Welcome to the second edition of Warp Zone! Here's another batch of links for your viewing (and listening) pleasure.

Mario Piano Sheet Music (mariopiano.com)
This site is home to sheet music transcriptions of Super Mario Bros. themes and sound effects, complete with optimized fingering for all you ivory ticklers. I've tried most of them out on guitar and they sound dead-on.

GameBard (gamebard.com)
Poetry meets game reviews on GameBard. Since its launch in September, GameBard has reviewed more than 30 games, including New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Wario Land: Shake It!, and Donkey Kong Country Returns.

Iwata Asks: Donkey Kong Country Returns (us.wii.com)
Satoru Iwata -- the president and CEO of Nintendo Co., Ltd. -- interviews the three DKCR senior designers from Retro Studios and the producer and assistant producer from the Nintendo side. This is probably the first "Iwata Asks" that they had to translate to Japanese.

Super Mario Galaxy Medley (youtube.com)
Diwa de Leon put together this impressive five-part Super Mario Galaxy medley using six instruments: Violin, hegalong, djembe, tambourine, guitar, and his voice.

On the Sixth Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me
Six Yoshis laying...

Five P-Wings!

Four POW Blocks
Three Red Shells
Two Fire Flowers
and a 1up Mushroom in a fir tree.

On the Fifth Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me
Five P-Wings!

Four POW Blocks
Three Red Shells
Two Fire Flowers
and a 1up Mushroom in a fir tree.

On the Fourth Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...
Four POW blocks!

Three Red Shells
Two Fire Flowers
and a 1up Mushroom in a fir tree.

On the Third Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

Three Red Shells
Two Fire Flowers
and a 1up Mushroom in a fir tree.

They've already conducted The Legend of Zelda and Sonic the Hedgehog marathons, and in a few days, ExtraLives.org will start a Mario marathon to raise money for Free The Children. From December 30th to January 2nd, they plan to play the Super Mario Bros. series, Super Mario Sunshine, Super Mario Land, Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, the Mario Galaxy series, Hotel Mario(!), and more. In addition to helping a good cause, a $5 donation will enter you into a raffle for various prizes, so be sure to join the fundraising festivities at ExtraLives.org!

On the Second Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

Two Fire Flowers
and a 1up Mushroom in a fir tree.

On the First Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...
A 1up Mushroom in a fir tree.

Nintendo of America recently announced that Mario Sports Mix will launch on February 7 next year. Wii owners in Europe can get in on the multiplayer basketball, dodgeball, hockey, and volleyball a bit earlier when the game releases there on February 4. Although the Australian Classification Board rated the game in September, there is currently no release date set for Australia.

Check out NOA's new Mario Sports Mix teaser trailer on our YouTube channel for footage of all four of its sports!

Link: NOA press release

http://www.2pstart.com/2010/11/27/down/

That is all.

In anticipation of the Sunday release of Donkey Kong Country Returns, WTMK is playing nothing but Donkey Kong music - all weekend long!!!

Tune in to the jungle jazz and banana beats: WTMK: All Donkey Kong, Some of the Time.

WTMK is proud to present a special selection of music for your Halloween weekend listening... pleasure?  All of the most Halloween-ish sorts of music from the vast spectrum of the Mario series, including plenty of tunes from Luigi's solo adventure.

(It's actually been running since Friday night -- a little bonus for the regular listeners.)

Tune in now, to WTMK: All Mario, All the Time.

IGN recently interviewed Sonic Team's Takashi Iizuka regarding the upcoming Sonic Colors game for the Wii. Iizuka revealed that the new Sonic title was being designed to appeal more to Mario players...

"From a general game design perspective, in recent years we've been able to introduce Sonic to new fans, a lot of the Nintendo/Mario fans, and because of that, we've made changes to the design, and we've designed things in Sonic Colours that we think will really appeal to people who are unfamiliar with the Sonic brand and the Sonic gameplay. So from that perspective we hope that fans of Mario will really be able to enjoy playing as Sonic in Sonic Colours."

It would appear that Sega has finally admitted defeat, and is attempting to make the new Sonic game more like the Mario games.  Given the slight critical (and fiscal) disparity between the last few Mario and Sonic games, this can only be a good thing.

