Pokémon & Levis Partnership, Nintendo Comments On New Switch

Nintendo Switch sales just shy of 80m

Nintendo's financial report confirms that Switch has sold no less than 79.87 million units, and is still going strong.

In the last quarter of 2020, 11.57 million Switch consoles were sold alongside 75.85 million games. Nintendo has revised its sales projections for financial year 2020 to 26.5 million units in total.

Best-selling first-party games:

1. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – 33.41 million
2. Animal Crossing: New Horizons – 31.18 million
3. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – 22.85 million
4. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – 21.45 million
5. Pokémon Sword / Pokémon Shield – 20.35 million

No Switch Pro … yet: As usual, there is speculation of a Switch Pro delivering 4K gaming which Nintendo flatly denied – until now. In a recent Q&A, Nintendo said that they are "not making an announcement any time soon". Maybe next financial year?

What film officially introduced North America to Super Mario Brothers 3?

a) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
b) Super Mario Brothers
c) The Wizard
d) Danny, the Champion of the World

The answer will be revealed at the bottom of today's issue. Join up with our community on Twitter and Facebook to discuss what the answer could be.

Too brutal for Australia and Germany

Some of the weapons in Valve’s Left 4 Dead 2 were a bit much for Germany and Australia, so they had to be replaced by Counter-Strike: Source weapons, making the combat knife exclusive to the German and Australian versions of the game.

There were plans for DLC inspired by The Cabin in the Woods, but that project got scrapped when MGM went bankrupt in 2010. The Park level was supposed to feature a procedurally generated maze, but players kept getting lost in it, so it was cut.

Join our community on Twitter and Facebook to discuss today's fact.

Sword of the Necromancer Review

Developed by: Grimorio of Games

Platform Played On: Nintendo Switch

Is it okay to kill if you resurrect your victims afterwards, right?

As you make your ways into the depths of the tomb, Tama and Koko's story unfolds and shows why they mean so much to each other. That's right: Sword of the Necromancer is a rogue-like love story.

The voice actresses do a great job, and the romantic story gives you plenty of reasons to delve ever deeper into the dungeon. The game itself is a pretty straightforward Japanese-style dungeon crawler, and the big twist is your ability to resurrect fallen enemies.

Keep your undead minions alive, and they will level up and gain new abilities as they fight by your side. Different monsters suit different playstyles, and it's fun to explore the pros and cons of the different enemies you encounter. Learning how to keep your monsters alive adds a lot of variety, and avoids feeling like one big escort mission.

If you should die, you are sent back to the start of the game, lose half your levels and all your gear. If you find that happening too often, you can adjust the difficulty so you don't lose levels or gear when you die, making failure considerably less punishing — and means Sword of the Necromancer is one of the rare rogue-likes you can play for the sake of the story.

You can only hold four items at a time — with the fourth being the titular sword of the necromancer — so you constantly have to make choices about how to equip yourself. There's an inventory chest in each level, so you don't always have to throw away loot you don't need, and a forge where you can spend materials to upgrade your equipment – but it's a bit hard to justify since you risk losing it at any time.

The storytelling and gameplay are both very engaging, but the art and animation are not particularly noteworthy. The animated opening looks great, but the rest of the graphics are pretty simple – yet that doesn't detract from the game's charm: The storytelling and necromancy makes Sword of the Necromancer stand out in the crowded field of rogue-like dungeon-crawlers.

PROS:

• Neat necromancy system
• Cute little love story
• Flexible difficulty

CONS:

• Occasionally frustrating
• Simple art and animation
• Little incentive to upgrade equipment

Sword of the Necromancer is available today on the Nintendo Switch. Developer Grimorio of Games kindly provided a Nintendo Switch review code to DailyBits for free for the purposes of this review.

Werewolves and mystical samurai

It’s a supernatural week, starting off with Cultist Simulator and continuing with Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood before ending with Nioh Remastered and Nioh 2 Complete Edition.

Tuesday – February 2nd

• Cultist Simulator for Switch
• Destruction AllStars for PlayStation 5
• Ys IX: Monstrum Nox for PlayStation 4

Wednesday – February 3rd

• Habroxia 2 for PC, PlayStation 4, Vita, Xbox One, Switch

Thursday – February 4th

• Haven for Switch, PlayStation 4
• Skyforge for Switch
• Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

Friday – February 5th

• Nioh Remastered – The Complete Edition for PlayStation 5
• Nioh 2 – The Complete Edition for PC, PlayStation 4
• Nioh 2 Remastered – The Complete Edition for PlayStation 5

Always bet on GameStop

The big story the last week has been the furore around GameStop’s stock and r/WallStreetBets taking on Wall Street hedge funds, and now Hollywood wants a piece of the action.

Movies about ballsy stock market moves are pretty popular, from classics like Wall Street and The Wolf of Wall Street to The Big Short. The studio MGM has picked up the rights to a book that hasn't even been written yet – The Antisocial Network.

The book is being penned by Ben Mezrich who wrote Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, a Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal, which was adapted into The Social Network. The story has it all: Plucky underdogs, self-satisfied bankers, twists and turns as a heady mix of hedge funds, trading platforms and regulatory bodies try to keep the angry retail traders from blowing up the market.

Stonk Wars: The GameStop war is still raging on, and what started as a big bet to make a quick buck has turned into a cause célèbre exposing the hypocrisy of the so-called free market, and how the American financial establishment defends its turf when the wrong kind of people start rocking the boat.

• See the GoldenEye 007 remake that never was in a full playthrough of the cancelled Xbox 360 version
• Get fashionable with Pokémon and Levis 25th anniversary Pokémon jeans
• See the fall of RCPD from Marvin Branagh's perspective in the stand-alone Marvin's Mod for the original Resident Evil 2
• New Sonic Prime 3D animated show coming to Netflix, bringing the SEGA’s fastest thing alive to the small screen
• Pecan's House Cookie event brings new free stuff to Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp until February 5th

What film officially introduced North America to Super Mario Brothers 3?

ANSWER: The Wizard!

The eighties was a great time for weird movies, but few are as outright odd as The Wizard. It’s the melodramatic story of a traumatized kid named Jimmy who tries to get to California with his brother. As it turns out, Jimmy is a videogame prodigy – and that’s where the massive amount of Nintendo product placement comes in.

What starts out as an 80s coming-of-age drama turns into an over-the-top videogame tournament with Super Mario Bros. 3 at the center. The film’s reverence for Super Mario Bros. 3 borders on the absurd, but Nintendo probably thought they got their money’s worth. It’s not exactly a classic, but if you wanna see one of the most 80s movies to ever 80s, it’s The Wizard.

Today's issue of DailyBits was written by Gavin Herman, Erlend Grefsrud, Simon Priest, and Jamie Davey.