Jersey Shore: Super Mario Brothers Edition

Perhaps this show should be called Koopa Beach?

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Nintendo E3 Recap

Looking over my wish list for Nintendo's press event at E3 shows that I had a thirst for a return of some key franchises. Zelda had been at the top of my list, with Excitebike being a very dark horse. No Zelda was announced but Nintendo managed to make their fans happy with word of four new Mario games and a brand new Metroid game.

You heard me; FOUR new Mario games and a new Metroid.

Nintendo must have known that they would need some big name franchises to make them seem relevant, especially with the fantastic presser that Microsoft had a day before. Painful memories of 2008's E3 presser were maligned for months and Nintendo made sure to avoid any similar mistakes, for the most part.

Demonstrating New Super Mario Brothers for the Wii was a bold first move. In the blink of an eye WiiMusic demos were quickly forgotten as four players demonstrated a level from the Wii version of New Super Mario Brothers. If you have played New Super Mario Brothers for the DS you will be familiar with the play style and game play of the Wii version. The exciting feature of the Wii version will be the four player cooperative play!

From that point though the press even was mostly lacking any real reason to be excited, with the latest information on WiiFit Plus following up the Mario news. Wii Fit Plus is looking to be very similar to the original WiiFit but will have the ability to create custom workouts as well as 15 new balance games. I was relieved when they did not mention a new and improved balance board, a rumor I had heard on the news earlier in the week.

The Wii Motion Plus was discussed but there was not much new to say about it compared to what they unveiled at last year's E3. Last year the Wii Motion Plus was demonstrated using Wii Sports Resort. Guess what. This year it was demonstrated using Wii Sports Resort. Yes, the game will be packaged with the add-on sensor, but wouldn't you rater see it demonstrated in a higher quality game? While using a basketball three point competition within WiiSports Resort Nintendo used Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime and the demonstrator on the stage to compete in a life like competition. To me the demo would have been more satisfying if Nintendo had arranged for an NBA three point shooter to participate. Something tells me Microsoft would have pulled that off with the guest stars they featured in their presser the day before (Tony Hawk, Steven Spielberg).

After a bevy of announcements about RPG titles coming to Nintendo systems, including an exclusive Kingdom Hearts for the DS as well as Golden Sun, Nintendo managed to bore the crowd with announcements of Women's Murder Club for the DS and a fashion design game targeted to their female audience.

Then things got interesting. The DSi took the stage for some titles including a download only Mario vs. Donkey Kong title and a WarioWare title.

In my wish list I had hoped for more online usability. Good news for DSi users as the wireless abilities will allow them to access the Wii Store to download games over a network right to their DSi. Also for Facebook using DSi users the ability to upload and share photos from the DSI will be coming soon. It may not be exactly what Microsoft had in mind with the XBox 360's ability to upload screen shots and achievements right to Facebook (and Twitter usability) but it is interesting and fits Nintendo.

When the President and CEO of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata, walked out on stage it was expected to be big news, or lame business news. It was more of the latter, with the highlight of Iwata's speech introducing the Wii Motion Sensor, which hooks in to the Wii Remote and is placed on a finger to detect pulses. No mention on how this could be incorporated in to future games but I can see it being seldom used. It would actually be a unique feature in sports games, when your team is under pressure to make a big play or to judge adrenaline. Or perhaps it could be utilized in a game like Resident Evil to gauge how nervous the player is getting in tense moments. I am guessing thought that Nintendo will not use it to those extents though.

Finally, the biggest news of the day was when Nintendo gave E3 a glimpse at the next installation in the Super Mario Galaxy series, with Super Mario Galaxy 2! Much of the game play and environments looked to be similar to the original but now Mario will have the companionship of his favorite green dinosaur, Yoshi!

Nintendo also tried to sell fans on some exclusive third party titles, such as Resident Evil, and closed with a shocker; Metroid: Other M. The Metroid game will be released in 2010 and while I have never been too in to the Metroid series, it would be foolish to not say that this is a major announcement. Metroid is still one of Nintendo's best long standing series, after Mario and Zelda. Metroid has been with Nintendo since the beginning so it is great news to be able to say that Nintendo will be releasing major titles from two legendary franchises in 2010.



