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Thursday 19th November, 2009 - 08:57 GMT

News: Japanese Club Nintendo Members Get Game & Watch Goodness

Japanese Club Nintendo Members Get Game & Watch Goodness

Retro-themed freebies = WIN

Western Nintendo fans are used to getting rubbish gifts from Club Nintendo while their Japanese cousins take home some seriously amazing kit, but this latest news is especially depressing for anyone outside the Land of the Rising Sun. Nintendo of Japan is offering actual Game & Watch "Ball" units to Platinum members. The units are replicas of the very first..

35 comments | In Club Nintendo, Japan, Retro, Game & Watch.

Wednesday 18th November, 2009 - 13:22 GMT

Feature: FC Mobile II Console Review

FC Mobile II Console Review

NES gaming on the go

Isn’t modern technology wonderful? Thanks to the joys of miniaturisation it’s now possible to enjoy retro machines in smaller form factors than they were originally released in. Take the FC Mobile II, for example – while it’s hardly small in portable terms, it’s a damn sight less bulky than the NES console it attempts to replicate. Hyperkin’s FC Mobile II is one of..

30 comments | In Retro, NES.

Monday 16th November, 2009 - 21:30 GMT

News: Original Castlevania Ported To Half-Life 2, Sort Of

Original Castlevania Ported To Half-Life 2, Sort Of

Modder recreates first stage for PC shooter

Dracula's castle has come down with a bad case of alien head crabs. Where are the Belmonts to stop them? Dead, presumably, so it's up to Gordon Freeman to crowbar them into crab juice in this translation of the original Castlevania's first level to the PC's Half-Life 2. The mod retains the same look of the 8-bit rendition in its transition to 3D, complete..

17 comments | In Retro, NES, PC, Mods, Castlevania.

Saturday 7th November, 2009 - 00:53 GMT

Review: Chrono Trigger (Super Nintendo)

Chrono Trigger (Super Nintendo)

One of the truly greatest RPG experiences ever created.

When Chrono Trigger first appeared on the Super Nintendo console in 1995, it quickly became regarded as one of the most unique and impressive RPG releases to hit the system. Not only was the game developed by a who's who of some of the greatest RPG designers in the industry, but the finished product showed a level of polish that few RPG fans..

84 comments | In Retro, Reviews.

Friday 6th November, 2009 - 10:12 GMT

News: Game Boy Granted Access To National Toy Hall Of Fame

Game Boy Granted Access To National Toy Hall Of Fame

Nintendo's classic hand-held rubs shoulders with other vintage playthings

The Game Boy has entered the National Toy Hall of Fame in recognition of its incredible influence on the video game industry and its uncanny ability to keep kids quiet on long car journeys. The Strong Museum of Play's National Toy Hall of Fame is intended to celebrate toys and playthings of all descriptions, and the Game Boy..

22 comments | In Game Boy, Retro.

Thursday 5th November, 2009 - 21:15 GMT

Review: Chibi-Robo (GameCube)

Chibi-Robo (GameCube)

Is this a charming game about an altruistic robot or a shambolic scavenger hunt?

Meet the Sandersons, your atypical dysfunctional American family: Mr. Sanderson is an out-of-work engineer-cum-manchild who lives on the lounge sofa playing with action figures and watching his favourite superhero program Space Ranger Drake Redcrest(TM) (apologies if that hits too close to the bone for some readers)..

46 comments | In Retro, Reviews.

Thursday 5th November, 2009 - 09:55 GMT

News: Old Cart on the Block Has the Right Stuff

Old Cart on the Block Has the Right Stuff

Rare prototype NES box surfaces on eBay

Every now and then, eBay turns up a real find, something you never thought you'd see in your natural life: a rare console edition, a forgotten classic, a badly beaten prototype box for an unreleased NES game. If you're a fan of the latter, you'll be thrilled by this story that a scuffed box for the sadly canned New Kids on the Block NES game has surfaced on..

19 comments | In Retro, Rare, NES, Box.

Wednesday 4th November, 2009 - 22:56 GMT

Feature: Retro Duo Console Review

Retro Duo Console Review

Bring your 8-bit and 16-bit Nintendo titles out of retirement

Retro gaming is a hobby that is both rewarding and enlightening; like leafing through an old book or listening to a record from many moons ago, there’s an element of discovery for those who weren’t around to enjoy vintage titles when they were first released. Conversely, those of us old (and wise) enough to remember the classic..

44 comments | In Retro, Hardware Focus, Hardware, SNES, NES.

Wednesday 4th November, 2009 - 20:40 GMT

News: Sin & Punishment Team Talks N64 Development Hell

Sin & Punishment Team Talks N64 Development Hell

The console "didn't work at all"

The paradigm shift from 2D to 3D that game developers faced in the 32/64-bit era was so drastic that not only did developers have to grapple with new tech but also figuring out how on earth their games would work in a new dimension. It didn't always work out so well, but when it did it was magical. Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata sat down with members of Treasure's..

27 comments | In Retro, N64, Wii, Iwata.

Thursday 29th October, 2009 - 07:15 GMT

Review: Midway Arcade Treasures 2 (GameCube)

Midway Arcade Treasures 2 (GameCube)

This time the spotlight is on Midway's glory days

Whilst the first Arcade Treasures collection was firmly focused on the Williams catalogue, this second collection is all about the Bally Midway and Midway brands featuring games spanning the mid to late 1980s and 1990s, with a handful of Williams and Atari Games titles for good measure. This collection has a much prettier interface than the first..

24 comments | In Retro, Reviews.

