Category: Video Game Musings

Did Nintendo Do SMB40 Dirty?

Source: https://nintendoisgreat.substack.com/p/the-super-mario-bros-40th-anniversary?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=web

Recently came across this post from Nintendo Is Great, a Substack blog thing that talks about how great Nintendo is… except in this case where the author explains how Nintendo has not given the 40th anniversary of Super Mario Bros – that Nintendo game from 1985 – the proper respect with a celebration worthy of the occasion. Is this really the case?

For those who don’t know, Nintendo used the occasion to announce a number of Mario-related projects. The title of the next Super Mario movie is “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” due in 2026. They also announced a new Super Mario Galaxy combo pack collecting both games in one cart (though you can buy both games separately digitally), a new Mario Tennis game, a Switch 2 version of Super Mario Bros. Wonder (with exclusive content) and a new Yoshi game. There’s also some minor notes on amusement park attractions that I will never get around to visiting and thus are not worth mentioning here.

I don’t know. Seems like a fair amount of Mario content being released… except for the fact that it’s content that probably would have seen release regardless of anniversary. If anything, Nintendo is using the 40th as an excuse to announce a bunch of Mario games that would have been out one way or another and nothing was done to truly celebrate the game that got the ball rolling. They did that for the 35th anniversary with the amazing (and long defunct) SMB35 battle royale game and the release of a new Game & Watch unit that housed OG SMB and the Lost Levels… that was pretty sweet too.

Maybe something like that would’ve been a worthy celebration of the 40th. Bring back SMB35… but now it’s SMB40 where you can play against 39 other players. Honestly, that would have sold me on a Switch 2 if they had gone that route… but they didn’t and nothing that they’ve announced has me clamoring for a next-gen Switch any time soon.

I don’t know, folks. There are those who would probably feel stronger about this than I do. I’ve seen the Direct, I’ve heard their announcements, and I came away shrugging and moving on with my life. At this point, major anniversary milestones being underwhelmingly undersold is the bare minimum expect from these people. And with Star Trek turning 60 next year, I’m expecting an equally placid celebration next year.

The Bubsy Collection

In case anyone isn’t aware, yes, they made a Bubsy collection of all those old games that you hated back in the day.

And before anyone else asks – because at least one person did – yes, I did get the collection. I have no problem buying the Bubsy collection because I’m genuinely curious about these Bubsy games that I’ve only played a couple of. And no, I’m not particularly baffled by this. Bubsy may not have been a beloved mascot, but he has a following of sorts… enough that they did put out a couple new games over the past few years with another on the way.

Hell, there’s a compilation of games based on old Nick stuff like Guts or Rocko’s Modern Life. I don’t recall those games being fondly remembered classics, but there you go. They’re being brought back.

It’s like I said before… if they’ll bring back Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties, then they’ll bring back anything.

Whatever the case, expect some Bubsy content in 2026… as soon as I get the Valis stuff out of the way, which will also be in 2026… maybe.

I just want to get this year’s output out of the way first.

Guts? YES!!! – An Ericmansuper Vintage Video

So they recently announced the Nickelodeon Splat Pack, which includes GUTS as one of the games being released. The very first thing that came to mind upon hearing that was this video by former Youtuber ericmansuper. Now people can find out for themselves whether this game still sucks. Whether that’s a good thing or not is another story entirely.

I miss that guy. Hope he’s doing well nowadays.

I DON’T Believe In Joe Hendry… (and other unrelated stories)

Well… that got your attention, didn’t it?

Contrary to the title above, this post has nothing to do with Joe Hendry… although I heard that he beat Miz at a house show some time ago. No doubt, we’re waiting for the right opportunity to give Miz his win back on Netflix, but enough about that. Let’s get to some other quick bits.

Although if you want me to mention some other piece of Joe Hendry-related info… I’m not so sure that he’s getting that John Cena match… unless TNA somehow forks over the brinks truck to convince John to make a stop at Bound For Glory or something… but then that will overshadow… anything in that fucking company… like NXT superstar Trick Williams being your TNA World Champion for… some reason. Because WWE, there we go. I’m done with the rasslin’ bits. Let’s move on.

