Kotaku: Nes

Pokemon WiiWare And VC Inflation

Mike Fahey — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 08:20:00 MDT

This week in Wii downloadables we are given a choice between new collectible goodness and old inflatable badness as Nintendo releases one new game for WiiWare and two classic titles on the virtual console.

First and foremost, WiiWare gets one of its most eagerly anticipated titles with My Pokémon Ranch (1,000 points), the prequel to My Pokémon Creamy Caesar. This relaxing title lets your Miis and Pokémon hang out together on a ranch, which sounds like a splendid way to spend an afternoon. Players will be able to link up with Pokémon Diamond and Pearl for the DS and deposit up to 1,000 Pokémon onto your ranch, leaving you up to your neck in Pokémon droppings.

On the older games front we have two NES games at 600 points each, Dig Dug, which involves inflating your enemies until they are dead, and the Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa, a game never released outside of Japan that involves inflating your enemies and riding on top of them. Two games whose heroes truly blow.

Wii-kly Update

One WiiWare Game and Two Virtual Console Games Added to Wii Shop Channel

The latest additions to the Wii™ Shop Channel offer a remarkable array of characters you won’t find just anywhere. A fresh WiiWare™ title gives Pokémon lovers a whole new way to wrangle and enjoy their little pals, while a pair of imported Virtual Console™ releases will pump up the action quotient—literally—for fans of NES® classics.

Nintendo adds new and classic games to the Wii Shop Channel at 9 a.m. Pacific time every Monday. Wii™ owners with a high-speed Internet connection can redeem Wii Points™ to download the games. Wii Points can be purchased in the Wii Shop Channel or at retail outlets. This week’s new games are:

WiiWare™

My Pokémon™ Ranch (Nintendo, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone—Comic Mischief, 1,000 Wii Points): The Pokémon phenomenon debuts on WiiWare with My Pokémon Ranch, a game that lets you watch as Pokémon and Miis interact with each other for the first time. Enjoy the relaxing ranch life by viewing your ranch and its Pokémon, taking pictures and sending those pictures to your friends via the Wii Message Board. The more Pokémon and Miis you bring to your ranch, the more fun it becomes. My Pokémon Ranch can be linked with the Nintendo DS™ Pokémon® Diamond and Pokémon® Pearl Game Cards to deposit the Pokémon you’ve caught in these games in your ranch. You can deposit a maximum of 1,000 Pokémon from up to eight different game cards. Make your ranch livelier by playing with your friends and family.

Virtual Console™

DIG DUG™ (NES®, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone, 600 Wii Points): Become Dig Dug, the champion of love and justice, as you drill up, down, left and right, defeating any enemies in your path. Avoid the persistent Pooka and the deep-dwelling but whimsical Fygar as you defeat all the enemies in order to clear each stage. Defeat enemies by hitting them with the harpoon and pumping air into them, or by dropping rocks on them from above. Receive bonus points by getting the vegetables that appear in the middle of the stage. Receive high points for defeating deep-dwelling enemies or by defeating Fygars from the side with the harpoon. Pass through inflated enemies or defeat enemies in an adjacent passage for an even higher score. Lure multiple enemies and defeat them with a single rock from above in this thrilling action game.

BIO MIRACLE BOKUTTE UPA (NES®, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone—Comic Mischief, 600 Wii Points): BIO MIRACLE BOKUTTE UPA is an action game released in 1988, but it was never available outside of Japan. Players take on the role of baby Upa, a prince of the Akuyo kingdom. Prince Upa must take on an adventure spanning seven different worlds in order to rescue the kingdom from the dangerous demon Zai. Upa must defeat the enemies he meets along the way by inflating them. Upa can then use these floating enemies to his advantage by bouncing off of or riding on top of them. The prince must also avoid deadly thorns and pits while keeping an eye out for helpful items such as milk (to restore health) and bells (for temporary invincibility) if he hopes to succeed. If you’re looking for a cute and solid platformer with a hero unlike those in most other games, then look no further than BIO MIRACLE BOKUTTE UPA.

