It takes talent and patience to lay down these tracks with that kind of interface, is all I can say. I'm trying to imagine someone working on the percussion for "Never Gonna Give You Up." and can't believe they lasted more than six runs through that opening drum roll without quitting in disgust. Guess that means they got it right on the fifth try.

(And I can't believe I made it through a post about Chocolate Rain without the obligatory move away/breathe in joke.)

We've linked the YouTube video of the Zelda theme and Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" after the jump. The rest can be found at the link.

Theme from Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!
Chocolate Rain
Rick Astley: "Never Gonna Give You Up"
Theme from Sonic the Hedgehog
The Beach Boys: "I Get Around"
Theme from Super Mario Bros. 3
Genesis: "Land of Confusion"
Queen: "Bohemian Rhapsody"
Nirvana: "Smells Like Teen Spirit"

The 10 Most Creative Mario Paint Compilations

Journey: "Don't Stop Believing"

Theme from The Legend of Zelda

The [unit] can move suddenly, and severely injure someone who is within the working envelope. A waist high fence located at least 4 feet away from the machine is strongly suggested.

Ha ha ha! Just imagine if I'd say, set aside that Nintendo DS until the Lite had appeared or simply shelled out $150 for a back up. Regardless of the profit I could make, it wouldn't be worth the hilarious story of me flushing money down the drain.

For an even better tale of throwing away money, remind me sometime to spin you the yarn of placing my Game Boy Advance in the garbage as a joke, then forgetting to remove it before the janitorial service disposed of it. It's a sidesplitter!

Shigeru Miyamoto Signed Super Famicom + Games [eBay via The BBPS]

Who said games aren't educational? It may not have the sex appeal of my personal time-merged favorite, The 1K Project II for Trackmania Sunrise, but the ensuing write-up, which helps explain quantum theories with a SNES classic gives it an intellectual bonus. The Super Mario World hack, by the way, is known as Kaizo Mario World and looks infinitely unenjoyable. What you're seeing above is 134 playthroughs of Kaizo layered upon each other using a custom SNES emulator.

Super Mario World vs. the Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Physics [Mechanically Separated Meat - thanks, Ricky!]

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The snes4iphone project, currently in beta, is aiming to bring SNES emulating bliss to the iPhone. Right now there's not much you can do to participate other than read the forums—there doesn't appear to be any downloadable code to test/melt your phone at this time. However, the ZodTTD group would certainly accept any cash you have lying around to fund programming.

We liked the premise of the NES iPhone mod, but the SNES has always been our favorite (meaning that we're at about a fanboy code orange at the moment).Though, we must admit, watching the filmmaker get pwnd in F-Zero doesn't bolster our confidence regarding the touch control mapping.

Forums [via ubergizmo]

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.

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]

When we finally got a better look at Poison in the infamous Final Fight Revenge—who pole dances in the Saturn fighter—and later in Street Fighter III: Double Impact as Hugo's sidekick, the long-legged street thug couldn't have appeared more womanly. Still, we had our suspicions.

Fortunately, we can now put the rumors to rest. Street Fighter IV producer Yoshinori Ono tells EGM in its latest issue "In North America, Poison is officially a post-op transsexual." Well, that clears that up.

"But in Japan, she simply tucks her business away in order to look like a girl," Ono adds. Oh. Well, I suppose there's always Roxy.

So, there you go. Official word that is sure to be popular trivia at your next cocktail party. Hope it doesn't ruin you on that new Poison PVC figure you may have just been shipped.

