Tag:

Kirby

Get Super Mario And Kirby Switch 2 Wireless Controllers For Up To 50% Off

by admin October 3, 2025

With Nintendo’s official Pro Controllers for Switch 1/2 now priced at $80/$90, it has become quite expensive to pick up first-party gamepads for Players 2-4. Thankfully, there are officially licensed third-party controllers with lower prices and Nintendo’s seal of approval. And ahead of next week’s Prime Big Deal Days sale, Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 owners can save big on over a dozen wireless controllers produced by PowerA, Nintendo’s most prolific official partner.

Most of the controllers on sale are themed around popular Nintendo franchises, with plenty of Super Mario and Pokemon models discounted by up to 50%. Arguably the best design on sale–and currently the top seller of the bunch–is the ultra-cute Kirby Mouthful Wireless Controller for $30 (was $50). You’ll also find Princess Peach and Super Mario versions for $30 each. For King Koopa fans, the Bowser-themed wireless controller with back buttons is only $27 (was $45). You can check out those three models and more with huge discounts in the gallery below.

$30 (was $50)

Inspired by Mouthful Mode in Kirby and the Forgotten Land, the adorable design makes it appear as if Kirby just inhaled your Nintendo Switch controller.

This is a standard PowerAo Wireless Controller, which means it uses AA batteries (included) and doesn’t have back buttons. You can get up to 40 hours of game time before needing to swap out the batteries. We’d recommend grabbing a pack of rechargeable batteries such as this popular 8-pack with a charger for $22 (was $29).

PowerA’s Switch controllers offer great ergonomics and solid performance for the price. The Kirby Mouthful Controller has six-axis motion controls, but it doesn’t have rumble motors, an IR camera, or an NFC reader for Amiibo.

Note: PowerA’s Enhanced Wireless Controllers have two remappable back buttons and charge via USB-C. The Bowser controller and this Legend of Zelda controller split the difference by having back buttons and AA batteries. You’ll also see a couple Enhanced models with PowerA’s Lumectra RGB lighting effects. All of the controllers have very similar form factors with the exception of the Mario Victory Nano Controller, which has a compact form factor and is on sale for 50% off.

While none of the controllers in our gallery have the Switch 2’s new C button for GameChat, PowerA is releasing three wireless models in its Advantage line with the GameChat button and Hall Effect sticks on October 30.

If you like having back buttons on your controllers and want even more customization options, we’d highly recommend checking out 8BitDo’s Ultimate and Pro series. 8BitDo released new iterations of both this year. The 8BitDo Ultimate 2 Bluetooth Controller is on sale for $60 (was $70); if you prefer aligned thumbsticks like a PlayStation controller, the 8BitDo Pro 3 Gamepad with GameCube-inspired color schemes is up for grabs for $63 (was $70). Check out our story on the Ultimate 2 for more details.

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October 3, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Kirby Air Riders Amiibo Figure Sets Cost $50, Up For Preorder Now

by admin September 15, 2025

Nintendo is releasing two unique Amiibo figure sets alongside Kirby Air Riders. Unveiled during the September Nintendo Direct alongside a several other new Amiibo, Kirby & Warp Star and Banana Waddle Dee & Winged Star Amiibo figures are up for preorder for $50 each. That’s an unusually high price point, but technically these are bundles with two figures, as Kirby and Waddle Dee each come with their own machine from the game, too. Kirby Air Riders launches November 20 exclusively on Nintendo Switch 2.

The sequel to the 2003 GameCube hit has already had an in-depth Nintendo Direct showcase of its own, but Nintendo announced a second Kirby Air Riders stream will air prior to the racing game’s launch. Kirby Air Riders preorders are available for $70 at Amazon, Walmart, and other major retailers.

$70 | Releases November 20

The physical edition of Kirby Air Riders is available to preorder at Amazon, Walmart, Target, Best Buy and GameStop.

Like all Nintendo-published games for Switch 2 (so far), Kirby Air Riders is a true physical edition with the full game file on the card. If you opt for the digital edition, just be aware that the download size is currently estimated at 25GB, which is over 10% of the Switch 2’s usable storage space.

Kirby Air Riders Amiibo figures have two different in-game functions. You can scan Kirby or Waddle Dee on their own to train and level up your Figure Player (FP). If you place Kirby or Waddle Dee on their machines, you’ll create a Rider & Air Ride Machine. And if you buy both Kirby Air Riders Amiibo sets, you can place Kirby on Waddle’s Winged Star and vice-versa to unlock different character and machine builds.

If you’re worried about storage space for the digital version of Air Riders, you can double your Switch 2 storage for $59 with the officially licensed Samsung 256GB microSD Express from Amazon. Over at Walmart, you can get an exclusive 512GB SanDisk microSD Express Card for $78.

