News Tagged: Features
Feature: The Spooky Denizens of the World of Nintendo
We run down the scariest of scaries the Big N has cooked up
We here at Nintendo Life love Halloween. Despite the fact it was originally a time when the dead were believed to cause sickness to the living and damage their crops, but nowadays it's just a good excuse to gorge ourselves on delicious, delicious candy. As part of our All Hallows’ Eve celebrations, we take a trip down memory lane and..
Feature: The Making of The Wizard
We go behind the scenes of one of Hollywood’s most misunderstood classics
The Wizard is very much a guilty pleasure. When the film was released it was panned by critics and flopped at the box office, yet many people still talk about it in hushed, almost reverent tones over fifteen years after its release. Although many critics will gladly tell you that it’s nothing more than a Nintendo advert..
Features: Looking Back At BIT.TRIP BEAT, Pt. 2
Our Looking Back series of features aims to explore prominent Wii and DS titles from conception to reception. First up: Bit.Trip Beat.
Continuing on from the first part of our look back at the development process behind WiiWare hit BIT.TRIP BEAT, Alex Neuse of Gaijin Games warns of the dangers of games going soft, explains the series' brutal difficulty and why BEAT was made a "passive"..
Features: Looking Back At BIT.TRIP BEAT, Pt. 1
Our Looking Back series of features aims to explore prominent Wii and DS titles from conception to reception. First up: Bit.Trip Beat
With Gaijin Games recently announcing the third game in their psychedelic Bit.Trip series, Void, we felt the series' debut, Beat, deserved another look. In the first part of this inaugural entry, Alex Neuse of Gaijin Games discusses its influences, the level design..
Features: Metroid's Metal Makeover
How five guys blasted the series' haunting soundtrack into a whole different genre - without sucking
The trouble with covering beloved music is that it’s so easy to lose something in the translation. Successfully capturing the original work’s intent and mood is atypical; what most often happens when things go south is the heart and soul of the piece are mangled with good intentions. It’s not..
Feature: Tending and Feeding Your Japanese Wii
If you're considering getting a Japanese Wii, here's some tips and suggestions on getting the most out of it.
Ever since the Japanese took over the home video game console market in the mid-80s there's been a major gulf between game releases in the consoles' country of origin and nations importing them, either because Japanese publishers lacked overseas distribution arms (now far less likely than..
First Impressions: Virtua Tennis 2009
MotionPlus, a full online mode AND curly wigs? It's too good to be true, surely...
Strawberries and cream, Robinson’s fruit squash and appalling curly hair were all out in force for Sega Europe’s Masters Monday event, an invitation-only tournament with some of the best Virtua Tennis players on the circuit – and me – in anticipation of VT2009. There were even two guests of honour - Sumo..
Feature: Legendary Starfy 101
A little history lesson on Nintendo's adorable platforming star.
Since many gamers outside of Japan are not terribly familiar with the Densetsu no Stafi series of games, not to mention the fact that The Legendary Starfy is set to be released in North American on June 9th, we thought it would be fun to take a look at the history of the series complete with some fun facts that might surprise even..
Podcast: Episode 3 - The Conduit Interview
We recently visited SEGA's HQ in London to play The Conduit. Feast your ears on the results!
As you might have read in the earlier feature on the Conduit Multiplayer event at Sega, NLife staff member Tom had the opportunity to interview two of the chaps from High Voltage Software – Kerry Ganofsky (CEO) and Eric Nofsinger (CCO).Armed with a couple of questions the community wanted to know (and a..
Round Table: Is Nintendo Neglecting the 'Hardcore Gamer'?
The first of a new series of features that sees the Nintendo Life staff members sit down and discuss all things Nintendo.
Welcome one and all to Nintendo Life's new feature: The Round Table. This is where you get to see the staff debate and discuss the most topical issues going around. From stereotypical views of Nintendo’s consoles, to our feelings on the evolution of gaming; you’ll find it..
