Are you a fan of Action RPGs?  Today join others and dive into the world of Minecraft in a brand new experience.  No mining, no crafting, just dungeon crawling style combat as you loot and scoot to the next pack of enemies as you fight to gain strength to take on the Arch-Illager!

Minecraft Dungeon allows you to play how you want.  There is no class system to limit you and you’re allowed to make any build you can come up with.  The sky is the limit!  There is a bit of something for everyone.  If you enjoy melee pick up a sword or an ax and charge headfirst into a pack of zombies.  Take up a bow if you want to hang back and take calculated aim at your enemies at a safe distance.  Pick up enchants and fight enemies in ways not possible in normal Minecraft.  Fight fire with fire, freeze your enemies with your ice, or maybe you rather steal the souls of your enemies to use against them.  Have fun, share your builds, but most importantly have fun.

If you’re interested in picking this up just head over to minecraft.net if you play on Windows and navigate to the Dungeons page to purchase your copy today.  Not playing on Windows or prefer another method?  Minecraft Dungeon is also available on Xbox One, Playstation 4, and Nintendo Switch.  Play alone, play local co-op with up to 4 players or even play online with others.

While we don’t have a specified section for Minecraft Dungeons, feel free to discuss in Minecraft: Discussions and share your builds, tips, and secrets you may find!

This update adds an option to allow players who preferred using the Sideshop to continue doing so. With the new option enabled, you will be able to use recycling to earn gold instead of the current mechanic. The option can be toggled on and off depending on your recycling preference at any time. Furthermore, gold will be provided once again through Guilds and Gauntlets.

We recognize that some players may have already spent their gold and consumed their gems since our update Thursday. We will be restoring everyone’s gold to the value it was before the update. We will also restore any spent gems since then. Any items redeemed through the store will still remain in player’s inventories.

Regarding the state of the bench, we know some players would want it reverted while others wouldn’t so we added a new button in the Sideshop to let you choose before taking any actions.

Currently trending on Hacker News, Gravity is an open source programming language that is designed to be embedded in iOS and Android applications.  Released under the MIT license, Gravity is entirely C99 code with the single dependency being the C Standard Library, making Gravity incredible portable.  It is also extremely light weight while still being feature rich, with a syntax inspired by the Swift programming language.

Details from the Gravity website:

Gravity is a powerful, dynamically typed, lightweight, embeddable programming language written in C without any external dependencies (except for stdlib). It is a class-based concurrent scripting language with a modern Swift like syntax.

Gravity supports procedural programming, object-oriented programming, functional programming and data-driven programming. Thanks to special built-in methods, it can also be used as a prototype-based programming language.

Gravity has been developed from scratch for the Creo project in order to offer an easy way to write portable code for the iOS and Android platforms. It is written in portable C code that can be compiled on any platform using a C99 compiler. The VM code is about 4K lines long, the multipass compiler code is about 7K lines and the shared code is about 3K lines long. The compiler and virtual machine combined, add less than 200KB to the executable on a 64 bit system.

The source code for Gravity is available here, with various editor syntax support available for download here.  Gravity was ultimately created to be the scripting language behind the Creo IDE for iOS and Mac development.  You can learn more about Gravity in the video below.

GameDev News Programming Mac iOS Android

Apple this week notified employees that it will soon begin the slow process of bringing staff back to Apple Park and other offices following California’s coronavirus lockdown, characterizing the initial return as “very limited” in scope.

When teaching the Finxter Python students, I’m often shocked how even intermediate-level coders do not understand the very basic foundations of computer science. In CS, there’s almost nothing as fundamental as a simple, plain byte. (You know, that sequence of 0s and 1s called bits).

This tutorial aims to clarify some misconceptions and questions regarding Bytes in Python—a term that has a quite different meaning to bytes in general. In particular, you’ll learn the definition of the Byte object and how to correctly join a sequence of Bytes. Here’s the short answer:

A Python Byte is a sequence of bytes. You create a Byte object using the notation b'...' similar to the string notation '...'. To join a list of Bytes, call the Byte.join(list) method. If you try to join a list of Bytes on a string delimiter, Python will throw a TypeError, so make sure to call it on a Byte object b' '.join(...) rather than ' '.join(...).