This Coffee Table Thinks It's An NES Controller

Michael McWhertor — Fri, 09 May 2008 17:40:56 MDT

How cute! We love it when furniture has delusions of gaming hardware. Well, the joke's on us, because this particular coffee table does triple duty, storage gobs of video game paraphernalia and functioning as a working NES controller in addition to its coffee tabling duties. Creator Kyle tipped us off today to let us know the whole thing is finished, with helpful how-to posts and video of the thing in action embedded within the celebratory completion post. He even got a girl to go near it and she doesn't look scared. Nice goin, Kyle!

NES coffee table FINAL POST!! RAH!!!! [Ultra-Awesome]

NES Redesign Is All Kinds Of Hot Shit

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 07 May 2008 02:30:00 MDT

Javier Segovia's a digital artist from Spain. Guy loves him some industrial concept design. This is his vision of an updated, redesigned Nintendo Entertainment System. He calls it reNESED. Not that Nintendo would ever bother releasing such a thing, but hey, if they did, it could look a lot worse than this simply pretty great design.

reNESED [javiersegovia, thanks Neal!]

Zapper Lamp Features %#*(!!! Dog From Duck Hunt

Brian Crecente — Mon, 05 May 2008 13:00:00 MDT

CrunchGear points to this pretty amazing Duck Hunt NES zapper lamp that features not only a Duck Hunt lampshade and orange plastic zapper, but also a replica Duck Hunt cart made of cardboard.

Lamp creator fluffypants says that the typical cartridge wasn't large enough to be stable, so she created a 1.5 scale replica to serve as the base. Pretty neat, though I wish she had slapped on a mocking dog on the other side of the shade.

Duck Hunt NES zapper lamp [Craftster, via CrunchGear]

This Man Paid $15,000 For A NES Cartridge

Brian Ashcraft — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 06:00:44 MDT

After parting with US $15,000, James Baker became the proud owner of one of 26 gold-colored NES cartridges made especially for the 1990 Nintendo World Championships. Remember, it's not a gold NES cart, it's a gold-colored NES cart. Says James:

I've avoided collecting carts for a while — I always looked at them as a slippery slope, since there are just so many collectible carts out there to get. When I started, I concentrated on systems — I'm up to 130 now.

A slippery slope? No James. More like a fucking expensive slope.
Big Collection [Next Generation]

This Portable NES Is Legit, Works

Luke Plunkett — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 02:00:00 MDT

It's not "legit" in that its licensed by Nintendo or anything, but since most of Nintendo's patents relating to the NES lapsed between 2003-2005, it is guaranteed to be lawsuit-free. This is the FC Mobile, a handheld gaming system selling for $40 which plays real NES carts. Like, the ones you have in that dusty box under your old bed at your parent's house. No modding, no dodgy imports (console excepted), no hassle. Oh, except it runs on AA batteries. Guess that's a slight hassle.
FC Mobile Portable NES, Because One Screen Was Once Enough [Gizmodo]

The Inevitable Super Mario Bros. UT3 Mod

Michael McWhertor — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 19:20:00 MDT

We're eventually going to get to the point where someone recreates the Old Testament as Klingon musical theater in Unreal Tournament 3, but until then, we'll have to settle for custom characters and UT2D gameplay mods and user-generated content like this Super Mario Bros. style map. If only we could add mods to cancer research or something. The cure would be on the internet with a Creative Commons license by the weekend.

UT2D-SuperMario_Beta [PC/PS3] [Epic Forums - thanks, Samuraidino!]

GTA, On The Nintendo Entertainment System

Mark Wilson — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 12:00:00 MDT

What if Grand Theft Auto had been released in the 80s? Well, aside from being the best game ever (When you play Grand Theft Auto, it's like you're really in the game!), it would have featured an awesome commercial. A kid would have been sitting in his room on the brink of dying from boredom. But just in the nick of time, a leather-clad "biker type person" would pound down the door, do a few shots of tequila and discover where a friendly night of Nintendo could lead once the lights went out. Hit the link for a glimpse of history we missed only by a decade and some puberty.

