Retro - News
August2015
News The Tragic Tale Of Taito's WOWOW, The Console Which Promised Download Gaming In 1992
Ill-fated system pre-dated the SNES Satellaview by some margin
Taito may now be a part of super-publisher Square Enix, but the history books will honour the company as one of gaming's true pioneers. It was responsible for Space Invaders - arguably one of the most important games of all time - as well as a string of '80s and '90s arcade hits,...
Editorial Paper Mario is 15 Years Old Today, and Provides a Reminder of Nintendo's Wonderful Whimsy
Silly and brilliant, what a combination
Paper Mario is 15 years old today, 11th August, in terms of its Japanese release in 2000. Intelligent Systems, a development company typically associated with Fire Emblem and Advance Wars, took a step back from serious strategising to produce what was, at the time, a bit of a revelation. Actually originally...
Video Say Hello To The SNES Game Which Ships Inside A Game Boy Cartridge
Invading a 16-bit home console near you
One of the really cool things about the Super Game Boy adapter - besides the fact that it allowed you to play your portable titles on SNES - was that it added embellishments to certain titles, like two-player modes, additional colours and even attractive borders around the screen. However, there's one title...
Witness the Mario Kart killer that never was
Given the amount of love and attention we've bestowed Xbox One title Rare Replay recently, you'd be forgiven for thinking that you'd logged onto our sister site Pure Xbox by mistake. Still, Rare will forever be a major part of Nintendo history, and there's a lot of bonus content in this collection which...
Video Kids React to Pokémon Snap In Rather Interesting Ways
Where's that darn Z button?
It's oddly fascinating when young gamers get given a retro game to play, which helps to partly explain the huge success of the REACT channel. Yes, it covers people of all ages reacting to all manner of things, but when you hand a kid a retro controller the results can be - in their way - educational. The latest episode...
News This Controller Wants to Bring the 'Next Gen' to NES
Works on the 8-bit system or PC
Plenty of companies tackle the surprisingly complex challenge of producing a high quality game controller, and not all pull it off successfully. We somewhat admire the effort from Retro Fighters, then, which is aiming to crowdfund a 'next gen' NES pad. The main pitch for this pad is that it has both usb and a NES...
Video Did You Know Gaming? Tackles The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
The history of a classic
We rather like the Did You Know Gaming channel here on Nintendo Life, as it neatly summarises familiar and sometimes fresh trivia on iconic games. Nintendo titles get plenty of coverage, and next up is The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. Drawing on sources recent and otherwise, including an Iwata Asks for The Legend of...
July2015
News Fire Emblem Meets Front Mission In Galaxy Robo, A Freshly Fan-Translated SNES RPG
Robot rock
Not a week seems to pass without another Super Famicom RPG getting translated by devoted fans, and this particular week it's the turn of Copya Systems' Galaxy Robo, a turn-based strategy title that was published in Japan by Imagineer in 1994. Playing like a cross between Fire Emblem and Square's Front Mission, Galaxy Robo has been...
Event Movies, Mirth And Mario Kart Mastery At The First Nintendo Life Gaming Night
Hosted at the Centre for Computing History, Cambridge
As you'll no doubt be aware, here at Nintendo Life we've got a real soft spot for vintage gaming. Keeping this in mind, our recent event at the Centre for Computing History in Cambridge, England was something of an eye-opener. Our relationship with the museum itself goes back some time - thanks...
Video Pokémon Gold & Silver Glitches Deliver Celebi Magic
And some weird stuff
The A+Start YouTube channel specialises in showing off fun game glitches, both practical and otherwise, and its latest video is sure to be worth a watch for Pokémon fans. It tackles Pokémon Gold & Silver, and in particular the lengthy method for obtaining one of the rarest 'mon in the games. We're talking about Celebi,...
Weirdness Super Mario Bros. 3 is Rather Creepy With "The Plumber's Dream" Theory
The hills have eyes
Super Mario Bros. 3 is an undoubted classic, and one of the finest platformers of all time. At times bizarre, always great to play, it's a testament to what could be achieved on the 8-bit NES. Naturally it's an enduring topic for gamers of all types, and some like to really dive into the meaning of the colourful and bonkers...
Video Chill Out With Smooth McGroove's Onett Theme A-Cappella From EarthBound
Released in honour of Satoru Iwata
Fans of awesome video game music with a taste for a-cappella are likely familiar with Smooth McGroove, who's covered a huge number of iconic tracks in his own style. There'd been a bit of a gap (around three months) since his last video at the time of writing, but the singer / composer has now released a fresh...
