Switch is a remarkable leap forward in the company’s portable gaming technology.

It’s been nearly thirty years since Nintendo brought portable gaming to the masses with Game Boy. For many adults, it was their first direct exposure to video games. Never before had video games been so public, yet so private, yet so easy to share. The battery-munching gadget reached older audiences,... Read more...

With Nintendo's Virtual Console service expanding to 3DS, maybe it's time to address some problems with the original version on Wii.

Despite a few notable releases in 2010 (Ogre Battle 64, Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, and Final Fantasy II/IV), Nintendo's Virtual Console service is in its worst dry spell since the Wii launch. It's been a long, slow decline since the days of Nintendo releasing three classic games every Monday, like... Read more...

Jonny analyzes Mario Kart Wii's excellent online features, how they can be used in other Nintendo games, and where there's still room for improvement.

There is no question that Mario Kart Wii is Nintendo's most advanced online Wii game (it compares less favorably to some of the top online DS games). I thought it would be worthwhile to dissect and analyze just exactly what makes Mario Kart Wii's online features so great, and I also suggest a few... Read more...

Here's why you can be confident that there are no money hats or outside influence at Nintendo World Report.

We have used the same process for reviews since our very first reviews of import GBA games in early 2001. I oversaw the development of this process (although not the review format itself) and gained more and more influence as time went on, because my ideas seemed to work and make everyone happy.... Read more...

Take a look back at Nintendo's triumphs and stumbles in the new generation.

The one year anniversary of Wii's launch seems like the perfect time to take a look back and assess how the console has performed in its early life. I'm not only talking about sales – obviously, the system has performed spectacularly in that respect. I would like to praise some of Nintendo's choices... Read more...

…is a sorry state indeed. But there is hope.

I want to start off with some rhetorical (and not at all bitter) questions for Nintendo.

Where are the new, must-play online games from Nintendo on DS?

If NST could do voice chat, lobbies, and rivals in Metroid Prime Hunters a year ago, why isn't it in any other games from Nintendo?

If Nintendo WFC has been up and running for a year and a half, why aren't first-party Wii games like Excite Truck and Mario Party 8 online?

How the Wii remote's speaker may change the way we listen to games.

The big secret feature of the Wii controller, eagerly anticipated for months ahead of E3 2006, was in fact quite small. The Wii Remote's built-in speaker left most of us scratching our heads. Nintendo gave only a brief mention about the feature at their press conference, and there was no practical... Read more...

Jonny explains which past E3 was most like the one coming up, and why that is so exciting even to a jaded veteran of these events.

This year's E3 will be my seventh trip out to Los Angeles to play and write about video games. When you've been as many times as I have, some years blend together and just aren't as memorable. Some were special because of fun times spent with the staff, even though the show itself was rather bland.... Read more...

Jonny takes a look at the role of touch-sensitive input in DS games and how the feature can be used effectively in game design.

Four months into the life of the Nintendo DS, and one month before the launch of the competing PSP system from Sony, I’m going to go out on a limb here: touch input sucks for video games. Or at the very least, it’s being poorly utilized in the first generation of Nintendo DS games, and we’ve... Read more...

It’s time to let Nintendo of America do what it needs to do to win back market share.

When Minoru Arakawa and a few associates founded Nintendo of America in the early 1980s, it was envisioned as a distribution channel for the parent company’s arcade games. Two decades later, Nintendo Co. Ltd. in Japan still treats NOA like a distribution channel. It was smart business for a while;... Read more...

Are Nintendo DS games making good enough use of the system’s new features?

With Nintendo’s introduction of the Nintendo DS and its radical new features, there is a new question surrounding the system’s launch that we don’t normally see when new hardware is introduced. Read some reviews around the Internet, or hop into our DS forums. You’ll find many people enjoying... Read more...

In many people’s minds, GameCube isn’t even a contender.

As some of you may know, my alma mater, Auburn University, is doing pretty well in football this year. During halftime of every home game, there’s a new feature this year. One star player from the team is interviewed about all kinds of silly stuff, like his favorite food, favorite stadium to play in, worst teammate to room with, etc. The question that usually elicits the most crowd response is: “PlayStation or Xbox?”

Jonny takes a look at the exodus of third-party publishers from GameCube, and what Nintendo can do to stop it, both now and for the next console.

Nintendo practically invented the console licensing business with its Famicom/NES system in the 1980s. The idea was that Nintendo would design and manufacture a game system, market it to the public so that everyone wanted one, and make it irresistible to other game companies, who would want to sell... Read more...

Our favorite system is two years old, so it’s time to look back at how well it’s performing and what it needs to improve upon before the next system is ready.

As of this writing, the Nintendo GameCube has been on the market for about two years in Japan and North America, and a few months less than that in Europe. Since it seems fairly certain that the next generation of consoles will be launched in 2005, when GameCube will be four years old, this seems like a good intermediate point to look back at how the system has performed so far in its life cycle.

Some people see the new GameCube price cut as a sign of weakness and a precursor to the system dying early. Jonny explains why the GameCube isn’t and won’t be another Dreamcast.

When it comes to system price cuts in the gaming industry, there are two basic patterns. First, all competing systems can cut their prices at the same time. These cuts tend to be reactionary rather than coordinated, but as far as consumers are concerned, it just means gaming is cheaper than before. The second type of price cut is unilateral (forgive the term), in which one system lowers its price and the others do not immediately follow.

Jonny looks at whether Nintendo should release an enhanced model for the GameCube, and what the GameCube SP could and should entail if released.

It’s no secret that Nintendo isn’t perceived as the coolest company around. Although they’ve made some steps in the right direction, most people, including a great percentage of avid gamers, still consider Nintendo to be, at best, behind the times, and at worst, a mere toy company that isn’t serious about the future of gaming.

IT'S ALMOST HERE AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Discuss it in Talkback!

I’ve been waiting for Eternal Darkness for a long time. I first read about the game during E3 ’99, when it was first shown running on N64. The premise of traveling through time and taking control of various characters in spooky environments sounded pretty novel,... Read more...

Take a look at what you’ll really pay to play your console games online.

Now that all three console makers have announced their online plans, you may be wondering how they stack up against each other in terms of features and cost. It turns out that playing online games on your console for a year can be pretty expensive... but that depends heavily on your current situation.... Read more...

Yes Virginia, there is a “Mario Twins”. This is the story of one crazy night with Group X Arabian Rap Sensations.

Who is Group X? What is Group X? Why is Group X? This past weekend, I went to Atlanta searching for the answers to these questions and more. And I got answers. Bizarre, psychotic, cream-filled answers involving chemical spray-pumps and blue hair gel. But let’s jump back to the beginning of this twisted story…

Jonny takes a look back at the GameCube’s launch lineup and shows which titles stood the test of time. You might be surprised...

Other than not having a true Mario game, most of us were fairly pleased with the GameCube’s initial software lineup for North America. But how have the first GameCube titles stood up against time? I thought it might be interesting to look back at the launch games I bought or rented to see how well they lasted.