Retro - Timeline
Tuesday31st May 2022
Random The Power Glove Is An Inventive Way To Play Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit
Even more hands-on
The Power Glove wasn't great. We know it, you know it, everyone knows it. It's infamous for being one of the worst controllers ever. Yet that doesn't stop people from being fascinated with it and trying new things out with the peripheral. Further reading: Feature: Uncovering The Unlikely Story Of The World's Worst Controller In...
News 'Memory Limits' Showcases Amazing Art Created On The Game Boy
"The Game Boy becomes the medium for individual ideas, stories and visions"
The Game Boy was hugely influential in the game industry, playing its part in bringing video games into the mainstream. It's still very much loved despite its limitations, from its basic specifications that restricted the scope of its games, down to the modest screen. Those...
Monday30th May 2022
News Embracer Games Archive Is Striving To Preserve And Celebrate Gaming Culture
"We want to archive and save as much of the video games industry as possible"
The Embracer Group is a significant gaming company that is still somewhat under the radar in comparison to other major brands. Previously known as THQ Nordic and operating out of Sweden, it's become the parent organisation for a number of major gaming companies - familiar...
Rumour Datamine Reveals Six More Neo Geo Pocket Games Potentially Coming To Switch
Including two never-before-localised titles
Last week, we got the surprise Switch release of the Neo Geo Pocket Color's Biomotor Unitron — the system's first RPG. Biomotor Unitron joins the likes of Big Bang Pro Wrestling, SNK Gals' Fighters, and Samurai Shodown! 2 (among many others) on the system in representing the classic handheld console. And...
Sunday29th May 2022
Soapbox Help, I Can't Stop Buying Japanese Games I Don't Understand And Will Never Play
Nintendo sixty-moarrr
Soapbox features enable our individual writers and contributors to voice their opinions on hot topics and random stuff they've got on their minds. Today, Gavin ponders why he's spending time and money importing Nintendo curios from the East that he's not even sure he'll play... It all started with Morita Shogi 64. If you're...
Friday27th May 2022
Review Rival Turf! - Jaleco's Brawler Is No Match For Final Fight, Two-Player Or Not
Two isn't always better than one
This review originally went live in 2015, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the game's arrival on Switch as part of the Super NES library of games included with a Nintendo Switch Online subscription. When approaching Jaleco's Rival Turf! (known as Rushing Beat in Japan), it's important to understand...
Thursday26th May 2022
News SNES Platforming Shooter 'Jim Power: The Lost Dimension' Returns On Switch
With multiple physical releases
In another obscure retro rerelease, publisher QUByte Interactive and developer PIKO Interactive have announced the return of the SNES platformer Jim Power: The Lost Dimension in 3-D in the form of a brand new release — Jim Power: The Lost Dimension. Released in 1993 on the Super Nintendo, Jim Power is an action...
News Playable Build Of Cancelled N64 Game 'SimCopter 64' Discovered
History takes flight
In a huge discovery for video game history, a playable version of a long-lost cancelled N64 game has been found. SimCopter 64 was meant to be a port of the Maxis and EA title on PC and was last seen at E3 in — wait for it — 1997. We were made aware of this by Twitter user and gaming history preservationist @dangentemp, who...
Wednesday25th May 2022
Random Popular Flash Game 'IndestructoTank!' To Get A Physical Release On Game Boy
Digital, too!
With the death of Adobe Flash Player on 1st January 2021, many creators have gone to great lengths to preserve the projects they created over the years. If you were around at the peak of this era, then the name Newgrounds will be familiar to you, and I'm sure everyone has something they spent hours upon hours of mouse clicking and on...
News The Neo Geo Pocket Color's First RPG, Biomotor Unitron, Launches On Switch Tomorrow
Surprise!
In a surprise announcement, SNK has announced the next game in its Neo Geo Pocket Color Selection series, Biomotor Unitron. Released on the handheld back in 1999, this was the very first RPG for the system. The game mixes sci-fi elements with dungeon crawling. You control a robot through these dungeons — which are semi-random a selected...
