The Animal Crossing Birthday Calendar is So Cute!

Animal Crossing is one of my favourite series. It's a series I dip into frequently, as it never fails to make me smile, and is a fantastic game to play when you are looking for something relaxing, and less taxing. What can be more relaxing than talking to cute animals, and completing simple tasks like fishing, bug hunting, and fruit collecting?

I was happy to see that just before Christmas, Nintendo had released a printable Animal Crossing 'birthday calendar' on the My Nintendo store. Purchased for 80 Platinum Points, this calendar includes the birthdays of a collection of Animal Crossing villagers, so you can load up Animal Crossing New Leaf on any of these days, and help the villagers to celebrate their birthdays! Sent as a PDF, you'll then get the choice to print it out and create your own calendar - something I plan to do soon.

In the meantime, here's a few of the graphics and birthdays you'll see in a few of the months.

The calendar can be purchased with points on the My Nintendo store here. 

E3: My Best In Show - Part 2

I'm back, for part 2 of my 'best in show' posts for 2018's E3! Part one included a staggering amount of games that caught my attention...so much so, that it made sense to split this into two sections.

Part 2 covers Microsoft, Ubisoft, Sony, and Nintendo.

Keep reading to see what my favourite reveals were!

E3: My Best In Show - Part 1

2018's E3 is almost drawing to a close, and we've now seen each game companies conference. Some were better than others, but it's safe to say that a broad variety of games were revealed across the platforms. 

What were the games that stole the show? Join me as I share my favourite confirmed games, in each of the conferences from some of the gaming industries biggest players. Any games featured more than once across conferences have only been featured in this list the once...to stop repetition!

My Favourite Mario Kart Courses from Each Game!

Super Mario Kart turned 25 yesterday! The now renowned and popular series paved the way for fun item-shooting racing games that we've all come to know and love. Allowing players the chance to race as one of their favourite Mario heroes or enemies, the game offered a bunch of truly fantastic tracks, as well as a multi-player Battle Mode. 

To celebrate the games anniversary, join me as I share my favourite course from each of the games so far. 

Super Mario Kart 

Rainbow Road 

There's no way I could do a list like this without mentioning Rainbow Road somewhere! The track that has no doubt made plenty of people utter profanities as they slipped to their doom, Rainbow Road provided a challenging final course in Super Mario Kart's Special Cup. Pretty simple in design, this multi-coloured road offered sharp bends, angry Thwomps, and holed-up pathways. The simplicity is deceiving, as when you're trying to traverse this with other players, there's no doubt at one point you'll find yourself being nudged off the side. 

Rainbow Road also included some truly memorable music, and has since seen several reiterations throughout the games 25-year history.

Games I Relax With

Things have been pretty hectic for me in the past few months, so I don't really seem to find myself having much free time. However, overworking has been making me pretty stressed out, and I guess it's probably a good time to remind myself that I should be having some times of relaxation, too. 

So, here's favourite 'relaxing games' I seem to resort to whenever I need to just need to switch off from the world a little bit. 

The Legend of Zelda: Nintendo Store Unboxing

This month, my The Legend of Zelda Nintendo Store crate turned up! I was a little disappointed with it to be honest, but the mug was my favourite.

Check it out in my YouTube video below:

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Pokemon Apps!

So, the Pokemon TV app has been available for quite some time now, on iOS devices and the Nintendo 3DS. However, yesterday marked it's (rather delayed) arrival onto the Apple TV.

To mark the occasion, I shared a few other Pokemon Apps available for Apple devices over on iRepairs. Take a look here. 

My Mario Mug!

My friend Ross (who is also a fellow blogger on Geek Mash) bought me this great mug for my birthday last month. The plain mug is supplied with Mario stickers so that you can create your very own stage! 

Check out the pictures below of how I designed mine:

My Dad's Favourite Games

It is my Dad's birthday today, so I decided to have a little chat with him about his favourite games he used to love playing when I was growing up. 

I am currently temporarily living with my parents again before a move with my boyfriend in the new year. During this time, I have my PS4 set up, and Dad has been trying out the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot and will be revisiting Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee soon.

Join me as my Dad shares his favourite games, with a comment from myself after. 

Tomb Raider 

Dad: "We all used to sit together to watch me play it. I remember how 'real' everything felt back then-the crunching snow (first time I really felt how far games had come), the locations, gameplay, etc. It got me into the Tomb Raider series."

Kayleigh: I became a huge Tomb Raider fan since I first sat there with the family and watched my Dad play through the old ones. Lara Croft is awesome. Cheers Dad!

Happy Birthday, Shigeru Miyamoto!

Happy 62nd Birthday, Shigeru Miyamoto!

One of the most influential members of the gaming industry, Shigeru Miyamoto is responsible for some of the best-selling, critically acclaimed games of all time. Joining Nintendo in 1977, Miyamoto helped to create the companies' most popular franchises, such as Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Star Fox, Pikmin and Donkey Kong. He can be credited for lending his creative vision to the companies' popular systems, such as the Wii, SNES, N64 and more.

A true gaming legend, Shigeru Miyamoto now works for Nintendo as a 'Creative Fellow', a title given to him after Nintendo President Satoru Iwata's death. 

So, happy birthday Shigeru. Your games were credited as the reason I got into Nintendo as a kid, and I really thank you for that. 

Game Boy 25th Anniversary: My Favourite Games

Happy 25th anniversary 

to the Nintendo Game Boy! 

