Killer beats

Legendary musician Yuzo Koshiro is best known for his soundtracks to The Revenge of Shinobi, Streets of Rage and Sonic the Hedgehog on Master System, but he's also a killer at Kid Icarus: Uprising.

Uprising supremo Masahiro Sakurai spoke to Cubed3 and revealed the musical maestro's multiplayer habit:

Of course, the game is very addictive, even one of the musicians on the game, Yuzo Koshiro is really into Free-for-All and in the month after release racked up 5,000 kills.

You go, Koshiro.

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Pastures new

Nintendo UK general manager David Yarnton is to leave the company after nearly 20 years of service.

Yarnton took the position of general manager in September 2003, steering the UK ship during the successful Wii and DS eras and overseeing the launch of 3DS last year. Before taking up the UK position Yarnton served as director of sales and marketing at Nintendo Australia from March 1995 to 2003.

This is the latest high-profile departure from Nintendo UK. Last year communications director Rob Saunders left to join Apple, marketing director Dawn Paine joined Universal in February and most recently marketing manager Rob Lowe took up a new position at BBC Worldwide.

We at Nintendo Life wish Mr Yarnton all the best in his future endeavours.

Nintendo of Europe announces with regret that David Yarnton has decided to pursue opportunities for a change of career outside Nintendo and therefore will shortly be leaving the company. David has had a distinguished career of almost 20 years at Nintendo, first as Sales Director of Nintendo Australia and then, since 2003, as General Manager of Nintendo UK. Nintendo wishes him every success in his choice of new career. Mr Shibata, European President of Nintendo, will be working alongside the UK's senior management team and will be actively involved in the running of the UK office until a replacement is announced.

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Beautiful (updated: now with trailer)

PS2 classic Okami is set to get a visit from the god of 1080p, as Capcom's announced Okami HD for PSN.

The HD remaster will come with Trophies, 1080p support and PlayStation Move controls, which we expect will work rather like the controls in Okami on Wii. In Japan it's a retail release, but players in the West will be able to download it from PSN this Autumn for $19.99/£15.99.

Excellent news all round.

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Power-ups and Koopalings in tow

New Super Mario Bros. 2 is a real homage to Super Mario World, what with Reznor and everything, but there are more SMW nods in store.

This artwork from Nintendo shows off the Koopalings in Bowser's clown car/copter combo, plus other released images reveal the return of the Mega Mushroom, Mini Mushroom and old staples like the Raccoon Leaf and Fire Flower. The Invincibility Leaf will also return to help harassed players clear a tricky section. Of course there will also be new power-ups, most of which come with a distinctly golden hue: the new Golden Fire Flower grants you fireballs that turn everything into coins, for instance.

Last year Nintendo put out similarly panoramic artwork for Super Mario 3D Land; which do you prefer?

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Do not adjust your sets

Your eyes do not deceive you: the gallery below does indeed feature photographs of renowned birdwatcher Bill Oddie and pop group The Saturdays. No, we haven't finally lost it and decided to turn Nintendo Life into a celebrity gossip blog — the famous faces came out to support Nintendo UK's Another Dimension photography events that took place earlier this month.

Bill Oddie took a select group of photography fans to Battersea Park Zoo, TV presenter Rick Edwards walked with dinosaurs at Bristol Zoo, street artist Pure Evil looked at graffiti and The Saturdays dressed people up in space suits. A more varied palette of life you couldn't hope to find.

Nintendo's panel is now judging the entrants of the 3D photography competition, with the winning photos to be displayed in a London gallery from early July.

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Mushroom magic?

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It's OK to say you were disappointed that New Super Mario Bros. U is Wii U's first Super Mario game. You may have wanted something groundbreaking like Super Mario 64, and Nintendo revealed a shinier, sharper version of a Wii game from 2009. You're entitled to be disappointed.

Your excitement for Mario's next home adventure all depends on how much you enjoyed New Super Mario Bros. Wii. If you loved its chaotic multiplayer and new power-ups, this HD sequel will already be near the top of your want list; if the whole thing left you colder than an Ice Flower, though, there probably isn't a lot in U to change your mind.

The addition of the GamePad means five players can now tussle at once, four using Wii Remotes and one using the GamePad to place platforms and stun enemies with a tap. Imagine the co-star mode in Super Mario Galaxy 2 with added platform-building and you're about there. Of course, GamePad play is optional; four players can play with Wii Remotes just as they can on Wii, and it's as big a riot now as it was in 2009. Symmetric gameplay is still big.

