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Pure Nintendo Magazine (PNM) Issue 67

By Pure Media LLC in Pure Nintendo Magazine (PNM)

52 pages, published 3/27/2024

It’s a new year and that means it’s time to focus on what’s in store for Nintendo in 2024 and beyond! Will we get an announcement for a Nintendo Switch successor this year? Will we finally see the elusive Metroid Prime 4? What games are actually announced for the Switch in 2024 and what do we know about them? Check out our cover story where Jemma, Kirk, Trev and I give you a preview of what could be the Switch’s swan song. We have a new…

Take part in making PNM great!

– The Question Block

We also love it when our readers interact with staff so that they can also participate in creating PNM and making it fun for everyone to read!  Contribute to PNM by sending your feedback, letters, or questions to questionblock@purenintendo.com!  We take our readers letters or questions, respond to them, and publish the results in The Question Block.

– Nintendo Fan Art

We regularly publish Nintendo fan art in each issue of PNM!  Do you have a piece of artwork that you are particularly proud of? E-mail it to Kaelyn, our artwork curator, at kaelyn@purenintendo.com for a chance to see it published within the pages of PNM!

– Reader Poll

As a fun little extra, we feature reader polls on PureNintendo.com.  The poll, results, and information about the next poll are then published in The Question Block for each issue of PNM.  If you want to make your voice heard, check out the right side bar and vote in our current poll!

The post Pure Nintendo Magazine Reveals the Cover of Issue 67, Shipping Soon! appeared first on Pure Nintendo.

Another year is here and that means it’s time for our yearly Nintendo predictions! Put on your thinking caps and join us as we try to guess what Nintendo will do next!

Check out last year’s predictions HERE to see how we did!

For Justin in 2023:

1. Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet will receive several updates throughout 2023 including DLC
   1. Yep, we had several updates to the game culminating with version 3.0 and the 2nd of two DLCs that launched on Dec 14, 2023
2. Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom will set new sales records for the Legend of Zelda series and for Nintendo Switch games in general
   1. Yep, Tears of the Kingdom went on to become the fastest selling Zelda game ever and one of the fastest selling Switch games of all time
3. The Pokémon Company will showcase a new trailer for the Detective Pikachu 2 video game
   1. Yep, it even released this year as well! (Detective Pikachu Returns)
4. The Super Mario Bros. movie will be a success despite some misgivings about various voice actor performances
   1. Yes, the Super Mario Bros. movie went on to pass over $1 billion in sales
5. I know I’ve said this before but I think 2023 is the year we’ll finally see some news of what’s next for Nintendo hardware. The Switch Lite launched in 2019 and the OLED model launched in 2021. If we’re following the 2 year cycle of hardware Nintendo used in the Nintendo DS era, its most successful system ever, 2023 should be the year for it.
   1. Nope, no new hardware in 2023
6. Donkey Kong was revealed to have a new design for the Mario movie. I think this year would be the right time to announce a new Donkey Kong game.
   1. Nope, no new DK game unfortunately
7. I’ve been hoping for Metroid Prime 4 or Metroid Prime Trilogy news for awhile, I don’t think they’ve wanted to talk about the trilogy until they have had something new to talk about for Metroid Prime 4. I think this is the year we’ll hear about both.
   1. 0.5 point, we did get Metroid Prime Remastered but nothing on the rest of the trilogy or Metroid Prime 4
8. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom will have DLC announced this year, but the new content may or may not release in 2023
   1. Nope, no DLC and nothing planned from what Nintendo has said in an interview
9. I haven’t had F-Zero on my predictions for awhile but why not? I’m hoping there’s a new game but I’d settle for an F-Zero GX remaster.
   1. Yep, maybe not what fans were hoping for, but F-Zero 99 released and has garnered quite a bit of acclaim so far
10. The Nintendo Switch will pass the PS4 and Game Boy / Game Boy Color to become the 3rd best selling system of all time. Only behind the Nintendo DS and PS2.
    1. Yep, the Nintendo Switch has only the DS and PS2 to catch now

Wild Cards (2 points each)

1. It’s been awhile since we’ve had the new iteration in the Super Mario series, I could see a new title being announced this year.
   1. Yep, Super Mario Bros. Wonder was announced and launched this year! (2 points)
2. The Simpsons Hit & Run turns 20 in 2023, I think we’ll see a remaster or perhaps a totally new Simpsons video game. It’s time!
   1. Nope, hopefully some day!

