When I first saw Gooigi, a puzzle-solving Luigi clone made of goo who first appeared in the 3DS remaster of Luigi’s Mansion and will also be in Luigi’s Mansion 3, I had a few questions about him. Namely: Is this a fetish thing? Perhaps I was being a little too adult and cynical at the time. In this very sweet comic by Vaugh Pinpin, this pile of goo is Luigi’s closest confidant.

When I first started Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth, I was having an absolute blast. That wasn’t surprising, because its predecessor, 2014’s Persona Q, was an excellent game, and the series these games draw from, Etrian Odyssey, is also excellent. So it was with high expectations that I jumped into a Hard mode playthrough on my 3DS, ready to scramble and map and socialise my way through tough labyrinths and gruelling boss fights. I got some of that, but where I was expecting to be dazzled, the game ultimately fell a little short.

Over on the popular YouTube channel Boundary Break, the latest video is about the handheld classic game, Nintendogs. While not the longest episode, getting to see how developers worked around the limits of the 3DS is very interesting. But when breaking boundaries, sometimes odd things happen you don’t expect.

Persona Q, a 2014 turn-based role-playing game for the 3DS, put Persona 3 and 4 characters into an extended “what-if” scenario where they had to band together and navigate gigantic labyrinths to escape an abandoned high school.

It’s easily one of my favourite 3DS games, so you can imagine I was pretty hype for Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth, out June 4 on the 3DS. It’s a sequel that brings the Phantom Thieves from Persona 5 into the mix. I’m 25 hours in, and I have barely been able to put the game down.

After watching the Detective Pikachu movie, all I wanted was to live in that world. Luckily I had a copy of Detective Pikachu, the game, which gave me that chance, and some fun puzzles to boot.

Nintendo isn’t willing to call the 3DS “dead” yet, but the company’s latest briefing has made the whole thing feel like Weekend At Bernie’s.

noclip is a very fun website which has extracted levels from a bunch of excellent Nintendo games and exists solely to let you fly around them like a joyful, nostalgic God.

From January 23 through February 18 I was confined to a hospital bed, recovering from a surgical procedure that required me to remain almost completely prone in order to heal.

Fortunately I came to the hospital prepared, and managed to still play Kingdom Hearts 3, Jump Force, Apex Legends and Anthem. All I needed was the right gear.

People have been calling PlayStation Vita a dead console for years. Now, Nintendo’s 3DS seems poised to join it, with hardly any new games on the horizon for the rest of 2019. Yet even in death, Nintendo’s clam-shelled handheld still feels more alive and vibrant than Vita.

I’ve got a song stuck in my head that’s somehow not getting old. A colleague recently wrote about a new Mario & Luigi remake, I dusted off an unfinished older Mario & Luigi game, and next thing I know, I’m on the subway and… am I bobbing my head to some boss battle music? Why, yes I am.

Animal Crossing games are meant to be played in regular, relaxed sessions, creating a life for yourself among the annual ebbs and flows of each game’s village. In just about every regard, it’s designed to be playable, theoretically at least, forever. 85-year-old Audrey, who’s spent thousands of hours playing the game, is proof of that.

When Bowser dies at various points in Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story, the brothers have to revive him by shooting adrenaline into his heart. Doing so leads him to get back up and become giant Bowser for a special mode that requires players to hold the DS sideways like a book. Suddenly, the game’s graphics play out across two adjacent vertical screens. Players use the system’s stylus to guide the King of the Koopas through danger. It’s a shame few other games in the DS or 3DS libraries have tried something similar.

I owned Luigi’s Mansion on GameCube when I was slightly smaller than I am now. My younger brother and I would try to get through its spooky, ghost-filled levels together, sharing tips and wasting our parents’ printer ink on 30-page guides off the internet. But really, Luigi’s Mansion owned me.

When Bowser Jr. came onto the scene in 2002’s Super Mario Sunshine, the first words out of his mouth were “Leave my mama alone!” He’d kidnapped Princess Peach because Bowser had told him she was his mother and was trying to stop Mario from rescuing her. After Mario eventually defeated him, Bowser Jr. confessed to his dad that he knew deep down Peach wasn’t his mother all along, but said he still wanted revenge on Mario, a sentiment that earned his father’s approval. It was a twisted way for such a young character to make his debut. The new remake of Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story tries to give the prince some much-needed time to sort out his identity in its new mini-campaign: Bowser Jr.’s Journey.

For 13 years, I’ve been listing the games I’ve played each year. This used to be a means for me to log how many games I finished each year. These days, I use it as a way to tally the number of games I played in the past year, recommend some favourites and see how fatherhood (year two of that complete!) and other life events effects the shape of the list.

I was recently reminded that Nintendo’s “My Nintendo” rewards program has a single reward that I want. I’ve wanted for two years, actually. I figured it was about time I claimed it, and if I had to click on a bunch of websites along the way, so be it.

At this time last year, I predicted that the ageing Nintendo 3DS would probably be sent to its grave after Christmas 2018. Recent events have caused me to reconsider. I am now here to argue that you should prepare for the Nintendo 3DS to stay alive for a couple more years at least—if you can truly call its fate “living.”

Reggie Fils-Aime is in full hype mode. That is the main gear for the president of Nintendo of America the week before Black Friday as he sits in a 38th-floor Manhattan hotel suite full of Nintendo game and system boxes. “As we look forward to the next 45 days or so,” he says, “We’re excited that we have literally something for every type of gamer, every type of household here in the Americas.”

Last week, a 6.6 magnitude earthquake hit Japan’s northern island Hokkaido, leaving many without power.