First Impressions News, First Impressions Features

Family Gamer's Andy Robertson goes hands-on at E3

The head to head nature of Skylanders Swap Force and Disney Infinity meant that E3 was always going to be a show down. With Disney buying up an impressive amount of floor space and advertising, Activision responded with more information, novelty and freebies than we’ve seen for previous Skylanders...

Kiss kiss, bang bang

Really, Bayonetta 2 isn’t that far outside of Nintendo’s wheelhouse. The creators of Nintendogs and Wii Fit may like to play it family-friendly, but come on — there’s always been a playful, almost kinky side to Nintendo, games with just the right amount of dirtiness. Look at ol’ Jimmy T. making it happen in WarioWare,...

Frozen in time?

If there is a rule that Nintendo lives by, it’s that one good turn deserves another. Hence why the E3 2013 revelation that the game Austin, Texas’ Retro Studios has been slaving away on for the past three years is none other than a sequel to Donkey Kong Country Returns isn’t much of a revelation at all. Donkey Kong Country...

Wind Reawakened

It’s strange to have a first impression on a remake of a game, especially when it’s a game like The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. The truth is that despite being 10 years old at this point, Wind Waker is still a great looking game that plays well and has held up very well over time. Whether that’s due to the GameCube’s...

Turning things upside down

Imagine the Mario Kart series as an enormous living being made out of adorable cars, happy drivers, delightful loops passing through volcanoes and haunted houses and vicious blue shells. Envision this being, this body of Kartdom, and now answer this simple question: where is its heart? What is the thumping engine within...

Stranger things have happened

Sometimes it’s easy to forget how weird Mario games are. Think about it: A pudgy plumber in overalls who can jump ridiculously high, throw fireballs when he touches flowers, get huge when he eats mushrooms and make it with a princess provided he kicks the seven shades of crap out of a giant turtle dragon. That is...

Wise fwom your gwave

Altered Beast occupies a strange place in Sega's library; when it was first released it garnered a lukewarm response, and its choice as a pack-in title for the freshly-launched Mega Drive / Genesis was a curious one — although its large, bold sprites were impressive for the time, it certainly wasn't strong enough in terms of...

Jungle boogie

Retro's fantastic Donkey Kong Country Returns is a known quantity by now, so when we had the chance to go hands-on with the 3DS port in San Francisco recently we weren't exactly overcome with sweeping revelation. It was a great game on Wii and, unsurprisingly, that same great game translates very well to a handheld. Those who’ve...

Jon and Damien go hands-on

You guys are so lucky. What you're getting here is two previews for the price of one; our dashing US Editor-at-Large Jon Wahlgren was lucky enough to attend a 3DS showcase in North America this week, and got to spend a short amount of time with Animal Crossing: New Leaf. His thoughts are below, while UK-based editor Damien...

Further muddying the timeline

Surprise! That rumored Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3DS remake was totally not true, and no doubt planted as a red herring by some unscrupulous Nintendo employee to throw us all off the real story: Nintendo's handheld is getting a “sequel” to fan-favorite The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.

Cruising round the blocks

Recently we were fortunate enough to travel to TT Fusion's HQ in Wilmslow, England, to learn more about LEGO City Undercover, a high profile Wii U exclusive that arrives in March. During our day at the studio we were able to partake in an extensive hands-on session with the title, in order to gain a greater understanding...

We played the monster mash

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate for Wii U may not be an entirely new game built from the ground up, but it’s fair to say that this upcoming expansion has a lot of gamers excited. Monster Hunter Tri was without doubt one of the definitive hardcore title for Wii owners seeking an in-depth experience, and MH3 Ultimate looks set...

Superhuman potential

Recently we were lucky enough to attend a demonstration of NetherRealm Studio's upcoming DC Comics fighting game, Injustice: Gods Among Us, by Mortal Kombat creator himself, Ed Boon. Boon started the presentation by stating that because he had been making Mortal Kombat games for so long, he felt it was time to try something...

Let us be your little Virgil

2D Boy released what is still arguably the best game on the WiiWare service, World of Goo. But since the release of that game four years ago the developer has been rather quiet. The game never got a sequel and lips were sealed tight on future projects, but we knew that whatever this immensely talented — and...

Could this be the best entry in the Fire Emblem series yet?

The Fire Emblem series has long been famous and hugely successful in Japan. With a long string of titles stretching back to the days of the Nintendo Famicom, the franchise is now starting to catch on in the west. Arguably the most famous tactical RPG in the world right now, Fire Emblem fans...

Is this Japan-only eShop release going to be music to your ears?

As games get more complicated, with motion controls and complex button layouts, is it still possible to have fun while playing a game using only one button? With the Japan-exclusive eShop title Dopamix (made by G-mode, the current owners of the Data East back catalogue, which includes...

Hands-on impressions from the EB Expo in Australia

Sega had a playable version of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed at the EB Expo 2012, so we naturally took the opportunity to check out how it compares to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 editions, as well as see if the previously-noted frame rate issues were indeed solved,

Stuck on you

Tucked away on the roof of the ZombiU building in the Nintendo booth at the EB Expo were a few hidden 3DS gems. Among them was Paper Mario: Sticker Star, and as you can imagine we eagerly wrestled the closest copy from the display unit and dove right in. The version available to us appeared to be very close to the final build, as we...

What a horrible night to play a demo

We don't need to explain to you that we're massive fans of Castlevania here at Nintendo Life - you surely already know that. Like so many other gamers out there, Konami's gothic series has a special place in our hearts, thanks to some amazing 8-bit entries and sublime 'Metroidvania' escapades on the Game Boy...