Kirby Air Riders is developed by Bandai Namco and Sora Ltd, the independent studio helmed by Masahiro Sakurai. These days, Sakurai is best known as the director of the Super Smash Bros. series, but he’s also the creator of the Kirby franchise. Kirby Air Riders is the first game in the series directed by Sakurai since Kirby Air Ride. Since Kirby is in every Smash Bros. game, Sakurai has never truly left the character behind, but he hasn’t worked on a dedicated Kirby game since supervising the 2004 Game Boy Advance metroidvania Kirby & the Amazing Mirror.

The Mario Kart-esque racing game expands marquee modes from Kirby Air Ride and adds new ones. The controversial single-button control scheme from the original has been replaced by a two-button layout where B is for boosting and Y activates special moves, perform tricks, and switch machines. New abilities and characters have been added to the roster. Along with Kirby, you’ll be able to play as King Dedede, Bandana Waddle Dee, Meta Knight, Cappy, Starman, Chef Kawasaki, Magolor, Gooey, Susie, and Knuckle Joe.

Skyah, the floating island setting of Kirby Air Riders City Trial mode

The main game mode from the original, City Trial, is back with a bevy of new features. This time around, you’ll be tasked with finding machine upgrades scattered across a large floating island. You only have five minutes to secure your upgrades before heading to the Stadium to compete against computer players or friends in races and battles.

Kirby Air Riders supports local multiplayer for up to four players on one console and eight players wirelessly. Switch Online members can compete in online events for up to 16 players. Need extra Joy-Con Controllers for multiplayer? After Nintendo’s recent price increases, 2-packs of Joy-Con 2 now sell for $100.

Kirby Air Riders’ $70 price point matches other recent and upcoming Switch 2 titles, including Donkey Kong Bananza and Pokemon Legends: Z-A, which is scheduled to launch in October. Outside of Mario Kart World, the only $80 Switch 2 games so far are updated versions of original Switch exclusives with new content. Notably, this includes Kirby and the Forgotten Land + Star-Crossed World, the Switch 2-exclusive version of the superb 3D platformer. Along with overhauled graphics, the Switch 2 Edition has the new Star-Crossed World story campaign. You’re essentially paying for the $60 base game and the new $20 DLC as a bundle, so the comparison to Kirby Air Riders isn’t exactly 1:1.

Kirby games for Nintendo Switch 1/2

Kirby and the Forgotten Land

If you’re looking forward to Kirby Air Riders and want to spend some time with the series before its November release, there are plenty of options on Nintendo Switch. In addition to Forgotten Land–the first 3D platformer for the franchise–there are two traditional side-scrolling-platformers with physical editions: Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe and Kirby Star Allies. Kirby has also starred in multiple digital-only Switch games and numerous classic titles are on Nintendo Switch Online. One of the best Kirby spin-offs in recent years is Kirby’s Dream Buffet ($15), which also happened to inspire a couple of the cutest Club Mocchi-Mocchi Kirby plushies around.

If you’re interested in the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition of Forgotten Land, existing owners can buy the DLC and upgrade for $20. Newcomers can also save $15 by picking up the Switch edition and Star-Crossed World separately. Multiple of the best Kirby game deals right now are for UK editions at Amazon-owned retailer Woot. Switch consoles can play games from any region, so the only difference with these Kirby games is the ratings board logo on the cover is PEGI instead of ESRB.

Kirby Game Deals

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September 15, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Kirby Star-Crossed World Review – Forgotten Land Gets Bigger, Only Slightly Better

by admin August 29, 2025

Kirby and the Forgotten Land + Star Crossed World occupies a strange space in the spate of Switch 2 upgrades. Its upgrades to the original game are relatively modest, offering small performance improvements to a game that already ran well in the first place. But its new content is among the most expansive, consisting of a new mini-campaign that threads itself through original stages and culminates in even tougher challenges than in the main game. It doesn’t revitalize the experience in the same way that the Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom upgrades do on Switch 2. Instead, it adds even more of what made the original so great.

When you start up your existing save in Star-Crossed World, you’ll be greeted by a new island centered on an ominous dark heart, the Fallen Star Volcano. Helpless Starry creatures have been scattered throughout the world, and at the same time, star crystals have fallen that transformed stages and enemies, so being the helpful demigod that he is, Kirby volunteers to rescue the Starries.

Functionally, this means revisiting stages from the original Forgotten Land that have been given new crystalized variants. Those alternative stages coexist along the originals, so they can be selected separately. There are usually two crystal stages per world, making this new campaign about one-third the size of the original campaign. And while pieces of the stages will be recognizable, they mostly feel extremely different. You access new parts of stages by activating crystal touchpoints, which make new crystalline paths to follow.