Weirdness Sega's Repackaged Transformers Arcade Game Is An Unexpected Nod To Its Glorious Past
Feeling the G-Force
Back when arcades really mattered, Sega was one of the industry's big hitters. The company not only produced amazing titles like Golden Axe and Alien Storm, but also ran a pretty amazing line in dedicated coin-op cabinets. Titles like After Burner, Space Harrier, Out Run and Thunderblade were all housed in massive, hulking units...
Anniversary The Virtual Boy Is 20 Years Old Today
Nintendo's most famous failure is getting on a bit
According to the history books, the Virtual Boy is Nintendo's biggest failure — both commercially and critically — in the hardware arena. Launched 20 years ago today on 21st July 1995 in Japan to almost complete consumer apathy, it bypassed Europe entirely and was discontinued the following...
News Secret Of Evermore's Epic Soundtrack Gets The Remaster Treatment
Sean Schafianski works his magic on Jeremy Soule's original tracks
Secret of Evermore is one of Square's forgotten classics - a SNES title created entirely in North America that tried to ape stable mate Secret of Mana, but didn't quite match it. Despite being less acclaimed than some of Square's other 16-bit titles, Evermore still has plenty of fans...
Video There's Plenty to Admire in this Super Mario World Speedrun
Son of a Glitch explains how it's done
Speedrunning is a particularly neat part of gaming culture, in which extremely dedicated and skilful players push games and their coding to the limit. Often exploiting glitches and - in the case of retro games - memory limitations of the original hardware, gamers find clever way to beat classic titles in a...
Live Watch the Super Smash Bros. Melee Finals from Evo 2015
Time for a champion to be crowned
Evo 2015 (Evolution Championship Series) is reaching its big conclusion - ZeRo has already triumphed in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, and today brings the grand finale of the Super Smash Bros. Melee tournament. Join us for the action! [liveblog=watch_the_super_smash_bros_melee_finals_from_evo_2015]#Evo2015...
News The Famicom is 32 Years Old Today
Should have a steady job and a mortgage by now
Here's one to make some of us feel old - the Famicom is 32 years old today, released in Japan on 15th July 1983. It was, of course, the system that would be revamped and remodelled as the NES in October 1985 in North America. Famicom was the shortened name for Family Computer; a key difference of this...
Ninterview Meet The Man Who Makes Hip-Hop Music From Classic Nintendo Hardware
"The controller we have created is like wearing my childhood round my neck"
We recently came across a UK based hip-hop producer and DJ by the name of Imperial, who makes quite a striking impression with a strange musical instrument strapped around his neck, which has parts that might seem very familiar to our readers. This musical instrument is...
News MEGABytes to Blend a Cafe and Arcade Together in Glasgow
Cake and NES, together at last
Retro gaming culture remains strong, with the collector's scene, events and expos remaining hugely popular around the world. Arcades are less common, though some entrepreneurs in Glasgow have decided that rather than simply open a cafe, it'd provide a blend of old and new. MEGABytes is opening in Glasgow (Scotland)...
Video Check Out an Extensive History of Super Mario Bros. 2
The real original and the Doki Doki Panic re-skin
Many Nintendo fans know the basic story around Super Mario Bros. 2 as known in the West, and the original sequel which would be called Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels outside of Japan. It's a familiar tale, but one nevertheless with some detail that's reserved for those keen to delve into the...
News Zeldamotion's Link To The Past Animated Series Takes to Kickstarter for Support
Aiming to complete the series
Fans of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past may remember episode one of Zeldamotion's Link to the Past Animated Series; the fan effort boasted impressive visuals as it began a re-telling of the game's memorable adventure. It's been around 10 months since that episode launched, but the Patreon pa
News This 'PikaBoy' Game Boy Color Mod Goes the Extra Mile
LED cheeks, a tail and feet to stand up
We sure like retro console mods here at Nintendo Life, as fans take classic systems and apply a neat twist to their design. Nintendo systems are often re-imagined in wonderful ways, and this 'PikaBoy' system is another example. The creator, 'eforie', had the idea in 2011 but made it a reality for...
Weirdness Revenge is a Dish Best Sold on eBay, as This EarthBound Sale Shows
Ouch
Retro gaming, most notably collecting, can be an expensive business. Not all gamers are content with downloading whatever classics pop up in the Virtual Console, as there can be a desire to own the original cartridges and play them on their retro systems. Collections can be treasured, then, but based on an eBay sale can also be used as...
News Say Hello To What Could Be The Most Obscure Piece Of Nintendo Hardware Ever Made
Copy me do
There's been a lot of chatter lately about obscure gaming hardware, mainly inspired by the discovery of the prototype SNES PlayStation. However, if you want a truly off-the-wall slice of Nintendo history, then you need look no further than the Copilas. Produced in 1971 way before Nintendo had begun experimenting with video games, the...
