Cadence of Hyrule marks a fairly unprecedented step for Nintendo. While it’s fundamentally a mash-up of The Legend of Zelda and Crypt of the NecroDancer, the next Zelda game is still being made by a small, third-party indie developer, and is even being called a “Nindie” by Nintendo itself. As exciting as the announcement is, how the heck did that happen?

In the century and a bit since its founding in 1889, Nintendo has made playing cards, designed toys, hired out taxis and briefly run love hotels, but it is the last 40 years or so that have made it a cultural icon. Having dabbled in the video games business throughout the 1970s, in the 1980s Nintendo released the Game & Watch and the Nintendo Entertainment System, and since then it has introduced hundreds of millions of people to the joy of video games – from 90s kids squinting at monochrome...

It's been two long years since The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild rewired the connections inside my brain. It messed me up. In some ways you might say it ruined video games. Other video games. Sure, in the time since its release I've played other games, I might have even enjoyed some of those games. But every single one of them have been filtered through the earth-shattering prism that is Nintendo's Breath of the Wild. And trust me, it's not a flattering light.

Nintendo sometimes makes a big deal about milestones—Mario's 30th, Zelda's 25th, and the "Year of Luigi" are all recent examples that come to mind—but one thing you won't usually hear them mention is how long it's been since something went away. Luckily, my encyclopedic knowledge of pointless factoids stands at the ready!

Nintendo has been doing great in the past year. The Nintendo Switch is the fastest-selling console of the current generation, and Nintendo sold more games than any other publisher during 2018. Six of the top 20 selling games in 2018 were actually Nintendo Switch exclusives. Compared to Sony and Microsoft who were trying to turn PlayStation and Xbox into large entertainment brands, Nintendo is focusing on making games more portable, accessible, and just plain fun with the Switch.

The Nintendo Switch is the most versatile home console ever created. To call it a home console even is to do it an injustice, as its battery-powered handheld mode allows it to act as a supercharged portable games machine too. But its detachable controllers and central tablet-like core processing-and-display unit might make it even more versatile still – the Nintendo Switch could be getting VR support.

If you’re living in Japan and modifying save data on Nintendo Switch, you’d probably want to stop whatever you’re doing right now. Japanese lawmakers have recently passed an amendment to the Unfair Competition Prevention Law. The amendment, in layman’s terms, has made the modification of video game save data illegal in Japan.

Shuntaro Furukawa replaced Tatsumi Kimishima last year as Nintendo's global president. Shortly after he was appointed, Furukawa mentioned how he "grew up" with Nintendo and would respect its traditions: originality and flexibility. With this in mind, during a recent interview with Nikkei - as translated by Nintendo Everything - Furukawa touched on these company traditions when asked a series of questions about Nintendo's past, present and future.

Apple needs its next big thing—fast. With its shares down nearly a third in the past three months and the financial guidance bombshell earlier this year, the burning question turns to what Apple (ticker: AAPL) can do to spark a turnaround. On Jan. 2, the smartphone maker lowered its December-quarter revenue guidance 8% below the Wall Street consensus. The announcement confirmed the market’s worst fears that a negative growth year for the iPhone was ahead.

A copy of the original NES game 'The Legend of Zelda' has sold at auction for more than $3300.

Nintendo is terrible when it comes to the internet, and in a lot of ways, the Switch Online subscription service is no different. There are annoying restrictions around cloud saves, for instance, and voice chat is relegated to a mobile app. It can feel archaic, especially compared to Xbox Live or PlayStation Plus. But there’s one aspect of the service that has become an indispensable part of how I use my Switch: the free retro games.

Nintendo has announced a ranking of the Top 30 Nintendo Switch Games downloaded in 2018, and the top winners are no surprise. In First place, smashing all the competition, was Super Smash Brothers Ultimate. This is the newest in the Super Smash Brothers franchise, and was one of the most anticipated games from Nintendo. Second place went to another popular Nintendo franchise, Super Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. You can’t help but like all of the fun racing and cool items you can use.

