Retro News
July2021
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...
News 16mm Film From Nintendo's 1974 Wild Gunman Arcade Cabinet Has Been Found
Reach (very carefully) for the sky
As highlighted by @katewillaert on Twitter, Ben Solovey (thefairshot on instagram) has managed to uncover two reels of 16mm film that were originally part of Nintendo's Wild Gunman arcade cabinet from 1974. While Nintendo console gamers will probably be more familiar with the NES port of this light gun shooter (or
News DidYouKnowGaming Shares Rare Pokémon Lore From An Official 'Lost' Pokédex
Fascinating details from the IP's early days
If you're a fan of early-gen Pokemon games and the franchise lore, which we suspect many are on these pages, then a recent video by DidYouKnowGaming? is certainly worth a look. A project that's evidently been in the works for some time, it translates and shares intriguing details that weren't previously...
News Take A Look At 'Planet Hop', A Charming New Game Boy Title
Platformer aims to include at least 72 stages
Though the hardware is long discontinued, there's something about the Game Boy that continues to attract eager coders and game makers. Part of it will be nostalgia and ongoing admiration for the system, while there's also a distinct challenge to making games that fully utilise modest retro hardware...
News After Almost 3 Decades, You Can Finally Read The Comic For SNES Classic 'Skyblazer' Online
Originally published in UK magazine 'Manga Mania'
Skyblazer is one of those 'AA' SNES titles that no one seems to talk about enough these days. Developed by Ukiyotei – the same studio which produced the equally underrated Hook for the same console and would later create the two excellent Metal Slug games for the Neo Geo Pocket Color – Skyblazer...
News This High-Grade Nintendo World Championships Cartridge Could Fetch Over Half A Million Dollars
Was previously traded for a mint Tom Brady card worth $556,000
If you're a regular reader of the site then you'll be aware of the significance of the Nintendo World Championships cartridges. These were carts issued at the famous 1990 event which boasted unique challenges for participants to test their skills on. They were never intended to make...
News The Virtual Boy's Latest Game Comes With Rumble Pack Support
Feel the force (feedback)
Remember when we reported back in 2017 that the Virtual Boy – one of Nintendo's biggest commercial flops – was getting new software thanks to VUEngine? Well, one such game is being made available in demo form, and the surprises don't end there. It's also coming with support for a new unofficial Rumble Pack accessory...
June2021
News This Adapter Lets You Play Game Boy Cartridges On Your PC, And It Even Detects Fakes
The GB Operator
Now, here's a handy-sounding device for any Game Boy fans out there. The GB Operator, a cute little adapter from Epilogue, lets owners play and manage their collection of Game Boy cartridges on PC. Original Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance carts are all supported, and the application used to play the games can run on...
News 'The Entire History Of JRPGs' Is Available Now From Bitmap Books
Featuring more than 600 reviews!
Update: You can order the book now, using the link below. <products id="15397"> Original Story [Fri 19th Mar, 2021 15:30 GMT]: Bitmap Books, a UK-based publisher known for its stunning retro gaming books, has announced a new project which tackles the entire history of Japanese role-playing games. Fittingly...
News Tributes Pour In For Near, The Developer Behind One Of The World's Best SNES Emulators
"They always wanted to help others and show them a path to the future"
It has been reported that Near, the developer behind the excellent SNES emulator BSNES (also known as Higan), has tragically taken their own life. Near – who also went by the names 'byuu' and 'Dave' in the past and identified as non-binary – posted a Twitter thread over the...
Retro The Anticlimactic Quest To Find The Person Behind Metroid's Most Famous 'Cheat Code'
Cosmic coincidence or a real person?
If you know Metroid, then chances are you also know the name Justin Bailey. Entering this code (or password, to be more precise) into the original NES Metroid would not only grant you full power, but also a special outfit for Samus Aran. While many passwords of the period were random selections of letters and...
News Nintendo Tokyo Pop-Up Stores Are Getting NES-Themed Gashapon, And They're Impossibly Cute
We need the "Controller Button Collection"
Japan gets all the best stuff; we know this, you know this, everyone knows this. It's just one of those things that you have to accept in life, like the fact that dropped toast will always land butter-side down or that you're guaranteed to unwittingly wear white on bolognaise night. The latest...
Video The 21 Best NES Games Of All Time, As Rated By The Nintendo Life Community
What did you pick?
