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Nintendo sticks to its guns

Nintendo isn't at all keen on mandatory, system-integrated achievements or trophies. The idea was ignored for Wii, while gamers with an Xbox 360 got used to notifications re-affirming their awesomeness for acts as simple as starting a new game, with their Gamerscore continually getting bigger with each accomplishment...

Sharing the message

Today marks the start of a major countdown for Wii U, as it's set to arrive in North American stores in just seven days; it's a major event for Nintendo, as new home consoles aren't an overly frequent occurrence. It's been six years since Wii arrived and revolutionised gaming with its focus on motion controls, and now the...

Blasting onto eShop

With the 3DS eShop continuing to grow, and the Wii U equivalent already shaping up with an increasingly encouraging range of confirmed titles, there’s plenty of positivity around Nintendo’s download offerings. Like any platform it still has its detractors and issues, such as the occasional broken mess on the release...

A bold new direction for Nintendo

With just 11 days until Wii U arrives in North America — at the time of writing — it's perhaps surprising that substantial details on Nintendo's online services have taken so long to emerge. That said, it's not unprecedented, as Nintendo often likes to keep its cards close to its chest, withholding details and...

The race to the Mushroom House

Today is a big day in the United States of America, as the next President is set to be elected in an exceptionally tight race to the White House. Still, politics isn't always particularly exciting, especially when candidates don't do anything fun like defy gravity or harness special abilities. No, they're two...

"I think the hardware capabilities of the Wii U Game Pad are a good match for Tengami"

Last week, we revealed that UK studio Nyamyam was impressed with the Wii U eShop and the potential it offers for independent developers. Keen for more knowledge, we got in touch with Nyamyam's Jennifer Schneidereit to talk about Wii U, Nintendo and Tengami - the...

"Lower-case aaa" may take over

While it's easy to get tangled up in technicalities when it comes to the graphical prowess of Wii U, one thing is 99% certain: the successors to Xbox 360 and PS3 will be more powerful, from a graphical standpoint. Whether or not the Wii U matches or surpasses the existing HD systems in this respect — it will take...

Long live the Wii

In future years, maybe even in a matter of weeks, there's likely to be plenty written about Wii and its lifespan, with judgements made on its strengths and weaknesses. The list of negatives is fairly predictable: it was underpowered, with motion controls that brought an unrelenting wave of sub-par games, it struggled for major...

We speak to former TTI Vice President and General Manager about the PC Engine's ill-fated trip to the US

The NEC PC Engine turned 25 this week, and to celebrate the life of this remarkable system we've already taken a comprehensive look at its history. If that didn't satisfy your hunger for NEC-related knowledge, then allow us to offer up this...

"We have learnt to expect bizarre events"

With all of the excitement surrounding the upcoming release of the Wii U console and its retail launch titles, it’s easy to forget the assortment of potentially fantastic Wii U eShop titles also heading our way. One of which is Cloudberry Kingdom, a platformer which promises to supply the gamer with...

With NEC's machine turning 25, we take a look back at the history of the Famicom's biggest rival

Western gamers tend to consider Nintendo and Sega as the two major players in the 16-bit war. On European and American soil this was certainly the case - the Super Nintendo and Mega Drive (Genesis to North American players) battled it out for...

Or maybe this one's a game that Wii U needs?

We’ve highlighted the importance of having well-established franchises on Wii U. We’ve also indicated how vital it is for Wii U to be open to new ideas and intellectual properties. This time, we’re saying that in order for Wii U to keep in-line with the competition, exceed it in fact, then it...

Sneaking up behind you

The night is finally here, when legend tells of witches, ghosts and ghouls terrorising the people of the world for, well, some reason. It seems a little pointless to learn about the origins of Halloween as it's basically a cheap costume candy-fest, and that's just fine. Grown ups often spend the night watching grisly horror...

A true gentleman never disappoints his fans

Puzzle 001: How do you adapt a best-selling puzzle series for the big screen? The answer? Bring the puzzles along for the ride. For most movies, shoehorning in memorable gameplay elements hasn't always worked out as planned — the first-person shooting segment from Doom was lampooned by many viewers,...

The cute little console's horrors

The scariest night of the year is now only two days away, a horrifying evening when strange children knock at the door and refuse to leave without a toll of sweets and candy. If you don't hand some tooth-rotting treats over, then you could find out what tricks they have up their sleeve; that's not always a smart...

Great for scares

It's Halloween: a time for ghosts and goblins, a time for tricks and treats, and a time for monsters and mashing. But mainly it's a time for good, solid scares. Horror movies run on every channel, children dress as demons and beasts, and macabre decorations taunt us with our own mortality. We get chills just thinking about it...

We all have them

With its successor around the corner and a six year anniversary just a few weeks away, we've shown some love for Wii this week. Despite its modest graphical power and SD output, it's outsold its rivals, made motion gaming a mainstream pastime and given us some terrific games. We've already looked back at six years of Wii and...

Harder than it sounds

Various members of the Nintendo Life writing team will have seen one major issue clogging up their Twitter timelines in the past 24 hours, and it revolved around questions at the forefront of what we do: writing about video games. Video game writers often debate the whole practice of what you see on this site and many others,...

The best of Wii

Yesterday we brought you a retrospective for six years of Wii, as we prepare for the not-too-distant future when the system will become Nintendo's "last generation" console. It's an emotional time, to be sure, and nothing touches raw and frayed nerves quite like a top 20 games list. With most of the likely candidates already in...

Time to say goodbye?

Despite strong first-party support, 2005 marked the beginning of the end for Nintendo’s GameCube, prompting the company to reveal its next system, the Revolution. The next year would see not only the unveiling of the revolutionary Wii Remote, but also the controversial unveiling of Wii; it was perceived by some as outrageous...

A trip down memory lane

With the first UK showing of the Wii U TV commercial causing quite a stir online, we thought it would be fun to take a look back at Nintendo's history of launch commercials, right back to the days of the 8-bit NES — possibly an era when many of the readers of this site weren't even born. Sit back and soak up the ambiance...

There are no easy answers

Earlier this week we reported on the news that Foxconn, manufacturer for many of the world’s biggest technology companies, employed under-age interns to work on Wii U manufacturing. Foxconn admitted that it had employed 14-16 year old school attendees and stated that it had “apologized to each of the students for our...

Racism, greed, Nazis and spoon-bending

To celebrate the recent launch of the excellent Pokémon Black and White 2 on the Nintendo DS, we thought it would be entertaining to throw open the history books and take a look back at the shadowy past of this massively successful monster-catching series. Like all elements of popular culture, Pokémon has...

Nintendo Life takes to the red carpet

It was a big night at the 56th BFI London Film Festival on Monday, as the much-anticipated Nintendo Gala took place at Odeon West End in Leicester Square. Hundreds of film critics, movie experts and even games journalists descended upon the renowned movie theatre to attend the premiere of Wayne Blair’s The...