Retro News (Page 10)
Random Console Modder Makes "Fake Portable GameCube" Mock-Up A Reality
"It's real now"
Reflect on previous Nintendo generations, and you might remember mock-ups of portable GameCube handhelds inspired by the Game Boy Advance SP. If you've ever wanted a real version of something like this, well...that's exactly what console modder and YouTuber 'GingerOfOz' has created. The modder has been able to shrink this mock-up...
News Glory Hunters Looks Like A Game Boy Zelda, And Plays Like Nothing Else
Well, it plays a bit like Zelda too
The year is 2022, and there's another physical Game Boy release on the way! And it's Analogue Pocket compatible! It's called Glory Hunters, and it pulls from the looks of A Link to the Past, plus that iconic green-on-green monochrome Game Boy colour palette. But there's a twist: You progress through the game by...
Review F-Zero X - The Best The Series Has To Offer
X gonna give it to ya
This review originally went live in 2016, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the release of F-Zero X on Switch, available as part of the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack N64 library. The original F-Zero on the Super Nintendo really blew gamers away with its stunning use of Mode 7 visuals, colourful graphics,...
Video This Fan-Made Banjo-Kazooie Remaster Trailer Looks Absolutely Stunning
Unfortunately, you can't actually play it...
Even if Banjo-Kazooie is now Microsoft-owned, the bear and bird duo will always have a special place in the hearts of Nintendo gamers around the world. And although Rare re-released an improved version of the original title during the Xbox 360 generation, many fans are still left wondering what a proper...
Video We Can't Stop Buying Weird Nintendo Games
Game swaps bring hidden delights
One of the most joyful things about the retro video game community is the conventions and meet-ups that are put on to celebrate the classics and bask in the glory of those hidden gems. In-person events are slowly starting to make a comeback, so leave it to the indomitable Zion Grassl, king of collectibles and...
Anniversary The Father Of Video Games Would've Been 100 Years Old Today
So let's celebrate Ralph Baer today
As noted by our friends over at Retronauts (and many others), today marks what would have been the 100th birthday of the man many call the father of video games, Ralph Baer. It's hard to say, but without Baer's work as an inventor and pioneer that developed the first video game console for the home with the...
Random Blindfolded Speedrunner Sets New Record On Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!
It's a knockout
We've seen some pretty impressive speedruns in our time, but this is one for the history books. While a lot of speedrunners utilise glitches and generally try to break the game in order to achieve their goals, YouTuber and Twitch streamer 'Summoning Salt' has opted for pure skill to nail the world record for completing
News Nintendo 64 Platformer 'Glover' Returns, Just Not On Switch
It should fit like a glove, though!
Who remembers Interactive Studios' Glover? If you had an N64, you likely snagged a handful of 3D platformers from Super Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie and its sequel, to Goemon's Great Adventure and Chameleon Twist. There was a glut of them on the system, but not many have been ported to other systems. Glover,...
Random Man Who Just Wanted To Play Duck Hunt With His Kids Built His Own Light Gun
"I thought Duck Hunt on a 50-inch TV would be amazing"
For many of us, the light gun was a part of our childhood. Whether it was grabbing your NES Zapper only to be mocked by a dog in Duck Hunt, or heading to the arcade and spending those few pennies of pocket money you saved up every week for a quick blast of Time Crisis, it captured the...
News A Long Lost N64 Video Game Prototype Has Been Released
See this 1999 build of Carnivalé: Cenzo's Adventure
It's always nice when a long lost game is unearthed and today is one of those days. Reintroducing the cancelled Nintendo 64 title, Carnivalé: Cenzo's Adventure. This obscure 3D platformer, developed by Terrraglyph Interactive Studios and published by Vatical Entertainment, was shown to the...
News Unofficial F-Zero 'World Championship' Aims To Celebrate The 30th Anniversary Of The Series
(That's 30 years in Europe, by the way)
F-Zero burst onto the scene over 30 years ago now as a launch title for the Super Famicom. Since then, Captain Falcon and his pals have enthralled millions of players – but even so, there hasn't been a new entry in the franchise since 2004's F-Zero Climax. For shame, Nintendo. Pop culture publication Cool...
Random The NES-SY37 Is A Custom-Built Synthesiser That Pays Tribute To The NES
You wait for one NES synthesiser to show up...
Just yesterday, we reported on an app that you can download to turn your NES into a synthesiser (if you have the right tools, of course). But Swedish craftsman Love Hultén, known for creating bespoke technology fused with traditional woodcraft, has paid tribute to the classic console by building a...