Back in the '80s, Nintendo released the NES. It saw the rise of a generation of gamers - shifting millions of units worldwide and kickstarting the careers of many video game icons. If you've ever wanted to know what the best games are on this system, you've come to the right place. Our American-based video producer Zion Grassl...
Video Enjoy An Hour Of Sonic The Hedgehog History In This Retrospective
Because Sonic is cool
There are a number of major anniversaries this year, one of which is Sonic the Hedgehog's 30th year. SEGA is celebrating this year with events like an upcoming Sonic Symphony, various cameos and the upcoming release of Sonic Colors Ultimate. Of course, fans are getting involved with their own celebrations as well. The video...
Retro Remember The First Time Nintendo Did A Zelda Game & Watch?
Jump back into 1989...
Yesterday, Nintendo lifted the lid on the one and seemingly only attempt to mark the 35th birthday of its Zelda franchise: a Game & Watch system which includes the two NES outings, as well as Link's Awakening on the Gam
Guide 50 Best Game Boy Advance (GBA) Games Of All Time
The Top 50 GBA games ever, as ranked by you
The Game Boy Advance celebrated the 20th anniversary of its Japanese debut on 21st March 2021. Nintendo's first true successor to the original Game Boy line (the Game Boys Pocket and Color notwithstanding), the GBA in all its forms — original horizontal console, clamshell SP model, and ludicrously sma
News Super Mario Kart Hacker Restores Nintendo's Official Track Editor
Code uncovered in recently leaked prototype
A "hacker guy" known as ‘MrL314’ has successfully restored the track editor used by Nintendo to construct Super Mario Kart. The original discovery stems from last year's Nintendo leak which contained an early prototype of SMK from 1991. Here, he found references to a track editor in the code -...
News Classic Arcade Game 'The Simpsons' Will Get A New Cabinet This Year
Arcade1up is doing important work
We all have important gaming memories from childhood, defining moments that helped to make us 'gamers'. For this humble scribe one example was spending my parent's hard-earned money on a few choice arcades at the local sports centre. One was The Simpsons, which we'd play as a family; as the younger brother I had to...
Never-before-seen content, cut ideas and much more...
New secrets about the SNES game EarthBound have been uncovered thanks to efforts of the Video Game History Foundation. In 2018, former Nintendo of America employee Marcus Lindblom (and the guy responsible for the English-language script in EarthBound) discovered an old floppy disk which were...
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 over the y
May2021
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...
Feature More Than Just Pokémon - Japan’s Secret World Of Game Boy Color
Hidden handheld happiness
The Game Boy Color was the immensely popular home of a wide range of handheld classics, from multi-million sellers such as Pokémon Gold and Silver and Link’s Awakening DX to the now painfully expensive Metal Gear Solid, not to mention the non-Color original Game Boy library it played, too
Memory Pak My Nostalgic Sonic 2 Playthrough Was A Treasured Gaming Moment
You only have one life
It's a big anniversary year for various Nintendo franchises, but it's easy to forget that it's also a whopper for SEGA's mascot, with June bringing the 30th Anniversary of Sonic the Hedgehog. We'll have various articles celebrating that milestone, but a little ahead of time I thought I'd share a fun memory I have with the...
News The Guy Who Made The Stretchy Super Mario 64 Face Also Almost Gave Us Portal Zelda
The cake was a lie
We do love a good retro infodump here at Nintendo Life, and the latest is a podcast interview between Ben Hanson from the MinnMax Show and legendary game developer Giles Goddard. We reported on the interview earlier in the week, in fact, but the full show (above) featured so many intriguing titbits that we wanted to explore them...
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...
News Project64 Celebrates Its 20th Anniversary With A 3.0 Update
Fixes for "issues" with Donkey Kong 64 and more
Emulation might be a bit controversial, but (like it or not) it's arguably played a crucial role in gaming over the past two decades. Beyond fan-made projects and attempts to preserve long-forgotten releases, developers and publishers have also made use of emulators to revive certain releases. With...
Poll What's Your Favourite Game Boy Color... Colour?
Fine and Dandelion
We recently asked you to rate your favourite Game Boy Color games, but while the results for that ranking are still coming in (look out for the Top 50 soon, and don't forget to rate your own GBC collection if you haven't already!), we thought we'd pose a question regarding the hardware itself: Which is the best Game Boy Color...
