Latest Features - Page 2
"Maybe I should start calling them chunks?"
June 5th marked the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2, but that very same day (or the day before on other consoles), the highly anticipated continuation of Deltarune, in Chapters 3 and 4, also hit digital shelves. If you've had the chance to catch our review, you'll know we fully believe this Undertale...
Opinion I Reviewed 25 Switch 2 Games In 2025, And These Are My Top 3 Picks
The A+ Team
Yes, yes, I know. Only 25 games since June. I am a lazy sod. Regardless, I've had quite the ride thus far with my Switch 2. We're still not that far out from launch, and I expect super-duper exciting things in 2026. Loads of 'em. I can smell it. Oh no, wait, that was just my dog. Now, while I haven't had the opportunity to review all...
Back Page Every Game Should Have A Cow
No bull
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 we still love terrible jokes — so welcome to our...
"It's a homage to my mum and my childhood"
Everyone remembers the first animated movie that scared them. For me, it was The Fox and the Hound — probably not the first movie in Disney's canon that anyone remembers, but it was one of my brother's favourites, so it was on regular rotation. Which means that the bear attack towards the end of the movie...
Opinion Strange Antiquities Is A True Treasure In A Puzzle Game-Filled Year
Antiquities, the Greek God of Old Vases
If you think more games should be about giving cursed skulls to weird strangers, then I'm here to tell you that you're fine, you're normal, you're right, and you should play Strange Antiquities. You may have already played Bad Viking's first game in the 'Strange' series, Strange Horticulture, a...
Feature Farewell, Nintendo Switch - It's Finally Time To Bid Our Old Friend 'Adieu'
Don't think twice, it's all right
It's time to say goodbye. Well, not really. The massively popular Switch will live on in a way few other Nintendo consoles have done thanks to backwards compatibility, a host of free upgrades to existing games, and a Switch 2 form factor that keeps everything about the previous console. As generational jumps go, it...
Talking Point Our 2026 Nintendo And Switch 2 Predictions
What's in store?
Well, folks, it seems like only yesterday we were looking ahead at Nintendo's 2025 with a sense of unwavering optimism, and now here we are – it's certainly been a year. The Switch 2 finally arrived, bringing with it a plethora of goodwill and controversy alike, ushering in a new generation that, if initial sales are anything to...
Feature "The Yoyo Was Special" - Finding The GBA Magic In 'Pipistrello And The Cursed Yoyo'
Scoot over, Ness
We've had our eyes on this long-lost GBA-looking adventure ever since we first discovered it at Gamescom back in 2024. The combat, movement, and visuals instantly reminded us of the handheld Zelda entries, but instead of a sword, the main protagonist uses a yoyo to dispatch foes and solve loads of puzzles. You've also got a spunky,...
Opinion Not Enough People Are Talking About This Early GOTY Contender
Centennial masterpiece
Warning: This article delves into spoiler territory for The Hundred Line - Last Defense Academy. If you've yet to play the game and want to go in blind, we recommend you come back at another time... I’m not a fan of tactical RPGs… is what I would have told you before I played The Hundred Line - Last Defense Academy...
Editorial Gamers, Support The People And Sites You Love, Before It's Too Late
Forever
If you're coming to this after the fact, we should note that the Giant Bomb story had a happy ending, with the staff buying GB from Fandom and going independent. Yes! Nevertheless, in another turbulent year for the games industry and the media covering it, it's more important than ever to support the work you love... Well, we've come to...
Opinion I Finally Finished Ring Fit Adventure, And It Might Be Peak Nintendo?
I might just be tired
I must have some kind of record for Ring Fit, if not internationally (see: here), then at least for the West Midlands. I played 10 hours over the weekend, which probably sounds like a lot. I can confirm it was. You know those charity fundraisers of dancing for 24 hours or whatever? It wasn't that. All I raised was my knees (a...
Opinion Cult Classic 'Tokimeki Memorial' Hits Switch - But 30 Years On, It's Still Out Of Reach
Forever with you; never with us
True love lasts forever – and so do some games. Tokimeki Memorial: Forever with You, the legendary dating sim from 1995, is hooking up with Switch next month to celebrate 30 years on the scene. Immaculately presented but bewilderingly complex, TokiMemo is a foundational piece of video game history that defined a...
Feature "It's Huge For Us" - Devs Talk Switch 2 Reactions, Dev-Kit Disparity, Future Plans
What devs make of Switch 2
In case you somehow missed it, Nintendo has officially lifted the lid on Switch 2, cueing all sorts of excitement and apprehension from those of us who have been loyally playing our Switch 1s for the past eight years. It's an exciting time to be a player, but how does it feel from a developer's standpoint? Is the Switch 2...
