There are also stamps, sprites (sourced from Super Mario World), animation tools and even a tool for creating music. You can also play minigames like Gnat Attack, which requires swatting dozens of flies and offers an increasing difficulty.

Despite its relatively niche nature, Mario Paint would sell over 2.3 million copies, and believe it or not, it would inspire several designers who worked on titles like Earthbound. Various references can also be spotted in other Nintendo games throughout history.

It launched alongside a dedicated mouse, which is required to play. In true Nintendo fashion, you’ll need a compatible USB mouse to play it on the Nintendo Switch. If you’re playing on the Nintendo Switch 2, the Joy-Con 2’s mouse controls are perfect.

On the Super NES side is Kirby’s Star Stacker, a puzzle game that’s a Super Famicom remake of the 1997 Game Boy version. You also get Downtown Nekketsu March: Super-Awesome Field Day!, and Joy Mech Fight from the NES era. The lone Game Boy Color title is Quest for Camelot and is the only title in this line-up to have been localized into English before now.

Nintendo Switch Online is available for $19.99 yearly, while Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack costs $49.99. While the former provides access to NES, SNES, Game Boy and Game Boy Color titles, the latter includes all those in addition to Nintendo 64, Game Boy Advance and Sega Genesis classics. Stay tuned for other new additions to the service in the coming months.

Blaster Master: Enemy Below should be familiar to side-scrolling action fans and sees Jason using SOPHIA, a tank that can jump, to navigate various environments. Kirby Tilt ‘n’ Tumble is a spin-off of the Kirby franchise, and sees players moving the puffball by tilting the console in different directions. Of course, the Switch and its controllers support motion controls for this.

Harvest Moon kickstarted the farming sim genre as we know it, directly inspiring titles like Stardew Valley. As a farmer, you grow crops, manage your house, expand the farm and make friends in the community. Finally, there’s Mystery Tower, known as Tower of Babel, a puzzle platformer from Namco exclusive to the Family Computer in Japan till now. Check out all four titles in the trailer below.

You can also indulge in couch co-op, screen-sharing and more. Kirby’s Dream Course is a spin-off from the main series and offers miniature golf (with Kirby serving as the ball). Kirby’s Dream Land 3 is a side-scrolling platformer where our hero can summon different allies to aid him. Kirby Super Star, one of the best games in the series, offers a plethora of different adventures, mini-games and much more to experience.

All three titles are available for the base subscription cost (which costs $3.99 for one month and $19.99 for 12 months). For those seeking a more contemporary Kirby adventure on the Nintendo Switch, there’s Kirby and the Forgotten Land which has sold 2.65 million units as of March 31st, 2022. Check out our review here.

Three #SuperNES titles are live for #NintendoSwitchOnline members!#Kirby Super Star
Meta Knight's revenge!

Kirby's Dream Land 3
Set difficulty to Easy Breezy!

Kirby's Dream Course
Dance along with Kirby!

Secret modes are all unlocked in these special versions of the games. pic.twitter.com/sTNi8FML21

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) June 10, 2022

Out of nowhere though, Nintendo has added three new games to Nintendo Switch Online’s NES and SNES library- and these are all deep cuts (for the most part). Two new NES games have been added with DIG DUG 2 and MAPPY-LAND, while the SNES catalog is bolstered by the addition of Earthworm Jim 2. In Japan, while the NES offerings are the same, Earthworm Jim 2 is replaced by the original Harvest Moon– which many might argue is the better of the two options.

Earlier this year, Nintendo added EarthBound and EarthBound Beginnings to the NES and SNES library of Nintendo Switch Online, but the update before that was back in July of last year. Hopefully we’re not in for another similar gap before the next batch of games is added to the service.

Nintendo has added both EarthBound and EarthBound Beginnings to Nintendo Switch Online’s SNES and NES libraries respectively. In spite of having been scarcely available in the West and never having performed spectacularly on the commercial front, EarthBound is a beloved series, to say the least, so this announcement comes as a surprise.

