Super Mario All-Stars for Wii Comes to USA

Well, Nintendo sure kept us waiting, but they finally announced that a Limited Edition of Super Mario All-Stars is coming to the good old USA. Not only that, but it will have all the content of the Japanese and European release! American Mario fanatics will be able to get their hands on this platform collection come December 12th. Bear in mind that it is a limited edition set so if you're planning on getting one, you may wanna put in a pre-order. I own the NES versions of Super Mario Bros. 1-3. I also have Super Mario All-Stars for my SNES. And I own all four of the NES versions on my Wii's Virtual Console. Even so, I'll still be picking this one up.

Samus Wins a Prize

A picture I came across when I was looking for Metroid images. No doubt it was done by the same artist who did the Mario piece. The Metroid stuffed doll reminds me of the hatchling from Super Metroid. It's just so cuuuuuuuute!

Nintendo! It's For Breakfast Now!

Remember back in the day when the NES was all the rage? There was so much Nintendo merchandise (still is today, actually), but one that I really remember was the Nintendo Cereal System and this was mostly thanks to the commercial, which is all kinds of cheesy by today's standards but I always get a chuckle out of it. For those that can remember, was the cereal any good? I can't for the life of me recall how it tasted.

25 Years of NES

1983 was an interesting year for video games. This year saw the release of Nintendo's Family Computer, often called the Famicom in Japan. In the years that followed, the system became massively popular, allowing Nintendo a 90% claim of the Japanese gaming market. Eventually, the company decided to place the Famicom in American retail outlets. There was just one huge problem that prevented this from happening. You see, the same year that the Famicom launched in Japan, the North American video game market was going through a rough spot, one that would later be known as The Great Video Game Crash of 1983.

During the crash, consumers were highly skeptical of purchasing a new gaming system, and retailers wanted absolutely nothing to do with video games anymore due to the plethora of unsold stock. Gaming in American was seen as a fad and in the minds of many, the fad was over.

Nintendo, still persistent in wanting to break into the American gaming market, made a few attempts to clear the air. The first was partnering with Atari before the crash had started but the deal ultimately went south due to Atari's financial woes. Nintendo's next move was to go solo, unveiling the console at both of the 1984 the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). The system was tailor-made to be a home computer, taking the name Nintendo Advanced Video System (NAVS), but ultimately failed to catch the eyes of consumers and retailers.

The Big N returned to the 1985 summer CES, ditching the home computer approach, instead opting to sell the system as a toy. To this end, the a light gun Zapper was showcased along with the Robotic Operating Buddy (R.O.B.) peripheral. This caught the attention of both consumers and retailers and on October 18th, 1985, the NES test launched in New York City with the Zapper, R.O.B, Gyromite and Duck Hunt (known as the NES Deluxe Set). The following year, the NES was launched nation wide with the help of Worlds of Wonder (makers of Lazer Tag and Teddy Ruxpin ) to get more toy stores to carry the console. The nation wide launched had two different bundles. The Deluxe Set and the Action Set, which came with the Zapper and a copy of Super Mario Bros. Not only did Super Mario Bros. help sell the system, it revived the North American video game market and Nintendo had really made a name for itself.

Hard to believe it has been 25 years since the NES graced American shores. My parents got my sister and I an NES for Christmas sometime in the late '80s. We spent the whole day playing Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt. Super Mario Bros. made me a slave to Mario games and a platform addict. To this day, the NES is still one of my favorite systems, with a few of my all-time favorites being 8-bit NES games.

Over the last few months I've been getting my NES fix through the Wii's Virtual Console, which offers spot on emulation for NES games. With nearly 20 NES titles, I own more NES VC games than anything else.

The NES is also what made me realize video game music as a genre. Super Mario Bros. Overworld and Underground themes have been stored in my brain from day one. Mega Man, the DuckTales Moon theme and Castlevania music soon followed. Sure it may sound like mere noise to others but to me, the NES put out simple and complex pieces of music.

I sometimes wonder, just how many gamers did the NES create in America when it was released? For many, this was the first gaming system they ever played. I can't remember if my first game system was the Atari 2600 or the NES, but I have far more memories of the NES than I do of the Atari. Happy 25th Anniversary, NES. Here's to another 25 more!

