Retro News

March2010

  • Feature The Making of the Nintendo Virtual Boy

    Nintendo's other attempt to crack the world of three dimensions

    Everybody has an awkward secret that they'd rather not share with the world. Be it an old school photo that showcases your crimes against fashion or an acutely embarrassing vinyl LP in your record collection that you simply can't bear to part with, we keep these things hidden from the...

  • Review Red Steel 2 (Wii)

    Time to shoot and slice some bros

    Ubisoft promised the sky for their Wii launch game Red Steel; since nobody had used the Remote before, plenty of gamers drank the kool-aid and had high hopes for its swordplay potential. The concept was interesting, but the execution left a gross aftertaste. It's telling that the idea was never emulated in the way...

  • Review Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon (Wii)

    Diamond in the rough

    There’s a sincerity to Fragile Dreams that’s very appealing, but that weighs heavily on the game over time. After burying his grandfather in his front garden, main character Seto explores the post-apocalyptic world with a heaviness of step that should make clear this isn’t a game full of sunshine and rainbows. If you like...

  • News Donkey Kong Champ Reveals the Height of His Obsession

    World record holder very nearly sacrificed his toilet to achieve his high score

    Hank Chien may now sitting pretty at the top of the Donkey Kong high score tree but to get to that point he very nearly had to make a difficult lifestyle choice. Speaking in a recent interview with Details Magazine, Chien revealed that due to a lack of space in his...

  • Review Cave Story (WiiWare)

    Now this is more like it!

    The independent gaming scene has always been a flourishing part of PC gaming over the years, but very few people were ready for the splash one indie game designer's title would make on the industry when he released it in 2004. It took Daisuke Amaya, aka Pixel, five long years to complete Cave Story, but its unique...

  • Review Drift Street International (DSiWare)

    We thought of a drift racing pun but it slipped our minds

    So far on DSiWare, puzzlers are bountiful, platformers becoming more so, and don't get us started on sudoku games, but the amount of decent racers can be counted on one chain-chomped hand. So when something as pretty as Tantalus Media's Drift Street International rolls up, our knuckles turn...

  • Review Game & Watch Judge (DSiWare)

    Judge quick, lest ye be bopped

    The Game & Watch series was Nintendo's first real foray into the world of portable video gaming. Designed by Gunpei Yokoi, who would later mastermind the grey-brick Game Boy we all know and love, these handheld electronic games featured an LCD display, a tinny speaker, and just enough buttons to complete the main...

  • Review Game & Watch Chef (DSiWare)

    It's all fun and games until someone loses a sausage

    The Game & Watch series was Nintendo's first real foray into the world of portable video gaming. Designed by Gunpei Yokoi, who would later mastermind the grey-brick Game Boy we all know and love, these handheld electronic games featured an LCD display, a tinny speaker, and just enough buttons...

  • Review Flips: The Enchanted Wood (DSiWare)

    Now with stories from more well-known authors!

    It almost looked as if EA was simply going to release all stories included in the retail title Flips: Too Ghoul for School on DSiWare, but that seems not to be the case. This third book is actually from Flips: Faraway Tree Stories, which did not include completely "new" stories, but rather old...

  • Review Pokémon HeartGold & SoulSilver (DS)

    Nintendo used "Spare Time Eater"!

    (Pokémon history lesson appeared!) A few years after the huge success of Red and Blue, along came Silver and Gold, offering a brand new region and dozens more freaky monsters to catch. Predictably the games were just as successful and even now are fondly remembered by many Pokémon fans – this one included – as...

  • Review Puzzle Bobble Galaxy (DS)

    A worthy entry in the classic puzzle series

    Known by the less-than-cool moniker of "Bust-a-Move" in North America, Puzzle Bobble has been a fixture of the puzzle genre for over a decade, appearing on every console and handheld since the NEO GEO and Gameboy Colour. Puzzle Bobble Galaxy isn't the first Puzzle Bobble game on the DS, but it is...

  • Review Tornado Outbreak (Wii)

    Do the "Katamari Twist"

    Tornado Outbreak is another example of a game being hung out to dry by a major publisher. Released at a budget price in the last quarter of 2009, it wouldn't be surprising if you had no clue it existed – despite being published by Konami – because it had little to no launch promotion and wasn't even stocked by major...

  • Review Libera Wing (DSiWare)

    Seeing the world of tower defence from both sides

    Tower defence games are getting increasingly popular with developers. It took WiiWare quite a while to get any, but DSiWare's already had three of them (although one is so far exclusive to North America). This latest addition to the sub-genre only really brings one new thing to the table: instead of...

