Fortunately, I played Frogger so I know how to dodge cars.
(This picture has been forwarded to me a bunch of times, I guess all my friends know I’m a nerd. If anyone knows where to attribute this photo, let me know and I’ll link.)
Popularity: 12% [?]
I saw this today on Gears of War 2 Tops Sales Chart on PlayGirlz:
Nintendo might be sitting pretty at the top in the console wars, but when it comes to software, Microsoft’s got the lead. The economic crisis seems to be hitting everyone but the world of video games. Anxious shoppers tossed games into their carts like they were Halloween candy. And the results are in.*
Gears of War 2 (Epic, Xbox 360) – 1.56 million units
*
Call of Duty: World at War (Treyarch, Xbox 360) – 1.41 million units
*
Wii Play (Nintendo, Wii) – 796,000 units
*
Wii Fit (Nintendo, Wii) – 697,000 units
*
Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo, Wii) – 637,000 units
*
Call of Duty: World at War (Treyarch, PS3) – 597,000 units
*
Guitar Hero World Tour (Vicarious Visions, Wii) – 475,000 units
*
Left 4 Dead (Valve, Xbox 360) – 410,000 units
*
Resistance 2 (Insomniac, PS3) – 385,000 units
*
Wii Music (Nintendo, Wii) – 297,000 unitsThe Xbox 360 managed to get 3 out of the 10 spots, including the number 1 and 2 positions, thanks to Gears of War 2 and Call of Duty. But Nintendo dominated in numbers once again, picking up half the slots. And that leaves only 2 slots for the PS3, with Call of Duty and Resistance 2. Alas, Resistance 2 was the only PS3 exclusive to make it on the list. Sorry, Sony.
I was pleased about this because someone who lives in my house works for Epic on GoW2 so it’s nice to see his work rewarded.
Via Gears of War 2 Tops Sales Chart
Popularity: 8% [?]
Tags: EA, epic, game, games, gears of war, gears of war 2, gow, Guitar Hero, Mario, microsoft, music, nintendo, PS3, Sony, video, video game, video games, war, wii, wii fit, XBox, xbox 360
I saw this on Cake Wrecks: Sunday Sweets: Cupcakes! They were posted by hello naomi to Flickr, so maybe she should get the credit, and not Cake Wrecks? Not sure how the etiquette goes here, but I’m really glad they came to my attention. How cute are these game cupcakes?
See, now this is the way to do a cupcake-cake: don’t ice them all together, and reference an 80′s video game!Another example:
I call dibs on the green mushroom!
Via Cake Wrecks: Sunday Sweets: Cupcakes!
Popularity: 2% [?]
Another geeky gem from Cake Wrecks. What is it about the combination of sugar and gaming that makes these cakes so perfect?
Yes, it’s a Mario wedding cake. (With a cake like this, I bet the bridesmaid dresses weren’t too bad!) And here is the fondant duo that replaces the usual (LAME!) cake topper.
Go over to Cake Wrecks to see more amazing photos.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Power-Up!
Super Mario Bros: Power Up Energy Drink
Power Up is a video game tie-in from Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros. The drink comes in an 8.4oz can and has been round for some years. It caused a bit of a storm with some media outlets claiming that the drink was being targeted to kids. In this particular story – a dad purchased it for his 6 year old son. A 6 year old boy with 80mg caffeine in him would not be pretty.
(Again with blaming videogames for bad parenting choices!)
Via 11 Cartoon and Video Game Energy Drinks
Popularity: 3% [?]
Remember how much fun you used to have playing mario brothers or zelda? Ever yearn for those days again? Well, I can’t promise you will have as much fun as then but there is a way to play nintendo games, even if you have thrown away your nintendo console like I did so long ago. It is called emulators and roms. Actually, you find an emulator and roms to almost every console game and even some of the older computers. The emulators are free as are most roms, though some do want you to own the game cartridges before you download them. Just do a search and you’ll be surprised at how many sites come up for free emulators and roms.
Popularity: 24% [?]
Just saw this article on Weird Asia News, combining two things gamers love… Mario and wild Japanese trends.
This edible icon is part of a bento-box art contest. It’s called Kyaraben, or キャラクター弁当, for Japanese speakers, and it’s combination fo the word “character” and “bento”.
Popularity: 22% [?]
The Nintendo Family Computer was the first ever video game console I played with. I have always remembered that when we were younger, my parents only let my brother and me play the Family Computer during weekends. I would always anticipate the weekend when I could play the first ever Mario Brothers.
