tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33373656072341810282024-03-18T08:29:03.620-07:00Back of the Cereal Boxkidicarus222http://www.blogger.com/profile/18363078559398106005noreply@blogger.comBlogger334125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337365607234181028.post-78459141303262780302017-07-06T12:23:00.000-07:002021-05-14T18:46:45.875-07:00Singing MountainIt’s not that I’m neglecting this blog; it’s that I’m more often engaged in creative ways that are not writing, and I’m simply using the shell of this blog as a platform to promote these other things.<br /><br />I started <a href="https://soundcloud.com/singingmountain/">Singing Mountain</a>, a podcast about video game music a few weeks ago. It’s an experiment, and I’m not sure exactly what form it will take. It may change episode to episode, based on my whims and availability, but I can tell you at least that it will always be about why the background music from whatever game you barely remember is actually more important than you might have realized.<br /><br />I posted the fourth episode of Singing Mountain yesterday. It’s actually a remake, of sorts, <a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2012/10/ric-ocasek-gave-me-chills-in-weirdest.html" target="_blank">of a post</a> that went up here back in 2012. Once I started this thing, I realized that a podcast actually was the better medium through which to tell the story, just because you can exert a little more control over your audience than you can with just text. Topics discussed in this fourth episode include Earthbound, the closet where my mom would hide Christmas presents, The Cars, Salvador Dali’s “The Persistence of Memory,” the actual persistence of memory, the litigiousness of Beatles and, finally, Janet Jackson. It will likely prove to be the exception more than the rule, as far as future episodes go, as this one is also about me. I was interested if I could use this sort of podcast as a means to make creative nonfiction, I guess, and I’m eager to hear what you think of the result.<br /><br /><iframe frameborder="no" height="450" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/331779015&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true" width="100%"></iframe><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>If you’re interested, you can subscribe to Singing Mountain both <a href="https://soundcloud.com/singingmountain/">on SoundCloud</a> and <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1252832457" target="_blank">on iTunes</a>. And if you’re curious, you can also listen to my previous three episodes, which cover <a href="https://soundcloud.com/singingmountain/its-raining-swords" target="_blank"><i>Super Mario RPG</i></a>, <a href="https://soundcloud.com/singingmountain/episode-two-wet-metal" target="_blank">the <i>Mega Man</i> series</a> and <a href="https://soundcloud.com/singingmountain/episode-three-giana-from-germany" target="_blank">the work of German composer Chris Huelsbeck</a>. <br /><br />In case you’re wondering, the logo art uses a slightly re-colored version of the <a href="https://www.spriters-resource.com/snes/secretofmana2seikendensetsu3/sheet/88243/">Dragon’s Hole dungeon background art</a> from <i>Seiken Densetsu 3</i>. And please — if you’re so inclined, write me a review on iTunes. As a podcast person, I’m required to ask you that. kidicarus222http://www.blogger.com/profile/18363078559398106005noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337365607234181028.post-69477749146649723122017-01-10T00:32:00.000-08:002021-05-14T18:46:50.434-07:00The Saddest Super Mario Fan Art You Will Ever SeeHi.<br /><br />It’s 2017, and one of the promises I made this new year was to write on my blog more often. It’s more for me than you, because it’s helpful for me to put thoughts into writing and better understand myself, but maybe it’s entertaining for you to gawk at my weird mental processes.<br /><br />I’ve been going to a therapist for three years now, and more often than not, I end up talking about the way I was—how my childhood shaped the way I operate today. It may not surprise you to find out that I was an introverted kid, to the point that I didn’t have close friendships, and I think I tried to fill that void with TV and books and video games. Often, I’d get more attached to fictional worlds than I was to real ones. I’m still this way to an extent, but until I began talking to my therapist, I’d forgotten how deeply I sunk into all this stuff back in the day.<br /><br />While I was home for Christmas, I had to clean out boxes of childhood stuff, and this included a lot of drawings I made. Here’s the one that made me want to go back in time and tell seven-year-old me that it was going to be okay.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip0CvDXeCgjD_WS0dm-YhD4VBiErI6SsD-REVK0659luHsZ54snnX61g09leY2G7A37ojBbB4wlymJHdnVR4KmxH9-2xJFPEqLD24q_bob3U006QARO71v7f3JVUnuG9v7FEOZPlEQgZw/s1600/smb2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="442" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip0CvDXeCgjD_WS0dm-YhD4VBiErI6SsD-REVK0659luHsZ54snnX61g09leY2G7A37ojBbB4wlymJHdnVR4KmxH9-2xJFPEqLD24q_bob3U006QARO71v7f3JVUnuG9v7FEOZPlEQgZw/s640/smb2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>If you can’t tell, it’s a masterpiece inspired by the first two <em>Super Mario Bros.</em> games. The 34-year-old me has some notes.<br /><ul><li>The scale is all off. Why is the 1-up mushroom so much bigger than everything else?</li><li>I’m fairly certain that’s Princess Toadstool at the bottom. Why she has a coin on her head and why she’s telling it to leave is beyond me. (I’ll ask my therapist about it.) But the fact that she’s in the foreground—or what would be the foreground, if I understood a damned thing about perspective—is probably telling of a bond that would <a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2016/04/howard-phillips-super-mario-bros-2-princess-peach.html" target="_blank">last long into adulthood</a>.</li><li>I have no idea why there’s only one Mario brother, why he’s so much smaller than the rest of the characters and why he’s lacking a mustache. Maybe I didn’t like mustaches back then?</li><li>To the right of Generic Hero Plumber, I appear to have drawn a potion from <em>Super Mario Bros. 2</em> but have given it a face. Unsure why. Ditto on what would appear to be a hammer and a mushroom block below it.</li><li>The question mark on the question mark box is backwards. What a fucking idiot I was.</li><li>I have no idea what the mushroom-like thing in the top-left corner is supposed to be. Because it’s <em>Mario</em>, I’d assume it’s a mushroom, but I think I proved that I could more competently draw those elsewhere in this piece. Anyone?</li><li>In the center of the piece, I seem to have drawn two Toads—a boy one on the right and girl one on the left, who has long hair and who seems to be taking off her mushroom hat in a vaguely seductive fashion. This is notable because my fanciful she-Toad preceded the introduction of ones in the games by years, though it may be that the Toads could <a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2014/09/toad-mushroom-retainer-female.html" target="_blank">maybe have been intended to be female</a> in the first place.</li><li>I *think* the small thing immediately below the maybe-mushroom in the top left corner is a female version of the pluckable, chuckable vegetables from <em>Super Mario Bros. 2</em>. And I *think* the thing immediately below it (her?) is a smiling version of the springboards from <em>Super Mario Bros.</em>, with a face in the void between the top and bottom halves. Who can say for sure? Again, what an idiot I was.</li></ul>So that’s the drawing. It’s not all that different from stuff other kids drew out of love of whatever thing they were into, but here’s the part that stung a little bit. There is a piece of lined paper taped to the bottom, and on it I’ve written something strange, albeit in lovely penmanship for a seven-year-old.<br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg82DfB8xUqbLozHc7Eo-UoLWS-Oirymf812z7Vwgbkf3pt3nVJnUMgw5n4iSwUCQhCw0XKTOnFsM1DQeSRcJW84bYOFlPHCv3amtnqTJt5TlAA9qureebUGPRGec3LNd-NvTtNPyUTuTY/s1600/IMG_20170109_0003.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg82DfB8xUqbLozHc7Eo-UoLWS-Oirymf812z7Vwgbkf3pt3nVJnUMgw5n4iSwUCQhCw0XKTOnFsM1DQeSRcJW84bYOFlPHCv3amtnqTJt5TlAA9qureebUGPRGec3LNd-NvTtNPyUTuTY/s640/IMG_20170109_0003.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />“Happy Birthday Drew! From all of us from Nintendo’s Mario 1 and 2!”<br /><br />I made myself a fucking birthday card—from fictional entities that I cared about enough that I felt like I deserved to hear from them on my special day. On one hand, it’s cute, but on another, it’s weird. I was lonely, and so I gathered together the stuff that was familiar, which included a lot of smiling produce but also a lot of other stuff from the games that didn’t come with faces but which I gave faces anyway, possibly to make it look like more friends were happy to see me. This makes me a little sad.<br /><br />So yeah, that’s a weird thing to process. But just as <em>Super Mario Bros.</em> begat <em>Super Mario Bros. 2</em>, there’s a sequel to this little anecdote.<br /><br />Late last year, I finally made good on something I’d wanted to do for years: I drove to <a href="https://www.vintagearcade.net/" target="_blank">an arcade machine refurbishment studio</a> in Glendale and put money down on a custom build—a repurposed frame that the people there can fit with a new CPU, new monitor and new control panel and load up with old video games. I’d known about this place for years, but it took me until November to go in and order the thing. I’m very excited, because I’ll get to play games I loved for years in the format they were intended to be enjoyed, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say that one of the best reasons I was excited by this whole project was that I could design my own art for the machine’s control panel and above-the-screen marquee.<br /><br />Without hesitation, I knew what I wanted, and I made it.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFl0v0ukE6v4YQgwjtXw8x1e_jwlYqC0S7ikoSjEyC4zeBehjnDUqn3KFkpoYUfxC7zQPAfFI9Nf3WRymaWQKz00XS3yk9DQoqpFw3JvwTaahznm_AXwdcjj3d1OHcTgiitmFb5rx9ysY/s1600/super-mario-2-marquee.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="204" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFl0v0ukE6v4YQgwjtXw8x1e_jwlYqC0S7ikoSjEyC4zeBehjnDUqn3KFkpoYUfxC7zQPAfFI9Nf3WRymaWQKz00XS3yk9DQoqpFw3JvwTaahznm_AXwdcjj3d1OHcTgiitmFb5rx9ysY/s640/super-mario-2-marquee.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />On the top, it’s <em>Super Mario Bros. 2</em>—and <a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2013/12/doki-doki-panic-instruction-booklet.html" target="_blank">the game that preceded it</a> that isn’t <em>Super Mario Bros.</em>—and it’s all made from the original sprites, modified just a tad, for aesthetic purposes and because it’s mine so whatever. Do note that in this version, I still made the princess front and center. In fact, she’s leading the charge. When the machine is turned on, this will light up, and I’m more excited for this than I can tell you.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMTzBLcmPnYTlQmoKdNolxae37z8C7aaFy_obaNP7qRP0MSty0_4DY4fV5Yi_mzvQmQVWctVkR1AW2Qu4TmMj8HbXjKx71bcyQkfRCv89h0HXGn4NYh2udJFg3W4mDDKhHnycnM0OB6vE/s1600/super-mario-2-control-panel.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMTzBLcmPnYTlQmoKdNolxae37z8C7aaFy_obaNP7qRP0MSty0_4DY4fV5Yi_mzvQmQVWctVkR1AW2Qu4TmMj8HbXjKx71bcyQkfRCv89h0HXGn4NYh2udJFg3W4mDDKhHnycnM0OB6vE/s640/super-mario-2-control-panel.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />On the bottom, it’s a mosaic of all the items from <em>Super Mario Bros. 2</em> and <em>Doki Doki Panic</em>, most of which I realize are smiling produce. Old habits die hard, but no, I didn’t draw little pixelated smiles onto the items that didn’t have them in the first place, but I still made a whole wallpaper of grinning vegetables to look back at me when I finally get to play at this thing.<br /><br />Nearly three decades later, I’m still seeking refuge in the stuff that felt safe when I was a kid. I feel like that’s an important connection to make. And believe me, I realize that a private arcade paradise won’t necessarily be the thing that gets me out into the world and interacting face-to-face in the way I didn’t get enough of as a kid. But hey—this machine has controls for a player one and a player two. I intend to make use of both in 2017.<br /><br />Here’s to typing it all out. kidicarus222http://www.blogger.com/profile/18363078559398106005noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337365607234181028.post-36657250362992581982016-08-03T06:13:00.000-07:002021-05-14T18:46:54.296-07:00Falling Eggplants and Gay PixelsFor all but the deepest subset of the Venn diagram overlap of nerds and homosexuals, this may well be your introduction to the bizarre gayness that is <i>Cho Aniki</i>. I’m honored to extend the opportunity.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLpqdnXar4UVeXDVurI7GqmvU-Ci8q20V80RRcnYpxb4DDng96KKoKz6pkvh9GyxZQYdIk0JWemSv4j8Elr1JcUkFYYkKUtXlS_ErdiF8N2Zey8JAet2q_RgkljSGN7MN1PVnRP-ploX8/s1600/cho-aniki-homoerotic.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLpqdnXar4UVeXDVurI7GqmvU-Ci8q20V80RRcnYpxb4DDng96KKoKz6pkvh9GyxZQYdIk0JWemSv4j8Elr1JcUkFYYkKUtXlS_ErdiF8N2Zey8JAet2q_RgkljSGN7MN1PVnRP-ploX8/s640/cho-aniki-homoerotic.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div>I’m still on my kick about being from <a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2016/07/the-generation-of-pixels-and-vhs-static.html" target="_blank">the generation of pixels and VHS static</a>, and I’m still mucking around with weird video clips and lesser-known pop songs from the era as part of a larger project. I’m not quite sure yet what, exactly, that project will turn out to be, but at the very least it will be interesting to look at.<br /><br />Yesterday, I finished one chunk of it that may just merit a post on its own. Here, please enjoy inasmuch as it can be enjoyed.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="358" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/177311068?title=0&byline=0" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="640"></iframe><br /></div><br />If your response to all this is “Wait, what the fuck?” then you are correct! This is footage from <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/choaniki/choaniki.htm" target="_blank"><i>Cho Aniki</i></a>, a Japanese video game series whose name translates as “Super Big Brother” and whose chief contribution to the world is a lot of nonsensical homoerotic imagery. The games have largely not been released outside Japan, and consequently a lot of people in the U.S. don’t know that it even exists, despite it being one of the stranger assemblages of pixels ever. This particular clip comes from a playthrough of the second game in the series, 1995’s <i>Ai Cho Aniki</i>. (The <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jxs-lHN-X2w" target="_blank">original video</a> has been edited, truncated and manipulated. The song I synced to it is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28Um3jmQHhI" target="_blank">“Happy Station” by Fun Fun</a>. Also also, what <i>is</i> the deal <a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2012/08/does-nintendo-hate-eggplants.html">with Japan and eggplants</a>?)<br /><br /><a name='more'></a>And if you’re interested, here’s another piece of the puzzle: the disco sequence from <a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2015/09/the-bollywood-nightmare-on-elm-street.html" target="_blank">the Bollywood <i>Nightmare on Elm Street</i></a>, manipulated and destroyed, with another italo disco gem added in.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/176093969?title=0&byline=0" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="640"></iframe><br /></div><br />The song is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lIWptZFtfc" target="_blank">“Follow Me” by Giusy Dej</a>, BTW. Happy Cho Aniki Awareness Day!<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicGXRtBx8_FoBvF5kDp3NpcXMb5hoVva6sRgql1C9YZbZIozTeTmbi4_QqdTMAVoa-mFt7ybODawAfVFESqCaMQwDYhwi3dsGGYi5RPLNZGu0VfkC4zTMxOzdHZgaW2GKPrQiOc_KGyd4/s1600/cho-aniki-gay-gaymer.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicGXRtBx8_FoBvF5kDp3NpcXMb5hoVva6sRgql1C9YZbZIozTeTmbi4_QqdTMAVoa-mFt7ybODawAfVFESqCaMQwDYhwi3dsGGYi5RPLNZGu0VfkC4zTMxOzdHZgaW2GKPrQiOc_KGyd4/s640/cho-aniki-gay-gaymer.png" width="640" /></a></div>kidicarus222http://www.blogger.com/profile/18363078559398106005noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337365607234181028.post-53696205216668685052016-06-26T14:17:00.000-07:002021-05-14T18:46:55.699-07:00The Deep Legend of Purple ZeldaDiscussed herein: the original <i>Legend of Zelda</i>, the band Deep Purple, the man responsible for what are arguably the two most famous compositions in video game music history, and open-ended questions about music law.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitV4lFNfRjdRrPWzDaxjxbXL_Z9usPTgxexxH1slcsICNAunLXD4sysGc3Cuz1cSFmoYQStEAUnnwM9GaN03BfTV6r52F1E68z-djzXdyvooPGA7gssKFa5vHOvZkSUQsc8pRkFSyZL20/s1600/legend-of-zelda-deep-purple.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="legend of zelda deep purple" border="0" height="588" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitV4lFNfRjdRrPWzDaxjxbXL_Z9usPTgxexxH1slcsICNAunLXD4sysGc3Cuz1cSFmoYQStEAUnnwM9GaN03BfTV6r52F1E68z-djzXdyvooPGA7gssKFa5vHOvZkSUQsc8pRkFSyZL20/s640/legend-of-zelda-deep-purple.png" title="" width="640" /></a></div><br />Last week, a Los Angeles jury concluded that no, Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-led-zeppelin-copyright-20160623-snap-story.html" target="“_blank">did not plagiarize another song</a>—or, at least, appropriate enough of that other song to constitute plagiarism and subsequent monetary compensation. Led Zeppelin got to continue living atop a towering pile of money that did not become a slightly-less-towering pile of money, and the 1960s band Spirit got a neat little footnote in its history when the estate of the band’s singer, Randy California, unsuccessfully tried to argue that a brief snippet from the intro to “Stairway to Heaven” sounded too much like Spirit’s 1968 song “Taurus.”<br /><br />Neither being a member of that jury nor someone who claims to understand music on a constructional level, I can’t say whether that verdict was just. I can say, however, that to my ears, the two songs sound similar enough that it seems that the one could have helped bring about the other, regardless of whether anyone deserved money for that inspiration.<br /><br />Listen for yourself. The “Stairway”-esque part of “Taurus” begins around the 44-second mark.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="413" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gFHLO_2_THg?showinfo=0" width="550"></iframe><br /></div><br />And here is “Stairway to Heaven,” just in case you’ve been living under a rock for the last forty years.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="309" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9Q7Vr3yQYWQ?showinfo=0" width="550"></iframe><br /></div><br />The plaintiff’s lawyers had claimed that because Spirit had played on the same bill as Led Zeppelin back in the day, it was plausible that members of the latter had heard “Taurus” and therefore used bits of it in writing “Stairway,” which was released in 1971. In my head, that seems like a fair enough argument, and I feel like people following the story in the news probably did too, especially in light of how the family of Marvin Gaye <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/the-blurred-lines-legal-battle-explained-what-comes-next-20150320" target="_blank">successfully sued Robin Thicke</a>, to say nothing of similar squabbles making the news recently. (<a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/tom-petty-on-sam-smith-settlement-no-hard-feelings-these-things-happen-20150129" target="_blank">Tom Petty vs. Sam Smith</a> comes to mind, even if it ended amicably, and now Ed Sheeran is <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/ed-sheeran-sued-for-more-than-20-million-for-alleged-plagiarism-20160608" target="_blank">being sued for alleged plagiarism</a> as well.)<br /><br />These kinds of stories stand out to me because I’m the kind of guy who frequently hears similarities between two songs that other people dismiss with “No, that’s just a common chord progression” or “No, that’s just a feature of this genre of music” or “No, you’re crazy.” For example, I think the old song “Smoke Rings” sounds remarkably like a downtempo version of the overworld theme from <i>Super Mario Bros. 2</i>.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="413" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/givhnw8u8E4?showinfo=0" width="550"></iframe><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="309" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uwFALMf7CNw?showinfo=0" width="550"></iframe><br /></div><br />I’m okay with accepting that the connection I’m making only exists in my head, but there’s this one similarity in particular that always jumps into mind when I read stories like these, because I think it’s a stronger connection to most: the Deep Purple track “April” and the dungeon theme from <i>Legend of Zelda</i>. And yes, there’s something slightly more thrilling to me about the prospect of a song working its way across the pop cultural continuum and <a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2015/04/the-lonely-overworld.html" target="_blank">ending up in a video game</a>, at least in some form, years later. <br /><br />“April” is the final track to Deep Purple’s third album, released in 1969. It’s a doozy. You probably know Deep Purple as the bad that performs <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUwEIt9ez7M" target="_blank">“Smoke on the Water”</a> or the hard rock version of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1PNvopXjbg" target="_blank">that song from <i>I Know What You Did Last Summer</i></a>, but “April” is worth a listen too. It’s grand and orchestral, especially in its intro, and wouldn’t be out of place as the soundtrack to some medieval fantasy sequence, I say. <br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="413" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2eRTQnSzoUI?showinfo=0" width="550"></iframe><br /></div><br />Or maybe that association comes from the apparent <em>Legend of Zelda</em> connection. At around the 2:00-mark in “April,” there’s a brief section that should sound familiar to anyone who played through the original <em>Legend of Zelda</em> for the NES. It’s the bit that concludes <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7T6ZNgoP5M" target="_blank">the game’s dungeon theme</a> before the track loops back to the beginning. (That dungeon theme isn’t very long, and if you played through the game, you’d hear this section of music hundreds of times over.)