News Valis: The Fantasm Soldier Collection II Launches On Switch This September
Japan only, for now...
Remember back in March when Edia announced it had plans to release a second collection of Valis titles on the Nintendo Switch? Well, it's now locked in a release date...at least for Japan, confirming this three-in-one classic collection will be released on 22nd September. This second collection, known officially as Valis: The...
Monday23rd May 2022
News Rare Footage From Nintendo's 1976 16mm Film Arcade Game 'Sky Hawk' Emerges
A blast from the past
Nintendo's fascinating history continues to be unearthed by fans across the world. Just last year, 16mm film from Nintendo's Wild Gunman — originally a 1974 arcade cabinet before jumping onto the NES in the '80s — was discovered. 16mm film games use film reels and projectors to project photos and footage onto the screen...
Friday20th May 2022
Review Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards - Kirby's First Brush With 3D Is Still A Charmer
Kirby Sixty-phwoar
Like many of Nintendo's properties during the transition from the SNES to the N64, Kirby underwent a shift from a flat 2D sprite to a fully rendered polygon rendition of himself. Rather than taking Kirby down the route of Mario and Link, however, the pink mascot stuck closer to his origins — mechanically, Kirby 64: The Crystal...
Thursday19th May 2022
News Ys And Trails Developer Plans To Release More Retro Titles On Switch
Update: Other Trails ports are being looked at
Update [Thu 19th May, 2022 10:00 BST] RPG Site has fully translated the Switch port questions from the Famitsu interview from yesterday. Kondo's answers clearly highlight that the company not only want to bring retro titles to the system, but also future titles. The interview focused on the upcoming The...
Wednesday18th May 2022
Random 2021 NES Game 'Slow Mole' Is Getting A Bizarre Claymation Movie
And there's a trailer
Last year didn't bring us the Switch 2, but it certainly brought us something very interesting and unexpected. 2021 saw the release of, not Breath of the Wild 2, but a brand new NES game called Slow Mole. Slow Mole is known for anything but slowness, as the game has garnered a reputation among the speedrunning community for...
News SEGA Launches New Streets Of Rage Merch In Europe
Streets of Range
While all the trendy kids talk about Streets of Rage 4 and (accurately) discuss how awesome it is, those of us that prefer the soft glow of nostalgia look back to the original. In truth it doesn't hold up as well as its outstanding sequel, but it's an iconic game among retro enthusiasts and some of us that had our young minds blown...
News This Important Piece Of Star Fox History Was Almost Thrown Away
I can't let you do that, Fox
Star Fox might not be one of Nintendo's biggest-selling franchises, but it certainly has a passionate following; the first SNES game was revolutionary in that it harnessed the Super FX chip to create a convincing 3D world, while subsequent titles both refined the format and took it in new directions. However, since...
Tuesday17th May 2022
Video We Take A Look At Limited Run Games' Brand New Store
Update: The full video is out now!
Update [Tue 17th May, 2022 20:00 BST] Well, the update came a lot sooner than we expected! Zion's full trip to Limited Run Games' physical game store — and it's here to stay. Featuring merchandise, cut-outs, playable games, and neon lighting, it's a glorious nostalgia trip. The video is a 26-minute love letter...
News Newly-Translated Article Reveals Sega And Nintendo's Worries Of A '90s Atari-Style Crash
“It’s almost like a return of the 1982 Atari Shock"
Many of us think of the '90s as the golden age of video games. The Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis / Mega Drive were brimming with a huge variety of games. But when Sony's PlayStation hit in 1995, it was an indication of another huge shake-up in the video game industry — though even then,...
Random Sorry GameCube, LeBron James Likes The Nintendo 64 More
The King has spoken
King James, otherwise known as the Los Angeles Lakers' player LeBron James, recently held a Q&A on Twitter, and unsurprisingly there were a number of video game questions thrown at the basketball superstar. One, in particular, that's already received quite a bit of attention on social media is a question from the technology...
