Latest Features
Talking Point Nintendo's Lining Up A Huge Year Of Gaming In 2022
Setting its stall early
Even in more 'normal' times Nintendo would often head into a new year with a lot of its big hits still under wraps. A 3-6 month turnaround from announcement to release isn't uncommon from the company even for its most important games, and it still follows this template for some titles - Metroid Dread being a good example in...
Soapbox Sonic Frontiers' Open World Has The Potential To Deliver On An Old Promise
Boom or bust
Soapbox features enable our individual writers and contributors to voice their opinions on hot topics and random stuff they've been chewing over. Today, Stuart takes a look at the upcoming open-world Sonic game and ponders the promise it has, and pitfalls it has to negotiate... The Game Awards were a double-header for us Sonic fans. A...
Feature 10 Overlooked GameCube Gems You Must Play
Small(ish) library, BIG surprises!
The North American 20th anniversary of Nintendo's cube-y console is upon us and we’ve come to realise that two entire decades is long enough for people to either forget the GameCube’s charming boxy shape or even grow to adulthood without ever handling Nintendo’s handled hardware. "0 years is also plenty of...
Feature Masayuki Uemura, The Nintendo Engineer Who Helped Define The Modern Games Console
A look back over the career of the NES and SNES' lead architect
The sad news broke today that Masayuki Uemura, the lead architect on the NES and Super NES consoles, died on 6th December at the age of 78. Uemura was an instrumental figure in the formation of Nintendo as the video game company we know and love today — his hardware design credits...
Soapbox 8 Times I Ugly Cried At Kingdom Hearts
Gawrsh!
SPOILER WARNING! In the following article Stuart discusses some rather whopping spoilers as he takes us on an emotional and tearful Kingdom Hearts journey. If you haven't played the games and you're sensitive to spoilers, we recommend coming back in a year or so once you've played the lot. Otherwise, be warned that certain unfortunate events...
Feature 14 Wii Games That Deserve Switch Ports
Swiitch ports
It's now 15 years since Wii launched and the world was introduced to the inclusive delights of Wii Sports, waggle gaming, and Wii elbow. That little three-DVD-case-sized box of tricks delivered some real gems over its long life — many of which were tailor-made for the system's innovative remote-style motion controller and nunchuk and...
Feature Nintendo Hotliner Life 1990–93: Manning The Phones During The Console Wars
The curious tale of a Nintendo UK Hotliner
“Video Game Enthusiasts Wanted!” teased the advert in the Portsmouth Evening News. Other than a phone number, this mysterious call to arms offered no further information. But as a gaming obsessed 18-year-old looking for a job after finishing a BTEC in Computer Studies, I was mesmerised by the...
Feature 8 Games That Missed Nintendo Hardware
The most mysterious omissions in Nintendo history
Any longtime Nintendo fan knows that the company’s third-party publishing partners can be fair-weather friends. Plenty of the industry’s biggest franchises have been absent from Nintendo hardware for quite some time. In some cases, Nintendo’s own bold decisions over cartridges and standard...
Feature The Man Making Brand New NES Games In 2021
Alastair Low explains 8-bit love and how he's making games more dyslexia-friendly
Alastair Low hadn’t even been born when the NES was originally released in the UK. But he spent much of his childhood joyously playing on Nintendo’s 8-bit wonder machine after picking one up for a pittance at a car boot sale in the mid-1990s. “I remember getting...
Feature "The eShop Is Just Way Too Slow" - Deku Deals Creator On Nintendo's Switch Storefront
The best way to search for Switch deals sure ain't on Switch
Most fans would agree that Nintendo’s current eShop for Switch could use some work. Sure, it serves its purpose well from a purely transactional standpoint, but there are some glaring issues at the heart of it. The layout makes it difficult to just casually browse and find interesting...
Soapbox 2022 Is Looking Glorious For Tactics Games On Switch
Throw in a Fire Emblem to really treat us, Nintendo
Nintendo already has a number of high profile games lined up for Switch in 2022, and when you add third-parties to the mix it's looking very exciting indeed. One genre that is looking particularly good for the coming period is tactical games, in particular turn-based strategy tactics games. For...
Feature Best WarioWare Microgames Ever
Our Top 25, but what's at number WAAAAH-n?
With the latest in Nintendo’s utterly bonkers WarioWare series – WarioWare: Get It Together! — recently hitting shelves, we thought it seemed like a ripe old time to have a look back across the entire series and pick out the 25 very best Microgames of the whole thousand-odd we’ve seen so far...
Feature Where Does Competitive Pokémon Go From Here?
