Items tagged with Nintendo
It is pretty remarkable to think that Nintendo took a chance on releasing a hybrid game console nearly four years ago and it continues to pay dividends, in a big way. In fact, lifetime sales of the Switch have now surpassed the 3DS, with 79.87 million units having been sold to date, compared to 75.94 million units of the 3DS. And by this time next year, it might pass the Wii (101.63 million units). Catching up to and surpassing the legendary 3DS happened because of a monster run during Q1 through Q3 for Nintendo's fiscal year ending March 2021, during which time Nintendo sold 16.77 million Switch systems. That amounts to a massive 33.5 percent gain over the same period from a year prior. Likewise,...
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For those that are always on the lookout for the hottest deals on tech gear, mega retailer Best Buy's big 4-day sale is ending today. The company has been piling on the discounts on games, laptops, 4K TVs, and cellphones (among other things). We've decided to give a few examples of the best deals that are available, so buckle up! Given that Super Bowl LV is just a few weeks away, it shouldn't come as a surprise that Best Buy is discounting large screen TVs. In this case, the HiSense 75H6510G 75-inch Android TV is available for just $749. This is a $250 discount from its normal $999 price tag, and it of course comes with free shipping. The TV supports Bluetooth for wireless connecting a soundbar,...
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Back in early November, Nintendo Launched its diminutive Game & Watch portable console, which brought the joys of playing the original Super Mario Bros. game that first launched nearly four decades ago on the NES. Besides Super Mario Bros., the console also included Super Mario Bros. The Lost Levels. In addition to the usual D-Pad and B/A button controls, the Game & Watch includes a USB-C port for charging and not much else. Needless to say, tinkerers ripped off the case and started mucking around with the PCB to upload their own NES ROMs to play on the console. Some even went one step further by loading Doom on to the Game & Watch, although its performance left much...
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It's New Year's Eve but it's also still 2020, the year of the pandemic that we long to put in the rear view. As such, it's very likely a whole lot of people will be celebrating the coming of the new year from the comfort of their own homes. For gamers who have been playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons, there's still a way to go out on the town, however, in virtual bliss at least. Right now and through midnight tonight, Tom Nook and Isabelle are hosting the New Year's Eve event with free gifts, fun seasonal items, and a countdown to the new year. We'll start off with the free stuff. Turn on the Nintendo Switch and wander on over to the town plaza in front of Resident Services (which is...
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Whether it's a Nintendo Christmas ornament or an original Game Boy, we love seeing Raspberry Pi-based retro consoles stuffed into into nostalgic spaces. The ingenuity and effort required to make these contraptions that were not originally designed to do this sort of thing work is pretty astounding. The Game Boy in particular was pretty wild because it was a fully functional, playable machine. However, the mod we'll look at today takes the cake. Reddit user Josh0O0 showed off a retro console stuffed into the shell of Super Nintendo controller with not only a Raspberry Pi Zero running an SNES emulator, but also all the inner workings required for controlling games and displaying them on a...
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When people think ray tracing, typically they think of some pie in the sky idea with an incredibly powerful GPU inside an incredibly powerful computer. That does not have to be the case, however. Ben Carter, a freelance game developer and software engineer from Japan, made a device for the Super Nintendo (Famicom in Japan) to do ray tracing in what he calls the SuperRT expansion. Carter, who is part of Shironeko Labs, had a goal in mind when he started this project: “learn Verilog and FPGA design.” This idea eventually grew into building an expansion for the SNES to do raytracing. From there, he “wanted to try and do was something akin to the Super FX chip used in titles...
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The Nintendo Switch has been a hot item during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the console has been going in and out of stock for the past few months (with some new, sealed consoles commanding a premium on third-party marketplaces like eBay). Switch inventory is once again reaching low points as we are in the Christmas shopping rush, but Walmart has one particular bundle in stock that might catch your eye. The standard Nintendo Switch is priced at $299, and only includes the console, the two Joy-Cons, the TV dock, and a power adapter. That's it, no games, no freebies; it's just as barebones as you can get for a console. However, Walmart’s current bundle offer gets you the Switch console, a carrying...
