Memorable Melodies: Bob-omb Battlefield from Super Mario 64

Song: Bob-omb Battlefield

Game: Super Mario 64

Composer: Koji Kondo

This week I decided to continue the trend of putting up songs I like to whistle to. My last summer of high school and during my college breaks I would work at my uncle's convenience store. It sounds cool, but I mostly sorted cans of stale beer. I don't know if you know what stale beer smells like, but I can assure you that it's heinous! One of the songs that I took to whistling all the time while performing the gross task was Bob-omb Battlefield. 

There's something that tends to stick with me about songs that appear near the beginnings of games. For those of you who are unfamiliar Super Mario 64 sees Mario trying to rescue princess peach by jumping into the paintings of her castle to collect stars. The first world Mario jumps into is Bob-omb Battlefield, which is where this classic jam plays. It's very upbeat, which is totally at odds with the bob-ombs falling down all around Mario as he tried to traverse the mountain. Mario is like that though. Tons of awful stuff happens, but he's always down for it. He needs to rescue the princess, even if he has to beat up a bunch of bombs with faces.

I never owned my own copy of Super Mario 64, so I would always play at a friend's house. Most of the time I would have my file erased for some reason, so I would always start right back at Bob-omb Battlefield. Classic.

Now I can't stop whistling this song again. I did this to myself.

Party Game Sundays: Mario Party 10 (Part 2)

Man, it's been a super long time since I wrote the first part of this. Sadly the Party Game Sunday train did not keep rolling along as quickly as I had expected. For many weeks since I wrote about Mario Party 10 there have only been three of us, which wouldn't have been very conducive to playing Bowser Party. However, at long last we wrangled a fourth person in and I was finally able to collect the data I needed in order to conclusively say that Mario Party 10 is a super average game!

That's right, Mario Party 10 is average at best. It's not bad, it's not great, it's just super average. With that said I do think that Bowser Party is the best mode in the game, which is what I had been hearing from most people. Since we've already discussed the intricacies of the regular party mode I'm here to tell you all about how cool Bowser Mode is.

Maybe the next game in the series should be called Bowser Party.

Bowser Party is a refreshing change of pace from the regular Mario Party formula. Yes, something in Mario Party is refreshing. You can play with up to five players in this fun new mode. One person plays as Bowser and they use the Wii-U Gamepad. The other four players, or in our case three, all use Wii-remotes. This means that one person theoretically gets to have more fun, because they get to screw over all the other players in order to achieve victory. It's a really solid role reversal.

As Bowser the goal is to take everyone else out of the game. So the regular players take turns rolling the die as they normally do. They're working together to get as far away from Bowser as they can. Once their turn is over Bowser gets to roll three dice. If he catches up with the other players, then a Bowser mini-game will ensue. There are around 12 unique Bowser mini-games, which all involve Bowser trying to hurt the players. Each player starts off with a set amount of hearts, and once those hearts are gone they're out of the game. You can get extra hearts and revive downed players on the map, so no one is necessarily down for the count. The games are all actually pretty fun. My personal favorite is a game where Bowser tilts the Wii-U gamepad to control where pillars of fire go. The four regular players need to jump over and dodge as best they can, which can get pretty challenging. Almost all of the games have Bowser trying to hit people with things, but they're all different enough to stay interesting.

You do not want to get hit by Bowser!

In true Mario Party fashion there is a lot of rubberbanding. The regular players get extra hearts when they beat the boss at the halfway point of the stage, which is a huge help. Bowser on the other hand will be given extra dice to toss when his opponents get too far ahead. This makes it incredibly easy to catch up, which is frustrating for the regular players, but oh so sweet for the person who gets to play as Bowser. The most Mario Party thing ever happens at the very end of the stage though. If the four regular players make it to the end first then Bowser has to hide the party star inside one of three enemies. The player who's turn is is, must then select where they think it is. If the player guesses wrong, then they get sent back a bunch of spaces and are forced to try again, but with two enemies. It's infuriating that a new mode that is fun, ends up being concluded by random chance, but I guess that's just how Mario Party is!

