Nintendo released a new “Nindies Showcase” video presentation on Wednesday that includes several new Switch game announcements as well as a release date for one highly anticipated sequel. You can watch it directly above or on the Nintendo YouTube channel.
Steamworld Dig 2, the sequel to the acclaimed action-platforming game from Image & Form, will release first for Nintendo Switch on September 21. Its crisp, modern art style looks quite a bit different from the original game and it should look beautiful blown up on a television screen.
Kentucky Route Zero: TV Edition will on Switch cn early 2018, and it includes the debut of the game’s fifth act. The spooky adventure game originally launched to rave reviews on PC back in 2013 and it has been well over a year since the previous act released.
Yacht Club Games’ Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove will receive its fourth and final campaign in early 2018. King of Cards takes our hero through four different areas for not just the series’ signature action-platforming, but also a card-based mini-game. It will arrive in early 2018.
Cult-hit No More Heroes will be getting a new installment on the Switch — in fact, it’s exclusive to the system. No More Heroes: Travis Strikes Again is set seven years after the original game, and sees Travis forced to complete games inside a “phantom game console,” one of which is Hotline Miami. It launches in 2018.
Perhaps the most surprising announcement from the event was the multiplayer shooter Morphies Law. Aside from having an incredible name, the four-on-four game uses a unique gameplay mechanic. As players hit enemies’ bodies, their own bodies grow in inverse proportion. Should you target an opponent’s head exclusively, for instance, your own head will grow larger. This will make you a bigger target, but you can strategically pick where you will grow in order to give yourself an advantage. The game arrives this winter as a Switch console exclusive.
Nintendo revealed a ton of games during the Nindie showcase, including Dragon: Marked for Death and Frozenbyte’s new Trine spinoff, Nine Parchments. Check out the video for a full rundown of the announcements.
Updated on 8-30-2017 by Gabe Gurwin: We previously stated that Kentucky Route Zero would be a console exclusive for Switch. It will also launch on PS4 and Xbox One in 2018.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.