Super Mario

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.

Turtles in Time Re-Shelled Trailer

Here is a new trailer for the upcoming release of the Classic remake Turtles in Time. The game, which will be availble to download on from the xbox live marketplace, has recently been re-price to 800 MS points. Bargain!

Sonic the Hedgehog

I found some facts about Sonic the Hedgehog (Sonikku za Hejjihoggu):

1. Sonic is blue, (sorry, couldn’t resist!)
2. Sonics birthday is the 23rd of June.
3. Sonics favourite food is chilli dogs
4. Sonics motto is, “I don’t look back, i’ve got no regrets, cause time don’t wait for me I choose to go my own way.
5. Sonic grew up in the emerald hill zone.
6. Sonic can’t swim.
7. Sonics sneakers were designed by professer Kintobor, (Dr robotnik before he went evil!)
8. The chaos emeralds were once twelve instead of six, (excluding the grey “control” emerald.
9. Sonic can travel faster than the speed of sound.
10. Sonics favourite drink is cola
11. Sonic was once an ordinary brown hedgehog.
12. Sonic is better than Mario. Period.
13. Sonics theme song is called “It doesn’t matter”
14. Sonic two was one of the biggest selling games of all time.
15. Sonic has NO brothers and sisters, apart from in the blasphemous series Sonic Underground, which was shit and gay and a million other negative things.
16. Sonic has had four TV series based on him, and one anime movie.

More facts:

The original game was converted into a Famicom game called Somari by a group of software pirates in Hong Kong. The game, which is mostly playable, replaces Sonic with Mario wearing Tails’ shoes.

A Java ME conversion for mobile phones running Java was released by I-Phone in 2006. This version, Sonic the Hedgehog Part 1, includes only the first three zones, with the remainder released as Sonic the Hedgehog Part 2 by Glu Mobile in 2007. This version mostly follows the Mega Drive version, but some features have been removed, most notably the Special Stage. There has also been a second, not as widely known version the game for Verizon phones, that has everything the original version did, although strangely removing all sound effects from the game. The mobile phone version also came bundled with some Panasonic cell phones in Europe and Japan.

In 2006, Sonic the Hedgehog became available for Nintendo Wii’s Virtual Console service from launch, and in 2007 entered Xbox 360’s Xbox Live Arcade, under the title Sonic the Hedgehog Arcade. The 360 version does not allow the use of cheats to prevent undue earning of Achievements. It also has options for graphic smoothing, saving and loading current progress in-game and to resize the gameplay window.

The game was also present on the Danger Hiptop’s Sidekick 3, Real Arcade and GameTap (along with most classic Sonic games).

In response to the negative reception of Sega’s port on the Gameboy Advance, a programmer named Stealth released a proof-of-concept version of Sonic 1 to the Gameboy Advance by using the original Genesis version’s data from disassembly. In 2004, Sega released Sonic The Hedgehog for PlayStation and the PlayStation Store for $3.95c for the PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 3. In 2007 the game was made available on the iTunes store as a game for the iPod nano with video, the iPod classic, and iPod with video.

Sonic the Hedgehog appeared next in Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, along with many of the series subsequent games. A few talented programmers successfully reversed engineered Sonic the Hedgehog and ported it to the Sega CD (revised and under the name Sonic Megamix), Sega 32X, and successfully ported it to the Gameboy Advance as a tech demo to show that Sonic the Hedgehog and really any Genesis classic is doable on such a platform.

In early 2009, Sega announced that the game would be available for Apple’s iPhone OS in the Spring.

Anniversary

TMNT: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled screens…

Now im a huge fan of the Teenage Mutant (Ninja/Hero) Turtles and have been for a very long time. I’ve got countless retro comics from the Peter Laird (original) era which are delicately placed inside a plastic sleeve to protect them. Xbox have released a few screens of the upcoming release on Xbox Live Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled
Here are a few pics:

So far we are aware that the game includes all but one of the original levels, and as you can see from the screenshots there has been a huge 3D overhaul which will hopefully boost the likeability of the turtles. The game is due for release on July 22nd.

