finally played new super mario bros wii

Thanks to GameFly we've gotten to play tons of games we never felt like spending money on, and the latest of these has been New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

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mario is timeless

Video game characters come and go; some are universally loved, others hated, and other still manage to be remembered for cheesy lines, awesome weaponry and crazy special moves. Yet no video game character is (or really, will ever be) as pervasive as everyone's favorite Italian plumber Mario! Whether you grew up with Mario in the 80's, originally meeting him as "Jumpman" in the Donkey Kong arcade game, or you met him as a youngster in Super Smash Bros. or any of the other more recent Mario franchises, one thing is for sure: the world cannot get enough of Mario. He is tenacious, cute, exciting and brave. He always manages to save Princess Peach, no matter what kind of crazy situation with Bowser she's got herself into now. This summer he and Luigi even ventured into Bowser a la Innerspace in Bowser's Inside Story, and now a whole new generation of gamers will get to experience classic side-scrolling fun in New Super Mario Bros., which dropped this past weekend. So whether Mario is a favorite of yours or you have minimal experience with the short, scrappy plumber, rest assured knowing that Mario is here to stay.

Nintendo's Mario Endures Even As Games Come and Go

new super mario bros wii preview

Many Wii gamers are eagerly anticipating the release of New Super Mario Bros. Wii, coming out November 15th. Fans of the classic Mario series will be glad to know the upcoming Mario Bros. game will actually challenge your gaming skills. One of my favorite sources for upcoming game news and very detailed reviews, Game Trailers, has an awesome preview video of New Super Mario Bros. Wii showing the co-op gameplay and other exciting aspects of the highly anticipated game. Check out the video and get excited about playing Mario Bros. with a bunch of friends, all on the same TV screen (what a concept in these days of online multiplayer only, right?)!

mario galaxy 2 revealed at e3

We all knew a new Mario game for the Wii was on its way and now we can all get worked up over a trailer and screenshots! Sounds like the new Super Mario Galaxy title will bring everyone's favorite adorable green dinosaur Yoshi into the picture as well as giving Mario some kind of drill tool that will no doubt provide hilarity when the lil' plumber uses it. I'm sure there will be some familiar themes along with hopefully some cool new innovate Mario gameplay features. Nintendo is really bringing out the big guns this year so if you don't have a Wii yet you should really consider it. Not to mention that it's now pretty much the only console that really encourages playing TOGETHER in the same room rather than over network connections on multiple machines/copies of the game. Sorry, got a little sidetracked on a rant there but anyway, yay for new non-handheld Mario!

Kotaku: Mario Galaxy 2 Screens and Trailer

tetris ds is pretty great

I picked up Tetris for my DS this weekend and have been enjoying it quite a lot. In addition to your classic line-busting Tetris, the game has many other modes including a vs. battle and a touch controls mode as well. The controls are tight and really work with the DS, of course - but I have to say it's the first game that I've really prefered the D-pad and button controls for over the stylus although the touch mode is pretty neat as well. Also sometimes there are Super Mario levels playing on the top screen which is good for some LOLs due to Mario's diminutive stature. Check out what IGN has to say in their review, in which they gave Tetris DS a 9.0 Outstanding!

nintendo game boy turns 20

The original Nintendo Game Boy launched in April, 1989, making it 20 years old this month! The Game Boy did for games what his older friend Walkman did for music by making it portable; my generation truly grew up mashing buttons on the handheld devices. Tetris, Final Fantasy, plus Zelda, Mario, Pokemon... All our favorite Nintendo heroes going with us wherever we wanted them to. Cheers, little Game Boy!

The 8-bit Game Boy family ruled portable gaming from 1989 until its 32-bit successor, the Game Boy Advance, came along in 2001. The system wasn't actually discontinued until 2003, a 14-year reign unmatched by any platform besides the Atari VCS and SNK's Neo-Geo. The difference, of course, is that the Game Boy sold healthily until the very end, where those longer-lived contenders were well into "obscure niche" territory by the time they wheezed to an obsolescent finale. The only system that's ever outsold the Game Boy family (by which I mean Game Boy, GB Pocket, GB Light, and GB Color) is PlayStation 2...although the DS is closing in rapidly.

8-Bit Cafe: The Humble King of "Good Enough" Turns 20

peachy!

One of my new acquisitions this week was Super Princess Peach which I just couldn't turn down as I looove the adorable pink princess. I always thought it was a little lame that the princess always had to be saved by Mario and friends so I'm all about the idea of Peachy having her own story and having to go rescue those dumb Italians from Bowser for once. The jury is still out on whether it's offensive or hilarious that Peach's special moves all come from manipulating her emotions - crying with Gloom to water plants, using Rage pyro skills to burn bridges, floating in the air with Joy or healing yourself with Calm. I'm going to go with "offensively hilarious" although "hilariously offensive" works too. Really though I'm enjoying this game a lot, it's great fun to get back to the side-scrolling adventures in Mario world that got many of us into gaming in the first place but with a spiffy new heroine. The controls are pretty nice in this game although I'd love to see a game more obviously designed for the DS - this one has minimal touch controls aside from some mini-games and the emotion ("Vibe") controller on the bottom screen which really works better to hit with thumbs than the stylus, and no one likes touching the DS screen with fingers, at least I don't. Thank goodness for screen protectors. Still, as I said I'm finding this game a welcome addition to all the gloomy mystery games I've been playing lately and any fan of Princess Peach should check out this lovely girly game.

