Tag: Hands On
Hands On Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound - A Slick, Bloody Return To The Series' 2D Roots
Slice 'n' dice
It’s been a long time since we were last graced with a proper 2D Ninja Gaiden game, so you can imagine our shock when Dotemu revealed Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound, a brand-new side-scrolling action title from Blasphemous developer The Game Kitchen, currently scheduled to launch in Summer 2025. We recently went hands-on with the game in...
Hands On Capcom Fighting Collection 2 - Come For The Power Stone, Stay For The Project Justice
How ye doing, Ken?
Capcom's first fighting game collection, cleverly entitled Capcom Fighting Collection, saw a splendid assemblage of arcade classics put together by the Japanese giant, covering some of its very best coin-op releases of the 1990s and early noughties. In our 8/10 review, we called it the "best Darkstalkers collection around,"...
First Impressions Nintendo Switch 2 'Wows' Most When You Go Back To Your Old Switch
2 takes
After years of speculation, Switch 2 finally exists. It’s got a launch date, a price, a bunch of accessories, and — most importantly — a lineup of games large and small, all showcased in an hour-long Direct which answered a lot of questions. But what does the system actually feel like in the hands? How does that screen compare to the...
Hands On 'Drag x Drive' Is Fantastic, But Is It Destined To Be Switch 2's ARMS?
Tokyo Drag
Here's a tip for you: don't just dive into Drag x Drive mid-match. After being thrust into a game in progress late in the day during our Nintendo Switch 2 experience, this Mouse Mode-controlled game felt like learning a completely new language. Instead of deftly throwing the ball and shooting hoops in what is essentially Rocket League...
Preview Hands-On: Finally, Super Mario Party Jamboree Lets Me Scream At Bowser
Say it loud
We were completely amused at the reveal of the Switch 2 Camera. It felt like a very Nintendo thing to couple with the new GameChat button on the Switch 2 Joy-Con, but also something that’s 20 years too late. The EyeToy and Kinect have been and gone over the past two decades with mixed results. So what will make Nintendo’s camera...
Hands On Should 'Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour' Be A Pack-In Game?
Tech tours
Nintendo is no stranger to the concept of a launch day pack-in game. The Wii famously included Wii Sports, the DS came with an impressive demo of Metroid Prime Hunters, and even the Game Boy was bundled with Tetris in North America, forever changing the market. Which is why we’re all puzzled as to why Nintendo is charging for their new...
Hands On I Didn't Think I Could Love BOTW Or TOTK More, Then I Played Them On Switch 2
HD-hyah!
Folks, I am not a graphics or frame rate snob. I grew up playing 50hz games and my main system of choice is an eight-year-old tablet. I love style and art over visuals, and sometimes I even tolerate rough framerates. I might be a little more unforgiving in 2025 than I was a few years ago, but look, I want good games, good experiences, not...
Hands On Cyberpunk 2077 Might Pull A 'Witcher 3' On Switch 2
Breathtaking?
It's funny, even though CD Projekt Red has given the Switch some love in the past, it's safe to say almost none of us had Cyberpunk 2077 on our Switch 2 bingo cards, let alone the 'Ultimate Edition'. That's not to say we don't want it, quite the opposite! We just never honestly envisioned a world where this graphically taxing shooter...
Hands On Rock Surfing And Boulder Bashing - 'Donkey Kong Bananza' Is Brilliantly Bonkers
Bananza split
Donkey Kong's new design is perfect. Nope, we're not changing our stance here, and Donkey Kong Bananza solidified it even more. A new 3D Mario isn't here to usher in a new generation of platformers for the new console, but we have plenty of fuzzy monkeys and apes to keep us company over the summer months as we bask in the Switch 2...
Hands On Metroid Prime 4: Beyond On Switch 2 Is Staggering
Beyond expectations
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond being cross-gen was inevitable. After a near two-decade wait for a sequel and a handful of delays, including a return from series developer Retro Studios, the game needed to land with a bang. And boy did it when it re-emerged during the June 2024 Nintendo Direct. We've seen it twice since, and each time...