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]

Wii Pilotwings? [Wii60]

Sure, we've all got our favorites. Via CNet UK comes a list of the five best controllers. Without adieu, they are:

• 1). Atari 2600 joystick: Featuring a simple stick mechanism for moving around and a red button for firing. It's not technically a gamepad, but it's so crucial to gaming history there's no way we couldn't mention it.
• 
  
• 2). SNES controller: This exercise in ergonomics is a curvy, multi-coloured, multi-buttoned evolution of the angular NES controller. This was the first controller to have shoulder buttons — a revolution that made an arcade staple like Street Fighter II a viable proposition in the home.
• 
  
• 3). Nintendo 64 controller: This is one of the most important joypads ever produced. Not only did the N64's controller feature an analogue joystick, which made playing games such as GoldenEye realistic and subtle, but it also featured a pistol-like trigger button underneath.
• 
  
• 4). PS2 controller: Nintendo may have started the analogue-stick-on-a-pad idea but Sony really took it to the bank. For many gamers, the DualShock gamepad is the best gamepad ever made... Having two analogue sticks meant you could play games in a completely different way to anything available before.
• 
  
• 5). Xbox 360 controller: It was the first wireless pad to come as standard. Its comfy, solid design offers dual analogue joysticks and two analogue trigger buttons underneath. There's also a built-in jack for connecting a headset.

Top Five [CNET UK via The Last Boss]

All the Final Fantasy you can handle! Originally, Final Fantasy IV was developed for the SNES back in 1991. but less than two years ago, the game was ported to the GBA. So this year why not re-make it for the DS? Rumor has it that a 3D remake for the DS is being put together by Matrix Software, the dev behind the 3D FFIII. Should find out more at the upcoming Final Fantasy Party, but until then make a handy chart to track Square-Enix's FF branding bonanza. With all these spin-offs and remakes, am I the only one having trouble keeping up? Brian Ashcraft

More FF [FF13 Vids via NeoGAF]

Final Fight actually saw two separate releases on the Super Nintendo (Final Fight and Final Fight Guy), both with their share of issues. The games were limited to single player only with neither version featuring all three playable characters, Cody, Guy and Haggar. Buyer beware. Oddly enough, Final Fight nabbed an E rating, despite its violent themes.

These rating are by no means official confirmation that the game is coming any time soon, so don't start hoarding Wii Points just yet. In fact, maybe you should just skip Final Fight, if it's the hobbled version. Michael McWhertor

ESRB Game Ratings

-The barrel is upended, Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV drops out. Someone prods it with the toe of their shoe.-

So yes, all Wii are getting this week for the VC update is Koei's fourth entry in its venerable Romance of the Three Kingdoms series, Wall of Fire for the Super Nintendo. Experience all the fun and frivolity of bringing about the reunification of ancient China. One of the better games in the series, though if you are really interested in the setting I'd suggest you pick up IX for the PS2 instead of spending the 800 points here.

And that's all she wrote. Just one healthy dose of classic strategy gaming. Perhaps they're holding off to make room for the new games Sega announced, or maybe - just maybe someone at Nintendo is reading this right now with a shocked look on their face, wondering who tipped us off about the whole barrel thing. Michael Fahey

WII-KLY UPDATE: NEW CLASSIC GAME ANNOUNCED FOR WII SHOP CHANNEL

March 26, 2007

Today Nintendo adds a classic Super NES game to the popular Wii video game system's Wii Shop Channel. The game goes live at 9 a.m. Pacific time. Nintendo adds new games to the channel 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 game is:

Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV: Wall of Fire (Super NES, 1-8 players, 800 Wii Points): Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV is a tactical simulation game in which the player takes the role of a ruler seeking to unite China in the era of the three kingdoms of Wei, Wu and Shu. The role of the ruler is to command a range of officers with differing characteristics - some cunning strategists, others brave warriors - and strengthen the military might of his or her kingdom. Foreign policy, involving forming alliances with certain kingdoms and hatching plans to weaken others, will play a major role in this process. Once players have developed a powerful enough military, it will be time to expand their borders through military conquest. Ultimate victory will only be achieved once all 43 cities in China lie within a player's control.

For more information about Wii, please visit wii.com.

No word on whether the shirt will be sold online through the site's English store, but you can be sure I'll be pestering them until I get an answer. Lots of detail on the shirt print over at The King of Games. Michael McWhertor

SUPER MARIO KART GRANDCHAMPION! T-shirt [The King Of Games]

In a nod to the late Notorious B.I.G.'s tune "Juicy", Soulful Commandoe has released a tee by the same name, highlighting the two consoles Biggie Smalls namechecked to show that he'd "made it." He also apparently had a pretty big phone bill at the time. At least it's more creative than the billionth mention of rims in modern hip-hop.

