News Hands Up, Who Needs A Pair Of These Custom Zelda Game Boy Trainers?
"Fresh" as the kids might say
Random Extremely Rare Nintendo World Championships Cartridge Found In An Attic
You'll need the Giant's Wallet for this one
News Nintendo Adds New NES Games And SP Versions To Switch Online Earlier Than Planned
Kid Icarus, StarTropics and more
Retro - News
May2015
News The Ocarina of Time Speedrun World Record Has Been Beaten Yet Again
Crikey
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is not only an all-time classic game, but the source of one of the most keenly fought speedrun world records. Speedrunning experts continue to set new standards, each seemingly defying the odds more than before. Well, the record has been beaten again, once again utilising quirky skips that can be accessed...
Feature What NEC And Hudson Did Next: The Disasterous Story Of The PC-FX
The history of one of the 32-bit era's biggest flops
Complacency can be deadly. You only have to look at the changeover between the 16-bit and 32/64-bit generations for confirmation of this fact; amazingly, during this period of transition all of the established hardware manufacturers - Nintendo included - were caught with their trousers down while...
News Modder Creates A Bluetooth-Ready Game Boy, Because Why The Heck Not
Fantastic retro-fitting fun
If you're familiar with the world of Game Boy modding and music, then the name Joe Heaton should be known to you. This UK-based tech genius has been featured on the site in the past - both as an interview subject and to offer sagely advise to prospective modders - and he's back with his latest amazing creation. Heato
Video Step Inside Classic Home Video Games Author Brett Weiss' Room of Doom
The ultimate man-cave?
Author Brett Weiss has written several highly respected books on the history of the video game industry, and unsurprisingly has managed to amass a pretty awesome collection of consoles and systems over the past few decades. iretrogamer.com - a new YouTube venture from occasional Nintendo contributor Tyler Esposito - was lucky...
Weirdness Mayweather vs Pacquiao Gets the Punch-Out!! Treatment, Again
It's pretty accurate
This past weekend the "Fight of the Century" - Mayweather vs Pacquiao - took place in Las Vegas, though for plenty that splashed out on pay-per-view to watch it there was some disappointment. Lacking in fireworks and with a predictable outcome, it couldn't live up to the - admittedly over-the-top - hype. We already shared one...
News You Can Own Sid Meier's SNES Development System, If You Have A Spare $9.5K
"The 'Holy Grail' of video game collecting"
Legendary game design Sid Meier is responsible for some of the most iconic titles in the history of the interactive entertainment industry. He helped found Microprose in the 1980s and has since produced the likes of Civilization, Sid Meier's Pirates!, Silent Service and F-15 Strike Eagle. It's now...
April2015
News Nintendo Classics in the Running for Inaugural World Video Game Hall of Fame Honour
Just don't let Angry Birds win
While any award or honour can be taken completely seriously or dismissed as a trinket, it's nevertheless pleasing when Nintendo's in the running. The latest gong up for grabs is from The Strong National Museum of Play in the US, which is opening its World Video Game Hall of Fame with the first entrant this year. As...
Weirdness You Can Now Browse Zelda: Link To The Past's Map Using Your Web Browser
Turn-by-turn Navi-gation not included
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past features one of the most vibrant game worlds ever created for any video game, and now you can gaze longingly at it using your humble HTML5 web browser. The peeps at Jadsdsengine have created a living, breathing replication of the game's overworld which can be viewed via...
Weirdness ESPN's Michelle Beadle Gets Punch-Out!! Training
Let's keep it clean! Now come out boxing!
Unless you've been living under a rock, you are probably aware that Floyd Mayweather will be fighting Manny Pacquiao this Saturday in Las Vegas. The excitement in the air is palpable as the unbeaten 38 year old American Mayweather gets training like Rocky to take on The Filipino Slugger, in a bout expected...
Video The Nintendo 64 Kid Is Taking Unboxing To The Next Level For Taco Bell
"Nintendo Sixty-Foooooooooour!"
Remember Brandon Kuzma, AKA The Nintendo 64 kid? He got rather excited about his shiny new Nintendo 64 console back in 1998, and when YouTube arrived a few years later, became something of a celebrity. He's now harnessing that power by starring in a commercial for Taco Bell's Steak DoubleDilla. His sister Rachel is...
Too many energy drinks for you, Link
When developing a sizeable adventure for hardware as humble as the Game Boy, coding trickery and compromises are inevitable. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX on the Game Boy Color - and the non-DX original - naturally falls into that category; it's a lovely game, and also has some rather entertaining...