For some reason you can't choose from all the maps, but you do have Mushroom Park, Whimsical Waters, and Chaos Castle. Each map has its own special features that make the stage feel different than it does in the regular party mode. For example, in Whimsical Waters the four regular players will get to pick from treasure chests at certain points in the stage. Some chests have nothing in them, while others have hearts. The player who is Bowser gets to draw "graffiti" on the chests, which is supposed to throw the others off. It's a cool mechanic.

Bowser can throw his enemies off by writing untrue statements on the screen.

So yes, I think Bowser Party is the best mode in Mario Party 10. As a whole I think that Mario Party 10 is an okay game. However, I definitely do not think that it is worth the full retail price of $50. It's especially not worth that if you don't have any friends to play it with. I can't think of anything more depressing than playing Mario Party alone. I definitely had a good time with my friends though, so I hope that this game gets some DLC maps and mini-games. In the few hours we played we saw literally everything the game had to offer, and it wasn't a whole lot...

Party Game Sundays: Mario Party 10 (Part 1)

Recently we've been taking a break from playing Party Games on Sundays, but today ushered in a new era of Party Gaming. We brought everything full circle and played the newest Mario Party release. I don't think I've ever talked about it here, but Party Game Sundays was initially started to play Mario Party.

One day we decided to play Mario Party, and then things spiraled out of control and we decided we had to play and own them all. Each week we would play another Mario Party game, which culminated with us playing all 9 on New Years Day of 2014. I never really liked Mario Party as a franchise, and I still don't. I do however recognize that it can be fun in the right scenario. 

Even though I dislike Mario Party I decided a long time ago that I needed to purchase Mario Party 10, and that we had to play it. We surprisingly played a whole bunch of it and that's why this is only the first part. We played the Mario Party mode and didn't even get to touch the cool new Bowser mode, which people seem to claim is the best part of the game. We'll get to that at a later date though! 

There's no party like a Mario Party! Well, maybe a doughnut party.

So, I went into this full expecting to hate every moment. I actually enjoyed myself a fair amount. Mario Party 10 is a fun, but deeply flawed game. For some reason it carried over most of the bad gameplay changes from Mario Party 9. Prior to 9 each player would individually roll a die and move the number of spaces they got on the board. The goal was to collect coins by landing on blue spaces, and winning mini-games. The coins could then be spent on stars, and items. Mario Party 9 did away with all of that. Instead all the players are seated together in a car and take turns moving it. Coins and stars were removed in favor of mini-stars. The player with the most mini-stars at the end of the board wins!

On the surface those changes don't sound terrible, but they have some detrimental effects on the overall flow of the game. Purchasing stars and using items actually added an element of strategy to the chaotic shitstorm that Mario Party tends to be. Mini-stars seem to take all of that away. You get them for passing certain spaces and winning mini-games. The problem that we seemed to have was one person would get off to an early lead and then keep the lead. Once you pass a certain threshold it's almost impossible for anyone to catch up. You can lose mini-stars quite easily, but at a certain point it just isn't enough.

Which leads to my other issue with the game, but this one is more just an issue with Mario Party. It's super random. The mini-stars make it even more random. If you're winning by a large margin like I said, then it's very hard for the other players to catch up. It is possible for everyone to lose half their mini-stars quite frequently. This can get super frustrating, because even though you you may be crushing it during the mini-games you can still get totally boned and lose for no reason. Basically what I'm saying is the game takes no skill to win, and it's random. At least before there was a stupid random element to the game, but you actually had to think about where to move and when to buy a star. This is just picking up mini-stars and hoping the game gives you a ton and takes them away from everyone else.

No joke, this was the mini-star spread in one of our games...