Aaron “Cybertron” Zheng on what the future holds
Two years have passed since Pokémon Sword and Shield inaugurated the eighth generation of Pokémon games. With it came indignation from some fans, though most agreed Sword and Shield didn’t flounder when it came to its competitive scene. Pokémon tournaments are played under the Video Game...
Back Page The Dark Secrets Of Brewster's 'Pigeon Milk' In Animal Crossing
We've got a latte questions
Brewster is finally coming to Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and we're going to find out more about everyone's favourite coffee-loving winged beast on Friday the 15th October — which is Brewster's birthday, don'tcha know. Players have been asking about/demanding Brewster for ages, like that one clip from The Mandalorian...
Feature Nintendo's Year In Review - Our Team Chat Switch, Games, And Silly 2021 Things
It sure was a year
The year is drawing to a close, and 2021 was another interesting period in the broader gaming industry and in the world of Nintendo. There were big online events, fantastic games, controversies and of course some enjoyable and humorous times. It was also, by most metrics and with consideration for the various challenges it faced,...
Feature Steven Spohn On Strides In Accessibility For Gaming, And Nintendo's Room For Improvement
"Back in the day Nintendo was at the forefront of accessibility, at some point they just stopped"
Earlier this year Steven Spohn hit an incredible fundraising landmark prior to his 40th Birthday; in forming alliances with a lot of creators and gamers globally, along with some welcome support from influential figures, he raised over one million...
Feature How The Super Mario Musical Got Made, And Avoided Nintendo's Cease & Desist
The secret is making Luigi a Scottish woman
The internet might be divided over Chris Pratt as Mario in the upcoming Super Mario movie, but we don't have to be satisfied with Hollywood's take on the plumber brothers, do we? The enterprising British theatre group Transfer Productions has just finished their first run of Mario! A Super Musical, which...
Feature Seriously, What The Heck Is Going On Inside Samus’ Morph Ball?
5 theories to solve an armour-plated mystery rolled up in an enigma
The Metroid series is now in its 35th year, and over that lengthy period of time Nintendo has happily elaborated on everything from its star’s childhood to flappy parent-killing nightmare Ridley, Metroids, Chozo, and even creepy Phazon-created evil clone. In short, virtually every...
Soapbox In Defence Of Balan Wonderworld, 'The Worst Game Of 2021'
And after all, you're my Wonderworrrld
Soapbox features enable our individual writers to voice their own opinions on hot topics or random stuff they've been thinking about. Today, Stuart discusses his love and admiration of a game dubbed 'the worst' of the past year... Hello, my name is Stuart Gipp, and I think Balan Wonderworld is quite good...
Soapbox Wave Race 64 Is Now 25 Years Old, And It Still Rules
Maximum Power!
Let's get the controversial early opinion out of the way, just so any pitchfork wielders can start sharpening their implements right away: a lot of Nintendo 64 games haven't aged very well. Of course they haven't, because it was a console in which Nintendo was at the bleeding edge of 3D graphical technology, a bold move that seized it...
"I think what they're gonna see is a nice live-feeling and chaotic show"
Listen, Rob's not messing around here. He knows his games As we reported just a few days ago, Scottish comedian, writer, poet and self-professed "God of Games" Robert Florence has been announced as host of the upcoming reboot of Channel 4's iconic GamesMaster. Alongside...
Feature Nintendo Life's Alternative Game Awards 2021
Best Late Arrival! Best Non-2021 Game! Best Game That Doesn't Fit Anywhere Else!
Ah yes, that idle final week in December where some people head back to work, and others relax until new year filling their days with what they love — video games, for example. Good choice! We've already totted up our personal scores and bestowed our staff Game of...
Feature What Is The Zelda 'Formula'? We Break Down The Secret Recipe
12 ingredients that make a game feel like Zelda
Have you ever played a game and thought, “This feels a bit like Zelda?” Only the other week, we described the excellent Eastward as “quite a bit like a 2D Zelda game”, and the PC/Xbox game Death's Door — a title that our sister site Pure Xbox called "a 2021 GOTY contender" when awarding it a...
Talking Point Remember When People Thought Switch Would Fail?
Nintendo is DOOMED
2016 is a long, long, loooong time ago now, but I'll try to take you back to October 20th, 2016, the day the Nintendo Switch was announced. The US Presidential Election was looming, Brexit was still a massive question mark, and Disney's Moana, Disney's Rogue One, Disney's Captain America: Civil War, and Disney's Finding Dory were...