<br /><br />I made a video that lines the sections up side-by-side, in case that’s helpful.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="338" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/172267757?title=0&byline=0" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="600"></iframe><br /></div><br />Given my history of the playing <a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/search/label/things%20are%20like%20other%20things" target="_blank">“thing is like other thing”</a> game, I’d be willing to write this similarity off as a random, meaningless one, but there’s slightly more to the story. Koji Kondo is the music whiz responsible for a lot of Nintendo’s most memorable compositions, including all the music for the original <i>Legend of Zelda</i>. What’s interesting about the Deep Purple connection is that Kondo himself has admitted to being a fan of the band. In <a href="http://www.zelda.com/universe/game/twilightprincess/inside04.jsp" target="_blank">a 2005 <i>Nintendo Power </i>interview</a>, Kondo even said he once played in a band that frequently covered Deep Purple, so the odds that he would be familiar with “April” would be fairly high—at least as probable as Led Zeppelin having heard “Taurus.” Of course, in the end, the jury found that Zeppelin hadn’t stolen those guitar riffs—or at least that if they had, they weren’t substantial enough to warrant Zeppelin having to pay off anyone as a result.<br /><br />I suppose, then, that I have to conclude this post on a note of confusion. I don’t understand how we can make a legal differentiation between homage, sample, legitimate borrowing, and lawsuit-worthy theft. (And yes, I have thought about how it’s notable that the multimillion-dollar exception to the rule would be a song titled “Blurred Lines.”) So I pose the question to anyone reading this who understands music or music law better than I do: Am I confused because these distinctions are better made by people who understand music on a fundamental level that I don’t? Or is it just that no one knows—and that every post-“Blurred Lines” lawsuit is gambling in favor of the odds of some judge or jury saying, “Yeah I hear it. Here, have a wheelbarrow full of money”? Is it weird that laypeople, musically speaking, would ever be given the opportunity to issue a verdict about something that seems like it should take inside knowledge of the music industry to understand?<br /><br />Meanwhile, I keep “April” on my playlists in case I ever encounter a situation that needs to feel more epic. And every time I get two minutes in, I get to think about <i>Legend of Zelda</i>, whether or not it’s just a coincidence.<br /><br /><a name='more'></a>Miscellaneous notes:<br /><ul><li>Yes, this is was something I’ve written about on this blog before—<a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2008/08/legend-of-purple.html" target="_blank">eight years ago</a>, in fact. I decided the Zeppelin lawsuit made the story timely enough for an update and expansion. I originally came across the info in <a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2008/03/legend-of-cloudbush.html" target="_blank">the “cloubush” thread</a>, which, eight years later, is <a href="http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=232550&page=301" target="_blank">still going strong</a>.</li><li>There actually is a purple Zelda, literally. Her name is <a href="http://zeldawiki.org/Princess_Hilda" target="_blank">Hilda</a>. She’s Zelda but purple. Go figure.</li></ul><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT1wl4MRAZyrg6psOuK_CZ_2MazHh1zLcFwuTm7jR9q0HdxJkF75WvKfoX6Nn6TcGkibGN0HexU7SSbszYiQrzbwbgLN0dbgSjQOAcM3C6HLgvo1wYQPIAkyL65zdL3JDJU7fDnd3yOAg/s1600/tumblr_mvk701i3UH1rlav6ao1_r1_500.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT1wl4MRAZyrg6psOuK_CZ_2MazHh1zLcFwuTm7jR9q0HdxJkF75WvKfoX6Nn6TcGkibGN0HexU7SSbszYiQrzbwbgLN0dbgSjQOAcM3C6HLgvo1wYQPIAkyL65zdL3JDJU7fDnd3yOAg/s1600/tumblr_mvk701i3UH1rlav6ao1_r1_500.gif" /></a></div><ul><li>Koji Kondo composed the soundtracks for <i>Super Mario Bros</i>. and<i> Legend of Zelda</i> but not those for <i>Metroid</i> and <i>Kid Icarus</i>. He did, however, do the music for three early NES games that weren’t released in the U.S.—<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvFuwbb_Xmc" target="_blank"><i>Mysterious Castle Murasame</i></a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcAWboEpS_M" target="_blank"><i>Devil World</i></a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-nqx8TBTRo" target="_blank"><i>Shin Onigashima</i></a>. Given how iconic the <i>Zelda</i> and <i>Mario</i> themes ended up becoming, we American gamers missed out.</li><li>Kondo also composed the music that ended up in <em>Super Mario Bros. 2</em>, and I wonder if the Deep Purple thing makes it anymore likely that he would have been inspired by “Smoke Rings” in creating that game’s soundtrack.</li><li>In 1970, Spirit released an album saddled with the improbable title <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Dreams_of_Dr._Sardonicus" target="_blank"><i>Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus</i></a>, and that’s one of those names that seems like a joke on <i>The Simpsons</i>.</li><li>Not that I nor anyone else actually needs to hear “Stairway to Heaven” again, but did you know that Dolly Parton <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fw_Codf29Pw" target="_blank">does a cover of it</a>? It’s actually not bad—not that Dolly is capable of bad things—and I wager she finds a layer to it that other cover-ers may not.</li><li>Spirit’s biggest commercial hit was 1968’s “I Got a Line of You,” which I’d heard before and which I’m surprised was done by the same band that did “Taurus.”</li></ul><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="413" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2aKNhvMd_5U?showinfo=0" width="550"></iframe><br /></div><br />Video game music, previously:<br /><ul><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2014/08/deirdre-in-final-dungeon.html" target="_blank">Deirdre in the Final Dungeon</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2014/08/pink-lady-southpaw-ghosts-goblins.html">Left-Handed Ghosts</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2014/08/rene-aubry-seduction.html">Misplaced Nostalgia</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2014/01/luigis-mansion-clue-music.html">Luigi in the Dining Room With the Vacuum Cleaner</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2013/05/peter-gabriel-games-without-frontiers-race-against-time-music.html">She’s… So Popular</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2012/11/how-cool-video-game-sounded-in-1988.html">Wizards and Warriors and Montagues and Capulets</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2011/12/midday-to-midnight.html" target="_blank">Owen Pallett in the Star Maze</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2015/04/the-lonely-overworld.html" target="_blank">The Lonely Overworld</a></li></ul>kidicarus222http://www.blogger.com/profile/18363078559398106005noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337365607234181028.post-49450752069172790812016-04-24T12:39:00.000-07:002021-05-14T18:46:57.101-07:00How Howard Phillips Gave Princess Peach to Little Gay NerdsThe TLDR version: My friend’s stepdad is responsible for Princess Peach being my gay nerd icon, because his actions resulted in her being a playable character in <i>Super Mario Bros. 2</i>.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisMZbDTbgJDe16GKLYRpT0uDxYEAOySsdrIXGP2DDoQmNOD1VLGxBDnyGLKuEYjaH3fBbnTcZH-pKa5F3k3-Ek3q95LH7TlTqWiJRmDFG9qjKg4_1yuDOxc-hEU91brrDgDV-9OlvpbaI/s1600/howard-phillips-princess-peach.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="303" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisMZbDTbgJDe16GKLYRpT0uDxYEAOySsdrIXGP2DDoQmNOD1VLGxBDnyGLKuEYjaH3fBbnTcZH-pKa5F3k3-Ek3q95LH7TlTqWiJRmDFG9qjKg4_1yuDOxc-hEU91brrDgDV-9OlvpbaI/s640/howard-phillips-princess-peach.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />I’d wager it’s strange for anyone to live in Los Angeles, but it’s especially weird when you were that certain type of lonely kid who used pop culture to relate to the world around you, just because this dumb city happens to be where a lot of that stuff originated. Stay here long enough, and you may end up bumping into one of the people responsible for some movie or TV show that hit you on a personal level. So far, I’ve had a few interactions with people where I had to temporarily dump journalistic pretense and say, “By the way, thank you — that thing you did helped me feel less broken.”<br /><br />Back at the 2012 <a href="http://www.indiecade.com/" target="_blank">Indiecade</a> in Culver City, I met <a href="https://www.facebook.com/GamemasterHoward" target="_blank">Howard Phillips</a>, a guy who shaped the childhoods of many young video game nerds by being the Nintendo’s first American employee and its unofficial ambassador to the U.S. I originally knew him from <i>Howard & Nester</i>, the <i>Nintendo Power</i> comic that had a cartoon version of him alongside Nester, the magazine’s mascot and a character Phillips himself created. <br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="http://hn.iodized.net/main.htm" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="294" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMHcDz3bzTFDxdAzppHPU-5LnLNM-6U6qBhiZbHkOM5skGA1FS9xgykKqD5-Pckd9RdCjdX0cg2oJzIMMGE9htr1qv-Oj7pzONSPM53RpcTNFkuQC9qVROdg1hNxFTx93bVw9dp8PN-Gw/s640/howard-and-nester-startropics.png" width="640" /></a></span></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;"><a href="http://hn.iodized.net/main.htm" target="_blank">via the howard & nester comics archive</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br />At Indiecade, the non-cartoon Howard Phillips was meeting and greeting a lot of people who, like me, grew up playing Nintendo games and realized that he helped shape their experiences. And I got to talk to him a little more than the average fan because I’m friends with his stepdaughter <a href="http://howitgotinyourmouth.com/" target="_blank">Katherine</a>. She and I worked together at the time, and she had once bragged that her stepdad was the Game Master. I initially assumed she meant <em><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2014/02/palutena-kid-icarus-princess-lana-captain-n.html" target="_blank">Captain N: The Game Master</a></em> and that she was crazy, but she explained that “the Game Master” was <a href="http://www.vice.com/read/my-dad-the-game-master-846-v16n4">one of Phillips’ monikers</a> during his Nintendo heyday and that she therefore grew up having a level of access to Nintendo products that would have made my head explode. When I got a few extra minutes to speak with Phillips as Indiecade, the conversation veered into <i>Super Mario Bros. 2</i>, which was my favorite game — a fact that should already be known to you <a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/search/label/super%20mario%20bros.%202">if you read my blog</a>. <br /><br />Phillips happens to be the person who informed Nintendo of Japan execs that the “true” sequel to the original Super Mario Bros. was too difficult for American players. And while there was a lot of doing on the part of Nintendo’s Japanese developers to transform a game called <em>Doki Doki Panic</em> into something that starred Mario and Luigi, the impetus, as I’ve understood the story, was this single decision my friend’s stepdad. When I spoke to him, I’m not sure I truly grasped that had it not been for him, this weird game with vegetable-plucking, magic carpets and <a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2010/07/whats-with-all-masks-in-super-mario.html">a curious preponderance of masks</a> probably wouldn’t have become part of my life. But more than just that, <em>Super Mario Bros. 2</em> is important because it was the first game in the series that let you play as Princess Peach.<br /><br />Back then, Peach was still known as Princess Toadstool, but she was otherwise the same character we have today: blond and wearing a tiara but nonetheless able to fight the bad guys as effectively as Mario and Luigi could. She was a captive in the first <em>Super Mario Bros.</em> and again in <em>Super Mario Bros. 3</em> — and in fact when news of that later game came trickling out in the pages of <i>Nintendo Power</i>, I remember thinking, “It’s weird how they’re only showing screens with Mario and Luigi,” because why the hell would Nintendo ditch one of the best parts of the previous game with this new fancy sequel? But that’s exactly what Nintendo did. It would take until the Super Nintendo to see Peach playable again — but only in spinoffs like <i>Super Mario Kart</i> and <i>Super Mario RPG</i>. In fact, it wouldn’t be <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OftkAybbsnU" target="_blank">until 2007’s <i>Super Paper Mario</i></a> that she would be allowed into the side-scrolling, hop-and-bop action of the original titles, and it wouldn’t be <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AND7xfxd2NQ" target="_blank">until 2013’s <i>Super Mario 3D World</i></a>, which is in many ways <a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2013/09/super-mario-3d-world-super-mario-bros-2-subcon.html" target="_blank">a spiritual successor to Super Mario Bros. 2</a>, that you could play as her in a “real,” non-spinoff <em>Mario</em> game.<br /><br />(EDIT: It’s <a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2016/04/howard-phillips-super-mario-bros-2-princess-peach.html?showComment=1461547473944#c5716877137471212099" target="_blank">been pointed out</a> that I forgot to mention 2005’s <i>Super Princess Peach</i>, the game that had the princess using her rapidly changing emotions as weapons — angry fire, pouring water for sad tears, etc. It’s possible I just wanted to forget it.)<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3MTSY_cz0SpVsBseZThMMC3Px0_Djg_vwmhAklQnzzpBfOObtSuxJELl-kAbbYedRm11W-cn14CQjzFgxnN2khQcAzh_8txH8LaOTpv0WPjF-Dz8O1Tgsysr0O3eoFkEUBSRieY7DoNw/s1600/peach-super-mario-2.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3MTSY_cz0SpVsBseZThMMC3Px0_Djg_vwmhAklQnzzpBfOObtSuxJELl-kAbbYedRm11W-cn14CQjzFgxnN2khQcAzh_8txH8LaOTpv0WPjF-Dz8O1Tgsysr0O3eoFkEUBSRieY7DoNw/s1600/peach-super-mario-2.gif" /></a></div><br />In <i>Super Mario Bros. 2</i>, you could select which character you wanted to venture through each level, and on many occasions I’d play the whole thing through as Peach, just because I could and especially because I didn’t have to play as a male character if I didn’t want to. As time went on, I’d default to the female character in any game that gave the option. In <i>Street Fighter II</i>, I was Chun-Li. In <i>Mortal Kombat</i>, I was Sonya. In <i>Donkey Kong County 2</i>, I would routinely pick Dixie Kong and her whirling helicopter ponytail over Diddy Kong, the male counterpart who had no magic ponytail.<br /><br />Growing up in a more rural, more conservative town, this was well and good for home console gaming but slightly awkward in public at arcades. I can remember going to a pizza parlor birthday party and bouncing from <i>Darkstalkers</i> (where I played <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_GUZOQqUbM" target="_blank">as Felicia</a>, the oversexualized cat-girl) to <i>Tekken</i> (where I played <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaGEh2Il8HY" target="_blank"> as Anna</a>, a brassy female fatale who fights in an evening gown). This prompted one of the other kids to ask, “Why do you always play as the girl?” That was a scary question. I felt like I’d been caught doing something I shouldn’t have, and I think I weaseled out of answering by lying about these characters being the best ones per all those video game magazines I read. But I honestly didn’t know what the motivation was at the time. I liked playing as female characters but couldn’t explain why.<br /><br /><a name='more'></a>In fact, I think I only came up with a reason relatively recently. When I was a kid, I had no idea I was gay. Looking back, me being gay helps explain a lot of things I did, and I think it might explain this. I knew I didn’t want to be a woman, but I something about playing as a female character in these games felt right because they represented an alternative to the overtly macho types that comprised the majority of the character select screen, especially in fighting games.<br /><br />As a boy, I was expected to succeed at certain things that I was simply not cut out to do: sports, being handy with tools, exuding confidence, not crying at the drop of a hat and “boy play” with miniature cars or whatever the hell else is socially acceptable for male children to entertain themselves with. I failed constantly, and as a result, I felt like I was disappointing the people who had these expectations. The one stereotypically male pursuit I excelled at was video games, and something compelled me to do so as female characters because they could be every bit as successful as male characters, even if they didn’t look the part of a traditional hero.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAKjAGvlsNXaTjoznscILY771lsJddV2aqOjLRLy-CESwsnPGaLuWVSTAPfxXbG3Ghruhlvl3U9wMh-p7IVIwxxfa6A3KhE0YECH_UKUkyL8f3Z-FyZibdXg-veEdTrlIf6o-bQmYtJlo/s1600/super-mario-2-running.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAKjAGvlsNXaTjoznscILY771lsJddV2aqOjLRLy-CESwsnPGaLuWVSTAPfxXbG3Ghruhlvl3U9wMh-p7IVIwxxfa6A3KhE0YECH_UKUkyL8f3Z-FyZibdXg-veEdTrlIf6o-bQmYtJlo/s640/super-mario-2-running.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />Like Peach. Look at her. Farrah Fawcett flip, jewelry, a ball gown that’s wholly impractical for adventuring. She’s pink — so very pink — because there was a considerably long time in video games when most female characters were pink, just so there’d be no mistaking their gender. In short, Peach is kind of a big sissy, but so was I, in a lot of ways, and the fact that she was coded in this manner made her all the more attractive to me. While none of the other three heroes in <em>Super Mario Bros. 2</em> were exactly Stud McBeefcake — come on, Toad is damn near genderless — there was no doubt from the first time I fired up that game that the princess would be my hero of choice. She still is.<br /><br />Post-Lara Croft, post-Bayonetta, post-it becoming general knowledge that <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQppamJoDqc" target="_blank">the dude from <i>Metroid</i> is actually a woman</a>, Peach probably seems antiquated to a lot of gamers. She’s a vestige of an age in which female characters generally just yelled for help as the big bad carried them away. However, she’s also quite possibly the female character who’s been playable in the most games ever, and in my head, it makes her all the cooler than she can still be the best, on her own merits, neither because of or in spite of her unabashed girliness. Should you choose her to be, Peach can kill the monsters, win the race, score the winning shot and, in the case of <i>Super Smash Bros.</i>, kick the stuffing out of everyone and anyone.<br /><br />In case you’ve made it this far and don’t know, <i>Smash Bros.</i> features video game mascots fighting each other, and from the second game on, Peach has been a playable character. I’m ending on this note because it ties back to Howard Phillips and <i>Super Mario Bros. 2</i>. Each character fights using moves that originated in whatever game they’re representing, and Peach’s repertoire draws from <em>Super Mario Bros. 2</em>. She pulls turnips from the ground and tosses them at her opponents, for example, and she can float in midair, and both of these elements originated in my favorite game.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="309" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/i1TS6qNWip8" style="text-align: center;" width="550"></iframe></div><br />Now, even if Phillips hadn’t set into motion the chain of events that created the American <i>Super Mario Bros. 2</i>, it’s quite likely that Peach would have ended up playable in subsequent <i>Mario</i> games anyway. She’s the main female character, after all. But she wouldn’t have ended up the way she is now had it not been for Nintendo ultimately deciding to substitute<i> Doki Doki Panic </i>for the game released as <i>Super Mario Bros. 2</i> outside Japan. <i>Doki Doki Panic</i>’s heroes, a <a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2013/12/doki-doki-panic-instruction-booklet.html" target="_blank">jolly Arab family</a>, were transformed into <i>Mario</i> characters.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2013/12/doki-doki-panic-instruction-booklet.html" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik5dYdDxoPV8iHVkqARaeK9wgDOFAQJIPtxsvyb_NibnjoQ2Ub6OVIGUfsz3R0xev8i62fo1rw1e51zev0-jvqmEgPpvlWqD0HzsqYiELE9f1oIMWD5ckgOClNLdYiP4C-DQranlcUwVs/s640/doki-doki-panic-artwork-lina.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />Imajin, the main hero with the average stats, became Mario. Papa, the strong one, became Toad. Mama, who jumped high, became Luigi, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOTPEKO1R-I" target="_blank">cute little sister Lina</a>, who could hover in midair and who, yes, is clad in pink, became Peach. Lina and the rest of her family have since been relegated to footnotes in video game history, but every time someone plays as Peach in<i> Smash Bros.