News Say Hello To Star Fox's NES-Based Forerunner, NesGlider
The prototype which started a profitable friendship
Star Fox is one of the most technically impressive games on the SNES, and was a collaboration between Nintendo and UK-based Argonaut Software. We've covered the making of the game in the past, but Unseen64 has an excelle
Ninterview Jeremy Parish On Cataloguing The History Of The Game Boy, One Game At A Time
"I've made peace with the fact that I'll die before completing this"
The original monochrome Game Boy is the elder statesman of Nintendo's handheld family, having arrived on the market back in 1989. The console became a commercial and cultural phenomenon, effortlessly casting aside its more technically-competent rivals and establishing a brand which...
News Clean Up Your Act With This Game Boy Laundry Basket
Begone, foul undergarments
Playing on your Game Boy all day long is so much fun, but if you're anything like us you'll find that it tends to eat up time you'd usually spend cleaning your house and tidying away all the smelly clothing you casually drop on the floor. If only someone could somehow combine these two elements to make the process of...
News Unseen64 Digs Up Some Screens of Brimstone, a Cancelled SNES JRPG From Taito
A lost classic
Over the course of its life, the SNES hosted several legendary RPGs, such as Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI, and Earthbound. These are just a few examples of how the RPG genre really came into its own in this generation, stepping out of the rather awkward and simplistic experiences that were available on the NES and creating games...
News Fan Ports Hideo Kojima's Cyberpunk Classic, Snatcher, to the Virtual Boy
In honour of a fellow Virtual Boy fan that passed away
The Virtual Boy is a true oddity in Nintendo's history - though the company has acknowledged the curious system recently, it was largely ignored for years due to its status as the company's biggest ever flop. Never even released in Europe, it was undeniably a commercial disaster for the famous...
News Nintendo Submits Trademark for NES Controller
We weren't aware it was still required
The legal world of trademarks and rights can be slightly baffling at the best of times, so a Nintendo of America trademark for the NES controller, essentially, is certainly one to raise eyebrows. The application is most certainly for the design of the iconic controller, with the image above being included...
Hardware Classics Sega Dreamcast
The last throw of the dice for Nintendo's old rival
Sega's Dreamcast holds a special place in the history of home video game entertainment. It was an innovative beast, being the first home console to offer online connectivity out of the box and setting the modern trend for sourcing internal components from PC manufacturers. It also proved to be...
Video Traveller's Tales Animator Proposes To Girlfriend Via His Own Mario-Style Platformer
Leap of faith
Proposing marriage is one of the most signficant gestures of affection one can give to another human being, but the event itself can be quite intimidating - will your other half say yes? Will you make a fool of yourself? Will they turn their noses up at the cheap ring you've bought? It's serious business. However, we like the approach...
News A Book About The Iconic Bitmap Brothers Is Being Kickstarted
The full history of the creators of Gods, The Chaos Engine and Speedball
If you're a UK gamer with a keen sense of history then the name The Bitmap Brothers will be instantly recognisable. Most active during the 16-bit era, "The Bitmaps" are considered by many to be gaming's first "rock star" developers, and produced such classics as Gods, The...
News Bandai Almost Made A Laptop With A Built-In SNES
Say hello to the Bandai HET
Bandai may be joined at the hip with Namco these days, but once upon a time the company stalked the edges of the video game industry, desperate to find a route into the potentially profitable hardware arena. It released consoles such as the Pippin (in conjunction with Apple) and created the WonderSwan handheld, but...
Music Say Hello To The World's First LSDj Music Album On A Game Boy Cartridge
Includes Nordloef, Tommy Creep, Pixel Hero Zero and Solarbear
The Game Boy may be as old as the hills, but it's alive and well in the world of chiptune music. In recent years an active musical community has grown up around Nintendo's iconic handheld, intent on creating awesome tunes and even playing them to live audiences. If you needed any more of...
Hardware Settle It With This Customised Super Smash Bros. Nintendo 64 Console
Complete with four pads
Super Smash Bros. may be the big thing on Wii U and 3DS right now, but veteran players will lovingly recall when they played the first entry on the N64 all those years ago. If you're hankering to revisit the past - or you're a newcomer who wants to see how it all started - then you might want to point your browser towards
News Streets Of Rage 2, Gunstar Heroes And Sonic The Hedgehog 2 Are Your Next Sega 3D Classics
More 16-bit goodness on your 3DS
Sega has confirmed that Streets of Rage 2, Gunstar Heroes and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 are making their way to the 3DS eShop. This trio of Sega Mega Drive / Genesis titles will be joining the steadily-growing ranks of Sega's retro remasters, which already includes the likes of Space Harrier, Out Ru
"My belief is that Nintendo is looking for a blue ocean"
Nintendo caused quite a stir when it announced its partnership with Japanese mobile firm DeNA and that it was working on its next hardware platform, dubbed "Nintendo NX". This double-whammy of news was greeted with a positive reaction, not only from the
Video Learn More About the SEGA Genesis / Mega Drive and Its Battle With the SNES
Did You Know Gaming does its thing
The 'console wars' of the '90s are the stuff of legend for some, and an important part of personal gaming history for those of us 'of an age'. Unless you were rather flush there were decent odds back then of being in one camp or the other - the SEGA Genesis / Mega Drive or the Super Nintendo / SNES. Friendships...
