Today on the Spot – God of War III, True Crime, Fat Princess PSP

We had a jam packed LIVE show today for GDC 2010, with games like God of War III, True Crime, Max & The Magic Marker and Fat Princess: Fistful of Cake! All that and more, Today On The Spot!

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Today on the Spot – God of War III, True Crime, Fat Princess PSP

Lara Croft vs Princess Leia [Clips]

Had a rough weekend? PS3 gettin’ you down ? It’s OK. Prepare for the week ahead and unwind with this, a very girly snowball fight between Tomb Raider’s Lara Croft and Princess Leia in her slave bikini outfit. You’d think with those latent Jedi powers Leia would be dominating , but no. She’s on the receiving end of a schooling in semi-exploitative winter combat from Ms. Croft, who also shows that dressing for Tatooine for a fight on Hoth may not have been the smartest move on the part of the future Mrs. Organa Solo. [via technabob ]

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Lara Croft vs Princess Leia [Clips]

Review Round Up: Micro Zombie Invasion [List]

It was a week infested with zombies, Nazi zombies and micro-reviews, the smaller format reserved for Kotaku reviews of downloadable video games and downloadable game add-ons. It was also the week that featured our first massive-review. That would have been Mike Fahey’s review and four week long log of massively multiplayer online role-playing game Star Trek Online, our first experiment with a new review format for games that are harder to judge in just a few days time. What do you think? Was it informative? Get caught up on all our little reviews of big game expansions and at least three reviews that reek of the undead in this extended Kotaku review round up. Link ‘N Launch Micro-Review: How About ‘Pikmin Rockets’ Or ‘Better Than Bioshock Hacking’? In which Stephen Totilo finds the connection between a DSiWare game and Princess Zelda’s venerable rescuer rather puzzling and un-Intelligent Systems. Endless Ocean: Blue World Review: The Wii Game You’re Wrong About In which Stephen Totilo discovers a rare underwater lifeform, the scuba RPG. Plants Vs. Zombies iPhone Micro-Review: Touch The Dead In which I perform more lawn maintenance in a few hours on my iPhone than I’ve done in the last decade. Across Age Micro-Review: Slam Evil In which Mike Fahey travels through time and experiences a 16-bit world of bashcraft. Resident Evil 5: Lost In Nightmares Micro-Review: Less Fighting, More Frightening In which Stephen Totilo finds himself slaying zombies out of Africa and enjoying the svelteness of it all. Assassin’s Creed II: Bonfire Of The Vanities Micro-Review: Once More, With Fleeing In which Luke Plunkett loves a cheap date but despises sequence breaking. The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom Micro-review: Snack Of The Clones In which I count pie out to 51 places. Call of Duty: World At War: Zombies Verrückt Micro-Review: Solo Fun In which Brian Crecente goes mad for a chance to tap the walking dead back into oblivion. Kaleidoscope Micro-Review: What a Colorful World In which Owen Good restores color to yet one more world lacking it. Don’t worry, he’s frugal with his atta-boys. Star Trek Online Review: A Piece Of The Action In which Mike Fahey does not bogart Captain Cannibis of the U.S.S. Blunt’s space, thereby keeping his mellow unharshed.

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Review Round Up: Micro Zombie Invasion [List]

Review Round Up: Micro Zombie Invasion [List]

