1. It’s not often that one finds video game industry news and journals creating their own fanfiction, but that seems to be what IGN has done, taking it upon themselves (and their readers) to name the two Toads who accompany the Mario Bros. in the upcoming New Super Mario Bros. Wii. IGN says:

   I’ll tell you, I went back to play New Super Mario Bros. Wii on the second and third day of E3 last week, with these names in mind for the characters, and it helped me to better connect with the game. I was excited to get to play as Wolley, instead of being disappointed that I had to be Yellow Toad. There’s an important difference there. There’s an important aspect of being able to enjoy and identify with your hero that, if you choose to accept too, will help you better enjoy the game yourself when it arrives this holiday season for Wii.

   Of course, I’m slightly bothered by their not including any form of “Toad” in the names, given that seems to be a Mushroom Kingdom tradition of sorts, though it seems that Toads usually have a last initial of “T,” as seen in the Paper Mario titles.

   Also, it’s interesting we have a Toad who is garbed all in blue… much as the Toad in Super Mario Bros. 2 for the NES was. Makes you wonder.

   You can find more of my thoughts on the duo, and IGN’s course of action with them, here.

2. Drew Mackie of “Back of the Cereal Box” clearly has quite a bit of time on his hands, but puts it to pretty good use with this lengthy, exhaustive, and thorough look at video game etymology, or to put it another way, explanations of names and words in video games. It’s one I need to read sometime, but have no time for at the moment. At least it will be here for safekeeping.
3. While Evan Narcisse of Crispy Gamer has about seven years on me, I can still relate to much of his list of things in video games he’s getting too old for.
4. I get the feeling that GameDaily has it in for Mario. My evidence? The following two lists.

   The first is “Ten Reasons Mario Will Live Forever (and Five Reasons He’s Already Dead).” Of course, with the good outnumbering the bad by 100%, it would seem they are in favor of the humble Mushroomland plumber, right?

   But then we have this: “The Top 25 Ways to Kill Mario.” Yikes!

   What’s really amazing, though, is that there is nothing from Super Mario Galaxy on there. Sure, the picture of the Thwomp in action is from Galaxy, but it’s hardly a death specific to that game. I’ve seen Mario sucked into black holes, electrocuted, and eaten alive by Dark Matter, and not a single one is on the list? That’s just plain odd.

5. You hang around video games for a while, and you tend to hear things. Hang around enough, and you hear a lot of things. And if you’re really committed, then you hear a lot of things repeatedly.

   That’s where GamesRadar has found themselves, and so they’ve compiled a list of “The Top 7 Video Game Legends We Never Want to Hear Again.”

   You can count me in for #3. In fact, I think it should be exempt from every “worst box art” list for the rest of time, and given honorary status as a lifetime achiever. Because odds are, nothing will ever beat it. On the other hand, it’s probably the mere act of looking at that box that has inspired most of those same lists, leading to the writers seeking out enough other bad pieces to round out the list, sometimes reeking of desperation in doing so.

–LBD “Nytetrayn”

This entry was posted on Monday, July 6th, 2009 at 11:02 pm and is filed under Points of Interest. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.