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The Nintendo World Championships were a big deal in the early 90s, with Nintendo bringing together all kinds of players to test their skills in various NES games. Nintendo would eventually bring back the Nintendo World Championships in 2015, but they once again went dormant in 2017. Now, according to a rumor, it could be time to see this series revived once more.

Pyoro is the go-to insider when it comes to Nintendo news. Whoever Pyoro is, they’ve made it abundantly clear that they have some very strong connections to Nintendo. Time and time again, Pyoro has leaked information that’s been spot-on. Now they’re back at it again, teasing fans with a single image.

Pyoro took to X to share a picture of a Nintendo World Championships cartridge from 1990. They did so without any explanation for the image. That has of course led to all sorts of speculation, with fans wondering what exactly the image means.

There are all sorts of ways this tease could be interpreted. Is Nintendo bringing back the Nintendo World Championships? Could we see some of the NWC game versions make their way to Switch Online? Is this an even deeper tease that we’re yet to decipher the true meaning of? All guesses are valid at this point!

We’ll keep an eye on Pyoro going forward to see if they offer any clarity on this tease. Until then, let the speculation run wild!

UPDATE: Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition has been rated by the ESRB for Switch. (h/t VGC) You can read the game’s description below.

This is a collection of 2D challenges and platformer games in which players traverse through various modes (e.g., speedrun, survival). Several challenges involve reaching specific points, while others prompt players to defeat small enemies or survive brief battles. Some games depict pixelated characters using small swords or arrows to strike at enemies; enemies typically get stunned or disappear in a flash.

Ratalaika Games, Masaya Games and Shinyuden have announced that Cyber Citizen Shockman 3: The Princess from Another World is coming to Switch today. This title originally launched for the PC Engine CD-ROM² in Japan all the way back in 1992.

In Cyber Citizen Shockman 3, after Sonya wins a big prize in the lottery, she and Arnold travel to a tropical southern island to enjoy some well-deserved holidays. However, paradise soon turns into hell when a strange spaceship appears all of a sudden and starts attacking the city. Unable to just sit around and do nothing while chaos unfolds, Arnold and Sonya transform into Shockman and head to battle this new mysterious enemy!

Key Features

• Play through a big variety of stages that include platform stages as well as scrolling shooting stages.
• Fight powerful bosses alone or with a friend with the two-player mode.
• Brand new English translation plus original Japanese text.
• Image gallery from hand-made scans.
• Handy emulation features such as rewind / forward, save states, and CRT filters.
• View a set of screenshots at the gallery.

Prepare for a purr-fectly explosive gaming experience like no other! RedDeer.Games announced Bomb Cat, a thrilling twist on the classic 2048 match game. Don’t miss out on the fun, as Bomb Cat launches on Switch today.

In Bomb Cat, the goal is simple yet challenging: players match adorable fluffy cats to achieve the highest score without running out of space. But beware, because lurking among these cuddly companions is the bombastic Bomb Cat, ready to shake things up with its explosive antics.

Will it assist players in their quest for high scores, or will it send their game flying into oblivion? The choice is theirs, but they must choose wisely!

Featuring eleven colorful cats to match, each with its own weight and personality, Bomb Cat offers endless hours of addictive fun. And with the possibility of sending cats to the Moon and back, along with special combo mechanics to boost scores, the excitement never ends.

But remember, strategic placement is key to maximizing scores and avoiding disaster. Can players rise to the challenge and become the ultimate combo heroes? Find out in Bomb Cat, where every match could mean the difference between victory and defeat.

QubicGames has announced that My Horse Stories by CrazyLabs will be released for the Nintendo Switch today.

Put on those cowgirl boots, style your new horse, and start racing like a champ! You’re located on a horse farm that becomes your haven, and with each passing day, you grow closer to your loyal companion - a graceful horse with whom you’ll weave your own unique horse-riding tale!

To rise above the competition and conquer the racetracks, you must train tirelessly, immersing yourself in the art of horsemanship. Your dedication will bring you face-to-face with rival stars and formidable opponents who will test your skills and determination. You and your horse will form an unbreakable bond through intense training sessions, setting the stage for legendary horse riding tales that will be whispered for years to come!

But it’s not all about intense races and fierce rival stars. In the tranquil moments between training, you’ll find solace in the stars’ stable horses - majestic creatures that inspire awe and fill your heart with joy. Take the time to nurture and care for them because their well-being is crucial to your success. Pamper them with love, groom their silky manes, and dress them in dazzling saddles that reflect their extraordinary beauty.

