Tag: Best of 2021 - Page 3
"[Jeremy] insisted I make a cave level with waterfalls like Yoshi"
Last week a Kickstarter campaign went live for Goodboy Galaxy, the first brand new, commercial release for the Game Boy Advance for 13 years. A colourful 2D platformer with running, gunning and a space-faring good boy called Maxwell, it's a beautifully animated and incredibly...
Quick Beats Final Fantasy And Vagrant Story Composer Hitoshi Sakimoto Talks YMO And Dua Lipa
"It’s been played often"
Throughout the Nintendo Life Video Game Music Festival we're speaking to a range of composers and musicians for a mixture of in-depth interviews and shorter, sharper (and perhaps a little goofier) Q&As where we ask just ten rapid-fire personal questions; we're calling these shorter features 'Quick Beats'. Today we're...
Feature Tomorrow Corporation Turns Publisher With Star Trek-Style Adventure 'The Captain'
"Sysiac Games has built such a gorgeous, funny, sci-fi point-and-click adventure"
Tomorrow Corporation is a studio and team that's familiar to plenty of indie game fans. Back in the days of '2D Boy' key members produced the brilliant World of Goo, an early part of the download revolution on the Wii Shop. Since Tomorrow Corporation later formed...
Back Page The Ten Best Holiday Locations In Video Games
Take a load off, and load save
In the magazine business, the Back Page is where you'd find all the weird goofs that we couldn't fit in anywhere else. Some may call it "filler"; we prefer "a whole page to make terrible jokes that are tangentially related to the content of the mag". We don't have (real) pages on the internet, but we still love...
Quick Beats Mega Man Composer Manami Matsumae On Ocarinas And Bohemian Rhapsody
"I saved up my allowance to buy Queen's Jazz"
Throughout the Nintendo Life Video Game Music Festival we're speaking to a range of composers and musicians for a mixture of in-depth interviews and shorter, sharper (and perhaps a little goofier) Q&As where we ask just ten rapid-fire personal questions; we're calling these shorter features 'Quick...
Exclusive Eugene Jarvis Talks Cruis'n Blast And The "Joy" Of Working With Nintendo Again
"They basically turned us loose to make the best Switch game possible"
The news that arcade title Cruis'n Blast is headed to Switch came as a pleasant surprise earlier this year. The latest in the long-running Cruis'n series – which began life in '90s arcades with Cruis'n USA before making the leap over to the N64 – this neon-coloured racer...
Quick Beats Celeste Composer Lena Raine On Her Love For Ghibli, Hurdy-Gurdies, And Her Cat
The cat is called Bobbin
Throughout the Nintendo Life Video Game Music Festival we'll be speaking to a range of composers and musicians with a mixture of in-depth interviews and shorter, sharper (and perhaps a little goofier) Q&As where we ask just ten rapid-fire personal questions; we're calling these shorter features 'Quick Beats'. Today's...
Soapbox Music Just Don't Come Spookier And Sadder Than Zelda: Majora's Mask
The moon, masks, and melancholy
I didn't play Majora's Mask when it first came out, and thank heavens I didn't — I probably would have just quit playing video games then and there. I mean, I used to have nightmares about the wind sound effects in Ocarina of Time (in my defence, they're creepy); I don't know how I would have handled the existential...
Feature Video Game Orchestra Founder Talks Live Music And Composing For Final Fantasy
The Woodwind Waker
When I was younger and more full of bad decisions than I am now, I used to go to gigs and watch rock bands sweatily flailing around the stage in cramped, smoky bars. Nowadays, I'd much rather sit in a concert hall and close my eyes while a bunch of talented orchestral musicians play a fancy version of the Skyrim soundtrack (which...
Quick Beats Shovel Knight Composer On Q*Bert, The Prodigy, And Magical Bongos
10 rapid-fire questions for Jake Kaufman
Throughout the Nintendo Life Video Game Music Festival we're speaking to a range of composers and musicians for a mixture of in-depth interviews and shorter, sharper (and perhaps a little goofier) Q&As where we ask just ten rapid-fire personal questions; we're calling these shorter features 'Quick Beats'...
Feature The Inside Story Of Mockumentary Sequel 'Bringing Back Golden Eye'
And it's all for a good cause
Rare's seminal N64 shooter GoldenEye 007 is coming up to its 25th birthday, and for a whole generation of players, it remains a pivotal experience in their gaming lives – a fact that was playfully acknowledged by Jim Miskell's 2017 'mockumentary' Going For Golden Eye, which focused on the fictional Golden Eye World...
Quick Beats Hades Composer Talks Weird Al, The Beatles, And Radiohead
"I would aspire to write something as cool or as beautiful as that"
Throughout the Nintendo Life Video Game Music Festival we're speaking to a range of composers and musicians for a mixture of in-depth interviews and shorter, sharper (and perhaps a little goofier) Q&As where we ask just ten rapid-fire personal questions; we're calling these...