Project Natal E3 Update

Phil Spencer, head of Microsoft Games Studios has been put under the spotlight with regards to the new phenomenon Project Natal which is all the rage at the E3 conference this week.

When asked how long Microsoft have been working on Project Natal Phil replied:

“Project Natal is the combination of a lot of software work that’s been going on within the company for quite a while. If you think about the different technologies at play–you have facial recognition, voice recognition, skeletal tracking–you have things that Microsoft research has been working on for years.

Some of this stuff, like voice recognition, you’ve seen in the past and it’s a continuation of that work. It’s based on strengths we have. We’re a software company that’s focused on research and development. As content creators at Microsoft worldwide studios, we’ve been thinking about the barriers to people playing games for a while. We’ve thought about controller-less gaming and how we’d interact–Dimitri was something we incubated at Lionhead many years ago and what you see in Milo today is sort of the culmination of platform innovation working in sync with a lot of our content creators and content leaders.”

And when asked about a price of launch date Phil said:

“We’re using this E3 to show the progress we’ve made. We have a firm belief that we have the technology and creations that will define the market when they come out for this space. As first-party, we’ve always been about tentpole games, call them showcases or hero experiences, either for Live or for the 360, or for the original Xbox when it came out.

The work had come along and we felt that we had a solid plan with a solid launch portfolio and a portfolio for the next few years, so we thought we should start talking about this publicly. We’re shipping dev kits out, which clearly when you start shipping dev kits out, the chances of leaks and everything go up. But frankly, I thought we were ready to stand on stage and show of our work, and I thought it held up pretty well.”

So its been an interesting week so far with more and more information being leaked every day. To read the full conversation follow here.

Super Mario Galaxy 2… pictures released

New pictures of Super Mario Galaxy 2 have been released, its the first full sequel to a 3D mario game!

Here they are:

Super Mario Galaxy 2

Super Mario Galaxy 2

Super Mario Galaxy 2

Super Mario Galaxy 2

Super Mario Galaxy 2

Super Mario Galaxy 2

Super Mario Galaxy 2

Super Mario Galaxy 2

Super Mario Galaxy 2

The new pictures come after the famed E3 conference which didnt disappoint (many) this year. With lots of new and exciting innovations due to be released over the following months.

Sony E3 Conference

Sonys E3 Conference courtesy of Gamespot.

The guy starts off with listing games which are due to be released, this starts off bad because the games arent exclusive to the Playstation. Again just like the Nintendo presentation lots of numbers which arent really useful to the consumer. I notice that the guy presenting is very clever with his word. He keeps going from the ps3 figures to Playstation figures which is blending them together obviously the latter being bigger.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves looks pretty cool, its not entirely groundbreaking but nevertheless a solid game, slightyly reminiscent of Gears of War but then again alot of games which are coming out have the duck and cover kind of feature. Something which strikes me early on when comparing the three presentations between Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo it seems as though Microsoft have the biggest range between awesome game releases and exciting innovation looking to the future whereas Nintendo were hell bent on tell everyone last years figures while churching out the same games but with an added fart and Sony seem to be hanging on the release on big games (which isnt a bad thing…much). 

MAG is a fantastic idea, it had to be soon when such a vast game came out onto a console, this is the equivalent of World of Warcraft on the PC. I’m not sure how long the gameplay will last, maybe it’ll get a bit too repetitive. The Smugness of Sony is just oozing out of this presentation, they know they have nothing to worry about but it does seem as though they dont really care. The PSP Go! looks awesome, its nice and small which will combat the DS.