</i> and floats for a second in the air to trip up their opponent, they’re using Lina’s old move. Thanks to Phillips (and Nintendo (and <i>Super Mario Bros. 2</i>))), she’s not completely lost. She’s just hidden.<br /><br />This is all a very roundabout history lesson, but it seemed important to me. It’s the little details that make given movie or TV show or whatever resonate with you for the rest of your life. I like that Princess Peach is a big, pink powderpuff of a character, and that she’ll probably always be that way. It clicked with me when I was a kid, and as strange as it might sound, I feel like it put me on a path to figuring myself out later in life, all in addition to shaping subsequent video games for decades to come. And it all happened because my friend’s stepdad made a decision. He would probably be surprised to know that it had any big effect on one little gay nerd in the middle of California, but I’m happy to put it out there.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD9KHtvdPJxuijtAr6FjXiww3VbaZSPpjnsrNeLePHzvwpqqQamGmIIzg4YgFPJoPM8wG23KjJ8VlDxvs-IeZhzGzd4Bbw7RxnmjsbtYzUotlyxBxzvL-uMcVtlrvQkqbvveZ9PyFImXQ/s1600/peach+waving.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD9KHtvdPJxuijtAr6FjXiww3VbaZSPpjnsrNeLePHzvwpqqQamGmIIzg4YgFPJoPM8wG23KjJ8VlDxvs-IeZhzGzd4Bbw7RxnmjsbtYzUotlyxBxzvL-uMcVtlrvQkqbvveZ9PyFImXQ/s400/peach+waving.gif" width="400" /></a></div><br />Miscellaneous notes:<br /><ul><li>Earlier this month, I wrote did a post <a href="http://www.people.com/article/troop-beverly-hills-life-lessons" target="_blank">about <i>Troop Beverly Hills</i></a> and how Shelley Long’s character treats her femininity as an asset and not an obstacle. I would have seen <i>Troop Beverly Hills</i> at the height of my <i>Super Mario Bros. 2 </i>fixation, now that I think about it, and writing that piece probably resulted in this piece.</li><li>Nester did eventually make it outside the pages of <i>Nintendo Power</i>, even appearing <a href="http://nintendo.wikia.com/wiki/Nester">in a few games</a>. Most notably, he got his own game in 1996, the Virtual Boy title <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6wTCXEVZAI" target="_blank">Nester’s Funky Bowling</a></i>, where he appeared alongside not Howard but a girl version of him named Hester.</li><li>You may remember Katherine as the owner of the dog who fell victim <a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2015/01/the-skunkening.html">to a hilarious skunkening</a> last year. She currently hosts a delightful but suggestively named <a href="http://howitgotinyourmouth.com/">podcast about food history</a>.</li><li>The history behind how the American <i>Super Mario Bros. 2</i> came to exist is explained in beautiful detail in <a href="https://bossfightbooks.com/products/super-mario-bros-2-by-jon-irwin">Jon Irwin’s 2014 book,</a> and if you loved the game half as much as I did, you may also enjoy this deep dig into it. Game Historian also has <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EUYSN5aFcE" target="_blank">a good video</a> on the history of <i>Mario 2</i>.</li><li>Peach may be the most famous playable character in a Nintendo game, but she’s not the first. <i>Metroid</i> came out two years before, though many players wouldn’t have realized its hero, Samus, was female. <i>Mach Rider</i>, which came out a year before <i>Metroid</i>, <a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2014/02/nintendo-mach-ride-metroid-female-protagonist.html" target="_blank">might also have a female hero</a>, and then <a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2008/01/frothing-girl-oozing-boy.html" target="_blank">there’s Bubbles</a>, the anthropomorphic goldfish hero of <i>Clu Clu Land</i>, which came out in 1984, even before <i>Mach Rider</i>, though there’s hardly much about Bubbles to identify her even as a goldfish much less a female one.</li><li>Two unheralded NES-era with female protagonists: <a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2013/08/krion-conquest-feminist.html" target="_blank"><i>The Krion Conquest</i></a> and <i><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2013/09/ghost-lion-japanese-movie-anne-marie-mcevoy.html" target="_blank">Ghost Lion</a></i>, one of which stars a girl who may or may not be Kathy Santoni from <i>Full House</i>.</li><li>Finally, my love for female heroes made me fall in love with <i>Athena</i>, a SNK game that was ported to the NES. It’s not great, I realize in retrospect. Bad play control and punishing difficulty, but the lead character is girly as hell, and at one point you could transform into a mermaid. I was hooked, in spite of it all.</li></ul><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="413" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7ZRAqAJJgq4" width="550"></iframe></div>kidicarus222http://www.blogger.com/profile/18363078559398106005noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337365607234181028.post-23207780882436544132015-09-20T19:21:00.000-07:002021-05-14T18:47:03.809-07:00This Is a Post About Undo Dog<em>Warning: This post is a fairly deep drill-down on a minor footnote in video game culture. If obscure Nintendo lore is not your thing, kindly move along and wait for a less niche post.</em><br /><br />One of the most insignificant video game characters ever has recently returned to my life: <a href="http://www.mariowiki.com/Undo_Dog">Undo Dog</a>. He’s technically a <em>Mario</em> character, though only in the loosest sense of the expanded Marioverse. He first appeared in 1992’s <em>Mario Paint</em>, a sort of Nintendo approximate of Photoshop that came packed with the Super NES Mouse and allowed players to draw and paint images and create crude animations that couldn’t be uploaded or transferred off the game pack in any way. Mario-branded but not really all that Mario-specific, the game came out when I was only ten, and I loved it. And one of the things I loved most about it was Undo Dog, the game’s equivalent of CTRL+Z.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHXrcmK_wsaBuSvoZTU25LVbMSIqzop55pdRnxHooop4D23uIsTuxfC0B6PM7HOtIFqCMiQgg6j1Q2mP0kRfWJpWCa7xrfC7lqeyFt2alRIH8jbucLYjsi8X-wJj4M1mKV9R3ALfM64oc/s1600/undo-dog-mairo-paint.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHXrcmK_wsaBuSvoZTU25LVbMSIqzop55pdRnxHooop4D23uIsTuxfC0B6PM7HOtIFqCMiQgg6j1Q2mP0kRfWJpWCa7xrfC7lqeyFt2alRIH8jbucLYjsi8X-wJj4M1mKV9R3ALfM64oc/s1600/undo-dog-mairo-paint.png" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;">Clicking him undoes whatever disastrous aesthetic decision you made, and he makes a crude bark noise when you click. If you let the mouse sit idle, he also dances about in the tool tray in the bottom of the screen, and if you opted to create your sixteen-bit masterpiece without background music, he’d occasionally sneeze. (He was allergic to silence, we gathered.)</span></div><br />Here, watch and listen.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="547" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/42061738?title=0&byline=0" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="625"></iframe><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Even at ten years old, I was a sucker for anything canine, and the fact that Nintendo chose to imbue one of the most functional aspects of <em>Mario Paint</em> with a dog personality is a great example of why I am a lifelong Nintendo loyalist. And the fact that the icon border around Undo Dog’s face was revealed in his “dancing in the tool tray” animations to be a weird, square collar? I was in love — with the character design but also with whatever clever person who implemented it.<br /><br />I felt catered to — and that rarely happened when I was younger.<br /><br /><a name='more'></a>Given my history on this blog <a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/search/label/super%20mario%20bros.">writing about various <em>Super Mario</em> games</a>, it shouldn’t surprise you that even back then, I had an encyclopedic knowledge of them. I knew everything that a North American fan could know, and I was a strong supporter of the series’ also-rans. When <em>Super Mario Kart</em> came out in September 1992, the only thing that seemed more pressing than beating the game on every conceivable level was dreaming up ideas for the inevitable sequel, and I sank hours into this task. I drew maps for tracks based on levels <a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2008/08/forgotten-jar-pixies.html"> from Subcon</a>, the setting of <em>Super Mario Bros. 2</em>, and <a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2009/09/super-mario-world-our-world-that-is.html">Sarasaland</a>, the setting for <em>Super Mario Land</em>, and handpicked the characters that would join the roster of <em>Mario Kart</em> racers. No lie: I even drew new versions of <a href="http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/nintendo/images/1/12/Super_Mario_Kart_(NA).png/revision/latest?cb=20121001031217&path-prefix=en">the <em>Super Mario Kart</em> box art</a> that featured then-unknown characters like <a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2008/04/princess-daisy-stole-my-face.html">Princess Daisy</a> (the ruler of Sarasaland and a character most players wouldn’t have recognized back in the day), <a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2008/06/name-that-egg-spitter.html"> Birdo</a> (<em>Super Mario Bros. 2</em>’s Yoshi prototype, essentially, and also the most gender-complicated bipedal dinosaur in the history of video games) and Wario (the minor <em>Super Mario Land 2</em> villain that no one cared about once upon a time).<br /><br />All of these characters eventually did become playable in later <em>Mario Kart</em> games, I should point out. However, my never-distributed, beyond-unofficial concept art also included characters like <a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2010/05/obscurio-most-famously-unfamous-mario.html">Pauline</a> (the <em>Donkey Kong</em> damsel who has since been made to look like Sofia Vergara), <a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2007/04/long-live-frog-king.html">Wart </a> (the <em>Super Mario Bros. 2</em> villain who has subsequently showed up as a <em>Zelda</em> character but never again as a <em>Mario</em> character) and an ultra-obscure <em>Mario</em> D-lister named <a href="http://www.mariowiki.com/Heavy_Zed">Heavy Zed</a>, who was in retrospect not a character in any way. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmb3OHV83ItQIAE4kzRt-mln09_UjMlN9VqclIj-RI3JEMmP4SIfZ7E1X1zGEh2sXvccrB2fYUtmvFE9Y7MKvjC0vxzNwFFgb6_7P4Zl1eTxcNHfSpPK3g5MNoBDBG9IEAfnc1JbTnhtM/s1600/heavy-zed-owl-super-mario-land-2.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmb3OHV83ItQIAE4kzRt-mln09_UjMlN9VqclIj-RI3JEMmP4SIfZ7E1X1zGEh2sXvccrB2fYUtmvFE9Y7MKvjC0vxzNwFFgb6_7P4Zl1eTxcNHfSpPK3g5MNoBDBG9IEAfnc1JbTnhtM/s640/heavy-zed-owl-super-mario-land-2.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />Heavy Zed was a big, dumb owl that Mario would hop onto in <em>Super Mario Land 2</em> and prompt him into waking up and fluttering in a single direction until Mario encountered a second Heavy Zed, which he’d then hop onto. Essentially, he was a platform lift, like the dolphins in <em>Super Mario World</em>, but ten-year-old me didn’t care: He had a name and therefore deserved realization as a playable <em>Mario</em> character. Yeah, I had some big ideas.<br /><br />Included on this wishlist was Undo Dog, just because he also had a name and I had seized on him as a thing worth paying attention to, and I drew him into my terrible mock <em>Super Mario Kart 2</em> art, stockade collar and all. In retrospect, it seems silly and misguided in the way most fan fiction seems to anyone not at the heart of the subject matter’s core fandom. Time passed, and although I admit to being guilty of jotting out the occasional dream <em>Mario Kart</em> roster during my free moments — E. Gadd from <em>Luigi’s Mansion</em>! Dixie Kong! Captain Syrup! — I forgot about dumb ol’ Undo Dog.<br /><br />And then <em>Super Mario Maker</em> came out. For those who don’t know, <em>Super Mario Maker</em> is essentially the game that <em>Mario Paint</em> should have been, and it allows players to create their own <em>Mario</em> levels and then upload them to be enjoyed by others. Presentation-wise, the game owes a great debt to <em>Mario Paint</em>, and this includes the implementation of Undo Dog as the CTRL+Z function, twenty-three years after the fact.<br /><br />Here is a trailer to help you understand why <em>Super Mario Maker</em> is weird but great.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZwO09vJAPDs" width="560"></iframe><br /></div><br />But there’s an additional reason I’m writing about Undo Dog today. One of the more fan service-y aspects to <em>Super Mario Maker</em> is that its <em>Super Mario Bros.</em> mode includes the ability to “costume” Mario as various characters from other <em>Mario</em> games — Bowser, Dr. Mario, Rosalina, etc. — as well as characters from other franchises — Zelda from <em>Zelda</em>, for example, or Kirby from <em>Kirby</em> or even the Wii Balance Board from <em>Wii Fit</em>. <br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9rnjvaPiBBc" width="560"></iframe><br /></div><br />This is remarkable is that it plays into the new <em>Smash Bros.</em> style Nintendo is applying to all its franchises, in which characters from games that have little in common get to interact. I mean, hell — <em>Super Mario Maker</em> allows you to sub in Ness from <em>Earthbound</em>, the squid-kid from <em>Splatoon</em>, <a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2008/08/lets-not-call-him-blackie-okay.html">Foreman Spike from <em>Wrecking Crew</em></a> and even Lottie the Otter, from and <em>Animal Crossing</em> game that hasn’t even been released yet. And mixed up into all this is Undo Dog.<br /><br />Per the game’s instruction manual, which doubles as an art book:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZBVvu9586EqsKUiFJFvD6D93tu2-5-1MZuUxhLkt2UNsc64_q6bPlfh11rgDjuHarKdMnU4PXGWTC0YLvNZYJpqBgoz2LqgTyG4gglj9yYmsvP9EVxEp1rA453MfUBgBtCmCb7BFTQMY/s1600/undo-dog-super-mario-maker.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="458" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZBVvu9586EqsKUiFJFvD6D93tu2-5-1MZuUxhLkt2UNsc64_q6bPlfh11rgDjuHarKdMnU4PXGWTC0YLvNZYJpqBgoz2LqgTyG4gglj9yYmsvP9EVxEp1rA453MfUBgBtCmCb7BFTQMY/s640/undo-dog-super-mario-maker.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />I’m not saying this makes Undo Dog a shoe-in for the next <em>Mario Kart</em>, exactly, but my inner ten-year-old is gratified to see the most minor of video game characters resurrected in my adult life, in a new age where Nintendo has gone <em>Crisis on Infinite Earths</em> with every game. I don’t think my placement of Daisy, Wario and Birdo in the <em>Mario Kart</em> karts was prescient, necessarily, but I’m currently placing more money on Undo Dog than I am on Heavy Zed, were that a bet to be made in some dank corner of the nerdy internet. And that is a surprising thing for a longtime video game fan to say, twenty-three years later, just like it was surprising to get a new <em>Kid Icarus</em> game after so many years and finally see <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ6YqHQdPoY">a <em>Super Mario Bros. 2</em>-themed track</a> in a <em>Mario Kart</em> game.<br /><br />Go Undo Dog, you sneezing marvel, you. May your video game career be long and unusual. kidicarus222http://www.blogger.com/profile/18363078559398106005noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337365607234181028.post-72389898556013253972015-04-14T13:22:00.000-07:002021-05-14T18:47:15.433-07:00The Lonely OverworldI spent most of yesterday humming a song from a video game I haven’t played in years. It’s the music that plays in <em>Final Fantasy VI</em> when you’re in the overworld — that is, the larger map that you travel around in to get to towns, dungeons and other locations. And it wasn’t until I’d mentally played and re-played the song yesterday that I realized it bears a passing resemblance to “The Lonely Shepherd,” the Zamfir song that plays at the end of <em>Kill Bill: Vol. One</em>.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="158" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jjgwVSDAmP4?showinfo=0" width="280"></iframe><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="158" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-tbQtS0AKXQ?showinfo=0" width="280"></iframe><br /></div><br />I hear it, anyway. <br /><br />The <em>Final Fantasy</em> song also happens to be the theme song of Terra, the game’s main character during the first half, which seems strange to me since there’s a more appropriately <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCYyGQD3j34">morose, contemplative version</a> of song that plays during her scenes. In the second half of the game, Terra becomes more of a supporting character, and the lead character more or less is the game’s other female lead, Celes. (Terra? Celes? Terrestrial and celestial? There’s symmetry here, my English major brain tells me.) The overworld theme in this half starts out downright mournful, to the point that you’d sometimes just want to get the hell off the map screen to escape it. But there’s a pop song that reminds me of even this track: “In the Forest,” from The Coral’s 2003 album <em>Magic and Medicine</em>.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="158" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2fKgnqFQ81o?showinfo=0" width="211"></iframe><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="158" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/g3qPONU6aHo?showinfo=0" width="280"></iframe><br /></div><br />This seems relevant at the time. <br /><br />Video game music, previously:<br /><ul><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2014/08/deirdre-in-final-dungeon.html" target="_blank">Deirdre in the Final Dungeon</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2014/08/pink-lady-southpaw-ghosts-goblins.html">Left-Handed Ghosts</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2014/08/rene-aubry-seduction.html">Misplaced Nostalgia</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2014/01/luigis-mansion-clue-music.html">Luigi in the Dining Room With the Vacuum Cleaner</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2013/05/peter-gabriel-games-without-frontiers-race-against-time-music.html">She’s… So Popular</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2012/11/how-cool-video-game-sounded-in-1988.html">Wizards and Warriors and Montagues and Capulets</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2011/12/midday-to-midnight.html" target="_blank">Owen Pallett in the Star Maze</a></li></ul>kidicarus222http://www.blogger.com/profile/18363078559398106005noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337365607234181028.post-64505431876059986012015-03-22T12:33:00.000-07:002021-05-14T18:47:19.350-07:00With “It” Being Hilariously Outdated Streetwalker GarbThis week, I had to watch <em>Pretty Woman</em>. I realize that I grew up in a generation of kids who watched this movie willingly and repeatedly, but I wasn’t allowed to, I’m guessing because my parents wanted to leave explanations about prostitution to the Bible. As a result of not having grown up with it, I kind of hate <em>Pretty Woman</em>. I think if you see it when you’re a kid, you just accept it as good. If you see it as a grown-up who has the slightest inkling about what a prostitute’s life might be like, you can’t get past its phoniness. In fact, the only part about <em>Pretty Woman</em> I really enjoy is Laura San Giacomo, and that probably puts me in a super-minority.<br /><br />In watching it in order to write <a href="http://www.people.com/article/pretty-woman-25th-anniversary-life-lessons">even the dinkiest listicle about it</a>, I realized that my fashion vocabulary completely failed me regarding Julia Roberts’ first costume in the film. You know the one: the most streetwalkery, the least hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold. It’s hooker with an aluminum spleen at best. But while I didn’t know how to describe it beyond “What the fuck is she supposed to be wearing?” and thereabouts, I could liken it to another pop cultural woman of the night.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcGfXtOs0UttV-QwU7mPxsO6_aUvnjhA4yJjGCMu9Hol00SXv5i-uP69SP6LrVJBwgFK1rV1czcZxa43rMyUewycwNWkxnigPtBXLqB8PCKzFgGyyJFrlZtWamlyv0y8FTLravr8phViA/s1600/julia-roberts-pretty-woman-poison-final-fight.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcGfXtOs0UttV-QwU7mPxsO6_aUvnjhA4yJjGCMu9Hol00SXv5i-uP69SP6LrVJBwgFK1rV1czcZxa43rMyUewycwNWkxnigPtBXLqB8PCKzFgGyyJFrlZtWamlyv0y8FTLravr8phViA/s1600/julia-roberts-pretty-woman-poison-final-fight.png" /></a></div><br />In the original <em>Final Fight</em>, you encounter a female enemy, <a href="https://draft.blogger.com/%E2%80%9Chttp://capcom.wikia.com/wiki/Poison%E2%80%9D">Poison</a>, who’d later go on to become playable in <a href="https://youtu.be/9eKG5ZhG0rM?t=22s">the <em>Street Fighter</em> games</a>. She’s never stated to be a prostitute, but she is a streetwalker in the literal sense: She trots up to you as you scroll down the street and attempts to kick your ass, just like every male enemy does. Poison lacks Vivian’s thigh-highs and the smoking jacket, but the two characters are baring similar amounts of skin beneath their tank tops. And then there’s <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=poison+hat&espv=2&biw=1347&bih=538&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=78EPVZ7eMpHYoASfqoCwAQ&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAg#tbm=isch&q=poison+final+fight+hat">that hat</a>. The <em>Pretty Woman</em> hat is either a pageboy cap or a <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=greek+fishing+hat&es_sm=119&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=wwUPVbfLNorooATtq4CoDw&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAg&biw=1347&bih=538">Greek fishing hat</a>, according to my panel of experts. And while most probably assume Poison is wearing a cop hat, reappropriated punk-style, I think it’s actually a Greek fishing hat.