I already forgot what we talk about in this one.
Welcome to a (relatively) short news edition of Nerds Without Pants! Julian was on vacation when we recorded this, and is still in “away” mode as this goes up, so please excuse the brief show notes this week
Platforming perfection
On October 23, 1988, Mario series creator Shigeru Miyamoto and his crack team of Nintendo EAD ninjas released Super Mario Bros. 3 in Japan. To coincide with its US launch 16 months later, Nintendo produced a commercial featuring kids clamoring for the game like it was the second coming of Christ. The hype was intense, and it worked exceedingly well. The game went on to exceed the first one in sales, fandom, and legendary status. Mario and the crew had undeniably hit their stride.
The Italian Stallion.....and Luigi.
It’s no secret that some of the best ideas started in Japan. This was certainly true of Nintendo back in the early 80’s. One of their creations was a simple arcade game, Mario Bros., featuring sibling plumbers Mario and Luigi on a quest to rid the screen of pests in the sewer pipes. Due to its success, Nintendo decided to create a bigger adventure based on the two characters for their new cartridge-based home console. Thus, Super Mario Brothers was born on September 13, 1985 in Japan and 1986 in the US, making Mario a household name along with the company that created him.
Throw Mario, Mega Man, Firebrand, and Samus into a blender and...
It’s rare that I can use the word “charming” to describe a game, and rarer still when I play a game that puts a steady smile on my face. Somehow in the chase for realistic polygon models, normal mapping, and Euphoria physics engines we lost a little bit of that magic that got us into gaming in the first place. That’s where Mutant Mudds comes into the picture—a game that may play on my nostalgia for the 8- and 16-bit days of gaming, but does so with skill and style.
New 3DS updates are also on the way.
Today, Nintendo revealed plans to release the third New Super Mario Bros. title, New Super Mario Bros. 2 for the 3DS. The game will feature Mario, Luigi, and a slew of recognizable characters with the same side-scrolling gameplay suitable for players of all ages. The title is due for release this August, but no specific date has been revealed.
Two games in one part! Can you guess which one I like better?
Different things usually happened with Nintendo in two completely different continents. While the NES arrived in 1986 in North America, Japan was already in its third year of Famicom glory. Nintendo’s then-released Famicom Disk System introduced the battery back-up save feature, eliminating the need for long over-drawn password saves. Games like Metroid and The Legend of Zelda greatly benefited from this innovation. It was also this year that Nintendo saw fit to release a sequel to Super Mario Bros, appropriately titled Super Mario Bros. 2. This was a completely different Super Mario Bros. 2 than the one North Americans got in 1988. So what in the world happened?
Black Wii resembles European model revealed earlier this year.
Nintendo is releasing a new black Wii model with a Remote Plus controller and nunchuk this holiday season. This model will sit horizontally instead of vertically and will not have backwards compatibility with GameCube games, nor will it feature the GameCube controller ports or memory card slots. Earlier, Nintendo announced a model similar to this for European consumers at Gamescom.
