Creo que este mundo esta lleno de muchas personas Geeks y Freaks, pero ojala no solo fueran muchas, sino fuera el 100% de la poblacion mundial, que fabuloso seria vivir asi no??? En fin, Maravilloso alfombra hecha con estambre, para ser exacto por 360 cuadritos de estambre de 3.5 pulgadas cada uno, los cuales simbolizan pixeles, este trabajo se llevo a acabo en casi 1 mes, y lo mejor de todo, que el creador ni siquiera sabia tejer, pero era tanto su afan por aprender, para hacer su tapetito, que se puso a mirar videos en Youtube!!! Curioso no lo creen??

With Halloween coming up, the rush is on to find a decent costume to wear. The rush is also on for watchdog groups to get irate at politically incorrect costumes, like the “illegal alien” costume, which is an orange prison jumpsuit with an alien mask and a fake green card. Those looking for a real illegal-alien costume have to go no further than the South End of New Bedford or the fish houses downtown.  … Nothing like a trip down memory lane. IGN.com, a Web site dedicated to video games, movies and music, just finished its countdown of the 100 Greatest Nintendo Games. Good memories clicking through the top 10 and the Web pages look great. For the record, the top three are: No. 3 Super Mario Bros., No 2. The Legend of Zelda, and No. 1 Super Mario Bros. 3. …  Three links for your reading enjoyment this Thursday: 1) Environmentally friendly Berlin whorehouse offering discounts for customers who ride bikes, take public transportation or other “go green” ways to get there; 2) Female firefighters in Australia are given new uniforms that become see-through when wet; and 3) What better place to get married than in a strip club? … So in my Madden 10 franchise mode, I’m in the 2012 season with the Pats. After two seasons, two playoff appearances and zero postseason wins, I won the Super Bowl in 2011 against the Falcons in dramatic fashion. Anyway, I thought it was interesting that only a handful of current Pats are still on my roster: Vince Wilfork, Darius Butler, Pat Chung and Jonathan Wilhite on defense. Brady, Moss, Welker, and Logan Makins are the only ones left on offense. I’ve spent first-round picks on cornerback, running back and right tackle and used second-round picks on a free safety, right guard and some receivers preparing for the day when Moss hangs it up. … Speaking of football, how the hell does Titans coach Jeff Fisher keep his job after such embarrassment last weekend? OK, you’re going against Belichick and it’s snowing, but your team is hungry for a win and you come out and get one of the worst beatings in NFL history. I’ve long considered Fisher one of the top coaches in the game, but the time has come for him to move on. … Happy 71st birthday to the very decent Christopher Lloyd. He played the extremely decent Doc Brown in Back to the Future and had other crazy roles in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Adams Family and Star Trek III. I will always remember Lloyd as Reverend Jim on Taxi, one of the most decent TV shows of all time. Remember this clip, which is played over and over again on those shows counting down the funniest TV moments, when he was taking his driver’s test and asking what a yellow light meant? … Community member Yim asked me to wish a happy 44th birthday to Piotr Wiwczarek, lead singer of the Polish death-metal band Vader. As part of the Monsters of Death Tour, Vader will be performing at the Palladium in Worcester, Mass. on Nov. 5. Sorry, the show is sold out, but Vader will be stopping at The White Eagle before the show for some brews if you wanna chat it up with them. … Finally, happy 35th birthday to Swedish model Helen Svedin. Did you know Svedin is married to arguably the most famous Portuguese soccer player of all time, Luis Figo?

Por Alexei Barros

No dia 21 de novembro de 2009 o Video Games Live regressará a Paris, França, depois de duas apresentações no ano passado na mesma cidade, uma em junho e outra em dezembro. Para o vindouro show, o VGL promoveu o concurso local “Quem vai ser o próximo Martin Leung?”, que irá eleger uma performance em vídeo de acordo com a votação do público para reproduzi-la ao vivo, no palco do Palais des Congrès no dia do espetáculo. A ideia é que seja tocada apenas uma música das franquias Mario, Zelda, Sonic, Monkey Island, Halo, Final Fantasy, Metal Gear Solid, Kingdom Hearts ou Warcraft, e a gravação publicada no Dailymotion no grupo separado especialmente para a disputa. O prazo acabou ontem, dia 21 de outubro, e havia sido inaugurado no dia 1 de setembro.

O Video Games Brass Quintet entrou na competição com esse medley, e só não sei se foi desqualificado porque as regras solicitavam somente uma faixa. Seja como for, o quinteto de metais formado por dois trompetes, trombone, tuba e trompa se apresentou no Festival du Jeu Vidéo 2009, e o áudio foi sobreposto por uma gravação sem plateia, o que garantiu melhor qualidade de som, ainda mais sem a reação do público. Falemos da performance: passeia por músicas de Super Mario Bros. 1, 2, 3 e World com seleções bastante interessantes, em especial “Overworld” (Super Mario World) e “Ending” (Super Mario Bros. 2), com momentos mais lúdicos na recriação auditiva da experiência de jogo.  O arranjo não se preocupa em fazer transições elaboradas, mas é bem executado. No fim das contas, é uma performance que, mesmo amadora, é muito mais honesta, criativa e variada do que costumamos ver no show principal do VGL. Isso que nem sabemos se irá vencer.

“Overworld” ~ “Game Over” (Super Mario Bros.) ~ “Overworld” (Super Mario Bros. 2) ~ “Underworld” ~ “Invincible” ~ “Underwater” (Super Mario Bros.) ~ “Athletic” (Super Mario Bros. 3) ~ “Overworld” (Super Mario World) ~ “World Clear” (Super Mario Bros.) ~ “Ending” (Super Mario Bros. 2)

Madness Brewing Roundtable #1 – Super Mario Bros. 3
<34 mins (15.5 MB)> – (October 18, 2009)

Join myself and Chris Karpyszyn as we discuss one of the greatest games of all time, Super Mario Bros. 3. We’re not just reviewing the game but talking about our memories of the game and the mark it not only left in video games but also in mass culture.

As announced during the podcast, an enhanced version of this video podcast of this broadcast will be available on Sunday. It will feature gameplay footage as well as other interesting statistics.

Next week we’ll be talking about the Playstation 2. If you want to send us any questions for the show, send them to madnessbrewing@gmail.com.

Por Alexei Barros

Ainda estou preparando um post sobre a visita do Video Games Live no Japão, mas achei mais apropriado publicar esse vídeo separadamente dada a singularidade. Assim como no show do VGL 2007 na E3, o mago, o mestre, enfim, o mestre dos magos Koji Kondo esteve ao piano para tocar seis músicas do Mario.

A bem da verdade, a execução nem é tão exemplar assim. Que me perdoe o Kondo, ele errou alguns acordes (na parte do Mario 3 principalmente), mas ter o compositor na performance é algo único. Além disso, me agradou muito a seleção – todas essas do vídeo foram escritas pelo próprio. Não sei se você sabia, há muitas outras músicas sensacionais do Mario em toda a série, não apenas no primeiro. Tem até Super Mario Galaxy. Ainda mais incrível, Yoshi’s Island.

No início do vídeo a incidência de luz é tão forte sobre Kondo que ele fica pálido como um fantasma Boo, mas o problema é resolvido quando a câmera focaliza o telão, tornando possível a visualização do teclado do piano.

“Mario Piano Solo”

“Main Theme” (New Super Mario Bros.) ~ “Rosetta’s Observatory 1” (Super Mario Galaxy) ~ “Athletic” (Yoshi’s Island) ~ “Athletic” (Super Mario Bros. 3) ~ “Underworld” (Super Mario Bros.) ~ “Overworld” (Super Mario Bros.)

Mario Manningham>Terence Newman

It’s been a minutes since I rapped about football. But wow, that game last night was great! The Giants pissed me off with their red zone issues but they did enough to win. Besides it would’ve been shitty to lose as Romo had 3 interceptions. Eli did alright but the real star of the game was SUPER Mario…

….nope lemme finish ‘Ye…

Manningham!

I’ll forgive him for going to Michigan but he did his thing out there. I hope this isn’t a one game fluke. In a best case scenario it’ll be the start of a breakout year a la Adrian Peterson but I’m not holding my breath for that either. Anyway, here’s hoping dude can keep ballin’ out there all season. The New York Football Giants can use all the help they can get when it comes to wide receivers so it’s good to see the lil’ homey shine. This man styled all over Dallas’s new fangled stadium. As long as the fans in attendance saw the L in 1098201P HD i’m good. Gotta love them Texas tax dollars at work huh?

When I was a wee lad I owned a NES.  Buying games was not on the docket, so I was stuck with Super Mario Bros 3 and Star Tropics.  I rented games from time to time, but as a five year old it could not be done on a whim.  So those were my games.  I wasn’t particularly drawn to them, but I did enjoy them.  As well, I did not understand them — and this was goddamn fascinating to me.  There was a point in Star Tropics where a snake patrolled an underground passageway.  One simply had to find the right moment to cross the path so as to avoid the snake.  I marveled at the complexity of this for hours, maybe even several play sessions that didn’t progress past that point.  Eventually I summed up my courage and hit the snake with a yo-yo.  It killed me.  I guess eventually I got past that, but I don’t remember when it clicked.  Later in the game, when I stopped playing, I was in a submarine (for reasons unknown to me) and got lost at sea, cursed to swim forever alongside pixelated dolphins in the tiled sea.

When my older neighbour showed me the secret flute levels in SMB 3, the ones with the ships and the lava, I was blown away.  It was a magical thing.  I played through a lot of that game, but I was very inconsistent.  My early brain didn’t grasp the core concepts; sometimes I blew past level 2 and sometimes I had to give up out of frustration.

One time I rented a combat flight sim for the NES.  I think I saw a plane once.  I spent the rest of the night barreling endlessly through a  depthless blue sky, sitting in a badly rendered cockpit.  I didn’t know what to think.

When I was old enough to graduate to our family’s old Mac (which was something like eleven years older than me) I finally, after grueling diplomacy, had secured for myself a copy of Warcraft II.  The older kids on my street all played it, and I was ecstatic.  I waited several hours for the game to install on the computer.  I then started up the world editor, thinking it was the game (this was my first time installing a computer game) and ended up “playing it” for about an hour.  I realized something was up.  This looked like the game, but there was some essential functionality missing.  There was no attacking, units did not move from point A to B (only when I moved them there, as per the editor’s rules), and surely nothing was fighting against me.

After some time I found the actual game.  Clearly, it became “my game”.  My first game to fully figure out, I think.  I learned the tech tree, unit costs and which spells did what.  I became pretty adept at beating the computer.  I was not even aware that it had multiplayer capabilities, but I was happy with it.  Even so, eventually I stopped playing.  I moved on to Age of Empires II and Unreal Tournament, and proceeded to figure them out.

Shadow Complex has led me to this nostalgia, because it brings me back to that sense of mystery and bewilderment.  I never played the Metroid/Castelvania games as a kid, so I don’t associate it with those respective tropes.  But it has brought to might the sense of mystery that used to bind me to games, and that led me to view them as very big things.  Because of my ineptitude at Star Tropics I inferred that, surely, it must be an endless world.  Looking back it must have been a very short game when compared to today’s norm.

