Nintendo's Switch 2 soups up the graphics, but does it deliver the games?
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Newsweek
2 hours ago
- Newsweek
One of Nintendo's Most Unique Games Just Got a Surprise Release on Switch 2
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Entertainment gossip and news from Newsweek's network of contributors Every once in a while, Nintendo uploads a new game to its Nintendo Classics service, a series of Netflix-like apps that host retro games from the company's past consoles for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers to enjoy. Today, one of the company's most interesting and unique games got released on the service: Mario Paint. Nintendo announced and released Mario Paint on its SNES Nintendo Classics app on both Switch and Switch 2 today, with the game playable after a simple update to the app. A player uses a Joy-Con 2 as a mouse in Mario Paint's coloring book game mode. A player uses a Joy-Con 2 as a mouse in Mario Paint's coloring book game mode. Nintendo Mario Paint is a classic SNES game that was released alongside a curious accessory for the SNES, the Super NES Mouse, which as the name suggests was a computer mouse for the SNES. The mouse plugged into a controller port on the console, and could then be used in various software, including Mario Paint, which was sold bundled with the mouse. The game is a collection of activities and minigames that make use of the mouse, such as a drawing suite, a coloring book, an animation tool, and a fly-swatting minigame called Gnat Attack. The most famous of the activities included in Mario Paint, though, is the music composer, which is a simple but still fairly well-featured music creation tool that lets players place notes of various kinds onto a musical clef to make a song. That song can then be played back, and can be used in the animation tool. It was one of the first music creation tools on a dedicated home console, and is remembered fondly by many in modern times. The game came to Switch 2 likely in part because of the inclusion of the mouse pointer mode on the Joy-Con 2, with each Joy-Con controller bundled with the console able to be used as a standalone mouse. Original Switch players won't be missing out, though, as Nintendo has also added USB mouse support to the app, which works just as well as the Joy-Con 2 in Mario Paint on both Switch and Switch 2. Two other games that supported the Super NES Mouse on the Nintendo Classics service are now able to be played with a Joy-Con 2 in mouse mode or a USB mouse, too, with Nobunaga's Ambition and Mario's Super Picross now updated to include support for the mouse. The update also brought improvements to the app's controls remapping and CRT filter, as well, and changed the name officially to Nintendo Classics rather than being branded Nintendo Switch Online.
The Verge
3 hours ago
- The Verge
One of Nintendo's most creative Super Nintendo games is now on the Switch
Last night, Nintendo quietly added Mario Paint to the Nintendo Switch Online's catalog of Super Nintendo games. Originally released back in 1992, Mario Paint was a unique SNES title, because although it included a handful of mini games, it was first and foremost a creative tool letting players draw, paint, animate, and even compose music using the 16-bit console. What also set Mario Paint apart from other SNES games was that it didn't rely on the console's standard gamepad. It came bundled with a two-button mouse and a plastic mouse pad that made drawing and navigating the game's on-screen menus and drag-and-drop interface much easier. In 1992, creative apps like Photoshop were still in their relative infancy —- Photoshop didn't even have its useful layers feature yet — and for many kids, Mario Paint was their first exposure to using a digital creative tool (and perhaps even a mouse). Alongside Mario Paint being added to the Switch's SNES catalog, Nintendo has enabled mouse support for the Switch's SNES app, which is compatible with games like Mario's Super Picross and Nobunaga's Ambition. On the original Switch, players can connect a compatible USB mouse to play Mario Paint, while on the Switch 2 the Joy-Con 2 controller's mouse functionality can be used. The company also recently added 19 tracks from Mario Paint to the Nintendo Music mobile app, including the three sample compositions available in the game's music sequencer. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Andrew Liszewski Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Gaming Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All News Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Nintendo
Washington Post
3 hours ago
- Washington Post
The new ‘Shinobi' embraces the ‘pure craft' of hand-drawn 2D gaming
