Wise King Harald of Norway politely declined the request of young Christer on the grounds that, being only six, he was too young to make such a decision. So Christer must wait until he's 18 to reapply.

The kid wrote the letter and asked his folks to mail it, and mum and dad were all >_> and <_< about it it, until he piped up one day and asked if it had been sent. Reluctantly, they dropped it in the mail, figuring the king wouldn't bother with it. Happily for all, he did. Gamezine reports that Sega contacted the news site that reported this (Dagbladget, which in addition to sounding like a Yosemite Sam swear word, gave us some Mafia II footage last week.) Sonic's people are said to be preparing a care package of swag to soothe any disappointment.

This reminds me of the time I was 5 years old and adored "CHiPs" so much I asked Mom to take me to the courthouse so I could change my name to Frank Poncherello Good. She told me that the county seat was very far away and we'd go "next week." You know, I'm still waiting for that ride, Mom.

6-year-old Asks Norwegian King's Permission to be Named Sonic X [Gamezine]

Moods of Norway and Nordisk Film, the distributor, held a launch event for the level. In it, you're supposed to navigate through the level to the designers' headquarters in Stryn, Norway. Items to collect include waffles and stave churches, a structure well known to that part of the world.

It's a free ad for a fashion designer, of course, but it does show the span of LittleBigPlanet's reach and inclusion.

Everyone Loves LBP, Even Norwegian Fashion Designers [PS3 Fanboy]

"We look forward to expanding our productive business model in the Norwegian market and partnering with the knowledgeable and energetic store personnel at Free Record Shop. This transaction is another step in our strategy of bringing more video game stores to growth markets around the world."

GameStop to Acquire 49 Free Record Locations in Norway

Global Video Game Retailer Strengthens its Nordic Market Position

GRAPEVINE, Texas—(BUSINESS WIRE)—GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME), the world's largest video game and entertainment software retailer, today announced that it has agreed to purchase 100% of the outstanding share capital of Free Record Shop Norway.

Free Record shops in Norway will be transitioned to the GameStop brand, significantly bolstering the company's presence within the Nordic region. GameStop operates over 5,000 locations worldwide. Following the acquisition of the 49 locations, the company will operate a total of 160 locations throughout Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland.

R. Richard Fontaine, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of GameStop, commented, "We are pleased to have worked with Hans Breukhoven and his entire management team at Free Record Shop to complete this acquisition. We look forward to expanding our productive business model in the Norwegian market and partnering with the knowledgeable and energetic store personnel at Free Record Shop. This transaction is another step in our strategy of bringing more video game stores to growth markets around the world."

Hans Breukhoven, Chief Executive Officer of Free Record Shop Holding, commented, "Free Record Shop is very satisfied with this agreement and the excellent opportunity that this sale presents us to make further investments to expand and establish our retail position in the Benelux. Besides that we are very pleased that our esteemed sales staff found employment in the GameStop organization and can help them with their planned growth."

The transaction is expected to close in early April.

Ble angrepet av elg [Nettavisen via Wired Blogs]

In Norway, at least. Reader Kim V. sent these images along, saying: "I was having a bbq yesterday at Vigelandsparken in Norway when I came across these two when throwing stuff away afterwards. Good to know that Mario and Goomba are watching over all the garbage. The image with Goomba says "Waste", and the one with Mario says "Grill box - Used one time grills only".

Via the Video Games Blogger, check out this amazing Day of the Tentacle wall painting some bald, shirtless, vaguely freakish Norwegian painted in his apartment. Just utterly awesome: I want that as a wall mural hanging over my bed, perhaps as a warning to any girls I bring home about the nature of the other purple tentacle cohabiting the room.

The site has a step-by-step walkthrough of the painting's creation, but it's all in Norwegian. Luckily, though, some sentiments transgress the boundaries of language, such as this sentence below the photograph of the finished painting: "Taa Fucking Daa." And a sentence later, the word "high-five" is conspicuously present. Florian Eckhardt

Purple Tentacle Wall Mural [VGB.no]