Nintendo Switch Eshop Adds Almost 40 New Games

The Nintendo Eshop has added another slew of games for Nintendo Switch this week, with more on the way before the end of the month. The latest Eshop update includes a whopping 37 games, many available now and others dropping throughout the coming week.

The headline release of the week is Kentucky Route Zero: TV Edition, the console copy of the long-awaited adventure game that is finally releasing on consoles alongside its final episode release. Its episodic releases on PC have been sporadic but critically acclaimed, and starting January 28 it will all be available to play from the comfort of your Switch.

The week’s releases also include the atmospheric puzzle game Mosaic and a Switch port of the 2005 classic Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath. Other notable releases include a couple more seasons of Telltale’s The Walking Dead, and two new Sega Ages releases–Fantasy Zone and Shinobi.

You can check out the full listing of this week’s Nintendo Switch Eshop releases below. Plus if you’re looking for a bargain, check out some of January’s best Switch deals.

Nintendo Switch Eshop Releases (week beginning January 23)

Now Playing: Nintendo Switch’s 5 Best Games Of 2019

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Fortnite Gets Official High School and College Esports League

An official, competitive Fortnite esports league is coming to high schools and colleges thanks to an organization called PlayVS.

PlayVS is a startup that’s building an esports league at the high school — and now college — level. The company announced that Fortnite will be joining its lineup of official esports games alongside Rocket League.

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High schools that sign up with PlayVS will be organized into a regional conference, just like traditional sports. Conferences are determined by geographic locations for high schools, though the College conference will vary.

Teams are made up of two players competing in Fortnite Duos and schools can register an unlimited number of teams. Top teams at the end of a season will get a chance to compete in the playoffs and then a championship match. There’s no requirement for platforms, meaning players can compete on whatever hardware they choose.

Epic Games already hosts its esports league for Fortnite, but the company is partnering with PlayVS to bring the competitive version of the game to the high school and college level. Other game developers like Blizzard also host their collegiate esports league for games like Overwatch and Hearthstone.

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PlayVS says the official season of Fortnite esports for colleges and universities begins on March 2, 2020, while the high school season begins on February 24, 2020.

Check out IGN’s Fortnite guide for tips, strategies, and more if you’re interested in competing in Fortnite at the competitive level.

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Matt Kim is a reporter for IGN. You can reach him on Twitter.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars Five-Issue Comic Miniseries Coming in April

Star Wars: The Clone Wars will receive a five-issue miniseries from IDW Publishing in April.

“Star Wars Adventures: The Clone Wars – Battle Tales” will be a weekly series starting April 1. It will be written by Michael Moreci (Roche Limit) with Derek Charm (Jughead) writing “a framing sequence” for each issue where “the heroes from the animated series share war stories while pinned down in the middle of the conflict,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.

“The Clone Wars era is probably my favorite in all of Star Wars,” Moreci said in a statement. “It has it all — big adventure, sweeping romance, Force mythology, Jedi powers, and, of course, the awesome clones. This event series is going to bring together all the best, evergreen parts of Star Wars and weave a story that longtime fans (like myself) and new, younger readers (like my own kids) will definitely love.”

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IDW has also set up a different artist to work on each issue: Arianna Florean, Megan Levens, Valentina Pinto, Davide Tinto and Philip Murphy. This will be the third time IDW has had a Star Wars anthology series with varying artists for each issue. The publisher previously released Tales from Vader’s Castle in 2018 and Return to Vader’s Castle in 2019.

It’s unknown whether any of the stories in Battle Tales are meant to be in-continuity with the animated series. Traditionally, while Marvel’s Star Wars projects are treated as official canon by the Lucasfilm Story Group, IDW’s comics are continuity-free offshoots aimed at an all-ages audience.

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This comes a day after The Clone Wars TV series received a release date, a new trailer and a poster for its final season. We now know when the season will take place and its connection to Star Wars Rebels.

For more Star Wars details, check out a breakdown of what could be an early draft of a Rise of Skywalker screenplay and see what clues Giancarlo Esposito recently revealed about his Mandalorian character.

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Petey Oneto is a freelance writer for IGN.

No, SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated Doesn’t Have a Release Date Yet

Despite a release date infographic suggesting the remake did have a May release date, THQ Nordic has confirmed to IGN that SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated does not yet have an officially announced release date.

