Get the latest Age of Conan news and views at Massively!
Posts with tag mario

Keighley walks a fine line with Reggie, Dunaway defends herself



Geoff Keighley, you have bigger stones than us. The GameTrailers TV presenter grabbed super-sized Nintendo executive Reggie Fils-Aime immediately after he left stage at Nintendo's infamous E3 2008 keynote, and subsequently gave him a grilling that Paxman would be proud of.

While Reggie was mostly gracious about Keighley's constant enquiries into the new Mario and Zelda titles, he did show the odd sign of irritation, at one point protesting, "Geoff, you keep trying to date me, you know. My girlfriend's going to get upset. You keep trying to date me. You can't do that." Protip, Geoff: when the vein starts bulging in the side of Reggie's head, that's the time to stop asking about Mario and Zelda.

In a totally different interview, Reggie's conference co-presenter Cammie "Smiler" Dunaway has defended herself from (rather absurd, if you ask us) accusations that she was feigning enthusiasm during Nintendo's keynote. "Tell your blog that I'm really a genuinely smiley, nice person," she instructed Wired's Chris Kohler. "Because people think I'm fake, smiling up there. I'm just not! It's just me! I am who I am."

Ah, the hard-hitting drama of the post-E3 analysis!

[Reggie carefully concealing his annoyance here, via videogaming247]
[Cammie Dunaway defending her right to smile here]

E308: Wii Fanboy's E3 Endgame Evaluation


In the second year of the newly revamped show, Nintendo released a few much-desired games, as well as a pair of incredible peripherals, and yet, there seemed to be something missing. Much of the show's excitement came from third parties (on my Nintendo Wii?), and some found Nintendo's announcements disappointing. Whatever your reaction, we're sure we can all agree on one thing: there was a ton of news and a flood of media. Luckily, you can revisit it all right here (even the week's most outrageous story, which wasn't even from E3).

We've listed a few of the show's highlights below, but for the full index of all our 2008 E3 coverage, hit the break. We still have a few items rolling in, and we'll be updating the index as that happens. Check back with us over the next few days by clicking the E3 sidebar graphic.


A new Pikmin sprouts!

Animal Crossing: City Folk confirmed
The Conduit will use WiiSpeak

Wii Sports Resort announced (and Wii MotionPlus!)
Mega Man 9 feels more like a 10

Wii Fanboy bats-on with Mario Super Sluggers
Animal Crossing to support keyboards, save fruit-picking time

Wii Fanboy hands-on with Wii Sports Resort

Continue reading E308: Wii Fanboy's E3 Endgame Evaluation

It's-a Mario World: Mario is Missing (from E3)!



This week, gamers everywhere have been in a frenzy over the 2008 Electronic Entertainment Expo. Following Nintendo's big keynote address on Tuesday morning, coupled with a flood of new Nintendo media, we Fanboys have enough hard news and confirmed release dates to feed our blogging habits for the next ... well, week or so, anyway. Our unchecked enthusiasm is perhaps best exemplified in the wise words of Wii Fanboy's own David Hinkle: "I want to bathe in a sea of Nintendo splendor."

But it feels like there is something amiss in the great Nintendo sea. Where is the Mario splendor amid all of our gleeful bathing? Happily, the horizon holds an August 25th release date for Super Mario Sluggers, and a September 29th release of Wario Land: Shake It!, but why haven't we seen much genuine Mario fanfare at this year's main event? Can we trust Iwata that the Mario team is hard at work, or are they hardly working? Take a stroll through our new gallery, in which we make conspiratorial speculation, scathing E3 commentary and as always, hopelessly inside references to Mario games of yesteryear.

It's-a Mario World is a weekly feature in which the ubiquity of Nintendo's flagship character is celebrated: We'll incessantly ruminate about mustache wax, debate the curious whereabouts of the princess and covet the luminous power stars strewn about the galaxy. Check back here every Thursday to find out what strange and wonderful thing has got us tipping our caps.

E308: Mario Super Sluggers in fine form

Mario Super Sluggers is right on track to becoming a must-have game when it's released on August 25. The trailer above is quite similar to the original trailer we saw ages ago, but this time a few reaction shots of trendy young people playing in their lounge rooms have been spliced in. Now we know the game is fun, because the internet tells us it is.

In addition to the cinematic masterpiece, a hefty chunk of new screens have been released, including heaps of high-quality character artwork. For a sports game, Mario Super Sluggers has plenty of content and massive amounts of preview material available. Now we just want to play the damn thing.

Gallery: Mario Super Sluggers

E308: Iwata -- Mario and Zelda teams 'hard at work'


Never mind the wicked -- there's no rest for anybody at Nintendo. Speaking at the company's E3 2008 press conference, whip-cracking president Satoru Iwata insisted that the Mario and Zelda teams were "both hard at work" on "new titles."

