Retro - Timeline
TodayWed, 11th Dec 2019
Gallery Unboxing Metal Storm, The NES Hidden Gem That's Getting A Second Chance
Irem's cult classic is available once more
While your typical console has plenty of AAA titles which gain plenty of attention and bumper sales, there are always a few underrated gems which slip through the cracks for one reason or another. Irem's Metal Storm is one such title; originally released in the US to positive reviews in 1991, it was...
YesterdayTue, 10th Dec 2019
Random Rare Forgot To Remove A Shotgun From Donkey Kong 64 Before Showing Miyamoto
There was a "look of horror" on his face
Last month, Donkey Kong 64 turned 20 years old. Since then, the development team behind the game has been doing the press rounds to celebrate the anniversary. During a recent interview with Games Radar, one of the creative leads George Andreas recalled a horrifying moment when Rare was showing the game to...
Monday9th Dec 2019
News The Amazing Story Of How One Man's Fib Created A Nintendo Empire
The lie that gave birth to Bergsala
If you're a Scandinavian resident then there's an excellent chance that the name Bergsala will mean a great deal to you. This company has been instrumental in distributing and marketing Nintendo's products in countries such as Sweden, Denmark and Finland, and, more recently, became an investor in SteamWorld...
Random Remembering When One Company Ruined Christmas For Some NES Owners
A chastity belt, but for your console
This Christmas, we'd imagine plenty of Switch consoles are going to make their way under trees all over the world, promising a legion of new players a pretty incredible holiday season. However, let's spare a thought for the kids back in 1989 who got a NES from Santa, only to find that their parents had also...
News Polymega Slips Into Early 2020, But It's Bringing Some Cool Stuff With It
Intelligent patches! New screen filters! Impressive compatibility!
Polymega's been in the oven for quite some time now, and, like so many new hardware projects, has been subject to a few growing pains. This ambitious system is aiming to be the ultimate retro box, allowing you to not only use your original games and controllers but also download your...
Sunday8th Dec 2019
Poll Box Art Brawl #20 - Super Smash Bros.
A real brawler
Welcome back to Box Art Brawl, the series where we pit regional variations of video game box covers from back in the day against each other in a savage fight to the death. Okay, it isn't that dramatic - it's just a poll - but let's get into the spirit and pretend that the stakes are incredibly high this lovely Sunday afternoon, hmm?...
News Introducing The 64Mate, A New All-In-One N64 Storage Add-On "Launching Soon" On Kickstarter
Who needs the 64DD?
If you know your way around a Nintendo 64, you’ll know the base of the console can be connected to peripherals such as the 64DD. If you never got your hands on this hardware, it means you’ve probably never attached your legendary 64-bit system to anything in the past. Well, soon you might finally have a reason to lift up the...
Video Legend Of Zelda Fan Spends 24 Hours In Ocarina Of Time VR
Living in Hyrule
We've seen 24-hour gaming marathons before, but this particular story is slightly different. A YouTuber by the name of SwankyBox, who is said to be a "huge" fan of the Nintendo 64 classic, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, recently cut himself off from the real world and spent hours exploring the 64-bit land of Hyrule - while...
Thursday5th Dec 2019
Feature Jason Brookes Talks Super Famicom, Import Gaming And Super Play
"The feeling of being part of a club was endemic in Super Play"
Earlier this week, former Super Play, EDGE and Famitsu staffer Jason Brookes passed away after a long battle with cancer at the age of 52. We're running a proper tribute to the great man soon, but in the meantime, here's an exclusive interview conducted with Jason back in 2017, but...
News Hey Nintendo, Can We Please Have Famicom Wars?
You know, the original Advance Wars game
After months of waiting, Nintendo has finally announced the next batch of SNES and NES titles will be added to the Switch Online service next week. There are a total of six titles coming to the libraries in America and Europe, but as usual, the line-up is slightly different in Japan. This time around, it's...
