Latest Features
Preview Going Some Rounds With ARMS on Nintendo Switch
Nintendo’s next big thing?
Last week at an event in San Francisco we had a chance to play a near-final build of ARMS, Nintendo’s next major foray into the fighting game genre. During the preview we had a chance to go hands-on with several new modes, new stages and the final roster, including three previously unannounced characters. New...
Talking Point ARMS Has Plenty to Prove In Its Nintendo Direct
Needs to come out swinging
The Nintendo Life team enjoys a good old-fashioned gaming debate, and one game is guaranteed to split the team roughly down the middle - ARMS. During Nintendo's January reveal of the Nintendo Switch the company unleashed a couple of oddball reveals - there was the quirky advert for 1-2-Switch, and then there was a battle...
Preview Ultra Street Fighter II On Switch Offers Nostalgia In Spades, But New Features Disappoint
Handsome fighters never lose battles
It's fair to say that gamers of a certain age have a very unique bond with Capcom's Street Fighter II. Upon its initial arcade release in 1991 it was instantly hailed as a coin-guzzling classic, and kick-started a one-on-one fighting game revolution which would last for the majority of the '90s. Securing the...
Poll Nintendo is Keen on 'Social Competitive Gaming' on Switch - Are You Game?
The Switch offers unique multiplayer and event possibilities
Though we don't necessarily think it, the majority of us are 'competitive' gamers. Whether through online games in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Smash Bros. on Wii U and 3DS, or the litany of online sports games shooters, score chasers etc across multiple platforms, we play games with others and...
Talking Point Nintendo Sets the Scene for Mario and the Switch at E3
A return to form?
Nintendo's last two years at E3 are perhaps best described as being 'mixed'. Though there was an appreciation for the Star Fox puppets in 2015 - which sadly represented the last E3 appearance of Satoru Iwata, who provided voice acting - the actual announcements generated some controversy and dissent online. High profile examples...
Poll Are You Excited About Nintendo's E3 2017 Plans?
Switch, Super Mario Odyssey, Splatoon 2, ARMS, Treehouse and a bit of 3DS
Nintendo today confirmed its plans for E3 2017, and they show the company returning almost to the formula used prior to 2016's scaled back attendance. There'll be a live streamed video presentation - the 'Nintendo Spotlight' - to kick off festiv
First Impressions Exploring a New Land in Ever Oasis on 3DS
A nice little spot in the shade
Recently Nintendo hosted events in London and New York City, and we were fortunate enough to attend and grab a little bit of time with one of the 3DS’s lesser-hyped upcoming titles, Ever Oasis. For a game that launches in just over a month, we’ve heard and seen surprisingly little of Grezzo’s first independent...
Deals Get Ready For Minecraft: Nintendo Switch Edition With This Lovely Merch
Eat, sleep, mine, merchandise
The time has finally come, Minecraft: Nintendo Switch Edition is on the eShop for $29.99. You can explore randomly-generated worlds and build amazing things from the simplest of homes to the grandest of castles. Play in Creative Mode with unlimited resources or mine deep into the world in Survival Mode,...
Feature Ten Wii U Games That Would Find a Loving Home on Nintendo Switch
Though all of them would maybe be overkill...
The Nintendo Switch has a number of strengths, and one of them is delivering some quality Wii U games on a hybrid format. We can now play Mario Kart 8 on the go thanks to its Deluxe iteration, and you can also highlight the fact that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was a Wii U game first,...
Talking Point The Nintendo Switch Has a Chance for Significant Success, Especially as a Portable
Nintendo is aiming for multiple systems in each household
Not long after the Nintendo Switch launched your humble scribe wrote a lighthearted article about taking it on a weekend roadtrip. Its hybrid nature means that it's either a quirky Nintendo home console or, alternatively, a powerful mainstream gaming portable. Ultimately it's both, even if...
Guide How To Find Every Charm Stone In Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap
A charmed life
If you want to get the best gear possible in Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap, you'll need to collect charm stones. There's a stone for each of Wonder Boy's cursed forms, and when you get them all you'll be able to purchase the best sword in the game. Without further ado, let's get to it. Lizard-Man Lizard-Man is the form...
Guide Where to Find All the Hearts in Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap
Get a life
Lizardcube's loving recreation of Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap set a new standard for retro remakes when it came out. Games from the '80s weren't really the best at directing the player, however, and that rings true for this faithful production of Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap on Nintendo Switch. Fortunately we're here to help you...
