Speechless at the seemingly hundreds of hours this probably took to build. (Thanks, Milo)

Today I finished what may be one of the finest Zelda adventures yet in Skyward Sword, and to celebrate this edition of Nintentunes is all Zelda, all the time! This time we will travel through the handheld versions of the Zelda franchise which contain fantastic music in their own right. For all those playing Skyward Sword, how do you think the music in the Wii adventure holds up? (more…)

Nintendo has a rich history of innovative and gameplay contributing hardware. You know: new hardware twists that improve the way we interactive with games. Having played all of the company’s systems since 1986, here’s how I’d rank ‘em in terms of most gameplay enabling to least gameplay enabling:

1. Nintendo DS. Whose to blame for the ongoing touch gaming revolution? This little guy. Not only that, the DS lends itself better to virtually every genre ever created. Talk about adaptive hardware. Consequently, it’s the best-selling video game system ever (console or handheld, whether made by Nintendo or not). Talk about well received.
2. Nintendo Entertainment System. Directional pads and face buttons might not have existed if it weren’t for this gray box. Joysticks are retro-chic and all, but they’re horribly imprecise when compared to gamepads that the NES pioneered. In fact, some of the best Wii and iOS games mimic the NES joypad (Wiimote turned sideways or on screen d-pad and two face buttons).
3. Wii. The only thing that keeps this from being higher on my list is the limited number of genres that benefit from motion control. Obviously, Wii works great for a lot of games, including apparatus sports (tennis, golf, bowling, etc), arcade shooters, and puzzlers, but other popular genres like platformers, first and third-person games, and others are better served overall with a gamepad. The current gaming landscape is a testament to that.  (more…)

Like many of you, I awoke to news yesterday that Nintendo had cut the price of the 3DS by an unprecedented 32% in one fell swoop. Wired Magazine called it a “fire sale.”

More unprecedented was how quickly it happened; only four months after the 3DS launch. (NOTE: Nintendo’s other slow selling systems, N64 and GameCube, saw 25% price drops six months after launch. Virtual Boy was pulled after less than a year.)

Said Nintendo President Satoru Iwata following the shocking news, “While it has happened in the past that a game system would be reduced in price in order to increase sales, it has never happened in Nintendo’s history that a console would be reduced in price so drastically and after less than six months.”

What does this all mean? I’d say it’s one of the following: (more…)

Let alone 2011.

Although it was an undeniably significant Game Boy title, Super Mario Land has never been a very good one, and the asking price of $3.99 to relive this awkward and inferior Mario misstep is absurd. As Blake said on this week’s podcast, “it’s a bad game.”

What about you, Infendo? Agree with our criticisms of Super Mario Land, or can you forgive its flaws? The symbolism of launching the eShop with a Game Boy launch title aside, is this really the right game to get the overdue service running?

See also: In case you missed it, Super Mario Land 2 stands the test of time