Hands On Mario Kart World Brings The Utter Chaos In Knockout Mode
The World Wide Road
I beat Nintendo of America at Mario Kart World's new Knockout Tour. Okay, that's a tiny bit of a humblebrag, but Knockout Tour is the mode that has finally convinced me that the "99" formula is fun. I know, I'm sorry, you were all right. Next to Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, Mario Kart World was the game everyone wanted to play. Of...
Hands On Absolum - Dead Cells Meets Streets Of Rage 4 In An Effortlessly Stylish 'Rogue 'Em Up'
Just one more run
What would you get if you crossed Dead Cells with Streets of Rage 4? Well, to save you the hassle, we’ll tell you. You get Absolum, a ‘Rogue ‘em Up’ from developers Dotemu, Guard Crush Games, and Supamonks which we recently got the chance to play via a streamed preview build. It takes the slick, stylish, and accessible...
Hands On Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition - A Decade On, Mira's Still Got It
A Skell of a good time
It's been absolutely ages since we last set foot on Mira, the planet on which humanity seeks refuge from an alien threat in Xenoblade Chronicles X. It was perhaps only a year or two after the game first released on Wii U, in fact, that we last played it, and our overriding memory (besides the fact that it's incredible) is of...
Preview Mario & Luigi: Brothership - A Couple Of Concerns, But Otherwise Looking Shipshape
Ahoy-hoy!
We've already had a fairly extensive hands-on with the latest in the long-running Mario & Luigi RPG series and, coming off the back of that two-level taster, we've been chomping at the bit to get our hands on the full thing. Luckily, having now taken in everything the first 10 hours or thereabouts has to offer, we're still full to the...
Hands On Mario & Luigi: Brothership Shows The Bros. Are Back In Classic RPG Form
Dial L for Luigi
You would be forgiven for assuming the Mario & Luigi series was no more. It has been nine years since Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam was released as the last new entry. Since then, Superstar Saga and Bowser's Inside Story received 3DS remakes, but then developer AlphaDream shut up shop in 2019 after
Round Up The First Impressions Of The Nintendo Sound Clock 'Alarmo' Are In
Sleeping on the job
Nintendo's new sound clock device 'Alarmo' is now available in select locations around the world and the first impressions have already gone live. If you are curious to know a little more - even after everything Nintendo has revealed, we've put together this brief round up highlighting a few outlets that have already tested it...
Round Up The Latest Previews Are In For Super Mario Party Jamboree
The party is just getting started
Super Mario Party Jamboree lands on the Switch later this month and another lot of impressions are now rolling in. So far think everything is pointing towards this new entry being quite the get-together. It's certainly looking to be the biggest and most feature-packed version of Mario Party to date. "So, as...
First Impressions Nintendo's Taken Feedback To Heart With 'Super Mario Party Jamboree'
Now, that's a flashy fiesta
Super Mario Party has returned! Okay, so it's only been a handful of years since Mario Party Superstars dropped on Switch, but we are excited — psyched even — for this latest edition, as it promises to deliver in several key areas where the series has floundered somewhat in the past. Yes, if you cast your mind back...
Feature Here's 10 Games We Played At TGS 2024 Coming To Switch
Fantasian! DQ3! Phantom Brave! Sonic, again!
With the Nintendo Switch winding down, the Switch successor still unannounced, and Nintendo itself not typically showing games at the Tokyo Game Show, it can be a little hard to find titles you can play on your favourite hybrid handheld console between massive booths for Monster Hunter Wilds and the...
Feature Life Is Strange: Double Exposure Directors Discuss Caulfield, Canon & Switch
"Both endings of the original Life is Strange are canon"
What were you getting up to in 2015? Maybe you were playing video games back then too, so as a refresher, 2015 was the release year for the sweeping epic Metal Gear Solid V, the somewhat polarising Fallout 4, and indie darlings Rocket League and Undertale. If you were one of the few people...
