And here at the List we all wish our beloved creator of Mario, Link, Pikmin and of course, Wii Music Shigeru Miyamoto a truly wonderful birthday. Just think: By the time the next presidential election rolls around the guy will actually turn 64!
This again?
PeTA has decided that the best way to advance the ethical treatment of animals is to cash in on the hype of a major release on a Nintendo handheld with a manipulative, gore-fueled “parody” game. Hey, this sounds familiar.
Pokemon Black 2 and White 2 is coming out this Sunday, and even though I’m a 28 year old man with no acknowledged mental illness, I will buy and play the cute, monstery bejeezus out of said game come Sunday.
Well that isn’t a very nice attitude to have now is it 8-Bit Vader? The truth is that me and my pals here at the List have been invited to help put the final nail in the coffin provide our old friends over at Nintendorks.net with our invaluable insight and expertise on all things Nintendo (and maybe even some other stuff) from now on. Now what does this mean for you my dear, faithful reader? Well…nothing really. We aren’t going anywhere and I’ll continue to update regularly until the police find my lifeless, nude corpse at my computer desk surrounded by empty bottles of discount I.P.A. You can look forward to the same high quality self indulgence that we’ve blessed the internet with these past few years only now under both the Shigeru’s List url and the legendary banner of Nintendorks. In fact, I’ll probably be cross posting all of the larger pieces such as news and reviews on both sites but keep the random little mini updates exclusive to my little baby here.
I know, I know. It all sounds too good to be true but please, try and contain yourself. You’re embarrassing us.
In old news, today I stumbled upon this tool-assisted “speed”run of the 100 math problems portion of Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day, wherein the handwriting recognition built into the game is abused with amusing results. To say more would be pointless and give the whole thing away; the video speaks for itself and is worth the six minutes, so just go ahead and watch it now.
Pretty much every review you’re going to read about Kirby’s 20th birthday compilation will begin with a direct comparison to Nintendo’s own anniversary treatment for their mustached mascot a couple of years ago. And for good reason: When the announcement was made that a special commemorative box would be released to coincide with the 25th birthday of the original Super Mario Bros., a lot of longtime fans (yours truly included) were understandably excited. But as the end result wound up being essentially an unchanged 20 year old rom (Super Mario All Stars from the SNES to be exact) slapped onto a disc and packed in with a flimsy at best scrapbook along with an anemic 13 track CD…well, pissed isn’t exactly the right word but you get the idea. Now with HAL laboratory celebrating the second decade mark for their little friend Kirby with such style, what once simply felt like a missed opportunity for Mario at this point feels like a legitimate insult.
HAL really did this thing right.
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R.I.P.
*Cough*
“Thank you all. Please be seated. *Ahem*. Ladies and gentlemen, like many of you here today I came across Nintendo Power at a very young age. For me personally, it was the third grade and I was eight years old when I first heard whispers of a magazine that was all about Nintendo and filled with maps, special codes and strategies. These rumors spread like wild fire across the black top during recess but that’s all they amounted to at first: Rumors. Some kid knew a guy from another school who’s brother supposedly had described some book he’d seen as having the small clay Mario you see beside me plastered across the cover. More words were spoken of free pull-out posters and comic strips as well as contests that gave away prizes like t-shirts, toys and most importantly: Nintendo Games. It all sounded too good to be true of course and these second hand (third and fourth even) stories were all I had to tide me over before the truth of the matter would finally be revealed to me. It was a cold, overcast October afternoon when this kid I knew opened his backpack to reveal the beautiful image of a grown man in full body armor holding the decapitated head of Dracula by his hair.
I was hooked.
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More like BA-SICK!
Coming this Thursday [EDIT: actually, July 19th, error mine] to DSiWare (and thus also to the 3DS), Petit Computer promises to have everyone partying programming like it’s 1980. The program lets users laboriously type in commands using the touch screen keyboard to program in a version of the BASIC programming language to do… well, pretty much whatever the BASIC language is capable of, I suppose. There are several sample programs included to give an idea of what’s possible, including, apparently, an old-school RPG and a scrolling shooter, as well as several non-game applications and demos. Perhaps the greatest feature, and the one most people (especially lazy ones) will likely be interested in, is the ability to share programs as QR codes, letting users download programs simply by aiming the 3DS/DSi cameras at an image of the code in the now-familiar way. There’s a trailer behind the break.
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Because it’s awesome.
