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Diminutive dungeon crawling

Recent hiccups relating to Diablo 3 aside, Blizzard's fantasy series has been a critical and commercial smash for years now - so much so that the company was at one point considering a money-spinning version for the Nintendo Game Boy Color. Named Diablo Junior, the game would have taken a leaf from Pokémon's book by...

Kids will believe anything these days

We've something to give you a little giggle this weekend, with the sweet tale of a young boy who believed that the Gameboy Micro was the latest Nintendo handheld on the market. Gamer dad Andy Robertson and his son were walking past a second hand store when the youngster spotted a Gameboy Micro sitting in the...

Snap and Dream Radar change the perspective

Trading cards and anime episodes aside, the Pokémon series is known for a long-lasting line of handheld RPGs. You've almost certainly played one or two of them — and we suspect that quite a few of you are already getting into Pokémon Black & White 2 — most likely followed by an obsessed state of...

It's a stitch-up

Remember the music for the opening level on Donkey Kong Country? Do you recall how it moves from one musical style to another, almost as if it's three different songs that have been fused together? That because it is. In an interview with CVG, former Rare composer David Wise reveals the truth behind the track: I was on holiday in...

Who knew that the former governor could influence so many games?

Back in the '80s and early '90s, video game box art was a very different beast to that which we know today. CGI renders were the stuff of a madman's dreams and hand-drawn covers were commonplace. When you consider how many console and arcade titles were released on a yearly basis,...

Salman Rushdie's inner gamer is revealed

In literary circles Salman Rushdie is a much admired award-winning writer, and also one of the biggest names in the book industry. He's also courted great controversy during his career, notably when his novel The Satanic Verses outraged extremist groups and regimes to the point that there was a fatwa issued...

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...

And the creators are interested in doing a SNES one, too

Sega-loving James Newton may have left us, but we still have a lot of time for the company that gave the world Sonic the Hedgehog. We therefore heartily approve of this bespoke, limited edition Mega Drive poster, produced by MegaDrive.me and designed by

Kickstarting a Know-It-All game

Howard Phillips, or Gamemaster Howard as he's known to fans of retro Nintendo, is making a return to the public eye. He's best known as one of the very earliest employees at Nintendo of America, whose ability to memorise and master game details was part of the reason why he rose to prominence as a spokesperson and...

Yes, really

Younger gamers may think that Mario's always had a voice, gleefully exclaiming phrases such as "Wahoo" and "Yippee" for all time, along with the occasional sentence. The voice fits the character, and it seems like Mario wouldn't be the same without his famous catch-phrases. It's easy to forget, then, that Super Mario 64 was the first...

Cameo appearances, cancelled sequels and other mysteries

Mario has so many video games that if there weren't peculiarities and quirks throughout them, something would be wrong. The sheer volume of games over a period in excess of 25 years is impressive, especially if you go beyond the scope of the main franchise and venture off into spin-offs and...

Yours for $24

With a franchise like Mario, it's safe to say that there are plenty of arts and crafts projects out there that have been created as a dedication to the moustachioed one. Pins, animations with nothing but post-it notes, and any wacky idea you can imagine have probably been done already. One that involved a fair bit of effort and skill...

All hope is not lost

Nothing puts a frown on a Nintendo fan's face like mentioning Rare. The company that once brought Perfect Dark, Donkey Kong 64, Banjo Kazooie and GoldenEye 007 are currently working on the Kinect Sports series for Microsoft. While most gamers have given up on seeing a new "proper" Banjo Kazooie sequel from Rare, a new glimmer of...

Ducks beware

We have exciting news for you today, and possibly the most important scientific breakthrough since the wheel: a laser NES Zapper. Some smart — and we hasten to add, safe — people have changed the famous NES accessory from a light gun to a laser gun, and we're not even kidding. After taking the light gun apart and stripping out...

Well I never

We've all done it. Blowing on cartridge connections has (apparently) always been the most effective way of getting stubborn games to load, but according to MentalFloss, it could actually cause more problems in the long term. MentalFloss spoke to Digital Press expert Frankie Viturello and he had some pretty damning words to say about...

For those about to rock

The third instalment of Capcom's popular Mega Man series is launching on the Japanese 3DS Virtual Console this week. Mega Man 3 - known in Japan as Rockman 3: The End of Dr. Wily!? - will go live on the Japanese 3DS eShop tomorrow (September 26th) for 500 yen. Even harsher than its already tough predecessor, Mega Man 3 has...

So stop saying he's called Mario Mario

When it comes to Mario, Nintendo's number one icon, there are plenty of myths and stories that can be debated by gamers until the moo moo cows come home. One of these, thanks to the Super Mario Bros. movie that wasn't particularly good, is that Mario and Luigi's last name is actually Mario, meaning that the...

In the fictional world of video game promotion, at least

We Sing 80s is the latest in a long line of Wii-based music titles, so it's a given that the promotional campaign for the game needs to be something special for it to get noticed. Publisher Nordic Games has done just that by mocking up a video which shows what the game would have looked like...

Worth a scare

Whenever we look back at a console’s lifespan, the first thing we nearly always do is remember the good stuff. We remember the Marios, the Zeldas, the hordes of Pokémon, and maybe even the odd Kirby game depending on your level of pink puff-ball persuasion. But we’re often so caught up in remembering what’s great that we very...

So would we, Reggie

As Nintendo's Wii U approaches we can expect a number of announcements, some big and others small, over the coming weeks. There are a variety of things we want to know more about, one of which is the Virtual Console offering on eShop. The latest console to feature on the Wii's Virtual Console was Nintendo 64, so it immediately...

Semi-scientific evidence now available

As portable systems become more powerful it's almost a given that battery life has to suffer as a result. We all fondly remember getting hours and hours of use out of our old monochrome Game Boys and Game Boy Advance MK1 consoles, but just how much more stamina do these retro relics offer when compared to the...

Capcom: "Please do keep expectations in check"

Mega Man's 25th anniversary is upon us, and Capcom is planning to celebrate the Blue Bomber's quarter century in style. However, before you get too excited, that doesn't mean a new game is on the way. Here's what Capcom's Christian “Sven” Svensson had to say on the matter: In December “some but...

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...

We speak exclusively to the guys that changed the face of racing games forever

Following the recent closure of Studio Liverpool, we decided the time was ripe to investigate the story behind one of the most famous franchises to emerge from the developer: WipEout. One of the first PlayStation titles to really show off the raw 3D muscle of the...