NES News, NES Features - Page 4 of 9

It's the little things that count

Today, the virtual reality experience of the Wii is as immersive as Lawnmower Man director/writer Brett Leonard ever could have hoped, with Mario as real and in-person as an actual member of our family and special effects so vivid that we compulsively hold our breath during underwater levels. Okay, maybe things...

You tell us why you loved that 8-bit magic machine

To help celebrate the 25th anniversary of the NES's North American debut, we asked you to send in your favourite memories with that machine, and you delivered. We apologise to those whose letters we unfortunately were unable to find a place for, but whether you made it into the article or not, it's much appreciated. Though some outside of the..

Learn our shocking pasts

To continue our celebration of 25 years of NES, the staff's gathered around the campfire to share their favourite memories of that little dream machine. Not everyone could make it to the party, unfortunately, but we're sure that those who couldn't had good reason to stay home. Join us now as we lay bare our souls to you and open up in a way that the staff of Nintendo Life..

Before fireballs came bullets

You might know enough about Super Mario Bros. to win our 25th anniversary competition, but did you know a shooting stage was planned for the game? A Famitsu interview with Shigeru Miyamoto reveals that using Mario's original controls, pressing Up would jump, with B to dash and A to fire bullets, before the team settled on fireballs. The game would have turned out very..

How two indie developers are keeping the system kicking after all these years

It’s nigh impossible to overstate the importance of the Nintendo Entertainment System in video game history: its popularity pretty much single-handedly revived the home game console market in the US, which had crashed a few years before the NES’s October 18th, 1985...

We're throwing a hootenanny, and you're invited

Today is the 25th anniversary of the Nintendo Entertainment System's North American debut, and we're celebrating in style. This week, you can look forward to a menagerie of features that hearken back to the olden days of 8-bit glory. Twenty-five years ago today, every New Yorker sensed something magic...

Nintendo gives a round-up of classic moments

Some of these Super Mario Bros. glitches will be familiar to experienced gamers, but some might reveal hitherto unknown secrets about the little plumber's big adventure. Witness a tiny Mario using the Fire Flower, Koopa Troopas walking in mid-air and plenty of other little oddities that may shed new light on a title we all know inside and out.

Go right back to the start

Nintendo's Famicom is a piece of gaming history. The company's first cartridge-based gaming system, it set the revitalised the industry and set the standard for what was to follow. Satoru Iwata sat down with two of Nintendo's behind-the-scenes heroes for his latest "Iwata Asks" feature: R&D advisor Masayuki Uemura and former manager of the Corporate..

Over 750 games in total

Mario, Zelda, Pokémon: these are all good themes for charity marathons, and have raised countless thousands of dollars for a range of charities. Playing every game in a particular series back-to-back is a big accomplishment, but how would you feel about playing every game available for a single console? If that console's the NES and you're Pat the NE

Well, sort of

The humble Nintendo Entertainment System has been everything from a lunchbox to a guitar, but for those who like the classic experience of putting media in and getting entertainment out will be intrigued by this latest mod that turns the console into a fully functioning DVD player. A little more complex than simply putting a DVD player...

October begins with Virtual Console and DSiWare

WiiWare's alternating weeks continue, but at least there's the Virtual Console to keep Wii owners happy – even better when the releases include classic arcade games! The DSi has a trio of actual games for a change with nary a lifestyle download in sight. Virtual ConsoleCommando (800pts Arcade, Capcom) – This is the first VCA release from Capcom..

Most likely coming soon to a retro enthusiast near you

So Super Mario Bros. released on the NES in 1985. We ran out of fingers and toes trying to figure out how long ago that was, but our theory is 25 years. We feel pretty good about this theory in light of a recent trademark filing by Nintendo of this here image. It doesn't say "25"...

It's Jonas Neubauer, and he's good

They came, they saw, they rotated and dropped and rotated again. The first-ever Classic Tetris World Championships took place in Los Angeles over the weekend, and 29-year old Jonas Neubauer walked away with the crown, statue and novelty-sized cheque. Beating over 200 players under the watchful eye of former...

Zombies Washed My Neighbors

Many of you likely have collections of old Nintendo cartridges lying about; boxy relics of gaming's yesteryears great for some nostalgic fun. Still, there has always been one core functionality that these old carts lack: they don't clean dirt off your body. Well, Etsy shop DigitalSoaps aims to change all that with its...

Control the plumber with only your eyes

We've had NES consoles controlled by peculiar pads in the past, one notable example being the Castlevania fan who used a dance mat, but what if you could play a similarly legendary, groundbreaking game without any controllers at all? No, we're not talking about Kinect, we're talking about Super Mario Bros. and...

Plenty for everyone

As with every week, DSiWare gets the lion's share of releases this week, although most of it is not too stellar, or at least not likely to be. WiiWare gets a long-awaited fighter plus an interesting Nintendo-published title, while VC gets another ninja action game. WiiWareToribash (1000pts - Nabi Studios) -- A very strange fighting game which is quite popular on PC, you fight as..

DSiWare galore!

DSiWare gets another massive load of new games today, but they're probably not the things you'll mostly be wanting to pay attention to - Both WiiWare and the Virtual Console only get one game each, but they're both great and more than worthy of a look-see. WiiWareJett Rocket (1000pts - Shin'en Multimedia) -- A 3D platformer with incredible graphics - If you didn't know better you'd..

Japanese musician performs some impressive beat-coin-boxing

We've seen some interesting 8-bit musical adaptations before, but Japanese beatboxer Hikakin has done the reverse, emulating classic Mushroom Kingdom melodies with nothing more than his mouth / throat combination. It's Rahzel meets Miyamoto in this incredibly impressive display of vocal virtuosity. Check out his recently posted video and..

The unholy three-in-one

Those of you with sharp memories will recall that we reviewed the Retro Duo console a few months back and were quite impressed with the system's power to grant new life to dusty old Nintendo cartridges. We've since been sent yet another of these "clone" systems to take a look at, but this time there's a twist - instead of just playing SNES and NES titles, the..