Both EarthBound and EarthBound Beginnings were also released for the Wii U Virtual Console back in the day, so it’s great to see Nintendo continuing to make these games available to audiences. Now we just need a Mother 3 release, right?

Until that happens (if it ever does), we can at least play two EarthBound classics on the Nintendo Switch, starting right now.

Uemura joined Nintendo in 1972, where he started working on light-gun games. As the head of Nintendo R&D2 division, Uemura was tasked with creating a system that would allow for playing color games on TV, which resulted in the crude but ultimately important “Color TV-Game” systems. Following their success, Uemura was tasked with creating another system, although this time the games themselves had to be on cartridges that could be interchanged. The result was the NES (known as Famicom in Japan), which sold over 61 million units in its lifetime.

Uemura also worked on the NES Zapper, Famicom Disk System, and of course, the SNES, along with Super Famicom Satellaview. The man also served as a producer on games like Clu Clu Land, Ice Climber, and other sports titles before finally retiring in 2004.

As the man responsible for engineering and masterminding the two consoles that have, in no vague terms, defined the very concept of video games and game consoles as they exist today, Uemura’s legacy can never be overstated.

So how did it get to this point? How did we go from Metal Gear Solid dominating mindshare and delivering one masterpiece after another over a pretty long period of time, to it suddenly turning into a what is essentially a dead franchise? What the hell happened to Metal Gear?

Konami’s legendary stealth franchise broke into the mainstream when Metal Gear Solid launched for the original PlayStation in 1998- though that was not, of course, the beginning of the series itself. More than a decade before that, a young Hideo Kojima led the development on Metal Gear, launching it with Konami for the MSX in 1987. In 1990, Konami followed up on it with a standalone spinoff/sequel for the NES called Snake’s Revenge, before releasing a proper full-fledged sequel, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, that same year for the MSX.

Those earlier, top-down 2D Metal Gear games were solid enough in their own right, especially the two mainline MSX titles. Neither of them have aged particularly well, but even so, they were enjoyable stealth experiences with what were, at that time, surprisingly engaging stories. And of course, much more important was the fact that even in those relatively games, Hideo Kojima and his team were laying down the foundations of what they would go on to achieve in future instalments.

Kojima certainly took his time with Metal Gear Solid. An eight year gap separated it from Metal Gear 2’s launch, but leveraging the PS1’s much more powerful hardware than what they had had to work with in the past, the development team ended up delivering what is, to this day, one of the most influential games ever made. Metal Gear Solid’s focus on storytelling, complete with cutscenes and voice acting and a kickass soundtrack to boot, rendered in 3D visuals – and remember, all of this stuff was cutting edge for games back then – all of this elevated it to untouchable heights. As one of the first games in the medium to truly show how integral story and storytelling can be to a great game, Metal Gear Solid’s legacy is immense.

Kojima and Konami certainly didn’t waste much time in capitalizing on the sudden wave of success they were riding after the launch of Metal Gear Solid. Over the next couple of years, we got experimental, smaller releases, like the MGS expansion VR Missions in 1999, or the Game Boy version of the first game (which was surprisingly excellent). Not long afterward though, in 2001, the PlayStation 2 saw the launch of an instant classic in the early stages of its life with Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.

The hype surrounding Metal Gear Solid 2 in the lead-up to its launch was unbelievable. Every time the game had been shown off before its release, it looked absolutely spectacular, boasting incredible realism and visuals and significant improvements to the already excellent stealth gameplay and storytelling of its predecessor. Its launch was, of course, met with some controversy, with Konami’s bait-and-switch pre-release marketing completely hiding the fact that for most of the game, Solid Snake is a secondary character, with newcomer Raiden instead being the protagonist.