Soapbox Tony Hawk's Underground 2 Was The Basis For My Taste In Music
Sick jams, dude
The year was 2005. iPods were the hot thing, YouTube had just been launched, Twitter didn't exist yet, and the words "podcast" and "social media" had only just been added to the dictionary. It was, in short, a great time to be a kid, as well as the nexus point of many of our modern everyday experiences, like being able to listen to...
Feature Mega Man, Shovel Knight, And Save Me Mr Tako Composers On Getting 'That' Retro Sound
A roundtable on writing retro tunes in modern times
As any self-respecting subscriber of the Gaming Historian knows, one national survey conducted in 1990 found that more American children could identify Mario than Mickey. That sounds about right to this writer, who was one of those children. What truly astonished us, however, was witnessing...
Feature How Fire Tonight Took A Decades-Old Synth-Pop Song, And Made A Game Out Of It
Flamey-o
Information Society in 2019, looking extremely cool You might think that there would be more video games based on songs, and yet, there really aren't. At least, I can't think of any, but then again, I am writing this at 10am on a rainy Friday morning, so my brain isn't exactly at its peak. But Fire Tonight, named after Information...
Soapbox Life Is Strange On Nintendo Switch Signals Better LGBTQ+ Rep To Come
Visual novels and narrative adventures are leading the way
Note. Spoiler warning! Plot details from Life is Strange and its prequel, Before the Storm, are discussed in this article. There's a lot to be disappointed about in the way the games industry has historically handled LGBTQ+ representation, and believe me, I'm dismayed by it, too. It was...
Quick Beats 'Journey' And 'Abzu' Composer On Star Wars, Neil Young And Podcasts
Rapid-fire composer quizzing with BAFTA winner Austin Wintory
Throughout the Nintendo Life Video Game Music Festival we'll be speaking to a range of composers and musicians with a mixture of in-depth interviews and shorter, sharper (and perhaps a little goofier) Q&As where we ask just ten rapid-fire personal questions; we're calling these...
Memory Pak The Exquisite Weirdness Of The Sims: Bustin' Out
Ah, the 2000s
I've always loved house-building, life-simulating game The Sims. I was on the bandwagon from day one, ever since meeting the tutorial family, Bob and Betty Newbie, and finding out that they could make a baby by kissing back-and-forth for hours. Just like real life, of course. Life most people, I would spend hours and hours building...
Feature Fire Emblem And 8 Other Nintendo Franchises That Need A TV Series
Lights, camera, action!
Recently, we’ve spent the last who knows how long, re-playing Pokémon Blue, Red, and Yellow on the 3DS Virtual Console, and bingeing the original Pokémon animated series on Netflix alongside this, and what a time I’ve been having! Netflix is rumoured to be planning on making a live action Pokémon series, too, and this...
Soapbox A Strange Desire For Switch Sports And A Return To Wii's Wuhu Island
Yes, including the cycling
The Wii, the Revolution, the era of motion controls, bathroom scales as peripherals and fun for all. It can be a bit of a trendy thing to tease the Wii, as if its concept of introducing new control schemes and luring traditional 'non-gamers' into being gamers was somehow bad - well, it was actually brilliant. Sure, the Wii...
Soapbox The Hidden Delights Of The Great Ace Attorney
Or, why TGAA is the LOTR DVD of video games
Did you know that Viggo Mortensen, the actor who played Aragorn in the Lord of the Rings movies, broke his toes on-set by kicking a helmet? The take ended up in the final cut, and Aragorn's cry of frustration, grief, and despair is made all the more real knowing that poor Viggo's toesies were probably...
Soapbox In Praise Of Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Two Years On
Support systems have never meant more
This past week marked the second anniversary of Fire Emblem: Three Houses, the latest entry in Intelligent Systems’ popular tactics series. Ten years ago, you would’ve been forgiven for believing that the Fire Emblem series was going the way of the dinosaur, and yet Three Houses now sits at somewhere around...
Talking Point What's Your Switch Game Of 2021 So Far?
Decisions, decisions...
We're well over halfway through 2021 and we're steadily sliding down the back half of the year, having negotiated the six-month hump. Holiday season is waaaay off in the distance and we've still got several months to go before we get into video game 'silly season', but while recently discussing the upcoming Sonic Colors...
Poll Can You Still Find Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros. And Super Mario 3D All-Stars?
Mario where are y-- oh there you are
Finding out that Super Mario 3D All-Stars was going to have a limited production run and would only be sold digitally until 31st March 2021 provoked some strong reactions from many Nintendo fans. Sure, there's an argument to be made that anyone who wanted a copy of this compilation game probably picked one up...