A graphic released by Nintendo highlighting a series of major releases coming to the Nintendo Switch in 2020 indicated Battle for Bikini Bottom would be coming out on May 22.

However, when reached for comment, a spokesperson for THQ Nordic told IGN “We’re keen on getting Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated into the eagerly waiting hands of the fans as soon as possible. However, we’ve asked our magic conch shell when we should release it, and are still awaiting its command. We’ll let you know, once it has spoken.”

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Interestingly, the listed date in that infographic is the same planned release date for the upcoming The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run, which features that Keanu Reeves cameo. While it’s unclear why the game was listed with this release date, it’s possible the SpongeBob movie’s release date was mistaken for the game’s date.

While we don’t know when Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated will be released, we do know of the planned SpongeBob special editions players can preorder, including the F.U.N. and Shiny editions.

After Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated’s announcement early last year, THQ Nordic showed off gameplay of the SpongeBob remake at Gamescom 2019

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Jonathon Dornbush is IGN’s Senior News Editor, PlayStation lead, and Podcast Beyond! host. Talk to him on Twitter @jmdornbush.

Kojima Productions Has Plans To Work On Smaller Games, Anime, Manga, And Movies

The latest issue of Japan’s Famitsu magazine includes a 30-page feature on Kojima Productions in celebration of the studio’s fourth anniversary. Hideo Kojima and Yoji Shinkawa are interviewed as part of the 30-page spread, reflecting on their history together and Death Stranding‘s development. Most intriguingly, however, the pair also expressed their hopes for the future of the studio, discussing what types of projects they would like to work on next.

Translated by Dualshockers, Kojima said that he’d be interested in trying to develop smaller games, like episodic or digital-only titles, while still working on bigger projects more akin to Death Stranding and its time-consuming scope. Kojima has previously worked on smaller games before, of course, with both P.T. and Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes–two games set in one location during a single night.

The studio has plans to work on multiple game projects, encompassing one “big” game along with Kojima’s hopes of creating smaller titles as well. Beyond this, Kojima Productions is also interested in developing projects outside of video games. Kojima and Shinkawa both mentioned they want to create a manga together, while also floating the idea of an anime featuring Shinkawa’s mecha design work. Kojima reiterated that he wishes to make movies, too, including one with Shinkawa’s designs.

How many of these projects come to fruition remains to be seen, but Death Stranding is available now on PlayStation 4, with the PC version due out this summer.

Now Playing: Hideo Kojima And Yoji Shinkawa Break Down A Key Death Stranding Scene | Audio Logs

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New Cyberpunk Horror Game Teased By Observer Dev Bloober Team

Bloober Team, the studio behind horror titles such as Layers of Fear and Blair Witch, has teased a new cyberpunk horror game. The Polish developer has a history with the genre, of course, with 2017’s Observer–starring the late great Rutger Hauer–taking place in a cyberpunk dystopia.

This new tease is certainly hinting at a new game set in Observer’s universe. Bloober Team’s tweet mentions “>sig: ch120n 1nc02p02473d_.” Chiron Incorporated is an organization in the world of Observer, so a sequel seems likely. A keen-eyed Twitter user also translated some of the binary that appears in the video teaser, discovering that someone called Daniel is mentioned. Rutger Hauer played a character called Daniel Lazarski in the original game, and Bloober Team responded to the tweet with “Good hacks! :D.”

David Rayfield scored Observer 9/10 in GameSpot’s review, praising its storytelling, writing, and Rutger Hauer’s performance, with the only negative being some brief but frustrating instant-fail sequences. “Cyberpunk is a reflection of where we’re headed as a society, an oddly alluring reality where we’ve allowed impressive technology into our lives at the cost of our humanity. This is a niche genre that needs new revisions and new pioneers so it can keep evolving as we inch closer to seeing its fictional warnings play out in real life, and Observer adds to the familiar parables in fascinating and unexpected ways. In that respect, and on so many other levels, Observer is a haunting and remarkable achievement.”

Now Playing: Observer Video Review

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Temtem Dev Says Launch Issues Likely Resolved

The Pokemon-like MMO Temtem has been suffering some launch difficulties this week, but developer Crema says it expects they should be resolved now. The studio, which has been notably transparent throughout the rocky launch, said that as of Thursday morning the game had remained stable over the course of a few hours.

