Token Female Gamer

Chances are you have already played this game; if not on the DS then probably on the Wii or GameCube. It is not terribly shocking that Mario Kart DS is just like all of its predecessors. (Take note that Mario Kart for the Wii came out three years after this DS version!)

At its core, Mario Kart is a standard racing game. The whole gang is there, Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, and so forth. Chose one of them and race around iconic Mario world racetracks.

What always made it incredibly fascinating for me was the focus on drifting. With three difficulty levels, mastering the drift is essential to winning, especially once the competition gets harder.

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Nostalgia is back in style and the huge success of the newest Super Mario Bros game on the Wii is a true testament to the trend. With over ten million copies sold its clear that plenty of gamers are not only pining for the less graphic intensive games of their childhood, but also appreciate excellent game play.

As a long time Mario fan I truly felt that the soul of the Super Mario games was lost once they switched to 3D. But they are finally back, in original 2D with one of their best titles since Super Mario World.

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These are the sorts of things he likes to email me:

http://kotaku.com/5311760/the-girl-at-the-video-game-store

http://www.sodahead.com/blog/100601/toad-has-been-giving-us-the-finger-since-1985/

<3 TFG

While Uwe Boll has garnered game to movie adaptations a horrible reputation, there are in fact a few movies about games that have managed to not offend, even entertain.

And though Mr. Boll can be attributed with the most recent epidemic of terrible remakes, the trend was set long before. Super Mario Bros anyone? In a way he is really just carrying on a long-standing tradition.

Actually there are more game related movies then I realized. This is a decent list.  I’m not sure how complete it is, what I can say is that most of the game movies that I have seen are on it.

Some of these movies found their way into my favorite pile and that’s what this is really all about.

I should mention that I chose these movies not for their award worthiness or for their ability to bring about world peace. They managed to sneak into my top five because I enjoyed watching them.  And lets not forget that the genre is sparse on quality, thus expectation is brought down a lot (a LOT).

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My Impressions

When the original Mario Kart first came out (way back in the dark ages) I dismissed it as just another racing game. Thankfully I was strong-armed into playing, which resulted in me not leaving my chair for hours.

Mario Kart is probably one of the only racing games that I am truly and utterly devoted too. Funny enough, every time a new version comes out, I go through the whole denial cycle again, only now I have added the ‘how could they make it better’ skepticism.

It was no different with this latest Wii version. I dismissed it out of hand, but like every time before I was helplessly taken in by the splendor that is Mario Kart.

I credit Mario Kart with developing my love of drifting. Back in the day we called them EEEEEEEEEEEeeeee turns. It was only with this new version that I realized that the mechanism is actually called drifting. I might not have known what to call it, but with every version I obsessed about mastering the drift. It’s clearly the best way to win, with style.

The new wheel attachments for the controllers make driving quite entertaining, especially since driving without them is quite a challenge. And since the wheel is wireless and baseless everyone is free to drive the way they like best. I prefer 10-and-2 for those tough drifting courses, but will gladly relax into a low-rider 7-and-5 for the more smooth rides.

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One thing that really became evident while playing this game (for me anyway) is the lack of perspective. I think this is a huge drawback for the Jumping puzzle genre.

I think that this guy’s idea will save 3D jumping games. In essence it’s a great way to simulate perspective.
Check it out:

Head Tracking for Desktop VR Displays using the WiiRemote

Here is a talk he gave in Feb 2008 on modifying the Wiimote.

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My Impressions

Behold the latest Nintendo Love-child: Super Paper Mario.
And let me introduce you to the proud parents:
Father : Super Mario Brothers
Mother: Paper Mario

No one knows quite how these two met, especially considering the age difference. One might think this would cause quite a stir at Nintendo headquarters, then again they are Japanese; rich older men cavorting with younger ladies is not so far fetched. (Not so shocking here either.)

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While in the midst of finding ways to procrastinate writing my latest review, it’s about Super Paper Mario, I hit on the notion that the lack of tutorial in this game required lots of extra studying.

Now considering what a stink I made about other games not having tutorials, my serious lack of concern for this no tutorial scenario provided me with tons of fodder – aka lots of excuses to keep from writing.

Why hadn’t I made a huge fuss about this? The obvious answer of course was that, while playing, I never felt that anything needed explaining. I had an innate sense of what I was supposed to accomplish and how to succeed at those tasks.

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