That’s 8.5 points for Justin

For Trev in 2023:

1. With the sad closure of the Wii U and 3DS eShops on March 27th, you’ll see some of their releases arrive on Switch in one form or another.
   1. 0.5 point, Luigi’s Mansion 2 Dark Moon is getting a port to the Switch but not arriving til 2024
2. After rolling out a free addition of golf, Switch Sports will get even more updates in 2023. By year’s end, continued sales will also move it into the top 15 best-selling Switch games.
   1. Nope, unfortunately no new updates for Switch Sports and it’s currently sitting at 19th on the list of Top Selling Switch games
3. Will 30 years of Star Fox get much of an anniversary celebration? Probably not, but I’m predicting we’ll see an update to an older game, either a GameCube entry or Zero, with a reworked control scheme.
   1. Nope, no new Star Fox love in 2023
4. To celebrate the first E3 since 2019, the Pure Nintendo team will again have several staffers at the show, including some new faces. Speaking of E3…
   1. Nope, E3 is no more
5. Did you know it’s been 5+ years since Metroid Prime 4 was announced at 2017’s E3? They’ll have to show something!
   1. Nope, nothing this year, maybe next hopefully!
6. I predict another Pikmin 4 delay since we (oddly) saw so much more of the mobile app than actual footage. It’ll be sad, but after waiting since 2015, we can wait a little more.
   1. Nope, Pikmin 4 released this year
7. Four years after it was announced, Detective Pikachu will finally arrive on Nintendo Switch in 2023. Maybe we’ll get some more concrete info on the movie sequel, too?
   1. Yep, Detective Pikachu Returns finally released this year!
8. The Pure Nintendo podcast will continue its growth, making several “best of” lists by the end of the year. Roger and Jemma will celebrate by fueling their amiibo collections to even more heights.
   1. Yep, we miss Roger but I know Jemma has been growing her collection of amiibo this year and the podcast is doing great!
9. To celebrate the 10th anniversary of NES Remix, Nintendo will release a long overdue follow-up. Will it be chunks of SNES games, N64 ones, a mashup, or something more?
   1. Nope, no new Remixes this year
10. If BOTW 2 releases in May, A Link Between Worlds HD will be Nintendo’s big Zelda game for the 4th quarter, ten years after the original landed on 3DS.
    1. Nope, Tears of the Kingdom was all we had for Zelda games in 2023

Wild Cards (2 points each)

1. With Mario Kart 8 DX getting so much DLC, Nintendo decides to celebrate 20 years of Double Dash by adding the option of two characters per vehicle.
   1. Unfortunately no
2. Pure Nintendo will return to proper print or go out in a blaze of glory trying!
   1. Yes! We’re back in print!

That’s 4.5 points for Trev

I got lucky this year! A lot of mine ended up coming true but unfortunately that wasn’t the case for Trev. I am happy that his Pikmin 4 delay prediction didn’t come true though — Trev is too!

2024 Predictions

Justin’s Predictions

1. 1. Metroid Prime 4 will finally, finally be shown off to the world again, it will be one of the key games to show off the visual capabilities of the Switch successor
   2. The Pokémon company will announce Black/White remakes this year, most likely during a Pokémon Presents on Pokémon Day 
   3. The Switch successor will be announced AND released this year, I don’t think it’ll be called ‘New Nintendo Switch’ (at least I hope not ) but I could see something like that such as Switch Nitro or something that still includes the ‘Switch’ name while also indicating a big step up from a processing power perspective. 
   4. We are due for a new 3D Mario, I could see it launch with the new system
   5. Metroid Prime 2 will get a remaster announced this year and maybe MP3 but I could see that being released later
   6. The F-Zero franchise will get some more love in 2024
   7. Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD will get ported to the Switch in 2024
   8. Nintendo will continue to sell the original Switch alongside the successor
   9. Backwards compatibility will be a main selling point of the new system, all Switch games will carry over and be able to be played Day 1 on the new system, this will be Nintendo’s first digital account setup that has full carry over 
   10. Nintendo made good strides with 3rd party support with the Switch. I think that will continue and I think we’ll get a major franchise announced for the successor that even the Switch missed out on (think franchises like Madden, Grand Theft Auto, Call of Duty, Battlefield, Far Cry, etc)

    

2. Wild Cards*
   1. I said this last year that we’d get a new Donkey Kong game announced but I think 2024 is the year especially with the new system launching and the new DK section going in at Super Nintendo World in Japan
   2. The next Mario Kart game will also be announced