Grand Theft Auto for the NES [College Humor] Thanks Andy!

Gaming Leads to Less Tree Climbing, Which Leads to Weak Children

Brian Ashcraft — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 00:00:15 MDT

Time for another installment of "Games Are Evil." In today's episode, British tabloid Daily Mail points out they prevent children from falling out of trees, making the "Xbox Generation" weaker than, we assume, the "NES Generation" or the "Atari 2600 Generation". According to recent, hard hitting data:

In 2006/07 - the latest year for which data is available - 1,067 children under 15 needed medical assistance for tree falls. In 1999/00 the figure was 1,823.
Meanwhile, the number of youngsters under 15 admitted to A&E after bed falls in 2006/07 was 2,531, up from 2,226 in 1999/2000.

The figures lend weight to the Government's campaign to get more children away from computer games and into the great outdoors.

Fascinating. Good thing the UK Government isn't spending its time worrying about petty things like unemployment and crime. That'd be a major waste of effort.
Tree Climbing Down [Daily Mail via MCVK] [Pic]

The NES Case That's A NES That's Great

Luke Plunkett — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 01:30:00 MDT

The premise is simple: take one NES cart, one NES, empty the working-bits from the NES, empty the NES cart, put the working-bits from the NES and squeeze them into the NES cart. Insert actual NES cart into NES cart NES, plug into TV, play Mario. Easy. It's the slimline NES we would have had if old Nintendo ever pulled a new Nintendo and released a slimmer, smaller NES, then released it in limited-edition, themed variants.
Fami-card [Kotmoi, via technabob]

Katsuya Terada Zelda Artwork: Save, Cherish

Mark Wilson — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 13:00:00 MDT

You'll be pressed to find bigger fans of cel-shaded Link than me or Luke Plunkett, but these classic renditions of Link by famous illustrator Katsuya Terada are enough to put the whole realistic vs. cartoony argument to rest. Rescued from a fading edition of Nintendo Power, they are yours until your computer crashes, the bombs drop or Ganon plunges us into a world of darkness.

Avoiding cheesy fantasy hyperbole while still capturing an exciting world of the unknown, I'd love to see a Zelda title look just like this. Hit the link for even more shots.

Here, have some amazing Zelda artwork [Livejournal via Gaming Today]

Super Mario Bros. In 14 Kilobytes Of Javascript

Michael McWhertor — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 20:40:00 MDT

It may be lacking in Koopas, power ups and an underworld—not to mention the dreaded embedded MIDI soundtrack—but this Super Mario Bros. clone packed into 14 KB of Javascript is still damn impressive. Using no graphics, rendered entirely in compressed script, the exercise is definitely worth a few minutes of your time, even if the collision detection leaves a bit to be desired. It's only World 1-1, so you won't have to invest much time to get the gist, but a fantastic accomplishment regardless.

Super Mario in 14kB Javascript [nihilogic]

Now They Want DLC Money From The NES??

Mark Wilson — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 12:00:00 MDT

For those who want to experience the fun of downloadable content but refuse to play on any system but their vintage NES, the impossible has happened. RetroZone has released the game Glider for the NES. For $42, you get a quirky flying game (in which you navigate a miniature glider through a house) complete with additional downloadable levels that can be added by flashing the cartridge's built-in memory. And the DLC updates are actually free.

The only catch is that to download new content, it appears you need to first mod your NES with RetroZone's $70 USB CopyNES. So what could have been a fun afternoon quickly escalates to a part-time hobby investment.

Glider [RetroZone via Joystiq]

Abletonator, The Only Way To Compose The Classics

Mark Wilson — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 13:40:00 MDT

Lovers of 8-bit NES soundtracks already know about YCMK Magical 8-bit Plug-In, freeware that brings retro instrumentation to various sound editing programs. But during the process of making game music, wouldn't it be great if it felt like you were actually playing a video game? That's the philosophy behind the Abletonator, a Windows XP PC running Ableton Live 6 in arcade cabinet form. Featuring a 19-inch LCD, 2-octave MIDI keyboard, 8 tracks of joystick navigation and plenty of arcade-style buttons, feel free to inquire about scoring a unit of your own. But whatever they're asking is a small price to become a button-mashing Beethoven.

