Back in July, the game rating for the remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was spotted on Nintendo's official store page.

In case you missed it, it's E10+. The title contains "animated blood" and "fantasy violence". Now, in a small update, the rating summary has officially gone live on the Entertainment Software Rating Board.

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It's the one we've all been waiting for. I am six weeks into my Ocarina of Time N64 playthrough, taking a look at one dungeon each week, and I have finally arrived at the most-discussed of the bunch.

After clearing the halfway point with the Fire Temple, it was time to tackle the Ice Cavern and head back over to Lake Hylia to see what the next puzzle box had in store. And yes, as I have said on this site a few times over the years, I honestly don't understand the hate.

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After Nintendo of America launched its 'Screaming Deals' sale earlier this week, we knew it wouldn't be long before Europe followed suit.

The 'Halloween Sale' is now live for those in Europe, with delicious discounts on a boatload of titles available until 1st November. So, naturally, we have assembled the following list to make things a little more manageable.

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The farming-sim genre needed Village in the Shade. The horror-tinged cosy game plays all the right beats to slot seamlessly into the library of farming adventures that seemingly come out every month. In fact, its visuals, mechanics, soundtrack, and overall feel would make it one of the better cosy titles to come out in the past few years. The real genius of comes in how it turns a mirror onto the player and makes us question why we find this simulated peace so enticing.

My expectations were set expertly by the game’s cold open. I saw my custom main character, who I had just spent a good 10 minutes designing, falling down a well and dying in a pool of blood.

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Adding to what is surely the most stacked roster of lifetime achievements, Shigeru Miyamoto is set to be awarded the prestigious Order of Culture award next month.

The award, which first began way back in the 1930s, will be given by the Emperor of Japan on the nation's Culture Day (3rd November), and is awarded to those who have gone above and beyond in their contributions to Japan's art, literature, tech or science scenes.

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When iam8bit announced its Legacy Cartridge Collection for Sonic and Sonic 2 on Sega Genesis a few months back, it's safe to say that most people were taken aback by the price. Available via iam8bit's official store page, each cartridge — complete with authentic case, instruction manual, and poster — is priced at $99.99.

That's a lot. Certainly a hefty chunk more than both games cost together digitally on Switch. Hell, you can pick up Sonic Origins Plus for 20 quid these days. So no, for the Average Joe who just wants to play these games in whichever manner is most convenient, these are probably not worth the money.

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Hitman: Absolution - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition finally snuck onto the new console earlier this week, and it's free to all those who own the game on Switch 1! At least, it's free for now.

Yes, as flagged by Feral Interactive, the upgrade path to the Switch 2 edition is only free until 4th November, while the game itself is subject to a 10% launch discount. From 5th November onwards, the upgrade pack will set you back $9.99 / £4.99 / €4,99, while the game will bump up to its full price of $39.99 / £24.99 / €29,99.

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Yesterday, it was revealed EA would be shutting down the RPG developer BioWare and ending "early development" on its next Mass Effect project.

Now, in an update, a trailer of this game has apparently surfaced online, with Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier confirming it's the "real" deal. BioWare was supposedly working on it right up "until its closure":

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It's been a while since I played a Call of Duty, but Modern Warfare 4 felt all at once familiar and refined to the Nth degree. Basic movement in this game is just majestic.

Infinity Ward has had plenty of practice honing the fundamentals, of course, but there's a balletic precision to CoD's locomotion that feels elegant, 'natural' even. Oddly, I've woken up from dreams recently after bobbing and sliding around in my mind, as if I'd been controlling myself with a pad.

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Third-party video game giant Capcom has suffered a major data breach recently, exposing the personal information of more than 11.7 million customer "CAPCOM ID" accounts around the world.

The data leak includes emails, client IP addresses used during the last login, and other details such as account creation dates. Apparently, only "43 of the cases" leaked additional details such as birth dates, gender, country/region and nicknames.

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Nintendo appears to have removed the programming software SmileBASIC 4 from the eShop following the supposed discovery of a Switch 2 jailbreak.

The "software-only" tethered jailbreak 'ns2jb' was apparently created by Sammy 'pepsipu' Hajhamid, with the help of OpenAI's Codex.

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Following a Switch Online update last week adding three GBA titles, Nintendo has today announced it's adding three more Game Boy games to the subscription service next week.

On 27th October 2026, this classic handheld library will be updated with the action title Avenging Spirit (1992, Jaleco), Mole Mania (1997, Nintendo EAD & PAX Softnica) and Pinball: Revenge of the 'Gator (1990, HAL Laboratory). Japan will receive the same titles in this update.

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The Legend of Zelda's 40th anniversary is well underway, and following an "exclusive edition" Link statue earlier this year, First 4 Figures has now revealed a Zelda figure.

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After the previous two games in the 'Survivor' trilogy arrived on Switch 2 with no fanfare, we shouldn't be surprised by today's news. But alas, here we are! Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition has shadow dropped on Switch 2.

'Shadow' caps off the Tomb Raider trilogy in style, with Aspyr once again bringing it our way, bundled with the original release's seven DLC Challenge Tombs for $39.99. And for those who want to get in as quickly as possible, the dev is knocking 10% off full price on the eShop until 4th November.

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Want to know why life in a world without time travel is such a bummer? No matter when you decide to take the plunge or how many other games you play, you can only ever experience Steins;Gate for the first time once.

Even more than 15 years on from its debut, it is no exaggeration to call 5pb and Nitroplus’ quirky little character drama on the intricacies of time travel a touchstone of visual novels as a medium, and the bar by which many of its ilk continue to be measured. It is conceptually fascinating, hilarious, tragic, existentially horrifying, heartwarming, thrilling, and everything in between. It is a story where an anime catgirl at a maid café ponders whether it’s God or us who observe the flow of time, and it has my endless gratitude for that.

