Author Profile
- Username
- TimLatshaw
- Articles
- 462 (104 reviews)
- First Article
- Sun 24th, March 2013
- Avg. Review Score
- 6.0
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Review Mario Tennis (GBC) - Camelot's Ace Little Tennis RPG Is Hard To Fault
Courts of appeal
This review originally went live in 2014, and we're updating and republishing it to celebrate the game's arrival in Switch's Game Boy (Color) library via Nintendo Switch Online. For whatever its name is worth, Mario Tennis doesn’t feature a lot of the red guy — at least at first. That may come as an initial disappointment to...
Review Excitebike 64 - An Underrated Racer That Deserves To Ride With Its N64 Stablemates
Hold onto your handlebars
This review originally went live in 2016, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the game's arrival on Switch as part of the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack. Of the sports games in the N64 era, Excitebike 64 feels left out of conversation more often than siblings such as Wave Race 64 and 1080° Snowboarding...
Review EarthBound Beginnings - A Charming Curio That Mother Fans Will Cherish
Everybody's gotta start somewhere
This review originally went live in 2015, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the arrival of EarthBound Beginnings in the Nintendo Switch Online NES library. If you were an early adopter of EarthBound fanaticism in the West, you likely caught wind of a previous title made for the Famicom. Translated...
Review Paper Mario (N64) - A Well-Crafted Creation That Stands Up Beautifully
Historical document
This review originally went live in 2017, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the addition of Paper Mario to the other N64 games on Nintendo Switch Online. Can we take a moment to appreciate just how gloriously wacky it is that a game like Paper Mario exists in the first place? This is an idea that followed in the...
Review Kirby's Blowout Blast (3DS eShop)
A Past from the Blast
After 25 years, the Kirby universe has enough material to fill a Hyrule Historia-like compendium (hint, hint). Many games along the way have added little quirks and abilities to shake things up, but Kirby’s Blowout Blast takes a decidedly throwback approach by channelling the veteran hero’s first game. Blowout Blast strips...
Review Dangerous Road (3DS eShop)
Road worrier
The history of video games where animals play in traffic is a very staggered one. Frogger hit the scene in 1981, then nary a croak was heard from any other property until 2014's Crossy Road gained mobile popularity. Dangerous Road on the 3DS eShop borrows a lot from its Crossy counterpart, but is unlikely to leave its splat on history...
Review Gurumin 3D: A Monstrous Adventure (3DS eShop)
Ceci n'est pas une drill
An often overlooked strength of the 3DS eShop is the way it can serve as an unexpected harbour for under-the-radar gems. We likely never would have touched Yumi's Odd Odyssey without the eShop, nor seen a contemporary remake of Steel Empire. Add to these ranks Gurumin 3D: A Monstrous Adventure, which originally saw light on...
Review Wind-up Knight 2 (New 3DS)
A New 3DS Noble
There have been more animals who have been nominated for governmental office in the world than games exclusive to the New 3DS. Yet of this meager pool, two are runner-style titles. There is the upcoming Runbow Pocket, which to be fair is more of an action-platformer, and then there is Wind-up Knight 2, available on the New 3DS...
Review Unholy Heights (3DS eShop)
Movin' on down
The economy can be a merciless force, even if you're a malevolent being bent on world domination. The Devil, finding the life of a salaryman just isn't cutting it with his plans, leaves his job and buys an apartment out in the surprisingly picturesque projects, hoping to raise an army of monstrous tenants to storm the globe. Yep,...
Review Rynn's Adventure: Trouble in the Enchanted Forest (Wii U eShop)
You Rynn some...
Nintendo is certainly no slouch when it comes to platformers. Mario, Kirby and DK all provide superlative experiences, but there's still plenty of room for newcomers. Rynn's Adventure: Trouble in The Enchanted Forest has the colour and whimsy to fit in with a top class of platformers at first glance, but could stand to be a bit more...
Review Tumblestone (Wii U eShop)
Block party
A few generations ago, puzzle games had a prominent presence on home consoles. Brimming with individual personality, many could be relied upon to offer some fun single- or multi-player play. You don't see as many of these games any more. Puzzle games have migrated more towards mobile platforms, a large number swirling together into a...