Abletonator [Abletonator via Create Digital Music]

Why The Nintendo Hate

Brian Ashcraft — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 04:00:00 MDT

We've seen the reasons for the Xbox and PlayStation hatorade. Now, it's only fair to show why there's venom against Nintendo. This should bring us full circle. Ah, much better.

Nintendo Hate [Games Radar Thanks, Roxeraz!]

NES Cart You Can Really Blow

Brian Ashcraft — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 05:00:14 MDT

Hey! If some dude can make musical instruments out of fresh produce, then damn skippy that the some other dude can make Nintendo Entertainment System cartridges into harmonica. There's a photo walk through (complete with screwing and sanding), should you be interested in blowing into your copy of Tecmo Bowl and getting it to play... music.

Hit the jump for a YouTube clip of it in action.

HarmoNESica [Official Site via Waxy via MAKE Blog]

Happy Birthday Destructoid: Destructoid Circa 1988

Maggie Greene — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 12:00:58 MDT

So today Destructoid turns two, and in a fit of awesome nostalgia, Niero has given us a peek at what could probably be termed the genesis of Destructoid: impressively detailed notebooks for his game club, formed way back when. Ladies and gentlemen, here's what we did before the advent of blogs. Happy second (or twentieth) birthday, Dtoid.

Destructoid circa 1988: Our community turns two (and twenty) years old

Nestography, Post Secret Gone 8-Bit

Mark Wilson — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 13:40:18 MST

Adam Mathes' Nestography is not a Post Secret clone—gamers aren't writing postage stamping dirty skeletons from their closets onto distressed Nintendo sprites—but the site is every bit as guilty-good in that "reading this is very important and deep" sort of way. I'm pretty sure that if you put any picture on a black backdrop with one randomly generated sentence beneath it, you'll rock this feeble writer's mind for hours on end.

Nestography [via GayGamer]

Punch Out!, So Racist

Brian Ashcraft — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 22:00:35 MST

Ah, yes. Punch Out! When I played it, the game was Mike Tyson's Punch Out! — which was later changed to simply Punch Out! when Tyson's contract was up and when he got into legal trouble. Video Game Comedy site The -Minus World has a look at the game's stereotypes, tongue planted firmly in cheek:

Hey, have you ever had one of those friends that says something really racist against black people but stupidly tries to placate everyone by assuring, "Dude it's ok...I have friends who are black." ....or maybe you have a friend that hits woman but eases your fears because you know his mom is a woman so it's all good? Well along those same lines, Nintendo throws in Piston Honda as a red herring to allay any suspicions that Punch Out is racist. I recommend that you intentionally go two rounds with Piston just so you can read him nonsensically utter "Sushi, Kamikaze, Fujiyama, Nipponichi." Yeah. Japan basically kicks itself in the nuts here.

The -Minus World suggests new characters like "Sleepy Gonzales," "Rabbi Uppercuttawitz" and "Pope-a-Dope."
The Most Racist Video Game [The -Minus World via Go Nintendo]

More Crazy-Ass Chinese Ports (Titanic, Mario, LotR)

Luke Plunkett — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 20:40:00 MST

Final Fantasy VII on the NES? Tip of the iceberg. This site has a massive catalogue of other bootleg, Chinese homebrew carts, nearly all of them based on existing game series or movie tie-ins. Link to the Past on NES? Got it. A Lord of the Rings 2D fighter? Got it. Super Mario World on Mega Drive? Yup. A Titanic platformer for the NES? Got that too, and it's amazing.

Famicom/Megadrive remakes [insert credit]

Watch NES Final Fantasy VII With Your Human Eyes

Brian Ashcraft — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 06:40:27 MST

You've seen the NES Final Fantasy VII screens, now watch the clip. The game has the storyline for the multi-disc PlayStation epic crammed onto a NES cartridge. Unofficial, yes, but officially awesome.