Thursday 29th October, 2009 - 02:15 GMT

Feature: The Spooky Denizens of the World of Nintendo

The Spooky Denizens of the World of Nintendo

We run down the scariest of scaries the Big N has cooked up

We here at Nintendo Life love Halloween. Despite the fact it was originally a time when the dead were believed to cause sickness to the living and damage their crops, but nowadays it's just a good excuse to gorge ourselves on delicious, delicious candy. As part of our All Hallows’ Eve celebrations, we take a trip down memory lane and..

34 comments | In Retro, Features, Halloween.

Thursday 29th October, 2009 - 01:00 GMT

News: Celebrate Halloween With Nintendo Life's Exclusive 8-Bit Decorations!

Celebrate Halloween With Nintendo Life's Exclusive 8-Bit Decorations!

Print 'em, cut 'em out and scare the retro crap out of everyone.

Ah, Halloween, the one day of the year where little kids are encouraged to defy all parental advice and take candy from strangers. It's so close you can almost feel the post-holiday sugar hangover. Are you excited? Nintendo Life is pretty excited, and that's not just the sugar talking. We all got so excited that we teamed up with our..

63 comments | In Retro, Nintendo Life, Halloween, Awesomesauce, Art.

Saturday 24th October, 2009 - 03:41 BST

Review: Aero the Acrobat 2 (Super Nintendo)

Aero the Acrobat 2 (Super Nintendo)

Aero the Acrobat 2 is everything you could want out of a sequel.

About the time mascot games began exploding on the Super Nintendo console, Sunsoft jumped on the bandwagon with the release of their original platformer Aero the Acrobat. While the game featured many of the classic platforming elements that were showing up in the games of the time period, it was criticized for its bland play control..

25 comments | In Retro, Reviews.

Saturday 17th October, 2009 - 01:11 BST

Review: Porky Pig's Haunted Holiday (Super Nintendo)

Porky Pig's Haunted Holiday (Super Nintendo)

A Looney Tunes platformer that's actually not too shabby.

For anyone who's watched the classic Porky Pig cartoons, you know that animators were quite fond of placing our stuttering pig friend into scary situations. Who could forget the leprechaun shoes or the moose head with the gun barrel protruding from its mouth. Well you'll be happy to know that not only are they both found in this haunting..

23 comments | In Retro, Reviews.

Monday 12th October, 2009 - 09:18 BST

Review: 1080° Avalanche (GameCube)

1080° Avalanche (GameCube)

Dude, where's my snowboard?

With its December 2003 GCN release, 1080° Avalanche faced a quandary which mirrored the mixed up personality of the board sport it represented. Development had to decide between following the previous 'extreme to the max' approach of SSX 3, or to continue in the vein of its N64 predecessor 1080° Snowboarding, which strived for greater realism. Just as surfers, skaters..

37 comments | In Retro, Reviews.

Friday 9th October, 2009 - 19:49 BST

Review: Zombies Ate My Neighbors (Super Nintendo)

Zombies Ate My Neighbors (Super Nintendo)

Horror movie action comes to the Super Nintendo console.

Every once in a while a game is released that's so unique it garners a cult following and becomes more popular years later than when it was first released. Toe Jam & Earl for the Sega Genesis is one such game, but another prime example would be Konami's Zombies Ate My Neighbors. The game takes the "B" grade horror movie theme..

41 comments | In Retro, Reviews.

Monday 5th October, 2009 - 19:00 BST

News: Vintage NES Game Up To $8.5K On eBay

Vintage NES Game Up To $8.5K On eBay

Nintendo Campus Challenge 1991 cart proves yet again that collectors have oodles of money

As a retro game fan, if I had a ton of money to blow I'd probably point my browser over to this eBay auction for a Nintendo Campus Challenge cart and lay down the law. $8,500 of your American currency? Pfft, tis child's play. Forged by Nintendo's blacksmiths back in 1991, the carts were to be used in 58..

27 comments | In Retro, NES, Oh Snap.

Monday 5th October, 2009 - 09:57 BST

Review: Final Fight 2 (Super Nintendo)

Final Fight 2 (Super Nintendo)

Final Fight for two

The Mad Gear gang are back and out for revenge. This time they’ve kidnapped Guy’s fiancée Rena and her farther, so it falls to Haggar and friends to rescue them from the gang’s evil clutches. The original Final Fight was a classic side-scrolling brawler which received two paltry SNES ports that unfortunately had some omissions: one of the playable characters, one of the..

31 comments | In Retro, Reviews.

Monday 5th October, 2009 - 09:24 BST

News: Nintendo Shows Off Its History at Kyoto Cross Media Event

Nintendo Shows Off Its History at Kyoto Cross Media Event

Lots of cool retro gear on display

This weekend the Kyoto Cross Media Experience 2009 took place in - you guessed it - Kyoto, Japan. Nintendo was in attendance and had plenty of goodies for avid gamers to ogle at. As well as showing off new games for the Wii and DS, the video game veteran had a massive display which illustrated the company's long and proud gaming history. Machines on show included..

13 comments | In Japan, Events, Retro.

Sunday 4th October, 2009 - 16:48 BST

Review: Banjo Tooie (Nintendo 64)

Banjo Tooie (Nintendo 64)

Can you bear second helpings?

Banjo Kazooie was a game that revolutionised platforming on the N64: Rare's off-the-wall-humour, creative level design and sublime controls made it the pinnacle of platforming on Nintendo's console. Fans of the original will most likely remember Rare's lavish promises about the second game, Banjo Tooie, including the ability to swap items with the original Banjo game..

42 comments | In Retro, Reviews.

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