Until now I remember that the A button is for jump and the B button is for firing weapons. Mario Brothers is a very easy game to play. You just have to move forward, kill the enemies along the way and jump to the flag to be able to enter to the castle.
There are three stages per world and you can even skip some levels if you know where to go. I have known a lot of the cheats for the Mario Brothers but I try not to use them too often. I estimate that I have probably played the game for more than 500 times in my whole life because I am still playing Mario Brothers in a NES emulator in the PC. That’s how much I love Mario Brothers! It is the best ever platform game there is.
However, I do not like the 3D versions of Mario. It’s probably because the simple game play was already lost when Mario had to do other more complicated things other than move forward, jump and fire the weapon. I guess the more complicated it got, the more Mario lost its appeal to the people who just like to play and not think too much. Or I could be just simple minded and don’t like to play complicated games!
Popularity: 3% [?]
Sega plans to publish a second Olympics game (following “Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games”), this time based on the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The game will be available for PS3 and Xbox 360, and they’re planning to release the game this summer, at the same time as the Olympics, so even couch potatoes can participate in the Olympics.
“Extending our relationship with Sega to include the Official Video Game of Beijing 2008 strengthens the opportunity to build upon the success of the children’s character game, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games,” commented Raymond Goldsmith, CEO of International Sports Multimedia.
“We feel certain that SEGA will further the success of Athens 2004, thereby delivering what will be an outstanding, quality gaming experience,” he added. Read the whole thing at GamesIndustry.Biz
Popularity: 2% [?]
Miss Milkshake on Weddingbee has a cute story about how her fiance accidentally made her a gamer, and about the nicknames she gives his games.
When I was younger, Super Nintendo was the coolest thing, and I’m sure we all had gameboys (heck most people our age, guys and girls alike, have the nintendo DS), and donkey kong country and all the sequels rocked my world. But then the video game industry introduced the concept of 3D, which soon dominated, and I couldn’t maneuver my little Mario guy in a straight line, quickly became dizzy, and gave up. Gone were the days of running across the screen, from left to right, jumping on bad guys.
After dating Mr. Milkshake, I came to learn these were called “platform games.” When we first started dating he trained me to play a soccer game, Winning Eleven, and he was surprised at how good at it I became. Somehow he managed to suck me into playing Resistance with him last year and with the recent releases of Call of Duty 4 and Halo 3, I can officially play “first person shooters.” Not well enough to play against any hard core guys online, but well enough to get a few kills in when him and I play together….
Read the whole story here at WeddingBee (you may have to ignore the wedding overload!)
Popularity: 3% [?]
Miss Milkshake on Weddingbee has a cute story about how her fiance accidentally made her a gamer, and about the nicknames she gives his games.
When I was younger, Super Nintendo was the coolest thing, and I’m sure we all had gameboys (heck most people our age, guys and girls alike, have the nintendo DS), and donkey kong country and all the sequels rocked my world. But then the video game industry introduced the concept of 3D, which soon dominated, and I couldn’t maneuver my little Mario guy in a straight line, quickly became dizzy, and gave up. Gone were the days of running across the screen, from left to right, jumping on bad guys.
After dating Mr. Milkshake, I came to learn these were called “platform games.” When we first started dating he trained me to play a soccer game, Winning Eleven, and he was surprised at how good at it I became. Somehow he managed to suck me into playing Resistance with him last year and with the recent releases of Call of Duty 4 and Halo 3, I can officially play “first person shooters.” Not well enough to play against any hard core guys online, but well enough to get a few kills in when him and I play together….
Read the whole story here at WeddingBee (you may have to ignore the wedding overload!)
Popularity: 2% [?]
I know that I’ll never forget how “Super Mario Brothers” helped me give the Heimlich to my father when I was ten.What confuses me is why a more real-world type approach wouldn’t be more beneficial in the long run. It seems to me that the quality of doctors has gone way down over the years and I’m skeptical that this is going to help in any way.
Read More: Computer Games Prepare Battlefield Medics
Popularity: 2% [?]
Video game makers lately seem to be noticing that some women do play video games and that it is a sort of untapped market in the sense that there are millions that do not play and so they are trying to figure out a way to get them to buy more games and gaming systems.
I for one love video games and have played them from childhood and well into adulthood. I just recently finished the fourth installment of the CSI games called CSI: 3 Dimensions of Murder and have a variety of pc games that I go to when not blogging or watching tv.
While I do enjoy video games I will probably never be the sort of gamer they are looking to snatch up their hot new games. My preferences lean towards walkthrough games such as Mario Bro., Spyro and Crash Bandicoot. I have played some driving games, and flying games but they are not what I would normally play.
