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In the UK they were heroes, not ninjas

It's a popular perception that NES swept all before it when it was released, dominating sales and 8-bit popular culture in the late 1980s. While that's probably true in North America and Japan, Nintendo's debut home console actually had a slow and rather unsuccessful start in the UK, with distribution via...

This one's only $50,000

A little while ago we posted news of a prototype cartridge for The Legend of Zelda on eBay, with the seller pricing it at $150,000 — though ultimately it went for around $55,000. Today brings another NES cartridge with a price tag to make the eyes water; this time it's a copy of Final Fantasy II on NES for $50,000. The...

Kirby's had a busy 20 years

Earlier this month, at his apocryphal 20th birthday celebration, we're sure Kirby was able to blow out his candles with trademark gale-force and reflect on what has been, even for a Nintendo character, an astoundingly diverse career. While keeping his day job of walking from left to right and inhaling enemies,...

Would love to see a remake on 3DS

One of the highlights of the GameCube library — a launch title no less — was Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II, a wonderful sequel to the Nintendo 64 original that dazzled with high-end graphics. For fans of the films that wanted to immerse themselves in the action and go all Luke Skywalker, it was an exciting and...

Investigating the birth of a legend

It’s almost impossible to conceive it now but prior to the 32-bit PlayStation’s launch in 1994 there were real doubts over its chances in some sectors of the specialist press. Over 100 million hardware sales later, such pessimism seems woefully misplaced, but it’s easy to forget just how many hurdles Sony...

Ex-Iguana dev talks N64 development and the influence of James Bond

Former Acclaim and Iguana Entertainment designer Ryan Tracy wants to see the four N64 Turok games made available on the Virtual Console, but admits that the thorny issue of IP ownership could mean that his desire never comes to pass. Speaking to NotEnoughShaders.com, Tracy also...

Celebrating in style

When sports teams score a particularly significant or memorable victory, it's customary for them to celebrate the event with some kind of promotional activity, but The Dunedin Blue Jays have gone one better - they've immortalised one of their proudest moments in 8-bit form. A single-A affiliate of Toronto, The Blue Jays..

Blasting your speakers soon

Harmony of a Hunter: 101% Run, the fan-produced music album of Metroid music and remixes, is now confirmed for a November release. A follow up to the original Harmony of a Hunter double album, 101% Run will feature music that missed out on the first release as well as brand new tracks. Like its predecessor it'll be...

One third of the Triforce price

Earlier this week we told you about a The Legend of Zelda prototype cart for sale on eBay, with the seller establishing a target price of $150,000. A sale has now been made for a handsome sum, but it's ultimately just over a third of that target price. According to examiner.com, $55,000 is a record total for a...

Birthday wishes still loading

We've seen some big gaming anniversaries in the past year that made some of the Nintendo Life team, and probably a fair share of readers, feel rather old. It's time for another one of these landmarks, as Commodore 64 turns 30 years old. While some may not know much about it, Commodore 64 was a games system that was...

'N64: Everything just kinda works'

There may be some who read this article that are aspiring game designers, possibly playing around with PC development tools or maybe even a Raspberry Pi device — that's a super-cheap computer, for those that don't know. Beyond that group there are surely plenty of gamers curious about how a game goes from code to...

Kneel, PS1 loyalists

The console wars are long since over for Nintendo 64, the curvy chunk that heralded the end of the cartridge era and fought heroically before succumbing to its rivals. If that particular console war was ever re-imagined, however, then there seems to be one gamer that could ride into battle with Epona: King Nintendo 64, of...

Yours for just $150,000

When it comes to online purchases, you're unlikely to find any other website with quite the same variety as eBay. You can quite easily buy some custom made birthday cards for a few dollars, or a rare prototype The Legend of Zelda cartridge for just $150,000, which is the price of a small house or expensive sports car. The...

Button mashing for gold

If you’ve been living in a cave and isolated from the world for the past couple of weeks, then you may not have been bombarded with coverage of the London 2012 Olympic Games. It’s now well under way, and thousands of athletes are running, cycling, swimming and more in the name of winning a shiny gold medal. None of the...

Expect the unexpected

For gamers infatuated with iconic moments in gaming, who also happen to have a camera and a bit of film-making expertise, there's only one place to go: YouTube. While there's plenty of appalling rubbish on everyone's favourite video-sharing site, there's also some good work that re-creates memorable sequences with a twist. One...

Only 7000 notes used

As Mario is, arguably, the biggest icon in video game history, it's little surprise that he's the subject of various fan-projects and videos. One new video, posted yesterday on YouTube by user FinalCutKing, apparently uses 7000 post-it notes — and a lot of patience — to create a stop-motion video that sees Mario platforming...

Blazing a trail

Nintendo has been known to dip into its past when looking for the future. The 3DS is a good example: while the handheld may be the first glasses-free 3D video game system, it's hardly the company's first foray into the third dimension. The forgotten Famicom 3D System brought pop-out graphics to Nintendo's original home console in...

Holy topical feature, Batman!

Today sees the launch of The Dark Knight Rises in UK and North American theatres, amongst others, and it's become a cultural phenomenon, dominating the thoughts of Batman geeks and film lovers alike. We figured that you'll see the word 'Batman' wherever you go, so we might as well wrap it up in our favourite...

Those other gamers can't deny

Tetris is a brand that will forever be in the history of handheld gaming in particular, as it's credited by many as being the key title to launching the Game Boy to popularity. It had appeared on various consoles before Nintendo's handheld, but found its home on the system and became a phenomenon. The second part of...

Heading to Nottingham's GameCity festival

Indie game developers have delivered some memorable titles, mainly downloadable, in recent years. While blockbuster experiences can be terrific, there's a growing market of determined programmers and game designers going their own way, and 'A Game By Its Cover' is a competition that's encouraging people to...

Bubbly bobbly

Independent retro games magazine Pixel Nation has just published its second issue, available in both physical and PDF form. This volume comes loaded with articles on topics as diverse as bizarre NES accessories — ever heard of the Miracle Piano? — and a look back at classic gaming year 1986, there's something for everyone,...

Time for double vision

Earlier this week we brought you the first part of our visual guide to Nintendo's Handheld Revamps, starting with Game Boy and going all the way up to Game Boy Advance SP. In terms of handheld console models, and despite the number of years covered, that only covered about half of the story; now we'll pick up with the first...

Because one is never enough

The recent announcement of 3DS XL less than 18 months after the original 3DS hit shelves drew a lot of discussion, so we thought we'd dive through the archives to present you with a visual history of the evolution of Nintendo handheld consoles, starting with the good old Game Boy. We're not going to go into all of the...

The original gaming behemoth

Current-day gamers are familiar with just three game console manufacturers at the top of the tree: Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony. Some who are older may remember when SEGA was in its pomp and challenging Nintendo in the 1990s, but for those that care to go even further back, Atari comes into the picture. Atari is 40...