News Sonic Origins Spin Dashes To "The Latest Platforms" Next Year
Sonic 3 is back! & Knuckles
Update: Based on the footage used in the trailer (above), fans were initially sceptical that Sonic 3 would be widescreen in this new collection. It has now been confirmed by Katie MiniKitty, social media and influencer manager for Sonic, that the game will be 16:9. Phew! During today's Sonic Central stream we had
Mini Review Super Baseball Simulator 1.000 (SNES) - 16-Bit Sports With Super Powers
Serious simulation, honest
With five new additions to Nintendo Switch Online's catalogue of NES and SNES games arriving today, we decided to review these new/old releases to help you decide which to play first. Enjoy! With a name like Super Baseball Simulator 1.000, you might expect a hardcore sports game.
Mini Review Spanky's Quest (SNES) - Surprisingly Charming Monkey Business
Bubbles from Natsume
With five new additions to Nintendo Switch Online's catalogue of NES and SNES games arriving today, we decided to review these new/old releases to help you decide which to play first. Enjoy! In the late 1980s, a simian named Jiro was one of the most popular monkeys in Japan, becoming famous for his 'reflection' pose. He also...
Mini Review Magical Drop II (SNES) - Fun And Colourful Puzzle Action
Grab, toss, and match three
With five new additions to Nintendo Switch Online's catalogue of NES and SNES games arriving today, we decided to review these new/old releases to help you decide which to play first. Enjoy! Magical Drop is Data East's take on the competitive puzzle game, but with a major twist - instead of fallin
Mini Review Joe & Mac (SNES) - A Comical But Flawed Prehistoric Platformer
No third character called Cheese, amazingly
With five new additions to Nintendo Switch Online's catalogue of NES and SNES games arriving today, we decided to review these new/old releases to help you decide which to play first. Enjoy! There was a period in the early 1990s when the video game industry was in love with caveman characters - after...
News 30 Years Later, SNES Street Fighter II Confirms One Of The Franchise's Biggest Myths
You spin me right round
Another of video gaming's greatest myths has been confirmed, 30 years after it first did the rounds in a pre-internet world. The myth relates to Capcom's insanely popular Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, and the notion that the original version of the game, first released in arcades in 1991 and later ported to the SNES,...
News Giles Goddard Reveals 'Portal' Tech Developed In Early Zelda 64 Demo
"When I saw Portal I thought, 'I had that running on N64'"
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was a genre-defining release, and it was also a showcase for the graphical power of the Nintendo 64; this was a time when 3D games were incredibly new and exciting. Naturally the project, and Nintendo's work in producing the game engine, was a long time...
Poll What's The Best Game Boy Color Game?
A splash of colo(u)r
The granddaddy of modern handheld gaming, the Game Boy, got an unexpected shot in the arm in the mid-'90s when a little game named Pokémon released and gave the ageing hardware a new lease of life. The updated Game Boy Pocket hardware might have slimmed down the bulky original DMG-001, but it was the long-awaited arrival of the...
News This Christmas, We're Getting A NES-Like Console That Plays Physical Carts
Update: Special 'Founder edition' announced, limited to 5000 units
Update: Blaze has just revealed details regarding a special 'Founder Edition' version of its forthcoming Evercade VS home console. Limited to 5000 units, this special edition retails for £159.99 and comes with the following items: Evercade VS Founder Edition Console Evercade VS...
Video Remembering Zelda's Sister Game - The Mysterious Murasame Castle
Link's forgotten sibling 'Takamaru'
It's been long documented that Metroid and Kid Icarus were closely developed. They share the same engine, many of the same staff members and were released within the same time period - hence why people call them sister games. What's lesser known however is The Legend of Zelda had a sibling of its own. Together...
Random Say Hello To The Chinese Mega Man - Zook: Hero
Actually looks decent, too!
Bootleg games are still very much around, but there was a certain charm to them back in the day, in an era when they were the stuff of legend and stealthily distributed. Getting more specific, to varying degrees in past times the Chinese market was cut-off from the mainstream video game industry, but that didn't stop...
Hands On Book4Games "Precision Game Storage" - Fancy Warehousing For Your Loose SNES Carts
We go hands-on with the fanciest alternative to a shoebox yet
Many years ago, some wise penny-pincher at Nintendo decided that shipping games in flimsy cardboard boxes was a sound business decision, and as a result, NES, Game Boy, SNES and even N64 owners had to endure packaging that was annoyingly delicate when compared to that seen on rival...
News One Of The Rarest Mega Man Titles Is Getting A Physical Reprint
Never before released in physical form in North America
Mega Man may have made his name on the NES, but one of the rarest and most desirable products to showcase his moniker isn't on a Nintendo system, but a Sega one. Mega Man: The Wily Wars (AKA: Rockman Mega World in Japan) arrived in 1994 but was only released physically in Europe and Japan; in...