It was a week infested with zombies, Nazi zombies and micro-reviews, the smaller format reserved for Kotaku reviews of downloadable video games and downloadable game add-ons. It was also the week that featured our first massive-review. That would have been Mike Fahey’s review and four week long log of massively multiplayer online role-playing game Star Trek Online, our first experiment with a new review format for games that are harder to judge in just a few days time. What do you think? Was it informative? Get caught up on all our little reviews of big game expansions and at least three reviews that reek of the undead in this extended Kotaku review round up. Link ‘N Launch Micro-Review: How About ‘Pikmin Rockets’ Or ‘Better Than Bioshock Hacking’? In which Stephen Totilo finds the connection between a DSiWare game and Princess Zelda’s venerable rescuer rather puzzling and un-Intelligent Systems. Endless Ocean: Blue World Review: The Wii Game You’re Wrong About In which Stephen Totilo discovers a rare underwater lifeform, the scuba RPG. Plants Vs. Zombies iPhone Micro-Review: Touch The Dead In which I perform more lawn maintenance in a few hours on my iPhone than I’ve done in the last decade. Across Age Micro-Review: Slam Evil In which Mike Fahey travels through time and experiences a 16-bit world of bashcraft. Resident Evil 5: Lost In Nightmares Micro-Review: Less Fighting, More Frightening In which Stephen Totilo finds himself slaying zombies out of Africa and enjoying the svelteness of it all. Assassin’s Creed II: Bonfire Of The Vanities Micro-Review: Once More, With Fleeing In which Luke Plunkett loves a cheap date but despises sequence breaking. The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom Micro-review: Snack Of The Clones In which I count pie out to 51 places. Call of Duty: World At War: Zombies Verrückt Micro-Review: Solo Fun In which Brian Crecente goes mad for a chance to tap the walking dead back into oblivion. Kaleidoscope Micro-Review: What a Colorful World In which Owen Good restores color to yet one more world lacking it. Don’t worry, he’s frugal with his atta-boys. Star Trek Online Review: A Piece Of The Action In which Mike Fahey does not bogart Captain Cannibis of the U.S.S. Blunt’s space, thereby keeping his mellow unharshed.

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Review Round Up: Micro Zombie Invasion [List]

Yes, I Have Barfy Kids [Note]

To: Crecente From: Bashcraft RE: Hey, That’s My Robe! Dinner was exactly ten minutes today. Then Micro Bash started upchucking everywhere. Fifty minutes were spent cleaning. Yeah. Then just as he was about to fall asleep, you guessed it. What is it with my kids and puke? I *rarely* throw up. These kids barf all the time. What you missed last night NSFW: Kirsten Dunst Is Your Magical Nerd Princess Sega, You Are Once Again Making A Giant Mistake Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker Was Originally MGS5 Mario Galaxy 2 & Metroid Coming “Mid Year” Steam Gets A Makeover With All-New UI, New Open Beta Starts Now

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Yes, I Have Barfy Kids [Note]

When Video Games Forget Their Roots

Video Games have existed just a bit longer than I’ve been alive to play them (a sentence that will surely date me in the eyes of my audience). But since their inception into the world and over the expanse of time into our popular culture, there have been franchises that have received multiple iterations and have ‘changed with the times’, so to speak. Most notably would be Mario, Nintendo’s lovable plumber who has rescued Princess Peach on more occasions than I care to remember. Full feature editorial is after the break.

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When Video Games Forget Their Roots

The Nintendo Download: Blaster Master, Fieldrunners, And A New Format [Downlaodables]