In a tweet, the studio said it had remained stable with 27,000 players. It isn’t declaring the problem as solved just yet, though, saying it will “see how today goes.” This follows issues like a stability issue with a hotfix, and one error that appeared to remove players’ Tems. Crema assured players that their Tems were safely stored, even if they weren’t displaying at the moment.

Crema also referred players to the Steam support page for refunds if the stability issues were just too much to take.

Some launch issues are to be expected from a relatively small studio, especially seeing as the game is only in early access. Players who jump on early will save a little money, though, as the price is planned to slowly increase as Crema adds more features before it leaves early access.

Temtem is inspired by Pokemon, with several dozen creatures to collect and train and more due as development continues. It got off to a big start, rising to the top-selling spot on Steam just a few days after it entered early access. It’s still holding the top spot, with a peak concurrent player count of around 30,000 users.

Now Playing: Temtem – 20 Minutes Of Alpha Gameplay

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Baby Yoda Pop-Up Card Arrives Just In Time For Valentine’s Day

Baby Yoda plushies won’t be available before Valentine’s Day, but that doesn’t mean you can’t surprise your special someone with a gift that celebrates The Mandalorian‘s breakout star. Greeting card company Lovepop creates handcrafted pop-up card, and its latest design features an adorable Baby Yoda pop-up.

Lovepop's Baby Yoda pop-up card
Lovepop’s Baby Yoda pop-up card

The outside of the blue card includes a picture of Baby Yoda in his floating bassinet with the simple greeting “For You.” When the card is opened, a wonderfully designed Baby Yoda pops up. The backdrop of the scene on Arvala-7–the planet where Mando found Baby Yoda–depicts the Razor Crest ship. You can also see a frog, who obviously doesn’t know it’s about to get eaten, hopping toward Baby Yoda. The pop-up card costs $15 and is available to purchase at Amazon.

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Lovepop uses ship-building software to create its designs, and the pop-up models are created with kirigami, an offshoot of origami that involves both folds and cuts.

While I think the 3D model of Baby Yoda shows your partner how deeply you care for them already, the card comes with a blank note to write your Valentine’s Day message on.

If for some odd reason your partner doesn’t like Baby Yoda, Lovepop has a ton of designs to choose from, including a traditional bouquet, Mickey and Minnie, and Baby Yoda’s arch-nemesis for the cuteness crown, Baby Groot. If you’re looking for a gift to go with the card, we put together a list Valentine’s Day gift ideas for gamers.

Blade Runner 2049 Director Wants To “Revisit” The Movie’s Universe

It took the sci-fi sequel Blade Runner 2049 many years to reach the screen, but there’s little denying that director Denis Villeneuve did an incredible job of capturing the visuals and atmosphere of Ridley Scott’s original 1982 movie. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a financial success, and Villeneuve has since moved onto another huge sci-fi project–a new adaptation of the classic novel Dune, However, the director has now revealed he wants to return to the world of Blade Runner.

In a new interview with Empire, Villeneuve explained that he wasn’t looking to do another Blade Runner sequel, but a different story set in the same universe. “It’s such an inspiring place, the Blade Runner world,” he said. “The problem is have is the word ‘sequel.’ I think cinema needs original stories. But if you ask me if I’d like to revisit this universe in a different way, I can say yes. It would need to be a project on its own. Something disconnected from both other movies. A detective noir story set in the future… I wake up sometimes in the night dreaming about it.”

Blade Runner 2049 was released in October 2017. It only made $260 million at the worldwide box office, and it was reported that it could have lost up to $80 million. Scott himself, who was a producer on the film, subsequently described the movie as “slow [and] too long.” Nevertheless, it received strong reviews–in his review for GameSpot, Michael Rougeau said it was “as close to a perfect sequel as has ever existed.”

As for Dune, that’s set to hit theaters on December 18, 2020. Villeneuve has assembled an amazing cast for the movie, including Timothy Chalamet, Oscar Isaac, Rebecca Ferguson, Stellan Skarsgård, Jason Momoa, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, and Dave Bautista. There’s also a Dune TV spin-off in the works, titled Dune: The Sisterhood, but Villeneuve isn’t involved with this.

Now Playing: Blade Runner 2049 Video Review