25 years ago today, Nintendo's successful handheld console the 'Game Boy' was released in Europe. The first in the Game Boy line, it was created by Gunpei Yokoi and the staff behind the Game & Watch series. Although redesigned versions were released in 1996 (Game Boy Pocket) and 1998 (Game Boy Light), there is something so memorable about the original. 

Originally bundled with puzzle game Tetris upon release (smart move, Nintendo), the Game Boy went on to become one of the highest selling handheld consoles of all time, selling an impressive 118.69 million units worldwide along with its successor, the Game Boy Colour. 

For me, the Game Boy holds a lot of special memories. It was the first time I had been introduced to gaming after my parents picked one up on release. It can also be credited to getting me into the Legend of Zelda series after first watching my dad play through Link's Awakening (I completed it later on by myself when I was a little older).

Join me as I share a few of my favourite games that were released on the Game Boy. 

Visiting Nintendo World, New York

Photo courtesy of Nintendo World Store's website.

From the 24th to the 31st July, I was in New York on holiday with my family. It has been on my list of dream holidays for years, so I was so pleased to find out that my parents had surprised me by booking it up! (Thanks Mum and Dad!)

Being a Nintendo fan, I HAD to visit Nintendo World of course. Situated in the Rockefeller Plaza in New York, it was admittedly a little tricky to find at first as it wasn't as glaringly sign posted as the Lego Store nearby was. The Nintendo World logo is actually pretty subtle! After finally finding it, we went in and picked up a few bits. Here's some of the photos of the store, along with some merchandise I bought. 

If you ever get to visit New York, definitely take a trip into Nintendo World, the only Nintendo shop in the world (and no, Japan does not have one. They have a Pokemon Centre instead, surprisingly).

Remembering Satoru Iwata

The games industry recieved some sad news this week. 

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata passed away at the age of 55 after a long battle with cancer on the 12th July. 

Iwata was truly a key name in the gaming industry, helping to develop games in the Super Smash Bros, Kirby and Pokemon series as a programmer at HAL Laboratory before joining Nintendo in 2000. In May 2002, Iwata succeeded Hiroshi Yamauchi as the company's President. It was under his direction that Nintendo pursued the development of the Nintendo DS and Wii consoles in 2004 and 2006, the DS becoming one of the most successful handhelds of all time. 

Zelda Intros

When I was looking up some Zelda music for an upcoming Geek Mash post today, I came across this video. It shows off all of the introductions for The Legend of Zelda games, up until 2014 on the Wii U. 

Check it out below. What is your favourite Zelda intro? Post in the comments below! 

The Legend of Zelda: Kay's Awakening

It was my birthday on the 29th April, and one of my closest friends made me the funniest (and coolest!) of cards. 

He knows I love The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, so he mocked up this for me, complete with my birth year. 

So thanks Brad! I love it. 

I Picked Up Two New Games Today...

Club Nintendo closes in a few months, and it seems that finally, they have started adding some games to their Stars Catalogue. About time too! Whilst I have got a few goodies from there that I have been pleased with (my most recent being the Mario Kart 8 vehicles t-shirt, that you can see below), I always preferred the idea of a freebie game over a little bit of merchandise. 

A little big on me, but works well as a cosy PJ top!

Club Nintendo: The Rise, and Fall...and Rise Again

For the most part, Club Nintendo has its ups and downs. The occasional statue was available (although it took an age to even get close to the amount of points needed!), but the cleaning cloths, desktop wallpapers and stylus' didn't really cut it, at least for me anyway... 

Happy Mario Day!

Today is Mario Day, a day set up to celebrate a character who is undoubtedly Nintendo's most familiar one.

Appearing in an impressive roster of games, Mario continues to go from strength to strength, taking with him a loyal fanbase, whilst adding to it, from game to game. With more Mario titles due this year, it looks like yet another great year for the moustached plumber.

I shared some of my favourite aspects of Mario games over on Geek Mash today, including my favourite game, song, character and boss battle, among others. 

Feel free to give it a read here: http://www.geekmash.blogspot.com/2015/03/mario-day.html

Happy Mario Day, all! How are you spending it? Let me know in the comments, or over on my Twitter and Facebook. 

Super Mario Busters!

I love a good mash-up, especially when the two subject matters being combined are two of my favourite things.

In this short from youtuber James Farr, Super Mario crosses over with 80's classic Ghostbusters. Give the video a watch below, and see if you can spot the references to Ghostbusters throughout. I especially like Spengler-Luigi!


James has since followed this with the sequel, that you can also view below.

View more of James' videos on his YouTube Channel. 

What's your favourite out of the two? Post your comments below!

Happy Birthday Shigeru Miyamoto!

Nintendo's main man and all-round legend Shigeru Miyamoto celebrates his 62nd birthday today. 

Happy birthday Mr Miyamoto! Thank you for creating so many of my Nintendo memories, both past and present. 

What I Have Learned from Animal Crossing: New Leaf (In Screenshots)

It has been over a year now since Animal Crossing: New Leaf was released on the Nintendo 3DS, and I am still enjoying it! It is definitely one of my most played games, especially on the 3DS.

Here is what I have learned from my countless times playing it, divided up into different categories. They capture my immature (come on...most of you who have played this game resort to this at some point!), cute, and downright weird moments with my animal villagers.

1. Hot Drinks & Books Are Essential

2. The Villagers Have Their Weird Moments

3. Kapp'n Has A Good Heart

4. Immaturity in Animal Crossing is a Given

5. Romance Definitely Isn't Dead!

6. New Leaf Has Its Pretty Moments

7. Playing With Friends Is A Lot of Fun

8. Think Positive!