Feature The Best Alternate Reality Super Nintendo Classics We Never Got To Play
Super Elite! Super Dune! Super Strider! If only!
In this one-off feature, Nintendo Life contributor and retro fanatic Gonçalo Lopes thinks out loud about the greatest SNES games that never were. I have always been a bit of a dreamer. From as far as I can recall, I was always dreaming within the world of tomorrow. And speaking of dreams, how about...
News Unreleased SNES Music Game From The Creator Of Electroplankton Comes Back To Life
Making noise with the SNES Mouse
Back in the 16-bit era Interactive media artist Toshio Iwai designed a SNES music composition tool that was to be released along with the SNES mouse in a bundle package, just like Mario Paint. There was even a US trademark filled for the game's western release under the name Sound Factory. Sadly, it never got...
If you really want to...
Fan art comes in all sorts of forms, including extravagant structures composed of 14,000 painted toothpicks. That's not a sentence we get to write every day. The start screen of Super Mario Bros. on the NES is iconic, to put it mildly, and a keen fan has taken the unusual approach of reconstructing it with toothpicks. The...
Video Donkey Kong 64 Tumbles Onto Wii U Virtual Console
Don't even think about that rap
The avalance of Wii U Virtual Console games continues with a game that is new to the Virtual Console service, having never previously received a re-release. Rare's Donkey Kong 64 has achieved infamy thanks to THAT intro song, but is the gameplay worth talking about? As someone who missed out on the game the first...
Retrospective Sega's Streets of Rage Series
In pursuit of pugilistic perfection
Nostalgia sells and publishers know it. You just have to look at all the reboots, Definitive and Remastered Editions out there for proof. But there are, however, some titles that cannot be modernised no matter how much companies try. Sega beat-em-up Streets of Rage is perhaps one of the best examples of such...
Video Mario Kart DS Skids Onto Wii U Virtual Console
We dig into DS settings for Wii U and classic racing
Nintendo DS games are finally getting their full chance to shine on the Wii U Virtual Console. The first of two games to be released at launch in Europe is Mario Kart DS, an excellent entry in the long-running racing series. All of your favourite Super Mario characters take to the roads once more...
Video Super Mario 64 Leaps Onto Wii U Virtual Console
We show off the Wii U features for this classic
Nintendo brought us all a treat during the most recent Nintendo Direct, when it announced the long-awaited arrival of Nintendo 64 games to Wii U Virtual Console. Available now on your Wii U, one of the first available games is the legendary Super Mario 64. We took the time to play and capture some...
Weirdness The Moon in Majora's Mask Probably Has a Black Hole Inside, Because Science
Physics is actually fun
We rather enjoy videos and articles that essentially serve as 'stealth education' here at Nintendo Life. Take a much-loved game or topic and apply scientific logic to it, and you have the ingredients for a video that's both entertaining and fascinating. That criteria certainly applies to this video focused on why the moon in...
News Super Fighter Team Is Putting Its Retro Catalogue Back Into Production
Reprints for classic SNES and Genesis titles, plus two new games
Super Fighter Team has confirmed that it is putting several of its classic titles back into production for a limited period of time. Legend of Wukong and Star Odyssey - two Sega Genesis / Mega Drive RPGs released in 2008 and 2011 respectively - are both getting reprints, as is fellow...
News Game Boy Advance Given Up The Ghost? The Revo K101 Could Answer Your Prayers
Now with added colour options from Rose Colored Gaming
Hardware clones are pretty common these days thanks to the relentless march of technology, and recently we've seen a host of 8 and 16-bit systems replicated by products like the RetroN 5, Supaboy and Super Retro Trio. The Game Boy Advance is
News Activision Almost Rebooted The Atari 2600 Classic River Raid On The SNES
Canned heat-seeker
You might assume that the allure of retro gaming is a modern thing, but even back in the days of 16-bit machines players were keen to sample titles from the past. To fill that demand publishers released reboots of classic titles; Activision's update of Pitfall is perhaps the most famous of the period, but we very nearly got a new...