Monday2nd Dec 2019
Gallery This Gorgeous SNES Pixel Art Book Will Make The Perfect Christmas Gift
272 pages of pixel-perfect goodness
Award-winning specialist publisher Bitmap Books has just announced an English-language version of Robert Bannert and Christine Bauer's Unofficial SNES Pixel Book – and you can order it today. Translated from the original German in collaboration with Elektrospieler, this 272-page tome is packed full of lovely...
Sunday1st Dec 2019
Feature Jez San On Star Fox, Super FX And Teaching Nintendo How To Fly
"They’d never trusted a western company in that way before"
Jez San occupies a pretty unique place in the world of video games. He founded his company, Argonaut Software, while he was still a teenage schoolkid, and his free-roaming 3D shooter Starglider would become a critical and commercial smash-hit, paving the way for a relationship with...
Saturday30th Nov 2019
News The SNES PlayStation Was Going To Have A Super FX Chip Built-In
"Then Sony and Nintendo fell out"
The Super FX chip was a groundbreaking piece of tech; a "console on a chip" which massively enhanced the SNES, allowing it to push polygons with aplomb. Created by Argonaut Software, a small UK-based firm, the chip was created when Nintendo enlisted the help of Argonaut's Jez San to assist the company in making 3D...
Poll Box Art Brawl #19 - Contra III: The Alien Wars
You mean Super Probotector: Alien Rebels, no?
And we're back for another edition of Box Art Brawl, our series of bloody bouts between video game box covers from video game territories across the globe. Konami up to its old tricks. Last week North America was deemed to have the best Donkey Kong 64 cover, winning the day with its brazen boldness...
News Old Japanese Magazine Reveals "New" Details About Nintendo's Axed Project, EarthBound 64
Step back in time
Nintendo's cancelled project EarthBound 64 – also known as Mother 3 – began its life in the mid-'90s as an N64 title, and was eventually released as a Game Boy Advance game in 2006. Although the Nintendo 64 title never saw the light of day, there's still a lot of interest in this axed project. In June this year, new footage of...
Friday29th Nov 2019
News Yo-Yo Shuriken Is A Brand New Action Game That's Just Released For The SNES
What year is it?
We're positively swimming in new Nintendo Switch releases every week at this point - our constantly overflowing inbox serves as a regular, major indicator of this (send help) - but we don't expect to see new games arrive for the nearly-30-years-old SNES. That's exactly what we've been treated to today, however, with the launch of...
Thursday28th Nov 2019
News This 1985 Promotional Flyer Reminds Us That The NES Almost Looked Very Different
R.O.B. had a different name, too
While the NES is famous for being the console that established Nintendo as a world-leader in the realm of video games, it's vital to remember that when it was initially pitched to US retailers, success was by no means a sure thing. The Video Game Crash of 1983 had knocked retail confidence in games consoles and...
Wednesday27th Nov 2019
Feature The Game-Changing Nintendo VR Headset That Never Was
"We had cool stuff working"
Argonaut Software is a name that long-time Nintendo fans will be intimately familiar with; the UK-based firm worked with Nintendo on its Super FX chip, the cartridge-based hardware that made titles like Star Fox, Stunt Race FX and Yoshi's Island possible. However, Argonaut's interest in tech didn't end there; the company...
Monday25th Nov 2019
Hardware Review How Does The Carby GameCube Component Cable Compare To The Real Deal?
Component or HDMI, that is the question
If you're of a certain age you'll understand the struggles we went through to get the absolute best picture quality out of our consoles back in the day. The GameCube was no different; in fact, we remember paying well over the odds for a modified Component-to-RGB Scart cable in order to get our NTSC GameCube...
Sunday24th Nov 2019
Feature Hands-On With Tobu Tobu Girl Deluxe, A Challenging New Game Boy Title With A Cute Look
You go, girl
Making a new Game Boy game in the modern era takes a lot of guts, but Tangram Games has done just that with Tobu Tobu Girl Deluxe. Successfully crowdfunded to the tune of €40,972, this is a simplistic yet challenging action title which tasks you with getting to the top of the screen using a wide range of skills while avoiding hazards...
