Tag: Nintendo
Poll Box Art Brawl: Duel #60 - Metroid: Other M
Another M
Welcome to Box Art Brawl, the weekly series where we pit regional box art variants against each other in a fight for your approval. Last week the fastest thing alive dropped into the brawl with the seminal Sonic 2 for Genesis / Mega Drive. In a close battle between the three regions, it was ultimately North America who triumphed, with...
Video The Problem With The Super Mario 3D All-Stars Release
"It's bad business"
What do Super Mario 3D All-Stars, Super Mario Bros. 35 and Jump Rope Challenge all have in common? They're all limited-time releases and well...according to our very own American-based video producer Zion Grassl, it's bad for everyone. Heck, even The Legend of Zeld
News Nintendo Currently Has "No Plans" To End Online Services For The 3DS
Online play and the eShop will "continue to be available"
Earlier this week, Nintendo confirmed the production of its mighty 3DS line had been officially discontinued. It brings an end to all six models in the 3DS family – the 3DS, 3DS XL, New 3DS, New 3DS XL, 2DS and New 2DS XL. Fortunately, there's still some life left in this system. In a...
News Nintendo's Switch Online Service Now Has More Than 26 Million Subscribers
"Our consumer base has quickly adopted this service"
During its Corporate Management Briefing for September 2020, Nintendo revealed its online service for the Switch now has over 26 million paid users. Membership numbers have apparently grown alongside hardware sales at a steady pace, and spikes in sign-ups have been promoted by games featuring...
News Nintendo, Creatures And Game Freak File Trademark For The Legendary Pokémon Entei
A sign of things to come?
At the start of this month, Nintendo, Creatures and Game Freak filed a trademark application for エンテイ (Entei). As in the name of the legendary fire-type pocket monster that first appeared in Pokémon Gold and Silver on the Game Boy Color. According to PokéJungle, some Pokémon fans think this trademark might be...
News Nintendo Has More Media Projects In The Works Beyond The Mario Movie
Also exploring further 'visual content expansion projects'
Nintendo has published its Corporate Management Policy Briefing for this financial year, and as well as touching on plans for its future hardware, much of the document is dedicated to exploring how the company is expanding its IP to reach a wider audience. Most interestingly, Nintendo...
Random Nintendo Wanted Mario To Be "Someone Who Might Live Near You"
Rather than a superhero
Mario has been a doctor and even a race car driver, but he's best known as a plumber over his 35-year existence. Although creator Shigeru Miyamoto has previously discussed his character's career choices, in a recent interview with CNN - focused on the history of the video game industry's most iconic mascot - he further...
News Nintendo Switch System Update 10.2.0 Is Now Live
Download it today!
Nintendo has rolled out its first Switch system update for the month of September. This bumps the firmware up to version 10.2.0 and also happens to be the first update the Switch has received since 13th July. Just like the previous one, it improves the overall stability of the system to further enhance the user experience. Here...
Feature All Hail The Game Boy Micro, The Sexiest And Most Impractical Game Boy Ever
15 years of hand-cramps
Before we dive in, let's begin with a few words on the topic at hand when it was raised in the Nintendo Life office: "Such a neat little machine." "I've always wanted one." "Somehow I ended up with two." "The most enjoyable way to get carpal tunnel." We were, of course, discussing the lovely Game Boy Micro. The diminutive...
News Nintendo Launches Website For The Original Super Mario Bros. Game
Celebrating 35 years
Mario's 35th anniversary celebrations are well and truly underway. So far Nintendo has announced new games, merchandise, and even events and promotions for other first-party titles like Splatoon 2 and Animal Crossing: New Horizons. If that's still not enough Mario-themed goodness for you, Japanese websites for Super Mario Bros...
Poll How Do You Feel About 'Limited-Time' Games From Nintendo?
Sneaky tactics or totally legit?
Last week, cheers of jubilation went around the internet as Nintendo finally announced that the long-rumoured collection of classic 3D Mario games, coming on 18th September. However, spirits were dampened for some when they noticed an odd detail about Super Mario 3D All-Stars: it will be a limited-time release...
News Physical Rewards Are Now Available On My Nintendo (US)
Get some Splatoon 2 And Xenoblade items
Well, this is a nice surprise for My Nintendo users located in the US (note: this offer does not appear to include Canada). Nintendo has finally stocked this web page with some physical rewards. The catch is, shipping fees apply, so the rewards are not entirely free. First up, we have a Xenoblade Chronicles:...