Blaster Master Overdrive, Fieldrunners DS, and Princess Tomato shine their love on The Nintendo Download this week, with a new format making it much easier to see what you might be spending your Nintendo points on. I’ve been doing The Nintendo Download since Nintendo started putting things up for download, and lately it’s gotten a bit cumbersome. It was fine back in the days when there was only the Virtual Console to worry about, but now that we’re getting ten releases a week, it’s become a real pain. So now we have The Nintendo Download: Gallery Version. Instead of whining about all of the Sudoku games on the DSi, I can show you them. Just click on the picture for Nintendo’s official description, price, etc. And, if you don’t like the gallery format, click here for all the pretty games in a row. BLASTER MASTER OVERDRIVE Publisher: SUNSOFT Players: 1 ESRB Rating: E10+ (Everyone 10 and Older) – Mild Fantasy Violence Price: 1,000 Wii Points Description: BLASTER MASTER OVERDRIVE is an action-adventure game that takes place on an Earth infected by an aggressive, polymorphic virus. Poor, defenseless animals worldwide have been turned into flesh-eating, hemoglobin-swilling terrors. Fortunately, the world has Alex, who happens to be one of the world’s foremost biologists and specializes in viral mutation profiles and genetic manipulation. Every studious biologist facing imminent global annihilation needs a sweet ride, and Alex is no exception. He has S.O.P.H.I.A., a shape-shifting, gas-guzzling, projectile-spewing paean to destruction on four wheels. Things look grim, but with Alex and S.O.P.H.I.A. on the case, the world just might have a chance. Tomena Sanner Publisher: Konami Digital Entertainment Players: 1-4 ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) – Comic Mischief, Mild Cartoon Violence Price: 500 Wii Points Description: Businessman Hitoshi Susumu is behind schedule and in quite a rush. In fact, once he starts running, he won’t stop! Dashing past samurais, T-Rexes, cowboys and all manner of wacky obstacles, Mr. Susumu must get to the goal as fast as he can for the ultimate 2-D dance party. Tomena Sanner is a high-speed side-scrolling action game with a unique timing-based control system that’s as challenging as it is fun. As they fly, jump and dance over the many zany obstacles, players need to time their moves to keep their speed up and perform awesome tricks. Using just one button on the Wii Remote™ controller, players of all ages and skill levels will be able to play and help Mr. Susumu get to his goal. Four players can compete to see who is the fastest at running through the bizarre and comical world of Tomena Sanner. Bloons Publisher: Hands-On Mobile Players: 1 ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) Price: 500 Wii Points Description: Bloons is an exciting puzzle game based on the simple fact that popping balloons is fun. Pop your way through dozens of puzzling levels in this exciting puzzle adventure. Each level will have a different arrangement of balloons. Using the darts you’re given, try to pop as many as you can. Look out for special balloons, blocks and darts, and have fun discovering what they do. You can pick up and play for a few minutes or spend hours working your way through the game’s 70 levels. As an added bonus, there’s also a level editor that allows you to create your own balloon puzzles. Hubert The Teddy Bear Winter Games Publisher: Teyon Players: 1-16 ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) – Comic Mischief Price: 500 Wii Points Description: Hubert The Teddy Bear is a party game in which players confront crafty bunnies. Outsmart them in eight winter activities including snow fight, sleigh ride, Christmas tree decoration, fishing, catching a bunny and more. Create a teddy bear and customize it to fit your own style. Choose its name and gender and dress it up by combining elements from plenty of clothes and accessories. Play solo or engage your family and friends by competing in one of the multiplayer modes. As many as 16 players can take part in one competition. Thanks to the balanced levels of difficulty – kid, youngster and adult – everyone can enjoy the game. This collection of casual winter sports provides a new experience for the whole family. Oscar in Movieland Publisher: Virtual Playground Players: 1 ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) Price: 800 Nintendo DSi Points Description: Following his Oscar in Toyland escapades, Oscar now plays the leading actor in sensational worlds of hit movies and TV shows. From Sci-Fi to Cartoon, Western to War, Horror to Jurassic and more, this is a game not to be missed. Oscar in Movieland features eye-popping graphics, parallax scrolling backgrounds and fabulous game play. This jump-and-run game is easy