<br /><br />Were Greek fishing hats in style for a certain class of woman in the early 90s? I have no idea. Was the <em>Pretty Woman</em> outfit representative of something a prostitute would have actually worn? Or would she have looked odd and out-of-place even in the skantastic fashion netherworld that was Hollywood Boulevard in 1990? Again, not having been in the market for prostitutes when I was seven, I can’t say.<br /><br />And in case you’re thinking that Poison’s outfit might have been a tip of the hat — that is, the 90s prostitute hat — to the most famous hooker of the era, it’s not. <em>Pretty Woman</em> hit theaters on March 23, 1990, and <em>FInal Fight</em> first hit arcades in December 1989. Poison technically debuted first, so the two designs probably originated separately, though I’d be interested to know if they were both inspired by a real-life look, hookery or not.<br /><br />Who Wore It Better? — previously:<br /><ul><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2014/10/gwen-stefani-ghirahim.html">Gwen Stefani / Ghirahim</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2014/07/bob-dylan-jean-ralphio.html">Bob Dylan / Jean-Ralphio</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2013/11/amy-sedaris-heart-she-holler-squidbillies.html">Amy Sedaris / Lil from <i>Squibillies</i></a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2013/11/bjork-looks-just-like.html" target="_blank">Bjork / a gerenuk</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2013/07/arrested-development-cindi-lightbaloon-ostrich.html">Jane Lynch / an angry ostrich</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2013/02/with-it-being-winning-hamstery-grin.html">Lena Dunham / Little Critter</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2012/06/with-it-being-set-of-dead-doll-eyes.html" target="_blank">Kim Kardashian / a sex robot from a vintage Japanese comic book</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2012/06/with-it-being-octopus-hat.html">Fiona Apple / some other chick wearing an octopus hat</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2012/03/with-it-being-blackest-of-hearts.html">Kris Jenner / Eclipso</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2012/02/with-it-being-appealingly-possum-like.html">Michael Cera / Edith Crawley</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2012/01/with-it-being-very-david-lynchy-sense.html">Lana Del Rey / Camilla Rhodes</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2011/11/square-jaws-square-personalities.html">Adam Scott / Seth Gabel</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2012/01/with-it-being-particularly-feline.html">Tabatha Coffey / an angry, white cat</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2011/08/with-it-being-horn-like-skull-crest.html">Grace Jones / a cassowary</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2011/06/with-it-referring-to-caricature-of.html">Coco / the Venus of Willendorf</a></li></ul>kidicarus222http://www.blogger.com/profile/18363078559398106005noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337365607234181028.post-37593303755831792822014-12-26T22:07:00.000-08:002021-05-14T18:47:26.375-07:00Frequently Asked Questions About Smash Bros.Someone recently pointed out to me that the new <em>Smash Bros.</em> at its most frantic looks to lifelong gamers the way early home console video games must have looked to our parents: a boggling flurry of colors and shapes that just doesn’t make any sense. It’s true. In spite of a life playing video games, I still feel my eyes glazing over when I play <em>Smash Bros.</em> Suddenly, I’m watching someone else’s character as I calmly trot my guy off a ledge.<br /><br />See for yourself.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/ZU6x08FcRIw" width="560"></iframe><br /></div><br />Here, then, are the frequeenly asked questions about <em>Smash Bros.</em>, based off a grow play session comprised of people who grew up playing video games but still could not keep up.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"><br />Wait, who am I?</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"><br />Wait, who’s killing me?</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"><br />Did I just die?</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"><br />Why did I just die?</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"><br />Wait, why did they make it so Wario could be basically identical colors to Mario? How is that fair?</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"><br />What did I just do? Am I winning?</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"><br />Wait, is that Pac-Man?</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"><br />Really, Pac-Man?</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"><br />Is Pac-Man still a thing?</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"><br />Really?</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"><br />Can you play as <i>Rampage</i>?</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"><br />Can you play as Dixie Kong?</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"><br />Can you play as Ms. Pac-Man?</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"><br />Why isn’t Bowser bigger?</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"><br />Why are there two Kirbys?</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"><br />Why did my Kirby just fall asleep?</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"><br />Why didn’t I know that Nintendo owns <i>Pokémon</i>?</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"><br />Why can’t I ride Yoshi?</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"><br />Who is shooting me?</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"><br />Wait, are all my lives gone?</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Closing thought: Video games have given us an opportunity to speak the sentence “I died” heretofore unseen in human history.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_-8sGoPdnwsvdatMH3so-4IgJ2_JbQnD3kKmokUoIQ-jV3_q-ZXxeSYDk5g2S4TVt5e2ahziKOaoaYDarueuLnnupcWHRS24te-3ahKdwOjsXsGb9j9c6TP_ylwcDWdjAgP_WaHXDj8I/s1600/smash+bros+chaos.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="382" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_-8sGoPdnwsvdatMH3so-4IgJ2_JbQnD3kKmokUoIQ-jV3_q-ZXxeSYDk5g2S4TVt5e2ahziKOaoaYDarueuLnnupcWHRS24te-3ahKdwOjsXsGb9j9c6TP_ylwcDWdjAgP_WaHXDj8I/s1600/smash+bros+chaos.png" width="640" /></a></div>kidicarus222http://www.blogger.com/profile/18363078559398106005noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337365607234181028.post-60094604254569233852014-10-21T12:13:00.000-07:002021-05-14T18:47:31.980-07:00With “It” Being Gray Skin and Vision-Obscuring HairGwen Stefani has <a href="http://www.complex.com/music/2014/10/gwen-stefani-baby-dont-lie">a new album coming out</a>. This is news that some people will receive enthusiastically, I’d guess. Available data sets lead me to believe it will not significantly affect my life, but I can offer you the following side-by-side.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnEYLkrdV6oqs4agDVdIF4O4IrzdTpBuKSKT3xPIlU7jJGKltHZgwT81reHQsHE5D_UtWIuzlE69oe9WIYQ_WpGmnJsPh2hcfTirCMWkZ22Gf8W3hS5Xoa0Mnl1BWuaZRbIpjsNPIc84k/s1600/gwen-stefani-ghirahim.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="338" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnEYLkrdV6oqs4agDVdIF4O4IrzdTpBuKSKT3xPIlU7jJGKltHZgwT81reHQsHE5D_UtWIuzlE69oe9WIYQ_WpGmnJsPh2hcfTirCMWkZ22Gf8W3hS5Xoa0Mnl1BWuaZRbIpjsNPIc84k/s1600/gwen-stefani-ghirahim.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />Am I the only one to see this? It’s the first thing I thought of. And as I keep seeing Stefani’s album cover on social media, it continues to be my only reaction to it.<br /><br /><a name='more'></a>The fellow on the right, if you don’t know, is <a href="http://zeldawiki.org/Ghirahim">Ghirahim</a>, a big bad from <em>Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword</em> who’s notable for being… a little freaky. For a character in a Nintendo game, he has a considerable sexual charge, and it’s often <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_RXFIO0U8k">directed at the series hero,</a> Link. Nintendo made him a playable character in the new <em>Zelda</em> spin-off, <em>Hyrule Warriors</em>, and his intro trailer conveys his shtick pretty straightforwardly.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><object height="315" width="560"><param name="movie" value="//www.youtube.com/v/pq8lA-UpToM?version=3&hl=en_US" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><embed allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/v/pq8lA-UpToM?version=3&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560"></embed></object></div><br />The tongue-waggling. The snooty laugh. The tights. I feel like most audiences would recognize him as a gay-coded character. (There’s a pun on the phrase <em>Skyward Sword</em> to be made, obviously, and in fact, you find out in the end that Ghirahim is actually a sentient sword, so make of that what you will.) And as unlikely a Nintendo character as he seems, the company has embraced Ghirahim, even putting him <a href="https://miiverse.nintendo.net/posts/AYMHAAACAADRUqGQlAaeiw">in the new <em>Smash Bros.</em></a>. Online, there’s <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=ghirahim+fan+art&es_sm=91&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=x6pGVJabM8eWyASqwoGoCA&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1616&bih=860">no</a> <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=ghirahim+fan+art&es_sm=91&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=x6pGVJabM8eWyASqwoGoCA&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1616&bih=860#tbm=isch&q=ghirahim+meme">shortage</a> of fan-made reaction to the guy, and now Gwen Stefani has just found a new reason to make me think about Nintendo’s new favorite embodiment of all things salacious and campy and not-explicitly-gay-but-yeah-basically-gay.<br /><br />How fun for her.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyJYApOkE4U176rduoWMpljJfyghGEG3UArshUuFc_pmvk2qkmbU6b-u4tuIqNq1nlFZJNT6rY1eYbUim-4YvSeLGrnQCACPI2qFjBdnHcAD1l_tFYj-KWt6ZuR3zHPKSlrpOORJKgngs/s1600/link-ghirahim-gay.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="344" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyJYApOkE4U176rduoWMpljJfyghGEG3UArshUuFc_pmvk2qkmbU6b-u4tuIqNq1nlFZJNT6rY1eYbUim-4YvSeLGrnQCACPI2qFjBdnHcAD1l_tFYj-KWt6ZuR3zHPKSlrpOORJKgngs/s1600/link-ghirahim-gay.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />Meaning Gwen.<br /><br />I think.<br /><br />Who Wore It Better? — previously:<br /><ul><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2014/07/bob-dylan-jean-ralphio.html">Bob Dylan / Jean-Ralphio</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2013/11/amy-sedaris-heart-she-holler-squidbillies.html">Amy Sedaris / Lil from <i>Squibillies</i></a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2013/11/bjork-looks-just-like.html" target="_blank">Bjork / a gerenuk</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2013/07/arrested-development-cindi-lightbaloon-ostrich.html">Jane Lynch / an angry ostrich</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2013/02/with-it-being-winning-hamstery-grin.html">Lena Dunham / Little Critter</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2012/06/with-it-being-set-of-dead-doll-eyes.html" target="_blank">Kim Kardashian / a sex robot from a vintage Japanese comic book</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2012/06/with-it-being-octopus-hat.html">Fiona Apple / some other chick wearing an octopus hat</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2012/03/with-it-being-blackest-of-hearts.html">Kris Jenner / Eclipso</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2012/02/with-it-being-appealingly-possum-like.html">Michael Cera / Edith Crawley</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2012/01/with-it-being-very-david-lynchy-sense.html">Lana Del Rey / Camilla Rhodes</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2011/11/square-jaws-square-personalities.html">Adam Scott / Seth Gabel</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2012/01/with-it-being-particularly-feline.html">Tabatha Coffey / an angry, white cat</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2011/08/with-it-being-horn-like-skull-crest.html">Grace Jones / a cassowary</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2011/06/with-it-referring-to-caricature-of.html">Coco / the Venus of Willendorf</a></li></ul>kidicarus222http://www.blogger.com/profile/18363078559398106005noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337365607234181028.post-55622949723587670742014-09-20T11:29:00.000-07:002021-05-14T18:47:38.631-07:00A Weird Walk Through the Mushroom KingdomHi. Here’s the third and final part of my little series on that obscure <em>Super Mario</em> anime from 1986. (Or, as the non-video game-giving-a-shit-about portion of my readers consider it, a last deep dive into geekdom before I resume writing about funny old people I meet at the grocery store.)<br /><br />In the <a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2014/09/toad-mushroom-retainer-female.html">first post</a>, I wrote about how <em>The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach!</em> probably caused the rumor that Toad used to be a girl. In the <a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2014/09/mario-anime-great-mission-to-rescue-princess-peach.html">second post</a>, I wrote about all the other elements from the movie that later appeared in <em>Super Mario Bros.</em> video games. In this one, I’m just posting all the spare images and videos that I didn’t reason to post anywhere else. <br /><br />Looking without reading! Fun!<br /><br />As if the movie didn’t feature enough musical sequences, there’s also one where Mario fantasizes about wearing a tuxedo and waltzing with the princess. You know — for the dreamy-eyed romantics in the audience.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="384" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/106641474?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="512"></iframe><br /></div><br />I have Mario dressed like a Mexican bandito. See, because he felt angry, so he just transformed into this costume. See?<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcJ1z-uL6W9fwQlidZftMbMk41JRM0eFhmYpAIs9SuXdgAeXoM1GuL8FEn-4A4xUsm0ScoxbkcDUhPhbeZNiNr50RPksapQRiwtsPbkBrpFUr8Pt6DooV0RFD6guqp09sSbW30gV2mVaI/s1600/bandito-mario.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcJ1z-uL6W9fwQlidZftMbMk41JRM0eFhmYpAIs9SuXdgAeXoM1GuL8FEn-4A4xUsm0ScoxbkcDUhPhbeZNiNr50RPksapQRiwtsPbkBrpFUr8Pt6DooV0RFD6guqp09sSbW30gV2mVaI/s1600/bandito-mario.png" height="466" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">And here is Bowser attempting to woo Peach by dressing in drag.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8qqq3GDN27I-f8e5cqnctz-0zWDuL-4lEUKMWe9rmcKrRbGLpHy2EbRHldiBvh_agAPIrIVCuPgpLSc3ohj-LnLfAlBqw5yqzBHcWu3njJldqJtOXy6KJYR-p8kkIc2IfMWzdXpIZjQQ/s1600/bowser-in-drag-mario-anime.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8qqq3GDN27I-f8e5cqnctz-0zWDuL-4lEUKMWe9rmcKrRbGLpHy2EbRHldiBvh_agAPIrIVCuPgpLSc3ohj-LnLfAlBqw5yqzBHcWu3njJldqJtOXy6KJYR-p8kkIc2IfMWzdXpIZjQQ/s1600/bowser-in-drag-mario-anime.png" height="468" width="640" /></a></div><br />Screenwriting at its best! I actually don't get why these would be the subtitles here, honestly. Jugem is Lakitu’s Japanese name, but I have no idea why these subtitles would be in English when most of the rest are not, at least per <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWGEag0-R2k">the video from which I got this still</a>.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZTJQcFxRIwt1MXj735MltsIv6HxUIrZffbeWJPkz_PTlD1pTw9cSYgGqtO9U0CEYfg5ls_2wvUFMxcFZPWce5YOQ2MiC9v3HyTtzN5rVx86lMdgWYP_qRk8q1S_at7UnIxUYXjrv0jQU/s1600/mario-anime-miss-endless.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZTJQcFxRIwt1MXj735MltsIv6HxUIrZffbeWJPkz_PTlD1pTw9cSYgGqtO9U0CEYfg5ls_2wvUFMxcFZPWce5YOQ2MiC9v3HyTtzN5rVx86lMdgWYP_qRk8q1S_at7UnIxUYXjrv0jQU/s1600/mario-anime-miss-endless.png" height="467" width="640" /></a></div><br />You can tell by Mario’s eyes that he’s overwhelmed by the prince’s flagrant disregard for gender norms.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrmCQ35WwYsopKZu878x-oCAxlHOlPYvNwc80qjgphxus0yOLjYYiAHE-DCe7K91O4p4HxwQ2Bzq1cVfXDxzgpfoh4g4szSZ4Wzz30ogCvlD7OFPIJR-UL1zvU6bh6-oO0GLRAWR-zDp8/s1600/mario-anime-prince-haru-%E3%83%8F%E3%83%AB%E7%8E%8B%E5%AD%90.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrmCQ35WwYsopKZu878x-oCAxlHOlPYvNwc80qjgphxus0yOLjYYiAHE-DCe7K91O4p4HxwQ2Bzq1cVfXDxzgpfoh4g4szSZ4Wzz30ogCvlD7OFPIJR-UL1zvU6bh6-oO0GLRAWR-zDp8/s1600/mario-anime-prince-haru-%E3%83%8F%E3%83%AB%E7%8E%8B%E5%AD%90.png" height="466" width="640" /></a></div><br />“Don’t come back!”<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkyqkwGfEN7Nbt3bIVXt2YGtqF-KqYDZqaSL51yN8vBAH42K4eI1PuYzj5-JKdU3L42DSdN3fPlYyLP08x7r8Gs41Bi5iB6IhHTEbxWOlTRfaRokOdos4MddbIjz-jPo-yuezDGYPHLAw/s1600/super-mario-%E3%83%8F%E3%82%9A%E3%82%A4%E3%83%B3%E3%81%8A%E3%81%86%E3%81%97%E3%82%99.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkyqkwGfEN7Nbt3bIVXt2YGtqF-KqYDZqaSL51yN8vBAH42K4eI1PuYzj5-JKdU3L42DSdN3fPlYyLP08x7r8Gs41Bi5iB6IhHTEbxWOlTRfaRokOdos4MddbIjz-jPo-yuezDGYPHLAw/s1600/super-mario-%E3%83%8F%E3%82%9A%E3%82%A4%E3%83%B3%E3%81%8A%E3%81%86%E3%81%97%E3%82%99.png" height="466" width="640" /></a></div><br /><a name='more'></a>And finally... GIFs! You love gifs, apparently. I made these and they maybe don’t completely suck. Here is Mario allowing a sprouting beantsalk to tickle his bottom, to the dismay of everyone watching. “No, Mario, that is neither a sanitary nor an appropriate use of a beanstalk.”<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYahoGIEP2hLiBK3FmbNlKk66BQ59mGAUzv11gQ7IPfSfLm6PSzrbqd8E1n3wc16VcgJW8hXQkwSY6ywupsqQ5azYDvtMwfBfJhZkK2CqXU9iWlUCsZYI3JkOyUHzs3MwD4ov3FkVmpwc/s1600/GIF-mario-beanstalk.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYahoGIEP2hLiBK3FmbNlKk66BQ59mGAUzv11gQ7IPfSfLm6PSzrbqd8E1n3wc16VcgJW8hXQkwSY6ywupsqQ5azYDvtMwfBfJhZkK2CqXU9iWlUCsZYI3JkOyUHzs3MwD4ov3FkVmpwc/s1600/GIF-mario-beanstalk.gif" /></a></div><br />Here is Mario making the “video game zombie” that he’d make a generation of kids make.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRzm1v_5Cb0qYd2k84ShHfSjqtFL6BLow0VW0pm1o8ZbTEZDrIze76BPgXs6sxeZLH3WIbZ8oK1zcr3Y1CvVAGqg-_G1jt68P-5mZei9VKHjSnMYNH9L_HoL167RswdkPTGC7D3XBx3_8/s1600/GIF-mario-gaming.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRzm1v_5Cb0qYd2k84ShHfSjqtFL6BLow0VW0pm1o8ZbTEZDrIze76BPgXs6sxeZLH3WIbZ8oK1zcr3Y1CvVAGqg-_G1jt68P-5mZei9VKHjSnMYNH9L_HoL167RswdkPTGC7D3XBx3_8/s1600/GIF-mario-gaming.gif" /></a></div><br />Here is a gif of Mario shattering that you can use to illustrate your next horrifically traumatic moment.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAeAv7HtuIOYxvvldWgEvgsrWl1nBX7SDltYrQMbPKGcGZWYaYKbZ1ZmK-Umsj6f3DQNF81Sf36TIsVs8M2P-ubKRUj7hMP1i11u6-qAHrfzPEZuG9J2ND47M86oHdSJzWEnpZ_Mr-vac/s1600/GIF-mario-shattering.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAeAv7HtuIOYxvvldWgEvgsrWl1nBX7SDltYrQMbPKGcGZWYaYKbZ1ZmK-Umsj6f3DQNF81Sf36TIsVs8M2P-ubKRUj7hMP1i11u6-qAHrfzPEZuG9J2ND47M86oHdSJzWEnpZ_Mr-vac/s1600/GIF-mario-shattering.gif" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Here are mushrooms raining down from the heavens.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh3OxOXLpcBLGZb9yYl70Vsur4PQA-FLll69XQriPjSNkMc2y-3qvD0iLqnDtcz8gMk8yn8L-PWNEq0ND-sTzDRmJ34tgc5mokAGwE4VpMXPy7g_5hUvDVA2c4l69iLFuP-bt7F24Cusw/s1600/GIF-mushroom-rain.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh3OxOXLpcBLGZb9yYl70Vsur4PQA-FLll69XQriPjSNkMc2y-3qvD0iLqnDtcz8gMk8yn8L-PWNEq0ND-sTzDRmJ34tgc5mokAGwE4VpMXPy7g_5hUvDVA2c4l69iLFuP-bt7F24Cusw/s1600/GIF-mushroom-rain.gif" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Here are suggestively pulsating mushrooms.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtl0xMYvNxXS3VwhMOiDJy1yiAfF717EnmaNzaGWgOtMDCRorIiblxDaEuczJM3gkM2kl55n3j6mAX1moMjzAK-E05mMzUKfB0Wz3zCybR8QfLYIX97-lSewYl9YzlqHyQZu2VLn5UEqY/s1600/GIF-mushrooms-pulsating.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtl0xMYvNxXS3VwhMOiDJy1yiAfF717EnmaNzaGWgOtMDCRorIiblxDaEuczJM3gkM2kl55n3j6mAX1moMjzAK-E05mMzUKfB0Wz3zCybR8QfLYIX97-lSewYl9YzlqHyQZu2VLn5UEqY/s1600/GIF-mushrooms-pulsating.gif" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Here is Peach, kicking some major ass in a video game.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimy55xwsZUi7YpQ7lWcDz_VoRRH3lvWQB83rqov1UlYXHIac5yrX8LW9eBGj0bgdprQPf44MNElQynQa18DwbsFg6LLy5MbGO4iJYGY2CZJLda93zCP4BHxE4c6elaOrg0Os4HUJokTEU/s1600/GIF-peachbash.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimy55xwsZUi7YpQ7lWcDz_VoRRH3lvWQB83rqov1UlYXHIac5yrX8LW9eBGj0bgdprQPf44MNElQynQa18DwbsFg6LLy5MbGO4iJYGY2CZJLda93zCP4BHxE4c6elaOrg0Os4HUJokTEU/s1600/GIF-peachbash.gif" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">And here she is weeping in isolation. The two sides to Princess Peach!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglm_fQwg6MQk7n5u2eIVvMOAdfYzOK3lopwHBHyldNewwEl4jhIp4biOPiuszdXqguuhiwY9bsN7hYAs8iY-6LnJuYVjJI98DWhNcGzKtdRhyphenhyphenv38aYR-qrwUWE6IIVM4srqUcOFBpr1FU/s1600/peach-weeping-mario-anime.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglm_fQwg6MQk7n5u2eIVvMOAdfYzOK3lopwHBHyldNewwEl4jhIp4biOPiuszdXqguuhiwY9bsN7hYAs8iY-6LnJuYVjJI98DWhNcGzKtdRhyphenhyphenv38aYR-qrwUWE6IIVM4srqUcOFBpr1FU/s1600/peach-weeping-mario-anime.gif" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>Super Mario</i>, previously:</div><ul><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2014/05/you-got-mario-in-my-zelda.html">You got <i>Mario</i> in my <i>Zelda</i>!</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2011/05/marios-lack-of-balls.html">The awkward <i>Super Mario Bros. 3</i> testicle connection</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2014/05/valentina-super-mario-rpg.html">The busiest bosom in the Mushroom Kingdom</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2010/05/obscurio-most-famously-unfamous-mario.html">The most famously unfamous <i>Mario</i> characters</a></li><li><u><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2013/02/the-shining-reference-in-super-mario-sunshine-manta-ray.html">Stephen King meets Super Mario</a></u></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2011/11/questions-reasonable-people-should-have.html">Questions reasonable people should have upon playing <i>Super Mario Bros.