No magnifying glass needed
Recently we've been getting quite a bit of use out of our classic handheld systems. It can be a lot of fun to jump back to your original Game Boy or Game Boy Color to play one of the first Pokémon games, or to see how high of a score you can line up in Tetris. If you're playing with a standard non-backlight screen you may...
Talking Point If Nintendo Released Them, Would You Play Virtual Boy Games Today?
Virtually unheard of
Nintendo's Virtual Boy was an inarguably strange system, although mentioning its name can elicit markedly different responses. To many, the little tabletop non-HMD is little more than a punchline; a hilarious blink-and-you'll-miss-it example of Nintendo toying with an idea that was sabotaged from the off by hopelessly inadequate...
Video Remembering The 3D Classics NES Range On Nintendo 3DS
The "definitive way" to play these retro releases
Remember when Nintendo got Arika to bring a bunch of NES games to the 3DS? These games were part of the short running series known as the 3D Classics line, which contained six games like Kirby's Adventure and Kid Icarus, and even had a stereoscopic 3D enhancement. The series kicked off with 3D...
News A Rare SNES SA1 Demo Cartridge Has Been Found And Preserved
Power preservation
The Bit Wars were an intriguing time in gaming, particularly in the era of one-upmanship between the Super NES and the SEGA Mega Drive / Genesis. While there could be arguments over sound chips, BLAST processing etc, we also saw special enhancement chips produced that'd go within the game cartridges to improve performance or make...
News It Took This Nintendo Fan Over 20 Years To Complete Their Famicom Collection
Snow Bros. acquired!
The Japanese YouTuber Somari has finally completed the Nintendo Famicom collection, and it only took 20 years. According to Kotaku, they started the collection (which is similar but different to the NES library of games) in December 2000 with the 1986 release Mobile Suit Z Gundam: Hot Scramble, and most recently acquired the...
Random Say Hello To The Wii SPii Portable, A GBA-Sized Console
The modding community strikes again
The Wii is a much-loved console, and was actually rather cute and dinky back in the day when compared to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Nevertheless, current-day modders and hackers often look for new ways to play the system, with last year's WiiBoy Color being a good example. The market for shrinking the console...
Random Behold The Miya 2000, A Rare NES Accessory That Only Works With One Game
FORE!
Like any popular games console, the NES was host to some truly weird and wonderful accessories. Devices like the iconic Power Glove and the Brøderbund's U-Force tried to leverage the huge install base of Nintendo's system, but it's fair to say this was easier said than done and many of these products flopped at retail. We assumed we'd seen...
Random There's A Project Aiming To Make Super Mario 64 Fully Ray Traced
Let there be next-gen light
It took some time, but with the release of Super Mario 3D All-Stars we got an official version of Super Mario 64 that was fully modernised for the HD era, to a degree. It retained its original screen ratio and ran at 30fps, but Nintendo did nonetheless sharpen up the visuals and produce what is arguably the definitive...
Random This Guy Makes Incredible, Wearable 16-Bit Cosplay
Flat-pack cosplay
Cosplayers are basically wizards. Sometimes, they are also literal wizards, when they dress up like Gandalf the White or Dumbledore, but we mean in terms of their creative skills — sewing, sculpting, and sometimes even electronics are all part of making a detailed, true-to-life cosplay of a beloved character. Here at Nintendo...
News Zelda Screenwriter Opens Up On How Much Fun It Was To Make The TV Series
"I figured I was about to get reamed for all of the sneaky innuendo"
The Zelda cartoon series has its fair share of critics, but like so many shows from the period, there are almost as many fans who will fight tooth and nail to prevent anyone saying anything even remotely negative about it. If you fall into the latter camp, then you'll no doubt be...
Random You Can Now Play The Original Game Boy Tetris In Online Multiplayer
Linking up
Not long ago we shared the work of Game Boy hacker stacksmashing, who has been doing intriguing mods with the retro portable. They had managed to connect to the link cable process in the original Tetris to manipulate the pieces that would drop when playing multiplayer. It was just a bit of fun, but from a technical perspective it meant...
April2021
News Ouch! NES Collector Recalls The Time He Threw Out Packaging Worth $4,000 To 'Save Space'
"It's cardboard. Who cares?"
Anyone who collects video games will know there's often a massive price difference between a loose cartridge and a 'mint in box' example – which is why the story of hardcore collector Seth is so painful to comprehend. Many years ago, when his collection of gaming items was slowly getting out of control, he decided to...