I find myself backtracking, checking my map with a wrinkled brow, retrying areas over and over trying to figure out “the way” to pass the test.  I feel lost but powerful and capable as well.  I hope I never attain the completionist’s knowledge of the game and lose my sense of awe.

It is strange that this is considered “old school” game design.  Surely it is part of World of Warcraft’s artificially extended world.  I wish other games would consider tricking their players rather than putting them on track to “play along”.  It breaks my heart when I’m surrounded by urban detritus and see that rubble piles block all routes of movement besides “the path”.

To be timely for a second, I’m also ready to be somewhat disappointed with Halo ODST.  I’d rather the open world be the entire game, with new missions to accommodate it.  Instead the bulk of the game, as I understand it, will be played through “flashbacks” in the traditional Halo mission style.  Frankly I’d find it a relief to just get lost in a dark city, in enemy territory, all alone and trying to find my way back to the rest of the boys.  I’d like to just do that, for a change.  What I don’t want to do is jump in a tank and go to point B where I will fight bad guys until they stop coming.  I just played that out in my head, cut together from past experiences.  The shooting will be fun, yes.  But I have done that already, that mission.  I know the outcome most certainly.

Should it not be some tenet of game design to keep your players “in the magic circle”, unawares of your machinations?  Should it not become more important in sequels?  That’s not a knock against Halo ODST; it’s a convenient example and I can’t wait to play it for other reasons.  I just want some of that wonderment back.

Here are 10 things you may not know about our favorite video game character Mario:

* Mario was first seen in the video game Donkey Kong, but he was called “Jumpman.” He was also a carpenter then, not a plumber.

* Mario was named after Mario Segale, the landlord of Nintendo of America’s office, who barged in on a company meeting demanding an overdue rent.

* Shigeru Miyamoto drew Mario as wearing a cap because he found drawing hair difficult. He also drew in the moustache, because it was easier to see than a mouth in the crude video game screen resolution back then.

* Mario and his younger brother Luigi are known as the “Mario Brothers.” This means that Mario’s last name is also Mario, so his full name is Mario Mario.

* Mario is voice-acted by Charles Martinet, who crashed the audition for “an Italian plumber from Brooklyn” character. Here’s an interview with the man:

* Mario’s nemesis is Wario (a combination of “warui”, the Japanese word for bad, and Mario). Similarly, Luigi’s rival is Waluigi. Both are also voiced by Charles Martinet.

* Mario has appeared in over 200 video games so far, has sold over 193 million units of games (all of the Mario series) and even has his own TV cartoon show. Super Mario Bros. 3 alone grossed over $500 million in USA.

* TV Schmeve, you’re nothing till there’s an opera done on you. In 2003, Jonathan Mann of California Institute of Arts created The Mario Opera, a rock opera:

* Super Mario Bros. theme music, written by Koji Kondo, is known worldwide. It has inspired countless fan-renditions, including one played by Zack Kim on two guitars (viewed over 4 million times on YouTube!), played by Jean Baudin on 11 string bass, beatboxed by Greg Patillo on the flute, and played by the Oregon Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra on the trombones.

But my favorite is this one by Play! symphony orchestra:

* Mario is the most famous character in the history of video games, and perhaps is the most famous character ever. In a 1990 poll by Marketing Evaluations, Mario was found to be more popular (and recognizable) among children than Mickey Mouse.

Would-be videogame critics plough their way through mountains of bad games, studiously chattering away at their keyboards; squinting and crying like kitchenhands dicing onions with dull blades, in the faint hope that by being faithful in the little things, they will one day land The Big One, or at the very least, the Good Game By Accident (as those assigned to reviewing Mini-Ninjas recently can no doubt appreciate).  Be careful what you wish for, Constant Reviewer; there is always someone waiting in the wings to hang, draw and quarter you for crimes against ‘their’ game.  One need look no further than last year for examples of this.  Grand Theft Auto IV got a perfect 10.0 from IGN, which was furore enough (I too, would argue that a 100-point scale is sufficient scope to adequately express less-than-perfection in a videogame), but the real pain came when Metal Gear Solid 4 received its 9.9 (I don’t know why game developers didn’t just pack it in and call it a day by this stage; perfection had just been achieved – TWICE, nearly – and where do you go from perfection?!), which Playstation 3 owners for some ridiculous reason took as a slight against ‘their’ system. In between spamming cries of ‘teh biased!’, did you ever stop to think how fortunate you were to have two ‘near-perfect’ videogames instead of one?  This is the kind of stupidity you’re up against when time comes for you to review a potentially great videogame.  And so it is with great trepidation that I come to this review of Nintendo’s classic game The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.

Watch out for the guards - they'll getcha!

There is no perfect introduction to this great work of art (yes, I just went there, and I don’t regret it in the slightest) that has ignited so many imaginations; a game that has danced in the minds of young children with magic and possibility. I know this because I rehearsed them all in my head a hundred times before I could even muster the curry to sit down and write this, and each one of them – in the nicest possible way – failed to encapsulate the full gamut of what this game represents to Gaming as a whole.  How do you review something that you know will outlive you? How do you review…a Legend?

Well, you can start by slinging a few tired cliches. Let’s call them ‘adages’ for legitimacy’s sake.  There are two adages that spring to mind when playing A Link to the Past:

“The more things change, the more they stay the same.”

AND

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Zelda games are 3-D now, but graphical updates aside, scant little of them have strayed from the indelible watermark set by this game.  It may as well be set in stone: the multi-level dungeons, the hookshot we all take forgranted, the Pegasus Boots, the MASTER SWORD, the Spin Attack, HYRULE CASTLE – THE HUB OF THE ENTIRE SERIES, Nintendo’s now-infamous Light World/Dark World theme (or in broader terms, travelling between two parallel worlds) – all emerged for the first time right here.  Even the fan-favourite Ocarina has its origins here, though the English translation yielded only the word ‘flute’ (presumably the Western gaming world was not yet ready for the word ‘ocarina’). Zelda’s musical landscape as you now know it – “Zelda’s Lullaby” (Princess Zelda’s Theme), “Ganondorf’s Theme”, “Hyrule Castle”, “Kakariko Village”, “Fairy Cave” (better known as THE SELECT SCREEN SONG) – was brought into being by Koji Kondo for this game. Even Link’s wide sword swing had its genesis in – you guessed it – A Link to the Past. So little has changed because so little needed changing. If any Zelda game or game *period* deserved a dubious 10.0, it was this one.

Speaking of dubious 10s, The Ocarina of Time is a sacred cow that I take great pleasure in sacrificing on a regular basis. Those familiar with this particular habit of mine; feel free to roll your eyes knowingly at this point.  But when the two games sit right next to each other on my Virtual Console, comparisons are going to be made.  Ocarina of Time is, for all intents and purposes, A Link to the Past in 3-D.  It was not the revolutionary trend-setter 19-year-old Nintendophiles claim it to be.  It’s barely evolutionary, and its ‘innovations’ – context-sensitive buttons; NAVI, YOUR HELPFUL FAIRY GUIDE – loathe as you may be to admit it, could well be the reason you have to sit through a compulsory three-minute tutorial before you can play Wii Sports Resort. The introduction of one of Gaming’s most irritating support characters was the first of many steps towards Nintendo’s long-term stupefication of the gaming population. Z-Targeting meant a lot to 3-D games, but only insofar as it made what was already a simple task in 2-D games tolerable on an additional axis. Like the fifth generation consoles themselves, the shift to 3-D was completely arbitrary. I don’t know what flavour Kool-Aid we were drinking, but all of a sudden we were willing to lay down Super Street Fighter II for Battle Arena Toshinden, Sonic 3 for Crash Bandicoot, Tetris for Tetrisphere.

And Link to the Past for Ocarina of Time.

Never mind the fact that these mechanics work better in two dimensions; never mind the garish, jagged, polygonal puppet show before you; it’s in 3-D, kids! I often wonder what might have been if Sega stuck to their 2-D guns instead of panicking and cramming a second CPU in there (alternate realities are the Last Bastion of Hope for the Displaced Sega Fan). Did we ever reach the pinnacle of 2-D game design? Allow that question to fill the air and let it breathe for a while.

Why do I feel the need to tear strips off Ocarina of Time – a great videogame adored by thousands (millions even?) – for a Link to the Past review?  Think of me as the critical Robin Hood, robbing the rich to feed the poor. Earlier I alluded to a very vocal segment of the gaming population, the circa-19-year-old gamer whose first videogame console was the Nintendo 64, to whom Ocarina of Time represents the dearest experience one can have with a controller (albeit an absolutely terrible one). To those people, please understand that it is not my desire to stomp all over your childhood memories, I merely seek to contextualise the pedestal you place them on. The fifth console generation coincided with the rise of the internet, and so unanimously lauded franchise entries reached critical mass very, very quickly. Final Fantasy VII, Metal Gear Solid, Super Mario 64, and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time – all new entries to long-standing franchises; all made relatively successful transitions to the third dimension; all were the first of their respective series to appear on the fifth generation of consoles; all were hyped like hell on a worldwide scale by online and print media – all received unanimous critical praise, and all have been claimants to the title of “Greatest Game of All Time”. Gamers today are no strangers to “Sequel Syndrome”, nor its dark brother “sequelitis”, and so I’m sure you can appreciate the powerful effect this had when unleashed on the international consciousness for the first time. Again, that’s not to belittle the achievements of these great titles, but the fifth generation of console owners had found their international voice for the first time, and that voice was saying “[Franchise Sequel X] is the Greatest Game of All Time” on a semi-regular basis. Those that had experienced previous console generations and earlier iterations may have perceived Franchise Sequel X in a different light, instead approaching it in the wider context of their place in the series as a whole.  Had the internet reached critical mass in say, the late 80s, we might have proclaimed “Final Fantasy III/Metal Gear 2/Super Mario Bros. 3/The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is the Greatest Game of All Time” upon release.  And we may have been right.  But that’s not the point – the point is that the current Loudmouths of Gaming first owned a Nintendo 64 and their favourite game is Ocarina of Time.  I disagree.  I put my own bias under scrutiny, however, with the admission that I reached the “golden age” for gaming (that’s eight years old) during the 16-bit era and my first console was the Sega Megadrive.  And so this could easily be [mis]interpreted as generational walking-stick-waving at good-fer-nuthin’ whippersnappers who don’t know no better.  “In my day we played real games with real difficulty, no tutorials, and graphics that don’t look ugly as fuck in retrospect, and we walked barefoot eight miles to school every day in the blistering snow” and so on and so forth. I can hardly be accused of enshrining those experiences, though, given the vast majority of my output on this website (playful jab: besides, I wasn’t nearly as starved for games as N64 owners were! ).

Now, whenever I ask [goad/provoke/whip into a frenzy] OOT fans just what it is that makes the game worthy of ‘Greatest Game of All Time’ status, they are happy to provide me with a laundry list of reasons.  However, it wasn’t until I played A Link to the Past for EveryGame that it occurred to me: a vast majority of the things they loved about Ocarina were present in the series before Ocarina. To be precise, most of the things they loved about Ocarina of Time were introduced in A Link to the Past.  The rest centred around nostalgia or something else unquantifiable like watching a Hyrulian sunrise for the first time (which, by the way, sounds like a great name for a drink). None of these things are enough to melt this cold, cold heart.  Now, if someone was to craft a compelling argument citing OOT’s contributions to the development of Hyrulian anthropology, that is something I could get behind (after all, the game introduced and developed the Kokiri, the Deku, the Gerudo and Goron tribes).  It’s all unquantifiable of course, but in pure gaming terms, I’d have to award my “Best of Series” to A Link to the Past.  Now falls to me the thankless task of convincing you.

