Tag: Soapbox - Page 5
Soapbox Retro Nintendo Games Cost Too Much, But Nostalgia Is Expensive
Second-hand Nintendo games are notoriously pricey, but why?
The year is 1999. I'm in a GAME, in Loughborough town centre. The grey carpet is sticky, the awful fluorescent lights are so dim I can barely see, and everything sort of smells like stale sweat. I'm standing in the N64 section with my brother, both of us clutching a small fortune in pocket...
Soapbox Pokémon Journeys Is Like The Original Series, But 151 Times Better
Ash made a friend his own age!
Life's been difficult lately. As much as I want to catch up on all the heart-racing tension of all the TV shows that everyone else is watching — Squid Game, Succession, the new season of The Witcher — I just don't have the energy for it. If I only have an hour or two after work, I don't want to spend it on edge,...
Soapbox Nintendo's Game Awards No-Show Proves It Simply Doesn't Need Anyone Else
More Direct-to-you than ever before
Last week was The Game Awards 2021, an event organised and hosted by Geoff Keighley that's supposedly designed to bring together the entire industry for a general celebration of video games — and some awards, too (after all, it's there in the name). Opinions will vary, of course, but perhaps for Nintendo fans...
Soapbox Wii Sports Wasn't Just Waggle, It Was An Important Gateway To Gaming
Mii Masters
The Wii is 15 years old, words to make this writer feel a little bit old. It was an era when HD was a bold new frontier in gaming, and Nintendo decided 'nah, we'll just do something fun instead'. It's extraordinary to consider that the Wii and DS shared the market, creating a boom for Nintendo that even the current Switch success can't...
Soapbox Even If GTA Trilogy Were Perfect, I'd Rather Be Shooting Balloons And Burying Gyroids
Scale vs. scope
The wider gaming internet is currently in a funk of bitter disappointment due to the launch state of GTA The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition, an anniversary package which, unfortunately, isn't so definitive. For Nintendo gamers who have waited years to be able to play a fully-3D Grand Theft Auto of any sort, it's infinitely sad to...
Soapbox Can We Please Retire The Phrase 'Lazy Devs' Already?
A tough job under difficult circumstances
There’s one magic word that gets trotted out all the time in this hobby, a handy term used to describe all digital ills — lazy. ‘How did this bleh of a game end up on the eShop?’ ‘Who couldn’t be bothered to finish this puzzle / minigame / character’s face properly?’ ‘How much more effort...
Soapbox The Switch Online Expansion Pack Is Great Value – If You Love Animal Crossing
Just hear me out...
My name is Thomas Whitehead, and I am a Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack subscriber. This is the point where you all smile and say "hello Thomas, you're with friends here". Because a lot of us are in this room, nervously clutching a cup of stale coffee, aware that out in the world there's judgement and downvotes galore...
Soapbox Nintendo's N64 Emulation Is Serviceable, But Treasured Memories Deserve Better
Hazy memories
Anyone who's ever spent a decent amount of time with video games probably has a small handful of momentous memories etched on their brains. Not just that time you beat a gruelling boss or played Mario Kart with your pals at Paul's birthday party — more pretentious than that. We mean a time when your perception of what was possible in...
Soapbox Let's Get Happy Home Designer Into Animal Crossing: New Horizons
My villagers have no RESPECT for interior design
So, unlike most people, I have actually played Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer. I don't blame those of you who didn't — it's a weird little spin-off that peters out pretty quickly, and lacks a lot of the liveliness of Animal Crossing itself, but... well... there's something special about it all...
Soapbox Why Apollo Justice Might Be The Best Ace Attorney Game
How's that for a Turnabout
Can you imagine celebrating your 20th birthday, and someone comes up to you and tells you that your nervous, short friend/mentee is much more interesting than you? Well, it's Ace Attorney's 20th birthday, and while that's not exactly what I'm doing (and I'll explain why in more detail in a moment), I have to say: as a...
Soapbox Paper Mario: TTYD Is 17 Years Old Today, But It's Still A Masterpiece
A paper cut above the rest
From the very first second of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, I was hooked. The game begins with a gentle twinkling music and a book opening to tell you the story of an ancient, ruined town lost to time, and the fabled treasure buried there; once you've listened to the whole story (and seen Peach herself buying a...
Soapbox Joy-Con Aren't Perfect, But They're Great For Sick Day Gaming
Everybody hurts (themselves) sometimes
Soapbox features enable our individual writers and contributors to voice their opinions on hot topics and random stuff they've been pondering. Today, Kate discusses rediscovering the joy of Joy-Con following a recent mishap, and her dreams of Joy-Con 2.0... I'm about to turn 30, so of course, the natural...
Soapbox What Makes A Game A Good Metroidvania Anyway?
