“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.
Blogspot user, Jed Henry is currently hard at work translating Nintendo’s icons into these Gorgeous Japanese Traditional Woodblock Prints. As you can see above, his rendition of a certain stubborn monkey and a man who enjoys jumping is quite impressive. But what other popular video game franchises have received the treatment? Well why don’t you go ahead and click “read more” to find out, genius. READ MORE
So a little while back a guy named Jay Pavlina (alias Exploding Rabbit) created Super Mario Bros. Crossover, a fan-made replica of the classic sidescroller that lets players plow through the Mushroom Kingdom as Mario… or Mega Man or Samus Aran or Simon Belmont. Earlier this month he launched version 2.0 of Super Mario Bros. Crossover, and it is bigger and better in just about every conceivable way. See for yourself:
Click here to play it, or here to read up on the development of the game from the man himself. In-depth impressions after the jump! READ MORE
Now this is the first console sequel to the franchise timeline-wise since Super Metroid for the SNES back in 1994 so it’s kind of a big deal (the most recent Prime series took place in between Metroid for the NES and Metroid II for Gameboy). Will Team Ninja (the developers) somehow manage to deliver an experience worthy of succeeding a title that regularly appears *atop most “best game ever” lists?
Between Super Mario Galaxy 2, Sin & Punishment 2, and Metroid: Other M, the beginning of summer was set to be packed with Wii games from Nintendo, and damn and blast to anyone who would complain about a “summer drought” this year. Now, in a move presumably designed to avoid complaints from consumers about wallets bursting into flames from friction due to overuse, Nintendo have given new release dates for two of those games. Sin & Punishment will still arrive in June, but at the end of the month, and Metroid has been moved to August 23rd 31st. [As of this writing, Metroid is still listed as due on June 27th (now the date for S&P) on the official Nintendo page.] Savvy move- it’s not very wise to compete with yourself, and previously the only major title Nintendo had lined up between June and the end of the year (that I can think of) was a presumed November holiday season release for the new Zelda.
You know things are looking up when Nintendo have to slow down the pace of anticipated Wii releases. (via Destructoid)
