Growing up with a ZX Spectrum and a Sega Master System and his exhaustive knowledge in the fields of SEO and digital marketing, Darren's organisational prowess helps steer Hookshot's portfolio in the right direction.
Darren has previously worked for companies such as Nokia, as well as a diverse range of high-profile clients.
Review Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars (Wii)
Is this mushroom based platformer so good that it will leave you wanting spore?
The humble mushroom seems like an unlikely protagonist to take the lead in a videogame, but our hero Pax is no ordinary fungus. He seems to have somehow gained the ability to absorb precious meteorites, much to his mushroom tribe’s dismay as they keep the giant moles...
Ever wondered what it would be like if Luigi had to overcome racism instead of Birdo and Mouser?
The ROM hacking community can sometimes bring the world some real gems such a translation for a classic RPG which never made it outside of Japan, or adding extra levels to Super Mario Bros for those who like a more extreme challenge. Not that we condone...
News Mushroom Men - Developer's Diary: Part 2
Even spore thoughts from the ‘Mushroom Men’ developer’s diary
It was only a few days ago that we posted the first part of the Mushroom Men developer’s diary which led to a series of dreadful fungi related puns. There won’t be mushroom for that sort of thing today as we learn more about the combat variety in Mushroom Men – The Spore Wars...
News EA Serves a Tea Cup Full of Dual Screen Action
Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure is released today in North America, and on Friday in Europe
Visitors to Nintendo Life this week must need their eyes testing if they haven’t comes across EA’s upcoming DS puzzler Henry Hatsworth in The Puzzling Adventure yet – after all our homepage is bright orange and features the man himself! If you...
News ColorZ - New WiiWare Puzzler
We recently came across ESRB and USK ratings for a new WiiWare game simply entitled Colorz by French developers Exkee so we contacted them to find out a little more about their game.
Aside from the screenshot below, here’s what they had to tell us: ColorZ is an original Action/Puzzle that brings a totally new experience of gameplay thanks to Wii...
News Mushroom Men - Developer's Diary
Who would have thought that playing with fungi could be so much fun?
It’s not long now until the hotly anticipated Mushroom Men games hit the Wii and DS in Europe. Both games attracted favorable reviews back in December when they came out in the US. Euro gamers can get their grubby mitts on both Mushroom Men – The Spore Wars (Wii) and Mushroom...
News Defend Your Castle receives 2009 ELAN Awards nomination
When Defend Your Castle was first released on WiiWare, many people scoffed at what they believed to be nothing more than a Flash title with improved visuals and an unwelcome price tag. However, XGen Studios must have been onto something as the game has been nominated in the 2009 ELAN Awards.
Here's the official word, in full: Having been...
News Luc Bernard Is Back With New Studio, Oyaji Games
It’s been a long while since we’ve had anything to report on our friend Luc Bernard.
There was a time when every other day we faithfully posted something about his antics, despite the fact the infamous Eternity’s Child is still yet to appear on WiiWare (of course this is Alten8’s problem now!). After a drunken hissy fit following bad reviews...
News Pop Plus: Solo Coming to DSiWare
Following the announcement of the rather spiffy looking Mighty Flip Champs! by WayForward, we were wondering who would be the next dev to reveal their plans for DSiWare.
Before we could even catch our breath Australian developement team Nnooo sent us a press release about their plans to port Pop to DSiWare under the name of Pop Plus: Solo. Since...
News Adventure Island: The Beginning - First Video
It was only a few days ago that we revealed our exclusive interview with Takahashi Meijin about Hudson’s upcoming WiiWare game Adventure Island: The Beginning. He told us we could expect to get our hands on the game in May, but it looks like Japan will get it sooner as the official website has now launched, and it lists their release date as "April".
In the game you can collect special gold melons which are used as currency in the shop to power up Master Higgins. This reinvented platformer also gives Master Higgins the ability to cliff hang and even double-jump like Sir Arthur! In addition to the main game there ar...
News Grand Theft Auto: ChinaTown Wars Gameplay
Dealing and Delivering
Fancy yourself as a bit of a drug dealer do ya? No of course you don’t, you’re a DS gamer after all! Well just pretend you are delivering Christmas presents rather than narcotics and you’ll be fine. Following his father’s murder, Huang Lee has a simple mission: deliver an ancient sword to his Uncle Kenny to ensure his...
News Wossy's Amazing Nintendo Themed Ceiling
He just can't stop Twittering about it!
When not harassing Manuel from Faulty Towers cheeky-chappy TV presenter Jonathan Ross likes nothing more than to sit down with a nice cup of tea and play a bit of Mario Kart on his Wii. Listeners to his Radio 2 podcast will be used to hearing good old Wossy excitedly babbling about his adventures in the...