Let’s begin by revisiting one of my earlier statements:

‘[The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is] a great work of art  that has ignited so many imaginations…’

Recently I likened creative genius to a bag of Pop Rocks, buzzing and crackling with ideas and potential – it’s a strange feeling, to be sure, but damn if it doesn’t feel great.  Now, Miyamoto is credited with most of these – it’s difficult to tell with the Japanese – certainly he was [and is, and probably always will be] ‘the fall guy’, taking responsibility for the team’s collective brilliance and blunders.  Regardless, Link to the Past bursts at the seams with all the vitality of an art form that’s never been done before.  There’s a sense that these guys are creating their own rules; their own language; and quite frankly, it’s exciting.  Those who travel to the Dark World without the aid of the Moon Pearl transform into a creature befitting of their nature, in Link’s case, a pink rabbit.  The Book of Mudora can be used to translate ancient Hylian runes.  A curse that threatens to ‘halve’ your magic bar actually doubles it.  What kind of topsy-turvy wall is this? At this point I was willing to accept that the helpful sage, Sahasrahla, might communicate his cryptic clues via wall-intercom; though others seem to put this down to telepathy; or even something as unremarkable as wall plaques (spoilsports!).

"...and User of Intercoms!"

Returning to the rest of that sentence:

‘[The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is] a game that has danced in the minds of young children with magic and possibility.’

I’ll make that more specific for you: Link to the Past is the quintessential boy’s game.  It’s packed with the things that boys love to do.  One need only look as far as Link’s inventory screen to realise this: a sword, a shield, a bow and arrow, a mallet, a boomerang, a grappling hook, BOMBS, and a BUG-CATCHING NET. Let’s focus for a second on the bug-catching net.  Nothing appeals to my boyish mischief more than catching a fairy in my bug-catching net and being asked by the game:

“you have caught a faerie!  Would you like to:
→ Keep it in a bottle
→ Set it free?”

What kind of boy wouldn’t take the first choice? A fairy boy, that’s what! I chuckle evilly as I stuff the helpless creature in its glass prison. It tries to get out, but I knock it back in and press the lid down tight. I shake it up a little to let it know who’s boss. I put breathing holes in the lid of course! Then I stuff the jar in my rucksack. My childhood was filled with stuff like this – I have a fairly amusing story of a boomerang that flew into a tree and disappeared (a MAGIC BOOMERANG, if you will) – and who here hasn’t fashioned a sword, or bow and arrow out of wood to fight with their brothers? Who hasn’t tied a stick to a length of rope and swung it onto the roof? Who hasn’t – with their friends – pooled together resources from their fathers’ garages to make a bomb and set it off in the park?

…

Oh.

Never mind that last one. Link to the Past lets you do all of these things and more without fear of reprisal from disapproving and fun-hating adults – mischief is encouraged! Where do I sign?! A Link to the Past is A Link to Your Past; it taps into your boyhood fantasies* and imaginary play, and coming at this game for the first time as a full-grown man (debatable, I know), I can say that its effect is profound. It doesn’t rely on nostalgia, it evokes nostalgia.

* Sorry ladies, how about, um…Animal Crossing?

ALTTP reminds me of another ‘toy’: Rubik’s Cube. The entire game is a puzzle, from the Hyrulian overworld to the deepest dungeon. You can view the puzzle holistically (from a ‘helicopter view’, if you will), then by working away at a particular section, the puzzle begins to open up to you. And when you discover the secrets of a dungeon or a map, it feels as though they’re opening only to you. It’s all a clever ruse, of course, as they’re often necessary to completing the game, but this is a feeling distinctly missing from all subsequent Zelda titles. The Navis and the Midnas of the 3D Zeldas robbed me of any cleverness I might have had, and for the most part secrets have now been relegated to ancillary discoveries. In A Link to the Past, the dungeons themselves are the puzzles. And while the game does bottleneck at points (most notably at its beginning and end) – like Rubik’s Cube, there’s no ‘correct’ order of completion. The design encourages a particular dungeon order, but it does not force one, which is, you know, kinda nice. Multiple routes means you can skirt most of the overworld from the start, despite not being able to access it in its entirety. It’s not a case of “what are you doing here?! You’re not allowed in this area yet!” More like, “I wonder how I can get over there…” As you gain new items on your dungeon crawl, new paths begin to open up in your mind, and you begin to see how the Rubik’s Cube fits together. Then you start getting real clever, when you can exploit the subtle differences between the Light World and its Dark World counterpart, switching between the two at will.

Light World, Dark World, Light World, Dark World...

The Hyrule of Link to the Past is the perfect size: open enough to explore from the very beginning, but dense enough so as to prevent getting lost or bored, with enough *just* beyond your grasp to keep things intriguing. The place is a veritable hive of activity, where stuff actually happens. Guards are constantly scouring the streets and forests for you, thieves are trying to rob you, and the villagers are trying to run from you. The landmarks are distinct and memorable, and it ranks as the only incarnation of Hyrule I’ve ever memorised incidentally. By comparison, Ocarina of Time (et. al) may as well be a barren wasteland (the original Hyrule was intentionally a wasteland, in line with its narrative**).

Hyrule will never be the same again.

While we’re on the boredom score, what other Zelda game throws you headlong into its main dramatic situation from the outset? None, that’s what! **The original game didn’t have a dramatic situation at all per sé, instead motivating players through its over-arching narrative of survival and exploration, and power to it – but every other Zelda game opens with a whimper that can only come from performing menial tasks for village idiots. Link to the Past opens with a telepathic distress call from the titular princess. You receive your sword immediately from your dying uncle, and head directly to Hyrule Castle for the rescue. There are, of course, other forces at work, lest the game be finished within its first half-hour, but no time is wasted on Navi-coddling (“hey, listen!”) or training (welcome to Link’s Crossbow Training – who’d've thunk they’d ever make a full game out of it?).

Like most elements of this game, the combat is nuanced enough to be satisfying, but simple enough to keep things in perspective. There’s less dicking around in the item-switching department, for one.  Power gloves and flippers kick in at will when required, while boomerangs, arrows, bombs or hooks can be fired in tandem with sword-swinging without overtaking your primary aim (compare this to say, Twilight Princess, where the world virtually stops for you to take the shot). That’s not to say it’s a cakewalk, either – indeed, if you’re not on your A-game, you can find yourself in a very tight spot, scrounging for hearts wherever you can.  The combat is never drawn out; rather it’s a vehicle for further puzzling. In this way it’s similar to one of the truly great 2-D-to-3-D migrations, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time – combat is a pace-changer but not a pace-breaker. Unlike those 3-D adventures, however, Link to the Past’s combat isn’t lumbered with an invisible tractor beam in the field of battle. Z-targeting was Ocarina’s ’solution’ to its own camera-wrangling problem, praised for its ‘innovation’ – what it *was* was a sufficient stop-gap, not a praiseworthy one. Would you praise a biochemist for providing the cure to the flesh-eating virus of his own creation? Would you thank a snake for biting you and then slipping you the anti-venom vial? No, you’d be relieved perhaps, if not slightly annoyed at the inconvenience, before you dust yourself off and be on your way. And so it is with a mixture of relief and annoyance that I approach the Past and ask the snake [Nintendo], why bite in the first place if you’re not going to make a meal of it? Why create a flesh-eating virus if not to wipe out millions?

If it ain’t broke, why fix it?

Just saw this on NYLON, which then led me to The Lipstick Diaries, which in turn led me to Geekologie, which got this from NailChick27:

I never get fake nails (unless I break one completely off; happened once; I was blessed with long nail beds) so I can’t i would rock these, BUT MAN DO I WANT TO. Check out Nailchick27’s link at top for more awesome nail art. Such chicness for your geekness. Can’t handle it.

The Girlfriend visited for the weekend, and inevitably we dusted off the SNES to play some old-school games like Super Mario Kart, Super Mario World, and Super Mario All-Stars. See a theme? Hint: fat plumbers.

Anyways, after desperately jumping and swimming our way through Super Mario Bros 3’s Water World, a world we hate with a passion, we realized we missed the chance to skip all that bullshit, and thanks to the Internet, we even found out about another opportunity to get a secret warp whistle back in World 2. This one involved using a hammer to break a rock and then travel through a tree. Amazing. So we restarted, did our thing, and hopped to World 5, where we climbed into the clouds and then called it quits after too much dying.

For a game released in 1988, Super Mario Bros 3 still manages to surprise me now and again.

Also, the Tanooki Suit is overrated. Someone had to say it eventually, and that someone is me.

(Special 1.5) Super Mario ist ein altbekannter Klempner den wir alle kennen und lieben. Ich hab mich mit einem guten Freund zusammengesetzt und wir haben über jedes einzelne Super Mario Spiel gechattet. Den Verlauf könnt ihr gleich sehen.

Noch mal ein kurzer Hinweiß: Wir haben weder auf Rechtschreibung noch auf Grammatik geachtet, während des Chats, da es ja auch persönlicher wirken soll…

[18:22] Joe(Admin): Willkommen zu unserer Disskusionsrunde über Chat, ich bin Joe und mein Kollege ist der…
[18:22] Robby: Ronbärt
[18:22] Joe(Admin): Genau, Ronbärt der Pirat, wer ihn noch nicht kennt…
[18:22] Joe(Admin): und wir reden heute über Super Mario

Super Mario

[18:23] Joe(Admin): zuerst fangen wir mal mit Mario’s erstem Auftritt an, das war in Donkey Kong für Spielehallen…

Donkey Kong Arcade

[18:23] Joe(Admin): willst du was dazu sagen oder soll ich den anfang machen?
[18:23] Robby: fällt mir spontan nichts ein… aber ich habe es gespielt
[18:24] Joe(Admin): ok, dann beginne ich, donkey kong war das spiel, wo man Mario, einen Schreiner spielen musste, denn ein wildgewordener Affe namens Donkey Kong hat Prinzessin Pauline entführt
[18:24] Joe(Admin): Man fängt an und muss eben Fässern ausweichen
[18:24] Robby: ja das weiß ich…
[18:25] Robby: mir hat das spiel selbst nicht so gut gefallen da es mir nicht so gefällt fässern auszuweichen
[18:26] Robby: aber es hat etwas mit allen marios gemeinsam…man muss eine prinzessin retten
[18:26] Joe(Admin): genau, was in späteren donkey kong spielen auch noch wichtig war, die fässer sind geblieben, aber mario wurde rausgeschmissen
[18:27] Joe(Admin): Ursprünglich sollte das ja ein Popeye spiel werden…

Super Popeye Bros.

[18:27] Joe(Admin): aber der Erfinder von Popeye hat kurz vor dem Release die Lizens an sich gerissen
[18:28] Joe(Admin): Merkt man das irgendwie, dass eigentlich ein Spinatjunge Mario sein sollte? Was meinst du?
[18:29] Robby: nein ich finde nicht so das das ein spinatjunge werden sollte denn mario hat zb. einen bart und popeye keinen es gibt aber auch wesentlich mehr unterschiede zwischen mario und popeye
[18:30] Joe(Admin): den namen hat Mario ja vom italiensischen Vermieter des Betriebsgebäudes Nintendo’s in Amerika, der Ähnlichkeiten mit “Jumpman” hatte und Mario hieß…
[18:31] Joe(Admin): So viel zu Donkey Kong, gehen wir weiter zu…
[18:31] Joe(Admin): Mario Bros.

