Don't Stop Mario Now

Via Kotaku.

Goodnight, Sweet Lou

Not that Lou. Piniella lives.

Unfortunately, Captain Lou Albano, the beloved wrestler and actor, has died at age 76. Lou was famous for helping pro wrestling cross over into the mainstream and also for portraying live action Mario on the short lived The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!.

Rest in peace, Lou. Thanks to you, I'll always know how to do the Mario.

Thanks to Kotaku for the heads up.

The Lyrics of Zelda

Pretty funny stuff from YouTube entertainer Brentalfloss. He's also laid down tracks to the Final Fantasy, Mega Man, and Duck Tales theme songs. Check out more of his off the wall work here.

Thanks to Kotaku for the heads up.

8-Bit Weezer

When you go on a retro kick (and I know you do) and you start hanging out in the garage and blowing on cartridges and drinking lots of sody pop, your mind tends to wander towards the finer things in life and the mysteries of the universe. You may wonder aloud, "Hey, I wonder what some of Weezer's songs would sound like if they were a soundtrack for my favorite NES games?" because, hey, I know I have. Well finally, we have an answer.

Enter 8-Bit Weezer, a compilation of Weezer songs from Pterodactyl Squad all made in the style of retro game soundtracks. All of the tracks are very well done, clear standouts being Tugboat's cover of El Scorcho, nordloef's blistering rendition of Buddy Holly, and my personal favorite (and my favorite Weezer song of all time) Bit Shifter's excellent version of The World Has Turned And Left Me Here. Honorable mention goes to videogame orchestra for getting Castlevania in my Weezer with their brilliant Island In The Sun (Belmont's Revisal). Gosh darnit, people are just so frickin' creative!

If you like Weezer or if you like retro gaming, you owe it to yourself to check this out. Thanks to Winston LaGrange and Offworld for the heads up!

A Boy And His Blob

A Boy And His Blob for the NES was one of the best (and most difficult, IMO) entries in the system's incredible library. You controlled the titular Boy and you would feed your Blob different flavored jellybeans, causing him to turn into various objects like ladders, bubbles, and trampolines to help you deal with whatever situation you came across. I have many fond memories of playing this game while wearing footed pajamas.

Well, the Boy and the Blob are getting an all new adventure on the Wii, and I'm officially excited.

Nintendo Power broke the story in their most recent issue, but you can check out all the drool-worthy screenshots over at Kotaku. Seriously, the game looks gorgeous.

Currently, the game is slated for a Fall '09 release. I'll be waiting impatiently.

Thanks to Kotaku for the heads up.

Punched Out!!: The Mike Tyson Story

Ah, the Onion. The imagination storm swirling around in that office must be truly overwhelming. Here, they detail a new documentary called Punched Out!!: The Mike Tyson Story about the Ear-Biting One's meteoric rise to virtual boxing stardom. Head on over for the full (fake) article. It's too bad, really. I'd put down my Fistful of Quarters in a heartbeat to see this winning, tell-all documentary. I'd especially like to hear more from Mario on what refereeing all of those classic bouts was like. Just to be in the ring with Super Macho Man and King Hippo would be a dream come true.

Furthermore, the new Punch-Out!! for Wii has been dated and will release for North America on May 18th. Don't fuck it up, Ninty! Thanks to Kotaku for the heads up.

Wrestle Jam

GREAT article on Kotaku about the making of Wrestle Jam, the fictional video game that Randy the Ram plays with his young neighbor during a scene in Darren Aronofsky's brilliant and moving film The Wrestler. I'm not going to say that Mickey Rourke was robbed if the Best Actor Oscar (Sean Penn was excellent in Milk) but it really could have gone either way. The article talks about how the video game and the scene in which it is played is a great bit of symbolism about Randy's struggle with his own reality in the film. Kudos to Michael McWhertor for some great writing. Very cool stuff.

Super Mario Twitter

The guys at pwnordie are brilliant.

Krist Novoselic Sucks at Rock Band 2

Novoselic is (of course) the bass player for one of Rock's most groundbreaking acts of all time: Nirvana. Ya heard of 'em?

Krist has a blog on Seattle Weekly's site in which he writes about music (of course) as well as politics and sociopolitical issues. It runs every Tuesday in case you're curious what one half of Nirvana's rhythm section (and one third of the band) has to say about...stuff. In addition to blogging for Seattle Weekly, Krist is an elected Democratic State Comitteeman and is the chair of FairVote, a voter awareness group seeking to be a catalyst for voter reform. His last musical endeavour was playing bass (of course) in a band called Flipper. Ya heard of 'em?

