As we mentioned earlier today, Minecraft Dungeons has been updated to Version 1.3.2.0, which includes the Jungle Awakens DLC. This update also brings a tons of tweaks with it, which you can read in the full patch notes below.

New Features:

The "Start Game" button on the main menu now defaults to the last selected mode
Fixed missing characters in Korean localization the enchantment and brightness screens (MCD-1394)
'Lobby Chest' is now just called 'Chest'
Burning enchantment now has the proper description, stating that it "damages nearby enemies"
Artifacts can no longer hover over weapon and armor slots on the Inventory screen
Flaming Quiver/Torment Quiver/Fireworks no longer overlap with arrows on the HUD
Fixed overlapping buttons on the main menu in non-widescreen resolutions
Fixed corrupted Fireworks Arrow animation
Power and level of consumable items no longer on the HUD in online multiplayer
Fixed mob health bars get wider as the game progresses
The friend list now updates properly after kicking a player
Fixed the friend list automatically scrolling when clicking buttons or hovering the "Join" button
The host of an online multiplayer game now always appears at the top of the player list

In this emotional survival game take control of Anling whose goal is to make sure her son Cody is safe and can live on after she turns. Limited resources must be managed in order to slow down Anling’s infection while also making sure both Anling and Cody do not starve from hunger or thirst.

Jump Rope Challenge, a free download on the Switch eShop, has just gotten a content update! Nintendo has released new costumes, backgrounds, and a double-under jump feature. Best of all, this new content is free as well! Hop in the game and grab the update now! You can check out some footage for the update below.

While it doesn't make for the best day ever, SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle For Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated serves up plenty of smiles with hours of F.U.N. and imagination.

Growing up playing many video games based on Nickelodeon's most iconic franchise SpongeBob SquarePants, I was excited to hear that THQ Nordic was publishing a remaster from developer Purple Lamp Studios. Not only is Battle for Bikini Bottom widely considered to be the best in the SpongeBob series of games, but also the best licensed title in general. Games based on previously established IPs from film or television tend to be nothing more than shameless cash-grabs, but this one in particular is truly something special.

Surprisingly, the original Battle for Bikini Bottom was one of the few SpongeBob releases I didn't play during the 6th console generation. Most of my time was spent on prior point-and-click adventure titles on PC like "Operation Krabby Patty" (2001) and "Employee of the Month" (2002), but I also dived into some other BFBB-like 3D platformers on GameCube like "Revenge of the Flying Dutchman" (2002) and "The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie" (2004). While the 2003 release of Battle for Bikini Bottom completely flew past my radar (taking away any nostalgia that I could have had for the remaster), I'm glad that almost 20 years later I finally got to experience a rehydrated version of what everyone has been so bubbly about.

Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated is a very faithful remaster built from the seabed up in Unreal Engine 4. Most of the original’s gameplay mechanics and level design remain untouched, with the biggest difference being a gorgeous new coat of paint. While this is mostly a good thing, certain issues from the original (such as Clancy Brown not voicing Mr. Krabs) are still disappointingly present.

The art-style is now much more reminiscent of modern SpongeBob, and while some may see that as a negative due to growing up with the original, it definitely adds much more color, expressiveness, and overall life to the undersea world. Many references from the first two seasons of the cartoon can be found in both the original game and the remaster, with nods to the later seasons added exclusively for Rehydrated. Recent internet memes like “Surprised Patrick” and “Mocking SpongeBob” can be viewed through idle animations, and you can even catch an NPF (non-player fish) dabbing if you pay attention to him long enough.

The Switch version of the game has plenty of undeniable issues, most of which are based on the console’s limited hardware and/or poor optimization. Throughout my playthrough, I experienced no less than 3 random soft-locks, blacking out my screen, leaving only the UI and pause menu functional. You’ll likely come across plenty of other slightly annoying issues, including but not limited to; slow and frequent load times, occasionally blurry and illegible graphics due to dynamic effect resolution, over-pixelated shadows, and very unstable framerate. Portability is definitely the main selling-point for purchasing the title on Switch, as it can’t really compete with other platforms graphically or technically. In handheld-mode, the game looks beautiful on the Switch’s 6.2-inch LCD screen, but If you plan to play mostly in TV-mode, I’d recommend considering another system for your spongy adventure.

Taking about 10-20 hours to 100% complete, Battle for Bikini Bottom is pure joy for fans of the 3D platformer collectathon genre. 100 Golden Spatulas (the main objectives) and 80 of Patrick’s lost socks are scattered across 10 main worlds and 3 boss battles, all based on iconic and memorable locations/characters from the show. Plankton's army of rogue robots have run amok, and your goal is to stop their antics with good ol' cartoon violence! Most of the game could easily be played by younger fans of the long-running cartoon, but some challenges certainly aren’t for bubble-blowing babies. Many of Patrick’s socks are actually really well-hidden, and platforming in the latter half of the game sometimes requires quite a bit of precision.

SpongeBob, Patrick, and Sandy all control as smooth as Jellyfish Jelly (Jellyfish Jelly is smooth, right?), each with a unique moveset designed to tackle different tasks. Sandy uses her lasso for long distance hovering, swinging, and attacks, Patrick can carry and throw objects such as watermelon (which is useful for solving most of the puzzles), and SpongeBob can gradually unlock special moves like; the Cruise Bubble (a controllable missile), Bubble Bowl ("Bowl-o-rama!"), Sponge Bowl (turning yourself into a bowling ball) ,and Wedgie Dive (allowing for bungee jumping from various hooks). The characters can be swapped between upon finding a bus stop, but only the heroes needed for the specific area are available for use.

