ALL GEEK TO ME’S CELEBRATION OF MARIO

By @hmsbeefnuts

Oh Mario, you have been around seemingly all my life, providing some of the greatest games known to man, inventing numerous genres and sub-genres and killing literally thousands of turtles and mushrooms by jumping on their heads. I love Mario, I love Mario games, and it occurred to me that I haven’t really written a great deal on plumbing in general, and Italian Plumbers specifically. Now it must be said, in recent times I haven’t kept up with the adventures of Mario. I don’t own a 3DS, although I really want one, and thanks to the fact I fell out of love with the Wii, the last Mario game I played was New Super Mario Bros, which I absolutely loved. Time then to write a little something something about Mario, and what better way than a Top 5 Mario games? Before we start, how about we step back in time with a look at the intro to the Mario cartoon, good times…

SUPER MARIO BROS

Not the first Mario game, Donkey Kong and Mario Bros had come before, but this was the game that revolutionised platforming as we knew it. A magical world, of pipes, killer mushrooms, turtles, toadstool people, a beautiful Princess, and dangerous fire breathing monsters, and of course, a portly Italian Plumber called Mario Mario. Created by the great Shigeru Miyamoto, Super Mario Bros is a stone cold classic and is the first game I played on a Nintendo Console, and put every game I had thus played in the shade.

Jumping, running, smashing turtles heads in with your feet, or burning mushrooms to death with the fire flower power up, Mario is fun for all ages, and is still fun, the first, or thousandth time you play. Do you know where the warp pipes were? Where the secret extra life was in the World 1-1? Then there was the music, what amazingly catchy tunes, it is no surprise my message and email tones on my phone are all Mario sounds. This game established Nintendo as place where dreams and adventures could come true, in your living room or bedroom, and you could play them, and it was awesome. Save the Princess, win the day, oh what’s that? Your Princess is in another castle? Good, more levels to explore and turtles to smash.

SUPER MARIO BROS 3

The first Mario was genius. Read about it above, but what started as a fine idea, and a fine game, was perfected in this sequel. Super Mario 2 was a bit of a departure for the series, as it was based on a game called Doki Doki Panic with altered sprites. SMB3 was a return to form and a game so bursting with ideas I can barely conceive of a way they managed to cram it all on to the humble NES. For the first time, Mario was able to fly, unaided by transport, by use of a leaf, which obviously turned Mario into a part plumber, part raccoon hybrid, that could obviously fly by running fast and wagging his tail, perfectly sensible.

The fire flowers and mushrooms were back, but now we had frog suits, that made swimming a breeze, or the hammer suit, that turned Mario into a hammer throwing maniac, dealing death to all enemies that dared defy him. Also, Mario could ride around in a gigantic green clockwork boot, mental, but in a way that was genius, like Batman. This game was simply the best thing on the NES, and that is saying something. It defined Mario as the leader and innovator for all video games, and proved that blue hedgehogs absolutely suck, no matte how fast they can go. The finest 8-bit platformer there will ever be, and one of the finest games committed to cartridge, you must play it.

SUPER MARIO WORLD

With the dawn of a new console generation, a new era of Mario began. How could Nintendo top the amazing success and quality of SMB3? Well, make everything bigger and better, with better graphics and sound, with more power ups, secrets and surprises, and one more thing… you can ride a bloody dinosaur, that can eat all enemies. Yoshi was a stroke of genius. The sexually ambiguous green dinosaur was a whole host of fun, gulping enemies, spitting fireballs, or even growing wings like some sort of lizardy pegasus.

Bowser was back, and once again had taken Peach, and that son of a bitch was going down, if it was the last thing Mario did. The game was a whole lot bigger and better, with genius level design, fiendish secrets and a map world that was almost as fun as the actual levels. The power ups were down significantly in this game, however, al the favourites reappear. Leaves are out, feathers are in, and this time, Mario has a cape, like Superman, but yellow. SMW is one of the best games ever made, and is as fun to play now as it was back in the day.

SUPER MARIO KART

Mario has appeared in countless different genres in his time, but this game was the one that convinced me that he could do far more than just murder mushrooms mercilessly. Mario Kart on the SNES is one of the greatest multi-player games ever made. Countless hours, and days, and probably weeks have been spent playing Battle Mode, or trying to beat a time trial time, or racing the Grand Prix a few hundred times. This game brought the good guys and bad guys together for a few races around the mushroom kingdom, or a friendly game of battle mode.

