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More Mario per system

We’re well aware that some of you may read the headline and tagline for this article and immediately think that we’re losing our minds, foolishly allowing ourselves to be suckered into paying more and more for our Mario fix. That’s a danger of course, which we’ll come to, but with this week’s first batch of New...

Word up

If adorable lexical puzzle games are up your street, you're bound to have heard of Scribblenauts, the series that lets you generate any item into the world by simply entering its name. The series has been around for a while on Nintendo DS, plus iOS, but it'll be hitting a home console for the first time when Scribblenauts Unlimited is...

Let's go round again

A week ago we hosted a Mario Kart 7 community event, where you joined us for some shell throwing, banana dodging mayhem. The community room we used expanded from four players to over 180 by the end of the night, and we loved racing against you all and chatting in the comments and on our Twitter page. Naturally, this isn't going...

Why not?

Yesterday we brought you an image, and the YouTube video to match it, of the McDonald's Big Mac Mii Plaza puzzle panel that's available in Japan: squeals of excitement could be heard and minds were well and truly blown. Or not, as it was just a picture of a burger, albeit with the added gloss of 3D. Still, it's proof that Nintendo is...

A sense of speed, nasty viruses and some soon-to-be-endangered animals

If you're a fan of high speed action, cute birds or shooting innocent animals, then you're in luck - this week's North American Nintendo Download is sure to satisfy your desires. eShop: SpeedX 3D (Gamelion, $3.99) — After speeding into the European eShop a while back,...

It’s only half of the picture

Earlier today we reported that Satoru Iwata had given loose figures for retail downloads in Japan, which started alongside the launch of 3DS XL on 28th July. Speaking to Wall Street Journal, Iwata-san stated that New Super Mario Bros. 2 retail downloads account for 5% of sales in Nintendo’s homeland, but provided...

Cleaner and better

We recently had the chance to sit down with a more recent demo of Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon. With three stages to sweep clean rather than the single one on offer when we played it last year, we got to see just how much work Next Level Games has put into the game since then. The three mansions that we were able to pick this...

Is bigger better?

3DS XL landed on European and Japanese shelves over the weekend. It seems to have had a good start; in the UK it outsold the original 3DS model at a rate of around 2:1 and bumped up the software sales of Mario Kart 7, Super Mario 3D Land and Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games — thoug

Button mashing for gold

If you’ve been living in a cave and isolated from the world for the past couple of weeks, then you may not have been bombarded with coverage of the London 2012 Olympic Games. It’s now well under way, and thousands of athletes are running, cycling, swimming and more in the name of winning a shiny gold medal. None of the...

Freak'n you

Most people have imagined up a character at some point, right? Whether it's your own fantasy Pokémon, an odd person or a bizarre monster, grabbing a pen and paper and drawing whatever comes into your mind is a lot of fun. Thankfully we're not the only ones who think so, as evidenced by games such as Freakyforms: Your Creations, Alive!,...

Master of coin

New Super Mario Bros. 2 feels like any of the other games in the New sub-series. The look of it, the audio, the themes of the worlds – they're all safe, familiar comfort blankets that hit the same beats as the rest of the family. That is, until you encounter the central focus that Nintendo is betting its coin on: this time, Mario...

Because art is beauty

Ever since Nintendo introduced the touch screen on the original DS, it was clear to artists that there was plenty of potential to produce art without the need to dig out a canvas and materials. The Art Academy series was a high-profile example on DSi that scratched that itch, as well as being titles that helped to attract yet...

Those Pikmin have a lot of heavy lifting

With 3DS XL hitting Europe and Japan on 28th July, there'll be a number of 3DS owners that decide to take the plunge. With that in mind you'll need to make sure that you transfer your system account and data, otherwise a lot of saves and costly downloads will disappear — and no-one wants that. Before we...

Is it persuasive enough?

This week we’ve been given a glimpse of Nintendo’s plans for retail download pricing and incentives, both for Japan and North America. It all begins with New Super Mario Bros. 2 and Demon Training in Japan on 28th July, with North America and Europe joining in with Mario’s title on 19th and 17th August respectively...

Look ma, no glasses!

One of the biggest shifts of the last generation has been the evolution of games consoles into entertainment centres, allowing almost all forms of media to be played back through your TV. It’s a far cry from the old cartridge systems when gaming ruled supreme, but thanks to their knowledge outside of video games both...

The official Nintendo Life verdict on the new super-sized console

It’s fair to say that the 3DS didn’t have the start that Nintendo was hoping for. Launched amid high expectation and a groundswell of three dimensional hype, the system initially struggled to find an audience; it took a price cut and an injection of big-name quality software to...

Nintendo warps into trendy East London

Nintendo continues to find ways of expanding the reach of 3DS to new audiences with events such as this month’s UK photo competition Another Dimension, which saw a group of photography enthusiasts get to grips with 3D picture-taking using the system in organised field trips hosted by a wide range of...

Time for double vision

Earlier this week we brought you the first part of our visual guide to Nintendo's Handheld Revamps, starting with Game Boy and going all the way up to Game Boy Advance SP. In terms of handheld console models, and despite the number of years covered, that only covered about half of the story; now we'll pick up with the first...

Go for that green light

Did you leave the house today? If you did hit the streets to go to the shops, work or school, then we have two more questions for you. Did you take your 3DS with you, and did you get any StreetPass hits? It’s easy to forget that, when 3DS was launched, Nintendo placed a fair bit of emphasis on the idea of taking the...

Burning questions answered

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow — Mirror of Fate remains one of our most eagerly-awaited 3DS titles here at Nintendo Life, thanks to the simple fact that several of our staff are absolutely potty about Konami's long-running vampire-hunting franchise. Following hard on the heels of the sublime DS 'Metroidvania' titles,...

Mario returns with an uncharacteristic greed

When Nintendo announced New Super Mario Bros. 2, reactions were certainly mixed. Many greeted the news with immediate excitement and anticipation, whereas others were less enthusiastic about what they felt to be underwhelming news of a predictable sequel. Whichever side of the argument you fall on,...

The timing is both predictable and strange

The upcoming release of 3DS XL, the sizeable update to the original model, is hardly a surprise. Nintendo has constantly iterated its handhelds in an effort to attract more consumers and, to put it bluntly, make a lot of money: we can’t even argue that the XL is arriving earlier than expected, as the...

Bringing tables onto your screens

Farsight Studios has been in the gaming industry for over 20 years, but is probably best known for its extensive range of pinball titles including Pinball Hall of Fame — The Williams Collection on Wii and 3DS. The studio recently announced that its latest title, The Pinball Arcade will come to Wii U and 3DS, as...

Weighing it all up

The latest Nintendo Direct had its usual mix of game trailers and release details, but they were a distant priority behind the big opening act on each regional broadcast: announcement of 3DS XL. A remodelled 3DS had been rumoured and debated almost from the moment that the original hit stores, simply because Nintendo has a long...