With 2012 off to a good start, it’s time for us to take a look back at 2011 with our annual The Year in Screenshots feature that highlights our favorite games of the year. Rather than argue about awarding a single game as our game of the year, we here at SmashPad prefer to just tell you our 25 most favorite games of the year and give each game equal billing.

If you want a glimpse of the numbers ..read more

Over the course of video game history, we’ve seen Kirby’s round, pink figure float into our hearts. We remember fondly when he inhaled his first enemy and magically, donning a similar hat, adopt the same capabilities. The most recent title for the Nintendo DS reveals a side of Kirby we never knew existed.

Kirby Mass Attack immediately reveals what to expect from our lovable hero. The story behind this chapter starts with Kirby napping in a field on the Popopo ..read more

It really wasn’t all that long ago that Nintendo looked like an old champion on the verge of a full return to form. In terms of marketshare, they have already, at least for now, reclaimed the industry they once dominated, and looked like they were about to make a similar move for the hearts and minds of gamers who felt brushed aside by the Wii’s casual-driven approach to gaming.

Then E3 came and went.

Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime asked us ..read more

Nintendo uses their press conference to celebrate The Legend of Zelda’s 25th Anniversary, give a shot in the arm for the Nintendo 3DS’ fall lineup, and unveil their next console, the Wii U.

Nintendo began their press conference with a miniature concert to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of The Legend of Zelda before talking about their full plans to continue the celebration for the rest of the year. Those plans began with the release of The Legend of ..read more

In the last few articles we speculated on what the Big Three could and should do to make their keynotes a success. Now though we’re going to branch off a little bit and let our editors express themselves a bit more. This time it’s more personal and will focus on what we’re looking forward to seeing at the show.

I think I say this every year, but I really mean it this time. This year’s E3 will ..read more

Nintendo potentially has the most exciting show of all with a brand new console to show off and a new handheld that debuted a few months ago that will be getting its second wind at E3. Their press conference begins on June 7 at 9 AM PST (12 PM EST).

Before we get to the new console, let’s take a look at the Wii. Nintendo recently dropped the price to $149.99 and changed the pack-in game (Wii Sports) to Mario Kart, ..read more

“Red, Blue, Green, Gold, Silver… Watch, I bet they’ll even come out with a Black and White version!”

Odds are that’s something you said in the cafeteria during your lunch in grade school.  Some fifteen years later, it actually happened. With the never-changing formula, one would think Pokemon would have gotten stale by now.  Sure, it’s no longer the fad that it was over a decade ago, but to this day, the flagship Pokemon games remain as solid as ever with ..read more

To many fans of the epic genre, Japanese role-playing games have all but gone stale.  With the exception of Demon’s Souls, there really hasn’t been a single title that has unanimously pushed the genre forward.  Even Square’s behemoth Final Fantasy XIII couldn’t live up to its hype.  However, there is some hope, and master developer and publisher Atlus provides that glimmer of hope by moving forward through the past with its latest epic for the Nintendo DS–Radiant Historia.

Radiant ..read more

As our 2011 backlog is already starting to build up, everybody here at SmashPad has taken the opportunity to look back upon the games we enjoyed the most from 2010 for our annual The Year in Screenshots feature. Rather than go through the hassle of dwindling these games down to name a Game of the Year or come up with a ton of crazy categories to give many of these games some artificial sense of recognition, ..read more

The Dragon Quest series has been a raging hit on the Japanese shores for quite sometime.  The series is considered to be the format that most stereotypical RPG’s, Final Fantasy included, have been following to a tee.  When the much-anticipated 9th entry to the series was announced for release on the Nintendo DS, fans had mixed reactions.  Would a handheld Dragon Quest be a step down from the critically acclaimed 8th game on the PS2?

Luckily for Square Enix, the Dragon ..read more

The original Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age for the Game Boy Advance were two titles that received critical acclaim and eventually grew into cult hits.  The games featured graphics and sound that were otherwise unimaginable on a handheld and without a doubt pushed the Game Boy Advance to its technical limit.  It’s been seven years since The Lost Age came out, and ever since the long-rumored third entry in the series was unveiled at last year’s Nintendo ..read more

This year’s E3 may be the most important since the 2006 E3 before the launch of the PS3 and Wii since we have a number of hardware announcements that will affect these platforms for the next few years. Sony and Microsoft have new motion control peripherals that are seeking to bring a new audience to the PS3 and Xbox 360. Nintendo and Sony have successors to their current handhelds to announce and/or reveal. Then there are the third ..read more

Fresh off the latest releases of HeartGold and SoulSilver (DS updates of past Game Boy versions of Pokémon), it seems that The Pokémon Company has revealed the newest edition of the popular franchise, Pokémon Black and White, which is scheduled for a Fall 2010 release in Japan.

While some fans seem taken aback by this almost random revealing and are wondering if it holds weight, it seems that this latest version of Pokémon does indeed exhibit many hints that make this ..read more

While we’ve only seen one previous mainline game in the Shin Megami Tensei series, the latest game has quite a few familiar aspects for those of you that have played some of the spin-off series that Atlus has published over the past decade. Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey takes a lot of cues from the previous Shin Megami Tensei games and spin-offs to make for a great RPG for the DS.

Strange Journey’s story is something of a tale about the ..read more

Capcom’s cult hit, Ace Attorney, has found itself a lot of fans during the DS lifespan.  Whether gamers pointed Phoenix Wright’s finger of justice or used the bracelets of truth of Apollo Justice, no other series has come with the humor and addictive gameplay the Ace Attorney games have held.  Now Capcom is trying its luck on the opposite side of the spectrum with Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth.

As its title suggests, Ace Attorney Investigations puts you in the shoes ..read more

Since we are not in San Francisco for the big Nintendo Media Summit event that is going on right now, we will at least try to give you a quick summary of all of the news that is coming out of the event so you can better grasp why your spring and summer just got a lot busier.

Let’s start with third party news, shall we?

Capcom’s Monster Hunter Tri will be coming out for the Wii on April 20 ..read more

The Ace Attorney series has been a welcome third party mainstay on the DS.  Players stepped in the shoes of the prominent defensive attorney Phoenix Wright in three games, while the fourth game put players in the head of Apollo Justice—a new defense attorney.  Now in its fifth entry, Capcom is turning the tables by playing the role of Miles Edgeworth, the prosecutor that has given Phoenix Wright all sorts of hell.

Those who follow the series are likely to be ..read more

Those who followed our coverage from the latest E3 were treated with an unfamiliar, yet interesting sight—Link navigating with a train.  A train in Hyrule?  As random as that may seem, it’s one of the central components of gameplay in the latest Zelda game, and it doesn’t take away from the fun you’ll have from this title.

If the train doesn’t interest you, and it probably doesn’t, we’ll just let the cat of the bag now.  In The Legend of Zelda: ..read more