Video Capcom Shares Footage of Resident Evil 0 N64 Prototype
Fuzzy horror
We love a bit of survival horror here at NL Towers, and Resident Evil 0 was one of our favourite GameCube games, along with the slightly more accessible Resident Evil 4 of course. What you might not have realised is that Resident Evil 0 was originally intended to be a Nintendo 64 game which was planned to come out in 2000. The game...
Video Take A Drip Down Memory Lane With Game Freak's Second Game, Jerry Boy
Or Smart Ball, if you had the misfortune of playing the American version
Game Freak may be most famous for the Pokémon series, but the company's history goes back a little further than that. Back when the firm was still learning the ropes, it released the platform title Jerry Boy on the Super Famicom. A cute and cuddly romp through a colourful...
News Sony's Shuhei Yoshida Plays It Cool With The SNES PlayStation
"Actually, I played some games [on it] as well"
Shuhei Yoshida, rather like his contemporaries at Nintendo, is refreshingly light-hearted and open in interviews - the President of Sony Computer Entertainment's Worldwide Studios has popped up in these pages in the past speaking positively about Nintendo and sharing amusing tales of getting banned on...
News Gunpei Yokoi Discusses The Struggle To Make The Game Boy In One Of His Last Interviews
"Hardware design isn't about making the most powerful thing you can"
Gunpei Yokoi is one of the most important figures in the history of Nintendo. One of the engineers who helped turn the company into what it is today, Yokoi produced some of its most significant releases - including the iconic Game & Watch series and the world-beating Game Boy...
Weirdness Twitch Plays Metal Gear Solid: Ghost Babel, With Hilarious Results
Chaos, failed stealth and furious Metal Gear gamers
The Twitch Plays phenomenon has been around for over a year now, which makes it positively medieval by internet standards. The concept of hundreds of viewers issuing input commands is predictably chaotic, of course, and the concept can still be entertaining with the right game. We think this...
News Square's Romancing SaGa Finally Gets Translated Into A Language We Can Easily Understand
Another Super Famicom classic liberated from the mists of time
1992 Super Famicom RPG Romancing SaGa has finally been translated into English. Designed by SaGa series creator Akitoshi Kawazu, this epic title never received a western release. The game is unique in that it abandons the linear structure seen in so many other JRPGs of the period and...
News The Classic NES Lives On As An Awesome PC Case Mod
Pimp my NES
The iconic Nintendo Entertainment System was hardly a design classic back in 1985, but it holds special memories for many of us. What better way to keep the spirit of the humble NES alive than with a custom PC case mod? A PC Gamer reader gutted an old NES which he had lying around, went to work with a dremel and sandpaper and gave the...
News The Man Who Found The SNES PlayStation Thinks It Will Probably Be Sold
"Sure my dad would think about selling it because he's pretty broke"
Yesterday we reported on the stunning news that a SNES PlayStation has been located in the wild. The existence of this almost-mythical machine was never in doubt - Sony released promotional images back in the early '90s - but it was believed that all of the prototypes were either...
News Prototype SNES PlayStation Found In The Wild, Unicorn And Big Foot Expected Next
Update: Video of console now live
Before Sony entered the home console arena it worked with Nintendo on a CD-ROM drive for the SNES. The aim was to eventually release a combined console - called the PlayStation - which would play SNES carts and SNES CD-ROM games. Of course, this never came to pass - at the 1991 CES Sony officially announced the...
June2015
News Analogue Nt Starts Shipping To Buyers, Pitched As "The Leica Of Home Consoles"
"We've always looked up to the standards of companies like Leica"
Analogue Interactive's Analogue Nt has completed its initial production run and is now shipping out to consumers. The aluminium-cased console - which plays NES and Famicom carts - comes from the same company which gave us the wooden SNK Neo Geo AES and features a wide range of AV...
A turn for the best
Mario's diabolical, greedy and slightly-overweight rival Wario is a genius of sorts. After all, why bother with long games when you can make many quick-paced, five-second challenges? The third game in the WarioWare series, entitled WarioWare Twisted!, never made its way to Europe - which is a crying shame, as it's one of the most...
Movie Review Behind Nintendo Quest's Game Collecting, There's A Surprisingly Human Story
For the love of the find
Kickstarter-funded movie Nintendo Quest isn't exactly a documentary about NES games. They're definitely in the film; don't worry about that. You'll see so many shelves and boxes and displays chock full of gray cartridges that they'll dance behind your eyelids whenever you close them. But those who expect huge reels of play...
