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Is bigger better?

3DS XL landed on European and Japanese shelves over the weekend. It seems to have had a good start; in the UK it outsold the original 3DS model at a rate of around 2:1 and bumped up the software sales of Mario Kart 7, Super Mario 3D Land and Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games — thoug

On your marks...

Today brings us the opening ceremony of some sporty-thing in London; it starts with an O and involves lots of very athletic people doing silly things for medals. Frankly, unless any of them have unlocked all of the StreetPass Plaza achievements we refuse to be impressed, and we'll be far too busy playing video games to pay any...

Is it persuasive enough?

This week we’ve been given a glimpse of Nintendo’s plans for retail download pricing and incentives, both for Japan and North America. It all begins with New Super Mario Bros. 2 and Demon Training in Japan on 28th July, with North America and Europe joining in with Mario’s title on 19th and 17th August respectively...

Sonic, retail downloads and a certain analyst

It's that time again, when a few members of the Nintendo Life team look at recent news and decide that they simply have to give their opinion on it. Last time out things were very serious, with topics such as Nintendo's online services, the number of 'new IPs' on Wii and the continued madness that is...

No plastic guitars needed

There was a time, in the not too distant past, when Harmonix and Activision were locked in a gaming battle of the plastic bands, with the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises facing off in the charts. It was a phenomenon, capitalising on the rise of a new generation of gamers, that allowed us to live out fantasies of...

Look ma, no glasses!

One of the biggest shifts of the last generation has been the evolution of games consoles into entertainment centres, allowing almost all forms of media to be played back through your TV. It’s a far cry from the old cartridge systems when gaming ruled supreme, but thanks to their knowledge outside of video games both...

Now it's officially a trilogy

It's time, once again, for the Nintendo Life team to share their weekend gaming plans with you in their own lovely, lovely words. You may have noticed that this entry has been slightly delayed, as yesterday our esteemed editor James Newton completed his last day by sharing his favourite Nintendo Life moments; he now...

Telling it like it is

A couple of weeks ago we published the first of this new series, where members of the team share their personal views on news stories of the week. Last time around James, Tom and Mike wrote about the only story in town, 3DS XL. Now we start the real business of team members sounding off about different articles, giving their...

Go for that green light

Did you leave the house today? If you did hit the streets to go to the shops, work or school, then we have two more questions for you. Did you take your 3DS with you, and did you get any StreetPass hits? It’s easy to forget that, when 3DS was launched, Nintendo placed a fair bit of emphasis on the idea of taking the...

Summer gaming

Here in the sunny UK — by which we mean heavy rain and flooding — we're well into summer, a time of year when the rain has a distinctly warmer feel on the skin. We're sure that some of you live in far more temperate climes than this, but for those that don't there's always an answer — playing video games. That's what many of our...

The timing is both predictable and strange

The upcoming release of 3DS XL, the sizeable update to the original model, is hardly a surprise. Nintendo has constantly iterated its handhelds in an effort to attract more consumers and, to put it bluntly, make a lot of money: we can’t even argue that the XL is arriving earlier than expected, as the...

Weighing it all up

The latest Nintendo Direct had its usual mix of game trailers and release details, but they were a distant priority behind the big opening act on each regional broadcast: announcement of 3DS XL. A remodelled 3DS had been rumoured and debated almost from the moment that the original hit stores, simply because Nintendo has a long...

Topic hint: it's big

It's Friday, but we're not going to share our weekend gaming plans with you today, remember that's every two weeks. Today we're starting a new feature series where members of staff pick a piece of Nintendo news from the week and give their own opinions, sometimes irreverent, on the story. Normally that would mean that each...

One size does not fit all

After the fun and games of Wii U noise over E3, now we probably have to wait until the next Nintendo Direct broadcast for another hit. We learned a great deal about Wii U at E3, with game reveals and system demonstrations giving a broader idea of what the console will offer. Much was left to our imagination, however, such...

We could be heroes

Before E3 we posted a few features where members of our team listed their gaming plans for the weekend with some witty prose, and you did the same in the comments below. As we all like talking about games and weekends together, we're going to make this a regular feature every two weeks. Same time, same place. We have plenty of...

E3 is changing

9am PDT, Tuesday, E3 week. For Nintendo fans, this time and date is akin to New Year's Day, ringing in the next big batch of games Nintendo has to offer and beginning a week-long celebration of all things gaming. Nintendo’s E3 press conference has created some magical moments over the years, from the reveal of The Legend of Zelda:...

Big Mario is watching

As we were bombarded with announcements and details about Wii U in the past week, perhaps one feature stood out as something distinctly new in the world of Nintendo: Miiverse. After enduring the lacking online options on Wii for the past six years, Nintendo gamers can look ahead to potential levels of social interaction...

7/10?

The dust has settled on Nintendo's E3 2012 press conference. Here in the Nintendo Life offices the pizza boxes have been pushed to one side and we've taken a few minutes to collect our thoughts and summarise how we think it went. James Newton, editor: I wouldn't say this was a classic show for Nintendo — a lot of the right components were...

A spectacle like no other

It’s the final weekend before E3 2012, and thousands of members of the gaming industry and mainstream press are descending on Los Angeles to attend. It’s amazing that a single convention has risen to such prominence in the gaming calendar, but that’s the status that E3 has earned: while there may be a number of other...