Speaking of Super Mario...

Beginning in June, Conan took over for Jay Leno as the host of The Tonight Show on NBC. A few days later, the blog Serious Lunch posted about the resemblance between a backdrop of the set and the designs of Super Mario Bros., complete with edited background from the game (actually, it looks more like the design from Super Mario World). By the end of the week, the above clip aired.

Poor Mario

Family Guy vs. Street Fighter

This is pretty impressive.

Let's go for a burger

Are you bad enough?

Wacko Jacko!

I went to my sister's place this weekend, and found that she and Howard had bought a Nintendo Wii. So I played all of the games that came with Wii Sports. While playing the baseball game, there was a "M. Jackson" who looked very much like Wacko Jacko. My sister tells me that that one of Howard's friends created this Mii.

The resemblance is astounding. What's also funny was that I scored two home runs with Wacko Jacko, and eventually won the game under mercy rules (I was up 9-1 by the end of the second inning).


Oh yeah, the Wii is very fun to play. The boxing game also gave me a good workout. My right arm is sore.

Star Wars

LEGO Star Wars II was released about two weeks ago. I have it for the PC, and while the graphics look great, the controls are clearly designed with the console in mind. (It's also available for just about every current console you can think of.) I've played and finished the first game on my PC last year, yet I don't remember the controls being as difficult back then. I suppose I could remap the keys, which should make thing easier...

I think I'll probably just get this game for the PSP after I'm done playing LocoRoco. That way, I get better controls, and I'll be able to play the game anywhere, and not be tied to my PC. Anyone interested in trying this game out on your PC?

White Knight Story

Level-5, the makers of Dragon Quest VIII, have an upcoming RPG for the soon-to-be-released PlayStation 3 called "White Knight Story." This is the trailer they showed at this year's Tokyo Game Show.

To fully appreciate the impressive graphics of this game, you'd have to watch the full-sized trailer, rather than the one on YouTube.

More Wii control

Here's another video demonstrating how Nintendo Wii's remote controller will supposedly work. The controller should work well with action-oriented games. However, like I stated before, a "music conductor" game would quite possibly be the most boring game in the world. Other things I saw in this clip that I don't think will be fun to play:

• Chopping food and cooking -- Um, no. It's not like you actually learn how to actually chop things really fast. If you really want to cook, just step into your kitechen.
• Dentistry -- WTF? How is that fun?
• Swatting flies -- Why would you want to "play" something on a simluation for what would be a chore in real life?

Other concerns:

• Driving games -- Who drives with a stick as a steering wheel? Either use a wheel, or a standard controller. None of this "pretend-this-stick-is-a-wheel" crap.
• Control using a motion sensor could be finicky. One false flick of your wrist, and your character jumps off a cliff...
  

Other than those, things should be cool. The controller should be great for most sports games, which is probably why Nintendo plans on releasing the system with a sports compilation game. I also imagine that the nunchuk control would make the system good for first-person shooters, solving the problem of console controllers not being on par with the mouse/keyboard combination PC users have thus enjoyed with such games.

Sometimes luck's on your side, sometimes it's not

While waiting at the office of Enterprise Rent-a-Car, I played a game of LocoRoco and got my best time ever.

Still, that's quite a long time to wait for someone to help you rent a car. And after I finished the game, I still had several minutes before they were ready to help me.

Since my insurance has alotted $45 a day for rental cars, I get to rent one of their "better" cars, and got a Volvo S40 while my car is in the shop. They're not sure how long it will take to repair my car yet, but it'll probably be somewhere between one or two weeks.

Once again... LocoRoco

On the second day that I downloaded this demo game, I was able to get all of the items in it (the 19th one is, for me, the most difficult one to get). Since that time, I've thought about trying to capture all of that as a movie file, so instead of a text description "walkthrough," people can see for themselves where everything is.

I haven't gone through with that idea until now.

Loco Roco

I downloaded this demo game for my PSP recently. It's quite addictive. You use the L & R buttons to tilt the ground, so that the round creature can roll in the proper direction. You can additionally make it jump over obstacles, split up into smaller creatures, and join back together. All throughout, the creatures are singing an addictive little tune.