I usually mention that I do most of my posting over at Kombo.com, for reasons I won’t go into here but which I’m sure most anyone can understand. That said, as I mentioned yesterday, I’m usually a bit gun-shy about linking to my stuff there. So here’s a question for you guys: would you like me to start?

Of course, I wouldn’t be posting just that stuff, but maybe throwing in the odd story here and there, or more, if people desired. Should I do it? Or would that seem too self-serving? I’d love to know your thoughts.

On with Points of Interest!

1. The Mushroom Kingdom, and the world of Mario at large, is filled with numerous characters. And many don’t seem to get their due time in the spotlight.

   It is these characters which Official Nintendo Magazine has chosen to pay tribute to in their feature, “Unsung Mario Heroes.” Number one seems like he gets around a bit, but personally, I can’t believe that the second one has yet to return.

   Three I think has mostly been replaced by Lakitu (though there are more reappearances than one might think), and four should have been in Super Mario Galaxy. There remains time to make it right with Galaxy 2, but I don’t see that happening.

   Number seven’s entry has given me a completely new look at the character, in light of the mention of “reaching the goal.” If that was Nintendo’s intent… well played. Very, very well played.

2. Nintendo recently held the conference call for their latest financial quarter. If that kind of stuff interests you, you can find the Q&A (in English) here. It is kind of neat, in that it’s not just a bunch of numbers, as one might expect. It can instead actually give you a better idea of the mindset and workings of the company, though.
3. The Adventures of Batman and Robin for the Super NES, based on what many may better know as Batman: The Animated Series (or just Batman: The Series if you watched its brief prime-time stint), was a very, very cool game which really seemed to live up to its inspiration. The animation and art were gorgeous, and the soundtrack felt like it was pulled right from the show. And a lot of the stages and other elements were.

   It was also hard as nails, and I never beat it. Somehow, I didn’t mind though. It was just that cool.

   Lens of Truth takes a look back at this classic, one which really should be released on Virtual Console.

4. I love video game commercials.

   Well, allow me to correct that: I love classic video game commercials. I don’t know if I’ve just gotten older and more cynical (and nostalgic), or if the newer ads are actually, in fact, just that bad. I know that it seems like fewer ads are capable of making me want the newest game advertised, that’s for sure.

   Of course, the awesome Punch-Out!! ads for Nintendo’s recent Wii release are an exception. Pity they shelved some of them.

   I digress, however. Among the early memorable ads I can remember are those belonging to the first three entries of Nintendo’s Metroid series, and 4 color rebellion has taken an analytical look at not only these commercials, but how they fare against their Japanese counterparts as well.

   Japan? Now they can do commercials.

   Interesting thing, though. While in retrospect, I think the Japanese Super Metroid commercial is the more favorable of the two, I think Nintendo more or less had to use what they did, given the rivalry they were facing from SEGA at the time.

   It was time to fight back, and Nintendo was ready to have the greatest bounty hunter in the galaxy knocking at SEGA’s door.

5. Speaking of advertising, a lot of companies have changed their corporate branding over the years, introducing and utilizing new logos to varying degrees of success.

   Yahoo! Finance takes a look back at several such companies and whose changes worked, and whose didn’t, as well as why.

–LBD “Nytetrayn”

This entry was posted on Monday, August 17th, 2009 at 1:01 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.