Feature An Extraordinary Pokémon Trading Card Collection and a Life-Changing Sale
"It’s all about the memories I can give to my children and wife"
Many reading these pages are dedicated and passionate gamers, and plenty of us will have sizeable collections from our hobby that'd make the uninitiated scratch their heads in bewilderment. Yet gaming is powerful, it can be motivating and inspiring. Sometimes, it can also lead to...
Poll How Do You Play the Nintendo Switch - As A Portable, Home Console or Hybrid?
Finding its place in your gaming routine
The Nintendo Switch has now settled down in a number of homes, though where the hybrid sits is perhaps an interesting reflection of its nature. Does it rest primarily within its dock under the TV with other gadgets and gaming systems, or is it living as a handheld in a case, rather more like a 3DS? Due to its...
Hands On Hey! Read These Hey! Pikmin Impressions
Hey! Listen!
This week - in New York City - Nintendo invited us to play Hey! Pikmin, the first title in the series developed outside of Nintendo's internal teams. Hey! Pikmin is being developed by Arzest, the studio behind Yoshi's New Island, which failed to make a big splash with 3DS owners. Hey! Pikmin takes a totally new approach with the...
Preview Going Hands On With the New Nintendo 2DS XL
Nintendo's new "New" handheld
At recent events in New York City and London we got to spend some time with Nintendo’s newly announced New 2DS XL. The announcement came as a surprise, as many were expecting Nintendo to let the 3DS go quietly into the night as the Switch came to replace it, putting to an end the company’s days of manufacturing...
Feature Coming Up With The Perfect Recipe In Cooking Mama: Sweet Shop
We talk to the game's producer, Tomoaki Matsui
Though the Switch is rapidly becoming the top dog in the Nintendo ecosystem, the 3DS still has plenty of life in it yet with some new hardware and a surprisingly lengthy lineup of games to come over the next several months. One such game is Cooking Mama: Sweet Shop, the latest entry in the long-running...
Video The Most Memorable Issues of Nintendo Power
Now you're playing with power
Nintendo Power magazine, the official monthly publication of Nintendo of America, was discontinued to the disappointment of fans across the U.S. in 2012. Since then, loyal readers have reminisced about the magazine's history, and avid collectors have sought to compile their own library of Nintendo Power history. In the...
Talking Point Weighing Up the Logic Behind the New Nintendo 2DS XL
Final hurrah or testing the waters?
A funny thing happened with an article we wrote regarding comments from Nintendo of America's Reggie Fils Aime on the reasoning behind the New Nintendo 2DS XL. Our 'tagline' was from his TIME interview - ""Boy, I wish there was something in between", a snippet that reflected Nintendo's claim that it's a...
Poll What Do You Think of the Zelda: Breath of the Wild - The Master Trials DLC?
Nintendo pitches challenges and convenience in the Summer pack
Though Nintendo hasn't yet given a release date, it decided this week to promote the first major DLC pack for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on Switch and Wii U. Though early purchases had a few extra treasure chests from day one, the Expansion Pass is all about two major sets...
Exclusive Game Boy Specialist Crawfish Interactive Is Back From The Dead, Kind Of
Say hello to Chrawfish Interactive
Cameron Sheppard back in his Crawfish (no 'h') days If you're a seasoned Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance player then the name Crawfish Interactive will probably ring some bells. This UK-based studio created many licensed titles for Nintendo's portable line and was famous for its skill in getting the...
Feature Taking A Deep Breath: Introducing The Voice Of Zelda, Patricia Summersett
"It was a pretty incredible surprise to discover what the game was."
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has been a smash hit for the Switch launch, and critics and fans alike just can't get enough of the open world adventure in Hyrule. In addition to boasting a massive world with incredible freedom, brittle weapons and countless recipes to...
Feature The Biggest Nintendo Switch eShop Games of 2017 - Spring Edition
Keep it on the download
We're now into May, which means the countdown to Summer - and, alright, E3 - continues; yet these are still Spring months for many, with the days gradually getting longer and warmer. A month ago we produced our Spring list of the biggest Nintendo Switch retail games due in 2017, and now it's time for our eShop equivalent...
Editorial The Ongoing Pleasures of Nintendo Switch Boxes, Cartridges and (Occasionally) Manuals
For the collectors
We're now nearly two months into the lifespan of the Nintendo Switch, and those that have jumped into the system will have their own buying habits. The eShop offers the usual full-priced retail downloads, though for some it'll be a virtual location for focusing on download-only games. As always, then, we have three camps of...
Poll What Do You Think of the New Nintendo 2DS XL?
Out of left-field
Yesterday we published an editorial chewing over some of the figures and implications of Nintendo's financial reports, with a headline point related to Nintendo's continuing confidence in the 3DS. Estimating six million hardware sales for the portable and a whopping 40 million software sales, we tried to consider how the company...