A great racing game, with great power ups, who hasn’t thrilled to a brilliant bank shot from a green shell? Or a last second shot from a red homing shell, separating first and second? Tactical and fun, Mario Kart is a great way to pass an afternoon, or a morning, or all night. There have been other iterations, but this is perhaps the purest and as the first, it deserves its place in the annuls of history.

SUPER MARIO 64

I simply could not believe that Nintendo was going to allow me to play as Mario in a 3D environment. Until I played it. Then I couldn’t believe how amazing the game was. This is in my top 10 games of all time, no doubt. Everything that made Mario games so awesome and magical in 2D, was transferred perfectly into 3D worlds that, although a bit blocky now, were amazing back then. From the first few minutes running around Peaches’ Castle, to the last epic showdown with Bowser, this game was one of the most fun games out there.

I still enjoy a little run around every now and then through my favourite worlds, shell surfing, cannon firing, riding on the back of gigantic plesiosaurs, this game has a little something for everyone. Still, in my view, the greatest 3D platformer ever, you must play this game.

So there we are, 5 of my most favourite Mario games, that everyone should have a go at, I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.

Gaming For Girls Part 5

By Kirkiechick

Hello boys and girls, it is I, Hmsbeefnuts with an introduction for one of our regular contributers here at All Geek To Me, Kirkiechick. Here, she valiantly continues her quest through Arkham City, and looks ahead to ventures new. I’ll be back on Wednesday for some Whimsy, but for now, sit back, relax, as we venture into the exciting world of Gaming for Girls…

I have news everyone! I have managed to complete Batman Arkham City 100% in Story Mode. All be it on Easy, but at least I know how the story “ends”! Don’t worry I will try not to reveal too much now! I left you the last time with trying to get into a weapons store as Catwoman for Poison Ivy. I managed to do this. Then I had a decision to make. Catwoman had heard the radio conversations about the progress of Batman. I had to decide whether to save him or not. I’ll let you find out for yourselves the outcome of either decision 😉

Back to Batman’s storyline, I awoke and was able to continue with the story. I found the next stage was to continue to fight goons and pick up clues as to the manipulation of Arkham City. Eventually a showdown had to take place. I shall just say that the showdown and subsequent conclusion to the story is amazing and knocks the socks off Arkham Asylum. I was so pleased with myself that I had eventually finished the storyline of Arkham City. Since then I have been working on the side missions and collecting the Riddler Trophies and solving the riddles for Batman and as Catwoman. So guys if you haven’t played Arkham City yet, I suggest you do as you are in for a treat!

I have found that some of the Trophies are hard to get. This frustrates me as I keep trying and trying. Hopefully I’ll eventually get them! It is fun to switch between playing as Batman and as Catwoman. The side missions are fun and there are still plenty of goons to dispatch! I have upgraded fully for Batman and Catwoman.

I haven’t been playing on LA Noire or Lost at all, as I have been concentrating on Arkham City. Hopefully I will play more of them now. I’m looking forward to getting stuck into a good gaming session with LA Noire. Happy gaming guys!

Code Breaker: How Online Passes and DLC are Making Playing Games A Pain

By @hmsbeefnuts

This article originally appeared on GameNTrain.com

Two Fridays ago, I went to my local games emporium and picked up SSX on the 360. I hadn’t pre-ordered it, but I know a few guys there and I’m always polite to them, and so they slipped me the pre-order bonuses that they were offering for the game. These amounted to a new character and a whole new mountain to race my snow boarder down. Excellent, it always pays to be polite! I made my way home, I had a few hours before I needed to start work, and thought there were few better ways to kill time than relaxing with some off piste action. Unfortunatley, it was not going to prove so easy to enjoy my game.

I slipped the disc in, the game started, and an update had to download. 20 seconds later, I restarted the game, here we go! Oh. I have to enter a code to download my online pass. OK, here we go, a 25 character code, lets enter that with my pad, that’ll be easy. OK finally ready. Except, I remembered I had the pre-order bonus DLC. Could I be bothered? I decided that if I didn’t do it now I may lose the code sheet. Another two 25 character codes, input with the awkward method of control pad. Finally, after about 10 minutes I was playing the game. I liked it a lot actually. Now I know that 10 minutes isn’t a great deal of time, and that I can hardly complain about getting free stuff, at least it would be churlish in the extreme. However, this DLC and Online pass malarkey has really started to piss me off. Games are supposed to be an enjoyable pass time, to relax and forget the stresses and strains of working and relationships etc. DLC and these codes that gamers are constantly having to input, basically amounts to a few minutes of Data Entry before we can enjoy the game we have spent £40 on. That’s too much like work to be considered fun.