NES FFVII [Insert Credit]

Nintendo Scarf Punches Out My Heart

Luke Plunkett — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 22:30:00 MST

Just when you thought Nintendo scarves had been played out, along comes this. Knitted by the delightful Etsy merchant and Nintendo fangirl Tanya (Beatboxtaun), it's got Mike Tyson on one side looking like he's had his fill of babies for the day, while on the other, Little Mac is looking a little worse for wear. Beautiful! Such beauty comes at a price, however: at 72-inches long and one-of-a-kind, you'll be throwing down $175 for the privilege of wearing it around your scrawny neck, so impulse-shoppers might want to avoid hitting the link below if they haven't paid their month's rent yet.
Mike Tysons Punch-Out Scarf - DIY [BeatboxTaun @ Etsy]

FFVII On NES Is A Triumph Of The Human Spirit

Luke Plunkett — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 02:30:00 MST

A little while ago, the Shenzhen Nanjing Technology Company released Final Fantasy VII. On the NES. Totally unofficially, of course, but also totally, officially awesome. Sure, the game eschews Chocobo racing, limit breaks and even Yuffie and Vincent, but this being a NES cart, casualties are to be expected. What does make it in there are the other six characters and almost the entire main storyline of the multi-disc PlayStation epic, an achievement I have no hesitation in labelling Herculean. Since you'll never own nor play this, you can check out some screens here, with well over 100 more at the link below.

From polygons to pixels: Final Fantasy VII [Cinnamon Pirate]

Street Fighter IV, The Pirated NES Version

Brian Ashcraft — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 05:00:12 MST

Years before Capcom even considered making Street Fighter IV, there was this: Street Fighter IV. Made by "Gouder Co." this unauthorized 8-bit game was for the Nintendo Entertainment System and totally pirated. There's bad music and fighters like "Cliff," "Bunny" and "Pasta." Controls are apparently buggy and unresponsive. Those fighter names, though, are totally awesome.

Thanks, Torokun!

Everything You Wanted To Know About The Wizard

Michael McWhertor — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 19:40:00 MST

Fred Savage and Nintendo Power Glove vehicle The Wizard has at least one uber die hard fan in Ain't It Cool News' Monki. The movie is due for a screening at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Texas next month, with director Todd Holland joining stars Fred Savage and Luke Edwards for the showing. The director was recently interviewed by AICN to get a fanboy friendly inside look at the production of the movie, including some details on Nintendo's involvement.

What may have seemed like a 90-minute commercial written by Nintendo suits may have actually been a different story. Seems that the Big N was at the movie studio's beck and call, hopping to whenever the director needed Super Mario Bros. 3 footage or a backup Power Glove. Also, I didn't know Tobey Maguire made an appearance!

You really do learn something new everyday. Unfortunately, today it's about The Wizard.

Monki talks with Todd Holland, director of The Wizard! [AICN]

Hands-On With The Retro Duo, The NES/SNES Hybrid

Michael McWhertor — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 15:40:00 MST

Importer Innex featured the Retro Duo, an NES, SNES and Super Famicom player, heavily in its CES booth this year, giving old school console fans a chance to bust out their old carts and save a bit of space. The Retro Duo, which was paired with the NES and Sega Genesis-playing Gen-X, features S-video out, for those looking for a bit more clarity out of their 8-bit and 16-bit collection. The Retro Duo's controller looks and feels like the stock Super Nintendo controller, with another controller, part SNES, part NES Max, that should appeal to fans of that form factor.

One advantage the Retro Duo has over some of the other NES/SNES clones is its ability to properly play the original Starfox, which looked and played just as we remembered it. The double duty console looks like a pretty nice product for anyone who still has plenty of retro titles on hand and isn't already in possession of similar products like the FC Twin. More pics of the consoles are in our gallery below.

Knock-Off Console Plays Real Genesis, SNES, Sega Games

Brian Crecente — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 10:00:37 MST

Discovered at CES: Two generic consoles that play non-generic games. The Retro Duo accepts both NES and Super NES games, while the Gen X takes Sega Master System and Genesis/Mega Drive games. Both of the consoles were built on technology that takes advantage of lapsed patents, so they are perfectly legal. At least according to the guy showing them off at CES they are.