to play and packed with hours of fun and nonstop action. Use Wings to Fly, Springy Boots to Jump, and Oscar’s secret weapon – his magical Yo-Yo – to swing on and zap enemies in some of the craziest platform levels you’ll ever play. Link ‘n’ Launch Publisher: Nintendo Players: 1 ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) Price: 500 Nintendo DSi Points Description: Take your puzzle-solving skills to new heights in Link ‘n’ Launch, a puzzle game in which you must move tiles to create a path that connects fuel to your rocket, blasting it through space. Complete the basic training mode to learn how to play Link ‘n’ Launch, and then buckle in for the ride through the robust Missions and Puzzles modes. Missions mode has you propelling the rocket through space to reach the target planet within a three-minute time limit, while Puzzles mode challenges you to clear all fuel and pipe tiles from the screen. In both modes, not only do you need to create a path to keep your rocket fueled, but you’ll also have to account for immovable tiles and special tiles that upgrade your rocket or give you additional time to complete the level, all while keeping your rocket’s flight path within the established boundaries. The launch countdown has begun – are you prepared? Image via NintendoLife Fieldrunners Publisher: Subatomic Studios Players: 1 ESRB Rating: E10+ (Everyone 10 and Older) – Mild Cartoon Violence Price: 500 Nintendo DSi Points Description: Descend into the world of Fieldrunners, one of the most anticipated and visually stunning games in mobile tower defense history. Defend and control the field with a diverse selection of upgradeable towers, using a wide array of tactics and strategies against countless waves of unique land and air combatants. Enjoy hours of entertainment and replayable challenges. Do you have what it takes to dominate the fieldrunners and rise to the top as the ultimate tower defense master? Sudoku 4Pockets Publisher: 4Pockets.com Players: 1 ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) Price: 500 Nintendo DSi Points Description: Sudoku 4Pockets offers you 3,600 puzzles, and your assistant Kiku will be there to guide you through each of the Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced skill levels. The aim of sudoku is to complete a grid of nine-by-nine squares with the numbers 1 through 9 in each square, row and column. As you play, Kiku will guide you: She can tell you if you’ve entered an incorrect number, offer you hints and explain the moves and terms as you play. The simple-to-use number entry makes it easy to select numbers and add possible number candidates to aid your thought process. Whether you’re new to sudoku or an advanced player, you can have fun playing and learning on your quest to become a sudoku master. Extreme Hangman Publisher: Gamelion Players: 1-2 ESRB Rating: E10+ (Everyone 10 and Older) – Alcohol Reference, Animated Blood, Mild Cartoon Violence Price: 200 Nintendo DSi Points Description: There’s never been a Hangman game like this before! The world’s favorite time-killer game takes an absurdist twist of comical proportions. Taking place in various settings, the game challenges players to save the Hangman from his enemies by guessing hidden words correctly. When players guess incorrectly, he is put one step closer to being shot, strangled, erased or hanged by his enemies. Play a single-player game or challenge your friend to a duel. Extreme Hangman features seven different settings with fun animations, over 2000 words in various categories, and three difficulty levels. Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom Original platform: NES Publisher: Hudson Entertainment Players: 1 ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) – Mild Cartoon Violence, Tobacco Reference Price: 500 Wii Points Description: Featuring a cast of cute characters and an endearing sense of humor, this unique title has gained a dedicated following since its release on the original NES system. The wicked Minister Pumpkin, a nobleman in the Salad Kingdom, has rebelled and kicked King Broccoli off the throne. Worse yet, he has kidnapped Princess Tomato and, with the help of the treacherous Farmies, proceeded to abolish all truth, justice, sweetness and light from the Salad Kingdom. Players take on the role of the brave Sir Cucumber, hero of the kingdom, and set out on a quest to rescue the princess and topple Minister Pumpkin. Progress through multiple locations using set commands (such as MOVE, LOOK and TALK) while winning bouts of Finger Wars (Rock-Paper-Scissors), collecting information and items and heeding helpful clues from your faithful companion, Percy (a persimmon). If you fail, the entire Salad Kingdom will be tossed into frenzy. Sir Cucumber, your princess awaits!