  • Review Game & Watch Mario's Cement Factory (DSiWare)

    A blast from the past.

    Before the days of Game Boys and DS systems, Nintendo manufactured a small portable game device called the Game & Watch. These electronic games featured LCD screens that featured specific movements that could be controlled via various buttons and d-pads on the units. While they didn't feature the same type of full range...

  • Review Sonic Classic Collection (DS)

    Hog roast

    In a perfect world, there’s surely only one score we could give the first fully portable collection of the hedgehog’s finest outings: a well-deserved 10/10. SEGA’s handheld equivalent of Super Mario All-Stars, Sonic Classic Collection features the first four Sonic titles along with Knuckles’s appearance in Sonic 2 and Sonic 3,...

  • Review Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (GameCube)

    He might be paper, but Mario's no flop

    When Mario and friends appeared in their debut role-playing title nearly fifteen years ago on the SNES, it marked a significant new direction that the franchise would embark on and time has proved it's a popular one too. European gamers were understandably disappointed that Super Mario RPG never came to their...

  • News Miyamoto Humbly Accepts BAFTA Fellowship Award

    Dedicates it to all of his co-workers

    There can be no denying that the video games industry creates the kind of social impacts that are not dissimilar to those found in the TV, film, and music sectors. It seems fitting that the British Academy of Film and Television Arts has been hosting separate award ceremonies for the video games industry since...

  • Review Triple Shot Sports (WiiWare)

    Shooting pain? Get relief fast - don't play!

    In the promotional literature, developer Code Monkeys claim that Triple Shot Sports is "the most advanced recreational shooting game available for WiiWare." Well, with its presentation of Olympic shooting events it's certainly unique, but the only thing we found to be really "advanced"...

  • Review Combat of Giants: Dinosaurs - Fight for Survival (DSiWare)

    T-Rexes and Diplos and Toilets, oh my

    Back in 2008, Ubisoft Quebec released Battle of Giants: Dinosaurs, a game aimed squarely at younger gamers in which you create your own dinosaur and use it to battle others. With the advent of the DSi and the popularity of smaller versions of retail titles on the DSi Shop, Ubisoft saw fit to release a stripped...

  • Review Flashlight (DSiWare)

    Lights on, nobody's home

    There can be no more baffling title on DSiWare than Flashlight, a collection of three different "utilities" for the DS's dual screens: it makes the reams of clocks and calculators look like gaming gold. First up is a flashlight function, that lets you light both screens in a range of colours. If you can think of a...

  • Review Wonder Momo (Virtual Console / TurboGrafx-16)

    A guilty pleasure for import PC Engine fans

    You cannot be blamed for not having heard of Wonder Momo, a Namco arcade game from the mid-late 80s which was never released outside of Japan. It belongs in the box of "odd" Japanese games, being a beat-em-up with the unusual setting of a Super Sentai (Power Rangers to the gaijin amongst you)...

  • Review Seiken Densetsu 3 (Super Nintendo)

    An action-rpg for the ages!

    When it came time to create a follow up to their fairly successful action-rpg Secret of Mana, Squaresoft decided to try something a little different. While they were already developing the direct sequel Seiken Densetsu 3 in Japan, they created a US development studio and put them to task creating a more...

  • Review FLIPS Percy Jackson (DS)

    Harry who?

    Rick Riordan’s tales of teenaged demi-god Percy Jackson’s adventures are a big hit in America. Following the success of 20th Century Fox’s adaptation of Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief to the big screen, it somehow seems fitting that the Percy Jackson series makes a break for the UK market too by becoming one of the latest...

  • Review 101 Minigolf World (DSiWare)

    This putt-putt is below par

    Though there are already two DSiWare games based on serious golfing, putt-putt (or crazy golf to our European chums! - Ed) has remained oddly under-represented – until now. Teyon has brought us yet another DSiWare game almost straight from the PC: 101 MiniGolf World, featuring over 100 different holes to play, tons of...

  • Review Simply Sudoku (DSiWare)

    200 Points + 150 puzzles = 10/10?

    Let’s face facts here: anyone after a Sudoku game on DSiWare is likely to have bought one by now, but Engine Software has thrown its hat into the ring with Simply Sudoku, a truly barebones package. There’s three different difficulties with fifty puzzles per difficulty, which even if your maths isn’t good...