And? Um ... and that's it. No further hints, clues, or suggestive winks, though we're placing our money on Link and/or Mario being involved somehow (duh), and with good reason -- a future that lacks a Zelda game with 1:1 swordfighting really doesn't bear thinking about.

Wii Warm Up: Mario or Luigi?

We're going to make this one simple. Which Italian plumber brother do you prefer: Mario, or Luigi? We think that Luigi is infinitely more likable, in all his goofball glory. On the other hand, he is more of a "damsel" in distress type that Mario has to constantly bail out of trouble. Even so, we're going to go with the man in green.

What about you? And more importantly, why?

It's-a Mario World: Mario's Many Professions, Part 2 of 2


We're back this week with the riveting conclusion of our two-part feature on Mario's professions. Last week, we uncovered some startling truths about Mario's early career, how he hit the scene as a kind-of carpenter with plumbing skills who was also licensed to prescribe medication and scale the throne of a tennis god. Then there was that whole dressing up like an Indian thing, which pretty obviously pointed to prurient debauchery.

Anyway, the weird keeps on trucking. We've yet to reveal (or remind you of) Mario's part-time endeavors after 1991, back when he dropped a POW on a Pawn Shop, faced eviction from the kingdom's sewer-ghetto and struggled through 'shroom addiction. Yeah, this hero has been a long time in the making, but for the purposes of this feature let's focus on his game appearances and the types of jobs he had in them. Onward to the gallery!

It's-a Mario World is a weekly feature in which the ubiquity of Nintendo's flagship character is celebrated: We'll incessantly ruminate about mustache wax, debate the curious whereabouts of the princess and covet the luminous power stars strewn about the galaxy. Check back here every Thursday to find out what strange and wonderful thing has got us tipping our caps.

It's-a Mario World: Mario's Many Professions, Part 1 of 2


Welcome to another edition of It's-a Mario World, where we seemingly spend more time blathering about Mario games than we do playing them. In last week's feature debut, we presented a gallery detailing some of the elusive pickups of Mushroom Kingdom history. This week, we begin a two-part catalogue of our hero's job experience, analyzing the many professions Mario has belonged to in his 27-year career, and in what capacity. Attempting chronology and comprehensiveness, this is indeed Mario's Super Résumé.

Not content with the popular belief that Mario is simply a plumber by trade, we've scoured the known Nintendo universe to find out exactly what else he has been. Considered altogether, the results are pretty impressive. More than a mere adventurer, Mario has championed everything from the assembly line to the tennis courts. Refer yourself to our gallery where you'll be shocked and amazed at the varying talents of our red-capped protagonist.

It's-a Mario World is a weekly feature in which the ubiquity of Nintendo's flagship character is celebrated: We'll incessantly ruminate about mustache wax, debate the curious whereabouts of the princess and covet the luminous power stars strewn about the galaxy. Check back here every Thursday to find out what strange and wonderful thing has got us tipping our caps.

How to justify buying expensive SNES games


Do you crave awesome, quite rare SNES games? Do you wish you could buy said games without feeling guilty about coughing up the kind of money that would go a long way on the Virtual Console? Then we have a solution, dear reader -- head over to one of the two auctions we've linked below and bid away on whichever takes your fancy.

The first lot consists of Square duo Chrono Trigger and Secret of Mana auction (current price: $68), while the second consists of Super Mario RPG and Super Mario All-Stars (currently at $57). Even though they lack boxes, all four are quality games, and will serve a worthy cause -- every cent spent will go to Goodwill Industries of Central Indiana-West, a non-profit provider of training, career services, and education for people with disadvantages, including homelessness, lack of education, and physical, mental and emotional disabilities.

Go on, do it! It'll make you feel all fuzzy inside, and may even assuage the guilt of the thousands you wasted on Stadium Events. But probably not.

Read: Chrono Trigger and Secret of Mana

[Via GamerTell]

It's-a Mario World: Rare Power-ups

Welcome to the inaugural edition of It's-a Mario World, Nintendo Wii Fanboy's newest feature about one of Nintendo's oldest characters. Every Thursday, we'll bring you a fresh perspective on Mario games and culture, emphasizing his lesser-discussed titles and memorable game content for your nostalgic enjoyment. In this first issue, join us as we reminisce about Mario's hard-to-find power-ups.

You know the common fare: Mushrooms, flowers and stars comprise the mainstay arsenal in any Mario game, and other traditional items like golden coins and 1-ups are found in sequels and off-shoots everywhere. But what about the obscured items of Mushroom Kingdom history, the rare perishables you rationed and strange pick-ups you briefly adored? Why didn't they catch on? Were they too uncouth for mainstream appeal? Let our gallery shed some light on these shadowy items of utmost rarity.

