Latest Features
Soapbox Pokémon Scarlet & Violet DLC Is A Chance To Win Back Disenchanted Fans
Mask off
Soapbox features enable our individual writers and contributors to voice their opinions on hot topics and random stuff they've been chewing over. Ahead of tomorrow's Pokémon Presents, Alana is hoping that The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero is a real treasure for Pokémon Scarlet & Violet. Pokémon Scarlet & Violet’s DLC, The...
Talking Point Will You Pay $50 For Red Dead Redemption On Switch?
For the high-ridin'-est, rootin'-tootin'-est cowboy hero of all time?
$49.99. That's Rockstar's asking price if you want to jump on the critically lauded Red Dead Redemption on Switch from 17th August. £39.99 if you're in the UK — that's for the digital version, although there is a physical release in the works for October. Yep, it'll cost you...
Memory Pak Secret Of Mana's Dazzling World Of Colour Opened My Eyes
You're looking a bit green
Welcome to the latest instalment in our nostalgia-inducing column, Memory Pak, where we deep-dive into some of the most memorable moments in gaming – good and bad. Today, Secret of Mana turns 30 years old in Japan, and to celebrate this seminal action RPG's anniversary, Alana is reminiscing about how the game's use of...
Feature Nintendo eShop Selects - July 2023
Our picks for the best Switch eShop games in July
It's the beginning of a new month — well, we're almost a week in at this point — and you know what that means? It's Nintendo Life's eShop Selects. We're already comfortably into August, which means summer is drawing to a close in the northern hemisphere. Hopefully, it's cooled down a bit where...
Feature Pikmin Bloom Devs On The Joy Of "Human Connection" And The Absence Of Bulborbs
"Our Pikmin aren’t going to die"
While having a strong and deservingly passionate fanbase, it's fair to wonder if the Pikmin series has ever received the commercial success it deserves. Yet, Shigeru Miyamoto-san and Nintendo continue to nurture these little fellas and let them bloom however they like. The Nintendo Switch has just given us the...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? (August 5th)
Let's Gooigi
Woohoo, the weekend! Yes, another week is almost done, which means it's time to look back on some of the highlights from the last few days. First up, kicking off the week with a bang, it was rumoured that Nintendo is targeting a 2024 release for its next major piece of hardware. Details so far are scarce, but it sounds like the...
Talking Point Which Nintendo IP Should 'Switch 2' Launch With?
Prime picks
We have spent a lot of time thinking about the Switch 2 so far this year. In fact, we spent a lot of time thinking about it last year too. And the year before... and the year before that. And th... you know what? We've been thinking about it for a while. Our thoughts have covered everything from just how Switch-y Nintendo's next console...
Feature Best WarioWare Microgames Ever
Our Top 25, but what's at number WAAAAH-n?
To celebrate the fifth anniversary of the sublime WarioWare Gold's US launch, we're republishing this celebration of the anarchic series' very best microgames. Here's hoping the upcoming Smooth Moves sequel, WarioWare: Move It!, will have some of its own all-timers to add to this selection come November...
Poll Do You Think Switch Can Catch PS2's Total Sales Before 'Switch 2' Arrives?
Hardware headscratcher
In case you missed it, the Nintendo Switch has now sold over 129 million units as of June 30th, 2023. That's frankly astonishing and it puts the console ever closer to reaching the lifetime sales of not only the Nintendo DS but Sony's PlayStation 2. Can it really reach those lofty milestones, though? Let's remind ourselves of...
Guide Best Cooking Games On Nintendo Switch
The Michelin stars
Food is one of the many joys of life, and for many, cooking is part of the fun. And as with all everyday activities, cooking has made its way into many a video game. Whether it's the central mechanic or a big part of character customisation and building, cooking has become a staple not just in the kitchen, but in many Switch...
Poll Have You Ordered Physical Switch Games That Came With The Cart Missing?
MariNo Cart
If you hadn't already guessed, we on Team Nintendo Life love a bit of physical media. Yes, the convenience of downloading a game from the eShop is unbeatable, but if we have the chance to get one of those red-spined boxes on our shelves, we'll take it. We do have one insistence, though: those boxes have to come with a cartridge inside...
Talking Point How Do You Store Your Games Collection?
Shoebox showcase
Call us sentimental, call us paranoid, call us what you will, but around these parts we still love the physical article when it comes to our media, especially video games. While many of us have gone at least part-digital for the sake of saving space and sheer convenience, especially with the portable Switch, even the eShop-only...
Feature So, Which Zelda Games Aren't On Switch Yet?
