Retro - Timeline
Friday30th Sep 2022
News Star Fox 2 Made Its Debut On The SNES Classic Console Five Years Ago
You can now play it on the Switch Online service
The Star Fox series has been a staple of Nintendo systems since the Super Nintendo era, but there was one game in the series that went missing during this generation - Star Fox 2. While the game was mostly ready to go by 1995, by then PlayStation had entered the market and the N64 was just around the...
Wednesday28th Sep 2022
News SNK Celebrates Art Of Fighting 30th Anniversary With A New Illustration
The original game launched in 1992
Last week SNK celebrated Art of Fighting's 30th anniversary. This particular fighter was first released for Neo Geo and arcades in September 1992. It helped pave the way for the genre and eventually got a second game (1994) and third game (1996). SNK shared this special occasion by sharing a new drawing by SNK...
Tuesday27th Sep 2022
Anniversary Dragon Quest V Is 30 Years Old Today
The best Dragon Quest?
One of the Super Famicom's most-celebrated RPGs turns 30 today in Japan. Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride was the series' first game on the 16-bit console, and even today, Dragon Quest V is fondly remembered, despite the game not receiving an official Western release until its 2009 DS port. The Super Famicom (or...
News You Can Now Play NES Games On The Analogue Pocket
SNES functionality also recently made available
Here's something for retro gaming fans to celebrate this morning — thanks to Adam Gastineau, you can now play NES games on your Analogue Pocket. This tiny little handheld device can already play a number of retro handheld games with FPGA accuracy, and now you can add the 8-bit Nintendo console to...
Saturday24th Sep 2022
Talking Point Where Are All The Lord Of The Rings RPGs On Console?
Boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a RPG
The year was 2002. Peter Jackson was about to release the second instalment in the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, EA had bagged the rights to the video game adaptations of the films and Vivendi was just about to release its own console adaptation, not of the New Line Cinema property, but adapted directly from...
Wednesday21st Sep 2022
Random Unseen Screens Of Cut Super Mario 64 Stage Found In 1996 Nintendo Report
But wait, there's more!
Always ready to unpack a little more of Nintendo's history, a collaboration between preservation site Forest of Illusion, @Render_Archive and @Nintoid has amounted in the upload of a long sought-after Nintendo Company Report from 1996. The edition includes a wealth of nostalgic gaming material from sales reports to upcoming...
Tuesday20th Sep 2022
News Footage Of Perfect Dark's Cut Feature 'Perfect Head' Emerges Online
Heads rolled
We often laud Rare's incredible library of games on the N64, and while the focus has recently been on its seminal movie tie-in shooter GoldenEye 007 over the past week, we want to turn your attention to Perfect Dark for just a few minutes. Footage of one of the game's cut features from E3 1999 has been shared online. As highlighted by...
Monday19th Sep 2022
News La-Mulana Director To Remake Obscure Konami MSX IP After Winning Contest
The Maze of Galious returns
La-Mulana series director Takumi Naramura has proven his chops at creating games inspired by the MSX computer, and now it looks like he's going to get his hands on one of the most well-known games on the system. The director has won a competition run by Konami to have the chance at remaking the 1987 classic, The Maze of...
Wednesday14th Sep 2022
News Switch Online Versions Of Pokémon Stadium 1 & 2 Won't Support Transfers
Read the fine print
At the latest Nintendo Direct broadcast, the next batch of games coming to the Switch Online N64 service were revealed. Apart from titles like Mario Party, and the long-rumoured return of GoldenEye 007, Nintendo also confirmed Pokémon Stadium and its sequel Pokémon Stadium 2 would be
Tuesday13th Sep 2022
News More N64 Games Are Coming To The Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack
Yes, including THAT one
Nintendo has announced that a new batch of Nintendo 64 games will be coming to the Expansion Pack tier of its Nintendo Switch Online subscription service. As detailed in the latest Nintendo Direct for September 2022, the following eight titles — as well as the long-rumoured return of GoldenEye 007
Monday12th Sep 2022
Poll What's The Best Contra Game? Rate Your Collection And Help Us Find Out
Run 'n' Rank!