So we’ve just concluded the third season of Strange New World this past week… an interesting piece of business if there ever was one. I’ll hold off my thoughts on the season for a later time and instead look forward to the next television offering coming up in the form of Starfleet Academy… something I wish was just compilations of some kid’s let’s play of the old PC game redone with proper acting bits, but alas, it’s a continuation of 32nd century Star Trek. I’m sure some folks have a problem with this. My only concern is whether the show is any good. If it is, I keep watching. If it sucks, I’ll move on to something else.

I will say that the recently announced Voyager game intrigues me somewhat. I’ve never been that big into strategy games – I’ve played a few, but that’s about the extent of it – however, the ability to dictate the actions and journey of Voyager and possibly going against the grain of how the series progress is fascinating (no pun intended) and giving players the choice of whether Tuvix lives or dies is a tempting selling point if nothing else. More of this stuff and less mobile garbage, please. Thanks.

In case you missed it, Hasbro is putting out a “new” version of Mighty Morphin dubbed Re-Ignition, which is just the old MMPR show with a slightly new title card and new Mighty Morphin minutes that the Power Rangers Youtube channel also upload as shorts if that’s all you want to watch. My guess is that somebody visited the Kitchen Nightmares Youtube channel, saw that they were able to repackage the same episode ten times over without diminishing returns, and figured that they could do the same with MMPR.

For curious parties, you can still watch the original uploads of MMPR that were put up years ago and the quality isn’t all that different from whatever they’re putting up now. Supposedly, it’s been upscaled to a higher resolution, but it doesn’t look any better than before. It’s just a lazy re-up. As much as people hate the reversioned MMPR from 2010, at least they TRIED to freshen up the product so that it didn’t come across as a glorified rehash of vintage material. You can’t even say that much with THIS latest rehash.

That’s all I’ve got… later.

The New Acclaim Line-Up… Is Naturally Underwhelming

So once upon a time, a bunch of people bought the rights to and revived the old Acclaim brand name and somehow even suckered wrestling legend Jeff Jarrett into the mix. They had announced a presentation video by means of a teaser video that showed off some of Acclaim’s past titles… none of which they have the rights to because those were sold off when the original Acclaim Entertainment went out of business a couple decades ago. And then the above video took place this past Wednesday.

Needless to say, there were quite a few people who were… underwhelmed by what they had to offer.

Of the bunch that was shown, the only two games that seemed remotely interesting is Talaka – a side-scroller with roguelike elements – and Katanaut – another horror-based side-scroller that’s actually available on Steam right now… and then there’s a bunch of bland, nothing happening, and outright subpar titles that aren’t even worth mentioning.

In other words, those few brief clips of vintage games that once brought the Acclaim name to prominence now served as reminders of games that I wish I were playing right now… because what you have in store for the future doesn’t hold a candle to what you had in the past.

In hindsight, I don’t know what anyone was expecting out of this. All of the notable Acclaim offerings are now in the hands of other people and there was no way in hell that this smaller, essentially independent version of Acclaim was going to get all that stuff back. It’d be nice, but it wasn’t going to happen. At least when Bubsy was brought back from obscurity, he brought the Accolade brand with him… for whatever that’s worth. Acclaim has nothing of its past to tie to other than a logo and a name that people had fond memories of… except those memories are now owned by other people.

To tell you the truth, I have no idea why Acclaim was brought back to begin with. From what I’ve seen, you could have easily presented these titles under a different company name and it wouldn’t have made a difference… except maybe less people would care? I guess?

I don’t know… I’ll just have to wait and see if they’ve got someone working on a remake of Destination Earthstar. THEN I’d be excited for an Acclaim revival. This line-up on the other hand? Take it or leave it. Sorry.

In other news, Nintendo remembers Virtual Boy exists and will release some games for you to play on Switch 1 and 2… but will also require you to play them in a Virtual Boy mock-up that costs about as much as Mario Kart World…

Welp… dodged a bullet, there.

Why The Fuck Does The World Need A Call Of Duty Movie?

Source: https://filmstories.co.uk/news/call-of-duty-movie-officially-in-the-works-at-paramount/

Are we really that desperate for movie ideas that we’re going to make a movie about soldiers in a war – a concept that has been developed into movie HUNDREDS OF TIMES before and more than likely inspired this video game concept? And also, how many of these fucking games have they made already? Which one is getting the movie treatment?

