The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

It’s safe to say that Nintendo knocked it out of the park with The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, knitting together a complex web of intertwining systems with mechanics that let you express your creativity to the fullest resulting in an experience like no other. It takes everything that worked in the original, and amps it up to eleven – be it Link’s powers, the size of the open world, or the many options for tackling a dungeon or boss fight. Despite a few technical hiccups owing to the hardware limitations, Tears of the Kingdom is easily one of the best games that you can experience on Nintendo’s hybrid handheld.

Super Mario Party

The infamous ruiner of friendships debuts for the Nintendo Switch. Super Mario Party takes the more traditional approach to the series’ formula, introducing new mini-games, some with motion controls, and a new mode called Partner Party where teams of two can work together. There’s even a mode called Toad’s Rec Room where multiple Switches can be combined for gameplay across multiple screens. Super Mario Party captures the amazing feeling of losing to never-ending nonsense, which may or may not be your definition of a good time.

“Not enough content”

In this day and age, the amount of “value” that can be had from a game is often discussed. We often hear about some games not having enough content. This isn’t to discount complaints against a game like, say, Anthem or Diablo 3 at launch which were touted as having strong end-games. Setting expectations is key. However, if you pick up Destiny 2 today, run through all post-launch content and then complain about not having enough content? Maybe it’s better to move on and play something else.

Due to the lack of major releases, Ubisoft Massive’s The Division 2 stayed on top of the UK retail sales charts ending April 13th, as per Gfk Chart-Track and UKIE. Interestingly, it’s seen an 8 percent increase in sales over the previous week, as per GamesIndustry. FIFA 19 and Red Dead Redemption 2 managed the second and third place spots for the week.

FIFA 19 saw a 25 percent decrease in sales week-over-week, but Red Dead Redemption 2 saw an increase of 14 percent, similar to the previous week. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which stayed at fourth place, saw a 6 percent sales increase. Perhaps the greatest rise in sales was Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. It’s currently in sixth place with a 62 percent sales increase, thanks to Easter deals.

Titles like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and Yoshi’s Crafted World, both of which managed to unseat The Division 2 for number one spots in previous weeks, have seen further drops than in the past week. While FromSoftware’s action adventure is in seventh place, Nintendo’s playful platformer dropped to fifth place. The latter’s sales also dropped by 18 percent.

Check out GFK/UKIE’s top ten for week ending April 13th below:

1. The Division 2
2. FIFA 19
3. Red Dead Redemption 2
4. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
5. Yoshi’s Crafted World
6. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
7. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
8. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe
9. Grand Theft Auto V
10. Marvel’s Spider-Man

Famitsu has released its latest weekly charts for video game software and hardware sales in Japan for the week ending April 7. Bandai Namco’s newly released tactical card game, Super Dragon Ball Heroes: World Mission, has taken the top spot in the sales charts in its debut week, selling over 70,000 copies. 

Yoshi’s Crafted World, last week’s top selling game, drops down to second place, still managing to sell a respectable 28,000 copies. Meanwhile, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is still going strong in third place, with over 18,000 copies sold. 

The rest of the top 10 is almost entirely dominated by Nintendo releases exclusively for the Switch. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe have consistently been charting high since their releases, and they have done so yet again, occupying the fourth and fifth spots with sales of over 14,000 and over 12,000 respectively. Minecraft sits in between the two- not a Nintendo game, but still the Switch version. 

The rest of the top 10 is occupied by other Switch evergreens- the usual suspects, with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Splatoon 2, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and Super Mario Party.

On the hardware front, sales for the Switch are steady once again. Nintendo’s hybrid sees a minor drop of 3,000 units, moving over 46,000 units in total this week. The PS4, meanwhile, has seen a significant drop in sales. While last week, it sold a collective 24,000 units (which in turn was down from over 35,000 the week before that), this week, the base model and the PS4 Pro have in total managed to move only over 13,000 units. 

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

Software charts (followed by lifetime sales)

1. [NSW] Super Dragon Ball Heroes: World Mission – 70,990 / NEW
2. [NSW] Yoshi’s Crafted World – 28,468 / 78,745
3. [PS4] Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice – 18,101 / 212,961
4. [NSW] Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – 14,775 / 3,000,151
5. [NSW] Minecraft – 12,278 / 719,845
6. [NSW] New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe – 12,111 / 560,098
7. [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – 9,551 / 2,246,416
8. [NSW] Splatoon 2 – 8,161 / 3,028,994
9. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – 6,309 / 1,281,348
10. [NSW] Super Mario Party – 6,305 / 991,550

Hardware charts (followed by last week’s sales)

Switch – 46,850 (49,852)
PS4 – 8,347 (17,286)
PS4 Pro – 5,507 (6,577)
New 2DS LL – 3,469 (4,291)
New 3DS LL – 919 (765)
PS Vita – 482 (717)
Xbox One X – 60 (64)
Xbox One S – 33 (28)

Yoshi’s Crafted World topped sales charts in Japan and the UK alike upon release; however, at the very least in Japan, it could have sold even more. According to Media Create’s follow-up report regarding the game’s performance, Yoshi’s Crafted World sold only 36% of its initial shipment in week one in Japan.

