Entertainment

Games: Returnees Mario and Zelda plus newbie Astral Chain all making the Switch

Astral Chain is heading exclusively to Switch on August 30
Astral Chain is heading exclusively to Switch on August 30 Astral Chain is heading exclusively to Switch on August 30

A TRIO of titles set fair for a 2019 release will see the return of both Mario and Zelda to the ridiculously popular Switch. The headline is a port of 1993’s Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening.

Marking the first time Nintendo’s RPG cash-cow appeared on a handheld, the Hyrulean hero is being scrubbed up from his 8 bit monochrome days, with adorable Pixar-esque visuals and a retina-searing palette.

Veterans will remember Link’s Awakening for its brilliant top-down adventuring with the usual series stalwarts of hack n’ slash combat, dungeon crawling and side quests galore.

The black sheep of the franchise, with no Ganon, Zelda, Hyrule, or Master Sword, Awakening is instead set on Koholint Island, with a fresh cast of characters and an eerie, melancholic tone. There’s no solid release date, but Nintendo assure us we’ll be reacquainting ourselves with the Wind Fish this year.

Creative types can meet their Mario Maker again in June when the sequel to one of the Wii U’s best games arrives on Switch. Super Mario Maker 2 once again invites budding developers to reach gamely inside Mario’s toolbox and cobble together their own slices of fungi-fuelled princess-rescuing.

The original gave us the keys to the Mushroom Kingdom, letting fans shake their Mario Maker using landscapes, enemies and assorted ephemera culled from the original Super Mario Bros, SMB3, Super Mario World and New Super Mario Bros. New additions this time around include templates from Super Mario 3D World, the addition of fungi friends Toad and Toadette and a host of new creation tools, including vertical and custom scrolling levels and the ability to add slopes.

While the Wii U's giant touch-screen was perfect for Mario Maker’s drag and drop noodling, it’ll be interesting to see how well Nintendo’s pixel stars translate to the Switch.

And if all this sounds a bit saccharine, ripened gamers after something with more bite can enjoy the cyberpunk action of Astral Chain. Developed by the legendary Platinum Games, the futuristic action romp is heading exclusively to Switch on August 30.

Directed by Takahisa Taura, senior designer on Nier: Automata, Astral Chain centres around a police special forces unit in The Ark. When dimensional gates open and evil creatures run amok, players must choose one of two siblings in a mix of exploration and combat while the other acts as your partner throughout.

A combat gimmick focuses on "humanoid special weapons" known as Legion in a mech-heavy actioner that looks suitably Platinum, with designs from manga artist Masakazu Katsura.

While the Switch doesn’t enjoy the constant drip-feed of big multi-platform releases, 2019 is already shaping up to deliver the kind of unique, nostalgia-fuelled gaming Nintendo does so well.