Super Mario All-Stars for Wii... In Europe

To the right is the box art for the European version of Super Mario All-Stars for the Wii. While checking for a release date of this game for the USA, I came across this on Super Mario Wiki. It looks like the European version will also include all of the extras that the Japanese version is getting. The Japanese version, Super Mario Collection will release on October 21st, while the European version is set to release on December 3rd.

Seeing a European version of Super Mario All-Stars for the Wii brightens my hopes for a USA release with all the extras included. Keep your fingers crossed!

Pulseman Virtual Console Review

System: Genesis
Genre: Platformer
Developer: Game Freak
Publisher: Sega
Cost: 900 Points

Originally released for the Genesis' Japanese counter part, the Mega Drive in 1994, and available in 1996 in America for those who had the ill-fated Sega Channel, Pulseman is one of those games that unfortunately never saw a full-on release in the states. That's pretty sad because Pulseman would have been right at home in the platformer genre with the likes of Sonic the Hedgehog, Donkey Kong Country and the Super Mario Bros. games. Whatever made Sega of America pass up the idea to fully localize Pulseman is anyone's guess. More than ten years later, that mistake is thankfully corrected.

The plot behind Pulseman is that of father against son. Doctor Yoshiyama created an artificial being known as C-Life and she's so advanced she's almost human. The doc falls in love with her but since she's a digital being and he exists in the real world, there's no way the two of them can ever be together. No way, that is, until the doc finds a way to transport himself into the digital world! Yoshiyama and C-Life even produce a half human, half digital offspring (the less you think of how they managed this, the better) named Pulseman. Since Pulseman is half human, he can exist in the human world. Yoshiyama, having lived in the the cyber world for far too long, has a lapse in sanity, changes his name to Waruyama and somehow escapes to the real world, where like any good doctor gone bad, sets his sights on world domination. OK, so the story may sound a bit hokey, but I've heard worse and the plot presented is as good a reason as any to thrash a mad scientist.
Instead of stomping on foes to defend himself, Pulseman uses kicks, punches, and the Voltteccer, an electric-based attack that has to be charged before it can be executed. Charging the Voltteccer is a simple matter of double tapping forward to dash or running for a short distance. It's useful for killing enemies in groups and at long range. Even better, you can use it to turn Pulseman into a ball of energy that can bounce off walls and even travel on electrical lines. Voltteccer is a move that gets used frequently but it's a pretty cool technique that never overstays it's welcome like a lot of other gimmicks in other video games (sorry FLUDD).

With seven levels to play through and a boss in each one, you might think that Pulseman is a short romp and you'd be half right. Sure, the game may not be long, but each of the game's seven stages are huge. Some rather simple, some quite taxing. Pulseman isn't exactly a hard game, (the bosses are pretty easy once you figure out how to defeat them) but it does have it's tricky spots.

When you first start out, only the first three levels are available to you and you can play them in any order you choose. After beating the first three stages, levels 4-6 open up. The seventh and final stage (arguably the longest and most complex) is always saved for last and packs multiple bosses. Your continues are limited and should you make it to the boss and have to use one, rather than do the whole stage over, you begin right at the boss area or whatever check point you crossed before you expired. This may make the game a bit easier, but after some stages, you'll be thankful for the game being so merciful.

Pulseman is very easy on the eyes, coming off as one of the most visually stunning games on the Genesis. The game makes uses of lots of colors and amazing scrolling and pseudo 3D effects. Equally impressive is the sound. The game's music has a track for every mood. It's lively when you're in a city, and low key when you're trying to navigate the correct path through a maze. Jun'ichi Masuda knocked one out of the park when he composed the music for this game. If that name sounds familiar to Pokemon fans, it should. Some portions of the music went on to be reused as the Rival themes in the Pokemon games. Simply put, Pulseman offers some of the best audio you'll ever hear on the Genesis. Period.

Really, Pulseman should have gotten a world wide release on the Genesis back in 1994. Having played through this gem, I honestly can't believe Sega of America denied us such a great experience years ago. It looks great, sounds spectacular, and it's so much fun to play. If you're into platformers or quality titles, Pulseman is a no-brainer.

8/10

Screen shots from Sega-16.com

Mario's Wardrobe

While browsing for Mario pictures, I came across this and just had to post it here. Just look at all those clothes Mario has to choose from! None of my outfits come close to being as cool as those. And kudos to the artist for representing the actual colors of Mario's overalls from Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. 3. I always liked the black & red.