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Playtonic’s racing game Victory Heat Rally was released on Steam in October, but has yet to arrive on Switch. It was previously given a release window of Winter 2024. As we’re approaching the end of the year, an updated eShop listing has given us what seems like a firmer date.

According to the game’s Japanese eShop listing, Victory Heat Rally is set to launch on December 12th, 2024 on Switch. It’s possible that this is only a placeholder date, or that this is only for the Japanese version of the game. However, considering the previously given release window, it seems likely that Switch owners in the US will be able to download it on that date as well. Stay tuned for confirmation.

Welcome racers to Baytona beach! Victory Heat Rally is inviting all racers to set their sights on the VHR tournament when it launches in Winter 2024. Choose your driver, customize your car and put the pedal to the metal as you let your opponent eat your dust as you race to victory!

With 12 characters and 12 cars to choose from, along with 36 stages and 12 locations, there’s plenty of racing action to enjoy. You’ll also have arcade, time attack, rally, and more modes to spend your time with.

UPDATE: This release date has been 100% confirmed thanks to a new trailer that dropped today. You can check out that trailer below.

Idea Factory recently released the supernatural otome visual novel 9 R.I.P. physically and digitally on Nintendo Switch. As this title is filled to the brim with characters, we’re still getting trailers showing off the case. You can check out a trailer breaking down the character of Honghua above.

Key Features

Over Our Dead Bodies – School Ghost Stories, Urban Legends, the Other Realm, and the Spirit World. Get spirited away to an alternate reality or uncover tragic and thrilling truths in the real world, offering a unique mix of horror and romance with 8 romance options to explore.

Nightmare on Otome Street – For those wanting something a little spookier in their Otome, the School Ghost Stories route sees you trapped in a school where you hear whispers of gruesome murders having occurred. The presence of ghosts won’t make this any easier. Can you survive, and maybe even find romance in the face of horror?

Insane in the Membrane – Being in a realm filled with ghosts and evil spirits will have an effect on you. Throughout the game, your choices will impact not only your affection with the characters you meet with the Love Catch system, but your psyche as well. Making the wrong choices can lead to insanity and even change you into something else entirely.

Drop Dead Gorgeous – Witness rich environments and alluring characters designs. Beloved character artist from Cupid Parasite, Yuuya, stuns again with gorgeous visuals.

D3Publisher has announced that they’re bringing their popular escape room series “The Escape From the Closed Room” to Nintendo Switch. There are four episodes from the series in total, which will be available via the eShop, or as a physical collection in Japan. The physical version will be available February 13th, 2025, while the digital episodes will be released weekly worldwide in December 2024.

Click here for more detailed information about each episode. You can see an overview trailer above, and a more specific trailer for the first episode down below.

“The Escape from the Closed Room Series” has been refined and is now available for the Nintendo Switch™! The protagonist is somehow trapped in a closed room wherever he goes. The simple yet profound mysteries will give you an irresistible sense of satisfaction when you solve them.

• A wealth of features that even beginners can feel at ease with!
• Equipped with two modes: beginner mode for easy puzzle solving and veteran mode for challenging your limits!
• Packed with features to assist you in solving puzzles, such as a memo function!
• You can play comfortably in all modes, whether you use touch controls or a single controller!

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is available now on Switch, and Nintendo is promoting it with an adorable new short video. This is an animated short mimicking the art style from the game, that also resembles stop motion animation. In the video, Zelda shows off some basic uses of her power to create echoes. Check it out above.

In this latest adventure, the people of Hyrule are being stolen away inside strange rifts appearing throughout the land. With the help of an ethereal creature called Tri and the powerful Tri Rod, Princess Zelda boldly takes on a quest to save her kingdom. This latest Legend of Zelda adventure includes new features such as:

Using the Tri Rod, Zelda can create echoes – imitations of things found in the environment. Echoes can then be recreated to help solve puzzles and can be combined for creative problem-solving, such as using water blocks to reach new heights, making bridges out of old beds, throwing rocks at foes and more. Zelda can even create echoes of monsters to fight by her side in combat!

