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It’s been nearly an entire year since the release of Pokémon Scarlet & Violet, and The Pokémon Company is giving the games a new breath of life via The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero. This DLC will give the games two expansions, the first being The Teal Mask, which just released this past week.

Pokémon Scarlet & Violet saw quite a bit of discussion since their launch last November, some good and some bad. Most of the complaints from the community stem from the game’s less than ideal performance. At its best, users can expect the occasional glitch or two during a normal playthrough, and at its worst, some players have reported loss of save data. Fortunately for myself, I have not seen a lot of these issues. In my original review sessions, I believe I only ever had the game crash twice, and my experience was about the same for The Teal Mask as well.

Over the course of the past year, The Pokémon Company has actually acknowledged the performance issues some users have experienced, and while they’ve made statements here and there, there’s still a subset of players experiencing those issues. That being said, whatever your experience was playing the base game, expect something similar from The Teal Mask.

To say that The Teal Mask’s release crept up on me would be quite the understatement. The Pokémon Company shared a few glimpses at this DLC throughout 2023, and with every reveal I couldn’t help but find myself struggling to find a reason to really get excited about it. Call it fatigue from all the rest of the REALLY great games I’ve played this year (looking at you, Tears of the Kingdom and Baldur’s Gate), call it burnout after putting over 200 hours into these games, call it whatever you like. Nevertheless, I was really waiting to see a singular “wow” moment that unfortunately never came.

Square Enix has shared a new look at the upcoming ‘Star Ocean: The Second Story R’ in the form of the game’s opening movies. Featured in both English and Japanese, the cinematic features the theme song “stella” sung by Japanese musicians SUIREN, arranged by REN. Take a look at the movies below!

Back in March 2023, Nintendo attended PAX East and as part of their attendance, held the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Championship Cup.

The races were fierce, and they eventually crowned a winner, though it seems as though more than just 1st place walked away with some cool prizes!

Thanks to ToonTris on Twitter, we got some exclusive photos of the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe themed controller that was awarded to the Top 12 Finalists of this competition! These controllers are not available for sale, but if you’re in the market for one, you can check out eBay listings that top off around the $10,000 mark. Check out the photos of this special controller below as well as an unboxing video by GameXplain!

A new update has been released for The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie for Nintendo Switch. NIS America has published a few details on what’s included in the patch

The Microsoft vs FTC case that’s slowly been developing over the last year, has finally reached its head with the courts denying the FTC’s requests to block Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision/Blizzard. As of today’s ruling, the company now has been given the ‘go-ahead’ to move forward with the merger.

There are a few legal options the FTC has left to further prolong this case, but it is thought by a few experts that the FTC will likely move on following this new ruling, and Microsoft could move forward with its merge as soon as this Saturday.

Although Microsoft has received approval in the United States, the UK is still seeking to block the merge. Microsoft is appealing this block, and that hearing is currently scheduled for July 28th.

If all goes well for Microsoft, the company would be set to finally close the book on its long discussed acquisition of Activision/Blizzard. This deal would also include a 10 year commitment to bringing the Call of Duty franchise to Nintendo consoles.

Everybody 1-2 Switch officially hits storefronts today, and players are already finding ways to have their own brands of fun within the title.

The game features an option for players to connect and play along using their smartphone as a controller, and if you’re a smartphone player the game allows you to upload any photo from your device to use as a profile photo.

Normally, this really wouldn’t mean anything, though some players have discovered that the game seems to have no content filters at all for what photos it will allow. This means that whatever photo any given player uploads will be seen by the entire lobby (up to 100 players), should they place in the top 3 for a given mini game. We’ll go ahead and let you use your imagination on the possibilities at play here, but needless to say some of the GN staff have already seen some prime examples of this in action.

So that being said, if you’re a soon-to-be Everybody 1-2 Switch party host, be sure to exercise some caution before you let someone like grandma join in on the fun.

Nintendo has yet to issue a statement on the matter, but we’ll be sure to update you here if that changes

One of the announcements during today’s ‘Sonic Central’ digital event was the announcement of a free update coming to all Sonic Frontiers owners, in honor of Sonic’s birthday! SEGA has since updated their website with detailed notes on what’s included in this update, which we attached below! Check it out!

The update is available to download now for all owners of Sonic Frontiers. Happy Birthday, Sonic!

During the latest Nintendo Direct this past week, one of the third party highlights was the ‘Batman Arkham Trilogy’ and its release on Switch later this year. This collection is set to feature all 3 Arkham games in one collection, with one interesting new caveat.

The gang at Nintendo Life noticed that in the days since the announcement, Warner Bros. has gone on to clarify via their FAQ Page that only Batman: Arkham Asylum will be included on the Batman: Arkham Trilogy game cartridge.

Taking into account the file sizes for these games, it’s not exactly shocking, though certainly a potential bummer for those who were looking forward to adding these games to their physical Switch collection.

