Latest Features
Feature A Brief History Of Nintendo’s Home Hardware Add-Ons
A multi-format menagerie
Nintendo’s handheld console upgrades were so common for so long you could practically set your watch by them: the leap from Game Boy to Game Boy Color via the Pocket; the GBA’s evolution from its original battery powered form to the blazing intensity of the Micro’s beautiful screen; the more recent range of DSis, XL
Feature Zelda: Majora's Mask Is A Testament To What Nintendo Is Capable Of When It Gets Weird
You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?
To celebrate the 35th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda, we're running a series of features looking at a specific aspect — a theme, character, mechanic, location, memory or something else entirely — from each of the mainline Zelda games. Today, Kate explores the philosophy and tragedy behind...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? (March 13th)
Here are our picks, but what are yours?
With news of an upcoming Build-A-Bear Animal Crossing collection and all the MAR10 Day celebrations, it's been another busy week in the world of Nintendo. Let's relax with some chatter about our gaming plans, shall we? Members of the Nintendo Life team have done just that below, so feel free to give our...
Soapbox It's Time To Normalise Giving Up On Games Early
Real gamers quit
Ganon, you say? Hm, not sure I've met him, sorry Back in the day, a single video game would set you back a decent chunk of change. Most people would get just a couple a year, like Charlie Bucket and his single birthday chocolate bar, and they'd have a grand old time rinsing those games of content. I'm not here to say "games these...
Random Forget Fat Pikachu - We're All About Wide Link
What a good boy
What's that you've got there? A triangle? Good job! If you're ever having a bit of an off day, may we recommend looking through old Zelda key art? Whether you have a few manuals from the old games lying around, or you just want to browse the Zeldapedia galleries, it's something that always cheers us up. This is Link and Ganon...
Community Send Us Your Screenshots To Celebrate One Year Of Animal Crossing: New Horizons
#ACNHYear1
It's coming up on one year since Nintendo dropped Animal Crossing: New Horizons on Switch. Yes, it's nearly 365 days since so many of us took that first flight to Tom Nook's deserted island and made a new life for ourselves. Depending on the day, that year either feels like it's flown by or has dragged interminably thanks to certain...
Soapbox I'm Tired Of Ports And Remakes - Where Are All Nintendo's New Ideas?
I don't want to relive the 2000s! Once was enough!
Soapbox features enable our individual writers to voice their own opinions on hot topics, opinions that may not necessarily be the voice of the site. Having argued a defence of March 31st yesterday, Kate decides to take on another hot topic: Why is Nintendo so focused on remaking old games?...
Soapbox There Might Be A Bright Side To Mario's March 31st Doomsday, After All
The termination of various Super Mario games looms, but it's not all bad news
Soapbox features enable our individual writers to voice their own opinions on hot topics, opinions that may not necessarily be the voice of the site. In this piece, Kate argues that Mario's Doomsday might not be as bad an event as you think... Let's begin with a tally of...
"We inspire each other way more than any outside influences could"
Last month, Swedish developer Tarsier Studios released Little Nightmares II on Switch and other platforms. The sequel to the team's previous horror-themed puzzle-platformer (which arrived on Switch in 2018 as Little Nightmares: Complete Edition), this second adventure follows Six and...
Soapbox Why Do People Love Games Like Stardew Valley And Animal Crossing?
Playing games shouldn't feel like work, right?
One of my favourite things to do after a long day of nine-to-five work is crack open a beer, get cosy on the sofa, and play two to five hours of a game where I have a nine-to-five job. It seems ludicrous to spend my free time doing exactly what I do in my non-free time, and yet, here I am - one of...
Feature Panic Button And Respawn On The Challenge Of Bringing Apex Legends On Switch
"Any port of a live service game is a true miracle"
The free-to-play battle royal, Apex Legends launches on Switch this week on March 9th, and we were thrilled when we learned the master porters, Panic Button assisted Apex developers Respawn Entertainment with the mission. To learn more about the interworkings of Panic Button, the challenge of...
Talking Point Here's Why You Shouldn't Be Worried About The Rumoured Switch Pro's 720p Screen
When "just enough" is "good enough"
The "Switch Pro" is on its way – at least, that's what a report from Bloomberg is telling us. The outlet has spoken to a source close to Nintendo's production line and has stated that an updated version of the console is coming soon, boasting a 7-inch, OLED panel with a 720p resolution. While it's also being r
Memory Pak Taking My First Starter Pokémon All The Way To The Elite Four
Making my parents proud by beating a video game
My first Pokémon was a Chikorita named Chicky, and I loved that tiny green horse-thing with all my heart. I came to Pokémon a little later than many of my friends and peers, having missed out on Pokémon Red and Blue by not owning a Game Boy, but I spent many hours watching others wander around...
