Shadow of the Colossus

Bluepoint Games always had a stellar reputation for ports before this. However, Shadow of the Colossus veered straight into remake territory, featuring completely overhauled textures, an improved control scheme and much more, bringing new life to this timeless classic. If you haven’t experienced the magic of Shadow of the Colossus, now’s a good time to start.

]]> https://gamingbolt.com/15-best-video-game-remakes-of-all-time/feed 0 420037 https://gamingbolt.com/pokemon-producer-says-theres-no-more-lets-go-games-currently-planned Thu, 24 Oct 2019 23:43:37 +0000 https://gamingbolt.com/?p=420552

The upcoming Pokemon games in Pokemon Sword and Shield will be the first original mainline titles from the long running series to hit the Switch. It wasn’t the literal first, though, as before that came the experimental Let’s Go games. They simplified the process into something closer to the mobile Pokemon GO! Some fans didn’t care much for it despite it being a financial success. But it seems that financial success won’t necessarily translate to more titles in that style.

In an interview with Eurogamer, longtime Producer Junichi Masuda said that as of now there is no Let’s Go titles in development. He keeps the idea open, not closing it off completely saying, “So, at the moment there’s no particular plans, but if the fans really like it then definitely keep those voices coming out to the Pokémon Company and Nintendo, and make sure we hear them!”

Many probably assumed that Let’s Go remakes of Gold and Silver were inevitable, but either Masuda is keeping the cards close to his chest here or there really isn’t any desire to return to that style anytime soon for whatever reason. Only time will tell. For now, fans will have to be happy with the upcoming more traditional Pokemon Sword and Shield on November 15th.

The Division 2 might be the highest selling 2019 release for the year so far globally, but as far as Japan alone is concerned, things are quite different. As per sales data compiled by Famitsu, the highest selling game of 2019 in Japan during the year’s first half has been Kingdom Hearts 3, which has sold over 830,000 copies so far. That’s really not surprising, considering the fact that it’s a Square Enix RPG – which are almost always guaranteed to do well in Japan – not to mention the fact that the hype and anticipation surrounding the long-awaited sequel prior to its launch were through the roof. At last count, the game had also crossed 5 million units in worldwide shipments, so it tracks that it’ll be doing very well in Japan as well.

The Division 2, incidentally, comes in at 21st place, having sold over 112,000 units. What’s surprising is that it has been outsold by BioWare’s Anthem, which occupies 20th place with over 114,000 units sold. Several other major new releases for the year have also done pretty well and managed to break into the top 10. Capcom’s Resident Evil 2, arguably the best game of the year so far, is Japan’s fourth best-selling game for the year so far, having sold nearly 400,000 units (Resident Evil 2 had crossed 4.2 million units in worldwide shipments at last count). Meanwhile, FromSoftware’s incredible Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice occupies ninth place, with sales of over 260,000 units from the day of its launch till the end of June. Devil May Cry 5 and Days Gone have also sold well, occupying fourteenth and fifteenth place with sales of over 183,000 units and over 182,000 units respectively.

Super Smash Bros Ultimate, which launched in December of last year, has also performed very impressively, coming in at second place with nearly 780,000 units sold, and not that far behind Kingdom Hears 3. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, having launched in January, follows behind in third place, with over 643,000 units sold throughout the year so far. The recently released Super Mario Maker 2, which has been topping Japanese weekly sales charts since its launch, is in at twelfth place. Unsurprisingly, various other older Switch games have also continued to exhibit long legs and become among the top performers of the year in its first half. The likes of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, the Switch version of Minecraft, Splatoon 2, Pokemon Let’s Go, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and Super Mario Odyssey have all figured in the top 30.

You can check out the full top 30 for the first half of 2019 below.

Famitsu Sales: H1-CY 2019 (2018 Dec 31 – 2019 Jun 30) [Followed by lifetime sales, including sales before 2019]