News The Legendary Silver and Teal Game Boy Advance, From Space World 2000, Has Been Found
Appears once in a blue moon
Nintendo Space World events live on in gaming history, from a time when Nintendo would save some of its very biggest reveals for the show. It's also a collector's goldmine, with demos, hardware and more revealed at the show before disappearing into obscurity. One example is the Silver and Teal Game Boy Advance; it's from...
Talking Point Why Did Nintendo Give Up On Its 'Classic Edition' Concept So Soon?
Does it truly hate making money?
We don't exist in a bubble here at Nintendo Life, and there's many a time we've glanced over other sites and spotted a feature that makes us jealous we didn't think of writing it first. One such piece is this excellent RetroBeat feature by Mike Minotti over on VentureBeat, which asks one very reasonable question: Hey...
Random The Game Boy Has Finally Grown Up To Become The 'Game Man'
You're a man, not a boy
The Game Boy turns 32 this year, but, unlike most entering their fourth decade on this planet, it has remained surprisingly small. Thankfully, the Grumpy Modeler has decided to change that by forcing Nintendo's handheld to grow up – in more ways than one. Using a combination of parts – including a 3D-printed case, NES...
Talking Point Do You Miss Instruction Manuals?
They gave the boxes some heft, no?
For many of us more 'seasoned' gamers, it's sometimes tempting to look back with rose-tinted specs and think that video games were just 'better' in the past. You know, back in the olden times when you didn't need an account and an email address and an 8-character password (minimum one capital letter, one special...
Video Why Do We Buy And Collect Retro Video Games?
Nostalgia is a powerful thing
If you're a retro video game collector, you've probably been asked at least a few times in your life why you buy so many old games. You might have even asked the same question to yourself in the past - perhaps challenging your own reasons. So, why do people collect old (and physical) games in this day and age -...
News The Konami Code Turns 35 With A Special Album Of Lo-Fi Gradius Tracks
⬆ ⬆ ⬇ ⬇ ⬅ ➡ ⬅ ➡ 🅱 🅰
We've had a lot of 35th Anniversaries this year, including the Mario celebrations and the Zelda... non-celebrations, and this weekend — specifically, the 25th April, 2021 — is the birthday of the Konami Code, perhaps the most famous sequence of buttons in hi
News Terra Trilogy Brings '80s Arcade Vibes To Nintendo Switch This Summer
Dig out those quarters
Everyone has their own definition of retro, though we suspect a number of gamers only go as far as the NES-era when they think of old-school classics. Gamers of a certain age remember pre-Nintendo console days, however, when arcade machines made comforting beeps and bloops and made good use of vector-based visuals. For gamers...
News Super Potato, Japan's Legendary Game Store, Opens Its Very Own International eBay Shop
And so, our bank accounts were no more
25 Super Famicoms? A fairly normal sight at Super Potato One of the world's most famous video game stores, Japan's Super Potato, has finally opened up for international business thanks to its new, worldwide eBay account. It might seem pretty strange seeing a shop be described as 'legendary', but for gamers...
Random This Clever Fan Remake Blends The Doki Doki Super Mario Bros. 2 With The Original
It actually looks quite fun
We suspect that most know the story of Super Mario Bros. 2 in Japan and the game the rest of the world received. To give a very short summary, the sequel we saw in the West was a reskin of Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic, as Nintendo feared the true sequel would break players outside of Japan; that's why it's such an...
News Limited Run Republishing Another Two Game Boy Titles, Pre-Orders Open This Friday
StarHawk and Metal Masters return
Physical distributor Limited Run Games has announced it will be republishing not one, but two Game Boy classics. The first is StarHawk and the second one is Metal Masters - both titles will be available for pre-order this Friday over a four-week period. Metal Masters is a 2D beat 'em up fighting game, and was...
Random Someone Turned A Nintendo GameCube Into A Flower Pot
It looks great alongside Pikmin
We've seen a lot of weird and wonderful GameCube conversions over the years, and the latest design that's got the attention of social media is one that's been transformed into a flower pot. Yes, YouTuber NitroRad - a guy who has been putting out some excellent videos about retro and indie games for many years now,...
Random Hacker Creates The Game Boy Tetris Of Your Dreams
Lots of easy pieces
Tetris on the Game Boy is one of the best multiplayer titles of all time, even if it did exist in a period when wireless local play was the stuff of a madman's dreams. Instead, players would have to connect their consoles using the (easily lost) link cable – and it's this primitive method of connectivity that has allowed a...