This week, Nvidia in a press release revealed that they have released an update for The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess on the Nvidia Shield TV in China which improves over 4,400 textures using their deep learning technology. [Thanks, Chinese Nintendo!] They released the above comparison picture, with the top representing the original 1080p upscaling done for the original release, compared to the improved textures shown in the second picture.

We all know that the Nintendo Switch is a fantastic little piece of hardware. However, there is a smattering of small complaints about the device. One such gripe I have heard about more than a few times is that the Switch does not offer any sort of built-in web browser. As far as I am concerned, it is totally justified to expect just about any handheld device to come with a browser.

The latest NPD video game hardware sales in the United States have started to trickle in for December 2018. Obviously it was an extremely busy month for the three console manufacturers during the Christmas period and it was the Nintendo Switch which came in first. The Nintendo Switch was followed by the Xbox One console and then Sony’s PlayStation 4.

Doom and Zelda don’t have a lot in common beyond heroes killing a bunch of monsters. But one modder, Exkodius, has spent the last three years trying to recreate the original The Legend of Zelda in the Doom engine.

Nintendo, it seems, is getting in trouble with its smartphone development partners for being nice. Per sources of the Wall Street Journal, Nintendo is concerned about being seen as greedy by consumers, and actively tells its partners - including DeNA and CyberAgent - to adjust games so that players don't spend too much. As for why a publicly listed company would try to make less money, a Nintendo employee apparently told WSJ that the company sees smartphone games more as advertising for its core console business than a straight moneymaking opportunity.

For everyone who is hoping that the Nintendo Switch will get more third-party support, you’ll be happy to know that PORNHUB has announced in an official press release that it promises support for the Switch. The only caveat is that Nintendo has to release an official internet browser for the system. This announcement came from Pornhub’s 2017 year in review series in which the extremely popular porn-sharing website is revealing different statistics for last year.

The day that was prophesied by a light switch is finally upon us: Diablo III is coming to Nintendo Switch this year. The news was meant to be announced tomorrow, but appeared today on Forbes in a post that’s since been deleted. Diablo III Eternal Collection on Switch will include the original game, the Reaper of Souls expansion, the Rise of the Necromancer pack, and all updates the game has received thus far. You’ll also be able to get an armor set that makes you look like Ganondorf from The Legend of Zelda, because I guess Ganondorf would be mad about the devil muscling in on his “crown prince of evil” turf.

Nintendo knows exactly what it does well. Innovative technology combined with charming gameplay has always been at the heart of the company's philosophy. It's been an extraordinarily successful combination - and one which was once again on display at this year's Gamescom, as I discovered when playing Super Mario Party's new two-tablet mode, Toad's Rec Room.

We don’t know everything about Nintendo’s new Switch console yet, but a first look trailer has given us a taste of what the system is capable of. Imaginations are already racing with the possibilities in store for Nintendo fans everywhere, and the world is endlessly curious as to what new titles the Switch will bring. Though we likely won’t know the launch lineup until January at the earliest, the wide range of titles available on Nintendo’s popular virtual console store are already begging to be played in a portable format. We have yet to see Gamecube games officially on sale in Nintendo’s e-Shop...

Nintendo posted an exciting tweet when they noticed that Mario Kart was trending worldwide! However, they backpedaled after realizing it was because Stormy Daniels compared Donald Trump’s penis size to one of its characters! Nintendo is apologizing after the gaming brand applauded the fact that its game Mario Kart, along with the character, Toad were trending worldwide on September 18.

New firmware update of Nintendo Switch the version 6.0.0 is slowly kickstarting the new era of playing with Switch Online. So far there was no official mention on this from Nintendo, but several users have reported that update to version 6.0.0 set up an upload limit on Switch console. If you have this new firmware your upload speed won’t go above 8Mbps.

