Latest Features
Feature 10 Top Mario Cosplays - From Plumbers To Princesses
Featuring Mario and his Mushroom Kingdom friends
The Mario games have been a core part of Nintendo fandom for decades now. Mario as a solo sibling has been around for even longer than his own series, first appearing — of course — as Jumpman in 1981's Donkey Kong. Despite having his name in the title, the Mario franchise isn't about the Italian...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? (October 15th)
Happy weekend!
We did it, everyone. We made it through the working week with only 306 Pokémon Scarlet and Violet news drops to write of - perhaps this is a slight over-exaggeration, but you get the picture. This week we were lucky enough to head behind the scenes at Ubisoft to get a look at Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope as the game nears release...
Poll What's The Best Piece Of Music In A Nintendo Game?
Tuuune!
How on earth are you supposed to pick just one standout music track from Nintendo's history? Surely an impossible ask, right? Well, you fine folks certainly stepped up to the challenge. We recently asked you to tell us your favourite music from a first-party Nintendo title, and boy, did we get responses! We got nearly 300 comments at the...
Hands On AURGA Viewer Streams Switch To Tablets And Laptops, But How Well Does It Work?
Phones, too, but why do that?
The namesake feature of Nintendo's hybrid console has been perhaps the key factor in its continued success. The Switch's ability to, well, switch means it fits neatly into any lifestyle whatever your situation, but that doesn't mean there aren't use cases it doesn't quite cater for. For our part — and especially in...
Memory Pak Story Of Seasons: Trio Of Towns' Ludus Was The Last Good Thing About The Series
omne trium perfectum
Welcome to the latest instalment in our nostalgia-inducing column, Memory Pak, where we're going to be doing a deep-dive into some of the most memorable moments in gaming – good and bad. Today is the five-year anniversary of the release of Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns in Europe, and Kate has some fond memories of a certain...
Feature Behind The Scenes With Mario + Rabbids Sparks Of Hope, "A Tactical Game For All"
A trip to Milan with Mario and friends
There are a lot of things we’re beginning to associate with Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope; surprise, joy, freedom. But perhaps the most important one is ‘change’. Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle was a huge success for creative director Davide Soliani's team at Ubisoft, with the game reaching 10 million...
Feature Meet Sea Power, The Talent Behind Disco Elysium's Exquisite Music
"We recorded and engineered the whole project ourselves"
A quick note before we begin: The following interview was conducted prior to the news that lead designer Robert Kurvitz, artist Aleksander Rostov, and writer Helen Hindpere had all departed from developer ZA/UM, apparently under involuntary circumstances. This feature is focused entirely on...
Talking Point Is The Golden Age Of Licensed Music In Games Over?
Try and make the answers more than "maybe"
There is a moment in a young person's life — a brief window, around 13 years of age — when their internal maelstrom of hormones, peer pressure, and insecurity reaches its peak, turning the teen into soft, malleable putty, ready to be coaxed into a fandom by the next influential moment that comes along...
Soapbox I Might Be Too Messy To Enjoy Disney Dreamlight Valley Properly
Mickey Mouse says tidy your room
Soapbox features enable our individual writers and contributors to voice their opinions on hot topics and random stuff they've been chewing over. Today, Kate dives into the latest Disney game to find out what all the fuss is about... The gaming world has gone mad for Disney Dreamlight Valley, and I think I want in...
Talking Point What's Your Favourite Music Track From A Nintendo Game?
A.K.A, the world's toughest choice
One of the most important aspects of any game, in this writer's opinion, is the music. We've all been there: you might be stepping onto a new island in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker or floating through 'Space Junk Galaxy' in Super Mario Galaxy when a new music score plays in the background and completely...
Feature 8 Unanswered Questions We Have About Pokémon Scarlet and Violet
Just weeks away from launch, we've got pressing questions
A new Pokémon Generation comes about as frequently as Summer Olympics or major elections, and for us living the Nintendo life, it’s way more important. With Generation IX comes new games, new Pokémon, new mechanics, and a whole lot of speculation surrounding one of the world’s biggest...
Feature The Best Autumnal Levels In Video Games To Get You In The Fall Mood
All the leaves are brown...
I'm just going to get this joke out of the way: Fall Guys is the most autumnal video game. There we go. You may chortle and guffaw to your heart's content, and then we'll start the rest of this extremely niche, very specific article. You done? Good. Okay. So! It's Autumn, or Fall, depending on whether you're in Blighty...