Sonic fans, we welcome you home.

Source: IGN: Sonic Team Talks Sonic Colours

This warp zone isn't a series of pipes -- it's a portal to neat Mario stuff on the Web.

For our first "Warp Zone" article, we have five links that we think you'll enjoy. We might make this a weekly feature, so by all means, please send us comments, suggestions, or links for next time.

How ColecoVision Became the King of Kong (retro.nintendolife.com)
The story of how Coleco scored the Donkey Kong arcade license, told by the guy who did it.

Iwata Asks: Super Mario Bros. 25th Anniversary, Volume 1 (us.wii.com)
Nintendo of America's Super Mario Bros. 25th Anniversary website recently added a translation of another "Iwata Asks" interview with Shigeru Miyamoto. This time, EarthBound creator Shigesato Itoi is doing the asking. Unfortunately, there isn't much Super Mario Bros. discussion in this volume.

Super Mario Bros. The Movie Archive (smbmovie.com)
Click over to our newest affiliate for behind-the-scenes video, exclusive interviews, and more info about the Super Mario Bros. movie.

Janitor of the Mushroom Kingdom (brawlinthefamily.com)
Web comics don't get a lot of coverage on TMK, so what better time than now to link to one of my favorites? If you've never read Brawl in the Family, the four-part "Janitor" series of strips is a great introduction to the comic's brand of humor. Also be sure to check out the well done video version of the four strips.

Super stomping in Retro City Rampage (destructoid.com)
Leave it to the upcoming WiiWare game Retro City Rampage to bring us one of the strangest Mario cameos yet. In this gameplay video, an evil-looking, shirtless Mario ("radioactive plumber") gives the main character the ability to stomp on enemies. Look closely, and you can see "GOOMBOUNCES" scroll across the status bar when the player stomps on two enemies in a row.

It's the 25th anniversary of the release of Super Mario Bros. in Japan.  Twenty-five years ago, on September 13th, 1985, the first Super Mario game was released to the public.  Folks in the U.S.A. only had to wait about a month for the game's October 18th release.

To celebrate, WTMK is playing a special broadcast, playing only tunes from the mainline Super Mario game series.  No Wario, no Donkey Kong, and no Yoshi spinoffs - just pure Super Mario.

A new Mario game has quietly appeared on Nintendo's Japanese Wii release list: Super Mario Collection Special Pack, dated for October 21. Early reports indicate that Super Mario Collection Special Pack is a port of Super Mario All-Stars (known as "Super Mario Collection" in Japan) and will include a Mario history book and CD soundtrack, all for the 25th anniversary of Super Mario Bros., which launched in Japan on September 13, 1985.

Will they release the game and goodies in North America? Will they fix the reversed brick physics that plagued Super Mario All-Stars? We'll post more info as it develops.

Link: Nintendo Co., Ltd.'s release calendar

Amazon appears to be selling the Virtual Console release of Paper Mario for just $7.99.  The game costs $10 in the Wii Shop Channel, so this indicates a clear savings of $2.01.  In addition, the download codes for Amazon's WiiWare and Virtual Console purchases can be given as gifts . . . so if anyone felt like rewarding any of the TMK staff for their excellent work (cough cough), it would be fairly easy to e-mail a code to any of the staff.  (Cough).

Source: Amazon

Chris Covell's page Your Weekly Famicom recently updated with a translation of a Japanese children's book on game design.  The Stars of Famicom Games - How Video Games are Made is packed full of interesting photos of EAD staff working on Super Mario Bros. 3.  Go take a look and be amazed!

Source: Your Weekly Famicom

The third annual Mario Marathon, raising money for the children's charity Child's Play, takes place this Friday at 11AM EDT.  Three crazy (but loveable) guys plan to play through most of the major Super Mario titles as the world watches.  The greater the donations, the more games and levels they'll play through; at the moment, just over $2500 have been pledged, meaning that these brave men will be "b-dashing" through:
Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros. 2
Super Mario Bros. 3
New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Super Mario World
Super Mario Galaxy
Super Mario 64 (partially)

Of course, an obvious question arises: why the lack of Super Mario Sunshine?  We obviously can't let these guys run a Mario marathon without subjecting them to a 100% SMS Blue Coin Run of Death, right?  This is the time for action - go visit the Mario Marathon website and pledge your support (watching them struggle to gather the blue coins is only PART of the fun, of course).  WTMK should be running a themed audio broadcast to tie in to the epic marathon, if I can convince the fungus to back down off the server for a moment.