Anyway...one of Krist's recent blogs is about his discovery of Rock Band 2 while browsing in a big box store. He attempts to play a Nirvana song (In Bloom), a song with a bass line that he originated, and fails miserably. Afterwards, he looks on, impressed, as a kid who wasn't even born yet procedes to play the same song and rock it right the fuck out. Novoselic did not make his identity known to the boy (or girl...he doesn't say), choosing to look on in wonder and silent appreciation. He concludes that Rock Band is a good thing for the world because it gets people excited about and involved in music...and will probably lead to more album sales and less file sharing (good luck with that one, buddy).

Thanks to Kotaku for the heads up.

Masters in Gaming

New York University is becoming the latest school to join the handful of institutions that offer undergraduate and graduate degrees in video games and interactive media.

As reported by Crain's New York Business:

"NYU announced Tuesday that it has launched the NYU Game Center, which will offer long-term undergraduate and graduate degrees in the research, design and development of digital games. NYU will become the first New York City college to offer a degree in video games."

"The center will offer about 70 courses on game design and development. In the fall 2009, 10 to 12 NYU students will have the opportunity to choose a minor, major or double major in gaming. Beginning in the fall 2010, about six graduate students a year will be admitted to a two-year Master’s program and certificate program."

Sounds like NYU is getting while the getting's good. The gaming industry made around $38 billion last year. Eat your heart out, Hollywood.

Now if only I could come up with the $50 grand a year or so needed for tuition, fees, room and board.

Thanks to Kotaku.

Django, this is Mario. Mario, Django.

This is nothing short of fantastic. I'd forgotten what a great little ditty (from the city) the Super Mario Bros. 2 theme is. Furthermore, I'll be listening to Django Reinhardt on Pandora at work all morning, of that you can be assured. (And if you're not yet aware of Pandora...what's wrong with you?)

I can only hope to be as awesome at anything someday as this guy (whose name is Adrian Holovaty) is at playing guitar. Bravo.

Thanks to Kotaku.

Mario Kart IRL

MARIO KART (REMI GAILLARD)
by nqtv

Genius.

Check Kotaku for more.

The Quotable NES

The boys at SydLexia are back at it.

I'm a huge fan of their lists and their oh-so-wrong-yet-oh-so-right brand of humor. Their newest creation (besides the recent rash of Lessons Learned from entries...seriously, what's the deal with that show? It was like Are You Afraid of the Dark?Goosebumps for TV...wait...Goosebumps had its own show too. Whatever. I'm not a fan.) is 50 NES Quotes Every Gamer Should Know. Seems self-explanatory enough. There are some pretty humorous ones as well that stand out from your typical Japanese/Engrish translations. Lots from the original Legend of Zelda too.

Enjoy. I know I did.

I Never Hit A Woman...

...I just shake the shit out of her.

Kidding. Promise. BUT if you've ever wanted to hit a woman...here's your chance. It's called Rose & Camellia and its brought to you by NIGORO (only the Japanese).

This might be the greatest game ever made. As Kotaku puts it, its a game about "Victorian- themed woman slapping." If that doesn't get your juices flowing, I don't know what will. I actually cried "Bitch!" out loud when I finally defeated the older sister. Now that's what I call interactive media. Watch out for the matriarch though. She's a tough ol' broad...and she hits HARD.

Give it a go. Hooray Shockwave!

Thanks to Kotaku's PC Gamer Gift Guide for the heads up.

All I Want For Christmas

Stop the presses. Seriously.

Someone tell the gaming industry to hold off on the good stuff for a while. I, for one, can't keep up with the never-ending stream of quality titles hitting the shelves these days. It's like it's raining fucking Skittles out there and there's too much of the rainbow to taste.

Not that I'm complaining. If you've ever felt that there was a veritable drought of good games coming out in a given period (which I certainly have), this holiday season is the epitome of the old cliche "When it rains (Skittles), it pours." The release of Fable II and Fallout 3 in consecutive weeks is enough to put a strain on my wallet and my watch (Fable II, by the way, is awesome). After this Christmas, there should be no reason to grouse about a lack of games to play for several months following the holiday boom.