News Mario's Anniversary Puma Kicks Will Be Available In Sunshine And Galaxy Variants
Stylin'
Nintendo is going all out with collaborations for Mario's 35th anniversary, and part of this is a special shoe line with Puma. In addition to the RS-Dreamer Super Mario 64 basketball shoes Puma is adding Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Galaxy variants. It seems this t
News More Than 20 Million Courses Have Now Been Uploaded In Super Mario Maker 2
Built by the community
Nintendo may have ended major content updates for Super Mario Maker 2 earlier this year, but this game is still receiving plenty of community support. In a tweet via the official Nintendo of America Twitter account, it was revealed players have now uploaded more than 20 million courses to the Course World since the game...
News Nintendo Reinstates Pikmin 3 On The Wii U eShop Ahead Of The Switch Release
Update: And it's back
Update: The game has apparently now reappeared for digital purchase on the Wii U eShop. So, if you haven't played Pikmin 3 before, this means you still have the option to buy and experience the game in its non-Deluxe, vanilla (and much cheaper) form on the hardware it was originally designed for. Here at Nintendo Life, that's...
Feature So, What Happened To Super Mario Galaxy 2?
Mario (Galaxy 2) Is Missing
As many Mario fans noticed yesterday, Super Mario Galaxy 2 is missing from the long-rumoured (and otherwise tasty-looking) Super Mario 3D All-Stars collection. Not only that, but it was also omitted the montage of significant Mario releases that appeared in the final few minutes of the Super Mario 35th Anniversary Direct...
Video Check Out Nintendo's Japanese TV Spots For Super Mario 3D All-Stars
One for each 3D All-Star
A series of thirty-second Japanese TV spots have been put together advertising Mario's 35th anniversary and the recently-announced collection of his 3D adventures, Super Mario 3D All-Stars. The clips are now up on the company's YouTube channel and we've assembled them below for your enjoyment. Each title in the collection...
News Nintendo Explains How Motion Controls Work In Super Mario Galaxy On Switch
Pro Controller support also confirmed
One game in the Super Mario 3D All-Stars collection that's got some extra attention so far is Super Mario Galaxy. Right now, it's mostly because everyone wants to know how motion controls in this game work on the Nintendo Switch across docked, tabletop and handheld play. Polygon reached out to an official...
Random Checked The Switch eShop Recently? Mario's Redecorated
Apparently there's been some Mario news?
With all the Super Mario news that's dropped today, you probably haven't had time to visit the Switch eShop to investigate pre-orders or sales or those types of things - not in the last few hours, at least. Next time you do, though, you'll surely notice that a certain 35-year-old plumber has been busy...
News Cat Mario And Peach Amiibo Will Claw At Your Purse Strings Next February
Bowser's furry-ous
As you may have noticed, there's been a flurry of Super Mario-based news today following the surprise (or not so surprise, perhaps) Super Mario 35th Anniversary Direct broadcast. Just one such nugget of news was the long-awaited arrival of Wii U's Super Mario 3D World on Switch i
News Nintendo To Host A 'Designer Career Recruitment Session' For Potential Dev Staff
October sessions for candidates looking for work in Kyoto or Tokyo
Nintendo is on the lookout for new recruits in various design roles at its Japanese offices. The company is advertising online briefing sessions on Saturday 24th October for experienced designers looking to work in either Kyoto or Tokyo. These sessions are to be conducted using Zoom...
News Nintendo Trademark Applications Appear For A Pikachu 'Car' Named, Yes, The Pi!car!
Auto-battle
There are plenty of Pokémon to choose from these days but Pikachu remains the franchise mascot and the Pocket Monster of choice for a huge number of fans. The little electric rodent has adorned countless objects over the last two-and-a-half decades, from billboards to board games, anti-bacterial wipes to aircraft. That the little guy...
News You Can Now Cancel Switch eShop Pre-Orders Up To One Week Before Release
Payment processed seven days before launch
Pre-ordering a digital game might seem a little strange given that there's zero chance of the supplier running out of stock, but sometimes there are bonuses (double Gold Points, for example) or you may want to get the game pre-loaded and ready to rock on Day One. Fair enough! Previously, Nintendo charged...
News Paper Mario Producer Says His Team Has "Almost Complete Control" Over Creative Direction
Miyamoto checked in, but made no specific requests to make changes
Since the release of Paper Mario: The Origami King for the Nintendo Switch, producer Kensuke Tanabe has been doing the press rounds answering questions about the future of the series and clarifying how much control his team has when it comes to new entries in the Paper Mario series...
News Paper Mario Producer Says He's "Not Opposed To The Fans' Opinions"
But would like to keep making innovative and unique entries
The new Paper Mario for the Switch was originally rumoured to be returning the series to form. It gave some members of the Nintendo community high hopes the next entry would perhaps embrace the series' traditional RPG roots. Obviously, it didn't really happen. With this in mind - during a...
