footage from the mod below:

If you’d like to fulfill your childhood dream of playing as Akuma in Resident Evil 2, you can grab the mod for free at this link. You can also click here for more info on the original EGM hoax.

Retro Game Challenge 1 + 2 Replay recently hit the Switch eShop in Japan. Unfortunately, publisher Namco has made it clear that they have no intention of localizing the game for non-Japanese audiences due to a general lack of interest. Now, the CEO of a localization company called 8-4, Ltd. has come forward to state that they would be happy to help with the localization process if given the chance.

CEO John Ricciardi said via Twitter, “8-4 (who helped coordinate the magazine content in the original RGC, and who localized the GCCX crossover vids for Sakurai-san) would happily help localize the games if a publisher were to step forward…”.

As Ricciardi says, their team has experience with the world of Retro Game Challenge, having helped translate parts of the original Nintendo DS game into English. There’s definitely a small, but passionate fanbase for this series, both behind the scenes, and on the consumer side.

Could Namco change their minds on a translation in light of 8-4 offering their assistance? It might be a tough sell considering the less than stellar sales of the original game, but stranger things have happened. Maybe with enough fan support, we could see a localized version of Retro Game Challenge 1 + 2 Replay at some point in the future. Stay tuned!

Capcom has shared a new financial earnings report featuring their most recent sales statistics. According to the report, Capcom has just seen its highest net sales and operating income in the publisher’s history. The good news extends specifically to the Resident Evil franchise, which has apparently sold over 157 million units worldwide.

That 157 million figure includes sales of all Resident Evil games across all platforms since the series’ debut in 1996, several of which are currently available on Switch. The franchise shows no sign of slowing down any time soon. Capcom seems quite eager to release new entries and remakes that reinvent exactly what a Resident Evil game can be.

Other Capcom series are no slouches. The report shows that the Monster Hunter series has sold over 100 million units, with Monster Hunter: World being the highest selling title in Capcom history. Meanwhile, Street Fighter has hit 54 million, and Mega Man 41 million.

Click here to read the full report for more insight into Capcom’s finances.

EA SPORTS FC 24 “Title Update 14” is now available. You can see the patch notes for this update below.

A new update is available now for Fall Guys on the Nintendo Switch. This is the ‘Fall Forever’ update, which includes the brand new ‘Explore’ mode, along with many other changes and additions. See below for the full patch notes.

A free update is now available for Wild Card Football, alongside the paid DLC called ‘Legacy WR Pack’, which costs $9.99, or comes free with the Season Pass. See below for the full patch notes.

An update is available for Mortal Kombat 1. You can find the patch notes for this update below.

The Pokémon GO May 2024 Community Day has been announced, and the focus this time around is on Bounsweet, the Fruit Pokémon! This event takes place Sunday, May 19, 2024, from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

As you probably have guessed, during this event Bounsweet will appear more frequently in the wild. If you’re lucky, you might encounter a Shiny one! If you evolve Steenee (Bounsweet’s Evolution) during the event or up to five hours afterward you’ll get a Tsareena that knows the Charged Attack High Jump Kick.

Along with this, for US$1.00 (or the equivalent pricing tier in your local currency), you’ll be able to access the Bounsweet Community Day –exclusive Special Research story. Stay tuned for when tickets for the Special Research story go live.

For more details about this Community Day event’s bonuses, raids, field research, and more, check out Niantic’s blog here.

Nintendo has experienced varying degrees of success over the years, from dominant industry force, to scrappy underdog. Thanks to the popularity of the Switch in recent years, it looks like they’re very much back to being the former. In fact, according to game sales analyst Pierre485 on Twitter, Nintendo’s profits have been greater during the Switch’s lifespan than their total profits made between 1981 and 2016.

Check out a graph illustrating this point below:

Examining the graph, we can see that the previous most profitable era for Nintendo was around 2007 to 2010, which was of course when the Wii was in full swing. Then, there’s a big dip immediately after, stemming from the less than stellar sales of the Wii U. However, since the release of the Switch in 2017, those numbers have been steadily climbing, with a particularly huge spike in 2021.

Considering how successful Nintendo has been over the years, it’s pretty amazing that they’ve managed to achieve a greater level of success than in all those years combined in such a short time. In fact, this still holds true even when accounting for inflation. There’s no doubt that the Switch is a phenomenon, though other factors surely include Nintendo’s foray into mobile games, theme parks, and blockbuster films.

Will Nintendo be able to maintain this level of profit when moving on to their next console? Time will tell!

Nintendo UK has shared a new trailer for Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD titled “A rude awakening”. The two and a half minute long trailer is basically the entire opening cut scene that players will experience when they first start the game. Check it out now to see how far the new version’s graphics have come since the original on 3DS! Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD will be available on Switch on June 27, 2024.