At the time, Metal Gear Solid 2 caught quite a bit of flak for that, with many players upset about the reduced role of Solid Snake, and unhappy about playing as what was, at the time, viewed as a whiny and annoying character (though over time, Raiden would, of course, go on to completely win over Metal Gear fans). Interestingly enough, you can draw plenty of parallels between the backlash both Metal Gear Solid 2 and The Phantom Pain faced at launch. As the years passed though, the controversy surrounding MGS2’s launch subsided, and people realized that when viewed on its own merits, it’s an excellent game.

The stealth mechanics were incredibly tight, the level design was spectacular, there were a bunch of excellent boss fights in the game. Visually, the game was spectacular, and where storytelling was concerned, even with Solid Snake not playing as prominent of a role, MGS2 told an amazing story, one that not only had memorable moments and great characters, but also one that was over time proved to be surprisingly insightful and ahead of its time.

Metal Gear Solid 2 was definitely a swing for the series, a successful risk that paid off in spades. And after two consecutive stealth masterpieces, expectations from any follow ups were bound to be sky high. In 2004, we saw another flurry of activity from the series. First came Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes for the GameCube, which, frankly, isn’t a great remake of the first game in most ways. Towards the end of that year, Metal Gear Acid also launched in Japan, and then in the West just a few months later. A fun distraction, but a largely forgettable spinoff.

Of course, 2004 was also the year that Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater came out. Unlike Metal Gear Solid 2, MGS3 was exactly what was promised, and exactly what it was expected to be- a spectacular stealth game. And though it wasn’t nearly as surprising as its predecessor and didn’t do as much to grab headlines, so to speak, it still grabbed everyone’s attention. And that was purely on the back of how unbelievably good it was. Kojima and his team once again honed their excellent stealth gameplay and mechanics in intelligent ways, most notable with the addition of camouflage as a mechanic, while Metal Gear Solid 3 also surpassed the achievements of its predecessors in various other crucial areas as well- characters, the story, boss fights, you name it. Naked Snake was an excellent protagonist, The Boss remains one of the most complex and fascinating characters of all time, and then there were the likes of Revolver Ocelot, Volgin, and Eva- each a crucial part of the Metal Gear saga. To this day, there are many who regard Metal Gear Solid 3 not only as the best game in its series, but also as the best stealth game of all time, period- and it’s not hard to see why.

After Metal Gear Solid 3, for the next few years, we saw quite a few Metal Gear spinoffs coming out. Metal Gear Acid 2 launched in 2006, and much like its predecessor, it was a decent but unremarkable game. In that same year, we also got Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, a proper, full-fledged Metal Gear game for the PSP which turned out to be excellent in its own rights, providing solid stealth action and an engaging story in a handheld experience. At the time, Portable Ops was supposed to be part of the Metal Gear canon, but Kojima would eventually go on to change his mind- which still frustrates some series fans… but that’s a different discussion.

2008 was when Metal Gear swung for the fences again, in the form of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Billed as the conclusion to the long-running saga, MGS4 had impossibly high expectations to like up to, and the hype and attention that it garnered all the way up to launch was unbelievable. And when it came out, it was excellent- though it would also be fair to say that at the time of its launch, Guns of the Patriots was also the most divisive game in the series.

It clearly did a lot of things right. Mechanically, it was, once again, a spectacular stealth game, continuing the series’ upward trajectory in that department. Visually, it was a stunner, clearly having leveraged the PS3’s hardware to great effect. Narratively, it was probably the most ambitious game of its time, not just because its story was ambitious and was told in an ambitious way, but also because it had to properly wrap up an infamously convoluted, long-running saga, which was no easy task. Viewed on its own merits, Metal Gear Solid 4 is an amazing game.

But it’s also been criticized for a number of things over the years, and many of these criticisms are more than fair. Metal Gear cutscenes are always a joy to watch, and MGS4 had a lot of well-directed ones, but its infamously long cutscenes were- well, they were pretty damn long. And a lot of people liked that, but there were just as many people who actually wanted to play the game. Other criticisms brought up issues with the story as well, primarily because of what was essentially deemed as an excess of fan service, almost to the point where it felt like MGS4 was tapping hard into nostalgia just for the sake of it. And, of course, there were the nanomachines, which turned out the be the ultimate deus ex machina.

