Mario is not only one of the most recognizable characters in video games, but in all of media. The poster boy of Nintendo has seen his fair share of spin off games, both good and bad. When you are an icon you are bound to have some things that cash in on your image alone. However, there are occasions where your spin off projects are just as awesome as the real thing, anyone remember Micheal Jackson’s Captain Eo at Disney?

Cinematic Masterpiece

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I tend to give Nintendo a lot of crap about their focus on child and family-friendly gaming. While there’s nothing wrong with appealing to kids, I personally believe Nintendo should have matured along with their audience. Still, even I have to give them credit when they do something right. And trust me, Super Mario Galaxy 2 is definitely something that Nintendo seems to be doing right.

The original Galaxy was a great game and Galaxy 2 is shaping up to be an excellent sequel. Though the oft-ignored Luigi is nowhere to be seen in the new trailer, as is standard in the 3D Mario games, another familiar green character is making a comeback. That’s right. Yoshi is back in action, aiding Mario as usual, a feature that was missing in the original Mario Galaxy. There’s just something awesome about riding around on that little green dinosaur. Now let’s just hope Galaxy 2 ramps up the difficulty, given how disappointingly easy the original was.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 launches on May 23^rd for the Wii. Let’s hope it doesn’t disappoint.

[via GameTrailers]

Pokémon fans are being offered another chance to get a free Pokémon starting this Saturday, February 27, at Gamestop. Anyone who brings in their Nintendo DS with a copy of Pokémon Pearl, Diamond or Platinum will be able to receive the free gift. Jirachi, a dual-type Steel/Psychic legendary Pokémon,  is available until March 13. A nice bonus since March 14 is the release of the new Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver bundles. Anyone that takes advantage of the free Pokémon will have access to a special training route on the Pokéwalker, the pedometer accessorie included with the new games.

Well Exu-u-use me Ebay

Ebay is full of ridiculous things for collectors to buy. Video Game collectors are no stranger to the site, with rare games going for ridiculous sums of money. But rare cereal? Well someone thought this twenty one year old sealed cereal was worth some dough. The aforementioned cereal happens to be from when Nintendo briefly tested out the breakfast waters. It is actually two types of cereal, one being Mario and the other being Zelda. Some lucky (?) person was willing too lay down two hundred and seven dollars for it. Thats a pretty pricey breakfast. Would you pay that much to stare at your child hood memories? Let us know!

[via Ebay]

Batman has Robin, Sherlock had Watson, the Lone Ranger had Tonto, even Van Wilder had Taj. The point is we all need somebody to lean on. Or blame. So here are my top five sidekicks in gaming in this week’s “The List”.

5) The dog in Fable 2 Man's best friend.....or nightmare. It's a game of choices Fable 2 is a huge open world game full of choices for our hero, or villain, to make. And weren’t those choices more fun with your trusty dog there? I was a huge fan of the helpful canine, he could sniff out treasure for crying out loud. That’s the most money you’ll make off of a dog that doesn’t have the ability to talk. He made the world seem a little less lonely. A worthy and useful companion for the adventure. Plus he helped out with picking up the ladies.

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I’m not sure how many of our readers are into audio production, but I’m hoping that demographic will grow as I try to post more audio-tech related posts.  That being said, I’ll start off with something nice and easy, that should be entertaining for everybody.

I’m really excited to share a resource that I found a while back that offers free VST instruments and effects to use with almost any audio production program.  Tweakbench is a donation-based site where Aaron Rutledge (just one guy!) creates and distributes original audio plugins.  Among these plugins are two virtual instruments that I absolutely love, and have actually been able to work into a few of my projects: Peach and Toad.  Peach (as in Princess Peach) is loaded with different tones from NES games, and loaded into your keyboard it will inspire you for hours to rewrite all your songs to sound more like the Legend of Zelda theme song.  Toad (as in… Toad) is basically the same thing as Peach, but instead of tones, it uses tons of random sounds from NES games to make up percussion and drums.  All of the plugins have demo MP3s  for your listening pleasure, and even if you’re not into audio production, you’ll still probably get a kick out of hearing the demos.

If you want to hear what these plugins can do when put to good use, click here to listen to a remix I did for a friend’s band using exclusively Nintendo sounds from Peach and Toad.

Do you remember the ancient Pocket Pikachu or perhaps the Pokémon Pikachu 2. Well if not they were essentially Pedometers that would reward you with Watts based on how far you walked. You would then use the Watts to feed your Pikachu. The concept was pretty neat actually and was a great time waster through High School.

Well with the March 14th release of Pokémon HeartGold and Pokémon SoulSilver the game will include a Pokéwalker. The Pokéwalker is an updated version of the previous released Pedometers. Instead of only having a Pikachu you can actually transfer any one Pokémon from any of the 2 games. Much like previous Pokémon Pedometers the more you walk the more Watts you get. The Watts are used within the Pokéwalker to encounter and catch wild Pokémon or search for hidden items, and can be transferred into Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver Versions to unlock new routes. The Pokémon in the Pokéwalker will gain experience points as the player walks, and can even go up one level when they are transferred back into the game. Players also can wirelessly connect two Pokéwalkers to trade items.

