The Metroid series is going back to its 2D roots again with Metroid Ravenous for the Nintendo Switch 2, the first side-scrolling game in the series since 2021’s Metroid Dread for the Nintendo Switch. If you’re already excited enough to consider preordering, you can save $10 on the physical version of the game when you buy it from Walmart. It’s $59.88 instead of $69.99, about the same as buying it digitally. The game launches on January 28th, 2027, but it’s not clear how long the preorder discount will last. If it’s anything like other Walmart preorders, it may occasionally disappear.

Metroid Ravenous

Where to Buy:

• $69.99 $59.88 at Walmart

Nintendo first showed off the side-scrolling adventure game at its September 2026 Direct, with a frantic trailer cutting between cinematic sequences, Samus dashing and rolling across a variety of environments, and engaging a number of enemies and bosses in battle. Samus absorbs some powerful abilities at the conclusion of Dread, and Ravenous seem to be all about plowing through anyone stopping her from escaping the planet. Other details of the story, including unique new mechanics, are being kept under wraps for the time being.

If you haven’t played Metroid Dread, I recommend it, especially at its $41.99 discounted price at Amazon. It’s part of Nintendo’s “Customer Appreciation” sale happening through September 26th, and several other games and accessories are cheaper, too.

The first console I ever bought, it was hyped as a threat to the PlayStation, then mocked as a flop. But now, as it marks its 25th anniversary, it’s looked back on with misty-eyed reverence

This week marks the 25th anniversary of the Nintendo GameCube, the first console I ever bought with my own money. I vividly remember getting on the bus after school with a year’s worth of savings safely zipped into the pocket of my bag and going to a branch of Currys, where I dumped a bunch of notes, coins and vouchers on the counter to collect my pre-order. (It turned out that some of the vouchers from the previous Christmas had expired, but the guy at the checkout clearly felt so sorry for me that he redeemed them anyway. If you’re out there, Currys guy: thank you for taking pity on a desperate 13-year-old.)

If it hadn’t been for the ill-fated Wii U console, whose failure to take off in 2012 resulted in the first unprofitable periods in Nintendo’s game-making history, the GameCube would be remembered as the company’s biggest flop aside from the infamous Virtual Boy, from 1995. Released in Japan this week in 2001 (and in May 2002 in Europe), this surprisingly powerful purple cube sold less than the Xbox and the PlayStation 2. With its squat, colourful form and unusual controller, arranged around a big traffic-light-green A button and small analogue sticks designed for small hands, it had a hint of Fisher-Price about it.