Site News: We Want Your Help To Become Even Better

To be fair, I like it the way it is. But i never look at the home page, always the timeline.

Overall very satisfied with the site. I do think you guys should focus on out of hour news as you mentioned but otherwise it's great

I am on this site basically every day. Except for the weekends, when there is little to nothing new to read. I'd like to see some more content on the weekends. You could simply save some things you write during the week and put them out on the weekend.

Also more of Alex's videos on YouTube and more streaming of Nintendo games! There are too few dedicated Nintendo streamers around!

I joined this amazing website as a Contributing Writer (focusing on game reviews) only a few months ago and loving every minute; interacting with the readers and reading content from other members of the great team. Thank you for having me, everyone

The site is great but one of it's best features is the community. Everyone is kind, helpful and accepting and it makes a really nice environment to take part in.

Number one thing I want: a link in your reviews and game pages so I can easily get to the Nintendo eShop game page for my region.

One thing I wouldn't mind is maybe a top 5 or top 10 eshop highlights at the end of the month. The switch seems to be getting a lot of indie games lately and I feel I'm possibly missing some good games due to the sheer volume being released.

It's a great website, but it has a variety of issues which will hopefully they get sorted out with this staff reshuffle

I stumbled across NintendoLife about 7-8 years ago.

Im always on here daily just to get the latest news and reviews.

Its a clean website and after Official Nintendo Magazine finished i am glad this website is here. The comments are 99% respectful unlike many other websites.

Alex's videos are always entertaining too.

Thank you all for NintendoLife.

"For the Switch players" This site is now discriminating 3DS players

I’ve been here on and off since 2009, and I love the site.

Sometimes reviews have rose tinted spectacles and I would dock a point. But it is a Nintendo fan site after all.

My big gripes,
1)Reviews need to be more like how they use to be in the crash/zzap days, let's review it for what it is, and not some fanboys trophy.
If a game is best played online with chat and fails to include this feature it needs marking down.
2)Tech hardware reviews, need to actually have tech info, it's no good doing a wireless headset video and not telling us what the product is? Or a Splatoon headset review with no mention of cable lengths, volume levels.
3)Stop telling us to buy from Amazon when it's cheaper elsewhere. Maybe do a best prices section within the review.
4)RELEASE NEWS AT THE WEEKEND AS WELL
5)monthly prize giveaways

@GKO900 don't be silly, there's no discrimination.

That said, even as a Switch owner, I'd love for the 3DS coverage to continue as long as Nintendo itself continues to support it.

I love the site, the staff’s personalities and humour really shine through and the community around it is great.

My only gripes would be that the weekly download news isn’t as good as it used to be (split retail and download only titles, often new games are included in the Special Offers but it’s not clear they’re new games) and that there’s 12-18 months of 3DS and Wii U eshop releases that haven’t been reviewed (quite understandably given the flood of excellent Switch games and the increasing volume of Wii U shovel ware - but there could still be plenty of gems unreviewed in there).

Nintendo Life is great, but you have to be very careful with the clickbait articles. They are getting out of hand. Recent examples are the Switch Firmware updates and the "Amazon doesn't seem to confident on Dark Souls" article (and I use that term very loosely).

Also, he's probably a really cool guy and I'm sure he works hard on the videos, but I'm sorry, I find Alex' style incredible obnoxious. Maybe have other video creators with different styles?

I would like to see prices on eshop reviews just a quick reference at the top of a review would be nice I read a review decide I wanna buy a game but then have to search for the price or go to the eshop

All the Fortnite news and guides bother me and I would rather see less of that stuff. I also dislike (on twitter) the retweeting of the same news and articles that I've already read.

I still like the site, been checking it regularly for a long while and I think I always will.

The fact that the most wanted thing about this site is less ads (currently at 49%) and the least wanted thing is a subscription based service (currently at 5%) shows that the people who visit this site just want everything for free and don't understand real people run this and deserve a wage for it.

I reckon you guys make the best Nintendo news website. Always very quick and informative. And your reviews are a great way to check if I would perhaps like a game. Thanks for all your hard work! The only thing I don't like is some article titles put out seem to be slightly skewed in wording to make people click on them (some might call this clickbait). But otherwise, it's great.

I read the NintendoSwitch subreddit and there are too many cut and paste news stories taken from there. I read it and think, I'll see that on NL later. I'd like to see more developer interviews and original journalism - which you do very well. Some of the reviews lately have been a bit flakey. No in game screenshots, very little detail. I'd certainly like to see less of that. I like to see videos as part of the reviews too - actually within the review article - to see how the game looks in motion. Otherwise, I really like the site and I spend far too much time here. I understand that advertising is part of how things work. The site is not currently overloaded with adds. People complaining about advertising need a reality check. This is a free to visit site. How do you think people get paid? Keep up the good work!

I’d like more user reviews. Some great insightful users in comments sections and allowing them a platform will enrich the site and might lead to finding newer and more diverse contributors. (In terms of passion for certain genres of games).

More emphasis in reviews on general price point of game. A game that’s £2.99 can score a 9 imho and not mean it’s as good as BOTW - it just means for £2.99 it’s exceptional.