The crystal effect gives the stages a lovely sparkling feel that looks a little better than the original Switch game. Though not a massive improvement, it’s a nice enhancement that helps the Switch 2 upgrade feel worthwhile. The one drawback is that this crystal effect is the commonality throughout all the stages, which has the result of making the stages visually similar. There’s still variance when you’re following a crystal path through a neon-lit casino versus a craggy volcano, of course, but the crystals mean they look more alike than in the original game.

The Star-Crossed stages largely offer similar challenges to the original, with some tougher enemies that seem primed for the abilities you’ve probably upgraded from the original game. As in the original, the standout are the “mouthful” segments, like a giant gear that lets you climb up across walls or a sandwich board that turns on its side to let you glide down a hill snowboard-style. Those are some of the most inventive and challenging segments across both games, and they’re sprinkled in just enough to make them feel special. The new mouthful forms do accentuate the lack of any new copy abilities for Kirby, though.

The new stages are littered with Starries–you get them for completing the stage but also find hidden ones scattered around, and get rewarded with a Starry for completing hidden objectives. For more experienced players, I found it fun to thoroughly scour stages and try to get them all–or as many as I could–on my first try. Nintendo falls back on its old habits by gating progress behind your current Starry count, but there’s plenty of reason to replay stages to find all of the little creatures. And if you’re really struggling, you can visit a Waddle-Dee in your home base to get tips on hunting down any that you’re missing. Another Waddle-Dee revives the gacha mechanic with trophies of the new environments and crystalized enemies, giving you something to spend the new Starry coins on.

Kirby and Elfilin look out at Fallen Star Volcano

Gallery

As you progress through the Star-Crossed World, the dark heart at the center of the Fallen Star Volcano slowly gets enveloped in crystals. Once you’ve finished the regular Starry stages, a new challenge opens that may even be tougher than anything in the main Forgotten Land campaign. It’s a surprisingly sudden difficulty spike, albeit one that felt like a nice end-cap to the entire Forgotten Land experience.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land + Star-Crossed World takes an already-great game and gives you more of it. The upgrade doesn’t feel as essential as the Zelda Switch 2 Edition games, because those helped ambitious games run more smoothly and fully realize their original potential. But it is more substantial than either of those, by nature of adding new story content and stages to explore. Kirby and the Forgotten Land was already a platforming buffet, and this add-on is a great reason to go back for seconds.

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August 29, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Kirby Air Riders is a blazing assault on the senses where once you lock in, the magic cuts through – hands-on

by admin August 26, 2025

Let’s kick off with a confession: I never really rated 2003’s Kirby Air Ride. I’m well aware that some regard it as a GameCube classic, but I’m not one of them. When a sequel, Kirby Air Riders, closed out the big Switch 2 blow-out Nintendo Direct, my reaction was rather apathetic. A sequel to that is their grand finale?

It’s classic Nintendo that all it took to win me around was a way-too-detailed Nintendo Direct broadcast and a quick 30-minute hands-on. I get it now. Not why some people loved the original so – that knowledge still eludes me – but I now understand why Nintendo and Super Smash Supremo Masahiro Sakurai wanted to make another one of these. As the Direct cheekily needled, this could be seen as being a lot like Mario Kart. But really, in truth, it has more in common with Smash.

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Kirby Air Riders is a strange little thing. It’s simple, as demonstrated in its easy-to-discern objectives and a control scheme that requires only a handful of buttons to operate. With that said, it has its ways in which it is complicated – at the hands-on, Nintendo had a chaperone quickly run each player through a handful of tutorials amidst a menu replete with them, clearly concerned that some players might struggle to wrangle or understand its esoteric ways.

This whole dichotomy is very much Sakurai’s jam. These are the fingerprints of a man who designed one of the most competitively sublime fighting games of all time… sort of by mistake. Melee’s tightest brawling was a byproduct of making a party game for children that, through glitches, exploits, and mechanics interacting in unexpected ways became a hyper-competitive dream. Even if Sakurai’s instinct has been to design away from that with every Smash Bros game since, that same predilection for a mash-up of surface simplicity and hidden complexity rears its head here.

What is in a sense clearly intended to be a breezier racer than the manic euphoric highs and brutal blue-shelled lows of Mario Kart is elevated and transformed by a search for depth that doesn’t compromise that accessible core.

Appetite for combustion. | Image credit: Nintendo

Hop into Air Rider courses and you get the simplicity. It is after alls a circuit race with six competitors on track, automatic acceleration, and walls that keep you from going too far off-course. It feels fluffy and friendly – like Kirby. The controls add to that; all you really need to know is that the left stick steers you left and right and the B button brakes. That’s all a kid will need to ‘get through’, so to speak – but there is of course more to it than that.

Each of the control mechanisms is then subtly layered; the stick can also point the nose of your machine up or down, which can become vital for pulling off more complex moves. Braking and turning hard into a corner allows for a slight drift; holding the brake charges a boost. The courses are deliberately built to wind and weave with plenty of corners, and it’s in drifting and boosting through these that you can still have some control over your top speed in a game with automatic acceleration.