Before you dive into all of this in a step-by-step manner, let’s play a bit with the interactive code shell to open your knowledge gap:

Exercise: What happens if you join the list of Bytes on a string delimiter? Try it in the shell!

What’s a Byte in Python Anyway?

You think you know what a byte is, right? It’s a sequence of 8 bits.

Well, that’s what a byte is outside the Python world. In Python, it’s not the whole story.

Python comes with a built-in Byte data type. According to the official documentation, the Byte object is an “immutable sequence of bytes“. If you talk about a byte outside Python, you mean 8 bits. If you talk about a byte inside Python, you mean a sequence of one or more bytes.

Let’s keep that on a hold for a moment and look how you create a simple byte object:

>>> a = b'X'

>>> a

b'X'

>>> type(a)

<class 'bytes'>

You create the Byte object just like you create a string in Python using the single, double, or triple quotes around a text that’s to be encoded in a “sequence of bytes”. In this case, the sequence of bytes consists only of the bytes needed to encode a single character 'X'. The ASCII code of character 'X' is 88, or in binary format 0b1011000. You can see that you only need one byte to encode the character.

But can you also create more complicated “Python Byte” objects that consist of more “real bytes”? Sure, you can:

>>> a = b'hello'

>>> a

b'hello'

>>> type(a)

<class 'bytes'>

Again, you create the Byte object for 'hello'. You cannot encode the whole string 'hello' in eight bits (=byte), so the Python Byte object a now consists of a “sequence of bytes”.

Takeaway: A (Python) Byte is a sequence of bytes and you can use it just like you use strings by using the syntax b'...' instead of '...'. As string objects, Bytes are immutable—so you cannot modify them after creation.

Concatenate Byte Strings in Python

You can concatenate two byte objects x and y in Python by using the (overloaded) add operation x+y:

>>> x = b'hello '

>>> y = b'world!'

>>> x + y

b'hello world!'

This works for Python 2 and Python 3—and it will probably also work in Python 4! (Why? Because the semantics of the __add__ operation won’t change just by setting up a new programming language or modifying an old one.)

How to Join a List of Bytes?

Python Bytes are similar than Python strings (at least for you, the person who used the Byte data structure in their program).

So, joining a list of Bytes is similar than joining a list of strings: use the join method! The Byte object comes with a method Byte.join(iterable) that concatenates all Byte objects in the iterable.

Keep in mind that a Byte object is a sequence of bytes by itself (and not a sequence of bits as you may have expected). And, yes, I’ll repeat this until it sticks.

Syntax: Byte.join(iterable)

Examples: Let’s see a bunch of examples on how you can join a collection of Byte objects!

lst = [b'Python', b'is', b'beautiful'] # Example 1

print(b' '.join(lst))

b'Python is beautiful' # Example 2

print(b'-'.join(lst))

b'Python-is-beautiful' # Example 3

print(b'\n'.join(lst))

b'Python\nis\nbeautiful'

You get the point: you call the join() method on the Byte object and pass an iterable of Byte objects to be concatenated. Notice how all involved data types are Byte objects!

How to Fix “TypeError: sequence item 0: expected str instance, bytes found”?

A common mistake of many Python coders is to call the wrong join() method! Say, you’ve got an iterable of Bytes to be joined. If you call the string.join(...) method instead of the Byte.join(...) method, Python will throw a TypeError with the following error message:

lst = [b'Python', b'is', b'beautiful']

print(' '.join(lst))

# TypeError: sequence item 0: expected str instance, bytes found

The error message doesn’t directly tell you how to fix this issue. The reason is that you call the join() method on the string object. And the string join() method expects you to pass an iterable of string objects to be concatenated. But you pass an iterable of Byte objects!

To fix it, simply call the join(...) method on the Byte object b' '.join(...) instead of ' '.join(...).

lst = [b'Python', b'is', b'beautiful']

print(b' '.join(lst))

b'Python is beautiful'

This way, you can easily concatenate multiple Byte objects by using the Byte.join() method.

Where to Go From Here?

Enough theory, let’s get some practice!

To become successful in coding, you need to get out there and solve real problems for real people. That’s how you can become a six-figure earner easily. And that’s how you polish the skills you really need in practice. After all, what’s the use of learning theory that nobody ever needs?

Practice projects is how you sharpen your saw in coding!

Do you want to become a code master by focusing on practical code projects that actually earn you money and solve problems for people?