Missing Link
Thanks to the wonders of the Nintendo Switch Online retro games libraries (and some pretty top-notch remasters along the way), the Switch is now home to a whopping 16 different Zelda titles by our count, covering everything from Link's first outing to his latest adventures, plus remakes, remasters and spin-offs. Most recently, Oracle...
Soapbox These Everyday Items Trigger Me Now, And I Blame Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom
Tears of life
Soapbox features enable our individual writers and contributors to voice their opinions on hot topics and random stuff they've been chewing over. Today, Evan explores the life-ruining properties of TOTK... It happened in Yellowstone National Park. Removed from society, cruelly separated from cell phone service, I’d embarked,...
Breaking out into 3D
Following up on one of the most beloved entries in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise is no easy task, but for the ex-Sonic Mania devs at Evening Star, it was a simple case of leaning into their considerable ambition and diving headfirst into the world of 3D. Announced earlier this year during a Nintendo Direct presentation, the...
Talking Point Would A Third Wave Of Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC Have Been Too Much?
Riding the waves
The Nintendo Switch was a bonafide hit basically right out of the gate. With the release of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild at launch and Super Mario Odyssey not long after, many of Nintendo’s tentpole titles were quickly showing up on their hot new handheld hybrid. It was only a matter of time until we received another...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? (July 29th)
Taking hearts
The weekend is here once again, folks, so it's time to recap some of our biggest news items of the week before we settle down for some good ol' fashioned comfort gaming. First up, of course, we reviewed the rather excellent Disney Illusion Island for the Switch and gave it a resounding score of 9/10. Be sure to check the link below to...
Soapbox Oatchi Is The Star Of Pikmin 4, And He Deserves To Stay For Good
#OatchiForSmash
Every so often, a long-running series will throw a brand new feature into a game that makes me think to myself, "I hope that they never drop this". The Melee Counter from Samus Returns; Animal Crossing: New Horizons' crafting system; and, most recently, Tears of the Kingdom's Ultrahand and Ascend abilities. I simply can't understand...
Poll What Review Score Would You Give Pikmin 4?
Throw Oatchi a bone?
Pikmin 4 has been out for a few days now, which means it's time to start gauging what you fine people make of Nintendo's latest real-time strategy adventure. It's been an awful long time coming (pretty much a decade since Pikmin 3, in fact), but it appears that the wait has been more than worth it, with the game receiving...
Feature How Summer Holidays And Childhood Nostalgia Revolutionised Pokémon
20 years of Ruby & Sapphire
In 2003, Pokémon was at a bit of a crossroads. The first two sets of entries in its canon — Game Boy debuts Red and Blue, followed by sequels Gold and Silver — had cemented the series as one of the biggest of all time in gaming, defining millennial pop culture. With the arrival of Nintendo’s new handheld, the Game...
Soapbox Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom Fixed The Yiga Clan, And Now I Want More
Come on and join the Kohga
Soapbox features enable our individual writers and contributors to voice their opinions on hot topics and random stuff they've been chewing over. Today, Jim chews over how Tears of the Kingdom is a step in the right direction for the series' banana-loving bandits... Let me start with a confession. When I initially...
Soapbox Catching Legendary Pokémon The Old-Fashioned Way Was So Much Better
Mewsings
Soapbox features enable our individual writers and contributors to voice their opinions on hot topics and random stuff they've been chewing over. Today, Kevin remembers a time when getting your hands on a legendary involved going on a real-life journey... The '90s were a fun time, weren’t they? AOL was brand new, The Simpsons was still...
Poll Final Fantasy IV - Do You Prefer The Original Or The DS Remake?
Throwing down the gauntlet
The DS remake of Final Fantasy IV turns 15 today in North America - can you believe it? If the copious social media posts earlier this week about Nolan's The Dark Knight didn't make you feel old, then perhaps this will. Regardless, it still stands to this day as one of the most impressive remakes we've seen. Granted, the...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? (July 22nd)
Ready to party?
Well folks, we're edging ever closer to the end of July. Mad, right? It'll be 2024 before you know it. Before we all experience an existential crisis, however, let's take a look back on what's been going on this week, shall we? First up, Pikmin 4 has only bloomin' gone and launched! It's pretty good, too, as our review will tell...
Feature Our 17 Favourite Dogs In Games - Canine Companions & Memorable Mutts
Good boi gaming
Link, Mario, Samus, a whole hoard of beautiful folk from the Fire Emblem series. We all love a good hero and Nintendo has become pretty darn great at creating them. You know what we all love more than a good hero though? A good boy. We are, of course, talking about dogs. Regardless of whether you are a 'dog person' or a 'cat person'...