WTMK is preparing for the launch of Super Mario Galaxy 2 with a special playlist.  Relive all of Mario's 3D platforming adventures as you prepare for the newest one.  That's right, we're playing nothing but music from Super Mario 64, Sunshine, and Galaxy.

Tune in as you wait for Mario and Yoshi's newest 3D adventure!

WTMK is pleased to update with two new sets of Mario related music!

* The OneUps have released a new album, dedicated entirely to music from Super Mario Kart.  Jazz! Rock! Spooky bits on strings!  If you've enjoyed their other albums, you've probably already purchased your copy.  If not, you can always get a copy of the Super Mario Kart Album on the band's BandCamp page. $9.99 for digital download (mp3, FLAC, etc.) or a physical CD.

* Jay "Mercury" Hunter has recently released his free remix album entitled Mushroom Nostalgia Mixtape.  More information is available on his Facebook page.  Despite the title, Mario tracks aren't the entirety of the CD, which features a few Zelda and Sonic the Hedgehog tunes as well.  Go grab a copy and listen to it for yourself.

Both albums are now streaming on WTMK . . . along with my attempt at deciphering exactly what the Yoshies are warbling during the end-of-level music in Yoshi's Story.

WTMK is now broadcasting music from NES Open Tournament Golf and a better assortment of music from Mario Kart DS... plus all the hits you know and love!

(11:13:44 PM) Drill: So
(11:13:48 PM) Drill: My foot is bleeding
(11:14:26 PM) BP: Don't stomp the Spinies
(11:14:46 PM) David: Sounds like the name of a new video game cover band

There really needs to be a video game cover band named "Don't Stomp the Spinies."

They need to do a cover of the nearly-final boss track music from the Game Boy Donkey Kong game.

They also need a track called "Jump, Jump, Jump, Don't Die!"

Are you looking for some WarioWare: D.I.Y. microgame developing tips? Nintendo's got you covered with eight video tutorials hosted by Nintendo of America Treehouse staff. There are two beginner lessons, two intermediate lessons, and four advanced lessons up now on the Wii's Nintendo Channel and in our YouTube playlist.

For more videos, and details on a microgame design contest, visit the official WarioWare: D.I.Y. site at WarioWareDIY.com.

As a guitar player and gamer, I know it takes a lot of willpower to pick up a bass and not play the Super Mario Bros. underground theme. For a nice change of pace, check out this video of konodaichi playing the SMB main theme entirely on bass.

Stuff like this also increases my frothing demand of wanting a bass guitar of my own...

Twenty years ago today, Super Mario Bros. 3 was officially released in the USA.

That's right, it's the China & Aster Vigintennial of the greatest Mario game ever made!

In honor of this memorable occasion, WTMK will be playing a special Super Mario Bros. 3 playlist all weekend long. Hear the magic!

WTMK's Super Mario Bros. 3 20th Anniversary Spectacular: http://themushroomkingdom.net/wtmk.shtml

You be my Princess Peach, I'll be your Mario.

I'll follow you around wherever you may go.

I'll fight those Koopa Troopas and those mean old Goombas too.

The Mushroom Kingdom would be dull, without rescuing you.

Link: 8bitcollective

I'm not sure how I missed this the first time around, but I recently stumbled across a trailer for a Mario fan film that had been created nearly four years ago.  Doing a bit of research led me to this page, in which the animator mentions always wanting to have a film on TMK's Fan Films page.

I don't know if anyone else here at TMK had seen this before, but the animation quality is fairly impressive for a fan film, and it features a remix soundtrack by Mustin; these things combined surely earn it at least a mention here on the blog!  Go take a look at the Koopa Force trailer.

Source: Try4cdCubed's IGN Blog
Youtube: Koopa Force trailer