Community 24 Switch Games We Missed, As Recommended By You
Part 5 of our list of hidden gems is our biggest yet
Back in September, we asked you lovely readers to tell us what hidden gems slipped through our fingers. You championed them, and our backlog (both personal and professional) is feeling even more daunting. We're not kidding when we say we had tons of nominations, and as a result, whittling down...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? (October 8th)
Mario madness
After the release of both Pokémon Scarlet and Violet's new trailer and The Super Mario Bros. Movie teaser, our minds are all deep-dived out - but what a time to be a Nintendo fan, huh! This week, our fabulous writers have been hard at work providing you lovely readers with breakdowns on
Gallery Super Mario Movie Trailer Breakdown, Frame-By-Frame Analysis
Toado... I have a feeling we're not in NYC any more
So. We are now in a post-Chris-Pratt-as-Mario world. A world in which we know what Mario sounds like. The trailer released today has provided everyone with a first look at Mario in The Super Mario Bros. Movie, as well as a first listen to the voices of Bowser, Mario, Toad, Kamek, some penguins, and...
Guide Best James Bond Games, Ranked - Switch And Nintendo Systems
Nobody does it better
Remember, the ranking below is not set in stone, but is governed in real-time by each game's User Score on our games database. If you haven't assigned a score to any of the games below, simply log in and tap on the star in each of the banners below to score the game out of ten and exert your influence on the ranking. Enjoy!...
Exclusive SunnySide Teams Up With Gardening YouTuber To Make Their Farming Game More Realistic
Green thumb meets gamer thumb
Farming games often don't replicate real-world farming too closely — they prefer to strike a balance between fun and accurate, in which plants need watering every day, but pesticides, fertiliser, and maintenance aren't really on your to do list. But upcoming game SunnySide is aiming to take a more realistic approach...
Feature Backlog Club: Portal 2 Made Me Feel Clever, Despite My Minor Case Of Serious Brain Damage
Sweet Caroline
Rule number one of Backlog Club: Work through your pile of unplayed video games one at a time, and discuss them with other people. Rule number two of Backlog Club: Don't talk about Backlog Club. Just kidding! Tell everyone. Please. This article is part of our new experimental series, Backlog Club, where we (Nintendo Life!) pick a...
Feature Nintendo eShop Selects - September 2022
Nintendo Life's picks of the best eShop games in September!
We're sorry, when did it become October? Well, we suppose it's time to look back at September for our monthly dose of eShop Selects! It's autumn (or fall depending on what term you like to use for the crispy leaves season). The nights are drawing in. The temperature is dropping. And the...
Talking Point It's About Time Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night Came To Switch
Seminal action-RPG celebrates its 25th anniversary
Note: this article contains minor spoilers for Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. "What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets." These words, uttered by Dracula Vlad Țepeș during the opening exchange with Richter Belmont in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, have become completely...
Talking Point What's The Worst Game That You Still Love For Some Reason?
All your perfect imperfections
Today marks the 15th anniversary of NBA Live 08 on the Wii. Quite why there wasn't a national holiday and organised street parades for this excellent game is beyond us. Except, of course, it isn't excellent at all. The game was, for all intents and purposes, objectively bad, and yet there is a very large part of this...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? (October 1st)
Ladies and gentlemen, the Winter
We did it folks! We made it through the barrage of game releases — more commonly known as 'September' — and we live to write another day! Though October is looking just as packed... *gulp* Here at Nintendo Life, we've played through the unofficial Super Mario Bros. 5 fan game made entirely in Super Mario Maker...
Feature We Take The Fan-Created 'Super Mario Bros. 5' For A Spin
Spoilers: It's a blast
Although Nintendo seems to have largely forgotten about it, Super Mario Maker 2 still has its fans. Indeed, so it should; it's a remarkably accessible creative tool for users to turn the Mario levels of their dreams into a reality with an incredibly intuitive UI and toolkit that built on the foundation of the remarkable Wii U...
Community Found A Great Switch Game We Didn't Review? We Want To Know
Highlight a 'hidden gem' with a shoutout
With the busy month of September coming to an end, publishers are shadow-dropping great-looking games on Switch eShop even in these closing days. Dropsy is the latest one, a point-and-click adventure coming hot on the tail of the most anticipated point-and-click adventure of the last decade or more, and from...
Back Page 8 Completely Real 'Life Simulators' That We Want To See On Switch
Reporting live from MUGS
In the magazine business, the Back Page is where you'd find all the weird goofs that we couldn't fit in anywhere else. Some may call it "filler"; we prefer "a whole page to make terrible jokes that are tangentially related to the content of the mag". We don't have pages on the internet, but we still love terrible jokes —...
