Nintendo explains why Metroid Prime 4 isn’t open world

December 26, 2025 | by Julian L. Mertz | No comments

Nintendo explains why Metroid Prime 4 isn't open world

By Sickr on December 26, 2025

Nintendo's long-awaited Metroid Prime 4 is finally available and as readers will know it has been a long time coming. One of the developer's has talked to Japanese new publication about the trials and tribulations the developers encountered while creating their bold vision and why they decided to design limited areas instead of sprawling open worlds that many games the days have. Here's what was said:

"At the start of the project, perhaps due to the influence of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, we saw a lot of comments on the internet saying 'we want to play an open-world Metroid'. However, Metroid's core element of 'increasing the amount of explorable areas by unlocking powers' is not very compatible with the 'freedom to go anywhere from the beginning' of open worlds. Thus we thought to design a limited area that could be freely explored, and have that be a hub that could connect to other areas. Then we thought that if one could move around on the bike in a satisfying way in that area, it could be a segment that mitigates the tension from exploration, and paces the whole game.

In the end, the game took much longer than expected to finish, and we realized that players' impressions toward open-world games had changed. That being said, development had already been reset once before (when we started again from scratch with Retro Studios) so backtracking development again was out of the question, and we resolved to move forward with our original vision. During this time, shooting games and action games went through evolutions, with an increase in game speed in particular, but taking in those changes would have made it difficult to construct the tempo of an adventure game, so we actively chose to not take them into account. Therefore, I think this game is pretty much divorced from the changing of times."

Thanks to Greatsong1 for sending in the news tip!

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Japan: Nintendo Switch 2 sold 221K units this week

December 25, 2025 | by Julian L. Mertz | No comments

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Japan: Nintendo Switch 2 sold 221K units this week

By Sickr on December 25, 2025

The latest Japanese video game hardware and physical software sales charts are through thanks to the team at Famitsu. The Nintendo Switch 2 has had a fantastic week in the run up to Christmas selling 221,033 units making it by far the best-selling system this week. The best-selling video game was Mario Kart World which shifted an additional 15,729 copies. Here's the best-selling hardware and software in The Land of the Rising Sun.

Software Sales (followed by lifetime sales)

[SW2] Mario Kart World (Nintendo, 06/05/25) – 115,729 (2,573,736)
[NSW] Pokemon Legends: Z-A (The Pokemon Company, 10/16/25) – 72,820 (1,470,354)
[SW2] Pokemon Legends: Z-A – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition (The Pokemon Company, 10/16/25) – 54,096 (957,286)
[SW2] Kirby Air Riders (Nintendo, 11/20/25) – 49,220 (377,044)
[SW2] Momotaro Dentetsu 2: Anata no Machi mo Kitto Aru – Higashi Nihon Hen + Nishi Nihon Hen – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition (Konami, 11/13/25) – 26,323 (158,381)
[NSW] Momotaro Dentetsu 2: Anata no Machi mo Kitto Aru – Higashi Nihon Hen + Nishi Nihon Hen (Konami, 11/13/25) – 22,898 (199,905)
[SW2] Donkey Kong Bananza (Nintendo, 07/17/25) – 16,165 (419,948)
[NSW] Minecraft (Microsoft, 06/21/18) – 16,038 (4,094,207)
[SW2] Super Mario Party Jamboree – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV(Nintendo, 07/24/25) – 14,268 (111,628)
[NSW] Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo, 03/20/20) – 13,352 (8,297,279)

Hardware Sales (followed by lifetime sales)

Switch 2 – 221,033 (3,583,810)
Switch OLED Model – 18,864 (9,383,918)
PlayStation 5 Digital Edition – 13,231 (1,103,941)
Switch Lite – 12,641 (6,792,689)
Switch – 6,679 (20,206,761)
PlayStation 5 – 4,149 (5,865,430)
PlayStation 5 Pro – 1,927 (309,607)
Xbox Series X Digital Edition – 97 (24,502)
Xbox Series S – 50 (340,290)
Xbox Series X – 37 (323,838)
PlayStation 4 – 12 (7,930,136)

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Stardew Valley Nintendo Switch 2 Edition now available along with free upgrade

December 25, 2025 | by Julian L. Mertz | No comments

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Stardew Valley Nintendo Switch 2 Edition now available along with free upgrade

By Sickr on December 25, 2025

It has just been announced that the Nintendo Switch 2 edition of Stardew Valley is now available. Stardew Valley on the Nintendo Switch 2 is priced up for $14.99 on the Nintendo eShop, but if you already own the Nintendo Switch edition you can get a free upgrade pack for the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition which features the following:

With intuitive mouse controls, placing furniture and organizing your inventory is easy.
Local split-screen cooperative supports up to four players.
Online multiplayer supports up to eight players.
With Game Share, just one copy is all it takes—invite up to three friends to play, even if they don't own the game.

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