January2011

  • News Zelda: Skyward Sword Getting "Finishing Touches"

    Link's latest looks locked for later this...year

    It's been a while since we heard anything concrete about the highly awaited The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Revealed at E3 2010 with nary a peep afterward, until one day last December, out of nowhere, Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto poked his head out to say "it's half-finished, y'all."...

  • First Impressions Kid Icarus: Uprising

    Our Big N hearts go Pit-ter patter

    As its sequel itself is keen to point out in a tongue-in-cheek manner, it's been 24 years since Pit flapped his wings up, up and away in his nail-biting platform debut Kid Icarus. The NES original cribbed the best bits of franchises like Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda and Metroid and crafted an ambitious,...

  • News Launching This Spring is Nintendo's Secretive Title, Pandora's Tower

    It's about death, or something...

    During Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata's presentation at the company's Third Quarter Financial Results Briefing, a new Nintendo title for the Wii was announced and should be hitting Japan in the first half of 2011. Not much is known about the game at the moment, with the most solid of facts being the game will carry the...

  • News 3DS Update in May Includes eShop and Other Applications

    Better late than never

    Recent reports of the Nintendo eShop being ready when the 3DS launches have now been countered by Nintendo's Q3 financial results briefing. The report states that the download store won't be available until the system's first update which will be rolled out towards the end of May, and that will be the case for other markets...

  • News Reggie Explains Why Nintendo Stuck With Friend Codes For 3DS

    Easier now for gamers, but is it the most convenient overall method?

    Nintendo knows that one area it needs to improve on is its online strategy, and in particular, the online functionality of its range of hardware. With the upcoming 3DS, the company is hoping to improve on several areas that its been lacking in in recent years: one example is a more...

  • Interviews Dr. Hank Chien, the Current King of Kong

    Doctor Kong tells all

    We recently live blogged former King of Kong Steve Wiebe's attempt to take back the Donkey Kong record, but before last March, we weren't even aware that a new champ was out there. We recently sat down with the New York plastic surgeon to get his thoughts on his rise to fame, competitive playing and more as well as get some...

  • First Impressions PilotWings Resort

    PilotWings returns after a billion years

    Another long-abandoned fan-favorite series, PilotWings debuted on SNES but hasn't seen the flight of day since the N64 launched way back in the mid-90's with the lovely PilotWings 64. But despite the series' rarity, the third installment, PilotWings Resort, which we were able to go hands-on with in Amsterdam...

  • News Australian 3DS Event Set for February 8th

    Release date and price likely to be revealed

    Nintendo Australia has announced that they'll be holding an event on February 8th in Sydney to discuss their launch plans for Nintendo's upcoming 3DS system. While no specifics of the event have been detailed so far, speculation points to an Australian release date and price point being revealed to the...

  • News European 3DS Launch Line-up Close to Being Finalised

    To be revealed a lot sooner than the Japanese launch

    Seven weeks prior to the upcoming Japanese launch of the 3DS, Nintendo was in a position where it officially revealed the launch titles that will be released in conjunction with the console. Whilst Nintendo of Europe isn't quite ready to announce what titles will be available on 25th March, the...

  • News The Official 3DS UK Tour Starts Next Month

    Four cities announced so far

    You have to see it to be believe it. That's what Nintendo thinks consumers ought to do with the upcoming 3DS anyways, and if that's the ethos that Nintendo is going by, then what better way is there to let the public know about the 3DS than a nationwide UK tour? That's exactly what Nintendo has up its sleeves and to...

  • News Why the 3DS Will Not Use an Achievement System

    Nintendo appeals to gamers' sense of discovery

    Across the current generation of game systems, all but Nintendo's have one thing in common – some sort of Achievement scheme. This is a feature that tracks certain actions performed and points reached across titles, tallying it all into one cumulative score. Nintendo's Bill Trinen has said that even...

  • First Impressions The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D

    The Hero of Time, now in three dee's

    Few games are as hotly anticipated for Nintendo's upcoming handheld as The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, and with good reason: when the game originally hit the N64 in 1998 it was quickly hailed by gaming's vox populi as the greatest game ever. That's a title that many still bestow upon it after 13 years...

  • First Impressions 3DS Virtual Console

    Time travel meets blur-o-vision

    Virtually nothing is known about how the 3DS will handle its new eShop apart from that it will eventually offer a Virtual Console for Game Boy and Game Boy Color software, and in New York City and Amsterdam this past Wednesday Nintendo Life was able to test out a couple of games confirmed for Shop shelves: Super Mario...