</i> for the first time</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2013/10/super-mario-bros-death.html">Three-dimensional death in a two-dimensional world</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2011/12/midday-to-midnight.html">How <i>Super Mario Land 2</i>’s “Star Maze” music got an extra life</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2013/11/super-mario-bros-2-missing-level.html">Why there’s a stage “missing” stage in <i>Super Mario Bros. 2</i></a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2012/01/super-mario-king-of-japan.html">Super Mario, king of Japan</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2010/06/super-mario-abstract.html">Kandinsky does <i>Super Mario</i></a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2008/06/name-that-egg-spitter.html">Birdo is complicated, but not for the reason you’re probably thinking</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2013/12/doki-doki-panic-instruction-booklet.html">The happiest Arab family in video game-dom</a></li></ul>kidicarus222http://www.blogger.com/profile/18363078559398106005noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337365607234181028.post-15630569489333615662014-09-19T17:01:00.000-07:002021-05-14T18:47:38.982-07:00Why the Super Mario Bros. Anime Matters, Even If You’ve Never Seen ItYesterday, I got to explore a <a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2014/09/toad-mushroom-retainer-female.html">weird little <em>Super Mario Bros.</em>-related rumor</a> that led me to <em>The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach!</em>, a 1986 movie that received a theatrical release in Japan only. As far as obscure <em>Mario</em> lore goes, it’s a strange one in that it’s something that would have been extremely familiar to Japanese kids growing up around the time, yet it’s something few of their Western counterparts would have even heard of, despite the Mario mania of the late 1980s and early 1990s. We simply never got the movie here, and that’s a shame, since it’s a beautiful rendering of these games back before Nintendo had really solidified what Mario’s world looked like.<br /><br />First up, we might as well fix that lack of international exposure right now. It’s fairly simple to find it online, and you even watch it right here. <br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="//www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/x18etfm" width="480"></iframe><br /></div><br />It’s only an hour long. According to the <a href="http://www.mariowiki.com/Super_Mario_Bros.:_Peach-hime_Kyushutsu_Dai_Sakusen!">Mario Wiki</a>, it was paired in theaters with a video guide to playing the Japanese version of <em>Super Mario Bros. 2</em>, the game we know in the U.S. as <em>The Lost Levels</em>. The game came out just a few weeks before the movie.<br /><br />Watching the movie for the first time this week, I thought it was interesting how many details from the movie ended up working their way into the games. Some of it’s coincidence, I’m sure; the movie-makers were just exploring ideas that the game designers eventually would have had regardless. But some of them seem pretty spot-on. Today, I’m listing these off, as well as a handful of concepts that Nintendo maybe should have thought about incorporating.<br /><br />For example, that same Mario Wiki article points out that the movie has a sequence where Luigi has a bad trip after eating the wrong kind of mushrooms. The scene could be a reference to the fact that <em>The Lost Levels</em> introduced nasty, trick mushrooms that hurt you instead of powering you up.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="384" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/106631201?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="512"></iframe><br /></div><br />It seems plausible, even if it just makes me wonder how an eight-bit, pixelated psychedelic freak out might look.<br /><br />The movie also features a scene where Mario and Luigi escape on a flying ship, years before the <em>Super Mario Bros. 3</em> came out made airships a staple of the series. <br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="384" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/106621775?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="512"></iframe><br /></div><br /><a name='more'></a>When Mario and Luigi meet Lakitu, Mario ends up stealing Lakitu’s cloud and buzzing around the sky in it. That’s something that Nintendo eventually implemented in <em>Super Mario World</em> — and again now that Lakitu is a playable character in the <em>Mario Kart</em> games and you can stick anyone you want in his little cloudmobile.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="384" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/106621774?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="512"></iframe><br /></div><br />In the movie’s climatic fight, Mario beats Bowser by grabbing him by the tail and then spinning-tossing him into the horizon in the style of an Olympic discus-thrower.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="384" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/106516786?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="512"></iframe><br /></div><br />That’s remarkably similar to how Mario dispatches Bowser in <em>Super Mario 64</em>.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><object height="384" width="512"><param name="movie" value="//www.youtube.com/v/xDhxfUBrMko?version=3&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="//www.youtube.com/v/xDhxfUBrMko?version=3&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="512" height="384" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></div><br />Again, that might just be an obvious way to excuse a giant turtle monster from your presence, but to me, this one in particular seems one of the most likely to be intentional among all the similarities between the movie and later games.<br /><br />The game even has gargantuan versions of the typical <i>Mario </i>baddies — the very kind that got their own series of levels in <em>Super Mario Bros. 3</em>.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9trj1G9EEvcLhI0KR0xT7judA_be3uhGg3m2Ttt_Rpu2WdnUgDLMFjdJMGMzvvzZWoXfLw8GITowsz6E21HFWFb2L9J5eGXSUx_eS5dpMk5EUnNah3NVc3pw0k10GY4g0gsjF2a_4Tsw/s1600/mario-bros-land-of-giants.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Super Mario Land of GIants" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9trj1G9EEvcLhI0KR0xT7judA_be3uhGg3m2Ttt_Rpu2WdnUgDLMFjdJMGMzvvzZWoXfLw8GITowsz6E21HFWFb2L9J5eGXSUx_eS5dpMk5EUnNah3NVc3pw0k10GY4g0gsjF2a_4Tsw/s1600/mario-bros-land-of-giants.jpg" height="466" title="" width="640" /></a></div><br />An odder coincidence, perhaps? These Goombas standing in this oversized boot. It could be nothing, of course, but the Nintendo fan in me really wants to connect them to the “Kuribo’s Shoe” Goombas from <em>Super Mario Bros. 3</em>.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyShwne82hP9MyZWypm1W2Vei2gKnsas9XHwBoM89Oq8q1oJD8kZA6ka1d41EB_TKKmaSnnMTAI-BN8I6-aQsJuT9B2u7WCFc09lkpfZUM0auwaMcBcYeeoqhJHtv0bbiT2IK3WgFkTUg/s1600/mario-anime-kuribos-shoe.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Kuribo's Shoe" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyShwne82hP9MyZWypm1W2Vei2gKnsas9XHwBoM89Oq8q1oJD8kZA6ka1d41EB_TKKmaSnnMTAI-BN8I6-aQsJuT9B2u7WCFc09lkpfZUM0auwaMcBcYeeoqhJHtv0bbiT2IK3WgFkTUg/s1600/mario-anime-kuribos-shoe.png" height="466" title="" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqkMN8DZtbv0Mo3ooZq_B5CASqzIahUsY-ux44wObYoSXI1PxiDJppC7yWPp1p6luYMzUiA_JHCu_YyAqsp47Oq0sdU-UV7vQGV4xiycdrstO2FYn8rFZKuEENTYCAqGwsRn5IaCnXAzA/s1600/super-mario-bros-3-kuribos-shoe.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Super Mario Bros. 3 Kuribo's Shoe Goomba's Shoe" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqkMN8DZtbv0Mo3ooZq_B5CASqzIahUsY-ux44wObYoSXI1PxiDJppC7yWPp1p6luYMzUiA_JHCu_YyAqsp47Oq0sdU-UV7vQGV4xiycdrstO2FYn8rFZKuEENTYCAqGwsRn5IaCnXAzA/s1600/super-mario-bros-3-kuribos-shoe.png" height="419" title="" width="640" /></a></div><br />The Mario Wiki even points out how Luigi’s off-model color scheme — dark blue with yellow, as opposed to the traditional dark blue with green he has in official art or the white and green his original <em>Super Mario Bros.</em> sprite has — gets a nod in the new <em>Smash Bros.</em> game as one of Luigi’s palette swaps.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyv3ibmA41a4iIHaA4sgohzpc0YUXNTen_FK-srCV6yUz2GvF3EwT58kSWGi4mQKXfTxHHXlu51IChDQYDRrzymJar-U4K1EgI9yi7WhJKX34dhq809JTZPFnNd38WDufwtBi0IPQsL4A/s1600/luigi-alternate-colors.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Luigi Smash Bros. alternate outfits" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyv3ibmA41a4iIHaA4sgohzpc0YUXNTen_FK-srCV6yUz2GvF3EwT58kSWGi4mQKXfTxHHXlu51IChDQYDRrzymJar-U4K1EgI9yi7WhJKX34dhq809JTZPFnNd38WDufwtBi0IPQsL4A/s1600/luigi-alternate-colors.png" title="" /></a></div><br />There’s even an odd scene where Bowser, in an effort to calm the captive Princess Peach, transforms into a scarecrow. That may mean something more in Japan than it does in the U.S., but to me that seems like an awfully specifically thing to turn into… especially since it was something Bowser and the other playable characters in <em>Super Mario RPG</em> could get transformed into.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-SGyIza6kSpn6wTzbMB-ZXlteYRmfQVwptj7Dqx-HHRvwlka8GktYneaqbRxYRjhDGHbPAdohYly18QY5ViNQVpl2-0ZR3TmSgp3vSRwz5js-zSEAAOXqoXcy76l4qhLP1sUEuinI-hw/s1600/bowser-scarecrow-1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Super Mario Bros. Bowser scarecrow" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-SGyIza6kSpn6wTzbMB-ZXlteYRmfQVwptj7Dqx-HHRvwlka8GktYneaqbRxYRjhDGHbPAdohYly18QY5ViNQVpl2-0ZR3TmSgp3vSRwz5js-zSEAAOXqoXcy76l4qhLP1sUEuinI-hw/s1600/bowser-scarecrow-1.png" height="464" title="" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdho3jywbhRdJws7jmZqN7heWxwmAk5Nw9_K5BIj3QNtqDPyd4uU_-Ad1Xry80ybU06aXJRnlpDGoiggf8BeWkBGR8FELj-XNdwwafKqcIlnf5xmTzKY-CWlYrXOcwgFUTwjJi2fQGDLE/s1600/super-mario-rpg-scarecrows.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Super Mario RPG scarecrows" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdho3jywbhRdJws7jmZqN7heWxwmAk5Nw9_K5BIj3QNtqDPyd4uU_-Ad1Xry80ybU06aXJRnlpDGoiggf8BeWkBGR8FELj-XNdwwafKqcIlnf5xmTzKY-CWlYrXOcwgFUTwjJi2fQGDLE/s1600/super-mario-rpg-scarecrows.png" height="310" title="" width="640" /></a></div><br />I’ve never seen scarecrow transformation as a negative status effect in any other video game. Is that, like, a problem in Japan? An epidemic of people turning into scarecrows?<br /><br />Perhaps the one aspect to <em>The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach!</em> that most gets my attention is Peach herself. Unless I’m mistaken, it’s this movie that made the princess look the way she looks today. Check out how she is drawn on box art for the Japanese release of <em>Super Mario Bros.</em><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEc6DrJYaitauq-n6rA1bgtztWTvEaRPPr8TO8QIB3haQs-YsEOMRvAgYerlGt2Tl8TTjqQcLESG2cP-uKZl4oVbBVBx63k8Hyl9yvKMbEU4ixdFANm0PM8inyzF9hyphenhyphen-mnYV0Z0m-TMRg/s1600/super-mario-bros-japanese-box-art.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEc6DrJYaitauq-n6rA1bgtztWTvEaRPPr8TO8QIB3haQs-YsEOMRvAgYerlGt2Tl8TTjqQcLESG2cP-uKZl4oVbBVBx63k8Hyl9yvKMbEU4ixdFANm0PM8inyzF9hyphenhyphen-mnYV0Z0m-TMRg/s1600/super-mario-bros-japanese-box-art.png" height="420" width="640" /></a></div><br />The feline eyes are there, but everything else looks different — darker hair, a dress that looks like jammies and altogether a cruder look then she’d eventually get. In promotional art for <em>The Lost Levels</em>, Peach looked a lot closer to how she looks today, save for those dimples on her cheeks, which read as pimples in both the <em>Super Mario Bros.</em> and <em>Lost Levels</em> art. The dress is about right, the Farrah flips are in place, she’s a banana blonde, and she’s even sporting her trademark brooch.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh08eDpB3L3nMlQp6jqUvuqiQ1iY2VVwQaKNPyidh265AmtVfN_4DWYkmKp8jYFHhB_amcnKtLPC1BQCkPJemp1EesrNGUjrhSv3auYXiPJabRX01zGA-mRI3WFyQh6R6HRQzZ8D5u1hCM/s1600/super-mario-bros-lost-levels.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Super Mario Bros Lost Levels artwork" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh08eDpB3L3nMlQp6jqUvuqiQ1iY2VVwQaKNPyidh265AmtVfN_4DWYkmKp8jYFHhB_amcnKtLPC1BQCkPJemp1EesrNGUjrhSv3auYXiPJabRX01zGA-mRI3WFyQh6R6HRQzZ8D5u1hCM/s1600/super-mario-bros-lost-levels.png" title="" /></a></div><br />She looks much more like this <i>Lost Levels</i> version in the movie.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifI_MHW0kvhpD7AC3tOBiT3jEp23AfJ9yfQzh-3Sjt9zTVRrpsR5r3XU-J2YQodaJLJRpP8UhAXer2YeDuVSPrd9OlvkKqPBQZABVOc1HAYNGLsRb6-6C5KcpeOVFX_xZI008F8OgYhRU/s1600/princess-peach-wedding.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Bowser Peach wedding" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifI_MHW0kvhpD7AC3tOBiT3jEp23AfJ9yfQzh-3Sjt9zTVRrpsR5r3XU-J2YQodaJLJRpP8UhAXer2YeDuVSPrd9OlvkKqPBQZABVOc1HAYNGLsRb6-6C5KcpeOVFX_xZI008F8OgYhRU/s1600/princess-peach-wedding.png" height="466" title="" width="640" /></a></div><br />Well, she’s not wearing a butt on her head in the games, but you can see the resemblance, literal asshat notwithstanding. “But Drew, surely then it was the Nintendo artwork that finalized Peach’s appearance and not this non-canon movie. You are dumb!” But no! And also shut up! I’d suggest it might actually be the other way around. Do you know how long it takes to make an animated feature? Even an hour-long one? If the movie hit theaters juts a few weeks after <em>The Lost Levels</em> started selling in Japan, I’d say that someone had to decide beforehand how Peach was going to look. Maybe it was the animators at Toei. Maybe it was Nintendo giving notes to the animators. But either way, I think it was the movie that determined her appearance in a way that’s stuck for nearly thirty years.<br /><br />Of course, some of the film’s original bits didn’t carry haven’t yet found a place in the Marioverse proper.<br /><br />First up, them backgrounds. Back before Nintendo decided that every bush, rock and cloud needed an eerily grinning face on it, <em>Super Mario Bros.</em> skewed more surreal than saccharine. The game includes a few montages where you see vast expanses of the Mushroom Kingdom as it’s navigated by Mario, Luigi and Kibidango, their little canine friend with the weirdly ant-like body. <br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="384" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/106516699?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="512"></iframe><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="384" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/106516785?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="512"></iframe><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="384" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/106516800?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="512"></iframe><br /></div><br />(Yes, it’s weird that the same song plays so often in a movie that’s only an hour long. Certain creative decisions were made, clearly.)<br /><br />Maybe it’s the quality of the transfer, but the colors in these backgrounds look less saturated that the bright greens and cyans that defined <em>Super Mario Bros.</em> for a long time, and in an unexpected way, it lends the film a slightly less child-like feel. Eventually, Nintendo would come around to a degree, but it’s notable to see the Mushroom Kingdom look large, alien, and a little imposing instead of just Candyland-esque. <br /><br />Speaking of Mario’s dog-like companion, Kibidango, who’s apparently named after <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kibi_dango">a type of Japanese dumpling</a>, failed to affect the series mythos in any direct way. It took until <em>Super Mario World</em> for Mario to get an animal buddy (Yoshi), and until <em>Yoshi’s Island</em> for Mario to meet a canine friend (the peculiarly nose-less <a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2010/05/obscurio-most-famously-unfamous-mario.html">Poochy</a>). At the end of the movie, however, Kibidango transforms into Peach’s true love, dandy <a href="http://www.mariowiki.com/Haru-%C5%8Dji">Prince Haru </a>of Flower Kingdom, who was in search of the owner of the other half of his magical brooch when he was turned into a dog… ant… thing. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh505AJCZB4THGL-mQ5TETNo4IxmMDZuPqHAacEnEsgKb9LPn3D96vjar0CaVU1Cfgxdjq5x6QepCqkrZUeQpuKzgAJrn5KvKwhKA8uDeeOx1DE76UKSjbLtQhFou83MrABcmz52GxqVW8/s1600/mario-anime-prince-haru-prince-springtime.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Prince Haru Haru-ōji ハル王子" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh505AJCZB4THGL-mQ5TETNo4IxmMDZuPqHAacEnEsgKb9LPn3D96vjar0CaVU1Cfgxdjq5x6QepCqkrZUeQpuKzgAJrn5KvKwhKA8uDeeOx1DE76UKSjbLtQhFou83MrABcmz52GxqVW8/s1600/mario-anime-prince-haru-prince-springtime.png" height="466" title="" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEW95LpWFKMKxwWjXRgxSyhL-_6Gu8E_bXiAnWaQlFG_mt76UaJKacFOjKkuA3NPlv8ykAPQhxjzBFTBxHVtgFD-yZHmrN10pdUPQX8Gd2lZ1L614pWcHBGIjf6p_rQk4xPn_sTWclk5k/s1600/prince-haru-mario-anime.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Prince Haru Haru-ōji ハル王子" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEW95LpWFKMKxwWjXRgxSyhL-_6Gu8E_bXiAnWaQlFG_mt76UaJKacFOjKkuA3NPlv8ykAPQhxjzBFTBxHVtgFD-yZHmrN10pdUPQX8Gd2lZ1L614pWcHBGIjf6p_rQk4xPn_sTWclk5k/s1600/prince-haru-mario-anime.png" height="466" title="" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOKsJHrSylTaNHqpuArDFq9Cd-_jMBmnywQP176XPxXK1JghyphenhyphenKOVxGBRx_siUmr8rdwggy9C5frNfiw8wjUWyecSaXYmitwYO02-UZojH8AKhu7QR6mtXi5PmTmyTaVTwVEIVZG2izBEc/s1600/prince-haru-%E3%83%8F%E3%83%AB%E7%8E%8B%E5%AD%90.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Prince Haru Super Mario" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOKsJHrSylTaNHqpuArDFq9Cd-_jMBmnywQP176XPxXK1JghyphenhyphenKOVxGBRx_siUmr8rdwggy9C5frNfiw8wjUWyecSaXYmitwYO02-UZojH8AKhu7QR6mtXi5PmTmyTaVTwVEIVZG2izBEc/s1600/prince-haru-%E3%83%8F%E3%83%AB%E7%8E%8B%E5%AD%90.png" height="466" title="" width="640" /></a></div><br />Haru may seem foppish, but at the end of the movie, everyone seems to agree that he’s a better match for Peach than the portly plumber is, and Mario sets off with only a kiss on the nose for his troubles. It’s probably a stretch, but you could say that there’s an echo of Prince Haru in <em>Yoshi’s Safari</em>, a Super NES shooting game that had Peach asking Mario to rescue the monarchs of a neighboring kingdom. The younger of the two — <a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2010/05/obscurio-most-famously-unfamous-mario.html">Prince Pine</a>, whose Japanese name is <a href="http://www.mariowiki.com/Prince_Pine">a reference to pineapples</a> and not pine trees, I'm just learning — has some vague similarities to Prince Haru, but the greatest of them is the fact that he’s a male monarch needing Mario’s help.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZtOQxpHF9QRcnnLiACHeUOdzMDewlPSBrE-qAc13TGXPedIIcanvY-XtHulCnMCRH-Tpp3sZXcoYlqqPZpV3H56zcNZqOHTyaz6xePXsHF2v3eSNQGWPbszU8UbOweoBFr4mj5Ji5Tx8/s1600/fret_and_pine.jpg"><img alt="Prince Pine King Fret King Pot Yoshi's Safari" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZtOQxpHF9QRcnnLiACHeUOdzMDewlPSBrE-qAc13TGXPedIIcanvY-XtHulCnMCRH-Tpp3sZXcoYlqqPZpV3H56zcNZqOHTyaz6xePXsHF2v3eSNQGWPbszU8UbOweoBFr4mj5Ji5Tx8/s400/fret_and_pine.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5481732258160761442" style="display: block; height: 270px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 436px;" title="" /></a></div><br />There’s also a debatable similarity in <a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2010/05/obscurio-most-famously-unfamous-mario.html">Princess Shokora</a>, the damsel Wario rescues in <em>Wario Land Advance</em>. Her appearance varies according to how much money Wario earns over the course of the game, and her “most expensive” form is rather boyish — and not unlike Haru, who maybe looks a little girlish. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHb_Dr2kf9ZX7uSwgwbMpTogD1fTFVgzZreD9CBaOuKrxeLo5qxx1W8ZTwy2itGTZiuCcJb1WVOP1OXLbRKZYD_LQ8nbF6KVgq-6egsbdPwf7-QaR9YBk3A5Xfzq5y-6vqaoAGmQpu0gs/s1600/princess-shokora.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Princess Shokora all forms" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHb_Dr2kf9ZX7uSwgwbMpTogD1fTFVgzZreD9CBaOuKrxeLo5qxx1W8ZTwy2itGTZiuCcJb1WVOP1OXLbRKZYD_LQ8nbF6KVgq-6egsbdPwf7-QaR9YBk3A5Xfzq5y-6vqaoAGmQpu0gs/s1600/princess-shokora.png" height="253" title="" width="640" /></a></div><br />And sort of similar to the way that Haru spends most of the movie as a dog, Shokora spends much of <em>Wario Land Advance</em> trailing Wario in the form of a little black cat. <br /><br />In <a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2014/09/toad-mushroom-retainer-female.html">the “Lady Toad” post</a>, I mentioned how Toad became a playable character in the American <em>Super Mario Bros. 2</em> almost by default. He wasn’t named in the first game, and Nintendo simply needed a fourth character to round out the roster. Hypothetically speaking, had Nintendo brought <em>The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach</em> out in the U.S. and had Americans been familiar with the characters, it wouldn’t have been unthinkable that ol’ Haru might have gotten that fourth slot. You’d have had the two brothers and the two royal lovebirds, and today this dandy prince would be a staple of the series.<br /><br />Just conjecturing, but it wouldn’t be unthinkable.<br /><br />The game’s other original character is a kooky pile of beard hairs simply called the Mushroom Mystic. There’s nothing close to him in any of the games, by why shouldn’t there be? Perhaps we’d all like playing as a white pushbroom of an old man.