Nintendo

After finding success at Bandai Namco’s VR Zone in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Mario Kart VR launches at London’s O2 arena on Friday. I popped along on Monday to don an HTC Vive headset, grab some VR bananas and give it a try. Here’s what I found.

Nintendo is set to continue its experiment of combining cardboard crafts with video games. The company has unveiled the Nintendo Labo Vehicle Kit, which adds a car, a plane and a submarine to its lineup of cardboard creations.

Nintendo has revealed the winners of its first Nintendo Labo Creators Contest, a competition for Nintendo Switch modders to really get creative with cardboard and Joy-Con controllers. The winning entries include a solar-powered accordion, a miniature tree house, and an analog alarm clock.

In 2018 we’ve led the android rebellion in Detroit: Become Human, pillaged and plundered the Sea of Thieves, and gotten a Norse crash course in fatherhood through God of War. But the best could be yet to come, with some of the most highly-anticipated titles of the last few years.

E3 2018 aka Gamer Christmas, kicks off next week. ’Tis the season to gorge on new reveals, details and trailers gifted to us by Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo and big publishers like EA, Ubisoft and Bethesda. New Atlas runs through the games confirmed, expected or suspected to be at the show.

After a few weeks with the SwitchCharge, a beefy battery pack for the Nintendo Switch, we’re happy to report that it actively solves some of Nintendo’s niggles, earning its place in our bag basically every time we leave the house with the Switch.

Nintendo has unveiled the details for the Switch console's upcoming online service. Not only will Nintendo Switch Online let players jump into multiplayer games, it will also open up a cloud saving feature and include a range of classic games to download.

New Atlas went hands-on with the cardboard contraptions of Nintendo Labo, and found a solid combination of the fun of video games, the DIY satisfaction of Lego, the creativity of crafts and the sneaky education of a STEM toy.

Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics will be huge employers in the future, so it makes sense to start piquing the interest of kids. Nintendo Labo is a set of DIY cardboard construction kits that turn the Switch into things like a playable piano or wearable robot suit.

​With stand-outs like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Horizon Zero Dawn, 2017 will be remembered as one of the best years of gaming in a long time. Although we could spend another whole year working through the backlog, it’s time to take a look at what’s coming up in 2018.

2017 was a great year to be a gamer. The Nintendo Switch turned out to be a hit, classic franchises like Zelda and Resident Evil got arguably their best iterations ever, and we were blown away by newcomers like Horizon: Zero Dawn. New Atlas runs through our top 10 games of 2017.

Everybody wishes they were a kid again sometimes, and that feeling only gets stronger when you look at how cool toys are nowadays. New Atlas rounds up some of the best and most high-tech toys to help you spoil the kids this festive season (or yourself – we won’t tell anybody).