  • Review Rage of the Gladiator (WiiWare)

    Rage, rage against the dying of the light

    They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and Ghostfire Games' Rage of the Gladiator makes no bones about paying homage to Nintendo's classic arcade boxer Punch Out!!, using similar mechanics based around recognising enemy attack patterns to battle through a bevy of foes. Whilst its shoes are...

  • Review Perfect Dark (Nintendo 64)

    Suck it, Bond

    From its debut in 1997, developer Rare and the terrifying digital avatar of Pierce Brosnan ruled over the console shooter space in the Nintendo 64 tie-in of a then-two-year-old Bond movie, GoldenEye 007. Not only did it justify the genre on consoles while proving that movie games don’t have to suck, it became one of the defining...

  • Review Car Jack Streets (DSiWare)

    A fun, if flawed, take on the open world crime game

    Rockstar proved last year that an open world game could work very nicely on the DS with the excellent Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. But that was a full-on retail cartridge; how about the download realm, where size limitations are much more strict? Tag Games has taken a stab with Car Jack...

  • Review Picross 3D (DS)

    Box clever

    Longstanding nonogram puzzle fans will know that Picross games have been a part of Nintendo gaming for the best part of fifteen years. The excellent Mario's Picross appeared for the Game Boy way back in 1995, but this quintessentially Japanese pastime – where a matrix of squares is carefully shaded in to reveal simple, blocky pictures...

  • Review Safecracker (DS)

    A winning combination?

    God bless the common burglar. Without his sticky-fingered ways, the humble safe may never have been invented to keep important things in and unimportant people out. Sadly it also gave rise to Safecracker, a crime against gaming that has stolen something more important than jewels or money: our time and attention. The story...

  • Review Perfect Dark (Game Boy Color)

    Jo's pocket detour is all brawn but little brain

    On the Nintendo 64, Perfect Dark was a big huge deal for console gamers back in 2000: it was the spiritual successor to GoldenEye, it took advantage of all the technical whiz-bang that the console could muster, and it was supposed to be the ultimate console first-person shooter experience from the...

  • Review Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix (GameCube)

    No! Not the Music Keys!!

    Back in 2005, Konami and Nintendo surprised us all by announcing they were teaming up to release a new entry in the Dance Dance Revolution universe starring characters from Nintendo’s flagship series, Super Mario Bros. Most people will go into this not expecting the complete foot-burning DDR experience, and it’s these...

  • Review Simply Mahjong (DSiWare)

    Simply, mahjong

    Although moderately popular around the world, no real effort is usually made to release mahjong-based video games in the west. Only recently did the Wii finally get two downloadable ones, and now it's DSiWare's turn. As the title hints, this game consists of mahjong and mahjong only. In particular, it's the game type that is also...

  • News R.O.B. Display Unit Sells for $4K on eBay

    Someone obviously has very deep pockets

    Some rich retro collector has just gotten their hands on a one-of-a-kind auction thanks to eBay. The auction was for a display case containing a Nintendo Entertainment System and a Robotic Operating Buddy (better known as R.O.B.). The final figure? $4,150. Sweet. "These are extremely difficult to find,...

  • Review Castlevania: Rondo of Blood (Virtual Console / TurboGrafx-16)

    The PC Engine classic finally arrives on the Virtual Console

    The Castlevania titles have seen releases on a variety of game consoles over the years, but it's this PC Engine release that's garnered a lot of attention and focus among diehard game fans and collectors over the years. Since the game was only released in Japan, gamers who wanted to play...

  • Review Military Madness: Nectaris (WiiWare)

    Tactical Mutually Assured Destruction

    They say the moon is a harsh mistress — especially when it's home to prisoners building a super weapon to destroy Earth! This is the setting of Military Madness: Nectaris, a tactical strategy game which originally appeared on the Turbo-Graphx-16 as Military Madness (and in its native Japan as Nectaris). This...

  • Review Deca Sports DS (DS)

    Jack of all trades, master of none

    Having met considerable success on Wii with their sports game compilation series Deca Sports, Hudson has seen fit to bring their hit to the small screens with all new games and even more players. Living up to its name, the game sports ten games of varying quality: golf, ping pong, rugby, sepak takraw (sort of like...

  • Review Calling (Wii)

    Let the machine get it

    Boo! Did we scare you? No? Well then, there's a pretty good chance Hudson's horror game Calling won't either. Try as it might, the game never really goes beyond that three-letter interjection in its mysterious tale of ghosts and the supernatural. It's not horrible, but there are only so many times you can be snuck up on until...

