"How come you almost never see a smart person's belly?"mario December 21st, 2007 OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD What do you do when you have a secret that you really want to blog about, but feel like you probably shouldn’t divulge too much out of turn? I guess in my case I drop hints. Please visit the following website in about 5 minutes: ( + + + + ( Yeah, that should keep you guessing for the time being. Seriously, this is glorious stuff impending. Solid Kirby!mario December 20th, 2007 Yeah yeah, this is another post about the Smash Bros. Dojo updates. Screw it, this one had some quality imagery. We’re probably fairly well-acquainted with Kirby’s ability to copy his opponent’s powers, so at first glance this update may have appeared to be nothing new. But wait! New characters means new powers to copy and, more importantly, new looks to Kirbify! My favorite had to be Kirby as Snake, but there’s plenty of fanboyin’ to go around. Check him out won’t you:
(courtesy of Smash Bros. Dojo; Go check out the rest of the Kirby hats!) Apparently there’s a war on Christmas?mario December 20th, 2007 Roland S. Martin from CNN just posted this little commentary about how there’s a “push to remove Christ from the Christmas season”. I’m sorry, but is that actually true? I’ve never once been chastised for saying “Merry Christmas” instead of “Happy Holidays”. I’ve never heard anyone refer to a Christmas tree as a “holiday tree”. And which Christ-mentioning songs have been “axed”, and in what capacity? He’s not backing up any of his statements, he’s simply putting assertions out there and assumes that the reader buys into them. Well I don’t! The only situation where I could agree with him would be in the realm of marketing, but there’s a damn good reason for it. When a company is selling a product in the month of December, they’re potentially selling to people who observe other holidays as well as Christmas celebrators. Though he claims to be respectful of other religions, he’s basically saying that this time of year is about Christmas and Christmas alone (screw Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and the Solstice). Do you think that maybe a gift being sold on Amazon or eBay that doesn’t contain some element of a Santa hat could be sold to someone that intends to give it to someone else on a day other than December 25th? Because December contains so many prominent holidays, there’s nothing wrong with wishing someone “Happy Holidays”, because you very well might not know what the recipient of the well-wishing celebrates. That said, I’ll say “Merry Christmas” to anyone regardless, and I fully welcome them to return a “Happy Hanukkah”, “Habari Gani?” or whatever else they deem appropriate to the occasion. “Right back atcha!” or “Aaay!” would probably be okay too. But I’ve never felt any semblance of societal pressure to withhold my personal religious beliefs, so I’m really having a lot of trouble seeing where Mr. Martin is coming from on this one. Also, what’s wrong with giving gifts? It’s not like I’m just hemorrhaging my hard-earned money for people I don’t even like. ‘m just hemorrhaging my hard-earned money for people I do like, because I think they’re awesome people that deserve it. I haven’t lost sight of what the holiday means to me, and I don’t feel any pressure to open my wallet any more than I’m comfortable doing; if I were broke, I’m sure my family and friends would understand receiving tacos on Christmas morning. I mean, tacos are delicious, after all. You want something to complain about regarding Christmas? TBS has announced that they’ll once again be playing A Christmas Story for 24 hours straight, just a few days from now. That right there is an affront to the sanctity of the holiday. I love that film, but how many times in the same day can you watch Flick stretching his tongue in a vain attempt to excise it from the frozen pole? Apparently the answer is 12 times. But I’m genuinely curious: anyone here bear witness to a war on Christmas lately?
How difficult is the ESRB rating system to figure out, anyway?mario December 4th, 2007
Or lack thereof. In collaboration with Harris Interactive, MediaWise conducted a “national survey of parents and children to determine the role of video games in their lives.” This survey found, among other things, that 72% of parents “know little or nothing about the ratings system overall and many could not identify the meanings of specific ratings such as AO (Adults Only) and EC (Early Childhood).” It goes on to state that twice as many parents said they understood TV ratings as those which understood video game ratings (54% vs. 27%)! This sad state of affairs has bothered me for some time, but I didn’t realize it was quite this bad. The survey brings up a few possible causes, such as a lack of effort on the part of retailers to educate their customers, but I honestly don’t understand what’s so impenetrable about the rating system that makes parents so clueless about the whole thing. Is it that the labels aren’t exactly the same as the MPAA rating system used for movies? I don’t have any hard numbers on it but people seem to be pretty well-versed in that department. It’s not like this information is difficult to come across either. A very quick Google search for “video game ratings” yielded a handy guide from the ESRB themselves! Here it is in its entirety:
And in case you think even this is too difficult to find, every game sold in every store has an ESRB rating and explanation printed on the back of the box. Sure, the ESRB system isn’t perfect. The difference in maturity between 17- and 18-year-olds is probably not well-defined enough to deserve two ratings, and yet we have M and AO. The addition of an E10+ adds unnecessary complexity. But these concepts boil down to a damn simple buying guide: if your kid is younger than the recommended minimum age, or if the game contains specific content you find objectionable, you don’t buy them the game. Yes, even if they really really really wanna beat up hookers with baseball bats because their friends have the game and why won’t you buy it for me if their moms and dads bought it for them you don’t really love me I hate you. Ahem. The sad fact of the matter is that I know parents that won’t let their kids see an R-rated movie, but they’ll let them play an M-rated game. I personally don’t believe a violent video game will beget a violent child, but if you think your child isn’t mature enough to watch The Godfather, then they’re not mature enough to play it either. Don’t feel too bad about it though, I heard that game wasn’t much to write home about. (numbers and percent signs courtesy of 2007 MediaWise Video Game Report Card; it’s a good read, and there are even positive upbeat parts! A few) [discuss] DDR workout updatemario November 30th, 2007 I’ve been chatting about this off and on in the discussion thread for the previous entry, but I figured I’d give all y’all a more official update on my Dance Dance Revolution workout experiment. Since my initial post, I’ve transitioned over from Konamix to the GameCube’s Mario Mix. I seem to get a little extra kick out of dancing along to classic Mario tunes (though my favorite song in the game is the “Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka”-inspired “Always Smiling”), and the songs tend to skew a little easier than DDR games proper. It felt good to be able to ace the whole set of Hard mode songs and get a workout out of the deal too. I’ve reached a bit of a stopping point in terms of personal advancement; I got an ‘A’ in every song on Very Hard except for Bowser’s Castle (that green ‘B’ mocks me!), but the Super Hard songs seem to generally be beyond my ability to get above a ‘C’. My initial goal was to burn at least 100 calories in a half-hour exercise session. I’m proud to say that I’ve improved well enough to obtain this goal well within the time frame (usually 7 or 8 songs can hit the mark, since I tend to stick to the World 4 songs, Very Hard, Mush Mode off), and often am not even breaking a sweat at the end! So today I decided to try and bump it up to 120 calories. If I can’t make it work in that timeframe, I’ll do my best to wake up a little earlier in the morning, but I’m very excited by what I see as a marked improvement in my workout times. On top of that, I found out that I have access to a scale in my house! I don’t know how much of a good thing that is, but maybe it’ll give me a better indication of progress. We’ll see how that goes! [discuss] Pokémon Snap Updated For Virtual Console!mario November 30th, 2007
[discuss] Charles "It'sa Me!" Martinet To Write Autobiographymario November 29th, 2007
I must say, however, that his perspective on the ever-present issue of violence in video games is…. well it’s not exactly troubling, but it’s not like he’s bringing anything new to the table:
I suppose if the only person he was arguing against was Jack Thompson, this might hold some water. But I don’t think any rational person decrying violence in video games (and yes, there are intelligent people making this argument intelligently and reasonably, as in people who aren’t Jack Thompson) is saying that performing X action in a game equates to X action in real life. I guess I’m getting a little off-base here, but I hope that the finished product ends up being a little more insightful and a little less “duuuuuuh, really?“. I’ve enjoyed the man’s work (even if he did do the voice of *shudder* Toadsworth), and I feel like his decade+ of experience in an industry I hold near and dear to my heart should make it an interesting read. Now he’s just gotta write the thing. Oh yeah, don’t watch the video on his seemingly-made-like-10-years-ago website. You’ll probably like him less. (courtesy of ComputerAndVideoGames.com, by way of Nintendo Wii Fanboy) [discuss] MATT AND MARIO IN SPACE COLLEGE 3: ALL-SPACE-CAPS DAYmario November 13th, 2007 MATT DID THE DRAWERATING FOR THIS ONE IN HONOR OF ALL-CAPS DAY AND INCLUDED AN EPIC SPACE JOKE DELIVERY THIS IS WHY HE’S SO GREAT YOU GUYS Like sunshine on a cloudy daymario October 17th, 2007 In my efforts to maybe start to become a grown-up a little, I’ve decided to start a regular workout routine. I’d love to be a little more physically fit, and maybe shave off a few pounds while I’m at it. Of course, in my efforts to work video games into my life as much as possible, I’ve decided to accomplish this workout routine with Dance Dance Revolution. Has anyone else tried out the DDR workout? Got any advice to give? Would you recommend using the Workout Mode (this short eHow article that I wish I’d found before working out this morning seems to)? I like the thought of it tracking calorie burning, but the Game Mode breaks up the action into three-song groups, which makes for a good water break. Also, it keeps score, so that sets more clear goals in my mind (Get an ‘A’ or better! Stretch a combo through the whole song! And so on). Please comment away on the forum, I’d love to hear your opinions on the matter (I’m a little new to working out on a regular basis in general, so input from non-DDRers would also be appreciated). For the curious, I’m playing DDR: Konamix, so suggestions on good workout routines on a song-by-song basis are also welcome. [Discuss] Real-Life Donkey Kongmario September 23rd, 2007 Some guys from Jackass and Viva La Bam (I don’t know what that is, but I’m guessing it’s a lot like Jackass) recreate the first level of Donkey Kong. Barrel-jumping action follows! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KyIpMtvJvEGuess all it took to make me tolerate Jackass was to tie in video games. And omit some of the more severe physical injuries. (courtesy of 4 color rebellion) [discuss] |
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Huh, can’t say I expected something like this (though I did kinda hope). According to IGN, the Japanese Virtual Console release of Pokémon Snap (a wonderful and underrated N64 game where you try to take the best possible photographs of Pokémon in the wild) will be updated to include the ability to send your photos to friends via the Wii Message Board! I absolutely loved this game back in the day, and would buy it up immediately, if the game ends up over here as well. I’m assuming it won’t offer some kind of magic Wii Remote pointer integration as well, but the analog stick worked just fine for its purpose. Even if you didn’t care for the original game, this is pretty exciting news! A Virtual Console game is getting a Wii overhaul! Dare I dream for eventual online multiplayer updates? I probably shouldn’t dare, but I do anyway. Just a little.