[18:31] Joe(Admin): Hier war Mario auf einmal Klempner und musste sich durch Areale springen und auf jeder Ebene Gegner plätten
[18:32] Joe(Admin): Ich fand das jetzt schon deutlich spaßiger, war auch wieder für Spielhalle, man merkt auch, dass Myamuto dort gewerkelt hat, aber so ganz das was wir unter Mario kennen, war es noch nicht, oder?
[18:33] Joe(Admin): Was meinst du?
[18:33] Robby: nein noch nicht ganz es war noch nicht ganz so bunt wie wir es heute kennen aber mir gefällt persönlich dieser ”alte” style besser als der heutige da der neue so übertrieben ist finde ich
[18:34] Joe(Admin): Ja, aber recht viel mehr dazu nicht, denn kommen wir zu Mario’s Durchbruch auf dem NES mit Super Mario Bros.

[18:34] Joe(Admin): Denn das muss ich sagen, war dann das bunte, lustige Jump and Run das wir kennen und lieben…
[18:35] Joe(Admin): ich glaube auch nicht, dass das einer nicht kennt
[18:37] Robby: ja das kennt wirklich jeder ”nerd” aber ich denke das kennen sogar ”kleinere” kinder, ich habe das spiel sogar orginal auf nes gespielt zwar nicht lange aber ich kann es von mir behaupten das spiel auf nes gezockt zu haben vor einem halben jahr habe ich das spiel auf emulator gespielt (auf meiner psp) aber nicht lange weil ich meine psp aufgereumt habe und ausversehentlich alle roms gelöscht -.-’
[18:38] Joe(Admin): ja, und eigentlich ist Mario’s Auftritt ein Meilenstein in der Geschichte des Gamings
[18:38] Robby: ja das auf jeden fall
[18:38] Joe(Admin): Das Ganze kam 1983 raus und zählt heute immer noch zu den besten 2D Jump and Runs
[18:39] Robby: das können ja nicht viele games von sich behaupten
[18:39] Joe(Admin): und da kann einer sagen was er will, mir gefällt Mario’s 2D Auftritt so gut, dass ich ähnliche Jump and Runs die zur gleichen Zeit kamen in den Hintergrund verdrängen würde um Mario zu feiern
[18:40] Joe(Admin): Genau, wie gerade gesagt, die meisten älteren Kollegen von Mario sind auch schon verschwunden vom Erdboden
[18:41] Robby: wie zum beispiel die giana sisters

[18:41] Joe(Admin): die ja dann auch verklagt worden sind, von mario
[18:41] Joe(Admin): nru lustigerweise kommt jetzt eine lizensierte Version für den DS als Remake
[18:42] Joe(Admin): nur*
[18:42] Robby: wird das remake trozdem mario nicht übertrumpfen
[18:42] Joe(Admin): ja, weil es viel zu spät kommt, ich meine, wir sind mittlerweile im 3D Zeitalter, da wird ein 2D Jump and Run nicht mehr viel bewirken können…
[18:43] Joe(Admin): So, kommen wir zu Super Mario Bros. The Lost Levels

[18:43] Joe(Admin): Weißt du, was das genau ist?
[18:44] Robby: nein da ich es noch nicht gezockt habe tut mir leid
[18:44] Joe(Admin): kein Prolbem, kam auch erst zu SNES Zeiten nach Europa
[18:44] Joe(Admin): Das war im Grunde genommen die erste Version von Super Mario Bros. 2 die auch fast wie das erste Spiel war
[18:45] Joe(Admin): Hierzulande kam ja Super Mario Bros. 2 als Remake eines völlig anderen Jump and Runs, aber das war noch richtig von links nach rechts springen und sammeln von münzen
[18:45] Robby: ja nur die grafik war leicht verbessert und es tauchten neue items auf
[18:45] Joe(Admin): genau
[18:46] Joe(Admin): Im Grunde genommen hätte ich mir das Spiel lieber als Teil 2 gewünscht, weil das richtige Super Mario Bros. 2 dann halt keine richtigen Münzen mehr hatte, man hatte überhaupt keine Weltkarte mehr und auch Gegner waren nicht mehr durch draufspringen zu besiegen
[18:47] Joe(Admin): und da wären wir auch bei Teil 2, hast du das gespielt, oder bei nem Freund mal gesehen?

[18:48] Robby: ich hab den teil auch auf meiner psp gezockt aber nur kurz um zu probieren ob es funktioniert
[18:48] Joe(Admin): ja…
[18:48] Joe(Admin): wie fandest du diese komplett neue art…
[18:49] Joe(Admin): ?
[18:50] Robby: wie gesagt ich kann icht viel dazu sagen da ich es nur kurz gezockt habe aber ich fand es nicht so gut da hat dann wieder das gewisse etwas gefehlt
[18:50] Joe(Admin): ja, war eben ein anderes konzept
[18:50] Joe(Admin): In Japan erschien SMB 2 übrigens unter dem Namen Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panikku
[18:51] Joe(Admin): Und die Japaner durften die verlorenen Levels durchspringen
[18:51] Joe(Admin): Dann kommen wir zu Teil 3, der wiederrum richtig gut war

[18:51] Joe(Admin): Find ich bis jetzt immer noch eines der besten Jump and Runs im 2D Bereich, auch wenn es heutzutage etwas langsam ist…
[18:52] Joe(Admin): die Grafik war genial und auch irgendwie die Melodien, die Weltkarte, es wurden unheimlich viele Spieleelemente dazugefügt

[18:53] Robby: da gab es doch  zum ersten mal den waschbär ”anzug” oder?
[18:53] Joe(Admin): ja
[18:53] Joe(Admin): und einen richtig guten koop modus
[18:54] Robby: ich habe das game leider nur kurz gezockt da ich einfach noch zu jung war um das spiel richtig zocken zu können… ich hatte es auch nicht als rom
[18:54] Joe(Admin): schade, ich war damals natürlich auch noch zu jung, hab ich aber dann dennoch durchgespielt mit nem kumpel auf der Wii
[18:55] Robby: ich habe leider keine wii sonst würde ich die virtual console nartürlich ständig benutzen
[18:55] Joe(Admin):
[18:56] Joe(Admin): Wir sind übrigens zu dritt, du ich und wikipedia, wo ich diesen satz zu smb 3 gefunden hab :”Mit über 17 Millionen verkauften Exemplaren wurde Super Mario Bros. 3 zum meistverkauften Videospiel aller Zeiten, das nicht zusammen mit einer Konsole verkauft wurde. Allein in den USA betrugen die Einnahmen über 500 Mio $.”
[18:56] Joe(Admin): Oh, sind zwei Sätze…
[18:57] Robby: ja da hat man anscheinend einen rießen treffer mit super mario bros. 3 gelandet
[18:58] Joe(Admin): und apropo treffer, es gab auch einen Gameboy Teil, aber den hab ich nicht gespielt…
[18:58] Joe(Admin): du?
[18:58] Joe(Admin): Der hieß glaub ich Super Mario Land…

Super Mario Land

[18:58] Robby: super mario land müsste ich sogar dahaben ich kann ja mal schauen ^^
[18:59] Joe(Admin): musst du jetzt nicht extra machen^^
[18:59] Joe(Admin): aber du hast es gespielt…
[18:59] Joe(Admin): oder?
[18:59] Robby: ja denke schon
[18:59] Joe(Admin): Dann erzähl einfach mal ein bisschen was^^
[18:59] Robby: ja ich habe sogar beide mario lands ^^
[19:00] Joe(Admin): oha
[19:00] Joe(Admin): davon gabs 2?
[19:00] Joe(Admin): halt, nein, sogar 3?!
[19:00] Robby: okay den 3. habe ich leider nicht
[19:00] Robby: aber
[19:01] Robby: in mario land 1 das fand ich irgendwie ‘’sau” schwer ich bin nie sehr weiter gekommen
[19:01] Joe(Admin): hab ich auch gehört
[19:02] Joe(Admin): soll echt ein schweres stück gewesen sein, vor allem wegen dem “großen” Bildschirm des Game Boys
[19:02] Joe(Admin): Aber nichts gegen Gameboy, GB ist kult!
[19:03] Robby: ja und du hast mich wieder dazu gebracht später mir 4 batterien zu nehmen sie in meinen game boy zu packen und mario, zelda, pokemon, tetris usw zu zocken
[19:03] Joe(Admin): pokemon ftw^^
[19:03] Robby: oh ja^^
[19:03] Joe(Admin): hattest du metroid für gameboy?

[19:03] Robby: ne leider nicht
[19:04] Joe(Admin): schade, dass hab ich mal bei nem kumpel gespielt, man hat mich das geflasht
[19:04] Joe(Admin): vor allem weil ich damals wie die meisten nicht wusste, das Samus kein Mann ist…
[19:04] Robby: ja samus ist eine frau

Ich hab Hunger...

[19:05] Joe(Admin): Ja, wir sind etwas vom Thema abgekommen, zurück zu Mario, denn jetzt folgt mein Lieblingsspiel der Mario Serie…
[19:05] Joe(Admin): Super Mario World für das Super Nintendo Entertainment System kurz SNES

Super Mario World

[19:06] Robby: habe ich auch auch gezockt auch auf snes
[19:07] Robby: mir gefiel aber der 2. teil besser
[19:07] Joe(Admin): da muss ich jetzt wieder sagen, denn kann ich gar nicht, das war Yoshi’s Island, oder?
[19:07] Joe(Admin): mit dem kann ich gar nicht*
[19:08] Robby: ja mario world: yoshis island

[19:08] Robby: ich fande es einfach sooooooo… ”geil”
[19:08] Joe(Admin): ok…
[19:09] Robby: ich habe es auch orginal auf snes gezockt und wenn ich schon alleine die musik höre dann geht mein herz auf ich finde schon alleine wegen der musik sollte man sich das game holen

[19:09] Robby: ich fande auch das game selbst einfach hammer
[19:10] Joe(Admin): schön das es dir da so gut damit geht und das dir teil 2 so gut gefällt, aber bei mir war da halt noch ein kleines stück nebengeschichte, wieso ich das game nicht mag…
[19:11] Joe(Admin): Mein Nachbar und ich, wir haben Super Mario World damals zich tausend mal durchgespielt, ich persönlich hab das Spiel geliebt.
[19:11] Joe(Admin): Er hört davon dass es einen Nachfolger gibt, bestellt den sich über Katalog, man hofft auf ein cooles Game auf einer Yoshi Insel und dann kam das Spiel
[19:11] Joe(Admin): Wir haben uns beide damals kein bisschen informiert
[19:12] Joe(Admin): und dann war da kreide Grafik, Blumen, so ein “kitschiger
[19:12] Joe(Admin): ” Soundtrack