  • Feature The Making of the Nintendo Game Boy

    Last year the machine turned 20, but what was it like to work with? We speak to the developers who made this legendary handheld sing

    Every now and then a product comes along that is so groundbreaking that it becomes synonymous with its function. The Hoover, Cellotape, Pritt-Stik…these names and many more like them have become so intrinsically...

  • Review 4 TRAVELLERS: Play Spanish (DSiWare)

    Demasiado aburrido para las palabras

    Playing board games on a long trip is hard when the pieces tend to go flying at every pothole. Agenius Interactive's 4 TRAVELLERS – Play Spanish, however, promises travel-friendly fun for all ages as you learn over 240 different words in Spanish. By studying via the two quiz modes and playing the board game...

  • Review Jet Grind Radio (Game Boy Advance)

    Funk on wheels

    Sega's Dreamcast died in an explosion that sent the company's intellectual property flying all over what was left of the gaming landscape, and few consoles of that generation received more surprise ports than the Game Boy Advance. Not only did it see Sonic return to his former 2D self in the Sonic Advance series, the handheld also...

  • Review Elemental Masters (DSiWare)

    Not one for the snotlings

    German developer lbxgames, a newcomer to the Nintendo scene, has thrown their hat into the DSiWare ring with Elemental Masters, a card-based fantasy game set in the mystical land of Elendior. A great demon is rumored to have arisen from the dead in order to continue his initial goal of spreading death and destruction across...

  • Review Final Fantasy II (Virtual Console / Super Nintendo)

    Still a timeless RPG classic.

    While the game was the second numbered Final Fantasy when it was released in North America back in 1991, it's actually the fourth entry in the series due to the second and third 8-bit releases remaining in Japan at the time. It marked the series debut on Nintendo's 16-bit console and added quite a few new gameplay...

  • Review Super Mario 64 DS (DS)

    A modern masterpiece, marred

    When the GameBoy Advance launched back in 2002, it landed with a port of Super Mario Bros. 2, not exactly the most fondly-remembered of plumber outings but one that still hit the mark by fitting the platform to a tee. Come 2005, Nintendo hit on the idea of launching the DS with a revamped Super Mario 64, showing off all...

  • Review Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing (DS)

    Pocket rocket

    Just like the Wii version, Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing on DS is up against some stiff competition, but as with its bigger brother manages to carve out a fine racing line for itself. One remarkable aspect of the DS version is how faithful it is to the home console version. All the characters, cups and unlockables are present,...

  • Review Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth (DS)

    Eureka!

    Although four installments long already, the Ace Attorney series has never really changed much in terms of gameplay. Every previous game consisted merely of showing the right evidence to the right people, or at the right time, with only very minor additions or alterations between each title, like the Psycho Locks in the second and third...

  • Review Resident Evil: Deadly Silence (DS)

    A good adaptation with obsolete game design

    It's tough to judge the classics, especially one like the original Resident Evil. Ground-breaking when it first hit the PlayStation in 1996, many of the game's mechanics are downright antiquated by now and can be off-putting to gamers who missed out on the series until Leon Kennedy shot up half the...

  • Feature The Making of Unirally

    Whoever said 2 wheels are better than 1 clearly didn’t experience this wholly unique racing title

    If you consider yourself to be a true artisan then there’s nothing worse that pouring your heart and soul into creating something truly breathtaking only to then be accused of flagrant plagiarism; such an allegation robs you of the unique...

  • Review Bleach: The 3rd Phantom (DS)

    The first tactical RPG for the modern manga classic leaves some to be desired

    The 3rd Phantom is the latest Bleach game on the DS and also the first to depart from the fighting game genre. Instead, Sega have produced a tactical RPG resembling Nintendo's Fire Emblem or Sega's own Shining Force games, with players moving characters like pieces on a...

  • News Donkey Kong World Record Smashed

    New York plastic surgeon Hank Chien bests Billy Mitchell's top score

    Twin Galaxies, the website that monitors and rules over gaming's top scores, today announced that a new Donkey Kong champion has been crowned. Plastic surgeon Hank Chien has rocketed into first place, racking up a score of 1,061,700 points in 2 hours 35 minutes, and ending on the...

  • Review Flips: The Bubonic Builders (DSiWare)

    More of the same

    The first Flips story on DSiWare was a fairly decent reading experience for young kids, so it should come as no surprise that this second one provides more of the same. Just like Terror in Cubicle Four, The Bubonic Builders is one single story taken from the retail "game," Flips: Too Ghoul For School, which contained eight...

