Time again to look at the handheld gaming news that stood out to us this week! We have news about: get the J. Paul Getty Museums designs in your Animal Crossing: New Horizons game, get an educational tour through Blathers Museum by the people from the Monterey Bay Aquarium, a survey for Atelier fans, Dordogne, a puzzler in watercolour, Strategy Game Hercules II: The Cretan Bull, Indie Tactics RPG – Wintermoor Tactics Club for Switch, Fledgling Heroes flying in, Tom Nook designs, chibi style characters in RPG Puzzler Fairy Knights and Fairy Tail has a release date on Switch.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons impacting real life
This week I heard of some nice examples of how Animal Crossing: New Horizons is impacting real life. Due to the fact that museums, zoos and aquariums are closed to the public the people working there are coming up with fun ideas on how to incorporate their cultural icons into New Horizons.
The J. Paul Getty Museum for instance is making it easier for famous works of art to appear as Animal Crossing designs. In their official Twitter account, the Getty Museum shared its Animal Crossing art generator. People who visit the site can tap into the museum’s art collection for Animal Crossing designs. They use the already established open source Animal Crossing Pattern Tool for this.
Hey #AnimalCrossing fans! Hang Van Gogh’s “Irises” on your wall, wear Manet’s “Spring” on your shirt, or decorate your island with ancient sculpture.
Add art to your game using Getty’s new custom pattern-making tool: https://t.co/0014ri2rTO pic.twitter.com/iWoJCdj3jr
— Getty (@GettyMuseum) April 16, 2020
Do you enjoy education from Blathers?
Another example is this: If you enjoy the eduction that Blathers so freely offers, you can also join the people who work at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Their alter egos in Animal Crossing lead us through Blathers museum and imparting their nuggets of wisdom on all the fossils, fish and insects displayed. It is a rather long Twitch video, but it’s good eduction as well!
Tour through alternate Monterey Bay Aquarium
Survey for Atelier fans
Are you a fan of Gust and Koei Tecmo’s Atelier series, like I am? Developer Gust , is running a survey, only demanding roughly ten minutes of your time. In exchange, Gust is offering a high resolution, free Atelier Ryza wallpaper for your device(s) of choice.
The content of the survey seems to be about consumer data, measuring metrics such as marketing effectiveness, and looking at what fans are or aren’t interested in. And at the end of it you can download an image of two characters watching fireworks for your device of choice.
Dordogne, a puzzler in watercolour
The debut title from French indie studio Un Je Ne Sais Quoi, a game called Dordogne, is a charming and wholesome adventure in hand-painted 3D watercolour, coming to PC and Nintendo Switch in 2021.
Dordogne is a narrative adventure game in which you play as Mimi, a young woman visiting the house of her recently deceased grandmother who left her letters and puzzles to solve. To do so, Mimi will revisit her childhood memories and reconnect with the little girl who marveled at everything.
It certainly looks amazing in watercolour, check out their trailer!
Strategy Game Hercules II: The Cretan Bull
Indie Game studio JetDogs has released Hercules II: The Cretan Bull on Nintendo Switch. Hercules II: The Cretan Bull is a strategy game set in Ancient Greece. The players will need to solve tricky puzzles, rebuild roads and villages, gather resources and construct World Wonders! The game is already available on other platforms, like PC (Steam) and iOS. Nice that it’s now available on a console as well.
The story follows Hercules – an ancient Greek hero on his quest to tame the dangerous Cretan Bull. Similarly to the previous chapter of the game, the plot is inspired by ancient Greek mythology, but introduces a new take on the events described in myths. While the game is a sequel to Hercules’ adventures, the story progresses irrespective of the events of the previous chapter, enabling both new and existing players jump right into the game.
Indie Tactics RPG – Wintermoor Tactics Club for Switch
Narrative driven tactics RPG Wintermoor Tactics Club will be launching on PC via Steam on May 5th, with PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch versions launching later this year.
In what promises to be a special kind of game, players take on the role of Alicia, one of the members of the Wintermoor Academy Tactics Club, where students play the premier tabletop game of the time, Curses & Catacombs. In their exploration of Wintermoor Academy, players will write tabletop campaigns to help students overcome their personal problems, and discover their fantasy selves as the club grows. And although the game has a cozy, light hearted approach and earnest sense of humour, soon the sinister truth is unraveled behind the War of the Clubs.
Fledgling Heroes flying in
Australian indie studio Subtle Boom brings its debut title ‘Fledgling Heroes’ to Nintendo Switch on 7th May 2020. This light hearted game boasts 90+ hand crafted levels with 4 challenging game modes is a side-scrolling game featuring brave birds taking on a wild world.
Each feathered friend has their own treacherous tale to tell as they dodge dastardly pirate lizARRrds, dash through frozen forests, dive through sunken temples, and flap their way from fledglings to fully-fledged heroes! Fledgling Heroes also features a fully customisable online level editor enabling gamers to build their own adventures and test them against their friends or other players across the globe!
Tom Nook designs
I swear, Tom Nook is doing everything to promote his business and the getaway package! Now he’s released a custom design for a flag and a tee. So if you want to make him even more rich (having paid him for pretty much everything on your island) you can now also sport his image in your island paradise.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons code for Tom Nook designed flag/tee https://t.co/tOmjiFjvdK
— Japanese Nintendo (@japaneseswitch) April 17, 2020
Chibi style characters in RPG Puzzler Fairy Knights
The game publisher CFK announced that Fairy Knights will be released worldwide for Nintendo Switch on Thursday, April 30th.
In the game, Kai and Elisa must defeat the Devil and revive Vadelle, the barren kingdom from which the Devil took away the source of life. What they need is magic stones; they have to find the temples located throughout the kingdom and pass the Fairies’ tests. But unknown intentions and phenomena prolong what seemed to be an easy job. What secret would Kai and Elisa reveal in their journey?
Fairy Knights’ battle system is based on the puzzle. Various attacks and spells are activated depending on how the route is connected by moving stone panels. And combos are important. More combos mean more damage, so player needs to think and control fast. Don’t let your guard down in the active real-time battle!
Fairy Tail has a release date on Switch
The game based on the Japanese Manga and anime series, Fairy Tail, finally has a release date: June 26 on the Switch. Koei Tecmo celebrated the announcement with a new trailer!
This is from the press info: In Fairy Tail players can build a five-character dream team from a roster of over 15 playable characters as they adventure across the Kingdom of Fiore in their quest to raise Fairy Tail to the top guild in the region. As characters fight together in the same party, their bonds gradually strengthen, and as their friendship level increases, special conversations will play out, including original dialogue written specifically for the Fairy Tail game. Stronger bonds also allow for enhanced attacks.