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First-party Nintendo Switch games get rare price drops

By Tom Caswell August 5, 2020

Best Buy and Amazon are offering discounts on first-party Nintendo Switch titles, a rare event. Many games are up 17% off on both sites, bringing their prices to $50.

Here’s a list of games that are featured on both Amazon and Best Buy at that price.

Each site is also offering Octopath Traveler at a larger 25% discount, bringing that game’s price to $45. Best Buy has 17% off deals for Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s, Go Eevee!, Pokken Tournament, and Disgaea 4. Amazon has Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze exclusively at that discount as well.

2020 has been an interesting year for Nintendo. With gaming more popular than ever because of stay-at-home orders, the Switch has been out of stock at retailers for most of the year, inventory evaporating quickly the moment it’s replenished. That said, stock of consoles are currently more plentiful than a couple of months ago, the Lite version available more often than its dockable counterpart.

The last big first-party game from the company was Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which became an instant phenomenon back in March, but currently, no new first-party game has a release date for the company. While Paper Mario: The Origami King was recently released, it was handled by third-party developer Intelligent Systems.

Nintendo seems to be banking on re-releases such as the recently announced Pikmin 3, originally a title on the Nintendo Wii U, to fill out its calendar. There are also rumors that a majority of the previous mainline Super Mario titles will be getting remasters celebrating the iconic plumber’s 35th anniversary.

Whatever the company’s plans are, it seems that the effects of the coronavirus have made it difficult to continue development on many titles, so there may not be a new first-party Nintendo game for some time. Now then might be the perfect time for players to pick up a Switch game they might have missed, especially as many of these titles rarely, if ever, go on sale.

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All upcoming Switch games: 2024 and beyond

Luigi with the Poltergust 5000.

The Nintendo Switch is one of the most popular consoles Nintendo has ever produced, with a wide variety of games to choose from and plenty of unique features. We’ve already gotten to play new entries across the Zelda, Super Mario, and Pokémon series on Nintendo Switch, but there are still plenty of great games on the way for the hybrid console. These include exclusive games developed internally by Nintendo, as well as third-party titles and ports of games that are also available on other platforms.

Here's our list of the best upcoming Nintendo Switch games for 2024 and beyond. Of course, some titles without release windows could skip the Switch entirely and wind up on Nintendo Switch 2 (or whatever it ends up being called) And if you're looking at future releases on multiple consoles, don't forget to check out what's upcoming on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and PC this year.
Upcoming Switch games 2024
The games listed below either have 100% confirmed release dates or solid release windows that we expect them to hit this year. Anything that's up in the air due to more vague launch predictions or previous delays will be listed below confirmed launches.

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The best skills to buy first in Another Crab’s Treasure

Another Crab's Treasure

If you're looking for a quirky underwater adventure, Another Crab's Treasure has you covered with its kelp forests, unusual sand-dwelling NPCs, and creative gameplay mechanics. However, it's worth noting that it's also a challenging soulslike experience that is certain to leave you facing off against some enemies multiple times before felling them. One way to help this along is to invest in the game's skills, which often grant you some entirely new attacks or passive abilities that drastically change up the way you approach combat.

There are three skill trees, but you can mix and match between them as you see fit. And luckily, thorough explorers shouldn't have a problem unlocking most of the skills by the end of the game. Here are our picks for the best ones to buy first to increase your chances of getting there.
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The Nintendo Switch just got 2 surprise games — and they’re both worth grabbing

A teddy beat sits on an embroidery hoop in Stitch.

If you were unable to catch this week's Nintendo IndieWorld showcase, then you missed a surprisingly loaded show. Lorelei and the Laser Eyes got a May release date, WayForward showed off its Yars' Revenge revival, and Steamworld Heist 2 got an exciting reveal. In the midst of all those headlines, two smaller games were surprise released on the platform: Stitch and Sticky Business. Don't sleep on either of them, as they're both worth a purchase.

Both games are ports of previously released games, but both went a bit under the radar upon their original launch. Sticky Business modestly launched last summer on PC, whereas Stitch has actually been around since 2022 as an Apple Arcade exclusive. The latter even has an Apple Vision Pro version now that can be played in mixed reality. I can't blame anyone for missing either, but their Switch releases offer a good opportunity to catch up with some quiet hidden gems.