A Single-Player Focused Splatoon Spin-Off

Rather than retintroducing the series’ multiplayer-centric carnage, Splatoon Raiders brings a story-driven adventure to the fore, building on the single-player expansions of earlier titles by offering more equipment and fresh gameplay tweaks. In Splatoon Raiders, you’ll embark on repeatable expeditions centred around exploration, combat, and recovering valuable loot, marking a noticeably different spin on Nintendo’s colourful shooter series.

Set in the Spirhalite Islands

Splatoon Raiders whisks you to the previously unseen Spirhalite Islands, an enigmatic archipelago made of bio-diverse environments and vertically-explorable terrain, both into the air and underground. Perhaps not as vivid overall as the Splatlands, the Spirhalites still showcase a raft of environments, from tropical shorelines and fog-strewn hills, to jagged islets surrounded by lava. Home to the returning Salmonids, you’ll blast through their aggressive swarm across each location, all while platforming, solving environmental puzzles, and scouring the land for treasure.

Raid-Based Gameplay

While some early previews have compared Splatoon Raiders to roguelikes and extraction shooters, Nintendo instead stands firm that this is a single-player-focused action shooter. See, each trip across the Spirhalite Islands revolves around battling enemies, gathering resources, and scavenging valuable loot before returning to base for crafting, upgrades, and next-run preparation. It’s a familiar structure which borrows ideas from both genres without fitting neatly into either.

You Play as a Mechanic

Rather than donning the tank of a familiar Inkling, you’ll assume command of a mechanic hired by musical trio Deep Cut. After a mysterious light forces your journey into an emergency landing, your skills as an expert tinkerer become key to making your forced stay on the archipelago more comfortable. At the behest of your employers, you’ll hunt for treasure, relics, and other goodies, all while uncovering the islands’ secrets and ultimately finding a way home.

Playable Solo or Co-op

While Splatoon Raiders’ story-driven missions have been designed to accommodate solo players, raids can also be tackled with up to three friends in four-player co-op. You can even recruit teammates through online matchmaking before beginning an expedition, unlocking valuable extra loot if you’re the one who opts to help another. However, when in solo, a member of Deep Cut pilots the Exploration Bot, a micro-mech-of-sorts that’ll shoot alongside you, ensuring that even in single player you aren’t alone.

Three Difficulty Options

Splatoon Raiders offers three difficulty settings: Tourist, Raider, and Survivalist, covering you if you’re a newcomer, you’re simply looking to experience the story, or if you crave a sterner test of your skills. Crucially, as per Splatoon Raiders’ direct presentation, the available loot will remain the same regardless of which difficulty option you choose, with the primary difference being increasingly dangerous Salmonid encounters.

Splatoon’s Classic Ink Mechanics Return

Despite the all-new location, if you’re already a fan of the series you’ll feel right at home thanks to the return of Splatoon’s signature movement mechanics. Moving through ink in swim form, rapidly scaling ink-covered walls, and refilling tanks with spent ink all remain just as important as keeping your trigger finger pressed.

Over One-Hundred Weapon Variations

Splatoon Raiders features more than one-hundred weapon variations to choose from, each coming with ascending rarities and levels. Some Salmonids will drop a collectable weapon on defeat, while the rarest finds can possess unique special abilities that offer more than shot power or blast radius improvements. Interestingly, weapon designs appear cobbled together from washed up detritus, adding to the sense you’re marooned on some far-off islands.

Tanks are Customisable

Tanks aren’t just ink-filled backpacks but wearable armouries that can be customised with gadgets, relic powers, and other enhancements, allowing you to tailor its capabilities to suit your preferred playstyle. Gadgets, specifically, are devices trained to deal with Salmonid hordes, and two can be fitted at a time. Their abilities range from ink exploding dashes and homing spinwheel attacks, to ink-firing defensive turrets, and more. Relics are equip-able passive powers, and like gadgets are exclusive to the three distinct tank-types: Speed, Power, and Tactical.

Weapons and Salvage Kept in Defeat

Even unsuccessful expeditions prove themselves worthwhile as salvage and other spoils collected during raids are still retained after defeat. Downing Salmonids is how you’ll gain experience points for leveling up, while collected resources can be invested at the Mechanic’s Shack back at base to upgrade your tank’s attack power, gadget damage, overall HP, and more.

