Minus the secrets and controller-hurling difficulty
This video games lark is quite young as an entertainment medium; it's decades behind film and television, while books have hundreds of years behind them. Yet in a short time we've seen extraordinary transformations in technology and also game design. It's easy to forget when playing modern games,...
Raise a glass to more than a quarter-century of cheating
The Konami Code has gone from being a developer's secret workaround to one of video gaming's most famous cheats — and it's 27-years-old this week. According to lore, the code was created by Kazuhisa Hashimoto, who was developing the home port of Gradius for the Famicom / NES. Hashimoto...
Flying under the legal radar
In case you hadn't noticed, we're quite excited about Hyperkin's forthcoming RetroN 5 console. It plays practically every retro format under the sun, comes with a wireless pad and connects to HD televisions via HDMI — in short, it's shaping up to be the ultimate retro gamer's system. Interestingly, Hyperkin's...
Nintendo's offered an olive branch, fans will help to get the whole tree
So, last week Nintendo announced that it was finally planning to release one of the most requested Virtual Console titles we've known of here at Nintendo Life; Earthbound is coming to the Wii U Virtual Console. The fact that gamer reaction after its confirmation for the...
Doubling the bits for Super power
We think it's safe to say that the past two generations of Nintendo home consoles — Wii and Wii U — haven't overly concerned themselves with raw graphical power; now its all about concepts and experiences. It wasn't always so, with Nintendo responding the the SEGA Mega Drive / Genesis — which enjoyed a spell...
Chiptune arrangers team up with famous composers
As we all know here on Nintendo Life, video game culture isn't just about playing a game and pushing buttons, but about a wider community and other ways of sharing our passion. Whether that's dressing up for expos, writing, making videos or working on music soundtracks, there's more to this hobby than...
Tetris, of course, is also available
Were you ever playing with your Pocket Pikachu (aka Pokémon Pikachu) in the late ‘90s and thought, “Gee, I wish I was able to wear this on my wrist?” Well honestly, you probably could’ve found some way to attach a band to the thing. But now, thanks to 21st Century technology, you can wear a digitized...
A diamond in the rough
File this one under "Wowzer". A woman paid $7.99 for an old NES cartridge at a Goodwill store that — as luck would have it — is one of the rarest video games of all time. Bandai's Stadium Events — which has sold for more than $40,000 USD in the past — was one of the first titles to use the Family Fun Fitness Mat...
Project Unity plays games from 18 formats, and not a ROM in sight
We sometimes direct your attention to hardware, often portable, that gives gamers a new way to play their old cartridges, discs or even smaller carts. While ROMs are always a sticking area, there's plenty of hardware out there designed to give fresh life to all of the physical copies...
We hadn't forgotten
A little while ago the Nintendo Life team voted for its favourite NES games, which included plenty of classics and closely-fought tied positions. Our ultimate winner was Super Mario Bros. 3, and at the end of the feature we promised that you, the community, would have the chance to vote for your own top 10 NES games. We...
If you're in Europe, tough
The Mega Man franchise is currently indulging in its 25th Anniversary celebrations with various goodies though yes, we know, no full game to date. For fans of the series, however, recent months have given a good opportunity to buy assorted trinkets to celebrate, with Capcom also gradually bringing the first six NES...
"Re-imagined from the ground up."
As we reported a week or so ago, the 16-bit classic Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse is indeed getting an Xbox Live Arcade release, as confirmed by Sega today. However, this is not just a quick port, oh no. Rather, the game has been rebuilt from the ground up by Sega Studios Australia, and looks to include...
Freshly translated into English, too
Star Fox is twenty years old this year, and to celebrate that fact, translating powerhouse GlitterBerri has taken the comic intro to the Japan-only Star Fox: Mission File Printout guide and adapted it for English audiences. Featuring the artwork of Benimaru Itoh, the guide reveals the back story of the game...
Franchise could be headed to the Wii U, too
Tales series producer Hideo Baba believes that Tales of Symphonia, the fifth game in the series, was the most popular game in the franchise overseas. In an interview with Destructoid, Baba explained why he felt it made the most impact in the West: I believe the success of Tales of Symphonia has...
It's so... bad, by which we mean cool
Ah, the Power Glove, it's so bad. When it made its high-profile appearance in The Wizard with the infamous line, it was during a confusing Michael Jackson-inspired fad where 'bad' actually meant 'cool', which is about as logical as the idea of wearing a glove to play games. Still, it's an iconic example of the...
He's rocking an awesome Limited Edition Astro Boy Game Boy Light, too
It's no secret that Apple co-founder Steve "Woz" Wozniak is something of a legend at Game Boy Tetris, but seeing the man in action is something else. Game Informer managed to infiltrate Woz's hotel room recently, and recorded some footage of him dominating at
We can dream, can't we?
Following on from our sister site Nintendo Life’s great article regarding the ten Sega Genesis / Mega Drive games that they want to see appear on the Wii U’s Virtual Console, and the news that the classic 16-bit game Flashback is getting a HD makeover, we thought we’d kick off our new regular weekly feature with a...
They skipped Wii VC, so now their time has come
Earlier this week we were rather pleased the share the news, based on a couple of sources, that Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse looks set to come to Wii U. It's unclear whether it'll be a straight-up re-release (on the Virtual Console) or a remastered port, but whatever the case it's a SEGA...
"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...
Details on their professional relationship, the 64DD and N64 advertising
Japanese translation blog Yomuka! has produced a full English transcript of an interview with Shigeru Miyamoto and Shigesato Itoi (MOTHER series) that originally appeared in Japanese gaming magazine, The 64 Dream. The extensive interview from December 1997 provides a great...
They sure know their Far Eastern archery skills in Hyrule
We sure get sent some unusual news tips here at Nintendo Life, but when Ben "Mikeyman64" Barger decided to tell us about a cool feature he'd found in Super Smash Bros. Melee, we knew we were onto something a little more out of the ordinary. According to our tipster, Link's bow-work in the...
System 3 At The Helm.
As part of a feature in this week's MCV that focuses on legendary British publisher System 3's 30th birthday, CEO Mark Cale has let slip that the company is working on a reboot of California Games. Cale mentions the franchise twice, first stating that "For Wii U, Kinect, or Move, we have interactive titles such as California...
Better screen, internal battery and improved sound - it's the Nomad X
As you'll already know, we're massive fans of Wiggy Design's Rose Colored Gaming here at Nintendo Life. Wiggy's motto is "New ideas for old games", and his most recent upgrade certainly lives up to that. The Nomad X mod takes Sega's portable Genesis / Mega Drive console and...
Explains why Rare chose to make Nuts & Bolts
Banjo-Kazooie is revered by many as one of the best games to ever grace the N64. The platformer, which starred a docile bear and a wise-cracking bird, could have ended up being something completely different as it was originally set to be a highly ambitious venture known as Project Dream. Speaking as a...
Rare staffers put it together right at the end
In 1997, Rare released GoldenEye 007 on the N64 and it became an absolute classic that arguably redefined the first person shooter genre and revolutionised the way multiplayer was done on home consoles. It all nearly never happened though as according to Grant Kirkhope, the composer behind the game's...