Capcom’s Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective came out a year and a half ago in North America on the DS, and I played the demo and fell in love about six months before that. Because human beings are terrible at making decisions that make them happy, though, I didn’t make it a priority to pick up the game on release and only bought it this past week (and finished it last night), despite being impressed with the demo, and furthermore despite loving Shu Takumi’s other famous creation: the Ace Attorney series.
Before I go into detail I’ll say this: If you loved Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, you will in all likelihood adore Ghost Trick. Please at least play the online flash demo.
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No you’re not reading your calendar wrong. Earlier today Nintendo unveiled its new online “home” for their famous mascot cleverly dubbed www.Mario.Nintendo.Com. A webpage filled with lazily written summaries for every retail and downloadable 3DS and Wii title featuring the fat plumber (isn’t this already IGN’s thing?). They’ve even added a little scroll at the bottom of each page suggesting other games you might be interested in based on the one you’re currently browsing. What’s that, guys? If I really like Super Mario Bros. 2 then I might also dig Samurai Showdown IV? Um, ok. There are actually a couple of cool little bits to be found on the site including a fun take on “Memory,” featuring familiar faces from the mushroom kingdom and also a quiz to test your Mario knowledge which you should have no trouble burning through if you’re above 6 years old and have ever played a Nintendo game in your life.
Check out the card game by clicking this and have a go at some Mario trivia right here. I’m positive you have nothing better to do.
Director of Pokemon Black and White Junichi Masuda appeared on an awesome sounding Japanese TV show called Pokémon Sunday to announce the next entries in the Pokémon series: Pokémon Black 2 and Pokémon White 2, coming to the DS (2DS?) in Japan this June. This means I lost the bet where I was positive the “third” installment of Pokemon Black and White would be a 3DS title called “Pokemon Grey.”
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Dude, I only play 80s Joel!
New dates have been confirmed for Symphony of the Goddesses, the Legend of Zelda concert series touring North America. Before you do like me and get all excited that it might be coming somewhere near you, take a look at the up-to-date concert listing, with the new dates in bold:
March 14 Vancouver
March 26 Seattle
March 28 San Francisco
April 7 Denver
April 20-21 Phoenix
May 12 Atlanta
May 31 Montreal
June 6 Los Angeles
June 22 Austin
July 7 Houston
July 12 San Diego
July 14 Orlando
July 25 Philadelphia
July 26 Vienna (Virginia, not Austria… or sausage)
Sept. 15 Toronto
Sept. 22 Minneapolis
So yep, with six new dates on the board, the closest one for me is still an eight hour drive away. It’s cool, I’m totally not bitter. If you can actually go to one of these things, click here for info on buying tickets… and so I can vicariously experience it through you.
Yeah we get it, you like the princess! Don't you have anything better to do?
You can’t have a great hero without a great villain, right? Superman and Lex Luthor, Batman and The Joker, Luke Skywalker and dear old Dad, James Bond and monogamy, Indiana Jones and Nazis, and of course, everybody’s favorite Italian stereotype and a big turtle-dragon-asaurus! It just makes sense.
But… lots of great heroes have more than one villain, too. Superman and Brainiac, Batman and Two-Face, Luke Skywalker and George Lucas, James Bond and not having AIDS , Indiana Jones and George Lucas, Mario and… who? You’d never know it judging by the main games in the Mario series for the last couple decades, but Mario does have a rogues gallery consisting of characters that don’t rhyme with “Schnauzer.” Who are they and what happened to them? Read on!
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He's all about the West Side. Just like Tupac.
Nintendo has teamed with Jason Michael Paul Productions to create The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses, a concert series paying tribute to the classic music from the beloved game series. Symphony of the Goddesses has already taken Dallas by storm, with a sold out show last week. Find out if you live close enough to some of the arbitrarily chosen venues, and see if you can detect my bitterness that the closest one for me is an eight+ hour drive away, plus a recap on some of the other Zelda 25th Anniversary shenanigans after the jump!
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Sit tight. This could take a while.
In case you hadn’t heard (which is likely judging by sales), a brand new Rayman game subtitled Origins was recently released across all 3 home platforms. Now what the hell is a “Rayman” you may be asking yourself? Well, it’s a long running series of mostly action/adventure platform games starring an armless, legless Frenchman as he runs and jumps around beautifully designed worlds killing bad guys and collecting stuff. If the thought of that doesn’t rivet you, then I guess you probably wouldn’t be reading this website to begin with. I’m sorry for making things awkward.
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