Welcome to NinDB

I have completely rewritten the Shin Onigashima Guide! Since I published the first English guide here 15 years ago, I've wanted to flesh it out so it explains what you're doing and why, rather than simply handholding you to the end credits. Even if you never play the game yourself, I hope you'll enjoy learning about the story and bizarre characters… and balk at some of the puzzles!

To flesh it out, I've added a character page, which includes the folk tale inspirations behind the characters. Plus, I found some very fun easter eggs you probably haven't heard of before. And for the cautious, there's a page listing out the Game Overs.

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As keen as I am to jump straight into the next Famicom adventure game, I have some other projects I'd like to finish up first, such as the Zapper guides. I'm also aware there has been a ROM dumped of Nintendo's second ever arcade title Block Fever, which was exciting news for a particular flavour of obscure Nintendo nerd.

~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 Some of these got a little long, and all are outdated now.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.