This week marks the 30th anniversary of Contra III: The Alien Wars (or Super Probotector: Alien Rebels) on the SNES in Europe. That's crazy, right? Despite Konami's rather lacklustre attempt to revitalise the franchise with Contra: Rogue Corps in 2019, we here at Nintendo Life still have a spot in our hearts for the run 'n' gun shooter...
Monday5th Sep 2022
PSA Sega Mega Drive Mini 2 Is Now Available To Pre-Order In The UK
Be quick, supplies will be low!
The Sega Mega Drive Mini 2 has been made available for pre-order in the UK and Europe, exclusively through Amazon. At the time of writing, the price of the console has been set at £104.99, which bizarrely is actually more expensive than North America, where it's currently priced at $99.99 (Update: as mentioned in...
Friday2nd Sep 2022
Random Bob-omb Battlefield Gets Added To 'GoldenEye With Mario Characters' Mod
It's-a Bond, James-a Bond
In celebration of GoldenEye 007's 25th anniversary last month, a diehard Mario fan, known on YouTube as StupidMarioBros1Fan, sought to remake the game with Super Mario 64 characters at the helm. The result was fantastic — in a kind of deeply horrifying way — and the team has now dropped an update to the PC fan game...
Wednesday31st Aug 2022
Feature 12 Nintendo Games That Deserve An HD-2D Remake
Pretty in pixels
HD-2D has become the new lofty bar for retro-inspired RPGs or remakes of our favourite Super Nintendo RPGs. Square Enix's new trademark visual style started with 2018's Octopath Traveler and has also been used in this year's strategy RPG Triangle Strategy. But, arguably, its true potential has been realised in the stunning remake of...
Random This New PC Platformer Is Designed To Be Played With DK Bongos
And it's free!
Nintendo has long been a pioneer of creative controllers. There was, of course, the Wii remote which revolutionised mainstream motion-based gaming, the N64 controller which finally let you play a game with three hands, and, the crème de la crème, Donkey Kong Jungle Beat's DK Bongos. Many of us still have a pair or two of these...
News The 'Unofficial Strider Sequel' Cannon Dancer Is Finally Coming To Consoles
Step and stride
As we're only weeks away from this year's Tokyo Game Show, we're starting to find out what games developers and publishers will be showing off at the annual convention. And amidst Konami's line-up — which includes multiple Yu-Gi-Oh! games, Super Bomberman R 2, and Coffee Talk Episode 2 — is the surprise return of a forgotten...
Tuesday30th Aug 2022
News 'Jumping For Joy' Leaps Into Platforming History, With Plenty For Nintendo Fans To Enjoy
Jump up, jump up and get down
If you're looking to explore the history of Nintendo and its games, Chris Scullion, video games journalist extraordinaire and Nintendo Life contributor no less, is a go-to expert in the field. Having worked at Official Nintendo Magazine back in the day, he's already got several tomes' worth of facts and figures for you...
Friday26th Aug 2022
Watch How To Get Good At Collecting Retro Video Games (Without Breaking The Bank)
Time to haggle!
Video gaming has to be one of the more expensive hobbies out there, right? Other than, like, yacht collecting or space travel, of course, but out of the normal hobbies, it's up there. Games themselves tend to cost anywhere from $20 to 80, and that's before you get into things like physical versions and collector's editions and DLC...
Thursday25th Aug 2022
News Chibi-Robo Director Doesn't Think Skip Ltd Will Release Another Entry In The Series
"Most of the staff have moved on to other companies"
There's nothing quite like Chibi-Robo. The teeny, tiny little robot came out late in the GameCube's lifespan in the west and never really got the love he deserved. We never forgot about him at least, but it's been a quiet few years since developer Skip Ltd and Chibi-Robo have plugged into...
Wednesday24th Aug 2022
Random What Do You Mean Super Mario's Donut Blocks Aren't Based On Donuts?