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The Nintendo Download: Blaster Master, Fieldrunners, And A New Format [Downlaodables]

Yakuza 3 Features The Best Face Stomping Of The Generation [Clips]

We know that some PlayStation 3 owners have been enjoying the import version of Yakuza 3 for close to a year now, but not everyone has been shattering gangster cheekbones with white leather shoes, as prominently featured in this trailer. Thankfully, the North American and European releases of Sega’s Yakuza 3 are just weeks away. This new gameplay trailer for the localized version of Toshihiro Nagoshi’s gangster beat-em-up manages to reignite our interest in the game, even if just to crush some skulls by the heel of our imported Italian leather shoes. For those who haven’t been keeping up with the Yakuza series over the years, this trailer should highlight the variety, the insanity and the sheer amount of strutting you’ll do as Kazuma Kiryu. I was going to say that pairing Japanese gangster action with Princess Superstar was an odd choice, but the final few seconds of this new trailer reminded me just how out there the series can get.

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Yakuza 3 Features The Best Face Stomping Of The Generation [Clips]

The Tester Coming to PSN for Free in February

Thanks everyone for all of your comments about The Tester . I know many of you are excited about the upcoming launch of The Tester. I am here to share great news – it is premiering on February 18th exclusively on PlayStation Network ! We’re also welcoming a new celebrity judge to our prestigious panel on The Tester – Hal Sparks ! Most of you know him as an actor and comedian, but he’s also a diehard gamer. You can watch contestants face off against Hal throughout the eight-episode series – it’s going to be brutal. The Tester is an original competitive reality series that PlayStation fans can really get into. Produced in partnership with one of the biggest names in reality TV ( 51 Minds ), this is a program for gamers, about gamers who are competing to win a job as a game tester on PlayStation’s first party development team – the team that has introduced history-making franchises such as God of War , UNCHARTED , LittleBigPlanet and Gran Turismo . This is a golden opportunity for gamers to launch a career in gaming – in fact, some of the most recognized developers in the industry started out as a game tester. From day one, the goal of PlayStation Network has been to provide quality content specifically for our PlayStation audience – including thousands of movies, TV shows, digital comics, games and add-on game content to choose from – and offering the flexibility to control when you want it, where you want it. Original content has consistently been a huge part of that vision, from first-party games such as Flower , flOw and Fat Princess to exclusive video content such as Qore and Pulse . And now, we are going even further by offering an original high-quality, reality series. With the largest network of first-party game studios in the industry and deep partnerships across the Sony brand already in place, look for us to continue to build out our stable of original content in the future. PS3 and PSP owners can download The Tester from PlayStation Store starting February 18th for FREE. PlayStation Home users will also be able to watch the series with other PS3 owners in the PlayStation Home Theatre . We’ve added more details on The Tester at www.TheTester.com , including photos, cast and panel details, and more. In the meantime, check out the trailer of The Tester below or from PlayStation Store .

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The Tester Coming to PSN for Free in February

Why A Man Plays Mario [Feature]