Less “click baity” headlines too. They annoy people and honestly don’t lead to more clicks

Maybe review roundups for big games I was already for Octopath Traveler this morning but I keep reading conflicting reviews kotaku say it’s boring and repetitive but I would be interested in seeing your reviewers responses to other reviews and why they are accurate or not accurate as I trust the reviews on nlife

Less clickbaity news stories please. Some rumors are just not newsworthy. News about 4chan's GameCube Mini "leaks" generate just false hope and dumb user comments.

In my opinion NL is too Nintendo biased. Most first party games would get 1 or 2 points less in other online magazines.

I'd like to see longer video discussions or podcasts maybe. Eshop roundups are my favorite articles.

I've been visiting VC Reviews/Wii Ware World/Nintendolife since basically the start and joined up in the winter of 2008. I visit multiple times per day and enjoy interacting with the community. I put faith in NL's reviews and for the most part the scores align with my own.It's been incredible to see how the site has grown and evolved over the years. If there was no Nintendolife I reckon my internet browsing time would be cut by something like 70%

I have no preferences to how I'd like to see the site change. I trust in you guys that run it and wherever you take it, I'll continue to visit.

I do however feel some standards have slipped over the past few months. There are so many articles published with grammatical errors and after so many it starts to grate. I also feel many Eshop game reviews are appearing too late, if at all. I understand that there are so many games releasing every few days that it's basically impossible to keep up but I think for the most part, going by the Eshop listings it's easy to sort the wheat from the chaff. There will be some exceptions of course where a game looks poor only to turn out great but overall,it's pretty easy to tell. I feel a late Nintendolife review for a good Eshop game will surely harm that game's chances of success.That said, going by the details in the article it seems you are aware of this as well.

Now I mean no disrespect with this but I feel Dom lacks passion for Nintendo. He comes across as a very knowledgeable guy on the industry itself and games across multiple platforms but doesn't seem to have that noticeable passion for Nintendo that Thomas or James had.For a Nintendo fan site I'm not sure that's a good thing.I may be completley wrong with my assessment but that's how it has appeared to me. Damo certainly has that passion so it's good to know he's going to be the man leading the site going forward.

I would love a Podcast from the Nintendo life team. I used to listen the Nintendo magazine podcast and it was awesome. I listen to NVC but would be good to have another Nintendo podcast

Only gripe I have is when you have a non-story / speculation article.

Would love to see this replaced with coverage of eshop titles, if nintendo are serious about flooding the eshop with indies we will need help spotting the good games.

I'd also like a podcast from you guys, would help foster a good sense of community and let us know a little more about the writers. Presumably Alex could host it.

@Gs69 there are already prices on reviews - in the game info box at the side.

My construction criticism would be not to list the exact number of collectible items in your guides’ titles. Keeps it ambiguous for those that regularly check the website and aren’t interested in knowing the full amount.

@chardir oh ok I don’t always spot them I tend to skip the top area cos sometimes I have noticed the review score there and I wanna read the review first before I see a score thanks for pointing it out tho

They Needed an option to add our own, because What I wanted to see more on the site is not on the options.

@antdickens I think comments honestly get lost in general

I would like to see reviews to have 0.5 increments.

This is absolutely my favourite site for my beloved Switch. Just a few suggestions from me:

1. Be less afraid of the lower end of the ratings scale. If a game is absolutely terrible, give it a score of 1 or a 2. It's hard to differentiate when the vast majority of games are scored 7 to 9.

2. I actually really like Alex's videos, but agree mixing it up with some guest presenters would be cool.

3. Finally, I echo some of the other comments that more focus on the smaller indie games would be awesome. You already cover more than anyone else, but if Nintendo do ramp up the output, we'll need the help!

Otherwise thanks for all the hard work!

It's rare to see a review under a 7 or 8 which really makes your scale "game is totally broken" and then 7 - 10. I'd like to see more of the scale used, basically.

Fewer Fortnite and the like news, please. I'm pretty sure there's plenty other sites people are getting that info from. Keep it focused on stuff that is not available on every other platform (say, Hollow Knight is fine because it's only on Switch and PC).

Oh, and try to add at least some new articles on weekend, I basically avoid the site on non-working days knowing you won't report anything anyway.

Great poll. Enjoyed that.

I agree, Alex is a great guy and his videos are entertaining, but too much of a good thing can be a bad thing!

Congrats Damien - I’m glad you’re gonna be proofing the articles. Dom is well intentioned, but I definitely prefer your writing style.

How about splatoon tourneys?

@Preposterous To be fair, for the past few weeks they've been publishing quite a lot of articles over the weekend,mostly from Liam. It's been a welcome change.

This is my home.

@OorWullie Perhaps there has been more, but then again, over the past few weeks I've seen some saturday news waiting to be published until monday.

There was a Pinball FX3 tournament a while ago and I'm pretty sure many took part.The article did say at the time if it was a success there would be more tournaments going forward but to my knowledge there hasn't been any. I think it's a great way to bring the community together. Not just for Pinball FX3 but other games too.

I'd like to see regular weekend tournaments for MK8D, Splatoon 2,ARMS, Rocket League, Pinball FX3 and more with a live chat.

As much as I'm a moaning sod, the only real complaint as such is that I'd like articles to make it a bit more obvious when a story refers to just NA or Europe too. It can be disappointing to read a story that refers to "The West", get excited, then find it's only NA.

