Author Profile
James started his career in video games as News Editor on Nintendo Life. Since leaving in 2012 to join Nintendo of Europe, James has risen through the ranks to become NoE's Senior Product PR & Corporate Communications Manager.
News Monster Hunter 3 May Be Feeless
Capcom interview hints at free online play for all!
Capcom's unstoppable sales juggernaut that is Monster Hunter is scheduled to hit our consoles early next year, but one major concern surrounds its online mode, which in Japan requires a monthly subscription charge from anyone wanting to party with friends. With the Western release looming the...
News Fight Stress With Abylight's New WiiWare Title
Stop Stress: A Day of Fury promises relaxation aplenty
Abylight first caught our attention not so long ago with their decent WiiWare title Fish 'Em All, and now they're back on the scene with their next title, Stop Stress: A Day of Fury. Very little is known about the game at the moment, but Abylight have shared a video of its premiere at the Tokyo...
News Ashes Developer Loses A Third of its Staff
Australian studio Transmission Games makes unfortunate lay-offs
Despite the sales success of Ashes Cricket 2009 - and the enormous number of emails we receive about it here at Nintendo Life - the game's original developer Transmission Games (the Wii version was ported by UK-based Gusto Games) has just had to let go a third of its staff due to...
News System Update 4.2 Bricking Wiis Left, Right and Centre
Consoles slightly left of centre should be fine, though
The Wii only received its 4.2 update the other day, but already the Internet's alive with reports it's causing machines to stop working completely, with many popping up on our very own forums. The update's major purpose was to remove the Homebrew Channel from consoles, as well as protect the...
News Red Steel 2 Devs "Have Beaten Waggle"
Still have room for breakfast
We're getting excited about Red Steel 2 here at Nintendo Life - in fact, we have been ever since our hands-on back in April! Whether it's the super-cool Japan-come-Wild West setting, the tasty graphics or the MotionPlus controls, there's no doubt it's one of the big titles we're dying to play next year. Sadly, all this...
News Classic Controller Pro Westward Bound!
Or so Koei think, anyway
Yes, Nintendo did have a few Classic Controller Pros in their E3 display cabinets, but without any firm release date or announcements of an intention to bring them to the West we just assumed they were on show to make us salivate even more over the lovely new pads. Even though the Big N's lips are still zipped, Koei recently...
News Muramasa Slices into Europe Next Month!
Demon Blade to pierce Euro souls on November 13th
Just as we were gearing ourselves up not to see Muramasa: The Demon Blade nestling in our European Wiis until April next year, Rising Star Games swoop to the rescue by letting us know it is confirmed for a release on November 13th, just six short weeks away. We've already reviewed it based on the US...
News Mario and Link to Warm Your Winter
Nintendo Europe announces their full Winter line-up, and there's some crackers in there
Winter is the perfect time to bombard gamers with great titles - the freezing cold weather makes them even less likely to go outside, meaning they'll spend even more time gaming. Nintendo seems to agree, as they've just sent us a list of their complete Winter...
Bowser, Bang Camaro and Nintendo's Media Summit! Plus, your voices!
It's already been four weeks since our EA Interview Extravaganza, so that means it's time for the eighth episode of the Nintendo Life podcast! As usual we have a recap of our news and reviews, meaning we revisit some of the stellar games we've seen this month - Professor Layton and...
Review Yummy Yummy Cooking Jam (DSiWare)
A fallen soufflé
You may remember this game from its appearance on WiiWare, so you won't be surprised to know this is a direct port. We didn’t think much to its incarnation on the Wii, particularly struggling with its controls, but now it’s on the DSi is it more to our taste? Yes and no, is the answer. Essentially, the DSiWare version is...
Review Wacky World of Sports (Wii)
Or should that be "Tacky World of Warts"? Maybe...
It’s a well-known fact that the Wii excels at quick-fire games – sports compilations and minigame packages abound, and amongst all those renditions of golf, tennis, boxing and the rest you’d have to assume there’s no sport on Earth yet to be rendered in glorious Wii-o-vision. Well, you would...
News The Elusive Kenji Eno Speaks!
Legendary games industry figure hints at future Nintendo titles
Back in the mid-90s, the games industry was lacking some of the colourful characters that you'll find today, but one man who certainly stood out was Kenji Eno, of Japanese developers Warp. Most well-known for his immersive adventure games Enemy Zero and D, as well as its ill-fated...
