My Thoughts on the First Splatoon 2 Splatfest (Congratulations Team Mayo!)

This past weekend, the Squid Research team hit fans with the first official Splatfest of Splatoon 2. For those of you who are unfamiliar, Splatfests are 24 hour events where all players choose to join one team or another, in this case team mayonnaise or team ketchup. Once a team is selected, traditional 4-on-4 turf wars ensue in order to decide which team wins. The winning team receives a larger reward at the end of the Splatfest than the losing team. These events became tradition during the life of the original Splatoon, and are now promised to continue for approximately 2 years on Splatoon 2. The battle of mayonnaise versus ketchup kicked off the festivities in what was an overall incredible Splatfest. The event was just as good, perhaps even better, than the one’s experienced in Splatoon 1. However, despite an unquestionably great time, the Splatfest didn’t go on without any problems.

New for Nintendo this (and next) Week (8/6/17-8/19/17)

Two weeks ago, Nintendo had a massive week with the July 21^st launch of Splatoon 2. Then, last week, Nintendo seemingly took a bit of a break, as it was a very slow trickle of releases, primarily very small indie games for the Switch. The next two weeks look to ramp things up a bit, as Nintendo is getting support from all fronts, indie, third party, and first party games. While the next two weeks don’t look the throw out any major releases or set any records, there are a few games worth taking note of. Oh, and it is worth mentioning that next week does see the return of a beloved, little blue hedgehog…

What Will be in Nintendo's Next Direct?

It has now been nearly a month since Nintendo gave fans a Direct presentation. With the Big N setting up the 2017 trend of one Direct type presentation a month, it has to be believed that an announcement is coming very soon. However, with a Direct being imminent, it has to be wondered what will be included in Nintendo’s next digital presentation. Given the time of year, Nintendo’s upcoming schedule of games, and the holiday season being just around the corner, we can make a few educated guesses as to what may be discussed during the next event. Not only can we have guesses as to what WILL be in the Direct, but we can also gather a pretty good idea of what the next Direct will NOT focus on.

Team Death Match coming to Splatoon 2? New Content we want in Splatoon 2

Splatoon 2 has launched to both critical acclaim and commercial success. Despite this success, though, many fans and critics have complained that the game offers too little content, especially when considering that it is a sequel with only 1 real game mode added from its predecessor. While this is a subjective claim that I mostly disagree with, one thing that everyone can agree on is that we look forward to seeing new content added to Splatoon 2 over the next year. With the promise from Nintendo of free updates and DLC coming to their hit shooter for a year, there is a lot of speculation of what this new content might contain. Will it be more maps, modes, weapons or clothes? Well, I have some theories as to what Nintendo might have in store for us.

Nintendo's July in Review (Splatoon 2, New 2DS XL, & Switch Online App)

Going into July of 2017, Nintendo had a ton of momentum that they could capitalize on. With releases earlier this year that included a revolutionary new console, the likely undisputed game of the year in Breath of the Wild, a new IP in ARMS, and an incredible selling Mario Kart 8 port, Nintendo had been knocking it out of the park. July continued this momentous path for the Big N, as the month saw a major first party Switch game in Splatoon 2, a pair of first party 3DS games, the launch of the Nintendo Switch Online App, and even a new hardware release. A ton of great Indie titles also made it onto the Switch in July, However, major third party support made very little appearances. Let’s look in depth at the highs and lows of Nintendo’s July.

Ten Games that Must be on the Nintendo 64 Classic Edition (N64 Mini)

At this point, it is all but confirmed that Nintendo will be launching the Nintendo 64 Classic Edition sometime in 2018. Following 2 consecutive years of releasing classic editions of their first two home consoles, Nintendo seems poised to do it once again. Pair the fact that this move would be a no brainer with a suspicious and sudden renewal of the patent on the Nintendo 64 controller, and it seems that fans will be fighting over another mini console next fall. Due to the facts that the console is not confirmed and the SNES Classic hasn’t even been released yet, it is far too early to be discussing the N64 Classic. However, this hasn’t stopped many other fans from doing so, and it certainly won’t stop me. Let’s jump into a list of ten must have games on the Nintendo 64 Classic Edition!

Nintendo Switch Online App Review (Switch Voice Chat Review)

Along with their hit shooter, Splatoon 2, Nintendo also launched their highly anticipated Nintendo Switch Online App. Since its announcement earlier in 2017, excitement, speculation, and apprehensions had been surrounding the Switch Online App. Well, on July 21^st, critics and fans finally got their hands on the app, and all of our fears about it became reality. The app just has so many problems pertaining to how it handles in-game voice chat. However, it has to be noted that it isn’t all bad. With the Switch Online App also came SplatNet 2, which has been better than any of us could have imagined. Let’s jump into the details of what makes this app both terrible and great all at the same time.