The Juicy tee is available over at Karmaloop for $29, should you want to show your 16-bit and B.I.G. love. Michael McWhertor

Juicy Tee [Karmaloop]

Up and coming idol Haruna Anno may only be 18, but she knows that saying she loves Mother 1 + 2 and Final Fantasy aren't enough to how to make her in geekdom. She needs to do more, like testing Street Fighter II cartridges to determine how tough SNES cartridges are. And that's exactly what she did! She wrote "freeze" on one and then stuck it in the freezer for five hours. On another, she wrote "heat" and burned it on a gas stove, recommending children not to try it at home. She wrote "crash" on another and chucked it down a staircase. (Actually, she wrote part of the Japanese word "collision," but w/e). And what did she find out? The freezer S.F. II worked as did the one dropped down the stairs. The burned one wouldn't fit in the SNES, so she had to trim the melted bits to make it fit. When it did, it worked. If you are wondering why she's doing this now, her being two years old when the SNES first went on sale in Japan might have something to do with it. Brian Ashcraft

Testing Street Figher II [Haruna's LiveDoor Blog]

It's finally time for me to break into the piggy bank and add some more points to my Wii shopping channel account, as today sees the release of THE game for the SNES on Nintendo's Virtual Console. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is now available for download for 800 points. This game is the only Zelda game I need. A pure experience, unmuddied by the need for 3D graphics while still 100 times more substantial than the classic yet dated original.

Return to an age of magic and heroes. When an evil magician named Agahnim begins kidnapping young maidens in Hyrule in a quest to break the imprisoning seal on Ganon, a young boy named Link is called upon to stop him.

That's it for this week, with Nintendo bucking the trend of multi-game releases, either in honor of this gaming classic, or for the sake of the other games that would have been lost in it's dust. Press release follows. Michael Fahey

WII-KLY UPDATE: CLASSIC ZELDA GAME ANNOUNCED FOR WII SHOP CHANNEL

Jan. 22, 2007

Today Nintendo adds one of the most popular games in its library of classics to the Wii video game system's Wii Shop Channel. The Legend of Zelda : A Link to the Past goes live at 9 a.m. Pacific time. Nintendo adds new games to the channel 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.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (Super NES , 1 player, 800 Wii Points): Return to an age of magic and heroes. When an evil magician named Agahnim begins kidnapping young maidens in Hyrule in a quest to break the imprisoning seal on Ganon, a young boy named Link is called upon to stop him. Link must venture into twisting mazes, dungeons, palaces and shadowy forests as he searches for the maidens and Princess Zelda. Traversing both Light and Dark Worlds, he must navigate eight dark dungeons, fighting evil enemies and huge bosses. Help our hero prevent Ganon and Agahnim from shattering Hyrule forever.

—--

I'm really just posting this so no one sends it in to our tips line. While I probably would've loved to discover the "Laser Suit" in Super Mario World when I was but a young boy, the current me knows this is just a finely crafted hack. Michael McWhertor

Vintage Computing's Benj Edwards is a man possessed. Possessed with understanding (and solving) the problem of Super Nintendo plastic discoloration, his investigation of the burning question "Was my Super Nintendo always this yellow-ish?" has yielded interesting results.

I know my original SNES is looking pretty jaundiced these days, but I'm not that concerned about it.

Still, if you're the retro type who wants to know more about the burning topic of aging consoles looking quite icky after 16-plus years and what you can do to preserve your Super Nintendo's original hues, read on. You might just learn a thing or two from this very good article. Michael McWhertor

Why Super Nintendos Lose Their Color: Plastic Discoloration in Classic Machines [Vintage Computing]

Keep in mind, though, that many ESRB rated titles are currently not yet available for the service, including Gradius, Pilotwings, Kid Icarus, Punch-Out!! and Pro Wrestling. But with two Nintendo published titles already planned, I suspect we'll see a handful of third party games slip out.