Talking Point Where Are All The Lord Of The Rings RPGs On Console?
Boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a RPG
The year was 2002. Peter Jackson was about to release the second instalment in the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, EA had bagged the rights to the video game adaptations of the films and Vivendi was just about to release its own console adaptation, not of the New Line Cinema property, but adapted directly from...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? (September 24th)
The splat-best of the Splatfest
After last week's Nintendo Direct extravaganza, this week has seemed a little more relaxed by comparison. As we have prepared ourselves for the weekend's coming Splatfest (go Team Fun!) we have taken our time recuperating from what is already shaping up to be an amazing slate of upcoming games. In the Direct's...
Talking Point What Do You Think Of The Harvestella Demo?
Is it a JRPG with farming, or a farm sim with JRPG elements?
Ahead of its November 4th release date, Square Enix's take on the farming game genre, Harvestella, recently received a demo on Switch, so you can try before you buy. The save will transfer over to the full game, if you decide it's worth the £50 / $60. As part of a farm sim-filled...
Exclusive 'Penko Park' Combines Pokémon Snap's Cuteness With Majora's Mask Creepiness
Coming to Switch soon!
Do you love Pokémon Snap, but hate waiting 20 years for new instalments? Do you wish that Pokémon would lean way more into its darker side, like all the ghost Pokémon that steal children? Do you enjoy Take a good look at Penko Park, an upcoming Switch game that draws its inspiration from the animal photography gameplay of...
Talking Point What On Earth Is Going On With Square Enix?
We don't have enough gil!
If you take even a quick glance at a release schedule for the next six months, you'll see that there are a heck of a lot of games coming out. Look a little closer, though, and you'll spot that maybe 50 of them are from Square Enix. And that's just on the Switch! We're exaggerating, of course, but it's hard to ignore the...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? (September 17th)
A post-Direct blowout
*deep breath* There was a Nintendo Direct this week! And it was chock-a-block full of games. But the big news is that we, at last, know the name (and release date) of Breath of the Wild's follow-up. RIP The Sequel to... The Legend of Zelda:
Talking Point What Did You Think Of The Latest Nintendo Direct?
"Zelda blowout", they said
Nintendo Direct week is both the joy and the bane of a games journalist's work week. So much to talk about! So little time! So much hype! And then you spend the next two weeks slooowwwwly dissecting it all, discussing it all, and finding out the details that the Direct didn't tell you. This Direct was a pretty good one by...
Feature Rayman Is Back In 'Mario + Rabbids Sparks Of Hope' - So Is He Actually Cool Now?
It'll take an arm and a leg
The '90s gave us a ton of platforming mascots — Sonic, Gex, Spyro, Crash Bandicoot, Aero the Acro-Bat, James Pond, and the list goes on. Plenty of fun, cute animals who can do all sorts of fun things like run fast, glide around, spin rapidly, and trap enemies in bubbles. And then there's Rayman. So what is Rayman? He's...
Hands On The Witch Is Back - Bayonetta 3 Is Real, And We've Played It
It's about (witch) time
Believe it or not, it’s been nearly five whole years since the wickedly stylish witch Bayonetta revealed the fact her action combat series would become a trilogy, and it’s been almost eight years since Bayonetta 2 released on Wii U. That original reveal trailer showed so little and left us with so many questions. Would...
Round Up Everything Announced In The September 2022 Nintendo Direct - Every Game Reveal And Trailer
What were your favourite announcements?
Another Nintendo Direct has graced the internet, bringing with it a host of awesome announcements and updates. Clocking in at 40 minutes in length, we've got a hunch there was probably something for everybody here, regardless of what kind of games you're into! Not much murky space horror though. Read More:...
Talking Point What Do You Want To See At Today's Nintendo Direct Showcase?
Zelda? Metroid? More Zelda?
Update [Tue 13th Sep, 2022 12:15 BST]: The day is upon us and we are buckling up for what is sure to be 40 minutes of top-notch announcement content. Alongside the writers below, our wonderful video production team have now also given their thoughts on what to expect from the Direct. Check out their thoughts in the new...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? (September 10th)
What a week for franchises
It's finally here, folks. After what feels like an age of trailers and Directs galore, this week finally saw the release of Splatoon 3! Here at Nintendo Life, we have you covered for all things concerning ink, squids and merchandise (or should we say Murch-andice?) We have put together a comprehensive Tips, Tricks and...
Poll Is It Just Us, Or Was That Pokémon Scarlet And Violet Trailer A Little Confusing?