Weirdness Someone Captured E3 2015 Using A Game Boy Camera
And then downloaded the images using a cool new device
Remember Jeremy Parish? He's the guy behind Game Boy World and the boss at US Gamer. He's also the kind of guy who thinks nothing of taking ageing retro tech to the world's biggest gaming event and snapping photos of famous video game celebrities. Parish snapped the likes of Nintendo's Bill...
Weirdness Man Finishes Super Mario World In 23 Minutes Whilst Blindfolded
...and 14 seconds
How quickly can you finish Super Mario World? 23 minutes 14 seconds? That sounds like a pretty fast time to us, but imagine doing that totally blindfolded. That's exactly what PangaeaPanga has done - and the amazing thing is that he was only practicing the run very recently - he started his training on June 16th. He dies during...
News Fans Are Creating A Brand-New Quest For The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time
It's called Third Quest
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is a game that speaks, well, volumes. The revolutionary 3D entry to the Zelda series has led to the game holding its own to this day, encouraging replay value for copious amounts of reasons. Aside from receiving a beautiful 3DS remake in 2011, it has fired-up the competition in the world...
News Sonic The Hedgehog is Now 24 Years Old
Unless you want to be pedantic and count Rad Mobile
If you're a Sonic fan in North America or Europe then today has a little significance - it was 24 years ago, on 23rd June (not July as we originally wrote), that the original Sonic the Hedgehog on SEGA Genesis / Mega Drive was released. Sonic had previously appeared as a decoration in the arcade...
Gallery Marvel At This Woodgrain Styled N64
Taking retro to it's logical conclusion
We've seen some lovely console mods over the years here at Nintendo Life, but this one from our Texas-based reader Marshall Clark was too good not to share. While the classic N64 design had some nice curves and came in a range of colours during its lifespan, Marshall has given it a woodgrain makeover which...
Video Try Not To Jump At This New Trailer For Capcom's Luigi's Mansion Arcade Game
Sure to suck up some coins
Earlier this year we reported on the news that Capcom and Sega were working on an arcade semi-sequel to Luigi's Mansion, which features first-person, ghost-busting gameplay. The game's official site has now gone live, along with a trailer which gives you a taste of what the final product has to offer. The final name is...
Weirdness Drink Back Your Childhood With This “Bartendo" Line From Ink Whiskey
Drunk on nostalgia
Think back to 2013 and you may or may not remember the release of the Ink Whiskey Entertainment Flask, which was an alcoholic take on classic NES games of the past, with titles such as, “Legend of Drink" and “Drunk Hunt." It might not have been one of the classiest ideas, but it had a strong Kickstarter campaign and was...
Video Share The Joy of Receiving a Launch Day Super NES
A young gamer's dream
We're still some time away from our next new hardware release from Nintendo, but it's always an occasion to savour. Before attention falls to sales, the library of games, online services and all of those shenanigans, there's that glorious first day when all is new, shiny and full of potential. It's arguably even more exciting...
Video Latest Teens React Episode Proves Age Has Done Little To Dull Contra's Insane Difficulty Level
Co-op for experts
We're keen followers of the excellent React YouTube channel, especially the retro videos which show gamers young and old struggling to come to terms with some of the most famous titles in the business. This time up, it's Konami's hard-as-nails run-and-gun shooter Contra (or Probotector if you're in Europe). Contra is considered to...
Video Did You Know Gaming? Takes to the Skies With Star Fox
A nice warm-up for E3
There are some titles that we know - courtesy of release-windows, common sense or Nintendo confirmation - will be shown at E3; one of these is Star Fox for Wii U. Hopefully we'll learn of a release window, a final name and get a good look at what's come of Shigeru Miyamoto's desire to produce a cinematic, innovative GamePad...
News Super Mario Bros. Inducted Into the World Video Game Hall of Fame
Along with Tetris and four other games
Not too long ago we told you about the World Video Game Hall of Fame, an initiative launched by the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York. A committee of games writers, academics and industry veterans was formed to deliberate over what games would be admitted into the list, with an initial...
Feature The Making Of Body Harvest
Former DMA Design staffer Steve Hammond spills the beans
"Development Hell" is a well-known term for the painful gestation of a Hollywood movie. Whether modern AAA games suffer the same problems from concept to release, I don't know personally but I am certain that they do. I am currently reading Tales From Development Hell, and whilst the movie...
Feature Game Boy Collector Tracks Down Original Owner Using The Power Of Social Media
A very modern mystery
The internet is a wonderful tool which allows us to do all kinds of things – shopping, keeping in touch with loved ones and (of course) reading amazing websites like Nintendo Life. It's also rather handy when you pick up a second-hand piece of vintage gaming technology and want to know who owned it a few decades ago – and...