Tanks Get Stronger as You Use Them

Your tanks also develop passively over time, with the number of Power Eggs recovered in battle feeding directly into a meter that boosts your tank’s capability, and unlocks additional upgrades once certain thresholds are passed. Because this sits alongside the game’s semi-risk-free design, where even items and progress recovered by digging deep into unfathomable sub-levels are kept, there’s a real sense of long-term progression and planning. Progression extends beyond simply collecting stronger weapons; investing in your preferred loadout is encouraged.

Cosmetics Unlocked Through Challenges and Amiibo

If you’re looking to personalise the appearance of the mechanic and the rest of the Deep Cut trio, you won’t be short of options. Exploring the islands unlocks all sorts of outfits through regular play, while compatible Splatoon Amiibo, including the new Splatoon Raiders figures, give you access to matching outfits and additional cosmetics.

An Accessible Entry Point

Even if you’ve never dabbled in Splatoon before, Raiders marks an accessible place to start. Its standalone premise means you don’t need prior knowledge of previous entries, while its simple controls, raid-based focus on exploration, and co-operative play offers a unique experience away from the competitive multiplayer loop of the series’ mainline titles.

Early Previews Suggest Co-Op Is Where Splatoon Raiders Shines

Despite Splatoon Raiders being moulded around a single-player experience, early hands-on impressions suggest that the game’s co-operative modes are where it truly shines. Several outlets are praising the shared experience’s core gameplay loop, with Nintendo Life in particular highlighting the refreshing change of pace for all your party to be working together toward a unified goal instead of blasting ink at each other. Overall, it seems, tackling objectives as a team creates the game’s most memorable moments, but a few twists and turns throughout the solo campaign’s runtime can’t be ruled out either.

Release Date and Price

Splatoon Raiders is launching exclusively to Nintendo Switch 2 on July 23rd. Price-wise, a digital copy will set you back $49.99, while physical editions retail for $59.99. It’s worth shopping around if you want the game on a cartridge as certain retailers are currently matching physical sales to the digital price. Either way, Splatoon Raiders supports solo play as well as up-to-four player local wireless and online co-op, with an estimated download size of around 20GB.

That’s despite low player counts for Marathon and Fairgame$ being mired in development hell since its announcement. Whether it finds success or not is the big question, but former Sony Interactive Entertainment America president Shawn Layden believes that single-player is ultimately what sustains the business.

In an interview with PSI, he said, “I firmly believe that single-player, narrative-driven gaming is here to stay. It’s how we built this business. That’s what sustains it. It’s a type of game you can enjoy by yourself and talk to friends about. Maybe there’s multiplayer, maybe there isn’t.

“But I think essentially most of our great gaming experiences are when we allow ourselves to be immersed in that world with that character, to learn that story, more so than ‘I got online with a bunch of friends, and we played team deathmatch.'”

This isn’t to say that social experiences like your first raid in Destiny 2 can’t be a source of memorable moments. But such titles are few and far between these days, especially in Bungie’s live-service shooter, which recently received its last content update in Monument of Triumph.

At the very least, the industry as a whole continues to churn out memorable single-player titles, even if triple-A development remains as tenuous as ever. As for PlayStation, it’s looking forward to the launch of Marvel’s Wolverine on September 15th, with God of War Laufey and Intergalactic potentially out next year.

And while Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls, launching on August 6th, may be considered live service in a way, it also offers a pretty extensive narrative in Episode Mode. Head here for more details.

If you’re still on the fence about joining in on the fun, there’s now a playable demo on the Switch 2 that could help you easily decide. You get access to the game’s first chapter, which is a good indicator of how fun it can be once you play it on its terms. Of course, your progress will carry over to the full version if you choose to pick it up, so there really is nothing to lose in giving this one a try.

It’s quite an addictive gameplay loop, built around indulging your natural curiosity to progress and gain access to even more ways to bend the world around you to your will. We’re almost certain it’s going to suck you in right from that opening cinematic (and maybe prompt you to pick up the full game). Check out the demo trailer below to learn more.

