Features News - Page 6 of 32

The possibilities are exciting

Leaving Nintendo’s Space World presentation in 2001, few would have imagined that of all the games shown, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker would become a watershed moment for the company. Panned by some fans and critics alike for its cel-shaded look, the game has since arguably become a symbol of how to create a...

"I've always had a thing for Nintendo's portables"

The 3DS eShop — along with its online store predecessors on Wii and DSi — has attracted a number of small developers that would have likely remained anonymous in previous generations. The evolution of download gaming has transformed our consoles to include smaller, more diverse experiences at...

We explain why this 2D classic needs another shot at glory

In the first of a new series of features, we take a look at a game that is badly in need of a remake on a Nintendo system. Princess Crown might sound like the kind of game you’d expect your little sister to play, but it’s actually the first release from the team that would eventually...

A trip to the movies

Once every year, the most creative minds in the film industry gather in Park City, Utah at the Sundance Film Festival to showcase their talents to celebrities and movie-goers alike. Not to be outdone, in an era where the line separating film and video games continues to blur, Nintendo of America joined in the fun to show off...

A multi-screen masterpiece

Before the Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance and even the Game Boy, portable gaming was all about Nintendo's Game & Watch series. The brainchild of Nintendo engineer Gunpei Yokoi - who apparently came up with the idea after seeing a Japanese businessman playing around with his pocket calculator during his journey to work...

All of the details in one place

Wii U Direct may have only been 35 minutes long, but it sure packed a lot into a short space of time, with a few extra details following in the press releases that followed. We certainly did our level best to cover everything revealed by Iwata-san in the broadcast, as well as information from Nintendo's regional...

Our team rather liked it

When Nintendo announced Wii U Direct earlier this week, there was a mixture of fevered optimism and slight negativity, with some predicting big reveals and others expecting little more than a few release dates and trailers. Even wording promising new Wii U games was met with caution by some, but there can be little doubt...

Simple but effective

Among the many announcements in yesterday's Wii U Direct, only one had an immediate impact on console owners, with the Wii U Virtual Console Trial Campaign launching right after the broadcast. Balloon Fight is now available to download with some Wii U-exclusive features — which we'll get to later — and the release schedule...

Or just watch it again

So, Wii U Direct was quite a show from Iwata-san, wasn't it? While there's a tendency for gamers of all types to always want more, we feel confident in saying that Nintendo delivered plenty of announcements and news to intrigue and excite the majority. There were some genuine surprises in there, as well as big announcements...

Predicting releases is getting tougher

Yesterday brought the news that Project X Zone is being localised and released in PAL regions and North America this summer. To many that would arguably be a surprise, as the title has endured a relative failure in Japan, culminating in a major price-cut. Yet recent years have taught us that predicting...

A boost for controlled licensing

The video game industry is in the middle of, arguably, its most unstable period — the landscape is evolving almost too quickly to track. Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft are currently sticking to the course as constants, in general maintaining well-worn business practices while attempting to adjust to new challenges...

Quite a lot, actually

Not long ago we published The Big Wii U Survey, as we asked you whether you owned a Wii U and, if you do, what you think about it. The response was terrific, with over 4,300 fully completed submissions being returned to us. As promised, below is a summary of what you told us, with some surprising statistics thrown in...

A license to thrill

While film tie-ins are expected these days, few games can attest to having their origins found in novels, and fewer still can claim to have outgrown those origins and become a success in their own right. But that is exactly what the James Bond franchise has done. What initially began as a series of novels by Sir Ian Fleming,...

Are Skylanders and Disney Infinity pulling a Capcom, with toys?

Yesterday, before a maelstrom of date reveals and other news, the pricing emerged for Disney Infinity, which put parents and their bank managers on alert. It also instantly raised comparisons with the Skylanders series, now two games old, which despite differences in approach to the...

Tough times ahead?

The past twelve months have shown just how volatile the current market is for retailers. With the global recession taking its toll, several high street businesses are finding it difficult to compete. This week alone saw both HMV and Blockbuster slip into administration in the UK, putting thousands of jobs at risk. Video game...

We speak to the developer who’s making quite a splash

One development studio that has made a valiant contribution to Nintendo’s digital download services is undoubtedly Curve Studios. Having first released Hydroventure for WiiWare to much critical acclaim back in 2010, the development team has recently returned to its original idea and expanded...

Going behind the scenes

With its upcoming Wii U eShop release of Toki Tori 2, as well as plans to port a couple of existing titles to the console's download platform, developer Two Tribes has a lot of work on its plate. Despite that the team has been kind enough to produce the following exclusive tour of its HQ, giving an insight into the size of...

Convincing sceptics is one

Recent sales figures and industry conversations have given us a fair old glut of analytical articles focused on Wii U in recent days. For a system that's barely a couple of months old, there's been a temptation in some quarters to either predict doom and a major loss of market share, or to put faith in Nintendo's...

The pinball wizards have more to come

Zen Studios is an experienced indie developer that, despite its varied projects, is possibly best known for its pinball games. It's a team that wasn't entirely unfamiliar with Nintendo hardware in past generations — it developed Ghostbusters: The Video Game for DS — and it's become best known to fans of the...

Let's summarise

Earlier this week, through an aptly titled Pokémon Direct, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata brought the news that Pokémon fans had been waiting for; a new generation main-series entry on the system. Pokémon X & Y will — like its predecessors — be released in two separate flavours, but with the developers choosing letters as...

The world didn't end, so let's play more games

So, wait, the Mayans weren't wrong, it was just crazy conspiratorial types and a lazy media that talked about the end of the world? Well hot damn, let's play some video games! Yes, 2013 is here, the world is still spinning, and we're all going to celebrate by playing games — not that we don't do that...

A subtle but important evolution

The past couple of weeks have brought a notable landmark for the 3DS eShop, even if it hasn't necessarily caused internet-shaking headlines or attracted a great deal of attention. Unchained Blades, an RPG that would typically be found in specialist gaming stores or online retailers, if you're lucky, was released by...

The DS era is left behind

The biggest release on DS in 2012, and surely the runaway winner of practically every Game of the Year award specifically tailored for the older handheld, were the Pokémon Black & White 2 titles, tied together for the purposes of simplicity. Yet its announcement and release on the platform surprised a number of...

Micro Marvel

For more than a decade, the name "Game Boy" was as synonymous with handheld gaming as "iPod" is with portable music playback today. Following the launch of the original monochrome Game Boy console in the late '80s, Nintendo ruled the market with total dominance thanks to an incredibly popular line of million-selling systems. When the...