"Jelly-filled are my favourite"
Donut blocks. We all know them, and we all either love them or hate them as they collapse under the weight of our platforming plumber Mario. These platforms have been around since Super Mario Bros. 3, always waiting to lure us in with the safety of a flat surface, before falling and taking us Mario to his demise...
Tuesday23rd Aug 2022
News 20th Super Mario Kart Championships Start Their Engines On Twitch Today
Off to the races
We are rapidly approaching the 30th anniversary of Super Mario Kart's Japanese release on the Super Famicom, but what if we told you that there is another SMK-adjacent anniversary happening today? We are, of course, talking about the Super Mario Kart Championships, which will be racing off the start line today in its 20th year of...
Random Vintage Nintendo Playing Card Opening Ends In Disaster For Collector
“I cannot overstate how excited I was"
We've covered Nintendo's history a lot here at NL, and not just the video game side. At this point, it's pretty well known that before Nintendo jumped into gaming, it was well known for producing handmade hanafuda playing cards. And if you're a hardcore Nintendo collector, you'll likely want to get your hands...
Sunday21st Aug 2022
News This Stealth GameCube Mod Allows You To Play With Any Bluetooth Controller
Pre-orders now available
The GameCube might not have had the same widespread appeal as the PlayStation 2 or the original Xbox, but it was still an amazing gaming system. One thing it arguably did better than other systems at the time was wireless controllers - with the Wavebird considered by many as the pioneer of modern wireless gamepads. If you...
Saturday20th Aug 2022
Poll So, Wave Race 64 Or Blue Storm - Which Is Best?
Or are you a GB purist?
The arrival of Wave Race 64 on Switch as part of the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack has been the cause of much celebration in the Nintendo Life office. Those water physics have the power to impress some two-and-a-half decades on, and it still handles like a dream. If you've never played the game — or if you're a PAL...
Friday19th Aug 2022
Guide SEGA Genesis Mini 2 Games List - Every Mega Drive And SEGA CD Game, All 61 Titles
Sega's latest mini console is out now
Following the success of its original Mega Drive / Genesis Mini, Sega has officially launched a second iteration of the miniature console, dubbed the Sega Mega Drive / Genesis 2. Our friends over at Time Extension managed to get extensive hands-on time with the new system and have published their thoughts in a...
Review Wave Race 64 - A Thrilling Racer That's Still Deeply Impressive
Splash wave
This review originally went live in 2016, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the game's arrival on Switch as part of the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack. Wave Race was not a well-known series prior to its arrival on the Nintendo 64. Actually, it wasn't a series at all, but rather a single release: a top-down racer on...
Thursday18th Aug 2022
Random This Prototype Transforms Your Switch Into A Home Arcade Cabinet
Nintendo Switch XL
One of the most appealing features of the Switch when it was first released back in 2017 was its ability to be played in both handheld and docked mode. But what if there was another way to play? This is a question that seems to have plagued the incredibly talented designers over at Passocade, and what they came up with is surely...
Wednesday17th Aug 2022
Random Masahiro Sakurai Updated His Awesome Gaming Setup, Here's A Look
What's up with the Switch dock?
When he's not making huge games like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, video game director Masahiro Sakurai is actually playing them. Yes, as you've likely already seen before, he's got an extensive collection of consoles and games (new and old). In a new post on social media, it seems Sakurai has updated his gaming space...
Tuesday9th Aug 2022
Feature Mega Man, Crash Bandicoot, And Gex - The '90s Inspirations Behind 'Frogun'
We'll tell you what we want, what we really really want
Why is that '90s and 2000s fashion coming back as a new trend is so utterly distressing to those of us that were there, but '90s and '00s video game aesthetics resurfacing is a good thing? We don't have answers for you, but we do have Frogun, a charmingly goofy action-platformer game that...
News Super Punch-Out!! Hidden Two-Player Mode Discovered 28 Years Later
No hacks or mods required
There's been a historic discovery made within the 1994 Super Nintendo release Super Punch-Out!! today. A Twitter account known as 'Unlisted Cheats' has uncovered a hidden two player mode in the game. To access this option, on the game's start screen you'll have to hold the 'Y' and 'R' buttons on the second player's...