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj35VxPZx3w-faqZYDMRXLaOGh7Hay7Xydq2li0Yf4AwEmPvk2Orkqdrrt0rcKE4HIaiR9CSY73HHXPGqMrijJGTbVdn43_3ctYGdRdZvwXXAJ1Xbbv7SDCsTp2cLXiHhP0kyKpP2KqCDA/s1600/mushroom-sage-mario-anime.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img alt="Mushroom Mystic" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj35VxPZx3w-faqZYDMRXLaOGh7Hay7Xydq2li0Yf4AwEmPvk2Orkqdrrt0rcKE4HIaiR9CSY73HHXPGqMrijJGTbVdn43_3ctYGdRdZvwXXAJ1Xbbv7SDCsTp2cLXiHhP0kyKpP2KqCDA/s1600/mushroom-sage-mario-anime.png" height="466" title="" width="640" /></a></div><br />I have one final creative choice in <em>The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach!</em> that Mario lifers might be interested to know about. In the movie, Mario and Luigi aren’t plumbers, like there are in the American version of the games, or carpenters, like Mario was in <em>Donkey Kong</em>. They’re grocers. That’s… maybe an aspect to Mario’s mystique we could do without.<br /><br />(Note: <i>There’s also now a <a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2014/09/a-weird-walk-through-mushroom-kingdom.html">part three</a> in this little series, if you’re interested.</i>)kidicarus222http://www.blogger.com/profile/18363078559398106005noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337365607234181028.post-8771979641007080962014-09-18T15:36:00.000-07:002021-05-14T18:47:39.333-07:00Lady Toad? The Gender of Everyone’s Favorite Anthropomorphic Mushroom(Note: <i>This posted ended up spawning two more about the </i>Super Mario<i> anime. Read <a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2014/09/mario-anime-great-mission-to-rescue-princess-peach.html">part two</a> and <a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2014/09/a-weird-walk-through-mushroom-kingdom.html">part three</a>, if you like.</i>)<br /><br />Earlier this year, I found a great video game website, Clyde Mandelin’s <a href="http://legendsoflocalization.com/">Legends of Localization</a>, that looks at the strange process of adapting video games made in one language for people who speak a different language. The site tends to focus on the little moments — the ones that didn’t necessarily make the game but the ones dedicated players nonetheless remember. For example, how do you <a href="http://legendsoflocalization.com/how-do-you-save-japanese-luccas-mom-in-chrono-trigger/">save Lucca’s mom</a> in the Japanese version of <em>Chrono Trigger</em>? Does <a href="http://legendsoflocalization.com/final-fantasy-vi-and-a-scrap-of-paper/">that random scrap of paper</a> make any more sense in the Japanese version of <em>Final Fantasy VI</em>? And what’s with <a href="http://legendsoflocalization.com/is-helen-keller-seriously-in-this-japanese-video-game/">this random Helen Keller joke?</a> It’s always heartening to find someone else who not only cares about the little stuff and the odd stuff in old video games but who also spends time wondering about the decision-making process that led to them.<br /><br />In <a href="http://legendsoflocalization.com/qa-toad-is-trolling-us-all/">one post</a>, Mandelin writes about the strangeness of Toad not necessarily being the singular, distinct character we tend of think of him being. (This is something <a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2008/08/i-am-we-are-mario-is-they-are.html">I wrote about</a> a while back, and this flexible sense of “self-ness” is hardly unique to Toad — it works for Yoshi and Birdo too — or even unique to the <em>Mario</em> games.) Mandelin also brings up something I hadn’t heard before: the idea that Toad (or the Toads) were initially supposed to be female — the princess’s handmaidens, in fact. <br /><br />He offers as evidence <em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWGEag0-R2k">The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach!</a></em>, an anime released theatrically in Japan in 1986. Like <em>The Super Mario Bros. Super Show</em> here in the U.S., it was a loose adaptation of the original, barebones <em>Super Mario Bros.</em> plotline. It added a lot in. It had to. And in place of the Mushroom Retainers (<em>Kinopio</em>, in the orginal Japanese) that Mario rescues at the end of every level are these distinctly feminine mushroom people.<br /><br />Here’s a scene where Mario and Luigi free them from a spell that had turned them into coins. <br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="384" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/106516698?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="512"></iframe><br /></div><br />They seem a little more human, a little more articulated than the generic Toads you see earlier in the film.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="384" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/106521736?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="512"></iframe><br /></div><br />Later, Mario rescues a second Lady Toad. Again, the movie clearly genders her. This is a female mushroom who’s giving Mario a peck on the cheek.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="384" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/106519444?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="512"></iframe><br /></div><br /><a name='more'></a>At first, I thought this was a strange call on the parts of the creators of the anime, but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. After all, if you happened across this Strawberry Shortcake-looking assemblage of pixels for the first time, would you think this character was wearing a vest? Or would it look more like a skimpy woman’s shirt?<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnAfrU955A0-nEmSlXOYaX4LxxxmW3IKI5SoHss2Kp5vlTCSEJOs4oy03mYh7SWXZsmJRRk0fUPBocugY2NKemwONXlBQgQzoJGzCEuXtDA19UUEqECJ4xXxfmXYR7exKsIYDyetSlL80/s1600/toad-origina-sprite-super-mario-bros.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnAfrU955A0-nEmSlXOYaX4LxxxmW3IKI5SoHss2Kp5vlTCSEJOs4oy03mYh7SWXZsmJRRk0fUPBocugY2NKemwONXlBQgQzoJGzCEuXtDA19UUEqECJ4xXxfmXYR7exKsIYDyetSlL80/s1600/toad-origina-sprite-super-mario-bros.png" height="400" width="391" /></a></div><br />(Confession time: When I was a kid, before I saw official artwork of Toad, I thought it was a bikini top. In my defense, those eight-bit days left a lot of room for interpretation. That’s actually a hot little number by mushroom standards.)<br /><br />Mandelin addresses whether these female Toads mean anything beyond someone taking creative liberties with the story. A quote:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><i>My first thought was to say, “Whatever, that’s just a cartoon movie, it doesn’t apply to anything.” But then I realized that the American cartoon series was pretty influential for fans. So I guess you can take it however you like, but at the very least it seems that a number of Japanese fans fondly remember Kinopios as being girls and wonder at what point they became guys.</i></blockquote>I totally agree. I looked around as best I could and did not find much on whether Toad was at one point female. (Well, I found <a href="http://themushroomkingdom.net/board/index.php?topic=26.25;wap2">one message board thread</a> — an ancient artifact, by online standards — that said the characters were ”presumably female” and that some sources call them ”Mushroom Girls.” It probably didn't help that I can’t easily search for Japanese sites.) But if this idea is floating around out there, it’s probably because young <i>Super Mario Bros.</i> fans saw this movie as kids — before the game’s universe expanded and before it was easier to see official Nintendo artwork of these characters — and it crystallized the idea that those guys who are telling you the princess is in another castle are actually gals.<br /><br />For what it’s worth, the Toads depicted on the box art for the Japanese release of <em>Super Mario Bros.</em> don’t look especially feminine, but then again they also have visible belly buttons and one seems to be missing his eyes. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEc6DrJYaitauq-n6rA1bgtztWTvEaRPPr8TO8QIB3haQs-YsEOMRvAgYerlGt2Tl8TTjqQcLESG2cP-uKZl4oVbBVBx63k8Hyl9yvKMbEU4ixdFANm0PM8inyzF9hyphenhyphen-mnYV0Z0m-TMRg/s1600/super-mario-bros-japanese-box-art.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEc6DrJYaitauq-n6rA1bgtztWTvEaRPPr8TO8QIB3haQs-YsEOMRvAgYerlGt2Tl8TTjqQcLESG2cP-uKZl4oVbBVBx63k8Hyl9yvKMbEU4ixdFANm0PM8inyzF9hyphenhyphen-mnYV0Z0m-TMRg/s1600/super-mario-bros-japanese-box-art.png" height="420" width="640" /></a></div><br />Nintendo eventually introduced female Toads into the games — in the RPG titles and then in <em>Mario Kart: Double Dash!!</em> as Toad’s female racing partner, Toadette. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.mariowiki.com/images/6/65/ToadetteYakumanDS.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.mariowiki.com/images/6/65/ToadetteYakumanDS.gif" height="400" width="400" /></a></div><br />Toadette has a similar same color scheme to that of the female characters from the anime, but then again so might any character that you’re trying to code as conspicuously female. There’s only so much you can do to gender a mushroom. In any case, I’d always thought of her as a Smurfette or a Skeeter — a female twist on an existing male character created just to even out the gender ratio. And while Toadette still is that, this possible tie to a much older <i>Mario</i> creation makes me a little more okay with her existence, even if those braids hanging off her head still freak me out. (WHAT ARE THEY? <i>WHAT ARE THEY?!)</i><br /><br />There are quite a few concepts introduced in <em>The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach!</em> that eventually worked their way into actual <em>Mario</em> games — and a few that could have easily but never did. Tomorrow, I’ll post about them. And I promise I’ll never, ever ponder about Toad’s gender again.<br /><br />Miscellaneous mushroom bits:<br /><ul><li>The name “Toad” doesn’t show up until the American <em>Super Mario Bros. 2</em> came out. He’s playable in that game — really, only because the game was based on a previous one <a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2013/12/doki-doki-panic-instruction-booklet.html">that had four characters</a> and because at this point in the franchise’s history there just weren’t any other candidates.</li><li>The character is noted in the <em>Super Mario Bros. 2</em> instruction manual as “Mushroom Retainer (Toad),” to tell us that yes, he’s one of those things mentioned in the previous instruction manual, but he has a name now. It always seemed an odd choice, though, because they’d already stuck the princess with the name “Toadstool” and these two names are very similar. The only reason a mushroom would be named Toad is in reference to toadstools. I mean, Nintendo could have named the guy anything. Fungo. Mushy. Mr. Sporesburg. Truffles. Herman the Death Cap Man. The Great Matango. But they’re all “Nah. Toad. Toadstool. They go together. Let’s go get lunch.”</li><li>Does anyone else remember that article <em>Electronic Gaming Monthly</em> ran in the late ‘90s specifically about whether Toad was a boy or a girl? *cough cough rainbow racket cough cough*</li><li>Toad’s general design seems to have made animating him…. interesting. I can’t tell if he gave animators more creative freedom or just more work, but the fact that you don’t really know what’s going on with his body means that people making cartoons of him had to be clever. Is that a hat? Or is he growing a mushroom on his head? Is he wearing a diaper? Where are his legs? In the case of the Lady Toads, the animators made them more human-like and have them actual legs. In the case of some concept art previewing the <em>Super Mario Bros. Super Show</em> in a 1989 issue of <em>Nintendo Power</em>, the artist was clearly saying, “Oh, fuck it. It’s just a mushroom or whatever.”</li></ul><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb2f7JRFbvdsE5PlGdsiSc709HBWLazWCXUG1rMsAHP9ObfVyAOD-Ke9dnSkIHUhBvSx-qCDt3Ybjj5qMLst_7vZWm2iukyMdfNnUrrB0bkR6zOEiVDXQ6D5yZaqaV5HjDehDw5-CWazU/s1600/super-mario-bros-super-show-nintendo-power.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb2f7JRFbvdsE5PlGdsiSc709HBWLazWCXUG1rMsAHP9ObfVyAOD-Ke9dnSkIHUhBvSx-qCDt3Ybjj5qMLst_7vZWm2iukyMdfNnUrrB0bkR6zOEiVDXQ6D5yZaqaV5HjDehDw5-CWazU/s1600/super-mario-bros-super-show-nintendo-power.jpg" height="640" width="616" /></a></div><br />I for one fell in love with this concept art when I first saw it. I wish this specific style carried over more to the actual cartoon than it did. Trip on nostalgic, if you like, and read Nintendo Power’s full write-up on the then-forthcoming series <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLrEwnznI5rxxzh_g82Jh0ndTEb8xVtr_BKksGKk3bguHWmskao3WHjNHsoxrN2KZ1bWYSlC_8Yoys31B1IaLs_bIglo82XSQSqOrRLhSl80saWtk50L09K6yh2MZ1uxSEGA3qGrURGN0/s1600/nintendo-power-super-mario-bros-super-show-scan-july-august-1989.png">here</a>.kidicarus222http://www.blogger.com/profile/18363078559398106005noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337365607234181028.post-91733570850479582612014-09-11T14:00:00.000-07:002021-05-14T18:47:40.031-07:00Searching for Mr. PeepersAt the risk of alienating certain kinds nerds in an effort to talk to other kinds of nerds, I’ll just say this up front: This post is about <em>Duck Hunt</em>.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSby2lqIS-6c7x2CPTH3BjS9E_xq30EmmNnw_ZPWGhPg3YdmuGZ44qzOClutg6KVYRJMUV9PHfzLdm0_ZOwISNJYxadxjhyRDddaa59MXM1PWs2Rtl1mx4pfRkNQZ9TKk3LIusdOplCF4/s1600/duck-hunt-dog-mr-peepers.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSby2lqIS-6c7x2CPTH3BjS9E_xq30EmmNnw_ZPWGhPg3YdmuGZ44qzOClutg6KVYRJMUV9PHfzLdm0_ZOwISNJYxadxjhyRDddaa59MXM1PWs2Rtl1mx4pfRkNQZ9TKk3LIusdOplCF4/s1600/duck-hunt-dog-mr-peepers.png" height="404" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">modified from sprites found <a href="http://www.spriters-resource.com/nes/duckhunt/sheet/13056/">here</a></td></tr></tbody></table>“But <em>Duck Hunt</em> came out in 1984, Drew, you crazy idiot. Why bring it up today?”<br /><br /><a name='more'></a>And to that, I’d simply say that you’re not up to date on your video game news. Now who’s the crazy idiot? There’s been info floating around online recently about <em>Duck Hunt</em>, and before I go further, I should probably give a <em>Smash Bros.</em>-related spoiler warning. (I guess? Even though the game doesn’t have a plot to speak of?) But it looks like the dog from <em>Duck Hunt</em> will playable in the new <em>Smash Bros.</em> game, meaning that you can play as Mario or Link or Pikachu and then wail on the obnoxious dog who used to laugh at you for not killing enough ducks.<br /><br />Oddly enough, the dog seems to be entering the fray in partnership with one of the ducks, suggesting that past sins have been forgiven. <br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://31.media.tumblr.com/60b978024110f69f59995a8e1c8ae171/tumblr_nbql410QMy1qzp9weo6_400.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://31.media.tumblr.com/60b978024110f69f59995a8e1c8ae171/tumblr_nbql410QMy1qzp9weo6_400.gif" height="396" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">via <a href="http://tinycartridge.com/post/97215133257/the-leaks-were-real-duck-hunt-dog-and-these">tiny cartridge</a></td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://38.media.tumblr.com/52720bbb225c653ad4cc385dc41294c3/tumblr_nbql410QMy1qzp9weo9_400.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://38.media.tumblr.com/52720bbb225c653ad4cc385dc41294c3/tumblr_nbql410QMy1qzp9weo9_400.gif" height="360" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">via <a href="http://tinycartridge.com/post/97215133257/the-leaks-were-real-duck-hunt-dog-and-these">tiny cartridge</a></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"><object height="315" width="560"><param name="movie" value="//www.youtube.com/v/EFSyS_e2YfQ?hl=en_US&version=3&start=103"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="//www.youtube.com/v/EFSyS_e2YfQ?hl=en_US&version=3&start=103" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></div><br />But here’s the odd thing: A few different websites reporting this news point out that the dog is <a href="http://tinycartridge.com/post/97215133257/the-leaks-were-real-duck-hunt-dog-and-these">maybe, possibly, sometimes</a> called Mr. Peepers. But for the life of me, I can’t figure out why this would be.<br /><br />I myself noted this in a blog post back in 2009 about how there’s a special arcade version of <em>Duck Hunt</em> <a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2009/01/dog-who-laughs.html">that allows you to shoot the dog</a>. (WHO’S LAUGHING NOW, DOG????) But I stupidly neglected to source that information when I posted and am now unsure where I heard it. When I search around online now, I can only find <em>Smash Bros. </em>stuff and other people wondering how the hell anyone decided to start calling the dog Mr. Peepers — on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3ADuck_Hunt">Wikipedia</a> and on <a href="http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/633202-super-smash-bros-for-wii-u/63372567">GameFAQs</a>.<br /><br />The closest to anything useful I can find is <a href="http://neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=467122">this NeoGAF post</a>. It’s just a simple link to <a href="http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/feature/29565/making-of-a-myth-the-grueling-development-of-the-original-kid-icarus">a Nintendo World Report article</a> about the development of the original <em>Kid Icarus</em>, and it<em> </em>only mentions the <em>Duck Hunt</em> dog once — and not by name. But there’s a few responses with people commenting how they were surprised to learn that the dog had a name, so I’d guess that the article edited out that info, for some reason. ‘ In any case, my post on the dog went up before the NeoGAF post and the Nintendo World Report article, but wherever I found the mention of Mr. Peepers is gone too.<br /><br />So the question remains: Why the hell does anyone think the dog from <em>Duck Hunt</em> is named Mr. Peepers?<br /><br />It remains to be seen how the dog will be named when Nintendo makes the official announcement about the character. As far as names go, Mr. Peepers at least sounds better that “that damn laughing dog from <em>Duck Hunt</em>,” and certainly better than how he seems to be labeled in the Japanese version of the new <i>Smash Bros.</i> — just as “Duck Hunt.” Maybe it sounds better over there?<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://penguinssauce.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/duck-hunt.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://penguinssauce.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/duck-hunt.gif" height="352" width="400" /></a></div><br />EDIT February 27, 2015: <i>I just game across <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/articles/tenspot-readers-choice-nes/1100-6152797/">this Gamespot article from 2006</a> that notes the dog’s name as being Mr. Peepers. Can’t say this is where I found it, but at least I know I wasn’t the only one under the impression that this was the dog’s name.</i><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRWL-6R3wkGnVPKjdO-nFzdRWe2KfljBibVmqlQWSxMWO6QbFup7rES9ObzXnRSPFzC8X1CMNc3jSEbgupE4FvqFOsAPOCydZhqQ_lPNKISmvQf3asXc_1wbTcB14yFFxtQIOacxhHpZM/s1600/duck-hunt-mr-peepers.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRWL-6R3wkGnVPKjdO-nFzdRWe2KfljBibVmqlQWSxMWO6QbFup7rES9ObzXnRSPFzC8X1CMNc3jSEbgupE4FvqFOsAPOCydZhqQ_lPNKISmvQf3asXc_1wbTcB14yFFxtQIOacxhHpZM/s1600/duck-hunt-mr-peepers.png" /></a></div><br />Nintendo obscurities, previously:<br /><ul><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2014/02/nintendo-mach-ride-metroid-female-protagonist.html">The Samus from before Samus was a Samus</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2014/02/palutena-kid-icarus-princess-lana-captain-n.html">Why Princess Lana is Palutena, basically</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2014/05/you-got-mario-in-my-zelda.html">The hard-to-spot <i>Mario Bros.</i> cameo in the first <i>Legend of Zelda</i></a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2014/05/valentina-super-mario-rpg.html">The boob-tacular Valentina and her pixelated jiggling</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2014/09/nintendo-arm-wrestling-1985.html">The wonderful weirdos of <i>Arm Wrestling</i></a></li></ul>kidicarus222http://www.blogger.com/profile/18363078559398106005noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337365607234181028.post-61344534770194304602014-09-03T13:18:00.000-07:002021-05-14T18:47:42.128-07:00Pixelated Pornstaches and the Outer Limits of the NintendoverseIt may not surprise you that I have a thing for lesser-known Nintendo characters. I blame <em>Smash Bros.</em>, I guess, for reminding us with every edition of bygone franchises and protagonists that never saw a proper sequel.<br /><br />Maybe one of the lesser less-known Nintendo titles ever would be <em>Arm Wrestling</em>, a spin-off to the <em>Punch-Out!!</em> franchise released only in arcades and, even then, only in those located in North America. As far as I know, this might be the first Nintendo-developed title never to see the light of day in the company’s homeland. I don’t know why it showed up here and not there, but I think it’s too bad. I remember playing this long, long ago and enjoying it. I even tried to find a port of it to the NES but couldn’t: <i>Arm Wrestling</i> never saw a second life on a home console. <br /><br />Also working in the game’s favor is its appealingly oddball mix of characters. They wouldn’t be out of place in a Nintendo game today. Nintendo has, after all, stayed weird. I tried to see if any site featured large-ish sprites of <em>Arm Wrestling</em>’s opponents and couldn’t, so I’m just going to post them here.<br /><br />First up: Texas Mac, a ripped, bare-chested cowboy with a Falcon Studios mustache. <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr715vvrxYLoBySUkON9S3hX4ufuDLuBLv_7fpFDFy3Q3xeC1YIFcTx2yl3yz7v9NVWVPLg8dN1hHI3FpZWDqnxP_RO6ylZS6KMXM59uw7v1Xxy4fqaiMBTowXE_z0-nrP3hSQY0NSqGU/s1600/arm-wrestling-nintendo-texas-mac.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr715vvrxYLoBySUkON9S3hX4ufuDLuBLv_7fpFDFy3Q3xeC1YIFcTx2yl3yz7v9NVWVPLg8dN1hHI3FpZWDqnxP_RO6ylZS6KMXM59uw7v1Xxy4fqaiMBTowXE_z0-nrP3hSQY0NSqGU/s1600/arm-wrestling-nintendo-texas-mac.png" height="392" width="640" /></a></div><br />By the way, like <em>Punch-Out!!