The Blog

The president has been kidnapped by ninjas! Are you a bad enough dude to watch a YouTube video that revolves around a political figure without complaining about how video game retrospectives should never talk about political figures?

Bad Dudes and Flying Dragon make an interesting study in contrasts, because both largely revolve around being Kung Fu clones. However, one is very unambitious but looks great and plays reasonably well, while the other is a mad-eyed attempt to mash together two tangentially related genres and utterly fails at the task.

Ultimately, only one has the absolute dumbest narrative premise in the entire NES library, and that alone is enough to make it a classic… while the other deserves to be relegated to the dustbin of irrelevance.

The Trial of Kharzoid is an arkanoidvania. It combines classic brick-breaking games like Arkanoid with Castlevania’s classic elements like exploration, defeating huge bosses and eating chicken you find in walls! The goal is to navigate through the deadly levels and go back to Kharzoid’s tower to defeat this son of a witch. You will learn more about the lore by talking to NPCs.

The land of Xyleria was ruled by Kharzoid, a dark and powerful wizard, versed in occult magic. In his twisted imagination, he conceived a diabolical game filled with traps and foes. Each month he would take a prisoner, transfer his soul into a magical skull and send him into this diabolical maze. A hero finally appeared, and stood up to the challenge!

The land of Xyleria lies in ruins after Kharzoid took over. Some people took refuge in the temple, some in the forest. There are several areas to explore:

• The town ruins
• The rocky plain
• A desecrated temple
• The forest of Despair
• The devasted plain near Kharzoid’s lair
• Kharzoid’s lair

You can navigate back and forth between levels you have completed. There is more than 80 levels! Including boss, maze, town and puzzle levels.

If you’d like to help The Trial of Kharzoid make its way to the NES, you can fund the game through Kickstarter here.

Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is coming to Switch on July 18th, 2024, which means we’re 5 weeks away from launch. There are plenty of retailers to scoop this package up from, and that includes Amazon. Those who pre-order the title from Amazon Japan will get to take home the above acrylic stand.

Paying tribute to the unforgettable in-person Nintendo World Championships held in 1990, 2015 and 2017, Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition challenges players to battle through bitesized bits of classic blockbusters. Both old-school and new-school players can enjoy the rush of over 150 speedrun challenges taken from 13 classic NES games.

Warm up by setting and beating your own best times in the single-player Speedrun Mode – unlocking new challenges and unique in-game pins along the way – then up to 8 players can compete locally in Party Mode. Nintendo Switch Online members can also enter World Championships Mode to submit their best times in five challenges that rotate each week and compete for a spot on the global leaderboard. Test your mettle against speedrun challenges taken from 13 NES titles.

Premium Edition Games has announced that both Jim & Dill The Legend of Weed N’ Stiff and Jim & Dill II: Bobson’s Revenge are getting physical NES releases, and you can snag each one starting June 11th, 2024.

For the first time in the band’s history, Weed N’ Stiff have released an adventure video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Join the adventure! Jim Weed and Dill Stiff have been kidnapped by the jealous Joe Bobson, leader of the rival band Moo Cow. You’ll have to battle your way through the seaside, mountains, caves, and snow to save the Weed N’ Stiff boys! Along the way, a cast of characters from the Weed N’ Stiff universe will help you on your quest. Sort of. At least there’s a lot of WS references and even some of the band’s music in glorious 8-bit.

Save the band from Joe Bobson’s clutches!

Jim & Dill - The Legend of Weed N’ Stiff (under the original title is Weed N’ Stiff) is ranked at #2 on Seth Abrams’ list of best homebrew RPG games!

This game stands shoulder to shoulder with some of the great huge adventures from the NES like Zelda 1 or Crystalis, featuring a big world and top down combat!

The game was even updated for this release to include a bunch of new features like

• Vastly Expanded World
• Music by Logan E. Schad and Dill Stiff
• Vastly Expanded/Re-written Story and Dialogue
• New Characters
• A Secret Ending (Find It!)
• New Enemies
• Hidden Lizards
• Secret warps/passages
• Graphics and Cutscene Enhancements
• New Hit Detection and Mechanics
• Get Weapons Gradually
• Various Quality of Life Improvements

Take control of the band Weed N’ Stiff, and fight to save Rock N Roll!