Monday16th May 2022
News You Can Play Mario Kart 64 In Glorious HD Thanks To This Fan-Made Texture Pack
Yippee!
The Nintendo 64 fan scene has been pretty darn busy lately, with the Zelda: Ocarina of Time PC port finally launching — and getting a shed-load of fun and unusual mods — and even more games rumoured to be made available through reverse engineering. Next on the list, however, is a very smooth and shiny update to a pa
Random Indie Horror Dev Launches Kickstarter To Create A Game For Pokémon Mini
Pokémon Silver Falls
Hands up — who had a Pokémon Mini back in the day? The microconsole launched in 2001 in Japan and North America — right before the GameCube came out — and the following year in Europe. it came in three colours, had ten games released for it (only 4 made it to America, with an additional game coming to Europe), and is...
Sunday15th May 2022
Random Portal 64 Demake Shows Portal Running On "Real N64 Hardware"
GLaDOS would be pleased
Valve's Portal: Companion Collection will see the release of Portal and Portal 2 on a Nintendo system for the first time ever, but have you ever wondered what the original 2007 game might have looked like if it got a release during the N64 era? Well, there's now a 'Portal 64' demake in the works. It's still in development,...
Friday13th May 2022
News Lawsuit Brought Against Game Grading Firm, WATA, Alleging Market Manipulation
Class-action also alleges false statements and false advertising
In August last year WATA generated plenty of headlines, as criticism started to mount over the boom of retro game prices amid allegations of wrongdoing from the game grading firm. Claims surfaced alleging that the company was artificially driving high prices, along with claims of...
Tuesday10th May 2022
Random Here's Why Wolfenstein 3D On SNES Replaced Dogs With Rats
"You can't shoot dogs!"
We love a good documentary here at Nintendo Life, and CREATORVC's upcoming film, First Person Shooter, looks like it will fill a big gap in our lives. Shooting for a Q4 2022 release, this 3+ hour documentary is all about the genre's rise. Ahead of its release later this year, CREATORVC has shared a six-minute snippet with IGN...
Monday9th May 2022
Review The King Of Fighters: The Ultimate History
Bitmap Books' latest epic packs a punch
Capcom's Street Fighter has had many rivals over the years, including the likes of Virtua Fighter, Mortal Kombat and Guilty Gear. However, one franchise stands out as the true competitor: SNK's King of Fighters. Since its inception in 1994, the series has offered what many fans consider to be the only...
News Alwa's Awakening Gets A NES Physical Release And Unique 'Digical' Version
Update: We unbox the NES version
Update: Retro-Bit has been kind enough to send us samples of Alwa's Awakening physical NES release and its 'Digical' version, so feast your eyes on them below: Original Story [Wed 15th Sep, 2021 16:30 BST]: Retro-Bit is producing a physical version of Elden Pixels' Alwa's Awakening and will be making the game...
News David Ward, Co-Founder Of UK Game Developer Ocean Software, Has Passed Away
A "legend of the UK games industry"
Co-founder of Ocean Software, David Ward, has sadly passed away. A titan of the UK games industry, Ward's Ocean Software was one of the biggest European game developers and publishers in the '80s and '90s. This news was revealed by Just Flight founder Andy Payne on Twitter, and there has been an outpouring of...
News After The Game Boy-Like GameShell, Clockwork Pi's Next Trick Is A Computer You Build Yourself
1983 called, and it wants its consumer tech back
Remember the Clockwork Pi GameShell? We covered this open source DIY handheld in 2018, mainly because it resembled a Game Boy and could run MAME, Game Boy Advance and NES titles. It raised $290,429 on Kickstarter and we really enjoyed tinkering around with it – so the news that
Tuesday3rd May 2022
Guide 50 Best GameCube Games Of All Time
As ranked by you lovely people
The Nintendo GameCube launched in Japan in September 2001 and a couple of months later on 18th November in North America. Unlucky Europeans wouldn't get their hands on it until the following year, but the wait was worth it for one of the best-looking video game consoles of all time. The NGC (sorry, GCN) is a beautiful,...