There’s more beyond this, of course – capturing enemies, special attacks, even items. But the fundamentals are that simple race design. The largest augment comes in the stats of the various vehicles and riders, which isn’t something all that new to this experience. Mario Kart and Sonic Racing Crossworlds both have such a mechanic, for instance – but in Kirby Air Riders, the effects feel like they can ultimately end up more profound.

To fully appreciate that, the easiest thing to do is to hop over to City Trial mode. This was present in the GameCube original and always espoused by that game’s defenders as its secret weapon – and it rather feels like that’ll be the case here, too. While the cheery-but-fun track racing worked well enough for me, City Trial is where I really locked in – and where I truly ‘got it’.

Wheel talk. | Image credit: Nintendo

In City Trial, you and other players are dropped into a small open zone, able to drive freely for a limited time as items, enemies, and frenzied events spawn all around you. Your goal is to put together a good ‘build’ before the clock hits zero, which is accomplished by picking up power ups that appear all over the place. You can even swap vehicles – known in this game as machines – or sabotage and battle other players for domination of power-up collection. It very quickly gets manic.

City Trial really showcases the strengths of the parameters each character and vehicle has naturally by absolutely smashing them to pieces. The nine categories of power-up you pick up augment your top speed, acceleration, offensive and defensive capabilities and so on, plus how hardy your vehicles are before they explode. The idea is essentially to garner as much power as you can in the City Trial time limit before being thrown into a mini game where you’ll use your powered-up form to compete to be the ultimate winner.

At this point it doesn’t really feel like a racing game. You can sense Sakurai’s sensibilities bubbling up, peeking through cracks in the genre design. City Trial is to a racing game as Smash is to a fighting game, in a sense. It is… except it isn’t. Except it is.

As you jet around the City Trial area, a mastery of the mechanics becomes vital. Braking to a sudden stop to avoid obstacles or fellow players, boosting to get to items before rivals, blasting off ramps and then working to stay aloft with careful gliding in order to collect parcels of airborne power-ups… like I say, you begin to lock in.

Call it a Knight. | Image credit: Nintendo

You need that feeling, too. That trance-like state where there’s you, the game, and everything else fades away. Because the power-up drops are random, though you have some degree of control over what you pick up you’ll also be making split-second decisions. What sort of vehicle ‘build’ am I going for here? More speed? Better gliding? Suddenly, amidst the chaos, you’re doing rapid-fire, almost subconscious decision-making. A lot of it is by feel, too – rather than looking at stats of what you’ve picked up you’re instead judging the feel of those super-simple controls, the heft of your machine, its turning circle, its acceleration and braking – then making calls on what else it needs.

If you’re efficient at collecting power-ups (and at the risk of blowing my own trumpet, I was very efficient), you can more or less break the game. A Nintendo rep was shocked at the sheer number of speed power-ups I picked up – the game became difficult to control, such was the pace of my vehicle. The camera freaked out.

I could then understand why Air Riders, which is relatively visually unremarkable, makes sense on Switch 2 – it needs to be able to parse such ridiculous speed and intense visual frippery. In the end, I had to ditch my naturally-quick vehicle and swap to one that was inherently slower in order to counteract the frankly bonkers amount of speed I was able to deploy. One can also see how, when compared to GameCube, this is a game that’ll benefit tremendously from online play.

I love stuff like this. City Trial is five minutes of total mayhem that does indeed evoke a similar feeling to Smash. It’s followed by a randomly-drawn mini-game where the larger number of City Trial participants get split into groups of four who then compete to be the ultimate winner. The stats accrued throughout City Trial will play a huge part in how that game plays out. If you’re unlucky your build might even work against you, so it’s not necessarily that the person who does the best in the City Trial wins.

Anyway, it’s fun. It’s wild. It feels breakable, which you can see as either a good or a bad thing, I suppose. Everything is turned up to eleven, from the deluge of tutorial options for such a simple game to the chaos that can unfold in City Trial.

All of this might sound familiar to those who loved the GameCube original – but there’s just something different here. Something more. Perhaps it’s the case that the original was simply the template and proof-of-concept for what a Kirby Racer-turned party game can be – and Air Riders might, two decades later, be the full expression of that idea. We’ll find out how far these ideas can truly be stretched in November.

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August 26, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Kirby Air Riders Brings Sakurai’s Smash Experience To A Switch 2 Racing Game

by admin August 24, 2025

When I watch a great pro match of a fighting game like Marvel vs. Capcom 2 or Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, my reaction is equal parts awe and bafflement. The sheer speed and hyper-kinetic action flies by so quickly that I can only make sense of a percentage of what I’m seeing, and the people who have mastered the chaos must be a different species. Kirby Air Riders is like that: a bubblegum colorful confection of speed, agility, and action that feels overwhelming, but still fun to play.

