Friday 3 February 2017

Joy Division

Nintendo Switch

Part console, part handheld: can Nintendo Switch put the house of Mario back on top?

The first real moment of magic comes, inevitably, in Breath Of The Wild. Disappointed as we are by Nintendo’s decision to set Link’s Switch coming-out party in  the same area of the game as E3 2016’s Wii U demo – this is our fourth playthrough of the new Zelda game’s opening section – that’s not really what we’re here for. After pottering around as Link, using the new Pro controller, for a few minutes, it is time: we slide the Switch from its dock and, instantly, the biggest Zelda game to date is running on a 6.2-inch screen in our palms. We have played bigscreen games on handheld displays before, of course, but the transition has never been so elegant, the results never so natural in the hands. A few minutes later the process is reversed, the tablet returned to its base station, the action returning seamlessly to the TV, resuming as quickly as we can pick up the Pro controller.

Sinclair Resurge Ltd

ZX Spectrum Next

The ZX Spectrum is back – and there’s no need to dig out your tape recorder

Have you ever wondered what inspires Bossa Studios to dream up oddball games such as I Am Bread? Look no further than gamer-in-chief Henrique Olifiers, who had his childhood mind scrambled by eccentric ZX Spectrum games such as Jet Set Willy.