Features News - Page 6 of 7

Sonar, so good

Batman's latest crusade through video games has been out on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC for a good eight months now, but that didn't stop Nintendo giving enhanced port Batman: Arkham City Armoured Edition plenty of stage time at E3. Escaping the confines of Arkham Asylum, a section of Gotham City has been cordoned off as a...

Extra floretstrial

For years Nintendo has been tending to a new entry in the Pikmin series, experimenting with different control methods and systems both handheld and home console. After starting life on Wii, Pikmin 3 was eventually transferred to Wii U due to the benefits of high definition and the GamePad's touch screen. The little...

Raising the flag for Wii U

Nintendo Land, a virtual theme park that collects together bite-sized portions of several Nintendo franchises, seems to be the big first party hope for Wii U. It's intended as a title that can match the appeal of Wii Sports and push the console's central concepts: the uses of the GamePad's screen, asymmetrical multiplayer,...

Did Nintendo win?

The E3 displays and demo booths have all been packed up and tired exhibitors have gone home, so now we can reflect on what happened in Los Angeles and contemplate how Nintendo performed. A few members of the team provided a short review of Nintendo's E3 press conference hours after it finished, with a general consensus that while...

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...

The silent treatment

At last year's E3, EA CEO John Riccitiello shared a stage with Nintendo global president Satoru Iwata and Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime to announce that the two companies would join together in an "unprecedented partnership" for the launch of Wii U. Neither party gave any real indication what this would...

A mixed bag

Nintendo E3 conferences are a funny business, with just 70 minutes to try and please as many people as possible: not an easy task. This year Nintendo went big with Wii U and showed off a variety of first and third party titles, covering a lot of bases. Of course, it's easy to focus on what wasn't revealed, but ultimately we do have big...

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...

System seller?

Nintendo made claims that it had a Wii U title that matches Wii Sports in appeal; a title that sells their new console, both conceptually and literally, just as well as the motion sports game did for Wii. At E3 it presented the proposed title: Nintendo Land, a virtual theme park which incorporates Miis, Miiverse and mini games...

Will it be legendary?

Ubisoft has now finished its E3 conference extravaganza, and unlike EA dedicated a section to Wii U, underlining support for Nintendo's next gen console. In total the publisher unveiled eight titles, not all necessarily for launch day, but in any case representing a broad variety of styles and experiences. So, what stood out?...

Wii U re-revealed

Satoru Iwata opened the pre-E3 Nintendo Direct show with a declaration of Nintendo's intent to continue being unique — and a half hour long web show dedicated to its new console days before the start of E3 certainly fits into that category. Iwata promised that Tuesday's conference would focus "almost entirely on Wii U games",...

Drop the bomb

The time is nearly here. In just a few days, Nintendo has to make the presentation of its lifetime at E3 2012. After being hit by the first losses in the company's history in recent months, and with the weight of proving a brand new home console's worth on its shoulders, there's no doubt that nailing this conference is crucial...

We're dreaming

This year’s Nintendo E3 conference is drawing a lot of attention because of Wii U, with the new console giving the company a big chance to seize the day. When it comes to the showcase press conference, however, there’s always one thing that is guaranteed to get the fans excited: games, games and more games. Give Reggie...

Future prospects

We’re now less than a week out from Nintendo’s E3 conference where the cover will finally be pulled off so many mysteries surrounding Wii U. Since debuting the console at last year’s conference Nintendo has been tight-lipped on the subject, and when excitement is high and valid information is low, it can only lead to one...

Crowd pleaser

Last year at E3, Nintendo promised a lot to core gamers. "Wii U will be right just for you," Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime said, playing a showreel of hardcore shooters and action games to win over the crowd. Talking heads from big publishers all crowed about the machine's capabilities and its new controller — top...

From NES to Wii U

In over 25 years of home consoles, Nintendo's done more than just produce ever-improving gaming systems that give us more complex, better-looking games: it's also been a major influence on how we play our games. The company has often been responsible for bringing new control schemes to the mainstream, or adapting ideas from others...

Competitive download prices for a good cause

We’re just one month away from the 3DS eShop's first anniversary, a busy period that’s seen the service grow and evolve. A modest start, including a slow-burn of actual 3DS exclusives, made way for a vibrant period of service improvements, game demos and, most importantly, some top quality games. The...

It’s all about day one

In the coming weeks, as we build up to the excitement and madness of E3 2012, we’re going to reflect on some major Nintendo console launches from the past. We won’t necessarily cover them all in this series, but we’ll be looking at some notable console arrivals and thinking about why these system launches were...

CoD always sells

For those of you that follow gaming news beyond Nintendo, one title has been dominating all headlines: Call of Duty: Black Ops II. The Activision behemoth has been everywhere, grabbing attention ahead of a 'global reveal' and then accounting for the bulk of news stories on many multi-platform websites in the aftermath. While it's...

If in doubt…

Nintendo is set to announce its latest financial results that will cover the past year, and it’s anticipated that, for the first time in its history, the company will record a yearly loss. It’s an obvious blow for Nintendo, particularly as the past five to six years have brought staggering success. Even the results for 2010-2011...

The plumber's conundrum

The news that Shigeru Miyamoto will show off Super Mario Bros. on Wii U at E3 is more or less confirmation of what we all expected. When 3DS faltered many said Nintendo needed to show the way with a Mario game, and Super Mario 3D Land's Christmas appearance gave the console a big shot in the arm, becoming its first...

It's how you use it

One topic's dominated the Wii U news since Nintendo revealed its new console at E3 2011 — just how powerful is it? Nintendo's Wii U technical specifications give the vaguest of nods to its under-the-hood power, just mentioning a multi-core IBM processor — which we know is based on game show-conquering chip Watson — but it...

First impressions count

With each passing week we get closer to the arrival of Nintendo’s next home console, Wii U. It’s due by the end of 2012, yet there’s still so much that we don’t know: technical specifications, prices, planned launch games and even the final name. All of these factors will be important to its early success, but...

Baby come back

Whenever a new system is announced, cyberspace is filled with wish lists of games that ought to be released faster than you can say Miyamoto. Very little is known so far about games coming to Wii U, so speculation is rife even though some classic series have already been heavily hinted at (Pikmin 3) or should be an announcement away...