I used to think that DLC was a great idea. It extended the life of many of my favourite games, added new quests, characters or multi-player maps. I was happy to part with the extra cash on the few games that I deemed worth it, and then… DLC went crazy. Every game had DLC, and the DLC seemed to be more and more essential to the game. Almost as if developers were purposefully leaving parts of the full game out, just so they could charge consumers for it, and make extra money. But surely they wouldn’t do that right? Surely they wouldn’t charge you for DLC that was already on the disc. The Disc you bought for £40? Oh. Then we had day one DLC. That means that you bought the game, day one, probably had your free pre-order DLC, and then the developers had released further campaigns or maps etc. on your consoles download store. To get the full experience, you have to pay once, and then pay a little more when you get home. If the DLC is ready day one, it should be on the disc, for free. At least wait an appropriate amount of time before you come begging for more money.

I am quite simply becoming disgusted by this terrible grab for money. Now you might say that Jon, you don’t have to buy any of the DLC, no one is forcing you to buy it. You’d be right, no one is, but that doesn’t make it any more right. DLC done right is still a fine thing. Look at Bethesda games Oblivion and Fallout. Oblivion is an example of the very worst, and very best examples of DLC. Remember the reaction to Horse Armour? £5 for some shitty armour for your horse. However, DLC such as The Shivering Isles and Nights of the Nine expansions, offered a great deal for you 800 odd Microsoft points. Likewise the Fallout games. Each piece of DLC added something solid and worthwhile to the game. Yes it cost you a little more, but I at least thought you got your moneys worth. DLC has to be done correctly. Customers shouldn’t feel like they are getting ripped off. Price is important, but also timing. I can understand giving stores exclusive DLC in order to secure pre-orders, but when these exclusives become too much it all gets a bit ridiculous, see Batman Arkham City. Most stores had different DLC exclusives, it was a tough choice deciding where to pre-order the game.

Online passes are another aspect of gaming that has raised its ugly head recently, but is now firmly ingrained in the culture. I have never understood the reasoning behind the online pass. It goes a little something like this. A consumer buys say, SSX. After a few week, they get bored of it, and trade the game into a store, perhaps in order to afford a new game. Another customer then sees SSX in the store as a used game, picks it up and starts to play. Now companies like EA aren’t happy with this. They use the excuse that networks and servers that enable online play are expensive, and that the extra people who haven’t paid to play on it are driving up costs. The online pass then helps pay for these new players. Buy a new game, play online for free, after entering a code. Buy a game second hand, expect to pay £10 for the privilege of playing online.

All sounds pretty fair? Well it’s absolute bullshit. Only one person is using the game to play online. Firstly, the person who bought it new, they played online, then they sold it. They aren’t still playing it online are they? The person who has bought it second hand, well, they are still just one person, and if they are playing online, that’s still the same amount of people taking up server space, even though that person has changed. The extra people on the server excuse is absolute shit. The online pass is just an excuse for publishers to make money on used sales, which they can not do any other way. Used sales by the way are the main reason that game shops can survive.

In the UK our major game retailer GAME, has been recently rumoured to be closing, after some financial problems, which has resulted in it not stocking some huge games, Mass Effect 3 in particular. Used game sales help keep game retailers afloat. Yes there are undoubtedly problems with trading in your old games, you certainly won’t get a fair price, but they are an essential part of gaming culture for some consumers. Many people use trade ins in order to buy new games. Companies like EA may not get a piece of the action, but in many cases, people who buy used, would probably not buy new. EA are probably not losing a great deal of money this way. However, their draconian methods of trying to control consumers is far more likely to drive people away than secure sales. Look at Ubisofts DRM. We don’t have time to get into that here, but not being able to play your game unless you are connected to the internet is quite simply criminal.

Companies need to understand that making things harder and more expensive for loyal customers, is not the way to keep customers loyal. Punishing people who have paid you money to buy and play your game is counter productive. Is it any wonder that piracy is on the increase? Make things easy for people, and they will buy new, but most importantly buy. Make things hard, and more and more expensive, and people will look elsewhere for their entertainment, and perhaps pirate it. No one makes money from pirated games. Games should be easy and fun in order to play. Codes, online passes and increased DLC, are not aiding this process. They are making it a pain in the ass.