“We sincerely thank the many players who have loved and supported the game since service began so long ago,” wrote the company.

Leading up to Mario Kart Tour’s servers going offline, Nintendo will be holding a few special events with their own rewards. Log-In Bonus rewards will give players access to High-End Level-Boost Tickets, High-End points-cap tickets, and rubies. Players can also take on new event challenges to get rewards like golden pipes by completing challenge cards. The in-game store’s prices will be adjusted, giving players access to a variety of cosmetic options in the Mii Racing Suit Shop.

Despite servers going down, Nintendo has confirmed that players will be able to view the stats for their past tours until January 13th, 2027. All-Cup Rankings will also remain visible until September 2027.

Mario Kart Tour was launched on Android and iOS back in 2019. Developed by mobile game maker DeNA, the title was released with only single-player content, with multiplayer coming in the following year. The multiplayer update brought in a host of game modes, allowing players to partake in Standard and Gold races over the Internet, or even challenge friends or other players nearby through local networks.

The title was immensely popular when it first came out, with Nintendo confirming that it had been downloaded more than 90 million times shortly after launch. This was considered a major success in light of other Nintendo mobile titles, like Super Mario Run, which had only been downloaded 13 million times in its launch week. In the same time frame, Mario Kart Tour had made $12.7 million.

While Mario Kart Tour didn’t leave behind much of a legacy, especially when compared to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, some of the title’s original race tracks did eventually make their way into the Nintendo Switch game through DLC.

Released in 2023, this DLC brought in 48 tracks in total, spread out into six distinct releases with eight tracks each. While many of the tracks were from classic Mario Kart games like Coconut Mall from Mario Kart Wii or Choco Mountain from Mario Kart 64, Mario Kart Tour’s contribution included Tokyo Blur and Merry Mountain.

Nintendo’s desire to move on from Mario Kart Tour shouldn’t come as a surprise, since the company had stopped making any new content for the game back in 2023. This means that, since then, there have been no new tracks, karts, gliders, or drivers released for the title. Even last year’s release of Mario Kart World didn’t prompt any major update for the mobile game.

In the meantime, Nintendo is fully focused on Mario Kart World, which it reported back in February had sold more than 14 million copies. The title is available exclusively on the Nintendo Switch 2.

It all comes down to regional regulations that require user-replaceable batteries on devices like the Nintendo Switch 2, Joy-Con 2, Switch 2 Pro Controller, and more. And while the Switch 2 is still fresh, these changes come at the cost of leaving behind a handheld that carried Nintendo’s success throughout its long dominance of the space, while also handing its successor a strong foundation to build its own future. That OLED model was a particularly enticing offering once you got your hands on it.

Of course, production is going to continue over the rest of 2026, and if you’re in Europe and looking to nab one of these before they become part of gaming history, you might want to factor one into your holiday plans.

It’s with fondness and appreciation for what it has achieved that we bid goodbye to the Switch, but don’t worry – there are still some worthy titles like Rhythm Heaven Groove that you can pick up.

It’s looking like Metroid Ravenous might be happening after all, and it’s equally likely that it might not be the only one planned to follow Samus’s last side-scrolled outing in Metroid Dread. We often think fondly of that one, despite it being nearly five years since we called it a masterpiece and a worthy addition to the franchise’s strong lineup. It clicked on all fronts as a great continuation of Samus’s adventures, whilst also bringing the franchise back into the spotlight after a long spell of dormancy.

If you weren’t keeping up, Ravenous was rated in Brazil before the error was quickly spotted and quietly erased. VGC did report on that one, and it seems like a bit of digging has allowed Robinson to unearth more about a planned announcement that’s being kept hush-hush for the time being.

Of course, the cat’s kind of out of the bag at this point, and we think the developers are better served putting out an official announcement sooner rather than later at this point.

https://x.com/andy_vgc/status/2072394651605123543

“Brand new” is a bit of a misleading adjective for this release. You see, in an attempt to wipe the board clean off the decades of baggage of poorly conceived experiments and entries that never quite resonated with the market, the new Star Fox is pitched as a reboot of the series. And in an attempt to be a reboot, it goes back to the beginning – Star Fox 64, the series’ high watermark, which represents the “first” entry in the chronology (it itself having been a retelling of the SNES Star Fox game).