March2015
News Microsoft Once Had Some Pretty Wild Ideas, Including Making Xbox Free And Buying Nintendo
"Name a bad idea and it was something we had to deal with"
Back when Microsoft was looking at entering the home gaming market and working on the first Xbox console, people within the company had some pretty far out ideas - precious few of which actually came to pass, thankfully. Speaking to Gamesindustry.biz, Oddworld Inhabitants' Lorne Lanning has...
News Pac-Man Makes a Playable Appearance in Google Maps
It's already 1st April in Japan and Australia...
April Fools' Day has begun, or at least that's how we're interpreting the latest shenanigans from Google. With 1st April rolling around in some countries, there is now playable Pac-Man embedded into Google Maps, which is certainly a fun way to waste time and get directions all at once. When you head...
News You Can Now Create Your Very Own Game & Watch Handheld
Soldering skills required
While some believe that Nintendo's domination of the handheld market started with the Game Boy, it was in fact the Game & Watch series which really kicked things off for the Japanese firm. The brainchild of Gunpei Yokoi - the same man who created the Game Boy - these simple LCD portables sold millions during the '80s...
News Nintendo Begins Takedown Proceedings on Super Mario 64 HD Fan Project
Seems harsh
Late last week we shared a small demo that had been created by a programmer teaching themselves to create 3D platforming in Unity - Super Mario 64 HD. The title actually sounds a little grander than the reality - it's one level re-created practically from scratch, that serves as a fun proof of concept with no intention of continuing the...
Video Did You Know Gaming Delves Into the History of the NES
Hopefully, an SNES video is in the works
For those of you out of the loop, Did You Know Gaming is a fun site dedicated to sharing obscure trivia and facts about video games, both new and old. The site also runs a YouTube channel which gets updated on a fairly frequent basis, featuring videos about particular series, companies, or consoles and...
Feature The Best Pro Wrestling Games That the N64 Has to Offer
We're tapping in, not out.
The thought of a modern pro wrestling game these days is often coupled with an eye-roller. They've become as iterative as most sports games released on an annual basis - such as FIFA and Madden - but certainly have far less to offer than the examples just mentioned. What we're left with is a game that's ever-so-slightly...
Weirdness Someone's Made a Super Mario 64 HD Demo in Unity
Hopefully Nintendo will leave it be
It's common for budding game developers to utilise Nintendo games as a source of inspiration when learning their craft; the Kyoto company is regarded by many as the finest game creator in the industry, after all. Sometimes these efforts lead to impressive imitations, albeit running the gauntlet of takedown notices...
Interview Aaron Hamel on Bringing the Mother Original Arranged Soundtrack to the West
We talk about the soundtrack’s history, future projects, and much more
We recently reported on the Kickstarter campaign that has been launched with the goal of giving the Mother Original Arranged Soundtrack a western release. In just four short days the campaign smashed its funding goal and is now well on
Video What If Super Metroid Was A 3D Classic?
The Last Metroid...Is in 3D!
In our latest series of 3D videos, we've successfully converted a true classic to 3D. You wanted Super Metroid, you got Super Metroid. This phenomenal action exploration game is just calling out for a 3DS remake. Infact, Tom even suggested as much very recently. As always, you'll need to watch this video through the...
News Canned Shooter Dune: Ornithopter Assault Could Have Added Spice To The GBA Library
Title was practically finished but fell foul of publisher issues
Frank Herbert's epic fantasy series Dune has inspired some amazing video games - including Dune II: Battle for Arrakis - and should have delivered another riveting experience in the shape of Game Boy Advance shooter Frank Herbert's Dune: Ornithopter Assault. Developed by Soft...
News We're Over The Moon With This Zelda: Majora's Mask Game Boy
You've met with some awesome paint, haven't you?
We love a good custom paint job of classic gaming hardware here at Nintendo Life Towers, and this Majora's Mask Game Boy is one of the coolest mods we have seen in a while. French artist Oskunk has given this tired old Game Boy a refreshing new lease of life by bringing it bang up to date with a...
Taking a look at a genuine piece of gaming history
It's tempting to look back and think of Nintendo and Sega as long-standing rivals, and that was certainly the case during 8-bit and 16-bit era until the shock announcement that Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games was coming to the Wii. However, this wasn't the first time the two companies had...
Weirdness Watch A Complete Masochist Play Dark Souls With Some Donkey Konga Bongos
A different beat
From Software's Dark Souls is one of gaming's most rewarding - and brutal - experiences. For many, the game - as well as its forerunner Demon's Souls and sequel Dark Souls II - is hard-as-nails when played normally, but there's a small subset of completely insane players who feel it isn't quite punishing enough. Twitch and YouTube...
