Retro News

December2012

  • Review Wario Land 3 (3DS eShop / GBC)

    Warioid

    Nintendo loves to experiment with the Wario Land series. The second game diverted from the first in that it was more of a puzzler than a platformer, as Wario was invincible, and the third game continues that trend by offering yet another twist: an almost Metroid-like exploration system. This time, Wario finds a mysterious music box in the...

  • News Give Your Wii U A Retro Makeover With This NES Skin

    Beauty is only skin deep

    The Wii U is an attractive system - a little too prone to picking up fingerprints perhaps, but aesthetically pleasing all the same. However, if it's just not "Nintendo" enough for you in its present guise, then you could slap this NES skin on it. Available in a gloss or matte finish, this skin will transform your shiny new...

  • News Entire SNES Game Collection Up For Sale

    Yours for just $24,999

    Every now and then an eager retro collector raises eyebrows by offering something unique at an eye-watering price, which in the past has included items such as demo NES cartridges. This time around we have an entire collection of Super NES games up for sale, which includes all 721 retail releases for the system that hit the...

  • Review Crystal Adventure (DSiWare)

    In which "adventure" is revealed to be a relative term

    If there's one thing RPG fans enjoy, it's a good story. The quest should be epic, the characters should be interesting, and there should preferably be a few surprising twists along the way as well. Here is the story of Crystal Adventure: you get bored quickly and delete it. Okay, you caught...

  • Review Christmas Wonderland 2 (DSiWare)

    Roast it on an open fire

    A textbook example of a sequel nobody asked for, Christmas Wonderland 2 has graced DSiWare. We guess, however, that we should be somewhat grateful. After all, last year Microvalue released two awful holiday-themed hidden object games: Halloween: Trick or Treat and the first Christmas Wonderland. This year it only left one...

  • News Bizarre Games Related Wedding Stories Emerge

    Simulation girlfriends and Zelda wedding rings ahoy!

    Ah, love at first sight; the sun is always shining, the grass is always green, and the sky is always blue. This is exactly what one Japanese otaku felt for his virtual woman - Nene Anegasaki of the dating sim Love Plus on the Nintendo DS, to be precise. Over time, he met a real life woman and they...

  • News 72 Hour Super Mario Marathon Promises Fun and Fundraising

    Keep running right

    Occasionally we bring you news of charitable marathons that not only bring amusement and entertainment for interested spectators, but also raise a lot of money for charity. With the recent glut of 2D Mario titles — well, two — we feel we should share the news of an upcoming 72 hour Super Mario marathon being organised by The...

  • News What's On Your Game Boy Camera?

    Check your cupboards now, you could be sitting on valuable memories

    The Game Boy Camera was a cool little device. Released at the end of the '90s, it allowed you to take grainy monochrome snaps using your beloved handheld. The images were pretty poor quality and you could only fit a few inside the minuscule memory, but for a generation of kids...

  • News Nintendo Unfolds Paper Mario Visual History

    It's so pretty

    Paper Mario: Sticker Star is days away in Europe and has been available in North America for a few weeks, and represents the first venture of the flat Mario onto a handheld. It's the fourth entry of a series over a decade old, meanwhile, games with enough RPG elements and dialogue to require a bit more development time than a...

  • Review Invasion of the Alien Blobs! (DSiWare)

    Houston, we have a bloblem

    At this point it's unlikely that anybody with a DSi or 3DS is in need of an inexpensive time-waster, but Invasion of the Alien Blobs! is here to provide one more option. And while it's not exactly a great game, it certainly provides some mindless fun along the way. The best thing about Invasion of the Alien Blobs! is its...

  • News Mario Comes To Life In Bead-Based Stop-Motion Animation

    Bead me up, Scotty

    Clearly bead art is a bigger deal than we thought. First we had an amazing tribute to Chrono Trigger in bead form, and how we have this awesome stop-motion Super Mario animation, constructed using - you guessed it - beads. The work of Swedish siblings Marcus and Hannes Knutsson, it follows on from their previous efforts, Super...

  • Review Bloons TD 4 (DSiWare)

    Pop it and drop it

    Last year the DSiWare service saw the release of Bloons TD. It was an unimpressive but acceptable entry into the overstuffed tower defence genre, and this year we're leaping ahead three sequels to Bloons TD 4. If Bloons TD 4 is at all representative of the course the series has taken, we can safely say we haven't missed much by...

  • Review We Sing 80s (Wii)

    Tonight we're going to party like it's 1989

    Ah, the eighties: a time of dodgy haircuts, peculiar outfits and synthesizers dominating the airwaves. In truth, the Nintendo Life office is still a bit like that, but never mind. What we have here with We Sing 80s is a singing game dedicated to that decade, making oldies or retro-minded youngsters all the...