way too many games

I have an unbelievable backstock of games to play now. In addition to Super Princess Peach and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney on the DS and a bunch of the old Resident Evils on the GameCube we also ended up taking home Resident Evil 5 for the 360, Super Mario Galaxy on the Wii and Shaun White Snowboarding for the 360, which I'm pretty psyched to try out. I enjoyed the Wii version Road Trip but was left wanting more as far as difficult slopes, realistic characters and customization so I'm glad to have picked this one up. The boyfriend also got Tales of Symphonia for the GameCube although there's no telling when he'll ever get to that one on top of everything he's playing right now.

it's baaaack

Everyone's favorite reason to buy a bunch of games he or she doesn't need has returned - GameStop's undeniably attractive "Buy 2 Get 1 Free" on used games this weekend only. Sure, I have eight or ten games with active save files that still need beating one of these days but... um... eventually I will finish those and then I will need to play Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Super Princess Peach and whatever other awesome games I end up taking home this weekend. Also I think we'll be picking up at least a few of the old GameCube Resident Evil titles in place of splurging just yet on Resident Evil 5. More commentary on newly acquired games to follow.

october's top ten games

Sales-tracking research group NPD released its list of the top ten best-selling console game titles for October last week. Nintendo continues to dominate, proving that games with accessories sell amazingly well especially before the holidays with Mario Kart, Wii Fit and Wii Play making strong appearances. The Wii also sold 803,000 consoles in October, compared to 371,000 Xbox 360 and 190,000 Ps3 systems, proving that people really love cheap options and also that the casual gamer demographic continues to expand. Here's the rest of the top ten best-selling console game titles for October 2008:

1. Fable II (Lionhead, Xbox 360) - 790,000 units
2. Wii Fit (Nintendo, Wii) - 487,000 units
3. Fallout 3 (Bethesda, Xbox 360) - 375,000 units
4. Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo, Wii) - 290,000 units
5. Wii Play (Nintendo, Wii) - 282,000 units
6. Saints Row 2 (Volition, Xbox 360) - 270,000 units
7. SOCOM Confrontation (Slant Six, PS3) - 231,000 units
8. LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule, PS3) - 215,000 units
9. NBA 2K9 (Visual Concepts, Xbox 360) - 202,000 units
10. Dead Space (EA Redwood Shores, Xbox 360) - 193,000 units

A Closer Look at October's Strong Game Sales
October Console Game Sales: Fable II Tops The Charts

finally, some time for what's important in life

After a hiatus for the last few weeks in order to finish my grueling outdoor summer job, I'm done with my contract and am ready to kick back with some delicious Dunkin Donuts iced coffee (coconut flavor, with skim milk and splenda) and enjoy the splendor of my electronic entertainment once again. I've got two new games coming out in the next weeks - Apartment Life, the next (and presumed last before the Sims 3!) EP of the Sims 2, and of course SPORE, highly anticipated evolutionary artificial intelligence!

In the meantime, I've rekindled my love for bashing the hell out of my friends and loved ones in Nintendo's smash hit (see what I did there? Get it, smash? har har) for the Wii, Super Smash Brothers Brawl. I really missed my Wii when I had no time to be playing; it's just so friendly and welcoming, you feel a little guilty when you don't turn it on for three months! Now, I usually think female characters in games can be a bit ridiculous, like, I don't necessarily want to play with some chick whose only clothing is thin metallic straps covering her various lady parts. Smash Bros. makes good on its female characters - not that it's hard when they are drawing from an incredibly rich pool of characters from the various Nintendo and other games - Metroid's Samus and Twilight Princess's Sheik/Zelda combo come to mind, for example. Personally though, my ultimate fave will always be Princess Peach, who I had come to love using in MarioKart 64 so very long ago.

If you are a girl and you are being pressured by your guy friends into playing Smash Brothers Brawl... DO IT! Do it, seriously. It's really, really fun. Use Peach - she is totally awesome and honestly, I have always been one to subscribe to the button mashing technique when it comes to fighting games, and Peach's moves make this strategy totally worth your while (especially when playing against your boyfriend who is a Smash Bros junkie and likes to use the big, mean, cheap-ass characters like Snake, Captain Falcon and King Dedede!). Say it with me: Ha-CHA! Ha-CHA!

Also, how cool is the SmashWiki from wikia gaming? I love the Did You Know? section, because no, I did not know that Yoshi's egg roll will negate the Falcon Punch if the two moves collide.

surfing on a ray is, in fact, pretty sweet

Over the weekend my boyfriend and I gathered up Madden 08 for the Wii, Madden 07 for Gamecube, Wii Play, and Rayman: Raving Rabbids and headed over to Gamestop, where we traded in our old games for... Super Mario Galaxy! And it was totally worth it - this game really is pretty much the best game ever for the Wii. It uses the Wii controls in the best way - simple motions that don't overshadow the general control of the toggle and the buttons. Basically you just shake the Wii-mote to spin, ride on vines and do other stuff. Also, you steer a surfing ray with the leaning motions, and that is pretty cool! Definitely worth my trade-ins.