More weekend news please.

What I would like to see less of:

Click bait articles like the Amazon Dark Souls release date one. This was not an article, it was a headline with nothing behind it, solely to get clicks and ad revenue. Rely on the quality of your writing to get clicks, not tricking people.

What I would like to see more of:

Articles and features that are about games or gaming in general, that aren't necessarily relating to current games or news. Things like the one about the current state of Japanese arcades.

Rev up those SQL tables, because I sure do want to round out the NL database of retro legacy game titles which unfortunately has many missing games, no game covers or screenshots, or reviews.

A website that I go everyday is a sign of its excellence!

An expansion of the videos, with a regular slot for some classic Nintendo games like a 'let's play'/tournament once a week, would be good. An ongoing competitive GoldenEye or Timesplitters regular match would be fun to watch, as of course would some smash bros.

More video content is something I'd certainly watch.

I'm gonna be honest the clickbait is what's been driving me away from the site for a while now. Articles that take something someone said completely out of context and such. Damian in particular has been especially guilty of this I find, to the point where I could call exactly which article was written by him before I even click. His role shift has me extremely worried unless he stops trying to spin everything into a negative light to raise controversy.

The second thing is that you guys seem to be constantly a few days behind on a lot of the news, save for perhaps the biggest events like E3 news and directs. I'll find out about something on YouTube or other news sites and then see NL report about it a few days later. It's baffling.

Those are my two main complaints.

I note there is some interest in a podcast. As NL are no doubt aware, they can get 'waffly' very easily, and I don't think a single platform can sustain a podcast very frequently. Maybe try a monthly podcast where the NL contributors sum up the games and the news that's interested them over the last month. IDK.

But I like most of Alex's videos, so would prefer emphasis to go there rather than a podcast.

The guides and the Amazon affiliate-link articles... I appreciate why they're there, they draw in traffic and add potential income, but I skip those personally - I try to play without guides to avoid spoilers, and the affiliate link articles rarely add any opinion, they're just a summary of what Amazon sell usually. If you want these articles to help promote NL then I think they need some quality opinion.

To everyone not voting on the NL Podcast:

Oh wow, I feel this has been quite an overdue reshuffle. Dom being sidelined in favour of Damien is great news, as I feel this site has definitely suffered since the new year. Dom was never editor material in my view, the drop in quality of articles and increasing typos was noticed by many. It's clear he doesn't share the same passion for Nintendo as many of us do, with many of his better articles being about games that have appeared on other systems. It was blinding obvious that he put his TechRadar job before this one, and that's not good enough when you're meant to be the site's editor (especially after being spoilt by Tom). His reviews on TechRadar are decent though, so this does seem like a well thought out move.

Hopefully clickbait type articles will be scaled back in future too, but I can't really see that happening as this site runs off funding from adverts. I'm sure this is one of things that's was bothering Tom before he left.

Personally I never read this site's guides as I don't ever bother using them. And regarding videos, I used to watch some of the review ones, but daily Alex videos are just too grating for me.

Great to see that Ryan's in charge of news articles though, he's a splendid writer!

@TeeJay This. All of this. Aside from that, the site's pretty much perfect, but these two things make me want to drop this site in favor of something else.

I don't see how NL is biased towards Nintendo games. The Nintendo first party review scores on here are almost always the same compared to the big general gaming sites. And when they're not, so what? Remember, NL reviews is one person's opinion, not the whole site's. So maybe the certain individual that gave a Nintendo game a high score struck all the right notes for them personally.

I for one liked Paper Mario Sticker Star, Pokemon Y and Yoshi 's New Island a heck of a lot more than the typical person. It's weird, because people consider a 9 or 10 out of 10 too high/biased/whatever but anything lower is disappointing/hard pass/garbage game.

Anyways... micro news sounds good, look forward to that.

Personally im a massive sucker for nostalgia. I would love to see you guys re-review games from back in the day, re scoring them again now to relive some of those great memories while im on my break at work (articles not videos please for this very reason). Something like A Link to the past 25 years later re-reviewed. Or some background on those games from our youth like how David Wise got on board with Donkey Kong Country etc. Octopath Traveler vs Final Fantasy 6. Apart from that, keep up the good work.

Not sure if you read every comment but just in case....

You may think I'm a negative idiot, but I only make negative comments because I love this website so much. It is still the best Nintendo website out there, and the only one I bother to read regularly but there has been a marked downturn in quality recently.

For me, I still HATE the redesign and I still find it much more difficult to find what I want. That's not going to change though.

As for the change in editorship - I always feel bad when criticising someone directly but whoever that new editor was the drop in quality was absolutely noticeable. Sadly, if you put yourself in the public eye, then you have to accept the criticism. As an ex professional reviewer (and also having run an extremely successful gaming website in the past) I have some insight into what is needed, and as an English teacher with a low tolerance of mistakes (I await someone pointing out mistakes in this comment, now) this site was starting to make my teeth grate.

@alexolney is superb (apart from the fact that my non video gaming partner fancies him - I hate him for that) and long may his videos continue. I'm beginning to get to the stage where I play "Helllloooooo lovely people" on the speakers before bedtime as foreplay. But he does great work.