For an even better look at how this Switch revamp compares to the original, you can see a video below that puts today’s trailer side-by-side with footage straight from the 3DS version. You might be surprised with just how much has changed!

It’s time to clean house! Join the faint-of-heart hero Luigi on a spooky quest in Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD for Nintendo Switch.

In this visually enhanced adventure, you’ll visit the chilling locales of the eerie Evershade Valley, a place where until recently, the peculiar Dark Moon hung in the sky. According to ghost researcher Professor E.Gadd, it pacified the ghosts of the valley…that is until one night when the Dark Moon mysteriously shattered! Now, the place is screaming and teeming with troublemaking ghosts! Can Luigi recover the missing pieces of the Dark Moon and restore peace to the valley?

Luckily, Professor E. Gadd has equipped Luigi with the right tools for the job, like the enemy-stunning Strobulb and the trusty Poltergust 5000, which can vacuum up ghosts, objects or interact with the environment. Luigi’s paranormal escapades will take him to all sorts of places, including a former plant research lab, a broken-down clock factory and an icy, snow-covered mine, just to name a few.

Up to four players can team up to take on the challenges of the ScareScraper, a haunted building teeming with ghosts and challenges not found in the main adventure. Recruit your fellow ghost hunters to scale the terrifying tower via local wireless play or online.

First 4 Figure recently opened up pre-orders for their statue of Isabelle from Animal Crossing: New Horizons. That statue won’t be available until later this year, but the company is already promising more Animal Crossing statues in the future.

In a recent Facebook post, First 4 Figures shared an image of their Isabelle statue alongside two mysterious silhouettes. In the post, they wrote, “Here’s Isabelle with the rest of the Animal Crossing crew! We’ve covered ‘em up for now, but we’ll unveil them when the time is right! Can you guess who the others are?”

Of course, any Animal Crossing fan worth their salt can easily tell that the figures in question are Tom Nook and K.K. Slider. Better yet, it looks like the figures’ backdrops go together when all three statues are placed next to each other. We likely won’t see Nook or Slider released until sometime next year, but it’s exciting to know there’s more on the way! Stay tuned as we wait for First 4 Figures to share more details.

The Resident Evil franchise has had a checkered history when it comes to live action film adaptations. Paul W.S. Anderson made seven Resident Evil movies starring Milla Jovovich, which most fans rejected for their lack of loyalty to the source material. More recently, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City rebooted the series with a more traditional take, but it still wasn’t very well received. Now, rumor has it that yet another attempt is in the works.

According to a report at Insider Fandom, Screen Gems has almost finalized a script and will begin production on a new Resident Evil movie soon. Screen Gems is a Sony owned studio, the same production studio that worked on the previous film, Welcome to Raccoon City. Whether or not this new film will be a direct sequel or take things in an entirely new direction remains to be seen.

Encouragingly, the source indicates that Sony is interested in spending more money on this new entry than the previous one, although budget talks are still ongoing. Of course, budget isn’t necessarily an indication of quality, but it could mean they’re taking the production more seriously. After so many Resident Evil movies (and TV shows), it doesn’t seem like we’ll ever stop getting new attempts at adaptations. If this rumor turns out to be legitimate, let’s hope this one is the one that finally satisfies everyone!

Donkey Kong is one of Nintendo’s most popular mascots, and yet, we haven’t had a brand new Donkey Kong platformer since Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze in 2014. One possible reason we haven’t seen any movement on this front, is that there was a Donkey Kong game in the works from developer Vicarious Visions, but it was canceled. However, there’s never been any confirmation on this front one way or the other.

In a new deep dive video from Did You Know Gaming, they examine all the possible angles of this rumored Donkey Kong game. According to at least one source, it was a 3D platformer known as Donkey Kong Freedom, which included Pauline as a playable character. Vicarious Visions was the game’s original developer, but it was eventually given to Nintendo EPD in 2018, and hasn’t been heard of since.

Did You Know Gaming managed to get a hold of multiple Vicarious Visions employees who were able to confirm that a Donkey Kong project of some kind was once in the works with the developer. That said, the details may not be the same as what was reported online. To get the full story, you’ll need to watch the above video, which also includes a section on Activision Blizzard and some of their other cancelled projects.

The next Japanese set for the Pokémon Trading Card Game has been officially revealed. The set will be titled “Night Wanderer”, and will become available on June 7, 2024 in Japan.

The cover of the booster pack art features Pecharunt and the Loyal Three. Pecharunt is a Poison/Ghost Mythical Pokémon that debuted in the Indigo Disk DLC for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. The Loyal Three are a trio made up of Okidogi, Munkidori, and Fezandipiti, that Pecharunt leads.

It remains to be seen how and when this set will show up on American soil. Click here to see a breakdown and translation of all the cards revealed so far, courtesy of Serebii.