I’m 33 and, with mixed emotions, I play games that star Super Mario. The people who sell Mario games would say it’s great to play Mario games. Mario is for everyone. My gut tells me that playing Mario, the adventures of a fat plumber in a Mushroom Kingdom of warbling enemies and happy conflict, is juvenile. My mind tells me I’m a more ideal Mario player than any 8-year-old kid. Grown men play Super Mario games, so I feel that it is time for me, a grown man, to figure out why and whether this is a habit I ought to quit. Last year, as I have done for most of the years of my life past age 10, I played Super Mario games. I played new ones, such as New Super Mario Bros. Wii and, during plane flights and subway rides and while lying on a couch as my wife read a book, the Nintendo DS game Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story. Mario games are fun. They’ve been fun for me since the 80s. But I’m in my 30s. Mario games are in their 20s. They act young still. As I get older, I don’t always want to. And yet there’s joy in the gameplay mixes with the sensation of being an adult possibly playing with a kid’s toy. Bower’s Inside Story features Mario and Luigi exploring the cavernous — but cute, always cute — stomach and intestines of Mario nemesis Bowser. It’s all quite colorful and jolly. The bad guy has a fantastically bad way of speaking. He’s Fawful, one of those kids’-fiction bad guys. I don’t remember the specific moment when I felt I might be too old for this Mario game. It may have been while I made Mario use his hammer to smash little bad guys or maybe it was when Bowser accidentally ate something that made him sick. Possibly, it was during the many moments that the game’s joke-filled script made me laugh; not that I’m too old to laugh, but why am here to witness all those jokes and puns about beans and unbrushed teeth? This was kid’s stuff that I was enjoying — good natured, colorful, clever kid’s stuff, but, still, kid’s stuff. It was a cross-generational kind of thing, like a Pixar movie at best, but, well, not very adult. Mario’s not alone in not feeling quite right for me. I’ve thought in recent years that maybe Call of Duty is too Michael Bay for me and that, well, certain games aren’t enough Mario in the way they teach players their ideas. But as I played Bowser’s Inside Story, there was that reaction again: Maybe I’m too old for this. Then I remembered a kid I met at a party a year ago. This boy was one of the few children there, disinterred in the conversations of his parents and other adults there. He had a DS. In it, he had New Super Mario Bros., his first Mario game. I mentioned some of the older ones, ones made before he was born. He’d never played them, never heard of them. Maybe, I thought, he was too young to be playing Mario. What Kids Miss About Mario There was another moment while playing Mario and Luigi that I can recall specifically. I was in control of Mario and I encountered a character who gave Mario the ability to strap a blue shell to his back. Mario could crouch down, tuck his limbs into his shell and slide across the screen. This new power essentially make Mario into a turtle. That provoked a different reaction: This is something a kid couldn’t appreciate, not really, not completely. How could a anyone under the age of, I don’t know, 33?, appreciate the fact that when Mario obtains the shell power, the game shows blocks of power radiating to all corners of Mario’s world, a clear — obvious! — homage to the exclamation-point block-radiating in 1990’s Super Mario World. No child of the 21st century would understand that. How could a kid appreciate this marvelous twist of a Mario world’s power dynamics, this turning of Mario into the very kickable shell that gamers used to make Mario punt across the screen in most of his games since 1986’s Super Mario Bros? In this moment in Bowser’s Inside Story, Mario had become his enemy, had assumed the role of his turtle victims, an idea that was more than 20 years in the making. Oh, but the blue-shell-power was in 2006’s New Super Mario Bros., Mario experts might point out. The point still stands. It’s the discovery of the blue-shell-power that enriches me as a Mario-playing man. If one strives to experience fiction that possesses emotional maturity and thematic complexity, Mario games are not a form of entertainment that offer meaningful depth. That feeling of unease in my gut as I play a new Mario game might be the unease I’d have if I sat in the part of the bookstore that sells pop-up books and started reading one after the other. But the blue-shell-power discovery triggers my memories of older elements and abilities from older Mario games. It gets me thinking of variations and rule-changes. I’m suddenly a connoisseur of fine music recognizing how a new master performer has chosen to compose a classic slightly differently, maybe with an add instrument or new flourish. The making of video games involves yearly advances in the arrangement and physics of interactive worlds. Playing a series of well-made games designed across those years offers me the ability to enjoy nothing less meaningful than progress and the evolution of thought — thought in the context of designing an interactive Mushroom Kingdom, but layering, increasingly complex thought in that context nonetheless. That is what satisfies me and what I can’t imagine any child who didn’t start with Super Mario Bros. appreciating quite as much as I do. New Mario games, kids, feel as if they might have been