Time was clearly of the essence
After drip-feeding us Pokemon Scarlet and Violet reveals for the past few months, today saw the release of the newest ScarVi trailer (yes, that's what we're calling it, sometimes in our best pirate voice), which promised to be packed full of new information to get us pumped and ready to explore Paldea. While it...
Feature Nintendo eShop Selects - August 2022
Nintendo Life's picks of the best eShop games in August!
We're approaching the fall season very quickly, and that means it's time for another dose of our eShop Selects! While August may have been a quiet month for Nintendo first-party titles (save one little pink puffball who we'll be getting to in a moment), our eShop wallets have been crying at...
Soapbox Forget Marvel, The Perfect Capcom Crossover Is Simpler Than You Think
Ryu from Streets needs new challengers
Soapbox features enable our individual writers and contributors to voice their opinions on hot topics and random stuff they've been chewing over. Today, Scott saves Capcom a lot of money and bother with a crossover suggestion everyone can get behind... Sure, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate may be the 'most...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? (September 3rd)
Time for some downtime with our favourite games
In the week that brought us the results of Splatoon 3's first Splatfest, we have been busy with lots of quality gaming content over here on Nintendo Life. September is now upon us which not only means that we are preparing for a complete barrage of new gaming titles coming to our consoles over the next...
Soapbox Endless Zelda Remakes Are A Poor Substitute For Backwards Compatibility
But we'll buy them anyway
Soapbox features enable our individual writers and contributors to voice their opinions on hot topics and random stuff they've been chewing over. Today, Kate discusses her love/hate relationship with remakes... There is nothing quite as emblematic of our lost and distant childhood than video games. They are one of the few...
Talking Point What Was Your First Mario Kart Game?
Let's-a goooo!
Today (September 1st, 2022) marks 30 years since the launch of Super Mario Kart in North America. In the years since, Mario Kart has gone on to be one of the most successful Nintendo franchises of all time, with the latest mainline release - Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - topping the Switch's best-selling titles with over 40 million units...
Feature 12 Nintendo Games That Deserve An HD-2D Remake
Pretty in pixels
HD-2D has become the new lofty bar for retro-inspired RPGs or remakes of our favourite Super Nintendo RPGs. Square Enix's new trademark visual style started with 2018's Octopath Traveler and has also been used in this year's strategy RPG Triangle Strategy. But, arguably, its true potential has been realised in the stunning remake of...
Feature Which Region Has The Best Pokédex? Every Pokédex, Ranked From Best To Worst
Worst to best, actually, because SUSPENSE
Depending on how you feel about food and motorcycle themed Pokémon, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s Paldea region looks to have one of the more creative Pokédexes in recent memory. Both Lechonk and Fidough have garnered an unhealthy
Round Up Pokémon World Championships 2022 - Was It Worth The Three-Year Wait?
Pokkén and Sword & Shield have left the building
It has been three years since the last Pokémon World Championships, so the excitement for the 2022 event had been building for a long while. For the first time ever, the Pokémon World Championships were held outside of North America, taking place in the UK at the ExCeL London and it brought...
Feature Super Mario Kart At 30: How 16-Bit Limitations Created A Franchise-Defining Mechanic
The gift of the drift
The landscape of the Mario Kart series looks very different today than it did back in 1992 when Super Mario Kart was released for the Super NES. Of course, there is a clear improvement with respect to visuals and we now have new characters, karts, and courses dropping all the time thanks to the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? (August 27th)
Ladies and gentlemen, The Weekend
As the great Captain Haddock once said, 'what a week, huh?' It seems that in the run-up to Splatoon 3's release, Nintendo has been hitting us with inky news left, right and centre (splaturation, if you will). This week, we got a chance to go hands-on with the upcoming game, and we are sure that some of you will be...
Talking Point Can We Predict The Other Two Stories In Pokémon Scarlet & Violet?
Treasure, school, and evil...
One of the details revealed in the latest Pokémon Scarlet & Violet trailer was that the game would have three main stories, which could be played in any order. We were told about one of the three: The story of battling through all the gyms to get to whatever this game's equivalent of the Pokémon League is...
Hands On Splatoon 3 Brings New Ideas, But Nothing Revolutionary
Ink, splat, swim, repeat
Recently we were tickled pink to be invited by Nintendo to have a go at Splatoon 3, and as you might expect we accepted the offer. We got to play for about an hour or so, running through a few of the single-player levels, two rounds of Turf War, and three rounds of the new and improved version of Salmon Run — but how did...