Talking Point As Nintendo Switch Looks to Rapidly Overtake Wii U Sales, 3DS Lives On
Nintendo backs both systems, but needs improvement in mobile and amiibo
As we await full publication of Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima's annual financial results presentation, early snippets from journalists on the ground in Japan suggest it won't pull up any trees. There's confirmation of unannounced games still to be revealed for Switch this...
Feature What We Expect From Nintendo's Annual Financial Reports
E3 teases, sales, an insight into the big N's confidence in Switch and more
On 27th April Nintendo will publish its 'Fiscal Year Earnings Release' - understandably that phrase may not fill you with giddy excitement, but it's more interesting than it sounds. Typically these year-end results and reports, due to their importance and timing, reveal some...
Feature The Growing Pains of Curation on the Nintendo Switch eShop
"Nintendo’s solution to shovelware is broken"
After stepping into the new world of download gaming back on the Wii with its 'WiiWare' service, Nintendo was well on the way to embracing the medium. In some aspects it was a trailblazer with that first service, though tough entry requirements - combining policy and system limitations with rules such...
Soapbox All The Video Game Magazines You Grew Up With Were Rubbish
Japan had it so much better, thinks Ian Cortina
All the video game magazines you and I grew up with were crap. We were robbed. Dealt a poor hand. Okay, that might be a little extreme, they were not crap per se - we just never had it as good as our friends in Japan. Sure, many a mag tried and came very close - Super Play immediately springs to mind...
Feature 30 Games We Might Get On The SNES Mini Classic Edition
And some more which we'd love but probably won't get!
As exciting as it is, it came as no surprise to hear about Nintendo's plans to release a SNES Mini Classic Edition in time for the holiday season this year. The NES Mini was a tremendous success and flew off the shelves as soon as stock arrived - you could argue that Nintendo did everything...
Deals Get in the Race With These Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Accessories and More
Play Mario Kart in style
The release of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is only a short way off now, and it might be the first time a lot of Switch owners have played this game as not everyone had the Wii U. Still, current owners of the non-deluxe version will no doubt be delighted by the new-found portability, new characters and of course the all-important...
Interview Mega Ran on His UK Tour, Chip-Hop and Taking a Famicom and Switch on the Road
"I feel like we're really building something solid in the UK"
North American hip-hop artist Random, AKA Mega Ran, is well known on the music scene thanks to his cutting edge retro-styled beats. Since the creation of his alter-ego Mega Ran, this former teacher has become one of the premier artists in hip-hop's nerdcore genre, released multiple...
Talking Point Nintendo Needs to Learn Lessons From Its NES Mini Mistakes
A simple product turned into a messy saga
Based upon the various decent emulators out there, it's not hard to run NES games. They're 30+ years old, and in this modern era of GPUs and accessible operating systems people are playing 8-bit games on a dizzying range of devices. Some of us, of course, spend decent money for official ROMs from Nintendo,...
Preview Battle Mode is Back On Form in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
Back with a vengeance
We had one major complaint with Mario Kart 8 when we reviewed it on Wii U - its so-called Battle Mode was lazy and barely worth a look. It simply took place on Grand Prix tracks, so you'd drive around unaware of where your foes were (as a track map wasn't added until a post-launch update), which was a vacuous and pointless...
Feature The Big Nintendo Direct Summary - 12th April 2017
Games, amiibo, more games...
Nintendo may have given the longest slots of this week's Direct broadcast to ARMS and Splatoon 2, as expected, but there was plenty more to dive into. Across 3DS and Switch segments we saw a range of games, old and new, and there were even some accessory announcements to throw in; amiibo, of course, made their mark. All...
Feature What We Expect From the Nintendo Direct - 12th April
ARMS and Splatoon 2 will be the focus, but small surprises seem likely
Nintendo has a pattern of hosting a Direct or 'info drop' in the month of April, with the slot far enough away from the all-encompassing E3 to be a useful launching point for some interesting announcements. It'll also be the first Direct since the 3rd March hardware launch of...
Talking Point PS4 Pro and Xbox Scorpio Draw Battle Lines, But Nintendo Goes Its Own Way With Switch
Nintendo's bubble exists outside the 4K wars
These are strange times in the game console industry. It used to be that major rivals would release gaming machines that simply plugged into your TV and they'd battle against each other for around five years before upping the ante with new technology. Systems didn't always go head to head in terms of...
Poll What Wii U Ports Would You Like to Play on Nintendo Switch?
Filling out the release schedule
The Nintendo Switch has had a retail release this week, albeit one that may not set too many pulses racing - LEGO City: Undercover. We're still rattling through it for review, but it's interesting in that it's a port of a former Wii U exclusive; we should probably expect that to be a trend over the next year or two...
