Latest Features
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...
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...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? (August 14th)
Go on, tell us...
Another week of that Nintendo life has passed, and there were certainly some highlights. There were all sorts of gems in the Indie World showcase, a blabbing comedian may have given up a Mario movie character, while on the rumour front we have the likes of Xenoblade Chronic
Poll Did Nintendo Deliver Its Best Ever Indie World Showcase?
It's right up there, we'd say
Well, the dust has settled on another Indie World Showcase from Nintendo, and it certainly got Switch fans talking. In just over 20 minutes there were 19 games shown off — some were surprises, others were long-awaited updates, and others still were out-of-left-field games from fresh names in the development scene...
Feature 20 Super NES Classics Nintendo Should Bring To Switch Online
16-bit gems we'd love to see on Switch
Nintendo has been steadily adding to its Nintendo Switch Online NES and SNES offerings since the service launched, and although it was a slow start, we have to say we're impressed with the breadth of titles available to anybody paying for a Nintendo Switch Online subscription. It's pleasing to see lesser-known...
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...
Poll Zelda: Skyward Sword HD's Biggest Question - How Do You Pronounce Fi?
I smell the blood of Zelda fandom
Last month, the release of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD once again fanned the flames on one of the biggest controversies the Zelda franchise has ever known. No, we don't mean the yays and nays of motion controls versus buttons, or the merits of a compartmentalised overworld with dungeon-like design elements...
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...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? (August 7th)
Plenty to choose from!
Another seven days go by in the world of Nintendo. This past week the Streets of Rage series turned 30, Nintendo updated investors with its latest quarterly financial results, and both New Pokémon Snap and
Not forgetting Toadette and 'improved motion controls'!
Mario Golf: Super Rush has been one of the more notable Switch releases so far this year, and it got off to a fast start in terms of its sales. We gave it a rather qualified recommendation in our Mario Golf: Super Rush review; it's a solid entry in the series and offers good entertainment,
Talking Point Nintendo's Business Remains Strong, But Is The Bloom Off Switch Lite?
The Switch that doesn't 'switch' likely needs a price drop
Nintendo published its Q1 financial results today and they were, largely, what was expected. The extraordinary boom in business from the equivalent period in 2020, as Animal Crossing: New Horizons took off and gamers around the world were forced to seek home entertainment above all else, was...
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 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...
Feature The History Of Streets Of Rage
Mmm... trashcan chicken
This feature originally graced your screens on 25th December 2019, republished today to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Streets of Rage. For a lot of us more ‘seasoned’ gamers, the announcement of Streets of Rage 4 brought a tear to the eye. The original Mega Drive/Genesis Streets of Rage trilogy holds a special place...
Feature Zooming Through Sonic Colors: Ultimate And Getting The Switch Lowdown
Sonic customisation, the new Wisp and that Switch framerate
SEGA has had various events and tie-ins to celebrate 30 years of Sonic the Hedgehog, but the big event from a gaming perspective is the upcoming Sonic Colors: Ultimate, which will see the previous Wii-exclusive come to various platforms including, of course, the Nintendo Switch. We were...
Feature Nintendo Life eShop Selects - July 2021
July's best Switch eShop games!
July was a slightly quieter month for big digital releases on the eShop, but no month ever goes by without at least a few treats that are worthy of your time. These awards aim to celebrate the best of Nintendo's digital store, giving some love and attention to the games that could so easily be missed in the Switch's...
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...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? (July 31st)
Plenty to choose from!
Another week has passed, with plenty of Nintendo-related news that's kept us intrigued. There were our reviews for games like The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles and NEO: The World Ends With You, Streets of Rage 4's DLC finally arrived on Switch,
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...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? (July 24th)
What are your weekend gaming plans?
We're all another seven days older and in the past week we've seen (among other things) a bunch of leaked early designs for the Wiimote, possibly the rarest e-Reader card in existence sold for a five-figure sum, Nintendo announce th
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...
Poll Pokémon Unite Is Imminent But Divisive - Are You Planning To Try It?