01. [PS4] Kingdom Hearts III – 838,927 / NEW
02. [NSW] Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – 779,845 / 3,140,500 
03. [NSW] New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe – 643,426 / NEW
04. [PS4] Resident Evil 2 – 393,688 / NEW 
05. [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – 318,492 / 2,348,789 
06. [NSW] Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! / Let’s Go, Eevee! – 312,278 / 1,565,955 
07. [NSW] Minecraft – 305,640 / 830,685 
08. [NSW] Super Mario Party – 284,170 / 1,049,023 
09. [PS4] Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice – 260,223 / NEW
10. [NSW] Splatoon 2 – 224,791 / 3,099,211 
11. [PS4] Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown – 215,421 / NEW 
12. [NSW] Super Mario Maker 2 – 196,153 / NEW 
13. [NSW] Yo-kai Watch 4: We Are Looking Up at the Same Sky – 191,097 / NEW 
14. [PS4] Devil May Cry 5 – 183,627 / NEW 
15. [PS4] Days Gone – 182,787 / NEW 
16. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – 168,697 / 1,348,389
17. [NSW] Yoshi’s Crafted World – 153,197 / NEW 
18. [NSW] Super Dragon Ball Heroes: World Mission – 125,308 / NEW 
19. [PS4] Jump Force – 125,057 / NEW 
20. [PS4] Anthem – 114,570 / NEW 
21. [PS4] Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 – 112,238 / NEW 
22. [NSW] Dragon Quest Builders 2 – 109,728 / 275,146
23. [PS4] Super Robot Wars T – 102,767 / NEW 
24. [PS4] Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain – 84,397 / NEW 
25. [NSW] Super Mario Odyssey – 80,407 / 1,980,613 
26. [NSW] Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball – 75,505 / NEW 
27. [NSW] Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum ‘n’ Fun! – 75,318 / 345,733 
28. [PS4] Dragon Quest Builders 2 – 72,980 / 236,862
29. [PS4] One Piece: World Seeker – 70,164 / NEW 
30. [NSW] Kirby Star Allies – 68,085 / 732,900 

[Via ResetEra]

The Pokemon Press Conference yesterday was an eventful one. The Pokemon Company announced a couple of new Pokemon projects for mobile devices, as well as a new Detective Pikachu game for the Switch. On top of all that, they also announced Pokemon HOME, a new cloud-based service that will act as the hub for all Pokemon games across basically every device.

Pokemon HOME will allow you to trade with games across multiple Pokemon games on multiple devices. It’ll connect with Pokemon GO on mobile devices, with Pokemon Let’s Go and the upcoming Pokemon Sword and Shield on the Nintendo Switch, and with multiple Pokemon games on the 3DS through Pokemon Bank, allowing you to bring over all your Pokemon into a single space.

The app, launching for iOS and Android in 2020, will also allow you to trade with other people- with friends, with other users nearby, as well as with users across the globe.

Welcome home, Trainers.

Introducing Pokémon HOME, a cloud service that will work with Nintendo Switch and iOS and Android devices, allowing you to bring over the Pokémon that you’ve shared adventures with throughout your journey. #PokemonHOME pic.twitter.com/fAlodMrRzh

— Pokémon (@Pokemon) May 29, 2019

Pokémon HOME isn’t tied to a single game system, meaning you can connect with Pokémon Bank, along with #PokemonLetsGo, #PokemonSwordShield, and #PokemonGO. It also features trading functionality. #PokemonHOME

— Pokémon (@Pokemon) May 29, 2019

Trainers, we’re working hard to create a future that brings people and Pokémon closer together.

Bring your Pokémon home to #PokemonHOME in early 2020.

— Pokémon (@Pokemon) May 29, 2019

As part of their latest earnings release, Nintendo have released updated lifetime worldwide sales figures for their games published on the Switch, which have been selling with impressive pace over the last three months. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has been the best performing of the bunch. At 12.08 million units by the end of December 2018, the fighter has now sold a total of 13.81 million units.

Meanwhile, Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee! saw a slowdown in sales, selling about 600,000 units over the past quarter, to get to a lifetime total of 10.63 million sales as of March 31st, 2019. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has continued to sell at a fast clip, with a total of 16.69 million sales so far (of which 7.47 million sales came in FY 2018/19). The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has also been selling strongly, and now sits at a total of 12.77 million units sold to date.

Nintendo’s more recent 2019 Switch releases have also gotten off to solid starts. January’s New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe has managed to sell 3.31 million units, while Yoshi’s Crafted World sits at 1.11 million units. Interestingly enough, even Mario Kart 7, a 3DS game that launched all the way back in 2011, has continued to sell strongly. It now sits at a lifetime total of 18.26 million copies.

You can find a full list of Nintendo’s updated figures for sales of Nintendo Switch titles as of March 31, 2019 below:

• Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – 16.69 million units
• Super Mario Odyssey – 14.44 million units
• Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – 13.81 million units
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – 12.77 million units
• Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee! – 10.63 million units
• Splatoon 2 – 8.7 million units
• Super Mario Party – 6.4 million units
• New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe – 3.31 million units
• Mario Tennis Aces – 2.64 million units
• Kirby Star Allies – 2.56 million units
• Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze – 2.25 million units
• Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker – 1.18 million units
• Yoshi’s Crafted World – 1.11 million units

In total, Nintendo sold 118.55 million units of software throughout the financial year on the Nintendo Switch, which is a year-on-year increase of 86.7 per cent, and also exceeds Nintendo’s projections of 110 million software sales for the financial year. Of those, 23.91 million copies were sold in this quarter. For FY 2019/20, they are projecting 125 million software sales on the Switch.