Similar differences can make the genre hard to pin down
You’d be forgiven for thinking that nothing could be simpler than working out the secret formula that binds all of the great games in this popular genre together — the clue’s in the name! They need to be just like Metroid, with all the shooting and the aliens and the sci-fi-ness and the...
Soapbox We Need To Talk About The One Thing Nintendo Got Wrong With The Switch OLED
We hope you have long fingernails
Yesterday, we published our review of the Switch OLED, the latest hardware iteration of Nintendo's incredibly popular hybrid gaming platform. Boasting a gorgeous 7-inch OLED panel and a revised dock, it's an upgrade that improves on the original design in many meaningful ways – apart from one. As we noted in the...
Soapbox 10 Reasons Why Metroid Fusion Is The Best Game In The Series
You clear Fusion
Soapbox features enable our individual writers and contributors to voice their opinions on hot topics and random stuff they've been pondering. Today, as we look forward to the coming release of the next instalment in the 2D Metroid lineage, Stuart takes a look back at his very favourite game in the series... Hello. Did you know...
Soapbox 4 Years On And Switch Finally Got Bluetooth Audio, So Voice Chat Next?
Go on Nintendo, party like it's 2009
I can hear the pitchforks sharpening so let me just say it right away — I really like Nintendo. I spend the majority of my day focused on its hardware, games and related fun times. So I tease the company with affection, but good grief it deserves a little bit of gentle mocking from time to time. And so this...
Soapbox The Era Of Rock Band, Guitar Hero And Plastic Instruments Was Silly But Special
Wish fulfilment
Over the past few weeks it's been a lot of fun to share a huge range of music-themed features as part of the Nintendo Life VGM Festival. Much of our focus, quite rightly, has been on highlighting the amazing talents behind the soundtracks and audio design that we enjoy in games. For a little change, though, I wanted to reflect on a...
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...
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...
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...
Soapbox Chiptune Is Great, But The Impact Of A Full Orchestra Is Unbeatable
Elevated storytelling
It's wonderful to see the love for video game music in our current Nintendo Life Video Game Music Festival; it'll rightly celebrate all sorts of audio and soundtracks across varied games and genres. When the right music combines with an outstanding game, there is arguably no more satisfying experience in entertainment; the...
Soapbox Spin-Offs Can Be A Way In Rather Than A Sell-Out
Playable windows into other worlds
Ah, spin-offs. The cynical shareholder-approved cash-grab created for a series that’s got a little too big for its boots. The desperate last-ditch attempt at trendy relevance for a fading favourite. A shoddily resurrected IP’s woefully undercooked stab at attracting a new audience. They’re the “Grandma...
Soapbox Playdate Sold Out In 20 Minutes - Is It Time For A New Nintendo Handheld?
The Game Boy... 2
Many of us at Nintendo Life have been patiently, excitedly waiting for the Playdate to go on sale, because we're suckers for bits of colourful plastic. Well, it did, and we missed it, because all 20,000 initial units (for the 2021 batch, at least) sold out in just 20 minutes. [Not all of us missed it! - smug Ed] It's hardly...
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...
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...
Soapbox Space Jam 2 Is A Video Game Cash-In That Doesn't Quite Get It Right
Do any of us understand video games, really?
Let's get this out of the way: watching Space Jam: A New Legacy feels a lot like watching a timeshare presentation run by every cartoon and comic character you've ever known. It has that same greasy "please give us money" feeling to it, as Warner Bros. parades its various intellectual properties past you...
Soapbox Nintendo Switch Online's Library Is A Snapshot Of '90s Gaming Shelves
Nintendo took its rose-tinted specs and threw them in the bin
Another trio of classic games have just been announced for Nintendo’s subscriber-only Virtual Console replacement, this time Claymates, Jelly Boy, and Bombuzal. They all have one very special thing in common: They’re all games nobody asked for, and nobody wanted. Nintendo could have...
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...
Soapbox Can We Just Announce All Platforms At The Same Time Already?
PC and 'consoles', eh? Hmm...
The absence of E3 last year created a PR vacuum which publishers, media organisations and even noted figures in the world of gaming raced to fill with their own events. Geoff Keighley, bless him, attempted to wrangle it all — indie and triple AAA alike — under his Summer Game Fest umbrella, but ultimately Summer...
Soapbox Nintendo Is More Collaborative And Open Than Ever, Which Benefits Us All
Everyone's a winner
Nintendo is a company that has never been particularly good at communication. But it is a company that is good at learning from their errors. You remember that infamous Skyward Sword demo at E3 2010, right? The one where Miyamoto walked out onstage, waggled his controller around, and couldn’t get it to work (that sounded...
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...
