Retro News, Retro Features - Page 34 of 48

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..

In the second and final part of our N64-themed making of, we look at the critical and commercial impact of one of Rare's best action titles

One of the most refreshing aspects of Jet Force Gemini was the way in which the player’s progression throughout the various levels was handled; initially, the only character available is Juno, but eventually other heroes are added to the roster, each faced..

All the way from 1990

Twenty years ago, Sega showed off its bold new mascot for the first time at the Tokyo Toy Show. He may only have been two months old, but Sonic the Hedgehog was already walking and wagging his finger as these scans from 1990's EGM 13 show. Even with twelve months of its development cycle left, it's remarkable how much of the game's iconic graphical style was nailed-down:..

Not what fans want to hear

Rare was undoubtedly one of the brightest stars back in the Nintendo 64 era and with two top-quality first-person shooters alone tucked under its belt, a selection of compelling 3D platformers and of course, the much-loved Donkey Kong 64; it must have been difficult for Nintendo to let go and eventually sell its stake in the company. It must have been even more difficult..

Fun in the Sun

For a long time it was felt that portable gaming and role-playing games just didn't mix well. Despite some early attempts for the original Game Boy system, it was a widely accepted opinion that these portable game systems just didn't pack enough processing and storage power to be able to offer up a truly epic and engaging RPG experience, as well as the nature of portable gaming..

In the first of a two-part feature, we go behind the scenes on what is regarded by many as the N64's finest action title

Back in the late ‘90s being an N64 owner was a testing experience. Having to listen to your Playstation-owning chums constantly droning on about Lara Croft and Solid Snake was enough to put any Nintendo devotee in a bad mood, but the general lack of quality software towards the..

It's real: see it with your own eyes

Yes he can; no he can't. Yes he can; no he can't. Anyone who grew up with the NES will know this as the sound of the playground's "is it possible to jump over the flag?" argument that ran all over the world. Now those who were on the "yes he can" side should pick up their phones and ring old enemies to rub salt in the wound: Mario, in fact,..

Super Castlevania IV's brilliant soundtrack is coming back from the dead

Castlevania producer David Cox has tweeted that the upcoming PS3/360 title Lords of Shadow is to feature classic tunes from older instalments of the series - more specifically the fourth title, which appeared on the SNES in 1991. Here's the tweet: Today I heard the waterfall music from Super Castlevania 4 fully orchestrated..

Space, monsters and boss battles, oh my

It's been a while, space cats, but NLFM is back with another mighty handsome selection of the finest chip and game music around. This time we're splitting chip tunes and swirling epics right down the middle, with equal parts fantastic on both sides. NLFM generally focuses on music from games playable on Nintendo consoles and handhelds, which, thanks to the..

Another Capcom classic

With various versions of Street Fighter II, Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts, a bunch of Mega Man games and two exclusive Final Fight sequels, the SNES was a good machine to own for Capcom fans. They also released many other games on the platform including U.N. Squadron, a frantic side-scrolling shooter originally released in arcades in 1989. The game is based on Area 88, one of the..

Spot the references in this one

Mark Ronson's made a bit of a name for himself remixing and revamping other artists' tracks, so it's no surprise to see the video for his new track Circuit Breaker take inspiration from other sources. Nobody expected it to borrow so heavily from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, though. With a distinctive-looking overworld, green-capped hero and what looks..

The Capcom vein runs deep

It's always sad when a developer leaves a company responsible for giving us one of the more original and much-needed shake-ups in the Wii's library of games, but it's also interesting to see where they end up going. Shigenori Nishikawa, director of MadWorld, is to leave Platinum Games for a position at Tango, Shiji Mikami's Tokyo-based development studio. Mikami was one of..

Nintendo, Hudson Namco and Konami all get in on the act

A good fan-made video brightens up the dullest of days, but one that sees Kirby digest a monkey, Link fire a bazooka and Michael Jackson appear as the ultimate end boss? It's like your birthday and Christmas all at once. That's The King of Famicom for you, a fan video showing classic characters squaring off with some rather unusual powers to..

The OneUps take guitars, organs, flute to classic soundtrack

Since Super Mario Kart launched on the European Virtual Console just a few weeks ago we've had those catchy ditties stuck in our heads all over again. Imagine our joy, then, when we stumbled upon a fully re-recorded and rather lovely-sounding soundtrack from The OneUps. Taking ten classic tracks and giving them a pleasingly laidback,..

Famicase project shows off 2010 line-up

The humble Famicom cartridge may not seem like the perfect canvas on which to create art, but every year Japanese game shop Meter hosts Famicase, a project aiming to prove just the opposite. Artists are asked to create artwork for a fictitious game and display it on a Famicom cart, and predictably the results range from the brilliant to the bizarre. If you're..

Unfinished title sees the red light of day at last

There's nothing we love more here at Nintendo Life than a good story of triumph against the odds: a plumber defeating a fire-breathing lizard; a hedgehog stopping the plans of an evil genius; and the continued hard work of ardent fans that finally saw Bound High, an unreleased Virtual Boy game, to a playable status. A few years ago, the game's..

Mario gets by with a little help from his friends

Overly-creative gamers may, from time to time, wish that protagonists from different games would swap roles and see if the grass is indeed greener. We've often wondered what it would be like to have a Mario-centric GTA-style game, complete with unsavoury weapons and potty mouth. Well now it seems that a keen gamer has done his own 'mash-up' of..

Play it on the TV with this handy accessory!

3D gaming is on the cusp of being cool again after some of the remarkable damage done to its reputation by Nintendo's less-than stellar Virtual Boy machine. The onset of eyestrain and headaches did the machine no favours, but if you've picked one up and fancy playing it on a more comfortable surface, such as your prize gaming TV, your time has come..

Along with details of his past

Back when Nintendo was still trying to gain a foothold in the US market the company rented a warehouse owned by a fellow called Mario Segale. Legend has it that NOA President Minoru Arakawa was taken aback by the similarity between Segale and the lead character of Donkey Kong - an arcade title which Nintendo was preparing to launch at the time. With the character..