Poll Box Art Brawl #18 - Donkey Kong 64
Walnuts, peanuts, pineapple smells
He-he-here we go! It's time for Box Art Brawl, our weekly look at which region got the best box art of a particular retro release. Last week the North American version of Ninja Gaiden on the NES absolutely trounced the competition, with the Japanese variant a distant second and Europe left stumbling in a daze...
Friday22nd Nov 2019
News Playtonic's Steve Mayles Releases Special Donkey Kong Country Artwork To Mark Its 25th Birthday
As other staffers share mementoes from the period
Donkey Kong Country turned 25 yesterday, an event which is sure to have made many of us feel very old indeed. To celebrate the anniversary, Playtonic's Steve Mayles – who worked on the game during his tenure at Rare – has posted a special piece of artwork showcasing the game's heroes: Mayles...
News Hamster Is Bringing Konami's Hyper Sports To The Switch eShop Next Week
On your marks, get set, go!
Hamster is next week releasing Konami's 1984 title Hyper Sports on the Switch eShop for $7.99 / £6.29. The title arrives on 28th November and will allow up to four players to participate in seven events. These sports include swimming, skeet shooting, long horse, archery, triple jump, weight lifting, and pole vaulting...
Thursday21st Nov 2019
Feature Best Nintendo DS Games
As voted for by you
Today is the 15th anniversary of Nintendo DS' launch and in honour of the occasion we're bringing back this reader-voted list of the 50 best Nintendo DS games, originally published back in August. Remember, this ranking is governed by Nintendo Life User Ratings and even now it can change depending on the scores. Feel free to rate...
Hardware Review Hyperkin Admiral - Wireless N64 Controller Goodness
Cut the cord
Anyone who's ever crammed around a TV with a Nintendo 64, GoldenEye 007 and a few friends will know the struggles that the short cord on the N64's controller caused. Few companies have tried to remedy this in the past with controller extensions – and controllers that just don't hit the mark – but no one has really succeeded...
Anniversary Feel Old Everyone, Donkey Kong Country Turns 25 Today
And the birthdays keep on comin'!
Hmm. It's almost like video games themselves are conspiring to make us feel our age recently. Earlier this week Super Smash Bros. turned 20 in the PAL region, and today we posted about Pokémon Gold and Silver re
Random Super Mario Land Has Been Ported To The SNES, And It Looks Amazing
If only it were official
Super Mario Land is one of the most beloved entries in the early Mario canon, despite the fact you can finish it in an evening and it has rather crude visuals, even by Game Boy standards. Still, it was, for many gamers, their first taste of 'Mario-on-the-move', and its gloriously oddball shooter levels, engaging soundtrack...
Wednesday20th Nov 2019
News Samurai Shodown Is Still On Course For 2019 Release In Japan, Pre-Load Now Available
While the western version is scheduled for early 2020
Update (Wed 20th Nov, 2019 18:00 GMT): The news that the western launch of Samurai Shodown wouldn't be happening until 2020 had some people assuming the that the Japanese version – pencilled in for 12th December – would also be impacted. However, that's not the case and you can pre-load the...
Tuesday19th Nov 2019
Anniversary Super Smash Bros. For Nintendo 64 Is Now 20 Years Old In Europe
Smashin' it mate
It's time for the birthday bumps! Yes, with time moving irrevocably and irritatingly forward, the original Super Smash Bros. turned 20 today - or a version of it did. Having had its Japanese launch in January 1999 and its North American debut in April, Europe finally received the N64 crossover brawler on 19th November exactly two...
Random So, Someone Made A Portable SNES Out Of... A SNES
Because why not?
Over the past few years, we've seen hackers and modders create some pretty impressive pieces of hardware based on existing classic systems. Portable N64s, GameCubes and even Wii Us have come and gone, each one trying to turn a beloved platform into something subtly different.
