As the highly anticipated U.S. release of 'New Super Mario Bros. Wii' rapidly approaches, reviews and screen shots are, little by little, revealing details about the game. (One quick, significant question before we go any further: How in the name of Bowser did Australia get the game before we did?!)

The latest installment in the saga of your favorite 'shroom-eating plumber series apparently adds some awesome new outfits to Mario's extensive and eclectic closet -- Propeller and Penguin suits being chief among them. In honor of Mushroom World couture, Kotaku is celebrating the best and most ridiculous of Mario's many suits. Click through to behold both the always popular Tanooki Suit and the oft forgotten Goomba's Shoe costume.

Police are on the lookout for two brothers. Occupation: plumbers, Clothing: overalls, Hobbies: saving princesses and collecting coins. Reports say they answer to these names: Mario and Luigi.

No, this isn't breaking news from the Mushroom Kingdom (unless Staten Island just got a new nickname). According to the New York Daily News, Staten Island police are searching for four men (two were dressed like the video game icons) who were caught on a gas station's surveillance video around 4 a.m. on November 1st robbing and beating a taxi driver. After apparently leaving a Halloween party, one of the men tried to steal money from the cabbie's pocket. The driver pulled into the gas station and asked the men to pay and get out of his car. They refused, beat the driver, and stole his cash anyway.

There's no word yet on whether or not the crooks were disappointed that the driver wasn't carrying large, gold coins. In all seriousness, let's hope these guys are caught soon. If a couple no-good criminals ruin one of our favorite Halloween costumes, we'll have to go out and regulate. And we won't use turtle shells, either. [From: the New York Daily News]

Don't mistake Miyamoto's words for an indication that he's ready to hang up the 'Star Fox' series. After all, the "Do a Barrel Roll" soundclip from the games has become a meme in its own right. [From: MTV]

When we finished watching this video (after the break) on Geek Sugar, we were a little surprised by our reactions. Sure, it's easy to make fun of this dude for: one, proposing to his girl in front of the living room TV (while she's playing 'Super Mario World,' no less); two, setting up a video camera to capture it; and, three, posting said video to YouTube. But the look in his eye, her immediate "Yes!," their embrace, and that little dog jumping up and down illustrates domestic bliss so idyllic that it's downright Rockwellian. Call us hopeless, but we think this pair of players is bound for some high scores. [From: Geek Sugar]

When it comes to selecting a mate, animals typically pick the partner with the brightest, loudest, and most outlandish natural ornaments. The process definitely applies to humans, as well, and one sexy gamer (who goes by the PhotoBucket handle 'nailchick27') has created a decorative symbol of gaming prowess just for Nintendo nerds, Neatorama reports.

Although it may impede actual gaming sessions, the 'Super Mario Bros.' manicure, which festoons fingernails with depictions of scenes from the video game franchise, should certainly prove irresistible to Mario junkies. If the fancy nails alone don't adequately attract dorks of the opposite gender, there's a closet full of other Nintendo fashion accessories certain to arouse the interest of a potential multiplayer partner. But, take notice. Before you begin drooling over the Nintendo couture, be aware that there's a picture of a fat, pale guy in his Mario unmentionables. Although, who knows. That may actually be highly stimulatory for members of the species Dorkus Marius. [From: PhotoBucket user nailchick27, via Neatorama]

The winner of the ongoing Mario A.I. Competition must create, using a learning algorithm, a controller (or agent) that can complete the most difficult levels of the game 'Infinite Mario' without any human aid. According to Joystiq, a video of one recent entry looks like it may be tough to top.

Creator Robin Baumgarten, a PhD student at Imperial College, London, writes on his site that he entered the contest because he was "bored," and wanted to hone his A.I. programming skills. Typically, watching others play video games can get boring and incredibly frustrating, but that isn't the case here. The video, and the mesmerizing gameplay, is simply amazing.

The Mario series is one of the most storied in video game history. Its lineage stretches from an arcade cabinet with two buttons and a joystick all the way to the wireless world of Wii. With all the sequels and spin-offs along the way, though, it can be tough for a gamer to keep track. Did 'Super Mario World' beget 'Super Mario RPG?' Just how many games featured Yoshi?

