Review /
Review /
Review /
Set favourite posts and 'Yeah' comments
Miiverse, Nintendo's continually evolving bespoke social network, has had another update applied today. This time around there are improvements — at least we think they are — to all three versions across Wii U, 3DS and web browsers. To start with, there's now a revamped User Page, with the User Menu of...
Arriving "this Holiday season"
Controller accessories were everywhere in the Wii era, with various companies fighting over a piece of the sizeable, tasty pie of the system's sales. We can expect that trend to continue to some degree with the Wii U, though the uptake has been slower due to its smaller fan-base to date. Fear not, third-party...
Tick, tick, tick, tick, BOOM
Fans of explosive destruction and naughty swears will be pleased to hear that Sanuk Games has announced that its next game is due to hit the Wii U eShop in the coming months. Bombing Bastards is an attractive arcade action title which is clearly inspired by Hudson's iconic Bomberman series, and features the vocal talents...
Weird is good, right?
It's the opinion of some, including this writer, that Nintendo's renewed focus on seizing attention in the face of tougher times has reminded the company of key parts of its identity. After bland lifestyle adverts in the Wii and DS era as Nintendo merely needed to release something to make big bucks, we're now seeing the...
Eiji Aonuma is supervising
With Hyrule Warriors recently given a release window of Summer for Japan, details of the action mash-up are starting to emerge. It's been announced in Famitsu magazine that the Tecmo Koei Wii U title will hit Japan on 14th August, with some other snippets of information also emerging. In terms of the teams working on the...
First come, first served
Nintendo is, once again, approaching the upcoming E3 extravaganza in its own way. It will be broadcasting a Nintendo Digital Event, live demo booths at Best Buy stores around the U.S. and streaming live demonstrations from the famous Treehouse team. Plenty to enjoy, then, but it'll also show off Super Smash Bros. on Wii U...
Armless fun for all the family
While Capcom, Konami and many of the other games companies which forged their reputations during the 8-bit era have since moved on to creating next-gen experiences, they have left a rich legacy of retro gaming brilliance which is proving to be particularly fertile ground for indie studios — one of which is Causal...
Charizard! Little Mac! The Villager! More!
We may still be waiting on formal release dates — especially for the 3DS version — prior to E3, at least, but we can still keep our hype levels for Super Smash Bros. up by gawking at shiny new screenshots. In last week's efforts Masahiro Sakurai showed off character designs, revealed a Final Smash,...
"Mario Kart is one of our killer titles"
Though no game ever achieves loving praise from 100% of those that play it, Mario Kart 8 has been the recipient of plenty of compliments in reviews to date. What truly matters for Nintendo, however, is that buzz about the release will not only make it a must-buy for Wii U owners, but also entice other gamers...
Natural Resources Defense Council highlights low energy use
A report by the the Natural Resources Defense Council suggests that the Wii U annually consumes less energy than the Wii, as shown in the graph below: The graph, which is designed to show how much energy your console drains across the year, illustrates that the Wii U is more effective in...
This new screen looks rather tasty
While it's been absent from Nintendo's Direct broadcasts since its shock reveal in late 2013, Hyrule Warriors is a potentially intriguing title on the way to Wii U. The Tecmo Koei-developed title, spinning off from the well known Dynasty Warriors franchise, is due this Summer in Japan and will hopefully not be far...
Advertising with some bite
Over the past week we've shared a few Mario Kart 8 30-second commercial that have been doing the rounds, incorporating some fun live-action sequences with game footage. Nintendo's now uploaded a couple more examples, covering the Piranha Plant — an excellent new item in this entry — and showing a "crazy plunge" that's...
Shell shocked
DreamWorks Animator Daniel Hashimoto has created a series of videos which star his son in the role of Action Movie Kid, where movie-standard special effects are applied to make his life look a little more incredible. The latest episode couldn't be more timely with Mario Kart 8 around the corner, as Hashimoto places his son in a...
Mario Kart Hate
Mario Kart 8 launches at the end of this month, and as you'll know if you've consulted our review, it's well worth looking forward to. It would seem that most of the gaming press agrees with us; the game has scored very highly across the board. However, opinions are like belly buttons — everybody has one — and unsurprisingly,...
Cloudtop Cruise! Mount Wario! Sunshine Airport!
There's just a bit — alright, a lot — of buzz around Mario Kart 8 at the moment, with this week's reviews generally declaring it to offer a jolly good time. We were happy campers in our own review, awarding it 9/10 and using the rather cheery tagline of "8th Wonder of the World". In other words,...
A knockout for Wii U?
The Wii Sports Club range on the Wii U eShop has offered some decent fun so far, bringing HD, Miiverse and MotionPlus upgrades to three events from the iconic Wii Sports. We're still awaiting Baseball and Boxing, of course, in order to complete the set; if a Japanese retail blog is to be believed, they're not far away. The...
Decent portable LEGO sales for Nintendo
In what's one of the quietest NPD sales updates of recent times, some limited details have emerged of April physical retail sales in the U.S. There's a relatively minor piece of positive news for the Wii U, while the software top 10 has an air of familiarity and one brand showing continued strong form. In...
Ahead of the pack?
With Mario Kart 8 getting rave reviews all over the interwebs, Family Gamer TV has dialled in for some close up comparison of the Moo Moo Meadows level on both the Wii and Wii U. While it is of course expected that the Wii U version looks better, quite how much better is kind of mind-blowing. Certainly this night and day...
Sakurai-san - "how lovely"
With Super Smash. Bros. on 3DS just months away, sitting pretty with a Summer release window, we're starting to get to the nitty-gritty of details in Masahiro Sakurai's Miiverse posts. His latest 'pic of the day' shows us the greater flexibility that we may see in character customisation or, in some cases, variations of...
Just 3% of sales on Wii U, zero on 3DS
Ubisoft has published its financial results and reports, and having reported losses has been outlining plans and expectations for a successful coming year; pre-orders for Watch_Dogs and other major releases are cited as positives, though despite Just Dance 2014 hitting six million sell-in units and evidently...
Don't expect a Microsoft-style U-turn from Nintendo
The brief lifespan of Microsoft's Xbox One has been overshadowed by a series of embarrassing turnarounds. First, the company was forced to bow to popular opinion and alter its policy on having an "always on" internet connection, then it quickly changed its stance on indie self-publishing. More...
Dutch electronics giant seeking compensation package, too
Dutch electronics manufacturer Philips is claiming that the Nintendo Wii and Wii U systems infringe on two of its patents — one of which dates back to 1996. According to Dutch site NU, Philips has submitted documents in the United States which call for a ban on selling both systems in that...
Sales remain low overall, however
While Nintendo can take heart from its continued lead in the Japanese charts, overall trends in the market remain a concern. The latest Media Create figures are in, and continue recent form of low sales in software and flat levels in hardware. To begin with software, Level-5's Yo-kai Watch continues to impress,...
A '90s approach that can still work
The Nintendo brand used to be everywhere. In the late '80s and early '90s the big N's brand, particularly in North America, was ever-present and dominant in the market. Mario and his fellow mascots had TV shows, cereal brands, toys and assorted paraphernalia all over store shelves. If you grew up in that era and...
A pin code and web page will be distributed
For those picking up Mario Kart 8 when it launches at the end of May, a welcome bonus is that registering the game by 31st July will entitle those gamers to a free Wii U retail title. You can see all of the details right here. This is tied to Club Nintendo, which has unfortunately ruled it out in...
