If you got yourself a hack-able Switch for Christmas or are hoping on receiving one tomorrow, then one of the first things you’ll be doing is exploring and installing homebrew. With Homebrew App Store, this can actually be done on-device without requiring a PC and now, it’s received an update to make it much better! We’ll also be looking at Deadly Hallows, an original homebrew PSVita game that might be worth checking out.

Switch & Wii U Release: Hombrew App Store 2.2 with no loading screen, recovery mode & many QoL fixes

With Homebrew App Store, you can easily browse and install homebrew directly on your Switch/Wii U!

It’s no secret that the Switch has a huge homebrew library and obviously, an easy way to install homebrew on the device itself is highly desirable so 4TU Team decided to port the Wii U’s ‘Homebrew App Store‘ to the Nintendo’s latest console and did a pretty good job at it.

Among its features, we find a UI that can be controlled through the touch screen, the ability to download/install homebrew on the device itself, use sorting filters and the ability to search for homebrew/themes together with providing a detailed description including screenshots when you select a certain piece of homebrew.

Now, version 2.2 has been released with many minor but welcome improvements that aim to improve the user experience before anything else. According to its changelog, this update comes with:

• The removal of the initial loading screen thus letting you use the application faster
  • Now, the images and meta-data of entries are downloaded on-the-fly while using the application
• A progress bar is now displayed when files are being extracted from a ZIP archive when you’re installing a piece of homebrew
• A recovery mode has been added which can be accessed
  

  With the latest updates, Homebrew App Store loads more quickly and shows you a progress bar while files are being extracted together with many subtle improvements!

  by repeatedly pressing the L/R trigger – no further information seems to have been given on what it does

• An on-screen quit button has been added and files are now downloaded to disk rather than memory to avoid filling it up unnecessarily.
• On the Switch, themes are no longer included in the ‘All Apps’ category and Wii U-style banners are used if the application is running in homebrew-mode
• A detailed credits screen, the abstraction of UI components into a single library called Chesto and some other minor improvements for both the Switch & Wii U

To grab Homebrew App Store and get installing homebrew on your Switch & Wii U with little effort, follow this link and get the NRO/RPX file.

PSVita Release: Anchitpatra releases Deadly Hallows, an original Unity-based game

With HENkaku approaching its 4th Christmas tomorrow, the PSVita is still receiving a good deal of homebrew and development with a good deal of releases from Team CBPS and other developers. However, this time we have something a bit different with an original game by Reddit User ‘Anchitpatra‘ who has been dabbling in PSVita development for quite some time.

Deadly Hallows may be a different game from what you’re usually accustomed to and makes it a point to be as mysterious as possible!

This game, which is based on Unity, is called Deadly Hallows and according to the description of a YouTube video demonstrating it, it’s a horror adventure game which has been in development for 2 months. From a brief playing session, I can say that the game seems to work pretty well and it does its best to provide an eerie atmosphere coupled with fitting music and a pretty mysterious story. It’s important to state that Anchitpatra has designed the game in a way that makes it challenging to figure out what to do next so don’t get discouraged too easily 😉

To grab it, you may either download it from its MEGA/Mediafire links on its Reddit Thread or install it directly on your console via VHBB. For some reason, the bubble didn’t show up on my PSVita so I had to open it via VHBB.

Conclusion

Staying on the topic of homebrew releases, MenosGrante has released Rekado 3.3.1 for the Switch with Hekate 5.1.1 support & higan v107 was released 2 years after higan v106 together with an accompanying article describing its emulator hierarchy.