Then become a Python freelance developer! It’s the best way of approaching the task of improving your Python skills—even if you are a complete beginner.

Join my free webinar “How to Build Your High-Income Skill Python” and watch how I grew my coding business online and how you can, too—from the comfort of your own home.

Join the free webinar now!

Looks like we’re set for a new Metal Slug game on mobile from Neo Geo developer SNK Interactive. That comes from South Korean publication Inven (Thanks, Siliconera), which reports that the upcoming mobile game is “80% complete”, and is set to come to iOS and Android.

The new Metal Slug game has yet to be revealed officially, so we don’t have a name just yet. That said, the report describes the game as a 2D side scrolling card-type game. There’s no word on a release date either, but SNK are apparently hopeful of releasing their console Metal Slug game in 2020, so we could see something similar here. Inven also quotes SNK Interactive CEO Jeon Se-hwan as saying the game will target ten to 20 and 30 to 40 year olds – as a 28-year-old, I don’t know how to feel about this.

The report also clarifies that the new Metal Slug mobile game has nothing to do with the project that is being worked on by Tencent’s Timi Studio – so you may have two new Metal Slug games to play soon. Details on that project are thin on the ground, but we’ll report back if we stumble across anything.

In case you’re unaware, Metal Slug is a run-and-gun shoot ’em up that puts in the boots of military cadets. It’s been a while since we’ve seen one, though, as Metal Slug 7 launched way back in 2008 on the Nintendo DS before showing up on the PSP a year later as Metal Slug XX.

If you’re looking for something to play in the meantime, though, then we have a list of the best mobile multiplayer games on iOS and Android – handy as you can get all of your friends involved, too.

The party game is a seriously underrated genre. Unfairly written off as overly simplistic or even shovelware by some gamers, party games can, in fact, be immensely enjoyable for casual players and hardcore gamers alike. After all, I’ve 100% completed numerous Zelda and Resident Evil games, and party games still represent some of my all-time favourite moments with a controller.

My absolute favourite party game of all time is Wii Party. The 2010 classic was fun for all the family in video game form, fuelling many a frantic and shouty gaming session (sorry, neighbours) in my living room. Wii Party was simple enough that everyone from my youngest sibling to my oldest grandparent could understand it, and deep enough that, once we all got super-skilled, we could employ strategy to really try and make fools of one another.

Let’s Get This Party Started

Taking inspiration from the Mario Party franchise, Wii Party featured nine modes which made use of the title’s 80 minigames. Board Game Island was perhaps most similar to Mario Party’s core gameplay, with players rolling dice to get around a board, bolstered by how well they did in minigames. And what a brilliant selection of minigames Wii Party had; several standout games belonged to the All Play category, a series of four-player games with a time limit.

In Zombie Tag players were locked in a graveyard with three hungry cartoon zombies. Gravestones acted as obstacles and the objective was to either survive the night, or, if you were unlucky enough to be bitten, take down the remaining survivors as an undead version of your Mii. It was so good because, if you turned into a zombie, you could hunt down your closest rival to ensure that they didn’t win the minigame either!

Derby Dash was also fantastic. The fast-paced minigame was a horse race with the objective being to carefully manage your steed’s stamina to ensure that you crossed the line first. Rush away from the starting line for an early lead, and you’d soon find yourself trailing behind everyone else with no way to catch up – you had to play it smart!

However, one of the best things about Wii Party was the multiple variants of the minigames themselves. Spot The Sneak (known as Rule Reversal in some territories) was a mode that shook things up by offering one player a secret advantage in each minigame. The aim was for other players to discover The Sneak and earn extra points, and for The Sneak to get away with cheating. Every minigame offered The Sneak an advantage in a different way, for example via the Wii remote rumbling as a secret clue. The hardest part of Spot The Sneak was pretending you weren’t The Sneak when you really were, even accusing other players when you knew full well you were the culprit!

Fight For Your Right To Party

Duking it out for minigame supremacy was even more enjoyable because Wii Party made great use of Miis. Miis are often created to resemble the real people you’re playing with, which made beating a cartoon likeness of your rival much more rewarding than facing off against, say, the pre-established characters in the Mario Party franchise. I’m slightly ashamed to admit that I drew a huge amount of pleasure from laughing at my siblings’ beaten Miis’ distraught expressions when I defeated them. Actually, I’m not ashamed at all, it was brilliant.