[19:12] Joe(Admin): und YOSHI
[19:12] Joe(Admin): man hat im Grunde genommen nur Yoshi gespielt
[19:13] Joe(Admin): und ich hatte so eine Wut darauf, dass ich das Spiel nach 10 Minuten weggelegt hab und seitdem nie mehr angefasst hab…
[19:13] Robby: ja das stimmt schon es war eigentlich nicht mehr mario aber es hat mir trozdem sehr gut gefallen ^^
[19:13] Joe(Admin): ja, vielelicht fass ich den teil auch demnächst mal wieder an
[19:14] Joe(Admin): aber damals hab ich mich auf so ein gutes Mario Game gefreut mit mehreren Levelendungen und einer rießigen Weltkarte mit einzelnen Abschnitten und dann kam ein völlig anderes Spiel…
[19:15] Joe(Admin): Noch kurz zu Super Mario World, ich finde ja auch, dass das tausend Mal besser wie die 3D Teile war, obwohl ich sagen muss, dass sag ich erst seit Galaxy^^
[19:15] Joe(Admin): Aber 3D ist ein gutes Stichwort, kommen wir zu Super Mario 64

Super Mario 64

[19:15] Joe(Admin): Hab ich damals mit der N64 bekommen, rauf und runter gespielt und geliebt…
[19:16] Robby: super mario 64 habe ich auch orginal für 64 habs schon 1000 mal durchgespielt und bin immernoch von diesem game begeistert
[19:16] Robby: was soll man zu dem game sagen, einfach hammer
[19:17] Joe(Admin): Allein die Tatsache, ein Super Mario Level in einem vollen 3D Arial zu sehen, hat so geflasht, dass ich Super Mario 64 heute noch jedes Jahr an Weihnachten durchspiele
[19:17] Joe(Admin): Warst du beim ersten mal durchspielen schon ganz oben bei Yoshi?
[19:17] Joe(Admin): auf dem Schloss*

[19:18] Robby: nein das leider nicht ich und mein bruder haben bestimmt 3 jahre gebrauch um den letzen stern zu finden obwohl es eigentlich ganz einfach war ihn zu bekommen
[19:19] Joe(Admin): genauso gings mir auch, ich hab heute noch den origianlspielstand mit 119 Sternen, der mich auslacht, weil ich es damals nicht geschafft hab und mein Nachbar schon…
[19:20] Joe(Admin): Also, alle da draußen, wer Super Mario in 3D mag, soll sich einfach mal den Teil für N64 auf Virtual Console für Wii holen, oder, falls vorhanden, das Originalspiel, dass ich (glaub ich jedenfalls) nie mehr weggeben werde!
[19:20] Joe(Admin): falls N64 vorhanden*
[19:20] Robby: ja das kann ich auch nur empfehlen
[19:21] Joe(Admin): Hast du noch was zu dem Spiel zu sagen, oder wollen wir das nächste Kapitel Mario anreißen?
[19:21] Robby: nein wir können mit dem nächsten kapitel von der mario serie anfangen
[19:22] Joe(Admin): Das nächste Kapitel ist Super Mario Sunshine für Nintendo Gamecube

Super Mario Sunshine

[19:22] Joe(Admin): Und ich muss sagen, dass war für mich als jahrelangen Mario Fan gefundenes Fressen
[19:22] Joe(Admin): Die Grafik war damals so “geil”
[19:22] Joe(Admin): und die Musik, gefolgt von der Atmosphäre

[19:23] Joe(Admin): Hat mir richtig gut gefallen, ich hab bis heute aber noch nie alle 240 Sonnen gehabt
[19:23] Joe(Admin): (Insignien der Sonne im Spiel genannt)
[19:25] Robby: ich habe das game auch gespielt bei freunden aber mir hat aber irgendwas gefehlt es war zwar eine geile atmosphäre vorhanden aber mir hat nicht so gut gefallen das man mit einem ”wasserspritzstaubsaugerwhatever” fast überall hinkommen konnte
[19:25] Joe(Admin): ja, das Wasserdüsen Teil hat vor allem Liebhabern von Super Mario 64 nicht gefallen, weil es ganz andere Gameplay Elemente mit einbrachte
[19:26] Robby: ja das stimmt
[19:26] Joe(Admin): Ich muss sagen, war nicht so gut wie Super Mario 64, hat mir insofern aber besser gefallen im Vergleich zum gleich folgenden Teil, weil man einfach nen wirklich hohen Schwierigkeitsgrad hatte
[19:27] Joe(Admin): Die Mehreit sagt, dass ist schlecht, meiner Meinung nach, fehlt es dort den heutigen Spielen an Schwierigkeit, weil sonst ja jeder Anfänger von vorne bis hinten durchkommt
[19:27] Joe(Admin): Bei mir hat es auch Monate gedauert bis ich Bowser damals besiegt hatte
[19:28] Joe(Admin): Also, der nächste Teil den wir erwähnen, vor dem DS Ableger und anderen Handheld Games ist Super Mario Galaxy, dass von Kritikern am meisten gelobte Super Mario Spiel

[19:29] Joe(Admin): Ich hab dazu jetzt eine ganz einfache Meinung, mir war Super Mario Galaxy zu leicht, es hatte wirklich nichts neues und fühlte sich irgendwie an, wie eine ins Weltall portierte Version von Super Mario 64
[19:29] Joe(Admin): Weiß nicht, wie es dir da geht…
[19:30] Robby: ich habe galaxy leider noch nicht gespielt da ich ja keine wii habe aber ich würde es gerne zocken
[19:30] Joe(Admin): ja, ich bin mir auch ziemlich sicher, dass dir galaxy viel besser gefällt wie mir, aber irgendwas fehlt mir bei galaxy
[19:31] Joe(Admin): Ich will gar nicht abstreiten, dass es ein absolut gutes Spiel ist, mit dem man sich Tagelang beschäftigen kann, aber irgendwas fehlt mir dort dennoch…
[19:31] Joe(Admin): Mal schauen ob es da mit Super Mario Galaxy 2 besser wird, dass ja angekündigt wurde, auf der E3 2009

Du willst mehr über Super Mario Galaxy erfahren? Dann lese das Preview in der neuesten Ausgabe des EE-Game Magazins! Einfach auf das Bild klicken um zum Heft zu kommen!

[19:31] Joe(Admin): Hast du schon den Trailer von Galaxy 2 gesehen?
[19:31] Robby: nein leider noch nicht
[19:32] Joe(Admin): warte, das ist gleich was, was wir mit einbringen^^
[19:32] Joe(Admin): als interaktiven Llink
[19:32] Joe(Admin): Link*
[19:32] Joe(Admin):
[19:33] Joe(Admin): Schau’s dir mal an, solang können wir warten^^
[19:35] Robby: also der trailer sieht doch ganz vielversprechend aus
[19:35] Joe(Admin): Ja, find ich auch

[19:36] Joe(Admin): Ehrlich gesagt find ich es als Yoshi Fan auch richtig gut, das Yoshi dort so ausgiebig und oft vorkommen wird^^
[19:36] Robby: also vom trailer her würde ich es gerne zocken
[19:36] Joe(Admin): Ja, man bekommt sofort lust auf das Spiel, das aber warscheinlich erst Weihnachten 2010 rauskommt
[19:36] Joe(Admin): Das ist irgendwie bei Mario immer so, oder?
[19:37] Robby: ja das stimmt
[19:37] Joe(Admin): Ich hab bei jeder Ankündigung von Mario Spielen sofort Lust auf das eigentliche Spiel bekommen, musste dann aber immer noch ewig warten…
[19:37] Joe(Admin): aber es gibt ja noch einiges Mario Zeugs zum nachholen, zum Beispiel die ganzen Handheld Spiele von Mario…
[19:38] Joe(Admin): Ich werf jetzt einfach mal alle Titel in den Raum, ich kenn kein einziges richtig, deswegen darfst du jetzt, falls möglich, zu den GBA Teilen was sagen…
[19:38] Joe(Admin): uper Mario Advance

[19:38] Joe(Admin): Super*
[19:38] Robby: kenne ich nicht
[19:38] Joe(Admin): Super Mario Bros. 2: Mario Madness
[19:39] Joe(Admin): Super Mario Bros. 3: Super Mario Advance 4
[19:39] Robby: kenne ich auch nicht
[19:39] Robby: die teile auch nicht
[19:39] Joe(Admin):
[19:39] Joe(Admin): geht mir genauso^^

Alle Super Mario Bros. Advance Titel

[19:39] Joe(Admin): Mario und Luigi Superstar Saga
[19:40] Robby: ??? warum  kenne ich die nicht
[19:40] Joe(Admin): Weiß nicht, mir gehts aber genauso, ich hab meinen GBA geliebt, hab aber nur Pokémon darauf gespielt, ich kleiner Nerd^^
[19:40] Joe(Admin): Mir kommt es gerade so vor als wäre eine ganze Generation an mir vorbeigerauscht…
[19:41] Joe(Admin): wobei zu dem letzten Titel: Mario und Luigi Superstar Saga kann ich was sagen…
[19:41] Joe(Admin): das war ein RPG für GBA, dass dann auf dem DS Fortgeführt wurde…
[19:41] Joe(Admin): hab ich aber auch nicht gespielt…
[19:42] Joe(Admin): Jetzt kommen wir zu den DS Teilen…
[19:42] Joe(Admin): Super Mario 64 DS

Yoshi in bekanntem Super Mario 64 Wüstenlevel

[19:42] Joe(Admin): Das müsstest du kennen, selbst wenn du’s nicht selbst hast…
[19:42] Robby: ja ich habs kurz gezockt aber ich fande es nicht so gut
[19:43] Joe(Admin): Wieso? War doch Super Mario 64 auf dem DS…
[19:43] Joe(Admin): Mit 3 weiteren Charakteren…
[19:43] Robby: weiß nciht mir hat einfach das feeling gefehlt
[19:44] Robby: und man konnte doch wario spielen oder? aber wario ist doch nicht auf dem n64 nicht vorgekommen oder?
[19:44] Joe(Admin): ja, man konnte wario, luigi, yoshi und mario spielen…
[19:45] Joe(Admin): wobei bei Wario muss ich dir recht geben, den hätte man wirklich nicht mit einbauen müssen…
[19:45] Robby: ja das stimmt
[19:45] Joe(Admin): war der dann nicht auch langsamer?
[19:46] Robby: keine ahnung
[19:46] Joe(Admin): ist ja egal..
[19:46] Joe(Admin): denn hier auf der liste steht eines meiner DS Lieblinge…
[19:46] Joe(Admin): New Super Mario Bros. (NDS)

Microsite Vorschau

[19:47] Robby: ich habe es geliebt! ich habe es durchgezockt und das nicht nur 1 mal
[19:47] Joe(Admin): Hallo Bruder!
[19:48] Robby: da gab es doch bei der speicherauswahl so 3 bonus münzen oder?