Feature People Are Sharing Their First Four Zelda Screenshots On Switch, And We Wanted To Join In
Let's just delete all the ones of Link's bum in those rubber tights real quick
It's been 4 years (and a few days) since the release of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, alongside the Nintendo Switch itself. Despite not being a particularly big anniversary, it's been celebrated nonetheless by fans and game critics alike. The latest birthday...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? (March 6th)
Here are our picks, but what are yours?
With fresh "Switch Pro" rumours and confirmation that Nintendo has no intention of backing down from its decision to wipe Mario from existence at the end of the month, it's been quite the rollercoaster week. Thankfully, it's now time for us to have a breather and chat about our weekend gaming plans. Me
Feature Why Zelda: Link’s Awakening Is Literally My Dream Game
What's reality anyway?
To celebrate the 35th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda, we're running a series of features looking at a specific aspect — a theme, character, mechanic, location, memory or something else entirely — from each of the mainline Zelda games. Today, Stu gets all dreamy about one of his favourite entries in the franchise...
Soapbox The Nintendo Switch Was My Companion As I Travelled The World
Reflecting on four turbulent years with my steadfast console companion
Not my actual suitcase - mine had way more shoes, and no pliers (why do they have pliers?) When the Nintendo Switch came out in early 2017, I was adrift. I had moved out of London, I had gone freelance a few months before, and I was what people at the time called a "digital...
Preview Story of Seasons: Pioneers Of Olive Town Is Not Quite As Pioneering As We'd Hoped
Can the series keep up with Stardew Valley?
How does Story of Seasons continue to innovate when Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing have done so much to develop the 25-year-old formula? Well, with Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town, the answer is twofold: one - borrow the ideas of Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing, and two - change things for...
Feature Playing With Power: The Nintendo Story Is A Fun Documentary With Some Critical Flaws
An entertaining mini-series that misses some key beats
"When you think of video games, the very first thing that comes to your mind is Nintendo." Minutes in, Tommy Tallarico sums it up perfectly. Anyone who’s ever heard relatives calling a random console "The Nintendo" can attest to this statement. Nintendo’s history is well recorded but, for...
Feature Capcom On Monster Hunter Rise's Rampage, Wirebug Exploration And Alien Wyverns
"This is the first time that we're using the RE engine for a Monster Hunter title"
Our readers may have felt a bit left out after the Monster Hunter series skipped Nintendo platforms with Monster Hunter World back in 2018, but all of that is about to change as the latest entry in the series, Monster Hunter Rise is hitting Nintendo Switch on March...
Feature Forget Saving Hyrule, Zelda: Ocarina of Time Is All About Fishing For Me
Lure of the wild
To celebrate the 35th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda, we're running a series of features looking at a specific aspect — a theme, character, mechanic, location, memory or something else entirely — from each of the mainline Zelda games. Today, Kerry admits that she didn't always stick to the proposed path when playing one of...
Feature After Fire Emblem And Famicom Detective Club, What Comes Next From Nintendo's Vault?
Raiders Of The Lost Games
Between the eclectic selection of NES and SNES games served up as part of everyone’s Nintendo Switch Online subscription, Fire Emblem's long-awaited (if time-limited) English language release thirty years after its Japanese debut, and the upcoming remake of their Disc System adventure game Famicom Detective Club, it
Feature Nintendo Life eShop Selects - February 2021
February's best Switch eShop games!
Can you believe we're already two months into the year?! Well, thankfully, no matter how quickly time passes by, the Switch eShop seems to offer up dose after dose of great digital content to enjoy and February was no different. These awards aim to celebrate the best of Nintendo's digital store, giving some love...
Memory Pak When Harvest Moon Taught Me About Death
You can't just save scum this one away
Welcome to the latest instalment in our new column, Memory Pak, where we're going to be doing a deep-dive into some of the most memorable moments in gaming – good and bad. We hope you've got some tissues ready because this one's going to be a bit of a weepy. People play Harvest Moon games for their...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? (February 27th)
Here are our picks, but what are yours?
Phew! With news of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl remakes – and a new open-world Pokémon game, too – it was a super busy end to the week. Thankfully, though, it's now time to relax and have a chat about our weekend plans. Members of the Nintendo Life team have done just that below, so feel free to give our...