"Personally, I was never attached enough to the original look of the characters enough to be against a redesign."

Star Fox on the Nintendo Switch 2, then, is a remake of Star Fox 64 (and in turn, Star Fox on the SNES). Counting Star Fox 64 3D, which was an earlier remake of the game for Nintendo’s 3DS handheld, and Star Fox Zero on the Wii U, which was a retelling of the same story in a new continuity, this represents the fifth time this story has been told by Nintendo in a major game.

But honestly, it works. The story of Star Fox 64 is straightforward, but allows for a lot of great and frenetic arcade action. It has some great character moments, iconic moments and lines, and enough lore to keep a lot of players busy trying to uncover it all.

But ultimately, no one plays Star Fox for the story. Barely anyone is even playing Star Fox for a straightforward “completion”, in fact. You see, Star Fox is an arcade game. I don’t mean that in the way that the adjective is used today – I mean that it is literally an arcade game, as in, it is designed with the sensibilities that a game played at a physical arcade would be. The game, which is a rail shooter, sees players running quick levels, with the goal being not completion, but maximizing your score. The game, and each level, is designed around being replayed – there are secret routes through many levels, for example, which can unlock new paths through the campaign for you in the form of alternate levels and paths that you can take.

There are sub-objectives and secrets to find, which re usually reserved for players who have a thorough mastery of the level – mastery that comes, mind you, by replaying those levels repeatedly, until you know what enemies, hazards, and impudences to expect, when, where, and how. Running through Star Fox start to finish once takes very little time – probably 2-3 hours for most players – but the game is designed around that not being the point, and instead players continuing to play and replay levels. It works well, and lends itself remarkably well to the Switch’s pick up and play nature, while also allowing for hectic and frenetic longer sessions.

"The game, and each level, is designed around being replayed"

As a remake of Star Fox 64, Star Fox on the Nintendo Switch 2 is extremely faithful – the changes are all visual and to the storytelling (which we’ll get to in a bit). The actual layout of each level, its structure, encounters, and progression, is pretty much the same as it was in the N64 game. Those visual changes, however, are comprehensive – the game looks nothing like the 64-bit skeleton that it is built on. Developed by Velan Studios, on their in house VIPER Engine, there is actually a convincing case to be made that Star Fox is the best looking game on the Nintendo Switch 2 so far.

In terms of the rendering technologies underlying it, from the lighting, the physics based rendering pipeline, the asset streaming, and the number of stunning transparencies and alpha effects, this is decidedly the most modern a Nintendo game has looked. Most of Nintendo’s games have looked great on the Switch 2, but every single one of them is based on tech and rendering stacks that started out on the original Nintendo Switch, and use their strong art style to compensate. Star Fox is the first time on the Switch 2 that a Nintendo game looks like it is visually a generation apart from what Nintendo was doing on the original Switch.

A lot has been said about the art style this remake uses. The extremely photorealistic look was initially divisive – while it means the environments look gorgeous, the interpretation of the classic and beloved Star Fox cast as realistic looking animals was a big enough departure from the expected aesthetic that there was a bit of a pushback when the game was originally revealed.

Personally, I was never attached enough to the original look of the characters enough to be against a redesign, and the redesign itself seemed, while not necessarily better than the classic designs, still good enough, and fitting with the game’s overall look enough, that I didn’t mind. And certainly, once you are actually playing the game, your screen filled with explosions and particles effects as you try to save the Lylat System from Andross’ evil machinations, those redesigns cease to even register.

Other than the graphics, the other big change over the original game that Star Fox on the Nintendo Switch 2 brings is the expanded storytelling. Yes, really – the cutscenes and storytelling are a major part of the pitch for this game, and they’re actually really good.

Expanding on the CODEC style conversations of the original game, these cutscenes are now fully animated and fully voiced, expanding upon not just the story of the game, but also some of the lore and backstory behind it, and perhaps best of all for a lot of fans, the inter team dynamics of the various members of the Star Fox team. Getting, for example, an opportunity to see more banter between Fox and Falco, is excellent, and exactly the sort of thing that long time fans of these characters will appreciate (while doing a good job at endearing these characters to any potential new fans).