made for old me. Other Men Who Play Mario I asked some other men who play Mario whether they’re ever conflicted about playing. The 46-year-old Michael Abbot, who runs the Brainy Gamer blog , has played Mario games since they were only made in two dimensions. He’s never beaten the eighth world of Super Mario Brothers, but he’s stuck with the series. He’s never been embarrassed to play the Marios, he said. Nostalgia is a big part of the appeal, but not all of it. “When I play a game like New Super Mario Bros. Wii, it’s like biting into a tasty cake made from a favorite recipe, but with a few surprise ingredients baked in,” he told me. “The older I get, I find I’m less hungry for ‘innovation’ and more appreciative of thoughtful, creative refinement. Mario games, especially the last two big ones, Galaxy and NSMBW, seem to embody that ideal.” Matthew Green, 28-year-old writer for Kombo.com and PressTheButtons.com knows there are other, non-Mario games targeted to him. “I’m part of a demographic meant for Modern Warfare and Madden, but I always look forward to a trip back to the Mushroom Kingdom,” he wrote to me. He told me he keeps playing because he grew up with the games and they make him smile. The Mario games also make these men feel young. Green: “There’s a sense of wonder and a spark of imagination at the heart of the Super Mario Bros. games, and as children we pick up on that right away.  Then, over time, most people lose that spark.  School, career, social engagements, relationship drama, mortgage payments, credit card debt, medical ailments, and other things that we pick up on our way to and through adulthood weigh us down and we forget the simple pleasures of saving the princess from a turtle despot with an eye for annexing kingdoms and galaxies.  Those of us who continue to play Super Mario games and who make them a part of our adult lives found a way to keep that spark alive.” Who Really Plays Mario? I asked Nintendo for data about who plays Mario games. They didn’t have any to share publicly, but I did get a range elsewhere. “The idea that Mario games are simply just for kids is foolish, and Nintendo knows that,” Jesse Divnich, vice president of research group EEDAR told me. “The dominant demographic for New Super Mario Bros. Wii are males and females over 24 years old.” Divnich said that a look at Nintendo’s commercials gives us a good idea of who the company believes is buying its products. “With Nintendo, nearly all of their commercials contain people of both genders and of all ages. They do that for a specific reason, because nearly every one of all ages, races, and creeds buy Nintendo products.” Specifically about Mario games, he added, Nintendo uses “the brand name of Mario to pull in the older crowd and the cute lovable graphics/gameplay to draw in the younger crowd.” At least Divnich gave me that out. It’s the gameplay that is there for some of us older players. “Dude Fights A Turtle” I found a man, a gamer who doesn’t try to play Mario. He’s no doubt seen those Nintendo commercials. He’s relented enough that he played a recent Mario game, Super Mario Galaxy, and “appreciated” it. But 36-year-old Chris Dahlen, an avid gamer and writer about games for Edge Magazine and his own Save The Robot blog , is immune to the marketing and has never seen the nostalgia. He grew up playing PC games, had a Colecovision, then missed most of the early Mario era. “Today, I feel like a kid in a fundamentalist Christian camp who’s never even read the Bible,” he told me. “Intellectually, I know the franchise, I can name the characters, and I’m aware of the new releases… But I do not ‘get it.’ I do not have the religion. I don’t know why everyone’s in love with this simple, paper-thin character or his cartoonish pals and nemeses.” Bear in mind, he’s played and appreciated the Mario games, but I can’t expect him to care about the blue-turtle-shell-power power and the 20 years of layered ideas. I certainly can’t expect him, a grown man, to be charmed. He gets, say, Spider-Man. “He’s a classic underdog hero,” Dahlen e-mailed to me. “But Mario?  There’s nothing. Nada.  Dude fights a turtle.” — Nothing is for everyone, and there are all sorts of things we outgrow as we age. I remember a news report about a police officer who was suspicious that any grown-up would play the cute Nintendo game Animal Crossing. I am aware of the people in my life to whom I will never relate the story or the jokes of a good Mario role-playing game. I know that as a 33-year-old man, I cannot consider Mario games to be the most natural fit in my life, the most appealing or relevant fiction. I’m not sure that they keep me young. I’m not sure their draw is nostalgia. I like them as progress-markers, as time capsules of thought about designing interactive adventure in a specific and unreal world. I like them despite the fact that their fiction is increasingly irrelevant to me, because, by contrast, their gameplay and their design is more relevant to me by the year. Sometimes playing a new Mario game is to witness the evolution of a thought, the advancement of a set of physics and rules that order a fictional kingdom. Other times, I am witnessing a bad idea, an evolutionary mistake. But always, I am witnessing living thought, tracked across the years, something a kid couldn’t understand, not until he’s older. Not until he’s, maybe, 33.

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Why A Man Plays Mario [Feature]

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