The Original Plumber [growabrain]

After a day filled with listening to the Take-Two annual shareholder webcast and frantically trying to find a functioning Grand Theft Auto IV trailer for our readers to enjoy, I'm happy to sign off for the night with a simple and satisfying percussion-only rendition of the main Super Mario Bros. 2 theme. Featuring "Christine on xylophone, Brian on bass marimba, Bob on supporting marimba, and Mitch on the kit" it's a run through of one of the one videogame tunes I have an near impossible time getting out of my brain. Thanks to Evan for the tip. Michael McWhertor

It's fun watching old speed runs, not only marveling at the obsessive-compulsiveness of it all, but noticing certain details of gameplay you never noticed before. For example, whenever I play a Mario-like game, I pretty much feel compelled to kill every enemy. But they don't even seem to realize you're there, just happily "Doo doo doo dee doo"ing along, like that anthropomorphic type writer on Sesame Street who liked to fiddle with himself. Florian Eckhardt

Check out this amazingly adorable micro-messenger bag, built to tote around a single, wafer-thin Nintendo DS cart. It's got a little cross stitched Super Mario Bros. 2 style Mario on it! I'm totally jealous.

It was made by the loving wife of GAF regular The Year 20XX, a stand up guy with a talented better half. From the original post:

My wife Mary is a Craftster reader/poster. Recently, they had a craft challenge where all the participants had to make something tiny— I think less than 2" by 2". She asked me for ideas, and I gave her pretty much the weirdest one I could think of: a tiny messenger-bag style case for a single DS game. She decided to add some (amazingly damn tiny) Mario 2 cross-stitching to the project, and here are the results of her hard work (obviously I'm very impressed).

Dude, who isn't?!

Check out the thread for more pics of the case and the typical GAF relationship advice. Michael McWhertor

Cute single DS game case from my wife

Younger whippersnappers, whom I'd appreciate getting off my goddamn lawn, can also check out the more recent fanboy mag, PSM with previews of Final Fantasy VII and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Mmmm. That's some ripe nostalgia! Michael McWhertor

PDF: Playstation Magazine #1 - September 1997

You are very definitely going to need to click on that image above to see this colossal 3223 pixel by 176 pixel animated gif of an infinite armada of Marios speeding their way through World 1-1 of the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2. The image above is just a small, static chunk of it.

There's a little bit of weirdness going on: one of the Piranha Plants seems to be translucent and Mario never does go to grab those mushrooms or invulnerability star. Still, kudos to the creative gamer autistic who found the time to make this! Florian Eckhardt

(via Destructoid)

Super Mario Bros. 2, as most will contend, isn't a proper Mario game per se. It is a graphic reworking of the Japanese game Doki Doki Panic for the US market. Even as a kid, I knew that something was "off" regarding that Mario sequel. Way off.

More Here [Siliconera]