Hands On Professor Layton & The New World Of Steam - New World, But Feels Like The Old Prof
As puzzling as ever
It has been a while since we’ve seen Professor Layton and his protege Luke. For a while, the mind-bending puzzle series seemed like a Nintendo mainstay - at least on the DS and 3DS. The last game starred Katrielle Layton, the daughter of the titular Professor, and received rather mixed reviews when it came out for 3DS in 2017...
Hands On 'Royalty Free For All' Looks To Smash It With A Cosy Fighting Format & Timeless Roster
Domain game
Over the course of 20 years and five games, Nintendo-employed game director Masahiro Sakurai wove together five decades of video game lore to build the ultimate fighting game franchise: Super Smash Bros., more or less inventing the 2D platform fighter genre in the process. And look, it’s a madcap concept right off the rip to...
Round Up The Previews Are In For Super Mario Party Jamboree
The party starts this October
Super Mario Party Jamboree is on its way to the Switch this October and the first batch of previews are now rolling in. You can view our own 'hands on' here on Nintendo Life - we think it has great potential based on our time with it so far: "Our time with Super Mario Party Jamboree may have been brief, but it was...
Hands On Super Mario Party Jamboree Brings Together The Best Of Both Worlds
It's Mario 'Par-tay'
“Super Mario Party, Mario Party Superstars, Mario Party 1, 2, & 3; what does that tell you about Mario Party games on Switch” “There’s too many of them?” “Or, people like them, let’s release some more of them.” That’s how we imagine the initial pitch for
Hands On Zelda: Echoes Of Wisdom Brings Tantalising Creativity To The 2D Template
Echo, Echo, Echo, what's going on here?
It’s fairly safe to say that everyone was pretty jazzed when Nintendo announced The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. We haven’t had a new top-down Zelda game since 2013’s A Link Between Worlds, assuming of course you don’t count Tri Force Heroes, and if that was your mindset, we wouldn't entirely...
Feature Blasphemous Devs Talk Switching From Metroidvania To RTS Stealth In 'The Stone Of Madness'
“Failing is part of what makes this game fun”
The Game Kitchen has been cookin’ good. With Blasphemous and Blasphemous 2, the Spanish developer quickly gained a stellar reputation thanks to some of the best Metroidvanias to emerge in recent years. Their prickly difficulty, moody gothic vibes, and disconcerting take on Andalucian Catholic...
Hands On Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind - A Simple Brawler With Promising Enemy Variety
The hour for morphin' is upon us
The beat ‘em up genre has had a grand resurgence in recent years. We've been treated to genre-defining entries like Streets of Rage 4, River City Girls, and the fantastic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge. And now, following the success of the heroes in a half-shell, Atari 50 developer Digital...
Hands On Epic Mickey: Rebrushed - A Fresh Coat Of Paint For A Once-Flawed Platformer
Dis-ney mess around with the upgrades
Even almost 14 years after it was first released, it still hasn’t really set in that Deus Ex creator Warren Spector’s first game after a six-year break was not only a Mickey Mouse platformer, but one exclusively made for the Nintendo Wii after years of being a PC-only developer. To make matters even wilder,...
Hands On King Of Meat - Fun And Foolish Hack-And-Slash With A Side Of Mario Maker
Felled Guys
It's safe to say that King of Meat has sprung out of nowhere. Developed by Guildford-based studio Glowmade and published by Amazon Games, it was one of the genuinely new announcements in Gamescom's Opening Night Live showcase, and you may be wondering what exactly it has in store. We were in the same boat when we were invited by the...
Hands On Emio - The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club - Rated M For 'Murder'
Prologue + Chapter One impressions
As an M-rated game being published by Nintendo, there's certainly been a lot more interest in Emio - The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club in the lead-up to its release than there might have been with a more...well, Nintendo-esque content rating attached. Whether it deserves the full-blown adult treatment, we've...