There has also been a serious increase in clickbait articles, which you really do have to reign in. Also your reviews are starting to seem a little......dare I say it.......biased? The Mario tennis review was a case in point. I nearly bought it based on your review but luckily I read others, waited a couple of days, read other sites and feedback and decided not to. That review was poor IMHO.

Generally the breadth of coverage is brilliant, and I'm sure these tweaks you are making will improve the place so well done for being proactive.

And if you want reader reviews any time........

Love you guys you’re doing great work! The only site I know that shows true passion and understanding of Nintendo hard- and software! One of the greatest community’s as well - reading the comments is almost as much of a joy as the articles!

I think NL could definitely benefit from allowing users to have more of a voice, especially in the forums which currently are policed heavily with admins reminding people to stay on topic, use only one official thread per game, and not diverge from the well-lit paths. This results in very static forums and ends up sending the message that you need to go a different website if you want to read or write anything interesting about a particular game beyond "I'm up to Level 50, this game rocks!"

Comparisons of specific games, discussions of political themes and other "explorations" should be allowed, and I don't see any benefit from locking threads or "whooshing" them into existing threads if they offer something new and potentially interesting. User reviews and guides should also be a thing, not necessarily in the forums but preferably existing under the games themselves and highlighted somewhere on the homepage. A lot of people like to write reviews and FAQs of games they've played, and by not giving them a place here you drive them to sites like GameFAQs (which, aside from being a nice platform for user-created content, is actually a pretty terrible place) or Reddit.

I love NL, and most of the issues I had with it before are gone now, but I still do have some gripes.

1: The articles have had a lot of typos lately, mostly the ones by Dom (no offense). Sometimes there are sentences that don't even make sense, and that makes the article hard to read.

2: The strict swearing censorship. It's rather annoying to see, and sometimes the mods are so harsh that they delete entire comments that merely hint at swearing, which hurts the community. I think they should stick to censoring strong, unnecessary or hateful swearing.

3: Less articles that aren't related to Nintendo at all, like the Dark Souls LEGO one in June. This is Nintendo Life, not Push Square.

4: Less Fortnite guides, I don't think most people here are interested in them.

5: And finally, (and this is just a nitpick because I have tetraphobia) the clickbait articles. We've been seeing much less of them lately, but they still appear sometimes.

I started going to this website to get my Nintendo news after the Official Nintendo Magazine stopped being published. Honestly though, I don't know how I waited a whole month to find out stuff haha

@norwichred Thank you very much for your comprehensive feedback

I would like to see less spoilers in the titles (e.g. not mentioning the master cycle, mario odysee hidden level names, names of endbosses etc.) and less click-bait or unnecessary attention-drawing titles.

After this I just want a weekly NL podcast! Make it happen!

I would love it if the comment section in articles could be reworked. If I am commenting at something another person said it is difficult to keep up with the conversation when every new comment just gets put at the bottom, especially if that person had made multiple comments but you are only trying to respond to a particular one. I think it would be better to have a comment that is directly replying to someone to be under the comment you are replying to. I hope that makes sense.

I would also love to be able to upvote and down vote comments. I would also like to know which user upvoted me, I can understand why you would hide who is downvoting a comment.

Aside from those things I would just like to see better editing of the articles so less typos make it through and more articles on the weekend. I like reading this website and being involved in the discussions but that is difficult during the week because I work full time and most of the time when articles are posted it’s when I am at work. Once I have free time there aren’t any fresh articles being posted and the people who would be commenting have already moved on so there is less discussion.

I do like that on some controversial topics (like the banned Pokémon episode) you still kept the comment section open. In the past there have been articles where the comment section was closed, but in general I think the community that frequently visits this site are mainly looking for an open and honest discussion and it is generally done in a respectful manner so I am glad that you can post those kinds of articles and trust that your readers won’t get too out of hand in the comment section.

I subscribe to RSS, and I miss having the featured image in the previews. Lately it has just been all text.

Also please be careful about the titles of articles as there have been spoilers in some.

I don't get why people don't want ads on one hand, but on the other hand they also don't want a "subscription / ad-free" model...

I like this site very much just as it is. You Don't need to make any radical changes. Just tweak and evolve what you already have. Keep up the good work guys.

One think I would like to see changed is when replying to a comment you only see the name of the person you are commenting from. This makes it hard for readers to see what the original comment was because they only have a name to go on. It would be better when replying to a comment if the reply appeared directly below it instead of at the bottom of the page.

If there was one thing I would love to be able to have Nintendo Life do, I've actually thought about wanting to write topic articles as well and I feel maybe a guest article every now and then might be interesting. For example, I would be willing to pay more for retail game even above the 60 US dollar price to get a physical copy of a game. Another thought I had was why I feel RPGs are dying as a genre. I would still expect these articles to be fully edited and discuss prior to being published, I just feel it would give the readers the ability to discuss major topics and gaming as well as the full staff of Nintendo Life.

One thing that is probably pretty insignificant, but I liked the old style of the Nintendo Download news articles. Each game had a little personal blurb and they always said something like “We’ll dive in for a review and see how it holds up” or something like that. It’s pretty inconsequential, but that little personal touch made it really feel like each new game was getting proper attention from the staff. These days the blurbs for each game just seem to be the press writeup made by the game’s producer.

