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Myspace invades Mario
Poor Toad. He's always getting kidnapped, plays the role as the third wheel for Mario and Peach and now no one will come to his band's shows. Luigi, after deciding to kick the crack-like habit known as MySpace, has left an empty slot in his brother Mario's Top 8. For those of you smart enough to not give in to the succubus that is MySpace, a Top 8 is a list of your dearest friends who also belong to the cult. Toad longs for that slot in an overly creepy way. Witness Toad's sad social skills after the break! [Via Go Nintendo]
Gory Goomba guts gush, we giggle gleefully
Handre de Jager strikes again! The artist whose previous game interpretations include disturbing humanized versions of Kirby and Burger Time enemies has moved on to Mario 3. Although not visible in the adjacent image, a bloated Mario is seen smashing a helpless Goomba to a bloody pulp while onlookers (Lakitu, Luigi, and a couple of koopas) leer at one another. Skilled visionary or disturbed individual? We're on the fence about what to call him. Check out the full picture below, or click here for the super-sized (1024x1448) variant. You can view (and purchase) de Jager's other works here.
Norwegian DS Bundle
The classic Nintendo days are remembered in this special edition DS. Not only are lucky owners getting a copy of Super Mario Bros. from the NES Classic Series for GBA, they are also getting a copy of New Super Mario Bros., a black DS Lite and spiffy packaging. It doesn't sound like a whole lot when you already have a black DS and both the games but to a harcore collector this is a gold mine.
Fuzzy logic: Lara Croft > Mario?
According to Eidos' SCI's Ian Livingstone, Tomb Raider vixen Lara Croft is "the most famous character in gaming." Interviewer Paul Loughrey of GamesIndustry.biz then questions whether or not he means most famous ... other than Mario. Livingstone adamantly asserts that Mrs. Croft is indeed more popular than Nintendo's gaming icon."Well, Mario is still very much within the games niche, whereas Lara has gone beyond that thanks to two blockbuster films, for example. She's graced the covers of thousands of not just games journals, but lifestyle journals as well."We'll admit, much to our chagrin, that Super Mario Bros. film was not the glorious re-imagining of Nintendo's flagship series, nor was it a box office smash (the total domestic gross was $20.9 million, which would be approximately $32.3 million today when adjusted for ticket price inflation). But Mario, we'd argue, is still more of a household name. While there is no quantitative backing to either assertions, we'd like to point out that Livingstone's support is rather inefficient. In 1966, John Lennon exclaimed that the Beatles were "more popular than Jesus." And while we suspect those zany Brits did grace more magazine covers than the founder of Christianity, it's still a stretch to elevate a band over a world religion.And though the Mario film sunk, his power was seen elsewhere in pop culture. Not to mention his games tend to do better, both financially and critically.
New Super Mario now stomping across Europe
Not content with conquering Japan and America, the newly revamped, newly released, New Super Mario Bros. now set its non-insidious sights on Europe, land of collosseums, queens and curiously leaning constructions. Nintendo of Europe has announced that the game has shipped to stores, just in time to be snatched up over the weekend. Expect Mario to hit his presumed homeland of Italy in full force, devouring mushrooms and smashing bricks, though sadly not fixing leaky plumping. If you haven't purchased the game already, check out its updated official site and catch yourself whistling along to the music.
My talent? Dressing up as Mario!
We're not entirely sure that dressing up as Mario and reenacting the entire first level (World 1-1) of NES classic (and frat boy retro-favorite) Super Mario Bros. constitutes a "talent" in the traditional sense. Perhaps the singular artistic vision of one of these Gordon College students makes up the talent portion. Either that or the part where Mario pulls off his red overalls--male-stripper style--to reveal his white flower-power overalls underneath is the real talent. Check out the embedded video after the break.[Thanks, Gareth]
Sights and sounds of retro Famicom keychains
For the price of $13.50 you can get a keychain featuring cool, retro blocky graphic coupled with a miniature Famicom controller that makes character-relevant sound effects, like this especially obnoxious one from Ice Climber (wav).I couldn't imagine having one of these in my pocket, repeating that sound effect ad nauseum every time something hit the "A" button; the pixelated portion is aces though.[Via GameBrink]
