Tag: Best of 2019
Feature The History Of Streets Of Rage
Mmm... trashcan chicken
This feature originally graced your screens on 25th December 2019, republished today to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Streets of Rage. For a lot of us more ‘seasoned’ gamers, the announcement of Streets of Rage 4 brought a tear to the eye. The original Mega Drive/Genesis Streets of Rage trilogy holds a special place...
Feature In Praise Of Save States, Rewinds And Walkthroughs
A personal journey to make peace with gaming's mod cons...
The year was 1991. My dad had gone to now-defunct UK electronics retailer Dixons and purchased a Sega Mega Drive with Castle of Illusion for the princely sum of £144.99; I know this because I still have the receipt stapled in the console's manual. Beyond a dusty Atari 2600 which resided at...
Feature Why You'll Never Get To Play Your Favourite Retro Game On Switch
Companies really do want your money, but at the right price
A few weeks ago while scrolling through Twitter, a particular video clip caught our eye. It showed Slipstream, a 1995 F1 arcade game from Capcom. Using Sega’s System 32 board, it was produced in very limited quantities for the Latin American market and never saw wide release. As you can...
Feature How David Lynch’s Twin Peaks Influenced The Legend Of Zelda Series
Games both wonderful and strange
As many of you will have been reminded by playing the recently released remake on Switch, The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening is a surreal little adventure with an odd cast of characters which give Koholint Island a very specific feel. The first portable entry in the celebrated series, this diminutive adventure...
Feature Nintendo's 130th Birthday Comes During A Golden Age For The Company
A look at Nintendo’s changing fortunes over the last few years
T'was Monday 23rd September in the year 1889 - a fateful day in Kyoto, Japan - when Ian Nintendo woke up and decided to form a video game company... Okay, there may be a couple of minor discrepancies in that opening statement, although the date and the founding of the company we now...
Feature 30 Weird And Wonderful Peripherals From Nintendo's History
Playing with power... and a whole lotta plastic
Nintendo’s history as a manufacturer of playing cards and toys means the company has always been very comfortable with expanding out from with video game console under the TV into the wider world of peripheral accessories and novelties. These extra lumps of plastic and electronics that interface with...
Feature From Astral Chain To Zetman: The Story Of Masakazu Katsura
Get to know the man behind Astral Chain's art
Although he's a famous manga artist in Japan, there's a good chance you've probably never heard of Masakazu Katsura – and if you have, it probably wasn't until very recently. He’s the character designer for Astral Chain, the latest action title from PlatinumGames. In anticipation of Astral Chain’s...
Feature I Think My Game Boy Predicts The Future
“What evil might this forbidden technology unleash?”
The Game Boy turned 30 last month – to the shock of those of us realising we are therefore well over 30. Where did the past go? I think it went into a nook at the end of my bookshelf – at least that’s where I found my old DMG-01, the original Game Boy. Like many reading this, I’m sure,...
Feature The Most Important People In Nintendo History
The key figures who got Nintendo to where it is today
In September 2019 (Monday 23rd, to be exact) Nintendo celebrated its 130th anniversary. Founded back in 1889, it famously started out as a manufacturer of playing cards. Eventually, the company went into the toy market with the Ultra Hand, an extendable arm developed by an employee in his spare...
Feature GoldenEye Dev David Doak On Shaking (And Stirring) The FPS Genre On Console
"All we could see were the bad things"
You couldn’t escape it. It was here, rife and potent. It ploughed a path through conventional gaming conversations from the casuals to the parents of gamers that had to put up with the noise, the screaming and the not going to bed because if you didn’t kill John with thirty-seven remote mines stuck to the...
Feature Uncovering The Story Behind Nintendo's Most Bizarre Tie-In
‘90s Mario mania, posthumous endorsements and White Knuckle Scorin'...
Uncanny, no? It’s Saturday morning and we’re relaxing on the sofa with a coffee, idly scrolling through Twitter while MTV Classics plays in the background. The 1992 video for Roy Orbison’s posthumously released track 'I Drove All Night' plays. Now, we’re partial to...
Feature A Pokémon Retrospective: Generation 7 - 2016 To 2019
We take a look back at Alola
Three years ago, as we approached the reveal of Pokémon’s seventh generation and its 20th anniversary, we looked back on all previous six generations of Pokémon. Now, three years later, as we approach the end of the seventh generation and the inevitable reveal of the next generation, it’s time to look back over the...
Feature Peter Molyneux On Never Underestimating Nintendo, And Why Switch Is His Dream Console
"It really is a console for the 21st century"
Peter Molyneux has been called a lot of things during a career which has now spanned four decades, and as we sit down for our chat it's easy to tell he's keenly aware of his reputation. "This is the first press thing I’ve done in quite a long time, I think," he says, before thanking us for our patience...