Trev’s Predictions

1. While they’re not really my thing, Nintendo will add another new mobile app or game in 2024. Speaking of…
2. Forget the mobile Dr. Mario World or the ports available on Switch Online. The puzzle series will get a brand new entry. And unlike the download-only entries such as Online RX, Miracle Cure, or Express, it will be a full-fledged release (if this does come true, expect it to make Justin’s Top 5)
3. There was already a rumor on this one a couple of months back due to a trademark filing. But to celebrate its 10th anniversary, one of the best-selling 3DS games, Tomodachi Life, will arrive on Switch in one form or another.
4. Along similar lines, I predicted last year that the 3DS hit, A Link Between Worlds, would get an HD update to celebrate its 10th anniversary. That never occurred, but I still believe the Link’s Awakening HD engine will be used again—the game’s, after all, among the top 25 best-selling Switch games ever. So, I’m revisiting a prediction I initially made in 2020, speculating that the Oracle games will receive the remake treatment.
5. Nintendo will offer something sizable to attract new or returning Switch Online players. Something beyond game trials and sporadic releases of older games. Think free new content.
6. I’ve never predicted a Switch follow-up, even though those rumors have been flying for years. That finally changes now, as I predict that Nintendo will announce (though not necessarily release) a Switch successor in 2024.
7. If the above is true, some footage of launch games will likely be shown. Metroid Prime 4, finally?  
8. If a new console/system/hybrid won’t be out until 2025, Nintendo will want to ensure they’re still moving the various Switch models on the market. Expect a mixture of budget ports, price cuts, and a Nintendo Select line of best sellers.
9. Speaking of best sellers, the Switch has (at the time I write this) over 80 games that have passed 1 million copies sold. What new games could be added to that list? When all’s said and done, can the million seller game list hit triple digits? Probably not in 2024, but there will be a few new additions.
10. What’ll be new with amiibo in the coming year? Given all I’ve heard about the unique characters in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, I wouldn’t be surprised (and happy) to see some arrive when the game returns for a Switch release.

Wild Cards*

1. Skylanders will return in one form or another. Given the relationship with past games on Nintendo hardware, I think the new release will eventually prove most popular with Nintendo fans. Just don’t be greedy, Activision!
2. As more and more depart Twitter, Pure Nintendo will find a new audience on the Blue Sky social app.

*Wild Cards are worth 2 points

What are your predictions for 2024? Let us know in the comments!

The post Our Nintendo Predictions: 2024 Edition appeared first on Pure Nintendo.

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Pure Nintendo Magazine (PNM) Issue 66

By Pure Media LLC in Pure Nintendo Magazine (PNM)

52 pages, published 11/8/2023

Trev has the cover story for this issue and it’s all about Super Mario Bros. Wonder! I’m sure you’ve all been enjoying the game so far as it was recently released. There are some amazing new elements in the game and we’ve got all the details even if you’ve yet to get your hands on the latest Mario release. We also have a couple hands-on events we’ve been to recently – a Konami event and PAX Australia! Kirk got to go hands-on with some of the…

Take part in making PNM great!

– The Question Block

We also love it when our readers interact with staff so that they can also participate in creating PNM and making it fun for everyone to read!  Contribute to PNM by sending your feedback, letters, or questions to questionblock@purenintendo.com!  We take our readers letters or questions, respond to them, and publish the results in The Question Block.

– Nintendo Fan Art

We regularly publish Nintendo fan art in each issue of PNM!  Do you have a piece of artwork that you are particularly proud of? E-mail it to Kaelyn, our artwork curator, at kaelyn@purenintendo.com for a chance to see it published within the pages of PNM!

– Reader Poll

As a fun little extra, we feature reader polls on PureNintendo.com.  The poll, results, and information about the next poll are then published in The Question Block for each issue of PNM.  If you want to make your voice heard, check out the right side bar and vote in our current poll!

The post Pure Nintendo Magazine Reveals the Cover of Issue 66, Shipping Soon! appeared first on Pure Nintendo.

The story in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is told in largely the same way as Breath of the Wild. You’ll find various ‘memories’ around the world map that can be viewed or completely ignored by the player. They can be completed in any order and while that offers a lot of freedom, it also gives a fairly disjointed experience throughout. The player doesn’t really need to engage with the story and I felt disconnected from it for most of my playthrough. The voice acting is okay but I wouldn’t have minded if it was completely absent. It feels a bit too dramatic at times and typically takes me out of the scene more than engrossing me in it. I don’t mind the freedom in finding memories in various parts of the map but it would be nice if the cutscenes were experienced in order.

Overall this type of storytelling is not my cup of tea. Ganondorf, while it’s cool that he’s a part of this game, never feels like he’s actually ‘active’ in the world. Most of the story cutscenes are telling us what he did in the past while in the present, he’s really just hidden away underground. When you find him, it initiates the final battle. It doesn’t feel like he has that much of a ‘presence’ in the world. I was hoping for some more characterization but he’s sort of one dimensional throughout the game. With Breath of the Wild, I felt that Calamity Ganon was too much of a mindless monster but Ganondorf doesn’t feel much more opaque here. Sure, there’s certain things he’s motivated by now but he had so much more depth in Wind Waker or even Twilight Princess. I won’t go into many spoilers with the story but it felt as good as Breath of the Wild, maybe a little bit better. Although I wouldn’t put this as the peak of the Zelda series for story.