My hands-on experience at Gamescom started with some tutorials showing the ropes of handling your ride. The ride accelerates automatically, which may seem like it suggests simplicity, but there’s still a lot of finesse and fine control to handling your ride. Nailing a drift around a corner takes precise timing, and when you take a jump you can get a speed boost with a clean landing–which means tilting your racer slightly to land parallel if you’re coming up on a hill. Those mechanics felt approachable and easy to grasp during the limited time of a demo, but had enough depth that the skill ceiling looks high.

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Now Playing: Kirby Air Riders Is Faster, Deeper, and Cleaner Than The Original

This is a sequel to Kirby’s Air Ride, but the shift to Air Riders is a significant one. There’s a particular emphasis on the characters themselves and their unique powers, and this is where I could most keenly sense Masahiro Sakurai’s experience with the Smash Bros. series. It feels like an evolution of that, and bringing that spirit of balancing different power sets into a new racing context.

After the tutorial featured, I played as two different characters: Magalor, the antagonist of Kirby’s Return to Dreamland; and Starman, a recurring Kirby enemy. The riders seem to handle slightly differently, but the major difference is their special moves. Magalor activates a massive beam that shoots behind him, hitting any opponents that are coming up on your tail. By contrast, Starman’s special was not an offensive tool at all. Instead, he could fly into the air on command using your regular spin attack while the special was activated. This seems primarily suited to help reach high places, though in a pinch you could also use it to dodge, at the expense of some speed.

The demo mostly focused on the City Trials mode, which is separated into two parts. First you explore the wide-open hub area gathering power-ups and switching your weak starter vehicle for a better one. There’s a layer of strategy here, as various icons that you collect give you increased defense, weight, boost, and so on. You can use these to compensate for any of your racer’s weaknesses, or make a naturally strong aspect even stronger. Once the first phase is over, everyone’s total power-ups get tallied up and your build gets taken into the second phase. I could imagine that, as players grow more familiar with the game, serious competitive players will start to optimize combinations of racers and air rides with which types of icons they should prioritize for collection.

Kirby Air Riders

Gallery

The build you craft during this first phase has a huge bearing on how competitive you’ll be in the second one. Once all the players tally up their powers, they’re able to choose one of four game types, and the game will recommend one that’s optimized for your build. Some are more combat-focused while others are centered more on racing. I chose the recommended mode in my first game, a combat/racing fusion with Magalor and held my own decently well. For my second game, I picked one of the modes that was not recommended (mainly in order to stay grouped with the other human players in our closed session) and my unoptimized build showed on the almost pure racing track. Plus, Starman’s vertical-focused power just isn’t the best for a regular race around an oval track, but maybe I just need to get good.

Both phases feel extremely fast, so while one is about prepping a build, they both reward skilled play. And it’s easy to see, even from my limited experience, how choosing your rider, finding your ride, and gathering power-ups could lead to a fierce Kirby Air Riders meta, as advanced Air Riders players explore different options to optimize their competitive edge.

For casual players like myself, Kirby Air Riders looks to be a sweet experience to play with friends, especially in couch co-op, fueling a rowdy party atmosphere. But I suspect that there’s going to be a whole other layer of the game, with the speed and skill of a fighting game, and that one seems destined for the competitive stage.

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August 24, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Nintendo Is Holding a 45-Minute Kirby Air Riders Direct On Tuesday

by admin August 19, 2025

Nintendo shared an update in its Nintendo Today app this morning that it will be live-streaming a Kirby Air Riders-focused Direct presentation on Tuesday, August 19.

“Tune in on Tuesday, August 19, for a livestreamed Kirby Air Riders Direct featuring about 45 minutes of information about the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 game.”

The app then suggests you add the even to your calendar which reveals it will air at 8 a.m. CT.

Kirby Air Riders is the follow-up to the GameCube game, Kirby Air Rider (notice how the sequel is plural, like Aliens). Arguably one of the most interesting details about the game is that it is helmed by Masahiro Sakurai, the director of the Super Smash Bros. series, and the creator of Kirby. This will mark the first time Sakurai has actively worked on a dedicated Kirby game since the original Kirby Air Rider in 2003.

The description for the YouTube location where the Direct will air promises an appearance from Sakurai reading, “Join us on Aug 19 at 6 a.m. PT for a Kirby Air Riders Direct with director Mr. Sakurai. The livestreamed presentation will last roughly 45 minutes and provide an in-depth look at the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 game.”

Kirby Air Riders currently does not have a release date beyond the vague 2025.

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August 19, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

18th August video games round-up: Battlefield 6 beta sadness, Shenmue 3, and a Nintendo Direct for Kirby

by admin August 19, 2025

Update: That was the world of video games today on 18th August. A full transcript of everything that occurred today is available below if you wish to digest it all at your leisure.