Soapbox It's The Summer Of Visual Novels On Switch, And It's Just The Beginning
I should probably learn to read
Visual novels. Are they games, or are they slideshows? Well, let's get one thing straight, because this is a soapbox: I personally don't particularly care. I enjoy an evening curled up with a good book, and likewise, I enjoy an evening curled up with a good visual novel on auto-play, occasionally unfurling my hand...
Soapbox Super Metroid Showed Me I Had The Right To Exist
Samus & Me
My first experience with the Metroid series was relatively unremarkable: I just bought Super Metroid for my SNES, back when a brand new SNES game was something you could just walk into a local shop and buy. I took its oversized box home, flipped through the glossy Player’s Guide, and noticed something odd — Samus Aran, the...
Soapbox The Founder Of Newgrounds Will Receive An Award At GDC - Here's Why That Matters
More than just a Flash in the pan
There are things that I could say right now to accurately determine the age of most of our readers. "But I am le tired." "Badger badger badger." "Wiggle jiggle, yellow middle." But, more than anything else, I can ask: which website did you visit the most in the early 2000s? If the answer is anything other than...
Soapbox Sonic Adventure 2 Turns 20 — It’s Time For A Chao Garden Comeback
Forget the Chaos Emeralds; I just want Chaos
Alright, a quick disclaimer before I start spouting off about Sonic like I know what I'm talking about: I have only ever played one Sonic game. Properly, at least. I've certainly had a go on friends' copies of the older games, and I watched the Sonic the Hedgehog movie, if that counts — but the only...
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...
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...
Soapbox Why Harvest Moon 2 GBC Is Still The Best Farming Game Around
Less is more
We recently published our reader-ranked top 50 Game Boy Color games, and we've taking a look back at a handful of our favourite GBC carts. Today, Kerry reminisces about her very favourite farming sim... There have been a lot of Harvest Moon games ove
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...
Soapbox Resident Evil Gaiden Is Good, Actually
“Good luck Barry”
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, Kerry defends the Resident Evil game that NL readers voted the worst in the series... A long time ago we were...
Soapbox Pokémon Legends: Arceus' Release Date Worries Me, But Hopefully I'm Wrong
A potential Poké-hit, if it's treated with respect
Soapbox features enable our individual writers 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, Ryan talks about the surprisingly early release date for a big-name Pokémon title. Pokémon...
Soapbox How Resident Evil 4 Taught Me To Stop Hoarding And Love The Grenades
Thanks, Leon, you idiot beefcake
A friend of mine once told me something that stuck with me: "don't defer pleasure". It sounds like one of those Instagram quotes on a background of a sunset, I know, but it's actually become somewhat of a motto for me, because I'm the sort of person that hoards things in video games and real life. My Skyrim house is...
Soapbox Game Genres Are Broken
I love AAA F2P VR PvE FPS MMORPGs
If your mum asked you if you wanted to watch a romantic period drama with her for Mother's Day, you'd know what to expect. Two hours of unrelenting pining between two extremely good-looking people in silly outfits, kept apart by some ridiculous social convention, at least one ludicrously sexy scene where one of the...
Soapbox I Miss My Friends, But I Don't Want To Kill Them
Well, maybe a little bit
I highly doubt any of the people reading this have the power to change anything in the games industry, but just in case: my thesis here is that the world is craving online co-op games, and it's crazy that we don't have more of them. Or, at least, more of them that don't involve shooting my friends in the face, or hanging out...
Soapbox Is It Time For Game Rental Stores To Return?
Bust out the Blockbusters
I feeeeeeeel like I know the answer to this one already. With the closure of Blockbuster ten years ago, and the liquidation of Family Video in January this year, it doesn't take a marketing genius to come to the conclusion that no one wants to rent games any more. Sure, some services, like Gamefly and
Soapbox Hurry Up And Release The Switch Pro Already, My Switch Is Dying
Update: The plot thickens (in video form)
Getting a new piece of technology is a lot like getting a puppy on Christmas Day. The rest of the afternoon and evening are likely to be spent playing with your new present, marvelling at how perfect and new it is, and changing all the settings so it's just the way you like it. Fast forward a couple of...
Soapbox Animal Crossing Is A Daily Delight, But These Aren't Really 'Updates', Are They?
Old horizons
Soapbox features enable our individual writers to voice their own opinions on hot topics, opinions that may not necessarily be the voice of the site. Today, Tom talks about the lack of substantial updates for a game he's been playing on the regular for some time now... I should start this with a disclaimer: I like Animal Crossing: New...
Soapbox An Anniversary Ode To Okami, The Best Zelda Game That Isn't
Fifteen years of Clover's classic
Ever since the The Legend of Zelda turned 35 back in February, we've been looking back over the mainline games with a series of features celebrating and examining each one from a personal perspective. However, today it's the 15th anniversary of another fine action-adventure — a game which may not have the name...