News Nintendo Share Prices Continue to Climb in Response to DeNA and NX Announcements
Victory lattes all around
In the first day of trading following the announcement of a major partnership with DeNA to - among other things - bring Nintendo IPs to smart devices, the company's share value jumped a massive 21%. This was unsurprising, as a number of investors had been demanding that Nintendo move to smart devices for some time, while...
Video Did You Know That Gunstar Heroes Shipped With A Fruit Roll-Up?
The Sega Channel takes a look at Treasure's first release
Gunstar Heroes is unquestionably one of the greatest games ever to grace Sega's 16-bit Mega Drive / Genesis system. It was also the first title from Treasure, a studio formed by former Konami employees that would find greater fame producing the likes of Radiant Silvergun, Ikaruga and Sin...
News This Awesome Star Fox 2 Box Art Shows Us What Could Have Been
We did a barrel roll when we saw this
With an all-new Star Fox game for Wii U on the way later this year, our thoughts sometimes drift back to the good old days of the Super Nintendo. With the critical and commercial success of Star Fox on the SNES, a sequel of some description was inevitable and it seemed that the SNES would be the platform to...
News Go The Whole Hog With This Amazing SNES New Nintendo 3DS Skin
You've already got the buttons, why not take it to the next level?
When Nintendo announced the New Nintendo 3DS, the use of SNES-colour face buttons triggered a flood of nostalgia in 30-something players all over the globe. However, for some, just having coloured buttons isn't enough - they require the full SNES treatment. This SNES Edition Decal...
News The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Speedrun World Record Holder Improves His Time
18 minutes and 5 seconds
Speedrunning remains a particularly fascinating part of gaming culture, with players mastering skills and finding glitches that defy the odds. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is one of our favourites when it comes to speedrunning, as improbable times are continually set courtesy of a skipping glitch early in the game...
News Flashcard Company Announces Initial Support for New Nintendo 3DS
Only supports firmware 9.2 and needs Ocarina of Time 3D retail copy
While flashcards ran rampant in the DS era, the 3DS generation has been protected far more vigorously by Nintendo through firmware updates. There have been numerous exploits and hacks, but users of them have often been driven offline by system updates, reducing their practicality...
News Chrono Trigger Turns 20, but is Ultimately Timeless
History has never quite repeated itself
What do you get when you combine the creator of Final Fantasy, the creator of Dragon Quest, and the creator of Dragon Ball? You get arguably one of the best RPGs of all time, and a game that maintains a strong legacy 20 years after its 11 March 1995 release. Chrono Trigger is the brainchild o
Hardware Review 8Bitdo FC30 Pro Controller
We are Family (Computer)
Remember the 8Bitdo NES30 pad we reviewed a while back? It was a likeable take on the whole Bluetooth gaming pad concept which looked and felt like a genuine NES pad from back in the day. The makers of that particular controller are back with a revised unit, and this time it's focused on the NES' Japanese counterpart - the...
News Kickstarter Project Aims to Fund a Vinyl Album Release of the Mother Soundtrack
Music to our ears
Video game soundtrack releases are always interesting pieces to be added to any avid fan’s collection. Be it something like the Super Mario Galaxy soundtrack or, more recently, the Super Smash Bros. soundtrack, these always serve as bearers of some of the best tunes to grace gamers ears. More often than not, these things are...
Gallery This Custom Mario Party N64 is a Sight for Sore Eyes
The analogue joysticks will still burn your palms, though
Mario Party 10 isn't far away, arriving in the West - along with the Super Mario amiibo range - on 20th March. Its minigames have come a long way from the days of destroying Nintendo 64 analogue sticks; waggle, pointing and gyroscopic movement and aiming are now more common. For some it's a...
Video Fan Manages to Port F-Zero to the Mega Drive
Can you handle this blast processing?
Who could forget the great console war of the early '90s? After a several year period of having an iron fist clamped firmly around the console industry, Nintendo finally had to go on the defensive when Sega became the new kid on the block with the Sega Mega Drive. Promising a far superior experience to the SNES...
News Capcom Had Two Game Boy Color Versions Of Dino Crisis In Development, But Cancelled Both
Everybody walk the dinosaur
Back in the 32-bit era, the world's biggest handheld was unquestionably the Game Boy, and its updated variant, the Game Boy Color. Any title which was big on domestic systems invariably received a scaled-down port on Nintendo's all-conquering mobile console, with varying degrees of success. Capcom was no stranger to this...
Weirdness British Children's TV Channel Gets Its Nintendo History Somewhat Mixed Up
Has popular YouTuber TheDiamondMinecart mixed up his Mario games?
