Interviews News

"Video gaming is an important medium that reflects our time"

Video games and art regularly collide with spectacular results, but the work of Swedish artist Per Fhager is one of the most surprising examples of this fusion of interactive entertainment and the world of visual crafts. Fhager's work has been displayed all over Europe, and manages to...

Console modification with the human touch

Although it's always exciting to open up the latest and greatest consoles and get to grips with the incredible advances being made by hardware manufacturers, there's something about vintage systems which makes them appealing long after they fall out of fashion and become technologically obsolete. Your...

Animaniac

Shamoozal.com has a pretty straightforward objective: to create "Flash Cartoons and Animation about Nintendo, Rabbits, Ninjas, Monsters and More". It's the brainchild of Phil Summers, a rabid Nintendo fan whose unique sense of humour has resulted in a series of incredibly amusing animations based on famous video games from the past few...

Retro gaming from down under

The next subject in our Ninterview chair is a retro gaming fanatic from Down Under known as Australian Retro Gamer - or ausretrogamer, for short. We caught up with this internet phenomenon to quiz him on his love of all things retro and Nintendo. Nintendo Life: Who are you, and what do you do for a living? Australian...

Tatsuya Minami explains how the SNES classic helped him out of a rut

The latest Iwata Asks focuses on Japanese studio PlatinumGames, which is currently hard at work creating Bayonetta 2 for the Wii U. In the interview, Iwata chats with PlatinumGames President and CEO Tatsuya Minami about his development past, and uncovers an interesting piece of...

Chris Seavor spills the beans on Conker, the chances of Killer Instinct 3 and why he left Rare

Conker's Bad Fur Day is famous for its bad language, adult themes and profusion of poo, but it didn't start life as a mature-rated piece of software. Originally intended as a direct sequel to the cute and cuddly Game Boy Color title Conker's Pocket Tales,...

To mark the launch of the PC classic on 3DS, we speak to one half of the Miller brothers about its creation

Few video games have the ability to polarise opinion quite as sharply as Myst. When it hit shop shelves back in 1993 many critics scoffed at the sedate gameplay and predicted that few people would want to sit through a game that was little...

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 speak to one of Nintendo of America's first employees

Howard Phillips joined Nintendo in the early '80s with the intention of helping transport a few new-fangled arcade cabinets, but he ended up becoming the spokesperson for one of the fastest-growing entertainment companies in the US. He recently began a Kickstarter campaign for his first...

If you said F-Zero, you're wrong

Given that Sony's famous futuristic racer WipEout features craft which float just above the track surface, it's reasonable to assume that Nintendo's F-Zero - which predates WipEout by almost five years and also contains anti-gravity racing - would have provided the main inspiration. However, lead designer Nick...

Koji ‘IGA’ Igarashi reveals the history behind the gothic classic

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night marked a major turning point for the Castlevania series. With the exception of the free-roaming Simon’s Quest on the NES, over a decade’s worth of instalments had displayed an unwavering commitment to the fairly straightforward ‘platform...

You can call me Stu

Welcome to a new regular feature on Nintendo Life: the "Ninterview". Once a month we'll be taking the time to talk to someone who has a special affinity to Nintendo, and our first subject is Stu Brett - who also goes by the moniker Super Famicom Guy. Stu, a 33 year old designer from Scotland, is such a huge fan of Super Famicom...

Brandon Cobb explains why retro gaming matters

When we published a news article about a new SNES title on the way in 2013, Nightmare Busters, it attracted a great deal of interest. While many of us spend the majority of our game-time on current-day consoles, there still seems to be an appetite for retro titles and platforms. Few companies represent...

A Nintendo icon talks exclusively about starring in the cult classic that defined a generation of gamers

Although critics will tell you that The Wizard was little more than a brazen Nintendo advertisement masquerading as a movie and box office statistics will suggest it was a dismal commercial failure, there are legions of devoted fans that will...

Steve Jarratt and Andy Dyer spill the beans on the production of one of the UK's most endearing Nintendo publications

It’s hard to believe it now, but back in the early ‘90s Nintendo was not the dominant force on UK shores. That accolade went to Sega, whose 8-bit Master System and 16-bit Mega Drive were the driving force behind the console revolution in that region of the world. However, with..

We speak to Super Fighter Team's Brandon Cobb about its latest retro resurrection project

If you're the kind of person that appreciates vintage gaming then chances are you're already familiar with Super Fighter Team. Formed in San Diego, California with the express intention of giving long-forgotten games a new lease of commercial life, the group has already successfully localised and published a..

We talk to UK comedian and walking canvas Jim Smallman about his gaming heritage and why Nintendo will always have a special place in his heart

While most gamers show their love and appreciation for their hobby by tirelessly buying up software, hardware and official merchandise, there are a select few who decide to take their adoration a step further. One such individual is UK-based comedian Jim..

We recap the event and sit down with "the most important person in video gaming right now"

In the documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, Steve Wiebe travels to FunSpot Arcade to put a stop to all the naysayers disputing his record-setting Donkey Kong skills. To the amazement of everyone watching, he achieves the first ever kill screen...

Former 1UP staffer fills us in on what he's up to now

The humble fanzine harks back to an era when the net didn't exist and the most bits you could possibly hope for from a games console was 16. It's hard to appreciate this now, but back then these crude pen-and-paper creations were the ancestors of sites like the one you're reading right now; unofficial, unhindered by overbearing publishers and..

We catch up with Alexis and Hank at the film's Brooklyn premiere

The saga over high scores in Donkey Kong is no longer a tale of two dudes. While most of us came to know the world of modern day Donkey Kongers through the epic rivalry between Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchelll, it wasn't long before a third player emerged out of left field. Hank Chien, a plastic surgeon from New York, shattered both of..

The former champ ain't no chump

Not since a certain famous gorilla and plumber-to-be squared off for the coveted Pauline has there been a rivalry like that of the Kings of Kong. The film The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters brought to public attention the fight for dominance between family man Steve Wiebe and Goliath-like hot saucier Billy Mitchell, and since then New York plastic surgeon Dr..

Doctor Kong tells all

We recently live blogged former King of Kong Steve Wiebe's attempt to take back the Donkey Kong record, but before last March, we weren't even aware that a new champ was out there. We recently sat down with the New York plastic surgeon to get his thoughts on his rise to fame, competitive playing and more as well as get some...

Being a nerd has never looked so fashionable

There are many ways to show your appreciation for gaming's illustrious past. One is obviously re-living classic titles via Nintendo's popular Virtual Console service, while another is seeking out original hardware and software for that authentic experience. However, here at Nintendo Life HQ we've been advertising our love of this noble hobby in a..

Vblank Entertainment's open-world game looks set to hijack your 8-bit heart

Grand Theftendo may have started out as a pet project of Vblank Entertainment's Brian Provinciano, but eight years later it's turned into one of the most intriguing games slated to hit WiiWare in the form of Retro City Rampage. The novelty of an 8-bit open-world game was enough to put it on our radar, and the amount of..