Latest Features
Soapbox Splatoon 3's 'Grand Festival' Was The Perfect Goodbye
Please wrap it up
Soapbox features enable our individual writers and contributors to voice their opinions on hot topics and random stuff they've been chewing over. Today, Jim's reliving Splatoon 3's epic climax... I was a latecomer to the Splatoon series. If you had asked me three years ago what my favourite Turf War stage is, the 45 minutes I had...
Poll Box Art Brawl - Duel: Contra 4
A duel of dual spirits
Hello folks, we're back once again for another edition of Box Art Brawl! Before we get started, let's take a look back at how things played out last week. We checked out the GameCube classic Pokémon Colosseum, originally released in Japan in 2003 before making its way West in 2004. All three covers were admittedly pretty...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? (14th September)
You're going to take ME for a ride?
It's finally the weekend, and we're ready to chill out with a spot of gaming. Before we get into our plans, however, let's take a look at what happened in the world of Nintendo this week. It was a big one for PlayStation news, weirdly, as we speculated on 'Switch 2' pricing after Sony revealed the £700 PS5 Pro...
Hands On 'Royalty Free For All' Looks To Smash It With A Cosy Fighting Format & Timeless Roster
Domain game
Over the course of 20 years and five games, Nintendo-employed game director Masahiro Sakurai wove together five decades of video game lore to build the ultimate fighting game franchise: Super Smash Bros., more or less inventing the 2D platform fighter genre in the process. And look, it’s a madcap concept right off the rip to...
"I just have to not be too precious"
Back in 2021, Black Tabby Games — an indie studio formed by husband-and-wife team Tony Howard-Arias and Abby Howard — released the first episode of the episodic visual novel Scarlet Hollow on Steam. Visually striking with ink drawings and a deep branching narrative, the duo put the studio on the map from...
$699 is the new $599
Recently, we asked you if $499 would be too much to pay for a 'Switch 2'. 20% of respondees said 'nope', nearly 30% thought it would be too much, and the majority (rather sensibly) said that it would depend on how big of an upgrade Nintendo's next generation of hardware represented. Yesterday Sony pulled back the curtain on the...
Here comes the boom
Lena Raine has so much to say, and she’s figured out a lot of different ways to say it all. Of course, avid game players have been listening to her musical scores for over a decade now, which includes music for Minecraft, as well as the soundtracks for Chicory: A Colorful Tale and the BAFTA-nominated Celeste score. She’s...
Hands On Super Mario Party Jamboree Brings Together The Best Of Both Worlds
It's Mario 'Par-tay'
“Super Mario Party, Mario Party Superstars, Mario Party 1, 2, & 3; what does that tell you about Mario Party games on Switch” “There’s too many of them?” “Or, people like them, let’s release some more of them.” That’s how we imagine the initial pitch for
Talking Point What Game Should Be 'Switch 2's 'Skyrim Moment'?
Margit of error
There were several moments in Nintendo's pre-launch Switch marketing that left us a little lost for words: the hybrid form factor, our first look at Breath of the Wild, the way that one guy went to "walk his dog" but spent the entire time sat on a bench. The reveal that Skyrim would be coming to the iddy biddy console was another...
Poll Box Art Brawl: Pokémon Colosseum
Are you not entertained?
Are you sitting comfortably? Ready to judge some classic covers? It's time to dive into another edition of Box Art Brawl! Last time, we matched up three different designs for Super R-Type. Despite a good variety between each, it was the North American variant that walked away with the win, taking 49% of the vote and leaving...
Back Page Dark World, Lorule, Termina - A Voyage Home To Hyrule Via Zelda's 'Other' Worlds
Sat-Navi
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 — so welcome to...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? (7th September)
We got crystals to find, mate
It's the weekend once again, so it's time to wash off the stresses of the work week and relax with a bit of gaming. But before we settle in, let's recap some of the bigger stories from this week. First up, it was a big week for 'Switch 2' rumours, with not one, but two making the rounds. The first was that the console...
Dragon page
As the Western world waits for a localisation announcement, Zelda fans in Japan have been poring through The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Master Works, the latest tome dedicated to 2023’s Nintendo Switch masterpiece. Part art book, part development deep dive, part history lesson, Master Works delivers the final word on Tears...
Guide 34 Games You Should Pick Up In Nintendo's 'Mega Multiplayer' Switch eShop Sale (Europe)
Every game we scored 9/10 or higher
Nintendo's Mega Multiplayer sale wraps up this weekend, so once again here are our picks of the best games you might consider adding to your collection while they're discounted. Enjoy! Get your wallets at the ready because Nintendo is back, back, back with a fresh batch of European eShop discounts! The 'Mega...