In comparison, 13.22 million software sales came on the 3DS (a 62.9 YoY decrease), with 2.14 million of those arising out of this quarter. Their projections for software sales on the 3DS for the financial year were sitting at 13 million, which they have managed to exceed (just about). For FY 2019/20, they project a much lower 5 million units of software sales on the 3DS.

Even though all eyes are now on Pokemon Sword and Shield, which are due out later this year, Nintendo and The Pokemon Company still want to sell you on Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee!, the first console entries in the series, which launched last year for the Nintendo Switch.

To push you into getting the games, Nintendo has decided to tap into some nostalgia—specifically, they’ve gotten the Pokemon anime protagonist Ash Ketchum plugging these games in a brand new video (and pushing you to get Let’s Go, Pikachu!, so you too have your own partner Pikachu).

Now, while I approve of getting people to buy the superior Pikachu version, I think usually companies want athletes who are winners and champions to promote their products—which Ash, who has lost the Pokemon League six different times, is categorically not. Gary was right after all, Ash is a loser.

You can check out the video below.

https://youtu.be/yFzvW9pRVlE

Nintendo Switch’s firmware version 7.0.0 launched just a few weeks ago. It was incredibly disappointing as firmware updates for a console go, even for a Nintendo Switch one, which has made an art form out of disappointment with firmware updates. For a full version number update, it added shockingly little.

That also holds true of the newest update for the console available to download now. Version 7.0.1 is available now, and this one’s disappointment is more excusable, given that it is an incremental bump. It does—yes, it does exactly what you think it does. It’s a “stability update”, which is to say there are no front facing changes whatsoever (though on the backend, it’s likely Nintendo has patched up bugs and glitches, and also maybe any security flaws that may exist). That, and a glitch pertaining to Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee!’s Pokemon GO connectivity has been addressed by this update (why this needed a full system update, rather than an update for those games, is beyond me).

As is always the case, you can download this update by going to the Settings, then to System Update. If your system is set to automatic updates, and is in Sleep Mode, the update will have downloaded automatically for you, and you just have to apply it when you next use your Switch.

Improvements Included in Version 7.0.1 (Distributed 02/18/2019)

General system stability improvements to enhance the user’s experience, including:

• Resolved an issue where the Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Pokémon: Let’s Go, Eevee! games cannot reconnect to the Pokémon GO app if the game software was closed after pairing with the app.

Media Create has released the data for video game software and hardware sales in Japan for the week ending February 10. Kingdom Hearts 3, which had been topping the sales charts for the last couple of weeks, has been pushed down to second place, having sold over 35,000 units. It has been overtaken by New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, which had enjoyed a good run at the top of its own when it launched earlier in January. It sold over 38,000 units this week. 

Resident Evil 2 has also dropped in rankings. After occupying the second position for a couple of weeks, the survival horror title now sits in the fourth position, with over 22,000 units sold. Above it, in third place, is Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which moved over 31,000 copies in the week. Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee! are also continuing to chart high, occupying the fifth spot this week with over 17,000 units sold in total. 

On the hardware front, the scene looks pretty much the same as last week. The Nintendo Switch was the highest selling system for the week, moving over 61,000 units. The PS4 sold a total of nearly 20,000 units (base model and PS4 Pro sales combined).

You can check out the full software and hardware charts below.

Software Sales (followed by lifetime sales)

1. [NSW] New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe (Nintendo, 01/11/19) – 38,482 (397,231)
2. [PS4] Kingdom Hearts III (Limited Edition Included) (Square Enix, 01/25/19) – 35,450 (736,545)
3. [NSW] Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Nintendo, 12/07/18) – 31,174 (2,831,143)
4. [PS4] Resident Evil 2 (Z Version and Limited Edition Included) (Capcom, 01/25/19) – 22,670 (326,856)
5. [NSW] Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! / Let’s Go, Eevee! (Bundle Editions Included) (Nintendo, 11/16/18) – 17,596 (1,475,502)
6. [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Nintendo, 04/28/17) – 12,250 (2,120,772)
7. [NSW] Super Mario Party (Bundle Version Included) (Nintendo, 10/05/18) – 11,863 (1,007,947)
8. [NSW] Minecraft: Nintendo Switch Edition (Bundle Version Included) (Microsoft, 06/21/18) – 8,308 (598,597)
9. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Limited Edition Included) (Nintendo, 03/03/17) – 7,273 (1,283,831)
10. [NSW] Splatoon 2 (Bundle Version Included) (Nintendo, 07/21/17) – 7,068 (2,925,436)
11. [PS4] Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown (Limited Edition Included) (Bandai Namco, 01/17/19) – 6,267 (245,589)
12. [NSW] Dragon Quest Builders 2 (Square Enix, 12/20/18) – 4,477 (227,902)
13. [PS4] Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 Remix (Square Enix, 03/09/17) – 3,777 (239,083)
14. [PS4] Arc of Alchemist (Compile Heart, 02/07/19) – 3,328 (New)
15. [NSW] Super Mario Odyssey (Limited and Bundle Editions Included) (Nintendo, 10/27/17) – 3,060 (1,948,284)
16. [NSW] Fitness Boxing (Imagineer, 12/20/18) – 2,789 (26,121)
17. [PS4] Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists: Ateliers of the New World (Limited Editions Included) (Koei Tecmo, 01/31/19) – 2,762 (21,442)
18. [PS4] Dragon Quest Builders 2 (Square Enix, 12/20/18) – 2,760 (217,731)
19. [NSW] Kirby: Star Allies (Nintendo, 03/16/18) – 2,453 (730,492)
20. [PS4] PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG Corporation, 01/17/19) – 2,280 (15,786)