  • Interviews Readers Ask Steve Wiebe

    The King of Kong answers your questions

    You asked, and now underdog star of the 2007 documentary The King of Kong and current holder of the Donkey Kong Jr. world record Steve Wiebe has answered. Before he takes on the Donkey Kong world record yet again at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco this week, see what Wiebe thinks about modern...

  • Review Globulos Party (DSiWare)

    Shoot glob at target. Repeat. Wipe hands on pants.

    Since 2000, GlobZ has specialized in browser-based webgames, the most innovative of which being Globulos, an award-winning set of adorable multiplayer minigames pitting you against opponents from across the internets. As DSiWare, Globulos Party has received similar acclaim, featuring not just a...

  • Review Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing (Wii)

    Constellation prize

    The first hour or so you spend with Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing, your brain rejects it, telling you it isn’t Mario Kart enough, or it isn’t Sega enough. You’ll wrestle with the wheel and tell yourself you could be playing Mario Kart Wii instead, but once you learn to go with it you find yourself having a blast...

  • Review Star Wars: Flight of the Falcon (Game Boy Advance)

    Turds in space

    We can only imagine what mind-numbingly stupid things people were thinking during the pitch for Star Wars: Flight of the Falcon. We suspect it started out with noble intentions: the Rogue Squadron games were well received, and crazier games had successfully made the leap to the Gameboy Advance. Why not put the Millennium Falcon at the...

  • Review Real Football 2010 (DSiWare)

    Slick as a parrot

    With last year’s successful Real Football 2009 under its belt, Gameloft has dusted off its downloadable footballing franchise and slapped a new number on the end. Taking the control systems and fast, arcade-style gameplay from its predecessor and polishing it up, RF2010 is at once the definitive football game on DS and a real...

  • Review Fatal Fury Special (Virtual Console / Neo Geo)

    Is it really all that special?

    There's no question that Fatal Fury 2 was quite a step up in quality from the original, but it seems SNK still wasn't completely satisfied with the game and decided to release an upgrade in the form of Fatal Fury Special. Rather than start from scratch, they basically took Fatal Fury 2, added in the ability to play as...

  • Review Zaxxon (Virtual Console / Virtual Console Arcade)

    One for the history books, but not for everyone

    In 1982 Sega made a little gaming history with Zaxxon: the first 3D arcade game to use an isometric perspective – even more shockingly, it used sprite-based graphics at a time when 3D games were pretty much all being done with vectors. Whilst Zaxxon got a lot of attention due to its flashy graphics...

  • Review Wario: Master of Disguise (DS)

    Not even a master could disguise this mess

    Wario games have always stood out as being excellent venues for experimental game design. He challenged death in games by going immortal for a spell, helped Nintendo test the waters with motion control across multiple games and platforms and for the most part boldly goes where Mario dares not. He's seen a...

  • Review Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes (DS)

    A classic DS mash-up is born

    Mixing the heavy plot and masses of dialogue from an RPG with the instant gratification of a puzzle game might seem an odd choice, but Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes pulls it off with aplomb. Reminiscent of classic DS puzzler Meteos, Clash of Heroes offers a stylus-sliding take on the match-three genre. Each puzzle is...

  • Review VT Tennis (DSiWare)

    Don't get court out

    You'd think developers would be racing to bring a MotionPlus-capable tennis game to WiiWare at the moment, especially after Wii Sports Resort didn't include a new version (unless ping-pong is enough to satisfy you). However, Virtual Toys has decided to skip the Wii Shop for now and release their new VT Tennis as DSiWare, offering...

  • Review Dracula: Undead Awakening (DSiWare)

    Pretty much exactly the same, but cheaper

    Seeing the same game released on both WiiWare and DSiWare is pretty strange. Both being released in the same week is even more strange. But the fact that both games are also nigh-on identical just tops the weirdness scale. Again, you play as a Van Helsing look-a-like running around a large arena of sorts,...

  • Review Dart Rage (WiiWare)

    These darts be angry

    Dart games have traditionally been pretty plain affairs. Pub Darts on WiiWare was as basic as it could get and left us with a bland and forgettable taste in our mouths. Developer JV Games may not have left the best taste among WiiWare connoisseurs after some beginning duds in Frat Party Games: Pong Toss and Incoming!, but their...