Review Chroma Blast (Wii U eShop)
Palette swap
If you want colourful battles, video games have long been a good place to find them - at least in many cases. Colour has long shown us which barrels explode, which enemies take more hits, and where exactly our turf is. Chroma Blast takes the colour of competition and strips it down into a simple, abstract package. Players control a...
To be a 'noid
Classic arcade styles have stood the test of time, making them ideal subjects for experimentation. Combine two in a certain way and you might just make a delicious chocolate/peanut butter combo of fun. The retro concoction of INVANOID, however, is a different matter. INVANOID combines the downward travelling foes of Space Invaders...
Review SPLASHY DUCK (Wii U eShop)
Just keep swimmin'
So why did the duck cross the water? In SPLASHY DUCK, it's to grab a bunch of coins before colliding with a whale. So, uh, now you know? SPLASHY DUCK is another addition to the RCMADIAX line of simply designed score attack games. The player guides a duck endlessly swimming a vertical channel in the middle of the screen. When...
E3 2016 Paper Mario: Color Splash Dated for 7th October
Treehouse will fill us in on more soon
While The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has taken up the majority of Nintendo's Treehouse Live time in its first day, the second day holds looks at a wider variety of games. One of the titles up for a look, Paper Mario: Color Splash, has been given a release date as well. According to a North American...
E3 2016 Nintendo Unveils Massive E3 eShop Sale in North America
Additional 10% off some titles with My Nintendo
Nintendo's presence at E3 also comes with eShop deals for Wii U and 3DS owners in North America. There's a focus on Zelda and Pokémon games, but other top titles including Super Smash Bros. and Splatoon are also up price cuts. Games from both Nintendo and third parties are on sale from 14-21 June...
Review B3 Game Expo For Bees (Wii U eShop)
Hot Buzz
There is something so delightfully goofy and left-field about the premise of B3 Game Expo for Bees that it's difficult not to be utterly charmed by it. A bee security guard protecting bee gaming companies in a "convention hive" from a firsties-obsessed robotic bear? That's the type of organized randomness that can make for something...
Review Kick & Fennick (Wii U eShop)
A boy, a bot, and a really big gun
When picking up any platformer for the first time, it's just second nature to check for the jump button. They're so ingrained in the experience, you're likely hearing Mario's sound effect in your head even as you're reading this. Look for a jump button in Kick & Fennick, however, and you're not going to find...
Review Sudoku and Permudoku (Wii U eShop)
Grids meet GamePad
Type "sudoku" into the search engine here at Nintendo Life and you'll discover two things. First, there are a lot of sudoku games out there, from children's starters starring Lola the Panda to those proclaiming to be for elite brains only. Second, of all these games, only this one here, Sudoku & Permudoku, is designed for the...
Review 8Bit Hero (Wii U eShop)
Crawls flat
Retro-style pixelation is a tricky commodity to master. Pull it off well in a game and players can bask in warm, fuzzy nostalgia or (for the young'uns) simply enjoy an artful use of the form. If you don't integrate it well, players might just wonder why the style choice was made in the first place. 8Bit Hero unfortunately leans toward...
Review Escape From Flare Industries (Wii U eShop)
Not up to inspection
There are some best practices that can be followed when manufacturing a puzzle platformer for the masses. A cute character, easy-to-understand controls and a simple objective are often positives, and Escape from Flare Industries does deliver these in its packaging. Unfortunately, the end product suffers from some defects that...
Review Midnight 2 (Wii U eShop)
Another round with a square
It's not easy to mix chill with challenge, and yet the Midnight series somehow manages to do a quite decent job of it. Petite Games has brought the twilight golf-like back for another go, providing another round of stages with next to no changes in the formula. Midnight 2 should feel right at home to those who played its...
Random Watch Bowser Perform Rhythmic Gymnastics
Shh... Just let it wash over you
So the Nintendo UK Twitter account up and posted this video from Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games recently. No rhyme, no warning. Such is art. [tweet 727875893700403200] In your most desperate moment, when your back is against the wall and the light of hope is but a dim, warmless dot, may you...
Review Dodge Club Party (Wii U eShop)
Dot's all, folks!
Last year, Dot Arcade on the Wii U eShop simmered gameplay down into its simplest, retro arcade-like form and served it up with pizzazz. One of the three games available in that package has now busted out as Dodge Club Party, upping the number of players yet losing much of its flair in the process. Dodge Club Party operates very...