There's a myth that true immersion into video games requires three dimensions: sidescrollers are good for nostalgia, but the future belongs to photorealistic 3D worlds. But a range of recent games like indie darling 'Hollow Knight' are proving millennia-old, 2D hand-drawn art will endure in video games. Ben Fiquet, a Parisian artist who founded game studio Lizardcube, now contracted by Sega in the Japanese firm's efforts to revive languishing intellectual property from its troves, remains dedicated to the craft. Fiquet is creative director for Sega's new title 'Shinobi: Art of Vengeance,' scheduled for release Aug. 29 on Nintendo, PlayStation, Xbox and PC platforms. Fiquet says he created Lizardcube to be a beacon of light for 2D animation in gaming, inspired by award-winning '90s game developer Dave Perry, who created that era's visually stunning 'Earthworm Jim.' The studio's effort is backed up by several critically acclaimed 2D games with Sega's 'Streets of Rage 4' and the Wonder Boy series. 'The inherent power of 2D lies in its straightforward simplicity: the artist's vision brought directly to life,' Fiquet tells The Post. 'There are no tricks or deceptions, just pure craft. While it can be challenging to elicit player emotion, I believe 2D can resonate more deeply, strongly and lastingly.' Sega of America visited The Washington Post newsroom with a PlayStation 5 console and an early copy of 'Shinobi: Art of Vengeance.' The publishers believe the game speaks for itself once in the player's hands, and they're correct. The feel of the game requires the mental agility and focus of a fighting game, with a free-flowing combat system that includes juggling combination attacks in the air, counters and follow-up techniques like rolls and dive kicks. Sega knew Lizardcube was perfect thanks to the studio's success in translating the arcade brawler 'Streets of Rage 4' for the 21st century while retaining its crunchy spirit. Kagasei Shimomura, director of Sega's content production department, is a longtime producer since the company's golden era of the 1990s. As part of the now defunct Sega Ages project, which brought classic titles to modern platforms, he's been a key figure in keeping Sega franchises alive after the turn of the century, when Sega famously exited the video game console business in 2001 to become a publisher and developer for other platforms. The company is most famous for creating Sonic the Hedgehog, but in recent years, its found success in role-playing games focused on Japanese culture with the Like a Dragon series, focused on yakuza life, while the multi-million selling Persona series features young adult fantasy adventures. This success gave Sega newfound confidence in reviving classic franchises from its golden era. 'When launching the Ages project, our first task was to select a series to bring back, and the one that always came to mind was Shinobi,' Shimomura said. In 2023, Sega announced a full-court press of franchise revivals across the company, and Shimomura once again made reviving Shinobi his priority. 'And when it came to bringing that title to life, only one name came to mind: Lizardcube,' he continued. 'I contacted them right away and was surprised to learn that they were also very passionate about the Shinobi series and had hoped to work on a game someday. That settled it for me. Lizardcube was a must-have developer for the new Shinobi title.' The company has tried a dozen times to revive the Shinobi series, including an ambitious dalliance into 3D gaming with a 2003 PlayStation 2 title that was well received but saw limited success. Lizardcube's entry will be the first Shinobi game in 14 years, and its return to the two-dimensional plane is deliberate. 'Sega's revival project is guided by the principle of lore meeting innovation,' Shimomura said. 'This means we don't simply enhance the visuals of past titles, instead we break down the original works to their very core, redefine their inherent appeal and combine them with new elements that will excite today's players.' One of the consistent features passed down from Shinobi's arcade lineage is punishing difficulty. But in a welcome move for anyone hoping for a more relaxing time, Lizardcube's game provides multiple options to make the experience easier, including making the player's iconic white-clad ninja protagonist Joe Musashi hit harder while taking more damage. The game features stunning layered backgrounds depicting futuristic mashups of Japanese traditional and urban environments, including busy cityscapes dotted with digital and street artwork. A robust skill tree can be filled out with many collectibles found through battles and exploration within a surprisingly nonlinear level design that pushes players against every axis of the map. It also includes arcade-like challenges for a more focused experience on platforming and action without any narrative beats. The animation is exceptionally fluid, highlighted by lovely black ink brushstrokes of traditional Japanese paintings. Creating evocative and immersive images with 2D hand-drawn art is a different kind of challenge from 3D games, Fiquet said. 'While not overly complex, it demands skilled artists and a pipeline capable of handling it,' he said. 'Most modern hardware is optimized for rendering intricate 3D assets, but managing thousands of stacked images presents a different challenge.' In many ways 2D renderings are less flexible, he said, 'requiring all decisions to be made well in advance.' 'Shinobi: Art of Vengeance' is shaping up to be a vanguard title for Sega's efforts to galvanize its arcade roots. More broadly, and considering Lizardcube's pedigree and passion, it'll be another brushstroke in 2D art's durability even in the fast-evolving medium of video games.