Memory Pak The First Time I Saw The Rocket In Tetris
Hello, T-spin, my old friend
This is Memory Pak, where we're going to be doing a deep-dive into some of the most memorable moments in gaming – good and bad. Kate takes a trip around the memory block, exploring a formative memory for many of us: our first time playing Tetris, and our first time actually being good at Tetris. I don't remember...
Feature Bringing SNK Vs. Capcom: The Match Of The Millennium To Switch After Two Decades
"We hope that re-releasing this SvC title will serve as an opportunity for more"
For anyone old enough to remember the initial 1999 release of SNK vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium, its recent surprise arrival on Switch was a real event. This crossover fighter is part of a celebrated series that pits the finest combatants from the stables of...
News Takaya Imamura Describes Star Fox 64 As "The Game Of My Life"
Highlights the care that went into the Star Fox Zero project
In an excellent feature interview published on IGN, the outlet spoke to Takaya Imamura about his career at Nintendo following his retirement from the company earlier this year. For decades he worked under Shigeru Miyamoto, and his vital contributions shaped the look and gameplay of various...
News After 20 Years, This Amazing Famicom Collection Is Finally Complete
1053 games, fully boxed with instructions
The Famicom was Nintendo's first smash-hit home system and spawned the NES in the west. The shared library of these systems is immense, especially by standards of the period – in Japan alone, over 1000 games were released for the console. "How long would it take someone to collect all of those games,...
News Please Forgive Us, But We Can't Get Enough Of This Shameless Game Boy Micro Clone
Say hello to the Waveshare GPM280
Chinese-made handheld emulation devices aren't a new thing by any means, and each year countless new variants appear on the scene which do pretty much the same thing: play ROMs via emulation using cheap and readily available off-the-shelf components. However, the Waveshare GPM280 caught our eye recently, not for...
News The Latest Super Mario Bros. Speedrun WR Is A Definitive Breakthrough
4:54.948 may be the last time a second barrier is broken
If you follow the retro gaming scene on Twitch, it's likely you spend a decent amount of time watching speedrunners. It can be fascinating to see how older titles are manipulated, streamlined and mastered over hundreds of hours, and if you happen to catch a world record live it can be an...
Random The Low-Poly Animals Twitter Account Is A Must-Follow
Why is Ditto shaped like a T-shirt
The low-poly days are far behind us, but many of us still have a soft spot for the work that artists and modellers had to do back when consoles couldn't handle curves. Low-Poly Animals is a (relatively) new Twitter account celebrating and chronicling some of the creatures that we might have taken for granted back...
Random If You're Curious About How They Made SNES Music, This Is Worth A Watch
It was a free-for-all
Many of us have favourite SNES-era soundtracks, especially as they have that distinct sound of Nintendo's 16-bit machine. Of course, the actual technicalities of how those soundtracks came together can be fascinating, as composers and sound designers were working with resources a thousand miles removed from the range of tools...
Hands On The EverDrive GBA X5 Mini Solves The Only Real Issue We Had With The Original
Small but still mighty
When we tested the original EverDrive GBA X5 flash cart back in 2016, we had plenty of good things to say about it, but the fact that it was bigger than your typical GBA cartridge was ever-so-slightly irksome. It meant that the cart protruded from the GBA's cartridge slot – a "first world problem" without a doubt, but one...
News Doc Cosmos Is On The Way To Game Boy Color, In 2021
Doc, you built a time machine?
As regulars here on Nintendo Life know, we like retro games, and we like new retro as well. It's an ever popular area in which older games or products are revived and given new life; for example, a new Game Boy Color game is coming in 2021. That is happening courtesy of Bitmap Soft and developer Simon Jameson, who can...
Poll Box Art Brawl: Duel #82 - Kirby Tilt 'n' Tumble
Rock 'n' roll
Welcome back to Box Art Brawl, our weekly poll to find the best regional box art variant from two or more retro candidates. Last time we looked at The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks in a duel that pitted Japan and Europe against North America. It appears that the regional team-up worked wonders — the greenery of the JP/EU cover...
Feature Zelda: Twilight Princess' Flipped World On Wii Made Me Go A Little Cucco
Flip reverse it
To celebrate the 35th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda, we're running a series of features looking at a specific aspect — a theme, character, mechanic, location, memory or something else entirely — from each of the mainline Zelda games. Today, Gavin regrets the fact that he let a tiny, insignificant detail spoil his time with a...