</em>, <em>Arm Wrestling</em> featured two screens — one with the action and one showing the score as well as who you’re fighting. This second screen included a descriptor for each opponent, and Texas Mac’s was, strangely enough, “Stud-Horse.”<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjamagm4LLDCsg-QUW_2G_A00-ritOv-Oba0zSHlbBAopfCqOaGtk3bZxfgSOdUN_M6HKzbOeB0FLiIicfj82GwGKl-l3eNZatXRHWRA68qUgce6Y4-R80vhQq5txKP7JuKpiwM1pM5mTc/s1600/arm-wrestling-nintendo-spirte.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjamagm4LLDCsg-QUW_2G_A00-ritOv-Oba0zSHlbBAopfCqOaGtk3bZxfgSOdUN_M6HKzbOeB0FLiIicfj82GwGKl-l3eNZatXRHWRA68qUgce6Y4-R80vhQq5txKP7JuKpiwM1pM5mTc/s1600/arm-wrestling-nintendo-spirte.png" height="560" width="640" /></a></div><br />I think I know why he likes holding hands with other strong men.<br /><br /><a name='more'></a>Second: a sumo named Kabuki.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKYJ1CUZDp7mlkpgFbUTOU2G1R1QLALlYZIbnry1yrfPOWjCMNgOqVzB1aLLZbQN0IF008UaYsGI7VKWNJ0Pz8rr9w-OeeUqyJqDHXKuLFKHEBmTiv9jcJh1pTivWyyxfxlzAjqi02bMY/s1600/arm-wrestling-nintendo-kabuki.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKYJ1CUZDp7mlkpgFbUTOU2G1R1QLALlYZIbnry1yrfPOWjCMNgOqVzB1aLLZbQN0IF008UaYsGI7VKWNJ0Pz8rr9w-OeeUqyJqDHXKuLFKHEBmTiv9jcJh1pTivWyyxfxlzAjqi02bMY/s1600/arm-wrestling-nintendo-kabuki.png" height="501" width="640" /></a></div><br />Before you accuse him of being a rip-off of <em>Street Fighter</em>’s E. Honda, know that <em>Arm Wrestling </em> <a href="http://fightingstreet.com/folders/variousinfofolder/ripofffolder/ripoffpage2.html">came out six years before <em>Street Fighter II</em></a>. If anything, E. Honda ripped off this guy, but I’m not sure how common it is in Japan to see a sumo wrestler wearing face paint. Every town has one, I’d like to think.<br /><br />Third: Mask X.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEije91-DOtyryvqr6gK8jwekgKH4aJ_1BKzoA3YTlwzceKqQy8BWGlUVZ-evXs2hIlrg10C7x3acI_ScPYGunbjp6Nl0uBR2z_tEFa1ntjaq2oazBJ4QFJJqaoRJ-M_BMlBcGts7qzIk0g/s1600/arm-wrestling-nintendo-bald-bull.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEije91-DOtyryvqr6gK8jwekgKH4aJ_1BKzoA3YTlwzceKqQy8BWGlUVZ-evXs2hIlrg10C7x3acI_ScPYGunbjp6Nl0uBR2z_tEFa1ntjaq2oazBJ4QFJJqaoRJ-M_BMlBcGts7qzIk0g/s1600/arm-wrestling-nintendo-bald-bull.png" height="500" width="640" /></a></div><br />Billed simply as “Who?” he’s actually just <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bald_Bull">Bald Bull</a> from <em>Punch-Out!!</em>, wearing a mask for no discernible reason. You can even unmask him.<br /><br />Fourth and by far the best of the group: Alice and Ape III.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRKWSibDnTgy1e8x28vJHtcLm6BDkjlXiw-Irb4YXzX8ncZAiLylMUIoSh0RSlVydO7__JkPQBwDqlfNiDkhLSxbMt5L4n3GWAI2i00MrxoYkt_vvy7l_440TD6XZUQrAkqBK1onBTVHE/s1600/arm-wrestling-nintendo-alice-apeIII.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRKWSibDnTgy1e8x28vJHtcLm6BDkjlXiw-Irb4YXzX8ncZAiLylMUIoSh0RSlVydO7__JkPQBwDqlfNiDkhLSxbMt5L4n3GWAI2i00MrxoYkt_vvy7l_440TD6XZUQrAkqBK1onBTVHE/s1600/arm-wrestling-nintendo-alice-apeIII.png" height="500" width="640" /></a></div><br />Yes, you have to best one of the more tragically awkward little girls in video game history in the form of her hulking arm-wrestling robot. They’re billed as “Best Friends,” and I can’t tell if that makes me sad for Alice or jealous of her. And yes, <a href="http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=123442787&postcount=14410">if you squint right</a>, she does look just a little bit like a later-generation Nintendo science whiz, <a href="http://www.mariowiki.com/Penny">Penny Crygor</a>. <br /><br />Finally, you must fight Frank Jr.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFpiu18R6njAIJu17qVZfYxzc0nAcmLnMV48JAkHk9KIXwGwydEYh_cMGRMz4diQcUVJN7uEl6K6LYHW6HX4K5QbXqvkXWoe3AFZyXYEDmTLf2fMslYIAx4ebeOKHkwnjkVDLYmL_siaM/s1600/arm-wrestling-nintendo-frank-jr.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFpiu18R6njAIJu17qVZfYxzc0nAcmLnMV48JAkHk9KIXwGwydEYh_cMGRMz4diQcUVJN7uEl6K6LYHW6HX4K5QbXqvkXWoe3AFZyXYEDmTLf2fMslYIAx4ebeOKHkwnjkVDLYmL_siaM/s1600/arm-wrestling-nintendo-frank-jr.png" height="500" width="640" /></a></div><br />Frank Jr. gets no nifty intro text, because if you can’t tell who he’s supposed to be, you are culturally illiterate. <br /><br />And so there you have it: classic but forgotten Nintendo characters who have zero chance of being playable in the next <em>Smash Bros.</em> game. But wouldn’t you want to play as Texas Mac if you could? Or as Alice, so you can take revenge on the society that has shunned you? (I’m just assuming but come on.)<br /><br />All character images taken from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEtmqLq5EUY">this YouTube video</a> save for “Stud-Horse,” which came from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arm_Wrestling_(video_game)#mediaviewer/File:Arm_Wrestling_1_(Nintendo_Arcade_Game).png">Wikipedia</a>.<br /><br />Obscure Nintendo, previously:<br /><ul><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2011/10/deflating-balloon-fight.html">Deflating <i>Balloon Fight</i></a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2012/08/does-nintendo-hate-eggplants.html">Does Nintendo Hate Eggplants?</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2013/12/doki-doki-panic-instruction-booklet.html">The Happiest Arabian Family in Video Game-dom</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2014/02/nintendo-mach-ride-metroid-female-protagonist.html">The One Nintendo Heroine No One Talks About</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2014/02/palutena-kid-icarus-princess-lana-captain-n.html">Athena by Way of Kelly Kapowski</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2014/05/valentina-super-mario-rpg.html">The Busiest Bosom in the Mushroom Kingdom</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2014/08/wario-buffy-the-dolphin.html">Buffy the Dolphin</a></li></ul>kidicarus222http://www.blogger.com/profile/18363078559398106005noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337365607234181028.post-31498548379172208642014-08-27T12:00:00.000-07:002021-05-14T18:47:43.909-07:00Deirdre in the Final Dungeon Today marks the twentieth anniversary of <em>Earthbound</em>, a thoroughly strange Nintendo game that pits plucky psychic children against animate gas pumps, irate old women and, finally, an intangible space demon. I’ve written <a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/search/label/earthbound">a bit about the game</a> over the years, and most recently about <a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2012/10/ric-ocasek-gave-me-chills-in-weirdest.html">a weird intersection it makes with Ric Ocasek</a> that would tumble around in my head for years before I’d figure out the connection.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuS-G6Rm3NIbR0FVigLudNoRicswXH0lKuemQoDokyOyXNm699neFzz9IOZCvDtXVDvEjzQth8S9jizCeHKJpBpfqA8gbXOt7X4Q9777WMG3ucAoF1vEom8UJuWCwIhRZd_pwWMTO67DU/s1600/caveofthepast.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuS-G6Rm3NIbR0FVigLudNoRicswXH0lKuemQoDokyOyXNm699neFzz9IOZCvDtXVDvEjzQth8S9jizCeHKJpBpfqA8gbXOt7X4Q9777WMG3ucAoF1vEom8UJuWCwIhRZd_pwWMTO67DU/s1600/caveofthepast.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.spriters-resource.com/fullview/3158/">via</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><a name='more'></a>You see, <em>Earthbound</em> composer Keiichi Suzuki made an unusual decision in making the game’s soundtrack: He used samples, many of which came straight from popular songs, and that’s just not something you heard often during the sixteen-bit era. Just recently, I found a video that explained which of the game’s compositions drew from major, mainstream songs by bands like The Beatles.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/E_oc9Ypcb2Q" width="560"></iframe><br /></div><br />If you fast-forward to the 4:07 mark, you’ll hear that the game samples “Deirdre,” a Beach Boys song from the band’s 1970 album, <em>Sunflower</em>. This is an album I know. This is a song I’d heard before. But I’d never recognized it in the music for <em>Earthbound</em>’s final dungeon until the video pointed it out.<br /><br />For long-play comparison purposes, here’s the full track of “Deirdre.”<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="420" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/dWR_qL_mxo0" width="560"></iframe><br /></div><br />And here’s “The Place,” the music for the final part of the Cave of the Past.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/R_YriRd5jJs" width="560"></iframe><br /></div><br />The <em>Earthbound</em> track isn’t particularly catchy. It’s atmospheric and strange, but it’s basically just a collection of variations on that one Beach Boys sample — the one right at the beginning where they’re singing the name Deirdre. Nonetheless, I liked the track, and it stuck in my head longer than a lot of the other <em>Earthbound</em> music. I wonder if it did because on some subconscious level I knew it was familiar.<br /><br />Hmm.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Speaking of <em>Earthbound</em>’s strange pop culture connections, there’s one that still hasn’t been solved yet. The game opens with a scene of UFOs destroying some American everycity. (Notably, no event like this actually occurs in the game.)<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><object height="420" width="560"><param name="movie" value="//www.youtube.com/v/8dD0e5jG6Os?hl=en_US&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="//www.youtube.com/v/8dD0e5jG6Os?hl=en_US&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="420" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></div><br />That guitar, it has been determined, was supplied <a href="http://starmen.net/mother2/gameinfo/factoids/">by none other than Mario’s daddy</a>, Shigeru Miyamoto, even if he’s identified in the end credits as M.D. Seeger. But twenty years later, no one knows what the image is supposed to depict. It sure looks like a digitized photograph and sure seems like something that was also drawn from pop culture, but no one seems know <a href="http://earthboundcentral.com/2013/02/the-gas-station-screen-mystery/">where it might have come from</a>.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQeuGlvbrM24TRc1Zjp0C0KhCWYFkjdVudXQ4SQV1ixA5wvhFtClzerdzXmuNOewtu0Awy-eJLqgEID2T7BvtHT3UCANLnBxCmmXP_9_7xpaiKV3l1bfyYKEEN27LURu9-y6sG1cDar84/s1600/earthbound-opening-scene-war-against-giygas.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQeuGlvbrM24TRc1Zjp0C0KhCWYFkjdVudXQ4SQV1ixA5wvhFtClzerdzXmuNOewtu0Awy-eJLqgEID2T7BvtHT3UCANLnBxCmmXP_9_7xpaiKV3l1bfyYKEEN27LURu9-y6sG1cDar84/s1600/earthbound-opening-scene-war-against-giygas.png" height="378" width="640" /></a></div><br />Do you?kidicarus222http://www.blogger.com/profile/18363078559398106005noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337365607234181028.post-684844492421804712014-08-22T22:40:00.000-07:002021-05-14T18:47:44.981-07:00Buffy the DolphinProof that Nintendo has a sense of humor: this sprite for the minor enemy <a href="http://www.mariowiki.com/Buffy_the_Dolphin">Buffy the Dolphin</a> from <i>Wario: Master of Disguise</i>. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5Sb5hxr3BFXGsWJyUKRujG9TVJpPHClreO3KldbgTIbonGayuLtsUmlnvvXlATwd8MWIWRj6uo5OkPoF8hIdFYxXFann4xKChiYOa5pX61KMeI_f5nxXKxvZOHG4E2KYyWgvLaPfy0bY/s1600/buffy-the-dolphin-wario-nintendo.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5Sb5hxr3BFXGsWJyUKRujG9TVJpPHClreO3KldbgTIbonGayuLtsUmlnvvXlATwd8MWIWRj6uo5OkPoF8hIdFYxXFann4xKChiYOa5pX61KMeI_f5nxXKxvZOHG4E2KYyWgvLaPfy0bY/s1600/buffy-the-dolphin-wario-nintendo.png" height="640" width="546" /></a></div><br />Of course, it goes without saying that for someone somewhere, this marked the realization of a long-suppressed fantasy. You know who you are.<br /><br />Well, now you do.<br /><br />Original pixels via <a href="http://www.spriters-resource.com/ds/wariomod/sheet/20571/">Spriter’s Resource</a>.kidicarus222http://www.blogger.com/profile/18363078559398106005noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337365607234181028.post-38822235198963469492014-08-16T07:32:00.000-07:002021-05-14T18:47:46.376-07:00Dreaming of Pixelated SummersIt’s the simplest of gifs, really: just four frames. But I can’t stop watching it, can’t stop letting it make me think of jaunty little ocean adventures from one port to another on little pixel ships.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY_2wLGpF2tMGANZVcoASXOlsUmopVQYHzCvpDEE9BEFuUe1BnOFIEwemC3jNCuahb6HAy4AlvPqZ6yPLdhMWpzVjRfP8MR0sEUDsHEyw0OIaVl_kqJaP69G7VlEVIbxDrt2IzhBLQbdg/s1600/pixel-art-ocean_luminous_arc.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY_2wLGpF2tMGANZVcoASXOlsUmopVQYHzCvpDEE9BEFuUe1BnOFIEwemC3jNCuahb6HAy4AlvPqZ6yPLdhMWpzVjRfP8MR0sEUDsHEyw0OIaVl_kqJaP69G7VlEVIbxDrt2IzhBLQbdg/s1600/pixel-art-ocean_luminous_arc.gif" height="480" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>That or magic eye puzzles. Oceanside magic eye puzzles.<br /><br />(Original screengrabs via <i>Luminous Arc</i>, via <a href="http://www.spriters-resource.com/fullview/42374/">Spriter’s Resource</a>.)<br /><br />Beautiful pixels, previously:<br /><ul><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2014/05/clouds-and-clouds-and-clouds.html">Clouds and clouds and clouds</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2014/03/valley-of-bowser-super-mario-world.html">Your childhood ambassador to hell</a></li><li><i><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2013/10/low-g-man-low-gravity-man-NES.html">Low G Man</a></i></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2013/09/running-down-dream.html">Running down a dream</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2013/09/super-mario-bros-2-pixel-art.html">The Phanto of paradise</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2013/05/if-world-had-ended-in-1992.html">If the world had ended in 1992</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2012/06/pixels-crashing-on-16-bit-shore.html">Pixels crashing on a 16-bit shore</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2011/09/secret-irestigater.html">Secret inrestigater</a></li></ul>kidicarus222http://www.blogger.com/profile/18363078559398106005noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337365607234181028.post-20540704691023424932014-08-12T12:39:00.000-07:002021-05-14T18:47:46.725-07:00Left-Handed Ghosts and Familiar MusicShort version: the right idea, but the wrong video game franchise.<br /><br />More than two years ago, I posted <a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2012/01/decisive-battle-of-musical-trivia.html">here on this blog about</a> a Japanese disco track that sounded to me like something I’d heard in a video game — specifically something dire and commanding and urgent, like you might hear during a boss battle. It’s the 1978 song “Southpaw” by Japanese band Pink Lady, and the part I’m referring to happens just in the first few seconds.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="375" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Pp8ijuDprBQ" width="500"></iframe><br /></div><br />Did you hear it? It’s the part that starts around the nine-second mark. I always heard it, but for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why it sounded familiar. And then just this week, someone pointed out to me why: <em>Ghosts ’N Goblins</em>.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="375" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/XT7HEc0GI5c" width="500"></iframe><br /></div><br />Again, did you hear it? Just right at the beginning.<br /><br />“Southpaw” predates <em>Ghosts ’N Goblins</em> by seven years, so if anything, <a href="http://capcom.wikia.com/wiki/Ayako_Mori">the composer</a> of the game’s score would have been paying tribute to the Pink Lady track. I’m not sure it’s any more than a coincidence, but at least this settles why a Japanese pop song from before I was born sounded like something I should already know.<br /><br />To end your day on a highest of possible notes, here is Pink Lady performing their 1977 hit “UFO” in a video that seems to have been filmed on their apartment complex stairs.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="375" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/kyQz5jXYju4" width="500"></iframe><br /></div><br />And here’s a talented sight reader playing the <em>Ghosts ’N Goblins </em>theme in a ragtime style so naturally that you’ll have a hard time believing he’d never laid eyes on the sheet music before.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/GeytLzRY_0Y" width="500"></iframe><br /></div><br />Video game music, previously:<br /><ul><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2014/01/luigis-mansion-clue-music.html"><i>Clue</i> meets <i>Luigi’s Mansion</i></a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2013/05/peter-gabriel-games-without-frontiers-race-against-time-music.html">Peter Gabriel meets the Commodore 64</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2012/11/how-cool-video-game-sounded-in-1988.html"><i>Wizards & Warriors</i> meets Prokofiev</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2011/12/midday-to-midnight.html">Owen Pallett meets <i>Super Mario Land 2</i></a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2014/08/rene-aubry-seduction.html">That wonderful feeling of unplaceable nostalgia</a></li></ul>kidicarus222http://www.blogger.com/profile/18363078559398106005noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337365607234181028.post-79753337866948572952014-08-05T08:58:00.000-07:002021-05-14T18:47:47.084-07:00Donkey Kong and the Damsel in No Distress WhatsoeverIt doesn’t seem terribly productive to read anything into old arcade cabinet art, but that’s not exactly a look of horror on Pauline’s face as she’s being kidnapped, is it?<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGU5U_8l3Bkqq5CUv4ny5lD2KzVErCLObUXMlK8DJeOCV6cPei_8Ad667Nl4F0b9zwI9_GhLX0fKFfAWt9Gd1jGG9IciMW-oTPLF2vHyS43SL8MdhitOKRdZtq6ZESGXjz4C1BhBl8wgo/s1600/donkey-kong-arcade-cabinet-art-pauline.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGU5U_8l3Bkqq5CUv4ny5lD2KzVErCLObUXMlK8DJeOCV6cPei_8Ad667Nl4F0b9zwI9_GhLX0fKFfAWt9Gd1jGG9IciMW-oTPLF2vHyS43SL8MdhitOKRdZtq6ZESGXjz4C1BhBl8wgo/s1600/donkey-kong-arcade-cabinet-art-pauline.png" height="386" width="640" /></a></div><br />Also, based on her tongue, she may be ill. Also, based on this take on Donkey Kong, I’m wondering if he could be a blood relation to John C. Reilly.<br /><br />The various Kongs, previously:<br /><ul><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2013/11/king-kong-1978-penis.html">Jessica Lange and King Dong</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2011/04/he-shoots-what.html">Donkey Kong’s suggestive jar</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2008/11/women-on-top-of-construction-sites.html">The Perils of Pauline and <i>Donkey Kong</i>’s non-callback</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2008/03/chest-thumping.html">Vogue meets King Kong, controversy ensues</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2014/06/king-kong-dancing-departure.html">The best dance track about King Kong you will hear today</a></li></ul>kidicarus222http://www.blogger.com/profile/18363078559398106005noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337365607234181028.post-22546580093271357582014-08-03T11:51:00.000-07:002021-05-14T18:47:47.781-07:00The Pleasurable Irritation of Misplaced NostalgiaOn one hand, this post may appeal especially to the video game-literate members of my audience. On the other, it speaks to a larger sensation that I'm sure we have no word for.<br /><br />Here is Rene Aubry’s “Seduction,” an instrumental piano piece that I heard yesterday on KCRW.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/R11h3y2ut_k" width="560"></iframe><br /></div><br />Now, please, what does it sound like? Aubry released the song on his 2013 album, <em>Forget Me Not</em>, which means that whatever I’m thinking of mostly likely came out before, but something about this song triggers my nostalgia sensors nonetheless. Just given my own history, it’s likely whatever it reminds me of came from a video game, just because a life playing video game has meant a lot of time listening to instrumental “wallpaper” music. To me, the Aubry song sounds like a minor key version of something in a major key, but for the life of me I can’t say what.<br /><br />Is it <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjyU4Zy9FMs">this</a>? Is it <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxTBCLYrn3Y">this</a>? Does this trigger anyone else’s nostalgia sensors? This is driving me crazy, but in a way I don’t especially mind.kidicarus222http://www.blogger.com/profile/18363078559398106005noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337365607234181028.post-24939264671686029592014-06-09T22:57:00.000-07:002021-05-14T18:47:52.331-07:00Super Milli Vanilli Bros. You think back on the weird little pop culture nothings you experienced as a kid, and you sometimes wonder, “Did that actually happen the way I’m remembering it? Or did my feeble childhood brain and the passage of time distort all that into something far weirder than it actually was?” With me, it’s usually the latter. In this one instance, it’s not.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUAmOLh3pSVOnK3TGW3O9NJ896UFvBB-DB3KVe0rZlI6PjnbvHj3DRfER1pZm_3RnReMMxj7Th4Y1gz5QOm4XqCPDddjEAW90RKzDjvIXlknszYjd0ZOWfkZgp3yM1hyXNMLgW157XqBo/s1600/mv-peach.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="princess peach milli vanilli" border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUAmOLh3pSVOnK3TGW3O9NJ896UFvBB-DB3KVe0rZlI6PjnbvHj3DRfER1pZm_3RnReMMxj7Th4Y1gz5QOm4XqCPDddjEAW90RKzDjvIXlknszYjd0ZOWfkZgp3yM1hyXNMLgW157XqBo/s1600/mv-peach.png" title="princess toadstool milli vanilli" width="478" /></a></div><br />Yes, the Mario Bros. did once meet Milli Vanilli. <br /><br />I’m not going to say that the <em>Super Mario Bros. Super Show</em> and its various sequel series don’t hold up all these years later, but that’s mostly because I never went back and invested much time in them since they were first on. I did, however, just now rewatch the October 27, 1990, episode <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0536289/">“Kootie Pie Rocks”</a> just for the sheer what-the-fuck-in-a-time-capsule factor. It’s just kind of baffling to think that yes, this episode existed.