Either way, Metal Gear Solid 4 was a fitting conclusion. Ambitious and dedicated to its vision, and doing things that no other game would do in service to that vision. But though it was the narrative conclusion, it wasn’t, unsurprisingly (and in spite of Hideo Kojima’s repeated best efforts), the conclusion of the franchise itself. Because there were more great Metal Gear Solid games after that. Of course there were.

There was Peace Walker in 2010, a game that was, early on in development, meant to be Metal Gear Solid 5. Kojima viewed it as integral to the series’ story, serving as a direct sequel to Metal Gear Solid 3, and was insistent on releasing it as a mainline numbered title. But with it being a PSP game and all, Konami decided to remove the number and just release it as a mainline spinoff, so to speak. But honestly, it was good enough to be a numbered game. Peace Walker’s mission structure and general progression are quite different from all the Metal Gear games that preceded it, but it is an addictive, mechanically dense, and surprisingly replayable game- and, of course, tells a great story.

Not long afterward, in 2013, we got Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. Kojima and Konami had tried to get the idea off the ground before, of an action-adventure Metal Gear spinoff featuring Raiden as the protagonist and focusing on hack-and-slash gameplay. That didn’t pan out, and they ended up turning to PlatinumGames for help- which, as we now know, was a really smart move. Metal Gear Rising is still one of Platinum’s best games to date, and as a character action game, stands as tall as all the giants of its genre. Definitely not a traditional Metal Gear experience, for very obvious reasons, but still an unmissable one.

Of course, the next mainline numbered title was also not a traditional Metal Gear experience. As desperate as Kojima was to be done with Metal Gear and make something new, the franchise would go on to continue with Metal Gear Solid 5– and this was where the trouble began.

Just as he did with MGS2, Kojima once again rolled the dice on what was a pretty big gamble with Metal Gear Solid 5. That, in fact, was something that bled over into the game’s marketing as well. Its initial reveal as what was supposedly a new IP called The Phantom Pain by an unknown developer called Moby Dick Studio only fooled people for a short while, and that whole thing with Hideo Kojima covering his face with bandages and appearing in an interview was fun, but ultimately, the game was revealed as Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain. And it was making huge changes.

It was going fully open world. It was removing series stalwart David Hayter, instead bringing in to play Kiefer Sutherland to play Big Boss (or so we thought). After Metal Gear Solid 4, it was also dialing back on the emphasis on storytelling, focusing this time on emergent open world stealth gameplay. It was a huge experiment, and Kojima’s desire to be freed from the restrictions of working on the same property for years on end was clear to see. Metal Gear Solid 5 was promising to be completely unlike anything Metal Gear had ever been in the past.

It worked and it didn’t work. It worked because mechanically, both Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain are spectacular games. Hands down, those two are the best playing stealth games at this moment in time. They’re mechanically dense, their open world is full of interconnected systems that lead to excellent emergent gameplay, they boast amazing artificial intelligence. When you’re actually playing Ground Zeroes or The Phantom Pain (the latter especially), you’re guaranteed to be having the time of your life.

But The Phantom Pain was crippled by so many significant issues. Issues during its long and protracted development cycle are well-known by now, and those issues manifested in ugly ways in the game. Most of the second half didn’t make it into the final product, and instead had to be replaced be what were basically remixes of previous missions. There was also the fact that the game was literally incomplete, ending abruptly and having left so many questions unanswered because important parts of the story had to be cut out due to time constraints.

Many also felt that in its attempts to tone down its focus on storytelling after MGS4, it ended up overcorrecting. The story was severely de-emphasized in Metal Gear Solid 5, with very few cutscenes and crucial details being relegated to missable audio logs. And of course, that final reveal of Venom Snake’s identity was not a popular one, and remains controversial to this day. And those weren’t the only issues- a barren open world, features being cut from the game, a disappointing lack of boss fights… as mechanically spectacular as it was, Metal Gear Solid 5 was weighed down by just too many issues.