Given that it sold over 50,000 units in the country, this means that the initial shipment was actually closer to 150,000 units. It remains to be seen if it will be enough to meet all lifetime sales necessities for the game in Japan, or if it will sell through that shipment and need more copies.

Media Create also reports—and this is something that was evident from the initial sales charts—that Switch sales did not rise from Yoshi’s Crafted World’s launch at all. This makes sense, I guess—though the game looks well-made, the Switch is hardly wanting for another sidescrolling platformer at the moment. If you hadn’t already picked up a Switch for New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, or Kirby Star Allies, I don’t think Yoshi’s Crafted World would have pushed you over the edge.

UKIE/GfK Chart-Track have released their latest weekly charts for boxed video game sales in the UK, and for the week ending April 6, The Division 2 has climbed back to the top of the pile, in spite of seeing a 30 per cent week-on-week drop in sales (via GamesIndustry). Yoshi’s Crafted World, leader of the charts last week, has fallen down to third place, seeing a 61 per cent drop, while FIFA 19, which also saw a drop of 23 per cent in sales, moves up a couple positions to claim the second spot.

Meanwhile, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is in at fifth place. Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2 continues to chart, coming in at number 6, as does the far older Grand Theft Auto 5, taking the eighth position. Nintendo evergreens Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate also continue performing impressively, taking the fourth, ninth, and tenth spots respectively. The Lego Movie 2 Videogame in seventh place rounds out the top 10.

You can check out the full top 10 below.

1. The Division 2
2. FIFA 19
3. Yoshi’s Crafted World
4. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
5. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
6. Red Dead Redemption 2 
7. The Lego Movie 2 Videogame
8. Grand Theft Auto 5
9. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe
10. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

I’m happy to report that Yoshi’s Crafted World has opted to continue down the path of having a new, distinctive aesthetic while remaining unquestionably Yoshi. Crafted World sheds the yarn and replaces its visuals with a world designed almost exclusively out of household items. The game never stops proving that it is dedicated to its sense of consistency and attention to detail. Structures and background items are often made from material like cardboard or paper, and if you look hard enough, you’re bound to recognize things like soda cans, glass bottles, cookie boxes, and toilet paper rolls. Strangely enough, I enjoyed trying to find and identify all of these individual items throughout the game almost as much as making my way through the levels.

"Yoshi’s Crafted World has opted to continue down the path of having a new, distinctive aesthetic while remaining unquestionably Yoshi."

The rest of the game is a mixture between traditional Yoshi gameplay and brand-new mechanics that expand the game in interesting ways. You still eat enemies and turn them into eggs, shoot those eggs at things to collect them or knock them down, and use Yoshi’s adorable kick-float jumping to make platforming as easy as ever. However, quality of life improvements make this entry in the franchise feel like a meaningful evolution. You no longer have to press down to swallow enemies Yoshi grabs with his tongue, and you now have full control over where you aim eggs. These sound minor, but the reduction in busywork truly makes a difference in the moment-to-moment gameplay.

Quality of life updates are one thing, but it’s what Crafted World does differently that makes it such an enrapturing experience. It opts for a mostly two-dimensional structure, but many elements of the game implore players to engage with it in three dimensions. Buildings or items in the background can often be fired at and knocked down with eggs to reveal flowers or coins, Crafted World’s primary collectibles. Additionally, upon completion of a level, NPCs will always request you return to the level to track down random background items for them like paper airplanes, cardboard sheep, or lobsters made from buckets.

Revisiting the levels after completion allows you to return to the base level or opt to track down three puppies by tackling the level from a new perspective known as “the flip side”. This new level perspective essentially just flips the level so that you explore the back side of the original, meaning much of what you’ve already seen remains intact, but there may be new paths available behind items or walls you couldn’t see from the front. The initial revisit is often exciting, but Crafted World asks you to replay the same levels for these collectibles and puppy hunts upwards of 3-4 times, eventually leading to fatigue and boredom. Thankfully, this content is mostly optional, so I rarely felt like I had to partake in anything I didn’t want to.

"Quality of life updates are one thing, but it’s what Crafted World does differently that makes it such an enrapturing experience. It opts for a mostly two-dimensional structure, but many elements of the game implore players to engage with it in three dimensions."

These design decisions make Yoshi an ideal co-op game, however. I spent a solid 90% of my time with the game playing alongside my wife, and as the old saying goes: “Two heads are better than one.” Finding secrets is easier with two sets of eyes, and using one another to reach higher areas is a cinch. You can even hilariously eat one another to create an egg version of that player and then shoot it like a normal egg, which is obviously cute, but it also came in handy more often than one might think when we ran low on normal eggs. As fun as it is, however, it can be downright infuriating when trying to frantically navigate perils together and one Yoshi attaches to the other’s back. I would’ve preferred a dedicated button to activate piggybacking, but it’s a small price to pay, because co-op is still the best way to play the game, and the low difficulty only enforces it further for families with casual gamers or children.