"The other big change over the original game that Star Fox on the Nintendo Switch 2 brings is the expanded storytelling."

These cutscenes are very impressive – not only are they fully voiced, it appears as though they are fully voiced in every language the game supports. Not just that, but the cutscenes (all real-time) also adjust to reflect your path through the story – if, for example, one of your team members was downed in a mission, and is not going to be available to fly for the upcoming one, the cutscenes reflect that. This is the sort of reactivity in storytelling that we have seen go down in games as they have embraced voiced dialog, so it is nice to see Star Fox retain all of it, while expanding on the storytelling in the process.

A big concern people may have with this game is the content to cost ratio. The value it could provide, in other words. It’s far too easy to see the “game can be beaten in 3 hours” number and be scared off. And to be honest, if you are only going to play through it once and then move on, you should probably not buy Star Fox, because it will not be worth the price to you.

But for everyone else, Star Fox more than justifies the cost – the amount of value, across all the replays of a campaign, the secret and alternate paths, the sub-objectives, the new achievements system, the brand new multiplayer mode (which, mercifully, supports online and voice chat – not something that is a given for a new Nintendo game, sadly, but it holds true here), the new cutscenes, new gimmicks such as support for mouse mode, and its overall high production value, certainly make it worth it. It helps, too, that the game is very cheap, which also helps it seem like a better proposition.

While another remake of Star Fox 64 may seem unnecessary, Star Fox on the Nintendo Switch 2 gets a lot of mileage out of the premise. Between the improvements to controls, UI, QoL, storytelling, new multiplayer mode, and of course, the graphics, this is decidedly the definitive edition of this classic tale and game so far. Now let’s hope that this represents a true new beginning, and a new era, for the franchise. If future Star Fox games on the Switch 2 end up being as well done as this one is, fans, both veterans and newcomers alike, are in for a treat.

This game was reviewed on Nintendo Switch 2.

With Sony’s announcement, as well as reports of Microsoft looking into a way to turn physical game ownership into digital ownership, Piscatella also believes that the PS6 and Project Helix will both end up being digital-only consoles.

“Through a combination of consumer preference and manufacturer strategic decisions, we are now seeing Sony announce it will cease production of physical discs in January 2028,” Piscatella explained. “This will result in lower sales of video game software at retail (although publishers will still certainly sell code in box or special editions in physical boxes at retail for as long as it makes sense to do so), and it is now safe to assume that both PlayStation 6 and Project Helix will be digital-only devices.”

Despite these trends, however, Piscatella believes that Nintendo will be the last console manufacturer that still focuses on releasing physical media, at least until the end of the Nintendo Switch 2 console cycle. Nintendo is “going to be Nintendo,” said Piscatella.

“My gut says Nintendo does what Nintendo wants to do, and I don’t see them changing anything in their plans based on what Sony or Microsoft do on anything, really,” he said. “Nintendo is going to be Nintendo, for better and/or worse.”

Part of this may also be the fact that retail outlets have been relying on Nintendo to a greater degree over the last few years, likely thanks to the company’s strong share of software and hardware sales. The Nintendo Switch 2, in particular, is noted for seeing great sales since its launch.

“It’s not like boxes on shelves will go away entirely with this change,” he said. “There will be more codes in box, more merch, maybe more special editions with swag included, that kind of thing. But the change should also result in the continued decline in physical game retail spend.”

When it comes to long-term effects, even Piscatella doesn’t quite know what is going to happen. Sony’s announcement came just this week, and the industry might see more upheaval in the coming days.

“But yeah, we’re kind of in dartboard territory when it comes to things,” he concluded. “The day is young (in the US at least). Anything could still happen today, tomorrow, surely Monday. It’s madness.”

Sony’s announcement has worked out quite well for the company, at least for now, with its stock price having risen by around 3.2 percent on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. On the other hand, even prolific game creator Hideo Kojima has expressed his fears about media going completely digital. Analysts have also noted that this move gives us a look at Sony’s next-generation console plans.