Jim Weed and Dill Stiff have had their musical essence stolen by Joe Bobson, singer of the rival band Moo Cow. You need to help the boys get their essence back, defeat Bobson once and for all, and restore the band’s legacy.

Venture from home, throughout the land, to outer space and beyond. Guided by the band’s #1 Fan, you will encounter enemies and mini bosses from the band’s 20+ year history (plus a few new surprises!).

Original game score written by Logan E. Schad, along with some classic 8-bit Weed N Stiff tunes!

Switching up the perspective, Jim and Dill II goes for a platforming action approach to the NES glory, and it does not disappoint! Full of humor, action and great NES style graphics, Jim & Dill II concludes the story started by the first, and feeling like a natural progression for a series during the NES era!

If you’d like to get a closer look at the physical options available for both of these games, you can check out the Premium Edition Games store listings here.

Limited Run Games is helping keep the NES alive with another physical release. You’ll be able to pick up a cartridge for PioPow come June 14th, 2024, and there’s just one option available. This package is priced at $60 and includes the following:

• physical box
• instruction booklet
• game cartridge

In PioPow, blow up dungeons, outsmart your enemies and save your kin in an explosive roguelite.

• Procedurally generated levels, so every playthrough is different
• Collectible items, explosive combos and destructible terrain
• 16 different enemies each with its own distinctive behavior
• 6 worlds each will with a unique environment and hazards
• Playable cutscenes, secrets, and many surprises!

If you’d like to take a closer look at this package, you can visit the LRG store page.

There are some major game showcases and presentations to come, and some of them are pulling back the curtain in just a matter of hours. Those events will reveal new games for the latest platforms, but what if you’re a more retro-minded gamer? Well you’re in luck, as the Homebrew Games Summer Showcase is right up your alley.

The whole point of the Homebrew Games Summer Showcase is to spotlight brand-new games that are heading to decades-old platforms. While Nintendo may have long since supporting hardware like the SNES or GBA, dedicated retro enthusiasts are keeping the platforms alive with fresh experiences.

The 2024 Homebrew Games Summer Showcase featured a whopping 120 games from developers around the world, and the lion’s share of titles are heading to Nintendo’s legacy platforms. There are games in the works for the NES, SNES, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance and even the Virtual Boy! No matter what Nintendo retro flavor you enjoy, the 2024 HGSS has something for you.

You can check out the presentation above to get quick looks at all of these hot homebrew titles, or if you’d rather just get down to details, you can find a complete spreadsheet of every single game discussed here.

My Nintendo is back with another round of goodies for you to spend your Platinum Points on, and this latest batch of items is geared towards dear-old Dad for Father’s Day…or at least that’s what Nintendo says. I’m not a Dad, but I sure as hell want some of this swag!

Please your game-loving pops with a pack of retro postcards featuring Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, and Nintendo 64 games! And remember, you can play a selection classic NES, Super NES, and Game Boy games with any Nintendo Switch Online membership. And with a Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack membership, you get additional access to a library of Game Boy Advance, Nintendo 64, and SEGA Genesis™ titles. You can redeem 450 My Nintendo Platinum Points to get these postcards.

Need a cool card for Dad? You can bring a smile to Dad’s face with these retro Father’s Day cards. These can be picked up on My Nintendo for 30 Platinum Points.

Give dad the gift of some of his favorite things wrapped into one fun coupon book! Redeem your 30 Platinum Points and add this to your gift. If that’s not your thing, you can add some style to your scrapbook with colorful cut-outs inspired by the Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. These cut-outs are priced at 30 Platinum Points as well.

For links to all of these items, you can visit this My Nintendo Father’s Day page.

Our pals at Rare are back to apologize for that whole John Elway mess with a slick, high-speed combat racer. At the same time, they’ve ratcheted up the difficulty to utterly painful levels as a way to punish everyone who complained about John Elway. Our pals at Rare giveth, and they taketh away.

As long as you can abide by the extreme challenge level, which would inform future original productions by Rare, Cobra Triangle has a lot going for it. Technical finesse! A variety of mission types! Slick graphics! A Gradius-inspired power-up system! And, somehow, it rips off Ocean’s Waterworld for Virtual Boy six years before Ocean’s Waterworld or the Virtual Boy ever existed. That’s a neat trick. Truly, was anything beyond Rare’s abilities in the NES era?