That said, the general lack of difficulty could be a turn-off to some gamers looking for something to test their platforming skills. Crafted World is no doubt a game designed for casual exploration and bringing smiles to faces – there’s only a handful of difficult moments to be had during the campaign. But that doesn’t mean it’s without challenge at all. The best part of Crafted World simply comes from exploration and tracking down its bevy of collectibles. And while I’d never call the game “hard”, not all of these paths and items are a breeze to find. Some levels required me to replay them multiple times over to finally realize what I’d missed.

It was never frustrating, but it offered enough of a mental challenge to keep me invested when the difficulty of the core gameplay didn’t. You can make the game even easier via the inclusion of optional costumes that offer extra damage protection. Sadly, despite their usefulness, it never felt as exciting to unlock a bulky or awkwardly-shaped costume as it did to unlock Wooly World’s adorable yarn designs.

"The best part of Crafted World simply comes from exploration and tracking down its bevy of collectibles."

Rounding out the package is Crafted World’s weakest link – its sound design. A lot of the soundtrack is just remixes of the exact same tune over and over using different obnoxious toy-esque instruments, and the few that aren’t never stand out as anything beyond grating noise. Yoshi games have never been easy on the ears, but something about the clinks and clanks of Crafted World really tested my nerves after a few hours in ways even the worst of previous games never could.

Nevertheless, all of the game’s enthralling mechanics come together in such a way that I never got too bored of searching for flowers or coins in any of its core levels, and the slow pace of Yoshi games makes for a relaxing time doing so. Few levels required me to feel rushed or in extreme danger, so I was able to explore, shoot eggs, and kick my little Yoshi legs to float all over the levels to my heart’s content. This is what makes a Yoshi game a Yoshi game, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

This game was reviewed on the Nintendo Switch.

With Media Create no longer disclosing data for sales figures of video game software and hardware in Japan, we now turn to Famitsu’s weekly figures for the same. As per their numbers, Yoshi’s Crafted World has topped Japanese software sales charts in its debut week for the week ending March 31st, just as it did in the UK. It sold over 50,000 copies.

Meanwhile, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, which was on top of the charts last week, dropped down to second place, selling over 44,000 units. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe are still performing strongly, as they have been doing for several weeks running since their releases, charting at third and fourth positions respectively, with sales of over 19,000 copies and over 15,000 copies.

Minecraft is in at #5 with over 13,000 units sold, while Winning Post 9 debuts in sixth place with 12,000 copies sold. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Pokemon Let’s Go, and Splatoon 2 are yet more Switch exclusives that continue to perform strongly, while Super Robot Wars T, which also had a strong debut last week, comes in at eighth place with nearly 10,000 copies sold.

Meanwhile, on the hardware front, sales have slightly dipped. The Switch sits at nearly 50,000 units sold, as opposed to last week’s 56,000, while the PS4 has collectively moved nearly 24,000 units, falling from last week’s 35,000 units sold. You can find the full software and hardware charts below.

Software charts (followed by lifetime sales)

1. [NSW] Yoshi’s Crafted World – 50,007 / NEW
2. [PS4] Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice – 44,139 / 194,860
3. [NSW] Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – 19,349 / 2,992,376
4. [NSW] New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe – 15,238 / 547,987
5. [NSW] Minecraft – 13,667 / 707,567
6. [PS4] Winning Post 9 – 12,130 / NEW
7. [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – 10,889 / 2,236,865
8. [PS4] Super Robot Wars T – 9,750 / 90,978
9. [NSW] Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu / Eevee – 9,227 / 1,479,158
10. [NSW] Splatoon 2 – 8,706 / 3,020,833

Hardware charts (followed by last week’s sales)

Switch – 49,852 (56,099)
New 2DS LL – 4,291 (4,731)
PS4 – 17,286 (27,061)
PS4 Pro – 6,577 (7,834)
New 3DS LL – 765 (912)
PS Vita – 717 (376)
Xbox One X – 64 (63)
Xbox One S – 28 (28)

Gfk Chart-Track and UKIE have released the charts for boxed video game sales in the UK for the week ending March 30th, and Nintendo’s recently released Switch exclusive Yoshi’s Crafted World has topped the charts in its debut week with two days on the market.

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, which topped charts last week, has dropped down to third place, while The Division 2 retains its position in the second spot. Meanwhile, the recently released Assassin’s Creed 3 Remastered has also entered the top 10, coming in at number 9. Avalanche Studio’s new release, the first person open world title Generation Zero, failed to break it into the top 10 though, taking the 19th spot.

Back at the top of the charts, FIFA 19 is in at fourth place, while Mario Kart 8 Deluxe follows behind at #5. Far Cry New Dawn has seen a bit of a jump, moving up from ninth place to sixth, while Red Dead Redemption 2 drops down to the seventh spot. You can check out the full top 10 below.

1. Yoshi’s Crafted World
2. The Division 2
3. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
4. FIFA 19
5. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
6. Far Cry New Dawn
7. Red Dead Redemption 2
8. The Lego Movie 2 Videogame
9. Assassin’s Creed 3 Remastered
10. Forza Horizon 4