Features News

It can be the home of creative new ideas from the big N

So, where does the eShop stand at roughly six months old? It's had an uneven release schedule, but looking at it as a complete picture we feel that it has a solid initial library with decent variety, combining some multi-platform titles with the odd exclusive thrown in, with genres and price...

Oh yes, we're going there

Earlier this week we reported on a story in the Japanese media that Nintendo is providing developers with software to convert smartphone games to Wii U. If true that could potentially have various implications, but until Nintendo reveals more — the source report was a little vague and quoted anonymous "company sources"...

Oh for the days of that Revolution reveal

The Wii U Virtual Console is well and truly up and running, which its greatest supporters will say is a more-than-welcome boost of old-school goodies to fill out the Wii U lineup, and the greatest cynics may say it's another example of Nintendo mastering the art of selling very old rope. Based on the...

"3DS and the Wii U are two of the best platforms we could hope to get on"

We recently reported on the Kickstarter campaign for Rex Rocket and the chances of the game making its way to the 3DS and Wii U eShops. Creator Rob Maher got in touch with us to talk a little more about the project, as well as future ideas for Nintendo systems. Nintendo...

Old games seem to sell

The start of a new console generation is always problematic for fans of older titles, as with each passing system backward compatibility becomes an increasing issue, and older titles risk being lost to the ages due to damage. Nintendo’s recent policy has been one of allowing backward compatibility for the previous...

Yet more evidence of the vital role of smaller studios

If you go back even a relatively short amount of time, for example ten years, most gaming was locked down by fairly high profile releases from the great gate-keepers of the games industry, such as Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, Capcom, EA, Activision, Ubisoft and more. These names are all familiar...

The upcoming Wii U eShop app sounds promising

When Wii U was preparing for launch, a good number of gamers were particularly excited about Rayman Legends, at one time a Wii U-exclusive launch title. Unfortunately for those eager fans, both promising selling points fell by the way-side, with an initial delay to Spring 2013 being extended to...

They skipped Wii VC, so now their time has come

Earlier this week we were rather pleased the share the news, based on a couple of sources, that Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse looks set to come to Wii U. It's unclear whether it'll be a straight-up re-release (on the Virtual Console) or a remastered port, but whatever the case it's a SEGA...

Time for a few changes

At the start of the year we published our Biggest Wii U games of 2013 feature, sharing some of the exciting releases set for Nintendo's latest home console. That list included some titles that are now available, and also some "before 31st March" predictions that have come and gone — those due to drop out due to imminent or...

"We grew up playing Nintendo games on the NES and SNES"

Yesterday we reported that Yacht Club Games' Kickstarter campaign for Shovel Knight had hit its funding target with two weeks to spare. Fresh from this success, studio founder Sean Velasco kindly took some time out of his busy schedule to speak to us about the split from WayForward...

Hey waiter, you got some RPG in my beat ‘em up!

The fantasy role-playing series Dungeons & Dragons has enjoyed a long a fruitful relationship with the pastime of video gaming. We’ve seen countless digital interpretations of the tabletop war-game, each one utilising the staggering scope of the licence to create new and amazing worlds for...

Former Call of Duty dev announces Blood of the Werewolf for the Wii U eShop

Scientifically Proven Entertainment is a studio which has its fingers in many pies. It produces award-winning apps, content for TV and — possibly most importantly — video games. Speaking of which, it gives us great pleasure to exclusively confirm that the company's...

Nintendo's digital strategy continues to evolve

This week it was confirmed that a sale on Ubisoft's retail Wii U downloads, which arrived in North America in mid-February, will hit Europe this week. It's the latest small landmark in what's become a regular series of subtle evolutions in Nintendo's download platform strategies, and one that...

"Wii U is great fun to develop on", says Scram Kitty developer

UK studio Dakko Dakko has Nintendo at its heart, thanks to the fact that founder Rhodri Broadbent has ties with the famous video game veteran — he worked on Star Fox Command during his tenure at Dylan Cuthbert's Q-Games in Japan. Dakko Dakko's next project — the wonderfully titled...

"Vote with your wallets!"

Last week, we reported that Ambient Studios — the team behind Kickstarter title Death Inc. — were considering bringing the game to the Wii U eShop. Soon after the story went live, Ambient director and co-founder Jonny Hopper got in touch with us to explain a bit more about his company and the long-term aspirati

Blasting away some kinks

While Europeans have endured a rather frustrating trend of late, waiting for various games to arrive that have already graced North America, the region has enjoyed first dibs on the Wii U eShop's dalliances with free-to-play download models. We're referring to Zen Pinball 2 and today's arrival, a downloadable tweaked...

Antonis Pelekanos talks exclusively about the hottest racer on the Wii U eShop

The news that The 90's Arcade Racer is coming to the Wii U eShop courtesy of Nicalis has pretty much made our week — this colourful love letter to Sega's arcade racers is shaping up to be one of our most eagerly-awaited download releases of 2013. We spoke to the...

"Working with Nintendo is much easier than one would think"

We reported last year that WaterMelon's 16-bit RPG Pier Solar would be gracing the Wii U in the near future, having secured funding for a HD remake via Kickstarter. The team is busy working on the HD version as we speak, so we thought it would be a good time to get in touch and talk...

Simple but effective

Among the many announcements in yesterday's Wii U Direct, only one had an immediate impact on console owners, with the Wii U Virtual Console Trial Campaign launching right after the broadcast. Balloon Fight is now available to download with some Wii U-exclusive features — which we'll get to later — and the release schedule...

Going behind the scenes

With its upcoming Wii U eShop release of Toki Tori 2, as well as plans to port a couple of existing titles to the console's download platform, developer Two Tribes has a lot of work on its plate. Despite that the team has been kind enough to produce the following exclusive tour of its HQ, giving an insight into the size of...

The pinball wizards have more to come

Zen Studios is an experienced indie developer that, despite its varied projects, is possibly best known for its pinball games. It's a team that wasn't entirely unfamiliar with Nintendo hardware in past generations — it developed Ghostbusters: The Video Game for DS — and it's become best known to fans of the...

Well, those that we know about

2012 was a busy year for Nintendo — which our upcoming yearly review will hopefully demonstrate — but now it's all about moving forward with its current systems, with Wii U hogging plenty of headlines by virtue of the fact that it's less than two months old. We won't truly know how well worldwide launch and Holiday...

A new era of downloads

This week we've been publishing an extensive range of Developer Interviews with all of the indie studios that released download-only games at launch on the Wii U eShop. Naturally, there's been plenty to talk about, so some of the Nintendo Life team decided to weigh in with their thoughts. Joining features editor Tom...

It's Little Inferno just for Wii (U, and PC)

So, Little Inferno, what can be said about it? Our own review stated that "it's as much a sandbox or digital toy as it is a game", with the simple fact that the experience can basically be summarised as burning stuff. There's money to earn and collect, as well as puzzle combos to figure out, but it's a...