And it’s all thanks to the Miiverse, a feature that I am becoming shockingly addicted to. For those of you who have yet to get your hands on a console, each stage in NSMBU will have a little balloon with a Mii character’s face on it. A quick pull out to the overhead map allows you to read a comment that this player has written about that specific level and these are often hysterical. I’ve compiled a small list of some of my favorites so far along with images for reference. Enjoy:
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Let’s just crack a window open and let some of this tension out right off the bat. It’s true that I was a bit harsh in my review of New Super Mario Bros. 2 a while back but listen: That doesn’t mean that I didn’t like it enough to completely neglect every personal relationship until I unlocked all of the secret stages and found every special coin. Once that was wrapped up, all that was left for me to get into were the special coin rush stages in an attempt to reach 1,000,000,000 like Nintendo kept telling me to do if I wanted to feel good about myself. But unfortunately instead of newly designed levels, this mode consisted of randomly chosen ones that were already featured in the main game and that I’d already played the holy hell from. Thus, I tapped out and haven’t turned on NSMB2 since crawling past the 100k mark a few weeks ago. Well Nintendo is tossing it’s feathered cap into the DLC ring this week by releasing a series of packs featuring all new content. If you’re like me and can’t stop throwing money at whatever Nintendo tells you to, this is obviously wonderful news. Hit the jump to have a look at the marvelous options that await you:
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If you find yourself reading this site to begin with you’ve likely played a Super Mario game at some point during the past five years. Chances are this game was part of Nintendo’s “New” branding for their most popular platforming franchise of which there are individual entries on both the Wii and original DS. This particular take seemingly intended to throw Mario back to his roots after allowing longtime players to hand toss a polygonal Bowser into the stratosphere for the Nintendo 64 and eventually shoot their favorite plumber through Escher-esque Galaxies for the Wii. The “New” games represented a sort of back to basics approach that would hopefully appeal to both hardcore players that had grown up maxing out their save files on the more complicated 3D games and that treasured “casual” market that sorta kinda remembered enjoying the NES original. Well since numbers never lie, this formula worked like a charm as both games hover near the top of the all time sales charts for their respective systems. So now here we are with the inevitable New Super Mario Bros. 2. A title that in and of itself is something of an oxymoron and a gaming experience that while fun of course, is tragically derivative and borderline dated. I’ve finished burning through all of the stages in this new entry and am now in the process of answering Nintendo’s bullshit “Can you collect one million coins?” campaign question.
My answer? “Sure, yeah probably. But I don’t know that I WANT to.”
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For some unfathomable reason Nintendo has recruited one of Tom Cruise’s ex girlfriends and her sister (rawr) to help promote the upcoming release of New Super Mario Bros. 2 for the European market.
Have a look:
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Ooh, neat! Hanafud-uh, I mean...playing...cards.
I don’t know why I even bother getting excited about these things anymore. Ever since I was screwed out of my Doc Louis Punch-Out!! demo back in 2009, it’s been hard to not be bitter about the free bones Nintendo tosses out to us fanboys every year. Sure, that trophy back in 2010 turned out to be one of my dresser’s favorite decorations and those pins from last year? Well, they’re in my room somewhere (I think). It’s just that the platinum member’s choice (announced today) between a set of posters and a pack of playing cards feels exceptionally generic.
I guess this is what I deserve for making Nintendo products my financial priority.
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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.
According to data that I read about on the internet today, Nintendo executives are no doubt currently in the process of “makin’ it rain” on their various wives and mistresses. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is now officially the fastest selling game in the history of the series at roughly 535,000 copies sold since launch. Keep in mind that was nine days ago, people. Not to be outdone, our favorite little plumber stepped up as well, with over half a million copies (and plenty of 3DS systems) flying off the shelves in November making 3D Land the fastest selling portable Mario game ever. Hooray!
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Photo taken with my you-know-what.
I’ve been playing this nonstop since I picked it up from Toys R Us this morning and hey, shock of shocks: It’s really fun!
Click the jump to check out 3D images of the story pages you collect throughout the game. I’ll be posting them as I make progress and will have a full review soon (ish).
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Behold.
Pretty nifty, huh? Too bad these bad boys are exclusive giveaways to Club Nintendo members in Japan that register 2 3DS games between October 1st and January 15th. Oh, and only 1,000 of each are being manufactured, so good luck over there kids. Actually, none of these designs really do it for me so I’m not crying over the fact that I will never get my hands on one. Now if one of them had been dolled up with a Virtual Boy theme? Shit, then you’d see some tears.
So there’s this new book all about the rise of Nintendo that hit store shelves today and I’m ashamed to admit that I was completely unaware of its existence. I’d never even heard of it until I came into work this afternoon and saw that one of my lovely co-workers was awesome enough to have a copy waiting for me. I’ve thumbed through it a bit and it looks pretty legit. Fan-service for the most part but who am I to complain about something like that? I subscribe to Nintendo Power fer chrissake. Hopefully once I get a chance to delve deeper into it I’ll find that some of the darker aspects of the company’s history are revealed and thoroughly examined. Y’know, stuff like Miyamoto’s crippling gambling/smoking addiction and former company President Hiroshi Yamauchi’s legendary sexual torture dungeons.
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Wow, never saw that one coming. President of Japan, Satoru Iwata announced today at Nintendo’s GDC keynote that the no-brainer platformer simply titled (at least for now) Super Mario is indeed on the way. Developed by the boys and girls who birthed Super Mario Galaxy and its sequel, the game will apparently be playable at this year’s E3 – Wait. What the fuck is that? Is that a damn tail? As in the same tail worn by Raccoon Mario in Super Mario Bros. 3 !?
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