  • News Nintendo Defends European Retailers' Pricing of the 3DS

    There's nothing else like it on the market

    Nintendo's launch announcement of the upcoming 3DS was bittersweet yesterday as the release date and schedule of games were missing the all-important price tag of the system itself. With no final pricing currently determined for the U.K. and the rest of Europe, the majority of retailers have listed the...

  • News There's a Limit on Transferring Software from One 3DS to Another

    Your games are going places... just not too many places

    While we've known about the ability to transfer DSiWare to the 3DS for a while now and learned today about transferring software between devices (DSiWare, 3DSWare and Virtual Handheld), we've just found out that there will be a limit to how many license transfers you can make. From Play.c

  • News 3DS Hardware Details

    Nintendo spills the beans on the 3DS and all of its features and hardware specs

    We've already seen tons of information floating around about Nintendo's upcoming 3DS system, but with today's revelations, we decided it was time to collect all of the various bits of information into one tidy spot. You can check out all of the information we currently...

  • News Nintendo Confirms 3DS Will Be Region-Locked

    To what extent?

    Back at E3 2010, Nintendo revealed that the decision on whether the 3DS will be region-locked hadn't been made yet, and just earlier this month, an alleged portion of a Nintendo support email spoke of "region codes" being built into the 3DS system and its games. Ahead of Nintendo's dual 3DS conference tomorrow, the company...

  • News Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle to get Daily New Puzzles

    Level-5 really is outdoing itself

    Fans of the Professor Layton series should by now be familiar with Level-5's commitment to providing post-release content in the form of new puzzles, and the upcoming 3DS instalment isn't about to break that habit. Previous games in the franchise have provided new puzzles which could be downloaded on a weekly basis,...

  • Live Text Steve Wiebe Attempts to Re-Claim Donkey Kong World Record

    It's on!

    Today at 3:30 PM CST, we'll be bringing you live text updates below of Steve Wiebe's Donkey conquest to take back the title from Dr. Hank Chien. We'll be live at Chicago, IL's Logan Hardware bringing you to-the-second updates on the schoolteacher's climbing score. Will he reach a kill screen? Will he top Dr. Chien's 1,068,000 points? Will...

  • News Limited Edition Pokemon Black and White DSis to Hit Europe

    Black or white?

    When Pokémon Black and White hit Europe on March 4th, choosing which coloured game to go for won't be the only difficult decision on the shelves, as the games will also launch alongside two limited edition DSi consoles. Available in black or white, the bundles come with a copy of the appropriately-coloured game, with the console...

  • News Iwata Hints at 3D Video Recording with Future 3DS Updates

    Another string to the 3DS's bow

    Along with the games that are in production for the upcoming 3DS, it seems Nintendo has allowed itself enough room to experiment with other uses and applications for the device. In a 3DS edition of Iwata Asks, the President of Nintendo Japan Satoru Iwata talks about the popularity of 3D cameras and hints at the...

  • News Nintendo Praises Sony and Microsoft's Contributions to Gaming Industry

    Keep your friends close and your enemies closer

    Gone are the days when you could call Nintendo a big fish in a small pond. Modern gaming has undoubtedly expanded the size of the waters, and there are once again, several big fish that inhabit said pond. Speaking at the Learning Without Frontiers conference yesterday in London, General Manager of...

  • News Contents of 3DS Box Revealed

    Charging cradle and 2GB SD card included

    Everyone loves packaging, and Gizmodo has just revealed what's inside that of the 3DS. As well as the system, the box will hold a charging cradle, AC adaptor, 10cm touch pen, 2GB SD card, six augmented reality cards and instruction booklets, screen shots of which were earlier posted by Famitsu. They also...

  • Rumour The D in DSi May Soon Stand for "Discontinued"

    From two screens to zero

    Nintendo has already announced plans to continue to support the DS once the 3DS is released. Some disquieting information from a Japanese retailer, however, suggests that the Big N is already discontinuing one popular incarnation, the DSi, which hit store shelves there in fall of 2008. The source states that the Nintendo DSi...

  • News Steve Wiebe Attempting to Reclaim Toppled Donkey Kong Record This Saturday

    Join us as we bring you live coverage

    Round and round the high score wheel goes, and yesterday it stopped once more on New York plastic surgeon Dr. Hank Chien with a barrel-blasting 1,068,000 points, besting Wiebe's September record by a cool 4,000. However, this Saturday Wiebe will attempt to take it back again, and you can tune in to Nintendo Life...