Matters Of Import Fire Emblem (Sort Of) Exists On The Sony PlayStation
A look at Shouzou Kaga's forgotten classic
For various reasons we now live in an era where developers breaking away from their parent companies to make similar-but-different pseudo-sequels to dormant, dead, or defiled game series is now a relatively commonplace occurrence, with Koji Igarashi's Castlevania successor Bloodstained being the latest to...
Book Review 33 1/3 - Koji Kondo's Super Mario Bros. Soundtrack
Going deep into the classics
The themes of Super Mario Bros. are such a prominent part of our culture that they're easily celebrated, but perhaps not so easy to truly appreciate. The tracks - especially the original Overworld/Ground Theme - pop up in so many places and are so readily playable in our heads that we can treat them as simpler and less...
Pre-show broadcasts also promised
Following the past weekend's Nintendo World Championship's qualifiers, Nintendo of America has used its quirky Nintendo Direct Micro and subsequent details to flesh out the final event that's taking place in LA on 14th June. For starters, the big event will be at 3pm Pacific time on 14th June, which is 6pm Eastern...
Rumour Nintendo NX Could Use Google's Android Operating System
Bridging the gap between home and portable?
Nintendo's next console could use Google's Android OS, according to Japanese publication Nikkei. An editorial by Nikkei on Nintendo NX contains alleged "insider" knowledge which suggests that the Wii U's lack of third party support has impacted the approach Nintendo is taking to its next system. According...
May2015
Video Retro Music is Hard-Wired Into Your Brain Because of Science, Not Just Because It's Awesome
Jumping to the beat
When playing retro games it's common to admire the music, with a sense among some that chiptunes of the 8- and 16-bit era are a cut above modern soundtracks. There are still spectacular soundtracks in modern gaming, particularly those performed by live bands and orchestras, yet for some retro music can't be topped. There are...
News New SNES Title Gets Funded for a Wii U eShop Release
Will also have a NES version
It may be a particularly niche area, but there are still developers producing new games for retro systems, including the NES and SNES. Sold with charming cartridges, often with all of the boxes and manuals that retro gamers know so well, they remain a key - albeit small - part of gaming culture. We can add Sydney Hunter...
News Final Fantasy Wasn't Named For The Reason You Think
Creator Hironobu Sakaguchi sets the record straight
Final Fantasy is arguably the most important release in the entire history of Square Enix - or Squaresoft, if you'd prefer - and one of the biggest names in the video game business. For many years it was said that the game was so named because it represented the last throw of the dice for the...
Weirdness Indie Hit Progress Gets Ported to the Humble Game Boy
Now that's progress
Indie developer Ludosity is well known for developing fun games for tablets and smartphones, but now it seems to be taking its first steps to porting one of its games to Nintendo hardware - just not the Nintendo system which you might have assumed! Speaking to our chums at AppSpy at this year's Nordic Game show, the developer...
Weirdness The Game Boy XXL Makes The New Nintendo 3DS XL Look Puny
Supersize GB
Sometimes it feels like electronics manufacturers these days are all totally obsessed with the miniaturisation of their products. We recently got the iPhone 6 Plus and the New Nintendo 3DS XL... erm, actually, it's probably best to stop there. Let's be honest, the original Game Boy was always a reassuring brick in stature; not exactly...
News Cabbage Is The Dream Nintendo Game That Never Was
Shigesato Itoi, Shigeru Miyamoto and Tsunekazu Ishi all involved
We recently ran a feature on Star Fox 2, one of Nintendo's most famous cancelled projects. This SNES-based sequel had all the ingredients to be a sure-fire classic, but never made it to market. However, there's another game in the company's past which had the potential to be even more...
News Super Metroid Was Planned As An Extra In Metroid Prime Before Nintendo Had It Removed
A third-party emulator ended the dream
It may seem like distant history now, but there was a relatively recent time when the Virtual Console was merely an idea rattling around in Nintendo HQ. Super Metroid is one classic that's now been available to buy on two separate occasions, but there was a time when it was almost a bonus feature in a more...
Feature Go Fast - An Ode To The Glorious Chaos Of F-Zero
Gonçalo Lopes explains why he will be hoping for a new F-Zero at E3 2015
Colours. Music. The Captain. Speed. Very, very fast speed. Those are the things that race to my mind when anyone mentions "F-Zero". I am also quite certain my eyes widen and sparkle a bit. Is it just a series of games? Not to me. Off to the starting grid… Knight League:...