While the story isn’t much to write home about, Tears of the Kingdom adds an incredible assortment of new abilities and there’s really no other game that comes close to offering the variety of gameplay experiences that TOTK does. It really is a feat of engineering to see all of these gameplay systems work so well together even if some of the new abilities are a bit mixed in practice. Ultra hand, a complex building system allowing players to craft things in 3D space, is a triumph. You can build almost anything you can think of by combining all sorts of items in the world. It’s a really novel tool but I often didn’t use it that much as the game went on. You’ll eventually get an ability that allows you to build things quicker but even then, I didn’t really care to use it. Ascend is a fun new ability with some cleverly implemented combat and puzzle implications. Fuse is an okay ability but more often than not, it was more of a hassle than an asset. Not being able to break apart fused items was my biggest issue with this ability. Recall is interesting on paper but in practice, I just never really needed to use it. Sure, I could use it to reverse projectiles from enemies in battle but why? It was quicker and easier to just flurry rush.

Tell us how you really feel Justin! I know, I know, I’ve been a bit of a downer with the game so far but let’s dig into some aspects that I actually enjoyed in Tears of the Kingdom and what they actually improved upon from Breath of the Wild. One of the biggest improvements, for me, are the boss battles. These are much improved over Breath of the Wild. Each boss has a unique design, variety of attack methods, and interesting strategies for defeating. They each felt a bit more ‘puzzle-like’ which was exactly what I was hoping to see — the last boss battle was particularly epic. The new abilities have some decent fun. However, I was a bit bummed that they didn’t build on Breath of the Wild’s abilities but rather acted as replacements. Ultrahand and Ascend are heavily used while Recall and Fuse I never bothered with as much. Fuse was ultimately more time consuming than it was worth. Having to fuse each arrow you shoot every time was an absolute chore. Scrolling through all the items to fuse to arrows was equally tedious. Wait, this is supposed to be the pros list not more cons.

I will say that I enjoyed the caves that they added to the main overworld. You can drop down wells or find caves in the sides of mountains — there really are a variety of types of caves with a myriad of items, fauna and flora in each. These were some of the most interesting new biomes added to the game. The depths, an entirely underground area about the size of the main overworld, has some interesting things to discover but it’s so dark and gloomy down there that I never stayed for too long. The sky islands are one of the main showcases Nintendo had in recent trailers but this is probably where I spent the least amount of time. They are all very similar aesthetically and I mostly ended up using them as launching points and not for much else. There are several new enemy types and I’ll give them kudos on the designs for these. It’s good to see the Gleeoks back and the frog enemies in the depths are fun new world bosses. Also, there are plenty of new outfits to find like a wingsuit and a frog suit. These will increase some maneuverability in certain scenarios but they don’t go as far as I would have liked. The wingsuit really doesn’t give you much more ability to glide around and when climbing in the rain, the frog suit will help, but it won’t fully prevent sliding.

Moving on to the ‘dungeons’ or temples as they are called in this game — they are improved over Breath of the Wild but are still quite a bit worse than previous Zelda games. The open nature to each dungeon meant that you could easily ‘cheese it’ or work around solutions with your own, hodgepodge of a solution. Some might love that and feel ‘smart’ for figuring out a workaround but I always felt like I was missing something and it made me feel the opposite. The Gerudo temple was probably the closest thing to a traditional dungeon but it still falls short. The ultimate irony is that discovery is the name of the game for Zelda’s overworld but, for these ‘dungeons’, they give you the map layout from the start and the locations of each ‘switch’ to activate. It totally removes any mystery or sense of accomplishment when you do anything in the temple. I know exactly where everything is at all times and can simply bee-line it to the next ‘objective’. It’s a paltry, Ubisoft-level open-world design where they give you a ton of icons and say ‘go nuts’. The sooner Nintendo abandons these ‘dungeons’, the better. I know that’s harsh but there really aren’t many redeeming qualities about these dungeons. Yes, they finally went back to themed dungeons where they aren’t all the same aesthetic which is good, but they are just more of the same thing you experience in the overworld, just in a slightly more enclosed space.

I’m going to be honest, I was also really disappointed to see the exact same combat in Tears of the Kingdom. We also have the exact same menus/UI, art style and half of the overworld is largely the same. Prior to the success of Breath of the Wild, we received wholly unique Zelda games with each new entry. Sure, Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask shared the same art style, but they were vastly different overworlds, gameplay style, tone, everything. Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom feel too similar. If you liked Breath of the Wild, I suppose that’s a good thing but if you didn’t, it just prolongs a feeling of disappointment in the current state of Zelda games. More often than not, in Tears of the Kingdom, if I saw a place I had visited in BOTW, it really didn’t encourage me to check it out again. I was like, ‘oh, I’ve seen that, moving on’. This leads to another major criticism — the rewards just aren’t worth it. The treasure chests in shrines or even in dungeons are the most basic ‘treasures’ you can think of. Expecting a nice shield or weapon in a dungeon treasure chest? Nope, here’s some arrows. More often than not, I was getting things that I would’ve been able to find while cutting grass in a previous Zelda game. I was used to Zelda games being whole new worlds I’m exploring, new dungeons to figure out, puzzles to solve, bosses to battle. Now, Zelda games seem to be more about collecting, crafting, and cooking. I know I’m being pretty harsh but it just really feels like there’s so much to do in Tears of Kingdom but so little substance.