It’s 18th August, and we’re back with another daily live report. We’ll be running down all the day’s news and events, checking in with what you are up to, and providing some hopefully entertaining commentary on the world of video games.

Today we’ve got some great articles going live on the site, but we’ll also discuss Gamescom, which takes place this week, and look at the games releasing in September that you’ve got your eyes on.

Our live coverage of this event has finished.

Coverage
Comments

08:09 am
UTC

Morning everyone! I hope you’ll join us today as we look ahead to Gamescom, round up the day’s news and events, and think about the games we’re all looking forward to in September.

Tom Orry

08:15 am
UTC

Kane & Lynch 2 – remembering the most miserable game of all time

If you’re looking for something to read on a quiet Monday morning, and you missed what we published over the weekend, here’s a round-up:

Tom Orry

08:31 am
UTC

Tony Hawk on his life and his video games

Image credit: TonyHawk.com

Has a video games series had a bigger impact on people than the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series? Talk to anyone who was playing video games and growing up in the late 90s/early 00s and I bet most of them have fond memories of those early games.

Tom Orry

08:33 am
UTC

rmx87 says: It’s the 18th Tom! Morning!MarcusJ says: Flip your desk calendar over, Tom!

Looking forward to this week’s EG. Should be some good stuff.

Well done you two! Test passed. You both win a day of live reporting. Congratulations!

Tom Orry

09:00 am
UTC

New Pokémon Legends: Z-A trailer shows off Link Battles

If you are keen for every single morsel of Pokémon Legends: Z-A info, as some of the team at Eurogame are, then this new trailer and info released over the weekend will be of interest. This latest game update focuses on the game’s Link Battles.

Watch on YouTube

Tom Orry

09:16 am
UTC

Gamescom ONL, time to get hyped via a trailer?

We reserve the right not to get hyped about Gamescom ONL, the show taking place tomorrow evening (7pm BST in the UK), but that hasn’t stopped Geoff putting out a trailer designed to do just that.

Watch on YouTube

Tom Orry

09:50 am
UTC

2much says: Presumably _this_ is the night we’re gonna see the Bloodborne remaster

Thanks for this, 2much. I needed a good laugh this morning. ONL is tomorrow night, and I will be gobsmacked if anything near this level of game reveal is there.

Tom Orry

10:00 am
UTC

Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War is one of the greatest strategy games of all time

Image credit: Relic Entertainment

Chris is well into Space Marines and that, and he has a special place in his heart for the Dawn of War series. The original game was a little tricky to get running nicely on modern hardware, but the newly released Definitive Edition fixes all that and comes with a bunch of new refinements and tweaks.

To quote Chris, verbatim, from a definitely real conversation I had with him about Dawn of War: “It’s orksome.” What more do you need to be told?

Tom Orry

10:15 am
UTC

On the subject of games people are looking forward to in September (and end of August, if you want):

Danzig85 says: I’ve got my eye on Metal Gear this month and Hell Is Us next month. Plenty to finish before then though.

So many games, so little time.

Both potentially great games. We’ve got a MGS3 Delta review coming later this week, and Hell is Us has impressed at preview.

Tom Orry

11:02 am
UTC

These games are set to leave Xbox Game Pass at the end of August

Image credit: Sabotage / Eurogamer.

Xbox has revealed which games are leaving Xbox Game Pass at the end of August. A few good ones in this list.

Borderlands 3 Ultimate Edition
Sea of Stars
Paw Patrol Mighty Pups Save Adventure Bay
This War of Mine: Final Cut
Ben 10: Power Trip

Tom Orry

11:39 am
UTC

chesterBox says: PS Store added a discount called “Gamescom 2025” and there’s Bloodborne… that must mean something, right? Right?! 😀

(99% it does not mean anything)

Don’t do this to yourself, Chester. It’ll just bring pain.

But… what if?

Tom Orry

11:44 am
UTC

A delve into the Eurogamer archive

Image credit: Valve

My brain can’t always go back far enough to bring out the real classics, but this superb article from Simon Parkin popped into my head this morning, so I’m sharing it with you all now.

At 6am on 7th May 2004, Axel Gembe awoke in the small German town of Schönau im Schwarzwald to find his bed surrounded by police officers. Automatic weapons were pointing at his head and the words, “Get out of bed. Do not touch the keyboard,” were ringing in his ears.

Get this read if you haven’t already, or maybe read it again.

Tom Orry

12:22 pm
UTC

Euro Truck Simulator 2 PS5 and Xbox versions spotted

Cult hit Euro Truck Simulator 2 is seemingly coming to PS5 and Xbox consoles. The news comes via PSN and Xbox store listings for the game, which is yet to be officially announced for the two consoles.