Ninterview Patrick Scott Patterson is Geared Up For the Nintendo World Championships Qualifiers
"For me personally this is as awesome of a scenario as could be"
Patrick Scott Patterson (also known by some as OriginalPSP) is familiar to plenty of gamers, especially those that follow his reports on retro gaming and world records; he also has a strong record of media appearances talking about the medium as a whole. His public gaming history goes...
Another Japan-only release gets localised
When you say Westone, you think Wonder Boy. The recently-defunct Japanese studio created a series of amazing action-RPG titles for Sega which have since become legendary slices of retro gaming, but outside of that particular franchise the company's work is somewhat less well known - at least in the West...
Weirdness You Can Buy About 300 Copies of Jurassic Park on SNES for $1500
Fridge and Bacardi not included
It's no secret that we find some corners of eBay rather baffling - whether it's scalpers flogging pre-orders or just downright goofy goods, it's a Wild West of commerce. This example is certainly the latter, as it celebrates the upcoming Jurassic World movie in the most bizarre way possible. As you can see below, you...
Video Get The Best Picture From Your NES With This Comprehensive Guide
Retro refinement
Whether you're hoping to dig into some more obscure titles, or want to fully relive the days of flickering tv screens and boxy controllers, there's still plenty to be said for hooking up the original NES and getting a properly authentic experience. Unfortunately, Nintendo's first home console isn't the easiest to work with if you're...
News A Totally Complete Version Of Star Fox 2 Really Does Exist
And we're not talking about fan-made patched prototype ROMs, either
Later today, we'll be running an exclusive interview with Q-Games boss Dylan Cuthbert, a key figure in the history of the Star Fox series - he worked on the SNES original, its cancelled sequel, Star Fox Command and the 3DS port of Star Fox 64. In our interview, Cuthbert reveals...
News The First Hardcore Gaming 101 Digest Aims To Chart The Impact Of Two Of Capcom's Greats
Strider and Bionic Commando go under the microscope
Hardcore Gaming 101 isn't just a great resource for retro gamers - it has also published some excellent physical books on our beloved hobby, including one which takes a look at Sega's arcade lineage and a comprehensive history of Konami's Castlevania. The site's next project is
News Unofficial Metroid Prequel Uses The Original NES Hardware To Impressive Effect
Metroid: Rogue Dawn is coming later this year
Will we see a new Metroid game at this year's E3? Fans will certainly hope so, but in the meantime we can all get excited about a fan-made prequel which uses the original NES hardware for that extra degree of authenticity. Metroid: Rogue Dawn takes the original title and hacks it apart, building an...
Plays Sega, Nintendo and NEC games
We reviewed the RetroN 5 a while back and found it to be an excellent way of playing your original retro game cartridges in glorious HD. However, Hyperkin's wonder-console has a challenger in the shape of Cyber Gadget's Retro Freak - a clone system which out-does the RetroN 5 by offering support for PC Engine...
News Hudson's SNES JRPG Super Shell Monsters Story Finally Gets Translated Into English
And it only took 20 years!
Back in 1994, Hudson released Daikaijuu Monogatari on the Super Famicom - a JRPG which looked a lot like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. The game never saw a Western localisation, and has remained out of reach for anyone who doesn't have a firm grasp of Japanese - until now. Translation group Dynamic Designs has just...
Video The Game Theorists Tackle That Vital Star Fox Question - What's With the Metal Legs?
Busts some old myths
Assuming that Nintendo President Satoru Iwata doesn't appear in this year's E3 Digital Event and ask us to "please understand", we should have a new Star Fox game for Wii U this year. We may know very little about it, but we won't deny that it's pretty near the top of our hype list for the upcoming LA event. There'll be plenty...
Weirdness Fred Savage Seems Very Much In Favour Of The Nintendo World Championships 2015
"California!"
Nintendo is bringing its World Championships event back from the dead for this year's E3, and this relic from the past has attracted the attention of another part of Nintendo's history - the actor-turned-director Fred Savage. Savage was arguably the world's biggest child star when he appeared in The Wizard, a 1989 Hollywood movie...
News You Need These Exclusive Sega-Themed Artworks On Your Wall
Golden Axe! Streets of Rage! Shinobi! More!
What happens when digital art studio Cook & Becker enlists talented artists - working in the fields of Sci-Fi, gaming and comics - to create original art for their favourite Sega titles? Awesome happens, that's what. Kilian Eng, Gerald Parel, Julien Renoult, Roman van der Haven and Emmanuel Malin...
Video Let's Remind Ourselves How Totally Radical The 1990 Nintendo World Championships Really Were
"Woo! Yeah! You ready? Woo!"