We're all for educating the younger generation here at Nintendo Life. Nintendo itself has been around for longer than everyone on the face of the planet, and no matter how knowledgeable you think you are, there's a good chance you don't know everything about the Japanese firm...
News Fan Discovers StarTropics Music Tracks that Were Broken and Unnoticed for 25 Years
No, he didn't dip anything in water
Remember StarTropics? No? Well, it was a much beloved Nintendo game from the glory days of the NES. Playing something like a tropical spin on The Legend of Zelda, it followed the adventure of a kid named Mike Jones as he scoured an island in search of his lost archaeologist uncle. It was a very charming adventure,...
News Eiji Aonuma Talks About his Journey to Becoming The Legend of Zelda’s Producer
Everybody has to start somewhere
It's always interesting when a game developer reminisces and talks a bit about his or her roots. This industry moves so fast that it can sometimes be easy to lose sight of the fact that it's powered by the hard work of real people. Though breaking into game development may seem like a daunting and intimidating...
News Speedrunner Conquers Super Mario 64 in World Record Time, With No Stars
You don't need any stars to be a star
The rules of Super Mario 64 are well known. Jump, flip, and swim through treacherous levels to collect the shimmering power star at the end; speedrunners take this premise to the extreme. They collect all 120 power stars in as fast a time as possible, using precise jumps and taking advantage of various glitches...
News Thor Aackerlund Set To Celebrate The 25th Anniversary Of The 1990 Nintendo World Championships
"The true birth of eSports started here"
A quarter of the century ago Nintendo held the first round of the 1990 Nintendo World Championships in Texas, and this weekend there will be a special event to mark this anniversary. Taking place across two days - March 7th and 8th - at the newly-opened store Freaks and Geeks in Denton, Texas, the event will...
News Retro-Bit Is Releasing A Super Mario Edition Of Its RetroDuo Console
Dubbed "Mascot Edition", for obvious legal reasons
The Retro-Bit RetroDuo clone console may have been surpassed by Hyperkin's Retron 5 and the Super Retro Trio, but it's still a neat little system which allows you to play your old Nintendo games without having to have multiple consoles conne
News Nintendo's 1993 Style Guide Proves That Everything Revolves Around Princess Peach
Mario will also "accept anyone at face value", apparently
Style guides exist so that companies can ensure their treasured characters are used consistently through various forms of media - be it video games, TV shows, comic books or cheap lunch boxes produced in far-eastern sweatshops - and Nintendo is no stranger to this process. This...
Hardware Classics Sega Mega CD
Mega Seedy
The rise and fall of Sega Enterprises is a classic tale of hard-won success being scuppered by a bewildering lack of focus and an incredible degree of overconfidence. The company scored an almost impossible victory by bloodying the nose of the all-powerful Nintendo in the early '90s and was arguably the first console maker to bring an...
News Viewtiful Joe Figure is Ready for His Close-up
First in First 4 Figures' Capcom All-Stars line
We haven't seen Viewtiful Joe a whole heck of a lot since the GameCube days, but if the cry of "Henshin a go-go, baby!" still burns in your heart, First 4 Figures has something for you. The game figure producer announced via Facebook that Capcom's blazing red hero will arrive as the first in its new...
News Interplay Is Remastering Cult SNES Brawler ClayFighter
And its sequels, apparently
Veteran publisher Interplay has announced plans to remaster the amusing 16-bit title ClayFighter - and its sequels - for a new audience. The original ClayFighter was released on the SNES in 1993 - arguably the height of Street Fighter II's popularity - and gave the one-on-one brawler a humorous slant. It was later ported...
News We Have World War II To Thank For This Insanely Detailed Hand-Written Dragon Quest V Guide
Grandson uncovers incredibly in-depth tome
World War II was a pretty dire business, costing the lives of countless millions all over the globe. However, if there's one thing we can thank this catastrophic international conflict for, it's possibly the most awesome fan-written guide to Dragon Quest V ever seen. A fellow in Japan has recently...
February2015
News Speedrunner Unexpectedly Collects New Super Mario 64 World Record in Duel
Powered up
Super Mario 64 has long been a popular game for speedrunning, and the title has had many world records attached to its name. Another has just been added, and it was rather unexpected. On 26th February two speedrunners known as Nero and Puncayshun raced to see who could collect the game's 120 power stars first. Despite saving and quitting...
News Look On In Despair At The Hardest Super Mario World Level Ever Made
Three years in the making, and breaking
The ROM hack scene can be an endlessly entertaining place. Offering up creative, fan-made content, one can never really know what to expect from the community. More often than not, fans will create more challenging levels after completing a game in a quest for additional prestige and for a true test of skills...