Round Up The Previews Are In For Ace Attorney Investigations Collection
Out on Switch this September
The famous prosecutor Miles Edgeworth is returning this September in Capcom's Ace Attorney Investigations Collection. The first batch of "hands on" have now gone live, including our own here on Nintendo Life which also happens to include an interview with three members of the development team. Here's our closing...
"I fear I may have dad jokes syndrome"
Can you believe it, Ace Attorney fans? We're almost at the end of the incredible journey that has been the AA Switch remakes, and honestly, we never thought we'd see the day – let alone so soon. The Ace Attorney Investigations Collection, comprising the first and second games in the Edgeworth-focused...
Round Up The First Impressions Of Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection Are In
'Hands on' direct from EVO 2024
At EVO 2024 this year, Capcom gave fans, influencers and games media the chance to go hands on with the upcoming release Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics. A few weeks on, we've now got some first impressions doing the rounds online. So, here's a handful of them, starting with the fighting game...
Hands On Zelda, But With Mind-Bending Perspective Puzzles - We Take 'Cassette Boy' For A Spin
Giant cube-shaped cat fights and "The Schrödinger System"
BitSummit, held in Kyoto every sweltering hot summer, plays host to an incredible amount of indie developers from across the globe. As you might expect, it can be rather hard to stand out – so much so that it was even difficult for us to curate a list of impressive Switch games down to...
Hands On 'Reggie: The Game' Is A Promising, Gravity-Defying Platformer That Oozes Charm
Note: No relation to NoA's ex-President
Playing around with gravity in platformers isn't anything new; Super Mario Galaxy is a prime example of the concept done right, but Limbo also performed a commendable job during the latter stages of its short campaign. Being able to manipulate gravity throughout an entire game, though? That's a pretty new one...
Hands On SteamWorld Heist II Expands On A Beloved 3DS Title, But Is It What Fans Really Want?
Sail and strategise
Is there any genre SteamWorld is afraid to tackle? Starting life as an RTS in SteamWorld Tower Defense, Image & Form’s long-running anthology series has been to space, the Wild West and it’s even taken on the form of a fairy tale. And while Dig, the Metroidvania-style series, is arguably the most popular, many have a soft...
Hands On Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition - All The Trappings Of A Game Night Great
Best of the NES
Nintendo recently invited us to go hands-on with Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition ahead of its 18th July release date. Below, both Zion and Jim have shared what they made of it. First up, let's hear from Zion... When Nintendo first revealed the upcoming Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition for Switch back in
Hands On Can Lord Of The Rings Spice Up A Stale Genre With 'Tales Of The Shire'?
"Is it juicy? Is it scrumptiously crunchable?"
Right at the beginning of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, ‘adventure’ is a bit of a dirty word. When the wizard Gandalf first meets the timid Bilbo Baggins, a comfort-loving, tobacco-smoking Hobbit, he asks, “I am looking for someone to share in an adventure that I am arranging, and it’s very...
Hands On 'The Plucky Squire' - Wit And Charm Enough To Make Nintendo Jealous
Child's play
Walking into the Devolver’s booth for The Plucky Squire at Summer Game Fest Play Days, we felt like we were going back to our childhood. There was a huge, colourful mural on the wall, depicting All Possible Future’s upcoming adventure game in front of us. A cute, cosy couch was positioned to our left; soft plush, and a deep...
Hands On 'Hello Kitty Island Adventure' Was By Far Our Biggest Surprise Of Summer Game Fest
So much more than "Sanrio meets Animal Crossing"
“One World, Connecting Smiles.” That’s the tagline Sanrio, the company responsible for creating Hello Kitty, established back in 2021. Its brand is all about 'Minna Nakayoku', which means 'all of us friends' or 'Getting Along Together'. Unity, friendship, and love encompass the world of Sanrio,...