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The latest Nintendo Download update for North America has arrived, and it's bringing new games galore to the eShop. As always, be sure to drop a vote in our poll and comment down below with your potential picks for the week.

Also, seeing as we missed last week's Download, we've bundled that in at the bottom for a bumper crop. Enjoy!

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We are still a good few weeks away from Monster Hunter Wilds' 4th December Switch 2 release date, but earlier this week, Capcom released a demo for it on our beloved hybrids, and the tech experts over at Digital Foundry are here with an analysis of how it all plays.

Cutting straight to the point, DF's Oliver Mackenzie seems very impressed with the port so far. Obviously, it's only based on a small slice of the full experience at the moment, but things are looking good.

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A classic xkcd webcomic came to mind while I watched last week’s Zelda Direct live. In the one-panel comic, two people from the far future (as evidenced by their Jetsons-style bubble ship) say their goodbyes. Here’s the interaction:

“Bye!”
“May the Force be with you!”
“Huh?”
“It’s just something my grandma used to say. No idea what it means.”

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]]> https://www.nintendolife.com/#article-206408 https://www.nintendolife.com/features/opinion-i-may-never-play-the-original-ocarina-of-time-again Thu, 22 Oct 2026 13:45:00 GMT Tales of Castlevania.

We are back with our latest look at the Japanese physical charts from Famitsu, and two new releases have been racing for the top spot this week.

Both Tales of Eternia Remastered and Castlevania: Belmont's Curse came out of the gate swinging, but it was the former that just about secured the win, taking 17,911 sales over Castlevania's 15,630.

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]]> https://www.nintendolife.com/#article-208003 https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2026/10/japanese-charts-castlevania-and-tales-of-eternia-battle-it-out-for-the-gold Thu, 22 Oct 2026 10:45:00 GMT Sleep, HOME and Champions all went down yesterday.

You may have read yesterday about the cybersecurity alert that hit sites and apps around the world after two vulnerabilities were found in the popular programming language, PHP. The Pokémon Company were one of the many teams hit by the outage, with Pokémon HOME, Sleep and Champions all going offline yesterday without an end time in sight. Well, fortunately, they have started to come back.

As shared on the apps' official social media accounts, it seems that TPC is now on top of the issue and is in the process of restoring functionality. Champions was the first to come back online at around 3am BST this morning, followed by HOME a few hours later. Pokémon Sleep was a little later to join the party, but ended its maintenance around 10am BST.

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]]> https://www.nintendolife.com/#article-207983 https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2026/10/pokemon-apps-are-coming-back-online-after-extended-cybersecurity-outage Thu, 22 Oct 2026 06:30:00 GMT Sports games remain top priority, unsurprisingly.

Alongside the news Electronic Arts is shutting down BioWare and reports about it axing around 400 jobs across the entire company, EA executives have also revealed future development plans.

According to an internal letter to staff, reviewed by Bloomberg, EA says it will continue investing in sports games (such as EA FC). Development on its online battle royale Apex Legends also remains a top priority, and it's supposedly still committed to its next Star Wars Jedi title as well as a new Marvel game starring Iron Man.

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]]> https://www.nintendolife.com/#article-207975 https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2026/10/ea-outlines-future-development-plans-as-it-prepares-to-cut-around-400-jobs Thu, 22 Oct 2026 04:45:00 GMT Just a week out from the Switch 2 release.

Last year, Minecraft got a DLC crossover with the manga and anime series Dragon Ball Z. Now, almost a year later, a special "1.1 Legends Update" has been released.

It comes loaded with new fighters (like Bardock, Teen Gohan, Gotenks, Vegito), new battle areas, and you'll also be able to compete in a new custom tournament for up to eight players. You can also continue the story mode with 4 new fights and unlock alternate versions of the original characters.

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]]> https://www.nintendolife.com/#article-207974 https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2026/10/minecraft-x-dragon-ball-z-1-1-legends-update-adds-more-characters-new-story-mode-fights-and-custom-tournament Thu, 22 Oct 2026 02:30:00 GMT Pre-orders go live next week.

Hitman: Absolution is out today on the Switch 2, and alongside this, Limited Run Games has announced it will be distributing the physical version.

Pre-orders will open next week from 30th October 2026 - 6th December 2026. Here's a look at the game's box art. The fine print also notes how it comes with the Switch game and the "Switch 2 Edition upgrade pack".

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]]> https://www.nintendolife.com/#article-207973 https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2026/10/limited-run-announces-hitman-absolution-switch-2-physical-release-heres-a-look Thu, 22 Oct 2026 01:25:00 GMT "Early development" on the next Mass Effect is also ending.

After more than three decades, Electronic Arts has today confirmed the closure of the legendary RPG developer BioWare.

The studio has released an official statement on its website about the shutdown. It's also announced "early development" on the next Mass Effect project is ending.

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]]> https://www.nintendolife.com/#article-207972 https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2026/10/ea-shuts-down-legendary-rpg-developer-bioware Thu, 22 Oct 2026 00:25:00 GMT Coming to Switch 2 soon.

CD Projekt Red has now shared the official details about the Cyberpunk 2077: Edgerunners 2 Update (2.5).

The good news is the Switch 2 version is getting everything, including cross-platform mod support. However, as noted by CDPR, Nintendo players won't receive Update 2.5 alongside the Xbox and PlayStation versions. The Switch 2 patch will instead arrive "in the days to follow".

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]]> https://www.nintendolife.com/#article-207971 https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2026/10/cyberpunk-2077-edgerunners-2-update-2-5-officially-revealed-here-are-the-full-patch-notes