All of that aside, the mini-games are actually pretty rad. Mario Party mini-games are usually pretty good and these are no exception. Mario Party 8 had a ridiculous amount of motion control and a lot of the games controlled like garbage. Mario Party 9 did away with that because of all the complaints and did everything with the buttons and d-pad. Mario Party 10 is in the middle. It has a lot of basic motion controls, and a lot of games that exclusively use the buttons. It makes for a wide variety of game controls and game types. We did everything from catch fish to hit golf balls. The game does a good job of varying the activities you're doing. It doesn't seem as if the game has a whole lot of mini-games to offer though. We only played a handful, but we started to see repeat choices and that's a total bummer. It was cool to see that each stage had its own unique mini-boss and boss mini-games associated with it.

The most infuriating part of the game to me is when you tie with someone in a mini-game. Instead of going into sudden death, or using some other determining factor to decide a winner you have to roll a die. Whichever person gets the higher number is the winner! I can't even begin to describe how annoying it is when you desperately need a win, but the person rolls one higher than you. No one deserved that win, because all you did was roll a freaking die! It's 100% chance! My main issue with Mario Party as a whole is that it's too reliant on chance. I realize it's a board game, but in most of them you still need to use strategy. Sure, the first 8 had some semblance of that, but 9 and 10 are completely devoid of it!

I feel like I end up saying this every time I talk about a first party Wii-U game, but Mario Party 10 looks incredible. The graphics are ridiculous, which makes each stage exciting to go to for the first time. The magic fades a bit if you look at some of the background textures, but that's not really the point. Nintendo is great with their art direction and it has been leading to some beautiful games. The sad part to me is that this game costs $50. If I wasn't going to be playing this with a group of friends who will play Mario Party with me again I never would have spent the money on this and if I had, then I would have been severely disappointed. Just by playing through all the maps, we were able to unlock almost everything worthwhile the game had to offer. Yes I'm saying this before having played what is supposedly the "best" mode, so I'll defer my final judgement until after I play it.

This image perfectly represents how I feel about the Mario Party franchise.

Look forward to part two next week!

Podcast Episode 4

For the fourth episode I thought it would be best to bring everyone down a bit. Recently I've been noticing how becoming what is theoretically an adult has changed my video gaming habits. If you want to hear about that for about a half hour then I suggest you listen to this. Enjoy!

Party Game Sundays: Mario Kart 8

Yes, it's been quite a while since I've written an installment of Party Game Sundays. I think I've missed three now, but I'm not too positive on that. The main reason I haven't written anything is because for two of the three weeks we've played the same two games. One of those games being the hot new Wii-U exclusive Mario Kart 8. I'm actually on a vacation right now, but I have a bit of time to myself, so I might as well tell you all about it right now.

Mario Kart 8 came out on Friday, May 30th. Much like Sportsfriends I wanted to play it immediately, so Noukeo and I went to Landers' as soon as humanly possible. In a few hours time we unlocked every character, and it was super fun the entire time. 

Dear Nintendo, baby characters are terrible. Please stop adding them to your games.

I wish that I could tell you that Mario Kart 8 is a revolutionary title that's going to change the course of the Wii-U, but I can't. It's another Mario Kart game. While I think it's a damn good Mario Kart game it's still the same thing you've played for years, but this time it looks much prettier. For a lot of people, like me, that's enough. What's weird is that I actually got to play Mario Kart 8 at a Best Buy last summer. Nintendo was doing there weird demo tour, and Noukeo and I went to play Mario Kart. Much as I had expected, it was some Mario Kart-ass Mario Kart.

What makes Mario kart 8 different is that your car can ride along walls, and go upside down. The karts and bikes can do so by transforming quickly mid-race. The wheels turn into some kind of crazy anti-gravity discs. This allows for the new courses to get all kinds of crazy. In one of my favorite courses you're literally driving straight up a waterfall. The retro courses also incorporate the anti-gravity mechanics in ways that make the old feel new once again. It helps that Mario kart 8 retains some of the new features of 7, like being able to drive underwater and glide through the air. 

The anti-gravity aspect of the game makes the courses super interesting.

One thing I noticed immediately about this Mario Kart is that it's harder to control. In the Wii version, I often drove automatic, because I didn't want to have to deal with all the power sliding shenanigans. In Mario Kart 8 there is no choice, so you have to power slide if you want to do well. Without power sliding it seems like most karts have little to no turning ability. It takes a while to get used to, but now I'm able to drift around corners like a pro. 

As you may have seen from footage of this hot new Mario kart product it looks incredible. Nintendo continues to use art direction to their advantage to somehow have their games look better than everything on higher spec platforms. Never before has Mario's mustache looked so incredible. The game doesn't look quite as amazing in multiplayer though, because they need to keep the frame rate up. It's still fun as all hell to play with friends though.

This is a hot highlight reel I uploaded. I was Rosalina.

Normally Nintendo seems as if they're painfully out of touch with what most people want or look for in video games, but in this game they actually did some really cool stuff. At the end of each race you can watch a sweet highlight reel of all the best moments from the race. You can even watch the entire race if you want, but that's just crazy. What's really crazy is that you can upload the 30-60 second highlight reels straight to Youtube for everyone's viewing pleasure. It's not the most exciting thing ever, but I feel like it shows that Nintendo is trying to get more in touch with what everyone in the modern world is doing. Another part of that is that the online multiplayer in this game works competently, which is pretty shocking to me. 

Describing Nintendo games, especially iconic ones like Mario Kart is getting increasingly weird for me. I love them, but they've been largely the same. It's easy to see that Nintendo is trying to change things up, but they're doing it incrementally. All I know is that Mario Kart 8 is a super fun game. If the Wii-U keeps getting titles like this it might actually be worth owning at some point in the future! 

Party Game Sundays: Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games

Since it was Noukeo's Birthday we decided to play a game that we thought might not suck. In order to do that Noukeo purchased Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games. Prior to this past Sunday I had never tried a Mario & Sonic Olympic game, because I'm a very jaded person.

In the 90's when Mario and Sonic were in the middle of Nintendo and Sega's console war no one ever thought that they would be in the same game together, but if they were it would be the greatest game of all time. Instead the game that came out was Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games in 2007. Instead of taking the time to play it I wrote it off as a shitty mini-game collection. There must have been people who really liked it though, because they keep pumping them out now.

This image is amazing. I don't know how I was ever down on this.

Even though I was jaded in 2007, I am even more jaded now. I have lived through numerous Party Game Sundays and have seen true despair. I now realize that while Mario and Sonic could have come together in a cooler game this is completely fine. Nintendo at least puts a little effort into their games, because they want the Mario brand to mean something. That's not the case with most of the games we play on Sunday, so I'm always down for anything Mario related. More often than not the game will be pretty good.

I've decided that the name of this game is too long and no longer want to type it. M&SOWG is actually a very fun game. As you may have guessed it has mini-games themed around the Winter Olympics. Things such as bobsledding, figure skating, and hockey are all available to play. The cool thing is that since there aren't an overabundance of these games each one is developed very well.

I want to go bobsledding in real life.

There were four of us playing, so we formed an Olympic team. We had to work together to score well and earn medals. We were playing in festival mode. We were trying to be the best team by the end of the month long festival. Each day would consist of playing two mini-games. We began by training in the game so that we could learn the rules. The event I remember the most at the moment was bobsledding. All four of us were in the bobsleigh and we had to tilt the wii-mote in order to turn. It was super weird, because if one person was being an idiot the whole sleigh would veer off course. The goal of most of the bobsledding events was to collect coins. It's always surprising to me when motion controls actually work.

Outside of the mini-games themselves the game was just well put together. You can go around the Olympic village and spend coins you've earned from events on various things. You can buy clothes and cosmetic changes for event objects such as snowboards and sleighs. If you play as your Mii you can even unlock sweet clothes. As you progress you can also unlock new music from both Mario and Sonic games and have it play during events.

I've always wanted to see Luigi snowboard.

We only played halfway through a festival, but I'd really like to play through the rest of it. We didn't get to play hockey, we just did the training. It was dumb, because we were just shooting the puck into ice blocks and not actually playing a game.

I could actually see myself playing M&SOWG on my own time. The newest game in the series is for the Wii-U and I'm sure it's of the same quality, if not better, so maybe I'll pick that up as well at some point.

Top Ten Games of 2013

2013 is over and done with, which means that it's time for yet another top ten list. I have made a sweet list of what I believe to be the top ten games released in 2013. Every game on this list was released this year and I played and beat each one to completion. Keep in mind that this is just my opinion, so we may disagree. A lot of great games came out this year and I had to make some hard cuts, but that seems to happen every year.

As always we'll be starting with number ten and working our way up to the prestigious number one spot. If you want to read my more in depth thoughts on each of these games just click on their names (Except Fire Emblem). See you at the top.

10. Grand Theft Auto V

Grand Theft Auto V may not have been the greatest story ever told, but it sure was ambitious. The new Los Santos Rockstar created is one of the most elaborate open worlds ever seen in a game. It doesn't have quite enough to do in that open world, but it sure is detailed. On top of that you play as not one, but three characters. Each of which is very memorable in their own right.

I don't really know where open world games can go from here, but I hope that Rockstar keeps trying to take them to the next level.


9. BioShock Infinite

Bioshock Infinite seems to have lost a lot of support since its initial release, but I for one will not abandon this great game. Yes, the combat wasn't the greatest, but it certainly wasn't the worst. In fact it improved upon the combat of the original in some very meaningful ways. Plus jumping around on the sky rails is pretty freaking sweet.

I came to Bioshock Infinite expecting an interesting story and that's exactly what I got. If you think about it too much everything completely unravels, but that's the case with almost any science fiction. The ending of Infinite continues to blow my mind months after having completed the game. If you haven't you should really check it out.

8. Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle Royale

This was the first game I have ever imported and I couldn't be more happy about that. The cel shaded graphics make everything look ripped straight from the manga. Cyber Connect 2 put so much care into every single aspect of this game's animations in order to keep them true to the source material. This is a must own game for fans of the Jojo series and in my case made me a fan.

The fights are fun, but not super deep. It may not have a long life on the tournament scene, but Jojo's ASB is still one of my favorite fighting games of all time. If you're not crazy enough to import it you can just wait for the US version to come out later this year. I will definitely be buying it again.

7. Super Mario 3D World

Super Mario 3D World is the best looking game I have played this year. Mario has made an amazing transition into HD and I couldn't be happier. This game is actually innovative in a way that many Nintendo games just aren't anymore. I don't really know why Mario and friends can don a cat suit, but it's certainly an excellent addition to the Mario suit repertoire.

Super Mario 3D World is just plain fun, which is something I can't say about a lot of games these days. If you're one of the three people who have a Wii-U this is something you have to buy.

6. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies

Phoenix Wright has returned to the court room once again and I couldn't be happier about it. This is coming from someone who actually really liked Apollo Justice. The game is largely the same as it was before, but with snazzy new 3D models and fully voiced anime cutscenes. I could do without the voice acting, but other than that everything is streamlined for the player's convenience.

I loved to hang out with Phoenix and Apollo again. It seems like Capcom is already hard at work on the 6th entry in the series. Hopefully this one sold well enough in the US to make them keep bringing these over here. I love this series and it seems to only be getting better.

5. Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate

I didn't understand the Monster Hunter craze before I played this game. Somehow it sucked me in and I got lost in my hopeless Monster Hunter addiction for hundreds of hours. I have finally escaped, but I still get that sweet craving sometimes.

There's something magical about hunting a fearsome beast with your friends. Even though the game is very unforgiving to new players if you take the time to figure the game out it's a whole lot of fun. You just have to know what you're getting into. Perhaps someday you too will be one of those crazy people who understands the seductive power that is Monster Hunter.

4. The Last of Us

I will never forget the ending of this game. Naughty Dog created some of the most memorable characters ever seen in a video game. Joel and Ellie feel like real people. Their voice acting is impeccable and their facial expressions and movements are very lifelike.

The survival gameplay is serviceable and really makes you feel like you're living in a post-apocalyptic zombie mushroom world. It's a horrifying place, which is backed up by brutal depictions of violence. If you haven't played this game you need to. I wasn't into it at first, but once you start to see the relationship between Joel and Ellie unfold you'll be hooked.

3. Pokemon X/Y

Everyone always complains that Nintendo never changes anything, but this time they have. The world of Pokemon on a handheld has been brought to the third dimension. Battles look great, because each Pokemon has their very own detailed 3D model.

It might not seem like a big deal, but the introduction of fairy Pokemon completely changes the way Pokemon's battle system works. On top of that some Pokemon can even mega evolve now to become super powerful. This iteration changed so much. Hell, you can move diagonally for god's sake! Nintendo has finally changed Pokemon in some very meaningful ways and I can't wait to see where they go next.

2. Fire Emblem: Awakening

I really like strategy RPGs. One of the things that always bug me about them is that you get so many characters and never really get to know any of them. That's not the case with Fire Emblem Awakening. The excellent translation paired with the social system makes each character feel like they have an identity.

Awakening takes all of the best elements from each Fire Emblem and mashes them all into one game. You can get certain characters married and then use their children in battle. The children inherit skills and have increased stat gain, so they tend to be super beastly. It's a really cool feature. Fire Emblem Awakening is a truly deep game with a whole lot of content. I fully recommend it to anyone who owns a 3DS.

1. Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

The days of the 50-80 hours RPG are almost dead and gone. Ni No Kuni however allowed me to revisit the days of old when RPG worlds felt magical and full of whimsy. Everything about Ni No Kuni is very charming and it does an incredible job building its fantasy world. The Wizard's Compendium is a literal book inside the game that's chock full of information about the world.

Ni No Kuni is one of those games with a ridiculous amount of side activities to do and secrets to find and I did almost everything. The monster collecting aspect had me hooked immediately and the lively battles kept me interested. At first glance it seems like a game for little kids, but the combat gets to be quite challenging.

Ni No Kuni is a special game to me, because it made me feel like a kid again. It made me feel like there's still hope that the type of grand RPG adventures I used to have as a kid will keep coming out. I loved Ni No Kuni and I hope that you'll check it out as well.

     -Manny

What I Watched: Super Mario Bros. Super Show! Episode 1

Before I got into video games, prior to kindergarten, my great-aunt used to baby-sit me. She'd feed me all kinds of stuff and let me watch a ton television. The great thing about being able to watch TV at her house was that she had cable, while I didn't have it at home.

One of the things I remember watching was a Super Mario Bros. cartoon. I couldn't remember what it was called, until Amazon kindly reminded me. They've been adding a ton of free video for Prime Members to stream. Recently I got lost in all of the free programming and found myself face to face with the Super Mario Bros. Super Show. I figured that this was the show I used to watch, so I settled down to watch an episode. This is what I saw...

Some portions of the intro were exactly what I remembered of the show, but I can honestly say I have absolutely no recollection of the live action sequences. Perhaps I subconsciously tried to forget the two creepy older men, which I think is a valid possibility. I decided to do some research to see if this was the show I remembered and it was. Apparently live action sequences appear at the beginning and ending of each episode to bookmark the cartoon. In each episode of the show a different celebrity guest comes to interact with Mario and Luigi.

In the episode I watched the guest star was Nicole Eggert who is known for her roles on shows like Charles in Charge and Baywatch. For some reason she appears in the medicine cabinet where she is examining the expiration date on the toothpaste. She came to see Mario and Luigi, because she read that they were the best plumbers around. Her kitchen sink needs to be fixed and the Mario Brothers accept the job with little hesitation.

How the hell did she get in there?

The episode seems to revolve around cleanliness, because everyone involved makes various remarks about being clean, which is a little weird. Mario and Luigi decide that they need to prove their skills to Nicole and it just so happens that they have a clogged sink right in their office! She protests, because she has a party to go to, but the brothers insist that she stay and watch. While trying to fix the sink the brothers end up getting her dirty, which goes against the cleanliness they were promoting earlier. 