CES 2008: Retro Console Clones Take Actual Cartridges [Wired]

Kuribo's Shoe Becomes Kuribo's Stocking

Michael McWhertor — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 19:40:02 MST

Kotaku reader Greg sent in word of his own handmade holiday creation, arguably the best Super Mario Bros. 3 Christmas stocking we've been sent yet. What isn't up for debate is that Kuribo's Shoe is my favorite Mario power-up of all time, for some strange reason. Kudos to you, sir. Someone get this man a proper license to mass produce these next year—stat!

Greatest NES Song Gets Female Remix

Brian Ashcraft — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 03:00:03 MST

Today is a special day. Really special. Some benevolent person has taken the awesomest game music from the worst game ever (Cheetah Men II) and made thumping club remix called Cheetah Girl. It's even got effervescent vocals and fluffy lyrics! This here is the song of 2007. Go ahead and listen. It'll change your life.

Mega64 Does Super Mario Bros. 3

Michael McWhertor — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 16:20:41 MDT

This Mega64 clip, I swear I've seen it before. Maybe it was shown at the Game Developers Conference earlier this year, maybe it sneaked online at some point prior, or maybe I have some pre-cognitive ability to know the details of Mega64 comedy bits. Regardless, it's something the creators of this clip have labeled as new and it's Kuribo's Shoe, something I've always been fascinated by for some inexplicable reason. Please, won't you watch?

Worst NES Game Evar Has Awesomest Music

Brian Ashcraft — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 03:00:04 MDT

Back in the early 1990's, now defunct developer Active Enterprises manufactured 1,500 copies of its never released NES game Cheetahmen II. The dev hoped the three Cheetahmen (Apollo, Aries and Hercules) would be the company's answer to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They weren't. The sequel is bug infested and almost unplayable, but thankfully, the unsold copies were found in a warehouse for us to laugh and point at. According to a GameSpot review, there are enemies that can neither be killer or avoided. However, the soundtrack is SO GREAT!! Big thing on the Japanese internet right now is remixing that musical awesomeness. "More" after the more.

Thanks, Muu!

Mike Tyson's Brunch Out!!

Brian Ashcraft — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 01:00:37 MDT

Before you click, know that it's NSFW. Though, Mike Tyson having lunch with a bunch of hipsters is bound to be NSFW. The odd thing? I saw this thing on Japanese TV a few years back where he had lunch with a TV announcer and kept sipping a mimosa. It was kinda like this — though, Tyson didn't punch anyone or mention fucking people's blood. Not on camera, at least.

Brunch Out!! [Meth Minute]

The Nike NES Hack

Michael McWhertor — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 15:20:10 MDT

Yeah, the Gizmodo edition of Mark Wilson beat us to the punch on this fashionable hack quite some time ago, but we're just getting caught up. It may not work as a shoe, but as a NES, it's totally feasible. As the guts of a Nintendo Entertainment System fit easily into a Super Mario Bros. cartridge itself, I don't see any reason why I couldn't reasonably have an old beater Nike hooked up to my television. The laced NES controller is a nice touch, totally killing those Xbox 360-style Heely eyesores.

'Sneaker Pimps' pimped out NES sneaker [CrunchGear]

The Near-Collapsing D-Pad Jack-o'-Lantern

Brian Ashcraft — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 21:00:16 MDT

We're seeing orange! Glowing orange!! We've gone batty for pumpkins!!! Reader Andy sends us this, writing:

This thing was a pain in the neck to carve, trying to keep it from collapsing.

Ephemeral just like the flame that burns so brightly in the crisp fall night. Beautiful!

Japanese Kids Like NES Better Than PSP

Brian Ashcraft — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 07:00:02 MDT

Yup, it's that time again. Time for some fascinating data. This particular data concerns the gaming habit of Japanese children. This past summer, 1,165 elementary school kids (60 percent girls) were polled in a public questionnaire on the Kids goo website. What did we learn? Certainly the DS dominates. Duh. But there actually were a few surprises. Those, after the jump!