On paper a golden idea, but the online reaction is mixed
If you were to devise an ideal spin-off genre for the Pokémon franchise, there's every chance a cross-platform MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) would qualify as a particularly good idea. That's exactly what Pokémon Unite will try to deliver when it arrives on the Switch eShop on 21st...
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...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? (July 17th)
Time for taking flight?
After last week's OLED shenanigans things were a little calmer this time around, though there was still some intriguing news. Atlus is teasing big things for the Persona series, there's a remarkably expensive Mario watch from Tag Heuer, and there has been a lot of focus on a
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...
Feature Our Most Treasured Zelda Memories
Hey listen!
The launch of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD is one of several Zelda-themed releases in 2021 to coincide with the franchise's 35th anniversary, and this new version has got us thinking back over the many entries in the series and the memorable moments we've spent with each and every one. To tie in with the Skyward Sword HD...
Memory Pak When Mario Became A Pro Wrestler And Ruled At It
Paper beats Rawk
Welcome to the latest instalment in our new-ish column, Memory Pak, where we're going to be doing a deep-dive into some of the most memorable moments in gaming – good and bad. This time, Kate wrestles with some extremely strong feelings for Paper Mario... Paper Mario flies into Glitzville by blimp I may be bending the rules of...
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...
Talking Point Everyone Has A Bad Game They Love, So What's Yours?
"All that is gold does not glitter"
Recently, I set out on a quest to track down a copy of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings: Volume 1 for the Super Nintendo – a game that I awarded a paltry 3/10 to some time ago. I didn't seek out a copy as a strange kind of punishment, or to be ironic – I wanted to re-own it because, despite being pretty...
Talking Point Can Metroid Dread Be The Franchise's 'Awakening'?
This could be a breakthrough for the series
Over the weekend our lovely folk in the video team posted a detailed chat, above, asking a simple but intriguing question — "Why hasn't the Metroid series traditionally sold well?" It's a good question, and it feels like one with a lot of varied answers. Let's summarise a few, before shifting to a fully...
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...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? (July 10th)
What are your weekend gaming plans?
Another week, another addition to the Nintendo Switch family. Yes, we all got a little post-E3 surprise drop (surprise might be a bit generous, to be honest) in the form of the Switch OLED announcement. It elicited a variety reactions from existing Switch owners and Nintendo fans, although none so passionate as...
Feature Introducing Chrono Faction, A Premium Collectible Card Game Coming To Switch
Will feature no micro-transactions or F2P mechanics
In May we shared a tease from developer Mojo Bones for its next release, Chrono Faction. Heading to Switch, it'll be the studio's first project on Nintendo hardware since the enjoyable Siesta Fiesta on 3DS way back in 2013. It's a very different game, however, as it's a CCG (collectible card game)...
Talking Point Where Does The Switch OLED Announcement Leave The Rumoured Switch Pro?
Was it hot air all along, or is it still coming?
This week, Nintendo did its usual thing of shadow-dropping a major announcement on a (largely) unsuspecting world, and now the dust has settled on the reveal of the Switch OLED Model, it's time to ask the vital question: where does that leave the much-rumoured Switch Pro? In case you somehow missed...
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...
Talking Point Nintendo Switch OLED Model Looks Lovely, But May Also Disappoint
In tricky times, just make the screen bigger
Well, after over two years of speculation, Nintendo has finally unveiled the new Nintendo Switch, simply called the OLED model that's due to arrive on 8th October. It falls in line with some of the more recent rumours, offering a larger and higher quality screen – at 720p resolution – along with some...
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...
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...
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
Feature Nintendo Life eShop Selects - June 2021
June's best Switch eShop games!
With June all wrapped up, we suddenly find ourselves halfway through the year and with plenty more eShop games to ponder over, buy, and probably add to the backlog. These awards aim to celebrate the best of Nintendo's digital store, giving some love and attention to the games that could so easily be missed in the...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? (July 3rd)
What are your weekend gaming plans?
Another week in the world of video games has come and gone. This week we saw Nintendo acknowledge an evergreen meme, we learned that a 'realistic' F-Zero was on the cards at one point, and Nintendo dodged a bunch of questions at a shareholder Q&A (the respondees also