Feature From BIT.TRIP to Runner3 - The Nintendo Journey of Choice Provisions
"Nintendo platforms have always been CommanderVideo's home"
When Runner3 was announced as a Nintendo Switch exclusive this writer's eyebrows went up a fair amount - it's not particularly common for download games to be exclusive nowadays, much less so from studios with a track record of multiple cross-platform successes. Yet here we are - it's an...
Feature The Biggest Nintendo Switch Retail Games of 2017 - Spring Edition
Big games on little cartridges
The Spring season is upon us, and with the Nintendo Switch out in the wild and settling into a groove we thought it was a good time to revive our 'Biggest Games' lists, which previously started to get a tad stretched for Wii U and 3DS. Such is the relative richness of the Switch line-up that we're back to separate...
Interview The Story of Snake Pass' Origin from Creator Seb Liese
Don't pass it up
Snake Pass is undoubtedly an original idea, but we weren't satisfied with just knowing it was different, we wanted to find out how it came to be. That's why in the video above we hooked up with the founder of Snake Pass' concept Seb Liese at EGX Rezzed to chat about how this whole idea came to be. What did you think of the unusual...
Feature One Month of Nintendo Switch - Five Improvements We Want to See
Going to the next level
The Nintendo Switch has now been out in the wild for over a month, and overall it's fair to say that it's picked up solid momentum. Sales and demand have been high, retailers and analysts have talked positively about its prospects, and a mix of interesting download titles along with (arguably) one of the greatest games of...
Talking Point One Month of Nintendo Switch - Early Momentum Brings Optimism
Nintendo now heads into a critical period to sustain early success
The Nintendo Switch launch hasn't been a flop. That might seem to be a peculiar standard to target, but let's consider the scenario before the system arrived. Counterbalancing excitement about the console and its concept, prior to launch, there were equally valid concerns that had...
Feature The Best Nintendo April Fools' Day Gags of 2017
Breath of the Wild jelly beans, retro Fire Emblem and more
Well, 1st April has come and the joke articles, social media posts and GIFs have done the rounds. For our part we decided to make fun of Nintendo's inability to keep meaningful secrets over the past year, making up some nonsense about a Mario-themed operation to plug the gaps and stop leaks...
Feature Thirty Years Ago, Little Mac Became a Champion in Punch-Out!!
To be the Man, you've got to beat the Super Macho Man
Another game is passing the 30 year mark. After all, in 1987 the NES was available worldwide, with lots of titles being released - Punch Out!! being one of them. Originally made as a prize giveaway for a Famicom Open Golf contest in Japan in 1987, it was a home conversion of the arcade games...
Poll A Month of Nintendo Switch - Do You Think It's Heading for Success?
Positive early sales and talk of high demand bodes well
The Nintendo Switch is one month old. We don't think that's a landmark worthy of cake and balloons, but it's an interesting one nevertheless. Having hit stores on Friday 3rd March the results so far have been quite positive - yes, Nintendo has a chance with this one. The opening weekend went...
"It's mostly my daughter Maddi's fault!"
Capcom's Ghouls 'n Ghosts series is held in high esteem by many a retro gamer, yet the franchise is currently dormant and we're unlikely to see a sequel any time soon. However, we may be getting the next best thing in the form of Battle Princess Madelyn, a spiritual successor created by Causal Bit Games and...
Talking Point Defining a Sequel and How It Affects Games Like Splatoon 2
Choose your own Electric Boogaloo meme
Sequels, everyone has an opinion on them. A bit like talk around 'soft launches' and 'lazy ports', sometimes the wider consensus that follows games or systems isn't always accurate or fair. Yet that's the beauty of the internet, and sometimes its biggest flaw - the agenda isn't entirely set by public relations...
First Impressions Splatoon 2 - What We Learned About Weapons, Visuals and Controls
A step up on Nintendo's latest hardware
Over the past few days Nintendo Switch owners had a chance to try out Splatoon 2 in its first Global Testfire. There's no firm release date for the colourful shooter as yet, and much about it remains a mystery; as a result it's not unreasonable to wonder whether it was simply the first Global Testfire with...
Poll What Did You Think of the Splatoon 2 Global Testfire on Nintendo Switch?
We have an inkling that you had fun
Well, it was fun while it lasted - the past weekend brought us six hours of gameplay in the Splatoon 2 Global Testfire. Thanks to timezones it's likely most missed a session or two, but nevertheless it was a chance to try out two new stages, an all-new weapon and various adjusted old favourites. We played it a...