-
The 11 craziest video game feats ever captured on video These 11 videos show people taking ordinary video games and making them truly extraordinary.
Video games: how much do we love them? Enough to inspire us to devote a good chunk of our lives to them, at the very least. The incredible world of electronic gaming has something for everybody, from the base casual to the most hardcore multi-monitor Eve Online sock-pooper. We’re going to be talking about the upper echelon of gamers in this piece: the men and women who don’t stop at mere enjoyment and instead fight for utter mastery. These are people who squeeze every last byte out of their games, twisting them under their mental strength until they crack. These 11 videos show people taking ordinary video games and making them truly extraordinary.…
-
Mint condition Super Mario Bros. 3 cartridge breaks all records—sells for $156k Super Mario Bros is once again the most expensive video game ever sold. It's-a more money than sense!
Super Mario Bros continues to break its own records, once again becoming the most expensive video game ever sold. Last year, an original 1985 copy of Super Mario Bros. in mint condition made news when it sold for $100,150. Then, earlier this year, an even mintier condition Super Mario Bros. copy of the 1985 hit sold for $114,000. But this Friday someone purchased a Super Mario Bros. 3 cartridge for a whopping $156,000. All the auctions were held at Heritage Auctions, which is associated with rare and expensive antiques and old collectibles (the kind grandpas collect) but is no doubt starting to appreciate digital vintage. A Heritage Auctions statement explains…
-
Why Super Mario Bros. 3 is still a masterpiece Before Mario had a World, he had the biggest stage on Earth – and played the part to perfection.
Talking about Super Mario Bros. 3 risks devolving into a numbers game. It sold over eighteen million copies worldwide, another million on its Virtual Console re-release, who knows how many if you include pack-ins/re-releases, and still stands as one of the biggest sellers ever twenty-seven years later. Released in Japan on October 23, 1988, it wouldn’t see America till 1990 or Europe till 1991, but Super Mario Bros. 3 was always white-hot. In Nintendo’s western television advert, thousands of children chant ‘Mario, Mario, Mario’ as the camera pans back, the figures morphing into Mario’s face and then the North American continent. Such was the anticipation and profile for this 8-bit…
-
Mario and Sonic: a tale of two mascots Super Mario Odyssey and Sonic Mania reflect the histories of their star characters almost too well.
This article contains minor gameplay spoilers for Super Mario Odyssey and Sonic Mania. Back in the early 1990s, two mascots bestrode the gaming world like platforming colossi. For a few years there in the 90s, before guns and car theft started to dominate public perception, these two basically symbolized the gaming industry. Nintendo’s Mario, the mustachioed patriarch who established the foundations on which all other platformers were built. Sega’s Sonic, the spiky challenger who promised to do what Nintendon’t. Spin dash ahead to the present day, where the gaming landscape is dominated by sports games and online shooters, and Mario and Sonic aren’t quite as central as they used to…
-
Gaming’s most persistent myths and urban legends, debunked From blowing in cartridges to Lara Croft nude cheats and the secret Windows95 devil program. I’m sure you believe in at least one of these falsehoods.
Rumors and videogames have gone hand in hand for years now. From school yard bragging about your uncle who works for Nintendo, to the almost constant leaks that seem to plague new releases. We’re all suckers for a lie or myth, and even with a healthy dose of skepticism, I’m sure you believe in one at least of these falsehoods. The Myth: Blowing in Game Cartridges Makes Them Work The Truth: We all know this one. Blowing into game cartridges was meant to clear the dust off the pins, and allow you to continue playing. In reality it was the removal of the cartridge from the console that helped. Blowing…
-
Super Mario fetishist triggered by war—in Call of Duty According to Bob 'Moviebob' Chipman, Call of Duty may in fact have ruined the world forever.
After the initial trailer was pummeled with YouTube dislikes harder than Ghostbusters, the new Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare commercial has almost made the game worth buying — for reasons other than the Cod 4 Remastered bundle. Watch this video on YouTube The combination of witty social commentary and a star-studded cast (Michael Phelps, Dany McBride) has garnered praise where the actual game does not. But as with everything providing a modicum of joy in this cruel world, someone got offended. Namely Bob “Moviebob” Chipman, a notorious far left movie and video game culture critic with an unhealthy obsession with Mario, who once called the 90s console war his own personal Vietnam. It's nice when CALL…
-
25 most heartbreaking moments in Nintendo history Sadness and spoilers within...
The only time games bring a lump to your throat is when the lump is preceded by the fist of a mechsuited super-soldier. Right? Actually, no. In the following list, you’ll find some of the eye-weepiest, blow-your-nosiest moments gaming’s ever produced in Nintendo history… Super Mario Galaxy Watch this video on YouTube Rosalina’s harrowing childhood… After spending the day pinballing around the galaxy, Mario can anchor himself to Earth by visiting the Observatory’s library and listening to Rosalina’s tale of how she became mother to a brood of Lumas. The story tells of her futile search for her mother, before she finally acquiesces and becomes the astral equivalent of a…
-
The 30 moments that defined the video game industry From consoles to genres, from lawsuits to graphics, these are the 30 big moments that define the video game industry—from 1977 to the early 00s.
In 1977 the Atari 2600 launched and along with it much of what we know today as the videogame industry. How did we get where we are today? We have surveyed our history and chosen one moment from each year that defines who and what we are today. 1977: This is your hardware, now and forever The wildly popular Atari 2600 gave us today’s modern console: a general purpose CPU, dedicated graphics and sound hardware, a standard audio/video output, generic controller I/O ports, an interface for swappable media, all powered by a wall outlet. For comparison, the battery-powered Magnavox Odyssey had neither sound nor color graphics and the Fairchild Channel…