Gran Turismo PSP Go! is again another great idea, taking a big franchise onto the small screen, literally. One thing about the PSP Go! is the size, in the presentation the presenter mentions about Gran Turismo being a full size game, however, to enjoy the game would a bigger screen be better? I liked it though. Hideo Kojima has again made an appearance, Metal Gear Solid: Peacewalker which is set 10 years after metal gear solid 3 which is a true sequel to the metal gear franchise. Hideo Kojima reiterates that he will be deeply involved in producing this game which is not to be looked upon as a side game. The trailer for Peacewalker looks fantastic its a take on the government creating utopia, it looks like a genuine game which fits into the Metal Gear saga.

The Assassins Creed 2 trailer has been released, set in the italian renaissance. The gameplay looks awesome, it hasnt diverted aesthetically from AC1. An interesting note is that Leonardo Da Vinci is incorporated into the game as the Assassins inventor, he is seen with his model of a helicopter which is flyable. It looks awesome!!! Another note is that there is another release on the PSP called Assassins Creed: Bloodlines which will unlock extra weapons if you connect it to AS2 on the PS3.

Someone commented on saying that Final Fantasy will probably be on one disc for the PS3 but how many on the Xbox? Its an interesting point, as we all know the PS3 isnt using all of its power yet so hopefully this’ll be the game to test its components, as for the xbox I hope when its ported turns out beautifully which im sure it will. To be honest I think both consoles are the same, purely because developers have to make games portable in order to increase revenue. Ultimately this is slowing the rise of the PS3 and its potential power.

The trailer for Final Fantasy 13 look spretty cool, its been out for a few weeks now and the one shown is just a smaller version. Final Fantasy 14 has also been announced which is a shock as 13 has barely has eyes set upon it. As we all know the developers of Final Fantasy keep trailers and gameplay almost secret until its being released so this has come as a huge shock. The crowd definetely didnt expect that, again the trailer look sawesome as always with the Final Fantasy saga.

So the new Eye Toy has had a live tech demo, so far its looking pretty cool. It seems to be just an upgrade onto the older Eye toy. It has the potential to be used in great games which will work with using things as a trigger just like the Wii. Project Natal seems to be much better though as there is no need for a controller. The archery thing looks pretty cool, its the same type of thing as the Wii Remote upgrade. But the PS3 looks to be far superior. I was really disappointed with Nintendos presentation and the Wii seems to have come to a hault in terms of being the forerunner in new innovations.

The Last Guardian looks like a pretty good idea for a game, well worth a look. As well as Gran Turismo 5 it looks too realistic… which is the point. All in all a good presentation but I think the Microsoft one won it this year. I look forward to the releases on the Xbox most!

E3 Nintendo Conference

Nintendos E3 Conference courtesy of Gamespot

Firstly what is with the woman at the start??? She reminds me of a high school teacher which has all the inspiration but theres just something missing which makes you believe she trying to hard. Could she be less enthusiastic? Now onto the new Super Mario game, all I can say is WTF??? Its pretty much the same DS game but shat out onto the Wii with a multiplayer function. This woman is starting to annoy me, she seems like some congresswoman, she isnt representing Nintendo with the fun and charisma which comes along with it. Instead just drivvling on useless pieces of information which the consumer probably doesnt give a crap about.

Nintendo seem to be hell bent on creating new innovations all the time with their wavy remote and the stupid wii fit. So now to add to that they have released Wii Fit Plus… another push to try and get more money out a gimmick which to be honest is starting to wear very thin. I dont own a Wii, the times I have played one I found fun for a few minutes. All over the internet there are countless users who think that their Wii is good at collecting dust once Metroid/Mario and Zelda has been completed. Before when the Wii was first release they seemed to have a young fun image where they knew there demographic but now it seems they are just a bit cunfused. ‘Games’ like the Wii Fit surely arent aimed at children and yet almost every game on there is aimed at kids, and we are talking kids not teenagers…kids (apart from resident evil…obviously).

