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Nintendo Switch Online Has a Surprise for Mario Kart Fans

Nintendo Switch Online Has a Surprise for Mario Kart Fans

Nintendo has a special surprise for Mario Kart fans subscribed to Nintendo Switch Online on Switch, Switch Lite, and Switch OLED. Nintendo fans haven’t gotten a proper Mario Kart game since 2014 when mario kart 8 was released via the Wii U. And with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe selling like hotcakes on Switch, and mario kart tour and Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit bolstering this offering, it may be a while before “Mario Kart 9” is released. Unfortunately, today’s new surprise doesn’t change this disappointing reality, but those subscribed to either tier of Nintendo Switch Online will be delighted to know that the latest free icons coming to subscribers are Mario Kart 8 Deluxe themed.

The new icons come alongside the new wave of Booster Course Pass DLC, and feature the likes of Mario, Dry Bowser, Yoshi, and more. Unfortunately, the game’s best characters — Waluigi and Black Shy Guy — are not included. As you may know, this isn’t the first time the game has been included in the promotion, but all of the icons themselves are new. These particular designs will be available until August 8, with new designs replacing the previous designs every week for the month of August.

In addition to being limited to Nintendo Switch Online users, each icon requires Platinum Points. More specifically, each character is 10 points a pop, while frames and backgrounds are 5 points a pop. That said, this shouldn’t be a problem for most Switch Online users.

Nintendo Switch Online on Switch Lite, Switch OLED, and Switch Lite runs at $20 a year. Meanwhile, Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack, you need to fork over $50 a year. For an extra $30 a year, these subscribers get a range of additives, with the most notable of these additives being access to N64 and Sega Genesis games.

For more Nintendo coverage — including the latest on Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Switch Online specifically — be sure to check out all of our previous articles on it by clicking right here or, alternatively, check out the links right below:

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Nintendo Rules Out Any Price Increase On The Switch In Japan… For Now

Nintendo Rules Out Any Price Increase On The Switch In Japan... For Now

Nintendo Switch OLED Model
Image: Nintendo Life / Zion Grassl

Amidst a weak yen in Japan, electronics are currently facing some serious price hikes, including the likes of Apple’s iPhone, but also encompassing a wide range of pretty essential goods including TVs, fridges, dishwashers, and printers.

One area that seems to be immune (for now) is the video game console market. According to Bloomberg (thanks, VGC), the three major console manufacturers – Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft – were asked whether a price increase is on the cards in Japan in the near future. While Sony and Microsoft conspiciously declined to comment, Nintendo stated quite plainly that it has “no plans” to raise Switch prices.

Of course, plans can change at the drop of a hat, but it’s nonetheless reasonably welcome news for customers. As cited by Bloomberg, none of the console manufacturers want to be the first to raise the price of their products, but what this currently means is that consoles in Japan are effectively $100 cheaper than anywhere else.

On the flipside, as a result of companies not opting to raise their prices, this has also led to scalpers in Japan buying consoles and selling them on again at a profit at the most opportunistic time, further increasing demand in the country and driving profits away from shareholders. As such, an eventual price increase may seem almost inevitable.

One likely reason that Nintendo is declining to raise the price of the Switch is that all models are still selling like hotcakes in Japan. Just last week, Nintendo managed to sell almost 70,000 Switch units, whereas the PlayStation 5 managed just over 11,000. It’s clear that Nintendo sees no reason to raise its prices when its products are still performing so well. Nevertheless, as the yen weakens, Nintendo is expected to report a profit loss as part of its next financial results.

Do you think console prices will rise in Japan? Who will be the first to cave? Let us know in the comments!

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Random: Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Has Plenty Of Very Memeable Dialogue

Random: Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Has Plenty Of Very Memeable Dialogue

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Eunie
Image: Nintendo / Monolith Soft

If you’re a long-standing Xenoblade series fan, then you’re probably used to hearing the same lines of dialogue over and over again, whether it’s post-battle, or when opening a chest or gathering items.

Xenoblade Chronicles has a few of these — who can forget “I’m really feeling it?” from Shulk, something we constantly abuse here at Nintendo Life when we’re covering Xenoblade news. And “Now it’s Reyn time” has also entered the pantheon of video game memes. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 had even more, including a couple of lines — “Think you can take me?” and “Don’t forget me”—that were edited in a patch.

So what does Xenoblade Chronicles 3, the latest entry in the series, add to the hall of Xenoblade quotes? Well, here’s one you’ll be hearing a lot of.

Eunie, a Keves soldier and the team’s Medic Gunner, has one post-battle quip that we’ve certainly heard a fair amount of — especially this writer. Ina lovely, think British accent, Eunie — after ally Lanz says “That was over way too soon!” — declare “Hear that, Noah? Lanz wants something a bit meatier.” It’s like poetry. Except this is a JRPG where you fight a lot of battles, so you’re going to be hearing it pretty much constantly throughout your playtime.

The frequency of Eunie’s little quote has got fans reminiscing about their favorite Xenoblade quotes, even blending them together to create some memes for the ages.