Lena Raine talks Chrono Trigger and wanting to write "a really rowdy anime opening"
Lena Raine's meteoric rise over the past few years has taken her from working in Quality Assurance at ArenaNet, all the way to being nominated for a BAFTA and an award for Best Music at The Game Awards — pretty impressive for someone who's technically only nine...
"Leave it to the big companies to overwhelm the players... let's do what only we can do!"
Here at Nintendo Life we're huge fans of Ancient, the company set up by composer Yuzo Koshiro and his family which has worked on some absolute brilliant games over the last three decades — including Mega Drive classics Streets of Rage 2 and Beyond Oasis, and...
Feature How Accessible Are Zelda, Pokémon And Animal Crossing For Blind Gamers?
Top Nintendo Switch games evaluated for players with vision loss
When it comes to accessibility options in video games, some companies have been quicker than others to acknowledge the need and introduce basic features into their games. While progress has been made over the past few years, there's still much room for improvement and even the most...
Feature 30 Years Of Sonic The Hedgehog - The Many Faces Of Mario's Biggest Rival
The personal recap of the fastest thing alive
Over the last three decades, many types of Sonic fan have emerged and evolved. The type of fan you are often depends on where you jumped aboard the platforming franchise. You've got your 2D purists, your handheld advocates, your 3D defenders, your Werehog worriers, your people who say the 8-bit games...
Feature Artist Kamui Fujiwara Talks Terranigma Amid Drive To Resurrect Classic SNES RPG
"It means the quest is not over, right?"
Terranigma is a SNES title that holds a special place in the heart of many an RPG fan, which is remarkable when you consider that it was only released in Japan and Europe, and bypassed North America entirely. Part of Quintet's loose RPG trilogy (which also includes Soul Blazer and Illusion of Gaia),...
"Switch would, indeed, be a very good fit for them"
Charles Cecil needs no introduction to lovers of adventure games. The veteran designer co-founded Revolution Software in 1990 and produced a series of classic graphic adventure games including Lure of the Temptress and the Broken Sword series. His most recent project, Beyond a Steel Sky, released...
Quick Beats Streets Of Rage Composer On Musical Heroes And The Series He'd Love To Work On
10 rapid-fire questions for VGM legend Yuzo Koshiro
Throughout the Nintendo Life Video Game Music Festival we're speaking to a range of composers and musicians for a mixture of in-depth interviews and shorter, sharper (and perhaps a little goofier) Q&As where we ask just ten rapid-fire personal questions; we're calling these shorter features...
Quick Beats Grant Kirkhope On How Batman Inspired Banjo-Kazooie
"I’ve used [those chords] a gazillion times, it’s in everything I write"
Throughout the Nintendo Life Video Game Music Festival we're speaking to a range of composers and musicians for a mixture of in-depth interviews and shorter, sharper (and perhaps a little goofier) Q&As where we ask just ten rapid-fire personal questions; we're calling...
Feature Ranking The Playable Instruments Of The Legend Of Zelda, From Worst To Best
Link, the one-man orchestra
Our Nintendo Life Video Game Music Festival will be coming to an end soon, and we can't think of a better way to send it off than spending way too much time analysing musical instruments in the Legend of Zelda series. Everyone knows and loves the Ocarina of Time, it's true — but it's far from the only instrument the...
Feature Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix, Or That Time Mario Got Movin’ To Mozart
The funky rhythm comin’ at ya!
On the surface Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix appears to be the ordinary and obvious by-product of Konami and Nintendo continuing to operate in the same creative space. After all, by the time of the game’s 2005 release, Mario had already been doing non-Mario things for a very long time — he could paint, ride...
Feature Tee Lopes Talks Sonic, Streets Of Rage, And Making Music On A PS1
"Video games were a portal that allowed me to discover music"
Fans of certain beloved Sega franchises should be very familiar with this composer's name by now. Tee Lopes started out on the VGM scene releasing remixed and reimagined versions of some of gaming's most beloved music, with a special focus on one blue hedgehog in particular, and his...
Soapbox The Term 'Indie' Is Losing Meaning, But Maybe That's A Positive Sign
The games industry has come a long way in a short time
Back in the pre-internet / download store days of the Console 'Bit' Wars, the way we bought and enjoyed games could not have been more different. Video games were expensive store purchases, and often you'd rely on renting games that you couldn't afford or couldn't 'commit' to buying. No...