Talking Point Does Switch 2 Have Nintendo's Best Launch Line-Up Ever?
Let's see how it matches up
I don't know about you, but I'm already giving my shelf space a worried look as I consider the number of Switch 2 launch titles I want to pick up. It's been just about a week since Nintendo revealed the Switch 2 and its 21 separate launch games (24 if you include those dropping on the NSO GameCube library), which, the...
Feature "It's A Perversion Of The Whole Thing" - Jeff Minter On Scam Games, Switch 2, And 'I, Robot'
"There's pride in it for me"
Jeff Minter is, perhaps quite rightly, referred to as a legend within the gaming industry. His career following the founding of Llamasoft in 1982 has spawned dozens of the most unique and recognisable titles in existence, including Tempest 4000, Akka Arrh, Polybius, Attack of the Mutant Camels, and Gridrunner. Those...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? (27th December)
What did Santa bring?
Well folks, that's another Christmas done for the year – we hope you've had a peaceful, relaxing time, whether you celebrate or not. It's been a pretty quiet week, understandably, but Nintendo managed to squeeze in a cheeky update for Donkey Kong Bananza on the Switch 2, so make sure to download that. Nintendo also hit us...
Feature Nintendo Life's Alternative Awards 2025
Best 'squirrel with a gun' game, most 'Huh?' Nintendo moment, and more!
Hello, well met stranger, and welcome to Jurassic Park! Nintendo Life's Alternative Awards 2025! It's been...well...it's been a year in which we have all existed, that's for sure, and as a result games happened. Loads of them, in fact. Of course, and as is tradition at this...
Feature But The Future Can Change - Chrono Trigger And Learning To Love The World
The Corridors of Time
Note: If you haven't played Chrono Trigger to completion...what are you playing at? If you're sensitive to spoilers, come back when you're done as we discuss end-game details below... “But... the future refused to change.” For the most part, Chrono Trigger is a chirpy, cheery game. It’s lightning in a bottle, a...
Feature "I Was Seeing Him In My Dreams" - Nintendo Veteran Just Can't Shake Shigeru Miyamoto
"He got a good laugh out of that"
There’s no question that Nintendo makes some of the best video games in the world thanks to its incredibly skilled and passionate in-house and partner developers. But how often does the company let those developers speak freely about the games they make? Last year we got the opportunity to chat with the legendary...
Opinion My Daughter Made Me Realise That Mario Wonder's Difficulty Options Need Work
Yoshi or Nabbit, make your choice
I suspect many of my fellow parents can relate to this, but when you have your first child, a whole bevvy of problems that never existed before are suddenly thrust upon you. “Do we have enough nappies?”“Oh God, she missed the potty again.”“No, you can’t sit there Daddy, my Peppa Pig toy is sitting...
Feature I Play This One Particular SNES Game Every Xmas As A Personal Tradition
Please help me
It was the Christmas of 1992. Mr Blobby was the funniest thing on television (according to your parents), and Whitney Houston had been tricked into singing a love song about everyone's favourite sentient cardigan, Kevin Costner (I feel like I'm having a war flashback now). And me? Well, I was having a great time despite all of this,...
Editorial Happy Holidays From Everyone At Nintendo Life
So here it is...
And here we are once more! It's Yule! Navidad! Xmas! Chrimbo! Rudolphtide! Grinchtingle! Erm... Richard Curtistime? Hmm. Merry Christmas, everyone. It's been a big year for Nintendo fans and the wider gaming industry, with new hardware, a load of new games, even more new versions of old games, plus plenty of challenges, with life's...
Feature Citizen Sleeper Dev Talks Sequels, Stress & Creating "My Own Take On The Mass Effect Series"
Wake up, Sleeper
Citizen Sleeper was, coincidentally, one of 2022's sleeper hits. With its combination of top-tier writing and decision-based gameplay, this table-top-inspired RPG and space adventure pulled us into its airlock and wouldn't let us out until we had played through the emotional damage of witnessing every possible outcome (and yes, that...
Opinion After A Few Missteps, Story Of Seasons Finally Nailed The Formula With Grand Bazaar
We're so back, baby
If you don't already know about the schism between Story of Seasons and Harvest Moon, read up on it! But TL;DR, Story of Seasons is the OG – the original farming game series that sparked thousands of copycats hoping to carve out a slice of that cosy game pie. And who can blame them? The farming game genre is a fantastic,...
Opinion This GOTY Pick Might Be My Most Morbid Yet
Belt and braces
If you haven't played the fabulous Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector yet, well, what are you waiting for? We'd recommend bookmarking this one if you haven't, as this piece contains major spoilers for the endgame. You've been warned... "Wake up, Sleeper." I knew next to nothing about Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector when a...