Just to point on now that Microsoft have release their new innovation Project Natal, the interactivity with Natal is far superior to that of the Wii (ironically holding a remote is the difference.) It strikes me as odd that Nintendo have had this area sorted for the past few years and yet they are still stuck on using the Wii remote.

FFS!!! are you shitting me… archery? Are we stuck in the medival times? Who plays archery? and whats with the sky diving thing? Are users really going to want to sky dive? Fairly sure the real thing might be a tad better… The guy presenting is soo false aswell. He needs a good slap and a reality check, why does he feel the need to explain how to shoot a basketball hoop? Wii Sports Resort looks arse. And now Virtua Tennis 2009, you know what that means?!?! another game in the bargain bin within a month of its release.

It strikes me as though throughout the presentation the presenters are destined to ell everyone about their financial reports every 5 minutes. Final Fantasy looks cool. But guess what??? another crappy Mario game which has got something to do with Bowsers insides, I wasnt really paying any attention, it just looks arse. Also heres a Mario fact for you while I remember… Did you know that Mario was given a mustache and a cap so it was easier for the animators to reproduce him?

Cop: The recruit? That was piss poor, im sorry but Nintendo really hasnt done it for me. The entire presentation is just about number and figures and the same shit which they have released for the past 20 years turfed out and shat onto an ageing console. For gods sake does the consumer really need to know how much DSi consoles have been sold since its release? And that stupid animation tool which looks like a basic version of Paint. What the hell is that game creating thing??? Some stupid apple being biten is a game? I think not!

A vitality sensor??? i’m starting to lose the plot. What is the point? No doubt it’ll be at extra cost to the consumer and all it’ll do is tell you that how many beats per min your heart is beating after playing Paper Mario haha what a load of tosh! And then to add to the seeminly neverending Mario releases there is another, this time in 3D (the second as Cammie keeps on telling us), not sure if they mentioned the title although it looks like Mario Galaxy.

“How can mankind fight a war which has already been won?” – The Conduit… that doesnt make sense, I know its a game but at least make sense. Sounds like the guy that announces the blockbuster movies. Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles looks pretty good although it reminds of Resident Evil Nemesis where the cut scenes were beautiful but the gameplay wasnt so nice. Dead Space Extraction looks pretty good, and for the first time in the video I can hear a clap for a game that is being released…

Metroid other M looks pretty cool, I must say that is a title which seemingly looks to be getting better, maybe if it was released on another platform it’ll sell better.

“… this is inkeeping with the timeless mission on Nintendo, bringing you names which are so familiar but revitalised to make them new again” – Quote near the end which sums it all up, its seems lazy and dull. I wished I hadnt watched the video. Maybe now if you’ve read this post you wont have to now. I think I caught all the main points but feel free to discuss any ideas and thoughts…

Project Natal and Microsoft

Microsofts stage at E3 Conference

The project natal thing is simply awesome its near 95 mins on that clip, its truely ground breaking. I got shivers when the guy creates a piece of artwork with the Kenyan background and elephant. The device seems to be far superior to the wii. There are a few clips on the internet regarding Project Natal but the HD clip on gamespot (linked at the top of this post) is by far the best. Microsoft really have pushed the boat way on this year with lots of really cool features like incorporating Sky into xbox live, adding facebook and twitter (not my cup of tea), the project natal thing, secret halo releases, alan wake, beatles rock band and of course Hideo Kojima announced that there is a new Metal Gear being exclusively released on xbox which will feature Raiden.

Microsoft will be dominating the market this year, they are releasing all the xbox as well as new search engine called Bing (due for release tomorrow but its live on beta now) and also the new multitouch operating system Windows 7. It’ll be an interesting few months to see what other competitors have lined up, i’ve already mentioned Google Wave in previous posts but surely that cant out weight anything from Microsoft?

Google Wave

Google have released a prototype called Google Wave. So far i’ve seen a long demonstration this was released on the 28th of May on Viral Video Chart. It was filmed at Google I/O please follow this link to see for yourself