Nintendo is kicking off the holidays early with two new Switch bundles set to release “early this fall” that will basically give you a copy of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Nintendo Switch Online for free.
Nintendo announced the bundles on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday. The bundle with the regular Nintendo Switch and Neon Red and Neon Blue Joy-Con controllers will cost $300, while the one with the Switch OLED and white Joy-Cons will sell for $350. Both bundles include a console, a digital download of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and 12 months of Nintendo Switch Online.
The Switch OLED normally costs $350, while the regular Switch goes for $300, so you’re getting Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and its Switch Online subscription service, which Nintendo values at $80, for free essentially. There’s no release date just yet, and preorders aren’t available, but stay tuned for updates over the coming weeks.
While Mario Kart 8 Deluxe released its last DLC in 2023 in the form of the Booster Course Pass, it’s still the most successful Nintendo Switch game of all time, and one of the best Switch multiplayer games. Meanwhile, Switch Online is basically required for multiplayer, so it’s an obvious choice for such a bundle. Depending on your plan, you can also share it with up to eight family members or friends and get access to cloud saves. Nintendo also releases ports of classic games to the Switch Online + Expansion Pack, and has been consistently adding new ones. You can play games like GoldenEye 007, Star Fox 64, Super Mario World, and a whole bunch of Legend of Zelda classics like Majora’s Mask.
The bundles might be one of the last times to get such a deal on the Switch. Nintendo has been gearing up for the eventual release of the Switch’s successor. We have no information on this just yet, but rumors suggest it could be released early next year.
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.
Imagine tapping a Zelda icon on your iPhone and jumping straight into Hyrule. A new open-source project called nxnative makes that possible by repackaging Switch games you’ve bought into apps for iPhone, iPad, and Mac, with no emulator in the middle.
Why does this run so well on Apple devices?
The Call of Duty franchise has held a special place in my heart ever since I played my first Black Ops game back in 2010. That game's campaign was something else, with twists and turns that culminated in a mind-blowing finale. We can all admit that compared to those older campaigns, the recent CODs have been lackluster at best, and a complete and utter disappointment at worst. The reboot of Modern Warfare did give me some hope, as the first two installments were actually quite good, but the third game left such a bad taste in my mouth that I wasn’t exactly expecting much from Modern Warfare 4.
After recently finishing the campaign, I can say that this installment is nothing like the recent releases and instead feels closer to the franchise’s roots. For the first time in a long while, the campaign comes across as well-crafted rather than rushed to hit a release date. It arrives three years after MW3, and you can see exactly where all that time went. It seems the studio finally made listening to player feedback a priority.