2015: The year Nintendo comes out fighting

The third year in a console’s life is usually a jubilant one. By now the console will be well established, with a user base large enough to attract studios large and small, not to mention having a sizeable enough market share for publishers to take a gamble by releasing niche titles. This isn’t quite the …

Read more

Cubemen 2 – hip to be square?

It’s a moderately eventful week for the Nintendo eShop(s), if only because numerous Zelda games receive a price drop this Thursday to tie-in with Hyrule Warriors’ release later this month. As an extra bonus, if you have downloaded a Zelda title on either Wii U or 3DS you can get 10% off the eShop release …

Read more

Talking about Let’s Go Camping!

Texas based indie developer Steamburger Studios have just launched their campaign on Kickstarter to help fund the development of their colourful new camping adventure game, Let’s Go Camping! We had the chance to chat and find out more about their plans. With its beautiful, simple visuals and mix of open world exploration, monster hunting and camping, …

Read more

Xbox One million

Literally mere minutes before this week’s UK chart went live it was reported that a million Xbox One consoles were sold during launch. It stands to reason that around 140-150k of those were sold in the UK. 70,000 Xbox 360 units were sold during launch back in 2005 and Microsoft claims that the Xbox One …

Read more

Nintendo Adventure Books: probably not due a revival

In the ’80s and early ’90s, choose your own adventure gamebooks were quite the craze. There’s been a resurgence of sorts recently, both on paper and digitally, chiefly of the fondly remembered Fighting Fantasy series. Nintendo Adventure Books? Not so much. A remarkable 12 books were released in 1991-92, based largely on Nintendo Comic System, …

Read more

Nintendo Game Watch: Mario & Zelda not at their best

The tech press is getting in a right froth over smart watches. Honestly, don’t they remember the Game Watch? The calculator watch had been around since the 1970s, and a decade later the next step was the game watch. US company Nelsonic Industries was at the forefront of this exciting technological frontier. The games were …

Read more

Fuse – does it blow?

If there hasn’t been a new shooter from EA released every month this year so far, then it certainly feels like it. Fuse is this month’s offering, which originally started out under the guise of Overstrike. The squad-based shooter was then given a major overhaul, with a catchier new name to boot. It’s Insomniac’s first …

Read more

The drake that laid the golden Drake

Proving that us videogamers really are just big kids, a lot of videogame related toys have sold for stunning amounts on eBay this month. The most noteworthy of these is a golden vinyl Uncharted 3 toy said to be one of only 11 in the world. “For ages 15 and up” pointed out the seller …

Read more

Do you catch Sonic’s drift?

It has been said that during the winter, sales of retro games boom as a lot of people spend their evenings staying in the warm and thus need entertaining. We wouldn’t be surprised if a few people hope to recreate the magic of a Christmas long gone by purchasing a vintage console off eBay too. …

Read more

Nobody loves Rayman

Last week’s chart was the busiest for a while. This week? Not so much, although a few of the titles that entered highly last week are on the fall already. Halo: Anniversary is one of these, which is surprising. It entered at #6 last week but has dropped to #21. Zelda: Skyward Sword is doing …

Read more

The Halo reunion tour

It’s another good week for gamers. That’s providing you have healthy bank balance, at least – there are half a dozen big name titles out this week. The old-age question if whether Mario can blow stripy balloons up with his arse has finally been answered. As the image to the right shows, he can indeed. …

Read more

Nottingham being turned into Hyrule

Get your rupees at the ready – in celebration of Link’s 25th anniversary Nintendo are going to be transforming Nottingham Market into a ‘Hyrulean Market Village’ next month. The event ties in with GameCity6 on Saturday 29th October and gives the chance for attendees to track down pieces of the Triforce, make their own swords …

Read more

Zelda: A Link to the Chart

Zumba Fitness is #1 for the 9th week in a row, but let’s ignore that shall we? Thanks. LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean is up from #5 to #2, Cars 2 holds onto #3, DiRT 3 slides from #2 to #4 and FIFA 11 goes up one place from #6 to #5. FIFA 11 has …

Read more

Mario paint

You can’t get any rarer than something that’s one of a kind. With this in mind, I’m surprised that there aren’t more people out there customising their consoles. There’s certainly a demand for them on eBay – a NES-style custom GBA SP went for £51 (14 bids) earlier this month. You have to wonder though …

Read more