Following the glorious resurrection of The Nintendo World Championships, we thought it would be a good time to reminisce over the events of 25 years ago, when the original competition took place at Universal Studios, Hollywood. The video below is a handy summary of this epic period, showing the hopeful contestants and...
Hardware Review REVO K101 Plus
Hands-on with the ultimate hardware GBA clone
Love them or loathe them, hardware clones of vintage gaming platforms are here to stay. Technical wizards operating on the fringe of the gaming hardware arena are constantly dreaming up new products which ape the performance and feel of classic consoles, and in the past few years we've seen imitations of...
News UK Retailer GAME Steps Up Retro Offerings in Marketplace Listings
Plenty of Nintendo choices
Earlier this year the biggest specialist game retailer in the UK, GAME, launched its online marketplace that allows independent sellers to distribute their own ranges of t-shirts, merchandise and even retro games. At launch in March the selection of retro titles was almost non-existent, yet now it's been expanded to...
Weirdness This Game Boy Macro Is Crafted From The Remains Of A Nintendo DS Lite
An unofficial masterpiece
The Game Boy Micro is arguably the sleekest handheld Nintendo has ever released. With a removable face plate, neon blue start and select buttons, a built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery lasting for up to eight hours and plenty of options in terms of backlighting, the system ended the original Game Boy line on a high...
Video Teenagers React To Duck Hunt And The Iconic NES Zapper
“I feel the power within me”
Not everyone was around to experience the iconic NES Zapper when it was originally released in 1984, so that’s why the latest Teens React video is showcasing Nintendo’s accurate light gun and the all-time NES classic, Duck Hunt. Watch as teens come to the consensus the electronic light gun accessory is actually...
News The Ocarina of Time Speedrun World Record Has Been Beaten Yet Again
Crikey
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is not only an all-time classic game, but the source of one of the most keenly fought speedrun world records. Speedrunning experts continue to set new standards, each seemingly defying the odds more than before. Well, the record has been beaten again, once again utilising quirky skips that can be accessed...
Feature What NEC And Hudson Did Next: The Disasterous Story Of The PC-FX
The history of one of the 32-bit era's biggest flops
Complacency can be deadly. You only have to look at the changeover between the 16-bit and 32/64-bit generations for confirmation of this fact; amazingly, during this period of transition all of the established hardware manufacturers - Nintendo included - were caught with their trousers down while...
News Modder Creates A Bluetooth-Ready Game Boy, Because Why The Heck Not
Fantastic retro-fitting fun
If you're familiar with the world of Game Boy modding and music, then the name Joe Heaton should be known to you. This UK-based tech genius has been featured on the site in the past - both as an interview subject and to offer sagely advise to prospective modders - and he's back with his latest amazing creation. Heato
Video Step Inside Classic Home Video Games Author Brett Weiss' Room of Doom
The ultimate man-cave?
Author Brett Weiss has written several highly respected books on the history of the video game industry, and unsurprisingly has managed to amass a pretty awesome collection of consoles and systems over the past few decades. iretrogamer.com - a new YouTube venture from occasional Nintendo contributor Tyler Esposito - was lucky...
Weirdness Mayweather vs Pacquiao Gets the Punch-Out!! Treatment, Again
It's pretty accurate
This past weekend the "Fight of the Century" - Mayweather vs Pacquiao - took place in Las Vegas, though for plenty that splashed out on pay-per-view to watch it there was some disappointment. Lacking in fireworks and with a predictable outcome, it couldn't live up to the - admittedly over-the-top - hype. We already shared one...
News You Can Own Sid Meier's SNES Development System, If You Have A Spare $9.5K
"The 'Holy Grail' of video game collecting"
Legendary game design Sid Meier is responsible for some of the most iconic titles in the history of the interactive entertainment industry. He helped found Microprose in the 1980s and has since produced the likes of Civilization, Sid Meier's Pirates!, Silent Service and F-15 Strike Eagle. It's now possible...
April2015
News Nintendo Classics in the Running for Inaugural World Video Game Hall of Fame Honour
Just don't let Angry Birds win
While any award or honour can be taken completely seriously or dismissed as a trinket, it's nevertheless pleasing when Nintendo's in the running. The latest gong up for grabs is from The Strong National Museum of Play in the US, which is opening its World Video Game Hall of Fame with the first entrant this year. As...
Weirdness You Can Now Browse Zelda: Link To The Past's Map Using Your Web Browser
Turn-by-turn Navi-gation not included
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past features one of the most vibrant game worlds ever created for any video game, and now you can gaze longingly at it using your humble HTML5 web browser. The peeps at Jadsdsengine have created a living, breathing replication of the game's overworld which can be viewed via...