Thankfully, some industrious gamers at Limit Break sorted all this out with the help of a handy little graphic. It's a family-tree-style breakdown of every Mario game in the Nintendo lexicon. After one look at this, the Royal Family's lineage even looks normal. It's all there -- from the oft forgotten 'Mario's Cement Factory' to the juggernaut that was 'Super Mario 64.'

Looking at this graphic is like going to a family reunion, but fun. The best part? There's no bland potato salad or awkward hugs with relatives you haven't seen in years. Just pure, digital nostalgia. [From: Limit Break]

Ever feel like burning some bridges when you quit a job? Shredding important documents or yelling at your former manager? No? How about jumping on a power mushroom and groping a princess? If that's more up your alley, you're not alone; a developer named Mr. Jarrad decided to quit his job at game developer 2K Australia by creating a game featuring just those sorts of antics, we learned from Joystiq.

His game (play it here), titled 'A Message for 2K Australia,' sports a few short levels featuring Nintendo's Mario. In them, you run, jump, and collect items, each collection displaying the message "I QUIT" in big letters across the screen. It's a bit brash, and, while it does go on to say that the team at 2K is excellent, we can't help but wonder just how this was received by Jarrad's now-former employer. We're also curious to know what Nintendo's legal department thinks of the thing. [From: Farbs.org, Via: Joystiq]

We haven't figured out if eating these 1UP burgers will actually give us extra lives, but we can guarantee that we will be cooking up plenty of these in the Switched kitchen in the coming days.

Potential genius, Karen Chu, has posted instruction on the DIY resource Instructables.com detailing how to create a mushroom burger that looks like the life-giving 1UP mushroom from 'Super Mario Bros.' Creating the burgers takes a little time, but they don't seem particularly difficult to make. Of course, you could make it even easier by simply using ground chuck (accept no substitutes!) to make nice round burgers of your own instead of the veggie patties included in this recipe.

All you need is some mozzarella, green food coloring, and some nice big round buns. Now get cracking, and let us know if you come right back to life the next time you have a run-in with a goomba. [From: Instructables, Via: Neatorama]

What is it about 8-bit nostalgia that makes everything better?

We didn't think it was possible to improve upon the classic hair-puller Jenga. But then again, we never thought to paint the blocks with pink girders and work in plastic Marios and a Donkey Kong.

While you can play Donkey Kong Jenga just like the original, the real fun comes when you play the 'Donkey Kong' variation, which has you working a plastic Mario up the tower to free Pauline (the damsel in distress from the original 'Donkey Kong') from the clutches of the simian villain.

To play the game, you spin a wheel that dictates how many girders (blocks) to remove and how many vertical spaces you move Mario up. The game takes longer than you'd imagine (if you can keep the tower from collapsing). The game starts with 14 levels, but as you remove girders and add them to the top, Pauline slowly moves further from your reach.

Apparently, the pegs that stick Mario to the bricks have a tendency to bring the whole thing crashing down prematurely. So, if you're already prone to profanity and violence when playing the classic Jenga, we suggest you stick with the original. [From: Joystiq]

This video made us so nostalgic for the '80s that we just had to share. In the clip, an anonymous Chinese man has arranged a row of bottles filled with varying levels of liquid in a parking garage. Each of the bottles is filled with the right amount of water to play specific notes in the Super Mario Bros video game theme. The bottles are lined up in the right order so that when a remote-control (RC) car runs along the row with a piece of metal strapped to it, the Mario theme plays.

While a man named Michel Lauzière has done similar things with roller skates and a Mozart theme, we gotta admit that this 'Mario Bros' trick is a little bit cooler. Besides, the look on that parking lot security guard's face is priceless. Nice one, random Chinese guy! [Source: Break.com, via Autoblog]

Yearning for the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo 16-bit glory days of console-based video gaming? Brian Henderson modified the guts of a Super Nintendo (SNES) system to run in a handheld plastic shell complete with speakers, AV out, a 5-inch display and a "Player 2" port for multi-player fun.

The only downside seems to be that the "SNESp" requires the physical SNES game cartridge. There aren't any plans for production, but we can't help thinking way back to the early '90s and afternoons spent playing classics like the original Mario Kart, Super Metroid, Super Mario World and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.