Over the last decade or so, Nintendo and Microsoft have become quite close with one another…business-wise. Microsoft and Nintendo have worked together on countless deals, and Microsoft has even brought over a bunch of their games to the Switch. Now we see that respect for one another continue, and in a very interesting way.

The official Microsoft Developer YouTube Channel has just uploaded a video showcasing how to get .NET running on a Nintendo Entertainment System. Microsoft dev Jonathan Peppers walks us through a “hobby project” of making the C# program run on Nintendo’s breakthrough console. This talk covers topics like reverse engineering, opcodes, MSIL, binary formats, and much much more!

This video is one of many sessions delivered for the Microsoft Build 2024 event. As for Peppers himself, he’s a Microsoft engineer on the Android workload for .NET. Last but not least, for those who don’t know, .NET is a free and open-source, managed computer software framework for Windows, Linux, and macOS…and now NES!

Rit and Tam were living in a peaceful fairy village along with their mother after their father had passed away. Suddenly, the people and creatures in the village become aggressive and an evil monster kidnaps their mother. Now after 30 years, the Rod Land games finally arrive in North America for the first time!

In 1992, ports for the NES and Game Boy appeared but were limited to Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain. The minimal amount of text made it easy to port, however, it never saw a physical release in the United States. This was possibly due to the SNES launching in 1990 and Nintendo of America pulling publishing support for the aging NES to focus on the newer console

With the rise of the internet, the price to own Rod Land has ballooned, regardless of the port or region. Today, a complete set of the NES PAL version would cost you well into the hundreds of dollars and even more for a new copy. Even in Japan, collectors have started pushing the prices up at some Japanese retro game shops. While pricing for the Game Boy and Famicom isn’t far behind, the price to own and enjoy Rod Land is very high, even after its release 30 years ago.

Retro-Bit Publishing Rod Land Collectors for NES

• First official physical release in North America
• Enchanted 8-bit cartridge for NES® consoles
• Exclusive Acrylic Cartridge Display Stand
• Numbered hardcover magnetic cartridge packaging
• Full-colored instruction manual
• MSRP: $54.99/€64,99

Retro-Bit Publishing Rod Land Collectors for Gameboy

• First official physical release in North America
• Silver Sparkle cartridge for Game Boy®
• Numbered hardcover magnetic cartridge packaging
• Full-colored instruction manual
• MSRP: $44.99/€49,99

You can pre-order your NES or Game Boy copy of Rod Land through Limited Run Games.

This summer, Nintendo is bringing joy and excitement to cities across the U.S. with the Play Nintendo Tour! From June 13 to September 2, families can dive into the fun and adventure of Nintendo at various stops nationwide. This free event is packed with interactive experiences, photo-ops with beloved Nintendo characters, and playable demos of the latest Nintendo Switch games.

Character Meet and Greets

Get ready to meet Luigi, Princess Peach, Pikachu, Isabelle, Tom Nook, and more! Snap a photo with your favorite characters and create unforgettable memories.

Interactive Activities and Games

There’s something for everyone at the Play Nintendo Tour! Whether you’re a seasoned gamer or new to the world of Nintendo, you’ll find plenty of activities to enjoy:

• Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD Photo-Op: Brave the spooky scene from Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD, releasing on June 27.
• Princess Peach: Showtime! Demo: Walk the red carpet and play as Peach in her theatrical adventure, transforming into different personas like Swordfighter Peach and Patissiere Peach.
• Super Mario Bros. Wonder Demo: Experience the magic of Wonder Flowers in this new Mario game. Play as Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, Toads, Toadette, Yoshi, and Nabbit and discover exciting new power-ups.
• Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Races: Rev up your engines and race through thrilling speedways in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and the Booster Course Pass DLC.
• Pokémon Adventures: Pose with Pikachu and learn about the Pokémon in Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet.

Additional Game Demos

Try out other fantastic games such as Mario vs. Donkey Kong, Nintendo Switch Sports, Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Pikmin 4, Just Dance 2024, and starting July 18, Nintendo World Championships: NES™ Edition.

Family-Friendly Fun

Parents and kids can enjoy personality quizzes, jumbo puzzles, memory matching games, and more. There’s even a claw machine where you can win fun items and plushies of your favorite Nintendo characters!