Another thing that would be cool is more game reviews. I know there are a ton of games coming out and it’s probably impossible to keep up with all of them, but my OCD is really craving a complete Nintendo review database, haha. Realistically, it would be nice to try to capture at least a few more games per week, and/or go back and try to fill in the gaps with some older gems that were never reviewed. For example, some first-party games from the Wii era like Mario Party 8 and Big Brain Academy never got reviews, and while some might find it weird to see reviews for them popping up much later out of the blue, the completionist in me would love it! Maybe as part of some occasional retro review series or something.

Anyway, I wouldn’t say my critiques are anything major. I’m sure there are more pressing issues to be dealt with, but I just wanted to share my two cents. Overall this site is great, and I’ll continue reading and supporting no matter what! Looking forward to whatever comes next!

I second the Nintendo Downloads articles going back to the old format. The cut and paste look of the 'new' format makes me think I'm on Nintendo Everything. I understand that there's a lot more titles coming out each week, so it's more time consuming to give each one a person touch, but as a reader it feels worth it.

As a frequent reader of Nintendo Life of the last five years, I'd like to see more Nintendo coverage. I can understand how popular Fortnite it but all the Fortnite coverage and guides makes you come across as being a Fortnite site first and foremost. Your reviews are great but sometimes your scores contradict what is written. Like with the Crash review. Therw was praise throughout only to then have the conclusion pretty much say it's not Mario and slap a 7 on it.

I like Alex's video reviews but only when they are reviews of games he's written because otherwise they sound false and some game details can be muddled up like in the review for the Bayonetta games for Switch.

What I really like about you guys though is your relationship with Nintendo, would love to see more interviews and feature articles on Nintendo releases, cancelled projects and the like. Would also like you to do community projects as well where you and your huge community and work together for a common goal. Be it a campaign to see a game ported to Switch and the like. You are a great Nintendo site but in recent months, it's not felt like Nintendo has been the main focus. I would like to see you return to your roots and come back as the leading Nintendo media site we know you to be.

I would like to see Sligeach back in the comments

This is a great website! Personally, I would like to see more written lists to go along with videos and more detailed sales charts.

Thanks for having such a fantastic website guys!

Love the site, love all the character and charm you put into every piece of news 👍

Something I'd love to see is a spoilers filter for the news to hide articles about certain games you want to keep a surprise when you play them. I would really appreciate that!

Also, I really value your reviews, but I'm confused when one is nothing but praise for the game and you give it 9/10 or 8/10. I'd like to know what made you knock off those points, but there's nothing about it in the review.

One last thing is that the grammar and spelling errors bother me... Although I've always been a stickler for that sort of thing 😛

A small point, but when you have articles on "xxxxxx game announced", it's usually accompanied with (just) the launch trailer.

Which is fine, but screenshots would be appreciated too, to see what the game is like without having to watch a video.

Do I need to add "when I'm taking a sneaky look at the site at work"?

I like reviews. With the floodgates these days, it's impossible to review them all, but I eagerly await to see if the next review is of a game I'm intrigued by.

It would be nice to have the age rating listed with reviews, especially for eshop games where there's normally not a rating symbol on the cover art.

I love this site. In fact, it is the only site on which I actively post comments for the sheer enjoyment of interacting with the great community here.
That said, here are my suggestions/comments:
-Organize comments so responses are posted next to the comments to which they are responding.
-To potentially guard against "review bias," maybe there could be "Another Take" by a reviewer other than the one who provided the original review/score (I use to like when IGN would do this).
-I love the idea of the site reviewing Nintendo legacy/retro content for the occasional "slow news day."
-I think the videos are great (I'm definitely in the pro-Alex camp).

Thank you NL and NL community. I wish this site many successful years moving ahead!

In the above question about things most important to you about the site, I could only choose three options but please consider this comment another vote for features as well!

I love Nintendolife. My main go-to site for Nintie news.

However, nowadays I'm finding myself turning to other Nintendo-related sites for basic facts and objective content, and NintendoLife is slowly becoming just the community for me and less about the articles.

As @CasNicks and others have mentioned, this year has seen a rise in clickbait articles, as well as articles with an obvious slant towards inciting the community into flame wars (I stay away from articles about hacking for this exact reason). Those articles could easily be objective and simply informative, which was what drew me to this site in the first place.

The features and special stores on NL are one of it's most unique features. Weird stories about some retro cabinet found from 1979 with an early Nintendo board, through dev interviews and such.

The staff changes are good and bad. Dom really hasn't had his heart in Nintendo coverage, and that's been clear, so shifting him is a good call. OTOH, Damo has been the author of many of the most questionable click-baity editorials, while Ryan has been the poster of many of the more click-baity news stories. Part of this feels like the same negative direction with different faces in different chairs. Damo has more Nintendo chops for the role than Dom, IMO, but has similar unfortunate tendencies in authoring unrelated/baiting content, so it will depend on how he chooses to approach it. Honestly, Mitch has done some of the most straight-forward news, but I also appreciate his reviews, so I'd be delighted to see him on either end.

The big risk is, right up there with the poll including subs and merchandising, what is NL? Is it a great community site for Nintendo related content, or is it trying to become a Nintendo-themed IGN/Kotaku? There may (or may not be) more money in the latter, but it will also leave behind much of the fan base that has built it if going that way. Kotaku and IGN will always be the better Kotaku and IGN, for better or worse.

