Items tagged with Mario
Update, 3/10/2018 - Google's Super Mario Kart guidance feature is now live. Let's-A-GO! Google often brings themed additions to its wildly popular Google Maps navigation app to celebrate pop culture. We’ve seen it previously with nods to Star Wars: The Force Awakens and last year with a Ms. Pac-Man shout-out. This time around, Google is showing some love for Nintendo’s most iconic character: Mario. Tomorrow is Mario Day, as in March 10th or Mar10, and to celebrate, Mario will take over as your directional guide in the Google Maps app. When punching in your destination, a yellow tappable question mark block (which should be familiar to those that have played countless Mario games)...
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When the Nintendo Switch launches in March, it will be joined by the latest in a long line of Mario-helmed games: Super Mario Odyssey. Super Mario Odyssey will allow gamers to play across a wide variety of environments, but the one that most people have been talking about since the unveil is New Donk City (which is an obvious play on New York City). But for those of you that simply can’t wait until March to get a glimpse of how Mario would fare in the Big Apple (or should that be Big Banana), YouTuber CrowbCat has created a hilarious gaming mashup using Grand Theft Auto IV’s Liberty City as the backdrop. As you might expect, seeing the rather wholesome Mario traversing Liberty City is...
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“Hold on to your butts!” Nintendo has just announced a new partnership with Universal Parks & Resorts that will see many of your favorite Nintendo characters and games making their way to Universal theme parks. That’s right, you’ll see themed rides featuring childhood (and adulthood) favorites like Mario and Luigi. The joint announcement is rather limited on concrete details, as the two companies are likely still in the very early stages of development, but the main focus of the pairing is to “[create] spectacular, dedicated experiences based on Nintendo’s wildly popular games, characters and worlds.” “Nintendo has created remarkable and imaginative worlds filled with captivating stories...
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Update 7/10: It has been brought to our attention that the source reference site's report for this story was actually based on a satire, not based on facts. Rather than pulling the story down, we're alerting you to the fact that we were mislead (as were others). However, we will pose the question that seems to be driving a lot of debate: are games getting easier just for the sake of quick-fix game play? During a Q&A at Nintendo’s recent shareholder’s meeting, Nintendo President and CEO Satoru Iwata said several things that are alternately painful, amazing, and sad in response to a question from a stockholder about how games seem to be getting easier, and how that may be...
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Nintendo is experimenting with new pricing models for its console games, an effort aimed particularly at digital sales and packaging downloadable content with boxed games. According to IGN, the company is bringing its experiment to the real world via a free-to-play game. The title? Steel Diver. Steel Diver was originally a game developed for the Nintendo 3DS, and reviews on it appear to be somewhat mixed. It’s a submarine adventure wherein you float around and defend the world’s nations from a rogue invading threat. In other words, it’s not a marquee title in the same vein as Mario, Pokemon, Zelda, and so on. Although it may seem like a weak effort to test out a new pricing...
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What is one to do when one’s three-year-old daughter sadly realizes that she can’t play her favorite video game as a female character? Why, hack the game’s ROM, redraw the palettes, and convert Mario into a little girl character named Pauline, of course. At least, that’s what you’d do if you were as cool as YouTuber Mike Mika. “My three year old daughter and I play a lot of old games together. Her favorite is Donkey Kong,” said Mike in a comment under the video embedded below. “Two days ago, she asked me if she could play as the girl and save Mario. She's played as Princess Toadstool in Super Mario Bros. 2 and naturally just assumed she could do...
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Nintendo’s latest gaming console, the Wii U, is a bit of a risk for the legendary company. The console promises the moon, and although we found plenty of things to like about the Wii U in our review, the device came up a little short. Sales have been somewhat up and down, too. There was a nice spike around Black Friday when Nintendo sold 400,000 units in the U.S. in a weeks’ time, and although sales numbers appear to have remained solid since then (890,000 totals consoles in the U.S. and 2.5 million worldwide), there are signs of weakness in Japan, where sales dipped from 76,000 units per week to 70,000. In any case, the Wii U has plenty of competition, not the least of which will...
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Nintendo's third-quarter sales came in below expectations today, as the company struggled with lower-than-anticipated demand for its 3DS handhelds and a generally weak console market. In April, the company predicted it would sell 10.5 million Wii's by the end of its fiscal year; that's since been slashed to five million. 3DS sales were also lower than expected, with forecasts for the full year now at 17.5M units, down from 18.5M. The chart below, courtesy of VGChartz, shows comparative 3DS sales from April - October, 2011 and the same period in 2012. 2011 is in orange, 2012 in yellow. The summer bump was courtesy of the 3DS XL and the launch titles that accompanied it, but demand has fallen...
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There's news from the 3D sphere of both Sony and Nintendo today and neither company sounds particularly cheery. On the Sony front, 3D development chief Mick Hocking has advocated that developers only use 3D when it actually improves the title as opposed to tacking it on as a bullet point feature. "It's been a good first year," Sony's 3D chief Mick Hocking told Eurogamer in an interview this afternoon. "We've got 50 million PlayStation 3s that support 3D playback. 3DTVs are selling well. We've had great response from our fans out there at game shows and forums about the 3D games we've produced. But the most important thing is 3D quality." "We need to, and we're trying to encourage everyone to...
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Nintendo's next-generation, up-a-size DS model (the DSi XL) is set to launch in just over a month and the company lifted the lid today on what we can expect at launch. For those of you who aren't in the know, the upcoming DSi XL is a 'large' revision to the DSi's form factor. The unit's iconic twin displays offer 93 percent more viewing area, battery life has been extended from an estimated 9-14 hours with the DSi to 13-17 hours on the DSI XL, and the XL ships with two styluses—one large, one small. Unlike its predecessors, the XL isn't following the tinyfication trend—it's bigger, chunky but very touchable and somehow sleek. The unit's glossy lid has been variously praised for its appearance...
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Who knew that playing video games could be healthy? Quick, somebody e-mail Jack Thompson: "Buried at the bottom of a couple mainstream articles about the Wii is a slightly different take on the whole “fitness” phenomenon. Mary Jane Zamora is a 50 year old woman who was diagnosed with breast cancer in February 2005. After a round of chemotherapy she found herself weakened, too tired to get off the couch. It was then that her daughters brought out the Wii for her to play. Although “exhausting” at first, she was soon playing everyday." Maybe the Mayo Clinic ought to look into this for recovering patients......
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