Feature Say Hello To The CPS Changer, Capcom's First And Only Attempt At A Home Console
One of the most obscure systems ever made
Although today's gaming landscape is dominated by Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft, there have been plenty of other companies which have tried - or at least considered - producing their own gaming hardware in the past few decades. Nintendo's former rival Sega and industry trailblazer Atari are perhaps the most...
News Yes, People Are Still Making NES Games In 2015
Just because they can
The NES is one of the most iconic gaming systems of all time, but it hasn't been on Nintendo's radar - at least from a hardware perspective - for quite some time. That hasn't stopped homebrew developers from continuing to support the vintage console, and as a result 2015 will see the release of The Mad Wizard: A Candelabra...
News The Nintendo Game Plan - How the NES Slowly Won Over the USA
A Tale of Two Cities
Lots has been written on the video game crash of 1983; needless to say after events with Atari, North American retailers were left with their hands burnt, so launching a new console was a risky proposition. We recently took a look at the baby steps which Nintendo took at CES in 1984, which provided usefu
Weirdness Pokémon Fan Finds a Way to Trade First Generation Pocket Monsters With Himself
No retro-loving friends required
Most Pokémon fans have friends, but they may not have buddies that are still rocking a Game Boy, link cable and a copy of Pokémon Red and / or Blue. After all, millions of fans have moved on to online trading and match-ups in the latest 3DS releases. If you still like to go retro, though, a 'mon fan called Pepijn...
News Twitch Plays Pokémon Celebrates Anniversary With Return to Pokémon Red - Live!
Wants to catch 'em all
In early 2014 Twitch Plays Pokémon was a phenomenon, taking audience participations to new levels and attracting headlines from the mainstream media. It was a chaotic but oddly entrancing affair in which thousands of viewers would enter commands and attempt to beat Pokémon Red. It attracted tens of thousands of concurrent...
News Finally, Street Fighter II Has Been Ported To The Nintendo Virtual Boy
Because, why not?
Street Fighter II was massive back in the day. After launching on the SNES it would be ported to practically every other games machine on the face of the planet, including the monochrome Game Boy. One format that didn't get it was the ill-fated Virtual Boy - understandable when you consider how much of a commercial bomb it was -...
News Nintendo Quest Scores More than $40,000 at Kickstarter's End
NES game stretch goal achieved
In a digital era of eShoppery and Virtual Consolitude, do people still want to see a documentary about hunting for old, gray NES carts on a road trip? Well, yes. Yes, they do. The Nintendo Quest Kickstarter ended this past weekend with a grand total of $40,286. The goal set by the campaign was $1,000, with the project...
Video Guess What, Super Mario Sunshine Looks Amazing Running At 60fps
GameCube classic is remastered by fans
We're so used to Super Mario games running in silky-smooth 60fps these days - it's hard to imagine playing Super Mario 3D World in anything less - but 2002 GameCube title Super Mario Sunshine has always been locked at 30fps - until now, that is. Industrious hackers have modded the game so it runs at 60fps via...
Video Watch A Bunch Of Teenagers Use The Legendary Power Glove Accessory For The First Time Ever
“I can feel the energy flowing through my veins”
The Power Glove is an iconic NES controller accessory that was originally released in 1989. For Nintendo fans, it is a love and hate relationship, helping to establish Nintendo within pop culture, paving the way for future technology, but also becoming the butt of jokes. It was most prominently...
Music Here's The Entire Gradius III Soundtrack In NES Style, Just Because
The remix you didn't know you needed
Gradius III was one of Konami's first releases for the SNES and took the popular shooter franchise into the 16-bit realm for the first time. As is the case with many Konami games, it featured an excellent soundtrack by Konami Kukeiha Club, the company's in-house music team. In its pure, untouched form it's a...
News One Of The Brains Behind Tetris Explains How Their Relationship With Nintendo Began
Russian creator also offers some sound advice
Tetris has been a staple of Nintendo gaming since it was released on the Game Boy in 1989. Since then, the tile-matching puzzle game has enjoyed unrivalled success courtesy of its timeless formula. Considered by many as the greatest game of all-time as a result of this, it is always interesting to hear...
News Rose Colored Gaming is Working on a New Line of Portables With Diverse Emulation Options
It's cool if you own the original games, naturally
Rose Colored Gaming is a fairly familiar name here on Nintendo Life, with the bespoke hardware and retro goods company producing a host of desirable - and pricey - gadgets in recent years. Often its work produces stylish cartridges and hardware mods, but its now taking a leap into its own range of...
News Weirdness: Animators Produce Bizarre Recreation of Pokemon Season One Opening
Watch if you love Pokémon. Or not, perhaps...