Tom Orry

13:17 pm
UTC

Surprise! Shenmue 3 is back

Image credit: Ys Net

Shenmue 3 is coming back for a second bite at success with the Enhanced Edition. This reworked and improved version of the original release will be available on PC, PS5, Xbox Series consoles, and Nintendo (presumably Switch 2). A full reveal is coming at Gamescom this week.

Tom Orry

13:21 pm
UTC

Kirby Air Riders Direct tomorrow

Tune in tomorrow Tuesday, August 19th at 2pm UK time for a livestreamed Kirby Air Riders Direct featuring about 45 minutes of information about the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 game.

Boom! 45 minutes of Kirby tomorrow? What a treat.

Kirby Air Riders Direct is airing tomorrow at 2pm BST in the UK.

Tom Orry

13:42 pm
UTC

45 minutes of Kirby Air Riders? I love a bit of Kirby as much as the next fan of alien entities that take on the abilities of the objects they consume, but that’s a long time to spend on one game. I’m excited to see what Nintendo has cooked up, though.

Tom Orry

13:47 pm
UTC

Endling – Extinction dev reveals its next game

Image credit: Herobeat

Developer Herobeat has announced its next game, Rewilders: The Lost Spring, which has been inspired by the works of Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli films.

Tom Orry

13:54 pm
UTC

Any Shenmue fans in the comments today? I won’t pretend I’m a big fan. I played the original game on the Dreamcast and simply couldn’t get into it. And that is as a huge Sega fan who had grown up as a Sega kid. Just wasn’t for me.

Tom Orry

14:23 pm
UTC

The Battlefield 6 party continues in… Battlefield 2042

Connor has been on the blower to moan about how sad he is that the Battlefield 6 beta has finished. “Don’t worry,” I said in reply, cutting through his tears. “You can just play Battlefield 2042 and earn some stuff to use in Battlefield 6.”

He turned to me (not that I could see as we were on a phone call, not a video call), and he said: “Tom, you are so wise. I will play Battlefield 2042 as I am the exact target audience for this type of marketing campaign. I’ll also write up my thoughts on such an event in a story to publish on Eurogamer.net.”

Thanks, Connor. Here is that story:

Tom Orry

14:46 pm
UTC

Today’s Blast from the Past: Flights, Co-op Tomb Raiding, and more

Image credit: Xbox / Microsoft

Another day presents another opportunity for us to look back at gaming history. Here’s some milestone anniversaries for today, 18th August:

Microsoft Flight Simulator’s grand reboot leads the pack of gaming anniversaries today – the reimagining of the franchise first released five years ago. I recieved the coveted Eurogamer Essential, back when that was the parlance – and it sits alongside Animal Crossing as a perfect game for the then all-consuming pandemic, allowing a sort of digital tourism at a time when we were all trapped inside. It’s a shame that the much more content-rich 2024 edition has run into various troubles, but hopefully that team can eventually recapture the spirit of the 2020 edition over time.
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is fifteen years old today. A cool, well-reviewed spin-off of the franchise inspired by the likes of Diablo and Gauntlet, it first launched for Xbox 360’s Live Arcade and then made its way to PS3, PC, and even mobile. It brings to mind that era when downloadables were always smaller, bite-sized games, which led to interesting spin-offs of big-name brands like this – something we now don’t see as often. A shame.
And here’s a trio of further recent anniversaries: Rogue Legacy 2, Mortal Shell, and Spiritfarer all hit on this day in 2020 – the same day as Flight Simulator! There was clearly something in the water on this day five years ago. I’m also now just realizing I can’t write “on that day five years ago”, or a variation thereof, without hearing this.

Alex Donaldson

15:04 pm
UTC

I actually really liked Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, not that I can remember a single thing about it – although I think you had to push a large ball around at one point?

Tom Orry

15:15 pm
UTC

Crazyreyn says: “Any Shenmue fans in the comments today?” hello

Here he is! The Shenmue fan has logged on.

Tom Orry

15:38 pm
UTC

Sword of the Sea review

Image credit: Giant Squid / Eurogamer

Liked this one quite a bit folks.

It’s the latest from Giant Squid, the developer behind Abzu and The Pathless, with creative director Matt Nava having also worked heavily on Journey as art director back in the day. He teams up again with renowned game composer Austin Wintory here. It’s a game that mixes a bit of light Zelda-ing with serene platforming, ludicrously pretty views and a sense of movement, mindfulness and flow that’s right up there with very best of ’em. Big fat five stars from me.

Chris Tapsell

15:44 pm
UTC

Mortal Kombat movie is 30 years old today

As the clock ticks ever closer to 5pm in the UK and I can see the fajitas I’m about to cook for my dinner drift into view, now is the perfect time to remember the original Mortal Kombat movie which turns 30 today. I know this film has gained a large following in the years since its release, but I never liked it that much. That said, it probably captured the video games better than the recent movie did. You can’t say anything negative about this music, though, which is superb.