Yet another Nintendo cameo has been spotted in a new movie. This time the movie in question is Dear Santa, the new Farrelly Bros. comedy starring Jack Black as Santa (actually Satan).

There are two Nintendo appearances to look out for in Dear Santa. The first one comes at around the 1 hour and 9 minute mark, when you can see a poster for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in one of the character’s rooms. The next one occurs at around the 1 hour and 32 minute mark, when another character is playing Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on their very own Nintendo Switch. In fact, he just so happens to be playing as Bowser, which could very well be a nod to Jack Black’s voice role in The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

It’s always nice to see more Nintendo love on screen. You can check these Nintendo appearances out for yourself by streaming Dear Santa on Paramount+. You can also see screenshots of the two moments below, courtesy of GoNintendo reader Adam!

The collaboration project between Pikmin and JR Kyushu, “PIKMIN x JR Kyushu - Explore the Enchanted Planet of Kyushu” starts on Saturday, December 7, 2024!

The project includes a variety of initiatives and opportunities to meet Pikmin, ranging from events at JR Kyushu station plazas to Pikmin wrapped trains, and more! Pikmin Bloom is participating too, of course, which means you will be able to receive souvenir postcards, as well as meet special Decor Pikmin at JR Kyushu stations!

Are you ready to set out on this new adventure? Blow your whistle to gather your Pikmin squad, and let’s go – the enchanted planet of Kyushu awaits!

■“PIKMIN x JR Kyushu - Explore the Enchanted Planet of Kyushu” Details

A selection of 6 station plazas in Kyushu will be holding a variety of Pikmin-related events, including the “Pikmin Festa in Kyushu”, Pikmin-themed train wraps, and a digital stamp rally to collect treasure at JR Kyushu Stations.

“Pikmin Festa” events will include pop up stores opening for a limited time at amusement plazas in each station building. These pop up stores will be offering not only Pikmin merchandise from the Nintendo Official Store, but also “PIKMIN x JR Kyushu” original merchandise! See details here.

• Event Duration: December 7, 2024 - June 30, 2025 (Time of each event may differ.)
• Location: JR Kyushu train stations (Each event may be held at a different station.)
• Participation Fee: Free of charge

■Pikmin Bloom Event 1: Meet special Decor Pikmin at “Pikmin Festa in Kyushu”!

Each “Pikmin Festa in Kyushu” will feature an in-app “Spot Challenge”, which will start when you launch your Pikmin Bloom app near the venue on the event day. Clearing the dedicated mission gets you a Gold Seedling that grows into a Red “Gold Ticket” Decor Pikmin!

Dates and locations are as follows:

• December 7 - 8 2024: Oita Station Square
• January 18 - 19, 2025: Nagasaki Station (Kamome Plaza)
• February 1 - 2, 2025: Amusement Plaza Kagoshima AMU Plaza
• March 1 - 2, 2025: Amusement Plaza in front of Kumamoto Station
• April 19 - 20, 2025: Miyazaki Station West Exit AMU Plaza
• May 31 - June 1, 2025: JR Hakata Station Plaza

*The Spot Challenge will be held from 10:00 on the first day to 20:00 on the second day (local time) at each location. *The station name on the “Gold Ticket” Decor will be different for each venue.

■Pikmin Bloom Event 2: Receive special postcards from Special Spots at the stations!

During the project period, Special Spots will appear in the Pikmin Bloom app at stations participating in the JR Kyushu digital stamp rally “Treasure Collection”. Swiping down on these Special Spots gets users postcards featuring special designs, as well as regular white nectar.

The postcard designs are different for each prefecture and there are 7 types in total! Do collect them as you work on your stamp rally progress!

For details on the 61 stations participating in the stamp rally, please see here.

Nintendo has revealed the next round of Fire Emblem Heroes content, and they’ll be available between November 28th, 2024 at 12:00am PT and December 15th, 2024 at 11:59pm PT. You can find out who they are, along with their stats and skills by watching the new trailer up above.