Talking Point Which Game Stage Have You Replayed More Than Any Other?
Green Hill Zone Act 1 is my new-old timesink
The ability to devote entire days to nothing but video games is a past luxury unavailable to me right now, or in the foreseeable future, unfortunately. The addition to my life of small humans that look a bit like me has substantially diminished my available free time, and I've recently realised that it's...
Talking Point Every Pre-BOTW 3D Zelda Now Has A Remake, But Which Is Best?
Featuring *two* polls!
Like Disney remaking all of its old animated movies into live-action versions, Nintendo has slowly been remastering all of its old Zelda games to bring them to new audiences — and to remind old audiences why they loved the games so much. Unlike Disney's live-action movies, though, the Zelda remakes are fantastic, and now...
Soapbox Parallel Play Is The New Couch Co-Op, And Minecraft Is Perfect For It
My couch isn't that nice anyway
I haven't seen some of my friends in months. Others, I haven't seen in years. It's partly the pandemic, and partly because I moved country four years ago, and also partly because I have a flawed grasp of object permanence, so if I can't see someone's face on a regular basis, I might forget that they exist. But with...
Feature Remembering Robin Williams On What Would Have Been His 70th Birthday
"No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world."
When I was a kid, Robin Williams was my favourite actor. I loved his earnest, joyful performances, tinged with pathos and vulnerability; his funny moments were always just as good as his emotional ones. I would watch and re-watch Patch Adams, Bicentennial Man, Jumanji, Aladdin,...
Soapbox Indies Lead The Way But Nintendo Shows Progress Representing People Of Colour
A significant increase in positive representation in recent years
Before we begin, let me address one thing: media representation is important. Always has been, always will be, but many keep questioning why. Whenever this subject appears, comments like “why does it matter? Why can’t you just play the game?” appear and if you’ve ever thought...
Matters Of Import Fuuraiki 4 Is The Perfect Holiday For People Who Can't Go On Holiday
A write good ride
Fuuraiki 4 is a recently released “travel adventure” for the Switch (and PlayStation 4), and the latest entry in a series that debuted on the original PlayStation all the way back to 2001. The game casts you in the role of a writer travelling around the Gifu region of Japan during the summer, aiming to outperform your peers in...
Talking Point Nintendo's Quirky Creativity Hasn't Always Paid Off On Switch, But It Matters
Standing out from the crowd
Nintendo is in a particularly strong position in the games industry at present - it's a hugely popular, talked about brand, and the company is still selling tens of millions of systems each year that - by this stage - will be increasingly inexpensive to produce. When you take relatively old, readily available technology...
Talking Point Nintendo Switch OLED, Worth The Upgrade? Team NL Has A Chat
"I’m mostly relieved to see that grille at the top getting more fins"
A while back we shared a chat between a couple of Team NL's members talking about the topic of "what is a game 'developer'"? That was a nice little back and forth format in which we were chatting over a virtual cup of tea - or virtually but with actual cups of tea and coffee...
Feature Nintendo Hardware Refreshes Through The Ages
Nintendo's lineage of console updates and revisions
Mid-cycle hardware refreshes may sometimes feel like a relatively recent development, but console manufacturers have been releasing revised versions of their consoles since video gaming first entered the home. You might associate Nintendo hardware refreshes mostly with handheld consoles thanks to...
Soapbox Could Switch OLED Actually Make A Reality Of Nintendo's Cheesy Tabletop Dream?
Time to annoy fellow coffee shop patrons
The Switch 'hybrid' concept has, over the course of four years, proven to be a significant and important success for Nintendo. It's not just about the sales figures and huge profits, but it's lifted Nintendo's brand back to the sort of influence last enjoyed in the days of DS and Wii, albeit the outrageous...
Feature 30 Hours Into The Game With A Higher Metascore Than Zelda: Breath Of The Wild
The House In Fata Morgana Game Diary, Part 3
Writer's note: I will not discuss specific spoilers in this piece, because anyone who plays The House In Fata Morgana for as long as it takes to get to the twists deserves to have them preserved — but I will discuss the motifs that weave through the game, so be warned if you want to go into the game...
Feature thatgamecompany On Sky: Children Of The Light And Seeking Humanity's 'Brighter Side'
"I realised that our game is not meant to be played by one group, but by everybody"
The Switch eShop had a notable recent arrival, with thatgamecompany making its Nintendo debut with Sky: Children of the Light. It's a studio that achieved notable acclaim in a period of PlayStation exclusivity, with titles such as Flower and Journey
Back Page The Ten Best Crabs On The Nintendo Switch
Which clawsome crustacean will pinch the top spot?
In the magazine business, the Back Page is where you'd find all the weird goofs that we couldn't fit in anywhere else. Some may call it "filler"; we prefer "a whole page to make terrible jokes that are tangentially related to the content of the mag". We don't have pages on the internet, but we...
