Eshop News, Eshop Features

Free-to-play and subscription-based services are on the agenda

Following last week's annual financial results and the President's Presentation, Satoru Iwata faced the music in an investor Q&A to address important issues for Nintendo's prospective return to substantial profits. This was published promptly in Japanese, but we now have the...

Worldly goodness

There’s a good chance that you already know whether or not you're going to purchase Puzzler World 2013. Whether it's because you’ve played a previous game in the series, you’ve read our review of the DS version – which is, for all intents and purposes, the same game – that released in Europe late last year, or if it’s...

Brain candy

Like Nintendo’s Brain Age series, Puzzler Brain Games is a collection of daily brain training activities designed to stimulate the mind and keep you mentally alert. Though instead of feeling like a curriculum of exercises you’d learn in school, Brain Games is presented in a game show-like format and is a more light-hearted affair...

More like Crazy FUN-struction

On the surface, Crazy Construction sounds like the epitome of shovelware; a generic puzzle game that slaps together tired ideas and a dash of zany alliteration to garner enough sales to crank out the next one. Take a closer look, however, and you’ll discover a cleverly designed arcade-style title that boasts a fun,...

We chat with Nintendo's head PR honcho about 3DS, Earthbound and Zelda

Between test drives of a selection of Nintendo's 2013 line-up, including The Legend of Zelda 3DS, Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D and Animal Crossing: New Leaf, we had the chance to catch up with Nintendo of America's PR wizard Marc Franklin to talk about w

Own goal

These days, soccer games tend to fall on one of two ends of a spectrum: there's the relatively realistic sports simulation found in annual FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer instalments, and then there's the zany over-the-top action of the Super Mario Strikers and FIFA Street series. In the golden days of the Amiga, however, there were other...

Do you download?

In moving from the Wii Shop and DSi Shop to the Wii U eShop and 3DS eShop, Nintendo has shown a desire to compete head on with the Xbox, PlayStation and Steam online marketplaces and offer full retail downloads. It's amazing to think that downloads from the Wii Shop were limited to a meagre maximum of 40MB, yet now we can download...

I choo-choo-choose you!

Lola’s Math Train, the follow-up to the pleasantly surprising Lola’s Alphabet Train, isn’t quite a game as much as it’s a learning application. In this instalment Lola, the jubilant panda, is here to help kids learn about math, numbers and logical problem solving through various interactive challenges. This is a...

Heavy Hitter

Boxing is a fascinating sport. Two human beings enter the ring, then skilfully and tactfully beat the tar out of one another using nothing but their own gloved fists. It’s the perfect fodder for a video game, and that’s exactly why the Punch-Out!! series is such a classic. Originally released in North America as Mike Tyson's...

Great news for homegrown indie developers

Australian gamers have a new way to find and support indie developers from their home country, as the 3DS eShop Down Under — and throughout Europe as the "Developed in Australia" shelf — has been given a region-specific section listing all aussie-made games. There are currently 14 titles available in...

Dan Adelman drops a hint on Twitter

One of the early rules put in place by Nintendo for developers on its digital platforms was the need for a physical office - a move which was no doubt intended to ensure a certain "quality" of developer. However, since the days of WiiWare the playing field has shifted - the number of professional coders...

The DS era is left behind

The biggest release on DS in 2012, and surely the runaway winner of practically every Game of the Year award specifically tailored for the older handheld, were the Pokémon Black & White 2 titles, tied together for the purposes of simplicity. Yet its announcement and release on the platform surprised a number of...

In case there was any doubt

Nintendo has been making all of its retail titles available in their respective eShops for a few months now. You can find the likes of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D and Mario Kart 7 on the 3DS eShop while New Super Mario Bros. U and Nintendo Land both reside in the Wii U equivalent. It won't come as a surpr

Balls to the wall

Ever since Pong invaded homes 40 years ago, simple ball and paddle games have had a home in gaming. Air Battle Hockey 3D doesn't manage to stand out among the four-decade pedigree, but it is at least a competent entry on its own merits. The game is so simple that there's really not much to say about it. You use your stylus to...

Even more Mudds

3DS eShop title Mutant Mudds has proven to be extremely popular with Nintendo gamers, so much so that Renegade Kid, the game's developer, is bringing the game to the Wii U eShop in what is known as Mutant Mudds Deluxe. Yesterday we learnt that the new content in Mutant Mudds Deluxe would be exclusive to Wii U, and now even more...

The legend will never die

Capcom broke a few hearts when it cancelled Mega Man Legends 3, but lovers of the Blue Bomber don't take setbacks like this sitting down. Fans Blyka and fAB have created a browser-based version of the Servbot mission in the Mega Man Legends 3: Prototype Version. Servbot Roundup allows you to: Ride around as Barrett, as...

Lost levels = lost sanity

It's a story so well known now that we'll just summarise it for you: what is now known as Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels was actually released in Japan as the sequel to enduring classic Super Mario Bros. Western gamers instead received the subconscious vegetable buffet that we more traditionally think of as Super Mario...

Mission: Intolerable

Johnny Impossible is a bad game. We'd be perfectly happy to leave the review at that sentence, as it does actually tell you everything you need to know, but Johnny Impossible is so interestingly bad that we need to say a lot more about it, if only to achieve some sort of closure. Having made his eShop debut in Johnny Kung Fu,...