Mario Party is, at this point, a 20-year-old Nintendo franchise that feels like a constant staple of every system. Along with console staples like Mario Kart and Mario’s various sports outings, a Mario Party for Nintendo Switch felt inevitable. The game’s contents feel inevitable, too — there are have been 10 numbered entries on consoles before it, after all. You play on a digital board game with your friends as Mario universe avatars, and you all end up possibly disliking each other at the end.

Nintendo hype is at a high right now, thanks to a recent Nintendo Direct event and upcoming games like Pokemon Let's Go and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. But Nintendo had to go through some rough patches to get here. Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America, spoke at the GeekWire Summit 2018 on Wednesday. On stage, Fils-Aime discussed the success of the Nintendo Switch and how the company had to learn from the shortcomings of the Wii U, as reported by GeekWire.

Alwa’s Awakening looks like a pretty entertaining retro game. The title recently launched on Switch, over a year after its release on PC. It’s done VERY well for itself. Record-setting well, in fact. Mikael Forslind, an owner of developer Elden Pixels, revealed today that Alwa’s Awakening sold more copies on Switch in its first week than it did in its first month on PC. An unequal comparison due to the passage of time and the different marketplaces, but something to be proud of, nonetheless.

During the Super Dragon Quest X TV Fall Festival 10-Hour Special 2018 broadcast, Dragon Quest executive producer Yu Miyake talked about wanting to make an offline version, and possible for the West. [Thanks, Gamestalk.] Back in August 25, 2018, Yosuke Saito, who retired from his position as the producer of the game, stated that Dragon Quest X is packed with excellent stories that even lineup with the conventional Dragon Quest series. Saito said “We talk about an offline version here and there, but I don’t think it’s impossible. It’d be great if we could introduce it to customers.”

One of the Switch's most popular titles - and one of the most popular entries in Nintendo's 32-year-old series - is The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The game is particularly noteworthy thanks to the way in which it breaks away from the norm of the series, ditching features that have been present from the very start, but it could have even further removed from the classic formula, as we're about to find out.

Super Mario Bros. 3 was launched in Japan on October 23rd 1988 (and every game since has been sub par). It’s incomprehensible that this isn’t a globally recognized holiday, but nonetheless, we’re here to help you celebrate this momentous occasion in gaming history.

Mario Segale, the namesake for Nintendo’s Mario character and a successful American real estate developer, passed away on October 27, Kotaku has learned. Segale was surrounded by his family in Tukwila, Washington. He was 84.

I expected a lot of tests to be performed on the Nintendo Switch$299.00 at Amazon this week in the run up to its launch, but a taste test was not one of them. More specifically, those in possession of a Switch and games are tasting the game cartridges. And apparently they taste horrible, to the point where you want to but can't forget the nasty taste left in your mouth.

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An Arizona couple have been ordered to pay Nintendo a whopping $12.23m (£9.5m) in damages for running a pair of sites which offered pirated ROMs. Jacob and Cristian Mathias admitted copyright and trademark infringement for operating LoveROMS.com and LoveRetro.co until July this year, when Nintendo intervened. The sites, registered under Mathias Designs, a company set up by the husband and wife, offered pirated versions of games such as Mario Kart 64, Donkey Kong Country, Pokémon Yellow and Super Mario World.

We’ve been waiting a while to see what kind of announcement producer Adi Shankar had up his sleeve -- and in just a few more hours, he’ll have it for us. Shankar, who previously worked on the animated Castlevania series for Netflix, teased on Twitter that he will be making an announcement at 1 PM PDT -- and fans of The Legend of Zelda will want to pay close attention.

On November 15, the Net saw a clip of a 2017 Mario Kart 8 tournament released, in which Yasha Haddaji, CEO of Nintendo Russia, verbally abused his employees during the livestream. While gamers are busy signing the petition calling for Haddaji’s dismissal, we have talked to the company’s former workers about the incident and found out some telling details about the CEO and the inner workings of Nintendo’s Russian office in general.