November2012

  • News 47,096 Perler Beads Made This Awesome Chrono Trigger Artwork

    A labour of love

    When you love a video game very much there are a number of ways in which you can express that adoration to the world. One is to simply tell anyone that will listen, while another is to create a fan-site or something similar which communicates why it's such a fantastic game. However, this imgur user decided that he wanted to do...

  • Review Ninja Master's: Haō Ninpō Chō (Wii Virtual Console / Neo Geo)

    Something old, something new

    Not only were there a huge number of fighting games throughout the lifespan of the Neo Geo system, there was also a serious amount of variety in the styles and executions of those games. While most Neo Geo fans will associate developer ADK with its popular World Heroes series, it was its final release for the system,...

  • Review Pac-Man (3DS eShop / NES)

    Ghost gobblin' on the go

    If you were to ask one hundred people to make a list of the most classic video games of all time, you shouldn't be surprised to find Pac-Man on every one of those lists. It's an unrivaled masterpiece of gaming simplicity, an experience that involves nothing more than moving endlessly around a single maze, yet which somehow...

  • Feature Reinventing Nintendo's Legacy Franchises on Wii U

    It's comeback time

    Despite often being criticized for a perceived lack of new franchises, Nintendo’s back catalogue offers a wealth of unique games which have each carved out their own place in the company’s legacy. From Mario to Link to lesser known characters such as Ness and the Ice Climbers, it is clear that Nintendo has a diverse range of...

  • News Ex-Rare Staffer Explains How He Created A Profanity-Packed N64 Cult Classic

    Chris Seavor spills the beans on Conker, the chances of Killer Instinct 3 and why he left Rare

    Conker's Bad Fur Day is famous for its bad language, adult themes and profusion of poo, but it didn't start life as a mature-rated piece of software. Originally intended as a direct sequel to the cute and cuddly Game Boy Color title Conker's Pocket Tales,...

  • News This Zelda Video is Truly Epic

    One of the best you'll see

    We've seen some creative and clever videos over the years, with no shortage of film-making skill, that celebrate Nintendo franchises or characters. One of our favourites is this post-it Mario sequence, which used stop-motion video techniques and 7000 post-it notes — all in the name of entertainment. The talented people...

  • Feature Hands-On With 16-bit RPG Pier Solar

    We check out the Mega Drive epic which could be making its way to Wii U soon

    WaterMelon's 16-bit RPG Pier Solar is proof that old gaming hardware can enjoy a fresh existence years or even decades after its original production lifespan. What began as a homebrew project in 2004 has turned into a indie gaming success story; Pier Solar has had multiple...

  • Review Spirit Hunters Inc. Shadow/Light (DSiWare)

    Bustin' makes us feel bored

    Announced way back in May 2010, Nnooo's Spirit Hunters Inc. — available now in both Light and Shadow flavours — promised, in Nnooo's own words, "a Role Playing Game set in the real world." That's both a tall order and an idea with enormous potential, which is why it's a shame that the finished product mistakes "role...

  • Review Working Dawgs: A-Maze-ing Pipes (DSiWare)

    Working class

    Taking a page almost directly from the book of Pipe Mania, the hilariously titled Working Dawgs: A-maze-ing Pipes is a puzzle game that involves moving water from one place to another using a complex series of tubes. If you've played this type of game before, then you know exactly what to expect, while newcomers to this particular form...

  • News New Sonic The Hedgehog Comic Takes A Trip Down Memory Lane

    The legacy lives on

    Sonic the Hedgehog has so many comics made about him, it's surprising Disney hasn’t bought the rights to make the movies. Last year Archie Comics released Sonic Legacy Series #1, a graphic novel which packed in issues 1-16 of the publisher's Sonic the Hedgehog comics, as well as issues 1-3 of the original Sonic miniseries; the...

  • Review Skylanders Giants (Wii)

    Big friendly giant

    Fe, fi, fo, fum, we smell the coins of dads and mums. Since its first release on consoles last year, Skylanders has exploded into a multi-million dollar franchise and a children's favourite. What would have been a fairly standard hack-and-slash game by itself was taken to new heights thanks to a clever reliance on collectable...

  • Review Jump Trials (DSiWare)

    Trial without style

    Jump Trials, a 200 point DSiWare release from G-Style Games, is a game about running and jumping from left to right. It's a game for players who feel that perhaps platformers have become too ambitious, and that the "right" in "left to right" should refer to the far edge of a single DS-sized screen, rather than the ends of the...