This press event was by far better than last year's and things look to be exiting for Nintendo in the future.

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Friday Links

Congratulations! You have survived another week in the year 2009! How did you do it? I apologize for the lack of posts this week but as I have previously mentioned, it was a busy week for me.

I had two job interviews (one was a second interview for a job) and both went well. We'll see how it pans out for me though next week. I have a 24 post scheduled for later today and a Lost post scheduled for tomorrow. Sunday will be a day of blogging rest and Monday will be the long awaited return of Mario Monday. Mario Monday took off for Martin Luther King day and slept past its alarm this week.

And now, some links to kill some time today. Enjoy! All links today were Found via Digg.

Movie Traffic Stops Gone Bad - This is a nice compilation of classic traffic stop scenes in some classic movies. I admit this link would be better if there was video included instead of still shots.

Mad Libs Men - I love the show Mad Men on AMC. I never really got into Mad Libs back in the day but I know it was popular with kids my age. This video combines them in a funny video.

Fire in space - In case you ever wondered what it would look like?

Lego Mario - I could have saved this for a Mario Monday but I do not think I could wait long enough, so here you go.

Duck Hunt Level 100 Error - Speaking of classic Nintendo, what happens when you reach level 100 in Duck Hunt? I can not imagine playing the game long enough to find out. Another reason why YouTube is great!

6 Things you need to know about Windows 7 - If you were unaware, Microsoft's latest operating system (Windows Vista) was anything but a success. The beta of Windows 7 has been out for a bit now and the reviews are starting to pour in. This review suggests that it may slow down the defections to Mac but may still not be ideal for businesses.

Multiple Windows 7 versions coming? - Perhaps Microsoft did not learn one of their lessons from the Vista product?

How Many 90 Year Olds Could You Take in a Fight? - 27.

Things you Never Noticed in Famous Pictures - I will leave you with this. Take a moment to take a second look at these classic pictures. They may make you chuckle. I had a deep appreciation for number two on the list.

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Mario Monday - Donkey Kong Jr.

Last week we took a trip down memory lane to Mario's debut in Donkey Kong. Today we look at the famed sequel, Donkey Kong Jr. I first played this game on the Donkey Kong Classics cartridge for the NES, which had both Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr. on it. It was also the only game, that I am aware of, that casted Mario as the villain. Say what? It's true!


The premise of the arcade classic was that Mario had captured Donkey Kong and now it was up to his heir, Donkey Kong Jr., to avoid the mechanical crocodile traps, hazardous birds and electrical shocks in order to rescue his father. I believe that this game is harder than the original, but why don't you decide for yourself? You can play the original arcade version of the game by clicking here.

As was the case with many arcade games of the time, they did not exactly port very well to the home consoles. Due to the technology levels of the early home consoles, Donkey Kong Jr. came across pretty choppy. Take this video of the Intellivision port for example...



It is better than the Donkey Kong port, but still leaves a lot to be desired. I will not even subject you to the Atari 2600 version, but you can click here for a game review video of the port if you feel so daring. Obviously Donkey Kong Jr. looked best on the NES, as was the case with many games in the mid-eighties.

You may not know this but the Donkey Kong character you see today in games such as Super Smash Brothers Brawl is actually supposed to be the same character from Donkey Kong Jr. The original Donkey Kong, who is the big bad guy in the original arcade game, has also grown up and become the character often referred to as "Cranky" Kong.

The character of Donkey Kong Jr. has essentially lived the big life because of his old Kong, going off to star in his own series of games in the Donkey Kong Country series on the Super Nintendo, and later Donkey Kong 64 on the Nintendo 64. Of course he also appears in the Smash Brothers series, but he also makes appearances in Super Mario Kart, Super Mario Baseball, the Mario Party series and so on. No wonder Cranky always seems jealous of the younger Kong.