Quiz How Well Do You Know Rare And Its Nintendo Games?
Rare replay
Veteran developer Rare celebrated its 35th anniversary in 2020. The British studio may be owned by Microsoft these days, but its back catalogue of brilliant games on Nintendo systems mean it will forever be associated with Nintendo in our hearts and minds. The company, a second party Nintendo developer from the mid-'90s, bolstered (and...
News Nintendo Is Reportedly Japan's Richest Company Of 2020
With billions in the bank
According to a newly posted financial analysis report, Nintendo has risen to the top of Japan's corporate leaderboard, becoming the richest company of 2020 in the country. The report, from Risk Masters, notes that Nintendo currently has a staggering 890.4 billion yen tucked away for a rainy day (which works out at around...
News Here's Another Look At Hot Wheels' New Mario Kart Line
The Bowser's Castle Trackset
Earlier this month, during a special Comic-Con at home video stream, the Hot Wheels team revealed it would be bolstering its existing Mario Kart line with some new products - including the characters Cat Peach and Diddy Kong, glider karts and a special mystery Yoshi egg line. Now, in the latest update, Famitsu has...
News "Strong Possibility" Of A Nintendo Broadcast Next Week, Suggests Industry Insider
Update: "please tone down the expectations"
Update (Sun 23rd Aug, 2020 04:45 BST): Jeff Grubb has seen and heard all the excitement online - including our own story here at Nintendo Life - and has asked everyone to "please tone down the expectations". In some follow-up messages over on Twitter, he said it was "weird" that August falls on a Friday...
Quiz How Well Do You Know Metroid?
'Y can't Metroid crawl?', for example
The Mario and Zelda games might be at the very top of the Nintendo franchise tree, but for many fans the Metroid series is right up there alongside them. The moody, explorative adventures of Samus Aran have caught the imagination of many players over the years, and Switch-owning Metroid fans are eager to get...
Soapbox We've Reached The Point-Of-No-Return In This Nindie Love Affair
There's no going back... thank goodness!
In this Soapbox article, Gavin discusses the warm familiar feeling he experienced while watching this week's Nintendo Indie World Showcase... I was planning on beginning this with a big 'list o' shame'; all the indie titles I've got backlogged on my Switch that I still need to play, many of them purchased...
Random Celebrate Mario's 35th Anniversary With These Adhesive Products From UHU
Fancy some glue?
As we get closer to Mario's 35th anniversary in September, more and more Super Mario themed products are being released. Earlier this week, PowerA and HORI announced some new Nintendo Switch controllers, and now, Nintendo is teaming up with the German manufacturer UHU to release Mario-themed adhesive products. As you can see in the...
Feature How Nintendo, Pokémon And Japanese Culture Shaped Global Tastes Through Pure Invention
Author and translator Matt Alt discusses his recent book
The Back to the Future movies might be best known for their seat-of-your-pants time-hopping sense of adventure, whip-smart structure and American nostalgia, but they also serve as a socio-economic lens on the time in which they were made. Marty McFly, for example, might not return to exactly...
Poll What Did You Think Of The August 2020 Nintendo Indie World Showcase?
Did it hit you indie feels?
Well, with only a day's notice Nintendo has broadcast another Indie World Showcase filled with 23-ish minutes of indie goodness. It was a tight broadcast with over twenty titles shown off and a host of games surprise launching today (they may very well be available on eShop by the time you're reading this!). While many...
News Nintendo Details Its 2022 Graduate Recruitment Procedure
Registration begins this year
Those dreaming of landing a job at the house of Mario might just be in luck, as Nintendo has kickstarted the process of its 2022 graduate recruitment drive. The company has opened a new webpage today, noting that pre-entry for April 2022's graduates will begin in October of this year. Various recruitment events are...
News Nintendo To Host 'Management Briefing Session' Next Month, Days After Mario's 35th Anniversary
A coincidence, or something more?
Nintendo is reportedly set to hold a "Management Briefing Session" in Tokyo next month, just three days after Mario's 35th anniversary. The news comes from Astris Advisory Japan's David Gibson, who reveals that Nintendo has shared details on the upcoming meeting to relevant industry folk in Japan. According to...
News Nintendo Switch Was The Best-Selling Console In The US In July 2020
Switch tops the year-to-date hardware sales, too
The NPD Group has revealed various games industry sales charts for last month and 2020 so far. According to the industry analysts, Nintendo's Switch was the best-selling console for July 2020, and also remains the best-selling console hardware for the year-to-date. NPD analyst Mat Piscatella shared...