IMO NL has to think about what direction it really wants it's news and content to go. Does it want to be insightful or inciteful? Is a tabloid to draw as many clicks as possible from within and without, or is it a solid source for reliable drama-free content? There's a business case for the former, and a long-view case for the latter. But the worst thing that could happen is try to straddle the fence of both and lose everyone. If it's to be a tabloid, it's best to be honest about it and let the chips fall where they may, and people stay knowing what they get.

I would like to say first and foremost that I visit this site often.
What that means is that I like this site (regarding reviews and soapboxes about anything) and it’s community.

What I would like to see is the the staff comment more often on especially reviews and soapboxes.

Why you may ask? Because sometimes “we” have questions we like’d to be answered but that rarely happens.

I know that it takes a lot of time to write an article and proofread it then (probably) jump off the next one. However it seems that responding to comments is something that more people like and would work towards an even better bond between you and “us”.

P.S. Keep up the good work!!

I don't get this issue with 'clickbait' titles that some have, to be honest.

Do people slap their foreheads and yell "I've been fooled again!" when they read the articles?

Surely a little rational thought leads you know how the article is going to go? The sub-heading normally give a big clue.

I liked a year or so ago when Nintendo life did sort of a “best game(s) of the previous month”. It could help cut through the clutter of all these games releasing and give something that acts as a good summary.

Weekend news would be a brilliant (and basic) addition. I just go to Nintendoeverything for that news, which there is loads of.

Oh and retro reviews of games, GameCube and back of possible! Even mini GB and GBC game reviews. Like even just one or two a week?

What do you mean with "accurate" reviews? reviews are meant to be subjective. accurate according to my taste maybe?

A downvote in the comments would be nice, so the edgelords and crybabies can see how annoying they're being and adjust their posts accordingly to avoid disappearing.

@Mii_duck When you read the Daily Mirror, you expect hyperbole and baited headlines. When you read the Wall Street Journal you expect blunt objectivism stated as-is. NL has been trying to do both but has shifted increasingly from the latter to the former in style. That might generate more revenue, but it's also making the natives restless.

It becomes like the Wii (into WiiU). At one point do you abandon your audience for a way bigger audience that may not be as loyal?

I like this site enough to where I have started commenting here, which I don't often do lightly. It is my hope that despite your closer Nintendo connections, that your reviews stay honest and unbiased. Also, I hope that you continue to focus on text reviews. While the younger generations like to watch Youtube all day, and no doubt enjoy your more focused video presence, I hope this will never come at the expense of your written reviews.

Don't think we should have down votes at all. I also think this site lost something when @ThomasBW84 left. News seems slower then before as well.

i would REALLY like to see merch! ive been wanting a NL shirt for the longest time haha

• More screenshots so I don't have to watch vids.
• More sidestories, like the guy with the Nintendo atrworks. What an interesting story and the whole article was a blast to read!!

Thanks for all the hard work and keep it up guys! Best of luck to you all

I was a reader and observer before I finally joined the NL community back in 2011. Good to see you're always trying to improve the site. Keep up the great work, gang~

Not mentioned in your questions but I'd really like to see a retro section; whether that's features of old school games or guides, retro reviews (has it stood the test of time? etc ), or trailers, mini play throughs for past Nintendo systems.

I realise that's a massive undertaking but nurtured slowly it could become something epic. Nintendo past and present.

I've been visiting NL since 2011ish, but didn't bother joining up until midway through 2015. It's still my primary source for Nintendo news (though Serebii is still my chief source of Pokemon news ) Despite a few trolls, I love the community here and have had/seen constructive and/or difficult discussions here in the forums and comments that would have devolved and went nowhere elsewhere. I also enjoy a lot of the staff and feel like their passions bleed through in many of the articles.

That said, no website is perfect and should always be looking at what can be improved. I think the polls above covered a lot of thoughts and concerns of mine. I'd especially like to see a PM system. While I'm not sure what to think of some of the staff changes, I accept that they were done with the best interests of the site in mind.

A random thought/suggestion, but maybe there should be a way for users (or at least a staff member) to better maintain the game database here? I know it isn't top priority, but there are some missing games and database entries that need beefed up.

Finally, last but certainly not least, congrats to Ron! I hope he enjoys his new job, and I wish him the best!

I got hooked on this website because of the gorgeously written reviews here many years ago. The most recent reviews now are lacking compared to older reviews; not to say they are bad, it's just that they aren't what they used to be.

Seriously, I can go back and read reviews of Wii games and Virtual Consoles and have an absolutely certain idea of how the game plays, now these days the reviews are more or less recaps of the videos that developers themselves release.

I've also noticed that news comes in more quickly, accurate or not. This site used to be on the slow end of the Twitter reactions, but whenever an article DID release it was accurate and informative as heck.

I'd like to see less of the 'Random' and 'Rumour' articles and just stick with SOLID, here-are-the-facts articles that made this site my #1 gaming news source.

And yes, as others have said, there are Clickbait articles, and that goes hand in hand with my point above. Everytime I fall for that trap i lose trust in this website's integrity. Please, just keep a high standard and your readers will also.

