This month, Nintendo is releasing Mario vs. Donkey Kong. It’s a re-release/remake of a game on the Game Boy Advance that came out about 20 years ago! It’s also the first appearance of the Mini Mario characters, an army of little wind up Mario toys. These little guys would go on to star in their own series of spin-offs. But those games kind of all run together because many of them look and play similarly. So I thought in honor of the new game’s release, I’d go over each one and see what makes them special, if only for a little bit. This Mario vs. Donkey Kong series also has quite a few games in its belt, more than what you might think. And the history of these games stretched back farther than what you might expect, too! So let’s check ‘em out!
Merry Christmas everyone! It’s that time of year again when I have my Pretend Christmas Present Party! You know how it works. In the comments section, you give me a pretend Christmas present. It can be anything you want, it’s the thought that counts…literally! And when I reply, I’ll give you a pretend Christmas present too! It’s fun when it’s fun. And I’ve got some other presents for you, too! Game reviews I’ve recently written over at GamerDad.com. Just what you always wanted! Please click on the links and read as many as you can, and maybe post a ‘like’ or comment or two. I’d appreciate it. OK let’s begin!
2021 was just another year of the expected high sellers: COD, Pokemon, Mario, sports games and mobile game billion sellers. 52% of the market went to mobile. Interesting. Here's what interested me and my one pick if I could only pick one.
I remember this year mostly for the being disappointed with the World of Warcaft MMO. I wanted another another strategy WoW. But there was also the release of the DS, which got me back into handheld gaming, and cueing up for my first midnight release for Halo 2. The rest of the world was buying GTA: San Andreas and Pokemon FireRed/Leaf Green, numbers 1 and 2 in sales respectively. Half-Life 2 was a notable winner on Metacritic. Here's some stuff I played and want to play.
The 90s TV this week was The Pirates of Dark Water, a gorgeously animated production that reminds me of animation I saw in Heavy Metal, Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings and Don Bluth's Dragon's Lair laserdisc game. Almost immediately I said to myself, "darn this show has a wealth of interesting graphics, it must've cost a fortune to make". Turns out it did, half a million per episode according to wiki. The story isn't bad either, the characters are good and the voice acting very good. Mad Krammer and I are enjoying it sandwiched in between the following games.
I picked up a few games today at Game Junkies along the lines of early 90s (2 Genesis, 2 SNES and 1 NES game) but not any of these listed below which were unavailable or pricey. Good thing many of them are available digitally with subscriptions or relatively cheap. Here's my list for '92.
I couldn’t think of a creative title for this GamerDad.com review dump blog, so I’m quoting Bluey. Bluey is an awesome kids show that is so good that I sometimes forget it’s a kids show. You should watch it if you get a chance. It’s on Disney+. Anyway, here’s a bunch of reviews I’ve recently written over at GamerDad.com. Please click on the links and read as many as you can, and maybe even post a ‘like’ or comment or two. I’d appreciate it. OK let’s begin!
So you know how the Mario Bros. are plumbers and they fell into a pipe that led them to the Mushroom Kingdom? Well, I work in the plumbing department of a major hardware store, so I guess the same thing happened to me! So in this blog, you’ll read all about my adventures in the Mushroom Kingdom, and how I was able to defeat Bowser three times in one morning. Take that, Mario! So yeah, I went to Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios Hollywood a few weeks ago, so here’s my detailed account and experiences of the whole thing.
I preordered DQ Treasures from my favorite indy game store (Gamebox Video Games in Topsham, Maine, because they deserve a shoutout) last fall shortly after it was announced. Dragon Quest is probably my favorite JRPG franchise, and Erik was my favorite character in DQ XI, so this was pretty much a no brainer for me. December rolled around and... I realized it wasn't going to be the game I wanted it to be. But that's OK, because I had fun with it anyway. Which is a first for most of the DQ spin-offs for me (with the exception of Rocket Slime, just because I know Cary will say something if I don't put this in, it's his favorite DQ title).
Hey folks, I have some big news for you all! You know how the Super Mario Bros. Movie is coming out soon, right? Well if you go to see it, make sure to watch the credits because my name is in there under “Plumbing Consultant.” You see, in the movie, it shows the bros. as plumbers, and the animators needed to make sure the pipes they were working on looked correct. And since I work in the plumbing section of a major hardware store chain (true story), they had me do that. So why didn’t they hire a real plumber for that? Well, licensed plumbers are expensive, and they wanted to save some money so they had me do it instead. And because I do work for a major hardware store, they’re partnering with the Mario movie to sell special plumbing tools. So for a limited time, you can get plumbing wrenches, pipe cutters, and plungers with red or green handles, like Mario and Luigi!
Last year there was a game that came out that I really wanted to review called Arcade Paradise. I requested a review code three different times and was denied each time! I really wanted to review it, too, because it’s a time management sim where you must run a laundromat business, but you are secretly running an arcade in the back with dozens of fictional arcade games you can actually play! I actually had an idea for a business that was half laundromat, half arcade, and I was going to called it Quarters: Good Clean Fun. So this game really resonated with me. If I had gotten a chance to review it last year, it definitely would’ve showed up on my Game of the Year list somewhere. But this year I used some Christmas present PlayStation Store points to buy it, and sure it was only 20 bucks so I was kind of cheap, but this stuff adds up if you’re not careful. Anyway, so now that I’ve played the game, I thought I’d write a blog about the arcade cabinets you can play on it. Oh yeah, and slight spoiler alerts here and there, but I don’t think it matters much.
St. Patrick’s Day is coming up, and it’s your lucky day! Here’s some more game reviews I’ve recently written over at GamerDad.com. Please click on the links and read as many as you can and maybe even post a ‘like’ or comment or two. I’d appreciate it. OK let’s begin!
Hello everyone, I'm sorry I've been away for so long. It's been a crazy two years, and part of that is I had to take some time to myself to sort out my brain.
My friend and I got hooked on Crackdown 3 again and discovered some new features and achievements to explore.
Somehow I got in the mood to play some lego games before and after Xmas. So I streamed Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga and then got back to scouring the world of Lego City Undercover.
I played Lego City Undercover to the end, a little bit of Dead Space 2, Technomancer, Battleship and Pillars of the Earth the other day.