Features:

• Train every day with your horse till you’re ready to compete in international horse races
• Compete in exciting horse story racing competitions around the world!
• Wow the crowd with your amazing jumps!
• Dress up like a champion in the most fabulous cowgirl boots ever!
• Take good care of your horse: feed, groom, and dress him up in an eye-catching saddle!
• Do farm chores.
• Upgrade your horse-story farm and build new facilities.
• Climb the leaderboard and make your family proud!

QubicGames has announced that Baking Time by CrazyLabs will be released for the Nintendo Switch today. Stack all kinds of mouth-watering baked goods, from croissants to cookie hearts and everything in between!

Grab your spatula, lift the baked goods out of the oven, and put them on display so that customers can buy them! With a steady stream of hungry customers waiting in line, it’s up to you to deliver their orders quickly and efficiently!

Satisfy your customers and earn money that you can spend to hire additional staff and expand your bakery! Unlock new recipes and serve even more delicious pastries!

Need a helping hand? Invite your friend to play in local co-op mode and expand your bakery to the next level! Grab your aprons and get ready to bake up a storm in Baking Time together!

Features:

• Bake over 30 different pastries that your customers won’t resist!
• Collect baked goods with a spatula and put them on the display to sell them!
• Operate the cash register and satisfy your customers’ appetites!
• Earn tons of money to unlock new levels of your bakery!
• Hire staff to help you collect the baked goods much faster!
• Unlock 32 adorable animals that boost the cash you and your bakers collect!
• Upgrade your character and workers to walk faster or carry more pastries!
• Perform baker’s tasks and claim your rewards
• Prepare baked goods for special large orders!
• Feed your cookie monsters to get money each second -Use the teleport to move faster between levels
• Get caught up in the cooking fever and try not to get hungry!

It’s very sad to say, but layoffs and closures in the game industry have been dime a dozen since late 2023. It seems we can’t go a week without some bad/sad news about game industry folks, and unfortunately that trend continues today.

Paladin Studios, which is the team behind Good Job! on Switch, is officially closing its doors. The studio has been around for 19 years, having worked with tons of big-name companies to create all sorts of games, and those partnerships certainly includes Nintendo.

On their official website, Paladin says they’re shuttering due to failing “to land enough work to cover burn-rate.” The studio said that pushing on would have been an “irresponsible decision that would have likely caused insolvency.”

We’re sad to see Paladin Studios go, but at the very least, they’re making sure their 45 employees receive a severance. If you’d like to read the studio’s full announcement of their closure, you can find it here.

Balatro has been on fire ever since it first launched. Despite a minor hiccup where the game was yanked from sale for a few days due to a ratings issue, its’ been smooth sailing for a couple of months now. Last we heard in March, Balatro had racked up more than a million sales, and there’s no doubt it’s inching ever closer to 2 million with each passing day.

With that kind of success comes interest in official merch, and the team behind Balatro is happy to oblige. There’s now an official Balatro merch store, and the following items are up for grabs right now:

• t-shirts
• hoodies
• mugs

If you want to check out the various designs available or place an order, you can find the complete lineup here.

Balatro is a hypnotically satisfying deckbuilder where you play illegal poker hands, discover game-changing jokers, and trigger adrenaline-pumping, outrageous combos. Combine valid poker hands with unique Joker cards in order to create varied synergies and builds. Earn enough chips to beat devious blinds, all while uncovering hidden bonus hands and decks as you progress. You’re going to need every edge you can get in order to reach the boss blind, beat the final ante and secure victory.

The newest episode of the Ninjala anime series has been released online, titled “Clairvoyant Oema & the Kappa Attack” The 23-minute episode will be available to view for free until May 9th, 2024, so check it out while it’s available! A plot synopsis of the episode reads:

Burton and the others receive news that a young man gathering twigs in Mount Ayakashi was ambushed by a giant shadow that darts among trees. They decide to head there to defeat the suspected Yokai and seek shelter in a nearby mountain cabin to prepare for the impending Yokai search. However, things escalate when Oema destroys the plates she brought along, due to her frustration with Vanji’s continuous mockery of them. Regretting her actions, Oema returns to the cabin to retrieve the shattered plates, only to find they have mysteriously vanished without a trace…

In an exclusive interview with The Direct, Legend of Zelda movie Director Wes Ball has spoken on how important the franchise is to him and what fans can expect from the project.

In this interview, Ball expressed his enthusiasm for the highly anticipated film adaptation. As a self-proclaimed fan of the franchise, he assured fans that the movie is in the works and stated his commitment to making it a great experience due to how important the Zelda series is not only to the fanbase but to himself as well, claiming he has been playing the games since his childhood.

While unable to reveal a release date, he jokingly hinted at a timeframe within the next decade.

If you’d like to read the full article, click here. But what do you think? Are your expectations high or do you remain cautious? Let us know in the comments below!