Weirdness ESPN's Michelle Beadle Gets Punch-Out!! Training
Let's keep it clean! Now come out boxing!
Unless you've been living under a rock, you are probably aware that Floyd Mayweather will be fighting Manny Pacquiao this Saturday in Las Vegas. The excitement in the air is palpable as the unbeaten 38 year old American Mayweather gets training like Rocky to take on The Filipino Slugger, in a bout expected...
Video The Nintendo 64 Kid Is Taking Unboxing To The Next Level For Taco Bell
"Nintendo Sixty-Foooooooooour!"
Remember Brandon Kuzma, AKA The Nintendo 64 kid? He got rather excited about his shiny new Nintendo 64 console back in 1998, and when YouTube arrived a few years later, became something of a celebrity. He's now harnessing that power by starring in a commercial for Taco Bell's Steak DoubleDilla. His sister Rachel is...
Too many energy drinks for you, Link
When developing a sizeable adventure for hardware as humble as the Game Boy, coding trickery and compromises are inevitable. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX on the Game Boy Color - and the non-DX original - naturally falls into that category; it's a lovely game, and also has some rather entertaining...
News Say Hello To Star Fox's NES-Based Forerunner, NesGlider
The prototype which started a profitable friendship
Star Fox is one of the most technically impressive games on the SNES, and was a collaboration between Nintendo and UK-based Argonaut Software. We've covered the making of the game in the past, but Unseen64 has an excelle
Ninterview Jeremy Parish On Cataloguing The History Of The Game Boy, One Game At A Time
"I've made peace with the fact that I'll die before completing this"
The original monochrome Game Boy is the elder statesman of Nintendo's handheld family, having arrived on the market back in 1989. The console became a commercial and cultural phenomenon, effortlessly casting aside its more technically-competent rivals and establishing a brand which...
News Clean Up Your Act With This Game Boy Laundry Basket
Begone, foul undergarments
Playing on your Game Boy all day long is so much fun, but if you're anything like us you'll find that it tends to eat up time you'd usually spend cleaning your house and tidying away all the smelly clothing you casually drop on the floor. If only someone could somehow combine these two elements to make the process of...
News Unseen64 Digs Up Some Screens of Brimstone, a Cancelled SNES JRPG From Taito
A lost classic
Over the course of its life, the SNES hosted several legendary RPGs, such as Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI, and Earthbound. These are just a few examples of how the RPG genre really came into its own in this generation, stepping out of the rather awkward and simplistic experiences that were available on the NES and creating games...
News Fan Ports Hideo Kojima's Cyberpunk Classic, Snatcher, to the Virtual Boy
In honour of a fellow Virtual Boy fan that passed away
The Virtual Boy is a true oddity in Nintendo's history - though the company has acknowledged the curious system recently, it was largely ignored for years due to its status as the company's biggest ever flop. Never even released in Europe, it was undeniably a commercial disaster for the famous...
News Nintendo Submits Trademark for NES Controller
We weren't aware it was still required
The legal world of trademarks and rights can be slightly baffling at the best of times, so a Nintendo of America trademark for the NES controller, essentially, is certainly one to raise eyebrows. The application is most certainly for the design of the iconic controller, with the image above being included...
Hardware Classics Sega Dreamcast
The last throw of the dice for Nintendo's old rival
Sega's Dreamcast holds a special place in the history of home video game entertainment. It was an innovative beast, being the first home console to offer online connectivity out of the box and setting the modern trend for sourcing internal components from PC manufacturers. It also proved to be...
Video Traveller's Tales Animator Proposes To Girlfriend Via His Own Mario-Style Platformer
Leap of faith
Proposing marriage is one of the most signficant gestures of affection one can give to another human being, but the event itself can be quite intimidating - will your other half say yes? Will you make a fool of yourself? Will they turn their noses up at the cheap ring you've bought? It's serious business. However, we like the approach...
News A Book About The Iconic Bitmap Brothers Is Being Kickstarted
The full history of the creators of Gods, The Chaos Engine and Speedball
If you're a UK gamer with a keen sense of history then the name The Bitmap Brothers will be instantly recognisable. Most active during the 16-bit era, "The Bitmaps" are considered by many to be gaming's first "rock star" developers, and produced such classics as Gods, The Chaos...
News Bandai Almost Made A Laptop With A Built-In SNES
Say hello to the Bandai HET
Bandai may be joined at the hip with Namco these days, but once upon a time the company stalked the edges of the video game industry, desperate to find a route into the potentially profitable hardware arena. It released consoles such as the Pippin (in conjunction with Apple) and created the WonderSwan handheld, but...
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