  • Feature The Making Of Myst

    We speak to one half of the Miller brothers about its creation

    Few video games have the ability to polarise opinion quite as sharply as Myst. When it hit shop shelves back in 1993 many critics scoffed at the sedate gameplay and predicted that few people would want to sit through a game that was little more than an ‘interactive picture-postcard’...

  • Review Ninja Gaiden (3DS eShop / NES)

    Frustratingly fun

    Gamers nowadays might be more familiar with the rebooted series, but now you've got yet another chance to experience the original NES Ninja Gaiden, the game that started it all. A classic 2D action platformer, you assume the role of Ryu Hayabusa as he seeks to kill Jaquio, who murdered his father. This original is frequently...

  • Review Smart Girl's Playhouse Mini (DSiWare)

    Empty house

    It’s no easy task setting out to create a game that is wholesome and fun while maintaining an educational aspect. Unfortunately for Smart Girl’s Playhouse Mini, fun seems to have jumped ship, and all you’re left with is a too-sweet edutainment title with very little actual gameplay on offer. Touted as a collection of mini-games...

  • Review Sengoku 2 (Wii Virtual Console / Neo Geo)

    Transformations and annihilations

    SNK may have dedicated a large portion of their efforts to the one-on-one fighting genre, but occasionally they would branch out into other game types, sometimes with rather successful results. The original Sengoku was praised for its unique use of character transformations, but the play controls weren't always the...

  • News Harmony of a Hunter: 101% Run Available From 17th November

    A must for Metroid fans

    Harmony of a Hunter is a fan-produced album that celebrates the Metroid franchise, and when released it gave a more significant acknowledgement of the series' 25th Anniversary than that from Nintendo itself. A free, two-disc album with 36 tracks, it was a major undertaking that we discussed in our interview with Shinesparkers...

  • News Unemployment And Platforming Combine In Wii U Title 8-Bit Boy

    One man show

    Danish one-man studio AwesomeBlade Software has announced that its retro-themed platformer 8-Bit Boy is coming to the Wii U. Created by Rasmus Kønig Sørensen - a Danish ex-video game journalist with a bachelor degree in Construction Management - 8-Bit Boy is a love letter to the 2D platforming epics of old. Sørensen counts himself...

  • News SNES Campus Challenge & One-Of-A-Kind Console Go On Sale

    Got a few thousand dollars to spare?

    Video game collecting is something that's taken very seriously by some, and there are hundreds of expensive eBay auctions to back it up. The latest example to catch our eye is a listing on Game Gavel, with a very unique game and console up for auction. On sale is a copy of SNES Campus Challenge, a custom made...

  • Review Thundercats (DS)

    Thundercats, noooo!

    Perhaps we were foolish to get our hopes up about Thundercats. It is a licensed game, after all, and while that's not a universally bad thing, it should by this point at least make us think twice. Then again, it's Thundercats! The original cartoon is an enduring classic, the recent reboot was surprisingly good, and the...

  • News Father Gender-Bends Link For The Benefit of His Zelda-Loving Daughter

    Now that's fatherly devotion

    It can't be easy for young female gamers growing up in a world dominated by men. When you're still searching for your own identity and place in the world, it must be confusing to be forced to adopt so many male personalities in the games you play. Doting father Mike Hoye didn't want his daughter Maya to face this...

  • Review Come On! Dragons (DSiWare)

    Blowing smoke

    Come On! Dragons arrives on DSiWare with the promise of delivering a combination of tower defence and arrow firing action, much like its predecessor Come On! Heroes. Like the original title it succeeds to some degree, but its positives are weighed down by some disappointing flaws, meaning that it's not as hot as the title may suggest...

  • Review Back To Nature (WiiWare)

    Back to basics

    It’s a well-known fact that Nintendo’s WiiWare service has its limitations. Developers must reportedly cram their games into a paltry 40MB, and the system’s lack of horsepower can no doubt play a considerable role in curbing some game design ideas. Nevertheless, many independent studios have risen to the challenge and we’ve...

  • News Mega Man: The Wily Wars Battles Onto Genesis Portable

    Not on Virtual Console, sadly

    Ever since Virtual Console arrived on Wii, plenty of older gamers — or younger retro enthusiasts — have had lists of games that they hope to see released on the service. One such title is quite possible Mega Man: The Wily Wars, a Sega Megadrive/Genesis release that includes re-makes of the first three titles in the...

  • Review Cake Ninja 2 (DSiWare)

    Unjust desserts

    Almost one year ago, the DSiWare service was graced with the appearance of Cake Ninja, an unrepentant clone of mobile craze Fruit Ninja. However, its lifeless approach to the formula, lack of addictiveness and total dearth of variety doomed it to receive a mere 2/10 in our review. Now we have Cake Ninja 2, which seeks to atone for...

