Topics

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Latest News / SSBB: Wario's special moves

« on: June 29, 2007, 02:36:42 AM »

Smash Bros. DOJO!! has detailed two of Wario's bizarre special moves, both of which were featured in the original E3 2006 trailer.  The first is called Wario Chopper.  Triggered by a special side attack, Wario will drive his motorcycle back and forth along the stage.  He can even get off, and other characters can pick up the vehicle.  His second special move is the infamous fart attack.  Named the Wario Waft, the down special attack can be charged.  The longer he holds in his gas, the more powerful the blast upon release.  Check out the explosive screenshots on the website.

Link: Smash Bros. DOJO!!

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Latest News / SSBB: Yoshi's Island stage

« on: June 12, 2007, 11:15:15 AM »

A new stage has been revealed for Super Smash Bros. Brawl: Yoshi's Island.  Taking the hand-drawn look to a new level, the Yoshi's Island stage looks like a watercolor painting.  The stage is composed of a main platform, an elevated tilting platform, and smaller platforms that periodically appear thanks to Support Ghosts.  Fly Guys also travel across the stage.  The stage cycles through seasons and even the weather changes during battle.  Check the link below for screenshots.

Link: Smash Bros. DOJO!!

33

Latest News / SSBB: Yoshi's Story music

« on: June 04, 2007, 09:51:21 AM »

The latest update to the official Super Smash Bros. Brawl site is a second music track.  This time, it's a new arrangement of the ending theme to Yoshi's Story!  This particular track was arranged by Masafumi Takada, composer of the decidedly un-Yoshi's Story-like game, Killer 7, as well as music producer of Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked and God Hand.  Click the link below to listen.

Link: Smash Bros. DOJO!!

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Game Blog / Mario Bros. in Ouendan 2 video

« on: May 16, 2007, 01:29:04 PM »

Now that the game is out in Japan, people have begun to film themselves playing portions of the game.  Here's some bigfoot-sighting quality video of the Mario Bros. lookalike stage.  These guys actually do plumbing!

Link: YouTube

35

Game Blog / Nintendo World Report is Hiring

« on: May 15, 2007, 04:27:05 PM »

Ever wanted to write Nintendo news rather than just reading it?  How about writing your own game reviews?  Nintendo World Report, another site I write for, is hiring!  If you're interested and think you meet the qualifications, apply now!  If you have questions, let me know.

Link: http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/newsArt.cfm?artid=13440

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Game Blog / DK King of Swing DS scans and Mario Bros. in Ouendan 2!

« on: May 09, 2007, 09:02:10 AM »

I had a chance to play DK King of Swing DS at last year's E3.  Oddly, the game seemed to have dropped off the face of the earth.  It's back now with a Japanese release date of July 19th.  The latest Famitsu, a weekly Japanese gaming mag, shows off new screens of the game.  Unlike the first game, the sequel's graphics try to mimic the original pre-rendered look of Donkey Kong Country.  Along with gameplay shots, there are a few amusing screens here such as DK playing DS on a DS and DK talking to the Peanut Butter Jelly Time banana (okay, not really).

On the same page is something even more exciting: screens of Ouendan 2.  For those not familiar with the game, Ouendan was the spiritual predecessor to Elite Beat Agents in Japan, starring a male Japanese cheer squad who help people in need by motivating them through their cheers.  This issue shows off the new design of the cheergirls as well as a first look at their rival cheergirl squad.  Even more amusing is a cameo by what appears to be Mario Bros lookalikes!  Their hats say "Water Bureau."  I'm not sure how they tie into the story, but the game is guaranteed to be a blast, and their inclusion makes things even better.

Link: Famitsu scans

37

Game Blog / Game reviews, etc.

« on: April 30, 2007, 11:40:47 PM »

I haven't posted about my reviews and other articles at Nintendo World Report for a while, so here's a collection of the non-Mario stuff I've written over the past few months.

