Worst vacation ever, I gotta say.

Like a fine ghost, Bandai Namco has dropped a horror series on Switch out of nowhere.

One of today's surprise eShop releases is Man of Medan, the first game in the Dark Pictures Anthology developed by Supermassive Games. Originally released in 2019, Man of Medan is the first of four stories that have released on a once-per-year pace since.

Superhero strategy will not be going portable.

Another dose of strategy will not be coming to Switch after all.

A version of the Firaxis-developed turn based strategy game Marvel's Midnight Suns was announced for Switch release alongside other versions in 2021 with a target date of March, but the game ended up slipping to December 2022 and... Read more...

EA Sports returns to console baseball with the help of Metalhead Software for the latest Super Mega Baseball game.

Super Mega Baseball 4 is coming to Nintendo Switch (among other platforms) on June 2. The first new entry in the series since 2020, this is also the first game developer Metalhead Software is releasing with their new owner, publisher EA Sports.

The fourth release in the sports series will be the... Read more...

For the record, the news desk observes Sith Orthodox Star Wars Day, so see you on the Revenge of the Fifth (Saturday).

Things we missed last week: Namco's Galaga '88 was the Archives game of the week.

We nearly broke the record last week with 63 releases by the end of the week, including some TRUE kusoge, and with the mothership taking the week off hopefully the shadowdrop quotient will be kept to a minimum. The... Read more...

This thing has Luigi-class legs.

The three comma club has a new member in the Super Mario movie.

Box office estimates for the weekend have the film reaching a worldwide take of US$1.02b following its fourth weekend of worldwide release. This makes it the 52nd film to cross a billion dollars in worldwide gross, the 11th animated movie, and the fifth since the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic began.

It won't just be "play Tears of the Kingdom on the floor", so...?

Nintendo will be attending one of the two major game industry trade shows left following the death of E3.

In a statement today, the German Game Industry Association have announced that Nintendo will be exhibiting at the 2023 edition of Gamescom, which runs in Cologne, Germany from 22 - 27 August.... Read more...

That's now two major markets that have delayed the deal.

Following the lead of the US Federal Trade Commission, a second regulator has said the deal cannot go through. Microsoft is appealing the decision.

In a statement, the Competition and Markets Authority of the UK said that the deal was being blocked on the grounds that it would prevent competition... Read more...

It's just Jon and James this week, so we're all pretty much doomed as it is.

GOOD MORNING/AFTERNOON/EVENING TO ALL MY HATERS

As you may not know, RFN is a wounded animal this week: Greg is out for the NFL Draft and Gui is still on his vacation.

But with God as my witness, I promised you THREE EMAILS. And I lied like a dog. Instead, Jon and I will be hosting TALK RFN!!! a new radio show, right here, in the NWR Discord.

It's Kusoge Week, to be followed by Golden Week and then Golden Turd Week.

Things we missed last week: Teslagrad Remastered, Teslagrad 2, Shadows over Loathing, and Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach as an Indie World hit outta nowhere.

This week presents a high quantity of releases (currently 45 in North America), though the quality of same is HIGHLY questionable.... Read more...

At this point, we're flat out of coin puns so make your own.

The Super Mario movie is racking up records still after its third weekend in the box office.

In the United States, the picture racked up an estimated $58.23m at the box office, for a new US total of $434.33m; worldwide, the film's estimated take is $871m. This is the highest third weekend ever for an animated film, the seventh-largest overall for a third weekend, and is more than the Detective Pikachu movie made in its opening weekend.

At least now you don't have to send the save file to the mothership.

A new update is available for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet that resolves some big issues that cropped up around Pokemon Day.

Version 1.3, available now, resolves a pair of major errors that could result in save data corruption; one around the special Paradox Pokemon Walking Wake and Iron Leaves and... Read more...

The debut of the month didn't chart, but hey... you asked about something from February?

Although the PlayStation 5 is still leading hardware, the Switch bounced back a bit in software with a surprising top 20 debut.

All figures based on revenue from February 26 - April 1 unless noted, third parties can contribute digital sales to the survey.

For the third consecutive month, the Switch trailed the PlayStation 5 in both dollar (due to higher price) and unit sales in hardware, though no figures were provided.

All the stuff that can't be downloaded today in one spot.

The other announcements from a busy Indie World presentation:

Thankfully we avoid the lucky 7 this week.

Indie World presentations traditionally feature surprise immediate releases, and four games received the honor in today's show.

Some bangers here, and we don't just mean Dhalsim's kicks.

The Switch Online Expansion Pack has just updated with four new games tonight.

Again, SOME of us haven't finished the base games yet!

We have details on the final wave of Xenoblade Chronicles 3's DLC, as well as some relevant Amiibo details.

Wave 4, titled "Future Redeemed", will be available on April 25 (NA time). It is a prequel to XC3 that will use characters from the three Xenoblades on Switch in one party, and gives new battle options including the dual-attacking "Unity Combo".

Time to declare some independents.

The next Nintendo video presentation will be all indie, all the time.

An Indie World presentation will air tomorrow at noon ET (9 a.m. PT, 1800 CET) and will run for approximately 20 minutes.

The last Indie World presentation aired in November, though there was a week of indie announcements in December that ran up until December 23.

"My gamertag is xX_R3lm_Xx, and I'm an MLG pro."

Things we missed last week: Dig Dug II was added to the Archives.

I often joke about "a bomb being lobbed into the Downloads", but just before my vacation began Square Enix lobbed SEVERAL bombs into this week's column with the announcement of the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters coming out on Switch... Read more...

Hope Charles Martinet signed up for residuals on this one.

As the Mario movie wraps its second weekend in theatres, it's continuing to rack up ungodly box office totals.

According to estimates at Deadline, the animated feature is tracking for a total worldwide box office of $678m since its premiere - $348m US, $330m in the rest of the world. This represents... Read more...

You might have been able to guess that if you've watched Critical Role.

The voice of Ganondorf may have sounded familiar, and now it's been made official for the English version of Tears of the Kingdom.

In a social media post this evening, Matthew Mercer announced that he would play the role of Ganondorf in Tears of the Kingdom. Speculation had been running since the... Read more...