Did you know that Donkey Kong Jr. also was the star of an educational game? Donkey Kong Jr. Math mixed the DKJ game play with math equations with competitive game play. It sounds about as fun as Carmen Sandiego minus the geography and history added in with math. Wait a second...


Both games, in addition to Donkey Kong, are available for download on the Wii's virtual console, although I am unsure why Nintendo offered the math game. Feel free to share your Donkey Kong Jr. thoughts in the comments section!

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Mario Monday - Donkey Kong

It is no secret that I grew up, like many kids of the 80's and 90's, with Mario being one of my favorite characters. Honestly he may be my favorite fictional character to this day, which leads me to a new "feature" of my blog, Mario Mondays. Each Monday I will share with you something Mario related. Why? Because I'm a dork, that's why. To get things started we take a look at Mario's debut.

My introduction to Mario came through the Colecovision, which was out at the time of the Atari 2600. The game that came packaged with the Colecovision was a port of Donkey Kong. It was also the only game we ever owned for the system as we had gone the way of the Atari 2600. After doing a YouTube search I came across this commercial for the home version of Donkey Kong.


Wow. They sure don't make commercials the way they used too, do they?

Donkey Kong was the first game to feature Mario, who at the time of the arcade release was simply known as Jumpman, because all he did was climb ladders and jump barrels and gaps in the floor. Mario was originally cast as a carpenter as well before starting his own plumbing business I suppose. Jumpman was also known as "Mr Video Game" in Japan. While the early arcade cabinets had the name of Jumpman the name Mario was quickly added to the stumbly hero when Donkey Kong came to the United States. Nintendo of America had decided to apply a catchy name to the hero instead of the bland and generic Jumpman. The namesake came from the landlord of the Nintendo of America offices. Legend has it that Mario Segale would burst in to meeting rooms of the Nintendo offices demanding rent payments. Hard to believe today that Nintendo had trouble paying rent. The folks at Nintendo of America saw a resemblance between their latest video game character and their demanding land lord and it was settled.

By the time the home console versions made it to store shelves the name Mario had replaced Jumpman. While Donkey Kong's character survived the test of time, Mario's first girlfriend, Pauline, has not been heard from since shouting for help while held captive by the barrel throwing ape. Princess Toadstool replaced Pauline quickly. She is a princess afterall.

With today's technology you can find perfect ports or clones of the original arcade game but before the days of the NES it was pretty rough to find a quality port for some arcade games. Donkey Kong is a great example of that. Growing up I had played both the Colecovision version and the NES version. Naturally I scoffed at the Coleco once setting my eyes on the NES version, but today I know I should have appreciated what I had more than I did! In the above commercial Donkey Kong is advertised for the Colecovision, the Atari VCS and the Intellivision. Below you can see the difference in the three systems.

Colecovision

Atari VCS

Intellivision

Now the NES version...



Compare those with the actual arcade version...

I had no idea that the Colecovision port was that much better than the others that were available at the time! Boy am I glad the NES came along though...

Donkey Kong was not my favorite arcade game (that title belongs to Ms. Pac-Man) but I could probably play a game of Donkey Kong any day of the week if I could. No matter how many times I play though I can guarantee I would never be as good as Steve Wiebe or Billy Mitchell, the two guys who made a bitter rivalry out of attaining a high score in the game. The story was documented in King of Kong, which is worth a rental if you get a chance.

This concludes the initial installment of Mario Monday. Feel free to leave your Donkey Kong memories in the comments.

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Is Mario a Commie?

Visit this website.

Now watch this video.

What an eye opener this is for me.

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Some People Need a Life

Ok, I admit it. I can proudly beat the original Super Mario Brothers in under six minutes. I believe I can beat Super Mario World in under fifteen. But this person takes the prize, beating Super Mario in ten minutes and 58 seconds.



Apparently this is a tool assisted emulated game play, which explains some of the near impossible stunts being pulled.

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John McCain and Joe the Plumber Joint Press Conference

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Super Mario Rescues the Princess

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The Bassoon is a Cool instrument

Clarification: The bassoon is a cool instrument when played well. Need evidence of that? Check out this video that I Stumbled Upon this morning...