Feature Monster Hunter Rise Director Talks RE Engine On Switch
"Optimization was very difficult, but it was also challenging and rewarding"
Monster Hunter Rise has been out for a number of months, selling an impressive number of copies while also showing the capabilities of the Switch hardware in the right hands. One of just two titles on the system to utilise the RE ENGINE — the other being Ghosts 'n Goblins...
Talking Point What's That One Switch Game You Can't Bring Yourself To Delete?
This is my comfort game! Leave me alone!
I've finally reached the point where almost every new game I download onto my Switch gives me the same response. "There's no room," it says, gesturing around the virtual space cluttered with games I haven't touched in months, or even years. "Where am I supposed to put this? Why don't you get rid of something...
Talking Point Why Metroid Dread Will Be Worth $60
You're gonna pay for this
With the announcement of Metroid Dread, a brand new 2D entry in the 35-year-old franchise that lends its name to an entire genre, the majority of reactions we've seen online have been overwhelmingly positive. As you may have noted with our rather comprehensive coverage since the game's E3 reveal, we're definitely in the...
Nintendo veteran Yoshio Sakamoto on Samus' return on Switch
"Samus Aran and her cool warrior persona, the exploration element, and the various elements of surprise." According to series overseer Yoshio Sakamoto, these tenets are the consistent components of any game that carries the name 'Metroid'. As producer on the freshly announced Metroid...
Soapbox The Zelda: Breath of The Wild 2 Trailer Is Already Spawning Theories
Reversed music, new mechanics, and long hair
The best part of working in games journalism is when you get to wildly speculate about a split-second thing in a trailer, and so, here we are. It's speculatin' time! Get yer binoculars and magnifying glasses ready, and take copious meaningless notes! You may have noticed (unless you were screaming...
Talking Point E3 Leaks Are Inevitable, But Do You Actually Want To Know?
What's life without surprises?
We're now into the latter half of E3 silly season, as rumours and leaks — some real, some clearly not — bombard us gaming enthusiasts at every turn online. If you know where to look and have the inclination, you can often find entire run-orders for the likes of the Xbox presentation hours before the show, or...
Feature Diving Deeper Into The Switch Game With A Perfect Metascore
The House In Fata Morgana Game Diary, Part 2
Well, that last House In Fata Morgana piece certainly blew up, didn't it? I wasn't expecting my diary entries to intrigue anyone except the people who already care about the game, but I guess that's what happens when you talk about the only Switch game with a perfect Metacritic score. If you haven't read...
Feature What's Your Most Treasured Club Nintendo Possession?
In da Club
Accumulating points to save money on Switch eShop purchases is all well and good, but Nintendo's current rewards system for loyal customers arguably lacks the pizzazz of the old Club Nintendo days. That's not to say that the more recent My Nintendo physical goodies are bad. In fact, the swag you can redeem Platinum coins for nowadays is...
Back Page Things That Will Absolutely Definitely Happen During Nintendo's E3 2021 Direct
Disclaimer: Some, or all, of these predictions are jokes
In the magazine business, the Back Page is where you'd find all the weird goofs that we couldn't fit in anywhere else. Some may call it "filler"; we prefer "a whole page to make terrible jokes that are tangentially related to the content of the mag". We don't have pages on the internet, but...
Feature Nintendo's Most Iconic E3 Moments
5 of the best, from live shows to pre-recorded puppets
E3 2021 is just around the corner, though with a whole lot of competing events and streams it's not quite the industry-defining occasion of the past. Yet Nintendo will be 'there' with a day that'll feature an E3 Nintendo Direct and three hours of Treehouse demonstrations streamed for your...
Soapbox Without A Dedicated Handheld Division, Is Nintendo Less Weird?
Missing the micro-games
Soapbox features enable our individual writers and contributors to voice their own opinions on hot topics or random stuff they've been thinking about, opinions that may not necessarily be the voice of the site. Today, Nathan discusses the sense that Nintendo's handheld hybrid approach with Switch has led to fewer experimental...
Talking Point How Good Are You At Games?
Skills to pay the bills, bro?
Back in the olden days, when my world was decidedly smaller, I used to think I was pretty handy when it came to video games. When schoolmates came over to play GoldenEye or Mario Kart 64, I'd wipe the floor with the lot of them and I naively believed it was down to my unrivalled reaction speed and prowess with the pad...
Soapbox Is The Best Harry Potter Game On Game Boy Color? Quite Possibly
FLIPENDO
We recently asked you Nintendo Life readers to rate your favourite Game Boy Color games, and as we're preparing to publish the Top 50 results, we're taking a look back at a handful of our favourite GBC games. Here, Kate remembers one particular handheld Harry adventure — the one where the Philosopher and the Sorcerer bickered about whose...