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You probably can't leap over this six-foot homemade Piranha Plant (nor should you try)
We'd probably say something like, "I always thought it would be cool to build a giant fire breathing piranha plant," and then promptly forget about following through. Also, hey, that sounds dangerous! Hack-a-day's Caleb Kraft, however, doesn't allow silly things like fear of seared human flesh get between him and his dreams. (This is the same man who created an incredible Portal gun, in case you forgot the name.) Kraft created a six-foot tall, fire-breathing "piranha plant" -- also known as "that bastard plant hiding in Super Mario World's pipes" -- using PVC pipe, butane and a whole mess of other materials. The results are -- well, we can think of a variety of adjectives that'd fit perfectly well here, but you'll likely come up with a few of your own after watching the video of it in action below the break.
Nintendo 3DS gets first downloadable titles next week: Super Mario and Brain Training sequels
As Nintendo attempts to get its eShop up to speed with Sony's PS Vita provision, it's finally announced a July 28th launch date for its first two downloadable games. Alongside the in-store release of the 3DS XL, the full versions of both Super Mario Brothers 2 and the latest iteration of Dr. Kawashima's Brain Age / Training will be available for online purchase in Japan, priced at 4,800 yen (around $61) and 3,800 yen ($48), respectively. Nintendo already offers a mixed bag of retro titles and demos to download, but this is the first time it'll wheel out fully-fledged 3DS games.
Super Mario Bros. gets modern sound effects, nostalgia ensues (video)
We can only wonder what'll happen when you reach a certain score -- you know, somewhere above 8000...
Tiny Wiimote "projector" is not nearly as impressive as it sounds on paper
This image is not necessarily one we are thrilled about having projected upon our walls, but we are pretty fond of anything in miniature. This 2.25-inch Wiimote is actually a semi-ingenious mini-projector which projects an image (yes, only one) from Super Mario Kart when its button is pressed. When you order you'll get a random choice of one of the six possible images, each less exciting and more pointless than the next. They're available from ThinkGeek now for $6, which is maybe worth the roughly one minute of amusement you (or your cat) will get out of the thing.[Via Wired]
Playable Paper Super Mario... no really, he's made of paper
Taking Paper Mario to its logical -- albeit extreme -- conclusion, an artist / DIY'er named Keith Lam has created the first physical, playable implementation of Super Mario Brothers. By emphasizing Mario's movement on the background, and turning the "TV" into the object which moves, the character appears to traverse the familiar landscape of SMB, complete with collision detection, brick movement, and mechanized jumping. The "system" is built using a chain-driven platform, which is shakily directed with an actual NES (well, Famicom) controller, thus allowing for some game play -- though with response times like this, you're better off just watching. Speaking of, check the video after the break and see the system in action.[Via Wired]
Super Mario Brothers subwoofer brings the bass, mushrooms
What's better than experiencing the bowel-shaking, wall-rumbling, thunderous bass of a custom made subwoofer? Why, having that bass emanate from perfect replicas of the "question mark" and brick blocks from Super Mario Brothers, (thus making it the perfect thing to play back your recordings of the SMB Tesla coil), of course. According to the owner, the subs sound great, but the low-end gets a little muddy whenever the question mark gets turned into a metal plate.[Thanks, Michael]
Speculating on the Virtual Console [Update 1]
Play-Nintendo has a "reliable list" (yeah, we know how those are) of games that are rumored to be on the Virtual Console. But it looks reasonable, and in fact, some of the titles are already confirmed by various sources. Their list is packed with classic titles, and some of them (oh, Castlevania, how we love you) are expected but still exciting, and others many of us still play on lazy Sunday afternoons (Ocarina of Time, anyone?) If this list turns out to be the real deal, we may have to take some extended breaks from our actual Wii games. A fanboy's life is full of difficult choices. Play-Nintendo also reports that their "source" confirmed five brand new games for the Virtual Console, but they couldn't reveal the details. We'll see. What are you dying to see? Frankly, we think Super Mario Bros. 3 is a necessity, if only because we know there'd be videos everywhere of fanboys reenacting scenes from The Wizard. If you could add any three games to this list, what would you choose? Full list after the jump.
Create an 8-bit masterpiece in Garageband
In my day videogame consoles had 8 bits and we liked it. Nintendo ruled the gaming landscape and Microsoft was no where to be seen. Ah, those were the days.Why am I going on about 8-bits games here on TUAW? Because Create Digital Music has discovered a plugin for Garageband that turns your Mac into an 8-bit videogame theme making machine (and really can you think of a better use of your Mac? I didn't think so). Check out the tutorial and leave a link in the comments to any 8-bit tracks you create.Update: As George points out in the comments this is PowerPC only. Sorry, Intel Mac users.
Japanese sales charts, May 22-28: New Super Mario dominates
Last week we saw the .hack franchise dominating the Japanese charts, but it's all change this week as newcomer New Super Mario Bros. flattens all competition. Just shy of 900,000 sales, it's exceeded the sales of the rest of the top ten combined -- and probably the rest of the top forty. 1. New Super Mario Bros. [DS]2. Brain Age 2 (Kahashima Ryuuta Kyouju Kanshuu: Motto Nouo Kitaeru Otona DS) [DS]3. Brain Age: Train your Brain in Minutes a Day (Kahashima Ryuuta Kyouju no Nouo Kitaeru Otona DS Training) [DS]4. Dragon Quest & Final Fantasy in Itadaki Street Portable [PSP]5. Tetris DS [DS]6. KimiKiss [PS2]7. World Soccer Winning Eleven 10 [PS2]8. Eigo ga Nigate na Otona no DS Training: Eigo Duke [DS]9. Animal Crossing: Wild World [DS]10. Jikkyou Powerful Major League [PS2]
Ohio town spits fire over Mario question cube "attack"
Though you may be in a heap of trouble with your home town rag and residents, oh five teenage girls from Portage County, Ohio, we salute you and your April Fool's prank: dropping or suspending seventeen Mario Bros. question cubes around town. Now, granted, if we saw something like that on April first in our fair city of New York, it might seem a lot more commonplace than Ravenna, Ohio, but the point still stands -- if you think Al Qaeda ever played SMB, you've probably forgotten that those games inspire the good in people, remember? The controller smashing huffy puffy video game addicted 11 year old good in people, in fact. Unfortunately that didn't stop the HAZMAT and Fire Department crews from stepping in to defuse the situation, so to speak, and for it the five girls could face serious criminal charges. Too bad, because if those guys would have just jumped up and hit them from beneath they might instead have walked away with a sweet power-up (or an extra man).[Via Joystiq]