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NSMBU is one of the few titles you can play entirely on the GamePad, and we found this very comfortable and precise; the screen is clear and bright enough to do Mario's world justice, with no 'ghosting' or streaking when things get fast. In fact, despite being stood in front of a 32" HDTV, we were happier just using the controller's 6.2" screen. It's really not about size after all.

Only three levels were available in this preview and each felt familiar yet just different enough, with the spinning stars of course 3 being the nearest we got to encountering truly new ideas. Of course these are three early stages, and if our previews of past Mario games have been anything to go by the final designs will be different.

The two new power-ups, the flying squirrel suit and inflatable Yoshi, both felt like slightly adapted versions of the propeller suit. Flying squirrel Mario (the three best words ever?) can glide and catch a gust of air under his wings by shaking the controller, giving him a little boost upwards for a touch more height. The red Yoshi inflates like a balloon, with multiple inflations possible for extra lift, but the advantage to both forms of getting high seemed to be a power-up and a nudge back on track. Don't expect stacks of verticality; it's all about the left-to-right dash.

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Three levels isn't anywhere near enough to assess NSMBU, but we didn't see anything that suggests this will be anything other than another enjoyable Mario game. It might not be the incredible leap we've come to expect from the famous mascot, but we thought the same thing about Super Mario 3D Land before that arrived and turned out well, from most perspectives.

Some of you may be disappointed now, but look at the bigger picture. Wii U will have a Mario game at launch, and not just any Mario game: a follow-up to two of his biggest-selling adventures. New Super Mario Bros. U might be a move motivated by sales instead of pure creative inspiration, but as long as it's enjoyable along the way, everybody wins.

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Back and forth

The first part of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow — Mirror of Fate's subtitle should be enough to tip you off that this is very much part of the series' modern lineage, linking as it does to Castlevania: Lords of Shadow on PS3. Series supremo Dave Cox has told Siliconera while there's plenty of exploration, the new title isn't the "Metroidvania"-style adventure we've come to expect from Nintendo handhelds.

Cox said the 3DS game borrows most from NES classic Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, with branching paths lending the element of exploration. Cox explains the decision:

We didn’t want to do a Metroidvania because one of the things about the Metroidvania series is the games start out bloody hard because you haven’t gotten anything. By the end of the game, you have everything and are super powerful. We really want to have a game that starts out really easy and gets tougher, tougher, and tougher. Exploration has been beefed up for sure, but we don’t want to have a game where you run around collecting loads of things. We want to tell a story. We want players to enjoy the adventure.

Would you enjoy it more if there were more things to collect?

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Highly decorated

So many Legend of Zelda games open with Link waking up in bed that a Zelda-decorated nursery makes perfect sense.

Cole Bradburn and friend Wes spent three months decorating a nursery to greet Bradburn's newborn son, taking the cel-shaded adventures of Link as their inspiration. The hand-painted room features art from The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, and took over 150 hours of work over the course of three months.

Seems like the perfect setting for that Zelda bedtime story.

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Stock up on calendars

Masahiro Sakurai has told fans eagerly awaiting Super Smash Bros. on Wii U and 3DS there could be an even longer wait ahead than expected.

The project was announced at E3 2011 but as Sakurai only finished Kid Icarus: Uprising earlier this year he's not had a lot of time to ponder the next brawler. Sakurai told Nintendo Power (via Nintendo Everything) excited parties should be patient:

We’ve just taken what you could call the first step of the process. This is the first time I’ve ever had my next project announced before it’s even entered development, and because of that, I fear that players will be forced to wait even longer than they expect to. Please be patient.

We're now taking bets on when Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS will hit shelves. We'll give you very good odds on 2015.

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Back to the past

Fans of the humble Nintendo Entertainment System can learn more about their favourite machine with a new issue of NES-Bit, a fan magazine devoted to all things 8-bit.

The second issue features a look back at the NES vs. Master System war, a guide to importing Famicom titles, a Castlevania series retrospective and much more. It's twice the size of the previous issue, too.

The best part of all is that a download of the magazine costs just 99p, or $1.59 USD. You can download NES-Bit Magazine volume 2 now for a trip back in time.

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