Reviews
- Final Fantasy VI Advance
- Gunpey DS
- Happy Feet (GC)
- Honeycomb Beat
- Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja
- Kororinpa: Marble Mania
- Qwak
- The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (GC)
- Trioncube
- Wii NES RetroPort
- Wii Play

Impressions
- Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree
- Pokémon Battle Revolution

GDC 2007 Specials
- Eiji Aonuma Presentation
- Eiji Aonuma Interview
- Keiichi Yano Presentation
- Keiichi Yano Interview
- Koji Kondo Presentation
- Other Japanese Developers' Presentations

38

General Chat / Watch Mythbusters tonight and see MEGAߥTE

« on: April 25, 2007, 11:36:55 AM »

Like Mythbusters?
Like Ninjas?
Like me?

Then watch Mythbusters tonight!  Tonight at 9 (ET/PT), Mythbusters is having an hour long special covering various ninja myths.  The martial arts in which I train are derived from those practiced by the samurai and ninja.  Since Mythbusters' production studio is based in San Francisco, they tracked down my instructor, who happens to be top-ranked in the art (and it turned out that our dojo was literally around the corner from their studio) to do consulting.  I don't know of everything that's going to be included in the show, but they did film three parts involving him, and one of those parts was shot while we were training, so I should be in the background at some point.  It sounds like it'll be a fun show... I think they've got AskANinja on there as well.

39

Video Game Chat / Win DVDs at Radio Trivia tonight

« on: March 30, 2007, 05:53:12 PM »

Wanted to win the Super Mario Bros. Super Show DVD set we offered a while back, but didn't? Tonight starting at 7:30PM PT, I'll be co-hosting Nintendo World Report's Radio Trivia where you can win your choice of classic Nintendo cartoon DVD set and show off your Nintendo music knowledge.  Check here for details.

40

Game Blog / TMK @ GDC 2007

« on: March 08, 2007, 01:16:52 AM »

Yes, I'm attending GDC in San Francisco.  As you might have heard, Nintendo cannot talk about their future plans at the show due to a pending Nintendo stock sale from the Japanese government.  Even still, there are several games playable including Super Paper Mario and Mario Strikers Charged.  Koji Kondo and Shigeru Miyamoto are also speaking.  Also on Friday night is a Video Games Live concert where many people including Koji Kondo and the Video Game Pianist will be performing.  I have a backstage passes thanks to Tommy Tallarico, and I'll be checking out their rehearsal.

Today, I attended talks from Keiichi Yano (Gitaroo Man, Ouendan, Elite Beat Agents) and Koji Kondo.  I also played all of the Nintendo games available.  I'll be posting impressions tonight as well as summaries of the talks either here or on Nintendo World Report.  For now, however, I just wanted to post a link to the raw photos and videos that I took today.  Unfortunately, I don't have a nice DV cam like Chupperson, but I did take several video clips, particularly of Super Paper Mario.  There's also some interesting Ouendan prototype footage and Ouendan 2 teasers.

There will be plenty more to come over the next couple days.

41

Site Discussion / Super Mario Bros. 2 prototype

« on: February 27, 2007, 03:07:39 AM »

Discuss the prototype here!

42

General Chat / ><8 Scissors Day Thread ><8

« on: February 14, 2007, 03:13:44 PM »

43

Game Blog / Excellent Martinet Interview

« on: February 05, 2007, 01:24:23 AM »

The Sun, a newspaper and website from the UK, recently had an interview with Charles Martinet.  Martinet's voice has been featured in hundreds of games, commercials, and other venues.  Though best known for his Mario voice, he also mentions some of his other roles in games such as Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and Men in Black.

Some very interesting details were revealed.  Martinet recounts the story of how he almost didn't become Mario because he was too busy enjoying the beach!  He also explains how the voice recording process works and how much he enjoys it.  The voice of Mario speaks very highly of the fun he has playing Mario games and Nintendo in general as well as their fans.

The article itself is just a summary of the longer audio interview.  The Sun also posted the 11 minute audio interview of "Charlie," which is chock full of the voice actor doing voices for various Mario characters and is a must listen.

44

Site Discussion / Contest

« on: January 15, 2007, 01:11:49 PM »

If you haven't noticed, TMK is running a contest with a $30-valued prize!  We haven't received many submissions, and the deadline is two days away.  I want to see those entries coming!

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Friend Codes / Bomberman Land Touch! Friend Codes

« on: January 06, 2007, 08:34:13 PM »

Heh, I've had this forever and forgot to add it.

326493087650