  • News Ask Steve Wiebe

    Here's your chance to pose a question to the King of Kong

    Steve Wiebe, underdog star of the 2007 documentary The King of Kong and current holder of the Donkey Kong Jr. world record, has answers for you. You've got questions for him. Now's your chance to get those answers. All this week we want to know what you want to know about the world of Steve...

  • Review Mega Man 10 (WiiWare)

    More classic Mega Man gaming goodness.

    With the release of Mega Man 9, Capcom was able to successfully recreate the classic 8-bit feel of the Mega Man series for game fans to enjoy, this time allowing the game to be downloaded on Nintendo's WiiWare service. Not only did the game bring back many of the unique gameplay mechanics of the earlier titles,...

  • Feature Becoming a Nintendo Game & Watch Collector

    We ask the experts about collecting this vintage format

    Given the durable nature of the Game & Watch range, the appealing design of the casing and the desirable Nintendo branding, it’s little surprise that a truly hardcore collecting scene has risen up over the past few years. The reasons for this differ depending on which collector you happen...

  • Review Data East Arcade Classics (Wii)

    Some golden oldies from an arcade pioneer

    Data East Corp. was one of the original wave of Japanese video game developers that had their wares appear in American arcades at the beginning of the 1980s. They didn't have as big a string of hits as contemporaries like Namco, Konami, Taito or Sega, but they did release a few titles that gamers above a...

  • News Rare NES Game Sells for $41,300 on eBay

    Stadium Events strikes again!

    Some of you may be aware that an auction on eBay several weeks ago saw an old NES bundled with some random games sell for a staggering $13,105 USD (approx. £8,744 GBP). That's because one of the games was a copy of Stadium Events; a track and field sports title from Bandai. What's so special about Stadium Events, you...

  • Review Zoo Frenzy (DSiWare)

    Another odd mix of different genres from Gameloft

    Gameloft is rather fond of porting their back catalogue to Nintendo's download services. This time, however, it seems that they've created an entirely new game specifically for DSiWare. An odd mixture of simulation and strategy, with some light RPG elements thrown in for good measure. The premise is...

  • Review Phantasy Star Ø (DS)

    The DS' first retro sci-fi MMO

    Phantasy Star Online for Dreamcast was a genuine revolution: the first-ever online RPG for consoles, it boasted an advanced translation system, free online play and stacks of action. The GameCube saw Phantasy Star Online: Episodes I & II that expanded the original game with all-new areas, weapons, monsters and...

  • Review Dracula: Undead Awakening (WiiWare)

    Undead a go-go

    Dracula: Undead Awakening is a nice example of how to port an iPhone game to the Wii properly: make sure the graphics are up to scratch and Wii-ify the controls. If you're unaware of the iPhone original, it's like a horror film version of Williams' arcade classics Robotron: 2084 or Smash TV, or the more recent Geometry Wars: players...

February2010

  • Review ChuChu Rocket! (Game Boy Advance)

    The ultimate game of space cat and mouse

    Around the turn of the millennium, Sega wasn’t doing so hot. Their much-beloved Dreamcast failed to ignite the sales charts despite being home to a plethora of fantastic new and original games as well as nigh-perfect (in some cases, improved) home conversions of arcade hits. It was with a heavy heart that...

  • Review Pipe Mania (DS)

    The 8-bit classic returns

    If you were gaming on home computers in the 8-bit era then it's very likely you came across a game called Pipe Dream. Originally published on the Commodore Amiga as Pipe Mania, it's a puzzle game in which the goal is to link together pipe sections on a grid to complete a route for a green (or blue) liquid called...

  • Review Aura-Aura Climber (DSiWare)

    A shining beacon of arcade-style fun

    It's not easy being a star, having to worry about losing your place in the night sky. Aura-Aura has slipped and fallen from the heavens, crashing into the Earth far, far below, and you'll be helping him to resume his place in outer space in Aura-Aura Climber, Nintendo's own latest offering for DSiWare. By now,...

  • Review Family Go-Kart Racing (WiiWare)

    A pit stop on the road to hell

    The family that just can’t get enough of each other is back in their eighth outing on WiiWare. By now, Aksys has had plenty of time to figure out what works and what doesn’t in this series of games. And it was becoming pretty obvious that if these games have a fault (and they’re all pretty flawless) it’s that...