Exclusive Rewards

Guests will receive a free Play Nintendo Tour passport to collect stickers by participating in activities. Complete the passport to earn Nintendo goodies like Play Nintendo bracelets, coloring pages, and a free 14-day trial code for Nintendo Switch Online (while supplies last). Attendees with a Nintendo Account can check in with My Nintendo to receive a Super Mario-themed gift and 100 My Nintendo Platinum Points to redeem for rewards.

The Play Nintendo Tour will be stopping at the following locations:

• Salt Lake City, UT: The Shops at South Town, June 13 – June 16
• Denver, CO: FlatIron Crossing, June 20 – June 23
• Houston, TX: The Woodlands Mall, June 27 – June 30
• Des Moines, IA: Jordan Creek Town Center, July 11 – July 14
• Philadelphia, PA: King of Prussia, July 18 – July 21
• East Rutherford, NJ: American Dream®, July 25 – July 28
• Greenville, SC: Haywood Mall, August 1 – August 4
• Miami, FL: Aventura Mall, August 8 – August 11
• Minneapolis, MN: Mall of America®, August 30 – September 2

1989 has been a year of impressive maturation for the NES platform, but Baseball Stars really shows how far along the console—and console gaming as a whole—have come since the early days.

Sure, it’s another baseball game, but this one is packed with customization, season and career progression simulation, and even a business management aspect. All of this is saved to one of those newfangled lithium batteries… you know, like the ones previously used only for massive timesink RPGs.

This is a meaty take on baseball, offering the depth of a PC coaching sim but the snappy immediacy of a console sports game. It’s pretty much an all-time classic, and easily the single best console baseball game ever seen to this point in history.

You can play classic The Legend of Zelda games and many more from Game Boy, Super NES and NES with a Nintendo Switch Online membership. With a Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack membership, you can access Nintendo 64 and Game Boy Advance games in the series too!

We’re not quite sure why Nintendo felt now was the time to showcase Legend of Zelda games for the Switch Online service, but we’re not complaining. With so many classic adventures on the service, there’s a treasure trove of experiences awaiting new franchise fans.

It’ll likely be quite some time until we see the next mainline installment from Link and the gang, so why not spend some time with the classics?

The console wars of the 90s are alive and well, thanks to a new YouTube video from Retro Comparisons. In the channel’s latest upload, they show side by side comparisons of every single video game that was released on both Nintendo and Sega platforms. The video spans multiple generations, all the way from the NES and the Master System, to the GameCube and DreamCast, and even includes arcade games and unreleased ports.

Altogether, the video is over nine hours long, featuring a few minutes of gameplay of over one thousand titles. If you’ve ever wondered about a specific game and how the Nintendo version compares to its Sega counterpart, it’s in here somewhere! Who knows, maybe you can forward this to a friend from grade school and finally settle a decades old playground argument over which version of Aladdin is better.

While my first taste of gaming came from the Atari 7800 and the arcade, the bulk of my childhood was spent playing NES games. I am very much a product of that era, which means I’ve carried certain sensibilities with me throughout the years.

For better or worse, there were things NES games did that still resonate with me deeply to this day. Be it a design choice, the product of an industry finding its way, or nothing more than the sign of hardware limitations, NES games did things differently. In my opinion, one of the hallmarks of NES gaming were experiences that didn’t give you all the details. Multiple games kept a number of their mechanics, instructions and features secret, leaving the player to discover them on their own.Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest is a perfect example of this, but it’s also a game that took this approach to the extreme.

Now, at the ripe old age of 42, I still look back fondly on those days of mystery-filled NES gaming. I’m not someone who’ll say gaming was better back then and we’ve lost our way, but for my personal tastes, there’s a bit too much hand-holding in today’s games. I 100% think those components should be in every game, but as the player, I’d love to have an option of turning hints and prodding off. Let me wander, get lost, become confused…I want to figure things out on my own. For me, nothing beats that feeling of an “Aha!” moment where everything clicks and you find your way out of a conundrum that’s had you stuck for hours.

That long-winded intro takes us right up to Animal Well, a Metroidvania that puts you in control of a sentient blob. As the blob, you’re plopped down into a mystery well that’s filled with creatures, puzzles, and seemingly limitless possibilities. From the opening moments to the very end of the game, you’re left to your own devices to figure out what to do, where to go, and how to make your way through the adventure. You’ll need a keen eye, patience and a sense of exploration to see Animal Well through to its end, and for an ancient gamer like myself, it couldn’t have been a more enjoyable experience.