Feature Hyperkin Explains How The RetroN Sq Is Bringing The Game Boy To Your Living Room
Update: Pre-orders go live on Amazon
Update: Pre-orders are now available! Original Story [Wed 22nd Jan, 2020 14:00 GMT]: Hyperkin has been one of the biggest names in 'new' retro products for quite some time now, thanks to products like the RetroN 5 and Supa Boy. The company is back with a new device – the
Soapbox Pokémon Diamond And Pearl's Greatest Contribution To The Series Was The Underground
And sort of inventing Pokémon God
There's a Pokémon Presents tomorrow - the Pokémon-flavoured version of a Nintendo Direct - and I should be feeling like a kid on Christmas, since the announcement of a remake for Pokémon Diamond and Pearl seems almost certain. But I feel more like a kid on someone else's birthday: wishing I could
Feature 8 NES Games That Were Better On Famicom Disk System
Saves + Synth > Passwords
The Famicom Disk System (or the Family Computer Disk System to give its full title) released in Japan — and Japan only — on 21st February 1986. This Famicom add-on came with a wave of new games on bespoke Nintendo-branded floppy discs which had several advantages over cartridges at the time, plus one or two drawbacks...
Preview Ghosts 'n Goblins: Resurrection Is Going To Hurt You, A Lot
Hell and high water
Blood is red, spirits are blue, here come Ghosts ’n Goblins, to murder you. If you’re a gamer of the old-school persuasion or just a masochist who enjoys agony, you will be undoubtedly titillated by the torture that Ghosts 'n Goblins: Resurrection promises to deliver later this month. The first new console game in...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? (February 20th)
Here are our picks, but what are yours?
After what has been the busiest week in the Nintendo world for some time – feel free to catch up on everything that was announced during this week's Nintendo Direct here – it's finally time for us to catch a breather and chat about our weekend gaming plans. Members of the Nintendo Life team have done just...
Soapbox The Modern Games Industry Has A Hype Problem, And It Needs To Stop
When will it be enough?
Soapbox features enable our individual writers to voice their own opinions on hot topics, opinions that may not necessarily be the voice of the site. In this piece, Mitch talks about the problem with video game hype... Look up any news about the upcoming Bayonetta 3 and you’re sure to notice a fascinating trend. Even...
Round Up Everything Announced In The February 2021 Nintendo Direct
Splatoon 3! Fall Guys! Zelda: Skyward Sword HD!
Yesterday gave us our first Nintendo Direct broadcast, and it was pretty packed. Not only did we see updates on titles we already knew about, but we also got brand-new announcements in the form of Splatoon 3, Zelda: Skyward Sword, Fall Guys and much more besides. Below you'll find a rundown of...
Talking Point What We're Hoping To See In Today's Nintendo Direct
IT'S TIME
Well, well, well. We may have been disappointed when our 2020 Direct predictions failed to come true, but what's 530 days of waiting between friends? Besides, we've been really busy in the intervening months, haven't we? We don't need you, Nintendo. We've got, er, a global pandemic. We're just kidding, Ninty. We love you. Please come back...
Memory Pak When Link Left The Temple Of Time In Zelda: Ocarina Of Time And Everything Changed
Lesson learned: touching swords makes you get old
Welcome to the first instalment of a new column, where we're going to be doing a deep-dive into some of the most memorable moments in gaming – good and bad. We're starting off strong with a moment that cemented the Zelda series as one of the all-time greats, in celebration of Link's 35th birthday...
Feature Five SNK Neo Geo Pocket Games We Want To See On Switch
More than a fighting chance
With excellent ports of Fatal Fury First Contact, King of Fighters R-2, Samurai Shodown! 2, Gals' Fighters and The Last Blade soon to be joined by the magnificent
Hardware The Retro-Bit Prism HD Review - Another Great GameCube HDMI Adapter
With an added bonus...
HDMI output on the GameCube has been around for a while. Back in 2018, we got the rather rough-and-ready GC Video Plug 'n Play 3.0, which did the job but came in a rather ugly 3D-printed case. Shortly afterwards there came the EON GCHD adapter (and, not long afterwards, its
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? (February 13th)
Here are our picks, but what are yours?
With a brand new Mario game, new titles to check out on Switch's NES and SNES apps, and a whole lot of scalper sneakiness going on at McDonald's, it's been another hectic week in the world of Nintendo. Thankfully, it's now time to relax and chat a
Hands On We've Played Bravely Default II On Switch, And Here's What We Think So Far
Classic gameplay meets classic grind
The original Bravely Default launched during a time where it felt like everyone had moved on past the tried and true turn-based RPG. Even the king of the formula, Square-Enix, seemed like it had given up on the genre as it had been (unfortunately) pouring its everything into the action RPG, Final Fantasy XIII,...
