Purely from a hardware perspective, it's not even close: the Switch is the slickest machine Nintendo has ever built. Being able to take massive titles like Breath of the Wild along with you feels like a game-changer, but there are a lot of questions remaining that the Japanese giant has yet to answer.
Horizon Zero Dawn is a stunningly gorgeous game, an awesome open world action-RPG that overcomes the gameplay conventions of the genre by giving you so many options on how to tackle combat. It does stumble a bit trying to tell a cohesive story, but I was too caught up in exploring all the little details of the world to let that bother me.
The best parts of this new Kingdom Hearts collection — the remaster of Dream Drop Distance and Aqua's miniature adventure — offer plenty of fun and a tantalizing taste of what Kingdom Hearts III will be like. The series' narrative absurdity is ever-present, but so is the addictive fun of its hack-and-slash gameplay.
Nintendo officially announced that the latest game in the Zelda series, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, will be launching March 3rd alongside its new console, the Nintendo Switch. The announcement came on the heels of the brand new trailer above, which showcases more of the story elements in the game — probably the most neglected aspect in previous trailers — along with the revelation that this will be the first title in the series to feature full voice acting.
Nintendo announced that the latest title in the Xenoblade series, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, would be coming to Nintendo Switch at its Jan. 12 presentation. Not much is known about the game outside of it being a sequel to Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenoblade Chronicles X, but based on the trailer above, one can infer that this outing is a bit more traditionally story-driven like the previous entry (as opposed to the latter, which emphasized player character creation and open-world exploration despite having a typically over-the-top JRPG story).
At their Jan. 12 presentation, Nintendo announced the newest 3D Mario title in its famous series, Super Mario Odyssey — which is coming to Nintendo Switch this holiday season. According to the game's producer, Yoshiaki Koizumi — who was also responsible for producing recent Mario smash hits like Super Mario 3D World and Super Mario Galaxy 2 — it'll feature an open-world "sandbox" style of gameplay not seen since Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine. Koizumi said the theme of this game is "a journey to an unknown world" and will be departing the Mushroom Kingdom this time around to traverse worlds unknown.
During its highly-anticipated Jan. 12 presentation, Nintendo announced Splatoon 2, which will launch this summer for its new Switch console. A sequel to its smash-hit Wii U title, Splatoon, the game will feature new weapons, new battle stages and more. Perhaps the biggest and most obvious change comes in the form of the "splat dualies," a pair of ink guns that are obviously meant to draw a visual link to the Switch's new detachable Joy-Con controllers.
A wacky Nintendo Switch launch window title called Arms will feature highly stylized cartoon arm-extending multiplayer action, Nintendo announced at its Jan. 12 presentation. The game will launch this spring, according to the company, and represents a sort of return to their Wii-era experiments with motion-controlled gaming. Specifically, players will use the left and right Joy-Con controllers to fling their chosen character's respective arms, creating a sort of interesting hybrid between traditional Punch-Out!!-style boxing and the sort of projectile-heavy gameplay you'd see in a shooter.