There were so many other great ideas designed to cause chaos in Wii Party as well. Pair Games split players into duos and pitted partnerships against one another. My favourite Pair Game was easily Friend Connection. Friend Connection made players answer a series of questions to see which pair knew each other best; what does your partner like more, unicorns or rainbows? Would they rather dive in head first or feet first? Seems simple enough but it’s all too easy to overthink these things, especially under a time limit!

Ain’t No Party Like a Wii U Party

After selling over 9 million copies, Wii Party earned a sequel in the form of Wii Party U on the Wii U. Of course, to show off the console’s hardware, new modes and minigames were incorporated to make use of the GamePad. Most notably, GamePad Island was a reimagining of Board Game Island from Wii Party and, in a similar fashion, it tasked players with beating their friends while using the GamePad as a controller. In fact, the GamePad came in handy for a lot of new minigames. A standout was Lost-and-Found Square, in which three players searched for a lost 4th player in a busy street, and the 4th player used the GamePad to guide the other players towards them.

Wii Party U also boasted an entirely new selection of party games called Tabletop Games. These games were played solely on the GamePad and offered an option for players who wanted a break from the TV. Tabletop minigames ranged from Bot-Building, where you and a rival had to race against time to build at least six robots, to Winged Pursuit, a game that used the touchscreen functionality of the GamePad to test players’ reaction times and coordination.

Sadly, Wii Party U was met with a lukewarm reception. Critics argued that, unlike the first game, a large number of minigames were no longer decided by player skill, but simply by luck. However, despite the lacklustre reviews, Wii Party U still shifted over 1.5 million units. That’s much less than the original Wii Party, yes, but relative to the Wii U’s meagre install base of 13.5 million, I’d say that’s still a pretty decent attach rate.

Party Poopers

With the release of the Nintendo Switch, the expectation may have been that fans would get a new ‘Switch Party’ game. Launch title 1-2 Switch arguably filled that niche, but the game is largely considered something of a disappointment. It’s now been over three years since the Switch launched and, so far, there has been no sign of a true Wii Party successor, though Super Mario Party did release in 2018 to positive reviews. However, I think Wii Party is a lot better than even the very best Mario Party game because it offers so many different modes and a faster, more immersive experience. I love Super Mario Party, but I want a Switch Party as well, Nintendo!

But how likely is this to happen? Well, Nintendo recently revived Clubhouse Games and that’s given me hope. Clubhouse Games originally released on the Nintendo DS in 2005, but now it’s back as Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics for Switch. Could fans dare to dream that Wii Party is in line for a return as well? After all, 51 Worldwide Classics features Bowling and Tanks – minigames made famous by Wii Sports and Wii Play respectively. Is that a sign that Wii Party is going to make a comeback too? I say it’s time to get this party re-started!

Would you like to see Wii Party get a revival on Switch? Or do you think existing Switch games scratch that itch already? Let us know with a comment.

The library of SNES games available on Switch as part of the Nintendo Switch Online subscription service currently stands at 29 titles. While it may have a way to go to match the 53 NES games on the service, there are still plenty of SNES gems to enjoy on Switch.

But which of the SNES offerings are the best? Well, we’ve ranked them ourselves, but we recently asked Nintendo Life readers to rate the available SNES games on Switch, too, using our User Rating system. The time has come to reveal the results!

The following list is compiled using the ratings (out of 10) given to each game in our database. It should be noted, however, that this list is not set in stone and will automatically change over time, reflecting the changing ratings (and new additions to the NSO library). If you look below and see a game you think deserves to be higher up, click on the ‘Profile’ button and score it yourself – your personal rating could boost its placement in the overall ranking.

So, sit back and enjoy the best SNES games available on Nintendo Switch Online…

Publisher: Human Entertainment / Developer: Human Entertainment

Release Date: May 1992 (USA) / 4th Jun 1992 (UK/EU)

A port of Human’s Super Formation Soccer, Super Soccer puts the camera behind the goal and follows you up and down the pitch, showing off the console’s fancy sprite-scaling Mode 7 effects in the process. It’s not a bad game, but running towards the screen feels a little awkward and there are better 16-bit soccer titles out there.