A group of 32 animators have remade the ever-famous opening to Pokemon's Season One (Indigo League), and it's definitely not what we'd typically expect of such a project. You'll notice two types of animation in the video, one being beautifully remastered scenes of the intro's original snippets, and the...
Weirdness A Budding Little Mac Beats Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! While Blindfolded
A knock out performance
You may remember late last year that Mike Tyson himself showed off his own skills at Punch-Out!! on the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. While this was an entertaining moment, it served to prove that this classic NES boxing game is no pushover. You'll need to train hard to beat Iron Mike (or indeed Mr Dream!)...
Video Listen to a Drummer Nail the Mario Underground Theme
More than one way to beat World 1-2
Videogame covers are found in abundance on YouTube. You have covers with acoustic guitar, covers with Mario Paint, and even covers with just a guy singing mostly "Baah!" with the tones of an angel. One piece of the cover scene that doesn't seem to get as much attention is the drums, but we thankfully have artists...
News We'd Probably Buy This Fan-Made Resident Evil 2 Remake
Uses Unreal Engine 3
Just recently Capcom released a new HD version of Resident Evil - that's a HD port of a port, for the record - that annoyingly skipped Wii U. That first game is wheeled out regularly, yet its arguably superior sequel - surprisingly called Resident Evil 2 - isn't shown quite the same love. We're big fans of this one, and recall...
News Club Nintendo Goes Rewards Crazy With Final Update in North America
Over 100 games and physical rewards
Club Nintendo is now into its final stretch, with members in North America having until the end of March to claim coins and the end of June to redeem their balance. Nintendo of America had promised one final huge update of content, and now that the line-up is confirmed we can say that it's certainly delivered. On...
Weirdness There's an Awesome Super Mario Bros. World 1-1 Easter Egg in Dying Light
Stomping zombies
Dying Light, an open-world title in which you take on a lot of zombies, is a recent arrival on platforms such as the PS4 and Xbox One. The critical reception to Techland's game has been relatively mixed, but it's still one of 2015's first major releases; now, an awesome Easter Egg has been spotted to show that a current-day release...
January2015
Weirdness Super Bowl XLIX Analysis of 'Mega-Beast Mode' Recreates Marshawn Lynch as Mega Man
Running Man
Super Bowl XLIX is everywhere right now, as the US and a global audience ramps up for the showdown between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots. Improbably muscle-bound men wearing lots of gear will pummel each other over the course of many hours, and hundreds of millions will watch. There's a lot of coverage for the match, and...
Weirdness Legendary Composer Koji Kondo Drew Inspiration From '70s Rock Bands
Smoke on the water
It's always interesting to see the progression and evolution of music through history. Most genres start out small, but have far-reaching impact; with later entrants refining and perfecting the old sound until it is nearly flawless. As any musician could attest to, inspiration is a key factor to the formation of new music - it is...
Weirdness Meet The Man Who Plays Super Mario World With His Nose
A novel use for the humble recorder
Whenever we tried to play the recorder at school using our nose our teachers told us off. That early lesson in life didn't seem to get through to Japanese NicoNico user Wakou who can not only play music by blowing into a recorder through his nose, but also control Mario in Super Mario World. The secret to doing...
The greatest - but most obvious - mystery of our times
As a break from convention, we're going to give a behind-the-scenes glimpse into a conversation in Nintendo Life HQ between two grown men in their 30s. Player 1 - "Did you see that thread on Reddit about the Super Mario Bros. continue trick?" Player 2 - "Nope, what are you talking about?"...
News This NES Arcade-Style Unit is a Thing of Beauty
Some games incompatible due to use Retron cartridge emulation tech
Hardware mods for retro systems are rather common, so those seeking a stylish or convenient option for playing their old NES games aren't short of options. Not many are quite as impressive as the Model G1 from Rabbit Engineering, though, which features arcade-style inputs, a...
News This Is What Happened When A Kid Pitched Super Mario Bros. 4 To Nintendo 25 Years Ago
Even Nintendo's rejection letters are awesome
Back in 1990, Nintendo fan Jason Venter had an idea. He loved Super Mario Bros. 3 and the excellence of that game inspired him to create a planning document for a sequel. That document was packed with the kind of ideas that could only come from the active imagination of an 11-year-old gaming addict -...
News The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Comic to be Reprinted This Year
A Nintendo Power treasure returns
The graphic novel re-telling of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past that originally graced the issues of Nintendo Power in 1992 will flip the hourglass and return in full-colour form this year via VIZ Media. Outside of Nintendo's magazine, the graphic novel was last compiled for sale in 1993. Nostalgic...
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