For those who loved Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom will certainly be up their alley. It feels like a more ‘fully realized’ version of Breath of the Wild honestly. I don’t think Breath of the Wild 2.0 or 3.0 is an unfair description. No, I’m not saying Tears of the Kingdom is just ‘DLC’ but it does feel so inherently tied to the first game — which of course makes sense for a game that started life as “The Sequel to Breath of the Wild”. It really does feel like the closest sequel that’s ever been done in the Zelda series. And again, if you enjoyed BOTW, that’s certainly a positive but for me, that’s more of a negative.

The post Review: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo Switch) appeared first on Pure Nintendo.

Apologies for the delays on getting PNM 65 out the door! I blame a certain Zelda game for monopolizing our time lately I’m sure you all can relate. Anyways, let’s get to this issue’s great content. First up, our cover story focuses on Pikmin 4 and all of the things we can expect from the game when it launches later this month. If you haven’t checked out the free demo, I’d recommend downloading it – your progress even carries over to the full game. Kirk takes us through our preview for Pikmin 4 and Kaelyn and Trevor have our thoughts on the Super Mario Bros. Movie. We also have the latest from the most recent Nintendo Direct, an interview with the fine folks at Premium Edition Games, another interview with the team behind Super Mega Baseball 4 and a lovely new Culture Connection that ties in with the latest Zelda game, Tears of the Kingdom. Hope you all are having a great summer!  Stay safe and, as always, we have the latest news, pixel puzzles, reviews, and more packed into each page! Happy Gaming!

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Pure Nintendo Magazine (PNM) Issue 65

By Pure Media LLC in Pure Nintendo Magazine (PNM)

52 pages, published 7/17/2023

Apologies for the delays on getting PNM 65 out the door! I blame a certain Zelda game for monopolizing our time lately I’m sure you all can relate. Anyways, let’s get to this issue’s great content. First up, our cover story focuses on Pikmin 4 and all of the things we can expect from the game when it launches later this month. If you haven’t checked out the free demo, I’d recommend downloading it – your progress even carries over to the full…

Take part in making PNM great!

– The Question Block

We also love it when our readers interact with staff so that they can also participate in creating PNM and making it fun for everyone to read!  Contribute to PNM by sending your feedback, letters, or questions to questionblock@purenintendo.com!  We take our readers letters or questions, respond to them, and publish the results in The Question Block.

– Nintendo Fan Art

We regularly publish Nintendo fan art in each issue of PNM!  Do you have a piece of artwork that you are particularly proud of? E-mail it to Kaelyn, our artwork curator, at kaelyn@purenintendo.com for a chance to see it published within the pages of PNM!

– Reader Poll

As a fun little extra, we feature reader polls on PureNintendo.com.  The poll, results, and information about the next poll are then published in The Question Block for each issue of PNM.  If you want to make your voice heard, check out the right side bar and vote in our current poll!

The post Pure Nintendo Magazine Reveals the Cover of Issue 65, Shipping Soon! appeared first on Pure Nintendo.

The gameplay in Super Mega Baseball 4 is largely the same great gameplay you’ve come to expect from the series, but there are some notable additions. For one, the game now features the option to optimize for graphics or performance. By default, the game will start off in a ‘Favor Graphics’ mode, but I would recommend changing that to ‘Favor Performance’. Favoring graphics results in a less than ideal hitting experience, at least on the Nintendo Switch version of the game. The lower frame rate meant it was much harder to time my swings while batting. I know the visuals have gotten some upgrades with Super Mega Baseball 4 but it’s really not quite as apparent on the Switch. To me, the gameplay is just that much better with the higher frame rate, which is what I was used to from Super Mega Baseball 3. So if you get the game and are wondering about the frame rate, try the performance mode before getting too far. Adding to the gameplay variation, SMB 4 incorporates 55 new ‘Team Chemistry’ traits. Traits were already a part of the series but these should allow even greater customization to your team rosters. An example of some traits might be ‘good at hitting offspeed pitches’ or ‘good at hitting fast balls’, that type of thing. It might sound like a lot but if you don’t care about that kind of depth, it isn’t really obtrusive. You can still play and enjoy the game without delving into those systems. I enjoy the fun quirks/traits but it’s not something I’m that attuned to in moment to moment gameplay. I’m also that too into ‘deck building’ in games but fans of that feature in MLB The Show will feel right at home here.