<br /><br />Here’s the plot:<br /><br />The princess — and remember, she’s Princess Toadstool at this point, and not Princess Peach — is stoked to visit New York City in “the real world” to watch a concert by her favorite music group, Milli Vanilli. (How Top 40 reaches all the way to the Mushroom Kingdom, we’ll never know.) Here the duo is dancing, per the magic of DIC animation:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgicXyKnEkFOT6j3I577DYG3LrmtYAEbhTyA8yW02t6RVVMmmVdfW7QiR5zxWhqz7l2w46H-Ky4jbjNSNnnelHM-L5cyTUwCeBNjOt7VUxv0z9eA5oT-PTqTDLEVV-NqU6S_xcEVsQNL2w/s1600/milli-vanilli-super-mario4.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img alt="milli vanilli super mario bros." border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgicXyKnEkFOT6j3I577DYG3LrmtYAEbhTyA8yW02t6RVVMmmVdfW7QiR5zxWhqz7l2w46H-Ky4jbjNSNnnelHM-L5cyTUwCeBNjOt7VUxv0z9eA5oT-PTqTDLEVV-NqU6S_xcEVsQNL2w/s1600/milli-vanilli-super-mario4.gif" title="milli vanilli super mario bros." /></a></div><br />Bowser’s terrible daughter, Kootie Pie, gets word of this and throws a fit. (Another name note: It’s Wendy, but it’s not. For reasons I’ve never had explained to me, the DIC <em>Mario</em> cartoons renamed Bowser’s kids instead of using the rock star-inspired names they have in the games.) To appease Kootie Pie, Bowser beams Milli Vanilli into his airship mid-concert — “Koopnapped,” per Toadstool, even if that doesn’t make sense.<br /><br />At the Koopa Kastle, Kootie Pie uses her magic wand to turn Rob and Fab into accountants — you know, because then they would be unable to sing their hit songs — but Mario devises a plan to free them: Sneak in dressed as a racially insensitive back-up band and help Milli Vanilli perform. Kootie doesn’t question why a back-up band would inexplicably show up, so she transforms Rob and Fab back and then proceeds to be too stupid to realize that Mario and Luigi’s instrumentation sucks, with the awkward implication being that Milli Vanilli performs poorly when live and unproduced. The group escapes back to New York City. Rob and Fab dedicate “Girl, You Know It’s True” to the princess, which, when you think about the implications, is the greatest slight of all.<br /><br /><a name='more'></a>Miscellaneous notes:<br /><br />Kootie Pie sounds like an evil Cyndi Lauper. And yeah, she’s awful.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqM4xwc0FVGX0RVsi9nfwqXOQ3cSduDgYD7ZhAgS2_K2qnmW_Fadmknm0Mgm65DCvg_s4vHGeX-KVw9AHDuPe_O377OszhZ8EtekK4r95CWy2D3nNJgAoes6bFnz2IAstkrU5l-2KYAkM/s1600/kootiepiekoopa.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqM4xwc0FVGX0RVsi9nfwqXOQ3cSduDgYD7ZhAgS2_K2qnmW_Fadmknm0Mgm65DCvg_s4vHGeX-KVw9AHDuPe_O377OszhZ8EtekK4r95CWy2D3nNJgAoes6bFnz2IAstkrU5l-2KYAkM/s1600/kootiepiekoopa.gif" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">She also puts on a mini-skirt to go the concert instead of wearing her usual outfit of high heels, Marge Simpson pearls and no clothes whatsoever. </div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm6Z8RhvAxUQfUbV32_mFMsVfGT4yLvXkjBWRPnzMZR2JZebapz0IdyuqaPIRjpV6o_O8rLhq_rwdz_64mvUEpc8itmA5uOwV2mzzRxLDCEBdv0ukzWfe9qqQIgqXAL63onPVD_jrv26s/s1600/wendy-koopa-dancing.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm6Z8RhvAxUQfUbV32_mFMsVfGT4yLvXkjBWRPnzMZR2JZebapz0IdyuqaPIRjpV6o_O8rLhq_rwdz_64mvUEpc8itmA5uOwV2mzzRxLDCEBdv0ukzWfe9qqQIgqXAL63onPVD_jrv26s/s1600/wendy-koopa-dancing.gif" /></a></div><br />This is what Milli Vanilli fans looked like, per <em>The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3</em>:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieyR4eMilDfmw36WH_rLP54-LIF4dxTo5YczlObaUvjVpI-Wv1QnshsJ7fWU079937kv8p4vo7FQq8UuOOuFoTwU1r9Zlz208SB0fbTFnvMK9q1PfnoWeNhx8u_CEHaRXOanWwNtu2AFk/s1600/milli-vanilli-super-mario1.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieyR4eMilDfmw36WH_rLP54-LIF4dxTo5YczlObaUvjVpI-Wv1QnshsJ7fWU079937kv8p4vo7FQq8UuOOuFoTwU1r9Zlz208SB0fbTFnvMK9q1PfnoWeNhx8u_CEHaRXOanWwNtu2AFk/s1600/milli-vanilli-super-mario1.gif" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigjh4Vp60ZKu-6xiWzcVfoS2qUkbcNxvKvl-DayVKj1Lh-yusQyppZfCY9wDoy0DrAbKYyru-0sf17gsfAkISPLxFXs6Cq_pxcHzmqnn6cG5Mb2l_8GItw-ciSXC9ZMY4Tg5mZzpem6gg/s1600/milli-vanilli-super-mario2.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigjh4Vp60ZKu-6xiWzcVfoS2qUkbcNxvKvl-DayVKj1Lh-yusQyppZfCY9wDoy0DrAbKYyru-0sf17gsfAkISPLxFXs6Cq_pxcHzmqnn6cG5Mb2l_8GItw-ciSXC9ZMY4Tg5mZzpem6gg/s1600/milli-vanilli-super-mario2.gif" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_YAbJVfH2_AOCIuBzBbq_xp4jTQose2zR4qz-4F2GDm7xLDs8QjT2Xxx5GfGG0OyhZ3_O2IiepJv2WryUFUzYUeUQa4wzhq0P436Pl5X5Op4oTM4KafVxaAXhrJQDstn2L2Cdm-uK8l0/s1600/milli-vanilli-super-mario3.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_YAbJVfH2_AOCIuBzBbq_xp4jTQose2zR4qz-4F2GDm7xLDs8QjT2Xxx5GfGG0OyhZ3_O2IiepJv2WryUFUzYUeUQa4wzhq0P436Pl5X5Op4oTM4KafVxaAXhrJQDstn2L2Cdm-uK8l0/s1600/milli-vanilli-super-mario3.gif" /></a></div><br />This frame is also awkward:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGwhohhN2ZmZnZKgj0VK6cMZC_ivie7XYo3Q4tPwP2OiQhmFcTE3sqh62Q6hYTc3598rLcgdgP0N7SSDa47gxKLJTnpasjiFNc0KXP1prqCk6nGV0XOJ3zxhTZJEjd70iy7RObFD3yc04/s1600/mario_milli_vanilli4.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGwhohhN2ZmZnZKgj0VK6cMZC_ivie7XYo3Q4tPwP2OiQhmFcTE3sqh62Q6hYTc3598rLcgdgP0N7SSDa47gxKLJTnpasjiFNc0KXP1prqCk6nGV0XOJ3zxhTZJEjd70iy7RObFD3yc04/s1600/mario_milli_vanilli4.png" /></a></div><br />For what it’s worth, DIC actually acquired the rights to “Blame It on the Rain,” and “Milli Vanilli” actually “sing” it in the episode, though of course it’s weird to think about now how Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus are playing cartoon versions of themselves lip syncing to someone else’s recording of the song. This episode aired <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milli_Vanilli#Media_backlash">just twenty days before</a> the band’s Grammy was revoked.<br /><br />Rob Pilatus was found dead of a suspected drug and alcohol overdose on April 2, 1998. As long as we’re talking about weird musical connections to make with <em>Super Mario Bros.</em>, it’s worth noting that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendy_O._Williams">Wendy O. Williams</a>, the Plasmatics lead singer for whom Bowser’s daughter takes her name, committed suicide <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendy_O._Williams#Death">just four days later</a>. <br /><br />Since the last time I wrote about <a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2009/06/its-secret-to-everybody-part-two.html">my theory about the Koopalings’ names</a>, it turns out that Larry Koopa (Cheatsy in the cartoons) wasn’t named after Larry King but instead <a href="http://www.mariowiki.com/Special:Contributions/Dayvvbrooks">after U2 drummer Larry Mullins Jr.</a> I’d guessed Larry King just because Morton Koopa Jr. was named after <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morton_Downey_Jr.">Morton Downey Jr.</a>, the talk show host who had previously worked as a singer-songwriter, and I guessed that if one Koopaling could have a talk show host namesake, so could another. Nope!<br /><br />The background paintings are actually decent:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihwCuM8bpTFyjI3oKQVwBMoUHgdlg-lAJp2rrOKNJqg9YA_d_DcMPodfnKiDos4Opjm5RJJcA4I53JMwGoiGRshtASbY4sC7eRtL6hBXOcSscyAK9nqhihrMlzqN9oOJ0qN66BiLpj9tg/s1600/bowser-neon-disco-palace.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="499" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihwCuM8bpTFyjI3oKQVwBMoUHgdlg-lAJp2rrOKNJqg9YA_d_DcMPodfnKiDos4Opjm5RJJcA4I53JMwGoiGRshtASbY4sC7eRtL6hBXOcSscyAK9nqhihrMlzqN9oOJ0qN66BiLpj9tg/s1600/bowser-neon-disco-palace.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />If you want to watch the whole episode, Youtube user <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvBNim-cjhvKIafCV_8rdzQ">Unknown Archive</a> has posted it in full on YouTube, in good quality and with a few bits that have been otherwise lost as a result of the fact that all subsequent airings of the episode replace Milli Vanilli’s music with generic filler. The fact that someone bothered to go back in and restore the original audio and deleted scenes for such a shitty moment for television is kind of awesome. <br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><object height="315" width="560"><param name="movie" value="//www.youtube.com/v/bLBVPg70ETY?version=3&hl=en_US" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><embed allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/v/bLBVPg70ETY?version=3&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560"></embed></object></div><br />And that is all. Go outside maybe!<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSoK1mJWvTOOsnSp0pJxkuq8p94FyMhGq1yQX5lNdpN1s0DtZcEtPzis5Wuuz9l2Fhik9SLCsI4OQSNgNyL5gKiyG-DK-OiwhNhkgV4TVK6XP3s41BlJJ-8VgPm4eJGh0owsUCo_7jfFU/s1600/kootie-pie21673.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSoK1mJWvTOOsnSp0pJxkuq8p94FyMhGq1yQX5lNdpN1s0DtZcEtPzis5Wuuz9l2Fhik9SLCsI4OQSNgNyL5gKiyG-DK-OiwhNhkgV4TVK6XP3s41BlJJ-8VgPm4eJGh0owsUCo_7jfFU/s1600/kootie-pie21673.png" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>Super Mario</i> pop cultural connections, previously: </div><ul><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2014/02/palutena-kid-icarus-princess-lana-captain-n.html">Princess Lana: Athena by Way of Kelly Kapowski</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2014/01/luigis-mansion-clue-music.html">It Was Luigi in the Dining Room With the Vacuum Cleaner!</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2014/02/crystal-lake-meets-mushroom-kingdom.html">Camp Crystal Lake by Way of the Mushroom Kingdom</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2013/12/king-koopas-kool-kartoons.html">King Koopa’s Kartoon Klub for Kkids!</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2013/02/the-shining-reference-in-super-mario-sunshine-manta-ray.html">Stephen King Meets Super Mario</a></li></ul>kidicarus222http://www.blogger.com/profile/18363078559398106005noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337365607234181028.post-27929034319460761742014-05-18T17:14:00.000-07:002021-05-14T18:47:54.079-07:00The Busiest Bosom in the Mushroom Kingdom<i>The setting: Japan, sometime in 1995.</i><br /><br />“Hey, I think we should have a new female character in this <em>Super Mario RPG</em> game we’re making.”<br /><br />“Oh, that would make sense.”<br /><br />“Yeah, and maybe she could be a bad guy, because we don’t have many female villains in the series.”<br /><br />“Sure, sure. That would probably be great.”<br /><br />“Okay then. I was also thinking that she could have gigantic boobs.”<br /><br />“Umm…”<br /><br />“Like, just pendulous mammary sacs that jiggle hilariously when Mario hits her.”<br /><br />“Umm…”<br /><br />“Really, her proportions would just be obscene. Huge breasts, a teeny-tiny waist, and a long, flat, football-shaped head. Kind of like Betty Boop’s, but even broader. Like, her head is wider than her shoulders.”<br /><br />“Okay, so I’m hearing a lot of ideas and—”<br /><br />“Also, she would have the eyes of Janice from <em>The Muppets</em>.”<br /><br />“…”<br /><br />“And she’d also be wearing a parrot on her head, but it’s not dead. Like, in addition to her boobs going into a flan-like movement when struck, the parrot would also cry out in pain.”<br /><br />“…”<br /><br />“Like, in lieu of hair. Her hair would be the parrot. Parrot-haired.”<br /><br />“…”<br /><br />“Oh, and she’s in an evening dress. And I think it would be cool if she were always carrying a cocktail with her. Because that’s how you know she’s stylish but also a bad girl.”<br /><br />“…”<br /><br />“And she’s riding a crescent moon for no apparent reason.”<br /><br />“…”<br /><br />“So yeah, I think this would make for a good character. Like, a really popular character that would fit in well with the rest of the <em>Mario</em> crew, and maybe we could see her in the next <em>Mario Kart</em> game, perhaps riding the crescent moon again. I have a feeling she has staying power.”<br /><br />“…”<br /><br />“Hey, would she be any weirder than Birdo?”<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i>{fin}</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>And then against all odds and good sense, Nintendo in 1996 released <em>Super Mario RPG</em>, where Mario fought the female big bad <a href="http://www.mariowiki.com/Valentina"> Valentina</a>, giant boobs and all.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSoQ5INQx61tCa0NxMS9yWPoVoTGX6bcmWaHZjHS7xh4s1WhylvYdKYfrn1tDmGoR3RgZTM8cmO-a8vsj69AYZQFgSqXlwWtHGgwdEGlL00xmqFeJvmp0s3hRct0LXr_icTfYibnXXIK8/s1600/valentina-super-mario-rpg.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="valentina boob shake" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSoQ5INQx61tCa0NxMS9yWPoVoTGX6bcmWaHZjHS7xh4s1WhylvYdKYfrn1tDmGoR3RgZTM8cmO-a8vsj69AYZQFgSqXlwWtHGgwdEGlL00xmqFeJvmp0s3hRct0LXr_icTfYibnXXIK8/s1600/valentina-super-mario-rpg.gif" height="640" title="Valentina's boob shake in Super Mario RPG マルガリータ" width="640" /></a></div><br />Her Japanese name is Margarita, which puts her neatly in line with the <em>Mario</em> tradition of female characters being named after things but also identifies her as a drunk. Valentina did not, in fact, appear in the next <em>Mario Kart</em> game nor any <em>Mario</em> game again.<br /><br />(Sprite modified from sprite rips found <a href="http://www.spriters-resource.com/snes/smariorpg/sheet/13099/">here</a> and <a href="http://www.spriters-resource.com/snes/smariorpg/sheet/12811/">here</a>.)<br /><br /><i>Super Mario</i> obscurities, previously:<br /><ul><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2011/11/questions-reasonable-people-should-have.html">Questions reasonable people should have upon playing <i>Super Mario Bros.</i> for the first time</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2011/05/marios-lack-of-balls.html">The awkward <i>Super Mario Bros. 3</i> testicle connection</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2014/05/birdo-saying-goodbye-forever.html">On the weird characters who do get to be in newer <i>Mario Kart</i> games</a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2010/06/super-mario-abstract.html">Kandinsky does <i>Super Mario</i></a></li><li><a href="http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2008/06/name-that-egg-spitter.html">Birdo is complicated, but not for the reason you’re probably thinking</a></li></ul>=kidicarus222http://www.blogger.com/profile/18363078559398106005noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337365607234181028.post-62292014512206683232014-05-14T08:34:00.000-07:002021-05-14T18:47:54.776-07:00Clouds and Clouds and CloudsThis and only this today: background clouds from the dystopic Neo Geo shooter <em><a href="http://www.spriters-resource.com/arcade/ms3/sheet/16316/">Metal Slug 3</a> —</em> first in their original form and in every subsequent instance a variation and another variation because I could not decide which looked best. Clouds. Clouds and clouds. Different, fake-looking, stage background clouds.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVNlWZt7WKSw1IKC5us7igFXOnQYfZC_I_yKU0XAT6Cugu1eBYj6BdGbPuTl9ectGyWYFjwX0utuMKCb6DXN31XudRzxiLen_1YrJ-PWUWnIayQGCqPO73vbQpHw9e_ziTw-wq0hwAqQY/s1600/metal-slug-3-clouds.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVNlWZt7WKSw1IKC5us7igFXOnQYfZC_I_yKU0XAT6Cugu1eBYj6BdGbPuTl9ectGyWYFjwX0utuMKCb6DXN31XudRzxiLen_1YrJ-PWUWnIayQGCqPO73vbQpHw9e_ziTw-wq0hwAqQY/s1600/metal-slug-3-clouds.png" height="364" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXG2vvkQ6qRQYHcNWBBCnafhWDZR7kfSoiwxyLG7nT8ITtHnwzu69tHsqU0u5YFdzXtmi70iAq_Ufomw_qfFL-FzfQGxWhHXgMqDdd_SqmrqVRyR7pyTRgToGWFAokPtrrahTsUxUTdhg/s1600/metal-slug-3-clouds-blue.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXG2vvkQ6qRQYHcNWBBCnafhWDZR7kfSoiwxyLG7nT8ITtHnwzu69tHsqU0u5YFdzXtmi70iAq_Ufomw_qfFL-FzfQGxWhHXgMqDdd_SqmrqVRyR7pyTRgToGWFAokPtrrahTsUxUTdhg/s1600/metal-slug-3-clouds-blue.png" height="364" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMc-7XqSUM_PuvtS5_BE_Qk683FiBFi0T0CKTSHeRpVnhUWwM5CyZloJsZTAS98-pz2LcsZJG1YybLgpoLCvnQe8BYfauR0LzcCjVCKtR_0XejbL308JUIMawQv53ZeEYvETZhiZEJvf8/s1600/metal-slug-3-clouds-easter.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMc-7XqSUM_PuvtS5_BE_Qk683FiBFi0T0CKTSHeRpVnhUWwM5CyZloJsZTAS98-pz2LcsZJG1YybLgpoLCvnQe8BYfauR0LzcCjVCKtR_0XejbL308JUIMawQv53ZeEYvETZhiZEJvf8/s1600/metal-slug-3-clouds-easter.png" height="364" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDEJqYsoI2DkVH__hABixIud5KO3l3woRKAO0sV2-IYbrfGJ6lCyLxVvRv5nh3iA1MRCq-iNRrhO53wWpNfb7vGaCRJfnAGJ_U3pxq5oG7PdLsUdUvmVSMJTlq25KJOyFaRdi8xuH2-9I/s1600/metal-slug-3-clouds-gold.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDEJqYsoI2DkVH__hABixIud5KO3l3woRKAO0sV2-IYbrfGJ6lCyLxVvRv5nh3iA1MRCq-iNRrhO53wWpNfb7vGaCRJfnAGJ_U3pxq5oG7PdLsUdUvmVSMJTlq25KJOyFaRdi8xuH2-9I/s1600/metal-slug-3-clouds-gold.png" height="364" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHfk6oq-59P1MCQ1C2XFqibT_-gUDmMTr5LvM7Kb1myMmO34OpVkukO7wW9lSf2MJGMdqDy4G8VHTxtRSMijxMcYPFvu8U-6vMIbcU-CxBwcp9BXhX80cI1hoIRmFH5WsGuJJ-wjTPJHc/s1600/metal-slug-3-clouds-navy.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHfk6oq-59P1MCQ1C2XFqibT_-gUDmMTr5LvM7Kb1myMmO34OpVkukO7wW9lSf2MJGMdqDy4G8VHTxtRSMijxMcYPFvu8U-6vMIbcU-CxBwcp9BXhX80cI1hoIRmFH5WsGuJJ-wjTPJHc/s1600/metal-slug-3-clouds-navy.png" height="364" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; 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text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoDiaItYFLr0jqzMKSSTo-3dGZeFbtPHrWDv5lEmRtX6OUVGfMp401suYWqUJBF2D1khEf0gF44O0OLQe5Zu6SWdpHIYUKDdPnRapp26kSnViP9bqM4cy2nif6mYfrip1I4J-n9JU6ZRU/s1600/metal-slug-3-clouds-squishy.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoDiaItYFLr0jqzMKSSTo-3dGZeFbtPHrWDv5lEmRtX6OUVGfMp401suYWqUJBF2D1khEf0gF44O0OLQe5Zu6SWdpHIYUKDdPnRapp26kSnViP9bqM4cy2nif6mYfrip1I4J-n9JU6ZRU/s1600/metal-slug-3-clouds-squishy.png" height="364" width="640" /></a></div><br />“But you could be taking photos of real clouds,” you say. Ha. But ha. I live in Los Angeles. There are no real clouds here. Just wildfire smoke.<br /><br />(Original background pixels via <a href="http://www.spriters-resource.com/arcade/ms3/sheet/16316/">Spriter's Resource</a>.)kidicarus222http://www.blogger.com/profile/18363078559398106005noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337365607234181028.post-31080889874797306042014-05-12T23:29:00.000-07:002021-05-14T18:47:55.475-07:00Birdo, Saying Goodbye ForeverNew skill acquired! I can now make frame-by-frame GIFs, <a href="http://brotherbrain.tumblr.com/">Brother Brain-style</a>, from old video game sprites that I extracted myself from old video games. I have learned how to do this for no other reason than that I wanted to see if I could, and I did.<br /><br />Take that, voices in my head. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL10NCPMMdhoe1SU4GDh5n4XN6p6xm_q2OZji8ViKMrXacRVvuyiKXF1kGrCa5CRrtqiXc9TmseQeFwzSjhpx_R-ISpa08idHN6v-jWFkD3YintRzA9o5LVBs1xIIN-ZEmkwW2r15-9HM/s1600/birdo-warios-woods.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL10NCPMMdhoe1SU4GDh5n4XN6p6xm_q2OZji8ViKMrXacRVvuyiKXF1kGrCa5CRrtqiXc9TmseQeFwzSjhpx_R-ISpa08idHN6v-jWFkD3YintRzA9o5LVBs1xIIN-ZEmkwW2r15-9HM/s1600/birdo-warios-woods.gif" /></a></div><br />Yes, it’s everyone’s favorite gender-vague bidedal dinosaur, Birdo, modified from frames from the NES version of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wario's_Woods"><em>Wario’s Woods</em></a>, a puzzle game that holds the record for being the final licensed title ever released for the original Nintendo console as well as the only one in which Nintendo let Toad have a starring role. <em>Wario’s Woods</em> is kind of a garbage bin of unloved Nintendo characters, and features quite a few who hadn’t made a dent elsewhere. (Remember, Wario was still a relatively new character when the game came out back in 1994.) Birdo appears as Toad’s helper.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><object height="375" width="500"><param name="movie" value="//www.youtube.com/v/3GIvFciYszY?hl=en_US&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="//www.youtube.com/v/3GIvFciYszY?hl=en_US&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="500" height="375" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></div><br /><a name='more'></a>I suppose having Birdo peace out on an indefinite loop could be a commentary on Nintendo’s decision to ditch her for the new <em>Mario Kart</em> game in favor of head-scratchers such as <a href="http://www.mariowiki.com/Baby_Rosalina">Baby Rosalina</a> and the monstrosity that is <a href="http://www.mariowiki.com/Pink_Gold_Peach">Pink Gold Peach</a>.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUHFO8A6QjgKzSMpiJFRsqzWIpxGPDHUQLADgEZ8osgpprNIZZU0Hl0wsnoyMKXVY_6MoXVCVKFrVnMo-RuPD4PVOdWeo1N-lEE4ekbpyK76UduF0qrnG8hynu2WO4oqERvcGdDDfvdMI/s1600/pink-gold-peach.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUHFO8A6QjgKzSMpiJFRsqzWIpxGPDHUQLADgEZ8osgpprNIZZU0Hl0wsnoyMKXVY_6MoXVCVKFrVnMo-RuPD4PVOdWeo1N-lEE4ekbpyK76UduF0qrnG8hynu2WO4oqERvcGdDDfvdMI/s1600/pink-gold-peach.jpg" height="477" width="640" /></a></div><br />I’m not bitter, but I do think it’s weird how Nintendo stocks their games with clone characters when they have a healthy roster of originals. But whatever: a new <em>Mario Kart</em> is a new <em>Mario Kart</em>. Here are my predictions for future <em>Mario Kart</em> contenders: Aged Mario, Fat Luigi, Undead Peach, Baby Undead Peach, Zinc Baby Mario, Titanium Baby Bowser, Embryonic Toad, See-Thru Dr. Mario, John Leguizamo Version Luigi, Gay Pride Yoshi, Never-Stops-Screaming Daisy, Feral Donkey Kong, Alopecia Mario, and, of course, a female Mario and Luigi named Marta and and Luisa. In fact, I can’t believe those last two haven’t happened yet.<br /><br />Vroom.kidicarus222http://www.blogger.com/profile/18363078559398106005noreply@blogger.com0