Hands On Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake Is Much More Than A Pretty Picture
The host with the Baramost
Square Enix recently invited us to check out the upcoming Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake — both at its London HQ and at Summer Game Fest — to see how it plays. Below, both Jim and Alana have some detailed thoughts on their time with the game. First up, Jim paints us a picture... Square Enix's Dragon Quest III HD-2D...
Hands On 'Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure' Is A Rubix Cube Zelda-Like, And We Love It
Disadventure
Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure really sets itself apart from other puzzle games. We’ve seen plenty of sliding-tile puzzlers over the years, but Furniture & Mattress’ adventure is defined by its framing. It’s not an RPG, but it absolutely feels like one in many different ways. You have to use weapons to defeat certain...
Hands On 'LEGO Horizon' Builds A Welcome Entry Point To Sony's Series
Building Zero Dawn
While rumors for LEGO Horizon Adventures had been making the rounds the week leading up to Summer Game Fest, we never could have imagined we’d see the Nintendo Switch logo appear at the end of its hilarious reveal at the live show. PC, for sure, but Aloy on Nintendo? This made us wipe our eyes in amazement, as other than the...
Hands On 'Gris' Devs Are Ready To Make Us Cry Again With The Beautiful 'Neva'
Cry me a Neva
Just two games in, and Nomada Studio has already established a brand for itself. GRIS, the developer’s first game, explores the five stages of grief beautifully, allowing colour to paint a grey world of pain – it’s a stunning piece of art and a game that’s almost guaranteed to make you cry. The studio’s next project, Neva,...
Hands On Silent Hill Meets Teen High School Horror In Blumhouse's 'Fear The Spotlight'
Spotlighting old-school horror
Blumhouse Productions exploded onto the scene in 2009 as a big deal in the horror film world. The studio had been around since 2002, but Paranormal Activity put it on the map. The use of home cameras to create something that felt much older than it actually was recaptured interest in the 'found footage' genre a decade...
Hands On Luigi's Mansion 2 HD Delivers More Than Just A Hi-Def Upgrade
Dark Moon rising
There's always been something very tactile, very tangible about the Luigi's Mansion experience. It comes mostly, we guess, from how this most terrified of heroes chooses to tip-toe and panic-run around levels. He moves differently, is more animated and purposeful than your usual game protagonist, and the world around him is designed...
Hands On Sonic X Shadow Generations Is A Love Letter To Sonic Adventure 2
Shadow Superstars
Back in 2011, Sonic Generations felt like an attempt to win back long-time Sonic fans. Whether they grew up with 2D Sonic or the 3D adventures, both sides of the fanbase were becoming frustrated with the attempts at experimentation, and the supposed abandonment of what made Sonic great – fast, frantic, flowing action. Sonic X...
Round Up The Previews Are In For Monster Hunter Stories (Switch)
The 3DS title soars onto Switch next month
The 3DS outing Monster Hunter Stories makes a return next month and ahead of its release previews have now gone live. In case you missed our previous coverage, this latest version will include "refined graphics", full English and Japanese voice acting, a new Museum Mode as well as some content that was...
Hands On Revisiting The Tale In 'Monster Hunter Stories' On Switch
A light bite
Capcom is one of the titans of the gaming industry, and among its most successful and powerful franchises is Monster Hunter. Yet it’s easy to forget that, for many years, the series was exclusive to one platform holder – first Sony systems and then a spell with Nintendo starting with Monster Hunter Tri on Wii. On top of repeated...
Hands On Hades 2 Is A Hell Of A Time, Even In Early Access
Switch successor release, then?
Hades II marks a first for Supergiant Games. This is the first time the studio has revisited a world, its characters, and their stories, and as a result, is its very first direct sequel. In a way, that might seem disappointing, but this is Supergiant Games we're talking about. Hades is a masterclass in narrative...