News Nintendo Collector Recreates Company's First Building In Stunning Detail
Wanted "a tribute to Nintendo and its history"
A lot of gaming enthusiasts dream of going on a trip to see Nintendo's old HQ, from the time when it was primarily a playing card company. It's not the full original company building, though, as the traditional wooden construction of that site was knocked down in 2004. In a rather lovely development an...
News Retro-Bit's Next Tribute64 Controller Offers Wireless N64 Play, And Pre-Orders Open Today
Use it with your Switch, too!
Accessory maker Retro-Bit is back with a new take on its Tribute64 controller, this time offering fans the chance to enjoy wireless gameplay with the Nintendo 64. The company launched a wired version of the Tribute64, a redesign of Nintendo's iconic N64 pad that was inspired by the popular Hori Mini Pad 64, in April...
Feature Zelda: Spirit Tracks Finally Gave The Princess A Crucial Role To Play
The only one that actually tells a Legend of Zelda
To celebrate the 35th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda, we're running a series of features looking at a specific aspect — a theme, character, mechanic, location, memory or something else entirely — from each of the mainline Zelda games. Today, Mitch looks back on an underrated handheld entry...
News This Sealed Super Mario Bros. Has Just Become The Most Expensive Video Game Collectable Ever
Eclipsing even the Nintendo PlayStation
Update: The auction ended at a staggering $660,000. Original Story [Thu 25th Mar, 2021 16:45 GMT]: Remember last year, when we reported that a sealed copy ofSuper Mario Bros. on the NES sold for an eye-watering $114,000 at auction? Well, there's another copy being auctioned at the moment which currently...
Review Doshin The Giant (GameCube) - A Chilled-Out Cult Classic That's Still Fresh
Sorry America
God simulators were a big deal back in the day, but it has to be said that in recent years they’ve not been as prevalent. That's not about to change with this game either, because Doshin the Giant is a GameCube game from the space year 2002 exclusively released everywhere except the US. As this rare and oft-forgotten game reaches its...
News The Analogue Pocket Has Been Delayed Again
Now coming in October
Analogue has just revealed that its FPGA-based handheld system, the Analogue Pocket, has been delayed until October this year. It was scheduled to begin shipping next month, a release window that had already been pushed back once due to the effects of COVID-19 (it was originally expected to arrive at the end of 2020). The...
March2021
News Super Coder Speeds Up Yet Another SNES Classic
Konami's Axelay benefits from the FastROM treatment
Remember Brazilan coder Vitor Vilela? He's been making it his quest to fix SNES games that are plagued with slowdown, and he's already worked his magic on titles such as Contra III, Super R-Type and Super Mario World. The issue is that th
Talking Point Which Old Game Series Would You Like To See Revived?
Be careful what you wish for...
Picture this: You're on a beach. You're digging a big hole, because that's the best thing to do on a beach, maybe second only to eating an ice cream or finding a reaaaaaally smooth rock. But suddenly, your neon-pink plastic spade hits something hard. You claw it out of the wet, dark sand with your fingers, too...
News Collector Offers A Look At One Of Nintendo's Rarest Pieces Of Hardware
Every nook and cranny of the 64DD Development Kit detailed
We absolutely love seeing rare hardware emerging from Nintendo's past. Between those Nintendo 64 development cartridges, news of the DS Lite's unused video output, and the prototype Game Boy Advance, w
All the idea, no gear
To celebrate the 35th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda, we're running a series of features looking at a specific aspect — a theme, character, mechanic, location, memory or something else entirely — from each of the mainline Zelda games. Today, Gavin struggles to gather the necessary items to get his multiplayer quests...
Talking Point Are You A 'Complete-In-Box' Or 'Loose Cart' Retro Gamer?
'Cause you never quite know where the CIBs is at
Many many moons ago, I used to have a hard rule when it came to buying secondhand games: CIB, or on yer bike. You can tell it was years ago, because back then we called them 'secondhand', not 'preowned'. You see, I was the type of kid who would keep not only the pamphlets and warranty cards that came...
Feature Resident Evil At 25 - A Shambling Corpse Never Felt More Alive
It just won’t die
It’s now been twenty-five years since S.T.A.R.S. members Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield first burst through the front doors of the Spencer Mansion and found themselves standing in one of gaming’s most iconic opening areas. Resident Evil’s fixed camera angles revealed the full scale of that grand hall, as well as the...