• 80 percent play video games.
• 34.4 percent have five or more video game machines in their house
• In a multiple answer question, 82.2 percent usually play the DS and 39.8 play the GBA. The shocker? 4.8 percent still play the Dreamcast, and 5.1 still play the Saturn. Compare that to 10.5 percent who play the PSP and the 11.9 percent who play the Nintendo Famicom (NES). Yes, more Japanese kids play the NES than the PSP. Go ahead and say, "wow." Aloud, even!
• 70.3 percent play games alone.
• 20.2 percent are "forbidden" to play games by parents.

There's more data over at website What Japan Thinks. Check that out, it's fascinating.
NES to PSP [WJT]

NES Power Pad Commercial

fdemarco — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 14:00:10 MDT

Back before the ubiquitous DDR dance pad, there was the NES Power Pad. The Power Pad was so awesome that it transported you to a jungle gym style kids neon Thunderdome where you can battle your friends by running crazily in place. It was the ideal accessory made for such non-popular titles as Athletic World, Dance Aerobics, Short Order & Eggsplode, Street Cop, Super Team Games, and World Class Track Meet. Those all sound like great games to play after ingesting copious amounts of sugary Fruity Pebbles. Apparently, the kids in the commercial agree.

The Mexican 8-Bit Xbox 360-Looking Emulator

Brian Ashcraft — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 03:00:25 MDT

Confused? Heck, I'm confused, and I wrote this. Kotakuite Erzengel spotted a NES emulator in a Mexican shopping mall that looks an Xbox 360. He writes:

I was walking around a well known mexican mall (wich makes sense since im mexican), when i saw, in a "serious" store, this pieces of... well, the pic says it all. Its a Xbox-like 8BITS videogame system. Yup, 8 bits, wich means NES quality games, in a shiny white box. Makes me kind of sad, many kids are gonna get this because their tech impaired parents wont be able to see the differences. In case you ask, the price is around US$28.

Wonder if Super Mario Bros. causes it to lock up and crap out. Zing!

Nintendo To Unleash Metroids On Virtual Console Soon?

Michael McWhertor — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 19:20:22 MDT

With Metroid Prime 3: Corruption just a few short weeks away from release on the Wii, it looks like Nintendo is set to ramp up with hype with a pair of Virtual Console releases. Images for both Metroid for the NES and Super Metroid for the SNES have appeared on the VC web server and spotted by an eagle-eyed NeoGAF poster. Another image for Sega's RPG Shining In The Darkness has also recently been added, indicating that it too may soon join the download service.

While the ESRB has yet to issue a rating for either Metroid title, usually a reliable measuring stick for what's on deck, that doesn't rule out a smart marketing move by Nintendo. Don't be surprised if both show up next Monday or the following.

Ultimate Awesome Wii Virtual Console Discussion [NeoGAF]

iPhone NES Emulator in Motion

Mark Wilson — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 13:20:46 MDT

The iPhone NES Emulator has been all the rage for the past few hours. Why are we obsessed about getting games from a 20-year-old system on the world's latest and greatest phone? Because it's cool!

While the mini controller looks good on the iPhone's touchscreen, does anyone else notice that Mario keeps on running without cue once the forward button is pressed? Our 2-second verdict? For speed trials only. Read real, hands-on impressions over at Gizmodo.

[via gaygamer]

NES iPod Remote Mod, Unofficial Upgrade

Mark Wilson — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 13:40:36 MDT

Sure, you can control your iPod with the touch controls like everyone else. Or, you can spend a few hours modifying your iPod to be operated by an NES controller. Embedding a PIC microcontroller in the game pad fools the iPod into thinking you are using a more legitimate (though more boring) iPod remote. Most of us mere mortals have no hope of following the instructions to build an nesPod of our own, but we also know that everything is for sale...if the price is right.

The only catch is that the mod only works with 3rd or 4th gen iPods. But that's all right. It was all downhill after generation three when build materials became cheaper, and buttons transformed into a "click wheel."

NES Controller iPod Remote [via playgadgets]