Feature How Super Smash Bros. Became The Ultimate Fighter
The path of a champion
What do you do if you’ve been fighting with the same people for 20 years? If you’re Nintendo, you hand out some weapons, get an announcer, and invite your friends over to watch. The Super Smash Bros. series, Nintendo’s perennial Saturday-morning-cartoon take on how fighting video games can work, turns a whopping 20...
Feature Pokémon Sword And Shield: What UK Locations Are The Towns In Galar Based On?
The real-world towns and cities we think inspired Pokémon Sword and Shield
All right, guv'nor? As you are almost certainly aware, the Galar region in Pokémon Sword and Shield is based on the United Kingdom. While the first four regions we encountered in the games - Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh - were all based on locations in Japan, Unova from...
Feature The Game-Changing Nintendo VR Headset That Never Was
"We had cool stuff working"
Argonaut Software is a name that long-time Nintendo fans will be intimately familiar with; the UK-based firm worked with Nintendo on its Super FX chip, the cartridge-based hardware that made titles like Star Fox, Stunt Race FX and Yoshi's Island possible. However, Argonaut's interest in tech didn't end there; the company...
Feature Donkey Kong 64 Devs On Bugs, Boxing And 20 Years Of The DK Rap
Put your hands together if you want to clap
In the last few days we've had a spate of video game anniversaries with Pokémon Gold and Silver, Super Smash Bros., Donkey Kong Country and
Feature The Story Behind New Super Mario Land, The Homebrew Marvel Intended As A Christmas Gift
"As far as I'm concerned, the project is terminated already"
Yesterday's news that a talented modder had managed to 'update' (if such a term could be used) Super Mario Land in the form of New Super Mario Land – and get it working on a SNES, no less – caused quite a stir online. We've been lucky enough to not only play this incredible feat of...
Feature Pokémon, Zelda, Mario, Metroid... Nintendo’s Biggest Bugs, Glitches And Errors
It’s a bug feature
Of all the developers putting out games today, Nintendo has possibly the best reputation for delivering rock-solid, glitch-free and glorious gaming experiences. The patented ‘Nintendo polish’ is something of a given when you fire up a first-party game - we expect an assuredly smooth, jank-less time where in games from...
Feature It's Time To Lay Down Your ARMS
We hang up our gloves in Nintendo's OTHER larger-than-life brawler
After two years and 30 Party Crashes, Gonçalo “Shiryu” Lopes finally gives his ARMS a rest, long after everyone else did, and looks back on his time with the game... Until June 2017 the humble Switch was known by fans (and non-fans alike) as “the Breath of the Wild...
Feature Dormant Nintendo Franchises We'd Like To See Return On Switch
No, not just F-Zero
Nintendo is such a celebrated and storied developer that there’s very little in its back catalogue that lies undisturbed. The company is adept at recycling their vintage IP and adapting it with new mechanics and a fresh lick of paint, and even long-forgotten peripherals turn up in Smash or make surprise appearances in WarioWare...
Feature The Ever-Changing World Of Nintendo Switch Menu Icons
Forgo the logo at your peril...
With all the struggles we face as we go about our daily lives, not to mention the larger challenges facing the world right now, it’s easy to look at an ugly icon on your Switch’s home screen and brush it off as totally inconsequential. After all, it’s the game itself that’s important, no? Would an ugly icon...
Feature The History Of Virtua Racing, One Of The Most Influential Coin-Ops Of All Time
Now the Switch version is with us, we look back on the arcade classic...
Far more than any other factor, it was undoubtedly the advent of new hardware that propelled Sega’s arcade games to a whole new level. The ‘90s saw video games make the transition from sprites to polygons, a charge Sega led from a position of uncontested leadership despite...
Feature Reggie's Video Highlights From 15 Years At The Top Of Nintendo
Our bodies aren't ready, Reggie!
Yesterday, the world of Nintendo was rocked by the news that Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime is set to retire in April after more than 15 years with the company. In that time, Reggie has overseen the launch of systems like the DS, Wii, 3DS and Switch, had himself turned into a puppet, become a meme...
Feature Just One More, Honest: The Unlikely Endurance Of amiibo
Despite untapped potential, amiibo survives the death of toys-to-life
With Disney Infinity, Skylanders and Lego Dimensions falling by the wayside in recent years, toys-to-life seems to have reached its natural conclusion. Much like the plastic instrument peripherals of a decade ago, consumers have had enough after filling their homes with plastic...