News Tagged: Features
Feature: How Japanese Folklore Inspired Mario’s Tanooki Suit
What’s a Tanooki, anyway?
Ever since Super Mario Bros. 3 landed on store shelves, when Nintendo fans hear the word “tanooki” they almost always produce an excited smile and start reminiscing about days spent flying through levels as Racoon Mario. If you were to utter this same word today around these same Nintendo fans you’d probably get a much larger outcry of joy, seeing as the Tanooki..
Feature: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword in Motion
Were the motion controls worth the wait?
Very few games over the past decade have had the sheer level of hype and anticipation that The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword has found heaped upon it. Not only has the game been in development for an extremely long time, but it's also been hampered by developmental challenges that, at one point, almost led to the game losing its trademark motion controls..
First Impressions: Nano Assault
Shin'en knows shmups
Shin'en is certainly no stranger to the shoot 'em up genre, having already developed games in the Iridion and Nanostray series for Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS respectively, but after taking a few years to work on other projects, many shooter fans were beginning to wonder if the developer would ever get back to its shmup roots. Thankfully, fans were given the answer they..
Talking Point: First-Person Shooters and the 3DS Circle Pad Pro
Aiming down 3D sights
It's old news that first person-shooters are bigger business within the industry now than they've ever been. Since the advent of online play on home consoles, they have inarguably become the most played genre on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, with the latest Battlefield and Call of Duty titles dominating the market. However, FPS titles have remained relatively quiet on the..
Feature: Ten Years of Golden Sun
Bask in its warm glory
2001 must have been a particularly good year for gaming: we just celebrated Pikmin's tenth anniversary, and now it's time to look back on the birth of RPG franchise Golden Sun. The original Golden Sun launched in North America on 11th November 2001, with sequel Golden Sun: The Lost Age following in early 2003. Created by RPG masters Camelot Software Planning — the team..
Talking Point: Nintendo's Plans to Fight Back
Mario’s gloves come off
If we were to summarise Nintendo’s year so far, we’d say that it’s been having a tough time. There have been moments of brilliance that have reaffirmed the faith of loyal gamers, but there have also been a lot of mis-steps, mistakes and bad publicity, some of which has been unjustified. In fact, despite the release of a brand new handheld with glasses-free 3D..
First Impressions: Fishing Resort
Is there a catch?
Yuji Naka's Prope studio has been responsible for some interesting Wii titles over the past few years, including Ivy the Kiwi and the upcoming Rodea the Sky Soldier. So when the developer announced Fishing Resort, many gamers were left wondering just exactly how a game like this would turn out. And while its cute look and feel is likely to immediately draw comparisons to such..
Feature: A Beginner's Guide to the World of BlazBlue
Welcome, stranger
Released in North America a few months ago, today marks the European release of BlazBlue: Continuum Shift 2 on 3DS, the fighting series' first ever appearance on a Nintendo console (well, there was BlayzBloo: Super Melee Action Battle Royale, but that doesn't really count.) But what exactly is BlazBlue? With a pretty decent select of quality fighters on 3DS already, what makes..
Feature: Pikmin's 10th Anniversary
A modern classic
The GameCube era is still a questionable time for Nintendo fans. While the console undoubtedly had its standout titles, there always seems to be a lingering question over how high — or, more to the point, how low — it would rank when gauged against Nintendo's other consoles. But wherever you fall in the debate, it's impossible not to acknowledge Nintendo's willingness to shake..
Feature: What About Pikmin 3?
The future of Captain Olimar's intergalactic journeys
Last week marked ten years since the original Pikmin released in Japan. In the decade since we've had just a single sequel, but Olimar's adventures are far from over. The story of an alien who crash lands on a mysterious planet and must recruit tiny plants to work for him, like many of Shigeru Miyamoto's franchises Pikmin is inspired by a..
Feature: Classic Sequels - Tricks or Treats?
Better than monkey nuts
The night is finally here: Halloween is upon us. At the time of writing the world isn’t being taken over by zombies, werewolves or ghosts. Instead, the main horrors are the legions of children in cheap masks ringing the doorbell and demanding treats. Many can look forward to bags full of toffee apples, loose sweets and a pile of monkey nuts from less generous victims..
Feature: Fun and Frights on Nintendo - Part 2
Moments of gaming horror
Halloween is almost upon us, with many gamers making plans for a night of terrifying gaming. Whether these are modern titles or retro, old-school goodness, there are plenty of scary games to enjoy. In the first part of our Fun and Frights feature, we gave a brief outline of how horror games have developed through the generations of Nintendo consoles. The transitions from..
Feature: Fun and Frights on Nintendo - Part 1
How horror has evolved
At this time of year, it’s no doubt common practice for many gamers to find their favourite scary game, turn off the lights and get into the Halloween mood. There’s something about frightful gaming experiences that's unique in the entertainment industry. Unlike horror movies or tense, nerve-wracking books, video game fear is a different beast; playing a game is an..
Feature: Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary Symphony Concert Report
London, Eiji Aonuma, Koji Kondo, Zelda Williams, legendary
After a successful first show at the Pantages theatre in Los Angeles, The Legend of Zelda 25th anniversary symphony took in London's Hammersmith Apollo with a sold-out show that celebrated the series' captivating music. Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma took to the stage to introduce the concert, the audience lapping up his every sentence,..
Feature: The Development Process of Go! Go! Kokopolo
How a stray cat, a passion for classic gaming and a dream coalesced into a DSiWare delight
A little while back, a little gem appeared as if from a cloud of smoke onto the DSiWare service – Go! Go! Kokopolo, from young indie developer Tanukii Studios. In speaking with Keith Webb, the company's founder, we discovered that he was also its only member. Indeed, he occupied just about every imaginable..
Feature: Ten Games to Play This Halloween
Not for the faint of heart
Halloween is now just one week away, while many horrors await: ghosts, zombies, children in masks demanding sweets and candy. Up to now we've focussed on Resident Evil and Castlevania, but now we're just looking for thrills to take us to the darkest night of the year. To get us started we decided to produce a list of games that can be considered as perfect Halloween..
Round Table: Let's Talk About Castlevania
25 years of memories
This week has been Castlevania features week. We’ve picked our top ten games from the series, reviewed an awful novelisation of Castlevania 2: Simon’s Quest, and provided some tips for wannabe Dracula hunters. One thing that has become clear amongst the team is that this series is packed full of memories and nostalgia, as well as terrific gaming experiences. We’ve..
First Impressions: Gnomz (WiiWare)
WiiWare gets weirder
QubicGames' Gnomz isn't much like other fighting games. There are no punches, no blocks and no health bars — instead it has gnomes, rainbow socks and reindeer with lights on. We recently grappled with a preview version of the game and came out (mostly) mentally unscathed. Played with the Wii Remote sideways, Gnomz is a single-screen platformer/fighting game that owes as much..
Feature: A Guide to Hunting Dracula
The old-school way
So far this week we’ve listed our top 10 Castlevania games, while also launching the Nintendo Life Book Club with the horrific Simon’s Quest novel. A common theme across the series is the quest to defeat Dracula, mostly by trekking through his unfeasibly huge castle. Should the unlikely ever occur and the world looks to you to hunt down the Prince of Darkness, who better to..
Interviews: QubicGames - Gnomz (WiiWare)
Learn more about the porcelain protectors
After the revelation of Gnomz yesterday we had to sit down with QubicGames' Michał Dys to learn more about the bizarre WiiWare fighting platformer. We'll also have a preview of the game coming up tomorrow, so don't miss it. Nintendo Life: The first question has to be: why gnomes? What is it about them that makes them good but under-used game characters?..