What really stings, of course, is the fact that it was also the last game in the series. At least right now. Maybe Metal Gear will come back some day, but even if it does, it will be the last game in the series to be directed by Hideo Kojima, and it just doesn’t seem like a fitting place to end. Kojima’s acrimonious departure from Konami ensured that Metal Gear’s future would be shaky, and shaky it has been indeed. We got the abomination that is Metal Gear Survive in 2018 (the less said about that, the better), and other than that, there’s been… well, nothing.

Of late, there have been rumours that a Metal Gear Solid revival could be in the cards. Reports have strongly suggested over the last couple of years that Konami is looking to license out some of its biggest properties, including the likes of Silent Hill and, yes, Metal Gear. A remake of the original MGS1 has been mentioned in some purported leaks, Bluepoint Games’ name has been brought up, while it’s even been suggested that multiple Metal Gear Solid remakes will be developed one after the another.

It’s hard to judge how accurate these rumours are right now, but it’s undeniable that right now, that’s all they are. They may very well end up being true, but right now, there’s very little concrete evidence to suggest that they are. We desperately hope they are, of course. Even though it won’t be the same without Hideo Kojima at the helm, a new Metal Gear Solid game would be hard to say no to, especially if the series’ path back into the limelight is not through a new entry, which is a very risky proposition, but a remake, which would have a much better chance of doing well and winning over fans.

There’s no telling when, or even if, we’ll find out how true these rumours are, but one thing is undeniable- our collective gaming lives would be better if Metal Gear was back on top, where it belongs, once again. Hopefully, that’s more than just a pipe dream.

Given their massive pedigree and their enduring quality, ranking every single major gaming platform that they have ever produced seems like an insane task- but we’re nothing if not a little bit insane, so that’s what we’ll be doing here. Join us (or prepare to skewer us on your pitchforks) as we rank every single Nintendo handheld and home console from worst to best.

#13. VIRTUAL BOY

While ranking pretty much every other system Nintendo has made was far from easy, there was never any doubt in our minds that the Virtual Boy belongs at the very bottom of this list. There’s some reserved praise to be given here for its outside-the-box ideas and its usage of stereoscopic 3D back when games hardly even did polygonal 3D- but beyond that, the Virtual Boy has few redeeming qualities. Over the course of its life (and it was a very short life), the system got less than two dozen games in total- a shockingly low number, and not one of them was worth writing home about. The asinine design of the hardware only drives home the fact that the Virtual Boy is best left to the recesses of our memories.

]]> https://gamingbolt.com/all-nintendo-gaming-hardware-ranked-from-worst-to-best/feed 0 467119 https://gamingbolt.com/15-video-game-enemies-with-mouths-so-big-they-can-literally-swallow-you https://gamingbolt.com/15-video-game-enemies-with-mouths-so-big-they-can-literally-swallow-you#respond Tue, 24 Mar 2020 15:34:33 +0000 https://gamingbolt.com/?p=434943 Of the many ways, getting eaten or swallowed alive is probably one of the worst (not that we’d know). Unfortunately, there are plenty of enemies in video games that can pull this off. While many interesting gameplay dynamics open up, such as fighting your way out from the inside or trying to avoid being eaten, other times it’s just one agonizing death on top of the rest. Let’s take a look at 15 video game enemies with mouths so big they can literally swallow you.

Choking Weed – Gradius 3

It’s bad enough that you have to shoot past a weed-infested level with killer plants extending from the floor and ceiling to hit you. But then you come across Choking Weed, whose Venus Flytrap-style mouth opens up to actually suck you in. Fortunately, the rate at which its jaws close is slow enough to evade. Just be careful when it suddenly decides to dip forward.