Spooky scary skeletons will be easier to kill.

A long awaited performance patch for June's Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is now live on the Switch.

According to publisher 505 Games, input lag has been "eliminated throughout the game", making the game easier to play. The game has also received a major graphical overhaul: comparison screens can be found here. Crash bugs have been fixed, and the team has also lowered the load times for the game by a claimed 70%.

You'll need a credit/iTunes/Play card to ride this train.

One major announcement has already emerged from Nintendo's Q2 shareholder briefing.

Mario Kart Tour will be adding multiplayer, with a beta test for the mode starting in December. It will only be available to holders of the US$5/month Gold Pass to begin with.

Although no specific figures were cited in the presentation, both downloads and active users are "both trending at the highest levels ever among our mobile applications".

Hopefully this theme is better than the Luigi's Mansion 3 one.

After Luigi's Mansion 3, there'll be a quick turnaround for the Maximus Cup.

A Pokémon Sword and Shield themed cup, complete with theme, will start running at 2 a.m. ET on November 8 until 1:59 a.m. ET on the 12th. As usual, the goal will be to unlock a new theme for the game by earning 100 competition points based on cumulative ranking.

Between two game blitzes and two revisions, how was this busy quarter for Nintendo?

At the close of the Japanese business day earlier today, Nintendo released their financial results for the second fiscal quarter of the 2019-20 fiscal year.

All monetary figures reported in yen, with comparisons to the US dollar based on a market rate of $1 = ¥108.571 provided for comparison only.

In which the author frets at the 44% of you who don't know how to count.

You seem kind of down lately.

Well, there's 44% of a reason why...

Since this is apparently a thing now, fill in the blank: Terry Bogard is the (blank) Smash DLC fighter.(Then watch our video for the answer: https://t.co/KFoBeVrBnm)

Royal references? Check. Side scrolling? Check...

Atlus has dropped a new trailer for the upcoming Persona 5 Scramble that includes the game's Japanese release date.

The musou will release on February 20 in Japan, with no word on a Western release date as of press time. Although the core game will be a hack and slasher, common Persona series elements such as a calendar system will be present as well as what appear to be side-scrolling exploration sequences.

No, Thunderful isn't releasing a triple team this week.

Well, now that the site is blocked in China, what do we do for an encore?

Unleash the Winnie the Pooh jokes. As for the releases this week, although there isn't really a full priced retail release there's a fair few things to watch for. Neal wasn't so hot on Destiny Connect, but we're getting a new touchscreen only game in Anthill, that odd puzzle game Day and Night, and some strong ports in Monaco, Skullgirls, and Cat Quest II.

We got a bragging press release from Nintendo before this, so you know it's good.

September might have been down overall, but Nintendo and one third party in particular are rolling.

All figures for the period of September 1 - October 5 and based on dollars unless indicated otherwise.

Hardware was down overall again in September, but the Switch continues to be the only platform... Read more...

Developer confirms Nyakuza Metro DLC pack for Switch.

After many months of waiting, A Hat in Time is finally releasing for Nintendo Switch on October 18th. As footage emerged from the game, we noticed that the Switch version had some not-so-subtle hints to the Nyakuza Metro DLC pack, which is currently exclusive to the PC version of the game.

Today,... Read more...

Can we Gigantamax Alolan Meowth so we get Tacgnol too?

This month's Pokémon Sword and Shield update has brought Gigantamax forms to some classic Pokémon.

The following Pokémon will get big:

Fight for freedom. Stand with Hong Kong.

AAAAARGH TOO MANY GAMES LAST WEEK

I think we cleared fifty last week, seriously. This week's haul is heavy on the RPG ports, with The Switcher joined by a couple of packs of D&D RPGs from Beamdog, and a couple of Digimon games from Bandai Namco. If you're into originals, then Little Town Hero is probably your target, especially after the involvement of the Pocket Card Jockey director AND Toby Fox.

Well, we knew it would be SOMETIME in the 2020s...

Dr. Kawashima's next stop in Europe will be very early in the new year.

Nintendo of Europe have confirmed a 3 January release for the training game on Switch, a mere week's turnaround from the game's Japanese release. The stylus announced with the Japanese release will be included with retail copies of the game as well.

Thinking you’ll be able to start building Tracer straight away? Hold up.

Overwatch launches on the 15th, but not at any of the standard times.

Nintendo’s eShop page for the game has been updated to state the following: “Overwatch® launches globally on October 15, 2019 at 11:00am PT”. First party Nintendo titles routinely unlock at midnight Eastern time on... Read more...

This 2020 Switch game combines a variety of interesting elements into something that should totally be on your visual novel-loving radar.

Murder by Numbers is a visual novel coming to Switch in 2020 that looks to have a heavy inspiration from Capcom’s Ace Attorney series as well as bits of everything ranging from Picross-like nonogram puzzles to Hatoful Boyfriend.

The game comes from developer Mediatonic, directed by Ed Fear,... Read more...

After a 24 hour livestream last week, Galarian Ponyta has finally been revealed

Making it's home in the forests of the Galar region, Galarian Ponyta makes its grand debut in Pokemon Sword and Shield.

It was first teased last Friday in a 24 hour livestream, which gave viewers a sneak peak at its design. In a new trailer released today, we learned that Galarian Ponyta will... Read more...

Hey, something to play on March 20.

November will be Doom-free this year.

In a statement today, Bethesda have confirmed that Doom 64 and Doom Eternal have both been delayed to next year. Doom 64 will release on Switch on March 20, 2020, while Doom Eternal's Switch version will release later in the year: the other console and PC versions of Doom Eternal will also release on March 20.

At least this one owns up to the friendship-ruining parts.

November will see another entrant look to get ahead in the Switch's party genre.

Headsnatchers will launch in November on Switch. The core game is a four player party game in which the objective is to not lose the head in one of four different game modes. A single player mode is also available, as well as a "Headitor" if the 100+ standard heads don't have any appeal.

It's about time. Literally.

A new twist on falling block puzzle games will launch on Switch as an exclusive in two weeks, and taking the plunge early will afford a discount.

Day and Night is a new puzzle game from independent studio Ridiculous Games. A competitive puzzle game, the objective is to clear blocks in groups of... Read more...

Trine, Trine, Trine, Trine... (video gaaaaaames)

This looks to be a week of quantity.

We're already in the mid-30s for releases and... Lemon, it's Tuesday. I'm not even sure which is the big one: some would say Trine 4 as they return to their roots, some would say 2D Yooka-Laylee, and some of my friends are stanning for The Alliance Alive's remaster for some reason.

Exclusive podcasts, Game nights, and a Patreon Plays recording with our patrons!

Hello readers!

Over at patreon.com/NWR we have a host of things happening every month. Check out what is on the docket for October, the spookiest month of the year!

Remember we have an exclusive Patreon Plays podcast that if you are a $5 tier or above you (yes YOU) can be on. You can get... Read more...