News Samus Cosplay Costume Kicks Incomprehensible Amounts of Ass
Check out the real life Samus in action
Here at Nintendo Life we’re not that geeky that we spend all of our spare time scowering the net for photos of ladies in videogame themed cosplay costumes, but when something as awesome as this catches our eye it would be remiss of us not to mention it. The lady in this lovely Samus Aran space suit is none...
Interview Catching Up With Takahashi Meijin On Hudson's Adventure Island
The man, the legend
Takahashi Meijin is something of a legend in his native Japan. You might know him as '16 Shot' thanks to his famed ability to hit a controller button 16 times in a second. However, if you're a keen fan of Hudson's output then you might also know him as the inspiration for Master Higgins from Adventure Island. However, these days...
News Batten Down The Hatches For Family Pirate Party
Avast ya li'ly libbered land lubbers! Aksys Games have put out a press release to let us know that Daddy, Mommy, Sarah and Billy are bored of playing Table Tennis even more bored of air hockey!.
Batten down the hatches and prepare to embark on a nautical themed adventure – ya’argh! Clearly we haven’t been too impressed with the ‘Family’...
News Hudson Interview - Onslaught
When the release of Onslaught looked like it was still a few weeks away Amar Gavhane, the associate brand manager over at Hudson kindly agreed to do an interview with us answering all our questions about game modes, weapons, etc. It would have made for a fascinating read, except for just one small snag, before we could publish the interview the game surprised everyone and came out in Europe!
As we reviewed it shortly after its release and already revealed the answers to most of our questions, we agreed with Amar to run with a rev...
News Nintendo DSi European Launch: April 3rd
Following the news that North America will be getting the spanking new Nintendo DSi on April 5th many Europeans will have felt a slight twinge of jealousy.
After all we usually get the good stuff late from the big N don’t we? Fear not, for a date has now been set and it’s two days earlier than North America! Unfortunately preorders are being...
News Diatomic: Microscopic Arcade Action Madness
Dutch development studio, Grendel Games recently got in touch with us regarding an intriguing new arcade action game called Diatomic which they plan to bring to WiiWare soon. Here’s what they told us:
Diatomic is a hectic arcade action title that focuses on making choices between defensive or offensive play. The player controls a diatomic...
News USA WiiWare Update: Evasive Space
Today’s solo release for North American WiiWare is Evasive Space. A causal glance at one of the many screenshots in our gallery below might lead you to conclude that this is a shoot-em-up game. In fact the idea in this game is to avoid things instead, which is a novel idea. The game has been developed by High Voltage for newly formed Akinai Games (YUKES of America).
From what we have seen so far and heard in our exclusive interview we’re expecting this to be a solid purchase. Competing for the best times on the online leaderboards should be a whole...
Competition Evasive Space - Best Evasive Skills Competition
To coincide with the North American release of Evasive Space this coming Monday we’ve teamed up with Akinai Games to give you the opportunity to win a copy of the game by sharing with us your best example of evading something.
The object being evaded could be anything: a random projectile; the horror of kissing a great aunt with a hairy chin; a...
Competition Tetris Party Tournament No. 3 Details
If you missed your chance to compete in the last Tetris Party tournament then here is yet another chance for you to show off your skills to an unsuspecting world:
WHAT: Tetris Party Tournament No. 3 for WiiWare Players HOW: Tetris Party Tournament No. 3 will feature four rounds – Marathon, Field Climber, Shadow and Stage Racer. Rounds one and two...
News Animales de la Muerte Officially NOT Coming To WiiWare
The cat is finally out of the bag!
High Voltage’s Animales de la Muerte is officially NOT coming to WiiWare anymore. For those not in the know this game is a bloodthirsty comic shooter set in a zoo of all places. Check out the interview we did last year with High Voltage to find out lots more about this game. The fact that it is no longer planned...
News Bubble Bobble Plus Out On WiiWare Next Week
...If you are in Japan of course! Yes that’s right, no sooner than Bubble Bobble Wii was announced now it is dated for release on Tuesday, 10th February on Nintendo of Japan’s website.
The game will have 200 maps, 100 for the original game and another 100 in the arrange mode. Taking into account the two difficulty settings this makes a mighty...
News Eduardo the Samurai Toaster - First Look Video
Eduardo the Samurai Toaster is one of the most interesting WiiWare titles we've seen in a long time; at its core this is an incredibly fast and frenetic side-scrolling, run‘n’gun 2D shooter, featuring visuals drawn and scanned in from several different art mediums such as pen & ink, acrylic paint and charcoal.
After reading our recent...