Bring on that SNES love! Michael McWhertor

Look, I had the Christmas off yesterday, so forgive me for being one day late with the Angry Nintendo Nerd's very special Christian Rock edition of his classic NES game "reviews". This round he curses excessively in the general direction of Bible Adventures, Bible Buffet, Super Noah's Ark 3D, Spiritual Warfare and The King of Kings. In my opinion, hilarious stuff on rare games, only one of which I've ever played. Yeah, you probably have the week off, but this video is not safe for work. Michael McWhertor

The announced games are:

- Ikki (NES)
- Kid Icarus (NES)
- Ice Climber (NES)
- Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (NES)
- Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu (SNES)
- Mario Kart 64 (N64)
- Bonanza Bros. (Genesis)
- Gain Ground (Genesis)
- Alien Crush (TG-16)
- Moto Roader (TG-16)
- R-Type II (TG-16)
- Soldier Blade (TG-16)

A fairly solid list, one that includes a pair of games I'd personally never even heard of. After watching clips of Ikki in action, it seems that I'm better off having been ignorant to it in the first place. Michael McWhertor

VG Cats #221 : Operating Buddy - Thanks Chilly!

As 1UP's Patrick Klepek reports, a game receiving a rating from the ratings board doesn't mean it's right around the corner, it just means that the ESRB has approved it. It's now up to Capcom and Nintendo to get the game online.

Players excited about this news should expect a emulation of a Super Nintendo port, sans online multiplayer and decidedly less than perfect. Those looking for an immediate and potentially more arcade accurate Street Fighter II: The World Warrior should probably look to the Capcom Classics series of games for other platforms or check out the Xbox Live Arcade option. Michael McWhertor

Street Fighter II Headed to Virtual Console? [1UP]

San Francisco Chronicle writer Peter Hautlaub makes an excellent suggestion for those too poor or too unlucky to acquire a shiny new next-gen system for the gamer in your life. Go retro. The article lists several financial situations, and the perfect classic gaming system to satisfy both wallets and game cravings.

Scenario 1: I'm poorer than Joey on the first season of "Friends" but not quite as poor as Gary Coleman when he got that job as a security guard:

The Nintendo 64 and Super NES are both great systems from the 1990s, when video game development was arguably at an artistic peak. You can buy either system with extra controllers and a shoe box full of games on eBay for about $60.

PS3 too pricey? For video game gifts, go retro. Sega Dreamcast, underrated and underpriced — and under your tree [SFGate.com]

Technically, they call it the Super NinTiVo, but whatever you name this thing it's cool. Two guys managed to shove nearly all of a TiVo into an old Super Nintendo case. The thing looks cool and still works like a beaut, though its harddrive has to sorta sit next to the unit. Brian Crecente

SNES + TiVo = The Super NinTiVo [Gizmodo]

RetroZone doles out the classic controller lovin with a pair of adapters that allow you to use authentic old-school Nintendo game pads with your Wii virtual console games. The adapters will come in two flavors, original NES and SNES. and will plug into the GameCube ports on top of your Wii.

One of my main problems with playing VC NES games with the Wiimote or cube controller is all those extra buttons, just sitting there like man nipples, serving absolutely no purpose whatsoever. I've got a bag in my closet containing no less that 5 original NES pads, just waiting to be called back into action. I'm hoping for an experience so authentic I'll want to blow into my Wii slot.

Yeah, that sounded really wrong.

The adapters are available for preorder, with the NES model shipping in January and the SNES following soon after. They also carry modded controllers and adapters for PC use, for those of you into the Nintendo 'homebrew' scene. Michael Fahey

NES and SNES Controller Adapters for Nintendo Wii [RetroZone - Thanks Marc!]

Nintendo won't be happy about this. It looks like a combination of the Action Replay with the software program SDload and the official Nintendo SD card adapter will let very bad people with no morals whatsoever enjoy emulators such as SNES9x on their Wiis. Disgusting!