  • Interview The Trouble With The TurboGrafx-16

    We speak to former TTI Vice President and General Manager

    The NEC PC Engine turned 25 this week, and to celebrate the life of this remarkable system we've already taken a comprehensive look at its history. If that didn't satisfy your hunger for NEC-related knowledge, then allow us to offer up this interview with Ken Wirt, who served as Vice...

  • Review Spot It! Mean Machines (DSiWare)

    I spy a decent game

    At a glance, Spot It! Mean Machines is simply a collection of grainy photographs of piles of junk. If you continue to explore this title, you'll find that your initial assessment was astute, but you will also find that it’s amazing how much fun can be had while staring at these still images. If you’re a fan of classic Spot...

  • Review Shock Troopers (Wii Virtual Console / Neo Geo)

    Don't think, just shoot!

    While the run-and-gun genre generally evolved into the side-scrolling blast-a-thons we all know and love, there were a few titles during the early arcade days that took a more overhead perspective like Capcom's popular Commando arcade release. It was this direction that developer Saurus took when it came time to put together...

October2012

  • News The Famicom's Biggest Rival Is 25 Years Old

    NEC's groundbreaking PC Engine comes of age

    It makes us feel very old to say it, but NEC's popular 8-bit PC Engine console turned 25 yesterday. Better known in the US as the TurboGrafx-16, the system launched in Japan on October 30th, 1987 (yes, we know we're a day late with this) - a time when the Famicom was enjoying a period of total and utter...

  • Podcast NLFM Episode 23: Revenge of the Halloween Hootenanny

    Best served as cold as a corpse

    Grab your bluntest instruments and aim for the head because NLFM has risen from its grave for the third annual Halloween Hootenanny! More spooky, more sinister and more deathly, this episode is best listened to in a dark castle dungeon while eating raw pumpkins. Failing that, anywhere else will do. 1. Masanao...

  • Review Mighty Bomb Jack (3DS eShop / NES)

    Not so mighty

    The original Bomb Jack was an addictive little arcade game in which the objective was to collect all the bombs in each level while avoiding enemies. Sounds like a simple concept - and it was. For the NES, though, Tecmo decided to make a sequel with a bit of an adventure game element to it. The bomb rooms from the original game are...

  • Review Ghosts 'n Goblins (3DS eShop / NES)

    A Halloween greeting from Satan himself

    Capcom couldn't have picked a better time to release Ghosts 'n Goblins onto the 3DS Virtual Console. It's Halloween, after all, and this is one of the most classic spooky games there is. The real question is how well it holds up today, and that's one we're happy to answer: quite well, actually. Despite the...

  • News French Firm Recycles SNES Consoles With a Unique Twist

    What once was old is new again

    We've got a saying here at Nintendo Life Towers: Old consoles don't die, they just go into storage. It's heartening to discover that French firm Lëkki feels the same way; the company is focused on taking existing retro hardware and making it new again with a fresh lick of paint - and we mean that literally. Lëkki...

  • News Mario Clone Super Maria Land Jumps Onto Android

    Great artists steal?

    Smartphone-based clones of popular games are everywhere these days, but this latest effort really is unashamedly blatant. Super Maria Land - which proudly proclaims itself as a 'Mario Clone' on its official Google Play store listing is a port of a web-based Flash title for Google's popular Android platform. It's clearly a...

  • News Watch the Translated GameCenter CX vs. Iwata Asks Segment Right Here

    Fresh from Japan

    If you watched last week's Japanese Nintendo Direct presentation you'll know that at the end there was a special GameCenter CX segment featuring none other than Nintendo President Satoru Iwata. For those of you that don't know, GameCenter CX (known in the west as Retro Game Master) is a TV show starring Shinya Arino, who plays...

  • News Check Out These Interesting Sonic Facts

    Now that he's pals with Mario

    In the past months we've shared some videos from the Did You Know Gaming YouTube channel, which takes well-known and loved franchises and digs out some interesting facts and quirks for us to enjoy. These typically involve buried lines of code that reveal abandoned development ideas, or just snippets of information about...

  • News Prize Awarded To Brave Knight Who Completed Ghosts 'n Goblins On 3DS

    Capcom gave a Halloween challenge

    Capcom's Ghosts 'n Goblins hits the North American 3DS eShop this week, and it's sure to have many gamers throwing their consoles at walls in disgust - not because it's a bad game (far from it) but because it's harder than Arnold Schwarzenegger in a suit of titanium armour. So legendary is this game's toughness...