Hardware Sales (followed by last week’s sales)

1. Switch – 61,280 (69,472)
2. PlayStation 4 – 11,583 (15,074)
3. PlayStation 4 Pro – 8,111 (10,540)
4. New 2DS LL – 3,216 (3,622)
5. PlayStation Vita – 1,475 (1,521)
6. New 3DS LL – 1,070 (1,188)
7. 2DS – 138 (104)
8. Xbox One X – 129 (86)
9. Xbox One – 16 (17)

[Gematsu]

Nintendo’s Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee! were pretty successful when they launched in November 2018. They collectively sold three million units worldwide in less than a week, going on to hit 10 million by the time the year was out, and have pleased both Nintendo and The Pokemon Company with their performance overall. However, if you were wary about picking it up at launch, then there’s a free demo that’s now available for you to try out beforehand.

Simply head to the Nintendo eShop (applicable for North America, Europe, and Japan) to download it. The demo lets players explore Viridian Forest and capture Pokemon while battling other trainers. Pikachu or Eevee can be partners by your side, though one will be randomly selected from the outset.

Nintendo does note that the final game may be different from the demo in terms of content – obviously. Furthermore, you can’t transfer save data from the demo if you happen to pick up the full game. Nonetheless, it’s a great way to hop back into the world of Kanto and experiencing the classic journey in glorious 3D. Check out our review of Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee! here.

As many may have expected, the Switch won’t be meeting its target of shipping 20 million units for the entire fiscal year. Nintendo has revised its forecast for the period downwards to 17 million shipments worldwide, and while that in and of itself is still impressive, it is clear that something went wrong along the way—it represents roughly a 15% reduction from what was expected.

What, then, happened? Given how strongly Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee! have performed, how did the Switch not get the sales it needed? According to Daniel Ahmad, analyst at Niko Partners, the culprit here was the weaker than expected first half of the 2018 fiscal year, as many may have suspected. Posting on ResetEra, Ahmad pointed out that Nintendo is unusually reliant on first party hits to drive performance, and the absence of said hits for six months led to a pace of sales that was inadequate for them meeting their targets.

“It shows to me that it is extremely crucial that Nintendo have a strong pipeline of first party games to push Switch hardware sales,” Ahmad said. “That’s not to say third party games aren’t important for Nintendo, as we’ve seen a few success stories and in general a lot of publishers are profitable on the system. But what it does say is that the main driving factor behind Switch hardware sales is first party content and that it also explains why we saw Nintendo reduce their hardware forecast from 20 million units to 17 million units this year.

”To further explain, Nintendo Switch sales in the first half of the fiscal year were extremely weak, relatively speaking. To add some perspective, the Nintendo Switch is currently outpacing the PS4 in global hardware sell in when launch aligned, yet the PS4 has never had a H1 as weak as Switch did last year (even 5/6 years on PS4 sales are consistent due to strong/constant 3rd party support. It doesn’t matter if Sony doesn’t have a game to launch.). It’s why you may have seen news stories where some analysts were throwing out extremely low numbers for the full fiscal year, basing the total on what they were seeing in the first half. It’s my opinion that one of the reasons behind the weak performance in the first half of the year was due to the first party software output from Nintendo. Whilst it wasn’t necessarily bad, the flagship titles were mostly Wii U ports. Labo also launched but underperformed.”

The underperformance of Labo is an interesting point here, as it is clear Nintendo had intended for it to be a big pillar for the Switch early in the year, but it ended up not meeting those aspirations. With Nintendo having nothing else to push sales for the whole year, it fell to Smash and Pokemon to push sales in a period of two years. And while they did a great job at it, they couldn’t compensate for the weaker than expected first half.

Hopefully, this serves as a reminder to Nintendo that they need a steady output of games if they are to meet their more ambitious sales targets. They did a good job with having a steady cadence of games in 2017–they need to return to that pace again.