There will be fireworks

2012 was a massive year for Nintendo. It saw the launch of the Wii U and the release of the revised 3DS XL. It also played host to some amazing games, including New Super Mario Bros. U, Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask, Mutant Mudds, Resident Evil Revelations, La-Mulana, BIT.TRIP COMPLETE, Kid Icarus: Uprising, New Super Mario Bros. 2 and Hydroventure: Spin Cycle.

All good things come to an end however, and as 2012 gives way to 2013, there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about the next twelve months. We'll see the Wii U really start to hit its stride and continue to be treated to some amazing games on the 3DS. We've got software like Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate, Rayman Legends, Pikmin 3, Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon and Rhythm Hunter: HarmoKnight to look forward to, and much more besides.

2012 has also been a bumper year for Nintendo Life itself. We've witnessed some major staff changes, with site editor James Newton departing for Nintendo back in July, and yours truly taking over the Big Chair while it was still warm.

We've seen new faces join the team in the form of Orla Madden, Andy Green, Morgan Sleeper, Gaz Plant, Katy Ellis, Ken Barnes, Martin Watts and Jeremy Thain.

This influx of staff has been largely to deal with the increased traffic the site has experienced over the past year. We've grown our readership to an unprecedented level, and according to ComScore, we're now the largest independent Nintendo site in the world. In 2012 we got over 13 million visits, around 5.5 million unique visits and approximately 37 million page views. That means in 2012 someone, somewhere in the world viewed a page on Nintendo Life every 0.8 seconds. Those are incredible figures, and we naturally couldn't have achieved them without you guys - so thanks.

We hope you've had a wonderful year and we simply cannot thank you enough for your support over the past twelve months. Just by logging on to read the content we provide means more to us than you might expect, and we're sure you're going to love what we have in store for you in 2013.

Happy New Year from the whole team!