Publisher: HAMSTER / Developer: Jaleco

Release Date: 11th Mar 1993 (USA) / 1993 (UK/EU)

Despite having all the right ingredients, Jaleco’s Brawl Brothers fails to serve up a tasty slice of beat ’em up action. It’s not the worst game in the world at all, it just underwhelms in practically every area. With unsatisfying controls and bland design, it’s a tough recommendation for anyone except, perhaps, genre completionists.

Publisher: Jaleco / Developer: Jaleco

Release Date: Sep 1993 (USA) / 1993 (UK/EU)

Also known as Operation Logic Bomb: The Ultimate Search & Destroy, Jaleco’s sequel to the Fortified Zone titles on the Game Boy is a decent top-down romp that sees you gunning down enemies with a variety of futuristic weaponry. It’s pretty short and certainly not complex, but if you’re in the market for a solid blast of Smash TV-style 16-bit gameplay, you could do a lot worse. With expectations set sufficiently low, this could be provide a surprisingly fun hour or two.

Publisher: Jaleco / Developer: Jaleco

Release Date: Jan 1992 (USA) / 29th Oct 2010 (UK/EU)

Mediocre. Is there a more damning adjective in the English language? It’s the perfect word to describe Super E.D.F., though. This Jaleco shooter doesn’t do wrong enough to elicit strong negative emotions, but its uninspiring presentation and mechanics do almost nothing to get your adrenaline pumping, either. Much like Brawl Brothers, it’s not offensive, just unimaginative. Very… mediocre.

Publisher: Namco / Developer: Namco

Release Date: 19th Feb 2020 (USA) / 25th Jun 1993 (UK/EU)

Smash Tennis and Super Tennis have us split here at Nintendo Life, with our favourite 16-bit SNES tennis game switching sides like a ball across a court. Prior to its inclusion in the Nintendo Switch Online lineup, this wasn’t available in North America, so many players won’t have nostalgia for it, but in many ways it gives the Nintendo-published game a run for its money. We’d recommend giving both a go on centre court and seeing which one work best for you.

Publisher: Nintendo / Developer: Tokyo Shoseki

Release Date: 2nd Nov 1991 (USA) / 4th Jun 1992 (UK/EU)

A powerful serving of 16-bit 2-player net sport, Super Tennis lives up to its name; it is super. As with the best sports games, it’s simple enough to pick up and play, but there’s plenty of depth to uncover, and a satisfying campaign mode to enjoy if you don’t have a partner to play with.

Publisher: Data East / Developer: Data East

Release Date: Apr 1994 (USA) / Nov 1995 (UK/EU)

Known as Joe & Mac 3: Lost in the Tropics in Europe, this is a good-looking 2D (and 2-player) platformer that’s worth investigating if you’ve never encountered Joe and/or Mac in your video gaming travels. You won’t be missing much if you never get around to it, but there’s certainly an afternoon’s worth of action platforming fun to be had from it.

Publisher: Nintendo / Developer: Nintendo EAD

Release Date: 10th Oct 1994 (USA) / 27th Oct 1994 (UK/EU)

While you might find the framerate hard to stomach these days, the solid design beneath the ageing facade makes this ambitious 3D racer a fun vehicle to take for a spin. What Stunt Race FX lacks in looks and performance it makes up for with personality, and there’s plenty of fun to be had in nailing those corners and shaving seconds off your lap times. It’s well worth revisiting, or sampling if you’ve never had the pleasure.

Publisher: Capcom / Developer: Squaresoft

Release Date: 10th Aug 1994 (USA) / 27th Nov 2014 (UK/EU)

Breath of Fire is a reasonable mid-’90s RPG, but going back to it these days requires a hefty dose of patience for some of its outdated design. It’s not without charm if you’ve got nostalgia for it and you’re willing to make concessions, but compared to contemporary 16-bit classics like Chrono Trigger, EarthBound and Secret of Mana, Capcom’s effort can’t keep up.

Publisher: Nintendo / Developer: Nintendo EAD

Release Date: 13th Aug 1991 (USA) / 1992 (UK/EU)

Pilotwings is a relaxing salve of a game that requires equal parts concentration and relaxation – a perfect antidote to the distractions of the times we live in. Balancing accessibility and skill-based gameplay in that time-honoured Nintendo way, it’s a great title to return to on Switch, especially given the series’ lack of new entries of late.