Soapbox Switch Is Only A Classic Or Two From Being The Perfect PlayStation History Lesson
No Vita necessary
Soapbox features enable our individual writers and contributors to voice their opinions on hot topics and random stuff they've been chewing over. Today, Ethan ruminates on how, over time, Switch has become an excellent teaching tool for Sony neophytes... Here’s a truth diehard proponents of the console wars won’t readily...
Poll How Many Of You Have Actually Visited 'Minus World' In Super Mario Bros.?
Minus points
In terms of video game legends, it's up there with the best of them. A secret world accessible in Super Mario Bros.! A gateway to an underwater stage you can never leave! A hidden, secret zone that only the most elite Mario Bros. enthusiasts will ever find!... It was the stuff of playground hearsay back in the '80s and '90s, but...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? (July 15th)
Game on!
And just like that, it's the middle of July... happy weekend, everyone! We might be out of summer showcase season, but there has still been plenty of good things on the table here at Nintendo Life this week. We ran through 21 vintage Nintendo games that you can only buy for original hardware, saw lots of goodies at the Limited Run Games'...
Anniversary Nintendo Famicom, The NES' Japanese Sibling, Is 40 Years Old
History was made
40 years ago today, video game history changed for the better. That might sound a bit hyperbolic, but there's no denying that Nintendo's first home console — or at least the first one with interchangeable cartridges in a form we still recognise as a 'console' today — made a huge impact. Video games would not be where they would...
Hands On Pokémon Sleep (Open Beta) - An Absolute Snoozefest
Pokémon Let’s Go (to bed)
Pokémon Sleep was finally released in select regions earlier this week as an open beta for Android devices. After being the butt of all jokes when it was originally announced and then experiencing a series of delays, it now officially “launches soon” according to The Pokémon Company. Developed by Select Button...
Soapbox It's Time To Admit That F-Zero X Is The Best F-Zero
You got boost power!
F-Zero X launched on 14th July 1998 in Japan, meaning the N64 entry in this dormant Nintendo racing series is, somehow, inexplicably, 25 years old now. A quarter-century! Blimey. As such, we're republishing this article from 2019 penned by Nintendo Life founder and CEO Ant Dickens to curry favour with top brass celebrate an...
Poll Super Mario All-Stars Is 30 Years Old - Do You Prefer The NES Or SNES Versions Of The Classics?
NES is more?
Video game compilations might feel like a new-ish thing — a bevvy of digital treats all packed into one cartridge (or disc, or download), but they're practically as old as the medium. When we think of classic compilations, one of the first that springs to mind is the SNES's Super Mario All-Stars. This 16-bit collection launched on...
Feature 21 Vintage Nintendo Games You Can Now Only Buy For Original Hardware
'80s and '90s Nintendo games on the 'endangered' list
You may have read a recent study by the Video Games History Foundation that suggests an eye-watering 87% of video games are "critically endangered". The organisation, which is devoted to video game preservation and archiving, found that just 13% of games released prior to 2010 were still 'in...
Feature That Time Mario & Luigi: Dream Team Made Mario Bros. Go Full Inception
Pi’illo fight
The worlds of Mario and Christopher Nolan rarely overlap, and for good reason. Cillian Murphy may make an excellent Oppenheimer, but he’d be a painfully miscast Professor E. Gadd. Yet somehow, ten years ago, that didn’t stand in the way of AlphaDream adding a strong vibe reminiscent of Leonardo DiCaprio’s dream heist in...
Feature What's The Best Version Of Street Fighter II On Nintendo Systems?
All Nintendo versions of Street Fighter II, ranked by you
Street Fighter is having its time in the light once again. Street Fighter 6 is pummeling down the competition on PS5, Xbox, and PC, and it feels like another jewel in the crown of Capcom's resurgence over the past five years. But while we Switch owners can't join the likes of Luke and other...
Soapbox Getting The Master Sword In Tears Of The Kingdom Is Zelda At Its Best
Once more, with Fi-ling
Soapbox features enable our individual writers and contributors to voice their opinions on hot topics and random stuff they've been chewing over. Today, Jim gushes over the moment you retrieve the legendary sword in the newest Zelda game... There were several moments in my playthrough of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the...
Feature A Brief History Of Romance Of The Three Kingdoms, The Series That Spawned Dynasty Warriors
Sangokushi, from NES to Switch
It is the third century AD and war rages across the region that would one day become China. To the north, the Cao Wei state has been founded, led by Cao Pi after the death of his father. In the west, Shu Han’s founder, Liu Bei, considers himself the rightful ruler of all of China in the wake of the Han Dynasty’s...