Of course, Eunie isn’t the only character who has something to say. Sena, Agnus’s tiny little hammer-wielder, is a cheery, pleasant little kid who’s determined to let you know something about herself:

This one’s quite cute, honestly. Sena’s pretty small and she’s usually carrying around a huge weapon. She loves training and sparring. So she’s just trying to amp herself up a bit!

Going back to Lanz, if you keep him as one of the Defender classes, he’ll be trying to keep aggro off of the other party members. So you’ll be hearing plenty of this from him:

He’s also the MVP, but you were probably already thinking that.

The frequency of some of these quotes has been drawing a lot of attention from people playing the game, with some — including Xenoblade YouTuber Enel — thinking there should be more dialogue just to drown out some of the more-common quotes. Perhaps we’ll see a Xenoblade Chronicles 2-style patch in the future?

For now, we’ll have to bask in the frequency, glory, joy — whatever you want to call it — of JRPG battle and field quotes in Xenoblade Chronicles 3. You won’t be forgetting these any time soon.

In fact, for Xenoblade Chronicles on the Wii, the developers had to cut out some battle dialogue. Did You Know Gaming? revealed this in a video published this weekend, where the channel also brought up changes to one particular cutscene involving protagonist Shulk.

If we were to pick our own Nintendo Life quote, it’s got to be “Hello there lovely people” hasn’t it? Anyway, if you’re a Xenoblade fan, share your favorite Xenoblade field and battle quotes with us in the comments!

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Made In Abyss: Binary Star Falling Into Darkness File Size Seemingly Revealed

Made In Abyss: Binary Star Falling Into Darkness File Size Seemingly Revealed

Made In Abyss Screenshot Two Characters
Image: Spike Chunsoft

Next month, the first video game adaptation of the hit anime series Made in Abyss will be hitting the Switch. And thanks to the eShop and Nintendo Everything, we might have a good idea how big a hole you’ll need to dig to make room for the game.

The upcoming RPG from Spike Chunsoft, Made in Abyss: Binary Star Falling into Darkness, will have both a retelling of the anime (with production supervised by the creator Akihito Tsukushi) plus an original story set after main characters Riko and Reg leave for the Abyss .

Luckily, the game doesn’t seem to need much space, with the eShop stating it will take up approximately 5.9GB. That’s a little bigger than Super Mario Odyssey’s 5.5GB, but comparable to other RPGs on the system such as Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch (5.7GB) and Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea DX (5.9GB).

So, despite the game being packed with two different modes, this cave isn’t too deep at all! Of course, as with all Switch file sizes pre-release, this is subject to change, but it doesn’t seem like you’ll need to carve out a ton of space for this upcoming game.

We’re sure fans are anticipating the game’s 2nd September release, and we are too. Let us know what you think of the upcoming Made in Abyss action RPG in the comments!

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Masahiro Sakurai Is Almost Out Of Smash Ultimate Screenshots

Masahiro Sakurai Is Almost Out Of Smash Ultimate Screenshots

Sakurai Smash Bros Sora
Image: Nintendo

Even though Super Smash Bros. Ultimate “ended” with the release of the last Fighters Pass character — Kingdom Hearts’ Sora — it still hasn’t felt “over” for us. That’s because Masahiro Sakurai, Mr. Smash Bros. himself, has continued a long-standing tradition of posting a new screenshot from the game every single day.

We’re envious of pretty much all of them, as Sakurai managed to capture characters, locations, and moments in such a perfect way that really understands the characters. In fact, seeing these screenshots every day has brought us a little bit of happiness — and envy. But it looks like this tradition might soon be over, as Sakurai has admitted on Twitter that he’s almost run out of screens!

Calling it a “workday ritual”, the Smash Bros. series director admits he even took an extra 200 “as we were wrapping up development”, which means he’s had some of these stored for a while now!

With today’s announcement, Sakurai shared his next shot — one of Wii Fit Trainer in Flat Zone X bouncing off of the Fire lifenet.

Sakurai hasn’t specified how many screens he has left, but it’s got to be less than 30 if we’re running out this month.

Fans have flocked to Twitter to mourn the end of this tradition, and also thank Sakurai for continuing to share screenshots from the game. The shots regularly rack up thousands of likes and retweets on the platform, so it’ll be weird not seeing them on our timeline every day. But Sakurai deserves a break, for sure.

A few months ago, we rounded up some of our favorite screenshots from Sakurai’s Twitter, so have a little peruse before going on over to his account (where you can also fawn over his adorable kitty) to find some more recent ones.

Have you enjoyed seeing these Smash Ultimate screens every day? Will you miss them once Sakurai have finished uploading them? Let us know!

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Disney’s New Free-To-Play Racer Wants To Be Distinct From Mario Kart With “Combat Racing”

Disney's New Free-To-Play Racer Wants To Be Distinct From Mario Kart With "Combat Racing"

Disney Speedstorm Mickey Mouse
Image: Gameloft

Gameloft’s free-to-play racing game Disney Speedstorm has already been compared to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe numerous times. With its character-focused racing and themed tracks, it was inevitable — especially on the Switch! But, in an interview with Nintendo Everything, the developer is keen to set out what makes this title stand out from Nintendo’s juggernaut kart racer.

