Welcome to NinDB

Last year, I put up a handful of arcade guides based on Japanese flyers and sources I'd found. Among them was Block Fever, Nintendo's second arcade release ever, but one that has never been dumped.

A couple of months after I published the guide, the game finally became playable in the MAME arcade emulator for the very first time. It quickly became clear I'd need to update the guide with more detailed gameplay information and actual screenshots.

So that's what I've done! Check out the new and improved Block Fever (Arcade) Guide! Three game modes! Handy Blocks! This Breakout clone has got it all!

In other news, NinDB will be turning 25 years old next month. When I created NinDB in 2001 to catalogue Nintendo's forgotten history, Block Fever would only have been 23 years old! I've been poor at celebrating NinDB's many anniversaries, so if you have any ideas for how we could celebrate quarter of a century on the internet, let me know on the NinDB Forums or my Bluesky account. Cheers!

~Fryguy64~

Nintendo Game Cameos

When a character from one series makes a guest appearance in another, that's a cameo. Nintendo loves them, and we love finding them.

Cancelled Nintendo Games

Sometimes games get announced but are never released. Nintendo has even been releasing some of their cancelled games in recent years.

Kazumi Totaka's Song Guide

For many years, a strange song appeared in games as diverse as Mario Paint, Yoshi's Story and Animal Crossing. NinDB discovered the connecting thread: Nintendo music composer (and voice of Yoshi) Kazumi Totaka. Discover all the games he has hidden this song in over the years.

Nintober Archive

An ongoing illustration project to create profiles for Nintendo's most gruesome and evil characters. Nintober started in 2008 and is still going (as of 2023), with over 160 grotesque and villainous beasts from everyone's favourite family-friendly publisher.

Nintendo All-Stars Archive

Between 2004 and 2007, NinDB ran a series of illustrated character profiles, telling the stories of obscure or lesser-known Nintendo characters. Some of these got a little long, and all are outdated now. But they have been restored along with the original artwork. We've even dug up some long-lost artwork that was planned but never used!

3rd Party Showcase Archive

Between 2006 and 2008, NinDB posted a series of articles written by John "Nester" Bennett, highlighting the very best third party games available on the Wii, DS and Virtual Console. All 50 articles have now been restored and archived for your pleasure. How many did you play?

A Brief History of Nintendo

Nintendo was established in 1889 as a playing card manufacturer based in Kyoto, Japan. Today they are arguably the most successful video game company in the world. In this feature we look over key moments in their history.