One of the big new additions this year is the over 200 new ‘Legends’ characters. These are players from MLB’s past like Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron with a wide variety of eras represented. This is a really cool new feature. One of the things I’ve wanted for awhile was to play as some of the licensed MLB players in Super Mega Baseball 4, so this is a nice step in that direction. You can obviously still create your own leagues and your own teams with the pantheon of classic SMB players you’re used to seeing but now you can mix in some of the Legends players too. For those who want some of that ‘licensed’ baseball feel, you could name the players on your team based off of real world players, or even name your teams after MLB teams. I was actually playing a team online that was called the Blue Jays and that person had added some current players to that roster, so you can get some semblance of playing with these real-world players if you want. And then why not also add Hank Aaron in the middle of your lineup? If I had to sum up SMB 4 in one word it would be ‘customizability’. The player can truly customize so much about how they play – it really is quite remarkable.

The graphics have definitely improved in Super Mega Baseball 4. Animations, character models and stadiums especially have all seen a glow up. Again, I tend to favor the performance rather than the graphics but there is quite a bit of polish that’s been added. With 20 ballparks now, they now have a stadium that corresponds to each team in the league which gives each team a ‘home’ ballpark now. The audio side of things has had a major focus as well. The soundtrack is quite robust and varied. Stadium sounds and audio from the crowd are more apparent as well. The umpire voices are still as zany as ever – you’ve got to hear some of the fun strikeout calls. It’s pretty funny. There’s quite a bit here that baseball fans will enjoy.

The multiplayer modes and online capabilities are really unmatched for even a lot of multiplayer games on the Switch. Super Mega Baseball 4 continues that legacy with giving players lots of party options both local and online or a mix between the two. Want to play with 4 people online where 2 are local and 2 are remote? You can do that. You also have cross play amongst all the platforms, even the latest generation consoles like the PS5 and the Xbox Series systems, so there’s quite a bit of replayability to enjoy with the multiplayer. The online Pennant Race is still one of my go-to favorite online modes. You can do these weekly and it’s still such a great way just to hop in and play a few quick games. For those that aren’t aware, the online games are 5 innings in length instead of 9 innings, so you can really cruise through a lot of baseball in a small amount of time.

The post Review: Super Mega Baseball 4 (Nintendo Switch) appeared first on Pure Nintendo.

ICYMI: Check out our interview with Scott Drader here to find out more: https://purenintendo.com/super-mega-baseball-4-announced-launches-on-june-2-interview-with-metalhead-software/.

Here is the deep dive video alongside the full press release offering more details about how Baseball Legends work in SMB 4.

Full press release:

MLBPAA Integration

Over the last three Super Mega Baseball titles, you’ve seen the series expand with new fictional Super Mega Superstars, Teams, and Ballparks.

We’ve seen discussion throughout the years within our community about the desire to have some real-life players in the game. In SMB4, we had an opportunity to expand the Super Mega universe with the addition of real-life baseball legends.

One of our goals has been to make the Super Mega Baseball series a timeless experience, a game you can come back to year after year without feeling like your rosters are out of date. Having baseball greats in our game allows us to provide our players with real-life legends while maintaining the timeless nature of Super Mega Baseball. We felt this was the most authentic way to honor the heritage of baseball, and the eras and players that defined the sport we love so much.

Who are the Legends and Where Can We Find Them?

With over 240 Legends available to play at launch, there is absolutely no shortage of historic players to choose from.

Some of the most notable legends include:

• David Ortiz
• Vladimir Guerrero
• Billy Wagner
• Bartolo Colon
• Jose Bautista
• Mike Mussina
• George Brett
• Babe Ruth
• Willie Mays
• Rollie Fingers
• Ozzie Smith
• Hank Aaron and many, many more!

You can find these Legends in classic Super Mega League, as well as the brand-new Legends League in SMB4. Now players can choose to play as either fictional SMB characters or as their favourite Legends in the fictional SMB world.

In this League, we’ve organized the Legends into two Conferences: New School Conference and Old School Conference, pitting the two eras of baseball against each other.

Each Conference includes brand-new teams like the Mammotanks and Empire in the New School Conference, and Originators and Joyriders in the Old School Conference.

MLBPAA Integration in Game Modes

There are a ton of ways to play with the Legends in-game. We wanted to make sure our players had the flexibility to create the SMB experience they want to play.

You can play through Season mode using a Legends League team, or you can make a copy of a Legends League team and customize the players and team to your liking.

You can also start some modes like Franchise, Season and Online Leagues with our brand new Shuffle Draft feature, which will allow you to build teams that incorporate both Legends and Super Mega All-Stars into one team!

In Franchise mode, you can import players from other league(s) and they will appear as free agents you can pick up during your season, or in the offseason. For example, you can start a Franchise playthrough with the Super Mega League where the Legends appear as free agents from season to season.