I have also played a game I can’t remember the name of, in which I was an assassin and was in Asia trying to take someone out, but I just was never able to sneak the guy past the camera’s, bad guys and eyes in the sky, so I gave up. While I enjoy the movies, I have only played Resident Evil a few times and gave up when my older brother came into the room unexpectedly and I started screaming because of how on edge the game had me. The strange looks my boyfriend gave me didn’t help matters.
So unless they make more Spyro’s and Mario games they are not likely to see me renting or buying tons of video games, regardless of the large campaigns they throw out there.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Tags: ds, EA, game, games, Mario, my boyfriend, Past, pc, PC Games, Resident Evil, RoM, video, video game, video games, walkthrough, war
Alex Krotoski from the Guardian Games blog published this interesting tidbit about MMOGs vs more casual gaming genres that appeal to more players:
Still, in order to be a viable entity on a home console unit – competing directly with the likes of GTA, Super Mario and FIFA – things will have to change. Some may call it dumbing down, but the product must be created with the consumer in mind. Personally, while I consume my fair share, I’m still only primarily interested in them from an academic perspective, as resources of human sociability in online space. In a lot of ways, as games I find them as tedious as the casual player. So thinking about Joe or Jane Casual player, these are some of the current issues in online games which could benefit from a revamp before attempting to win over the masses:
While I don’t totally agree with the orcs/goblins part (there’s more than just one sci-fi-oriented MMOG available or in the making currently), I can’t say that the issues he raises aren’t true, because they most certainly are, and I’ve actually experienced some of them regularly. In any case, it sheds a crude yet true light on which things may have to change in the future in order to keep this genre going among a wider audience.
MMOGs/MMORPGs can be very interesting games to play, and allow for meeting many people that you’ll get to know outside of the game as well (it’s how I met one of my best friends to this date, even if we both live in different countries); however, some aspects can indeed deter people who’d like to have fun and socialize without necessarily being forced to go through a levelling grind or quests that demand hours to be completed.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Resident Evil? Good. Super Mario Bros.? Fucking sickening. Game-to-movie ports are a coin flip. We already reported on the upcoming Spy Hunter movie, now we find Doom is coming to theaters on October 21. Given the 50/50 odds, if one movie sucks, the other won’t — good news for The Rock who’s oddly in both, the whore. Ferrango reports:
We already know that the BFG is to star (hurrah), and The Rock, Karl Urban and Rosamund Pike are all in the cast. Dave Callahan is the brains behind the script, whilst Andrzej Bartkowiak will direct. The film is classic Doom; the premise witnessing a group of marines answering a distress call from a science lab on the planet Olduvai. Mutants have indeed invaded. How typical.
Our casting wishlist? Kirstie Alley would play the part of a Pinky. Or would she make a better Mancubus? You’re right, she’s fat enough to play both at once.
Doom movie slated for October [Ferrango]
Spy Hunter Because The Hunted [Thumb Gods]
Popularity: 1% [?]
Um, quick question. WHAT FUCKING YEAR IS THIS!? WHO’S THE PRESIDENT?!
It all started when the AP reported a story today about the FBI busting a game pirating ring in New York and New Jersey. Some 60,000 pirated Nintendo games were seized in the raid.
OK, so far, so good. But then this graph followed:
Four people were arrested in the crackdown on the theft of popular games such as “Donkey Kong,” “Mario Brothers,” “Duck Hunt,” “Baseball” and others, according to a release by federal authorities and papers filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
Have we accidentally fallen through a time warp? Or was the whole 16-bit, 32-bit, 64-bit and beyond revolution all a dream?!? Whatever the case, we’re gonna go bet on the World Series, McFly.
Game pirates nabbed in Nintendo sting [MSNBC]
Popularity: 1% [?]
What’s dorker than dork?
Video Games Live is the first major concert dedicated specifically to the celebration of video game music to tour the United States (that features music from more than one series, anyway). Their first concet is scheduled to take place on July 6th, 2005 at the Hollywood Bowl in California. Music will be included from game series such as Halo®, Metal Gear Solid®, Myst®, Sonic The Hedgehog®, HeadHunter®, and Beyond Good & Evil® among others. Tracks will be performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Maybe you know who will make a special appearance… at a geek-fest like this, anything’s possible.
“Video Games Live” Concert at Hollywood Bowl [nintendophiles]
Popularity: 1% [?]
Tags: EA, game, games, Mario, metal, music, nintendo, RoM, Sonic the Hedgehog, track, video, video game, video games