  • News Classic NES RPG Shadowgate Getting a Remake

    Creator Dave Marsh announces Kickstarter campaign

    Dave Marsh, the creator of classic point-and-click adventure game Shadowgate, has announced that his company is currently working on a remake for PC, Mac and mobile devices. A Kickstarter campaign will launch tomorrow (Friday 26th October) in order to raise the funds needed to develop the game...

  • Review Gradius (3DS eShop / NES)

    Dated, but legendary

    To say that the original Gradius was influential on the evolution of the side-scrolling shoot 'em up would be a gross understatement. When the game hit arcades in 1985 it was lauded for its amazing level designs and simple, yet wildly playable, power-up system. This NES release was one of the first home ports of the game and has...

  • Review Puzzler World XL (DSiWare)

    My God, it's full of puzzles

    Based on a popular brand of pencil-and-paper puzzle collections, Puzzler World XL is the latest release from developer Ideas Pad. It doesn't stray far from its digital cousins or its analogue ancestors, but fans of classic puzzles will find an excellent companion in this expansive, well-rounded package. First and...

  • Review 18th Gate (DSiWare)

    Dungeon crawler

    18th Gate is not a game for the easily bored. It's a fairly basic strategy RPG that has you edging through – yes – 18 dungeons to the magical portal gates at the end, with the caveat that you only have a limited number of turns to escape from each maze. Each turn can be an attack, a spell or a single step to an adjacent hexagonal...

  • Review Reel Fishing Ocean Challenge (WiiWare)

    Pain in the bass

    It’s been about two years since the last Reel Fishing game was released for WiiWare, and you’d think that that was enough time to figure out how to improve on the formula. Unfortunately, that isn't at all what has happened. Instead, a series of games based on an activity as simple as fishing has somehow managed to sink deeper...

  • News Final Fantasy's Battle System Is Based On American Football

    Who knew?

    Square Enix's Hiroyuki Ito has revealed to 1UP the origin of the turn-based battle system in the original Final Fantasy - and it's somewhat unexpected, to say the least. Driven to create an efficient system for Hironobu Sakaguchi's seminal NES RPG, Ito turned to professional sports for his inspiration. 1UP: So did you create the battle...

  • News Take An Ambient Musical Trip Through 8-bit History With NEScapism

    Zelda and Castlevania, trance-style

    Electronic recording artist The Electric Witch (real name Zac Bentz) has created a fitting aural tribute to the NES era in the form of NEScapism, a mini-album which spurns the traditional chiptune format and instead re-imagines classic 8-bit tunes as swirling ambient soundscapes. To quote the composer:...

  • Review Mega Man (3DS eShop / NES)

    The NES experience, now on 3DS

    A while back, the 3DS Virtual Console got Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge, the Blue Bomber's first Game Boy outing. It's a decent conversion of the console game, but many would agree that the handheld Mega Man games didn't really begin to shine until later in the series. Curiously, instead of working their way closer to...

  • News Award Winning Short Film Shows the Power of Zelda and Escapism

    Sad but brilliant

    If there's one thing that video games very rarely do, if ever, it's to remind us of our everyday lives. While reading books, watching TV and more serve as a source of rest from our day-to-day existence, one of the game medium's strengths, that makes gamers love their hobby with such a passion, is the ability of some titles to truly...

  • Feature Nintendo Hardware Launch Commercials Throughout History

    A trip down memory lane

    With the first UK showing of the Wii U TV commercial causing quite a stir online, we thought it would be fun to take a look back at Nintendo's history of launch commercials, right back to the days of the 8-bit NES — possibly an era when many of the readers of this site weren't even born. Sit back and soak up the ambiance...

  • Review Kirby Air Ride (GameCube)

    A Ride for all ages?

    Kirby, everyone’s favourite pink puffball, has hopped on his Warpstar and blasted into the world of “kart” racing in Kirby Air Ride for the Nintendo GameCube. He’s brought with him a few of his brethren, a unique set of controls, and some recognizable scenery, which is packed into this multiplayer-centric package. While...

  • News Meet Leyla Hasso, The Fastest Female SNES Super Mario Kart Player

    She also bagged the PAL Women's World title at just 13 years old

    The original Super Mario Kart may be two decades old now, but it's still actively played on the competitive circuit, with yearly tournaments to establish who is the fastest SNES fan on four wheels. One of the world's most famous Mario Kart players is Sami Cetin, who is referred to by...

  • Review Inazuma Eleven Strikers (Wii)

    Crazy super-duper Strikers!