Looks like I’ll be picking up another Pokémon Game. I wonder how my old Pocket Pikachu and Pokémon Pikachu 2 are?? It’s been about 5 years sense I last fed them…… do the batteries last that long??

As big a gamer as I am, the list of games I played in my younger days is embarrassingly small. So, much like a man who buys a big gun to compensate for having a small penis, I overcompensated in recent years, leaving me with a library of games littered with titles I’ve never finished. Still, even with all those games left to play, I always find myself going back to basics, playing the classics from the small library of games from my past. And out of that small list, there is one game that stands out more than the rest. Nintendo’s Super Mario World for the SNES. It’s a game that, for me, never gets old. It aged really well and, after nearly 20 years, is still as enjoyable now as it was back then.

Gameplay:

Compared to today, a game like Super Mario World is very simplistic when it comes to gameplay. Despite the SNES controller’s six-button layout, only three buttons were really useful. The B button was the standard jump button, the A button was the spin jump, which came in useful when dispatching some of the more powerful enemies, and the X and Y buttons did the same thing…allowing Mario to run faster, shoot fireballs, and swallow enemies while riding Yoshi.

While Super Mario World didn’t have the variety of items and power-ups that Super Mario Bros. 3, such as the Tanooki Suit, the hammer suit, and so on, there was only one that was really necessary anyway. While you still had your standard Mushroom, Fire Flower, and Starman power ups from previous game, SMW introduced the Cape Feather, which bestowed onto Mario a cape for which to fly. While it served a similar function to SMB 3’s Super Leaf, allowing Mario to fly and use a spin attack, the Cape Feather gave Mario 2 new powers; the ground smash attack that creates a shockwave that incapacitates nearby enemies and a parachute maneuver, which, if utilized properly, can be used to float indefinitely.

The game itself was comprised of 7 normal worlds with about 5 levels leading up to the boss castle. On top of that, 4 special switch palaces, which unlocked special blocks, were hidden. Certain levels contained multiple exits that unlocked special paths, along with access to the hidden Star World, containing extra levels, special Yoshi’s, a direct route to Bowser’s castle, and access to the Special World. The Special World worked sort of like a challenge world, with increasingly difficult stages placed to test players. Completion of the Special World caused cosmetic changes in the game, including a new color scheme for the world map and different looking enemies, such as Koopa Troopas with Mario masks instead of shells.

With its power ups, fun level design, and interesting enemies and bosses, along with the puzzling and confusing Forest of Illusion, the gameplay itself holds up pretty well, even in this day and age.

Graphics/Visuals:

For a 16-bit game that relies on animated sprites for its graphics and character animations, the game never stops being colorful. The visuals just pop, with a nice cartoonish look that is nicer to look at than some other, more pixilated visuals of the era. Sure, Luigi is, for the most part, just a recolor of Mario (unless you’re playing the Super Mario All-Stars + Super Mario World bundle pack), but the game still looks bright and colorful, which flows quite nicely with the lighthearted tone of the game. In contrast, the Ghost Houses, Castles, Fortresses, and Underground cavern levels, while still colorful, have a more eerie, ominous look in their level design, which fits the style as well.

While definitely unable to compete with the complex, photorealistic visuals of today, Super Mario World still manages to shine.

Music:

While not as celebrated as the music from Super Mario Bros., SMW’s music is definitely fun. While most of the level songs are just rearranged versions of the same melody, it doesn’t get too repetitive. In addition, the world map music is quite a treat, with my personal favorite being the Forest of Illusion theme. Even a rearranged version of the Starman theme plays in the Star World, along with a version of the original Super Mario Bros. Overworld theme, which can be heard in the Special World if you wait long enough. All in all, Koji Kondo’s score for the game is great.

Overall:

Some may accuse me of wearing nostalgia goggles when it comes to Super Mario World, but I definitely have it as one of my favorite games of all time. While Super Mario 64 may have been an excellent attempt at translating a 2D series into a 3D world, Super Mario World, in my opinion, is the best Mario game of all time and one I like to revisit ever now and again. The games of today may still capture my attention, but sometimes, this game is all I need. It’s no secret I’m not the biggest fan of Nintendo these days. But that doesn’t mean I can’t admit when they’ve made a great game.

I have heard or people asking prostitutes or escorts to wear Stormtrooper outfits to enduldge their geek sexual fantasies. But I think a Nintendo Power Glove fantasy is going a little over the line. Makes you wonder if this guy actually uses the power glove already on hisself. How much would you guys pay for this type of fantasy to come true? I know you guys wouldn’t do this, but I’m just asking. For, you know, research purposes. To help this guy out.

Yea.

[via geekologie]

In the history of gaming, there have always been accessories to help us game better. Some of them have been good, like arcade sticks for fighting games, rumble paks, and wireless controllers. Others, however, have been absolute garbage. These are my top 12 WORST Video Game Accessories.

12) Xbox 360 HDD

Sony had the right idea this generation, allowing users to upgrade their consoles with bigger 2.5” SATA HDDs. However, Microsoft opted to use its own proprietary format, which may not seem like a big deal. But when you can purchase a 320 GB HDD for a PS3 on Amazon for about $70, paying $100 for a 60 GB hard drive seems like a big rip off. Way to milk it, Microsoft.

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