Watch on YouTube

Tom Orry

16:03 pm
UTC

That’s your lot for today. Big day tomorrow, everyone, so don’t stay up too late tonight. Chances are there’ll be at least one good game shown during Gamescom ONL, which kicks off at 7pm BST tomorrow – although there is supposedly also a bit of a pre-show before that.

Thanks for joining us today. See you all tomorrow.

Tom Orry

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August 19, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Finally, we’re about to get more info on Switch 2 exclusive Kirby Air Riders

by admin August 18, 2025

Nintendo has announced that a Kirby Air Riders Direct will air tomorrow, 19th August. The video presentation will be approximately 45 minutes long and deliver info on the upcoming Switch 2 exclusive.

The news of the Direct was posted on Nintendo Today, the publisher’s mobile app.

Tune in tomorrow Tuesday, August 19th at 2pm UK time for a livestreamed Kirby Air Riders Direct featuring about 45 minutes of information about the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 game.

Very little on the game has been revealed so far, although we got this description on the game’s listing on Nintendo.com.

Kirby Air Riders, a brand new title originated from the Nintendo GameCube classic racing-action game Kirby Air Ride, is coming to Nintendo Switch 2 this year – directed by Masahiro Sakurai.

A trailer for Kirby Air Riders was released back in April. The trailer, which you can watch below, doesn’t give much away, and we’ve had to wait four months to get new info on the game.

Watch on YouTube

This is a news-in-brief story. This is part of our vision to bring you all the big news as part of a daily live report.

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August 18, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

A Nintendo Direct focused on Kirby Air Riders is set for August 19

by admin August 18, 2025

Nintendo has a few major first-party Nintendo Switch 2 games lined up for the rest of the year. One of those is Kirby Air Riders, a sequel to the 2003 GameCube title Kirby Air Ride. The company is set to reveal much (much) more about what it has in store for the new game, as it has lined up a dedicated Nintendo Direct. You’ll be able to watch the showcase, which was first announced via the Nintendo Today! app, at 9AM ET on August 19. You won’t have to go hunting for it on Nintendo’s channel either, as you can click the big red button on the YouTube video above.

The stream will run for about 45 minutes and “provide an in-depth look at the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 game,” according to the company. On the surface, that seems like a very long showcase for a single game by Nintendo standards, considering that it’s able to rip through a couple of dozen game reveals (or more) in a regular Direct that’s as long or shorter. The recent Direct for Donkey Kong Bananza clocked in at just under 18 minutes and had a ton of info about that game.

However, if you’ve ever seen a character reveal for game director Masahiro Sakurai’s previous project, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, you’ll be aware that the man tends to get into the nitty gritty. After all, the deep dive into the final SSBU fighter, Sora from Kingdom Hearts, is 42 minutes long. So a 45-minute Direct for a whole new Sakurai game suddenly doesn’t seem as excessive.

A release date for Kirby Air Riders seems like a safe bet for this Direct. The timing of the showcase is pretty interesting too, as it will air just before Gamescom gets underway. Perhaps Kirby Air Riders will be playable at Nintendo’s booth at the event.

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August 18, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Kirby Air Riders Nintendo Direct Coming Tuesday, Will Run A Whopping 45 Minutes

by admin August 18, 2025

A Nintendo Direct has been scheduled for tomorrow–the third one in the past month–this time focusing on a single game: Kirby Air Riders. Much like how his Super Smash Bros. Ultimate presentations went, game director Masahiro Sakurai will be hosting this particular Direct.

According to the livestream’s description, it will “provide an in-depth look at the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 game,” and will be roughly 45 minutes long, which is longer than both of the previous two Directs combined. It kicks off at 6 AM PT / 9 AM ET / 2 PM BST, and you’ll be able to watch it on Nintendo’s official YouTube channel.

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Now Playing: Kirby Air Riders – Official Reveal Trailer | Nintendo Switch 2

Kirby Air Riders was announced back in April during a Nintendo Direct that revealed a bevy of Nintendo Switch 2 games, though at the time all that was shown off was a pre-rendered trailer. Not much is known about this sequel, but with tomorrow’s Direct running at around 45 minutes, that will soon change. The game will also mark the first time Sakurai has directed a Kirby title since the original Air Rider for the GameCube.

Nintendo hasn’t held a traditional Direct since its full Switch 2 reveal, instead opting for a Partner Showcase in July and an Indie World Showcase earlier this month. The Partner Showcase didn’t have too many massive reveals, though it did include a new Monster Hunter Stories, Katamari, and a fresh look at Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment. The Indie World Showcase was on the quieter side too, but still well worth a look for some neat upcoming titles.

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August 18, 2025 0 comments