Soapbox Switch Really Needs Third-Party Profile Icons - Here Are Our Top Picks
Icon-ic
We're not sure about you, but we've always loved tinkering with online avatars or profile icons. Whether it be a basic JPEG on an online forum, or a fully customised image on the Switch, PlayStation, or Xbox, profile icons are a wonderful way of expressing who you are and what kind of games you love to play. The Switch has been...
Hands On Zelda: Echoes Of Wisdom Brings Tantalising Creativity To The 2D Template
Echo, Echo, Echo, what's going on here?
It’s fairly safe to say that everyone was pretty jazzed when Nintendo announced The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. We haven’t had a new top-down Zelda game since 2013’s A Link Between Worlds, assuming of course you don’t count Tri Force Heroes, and if that was your mindset, we wouldn't entirely...
Feature Blasphemous Devs Talk Switching From Metroidvania To RTS Stealth In 'The Stone Of Madness'
“Failing is part of what makes this game fun”
The Game Kitchen has been cookin’ good. With Blasphemous and Blasphemous 2, the Spanish developer quickly gained a stellar reputation thanks to some of the best Metroidvanias to emerge in recent years. Their prickly difficulty, moody gothic vibes, and disconcerting take on Andalucian Catholic...
Poll What Review Score Would You Give Emio - The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club?
A score to die for?
Have you spent your weekend solving the mystery of Emio? Well, if you have, then we want to know what you think of the brand new Famicom Detective Club title, Emio -The Smiling Man. No one expected a sequel 30+ years after the original, but then again, no one expected the 2021 remakes. We love it when Nintendo gets...
Soapbox The Next Pokémon Game Should Rework Old Critters, Not Just Add Dozens More
Gotta not forget 'em all
Soapbox features enable our individual writers and contributors to voice their opinions on hot topics and random stuff they've been chewing over. Today, Lowell considers how future Pokémon games could do justice to old Pocket Monsters who got lumped in with the also-rans... We’re still a little far out from Pokémon...
Feature Nintendo Life eShop Selects & Readers' Choice (August 2024)
Our picks for the best eShop games in August
Pinch, punch, welcome to another edition of eShop Selects, this time for the month of August! We don't want to admit it, but we'll soon be tucking into warm cocoa and curling up by the fire with our Switches. That sounds nice and all, but shorter days, longer nights, and the cold? Brrrr. We're going to...
Poll Box Art Brawl: Super R-Type
Make a choice, R-kid
Hi folks, and welcome back to another edition of Box Art Brawl! Last week, we checked out Astro Boy: Omega Factor for the Game Boy Advance, and would you believe it, we had a draw! Both the EU/NA and Japanese variants bagged 50% of the vote each, so uhh... We've either got two winners or no winner at all. We'll let you decide!...
Feature 5 RPG Maker Horror Classics On Switch (And 3 We'd Love To See Ported)
Who will survive, and what will be left of them?
Being able to elicit fear with simply a sprinkling of pixels and a well-timed soundtrack is an art form. Horror games come in all shapes and sizes, with varying levels of gore, ghouls, and grisly details. While the Switch is home to some incredibly realistic horror, the most influential scary games...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? (31st August)
'Vania mania
And just like that, we're at the end of August! A big month of releases is on the horizon, so let's see how everyone is preparing with another edition of What Are You Playing? It has been a cracking week in the world of Nintendo as we got a double bill of Direct news in the shape of an Indie World and Partner Showcase. While not quite...
Feature The Return Of Lynels And Five Other Exciting Reveals In The Latest Zelda Trailer
Lynels and dungeons and tears, oh my!
A new trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is here and we are excited! So excited, in fact, that we have watched it another 20 times to narrow down our top reveals — the things that really got us beaming cheek to cheek. These aren't blink-and-you'll-miss-'em details like those we spotted after...
“Switch has been very, very important”
Out of the Seven Wonders of the World, we can add one more to the list in recent years, a triumph of human engineering achievement almost as jaw-dropping as the Great Pyramids of Giza or the Hanging Gardens of Babylon: Sid Meier's classic 4X Civilization series now operates fine and dandy on Nintendo...
Reaction Shadow Drops & Surprises - A Stuffed Direct With Something For Everyone
How did you find the Indie World & Partner Showcase?
Have we all recovered yet? On the surface, today's Nintendo Direct Indie World & Partner Showcase wasn't as show-stopping as the main June 2024 Direct. It was never going to be: by name and virtue alone, this is a Zelda and Mario-free presentation. And we're slowly approaching the end of the...