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If people can get Doom running on old Nintendo hardware, surely Doom can come to the Nintendo Switch, right? Well, Bethesda is telling gamers to “Prepare for Joy-Con Carnage” as Doom: Eternal will be coming to the Nintendo Switch on December 8th. Doom: Eternal is the action-packed fifth entry into the Doom series that we looked at when it launched. You play as the main character, Doom Slayer, who returns to Earth the vanquish the demons from Hell that have killed most of humanity. Now gamers will have a new way to play, as anyone can “RAZE HELL any way [they] want when DOOM Eternal launches on Nintendo Switch!” When Doom Eternal reaches the Nintendo Switch, you will...
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If you're big into Fortnite and also just so happen to fancy the Nintendo Switch, there's a new console bundle available today that might interest you. Nintendo has launched a Fortnite-themed Switch console that is currently available from the usual suspects like Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, and GameStop. Unlike the Switch + Mario Kart 8 Deluxe bundle that launched for Black Friday, this one is actually in stock (for now). But whereas the Black Friday bundle got you a free digital copy of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and 3 months of Nintendo Switch Online for the regular $299 price, this new Fortnite bundle is decidedly less ambitious. Nintendo Switch Fortnite Wildcat Bundle $299 @ Amazon Nintendo...
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Well that did not take long. Nintendo's reborn Game And Watch handheld console has been on the market for all of two seconds (technically, about a week and a half, but you get the point—it's brand spanking new) and already it has been hacked to run Doom. Because, you know, that is like a right of passage for electronics. Beside, if Doom can run on a Ti-Nspire or Ti-83 calculator (and it can!), then surely the Game And Watch should be up to the hell raising challenge of playing Doom, right? The answer is 'Yes!', though it was not a simple or straightforward hack that got it running. That said, no hardware modifications were required to get it to work. At this point you might be wondering,...
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If you're playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons on the Nintendo Switch and sharing the system (and a single island) among family members, we're sure that this story will be a familiar one. There's a rivalry between siblings or across generations as parents and kids get out of bed early each morning and start shaking trees, hoarding all of the fruit for themselves. Or maybe there's a disagreement about how to decorate the island. Maybe, just maybe, there's competition for playing time for other games where the rest of the family just isn't into the island life. Rejoice, Animal Crossing fans, for Nintendo has heard your plea. As part of the Winter Update, Nintendo has rolled out the Animal Crossing:...
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There's something fun about looking at a physical video game collection. That's especially true with retro games for systems like the original Nintendo Entertainment System, when cartridges came in boxes and those boxes were wide enough that the spine can show off some fun concept art. For the collector, it's fun to hunt down and find a variant, where corrections have been made between print runs. Those variants can then become collectible if they're rare enough, especially if the package hasn't been opened. That's exactly what happened with a copy of Super Mario Bros. 3 for the NES. There's a label variation so rare and sought-after that it seemed unlikely to ever pop up in an unopened...
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The folks at Nintendo are getting ready to serve up a free 'Winter Update' for its highly popular Animal Crossing: New Horizons game, and it can not get here quick enough. Fortunately, it is right around the corner. As in, Nintendo plans to push the update out on Thursday, November 19, which is now just a couple of days away. This could have just as easily been called a Holiday Update, because of two very distinct themes that will play out, those being Thanksgiving and Christmas. And it arrives just in time—the latest CDC guidelines point out that "small household gatherings are an important contributor to the rise in COVID-19 cases," and many families are opting to skip getting together...
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Everyone loves Animal Crossing's Isabelle. From her time as administrative assistant to the mayor (that's you!) in New Leaf on the 3DS, to the Resident Services coordinator in Animal Crossing: New Horizons on the Nintendo Switch, she's become a fan favorite with a devoted following. Maybe that's why she's arguably the best fighter in Super Smash Bros Ultimate and the best driver in Mario Kart 8, too. Now, it appears she's the star of an adorable trailer for a hypothetical fan-made TV series in the vein of Rilakkuma and Kaoru. The trailer takes place at New Horizons Town Hall, and to follows her morning routine. We don't want to give anything else away, so that way the video isn't...
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Nintendo has seemingly struck gold with its Switch console, which was first released in early 2017 across North America. While the console doesn't exactly feature high-end hardware -- it can't even match the hardware chops of the PlayStation 4 or Xbox Series S -- but its innovative controls and solid first-party games library have made it a popular choice with gamers. Now, the NPD Group is reporting that the Switch's sales winning streak is still ongoing in the United States, as it has remained the best-selling console for 23 straight months. That's quite an achievement for Nintendo, and NPD says that this is the longest #1 streak for any game console in history. In keeping with that theme,...