The new heroes featured in this trailer are Níðhöggr (Quieting Dose) & Læraðr (Quieting Heart). These two characters will also be featured in a brand new event with a 5 Star Focus Appearance Rate of 8%.

Last but not least, you can also choose a Focus Hero from the event to summon for free after your 40th consume, up to 2 times.

INTI CREATES recently released “Card-en-Ciel” on Switch. For those who don’t know, Card-en-Ciel is a turn-based card-battling RPG with roguelite dungeons.

The Muse characters in Card-en-Ciel each sing a song, 50 in total. Enjoy songs from the fictional game universes as if they were the real theme songs, battle themes, and endings, all created in the style and genres of the appropriate eras.

Get acquainted with one of those songs from the (*fictional) monster-raising, deck-battling RPG “Kizuna Connect 2”! Star monster Elfrend (Nanako Mori) sings background song “Your Answer” in this introduction trailer for the cast of Kizuna Connect 2!

In Card-en-Ciel, you’ll control the “gaming chair detective” Neon as he battles through these dungeons, each based on a different fictional game in the Card-en-Ciel universe. Battles take place on a 3 by 6 grid, giving players the option to use their cards for attacks, movement, or Special Skills. Each victory will allow the player to collect a new card to put in their deck right away and add to their collection later.

The game features a full story that develops as you conquer the dungeons, complete with full English and Japanese voice options! All character cards in the game, over 300, will also be voiced in both languages! Plus, the game’s soundtrack will include 50 songs.

The next Pokémon Masters EX event has been announced, and it’s set to kick off before November ends. Leon awakens his arc suit, but is it enough to defeat one of the toughest Trainers of all time?

Chapter 2 of the Arceus arc is coming. Arc Suit Leon and Charizard are coming to the world of Pokémon Masters EX. They’ll arrive on November 28th, 2024 and be available until December 16th, 2024. The Sync Pair of Milo & Eldegoss will be available from December 4th to December 22nd. You can see the Sync Pairs in action, plus more details via the video above.

Mario & Luigi: Brothership is the latest entry in the previously dormant Mario & Luigi franchise. Now that it’s been out for a few weeks, fans have had a chance to dig into the nitty gritty of the game’s features and mechanics. One of the things players might challenge themselves to do at some point in an RPG is to discover the game’s level cap and reach it for themselves. The team over at Gaming Reinvented did just that, and you can see the results in the above video.

As it turns out, the level cap for Brothership is Level 100, just like previous Mario & Luigi games. What’s different in this game is that it takes much longer to reach that point - a total of 9,999,999 EXP as opposed to 9,000 EXP in Super Mario RPG. That requirement pretty much confirms that only the most dedicated of fans will reach that point. You can click here for a more detailed breakdown of the numbers.

Next up, a modder known as AS Dair has released a mod for Brothership which replaces some of the in-game battle themes with the themes from Bowser’s Inside Story. Since Brothership has a new composer, some fans might enjoy hearing the old tunes in place of the new ones. Click here to check out a video on Reddit which demonstrates the difference. Which version do you prefer?

For the past few years, The Pokémon Company has collaborated with McDonald’s to put out specially themed Happy Meals featuring Pokémon Trading Card Game packs. Usually the promotion occurs around August in the US, but it looks like there will be a bit of a delay this year. According to PokéBeach, the promotion will be available in France between December 4th, 2024 and January 21st, 2025.

In the past, the promotion has featured special packs of Pokémon TCG cards included with Happy Meals, plus coloring sheets and activities for kids. The cards haven’t been anything new or groundbreaking, but they do have a new numbering as part of the McDonald’s set, so collectors will want to keep an eye out.

If you’re not in France, this is still good news! Typically, the Pokémon TCG promo comes to the United States a couple months before it arrives in France. That means it’s likely that we’ll be seeing it in October or November of this year, so stay tuned.