We’ve also made some changes in Pennant Race to include our Legends. Each week, 4 players on each Super Mega League team are replaced by 4 Legends, which are now called “Pennant Race Ringers.” Teams that haven’t been used much recently or on aggregate lose more than other teams, receive stronger ringers. Conversely, teams that are picked frequently or have high win rates on aggregate, receive weaker ringers. This replaces random Mojo and Fitness changes for each race that were seen in SMB2 and SMB3. Pennant Race is still restricted to the 20 Super Mega League teams (but these teams can be visually customized).

We are excited to see how you’ll choose to incorporate the baseball legends into your Super Mega Baseball experience and, as always, will be looking out for community feedback.

Pre-order EA SPORTS Super Mega Baseball 4 Ballpark Edition and get to smashing dingers with Ortiz sooner with access three days early.

(3-day early access not available on Nintendo Switch; Pre-order offer for PlayStation®4 and PlayStation®5 platforms only valid in the U.S. and Canada. Conditions & restrictions apply. See https://www.ea.com/games/super-mega-baseball/super-mega-baseball-4/disclaimers for details.)

The post Super Mega Baseball 4 Deep Dive: Baseball Legends appeared first on Pure Nintendo.

PN: Tell us a little about yourself and your responsibilities on the project.

Scott Drader, co-founder in the studio, back in 2009, with Christian Zuger. So it’s been a long time working on Super Mega for me. We joined EA with the acquisition in 2021. Now, Studio Director and Senior Producer on the Super Mega franchise. I do a lot of the same stuff I’ve done for a really long time on this series, and I’m looking forward to talking about the new one with EA.

PN: It’s been about 3 years since Super Mega Baseball 3 launched, talk us through the development of Super Mega Baseball 4, what were the main goals with this iteration?

EA came along during the pandemic and said: we like your baseball game, and we like your team and studio. What do you think about joining us, and doing a bigger version of Super Mega with us? Obviously, when you have worked for a team that’s been independent for 10 years, that’s a big decision. But everything we heard around how we would handle the creative approach on the new game made sense. We joined up and had lots to learn working in a bigger company but EA’s been super supportive and treated us really well and let us run with what’s worked for a very long time now. So I think the new Super Mega game is gonna feel like a logical progression of the first three games with, hopefully, a little bit of fanfare and some star power around it that we wouldn’t have been able to do on our own.

PN: How does Super Mega Baseball 4 set itself apart from other baseball franchises like MLB The Show? 

I think, on the field, the game stays pretty true to the sport in terms of statistical outcomes. What’s hard to accomplish on the field in baseball is hard to accomplish in the game. That’s always been the case. None of that’s changing. Where we’ve differed massively and where we differ from MLB The Show, like a lot of other games in EA Sports and other AAA sports sims, we regularly break from authenticity in the spirit of pure fun. The games exist in a space sort of between the sports simulators that have dominated in the market for a long time now and just pure video games. We’re making a lot of decisions that are just in the spirit of pure fun from a video game perspective. Still true to the sport on the field but I think when you look at the mechanics that surround the on-field gameplay, like the franchise mode mechanics and the content, the fictional world that the game is built around – all of that stuff is a little more fun, a little more in the video game direction of humor, parody. I’ve always thought of it as kind of a hybrid space that sort of lives between traditional simulation sports games and pure video games. 

PN: I saw the inclusion of some former pro players likenesses in Super Mega Baseball 4, is there a potential for fully licensed MLB teams/rosters down the road?

It’s a really interesting design challenge there when you have a series that’s sort of rooted in fictional content and a lot of your existing player-based community is totally in-tune with that fictional content. But also, we know we can bring a lot of excitement to the series and some legitimacy in terms of the folks that maybe have passed over this series over the years because it didn’t have any sort of connection to real world players. We knew that was an opportunity with this one. What’s the right first step for a game that’s been about fictional content? What’s the right first step into licensing? And yeah, one of the ideas we came back to you was just the game’s always sort of had this timeless nature. It’s always sort of been a timeless celebration of baseball that you can pick up at opening day or all-star break or right in the middle of hockey season. It doesn’t matter. It’s a celebration of baseball and it felt like a really good step for the first series to bring in some timeless heroes of the sport.

You’ll see in the new game, there’s a new built-in league that exclusively features the historical legends of the sport. It’s called the Legends League, so that’s the easiest way to play with all of them. You can get in there and it’s essentially organized roughly by era. So, the teams in the Legends League, you’re basically pitting players from slightly different eras of baseball against each other. It’s all balanced from a gameplay perspective. Not every Legend player is gonna be an A-plus or like an S tier player. It’s a really fun integration. It’s a different way of doing it. You’ll see in pennant race what’s going on there with the Legends is that it’s still rooted around the same core balanced league that we did with pennant race on Super Mega Baseball 3, but there’s four retired legends playing, essentially ringing for four semi-randomized players on each team in the Super Mega League. You’re gonna have to think about every pennant race such as which team is benefiting the most from the Legend players that are on our team this week.