Round Up Pokémon World Championships 2024 - Is The Competitive Event At A Turning Point?
Pokémon came home
It has been 20 years since the first Pokémon World Championships took place in Orlando and in what may be a move to celebrate, the Pokémon World Championships returned to a place where it has frequently been held: Hawai’i. However, this time rather than being on the big island, it went to the island of O’ahu and the city of...
Soapbox The Trauma Of Giygas & Growing Up In EarthBound
EarthBound turns "adults into kids, and kids into adults"
Soapbox features enable our individual writers and contributors to voice their opinions on hot topics and random stuff they've been chewing over. Today, Nile celebrates the innocence of youth, the pain of growing up, and the magic of a cult classic SNES RPG, which celebrates its 30th...
Hands On Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind - A Simple Brawler With Promising Enemy Variety
The hour for morphin' is upon us
The beat ‘em up genre has had a grand resurgence in recent years. We've been treated to genre-defining entries like Streets of Rage 4, River City Girls, and the fantastic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge. And now, following the success of the heroes in a half-shell, Atari 50 developer Digital...
Poll Box Art Brawl: Duel - Astro Boy: Omega Factor
Let's Rocket!
We are back, back, back for another edition of Box Art Brawl! Last week, we took a look at a trio of Contra: Hard Corps covers for the Sega Genesis / Mega Drive. Despite three rather sweet designs (by our eye), the vote wasn't even close. You lovely lot crowned the North American variant the clear winner with 64% of the vote, leaving...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? (24th August)
All the water
Right, the weekend is here again, which means it's time to see what we're all going to be playing over the next couple of days. Before we do so, however, let's recap some of this week's more interesting goings on the in the world of Nintendo. First off, Nintendo held a new Direct broadcast, but perhaps not the one that many would...
Feature Nintendo Life's Switch Summer Survey 2024
There's still time to have your say
We published this survey call-out at the start of August and, with the end of the month fast approaching, we're flagging it one more time before we start tabulating the data into pie charts, bar graphs, and moral alignment tables separating the Lawful Evils from the Chaotic Neutrals. And, you know, how many...
Hands On Epic Mickey: Rebrushed - A Fresh Coat Of Paint For A Once-Flawed Platformer
Dis-ney mess around with the upgrades
Even almost 14 years after it was first released, it still hasn’t really set in that Deus Ex creator Warren Spector’s first game after a six-year break was not only a Mickey Mouse platformer, but one exclusively made for the Nintendo Wii after years of being a PC-only developer. To make matters even wilder,...
Round Up Every Switch Game Reveal & Trailer At Future Games Show @ Gamescom 2024
Strategy, RPGs, and penguins galore!
The Future Games Show returns once again for its third showcase of the year, which as always, takes place at Gamescom. Hosted by Alex McKenna (Sadie Adler from Red Dead Redemption 2) and Ned Luke (Michael De Santa from Grand Theft Auto V), there were over 50 games on show. And while Switch offerings were on the...
Talking Point Would $499 Be Too Much For 'Switch 2'?
Money where your Meowth is
We know that the 'Switch 2' is real. We know an announcement is coming this fiscal year. We know "Switch successor" is the most accurate description of it. All of the other big details — what form it will take, how big it will be, whether it will finally give us that flipping Wind Waker port — are all up to speculation...
Round Up Gamescom Opening Night Live 2024 - Every Nintendo Switch Game Reveal & Trailer
A quiet show for Switch
Gamescom: Opening Night Live 2024 has been and gone, and it was a pretty eventful show... if you have multiple consoles! We knew going in things would be light for the Nintendo Switch — it's in its eighth year, after all! But Nintendo is also skipping the event. Zelda is coming soon folks, don't worry... It wasn't a...
Hands On King Of Meat - Fun And Foolish Hack-And-Slash With A Side Of Mario Maker
Felled Guys
It's safe to say that King of Meat has sprung out of nowhere. Developed by Guildford-based studio Glowmade and published by Amazon Games, it was one of the genuinely new announcements in Gamescom's Opening Night Live showcase, and you may be wondering what exactly it has in store. We were in the same boat when we were invited by the...
Hands On Emio - The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club - Rated M For 'Murder'
Prologue + Chapter One impressions
As an M-rated game being published by Nintendo, there's certainly been a lot more interest in Emio - The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club in the lead-up to its release than there might have been with a more...well, Nintendo-esque content rating attached. Whether it deserves the full-blown adult treatment, we've...