Random Turn Your NES Into A Synthesiser With This App
We built this city on bleeps and bloops
If, when you first played Super Mario Bros. 3 or the original Metroid, you wanted to make music that rivalled Koji Kondo or Hirokazu Tanaka but also sounded just like it, well in 2022 you're finally in luck. Available on itch.io and developed by user Avicr, SynthNes is a ROM that runs on an Everdrive N8 Pro...
Random Portal 2's Intro Was Apparently Inspired By Super Metroid's Opening
Game's project lead reveals all
The 1994 action-adventure Super Metroid is arguably the best entry in the mainline Metroid series and as a result, it's inspired many other games over the years. One game that you may not have realised took a little bit of inspiration is Valve's 2011 puzzle-platform game is Portal 2. Speaking to YouTube channel Kiwi...
News My Famicase Exhibition 2022 Is Now Accepting Entries For Fictional Famicom Cartridges
Fantastic fan-made fideo games
The My Famicase Exhibition is a long-standing tradition for artists who love retro games. Every year, Meteor — a Japanese retro game and goods shop — opens up applications for anyone who wants to be a part of the art, and all you have to do is design a cover for a Famicom cartridge. They're now accepting...
Review Taito Milestones (Switch) - An Oddly Meagre Collection Of Coin-Op Classics
A muted celebration of an important developer
A small "Powered by Arcade Archives" message sits in the corner of Taito Milestones' dual-purpose title/game select screen, a subdued seal of quality there to let players know the emulation within is of the same standard we've come to expect from Hamster's prolific series, with all the usual features...
News Retro-Bit's GameCube Component Cable Will Save You Some Pennies
No need to sell a kidney!
Remember the GameCube's official component cable? Once upon a time, it was the best way to get a picture out of Nintendo's boxy-but-good home console, and its price reflected that – it cost around £60/$70 at launch but can fetch upwards of £200 these days. Thankfully, there are other options in 2022. We've got HDMI...
News Nintendo's "Inhumane" Virtual Boy Testing Process Likened To 'A Clockwork Orange'
"They put us under the most bizarre tests"
Earlier today, we reported on a new video from Did You Know Gaming that shines a light on the Virtual Boy F-Zero spin-off Zero Racers, which was once believed to be little more than a series of screenshots but appears to be have been totally finished. The source is former Nintendo of America associate...
News Mythical Virtual Boy F-Zero Spin-Off Was 100% Complete, According To Former NOA Staffer
"Zero Racers was done"
The Virtual Boy might have gone down as one of Nintendo's most costly failures, but a dedicated and passionate fanbase has grown up around the system, and this group spends a lot of time looking into unreleased projects which could have potentially boosted the console's fortunes – one of which is F-Zero spin-off Zero Racers...
Review The Legend Of Zelda: Majora's Mask - Magnificent, Unique, And Worth Revisiting
Okay, campers, rise and shine
This review originally went live in 2016, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the release of Majora's Mask on Switch, available as part of the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack N64 library. The Zelda games have a lot of fans and there's also been plenty of opportunities over the years to revisit...
News 'Gex' The Forgotten '90s Video Game Mascot Might Be Making A Comeback
Update: Square Enix has now filed a trademark in Japan, too
Update [Thu 24th Feb, 2022 15:55 GMT]: Square Enix has now filed a trademark for Gex in Japan: Original Story [Fri 17th Dec, 2021 02:05 GMT]: Gex - one of the many forgotten video game mascots of the '90s - could potentially be making a comeback. Following on from Square Enix...
Retro How A Remarkable Street Fighter Port Soured The Relationship Between Capcom And Nintendo
"You're sitting on $4 million to $5 million in inventory cost"
Much has been written about how the N64, for all of its amazing games and technological advancements, was something of a misstep for Nintendo – especially after a decade of amazing success with the NES, Game Boy and SNES. Nintendo famously decided to go with expensive cartridges...
News Bitmap Books Celebrates The Legacy Of Final Fight, Streets Of Rage And More With 'Go Straight'
"The ulimate guide to side-scrolling beat 'em ups"
Once upon a time, the belt-scrolling beat 'em up was the king of the gaming world. Titles like Double Dragon, Final Fight, Golden Axe and Streets of Rage were some of the most successful and popular of the period; arcade titles would generate incredible revenue while home ports (and exclusives, in...
Random 22 Years Ago Today The Nintendo 64DD Had More Online Features Than Switch
Randnet Disk offered an impressive range of options
The Nintendo 64DD remains an intriguing part of the company's history, with the expansion ultimately being short-lived and limited to the Japanese market. Though it wasn't a commercial success after frequent delays and an arrival that fell too close to the GameCube, it nevertheless helped to pave...
Feature Is It Worth Importing A Japanese 3DS For These Virtual Console Games?
