New Wii tennis?
Wow, they’ve really improved the graphics on Wii tennis.
Tags: Nintendo Wii, tennis
4 comments
Coolest Mini ever
Spotted in Centre Road, Bentleigh:
Tags: Mini, Space Invaders, Video games
2 comments
Super Mario tram
Also last night, how’s this for combining my interests of transport and classic video gaming? The Super Mario tram — celebrating 25 years of Mario games.
Tags: advertising, Mario Bros, trams
6 comments
The toy of the movie of the game
Spotted in K-Mart: Lego Prince of Persia.
So let me get this straight… this is the toy of the movie of the video game.
I wonder if there’ll be (as there was with Star Wars and others) a Lego video game of it. That would be the game of the toy of the movie of the game.
(I remember playing the original Prince of Persia game in my uni days. Despite being a fan of the platform genre, I don’t think I’ve played any of the sequels. The Wikipedia article notes the author got the distinctive animation done by video-taping his younger brother, and links to one of the original videos. Very cool.)
Retro trains
Melbourne’s Comeng trains date back to the early 1980s, about the same time us Gen-Xers were cutting our video game teeth with Donkey Kong and Space Invaders.
There’s certainly other things of the 80s around the place on the train network, for instance this sign on a now unused gate at Caulfield Station. (Since then we’ve had a new Met logo, then Bayside Trains, then M>Train, Connex, now Metro.)
Something else Retro Metro have done that harks back to days of yore is to put staff back on busy platforms. While I was surprised to see Sydney rail staff waving a flag a few years ago, here they’ve been given high-tech looking paddle devices (the other side has LEDs that stand out to the train driver).
Tags: Metro, retro games, trains, transport
9 comments
The hero
A while back we were in EB Games in Swanston Street having a look at the big Nintendo area on the first floor. Jeremy sat and played a bit of New Super Mario Brothers with another kid. Both being experienced players, they gave the very last level a go. But towards the end, Jeremy’s character fell into the lava or got hit by a fireball or something, and his game ended.
The other kid kept playing, right to the very end of the very last level, which (if you don’t mind spoilers if you’re a player of the game) you’ll see involves some pretty daunting hazards.
He got all the way through. Those of us watching were awestruck.
At the final victory, on the last level of the game, with Bowser vanquished, and the princess rescued, he put down the Wii remote. He stood up from the couch, and he walked off into the sunset (well, back towards the exit to find whichever parent or guardian he was with).
He didn’t wait for praise. He didn’t wait for the reactions of those who had witnessed his great deed. He just moved on.
It was truly an awesome moment of video game heroism.
It’s Mario month!
Isaac noticed the Best Before date on our current jar of Vegemite is MAR10. That makes it Mario Month this month!
I think I’ll go play some more New Super Mario Brothers Wii.
Then maybe I’ll make a Vegemite sandwich. (Though it doesn’t strictly have to be used by the end of the month; note the difference between “best before” and “use by”.)
Tags: Mario Bros, Nintendo Wii, Vegemite
7 comments
Avatars
One of the fun things with the Wii is creating your “Mii” — that is, an avatar used in some of the games.
While the kids got busy creating some favourite fictional characters, my avatar looks like me.
Here’s mine, seen in Wii Sports Resort, playing table tennis.
Guitar Hero doesn’t use the standard, cartoon-like Miis, but has its own rock music-oriented avatars. They look more realistic, but despite my efforts, I think this one looks less like me.
What do other people create? Your likeness, or something else?
Tags: avatars, Guitar Hero, Nintendo Wii
3 comments