Feature New Attacks, More Speed, Bigger Challenge - Good-Feel On Bringing 'BAKERU' To The West
"We've made adjustments to improve the overall gameplay experience"
Some of you may have seen earlier this week that BAKERU, the previously Japan-only 3D action platformer from Good-Feel, was announced to be coming to Western shores for a fresh English release in just a few short weeks. We loved the original Japanese release, and in anticipation of...
Poll Box Art Brawl: Contra: Hard Corps / Probotector
Lock n' load
Hello everyone, and welcome back to another edition Box Art Brawl! We had a doozy of a brawl last week as we looked at The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Four Swords for the GBA. You folks really surprised us with this one, though: we weren't too keen on the Japanese box art for this, deemed it to be fairly busy in comparison...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? (17th August)
Lucky, lucky star
Wheeeeey, the weekend's here again, which means it's time to pop on our most comfortable slippers and get some gaming done. Looking back on this week, the most interesting piece of news (well, "interesting" in an oh-god-when-will-it-end kind of way) was that the 'Switch 2' likely won't be launching until after the current fiscal...
Book Review Perfect Organism - A Must-Read For Fans Of Alien: Isolation
Fit for an Alien Queen
Toward the beginning of Perfect Organism: An Alien: Isolation Companion, author Andy Kelly asks a question that, to an outsider, might seem particularly pertinent: why write an entire book about one game? However, to those who have ever held a deep passion for a piece of pop culture, whether it be a film, a book, or a game,...
Feature Here’s How Trading Card Companies Could Stop CT Scanning In The Future
"They really want to fix it"
Collecting trading cards, especially vintage cards, has gotten considerably dicier — seemingly overnight. Over the past month, multiple people have come forward to demonstrate how various X-ray technologies can reliably see inside unopened trading card products. The concept of X-raying packs has been rumored for as...
Feature The Company You Can Pay To X-Ray Unopened Pokémon Card Packs Speaks Out
"The technology is not going away, and people know what it can do"
The entirety of the trading card community — that is, people who collect, buy, and sell the Pokémon Trading Card game, sports cards, Magic: The Gathering, Disney, or literally any trading card game you can think of — has gradually become aware of what might be an existential...
Feature Catch-Up Crew: F-Zero X - "In First Place I Just Yeeted Myself Off The Course"
Join our mission to seek out 'Games of Shame' and make first contact
We've all got them. Brilliant, much-celebrated video games — sometimes ones boasting a huge lineage of excellent sequels — which, for some reason, we never got around to playing. It might have been unfortunate timing, with another game arriving to swallow up our time and...
Poll Box Art Brawl: Zelda: A Link To The Past And Four Swords (GBA)
Portable magic
Welcome back to another edition Box Art Brawl! Last time, we were back with the Mega Man franchise to look at Mega Man Zero 3, the, uh, third entry in the Zero sub-series for GBA. As expected, the beautiful Japanese design won by a landslide, scoring 73% of the vote. The US variant bagged 17%, while the ghastly European design...
Guide Every Game In The Switch eShop 'Play Together' Sale (North America)
Update: Sale ends this weekend
This is your friendly reminder that the North American 'Recollection Collection' eShop sale ends this Sunday (11th August) at 11:59pm PT, so this is your last chance to save on all the wonderful games listed below. Nintendo of America has unveiled yet another tantalising sale, slashing up to 50% off select...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? (10th August)
We're DOOM'd
Well folks, another week has come and gone, which means it's time to reveal what we're all going to be playing this weekend. Before we do, however, let's see what's been going on this week. First up, Monolith Soft is recruiting for what it simply describes as a "new RPG"; chances are it'll probably be a new Xenoblade title for...
Preview In Ys X: Nordics, Adol And Boats Prove To Be A Match Made In Heaven
Sail the high Ys
If you've played an Ys game before, you know that our red-haired hero Adol Christin is pretty partial to a boat. He's also partial to a shipwreck or three. Adol's very first adventure in Ys I starts off with his boat being destroyed by a storm; Ark of Napishtim opens with Adol washed up on the beach; and in Lacrimosa of Dana, his...
Feature The Next Splatfest May Decide Splatoon 4's Future, So We Make A Case For Every Team
Are you a Deep Cut, Off The Hook, or Squid Sisters fan?
Debates over the best Splatoon idol group are dime-a-dozen but never have the stakes been higher than in Splatoon 3's upcoming second anniversary celebration: Grand Festival. Starting on September 13th and ending on 16th of the same month (or 12th to 15th, depending on your region), this...