Save money on import classics before it's too late
As we all know the 3DS and Wii U eShops are closing down, taking with them countless classics in all genres. It's a decision that's understandably left many of us scrambling to find our old passwords and make those last minute purchases, finally turning those 'Maybe next time' purchases into a...
News Thousands Of Dollars Of Rare Factory-Sealed SNES Games Unearthed After 27 Years In Storage
TMNT! Evermore! Chrono Trigger! Sunset Riders!
When a video game store in Nebraska closed its doors for the final time in 1994, its entire stock was packed away and placed in storage, waiting for a new owner. Now, almost 30 years later, the stock has been unearthed and documented – and YouTube channel THISISGAMEROOM was there to record it. As you...
Review EarthBound Beginnings - A Charming Curio That Mother Fans Will Cherish
Everybody's gotta start somewhere
This review originally went live in 2015, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the arrival of EarthBound Beginnings in the Nintendo Switch Online NES library. If you were an early adopter of EarthBound fanaticism in the West, you likely caught wind of a previous title made for the Famicom. Translated...
Review EarthBound - A Quirky, Cosmic Adventure Bound To Warm Your Heart
Mother!
This review originally went live in 2016, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the arrival of Earthbound in the Nintendo Switch Online Super NES library. Fuzzy pickles! Back in 1995, this second instalment of Shigesato Itoi's much-loved Mother series (as it's known in Japan) only received a western release in North America, where...
News Did You Know The Game Boy Advance Could Make Video Calls Back In 2004?
With a rather expensive accessory, of course
Back in 2004, the idea of making a video call with your mobile phone felt like the future. 3G was just taking off and several phones were sold on this feature alone – even though the image quality was often terrible and it was impossible to get a signal strong enough to use it often. Although it...
Random Undertale's 'Megalovania' Was Inspired By Square's Super Famicom RPG 'Live A Live'
Yep, the one getting the HD2D remake treatment
Toby Fox has more talents than his name has syllables, and one of those talents is composing for video games — including his own, Undertale. And if you've heard any of the Undertale soundtrack, it's likely you'll have heard Megalovania, the bombastic retro-flavoured background music to a very...
News The Arcade Emulator MAME Is Now 25 Years Old
MVG takes a look
Video game emulators aren't always seen in the best light, but they actually play an important role when it comes to video game preservation and the revival of classics on modern hardware. With this in mind, MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) has just turned 25 years old, after making its debut on 5th February 1997. If you're...
Random Who Needs 3DS? You Can Now Play Super Mario In Holographic Form
...it's just nowhere near as convenient
Remember the first time you saw a Nintendo 3DS running? The glass-free 3D effect was truly mind-blowing, and there's still a part of us that is deeply sad that the technology proved to be something of a dead-end. Still, if you've got a hankering for something along the same lines and you have exceptionally...
Random Wordle Is Now Playable On The Game Boy
Portable power
Unless you've been living under a rock for the past few weeks, you'll know about Wordle. It's a web-based word game created by Josh Wardle in which players are given six attempts to guess a five-letter word. Coloured tiles tell you if your guesses are correct or not. It has taken the world by a storm, so much so that The New York...
Memory Pak Star Fox 64, My Incredible Introduction To The World Of Nintendo
Not Mario or Zelda, and my affection for the series will never end
Soapbox articles give our team a chance to share some personal perspectives; today it's the turn of Tom Whitehead to talk about the 64-bit game that sparked his love affair with Nintendo... I'm old enough to say my first gaming system was a ZX Spectrum, which is a big yikes. We had...
Random Check Out This Adorable 'Coat' For Your SNES
It's cold outside
If there's one video game accessory that's been unfairly ignored over the decades, it's console clothing. We live in a world where people will happily dress up their pets without any fear of rebuke, so why not their beloved gaming systems, too? It would seem that, once upon a time in Japan, someone thought this might catch on...
Video Remember When You Needed A Cable To Trade Pokémon?
Cable tied
Trading has always been a key component of the Pokémon franchise, right the way back to the launch of the original Game Boy games. Nowadays, of course, trading is handled wirelessly, but back in the '90s we had to use cables to link up consoles and share 'mon – and it's that period of time that this recent My Retro Life video focuses...
Video Ex-Rare Staffers Kev Bayliss And David Wise Are Sharing Their Secrets On YouTube
Music and art combine
Not so long ago, we reported on the news that former Rare staffers Kev Bayliss and David Wise had formed 'Salmandos', an "exciting new project" that celebrates their careers in the industry. As part of this, the pair have created DK Creations, a YouTube channel that sees them sharing their secrets and generally looking back on...