  • Review Faceez (DSiWare)

    Fun with friends

    The DSi has been getting some love lately in terms of games that take advantage of its onboard cameras, but applications geared toward straight-up photo manipulation are still somewhat sparse. Neko Entertainment has come forward to help fill the gap with Faceez, a quirky little application promising plenty of ways for you to...

  • News Prince of Persia to Include SNES Remake of Original

    Exclusively on Wii

    While Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands on Wii won't look as good as the HD versions, nor feature the studly Jake Gyllenhaal, it'll be bringing along a little extra sumthin'-sumthin' that may sway retro game fans its way. At the Nintendo of America Media Summit today, Ubisoft revealed that the Wii version will exclusively...

  • Review Flipper (DSiWare)

    Will it really make you flip?

    What began life as a mere tech demo for its creator's Voxel 3D engine somehow turned into a fairly hyped up DSiWare release that's gotten quite a bit of attention since it was announced last year. Not only that, but the game has undergone a major visual overhaul during the course of its development. The ultimate goal in...

  • Review GhostSlayer (WiiWare)

    When there's no more water in the well, the dead will walk the Earth

    You know what they say: if you can’t beat ‘em, take what they did and put a fresh coat of paint on it. In this case it’s Gevo Entertainment taking on Wii Sports Resort’s sword-fighting modes with a mythical Chinese folklore twist. This is by no means a bad thing...

  • News Brand New NES Platformer Released

    Get 'em while they're...uh gone.

    For those who don't know, Sivak Games has released a brand new NES platformer via RetroZone which has completely sold out its initial launch quantity almost immediately after being listed for sale. Rest assured, RetroZone has stated that more carts are being produced and will be available for sale on the site...

  • News Last Ninja 3 Pulled From European Virtual Console

    Bye bye, broken Commodore 64 game

    Bringing an end to a long-standing issue with the download release of the Commodore 64's Last Ninja 3, Nintendo has pulled the game from the European Virtual Console. A bug present since release was never fixed by Commodore Gaming, and those who have purchased the game will be receiving a refund. Nintendo Life had...

  • Review Mouse House (WiiWare)

    Home improvements needed

    Mouse House is the latest game to make the jump from iPhone to WiiWare. Not all of these transitions are very successful, but Mouse House is a basic enough puzzle game that it survives the leap intact and without bringing any shame upon developers Plaid World Studios. Unfortunately, in the competitive WiiWare marketplace,...

  • News Brush Up On Your Street Fighter History With New Book

    Capcom teams up with Chronicle Books to tell the history behind the popular beat 'em up series

    We're sure many of you can remember where you played your first game of Street Fighter. For me, it was the house of a distant relative that shared a similar enthusiasm for gaming as myself in my childhood. It's a series that stretches back to the mid '80s...

  • Review Flips: Terror in Cubicle Four (DSiWare)

    Reading fun for the young kids

    Digital books seem like a pretty obvious thing to sell for just about any handheld. Strangely enough, we didn't really see any notable ones on the DS until 2008 when Nintendo released their 100 Classic Book Collection. At the end of 2009, EA released a set of five Flips games, each featuring a number of decently sized...

  • Review Super Monkey Ball Step & Roll (Wii)

    Rollin' rollin' rollin', get those monkeys rollin'

    One of Sega's first games for a home console of former rival Nintendo was Super Monkey Ball on the Gamecube. It quickly became a favourite among many with its simple arcade gameplay and irrepressibly cute characters. Reception for the first Wii installment, Banana Blitz, was a bit mixed due to a...

  • News Nintendo Cereal System Sells For $200

    Indigestion medication not included

    Do you remember the Nintendo Cereal System from 1988? It let people who just couldn't get enough of Mario and Zelda to pour them into a bowl and eat them, keeping their spirits (but, sadly, not powers) with you all throughout the day by way of two different types of cereal: fruit-flavored for Mario, berry for...

  • Review Puzzle to Go Wildlife (DSiWare)

    Puzzling

    DSiWare's got more than enough puzzle games already, so we can't say it was unexpected that the service has now finally gotten one based on the traditional definition of the word. Based on nothing more and nothing less than jigsaw puzzles, all you'll be doing here is dragging around pieces of a puzzle in an effort to snap them all together...

  • News Dark Void Zeroes In on European Release

    Capcom Twitter feed spills the beans

    Dark Void in HD may have been something of a stinker, but the "long-lost" 8-bit prequel Dark Void Zero smelled quite lovely. Europe hasn't been able to smell its retro roses so far, but that's all about to change soon. Capcom Europe community manager Chiara Woolford revealed on her Twitter feed that the...

