Super Mario Bros.

When handing over the keys to their magical Kingdom, Nintendo wisely took its time to make sure it got everything right – and they did. T

The Nintendo 64 was in heavy demand upon its release in 1996. Time Magazine called it “that rare and glorious middle-class Cabbage Patch-doll frenzy.” Nintendo’s third home video game console (nicknamed N64) was launched with two games outside of Japan: Pilotwings 64, and Super Mario 64, arguably one of the greatest video games to date, and …

The Nintendo Entertainment system was released in 1985 and retailed for $199 in the U.S.. The standard package included an 8-bit graphics console and two classic game controllers. Other bundles featured the NES Zapper along with the supported NES game Duck Hunt. If you were one of the luckier kids, your parents shelled out a …

The original Super Mario Bros. was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in Japan on September 13, 1985 … and so, this year marks the 30th Anniversary of the king of platformers. In order to celebrate, Nintendo has launched a website that offers an interactive history of the series, including all of the Super Mario …

With each new flagship iteration of Mario’s 3D adventures, you can sense Nintendo’s master designers dreading those four little words escaping the player’s lips. From Mario 64 to the latest (and best) example, Super Mario 3D World, the mustachioed plumber’s console titles have adhered to a strict regime of fresh, introducing unique concepts in one level , developing and building on mechanics and ideas only to scrap them at the flagpole, sometimes never to be seen again, no matter how successful. It’s a well-documented philosophy, and one that has bled into to other franchises, not only helping keep a 100-stage game from going stale, but also a 30-year old series. Unfortunately this excellent way of thinking did not apply to the only same-system Mario sequel since the NES: Super Mario Galaxy 2.

25 years later, and the Nintendo World Championships are coming back with the qualifying rounds to be held at Best Buy locations across the U.S. on May 30. Regional winners will move on to the championship, which will be held at the Nokia Theatre L.A. live in Los Angeles on June 14. Following this news, …

The world of amiibo is getting bigger, and Nintendo shows no signs of slowing down in producing new figures. Not too long ago, rumours of a silver Mario circled the world wide web. It was pretty obvious Nintendo would release a sterling figure but the question was when? Now we have our answer. A new …

I’ll come right out and say it: Takashi Miike’s Ace Attorney, based on the first entry of the popular Capcom video game series, is the single-best cinematic adaptation of a video game property of all time. Now some of the more snide readers out there will no doubt think that this a pretty low bar to clear. There’s at least a partial truth to that: the current all-time champion of video game (henceforth VG) movie critical acclaim is 2001’s Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, coming in at a cool 44% on Rotten Tomatoes (not that the RT metric is reflective of quality in any capacity, but that’s another discussion for another time). While the movie was a watershed moment from a technical standpoint (it had some of the most impressively detailed CGI in movie history up until that point), the consensus was the the film wasn’t engaging enough on an emotional level to be any good. The fact that it went way over budget and single-handedly killed off Square’s film production arm certainly didn’t help matters. As with anything, numbers don’t lie, but they don’t tell the whole truth either.

When the film adaptation of Scott Pilgrim was released in 2010, it was like an explosion of colour and two-tone jingles. To the casual eye, the film is a classic – albeit awkward – love story between Scott (Michael Cera), a loveable loser, and the intriguing yet aloof Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). In order to date her, Scott has to defeat the League of Evil Exes – Ramona’s exes. All seven of them.

This is Part 3 of  my list of 33 games I’ve played, that I decided to share and comment on for fun, since I turned 33 on the 16th. There is so much to say that I’ve had to break this down into a few blogs. Here’s a link to Part 1 in case you …

Now that the shine of E3 has worn off, we can finally look back on all of the conferences with a level head. Who am I kidding? I’m way too excited about Mario Maker to analyze the gameplay for Nintendo’s conference fairly. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m actually prepared to buy a Nintendo Wii U now.

Some of the first video games I ever played were Pac-Man, Centipede, Tetris, and Pong. However, it wasn’t until I played Super Mario Bros. that I saw the true potential of gaming. It was time to say good-bye to stationary backgrounds, and hello to side scrolling platformers.

Gallery 1988 has quickly become one of the world’s most talked about art galleries. Opened in 2004 on the famous corner of Melrose and La Brea, by California natives Katie Cromwell and Jensen Karp, the gallery has become the nation’s number one destination for pop-culture themed artwork and the premiere venue to witness the rise …