That’s like someone getting a license to do an After Burner movie, when someone with a brain can point out that there’s already an “After Burner” movie of sorts; it’s called TOP GUN.

Did people test this shitty licensing deal before they released it?

Obviously not.

Is Geoff Keighley A Tool?

Click here for all the details… but the answer is yes.

In other news, water is wet, the sky is blue, and the sun is yellow.

Also in other news, are there any true believers left in the house? You may want to hold on to your hats with this Sunday’s blog post thing.

And that’s about it.

But, yes, Geoff Keighley is a tool. Always has been, always will be…

And so is that Joe guy…

NO! Get lost, Joe! Nobody said you could appear!

I wasn’t even talking about you, man!

Goddammit.

Atari To Release Pac-Man… Again

“Hey, Atari! When are you guys releasing a new Atari 5200+?”

“Did you say new 2600+? Here’s a new 2600+ with PAC-MAN!”

“Aw hell nah.”

Yes, they’re putting out another 2600+… but it comes in a Pac-Man color scheme and also includes a new 7800 port of Pac-Man… that also includes the original 2600 port of Pac-Man that everyone hates.

On the flip side, however, they’re also re-releasing the 7800 versions of Galaga, Dig Dug, and Xevious, so if you’re looking to fill those gaps in the 7800 collection, you’ve got a more convenient way of doing it… no love for Pole Position, though. I’m kind of shocked at that since the pack-in title for the 7800 was Pole Position II.

Maybe they’re saving that for the 7800+ recolor.

The Street Fighter 2026 Movie Cast… meh.

Source: https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-lists/street-fighter-cast-reboot-1235374639/50-cent-as-balrog-1235374707/

So far, your current cast listing for the upcoming Street Fighter movie.

You have actor Andrew Koji portraying Ryu and will presumably be the main character. There’s also Callina Liang being the third live actor to play Chun Li (following Ming-Na in the 1994 movie and Kristen Kreuk in the best forgotten Legend Of Chun Li flick), Jason Momoa will be playing Blanka (what, you couldn’t get him to play Ken instead of this Noah dude?), Orville Peck is cast as Vega, and Balrog will be played by 50 Cent, who I assume will be try to act like a boxer rather than “generic black tough guy” that was the case for Michael Duncan Clarke when he played Balrog in that Chun Li movie everyone wants to forget. They also cast their Dan, but I forget the guy’s name.

Oh, and playing the role of Akuma?

Your tribal chief, Roman Reigns.

I laughed. That gave me a good chuckle. On the bright side, though, if they can get Roman to do nothing but mean mugs and say nothing, that would probably be the best portrayal of Akuma in a live-action movie.

I can’t help but feel somewhat ambivalent over this one. On the one hand, it’ll probably be nice for Street Fighter to have a live-action movie that’s more closer to the lore of the games than the previous efforts were. On the other hand, just because something is accurate to the source mateial doesn’t automatically make it a good movie. There’s something to be said about the 1994 movie that deviates from what was established in the games (which wasn’t saying much; most of the filler was through supplementary material like mangas and things of that nature), but nonetheless provided an entertaining little flick. On the flip side, I watch something like the recent Mortal Kombat film, which is more true to whatever lore it’s currently following right now, but is a generally dull film as a result. Even Annihilation – a generally bad movie – had its fun moments… for all the wrong reasons, but sometimes, you’ve got to take what you can get, no matter how little it is.

So, as much as I’d like to have a film adaptation that’s the best of both worlds, I’d much rather have a fun and enjoyable movie that deviates from the norm than a deathly dull movie that’s a slave to following lore. Hopefully, this Street Fighter movie strikes that nice balance. It’s been on the cheesy side, it’s been on the dull side… let’s go for somewhere down the middle. Thanks.

Bloodstained: The Scarlet Engagement Announced

Well, they’re working on another one. Due out in 2026 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series Whatever. No Switch version of either or, though.

Too early to tell where we’re going here. I’m happy to see that they’re doing another one, but whether it turns out to be any good… we’ll just have to wait and see, won’t we?