  • Review Flight Control (DSiWare)

    Up in the air

    Already available on the iPhone, Flight Control puts you in one of the world’s most stressful jobs: air traffic controller. Charged with landing all flights safely, you have to plot a path for each incoming aircraft towards its designated landing zone, naturally making sure to avoid collisions. What begins as a straightforward...

  • News XBLA Perfect Dark Getting GoldenEye Maps and Weapons

    Another nail in the coffin of Virtual Console GoldenEye?

    Although it's pretty obvious to all but the most blinkered Rare fans that the N64 game GoldenEye has about as much chance of hitting the Wii Virtual Console as Tiger Woods keeping his club to himself, there's always been a part of us that held out hope. However, Microsoft's Ken Lobb (the...

  • Review Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice For All (WiiWare)

    “Sustained!”

    This second game in the Phoenix Wright series brings more of the same intriguing puzzle solving game play mixed with addictive storytelling that made the first game a runaway success when it was released. And like the first game, Phoenix’s second outing is one of the best experiences to be had on a handheld. But as we pointed out...

  • News Steve Wiebe Crowned King of Kong Once Again

    Although it's Donkey Kong Jr. this time

    Celebrity gamer and star of the excellent King of Kong Steve Wiebe has reclaimed the world record for Nintendo's Donkey Kong Jr. coin-op after briefly relinquishing the title to Mark Kiel, who had set the previous high score at a whopping 1,147,800. Wiebe - who became famous after his battle with gaming legend...

  • Review Scrabble Classic (DSiWare)

    Words in your pants

    Scrabble has been kicking around as a DS release for almost a year now, but plopping down full price for a board game adaptation that you might only play every once in a while is kind of a tough pill to swallow for a lot of people. This DSiWare release, while reduced in both price and features, is a good alternative for...

  • Review Art of Balance (WiiWare)

    Who would have thought stacking could be so much fun?

    Shin'en, probably best known for their Nanostray shooters on the Nintendo DS, decided to toss their hat in the increasingly crowded ring of WiiWare puzzlers. Instead of rehashing another dumbed-down clone of an existing idea, however, they've instead taken the basic idea of stacking and built one...

  • Review Prehistorik Man (DSiWare)

    A real dinosaur

    Originally released for DOS as Prehistorik 2, Prehistorik Man has seen ports to the Game Boy, SNES, and GBA already, and it seems the GBA version has been ported to DSiWare this time around. In each version, the story is the same — hungry dinosaurs have snuck into a prehistoric village in the dead of night and eaten all the...

  • Review Spotto! (DSiWare)

    Boom boom pow

    When it comes to downloadable game output, Intelligent Systems is on a roll. They’ve launched us to the moon, single-handedly blasted pollution into nothingness and took a few turns around some dragon war. Now they’ve got us chucking bombs into the mouths of ghosts in Spotto! And while it may be their smallest effort yet, it...

  • Review Spaceball: Revolution (DSiWare)

    The same sphere-shooting fun, now in the palm of your hand

    Last year, Virtual Toys brought Spaceball: Revolution to the Wii Shop, an arcade-style puzzle game that had you firing at a grid to copy patterns. Now that it's hit the DSi Shop, this puzzler has brought the same unique experience to a handheld system. Challenge Mode is where you’ll find...

  • Podcast NLFM Episode 4: The One With Datarock

    There's a Norwegian, Dark Void Zero, de Blob, Mega rap and the aural debut of Sega's 16-bit beast — what more could you possibly want?

    Welcome to another jolly good episode of NLFM, the chip and game music podcast from Nintendo Life. We're joined in this bumper-length episode by special guest Fredrik Saroena, one half of the retro-soaked Norwegian...

  • Review WarMen Tactics (WiiWare)

    Shockin' awful

    Here at Nintendo Life we pride ourselves on reviewing every downloadable game and application released for the Wii and DSi. As a reviewer this may mean reviewing games in genres you might not regularly play, and there's also the risk of playing a bad game; sometimes a really bad game. WarMen Tactics is one of the latter, a game that...

  • Review Sonic & Knuckles (Virtual Console / Sega Mega Drive)

    Lock-on, baby

    It's widely known that Sonic and Knuckles (S&K) started out as the latter half of Sonic 3, but development constraints forced SEGA to split the game in two, putting S&K onto an innovative Lock-On cartridge that, when combined with Sonic 3, pieced the game back together into its original state. Now, with the announcement that...

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