Aspyr Media has announced that the “Restored Content” DLC expansion for Star Wars KOTOR 2 has been cancelled for Nintendo Switch. The studio further explains in a tweet:

As noted, players effected can take their pick from a handful of other Star Wars games in lieu of this news by heading over to the studio’s support page and providing proof of purchase

Dragon Quest fans, rejoice! Just in time for the series’ 25th Anniversary, Square Enix has just published a video honoring the occasion. The video is pretty short, though the biggest announcement comes in the form of news that a new Dragon Quest Monsters game is coming to the Nintendo Switch!

While there’s not much info to speak of quite yet, it is exciting to see that Dragon Quest fans will continue to have more to look forward to, even later in the Switch’s lifecycle. We’ll be sure to update as soon as we know more

Sunshine Shuffle is a game that tells the tale of several cute animals at a table playing Poker, and it’s real good! The game itself was due to release on PC and Switch this week, and while the former is true, Nintendo has temporarily kept the game from releasing on its eShop due to a “joke” that lead dev Xalavier Nelson, Jr made leading up to release.

Nelson is quite known for his goofy online presence, and as the head of the studio producing Sunshine Shuffle, decided he wanted to bring some of that energy with the lead-up to Sunshine Shuffle’s release. Due to the game’s juxtaposition of cute animals playing Poker, Nelson felt it would be funny to make it a running gag that the game “teaches children how to gamble”, which, to clarify, the game does not do. Despite the intentions of the jokes though, this eventually led to some folks taking his points seriously, to the point where the game is now temporarily banned from being sold on the Nintendo eShop, as well as banned entirely from sale in the Republic of Korea!

Nelson goes on to further explain in a video, attached below

Going off of Nelson’s statements, he says the inspiration for those jokes was to get ahead of the bad-faith criticisms from folks who would see the game featuring cute animals playing Poker, and thus claiming that the game is trying to teach children to gamble. Nelson says that the development studio even tried reworking the game with different rules, ones that didn’t use normal playing cards but ultimately decided that it didn’t work for the gameplay and narrative dynamics we wanted.”

Despite all of this, Nelson remains optimistic about the game’s banning, and rather seeing it as an opportunity to speak with their audience on a genuine, human level

There’s even a happy ending to this story too because, as of writing, the PR firm representing Sunshine Shuffle announced that the game will be released on the North American eShop on Wednesday, May 31. The game still remains banned in the Republic of Korea.

The Splatoon 3 & Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Championship 2023 Qualifiers have been announced, and they’re set to begin with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on May 27, just a few weeks away! This news was tweeted out by the Nintendo Versus account on Twitter, with the full blurbs for each event detailed below

Event details and registration guidelines can all be found on the Nintendo Versus website. So, what do you think? Will you be competing over the summer?

The story of Super Mario as we know it began in the mid 80’s with the release of Super Mario Bros. for the NES – a humble arcade platformer developed by Nintendo that featured the titular character, Mario, running and jumping his way through a variety of levels all in pursuit of saving Princess Toadstool, aka Peach.

Unbeknownst to Nintendo at the time, Mario would soon become the face and brand of the company as a whole, soaring in popularity through the 90’s to eventually becoming the household name that he is today. For nearly 4 decades, we’ve seen countless Mario games, tons of tie-in merchandise, and even more recently a whole theme park! However, in all that time, there has only been one concerted effort by Nintendo to create a feature film based on the little red plumber… and it failed miserably! Sure, it’s achieved a ‘cult classic’ status among some fans, but that is far removed from the expectations Nintendo likely had for it.

The original Super Mario Bros. film released in 1993, after which fans received nothing but radio silence as far as Nintendo-based film adaptations were concerned. That is, until 2018, when it was revealed to the world that not only would Nintendo be making a grand return to the big screen, but they wouldn’t be doing it alone. They would also be working with Illumination to produce an animated Mario movie. Naturally, many fans had their concerns.

I’ve been a fan of Super Mario my whole life, with 1996’s Super Mario 64 being the first video game I ever owned, as well as THE game to introduce me to the medium as a whole. Now, all these years later, I consider the Super Mario brand to be a major part of who I am today. So, when the news of a new film came through, I was cautiously optimistic – especially when considering how Nintendo’s first outing went.

Thankfully, now that the film is out in full, I can confidently state that 2023’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie is a fantastic adaptation of one of gaming’s most iconic characters. That’s not to say the film is without its flaws, but for fans like myself who have effectively been waiting for this moment all their lives… it’s good to report that it lives up to the hype.

Pokémon fans have a new season of ranked battles to look forward to, as today marks the launch of Season 5 in Pokémon Scarlet/Violet’s Ranked Battles. This new installment runs throughout this upcoming month, starting April 1st and ending on April 30th 2023.

Of course, the biggest thing trainers look forward to with every season is the new rulesets that come with them, and Season 5 is the first of its kind to use the ‘Regulation C’ set of rules that allows for the use of Wo-Chien, Chien-Pao, Ting-Lu and Chi-Yu, also known as the ‘Treasures of Ruin’.

What do we think, trainers? Will you be climbing the ranked ladder this month?

The official Splatoon account has shared a brand new illustration for the game’s brand new Splatfest event starring various cryptid creatures! This Splatfest is going on in-game right now and throughout the weekend. Which team are will you be fighting for?