[19:48] Joe(Admin): ja
[19:48] Robby: da hatte ich auch alle 3 und ich hatte sie in 1 woche ich glaube ich war 1 der erste in dem dorf ”deining” der das hatte
[19:48] Joe(Admin): ^^
[19:49] Joe(Admin): das gute alte bauernkaff deining^^
[19:49] Joe(Admin): xD
[19:49] Robby: ^^
[19:49] Robby: ich hatte das game selbst nicht aber ich habe es 1000 mal durchgezockt
[19:49] Joe(Admin): Es war auch richtig gut, man kannte Mario nur noch von 3D Spielen, dann kam ein klassisches 2D Jump and Run in 3D Grafik…
[19:49] Joe(Admin): einfach perfekt
[19:50] Robby: ja ich stimme nur zu
[19:50] Joe(Admin): auch die einzelnen Elemente die mit drin vorkamen, man konnte sich am Seil schwingen…
[19:50] Joe(Admin): oder der Wandsprung
[19:50] Joe(Admin): der war ja das erste Mal in einem 2D Jump and Run dabei^^
[19:50] Joe(Admin): Auch der 3-fach Sprung
[19:51] Robby: das ganze game hat mir einfach sehr gut gefallen
[19:51] Joe(Admin): ja, ganz meiner meinung, war ein fast makelloses Spiel

[19:51] Joe(Admin): Ich freu mich auch schon auf den Nachfolger für Wii, New Super Mario Bros. Wii

New Super Mario Bros. Wii Screenshot der E3 09

[19:52] Robby: ja ich mich auch doch ich kann es leider nicht zocken -.-’
[19:52] Joe(Admin): komm einfach sobald ich’s hab bei mir vorbei, das Ganze kann man zu viert durchspielen
[19:53] Joe(Admin): Ok, das letzte schneiden wir raus^^
[19:53] Joe(Admin): Mich hat schon die Präsentation auf der E3 09 gefallen…
[19:53] Joe(Admin):
[19:54] Robby: ja das game wird bestimmt richtig geil
[19:55] Joe(Admin): das will ich hoffen…
[19:55] Joe(Admin): Naja, im Grunde genomen war’s das so ziemlich mit den Hauptspielen, es gibt natürlich noch eine Handvoll RPG’s, Sportspiele und Smashbros. aber ich glaub, das würde ein neues Protokoll gebrauchen können, außerdem bin ich langsam echt müde
[19:56] Robby: ja ich auch
[19:56] Joe(Admin): Also, 15.November, kommt das neueste Mario Game und ich sag dann mal soweit tschüss. Mal schauen wie das hier ankommt
[19:57] Joe(Admin): Ich bin der Joe…
[19:57] Robby: und ich Ronbärt
[19:57] Joe(Admin): der Pirat
[19:57] Joe(Admin): und wir sagen tschüss und auf wiedersehen!

Der gute Klempner sitzt uns jetzt schon Jahrzente an der Bakce und wartet schon auf seine neuen Auftritte, Super Mario Galaxy 2 und New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Bild). In seiner bisherigen Kariere hat er 12 Jump and Runs als Protagonist bestückt und uns jedes Mal beweisen können, dass es doch kaum bessere Spiele gibt. Wir haben uns die Mühe gemacht und sortierten die einzelnen Spiele. Heraus kam die neue EE-Games Top 10!

Zum weiterlesen auf “Read more & Comment(s)” klicken!

Platz 10: Super Mario World 2

Kurz und knapp, Yoshi ist schuld! Viele lieben dieses Spiel, mir persönlich ist es zu wider, weil ich mich damals auf ein Mario Abenteuer gefreut habe und dann diese hässliche Kreidenoptik + Yoshi + Baby Mario (Hallo?!) den ultimativen Trash ergeben haben. Zugegeben, wäre das Spiel ein reiner Yoshi Titel, wäre es nicht in unserer Top10, würde jedoch auch besseren Zuspruch bekommen. Aber hier hat Nintendo einfach den Namen Mario für eine neue Spielrichtung missbraucht. Daher “nur” Platz 10.

Platz 9: Super Mario Bros 2 (PAL-Version)

Die Fans wissen, Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panikku ist der Original Titel und Super Mario Bros. 2 ist einfach ein Remake davon, einzig die Mario Charaktere wurden eingesetzt. Innovationslose Idee, da das Super Mario Bros. 2 Spiel bei uns unter dem Namen The Lost Levels dann doch erschienen ist. Auch hier ein herber Schlag für Fans der Reihe, weil das gesamte Konzept nicht mit dem ersten Teil übereinstimmt. Ansonsten aber ein recht solides Jump and Run!

Platz 8: Super Mario Bros. The Lost Levels

Auch hier bin ich stinkig, dass Nintendo (außer in der Super Mario Allstars Collection) ewig gebraucht hat, um das Spiel hierzulande zu veröffentlichen. Wäre es nicht einfach möglich gewesen das Ganze nach dem ersten Teil herauszubringen? JEdenfalls ist hier der Spaßfaktor wieder genau auf dem Level, auf dem er sein soll!

Platz 7: Super Paper Mario

Auf Wii erschien dieses Jump and Run mit starken Rollenspieleinflüssen. gelungen von Kopf bis Fuß sollte es für Europäer die Überbrückung der Wartezeit zu Super Mario Galaxy sein. Und das war auch wirklich gut so. Spaßige Dialoge (mit sarkastischem Einfluss), eine schöne Grafik, 4 Hauptcharaktere und die umfangreiche 3D Welt machen diesen Titel für Wii zu einem MUST HAVE TITEL!

Platz 6: Super Mario Bros.

Der Klassiker schlechthin! Kaum einer hat dieses Spiel noch nicht gespielt, zumal auch Remakes und Fanmade Spiele wie Sand am Meer. Wer den Klassiker noch nicht kennt, sollte schläunigst mal schauen, ob er irgendwo eine Version in die Hände bekommt. Die beste Variante für Nintendo: Virtual Console Download für 5€!

Platz 5: Super Mario Bros. 3

Für die älteren Nintendo Veteranen ist dieser Titel der beste, was auch berechtigt ist. Das ganze Spiel macht Spaß, bietet ein absolut geniales Leveldesign + Konzept und auch einen Koop Modus. Zusätzlich hat man mehrere Verwandlungsmöglichkeiten. Eines der besten 2D Jump and Runs, auch heute noch!

Platz 4: Super Mario 64

Ich weiß, Super Mario 64 ist, zumindest unter Fans, das beste 3D Jump and Run der Mario Reihe. Kritiker sagen jedoch gegenteiliges. Wir sagen, beides Falsch! Super Mario 64 war das erste 3D Mario und hatte einen Bonus, weil man ein 3D Jump and Run in diesem Format noch nie zuvor gesehen hatte. Jedoch war es nicht unbedingt besser, wie die älteren Teile, nur in einer anderen Dimension! Doch im Grunde genommen ist Super Mario 64 auch von uns ein Favorit, daher Platz 4!

Der König der Bob Ombs. Grafisch ist Super Mario 64 leider schlecht gealtert, hat jedoch noch seinen Charme!

Platz 3: Super Mario Sunshine

Bevor jetzt Proteste kommen, dass Sunshine zu schwer war, um vor 64 zu kommen, müssen wir etwas einhaken. Zwar meinen Kritiker und Fans, es wäre ein schlechterer Titel, jedoch machen Sequenzen und rießige Welten, ein deutlich besseres Leveldesign wie im Vorgänger und eine unheimliche Spieltiefe Super Mario Sunshine auch zu den längsten Abenteuern die Mario bis jetzt zu absolvieren hatte. Und auch die Wasserdüse war keine schlechte Idee… Ehrlich gesagt, waren wir kurz davor, es auf Platz 2 zu setzen…

Platz 2: Super Mario Galaxy

Man kann sagen was man will, aber es ist nunmal so.  Super Mario Galaxy ist Super Mario 64 in neuer Grafik und im Weltall. Das war es dann schon mit der Neuerung. Zwar waren Wii Fans absolut glücklich über diesen Titel, weil es endlich mal wieder annähernd core-lastigen Content bot, jedoch muss man sagen, ein langwieriges Spiel für Profis, ist das nicht. Jedoch auch kein Einheitsbrei sondern ein absolut spaßiges Next Gen  Erlebnis!

Platz 1: Super Mario World

Überraschung, wir haben Super Mario World nicht vergessen. Denn dieses Spiel war nahezu makellos. Neben brilliantem Leveldesign, einer gut durchdachten Struktur und eine Spieldynamik, wie es kein anderes Spiel bieten kann, gewinnt der Titel selbst gegenüber den 3D Teilen. Denn man kann sagen was man will, Super Mario World war perfekt. Es gab keine unfairen Stellen, die Levelanzahl war gigantisch, was jedoch positiv auffiehl und  auch die Atmosphäre hat super gepasst. Man konnte fliegen, feuern oder auf Yoshi reiten, dieser musste manchmal sogar zu einem ausgewachsenen Yoshi gefüttert werden. Der Soundtrack ist selbst von den aktuellen Orchestralstücken aus Galaxy ungeschlagen. Bitmap gegen Polygon? Bitmap wins!

Mehr über die Super Mario Reihe? Wir haben ein Chatprotokoll über die gesamte Super Mario Saga gemacht und über jeden Titel diskutiert. Neben Fakten erfährt man auch einiges über die Eindrücke der Spiele…

http://eegames.wordpress.com/2009/09/12/ee-games-chat-protokoll-die-super-mario-reihe/

* WARNING :: Read at your own risk. The following post is inappropriate for people of all ages. If you are uncomfortable with your sexuality or if a young white middle-class male’s detailed recollections of sex ed classes at a small private Christian school offend you, find another blog to read or subscribe to Joel Osteen’s podcast.

When I was in the first grade, I tasted my first croissant—delicate layers of buttery flakes. Narrow-minded Americans like to say crap like, “The French would be speaking German if it weren’t for us.” Or they’ll interpret that country’s reluctance to support ours in Operation Iraqi Freedom as cowardice. Sink your teeth into a warm croissant, and you’ll know that the French are doing exactly what they should be doing. They’re bakers.

Back to the subject at hand: not only did my friend Allie broaden my culinary horizons, but she also told me in the first grade that babies come into the world after a man’s sticks his thingy in a woman’s thingy and pees.

That sounded worse than eating a thousand bowls of my mom’s sausage and corn soup. When I turned up my nose at this, my least favorite of her creations in an otherwise delicious and satisfying lineup of dinners, she’d always say, “But you love sausage soup!” How is it that are parents are always telling us what we like? Imagine if I said, “But, Dad, you love to watch me try to beat Super Marios Bros. 3!” or “But, Mom, you love to clean up my vomit for me!” Sheesh. No, I don’t like your nasty sausage soup, and yes, I now know that the stork theory of procreation was complete bologna. Thanks for lying to me.

“Gross!” I said to Allie. “I never want to do that.”

“Me neither,” Allie agreed.

On the playground in front of W.P. Scales Elementary, we pledged never to urinate on our spouses. I hope to uphold that sacred vow until my death.

I still didn’t learn the “full truth” about sexual intercourse—or at least a simplified and distorted version of it—until I got to David Lipscomb Middle School. My parents never sat me down for a proper birds-and-bees conversation, but I don’t want to criticize them. I doubt either one of them got the sex talk from their parents.

Ordering a couple pizzas and popping in the Harry and the Hendersons or Swiss Family Robinson VHS was a much more comfortable way to spend a Saturday night than the following hypothetical conversation:

“Austin, pretty soon your body will start going through some changes and you’ll feel strange new urges. Girls won’t have cooties anymore. In fact, you’ll want to see them naked. I know, crazy, right? You’ll feel all hot and sick, and your stomach will be full of sloshy acid when the pretty ones are around. Just don’t get a girl pregnant. Now, run off and play ping-pong with Hunter. Dinner’s at 6.”