News This Man Needs Your Help To Create The Best 24kb Game For The NES, Ever
"Really important, spoiled people are counting on you"
Langel Bookbinder is a man with a vision. He's looking to bring his low-fi shooter GunTner to the NES in the form of a physical, 24kb cartridge – and he's trying to do it via a crowdfunding campaign. GunTner's a shmup, but one that's filled with wild and wacky enemies. Here's a brief...
News Buy This New Game Boy Advance Title And You'll Be Supporting A Worthy Cause
"If each of us helped one other, then that would make a difference"
Luma is a new GBA puzzle title that's coming out this year – and if you purchase a copy, you'll be bringing a little bit of light to this dark and uncertain world. How? Well, Mark Watkin, who has ported the C64 original to the GBA, is donating a portion of the sales to the Mid...
Feature Game Boy's Perfect Pixel Art And Our Obsession With Reclaiming It
Grey and green never looked better
The Game Boy is an iconic piece of gaming hardware, but the quest to elevate and celebrate its games has continued over the course of more than 30 years. Backwards compatibility with the later Game Boy line enabled us all to replay the OG library on updated, improved screens and the quest to present 8-bit retro...
News N64 Classic 'Blast Corps' Finally Gets The Official Merch It Deserves
Clear a path to the Fangamer store!
Those of you old enough to recall the early days of the N64 may well remember Blast Corps, a unique action title by Rare that sees you clearing a path in front of a runaway nuclear missile carrier. It's one of the more unique offerings in the N64 library, but it's also a game that seems to have been cruelly...
Random An AI Broke Tetris On NES, And It’s Compelling Viewing
Tetromi-woah
There are a lot of talented programmers that devote their efforts to showcasing and taking retro games to new heights, and Tetris is about as iconic as it gets. In a video posted last Summer - that we cam across this week courtesy of Gizmodo - programmer Greg Cannon shared a playthrough of the NES version in which his AI plays so well,...
Random Unearthed 1998 TV Report Blames Nintendo 64 For "Gaming Addiction"
"I refer to him as a Nintendo junkie"
Ever since video games became a thing, we've seen parents worry about their offspring becoming hopelessly addicted. However, in a world where screentime is possible literally anywhere in the world thanks to the rise of the smartphone, it seems quaint to recall that, way back in 1998, the media was losing its...
Random Now This Is What You Call A 'Super' Game Boy
9 screens, and it's still blurry
Back in the days before massive LCD displays, mankind had to settle with the idea of linking up banks of CRT TVs to create that 'big screen' vibe – and now, a hacker has achieved the same kind of effect using Game Boy displays. In his efforts to reverse engineer the Game Boy's crude greyscale LCD display, kgsws...
News This Cancelled N64 Title Is Giving Us Serious 'Akira' Vibes
...mixed with a dash of 'Tron' for good measure
One of the great tragedies of all time is that Akira – one of the most influential anime and manga series – has never received a decent video game adaptation. Sure, people have tried, but the resultant efforts always seemed to fall short of the greatness of Katsuhiro Otomo's masterpiece. It turns...
News WaterField Is Back With An Analogue Pocket Carry Case That Costs A Cool $129
Space for your console, dock and much more besides
Remember when we reported last week that WaterField Designs was creating the Analogue Pocket Pouch? Well, the bag maker is back a week later with the Analogue Pocket Pack, "a folio-style case that organizes and protects the Analogue Pocket console, dock, power brick, cords, cartridge adapters, and...
News Dystopian Game Boy Adventure 'The Machine' Gets A New Demo
Give it a try in your browser
You can't keep the Game Boy down, with the humble handheld still getting used for various projects while its game library also grows. A small number of dedicated developers and publishers embrace the challenge of working with the system, and now you can sample one particular upcoming release - The Machine. Announced...
Feature Nintendo Life's Biggest Gaming Regrets
Forgive us, Reggie, for we have sinned
Here's some news: We are not infallible human beings here at Nintendo Life. Hard to believe, but true. We don't all sit on a throne of priceless Spice Orange GameCubes and rare SNES games, although a fair few of us have been known to collect a few
News Metroid Prime Dev Confirms That Nintendo Blocked The Addition Of Super Metroid To The Game
...but it paved the way to the inclusion of the original Metroid
A few years back, it was reported that Super Metroid almost made it into Metroid Prime but Nintendo decided against it because the emulator used was an unofficial third-party one. In a conversation with Kiwi Talkz, Metroid Prime developer
Video We Have A Lot Of Feelings About Banjo-Kazooie On Switch
Good ones, too!
Banjo-Kazooie on a Nintendo console in 2022. It's mind-blowing! Not just because Rare and Nintendo parted ways long ago, or because we still haven't got our hands on Rare Replay, or because there will most likely never be another Banjo-Kazooie game, but because it actually looks really good. There were a few concerns, especially...