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Imagine a company that has the audacity to revive a handheld game system from 40 years ago, and do it at a time when there is a glut of new and powerful gaming hardware on the market, including the Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5, and a bunch of new graphics cards for PCs. That company could only be Nintendo, and what it has brought back into the limelight is a modern take on the ancient Game & Watch. Many gamers have fond memories of the original NES and Super NES, but the Game & Watch? The first version came out in 1980, before The Simpsons existed, and when a gallon of gasoline ran about a $1.20. A sort of precursor to the Game Boy, these were single-game handhelds with a LCD screen,...
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As Nintendo puts it, “The holidays are rolling closer, and this year families are looking for creative ways to connect and spend time together.” Understandably, the Nintendo Switch has been a great way to pass the time in quarantine. And with the recently announced augmented reality (AR) game and other game deals announced today, your holiday season is sure to be filled with Nintendo fun. On Black Friday this year, Nintendo will be bundling a Mario Kart-themed Nintendo Switch at regular price with a free copy of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and three free months of Nintendo Switch Online. Usually, Mario Kart and Nintendo Switch Online would cost roughly $70 extra, so getting it for free with...
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Emulation is not always easy. Just look at all of the brands trying to emulate the success Nintendo has enjoyed in the retro console space with its NES Classic and SNES Classic launches. But that is not the only kind of emulation we are talking about. As it relates to Nintendo, Yuzu is a popular Switch emulator, and after recently offering an online function, it quickly took it down. It is not entirely clear why exactly Yuzu's developers yanked the online component. There are multiple possibilities, though. One is that it might not have worked up to their standards. Or it could have proved difficult to manage and maintain, taking up resources that could be applied elsewhere in the emulator's...
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There is no shortage of ways to make some quick bank in Animal Crossing: New Horizons for the Nintendo Switch. In fact, there are so many different ways, it starts to beg the question, "What do we do with all these bells?" The game has an incredible library of collectible items, but some of the most rare items only come around at certain times of the year, or have very rare DIY recipes to find. Getting those items may otherwise be hopeless until sometime next year, if not for the game's online capabilities. Wheeling And Dealing At Nookazon Enterprising gamers always find a way, though. Earlier this year, the Animal Crossing community created several tools to get the most bells out...
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I have no idea what the official status of Halloween is this year (my kids are all grown), and specifically whether to expect trick-or-treaters. Either way, you can get in the holiday mood with a series of themes and crossovers, like the Haunted Hallows event Rocket League and Fortnitemares in Fortnite. And if Animal Crossing: New Horizons is more your speed, there are some Halloween themed islands and homes you should definitely check out. The image you see above is a delightful makeover by Twitter user @ryuryu_12mj, found at Dream Address DA-9999-3296-4057. Jack-O-Lanters abound among a pumpkin patch, as do other decorations. There is also a pumpkin carriage. The user said they converted part...
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The Nintendo Switch phenomenon known as Joy Con drift "isn’t a real problem or hasn’t caused anyone any inconvenience." Reportedly, Nintendo is making this claim in its defense of the class-action lawsuit regarding Switch controllers registering input even when not being touched. These words will no doubt be of great comfort to my UPS driver, who delivered freshly-repaired Joy Cons to my house earlier this week. That box must have been empty. According to one redditor, the law firm behind the Joy Con drift class-action suit wants to fight back. Chimicles Schwartz Kriner & Donaldson-Smith (CSK&D) says Nintendo is denying that Joy Con drift has caused any problems...
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Nintendo’s Mario Kart Live Looks Like The Ultimate Killer App For Addictive Augmented Reality Gaming
Nintendo is bringing Mario Kart into your living room, but not in the way you’d expect. With the new Mario Kart Live Home Circuit set, you can design and play on tracks in your home with the power of augmented reality. It is as simple as setting up the race gates and running the track with your kart. You can then enjoy it and play against AI or friends who also have a kart from the set. This is the sort of toy I wish I had when I was young. While racing cars on a grooved track is awesome, being put into the video game from real life is even better. With ease, your room, house, or any open space can become a racetrack in Mario Kart. To set things up, you use the four included gates and arrows...
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