It's-a Mario World is a weekly feature in which the ubiquity of Nintendo's flagship character is celebrated: We'll incessantly ruminate about mustache wax, debate the curious whereabouts of Princess Peach and covet the luminous power stars strewn about the galaxy. Check back here every Thursday to find out what strange and wonderful thing has got us tipping our caps.

Super Mario RPG alive and well!

In case you were wondering what all the fuss is about, the first footage of Super Mario RPG on the Virtual Console has surfaced. It's a rather speedy video showing bits and pieces of the acclaimed RPG, and it should be just enough to get fans excited and newcomers intrigued.

Japanese gamers are already enjoying the classic title once again, but it might be a while before it becomes available in North America. It should come out eventually -- it's been rated for Australia, and the original SNES game was never even released there in the first place!

[Via GoNintendo]

A guided tour of Mario Super Sluggers' stadiums


With the recent news that Nintendo's Mario Super Sluggers is only 2 months away for those of us in North America, you're probably too busy dancing and making noise in a fit of excitement to actually be reading this. That's okay, we'll leave you to that.

As for the rest of you, check out the lengthy video above. It documents all of the stadiums and their unique hazards, as well as showing off their look during both day and night in-game. If you don't want the stadiums ruined for you, then we suggest you check out some of our screens below for your fix on Mario Super Sluggers.

Gallery: Mario Super Sluggers


[Thanks, Josh!]

Remember Mario? He's back -- in button form!

What are these perfect for? Making a fabric-based stop-motion Mario animation, that's what. This latest batch of buttons from Etsy craftsman Spooon features easily movable characters and items, each faithfully recreated from original NES sprites. Why, nab a set of these handy control buttons, and you'll have hours of fun manually moving our plucky hero through all kinds of pinning adventures.

Better yet, Spooon also whipped up a bunch of magnets featuring Space Invaders and Pac-man characters, so there's no real need to ever leave your kitchen. Sit by the fridge and enjoy! The sets are available in button ($8) or magnet ($10) form, so the choice of creating a retro fridge or bag is entirely up to you. The store is open for business, so take a crafty trip down nostalgia street.

[Via technabob]

Experience Mario Super Sluggers' site


The Japanese website for Mario Super Sluggers has gone live and it's chock full of those experience videos we saw awhile back. Also at the site, you'll find a trailer for the game, but most of you probably saw that yesterday.

But, if there's one thing these experience videos show us, it's a real-time representation of how the game will be played when it finally gets in our hands. And, that couldn't be soon enough. We can only take so many extremely short games of baseball in Wii Sports.

Gallery: Mario Super Sluggers

Wii Warm Up: Forming a dynamic duo

We were just wondering to ourselves this morning about the team-up title Sonic & Mario at the Olympics and how such a combination of mascots has been a huge financial success. It caused us to wonder what other kind of team-up could be not only a commercial success, but also a game we actually want to play.

And, like responsible bloggers, we decided that we couldn't think of anything good and instead would pass the buck onto you. So, what do you all think? Can you come up with some titles? How about a Duck Hunt clone where Mega Man and Samus compete to see who can shoot the most clay Metroids? Or, what about having Dante from Devil May Cry in a No More Heroes sequel?

Of course, that last one is just a selfish suggestion from us.

Next Page >

Features
Another Week in ... (50)
Born for Wii (7)
Brawl Stage of the Week (15)
Contests / Giveaways (96)
Friday Video (68)
Game Night (28)
It's-a Mario World (4)
Metareview (41)
Mii Spotlight (17)
Point/Counterpoint (3)
Revolutionary (39)
The VC Advantage (54)
Top Five (3)
VC Monday Madness (143)
Virtually Overlooked (73)
What are you playing? (87)
Wii Fanboy poll (37)
Wii Warm Up (503)
Bits
Channels (66)
Cheats (6)
Controller (410)
Fan stuff (1070)
Features (277)
Homebrew (84)
How-tos (61)
Imports (411)
Interviews (299)
Meta (65)
Mods (128)
News (3280)
Nintendo Wi-Fi (121)
Peripherals (268)
Reviews (117)
Rumors (443)
Sales (105)
Screens (618)
Tech stuff (136)
Video (835)
Virtual Console (459)
Walkthroughs (31)
WiiWare (222)

RESOURCES

RSS NEWSFEEDS

Powered by Blogsmith

Sponsored Links

Featured Galleries

Ultimate Band
Brawl Stage of the Week: It's a Car
Born for Wii: Four Swords Adventures
Animales de la Muerte
Cooking Mama World Kitchen
Datel's Retro-Inspired Classic Controllers
Onechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers
Dead Rising
Star Wars: The Clone Wars -- Lightsaber Duels

 

Most Commented On (14 days)

Recent Comments

Other Weblogs Inc. Network blogs you might be interested in: