Month: January 2019

The Fortnite island has been full of players frolicking in the snow over the last few days–and by frolicking we mean desperately trying to not get killed by other players and the hordes of ice monsters. Still, it’s good times. We’re now in Fortnite Season 7, Week 9, and the fun is set to continue with a new batch of weekly challenges. As always, get these done and earn Battle Stars to upgrade your Battle Pass. As you level the pass up, new cosmetics will be unlocked for you–easy as ice pie.

In the free category, this week’s challenges involve using the Sneaky Snowman item in three different matches, eliminating three enemies at Junk Junction or Retail Row, and completing a multi-stage challenge that begins with landing at Retail Row.

However, if you want to maximize your Battle Star earnings, you’ll need to have a premium Battle Pass, which you can get by paying V-Bucks. For those who have one of those, the extra set of challenges will require you to pop 10 golden balloons, get three kills with a shotgun, and complete two timed trials in an X-4 Stormwing Plane. Additionally, there’s another multi-stage challenge that involves dancing on a sundial and other specific items on the island.

Free

• Use a Sneaky Snowman in different matches (3) — 5 Battle Stars
• Stage 1: Land at Retail Row — 1 Battle Star
• Eliminate opponents at Junk Junction or Retail Row (3) — 10 Battle Stars

Battle Pass

• Pop 10 golden balloons (10) — 5 Battle Stars
• Stage 1: Dance on a sundial — 1 Battle Star
• Shotgun eliminations 3 — 10 Battle Stars
• Complete timed trials in an X-4 Stormwing plane (2) — 10 Battle Stars

On January 30, Fortnite developer Epic Games launched update 7.30 of the game for PS4, Xbox One, PC, Switch, iOS, and Android. Although the patch throws a umber of weapons into the vault, it also adds a new item called the chiller grenade, as well as the Solid Gold limited-time mode. Additionally, controller support for mobile players as been introduced. You can read all about those in the full Fortnite update 7.30 patch notes.

Mario Kart Tour, the smartphone debut of Nintendo’s hit racing series, has been delayed. In an earnings report, the publisher confirmed the mobile game would not hit its intended release window of the financial year 2018/19, which ends in March.

Instead, the company now says Mario Kart Tour will launch in the summer of 2019. Explaining the delay, Nintendo said it wanted to “improve [the] quality of the application and expand the content offerings after launch,” and hence needed more development time.

Mario Kart Tour was announced last year, though few details are known at present. All that’s been revealed is the logo you can see above.

For a long time, Nintendo refused to bring its franchises to mobile devices in part because the company maintained that it would rather focus on its own dedicated gaming devices. However, this stance changed, and Nintendo has already released a few mobile games and apps, including Miitopia, Super Mario Run, Fire Emblem Heroes, and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp.

The latest game in the racing series is Nintendo Switch’s Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which has now sold over 15 million copies worldwide. For more on that title, read our Mario Kart 8 Deluxe review.

Nintendo has revealed its 10 best-selling Switch exclusives, and there are some eye-watering sales figures involved. As part of its latest earnings report, the company confirmed its best-selling Switch game is Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which has been bought by just over 15 million people around the world as of December 31.

Below that, Super Mario Odyssey sold an impressive 13.76 million copies, while Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is already in third place with 12m copies shifted, despite having been available for less than a month at the time these data were recorded. It should be noted Nintendo only disclosed the figures for games it published, meaning big third-party games such as Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle and FIFA 19 are excluded from this list.

Switch launch title The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild lies at No.4 in the list, while Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu / Eevee combined are already at No.5, despite launching only a couple of months ago.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe lying at the top of this chart is especially impressive given its non-Deluxe predecessor, Mario Kart 8, was the best-selling game on Wii U, with 8.42m units sold. New Super Mario Bros. U was the third best-selling game on Wii U, so it will be interesting to see how its Deluxe version does on Switch.

In the two years since launch, the Nintendo Switch has had some critically acclaimed games, including the aforementioned Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Super Mario Odyssey, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. For more top-rated titles on the system, check out our rundown of the best Nintendo Switch games.

1. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
2. Super Mario Odyssey
3. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
4. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
5. Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu / Eevee
6. Splatoon 2
7. Super Mario Party
8. 1-2-Switch
9. Mario Tennis Aces
10. Kirby Star Allies