Don't you villians know what the Virtual Console is for?

Thanks for the BAD NEWS, Nathan.Michael McWhertor

Check out this wonderful t-shirt illustrating the march of evolution from Nintendo's first D-Pad to the current Wiimote. It's available for pre-order now from Splitreason.com for $17.95, who promise to ship it off sometime early this month. Florian Eckhardt

Nintendo Evolution T-Shirt [Splitreason.com]

You know, it's a testament to how amazing Earthbound is that even something this gleefully incompetent fills me with pining for more innocent, carefree gaming days. I think you probably have to adore Earthbound to get it though: the digging through the trash for food, the battle noises, the simplistic victory crescendo. I just can't wait to see how they handle Mr. Saturn. Florian Eckhardt

Previously: A Mother Film Years In The Making

Emulation hound on the go-go? Check out this foldable, portable gamepad from Geekstuff4U.

Called simply the 'Pocket Gamepad', it's a stylish, silver-sprayed knock off of the SNES style controller, with an extra couple of trigger buttons for good measure. It also has programmable autofire. A detachable USB cable leads from the pad to your port.

It's a bit more pricy at $30.68 than I'd be willing to spend just to play some portable MAME shmups, but it's certainly a snazzy exercise in foldability. Florian Eckhardt

Pocket GamePad [Geekstuff4U] (via Racketboy)

Because there just haven't been enough videos posted lately, here're some classic Japanese commercials for Mariopaint. The first is all about claymation Mario riding a SNES mouse to ultimate victory, while the second features more of the music composition feature and 2d Yoshi.Eliza Gauger

[from Siliconera, by way of Aeropause]

Back in 1995, Shigesato Itoi's Mother 2 (known as "Earthbound" in the West) was released for the SNES in America. The film made a huge impact on young Robbie and Jeff Benson, who set off to make a feature film of the game. They didn't get very far. One of the Bensons adds:

We hadn't gone far before we gave up. In the last year however, we dusted off the tape and decided to continue the otherwise unsatisfying 3 minute video.

The result is fascinatingly silly and worth a view for the kids' age progression and sensibility shift alone. Plus, the battle scenes are pretty annoying, just like in the Mother/Earthbound games. Brian Ashcraft

More Here [Sodoshiraso Blog]

In the interests of furthering the social lives of gamers in the San Diego area, I have decided to post about The King of All Bots: an event being touted as a badass, robocentric partay.

Prepare to receive "the deets":

The Morena Club (1319 Morena Blvd / San Diego, CA 92110) is holding an event, The King of All Bots, on Saturday, August 19. Beginning at 9 PM, it will be the first in a series attempting to infuse gamer pop culture into the club scene. What's on tap for this very first unfashionably fashionable sock hop? DJ Jive Alive will be spinning some records — hip-hop, down tempo, rock, and random SNES MIDIs, local artists Ty Hunter and Lena Low will build and destroy a robot made from assorted audio equipment, and "Johnny Robo" will be playing on the club's plasma screens.

A very important feature I discovered when peeping the poster was that there is no cover charge. Now you have no excuse. Eliza Gauger

I love it when people have way too much time on their hands. Combine that with some skill and ingenuity for a winning combination that results in 45 minutes worth of amusement for people with zero time on their hands. Like me. (Yes, I realize that if I spent less time watching speedruns and expert level run-throughs, I might be able to accomplish something concrete. But, how would you amuse yourself on a Sunday morning without my Kotaku time sacrifices?)

Today's diversion is this dual play through of both Mega Man X and Mega Man X2. At the same time. This video is nuts. Yes, it was done via an emulator. Yes, the author took advantage of save states and slow motion options, but c'mon. Give dude some credit here.

Sadly, no YouTube version exists and NESvideos would prefer no one upload it to said service. I'll respect that wish. For those of you willing to make the downloading investment, I recommend VLC media player and a recent install of your fav BitTorrent client.

SNES Mega Man X & X2 in 41:41