General gaming

General gaming

Mama Media! The Many Animated Adaptations of Mario

Posted: 16 Aug 2012 06:33 PM PDT

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1UP COVER STORY

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1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF AUGUST 13 | THE SUPER MARIO BROS. LEGACY

Mama Media! The Many Animated Adaptations of Mario

Cover Story: These guys played the part before Mario developed his famous falsetto.

T

he gleeful, manchild version of Mario we've come to love since 1996's Super Mario 64 actually debuted a few years earlier, though in a much less accessible format. Nintendo hired veteran actor Charles Martinet to perform as a real-time CGI puppet of their mascot character (and friends) at trade shows shortly before the N64 redefined him; and apparently, Martinet's pizza box Italian caricature and falsetto ramblings impressed them so much that his take on Mario eventually became an institution. Before Martinet gave Nintendo's working-class blank slate a bit more character, though, the company's love of licensing-based profits produced several other version of Mario that didn't quite measure up to his current and barely comprehensible state. The following should provide plenty of proof as to why Nintendo hasn't bothered loaning out their most famous character for nearly 20 years.

Super Mario Bros. Anime (Various)


1986, 1989 | Theatrical, VHS | Played by: Toru Furuya

The Unfinished Swan Explores the Very Core of Vision

Posted: 16 Aug 2012 02:16 PM PDT

Sometimes games try to tackle extremely existential questions. The ones that do it best never really manage to give an answer, but do a great job at simulating the question itself. What The Unfinished Swan seems to ask the players is how we confront the unknown of the space around us.

It's not a very complicated question per se. In the most basic way, most of us just look in a direction, see something, and process the information our eyes gather inside our brains. I was very surprised when I experienced the first level of The Unfinished Swan's demo, as it perfectly transforms this process into a game. When it starts it just leaves you there, swimming in a sea of white, without telling you what to do. Then, inevitably, you swing your Move controller, maybe out of boredom, because you might think the game is actually still loading.

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And that's when it happens: a tiny black ball of paint hits something -- a surface. As you throw more and more ink towards infinity, a whole world starts taking shape in front of you. It was actually there all along, you just couldn't know. As you reveal the familiar shapes of walls, plants, and stones, a path forms in front of you. The Unfinished Swan is a game in which exploring the world is as important as exploring what the game actually is, according to Ian Dallas, the game's creative director.

DmC's Dante Isn't the Pretty Boy You Think He Is

Posted: 16 Aug 2012 10:59 AM PDT

There's a Union Jack on the arm of DmC's Dante's black trench coat.

It's there for a reason: As a sign of the amazing job Ninja Theory is doing at rebuilding gaming's most famous white-haired demon hunter from the ground up -- as well as the twisted world around him.

God of War: Ascension Gives Kratos an Extra Layer of Rage

Posted: 16 Aug 2012 10:54 AM PDT

It's impossible to even mention God of War: Ascension without talking about violence. Kratos, after all, is one of the angriest characters in videogame history, and he's always been famous for his gory fighting style and his "ungentlemanly" attitude.

But the extra layer of violence that the Santa Monica team has applied to Ascension has often been criticized as intolerable, and therefore the game has, ever since E3, attracted attention for all the wrong reasons. I say "wrong" because, whether or not you are okay with the things shown in the trailers for the single and multiplayer modes, it's time to start treating Ascension as a videogame, and sadly leave to the side whether or not glorifying violence in this way serves any purpose for the media and specifically for the gameplay of this title.

Sony had a playable demo ready for Gamescom 2012 and I've had the chance to make my way through it accompanied by the precious help of Lead Game Designer and living instruction manual Mark Simon.

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Happy Land: How Super Mario Bros. Established My Video Game Worldview

Posted: 16 Aug 2012 10:25 AM PDT

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1UP COVER STORY

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1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF AUGUST 13 | THE SUPER MARIO BROS. LEGACY

Happy Land: How Super Mario Bros. Established My Video Game Worldview

Cover Story: In SMB, a single level really can make all the difference.

I

 was five years old when I started playing video games, earmarked by the arrival of the NES in my house. I didn't exactly know what to think of them, but I had an inherent affinity for electronics, and there were car race games, so I was on the bandwagon. However, one thing was clear: I wasn't really interested in Super Mario Bros. It wasn't even why I wanted the NES, but when I finally tried it, I think I expected to be great at it from the start. Instead, I was confounded and annoyed, so I didn't really play it that much.

Eventually, after I played enough of the other games I had, I went back to Mario and gave him some more time. I got through world 1-1, completed 1-2 (after some trial And error), and took him up the pipe that led to the goal. World 1-3 was next, and I expected more of the same, but then I took Mario a little to the right, and saw that the world was now a series of disconnected treetops and not solid ground. Against the bright blue sky, it was kind of scenic, at least in contrast to the rest of the game.
Posted by Shri Krishna

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