We’ve also just done as much as we can to keep it super flexible around how you wanna play the game. We’re gonna have folks that wanna play with the Legends. We’re gonna have folks that wanna play with the traditional fictional content. We’re gonna have folks that wanna play with customized content. That paradigm kind of permeates throughout the game where we’ve tried to create as much flexibility in terms of which of those groups of players you wanna play with. 

PN: A lot of the immersion in these sports games can come in the details, can you tell us a little about the audio enhancements players can expect with Super Mega Baseball 4?

The audio was the thing that we typically had a partner team doing on previous Super Mega games. This was the first time that we did audio in-house and we had audio aspirations factored in right from the beginning of the creative process for the whole game. The amount of content we’ve been able to do on this one is massive compared to previous games and there are all sorts of things. We had player names being announced for the core Super Mega players on 3. We have that for the Legends too, but like all of the customized player names that you can pick – I think it’s actually into the thousands of names that you can pick – and all of those will be announced in game. So, from a customization perspective, that’s just super cool. We got a custom soundtrack built for the game. There are 15 totally original tracks that are made for this game and in the spirit of this game. We’re trying to put a little bit of the metal back into ‘metalhead’, but it actually touches on quite a few genres. I think we have somewhere around 88 songs in the game. All carefully picked from essentially libraries that EA has given us access to. There’s hundreds of new audio clips featuring the audience just making snippy comments about what’s taking place on the field. There is also a GTA-style Radio DJ running you through the front end. It’s all connected to the fictional world that builds on the various made up brands and so forth that you’ve seen in the stadiums for the last three games. We approached it saying: how do we keep building up this fictional world while bringing new players into it? Super Mega Baseball 4 is the first take on how to do that in a unique way – I don’t think there’s anything else on the market that’s doing it quite like this. 

PN: For those that might be new to ‘deck-building’ in games, can you walk us through that feature and how Super Mega Baseball 4 utilizes it?

One of the key features is a new thing called shuffle draft. This is like a kind of deck building, board game inspired way of assembling a team that lets you source players like Legends, super classic / super mega players. It lets you essentially draft a team, re-draft an entire week from a configurable pool of players and then take that league into one of the other game modes. You can play a season with that week or franchise. You can, if you’re a fan of the game from before, you could take the Sirloins and then bring in the Legends as the free agents for that franchise play through. You could start with the Legends league and play with The Empire which is a team of recent MLB Legends and then bring in the Super Mega Baseball players. There’s a ton of flexibility around playing all different parts of the game, different mixtures of Legends, classic / super mega players and customized players. So, sticking to a lot of the roots and trying to do it thoughtfully in a way that it still feels like a Super Mega game. 

PN: I recall in Super Mega Baseball 3 that there were day/night lighting setups for parks but I don’t believe it was dynamic or would change throughout the game, is that the case in Super Mega Baseball 4?

We thought about dynamic lighting, but it came down to performance trade-offs. You could probably tell from Super Mega Baseball 3 that we had picked the most majestic time of day. Where we pushed really hard from a stadium perspective on Super Mega Baseball 4 was trying to get the same number of stadiums as the number of teams in the core league. We never had enough in previous games where each team had its own unique home stadium which we got to do with this one. Every team has their own home ballpark for the first time which we’re super stoked about. We’ve stuck with picking sort of three times a day for each ballpark and those have been given like a pretty big upgrade and I think they look better than ever.

PN: What’s up next for the development team? Any sort of DLC or further updates planned for Super Mega Baseball 4?

We’re gonna keep an eye on how we’ve done it with the previous games. We’ll see how people are feeling about the game and we’re not gonna announce anything specific post launch. There will be a couple of stadiums coming as post launch DLC where the environment teams are still working on those. 

PN: Sounds great. Appreciate your time, Scott!

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For supporters who’ve been with us since the early years (2011-2014), circling back to physical subscriptions is a long-overdue move. Thank you so much for sticking with us, and we can’t wait to get the new issue in your hands. It’s finished and waiting to arrive in your mailbox. Just make sure you are signed up for one of our print tiers on Patreon (The Tanooki Leaf or P-Wing Tiers). For those with questions about digital issues, our Patreon subscriber tiers, or questions in general, drop us a line at magazine@purenintendo.com! Or follow us on Twitter, @PureNintendo, where our inbox is always open.

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Pure Nintendo Magazine (PNM) Issue 64

By Pure Media LLC in Pure Nintendo Magazine (PNM)

52 pages, published 3/29/2023

2023 is already looking like a great year for the Switch even heading into its 7th year on the market. Even if the only game coming out this year was The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, it would be a stand-out year. But not only do we get a new Zelda game, we have Fire Emblem Engage, Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe, Octopath Traveller II, Pikmin 4, Bayonetta Origins, Sea of Stars and DLC for a number of first and third party titles.…

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Koopa Kast 129 – Pokémon Gold and Silver and Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire

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