In a brand new feature exclusive to the Switch Player Magazine website, we take a look back at the events that took place this week in a particular year in Nintendo Switch history. This week we take a look back to 2018, and summarise all of the news and releases from the week of July 15.
The News
We’ve never been short of new game announcements on the Switch, and another slew of Indie games were revealed to be on the way to the platform this week. That list included the eerie horror platformer Stay, soon to be getting a physical release from Red Art Games, and FMV adventure game The Shapeshifting Detective from Wales Interactive. Meanwhile, Capcom confirmed that the upcoming Megaman X Legacy Collection would include easy difficulty modes so that newcomers or fans who had previously found the games too challenging would be able to enjoy these experiences in a more welcoming way.
Later in the week, a leak which we now know was untrue surfaced courtesy of IMDB claiming that none other than the Chorus Kids from Rhythm Heaven would be playable fighter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Square-Enix were forced to apologise following the rousing success of Octopath Traveler as Japanese fans of the game were unable to find a physical copy of the game due to overwhelming demand in stores.
The file size for a digital copy of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was confirmed and it was revealed that the game would take up more than half of the 32GB of the internal memory included with the Switch. Meanwhile, following the release of South Park: The Fractured But Whole, Ubisoft confirmed that the games prequel The Stick of Truth would finds its way to Switch later in the year.
Game Freak confirmed that the upcoming Pokemon: Let’s Go Pikachu & Eevee would possibly be forward compatible with future Pokemon games on Switch, something we now know is true, with some caveats of course. And lastly, popular roguelike Enter The Gungeon received a free expansion which added a whole host of new content to the game titled Enhanced Gungeons & Dragons.
Switch Games in the UK Top 10
In what seemed like a summer of domination for the marsupial, Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy held the number 1 slot in the charts for a third week, while new entries included Lego: The Incredibles and Octopath Traveler, games which had released the week prior. Mario Tennis Aces and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe also found themselves in the top 10.
Releases this week
The biggest release of the week would be none other than Sonic Mania Plus, an expansion to the base game that had released a year prior. The plus version would add two additional characters – Mighty the Armadillo and Ray the Flying Squirrel. The game also added a new Encore mode, which instead of making use of a ‘lives’ system, you instead had all five playable characters at your disposal. If they all died, you would have to start the entire Zone from the beginning. The expansion also included various other quality of life improvements such as remixed levels and new bosses to make the game feel fresh for those diving back in.
Other games that found their way to the eShop that week include Bomb Chicken from flash game veterans Nitrome (since a Limited Run Games release), YouTube sensation Guts ‘n’ Glory, a gore-filled vehicle-based obstacle course title. The pretty but often frustrating platformer Heroki also got an eShop release, and to futuristic racer VSR: Void Speed Racing took racing to space.