Dialogue for the character interactions, main story, and cutscenes is very reminiscent of the writing in episodes from the show. The jokes are witty, silly, and plentiful, with even some adult humor thrown in too. Most of the voice acting is spot-on due to the cartoon's returning cast, but hearing Mr. Krabs' and Mermaid Man's poor impersonators does take away from some of the immersion. You can expect SpongeBob, Patrick, and Sandy to give a comedic quip with every robot defeated and puzzle solved. While this can get pretty repetitive once cycled through, it isn't much worse than hearing "Wa! Wahoo! Weehee!" from the Super Mario games.

Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated introduces the addition of co-op multiplayer, which is sadly nothing special and honestly quite disappointing. Taking only about 30 minutes to complete the single map that’s available, the Horde Mode-like experience feels like extra content thrown into the game at the last minute. Traveling from island to island defeating the waves of enemy robots is way too easy, and has practically zero value when compared to the main single-player campaign. Dying in this mode results in a respawn just a few seconds later, failing to provide any real challenge. I suppose the most entertaining aspect is competing with your friends (locally or online) to see who can defeat more robots and collect the most Shiny Objects, but even then, it gets old pretty quickly.

Playing online actually works quite well though, which was a nice surprise. Joining a random room was almost instantaneous, but the community of online players is expectedly filled with a younger audience with short attention spans. I carried every match I participated in, and half the time my teammate left the game before we even got to the end. It’s fun to play as Squidward, Mr. Krabs, Gary, and Plankton for the first time, but it’s a shame they’re exclusive to this admittedly mediocre mode. Hey though, It’s better than nothing.

Purple Lamp Studios really delivered on developing a fun and faithful remaster of the cult classic 3D platforming collectathon. Despite performance and optimization issues with the Switch version, as well as some carried over flaws from the original, SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated is absolutely worth the $30 price of admission. If you are (or ever have been) a Goofy Goober, don’t skip out on this nautical nonsense.

You must gear up, strap on your jetpack and travel across the galaxy in havoc causing, party game mayhem! With rapidly changing game modes, 8 customisable characters and game changing hazards, no round of The Otterman Empire will ever be the same!

Presented by Fuser. We sat down with Harmonix Community Manager Zoe Schneider to get an overview of Fuser; a new dj rhythm game from the creators of Rock Band and Dance Central.

Carto is a chill adventure game wrapped around a unique, world-shifting puzzle mechanic. Use this power to explore mysterious lands, help a quirky cast of new friends, and guide Carto on her journey home.

Key Features

Unique puzzle / exploration mechanic: rearrange pieces of your map, and watch the world change around you!
Chill out and explore peaceful-yet-mysterious lands, uncovering secrets and solving environmental puzzles.
Bask in lush, hand-drawn visuals and relaxed tunes.
Meet new friends and help them solve their problems!
Journey through different biomes, each with their own characters, culture, and a unique evolution of the central map mechanic.

Publisher Humble Games and developer Sunhead Games have confirmed that Carto will come to Switch sometime in Fall 2020. If you'd like to learn more about the game, Humble Games has shared a special feature over on Playstation's official blog, complete with soundtrack samples. You can check that out here.

The Outer Worlds provides tons of content for the player to enjoy, including a massive cast of characters to interact with. Throughout the journey, there are 346 characters you'll come in contact with, and each one is voiced. In an interview with GamesIndustry, Justin Bell, the in-house audio director at Obsidian Entertainment, said those voices came from just 40 actors.

"There are 346 distinct characters in The Outer Worlds. This was a fulltime undertaking, to say the least. ...We gathered character traits for all characters, like age, gender, ethnicity, archetype, world location, quest location, and we did some analysis to determine how we could cluster them together into groups that would be assigned to a single actor. After that, it became a balancing act of ensuring we had enough actor variety per group so that we didn't hear the same actor over and over again, which would be immersion-breaking for the player."

This is just one small snippet of a feature on the massive undertaking of bringing The Outer Worlds together. You can check out the full article here.

There's no doubt some crossover between Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing: New Horizons players. I know quite a few in real life! Plenty of people are bouncing between both games every week, and one fan of the two titles decided to bring the worls together.

Redditor Zandrewbert8 got to work recreating every major villager from Stardew Valley in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, leading to 36 different tributes. The whole project took around 90 hours to complete, and turned out to be pretty spectacular. You can see the entire character collage below.

There's no doubt you know just how well the Switch is doing, especially in recent months. The platform has been a success since day one, and it continues to find new fans the world over. That includes in the UK, which is typically known as Playstation territory.

According to data from VGC, Switch hardware sales have more than doubled in the first half of 2020 as compared to the first six months of 2019. There was quite a surge in early March, which hit its peak in May. This is all the more impressive when you consider how hard the Switch was to find in the UK. If Nintendo could have had stock at a good level from March to May, sales would have no doubt been even higher.

While the peak was in May, sales continue to remain strong for Switch. Early UK reports show that June 2020 was a significantly better sales month for Switch when compared to the same month in 2019.