Talking Point: About "The Waggle"
A button press by any other name...
For some reason the fact that motion controls (or "gestures") are a major part of the Wii control interface bothers people; it is felt that this ruins the gaming experience and that the majority of such implementations would be better served by traditional digital button presses. Indeed some people go so far as to desire all Wii games to have support..
Talking Point: Should Game Stories Be Regarded as Highly as Literature?
Expert assures us that games do, in fact, tell us stories that engage our minds.
Dr Souvik Mukherjee of Nottingham Trent University believes video games should be regarded as a storytelling medium that can stand along with traditional literary texts. Of course as a computer game narrative expert he has conducted an arbitrary research study to make these incredible findings... well, more credible.He..
Talking Point: Could The Conduit Be in for a Rough Ride at Retail?
Game designer predicts poor sales performance for high-profile FPS
With past ‘hardcore’ failures like No More Heroes, House of Dead: Overkill and (more recently) Madworld, the Wii is getting a reputation for being a casual gamers’ machine first and foremost.This certainly doesn’t bode well for Sega’s upcoming FPS title The Conduit. Developer High Voltage Software has gone to great lengths..
Feature: Sonic: The Nintendo Years - Part Two
The second instalment of our look back at gaming's favourite blue dude with attitude.
So far we've witnessed Sonic's rise from cute blue upstart to Sega's main mascot, but by 2006 it was clear that Sonic games had changed very drastically, and nowhere was that more evident than in the year's first two 'hog-related outings.First came the debacle that was Shadow the Hedgehog, another notorious low..
Talking Point: Copyright and Video Games
What is stopping us from experiencing the entire history of video games?
Last year Taito issued Space Invaders Get Even on the WiiWare download service as well as multiple versions of the original game on the Japanese, PAL and North American Virtual Consoles. This was in celebration of the 30th annivesary of the release of Space Invaders in arcades worldwide. Similarly Namco is due to celebrate..
First Impressions: Puzzle Bobble Wii
Taito delivers another enjoyable update to an arcade franchise.
For those who aren't familiar Puzzle Bobble is a late-90s arcade puzzle franchise from Taito featuring Baburun and Boburun from Bubble Bobble. Fans in the rest of the world may remember this game better as the ill-titled "Bust-A-Move." It's had five arcade iterations, two of which were ports on the Neo Geo MVS (Bust-A-Move..
News: April Fool Jokes – The Dust Settles
We select our favourite Nintendo-related pranks from the big day
April 1st is a day feared by regular inhabitants of the internet. It’s the one day of the year when you can practically ignore all amazing and outlandish news stories as rival sites attempt to out-do each other with their attempts at humour. However, putting aside the more pathetic jokes for one moment (anyone here still think the..
Interviews: WayForward talk Mighty Flip Champs!
From the moment we first heard of Mighty Flip Champs! we were intrigued. There wasn't much information on the game, but what we knew was exciting indeed.
With WayForward's impressive pedigree, and some tantalizing gameplay mechanics, we knew we could expect their DSiWare debut to be something special, and we couldn't resist tracking them down for an interview. WayForward Technologies very own..
Feature: Sonic: The Nintendo Years - Part One
As Sonic and Black Knight gets released to almost universal apathy, we take a look at the spiky one's past.
Sonic’s career is as chequered as those famous green hills; since his runaway success in the first half of the 1990s he’s struggled to reclaim those glory days. Luckily if you’re a Nintendo console owner you can play all the best Sonic games extremely easily, thanks to Virtual Console..
News: Nnooo Interview - Pop Plus: Solo
Nnooo's Pop was one of the very first WiiWare releases and has gone on to become something of a poster child for downloadable gaming.
Since the Wii launch we've also see an iPhone version, and the Aussie developer is putting the finishing touches to a DSiWare variant called Pop Plus: Solo as we speak. Keen to find out more about this, we got in touch with Nnooo head man Nic Watt and posed a few..