Feature Curse Of The Dead Gods Devs On Early Access, Switch Challenges, And Hades Comparisons
"One can only be flattered by such a comparison"
Fans of the roguelike and roguelite genre have had some real gems to enjoy over the last couple of years, with excellent games like Dead Cells and last year's award-sweeping Hades serving up some incredibly satisfying run-based dungeon-crawling on Switch.
Soapbox Super Mario 3D World Is The Closest To A Super Mario Bros. 2 Sequel We'll Ever Get
Sub-consciously influenced
Soapbox features enable our individual writers to voice their own opinions on hot games, trends and topics — opinions that may not necessarily be the voice of the site. In this piece, Jon Irwin discusses how Nintendo seems reluctant to return to the mechanics of Super Mario Bros. 2... When Super Mario 3D World first...
Soapbox Time Loop Games Are Strangely Comforting In Times Like These
Every day feels the same, so let's play games where every day IS the same
Right at the end of last year, Natasha Lyonne — star of Groundhog Day-inspired TV show, Russian Doll which sees her character Nadia (a software developer, no less) stuck repeating the same night over and over again — shared a tweet that made everyone collectively start...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? (February 6th)
Here are our picks, but what are yours?
With yet another week behind us, this time bringing news that Nintendo is finally updating its multiplayer server system and a pretty bare-looking 2021 release schedule, it's time to sit back, relax, and chat about our weekend gaming plans. Members of the Nintendo Life team have done just that below, so f
Exclusive Nyamyam On Bringing The Award-Winning "Game Sitcom" Astrologaster To Switch
"The Switch version will get the 'sitcom' element across the best"
Those of you with very good memories might recall the UK studio Nyamyam, which was responsible for the gorgeous Tengami on Wii U. Fronted by former Rare developers Jennifer Schneidereit (Kinect Sports) and Phil Tossell (Star Fox Adventures), Nyamyam created a game engine which...
Talking Point So, What Are The Chances We'll See A 'New' Nintendo Switch In 2021?
A Pro-mising year?
What's that? Did someone say 'Switch Pro'? Oooh, 'New Nintendo Switch', is it!? A more powerful variant with 4K resolution Deep Learning Super Sampling? 60 frames-per-second? Carbon fibre styling? Swiss Army Switch?... It wasn't long after the Switch launched back in 2017 that rumours of a hardware revision started circling. You...
Feature Blessed By Hermes - A Peek Inside The Hades Speedrunning Community
We speak to Supergiant Games and two prominent Hades speedrunners
When you think of speedrunning in games, where does your mind go? Is it Super Mario 64? Breath of the Wild? Dark Souls? Undoubtedly, the 'classics' are popular choices with speedrunners, but there are plenty of others which defy expectation;
Feature Nintendo Life eShop Selects - January 2021
January's best Switch eShop games!
With a brand new year comes brand new Switch games, and while January is traditionally a quiet month for new releases, there were still some absolute crackers to enjoy this time around. These awards aim to celebrate the best of Nintendo's digital store, giving some love and attention to the games that could so...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? (January 30th)
Here are our picks, but what are yours?
Another busy old week has flown by, with Nintendo revealing a new Monster Hunter Switch console and an Animal Crossing amiibo card rerelease, and PlatinumGames telling us we should probably forget about Bayonetta 3 for a while
Poll Which Is Your Favourite GameCube Console Variant?
Well-handled
We recently ran a poll looking at the sexiest consoles Nintendo and the company has put out some mighty fine-lookin' hardware over the years. There was one system that gets us particularly excited, though — the good ol' GameCube — and it seems you readers are in agreement judging from the results of that poll. Yes, the Japan-only...
Soapbox Grinding Is Poor Gameplay Design That Doesn’t Respect Your Time
Who wants to spend hours mowing down low-level enemies?
Soapbox features enable our individual writers to voice their own opinions on hot topics, opinions that may not necessarily be the voice of the site. In this piece, Henry discusses how he's fed up of being ground down by grinding... We really are spoiled for choice these days and, in part...
Hands On We've Played Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury, And Here's What We Think So Far
Cat's entertainment?
When it started to become clear that Nintendo was porting many of its Wii U games to the Switch, a lot of fans naturally hoped that Super Mario 3D World would be one of the games making the jump. It's hard to believe it’s taken nearly four years, but we're finally just a matter of weeks away before this much-requested Mario...