    When it comes to Inazuma Eleven Strikers, don't let any references to football (soccer if you're of the North America persuasion) or the snazzy kits fool you, this isn't a football game. It's a ball game with football-style rules, infused with extravagant special moves and buckets of charm, which is guaranteed to raise an...

  • Review The Last Blade 2 (Wii Virtual Console / Neo Geo)

    Last Blade Part Deux

    When the original Last Blade title was released it took weapons-based fighting in 2D to new heights with its fluid play controls and intense fighting action. Not wanting to rest on its laurels, SNK soon put together a sequel that didn't try to really overhaul anything, but rather stuck to tweaking a few minor aspects of the...

  • News Brick-Based Mario Videos Prove Everything Looks Better In Lego

    Build it and they will come

    Following on from the awesome Lego Zelda shield we featured a while back, we've stumbled across some amazing Lego-themed Super Mario videos. Created using what appears to be a clever combination of computer editing and actual brick images, these videos replicate the look of Mario's early NES adventures via the medium of...

  • Review Jewel Master: Cradle of Egypt 2 (DS)

    Is history repeating itself?

    In these risk-averse times, publishers are increasingly relying on sequels to existing IPs to ensure that they turn over a profit. The problem doesn’t stem so much from a dearth of creativity in the industry, but rather as consumers we have a horrible habit of sticking with what we know. Much like the video game...

  • Review Mario Golf (3DS eShop / GBC)

    A beautiful day on the links

    Released in 1999 to dovetail with the N64 game of the same name, the Game Boy Color version of Mario Golf is more than just a scaled-back, portable edition. In fact, it stands well enough on its own merits, and it's almost unfortunate that it shares a name with its console counterpart; it really does have an identity all...

  • News Blizzard Was Working On Diablo For The Game Boy Color

    Diminutive dungeon crawling

    Recent hiccups relating to Diablo 3 aside, Blizzard's fantasy series has been a critical and commercial smash for years now - so much so that the company was at one point considering a money-spinning version for the Nintendo Game Boy Color. Named Diablo Junior, the game would have taken a leaf from Pokémon's book by...

  • Review Robot Rescue 2 (DSiWare)

    Robot Parade

    The sequel to Teyon's first DSiWare release from back in 2009, Robot Rescue 2 charges players with leading a flock of oddly organic looking robots to safety across gridded stages. Rescuing these robots is made more complicated, and much more interesting, by the fact that their movement is synchronized. Press any direction on the D-pad...

  • Review Geist (GameCube)

    A Ghost of the Past

    Nintendo doesn’t have much of a history when it comes to publishing mature-rated games. In fact, they had never directly released an M-rated game before they published the critically acclaimed Eternal Darkness for the GameCube in 2002. So when it was announced that Nintendo was working closely with developer n-Space on Geist...

  • News Young Boy Thinks Gameboy Micro Is The Latest Nintendo Handheld

    Kids will believe anything these days

    We've something to give you a little giggle this weekend, with the sweet tale of a young boy who believed that the Gameboy Micro was the latest Nintendo handheld on the market. Gamer dad Andy Robertson and his son were walking past a second hand store when the youngster spotted a Gameboy Micro sitting in the...

  • Feature The New Dimensions of Pokémon

    Snap and Dream Radar change the perspective

    Trading cards and anime episodes aside, the Pokémon series is known for a long-lasting line of handheld RPGs. You've almost certainly played one or two of them — and we suspect that quite a few of you are already getting into Pokémon Black & White 2 — most likely followed by an obsessed state of...

  • News The Truth Behind Donkey Kong Country's Opening Level Theme

    It's a stitch-up

    Remember the music for the opening level on Donkey Kong Country? Do you recall how it moves from one musical style to another, almost as if it's three different songs that have been fused together? That because it is. In an interview with CVG, former Rare composer David Wise reveals the truth behind the track: I was on holiday in...

  • News Super Mario World Was The Perfect Escape For a Novelist in Hiding

    Salman Rushdie's inner gamer is revealed

    In literary circles Salman Rushdie is a much admired award-winning writer, and also one of the biggest names in the book industry. He's also courted great controversy during his career, notably when his novel The Satanic Verses outraged extremist groups and regimes to the point that there was a fatwa issued...

  • Review Just Dance 4 (Wii)

    Sweat baby, sweat

    The video games industry is currently inundated with a plethora of fitness games promising to give you abs like Schwarzenegger - if you're willing to pay the price. But how many of these titles actually perform? While the Just Dance franchise might be categorised into the silly party genre, Just Dance 4 in fact provides a fun...

