Wii U, 3DS, Wii, DS, DSi, WiiWare, DSiWare, Virtual Console Features

When gamers come together

It was upon arriving at Eccles train station, ready for Play Expo and briskly navigating a muggy mist lurking over the Manchester Ship Canal, when we contemplated if the UK’s weather had decided to skip autumn altogether and engulf us in this mid-October Sunday with a winter chill. However, within the space of an hour...

Stepping into a new generation

As the 3DS eShop continues to evolve and expand its library, Nintendo is currently preparing to introduce the Wii U eShop — it's assumed that'll be its name — and continue to expand its download gaming options. It's been a rocky road, of course, with the DSi and Wii online stores both being flawed in terms of...

Choose how you play

Wii U owners will know what it means to be an assassin after Ubisoft introduces us to Connor in Assassin’s Creed III later this year. However, while this native American is more adept with Tomahawks and muskets, Arkane Studios has other plans. Doing his work in a Steampunk inspired Victorian London, this particular assassin...

Time for some comebacks

Thanks to its fresh approach to gaming, the Wii has been a breeding ground for reinvention throughout its six year life cycle, offering us established franchises with a twist due in part to motion controls. The Legend of Zelda has been perhaps the biggest beneficiary of this in the form of Skyward Sword, with Wii MotionPlus...

Snap and Dream Radar change the perspective

Trading cards and anime episodes aside, the Pokémon series is known for a long-lasting line of handheld RPGs. You've almost certainly played one or two of them — and we suspect that quite a few of you are already getting into Pokémon Black & White 2 — most likely followed by an obsessed state of...

A much needed second chance

As great as Nintendo’s first-party efforts are, Wii U is going to have a reliance on its third-party support. Nintendo certainly recognises that and has already drawn franchises like FIFA, Call of Duty, Mass Effect and Assassin’s Creed to its cause. However, as encouraging as that is, it’s still not enough. The...

It's not quite right, yet

During last week's Nintendo Direct broadcast in Europe, one eShop announcement that received relatively little fanfare was confirmation that a number of additional first-party titles were being made available on the platform. These titles stretch back to the earliest months of the system: now available on the European...

Taking flight on Nintendo's new system

Chasing Aurora is an eye-catching Wii U eShop title that's scheduled to arrive in November. While its art style immediately grabs attention, we wanted to know more about it, especially as it's only a matter of weeks away. We got in touch with developer Broken Rules and spoke to its man Martin Pichlmair about...

Get N or Get Out

As you may have noticed over the past few days, we have been posting our impressions of games that were available to play at the recent EB Expo. We've also got some impressions for you of Nintendo's impressive booth itself. Throughout the weekend, the line to get into the Nintendo booth was one of the longest. The line moved at a...

An ice chat

The excitement for Wii U isn't limited to the second screen, the possibility of five player games or the chance that Nintendo is getting its groove back with third party publishers: there's also the small matter of its approach to digital distribution. WiiWare started well before floundering and DSiWare hosted a few gems among its...

Should you download those Coin Rush levels? Read on to find out

Nintendo may have produced paid DLC before, particularly on 3DS, but it’s now taken its first steps into worldwide DLC on a big-name title. We are of course talking about the DLC for New Super Mario Bros. 2 for the 3DS, which comes in the form of three new content packs for the...

Go Go Gadget Pokémon

Ever since the Game Boy link cable connected rival trainers together in Pokémon Red and Blue, the famed monster-catching franchise has been fascinated with novel technology. Pick an eccentric doodad at random from Nintendo's library of experiments and you're certain to find a guinea Tepig tagging along to make sure it's safe...

We caught up with the man himself at the recent EB Expo in Australia

He voices one of the most iconic characters in global culture yet he could probably walk down the street and not receive a second glance from passers-by. He is Charles Martinet, the man behind the voice of Nintendo's Mario, and has lent his vocal chords to the world-famous plumber...

Gaming on a budget

This week’s European Nintendo Direct prompted the usual range of predictions before the event, ranging from optimistic but unlikely hopes to pessimism and predictability. What Nintendo of Europe boss Satoru Shibata gave us, surprisingly, was a broadcast heavy with eShop exclusives, some new and surprising and others with...

It's back

Earlier this week, in a peculiar moment of a united group consciousness, the Nintendo Life team exclaimed as one: "hey, what happened to the weekend gaming features?" What did happen? Nintendo and video games happened, with enough Wii U madness — including a little bit of 3DS — and expos to distract us from our fortnightly duties of...

We speak to one of Nintendo of America's first employees

Howard Phillips joined Nintendo in the early '80s with the intention of helping transport a few new-fangled arcade cabinets, but he ended up becoming the spokesperson for one of the fastest-growing entertainment companies in the US. He recently began a Kickstarter campaign for his first...

What a horrible night to play a demo

We don't need to explain to you that we're massive fans of Castlevania here at Nintendo Life - you surely already know that. Like so many other gamers out there, Konami's gothic series has a special place in our hearts, thanks to some amazing 8-bit entries and sublime 'Metroidvania' escapades on the Game Boy...

More Mario per system

We’re well aware that some of you may read the headline and tagline for this article and immediately think that we’re losing our minds, foolishly allowing ourselves to be suckered into paying more and more for our Mario fix. That’s a danger of course, which we’ll come to, but with this week’s first batch of New...

Magic moments

Eurogamer Expo 2012 has sadly come to a close, but if you've been following our photo stream you might have gathered that the Nintendo Life team had a rather lovely time indeed. We hosted our own StreetPass Zone and chatted to a lot of people (and lost our voices in the process in Damien's case); Push Square's Sammy Barker stormed...

We go hands on with one of the most important Wii U accessories

With games like Bayonetta 2 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 blazing a trail to the Wii U very soon, the need for a decent 'traditional' joypad is obvious. Nintendo is making sure 'core' games will play as well as possible by producing the Wii U Pro Controller, a device which boasts an...

Five tips to keep your Men alive!

Ready to plunge into The Denpa Men: They Came By Wave? Well, don't be fooled by its cuddly exterior,as this game offers some absolutely devious challenge! Of course you could learn the ins and outs of the quest through trial and error, but that's liable to leave your conscience strewn with avoidable — and adorable...

Trine 2, Skylanders Giants, Ninja Gaiden 3, Tekken 2, NBA 2K13 and Sonic Racing

During this week we've been giving first impressions and hands on accounts of a number of Wii U launch window titles, both retail and downloadable. Nintendo of Europe provided access to a wide range of games we haven't yet covered, however, including some additional...

Mass Effect 3 and Darksiders II put through their paces

One thing that many will have already noticed about the Wii U launch line-up is that it's showing the beginnings of greater third-party parity for Nintendo gamers. There are exclusives, of course, but there is also a mix of big-budget titles being ported to the new system: some will be...

Word up

If adorable lexical puzzle games are up your street, you're bound to have heard of Scribblenauts, the series that lets you generate any item into the world by simply entering its name. The series has been around for a while on Nintendo DS, plus iOS, but it'll be hitting a home console for the first time when Scribblenauts Unlimited is...