Disney Dreamlight Valley introduced Update 10 this week, bringing new content including the beloved Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. However, along with fixes and additions, a bug has been introduced related to Oswald.

This issue revolves around the 3D Glasses item, crucial for completing the quest “Oswald’s Many Dimensions.” If players purchase the glasses from Scrooge’s Store before initiating the quest, they won’t be able to complete it. The game’s official Twitter account acknowledged the problem and assured players that it’s being addressed urgently.

To avoid this glitch, players should refrain from purchasing the glasses until they reach the relevant quest step and order them through the Clothing Catalogue option. The game developers are actively working on a solution and thank everyone for their patience.

Another Crab’s Treasure came out a week ago and since then, Aggro Crab Games has released a number of updates and patches for the game.

While the game has received overall praise, it’s also been criticized over many bugs encountered by players. Aggro Crab has been hard at work by patching these bugs, but since they are a small team, they’ve had trouble keeping up with them. This is why while working on patching certain errors, sometimes they’ve inadvertently created more of them.

Working on the game post-launch has been a difficult task for the small team at Aggro Crab, so they have decided on slowing down on patches for the sake of the game, the players, and themselves. They promise that they will not stop working on the game, but they’ll be releasing updates more periodically, rather than daily.

If you’d like to read the full statements, you can read the entire Twitter thread linked below.

Endless Ocean Luminous launched today on the Switch and Nintendo is already aiming at keeping you diving for a long time.

‘Event Dives’ are in-game events that will take place from time to time where you’ll encounter rare sea creatures and other sights. The first Event Dive will start on May 10th at 11:59 PM PT and May 11 at 2:59 AM ET and it will last for three days. You need an NSO subscription in order to participate.

Interested about Endless Ocean Luminous? Don’t miss the launch trailer below!

When Western gamers see the roguelike hit Balatro, the first card game that likely comes to their minds is poker. As it turns out, poker wasn’t the primary inspiration behind the title. According to designer LocalThunk, that honor goes to a lesser known Cantonese card game called Big Two.

Big Two is a gambling game in which players are trying to get rid of all their cards (similar to Crazy Eights, or Uno). In the premiere episode of a podcast called Dear Dwyery, LocalThunk delves into the history of Balatro, including its origins and influences. According to him, the game was given poker-like aesthetics to make it more palatable to players unfamiliar with Big Two.

LocalThunk also notes that Big Two “thematically doesn’t have a lot going on,” which explains why poker was a better fit for a video game. In any case, it seems like he made the right call, as the game has proven to be a big hit since its release.

Click here to listen to the full podcast for a deep dive into the making of Balatro.

QUByte Interactive has shared a new trailer for Musashi vs. Cthulhu, an action game set in feudal Japan with Lovecraft elements. The trailer also reveals the Nintendo Switch release date for the game as May 16, 2024.

A Switch eShop listing for the game hasn’t gone up yet, though the game is currently available in Early Access on Steam. We’ll have to wait to see what the Switch pricing looks like. Until then, watch the new trailer above, or find more details below.

Musashi vs Cthulhu (or MxC) is a fast paced action game where you take control of Musashi - the most famous warrior from feudal Japan -,as he’s fighting for his life.

The ronin is a victim of a terrible curse that makes him a target for unspeakable monsters. In each match, hordes of monsters spawns endlessly and attack until there’s no one standing.

The enemies comes from both sides of the screen and must be attacked with precise blows to bulging weak spots shown in their bodies. Challenge your friends to see who is the coldest and most precise warrior, even when facing impossible odds.

• Frenetic gameplay that will require both your attention and reflexes
• 5 different enemies to know and master
• Challenge your friends in weekly, monthly and all time Leaderboards

Arielek has announced that their puzzle game Please Fix The Road will be arriving on Switch in just a couple of weeks, on May 16th, 2024. The game has been available on Steam for a while now, but this date will make its debut on home consoles.

The game will be available for $9.99 on the Switch eShop. Click here to view its official store page, or see more details below.

(Possibly) the prettiest, most relaxing road-fixing puzzle game ever! The roads are broken again. And so are paths. Sidewalks. Lakes(???) Oh dear. And now it’s your job to fix them all!

Each level gives you a limited set of tools that will help you get all the cars, boats, trains or animals from point A to point B. The mentioned animals include, of course, kittens, dogs and… cute ‘ol pink llamas.

Your tools of mass destruction (and repair) will let you destroy, rotate, copy, swap, raise, lower, push or move different segments of roads. And lakes. And paths. And more!

Your road repair doesn’t have to be beautiful, it just needs to get the job done! So please… Fix the road and have fun!