Feature From Banjo To Mario - Grant Kirkhope Talks Big Huge Troubles And Composing For Massive IPs
Part Two: "How the f*** am I going to write music for a Mario game!?"
Last week, in celebration of Banjo-Kazooie's 25th anniversary, we published the first part of our career-spanning interview with Mr. Grant Kirkhope, composer extraordinaire and the man responsible for some of our favourite music ever, video game or otherwise. Part One covered his...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? (July 8th)
Shed those Tears yet?
It's the weekend! Hooray! Before we dive into our gaming plans for this weekend, let's check back on some of the top stories for the week, shall we? To kick things off, Nintendo confirmed that the penultimate wave for the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course pass will be launching on July 12th, 2023. It also dove into which...
Talking Point What Makes A Good Sidequest, Anyway?
Quest x64
What's more important — saving the world from impending doom, or rescuing the cat that's stuck at the top of a tree? Depending on who you ask, they might give you an answer you won't expect. I'm not saying that we should ignore the kitty cats at all, but when you're presented with the dilemma of missing a quest that's simply about...
Talking Point How Does Switch's Year 7 Compare To Previous Nintendo Consoles?
The magnificent seven?
Prior to the June 2023 Nintendo Direct, 2023 was looking decidedly quiet for Switch. In March, the system entered its seventh year on store shelves and with sales numbers slowing, it seems that the long-rumoured appearance of new Nintendo hardware may finally be on the horizon in the next 12 months or so. It is, after all, a...
Feature Pikmin Tier List - Which Pikmin Type Is The Best?
Pik of the bunch
We are just a few weeks away from the release of Pikmin 4, which is set to add two brand-new types of our leaf-headed companions into the Pik 'n' mix. Ice and Glow Pikmin will be joining the lineup of seven other mainline types on 21st July, so we thought that now would be the perfect time to take a look back and rank all of those...
Guide Best Nintendo Switch Detective Games
Grab your trilby and trench coat
Updated with Master Detective Archives: Rain Code and the wonderful Switch remaster of Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective. A decision that was, frankly, elementary... Everyone loves a good mystery, and even more so if they're the one who gets to solve it. The detective genre has evolved a great deal since its...
The Big Score?
Editor's Note. Given the sheer number of releases these days, it is impossible for us to reassess individual games in the weeks, months, sometimes years after our initial review. When post-launch updates reportedly improve the experience, we insert a note at the top of our reviews stating such, but the body of the review text and the...
Feature Donkey Kong Cymru: The Extremely Brief History Of Welshness In Nintendo Games
Hiraeth of Hyrule
It’s a uniquely Welsh experience. I’ve never been Scottish, or Irish, or Latvian, but those that have inform me when you tell someone where you’re from, the response typically isn’t “What’s that?”. For the Welsh, that basic icebreaker question from anyone outside the UK usually prompts a deep breath and, regardless...
Feature Nintendo eShop Selects - June 2023
Our picks for the best Switch eShop games in June
Hello July! We're in the full heat of summer now, which means we're halfway through 2023. What a year for video games so far, eh? That means that it's time to look back at June for this month's eShop Selects. A lot of us are still playing Tears of the Kingdom, of course, but we've had a solid one on...
Poll What's Your Game Of The Year Of 2023 So Far?
Tears of the Switch-dom?
In case you missed it, we're already in July, and that means it's time to reflect on the first half of the year and talk about the best games of 2023 so far. Now, dear readers, you might be thinking "but wait, isn't it Zelda?" and to that we say "we're not restricted to just one game". While the latest Legend of Zelda will...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? (July 1st)
Pik us a winner
Well, we're halfway though 2023. That's quite a thought, huh? The first six months of the year may be behind us, but Nintendo is showing no sign of slowing down. This week, we asked you to rank every N64 3D platformer in celebration of Banjo-Kazooie's 25th birthday, while we went head-to-head with Horace the Horse in our Everybody...
Feature 8 Strangest Super Mario Urban Legends - Which Mario Myths Are True?
The Mario franchise is full of odd stories
There’s nothing that the gaming community loves more than someone finding a ‘cursed copy’ of a beloved childhood game or a way to visit a secret world inside a game universe. The Mario franchise has been the source of a lot of myths and secrets, including the Paper Mario serial code mystery and
Feature From Bon Jovi To Banjo - Grant Kirkhope On The "Complete Fluke" Of His Rare Musical Journey
Part One: Mr. Banjongles
Grant Kirkhope is an interviewer's dream, and not just because he's responsible for some all-time great video game soundtracks. He’s great company — frank, funny, and loquacious. We spoke to him most recently for our Nintendo Life VGM Fest back in 2021 and only ended up publishing a small fraction of our chat in our...