A void of real knowledge left me vulnerable to the slang, urban legends, and perverted humor that proliferated at David Lipscomb Middle School. Most of my friends knew as little about sex as I did. The two boys who gave me my schooling on the subject were the two who had access to a Playboy.

They were the ones who explained the euphemisms in movies like Billy Madison, which hit box offices when I was thirteen.

“What does [insert lewd phrase here] mean?”

“[Insert graphic explanation here.]”

“Oh. Oh!”

To their credit, my dad did present me with a thin, hardback volume on the same occasion that he asked, “Do you have any questions about?”—[awkward pause]—sex?”

[“God, if you’re up there, please end this punishment.”]

I could feel my heart beating in my face, and my dad was blushing. Seeing your father blush is like seeing him naked. It’s worse than seeing him cry. The conversation ended there. God does answer prayers.

I put the book in a drawer in the den. I most certainly did not want that thing in my room. Besides, the one or two times I need clarity about some piece of misinformation I’d taken away from the lunch table, it was about as helpful as watching a bull elephant mount a female on the nature channel. Guess I was on my own.

I’ve already written in part about the sexual education classes that I endured at David Lipscomb Middle School, thanks to Dr. Leeper. Happy for a break from our humdrum routine of recess, gym, classes, lunch, and chapel, our rambunctious group of boys spilled into “Multimedia”—what we called the room where such programs took place—to find an unembarrassed man standing beside an overhead projector in place and sheaf of transparencies.

Dr. Leeper wasn’t one for niceties or throat-clearing, so with medical detachment, he proceeded to outline the different stages of sexual development in both men and women. If he was aware that his audience was composed of adolescent males whose volatile bodies were teetering on the edge of some new change or animal desire at that very moment, he didn’t betray this awareness. He even left time for Q&A at the end.

My friend Jay decided to throw our guest a curveball and asked, “Is there any such thing as a queef?”

“I suppose,” the impassive Dr. Leeper replied, “that with repeated thrusting, air could become trapped in the vagina, and it might make some sort of sound upon release.”

Holy crap. Did he just say that? I need a shower. He didn’t even blink. He just stood there and gave us an honest answer. Trying to hold in the laughter felt like trying to keep a animal from clawing its way out of my chest. Forbidden laughter is always the best.

****

Our eighth grade Bible teacher took it upon himself to supplement our factual knowledge of puberty and sexual organs with sexual acts themselves and their spiritual ramifications. Apparently, just seeing some diagrams and bullet point lists wasn’t enough to keep all of us Christian young men from making mistakes in Ladytown.

This lesson plan was aimed at us boys. It was the girl’s responsibility to help us exercise self-control, seeing as they had no desires of their own. I think the girls may have had it even worse than we did. At least we knew it was natural for us to have sexual desires. For a woman to have libido was similar to one wanting a career—frowned upon. Women were supposed to be pure and chaste, which meant, in a word, sexless. Of course, this was never articulated, but silence on a subject can become its stigma. Why would be talk about something shameful?

On the chalkboard, he drew a horizontal line with tick marks at regular intervals, and then he divided the baseline he had drawn with a vertical dotted line. Next came a series of acronyms.

The finished drawing looked something like this ::

The acronyms represented the following::

H — Hugging

HH — Holding Hands

LK — Light Kissing

HK — Heavy Kissing

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – -

HOSPOC — Hands On Sexual Parts Outside Of Clothing

HOSPIC — Hands On Sexual Parts Inside of Clothing

DH — Dry Humping

OS — Oral Sex

AS — Figure it out.

SI — Sexual Intercourse

I guess he hoped the chart would illustrate progressive phases of sexual intimacy, and the dotted line between HK and HOSPOC would clarify the boundary between sexual purity and sexual sin.

When he began explaining what the different acronyms meant, a ripple of laughter passed over the room. Just as quickly, it gave way to silence and extreme discomfort. Any ambiguity about the rightness or wrongness of what happened at the Halloween party last year or in the basement over at So-and-So’s house vanished.

I didn’t want to look around the classroom and see how other people were reacting. My first kiss didn’t even come until the summer after my eighth grade year, but I didn’t want to make eye contact and accidentally establish some kind of association with the dirty boys, and neither did I want to catch the eye of our teacher. I would blush, which he might take as a sign of my guilt.

How could I help but be uncomfortable? How often do you learn that Jesus’ blood only had thirteen chromosomes and listen to intricate arguments about what “counts” as sex in the same classroom? I’d just heard my Bible teacher use the words, “heavy petting.” That sounded like a way to accidentally kill a rabbit or gerbil.

If fixing those terrible acronyms into our memories was his objective, I guess that makes me one of his success stories. I could also sing the preposition song we learned in English class, but “until-by-into-after-from, across-against-with-toward-on-out” never made me break out into a cold sweat on a date.

O the Horror of that Dotted Line! No gray area, no indulgences, and no mulligans.

How was a red-blooded male supposed to survive on so lean a diet?

****

I was discussing this chart with one of my mentors the other day. It’s always good for a couple of laughs, but Jerry brought up a good question: “What should he have told you instead?” As it turned out, he’d led a whole retreat with some of the youth at his church and their parents. When asked the age when kids are ready to have sex, he told the parents, “When they’re ready to have a baby.”

Now that all my friends are getting married, we’ve started having honest conversations about sex. Apparently, it’s noisy, messy, and sometimes disappointing. It takes practice.

Hmm. No one ever told us that. Great sex takes practice. It’s this multi-faceted gem we’ve been given, a desire that’s both simple and complex. My best friend told me his wife hates to clean the toilet and thinks it’s sexy when he does it so she doesn’t have to—when he puts her needs, comfort, and pleasure before his own. Another friend told me that marriage is “the daily choice to serve.” When he doesn’t make that choice, his marriage suffers. When he doesn’t put his wife’s needs first, their sex life suffers. Why would she want to give herself to someone who has been selfish?

So, after twenty-seven years, my sexual education has brought me to this insight:

If you treat sex as just another appetite to be filled, you miss its profound beauty, mystery, and pleasure. It will become just another bodily function, and if even it doesn’t become an addiction and destroy you, it certainly won’t satisfy your need for intimacy, to know and be known, to love and be loved.

On the other hand, if you view sex as another opportunity to serve your spouse, then you will find fulfillment. Selflessness is the key to great sex.

I going to tell my kids about that. Maybe I’ll post a series of short videos on YouTube. My friends can hand a USB drive to their kids and say, “Watch these.”

We’ll also give them to our parents and say, “I hope you all are still having sex, but if you’re not, maybe these videos can help. I’ve also got Harry and the Hendersons on dvd if you prefer.”

JJGames.com, based out of denver, just re-created the nintendo world championships and nintendo campus challenge in their “retro games championship”. i guess the owner of this company has the elusive gold cartridges from both competitions, and used them as reference for the competition. (as an aside, these cartridges cost him a total of $31,500) 

duplicate carts were made based on the ROMs, and they set them up on 10 screens for the competition. 5 screens for the world championship, in which players had to get 50 coins in super mario bros., finish a special rad racer track, and get as many points as possible in tetris before the time reached 6:21, and 5 screens for the campus challenge (based off the 1991 competition), where players had to get 25 coins in super mario bros. 3, 100,000 points in pinbot, and highest score in dr. mario also before the 6:21 time limit.

sounds like fun! maybe next year they’ll include re-creations of the star fox: super weekend and nintendo powerfest ‘94?

JJGames.com | Retro Game Championship 2009

scott

Super Mario Bros. 3

Super Mario World

For this week’s edition of Faceoff, I decided to rewind the clock and pit two classic titles against each other in a head to head battle. Both Super Mario Bros. 3, and it’s sequel, Super Mario World are two of my favorite games of all time. But out of the two, there is only one that I consistently play and still get that feeling of wonder and amazement I felt when I first popped the cartidge into my system. Retro Faceoff starts now!

STORY:

Super Mario Bros. 3

Super Mario Bros. 3 - Well, it’s Super Mario Bros; the story is rather inconsequential. In a nutshell, King Koopa and his 7 children have systematically taken over seven kingdoms throughout the Mushroom Kingdom by using the King’s very own sceptors against them. It is up to Mario and Luigi to set things right by any means necessary. Which generally revolves around hopping, bopping, and power-upping through 8 worlds. Outside of that setup, there really isn’t much else to the story.

Super Mario World

Super Mario World - That no-goodnik King Koopa is at it again, this time kidnapping Princess Peach (like he does in every other Mario Bros. game), and Mario and Luigi, with the help of a dinosaur named Yoshi, venture forth across Dinosaur land to save her. Like in previous Mario Bros. games, the story pretty much stops there.

I have to say that on the story front, both games are a wash, although Koopa’s 7 children (who also make an appearance in Super Mario World), added some character to the feel of Super Mario Bros. 3.

GAMEPLAY:

Super Mario Bros. 3 Overworld Map

Super Mario Bros. 3 - The gameplay of Super Mario Bros. 3 was simultaneously a departure from previous Mario games, and yet, exactly in line with previous Mario games. The game was still a 2D side-scrolling platformer, but it added an overworld, which allowed players to play, and replay the levels in nearly whatever order they liked. What made things even more interesting is that, if the player chose, they could even bypass certain levels, if there was an alternate route around them on the map.

There were also mini-games located on the map in Toad’s huts, where players could earn powerups to take with them into the 2D levels. Further adding to the depth of the gameplay were host of new powerups that transformed Mario and Luigi into various animals. There was the Racoon Tail, which allowed Mario to fly up into the air for a limited time once he gathered enough speed. There was a Frog costume, which allowed him to jump really high, and swim through water with ease. And there was the Bear costume, which allowed Mario to turn his body to stone, and protect himself from enemies.

These aren’t the only powerups/specials available in the game, and the superb level design really tested your platforming chops.

Super Mario World

Super Mario World - The gameplay of Super Mario World simply took elements from Super Mario Bros. 3, and attempted to improve upon them, such as the overworld, and power up system (players were able to store one powerup in a slot at the top of the screen, and press the Select button to activate it, should they need it). Unfortunately, a few elements, like the mini-games and costumes, were dropped in favor of the new Flight Feather, which allowed Mario to fly through the air and do powerbomb dives, and the ability to ride Yoshi throughout levels, using him to swallow up enemies.

There were hidden zones, much like in previous Mario games, but overall, the game was very linear. A new level wouldn’t open up until you completed the previous one, and there wasn’t any deviations from the path. All levels had to be completed.

The platforming was awesomely intense, and overall level design was great, due to the new environment, but overall, Super Mario World didn’t really do much to set itself apart from Super Mario Bros. 3. I also think that the controls aren’t as tight as in Super Mario Bros. 3. It’s hard to describe, but they feel a little looser. Don’t get me wrong, however, the controls is SMW are fantastic, but SMB3 feels that much tighter.

GRAPHICS:

Now, this is a no brainer section in terms of which game will come out on top. Obviously, Super Mario World features the superior visual presentation, with a rich color palette that vividly displays Dinosaur Land in all it’s glory, as well as some fancy visual effects for entering/exiting zones.