News New Wii Bundle to Hit British Shelves
Grab yourself all sorts of new gubbins for £180
Yes, we've just reported that the Wii's trade price has dropped, but that's not all the good news we have for those Brits yet to take the plunge and buy one of those Wii machines. That's right - biding your time and sitting on the fence may just have got you a good deal, as Nintendo has let slip that...
News UK Wii Price Continues to Resemble Rat Up a Drainpipe
Is it up or down today?
You may recall a few short weeks ago we reported that one UK games retailer had decided to increase the price of Wii consoles, as a result of the increased costs of buying the consoles from Nintendo (something else we covered!). However, we've just learnt that Nintendo are now set to decrease the unit cost of Wii consoles to...
Have your prayers been answered?
Cursed Mountain, like its ghostly enemies, came out of nowhere to surprise us: a bona fide adult game, where the phrase doesn't equate to gratuitous swearing, gore and nudity, designed exclusively for Wii. With a story heavy on Buddhist philosophies, a combat system that requires prayer gestures and plenty of other...
Review 2-in-1 Solitaire (DSiWare)
Like a deck of cards, only smaller...
As you'd expect from a 200 point version of Solitaire, you're not exactly going to be blown away by all the options on offer here. You've got Spider and Klondike versions of the card game, and they both have two initial difficulty settings to choose from, so once you've made your selections on both screens...
Far from the Madden crowd...
Taking its graphical cues from the recent Grand Slam Tennis, Madden NFL 10 on Wii eschews the hi-def emphasis on recreating every detail of the game, favouring a more stylised - though hardly cartoony - approach to the presentation. Defensive backs are bulky chunks of muscle, wide receivers are gangly running machines...
News A Boy and His Blob Transforms into Video Footage!
The first trailer is online now, and it looks rather tasty...
We're big fans of A Boy and His Blob here at Nintendo Life - in fact, you may remember a recent podcast featured an exclusive interview with creators WayForward! - so we were very excited to see the first trailer metamorphasise into view. As you can see, the game's 2D animation is...
Review Dictionary 6 in 1 with Camera Function (DSiWare)
Oh, what's the word? Ah yes - "exiguous"!
First things first – this is not a dictionary in the traditional sense of the word. Not a single entry here comes with a definition or any usage guidelines, just a list of the equivalent words in five other languages. What we have here is more of a word bank, and sadly not a hugely in-depth one at that...
Podcast Episode 7 - EA Interview Special!
We chat to EA about Dead Space: Extraction and Spore Hero!
It's a genuine bumper episode of the podcast this month, weighing in at a mighty 32m 06s! It's chock-full of quality content as well, as we talk to the producers of Dead Space: Extraction and Spore Hero about their upcoming releases, getting some juicy information out of them in the process!...
Famitsu print the first screenshots
Everybody loves a paintbrush-wielding white wolf game, but if there's on criticism we could level at the genre it's that there just aren't enough titles like the stellar Okami, released on Wii to great critical acclaim last year. Well, the genre is about to bulge again next year, with the announcement of Okamiden,...
First Impressions Ninja Captains
We get our claws into Nordcurrent's latest
As much as it dents our hardcore gamer image to say it, we love a good minigame compilation here at Nintendo Life. When we're not blasting through Space Pirates or springing to the rescue of princesses for the thousandth time, you'll often catch us waggling away to a batch of minigames, so it was with great...
News Assassin's Creed 2 Rated for DS
ESRB let slip a sequel to Altair's Chronicles
Although 2008's Assassin's Creed: Altair's Chronicles for DS may not have been one of the machine's most memorable titles, that hasn't deterred Ubisoft from putting together a sequel for the little handheld. The ESRB have just posted a rating for Assassin's Creed II: Discovery, and although the listing...
News Ninjas Spring Into Red Steel 2
Trains explode too, all in new gameplay video
No Wild West meets feudal Japan first-person shooting game would be complete without some deadly ninjas appearing, would it? That's obviously the thinking of those clever guys at Ubisoft, who recently revealed some brand new screenshots of their upcoming MotionPlus-demanding title Red Steel 2 showing off...