Feature The Best Hidden Gems And Underrated Switch 1 & 2 Games Of 2025
Celebrating the small(er)
2025 has been a bit of a loud, bonkers year for video games. Big title after big title, a brand new console in the Switch 2, and a new GOTY contender almost every other week. It's been breathless, but not without industry struggles, mass layoffs, cancellations, and closures. Which is why now, more than ever, it's important...
Talking Point Does It Bother You That Big Games Companies Are Using GenAI?
The GenAI-ration game
What a week. On Tuesday, comments from Larian founder and CEO Swen Vincke to Jason Schreier at Bloomberg (paywall) created headlines we've grown all too used to over the last couple of years. Following the reveal of a new Divinity game at The Game Awards, Vincke said that the studio was actively using generative AI for concept...
Feature Games Of The Year 2025 - Nintendo Life Staff Picks
Our personal picks for the best Switch (2) games of the year
Every year in December, Team Nintendo Life puts our heads together and we combine our personal Top 5s into an uber, unranked GOTY list encompassing all the Switch games that got us hottest under the collar throughout the year. 2025 brought us Switch 2, of course, but it's been a very...
Opinion Who Needs Link? This Top-Down Metroidvania Is The Best Zelda Game Of 2025
A String Between Worlds
When you start up a top-down Zelda game, you usually know how things will start. You’ll get some scrolling exposition text setting up the events of the game, and you’ll either be plonked in the middle of a room or a field, ready to save the princess, or wake up after a dream or a shipwreck or something. I’m...
Poll Box Art Brawl - Ice Climber
'Tis the season
Ho, ho, ho, everyone! Welcome to a particularly festive edition of Box Art Brawl! Last week saw two covers for Mega Man 6 going head-to-head, and it was a little closer than we expected. The yellow Japanese variant (this writer's favourite) just clinched it, however, taking 54% of the vote and leaving the North American design with...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? (20th December)
Ho, ho, ho!
Ah yes, the weekend. Not just any ol' weekend either! No, it's the weekend before Christmas, which means it's time to start preparing your stomachs for an avalanche of food and chocolate. This week in the world of Nintendo, it seems that there may be an alternative to those ruddy Game Key Cards after an announcement from ININ Games. We...
Opinion Marvel Cosmic Invasion Caps Off A Great Year To Be A Superhero Fan
Flying high
Cards on the table: I am a big superhero fan and I always have been. I've read the comics, I've played the games, I've watched the movies, I've got the tattoos *gulp*. I am usually pretty adept at bending things to see the positives — heck, I can even defend Thor: The Dark World on a good day — but the last few years have been real...
Opinion Rayman 2 Is An Overlooked Platforming Classic About A Rebel With A Cause
The great escape
Rayman 2 has been added to the Nintendo Switch Online N64 library. His fight for freedom against a literally iron-fisted despot represented a braver, weirder time for Ubisoft, and today Francisco looks back on a classic... For many of us, Super Mario 64 changed platforming forever by introducing the boundless possibilities of the...
Opinion Playing Silksong In Co-Op Was A 2025 Hivemind Highlight
GameChatting my way through Pharloom
We lost track of the amount of times our friend Ibby tried to convey his love for the gorgeous Choral Chambers theme from Silksong, asking us to listen to this bit or the flutey bit, or another haunting, melancholic bit we couldn’t actually hear because of GameChat’s music-muting tech. We did, however,...
Poll Box Art Brawl: Duel - Mega Man 6
The NES swan song
Hello everyone, and welcome to another edition of Box Art Brawl. Last week's epic battle saw Europe and North America go up against Japan to see which Metroid Prime Pinball design is the very best. It was a close one, but in the end, Japan won the day with 55% of the vote. Bravo! This time, to celebrate the announcement of Mega...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? (13th December)
Federation Focus
We're another week closer to the all-important GOTY discussions, and our backlogs are looking bigger than ever. It's time to find out if any of us have plans to do something about it, as we dive into another edition of What Are You Playing. There has been a fair bit of news in the world of Nintendo this week. The Game Awards came...
Round Up Everything Announced At The Game Awards 2025 - All Switch 1 & 2 Reveals
The Leon and Winding Road
Well, The Game Awards 2025 are finally in the rear-view mirror, and there were... a fair number of Switch announcements — that's a nice change! Yes, alongside Nintendo picking up a couple of awards, there were also a bunch of "World Premieres" and updates for titles we can expect to play on our beloved hybrids at some...
Opinion Resident Evil Requiem Needs To Solve The Series' Villain Problem
Where art thou, Wesker?