  • Review Academy: Chess Puzzles (DSiWare)

    Chess, minus chess

    Sometimes a game is so simple in concept that it’s difficult to find the right words to describe it. It’s also worth keeping in mind that simplicity is not always a bad thing, and it can often work in a game’s favor. With that being said, Academy: Chess Puzzles is the definitive simple pleasure. The first thing that needs...

  • Review Successfully Learning English: Year 5 (WiiWare)

    One more class, Freddy

    Successfully Learning English: Year 5 represents, probably, the end of an edutainment era. Across DSiWare and WiiWare, Freddy the Vampire has appeared in over 20 titles covering a few different subjects in relentless detail for young pupils, all with the same style, structure and bland presentation. The final part of the Wii's...

  • Review Drop Zone: Under Fire (WiiWare)

    Falling with style

    One of the coolest things video games can do is let us perform daring, stylish feats we might never attempt in the real world. Drifting around corners at 100mph, snowboarding off the edge of a mountain with reckless bravado, even plucking vegetables from the ground and hurling them at a pink dinosaur — all things we can...

  • Review Real Bout Fatal Fury 2: The Newcomers (Wii Virtual Console / Neo Geo)

    Fair and balanced

    Real Bout Fatal Fury 2: The Newcomers marks the seventh release in the series and the third and final release in the Real Bout sub-series. While there has always been a lot of debate about whether this game or Real Bout Fatal Fury Special is the better overall fighting game, it's nice to see SNK-Playmore giving Virtual Console fans...

  • Review Pokémon Black and White 2 (DS)

    Pokémon used Sequel! It’s super effective!

    It's fitting that the franchise typically relied upon to sell Nintendo handhelds is also the swansong that bids farewell to the mighty Nintendo DS. The enormously popular Pokémon series graces the highest-selling handheld console of all time for one last hurrah and the result is nothing short of...

  • Ninterview Howard "Gamemaster" Phillips

    We speak to one of Nintendo of America's first employees

    Howard Phillips joined Nintendo in the early '80s with the intention of helping transport a few new-fangled arcade cabinets, but he ended up becoming the spokesperson for one of the fastest-growing entertainment companies in the US. He recently began a Kickstarter campaign for his first...

  • Review Learn With Pokémon: Typing Adventure (DS)

    SEMI-COLON COMMA WOOBAT

    It would be very easy to dismiss Learn With Pokémon Typing Adventure as ‘just another Pokémon spin-off’, or even worse, an ‘edutainment game’. Yet in fact, the title conceals a rather addictive addition to the Pokémon franchise, bundled with a nifty Bluetooth keyboard and stand. As with most Pokémon spin-offs,...

  • News Your Wall Is Crying Out For This Amazing Mega Drive Poster

    And the creators are interested in doing a SNES one, too

    Sega-loving James Newton may have left us, but we still have a lot of time for the company that gave the world Sonic the Hedgehog. We therefore heartily approve of this bespoke, limited edition Mega Drive poster, produced by MegaDrive.me and designed by

  • News Gamemaster Howard Shares Some DK History in Latest Comic Strip

    Kickstarting a Know-It-All game

    Howard Phillips, or Gamemaster Howard as he's known to fans of retro Nintendo, is making a return to the public eye. He's best known as one of the very earliest employees at Nintendo of America, whose ability to memorise and master game details was part of the reason why he rose to prominence as a spokesperson and...

  • News Voice of Mario Was Inspired by a Shakespearean Character

    Yes, really

    Younger gamers may think that Mario's always had a voice, gleefully exclaiming phrases such as "Wahoo" and "Yippee" for all time, along with the occasional sentence. The voice fits the character, and it seems like Mario wouldn't be the same without his famous catch-phrases. It's easy to forget, then, that Super Mario 64 was the first...

  • Review Quarth (3DS eShop / GB)

    Break it down

    Originally released for the Game Boy in 1990, Konami's Quarth takes the presentation of a Space Invaders-type shooter, and instead gives us a puzzle game. As tempting as it might be to enter these stages with guns blazing, what Quarth actually requires is a healthy amount of foresight and on-the-fly problem solving. It's not without...

  • News Check Out Some Mario Facts in This Video

    Cameo appearances, cancelled sequels and other mysteries

    Mario has so many video games that if there weren't peculiarities and quirks throughout them, something would be wrong. The sheer volume of games over a period in excess of 25 years is impressive, especially if you go beyond the scope of the main franchise and venture off into spin-offs and...

  • Review Kart Krashers (DSiWare)

    A party worth krashing?

    Kart Krashers has a plan to shake up the kart racing genre: keep the karts, erase the race. Sure, it sounds rather pointless, but stick with us. The basic idea is to drive your kart around arena-like courses, shooting for a high score by collecting stars and rings and taking out baddies. The "Krashers" in the name implies a...