My list this year is massive. I do have four systems to support, after all, and there's at least one must-buy for each of them. I'm also still playing catch up. There are some oldies out there that I still need to pick up. All in all, this is several thousand dollars worth of software (and peripherals, in Guitar Hero: World Tour's case). Sacrifices will have to be made.

Here's the (semi)complete rundown:

XBOX 360

Guitar Hero: World Tour (apparently, the GH:WT instruments work with Rock Band 2 and from what I've read, GH:WT has the better drum set), Fallout 3, Prince of Persia, Pure, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion GOTY Edition (I know, I know), Mirror's Edge, NHL 09, Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 (or FIFA 09, haven't made up my mind yet), Soulcaliber IV, MLB Front Office Manager 2008, BioShock (I know! I know!), The Orange Box, Left 4 Dead

Wii

Boom Blox!, Resident Evil 4 (I KNOW!), Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, World of Goo, MLB Power Pros 2008, Lego Batman

DS

KORG DS-10 Synthesizer, Final Fantasy IV, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, Dragon Ball: Origins, Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff, Metal Slug 7, Moon, Age of Empires: Mythologies, Chrono Trigger DS

PC

Spore

Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals

Who knew PETA had a (dark) sense of humor?

If you're a fan of the Cooking Mama games like I am, you'll definitely appreciate this morbid take on the franchise.
PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) has Mama going berserk on a poor turkey in preparation for her family's Thanksgiving feast, aptly titled Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals. It looks like Majesco had no hand in this (the game is "unauthorized") so I don't know how long it will be up on peta.org. That means you should play it before it's too late!

The gameplay matches up identically with its DS counterparts (I haven't played the Wii version but I'll be sure to grab it when it's in the bargain bin) except you're using a mouse and not a stylus (or Wiimote). You remove the feathers, rip out the organs, stuff the shit out of it, cut its fucking head off...hell, you even make some grotesque giblet gravy! It's broken up into stages like the original games are and you're rated for your efficiency with points and phrases like "Don't be a saint!", "Too Nice!", and "Meaner than Mama!". After successfully completing each stage, you're treated with a fun factoid about turkey farming in the US and given the opportunity to watch videos of turkey slaughters and other hilarious (read: horrible) things. Joy!

SPOILER ALERT!!!
If you're especially quick (read: brutal) about all of this, you unlock a secret stage at the end titled "Mama Loves Animals" where you crumble up some tofu, shape it into a blob, baste some brown goop onto it, and throw it in the oven. Bing! Tofurkey! You're rewarded for going vegan with a beautiful montage of Mama loving up a turkey in front of a glorious rainbow! Homosexual!

Seriously though, hats off to PETA and Majesco for this ingenious collaboration. The dream team manages to inform about the serious atrocities committed in order to put the turkey on the table AND entertain at the same time. You know what that is? That's art, right there. That's a mirror, society! Take a good look!

Anyway, I know I'll still be biting into some bird (ha) on Turkey Day. Hypocritical? You bet I am. But does anyone really like tofurkey?

More at Kotaku.

Mario the Plumber Votes Democratic

Since he is going to be busy fighting baddies in the Mushroom Kingdom tomorrow, Mario Mario* cast his vote for the 2008 election at an early voting site in Brooklyn late Friday. When asked who he voted for upon exiting the polling center, the omnipotent overalled one exclaimed, "I choose-ah Obama! Woo hoo!"

When asked why other plumbers, such as the (in)famous Joe from Ohio, were voting for McCain, Mario declined to comment.

Kotaku reports.

*They are the Super Mario Bros. after all. I guess that means their names are Mario Mario and Luigi Mario...but that's another story for another day.

Mega Man 9 Gets A Release Date...And A Box!!!

Via Kotaku and GoNintendo...

The hotly anticipated Wii Virtual Console, XBOX Live Arcade, and PlayStation Network release of Capcom's old-school goodness Mega Man 9 finally has an official release date and I, for one, couldn't be more excited.

As a matter of fact, I'm gonna bust out Mega Man 3 on my NES and download Mega Man 2 off the Wii Shop Channel in preparation for next week's release.

Mega Man 9 drops September 22nd on the VC, September 25th on PSN, and October 1st on XBLA.

Furthermore, Capcom announced that they will make available these sweet boxes and NES cartridge-shaped cases (pictured) to the general public in extremely limited supply at a soon-to-be-announced date. Here's hoping I can grab one of these before they're gone!