Random Shigeru Miyamoto Used To Smoke In The Star Fox Office
"He’d light up behind us"
The new Netflix video game documentary series, High Score, isn't out until later this month, but one story that airs in the final episode is already doing the rounds within the Nintendo community. According to the former Argonaut Software developers Dylan Cuthbert and Giles Goddard (the team behind Star Fox on the Super...
Video See The Amazing LEGO NES Built From Start To Finish In Our Block-Busting Timelapse
4 hours for us, 8 minutes for you
As you may well have heard Nintendo and LEGO have been getting all chummy-chummy recently, and alongside the child-focused LEGO Super Mario which we thought was a delight, there's also something a bit more in-line with adult LEGO fans in the form of the LEGO Nintendo Entertainment System. This is a model with no...
Poll What's The Best Paper Mario Game?
Papers please
With the recent release of Paper Mario: The Origami King, the Paper Mario series now stands at a sizeable six entries. It all began with the original Paper Mario on Nintendo 64, before moving onto the GameCube with the celebrated Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. That was followed by Super Paper Mario on Wii before the series took...
News Paper Mario Producer Says "It's A Necessity" To Change The Combat System In Every Entry
Mamma mia!
Since the release of Paper Mario: The Origami King on the Nintendo Switch last month, series' producer, Kensuke Tanabe has been discussing the creative restrictions tied to the game - reiterating how it's been this way since Paper Mario: Sticker Star was released on the 3DS. In another recent interview, this time with the German website...
Quiz How Well Do You Know Luigi?
Not easy being green
It's not easy living in the shadow of a more famous, over-achieving sibling. However, despite his brother being the mascot for the company, Nintendo has showered the green-garbed Mario Brother with love and attention over the years, and he's developed a devoted fanbase. He's even taken the starring role in a number of games...
News Nintendo Is Recruiting Level Designers To Work On New 2D Action Games
What could be on the way?
Looking ahead at Nintendo's future release schedule, there are only so many games to anticipate, and right now we know very little about each one. The major Switch exclusives in development at the moment include Bayonetta 3, Metroid Prime 4, and of course, a sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Apart from...
Download it now!
A few weeks ago, a game-breaking bug was discovered in Paper Mario: The Origami King which could potentially ruin a player's save and progress about 20-30 hours into their journey. As we explained at the time, this problem was tied to the area in the game where you visit four spas in the Shangri-Spa area in order to access a secret...
Review LEGO Super Mario - A Strong Translation To The Real World
LEt's-a-GO
When LEGO announced its partnership with Nintendo to at last bring Super Mario to the brick universe in an official capacity, it’s safe to say that what we were expecting was something along more typical lines from LEGO. Princess Peach’s castle perhaps? Maybe World 1-1 from the NES original? Nothing so obvious came to be of cours
Soapbox 25 Years On, I Still Can't Get Into Yoshi's Island
And it's not for want of trying
On the 25th anniversary of its Japanese release, Gavin ponders why he just can't get down with one of Nintendo's most celebrated games of the 16-bit era... There's a strata of gaming classics so renowned for their quality that they become untouchable. Not liking, say, Ocarina of Time is cause for some serious...
News Hot Wheels Shares A Sneak Peek Of Its New Mario Kart Racers
Yoshi eggs, glider karts and more!
Last year, Hot Wheels launched a Mario Kart line and it's been an "amazing partnership with Nintendo", according to the toy car company. During a special Comic-Con at home video stream, the Hot Wheels team shared a special sneak peek of what coming later this year. Hot Wheels' Chris Colangelo explained in full...
News Early Zelda: Breath Of The Wild Build Shows Link Running Around Japan
And skydiving, too
Back in 2017 - the same year as the release of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on the Wii U and Switch - Nintendo showcased the early stages of the game's development at a CEDEC conference. Now, some images of the footage it shared at this event have surfaced online. It shows a map of Japan, Link running around Himeji...
Random The LEGO NES Has A Cool Super Mario Bros. Easter Egg Hidden Inside It
Pure nostalgia
If you haven't already bought and assembled the LEGO Nintendo Entertainment System, there's a really nostalgic - and cool - easter egg contained within this particular build that you need to know about. For those of you who have no intention of adding this kit to your Nintendo or LEGO collection - read on. Located underneath a side...
Poll So, What Was Nintendo's Best Year Ever?
We've done the 'worst', so which comes first?
Last week, following some suggestion on social media that 2020 was shaping up to be a poor one for Nintendo on current evidence, we asked you to tell us which year you thought was Nintendo's 'worst' out of the last thirty-five. The results showed that 23% of the people who responded counted 2015 as the...