UPDATE: As we inch closer to the launch of this collaboration, a handful of new details have come in:

• runs from December 4th, 2024 to January 21st, 2025
• largely themed around Dragon Pokémon
• you will receive one 4-card booster containing 1 holo card and 3 non-holo cards
• there will be 15 cards available, 6 of them holo
• all of the cards will be reprints from previous sets, but with new McDonald’s numbering
• holo cards will be printed on the confetti holofoil used exclusively for McDonald’s cards
• Pokémon featured on the cards are as follows:

Charizard, Quagsire, Pikachu, Miraidon, Hatenna, Koraidon, Umbreon, Dragapult, Hydreigon, Roaring Moon, Jigglypuff, Dragonite, Eevee, Rayquaza, Drampa

Voice actors tend to be some of the most versatile people in the gaming industry, and you never know where you might hear one of them turn up. With that in mind, here’s a fun fact that many Sonic fans may or may not have been aware of: Sonic’s voice actor, Roger Craig Smith, has held another longtime job, that of narrator for the TLC bridal reality show, Say Yes to the Dress.

This news isn’t exactly a secret, as Smith has been doing the job since 2007, but it’s definitely not widely discussed. For most gamers, a show like this isn’t somewhere you’d expect to hear the voice of Sonic (and the overlap between Sonic fans and Say Yes to the Dress viewers is most likely not enormous). Since it’s the weekend, we thought we’d share this little tidbit just for fun in case many of you (like us) weren’t aware of it!

In addition to his narration work on Say Yes to the Dress, Craig Smith narrated two seasons of the reality cooking show Hell’s Kitchen. Of course, he’s also the voice behind other memorable video game characters like Resident Evil’s Chris Redfield and Assassin’s Creed’s Ezio. Who would’ve thought, he’d also be solely recognized as the voice of bridal narration by millions of TLC viewers?

For reference, check out a clip from Say Yes to the Dress below, and you too can imagine Sonic the Hedgehog chatting with you about wedding dresses.

Animal Well was released on Switch earlier this year and has proven to be a big indie success. Created and designed solely by developer Billy Basso, the game is a retro-inspired puzzler/Metroidvania. However, while it shares many common features of the genre, it deviates in many others.

In a new interview with Nintendo Life, Basso discusses which Metroidvanias in particular inspired him while working on Animal Well. Unsurprisingly, and of interest to Nintendo fans, one of the big ones was Super Metroid. Perhaps equally as important as what Basso took from Super Metroid was what he didn’t take, as he explains in the following quote:

Basso also talked specifics about the latest Metroid title, Metroid Dread on Switch. Though he’s obviously a big fan of Metroid games and the genre as a whole, he had some criticisms of Metroid Dread feeling too samey, which he expresses below:

Metroidvanias are almost impossible to avoid in the indie gaming space these days, so it’s fascinating to hear opinions on the genre from one of the current hottest indie designers. Whether or not you agree with Basso’s criticisms of Metroid Dread, it’s probably a good thing that he took some lessons from the game in order to help create his own more unique take on the genre.

Click here to read the full interview, in which Basso discusses the challenges of solo development, plus more insight into the secrets and lore of Animal Well.

Reebok has been known to collaborate with video game franchises like Street Fighter on unique sneaker designs. Now they’ve announced another collaboration, this time with Sega and Sonic the Hedgehog. This collection of Sonic themed sneakers will be available on December 6th, 2024, just a few weeks ahead of the release of the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 movie.

You’ll be able to shop the collection online via the official Reebok store. There are four different designs coming, including one for Sonic, one for Tails, and one for Knuckles. Some designs will be available in both adult and kid sizes.

Whether you’re speedy like Sonic, strong like Knuckles or brave like Tails, lace up turbo-charged style inspired by the iconic video game and film series. Featuring special details for each legendary character, these limited-edition sneakers are here to bring the hero energy with every step.

Click here to browse the collection for yourself, where you can find more details, images, and pricing.

Publisher CFK has announced that they’ll be bringing their game ZXC to the Nintendo Switch eShop next week. This is a sidescrolling 2D platformer set in the pages of a hand drawn notebook. It’ll be officially available on November 28th, 2024.

The game will cost $4.99 normally, but there will also be a 10% discount if you purchase it before December 11th. See below for the game’s trailer and official description.