While Mario Kart 8 has different types of karts, stats, and even racer weights, Disney Speedstorm will have four different classes. When asked about what makes this game “stand out”, Gameloft Barcelona’s game manager — Aska Suzuki — put forward this unique element first:

“In Disney Speedstorm, characters aren’t just broken up by general types. We’ve given them one of four classes: Speedster, Brawler, Trickster, and Defender to support the strong combat racing element to this game. Boost management is really important , and each class builds extra boost in different ways, such as a brawler gaining more boost through stunning other racers, or a speedster gaining extra boost by going across boost pads.This provides the opportunity for very strategic racing if players wish to race that way .”

The class doesn’t just change how the character races, but it also affects how you get extra boosts, which adds an extra layer of strategy to the game! It sounds like a really interesting difference, especially with the focus on “combat” and confrontation. So we’ll be racing against all of our least-favorite Disney characters so we can justify ramming into them on the race track, then!

But that’s not the only unique element. Suzuki went on to explain what other differences classes bring to the table:

“Additionally, individual characters don’t just have special abilities, but they are pre-loaded with specific power-ups, so a trickster character will be more inclined to get items that negatively impact other racers, or a defender might get more defensive items On top of that, each power-up can be charged in order to perform a different action! More than any other racing game I can think of, character choice in Disney Speedstorm is closer to picking a character in a MOBA game.”

This element of the game is similar to Mario Kart Double Dash!!, but instead of just having unique abilities, they’re also more likely to get items that fit their playstyles. What items and skills these are, we don’t know yet, but it looks like character selection will be going beyond simply picking your favorite Disney and Pixar character.

Of course, Disney Speedstorm is a live service game with seasonal content, and Suzuki outlined a few things that will be added to the game once it’s out:

“…players will have access to regular new content via updates and season passes. New Disney and Pixar racers will be added regularly to Disney Speedstorm, bringing special skills for you to master (or overcome) and unique tracks to pump fresh strategy into the mix. Support crew characters, environments, customization options, and collectibles will also drop in regularly, so there’s always more to experience.”

This is certainly something that sets the game apart from Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which many might be worried about. However, despite there being special events and Season Passes, Suzuki reiterated that “all characters can be unlocked through gameplay”, while also finding items to help level up their chosen character.

There will be specific events focused on a single Disney or Pixar film, or other ones focused on certain characters. So Gameloft is planning to go all out on the game.

Disney Speedstorm is due out sometime this summer. We’ll let you know as soon as we have an official release date. Have you decided on whether you’ll be downloading the game? Do you think the combat racing elements will make this one stand out? Let us know down below!

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How Do You Feel About Wave 2 Of The Mario Kart 8 Booster Course Pack?

How Do You Feel About Wave 2 Of The Mario Kart 8 Booster Course Pack?

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The second wave of the new Booster Course tracks for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe will be here next week, and we’re feeling hyped to try out some new races (and a little disappointed that some of them look more like Mario Kart Tour tracks than Mario Kart 8 tracks).

In the spirit of hype, we’re trying to gauge how people are feeling about this new wave, and the DLC in general. Is it everything you’d hoped for? A cool bonus to the Nintendo Switch Online subscription? A bit disappointing? Or are you just totally bummed that Nintendo is pumping time and money into an old Mario Kart game instead of something else — like a new Mario Kart game?

Use these polls to tell us how you really feel!

That’s all the questions we could think of… but tell us your overall thoughts on this latest wave of new tracks in the comments below!

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Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Is Already Switch eShop’s Top Seller, Unsurprisingly

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Is Already Switch eShop's Top Seller, Unsurprisingly

Xenoblade Chronicles 3
Image: Nintendo

It’s the launch weekend for Xenoblade Chronicles 3, and although there was a lot of demand for the physical versions of the game, it seems plenty of people are still picking up the digital version of the title.

For some, these purchases may have even been due to the delays associated with the fancier collector’s versions. According to the eShop charts in the US, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is now out in front of Minecraft.

Even games like Nintendo Switch Sports and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – two titles that just received DLC updates. Digimon Survive has also snuck into the sixth spot, with Live A Live in 9th place, at the time of writing.

It’s the same situation in locations like the UK – Xenoblade is out in front, ahead of games like Among Us, FIFA 22, and Mario Kart. And in Japan, the game is also in the top spot. To add to this, it’s charting on websites like Amazon as well.

Once again, it’s not a bad start for an RPG series like this. The previous game Xenoblade Chronicles 2 sold over 2 million copies, and the original game’s Definitive Edition on Switch has shifted more than 1.5 million copies.

Have you contributed to Xenoblade Chronicles 3’s digital or physical sales? Can you see this going on to become the best-selling entry in the series? Leave your thoughts down below.

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