Summer is here, the sun is out, and kids will soon be off from school for the summer. If you’re a parent looking for fun activities for your children during the dog days, the Nintendo Summer Tour may be your solution, at least for a few days.
Nintendo is kicking off the Nintendo Summer Tour. The company is going to 12 locations around the United States to give kids some video game-themed family fun. The Big N will have a bunch of 3DS games on display, from solid past hits like Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, New Super Mario Bros. 2, and Mario Kart 7, to more modern hits like Yoshi’s New Island, Kirby: Planet Robobot, Yo-Kai Watch, and Pokémon Omega Ruby and Pokémon Alpha Sapphire. There will also be an opportunity for kids to grab photos with some of Nintendo’s most iconic mascots and win prizes.
The booth will be incredibly ornate, featuring a giant Nintendo 3DS, a massive Kirby with pink bean bags, racing seats for Mario Kart, Yoshi egg chairs, and oversized bananas surrounding a Tiki hut. Unfortunately, Nintendo is making this a handheld only affair, meaning that Wii U games will not be on display. It could be because Nintendo is phasing out the Wii U for its rumored NX. The more probable reason, however, could be that Nintendo is trying to cater this event to a younger audience. With the Nintendo 2DS starting at $79.99, Nintendo’s hoping to convince parents that its system is a cheaper and better gaming device than an iPod Touch.
The tour will kick off on June 17 in Los Angeles. It will then travel eastward hitting cities such as Glendale, Arizona; Seattle; Houston; Garden City, New York; and Alpharetta, Georgia. A full list can be found here.
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 One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it.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.