Over at the Bubble Pipe Network we just posted an episode all about Nintendo, featuring Jeff Ryan, the author of Super Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America. Jeff got in touch and was kind enough to sit in with Rob and I and we talked the history of Nintendo and had quite a few laughs.
If you’re a fan on Nintendo you should head over to Bubble Pipe Network and check it out.
Time is running out to order your holiday gifts online so they arrive by Christmas. But, honestly, who are we kidding? This is just an excuse to showcase some cool Nintendo gear you can actually buy for yourself. These picks will serve as a perfect Yuletide diversion.
Celebrate the Mario’s 25th anniversary with the Super Mario All-Stars collection. This single Wii disc brings together Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, Super Mario Bros. 2 and Super Mario Bros. 3. It’s a reissue of the All-Stars set made available in 1993 for the NES except with updated graphics and sound. There’s also a CD soundtrack and 32-page book on the history of Super Mario. $50.00 is a small price to pay for some of the best-ever video games.
NES a little too old for you? Try the amazing Supaboy from Hyperkin that shrinks down the Super Nintendo Entertainment System console to the size of a controller. It features a 3.5-inch LCD screen and rechargeable battery for hours of mobile game play. Even better, you can hook it up to a TV and connect two SNES controllers for big-screen play. Alas, it doesn’t come with any cartridge but you can take your pick in the game section of many used media retailers. Supaboy is a steal at just $100.
Need some quiet time around the holiday? Try Jeff Ryan’s book Super Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America. Get the history of Japan’s biggest game company and it’s U.S. invasion. We even discussed it on an episode of our podcast.
604Republic is an awesome new geek-oriented shirt and poster shop online, and the first shirt that caught my eye was this trippy, Nintendo-themed shirt Pipe Dream. The world of Mario, with it’s pipes and mushrooms and everything, has always seemed like some weird plumber’s dream, and this design pretty much sums that up.
On a semi-related note, you know what else is a trip? Trying to sit through any of the animated Super Mario cartoons. I’ve been trying to watch them for nostalgia’s sake lately, and so far it’s been hard to get through a whole episode, but, that’s for another post.
DeviantART user and Tumblr-er Demiurgic has a lot of great art on her sites, but I can’t stop going back to her versions of the Mario Bros. and Link. They’re just too cute. I love the style of her work, I just wish she had some prints available.
Be sure to check out all her pieces, she’s got everything from a super cute surfing Pikachu to Ed and Shaun and the TMNT. Keep up the awesome work Becky!
Via Rampaged Reality (a new favorite)
Lots of video games have a “God mode” where you have infinite lives and the game is a breeze to complete. What about the opposite? What if all the classic games had an extra, super-hard mode? That’s what this video from animator Volker Thimm asks. The results are pretty hilarious. The new twist on Frogger has to be my favorite.
