Feature Articles
Saturday17th Feb 2024
Back Page The Best Cows On The Nintendo Switch
We would never steer you wrong
In the magazine business, the Back Page is where you'd find all the weird goofs that we couldn't fit in anywhere else. Some may call it "filler"; we prefer "a whole page to make terrible jokes that are tangentially related to the content of the mag". We don't have pages on the internet, but we still love terrible...
Wednesday11th Mar 2020
Feature Animal Crossing: A Brief History
Looking back on Nintendo's most evergreen of series
Like most games made by Nintendo, the story of Animal Crossing – Nintendo’s charming social life-sim series – begins in Japan, with a man named Katsuya Eguchi. After he nabbed a job at Nintendo in 1986 he was forced to move away from his hometown of Chiba and relocate to Kyoto, the city where...
Saturday15th Feb 2020
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? (February 15th)
Here are our picks, but what are yours?
The end of yet another busy week is upon us, and after all the Pokémon Sword and Shield leak drama, news of more NES and SNES games, and review bomb shenanigans, it's time
Saturday25th Jan 2020
Feature How Animal Crossing Invaded Social Media
"It’s a really exciting time to be an Animal Crossing fan"
Even if you’re not an Animal Crossing fan, it would be hard to miss the joyous celebration its cult following is having on social media right now. You’ll find Animal Crossing memes on almost every platform: Instagram, Twitter, Tik Tok, and Discord. The majority focus on relaxing...
Saturday19th Oct 2019
Feature The Hall Of Shame – Games Or Series We Never Got Around To Playing
Personal confessions from Team NL
It’s a perennial problem for gaming enthusiasts, young or old: how can I play all the video games? With so many across all the systems, it’s nigh-on impossible to play them all and there’ll always be revered classics or entire series that pass you by completely simply because you never owned a particular...
Saturday1st Jun 2019
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? (June 1st)
Here are our picks, but what are yours?
Well, with one thing and another it's been a busy ol' week. We had some Pokémon announcements early on followed by some hands-on time with the upcoming Super Mario Maker 2 (plus some disappointing details, too), and not to forget the
Saturday16th Apr 2016
Feature Five Reasons Why We Love Animal Crossing
Happy Anniversary Mayor!
Animal Crossing turned 15 this week, and we're certainly feeling plenty of nostalgia for the series. What makes Animal Crossing such a successful franchise? We've put together some of the points that we think have propelled the series to being one of the most successful ever. The characters: Animal Crossing would be...
Friday6th Jun 2014
Feature Psycholodachi - What Makes Life Sim Games Addictive?
The emotional connection to your Mii you never knew you had
The Western release of Tomodachi Life has been met with a surprisingly large amount of publicity. Granted, at least some of that was due to unexpected controversy, but as that discussion died down, popular interest remained. The rise of the life simulation genre is one of gaming's most...
Saturday8th Jun 2013
Feature The Humble Origins of Animal Crossing
How an obscure little N64 title grew into a hit franchise for Nintendo
The hype and excitement for Animal Crossing: New Leaf across the web is reaching a critical level. Hitting North America on 9th June and Europe on 14th June, it begs the question whether some people might literally explode as a result of not being able to contain their...
Wednesday14th Dec 2011
Feature Celebrating 10 Years of Animal Crossing
Population: glowing
Here's a fun game next time you're at a boring social occasion: try explaining the point of Animal Crossing to an elderly family member. Nintendo's genre-defying life series first appeared in Japan in April 2001 as Dobutsu no Mori ("Animal Forest") on Nintendo 64, but it was the enhanced Animal Forest+ for GameCube —...
Saturday12th Nov 2011
Feature How Japanese Folklore Inspired Mario's Tanooki Suit
What’s a Tanooki, anyway?
Ever since Super Mario Bros. 3 landed on store shelves, when Nintendo fans hear the word “tanooki” they almost always produce an excited smile and start reminiscing about days spent flying through levels as Racoon Mario. If you were to utter this same word today around these same Nintendo fans you’d probably get a...
Thursday29th Oct 2009
Feature The Spooky Denizens of the World of Nintendo
We run down the scariest of scaries the Big N has cooked up
We here at Nintendo Life love Halloween. Despite the fact it was originally a time when the dead were believed to cause sickness to the living and damage their crops, but nowadays it's just a good excuse to gorge ourselves on delicious, delicious candy. As part of our All Hallows’ Eve...