Mostly I think it would be fun if you had box art on the Nintendo Download updates each week, or a link to gameplay videos or a trailer for each title since at this point the weekly list is getting nuts.

I've been really enjoying Mitch's stuff recently (I though the Octopath Hands On was a great read), so I'm glad he's a proper review dude now.

I really loved Tom's thoughtful, considered articles, so I'd like to see some of that composure in the Editorials. Not everything has to be a radical opinion - has achieved enough in simply being sensible.

I didn't tick 'more videos', simply because I think quality is more important than quantity, and I don't feel squeezing Alex for more content will really make it any better. I'm happy with 3 videos a week rather than one every weekday. That said, I do miss the 'site roundup' with eShop scores etc. that used to be a staple of the channel.

My favourite stuff has generally been the really interesting features and interviews that the site sometimes puts out, as they make a nice break from the news cycle (in relatively similar wherever you go in the internet).

My least favourite things have probably been the articles that really only have a minor thing to report but fill in the rest with somewhat forced preamble.

I wouldn't mind if the news articles were shorter, but the features were waiter more frequent or more in depth. It'd help give the site more sense of character and purpose that a string of news articles consisting of a tweet surrounded by waffle.

More community events and tournaments would be cool! It'd be great to get the readership playing games together rather than just bickering about them.

Higher me as your editter. Its the ownly thing that will save this sight. I promise you wont regert it.

There is A LOT of stuff to sort out to make this a proper 'news' site.

Post more stuff of what is getting released, even if obscure. GoNintendo are great with this.

Stop posting flambait articles. I have been following this site for a year and only signed up couple days ago. I don't care if Amazon made a grave error in their listing

Also please, please stop with the clickbait/ esp titles. Again, some of it feels a tad misleading and also comes across as a cheap site for traffic (e.g. https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2018/07/nintendo_clamps_down_on_risque_imagery_by_censoring_taisen_hot_gimmick_switch_port)

Less articles as well on hacking. I noticed it is a lot less than begining of year year TBF. Unless you guys are trying to get an excellent Nintendo console killed by piracy and 3rd party outcry? Weirdly I didn't mind the Gamecube NES emulator hack too much.

You could do mini reviews for games lesser known, esp Neo Geo? Whilst done, several are missing and 2-3 weeks late at most?

Not fussed on Ads, so keep em without being too aggressive.

This is the first site that I've come to visit daily and be active on ever since I quit Kotaku about 5 years ago. I enjoy the community aspect, it's very respectful and pleasant.

My only suggestion would be for staff to not feel the need to defend articles or the wording of articles in the comment section. It's a bit small time, if you want the website to have a professional feel then just leave it be unless it absolutely needs addressing. Animal Crossing article case in point.

The site looked better before the re-design.

Personally I'd like to see more video reviews, and not just necessarily from Alex if that's possible. I know usually other people write the reviews and he's just reading them, but I would enjoy it more if the reviewer was the one recording the audio to make it a more personable experience. Plus it's nice to have a bit of variety and we get to be more exposed to the rest of the NintendoLife staff.

One of the things I really like about this site is when staff members jump into the conversation in the comments. Makes the community on this site feel more connected.

A few things I'd like to see on the forums are a "preview post" just to make sure images or tags are showing up properly before you post and have to quickly edit afterwards, notifications for people quoting you (not just @ you), and a heart button similar to article comment sections so you get a sense of how many people agree with you.

I'd also like to point out that when I come on this site I exclusively look at the timeline rather than the home page since I find it's easy to miss news and articles on the homepage.

Damien authoring more content for the site is fantastic news and can’t be overlooked. His features are always well-researched with great photos and proofreading, with content that adds much-needed variety among the daily news articles and reviews. (Plus it helps he’s a huge SEGA nerd, which is totally cool by me!)

The main thing I want is for sites like this to stop giving bad actors exposure. You really don't need to cover what hackers are doing to violate TOS and help others do the same.

What would you like to see more of on Nintendo Life?
i know yall want me to post more.
ill start working on that.
as for the nl merchandise goes, i can use another nl shirt.
i look better in mine than any of you guys anyways.

I used to use the site daily, but now I find that everything you post has been up on Reddit for usually hours already so I don't much find the need.

I liked the articles when Tom was about.

I still come out of habbit a few times a week though. Usually for the Weekly Download Update, which I must admit, you've also been really slack on lately.

As much as I hate to say it I'm running out of reasons to come back. I don't even see that Irish guy here anymore. He was fun.

I'm pretty satisfied with this site as of now, but I can't wait to see new improvements!

I see many people complaining about "click-bait". Am I the only one here who can easily tell when a headline is being sensationalistic and simply avoid the article? 80% of the comments in said articles are people complaining about "click-bait". I always make sure to disable ad-block on this website in order to help keep it running.

I wish someone else were in charge of the videos. Alex seems like a great guy but his style is too over the top. Maybe that's just me not understanding british humor or something. His reviews are great, I must point out.

*"...insightful or inciteful..."

Nice phrase. I'll use it if you don't mind, @NEStalgia, hehe.

@Mii_duck the click-bait concern is not just for the sake of the readers. As others have said, it lowers the standards of the site (tabloid vs. journal) so for prestige sake, Nintendolife would benefit from less of that stuff.