News This 1999 Interview Suggests Miyamoto Was Thinking About The Wii During The N64 Era
"Games are becoming unfriendly for beginners"
Nintendo is a company that famously doesn't play by the rules. During its time in the video game arena, the Kyoto firm has been a trend-setter rather than a follower of fashion, and no machine sums up this unique approach more clearly than the Wii. Released at a time when Sony and Microsoft were engaged...
Poll Box Art Brawl #79 - Kuru Kuru Kururin
Helirin on Earth
Welcome back to Box Art Brawl, the series where we pit regional box art variants against one another in a fight for your vote. Last time, the turn-based battle between Super Mario RPG and Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Unnecessary Subtitle came to a head with North America ultimately walking away with 69% of the vote. Nice, indeed...
Poll Rate Your Favourite Game Boy Advance Games
Update: More games available to rate ahead of the Top 50 reveal
Update: All games suggested in the comments (and more besides) have been added to our GBA database and should now appear below. Get rating your favourites if you'd like to see them in the top 50! It's nearly twenty years since Nintendo launched it's successor to the all-conquering...
Random A 24-Year-Old Samurai Shodown Prototype Has Been Found Under A Tree In California
"I have this board sitting in my office right now that no-one ever knew existed"
A prototype of SNK's 3D fighter Samurai Shodown 64 has been discovered underneath a collapsed tree in California, Eurogamer reports. Now there's a headline we didn't think we'd be writing today. The amazing find was made pinball machine repair specialist Craig Weiss,...
Feature Clockwork Aquario Developers On The Restoration Of Westone's Lost Arcade Gem
We speak to the team, including Wonder Boy creator Ryuichi Nishizawa
For video game fans who have been playing in arcades and at home for several decades now, the topic of preservation has become a pressing one in recent years. As ageing technology inevitably fails and we sadly begin losing the creators who were there at the dawn of digital...
Poll Box Art Brawl: Duel #78 - Super Mario RPG
Seven-star game
Welcome back, you lovely lot, to Box Art Brawl — our poll-filled series to find out your favourite regional retro box art variants from two or more contestants. It's been over a month since the last Brawl but following some time off to train up and recuperate, we're back once again to wreak havoc on video game covers of yesteryear...
Feature A Brief History Of Nintendo’s Home Hardware Add-Ons
A multi-format menagerie
Nintendo’s handheld console upgrades were so common for so long you could practically set your watch by them: the leap from Game Boy to Game Boy Color via the Pocket; the GBA’s evolution from its original battery powered form to the blazing intensity of the Micro’s beautiful screen; the more recent range of DSis, XL
Watch Video Game Historians Are About To Unbox 600 Rare And Retro Game Magazines
Oh god, the papercuts
Are we not all fans of the past? We were all there, after all. And sure, sometimes the past was hard - but it had its great moments, too. Anyway, prepare to crumble into dust as we tell you all about these "vintage" game magazines that are about to be revealed to the public! That's right, your childhood is vintage now! The...
Random Forget Fat Pikachu - We're All About Wide Link
What a good boy
What's that you've got there? A triangle? Good job! If you're ever having a bit of an off day, may we recommend looking through old Zelda key art? Whether you have a few manuals from the old games lying around, or you just want to browse the Zeldapedia galleries, it's something that always cheers us up. This is Link and Ganon...
News Guinness World Records Has Declared This The 'World's Smallest Nintendo 64'
Who needs an N64 Classic?
With the NES and SNES Classic consoles all wrapped up, plenty have wondered whether we might see an eventual Nintendo 64 Mini system. Nintendo has said in the past that it wouldn't rule the idea out, but until such a thing becomes a reality, perhaps this fan-made attempt will do? Introducing the world's smallest Nintendo...
Random Thought Tenet Was Hard To Follow? Try Watching It On A Game Boy Advance
"You have to start looking at the world in a new way"
Christopher Nolan's movies have a reputation for being somewhat obtuse at times, and his latest magnum opus, Tenet, is no exception. A time-bending epic that befuddled and delighted audiences in almost equal measure last year, Tenet is available on streaming services and physical media – and...
Guide Best SNES / Super Nintendo RPGs
Flame spells at the ready!
The expansive software library of Nintendo’s 16-bit powerhouse wasn’t short of any of the most popular genres of the '90s, and perhaps least of all RPGs. Intense strategy, whimsical adventure, tear-jerking goodbyes to characters you’ve spent months with… the SNES has it all. And that makes compiling a list of ten...
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