From TechEBlog

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What would iconic video game character Mario look like in real life? One word: terrifying.

The anonymous creator of the blog Pixeloo has begun "de-tooning" cartoons, utilizing photoshop to transform fictional folks such as Homer Simpson and Mario into human-like representations of their animated selves. To clarify, they are not supposed to completely look like real humans. The "de-tooned" characters retain the exact proportions as the cartoons, but get realisti-looking facial characteristics and complexions. The results are unsettling, to say the least.


Honestly, there just isn't much else to say. There are certain images that stay with you. We are sure the image of "de-tooned" Mario will visit you all very soon. In your sleep. When you are alone and vulnerable.


From boingboing

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In 1985, 'Super Mario Bros.' defined what the next decade of 2D-platform games would and should be on home consoles. Mario did it again for 3D games in 1996 with 'Super Mario 64' on the Nintendo 64. And while we may have to wait a bit longer for 4D games, this week's 'Super Mario Galaxy' seems to have, according to a plethora of pro-plumber reviews, set the bar unbelievably high not just for Wii games but all "next generation" action titles.

With a current metascore (an average of all review scores) of 97 out of 100, 'Super Mario Galaxy' is garnering critical acclaim not only for its adherence to what's made Mario great in the past, but also for its innovative use of the Wii control, outstanding visual presentation, and orchestrated score (a first for Mario games). It's not ALL good news of course as no game is perfect, but here's what the critics say:

Yahoo! Games

The Good:

• 'Super Mario Galaxy' is a reminder that games don't have to be ultra-violent, make clever social statements or ride the marketing machine to succeed. They simply have to be fun, and you'd be hard pressed to find one as genuinely enjoyable as Mario's latest.

The Bad:

• ...a little disjointed from time to time.
  ...it would be nice to hear Mario say something other than 'Woo-hoo!' from time to time.

Game Informer

The Good:

• ...the best Mario game since the NES classic, 'Super Mario Bros.' It innovates in a genre that we had thought we had seen everything from, and in doing so delivers some of the most entertaining gameplay to date.

The Bad:

• While it's nice that you rarely have to fuss with the camera, there are times where walls will obstruct your view, or you won't be able to rotate the perspective to see where you are supposed to jump next. And worst of all, for a game that puts such an emphasis on going out of your way to get an extra life, all of your lives are reset when you turn the Wii off.

IGN

The Good:

• One of the greatest platformers I have ever played, Wii's best game, and an absolute must-own experience.

The Bad:

• Every so often ... you will find yourself in a situation where the camera isn't quite right ... When that happens and you can't center yourself, you have no recourse, which is unfortunate ... It's not perfect."

1UP

The Good:

• 'Galaxy' proves that Mario matters just as much today as he did 25 years ago, and that makes him one of a kind in this medium. But don't play 'Galaxy' simply because Mario is the timeless godfather of gaming. No, play 'Galaxy' because it's fantastic.

The Bad:

• With the health power meter now reduced from six sections to three, experimenting with new enemies and tactics can be a little fraught - try the wrong thing twice in a row and you're in immediately danger of dying.

It's great to see Mario still kicking ass among such big titles this year like 'Halo 3' and 'Mass Effect'. Mysteriously, our copy seems to have gone missing in the mail. But, we are more than excited to see Mario return to the throne. And we don't mean that in the plumbing sense.

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Sure the Wiimote's motion-detection wizardry is all the rage these days, but for some gamers, that childhood love affair with the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) controller never ended. Yesterday brought news of a touch version of the NES gamepad being hacked onto the iPhone to play such classics as 'Super Mario Bros.'

Now, a super geek has cracked open one of the old controllers and rewired it to control his iPod. His work, along with a how-to, is on display at the Instructables Web site, a place dedicated to DIY projects for hacking almost anything you can imagine.

You may want to keep your eye on that Instructables page. Down in the comments, a fellow Instructables solder monkey suggests building the ultimate iPod dock out of an old NES console where you'd push the iPod down into the cartridge slot and control it with the gamepad.

Holy Luigi, do we want one of those ...

From Shiny Shiny

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