Even with the Summer holidays in full swing, there’s always some news to cover. This this it’s about iOS release Sky: the Children of Light, Wargroove on PS4, stretch goal for kickstarter Orange Island, good news for Nintendo and bad news too with a lawsuit.
Sky: the Children of Light has landed in the iOS AppStore.
As the successor to Journey, this captured my attention. A promise of another beautiful and casual adventure?
In Sky, you are born into a world of interconnected realms linked beneath the same starry sky, and you must find ancestral spirits in order to return them to their rightful place in the constellations. By skipping across meadows, sliding down dunes, and soaring through open skies, you complete your task by bringing light to darkened places, kindling braziers and ancient bell towers with the touch of your candle.
More importantly perhaps, the game has a strong social element. Sharing the light with friends or strangers you meet in the game makes the adventure all the more special.
The game plays smoothly, looks amazing and the soundtrack….oh my! My husband, without seeing what I was playing, remarked: this is like GOT music! I don’t know if we will ever see a Switch version, as the other games by ThatGameCompany only made it to PlayStation. I couldn’t help thinking though it would be a perfect fit.
Check out the gameplay trailer:
Japan: Nintendo #1
Gaming magazine Famitsu looked back on the first half of 2019 and published the Top 5 most successful publishers. The positions were determined by the number of software units that the publisher was able to sell in Japan. Nintendo easily holds first place as you can see:
- Nintendo – 3.480.000
- Square Enix – 1.490.000
- Bandai Namco Games – 1.390.000
- Capcom – 890.000
- Sony Interactive Entertainment – 430.000
Don’t forget the Summer Sale in the eShop
There’s a huge summer sale going on in the Nintendo eShop with a lot of nice reductions for indie games, but for Nintendo and more expensive titles as well. Biggies like Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Party, Civilization and Octopath Traveller are 33,3% off. Don’t forget the are in effect until July 25th.
Lawsuit JoyCon Drift
Not so good news for Nintendo: a lawsuit has been filed against them for what is known as the Left JoyCon drift: Although not touching the joystick on the Nintendo Switch controller, the console still thinks it’s moving.
We talked about it in our small team, and several writers have had to replace the JoyCons over the year. Some even multiple times, and as one of us remarked: these suckers aren’t cheap.
A couple of days ago, a thread on the Nintendo Switch subreddit about the issue was upvoted over twenty seven thousand times. This player had started getting issues with drift on their Joy-Con after only four months of use. Nintendo never addressed the issue, but now they will have to.
Wargroove on PlayStation
Some months ago, Chucklefish released Wargroove on Switch. Now, PlayStation gamers will also get to try the game. It will launch on PS4 on July 23rd for $19.99. With four factions to choose from, twelve commanders to control, tight tactical battles, and over ten language options, Wargroove is perfect for both new and experienced players of the genre.
Check out our review for the game here.
Orange Island Kickstarter reached the Switch stretchgoal
We wrote about kickstarter Orange Island on the site (find specifics here); the game is designed with the intent to be as NES authentic as possible with 8-bit graphics, chiptune audio and retro gameplay. This also ties in with the NES cartridge release they had already funded.
What’s very interesting too, is that they now have reached the stretchgoal of release on the Nintendo Switch as well. Nice!
https://twitter.com/orangeislandok/status/1150956822389501952
I bought my switch used, and almost immediately started getting (right) joy con drift. Bought a repair kit, and promptly destroyed it when I attempted the fix. Nintendo has made it clear, then as now, that they won’t be doing anything about it of their own volition. And I say this as a lifelong only-nintendo gamer.
Not of their own volition perhaps, but I’m pretty sure they will eventually have to. I do wonder how they will go about that, as I know some writers here have already bought several new JoyCon pairs over the past year!