Feature Nintendo Switch Ports We'd Love To See In 2022
Golden op-port-unities
Another year, another 12 months of quality Switch ports. The past couple of years we've published a small wishlist of ports we'd love to see come to Switch and, on the whole, we've been pleased to see several games crossover to our favourite handheld hybrid. Last year, for example, we were jonesing for Fall Guys, Outer Wi
Feature Doki Doki Literature Club Creator On Revisiting The Club Members In 'Plus'
"The characters stick with you because they feel like friends"
It's not every day that a visual novel has the chance to shock and awe the world like Doki Doki Literature Club did on PC back in 2017. The game proved to be a hit, but console gamers were left waiting for some way to experience the tale this anime dating sim tells. Flash forward to the...
Feature Ex-Nintendo Employee On 'Holy Grails', Meeting Heroes, And Preserving A $10K Kirby Card
"As a fan, I was mortified at the thought of destroying any of it"
Over the holidays we're republishing some of our best features, interviews, opinion pieces and talking points from the previous 12 months from staff and contributors alike — articles that we feel represent our best of 2021. In them you'll find our usual mix of thoughtfulness,...
Speaking to the minds behind NEO: The World Ends With You
While NEO: The World Ends With You seemingly didn't meet its publisher's sales expectations, there's clearly a sizeable fanbase surrounding the series – and we were lucky enough to sit down with the minds behind this captivating universe for an exclusive interview. We spoke to Tomohiko...
Feature The Many Faces Of Donkey Kong, Nintendo's 40-Year-Old Gorilla
Four decades of DK
Nintendo’s monkey of manifold mantles – one Donkey Kong, Esq. – recently turned 40. Forty years young and still so vital, but it could be reasonably argued that the ol’ Kongmeister has been undergoing a bit of an identity crisis for most of his lifespan. The man-ape has turned from heel to face to heel more times than The...
Feature Why Was Among Us Translated Into Irish?
Fuist!
Last week, it was announced that Among Us, the fantastically popular friend-murdering game, was localised officially into Irish. For many (mostly, the Irish) it was an exciting thing; for others, the response was mostly: "But why?" It's a legitimate question — Irish, or Gaeilge, is only spoken by around 40% of the Irish population, and is...
Feature Treasure Games That Need Switch Ports Or Sequels
We’re going on a Treasure hunt
The aptly-named Japanese studio Treasure — in spite of its fondness for focusing on less popular formats and its infrequent and occasionally Japan-only releases — has long been a developer famed throughout all of game-dom for the consistent originality and sheer quality that runs through its work. Formed in 1992...
Talking Point New Super Mario Bros. Is 15 Years Old, And It's Still Fantastic
Celebrating Mario's big 2D comeback on its anniversary
It’s quite funny to consider that the highest-selling Nintendo DS game of all time - shifting in excess of 30 million copies worldwide – is still a title I’d consider to be under-rated. If anything, it’s respected as the formative entry in a divisive series that’s considered to never...
Back Page To All The Low-Level Enemies I've Slaughtered
It's time to kick ass and feel bad, and I'm all out of ass
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...
Feature A Look Back At Nintendo's Long History Of Art, Music And Game Making Software
Over 35 years of programmin', paintin' and makin'
Between the Super Mario Maker games, Miitopia, and now the soon to be released Game Builder Garage, the last decade has seen Nintendo embrace the creativity of its players to produce fun content for all to experience. It’s amazing to see the creativity of the communities that form around these...
Feature The Story Of The Game Genie, The Cheat Device Nintendo Tried (And Failed) To Kill
The cheat cartridge that cost Nintendo millions
Much has been written about cheating in games. The history of which is so old and entwined it's difficult to find its origins. Developers included cheats to aid development, from Manic Miner to Gradius. In computer games, it was possible for players to 'POKE' data values and change things, with old...
Feature The Best Hidden Gems And Underrated Switch Games Of 2021
Some overlooked games you might have missed
The sheer wealth of software coming to Switch eShop on a weekly basis has been hard to keep up with since launch and, try as we might, over time it has become increasingly difficult to review every Switch game we'd like to. In 2021 more than ever, even intriguing-looking titles have had to be passed-over...
Feature From Famicom Disk System To Switch - The Evolution Of Nintendo's Miis
Love Mii do
Ah, the Mii. We remember when we first made our own Miis back in 2006. Back then the most character customisation we had experienced was probably with The Sims, so making Miis of our friends, family and favourite video game characters was a fun pastime. It's a real shame, then, that Nintendo stepped away from their Miis, presumably in an...
Feature 'Arcade Perfect' Be Damned: R-Type DX Is Still Portable Perfection
Bydo To The Future
R-Type may be 34 years old but the beyond-enthusiastic reception for R-Type Final 2's Kickstarter proved Irem’s long-running series is much more than a nostalgic memory held close by a few greying fans, or vintage shmup still hazily respected from a great distance. R-Type can still generate hype and open up wallets; the thought...