Warning: this article contains scenes of explicit spoilers. Resident Evil Requiem launches on the Switch 2 in just under three months, but even now, the game is heavily shrouded in mystery (well, a little less so after the accidental reveal of Leon). Judging from the trailers so far, one of the biggest draws of this new...
Feature "It's A Bit Of A Joke At This Point" - Skyrim Dev On Returning For A Switch 2 Re-Release
Sky(rim)'s the limit
Somehow, Skyrim returned. Yes, the rumours are true, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Anniversary Edition is back (again), as a free Switch 2 upgrade. Making the most of the hardware's updated specs, the new release bundles in a whole host of fancy features, like enhanced performance and resolution, better load times, and Mouse...
Poll What Review Score Would You Give Metroid Prime 4: Beyond?
Worth the wait?
Now that Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is finally here, and given that many of us will have spent our weekends absolutely leathering its main campaign on Switch 2 (or even Switch 1), we reckon now's the time to start gauging how you lot feel about Samus Aran's latest outing. Of course, our very own Ollie Reynolds has already delivered his...
Feature Nintendo Life eShop Selects (November 2025)
Our picks for the best eShop games on Switch and Switch 2 in November!
At last, we're almost at the end of 2025. Snow might be settling in where you are, temperature's dropping — or perhaps you're lucky to be reading from somewhere in the southern hemisphere. But there's one thing that remains the same wherever you're reading from; it's eShop...
Feature My NES Longing, My Son's Terrifying Switch 2 Obsession
Generational drama
They say history repeats itself, and right now I’m living through a redux of my own childhood gaming obsession. To understand my plight, we need to rewind to 1988. I had cut my gaming teeth on a dusty Atari 2600 my dad picked up at a garage sale. I loved me some Missile Command and Warlords, but once my best friend and...
Poll Box Art Brawl: Duel - Metroid Prime Pinball
Ding ding ding!
It has been a particularly Metroid-packed week, and we're keeping that Morph Ball rolling in the latest edition of Box Art Brawl. Before we do that, however, let's recap what happened last time. Celebrating the arrival of its Game Boy counterpart on NSO, we matched up three covers for Bionic Commando on the NES, and our favourite...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? (6th December)
She's finally here!
We are one week into December, and how many games have already been released? *Checks notes* All of them. All of the games have been released. Welcome, folks, to a busy edition of What Are You Playing. Let's try our best to recap the last seven days, shall we? Naturally, there was a lot of Metroid shenanigans to cover, with...
Review HautePad M-Ultra Gen2 Arcade Controller For Switch & Switch 2 - Just A Hair From Perfection
Premium experience at an affordable price
Cosmox Gaming offers up a lot of arcade controllers, including the modular Hautepad X at a more premium price and the remarkably affordable Hautepad C16. Now, the company has launched the M-Ultra Gen2, an aluminium-built leverless that sits somewhere in-between the two. If the
Talking Point Six Months Since Launch, How Would You Rate Switch 2?
The half-year in review
Friday 5th December marks the six-month mark for Nintendo's sequel system. Launching back in June, the earliest adopters among us have now been living with the console for half a year. Blimey! It seems like only yesterday we were all speculating about the follow-up to Switch 1. Would it launch in 2022? 2023? 2024?... Yes,...
Hands On Espresso Pro 15 - A Portable 4K Monitor For Switch 2, But With A Catch
In the dock
While the Switch and Switch 2 are portable systems that come with their own built-in screens, I've often been drawn to pairing Nintendo's hybrid consoles with portable monitors when I'm on the road and away from my TV. One of my favourite choices for the original Switch is the Espresso V2, a premium 1080p screen which doesn't even need...
Mixin' it up
I've been having an interesting run lately of games that shake things up, even if it's just a little bit, in the controls department. Back in the good old days — or at least my nostalgia blinkers have made it seem this way to me — the idea of being bored rigid by a game's control systems wasn't something that ever entered my mind...
Poll Box Art Brawl - Bionic Commando (NES)
Bionic calls
Get your spiciest takes at the ready, because it's time to dive into another edition of Box Art Brawl! It was a special edition affair last time, as we celebrated the 35th anniversary of the SNES by matching up three boxes for the SNES Mini. There was one clear winner in our eyes, and you lovely lot agreed with us! The simplistic...
Opinion City Trial Is Kirby Air Riders At Its Best, But It Needs More Maps To Thrive Long-Term
Let the chaos continue (please)
Right, it's been out a week now, so it seems like enough time should have passed that we can start having a little chat about Kirby Air Riders, and in particular its stellar City Trial mode. "Stellar? It's a chaotic mess!" Indeed it is, and well met, my friend. However, that's exactly why it's so damn good, so stop...