This is the point where the cartoon comes in. It's decent for a Mario cartoon made in the late 80's, but it's nothing special. Mario and Luigi have Brooklyn accents instead of Italian accents, but I wasn't expecting the voice acting to be any good. There are also a number of things that don't really fit in relation to the games. Birdo, Bowser, and the goombas all look way different, but not enough for kids to care. As a children's cartoon it's fine. It could have stood on its own, but it was instead book-ended by a ridiculous live action show. As you may have noticed I was much more concerned with what was happening outside of the cartoon segment.

This is about what I'd expect of a Mario cartoon from the 80's.

When the cartoon ends the live action segment makes its triumphant return. Mario and Luigi felt bad that they got Eggert dirty, so they wanted to help her out. As you'd expect they only end up making her even more messy. The two brothers continually get sadder with each mishap, while Nicole tries to console them. Nicole eventually gets through to the brothers in order to tell them that it's okay that she's dirty. Turns out the party she mentioned earlier was a sloppy party. Don't know what a sloppy party is? I didn't either, my mind was running rampant, so it's a good thing she explained it.

Turns out a sloppy party is a party where the person who looks the sloppiest wins. Without knowing it the brothers supplied Nicole with the perfect costume! The brothers are relieved and it just so happens that they have a cake for absolutely no reason. Nicole, Mario, and Luigi then begin rubbing the cake all over Nicole, which made me laugh so hard I cried. It's really funny, but it's kind of creepy at the same time. Two older men with fake mustaches are rubbing cake all over a young girl. It seems like the kind of thing that could turn into a porno at any moment. Lucky for me that didn't happen and the episode ended.

I don't get why these live action segment exist, but I can safely say that they're unintentionally hilarious. Mario and Luigi are really old and they're walking stereotypes. They have spaghetti sauce on their clothes, they have pizzas lying around, and their phone is literally in the center of a pizza. While I will always look back fondly on the humor I found in this episode I'm going to try as hard as I can to never watch another episode of this show ever again. Despite my quest to never watch another episode of this again the ending theme has been stuck in my head for some time.

DO THE MARIO! Swing your arms from side to side....

I do think that everyone should try to view this in some format though, just so they can witness how ridiculous it is. As I mentioned you can find it on Amazon and it's free if you have prime. Alternatively you can view it on youtube in parts. It's certainly something you'll never gorget.

     -Manny

Power On!

"I received my very first video game console as a gift from my parents when I was in Kindergarden at the ripe young age of seven. I remember crying in the middle of Wal-Mart when the electronics clerk said he didn't think there were any Super Nintendos left. My father insisted that the clerk check to see if there were any more left in the store. Luckily for my parents the clerk returned with a brand new console for me to take home. We rushed home to hook it up to our relatively old television. It was a miracle that thing worked as well as it did. It was an old brown Zenith that had been passed down from my Great Grandma. It has since died, but it did its job for quite a long time. I put Super Mario Bros. in the SNES, hit the power, and from that moment my life was never the same.

Prior to that moment I don't know if I had ever played any other video games, but I fell in love with what I saw and experienced. I couldn't believe that I could control someone else in a different world."

The above quotation recounts my first experience with gaming. I can still clearly remember that moment, because as the quotation states once I hit the power on the SNES my life was never the same. That might sound corny from an outside perspective, but if you're an avid gamer you know exactly what I'm talking about. The concept of controlling someone else in a virtual world, being them, grabbed hold of me and hasn't let go since.

I am now twenty-one years old and about to graduate college a semester early. You might think that I would have grown out of gaming by now, but that is far from the case. I now own over four hundred games spread across at least ten consoles, and both of those numbers will be steadily climbing for years to come. As I previously mentioned I am going to be graduating from college about a month from now. I'll be graduating with a B.A. in English and Creative Writing. So needless to say I like to read and write as well as game. 

Over the years I've written a great deal about gaming, but I've chosen to keep most of it to myself. If I want to be a writer this behavior is unacceptable, which is why I am creating this blog titled Game Time With Manny. I've decided that it's time to get my thoughts and opinions about gaming out there and I couldn't think of a better place to start than the internet.

     -Manny