Recognize the music? It is all from the Super Mario Brothers games. My favorite part is when they all flipped the pages in their music. Still though, pretty nice job by these kids. You have to love the kid who does the beat box percussion in the main theme, as well as some other noises.

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Mario Gets His Come-Uppins

Darn The Mario. I guess he had it coming.

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Mushroom Kingdom Fusion

A co-worker told me about this today and after watching just a couple of these videos, I will most definitely be downloading it at some point this weekend.

Imagine the ultimate game of Super Mario Brothers with flavors of Sonic, Mega Man, Halo, Doom and who knows what else, all mixed into one ultimate adventure. That is what this game appears to be.

For your reference, here is where you can download the latest release of the game.

Have a good weekend all!

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Introduction to the Super Mario Brothers

Thank goodness for Inside Edition back in the day to introduce parents to the Mario Brothers. Without them parents would have had no clue what their kids were playing!

Classic. Wait a second...wasn't that Bill O'Reilly? He seems a lot calmer than his latest video that has surfaced on YouTube (Censor warning - not safe for work or anyone who doesn't like cursing)...


And I believe the Super Mario Brothers Movie confirmed that their names are Mario Mario and Luigi Mario.

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Gaming Mascots

As long as these videos continue to be uploaded, I will continue to share them with you. This episode discusses gaming mascots and of course, Mario is the ultimate mascot.

What? Mario as a boxing ref? Did you forget about Mike Tyson's Punch-out?

If you have a half hour to waste...and I mean waste, watch this video of somebody playing Mike Tyoson's Punch-out where they only get hit once.

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I Beat Super Mario Galaxy

Yep, I did it. I found all 120 stars and beat the game (I'm a loser like that). Now that I have unlocked Luigi I suppose I should go ahead and do it all over again.

I also have 2,000 Wii Points I have yet to use, so maybe I'll download an old game from the Turbo Grafix or Sega Genesis.

I didn't record this, but thought I'd share the ending for anyone who really cares for whatever reason. Behold, the end of the game:

"Thank you so much for playing my game!" - Mario

No problem Mario. Anytime.



NCAA Bracket thoughts and picks to come tomorrow.

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Top 5 Best/Worst Sonic Games

In preparation for the upcoming release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl let us take a trip down memory lane for one of the characters in the game, Sonic the Hedgehog.

As a Nintendo player growing up I took allegiance to Mario and detested Sonic and everything he stood for. My first encounter with Sonic was Thanksgiving of the year the Sega Genesis came out. My family went over to Aunt Helen and Uncle Vaughn's place, where my cousin Lee had brought and hooked up his Genesis so we could all watch him play Sonic, gloat about how good he is, and marvel at the 16 bits of fury and "blast processing" Sonic would demonstrate for us. Now my cousin was one I looked up to when it came to video games. He practically taught me everything he knew about Nintendo back in the day. So I was somewhat miffed when he started praising Sonic as the best and deemed him superior to my beloved Mario.

I was shown how Sonic needs to find air bubbles when under water...












I was shown how fast Sonic can run and I was shown the different bosses...








































Still though, I stayed true to the plumber and eventually bought a Super Nintendo. Since then the feud between Mario and Sonic has died down. Never mind the fact that Sega eventually lost out in the hardware race, Sonic now graces the consoles by Nintendo and of course now acts as a co-star with Mario in video games. Hell must have frozen over.

The following video comes from GameTrailers.com. In it they take a look at the five best (and five worst) Sonic games of all time. Enjoy.

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Six Pack of Picks for the Weekend: SUPER BOWL PICK!

Short and sweet and to the point and in Super Mario Brothers 3 form...



New England Patriots over New York Giants. No doubt in my mind.

NOTE: I forget where I found this graphic.

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You're My Inspiration

This is the fact for today on the good old page-a-day calendar;

Super Mario Brothers: Mario, the Italian-American plumber in dozens of Nintendo video games, was modeled after the landlord of Nintendo's New York offices in the 1970's.

Interesting!

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