Just a quick update with some links I’ve got sitting around.

1. Late last year, a sobering game session of Castlevania Judgment took place over at OMG Nintendo, leading to a question I’ve often wondered: why doesn’t Simon Belmont get his due?

   Though Konami seems to occasionally wheel him out as the series mascot for titles such as New International Track and Field, he never seems to have really been characterized very much at all. It seems as though every protagonist in Castlevania history has their role to play, but Simon’s only feels like a cog stuck somewhere in the middle.

   People like Simon Belmont. I like Simon Belmont, I played the original Castlevania and Super Castlevania IV to death. Why does Judgment make him out to be a loseWeight Exerciser compared to Trevor? Hell, why do the Castlevania games do this, too?

   What’s kind of sad is that the Captain N: The Game Master version of the character seems to be the only one with any sort of characterization.

2. Ah, promotional stunts. One has to admire the craziness of such acts… except when they backfire. Then it becomes rather nightmarish.

   Recently, Yahoo! Finance gathered up “10 Promotional Stunts That Horribly Backfired,” a few of which I remember vividly. Naturally, the God of War II promotion caught my attention when it happened, and there was also the Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie promotion, the memory of which still adorns the banner of this site from time to time.

3. As I noted recently, it was not that long ago that I finally came across quite a find at a table in Anime North’s dealer’s room: Mega Man 5 for the Game Boy and Super Game Boy.

   So, what is it that makes this one any more special than, say, any other Mega Man game for the Game Boy? GamingFringe takes an in-depth look at the game, although they seem to switch notations to a slightly bewildering degree in the early going.

   I only wish that the Super Game Boy palette worked on the Game Boy Player or Game Boy Advance. But alas, I suppose all that is left to hope for now is that the game somehow finds its way to some sort of re-release, so that more people can enjoy it.

4. Buzzfeed has an interesting new article: “15 Billboards That Don’t Belong Next To Each Other.” How these got as far as they did is way beyond me.

   And except for 14, which is basically just a rehash of 7, I think my favorites are 10-15.

5. Is there any video game character more iconic than Mario? Sure, Pac-man and Space Invaders are quite iconic, but I think they’re more representative of gaming in the early 80′s. Sonic the Hedgehog was once a definite icon, but seems more emblematic of the 90′s. And Master Chief may move millions, but at the same time, I’m just not sure he’s suited to represent the industry as a whole.

   I considered mentioning Grand Theft Auto, but then I remembered that those games aren’t much for recurring characters.

   In any case, Mario has most definitely been successful and enduring; he put Nintendo on the video game map in the early 80′s, he was a cultural phenomenon in the late 80′s and early 90′s, he paved the way for 3D gaming in the mid-90′s, and has gained fame and recognition on the level of, or exceeding, Disney’s own Mickey Mouse.

   Via GoNintendo, Gameztraffic looks at Mario: The Last of the Gaming Icons, wherein they hope to explain “just why he is the best gaming icon.”

That’s it from me tonight, still working on those reviews.

–LBD “Nytetrayn”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 11th, 2009 at 3:15 am 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.