About James Moulding

I have been gaming for 30 years, starting mostly with PC Gaming, where I developed a penchant for classic point and click games. Over time I discovered Nintendo, starting with the Game Boy and the Super Mario Land games. Here, my love for Nintendo grew as I discovered many of their other franchises, from Zelda to Pokémon. These days I play a bit of everything but Nintendo and their unique creativity always keeps me coming back for more.

The Legend of Zelda – Every Journey Has a Beginning

This year, 2021, marks the 35th anniversary of the Legend of Zelda series. Over this time, The Legend of Zelda franchise has spawned twenty-seven mainline games in addition to ports/remakes, an array of spin-off titles, books, manga and even a short-lived animated series. It has become a leading Nintendo franchise, headlining the launches of both the Wii and the Nintendo Switch, finding itself behind only Mario and Pokémon in terms of its popularity as a series. The most recent mainline release, Breath of the Wild, brought us an expansive and wonderfully realised open-world experience which remains one of my personal highlights on the Switch to date. The Legend of Zelda’s origins on the NES were far more simplistic, yet no less ambitious. In this feature, I’m going to be sharing my experience playing through the NES classic for the first time, as well as looking back at my experience with the series as a whole. Read on for more.

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By |2021-02-21T00:46:48+00:00February 21st, 2021|Features, Retro, The Legend of Zelda|0 Comments
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Nintendo Direct – 17th February 2021

It would be fair to say that a new Nintendo Direct has been a long-time coming, with it being a whole five hundred and thirty days since the last full-sized Nintendo Direct took place, a Direct which showed off games such as Pokémon Sword and Shield, Luigi’s Mansion 3 and Xenoblade Chronicles Remastered. Yes, it’s really been that long! Nintendo Direct Mini’s and Partner/Indie showcases have gone some way to keeping fans ticking over, but with this year’s release schedule looking incredibly threadbare it was time to see what Nintendo have in store for Switch owners in the first half of 2021, along with a few possible surprises further down the road. Read on for some of the biggest announcements from last night’s Direct.

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By |2021-02-18T16:00:06+00:00February 18th, 2021|News, Nintendo, Nintendo Direct|0 Comments
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Mario Sports Retrospective Part One – Mario Tennis

Mario first stole our collective hearts with his phenomenal platforming adventures. From his early appearances in the Donkey Kong series, to more recent platforming escapades such as Mario Odyssey, it’s safe to say that Mario has always been at the forefront of the platforming genre. Yet, over the years, Mario and his friends have broadened their horizons, branching out into a wide variety of other titles, including the ever-popular racing series, Mario Kart, and puzzle games such as Dr Mario and Mario Picross. One of the most enduring series are the Mario Sports games, which have become a fixture on multiple Nintendo systems over the years. These have seen Mario participate in sports ranging from golf to horse riding and even competing in the Olympics with former-rival, Sonic the Hedgehog. For this series of features, I will be looking back at the Mario Sports titles beginning with my personal favourite, Mario Tennis.

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By |2021-02-12T12:18:58+00:00February 12th, 2021|Features|0 Comments
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REVIEW – Going Under

The indie game scene has had a profound impact on the gaming industry, allowing smaller developers to thrive, with lower-budget titles releasing in an industry often dominated by huge budget AAA releases. It has also allowed previously neglected and relatively unknown genres to prosper and find a new audience. Few genres have benefitted more than the rogue-lite which, along with 2D platformers, has become one of the go-to gameplay styles for many indie developers. Indie-darling Spelunky is widely considered to be the first game to coin the term rogue-lite but this genre has had some huge hits over the years, with the likes of FTL: Faster Than Light, The Binding of Isaac and Crypt of the Necrodancer proving to be hugely popular, with each putting their own spin on the rogue-lite genre. The latest developer to throw their hat into the ring is the brilliantly named Aggro Crab, with their first published game, Going Under. Yet in a world dominated by rogue-lites, can Going Under stand out from the crowd? Read on to find out.

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By |2020-11-15T00:55:05+00:00November 15th, 2020|Review|0 Comments
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Nintendo’s Forgotten Franchises – Kururin

My first forgotten franchises article extolled the virtues of Nintendo’s wonderful Wave Race series, a franchise which is long overdue a comeback. The logical next step in this series of articles would then be to continue looking back at Nintendo’s other forgotten sporting franchises – the thrilling, off-road racer, Excitebike or perhaps their exhilarating snowboarding series, 1080. Who needs logic though? Instead, let’s take a look back at the Kururin series!

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By |2020-09-27T11:20:20+00:00September 27th, 2020|Features, GameBoy, Retro|0 Comments
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REVIEW – BoxBoy! + BoxGirl!

Nintendo are perhaps best known for their character-led franchises, with the likes of Mario, Donkey Kong and Kirby being mainstays on Nintendo consoles for many years. One of their lesser-known stars is BoxBoy, who made his debut on the 3DS in 2015 and went on to star in two sequels, also on the 3DS. Developed by HAL Laboratory (creators of Kirby), the BoxBoy series were roundly praised by critics but despite this never caught on in a big way, perhaps due in part to only being available on the e-Shop outside of Japan. The latest title in the series, BoxBoy + BoxGirl, brings the character to the Switch for the first time and this time he’s bringing BoxGirl along for the ride, but is it worth playing? Read on to find out more.

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By |2020-08-20T12:48:39+00:00August 20th, 2020|Review|0 Comments
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Indie World Showcase Highlights – August 2020

The Nintendo Switch release schedule is looking a little bare at present, with Nintendo fans eagerly anticipating the next full Nintendo Direct in order to learn about the next batch of upcoming titles. Though we may still have to wait a little longer to hear the latest on Metroid Prime 4 and the like, Nintendo aren’t leaving us completely in the cold with this afternoon’s Nintendo Indie Showcase brought us information on some of the biggest Indie games coming soon to the Switchy! Read on for some of the biggest announcements from today’s reveal.

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By |2020-08-18T20:54:19+00:00August 18th, 2020|News, Nintendo, Nintendo Direct|0 Comments
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