True, we can quickly detect and avoid such articles, but that leads to a bigger problem: it causes viewers to go elsewhere. Plenty of comments on this article indicate that it's exactly what is happening. People are turning elsewhere for non click-bait content.

I'd also like to add that I'm sure everyone would like to maximize the content that they find useful on this site.

A front page showing 5 informative and soulful articles is much better than one informative, one soulful, and 3 clickbait articles.

@Kevember yes people can easily avoid them. Which is a problem in itself. If you avoid even 1 out of 5 articles because of it, that's a 20% loss in clicks for NL.

If they make 5 great articles instead, the views would increase (in this hypothetical situation, anyway.)

Also good on you for disabling ad block! I do the same, and even click on ads here from time to time.

Just my view: if you leave the site exactly as it is I’d be very happy - nothing wrong here

@BAN made me laugh, your grammar is already better!

@NEStalgia that is a good way of putting it. This site was my go to because of the writing and levelled journalism, there is no need for it to veer into sensationalist "is it this? is it that?" clickbaitery. Maintain a level of integrity and good copy writing or people will disappear (in fact people have been disappearing). Put yourself up in people's estimations rather than being viewed as tabloid trash.

And yeah, never unban that Irish fella.

@BAN #NoRagrets

One other thought: I feel like the game collection feature is an underappreciated portion of the website. I don’t recall if you can, but having the ability to review the games within ones collection on a sliding scale a la NL would be great.

Also, there are probably enough retro gamers who visit this site that having a weekly segment for lost gems of the prior gens would be pretty cool. But that’s more of a pipe dream (Mario pun not intended).

P.S. - This site is already great. Thanks for playing (and then writing about what you play).

I enjoy the news and videos the most. A Podcast would be great.

For years this has been the first website I check while I eat breakfast. I just want to say I appreciate everybody here, staff and regular commenters alike. I don't say much, but know that this lurker loves ya.

What I have noticed recently is with the uptick in the number of users visiting the site is that the number of user comments complaining about things has also gone up. I worry when the vocal complainers start to outnumber the people who want to share positive gaming moments and stories. Of course, Nintendo and the games that come out on their systems are not without fault, and healthy complaining is a normal part of life. But I do worry about this site becoming more toxic than positive in some areas on the website user comment PH scale.

I've just had my first anniversary writing for this website. I really enjoy writing, I’m always trying to improve my style/ accuracy, strive to produce more original content and get developer interviews. It's certainly been a learning experience, but the audience and the NL team are so supportive. Cheers!

@Shiryu I really do feel like the NL Podcast would be one of the best new additions to NintendoLife. Discussions by some of my favourite Nintendo people would be awesome.

I don't visit as much as I used to, but I put that down to less Nintendo content these days rather than any changes to the website. I always find you guys are a bit more positive about most games than the places I tend to go to first for reviews, such as Eurogamer and Edge magazine, while the stuff I like most are the features. Damo's stuff on retro gaming, or the things featuring Unseen64.

Email newsletter would be nice, currently i have a microsoft flow set up so that it emails me and notifies me when a new article has been posted using the RSS feed. Honestly it's the only way I can keep up with all the news having an easier way to sort and view every single one of them.

Please bring back the ability to see your comment posts under your profile. At the moment it says, "Sorry, this feature is currently disabled and will be back soon."

Generally agree with lots of what's being said. Overall though, I think the site, the staff and the commenters are all great. Just wish I had enough time to keep up with it all!

1) PODCASTS! Now that you said it, I definitely need a NintendoLife podcast in my life!

2) Please please please be careful and sensitive with leak/rumour/datamining/spoiler/etc content!

I enjoy hearing about new games from Nintendo Directs for example, so it isn't nice to be spoiled by some stupid leaker, which then gets reported here. This also includes news about dataminers' findings - as long as it is not an official reveal from someone within the game company, I don't want to hear about it!

Also, your news / guides (I don't use them so I don't really care, but good for those who want them) sometimes have had some spoiler content in their thumbnails or titles, which I would prefer you to be mindful about as well - for example, I once saw a BotW boss picture (I consider that a spoiler as it is in plain sight about something not happening in the beginning of the game, possibly even for a long time), or the Super Mario Odyssey world guide names, as they might have spoiled me the world names and order if I wasn't fast enough when playing (which luckily I was because of the free time I had then).

What would help, then? For example:

• A "leak" tag or something along those lines (in the same way as "news", "review", "feature" etc)
• A way to hide such tags or content out of view, as others have suggested
• Less revealing thumbnails and titles, even on regular guides and news

3) I enjoy Alex's humorous video content, so those are always welcome!

4) Your "top X" list features, both voted by us and created by yourselves, and other features are also nice

5) Otherwise I enjoy the site very much and regularly for my Nintendo related news, so thank you for everything! Other than the comments and pleas above (especially numbers 1 and 2, those are very important points!), I am satisfied with the site as it is. Actually, I don't even want more content than this, because I don't want to miss things, and of course I don't have the time to be here all the time

Something that I would like to see is news articles for when Kickstarter campaign ends, as a "hay look at how well they did and all the goodies they added" thing.

@Lord I agree 100% on point 4. Although this weekend is surprisingly busy. For a weekend anyway.