The Nintendo Switch features a touch-sensitive screen that can be used when the console is in its handheld mode, but until this point, Nintendo hasn’t given players a good alternative to their fingers for actually using it. When playing games like Super Mario Maker 2, a stylus is preferable, and now, at long last, Nintendo is selling its own Switch stylus.
Currently only available from the Nintendo UK website, the Nintendo Switch stylus functions differently from Nintendo’s other styluses. In the past, Nintendo touch displays have been resistive, meaning that pressure from the stylus pressed two sheets together to registered input. This style of screen limited input to single-touch, however, which is why the Wii U’s design seemed fairly primitive in 2012.
The Switch, however, has a capacitive display that doesn’t rely on pressure, and because of this, it requires a different type of stylus. The Nintendo Switch official stylus features cloth on the end and interacts with a screen’s electrostatic field in order to register input. It doesn’t require you to push down with any force, and it’s the same type of system used on your phone — it’s why you need special gloves if you want to keep your hands cozy while you text in the winter.
Nintendo released the new stylus to coincide with the release of Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Training on the Switch, as it requires writing for some of its mini-games. The best use of the stylus for most players, however, will likely be in Super Mario Maker 2‘s level creator mode. It’s already easier to make levels in handheld mode than with a controller on your television, but the stylus will make it all feel even more natural and similar to the Wii U’s system. It should also make navigating menus a breeze, and if Nintendo ever decides to make a full-featured drawing game for Switch, you’ll be ready to go.
For those outside the U.K. looking for an alternative, there are several options available. Digiroot offers a similar stylus with an extra disc-style tip for around the same price as Nintendo’s official product, and we’ve found it works well with the Switch in Super Mario Maker 2 despite being a third-party product.
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.
Epic Games has just announced the 2026 Epic AI MegaJam, which is looking to see how much game development can be squeezed into a very short window. This is running from November 12 through November 15.
Participants can work alone or in teams of up to five people, build in Unreal Engine or Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and bring along “as many AI agents as you want.” Epic explicitly encourages coding agents, AI-generated assets, audio tools, writing tools, and other AI systems. The official event page literally says "Vibe your way to $50k.”
It’s turning into a pretty good time to be a Monster Hunter fan who plays on a phone. Capcom has confirmed that Monster Hunter Outlanders will launch on Android and iOS on October 29, giving the series a new mobile-first game just as Monster Hunter Rise is also preparing to make the jump to smartphones through Netflix.
Outlanders is being developed by Tencent subsidiary TiMi Studio Group under license and supervision from Capcom. Unlike Rise, which appears to be the full console and PC game adapted for mobile, Outlanders is a free-to-play survival hunting game made specifically for phones.