While no clear details about Metroid Ravenous have been revealed through the Gazette, it does note that 2026 is the game’s year of production, which indicates that full production on the title likely began earlier this year. Along with this, the country of origin is noted as being the United States of America. However, this last detail might be inconsequential, since it could just mean that its details were sent to the ministry by Nintendo of America, rather than the game being developed in the country. Metroid Ravenous is also rated for players “12 years or older”.

The naming convention for Metroid Ravenous matches other side-scrolling entries in the franchise, which are often considered to be the mainline games. It would be a follow-up to 2021’s Metroid Dread, which was released exclusively on the Nintendo Switch. Taking the mainline entries into account, Metroid Ravenous would be the sixth entry in the series. It would follow up on 1986’s Metroid, 1991’s Metroid 2: Return of Samus, 1994’s Super Metroid, 2002’s Metroid Fusion, and the most recent game, Metroid Dread.

Metroid Dread was the first side-scrolling game in the franchise since Metroid Fusion, and was described by director Yoshio Sakamoto as being a conclusion to a storyline that links protagonist Samus with the strange creatures known only as Metroids. The events of the game take place after Metroid Fusion, with Samus finding hints of surviving X Parasites thanks to a video transmission from planet ZDR. While the Galactic Federation decided to deal with the situation quickly by sending in seven E.M.M.I. robots, Samus decides that she has to take matters into her own hands. However, thanks to having been infused with Metroid DNA herself, Samus also appears to be immune to the X Parasites.

While the sidescrolling Metroid games are seen as the mainline franchise, other major titles like the Metroid Prime series and even Metroid: Other M are seen as being just as important to the story. The most recent release in the franchise in this regard would be Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, which came out on Nintendo Switch and the Switch 2 just last year.

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond sees Samus tasked by the Galactic Federation to rescue the UTO Research on planet Tanamaar from a Space Pirate attack. Interestingly, Samus meets her match in the form of fellow bounty hunter Sylux, who happens to be leading the attack on the research station by mind-controlling the Space Pirates with Metroids.

For more details on Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, take a look at our review, where we gave it a score of 7 out of 10.

The update, numbered 1.7.0, introduces Drill Rally and Boomerang Rally to the game. Drill Rally will take racers from the eastern part of the map, starting at Wario Shipyard, all the way up to the north-western end, with several biomes hit along the way, including snow, desert, and forest, culminating in two parts of the volcano region, with the final part being Bowser’s Castle.

Boomerang Rally, on the other hand, starts at Salty Salty Speedway in the southeast and heads north before eventually hitting the middle of the in-game world and turning southwest. The Knockout Tour course culminates in a series of races in the game’s desert region, wrapping up the race at Whistlestop Summit.

To get access to these new courses, players will need to have cleared at least one Knockout Tour Rally. Nintendo has also confirmed that additional Rallies are planned for release.

Players who enjoy the Photo Mode in Mario Kart World can now look forward to placing stickers on their favorite scenes. These must be collected by completing various challenges throughout the game, and bring in a new way to showcase your achievements.

Mario Kart World was released back in June 2025 as one of the launch titles for the Nintendo Switch 2. For more details, take a look at our review, where we gave it a score of 9 out of 10 thanks to its interconnected open world, beautiful visuals, and excellent gameplay. We even went as far as calling it the first must-play game on the Switch 2.

At the time, Mario Kart World had turned quite a few heads when Nintendo announced its $80 price tag. Former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida said that the price tag was okay because the racing title offers players plenty of content. Bringing up expensive Deluxe Editions and other releases for typical AAA games, Yoshida said, “Some people see the benefit, so they spend that $100… so it’s up to you if you see the value or not.”

Since its release, Nintendo has continued supporting Mario Kart World with plenty of free updates, introducing quality-of-life improvements, balance changes, changes to race layouts, and even a new game mode.

Mario Kart World has also done incredibly well for Nintendo, with the company revealing in its latest financial report that it had sold 14.03 million copies as of the end of December 2025. Since these figures only account for the first seven months of the game’s release, sales have likely gotten even higher at this point. It is also worth noting that Mario Kart World was available through a Nintendo Switch 2 bundle as well.

It has gone on to become one of the two games that can seemingly get away with an $80 price tag this generation, alongside Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto 6.