Super Mario Bros. 3 was certainly no joke in it’s day, however, boasting some impressive sprite animations and varied levels. Super Mario Bros. 3 debuted in 1988 on the NES, while Super Mario World debuted on the SNES in 1990, so it was bound to take the cake in terms of visuals.

Of course, playing Super Mario Bros. All Stars evens out the graphics a bit by bringing Super Mario Bros. 3 into the 16 bit era, and on par with Super Mario World in most respects.

Super Mario All Stars: Super Mario Bros. 3 with enhanced visuals

Super Mario World

CONCLUSION:

I thought long and hard about this before reaching my final decision, but in the end, I feel that Super Mario Bros. 3 is the superior game to Super Mario World in the end. Not much superior, mind you, but for this old gamer, I still enjoy popping the game into my NES (or playing it via emulator on my PSP), and the game is no less superb than it was when I first played it in 1988. Super Mario World is also a fantastic gaming experience, but losing features like the costumes, the linearity of the overworld design, and controls that I feel just aren’t as tight as Super Mario Bros. 3 makes it feel like less of a game than it’s predecessor. It’s beautiful presentation is no comparison, but gameplay is where it matters, and in this case, the old horse beats out the new one, but just barely.

WINNER:

Super Mario Bros. 3

In an effort to shame myself into writing, here is a list of the things I have done today that I consider to be unproductive.

1. Played Nintendo. Super Mario Bros. 3 is the best game.  Ever.  This is a great way to waste time, even though I have already beaten it on numerous occasions.  I suppose it’s nice to feel a sense of mastery over something, no matter how inconsequential it may be.  There is one thing that’s always bugged me about the game.  Why does the ship at the end of each level fly away if you don’t conquer it on the first try?  Why do you have to chase it down?  This seems pointless, even by video game standards.

2. Read about David Cronenberg. I’m getting closer to my objective here.  At least I’m reading about film; writing can’t be far behind.  Who cares if my work is on Quentin Tarantino?  As for Cronenberg, he is rapidly becoming one of my favorite directors.  I love the appellation “King of Venereal Horror.”  I also love the word “appellation,” which I’ve been using a lot lately.

3. Spent a solid 15 minutes laying out my work in every possible arangement. Fail!  I don’t really know what Feng Shui is, but I was hoping that the act of re-arranging papers might inspire me or improve my chi.  Or my feng.  Or my shui.

4. Watched the video for Altered Images’s Happy Birthday several times. Does the word “images’s” look strange.

5. Consulted Strunk & White’s The Elements of Style to research possessives for words ending with an “S.” The authors advise that a second “s” is almost always required.  Ergo “Altered Images’s…”  That still seems unwieldy.  You guys sure?  “Follow this rule whatever the final consonant!”  OK, OK, stop yelling at me.  They note, however, that the possessives of ancient proper names ending in -es and -is do not receive an additional “s.”  Moses’ Law.  Isis’ Temple.  Oh, and Jesus doesn’t get a second “s” either.  Jesus’ peculiar possessive punctuation.  This is a seriously esoteric rule and I’m very skeptical.

6. Facebooking. Go go Gadget Gerund.

7. Wrote this list. Hey, I’m typing!  Speaking of which, I recently watched the BBC documentary “The Blind Watchmaker,” based on Richard Dawkins’s (still looks weird) book of the same name.  In his influential argument in favor of Darwinian natural selection, Dawkins irrefutably proves that a monkey left in front of a typewriter, banging away at the keys aimlessly for an infinite period of time, could not reproduce the collected works of William Shakespeare (The Infinite Monkey Theorem).   At least Creationists can take heart that monkeys can not, under any circumstances, produce so much as a single line of Shakespearean verse.  Humans can.  Therefore, we are not descended from monkeys.

Hmmmm, Dawkins didn’t say anything about monkeys writing film analysis.

Me encanta Mario. Es del mejor plataformeo que puedes encontrar, tanto en 2d como en 3d… de hecho, está considerado la cuna de este inmortal género, y sin la más mínima duda es uno de los plataformas más famosos de todos los tiempos. Corre… salta… golpea bloques… aplasta enemigos… Simplísimo, pero sin lugar a dudas cualquier juego de Mario nos ofrece un gameplay muy adictivo, diversión y desafío a raudales. A esto hay que añadir que al orondo fontanero es conocido en todo el globo, y está considerado uno de los personajes videojueguiles más carismáticos. Y os garantizo que sus razones tiene.

Una de las aventuras más épicas de Mario, sin duda

Bueno, sobra que os introduzca el primer juego de la saga Super Mario, ¿cierto? Me apuesto lo que queráis a que, aunque sea una vez, lo habéis jugado. La versión de NES, la del Allstars de SNES, el Deluxe de la GBC… este juego lo han jugado y lo conocen hasta en el Congo, indudablemente, me refiera a la versión a la que me refiera. Todos hemos golpeado bloques desde abajo, perseguido champiñones y aplastado goombas alguna vez. Debido al enorme éxito de este juego, en Japón se lanzó una segunda parte que básicamente consistía en niveles tortuosamente dificiles, manteniendo un estilo visual y un planteamiento completamente idénticos al de su antecesor. Probablemente, debido a su dificultad, este juego no salió de tierras niponas hasta que no lo hizo en Allstars bajo el nombre de “The Lost levels” y fuera de Japón, el título explotado como la segunda parte de las aventuras de Mario fuera una conversión del Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic, con los personajes de la franquicia Mario. No voy a decir lo que opino sobre su realización, pero sin duda, la jugabilidad es distinta a la del Mario original y presenta un lavado de cara interesante, respecto a Lost levels. Es entretenido… punto final.

Pero eso no era suficiente. La gente quería más Mario… y Nitendo complació sus deseos, esta vez creando un juego completamente nuevo. Y menudo pedazo de juego. La jugabilidad volvía a ser muy similar a la del SMB1, pero se añadieron tantísimos elementos implementados de forma tan correcta y en tantos aspectos que… daba gusto jugarlo desde principio a fin.

Taaan tan taaan... tarararara... Taaan tan ta-raaan...tarararara...

Para empezar, la introducción ya nos muestra una secuencia bastante dinámica en la que Mario Y Luigi compiten. Mario, al coger una hoja, se convierte en un mapache (obvio) y va flotando hasta un goomba al que aplasta. Luego, patea un caparazón de koopa solo para descubrir que Luigi puede sujetarlo, y se lo vuelve a lanzar. La intro ya muestra dos novedades rompedoras, el Mario mapache y la capacidad de sujetar conchas u otros objetos y utilizarlos como armas o para derribar bloques. El juego, a diferencia del anterior, en el que automáticamente pasábamos de un nivel a otro, nos introduce al finalizar un nivel en una pantalla de mapa que parece volverse más complicada a menudo que avanza el juego. En un principio, sólo consiste en superar niveles y avanzar, pero poco a poco, se va volviendo más retorcido y hay que elegir entre caminos alternativos, romper bloques o navegar por agua. Además de los niveles propiamente dichos, también tenemos subniveles de transición, minijuegos para obtener vidas u objetos que podemos almacenar, e incluso batallas contra enemigos que vagan por el mapa.

Una muestra del sistema de mapas. FRGHJPADF... cómo odio ese mundo...

Respecto a las transformaciones, tenemos las clásicas de Mario. El Mario básico, cogiendo un champiñón; el Mario de fuego, cogiendo una flor de fuego y el Mario invencible, cogiendo una estrella. Pues a esas tres, tenemos que añadir el Mario mapache, capaz de flotar, volar y golpear con su cola; el traje de rana, para nadar bajo el agua con mucha facilidad; el Mario hermano martillo, con la habilidad de lanzar unos martillos que hacen pedazos a cualquier enemigo, también dotado de una armadura protectora, y el Mario Tanooki, que además de todas las habilidades del Mario mapache, puede convertirse en una estatua invulnerable y capaz de aplastar todo tipo de cosas. Aunque no sea una transformación propiamente dicha, mi elemento favorito del juego es el zapato Kuribo, que te permite saltar sobre lo que quieras y no verte afectado por los pinchos o enemigos peligrosos (pero sólo aparece en un miserable nivel… demonios)… como veis, Mario ahora tiene muchos discursos más a su disposición de los que tenía en el SMB clásico… juo juo juo.

Ojalá apareciera en más niveles...snif...

El diseño de los niveles también es un gran acierto. En los anteriores Mario, teníamos apenas dos o tres tipos de escenarios repetidos hasta el infinito… pero en este, además del terreno normal, (indescriptible) las cuevas y los niveles submarinos, también tenemos desiertos, montañas o planicies, tierras heladas, aeronaves cargadas de cañones por todas partes, fortalezas, pozos de lava… Y cada mundo tiene una temática propia, con un tipo de nivel propio. Estas diferencias también se ven reflejados en los ya mencionados mapas de los mundos, y más en concreto en el último… Y hablando de dificultad, la de este juego es uno de sus principales puntos fuertes, sin duda. Muchos lo juegan buscando un desafío, y sin duda se encuentran con lo que buscan. Mundo tras mundo, la dificultad incrementa y tenemos que enfrentarnos a distintos tipos de enemigos y situaciones, superando complicadas maniobras plataformeras o poniendo a prueba nuestros reflejos esquivando decenas de proyectiles… Algo que sí se repite en todos los mundos son las fortalezas y las aeronaves de Bowser. Al final de cada fortaleza, tenemos que enfrentarnos con el mismo enemigo, llamado Boom-boom, y parece que en cada mundo se vuelva gradualmente más avispado y veloz, además de que se le da la habilidad de saltar, volar y cubrirse con pinchos. Al final de las fortalezas, sin embargo, tenemos que hacer frente a los koopalines, churumbeles de Bowser, y cada uno de ellos pelea a su modo. Por supuesto, al final del octavo mundo, después de su propio castillo, tenemos que hacer frente al mismísimo Bowser. Como veis, la variedad de jefes es amplia respecto a luchar contra Bowser una, otra y otra vez como hacíamos en el SMB. Sin duda es una de las novedades más notables.

A lo largo del juego, nos encontraremos con innumerables desafíos a los que tendremos que hacer frente con nuestra habilidad

Este juego es maravilloso, y su fama lo confirma. En varias ocasiones se le ha proclamado el mejor juego de la NES, e incluso llegó a tener una serie de dibujos animados basada en él. (pero prefiero no hablar demasiado de ella…) Por supuesto, dejó una honda impresión en todos los gamers de la época. El sentido del desafío y la brillante incorporación de elementos nuevos, tanto enemigos como escenarios u objetos así como la variedad de niveles, la inteligencia de sus diseños y lo increíblemente divertido que puede llegar a ser lo convierten en uno de los mejores Marios hasta la fecha.

En resumen: Super Mario Bros. 3 es uno de los mejores juegos de NES, sin duda, una sinfonía jugable que todo el mundo debería jugar… Y no es tan difícil tener acceso a una copia. Hay dos ports del juego, uno para SNES en la versión Allstars y otro para GBA, además de su inclusión en la consola virtual. Ya no hay pegas para no poder disfrutar de este gran título, que yo sin duda os recomiendo. Sentiréis el amor retro en vuestras propias carnes… je.

¡Que os vaya bonito, retrógrados!

Oh, el traje de Hno. Martillo también es épico... puedes cargarte hasta a Thwomps con él... Juo juo juo...