September2012

  • News Super Paper Mario Bros. - Level 1-1 Recreated in Mobius Strip

    Yours for $24

    With a franchise like Mario, it's safe to say that there are plenty of arts and crafts projects out there that have been created as a dedication to the moustachioed one. Pins, animations with nothing but post-it notes, and any wacky idea you can imagine have probably been done already. One that involved a fair bit of effort and skill...

  • News Ex-Rare Developers Join Forces To Create A Spiritual Successor To Banjo-Tooie

    All hope is not lost

    Nothing puts a frown on a Nintendo fan's face like mentioning Rare. The company that once brought Perfect Dark, Donkey Kong 64, Banjo Kazooie and GoldenEye 007 are currently working on the Kinect Sports series for Microsoft. While most gamers have given up on seeing a new "proper" Banjo Kazooie sequel from Rare, a new glimmer of...

  • News Clever People Turn a NES Zapper Into a Real Laser

    Ducks beware

    We have exciting news for you today, and possibly the most important scientific breakthrough since the wheel: a laser NES Zapper. Some smart — and we hasten to add, safe — people have changed the famous NES accessory from a light gun to a laser gun, and we're not even kidding. After taking the light gun apart and stripping out...

  • News You Fools, Blowing on NES Cartridges Is Not The Answer

    Well I never

    We've all done it. Blowing on cartridge connections has (apparently) always been the most effective way of getting stubborn games to load, but according to MentalFloss, it could actually cause more problems in the long term. MentalFloss spoke to Digital Press expert Frankie Viturello and he had some pretty damning words to say about...

  • News Mega Man 3 Leaps Onto The Japanese 3DS Virtual Console

    For those about to rock

    The third instalment of Capcom's popular Mega Man series is launching on the Japanese 3DS Virtual Console this week. Mega Man 3 - known in Japan as Rockman 3: The End of Dr. Wily!? - will go live on the Japanese 3DS eShop tomorrow (September 26th) for 500 yen. Even harsher than its already tough predecessor, Mega Man 3 has...

  • News Shigeru Miyamoto: Mario and Luigi Don't Have Last Names

    So stop saying he's called Mario Mario

    When it comes to Mario, Nintendo's number one icon, there are plenty of myths and stories that can be debated by gamers until the moo moo cows come home. One of these, thanks to the Super Mario Bros. movie that wasn't particularly good, is that Mario and Luigi's last name is actually Mario, meaning that the...

  • News We Sing 80s Hits The Nintendo Entertainment System

    In the fictional world of video game promotion, at least

    We Sing 80s is the latest in a long line of Wii-based music titles, so it's a given that the promotional campaign for the game needs to be something special for it to get noticed. Publisher Nordic Games has done just that by mocking up a video which shows what the game would have looked like...

  • Review Retro Pocket (DSiWare)

    Through the Past, Darkly

    Before Retro Pocket, Game & Watch fans were poorly served. If they wanted to enjoy those early Nintendo forays into gaming, they were out of luck. There was no way for gamers to get their hands on recreations of those originals, short of picking up the Game & Watch Collection, of course. Or its sequel. But apart...

  • Review Kirby's Dream Collection: Special Edition (Wii)

    Sweet dreams

    The Kirby series has been a staple of Nintendo game systems since the pink fluff first appeared on the original Game Boy back in 1992. While the games have always been known more for their charm and unique gameplay than their difficulty, they've become some of the best selling video games in history. Now Nintendo has released Kirby's...

  • Review La-Mulana (WiiWare)

    WiiWare's last big game?

    La Mulana's WiiWare release has been a rocky road. It was first announced by developer Nigoro in 2009 and suffered several delays before finally hitting the service in Japan in 2011. Of course, most were expecting it to be released elsewhere soon after, but that didn't happen. It was eventually cancelled by its old publisher...

  • Feature Diamonds in the Rough - Dementium: The Ward

    Worth a scare

    Whenever we look back at a console’s lifespan, the first thing we nearly always do is remember the good stuff. We remember the Marios, the Zeldas, the hordes of Pokémon, and maybe even the odd Kirby game depending on your level of pink puff-ball persuasion. But we’re often so caught up in remembering what’s great that we very...

  • News Reggie Fils-Aime Would Love to See GameCube Games on Wii U Virtual Console

    So would we, Reggie

    As Nintendo's Wii U approaches we can expect a number of announcements, some big and others small, over the coming weeks. There are a variety of things we want to know more about, one of which is the Virtual Console offering on eShop. The latest console to feature on the Wii's Virtual Console was Nintendo 64, so it immediately...

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