Film
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7 hours agoVideo Game Movies Were Way More Fun When They Were as Weird as 1993's 'Super Mario Bros.'
IndieWire After Dark showcases fringe cinema with a focus on cult films like the bizarre 1993 adaptation of Super Mario Bros.
Mr. Game & Watch is a mascot who represents the generic player characters in the Game & Watch devices from the '80s. His animations are very limited, and his moves reference games from these handhelds.
As you can see, this cartridge has Hollywood Video stickers on it. Which is interesting. And I wasn't able to find any record of the competitions being done at Hollywood Video. The 1995 competition was a Blockbuster competition. A major competitor, or the major competitor of Hollywood Video.
The set includes 12 toys, most of which are of different characters, but both Mario and get two. Mario gets one in his standard red-and-blue outfit, and another of him in his white-and-red look after undergoing a Fire Flower transformation. Bowser Jr. has one in his default form, while the other has him in his distorted Wonder look from Super Mario Bros. Wonder.
I had this idea, let's go out to a store and buy the cartridges, buy three or four of them. And indeed, despite Linden's technical wizardry, even he couldn't do anything about the underpowered hardware, and, as anyone who's played it can tell you, while the sheer existence of Doom on the SNES may be magical, playing it is anything but.
The little music player is palm-sized and can be loaded up with 45 different cartridges, each featuring a different melody or sound effect from the original games' soundtrack. The device was announced by longtime series composer Junichi Masuda during today's anniversary Pokémon Presents livestream, where he said that special care has gone into the audio sounding like it did on the Game Boy.
The emotional hit was something I didn't expect, although perhaps I should have. The Commodore 64 Ultimate, a new version of the legendary 8-bit computer, comes in a box designed to resemble the original packaging a photo of the machine itself on a background of deep blue fading into a series of white stripes. Then when you open it, you find an uncannily accurate replica of what fans lovingly referred to as the breadbox the chunky, sloped Commodore 64, in hues of brown and beige,
A new controller from 8BitDo has been announced for smartphones, and this add-on will make your phone resemble a next-gen Game Boy. At CES 2026, 8BitDo showed off the FlipPad, a gamepad that connects to a smartphone via its USB-C port. Details on the FlipPad are scarce for now, but 8BitDo says it will support both iOS and Android devices.
There were lots of good stuff in this week's Convergence Showcase too, including another peek at Mouse: P.I. for Hire as we get to see one of the game's bosses for the first time. This first-person shooter with rubber-hose animation is set to arrive on March 19. There were other welcome announcements for me in this showcase. First, there was a release date for the Zelda-inspired adventure Gecko Gods.
The Donkey Kong Country Returns HD free update is out today and adds Dixie Kong as a playable character along with her helicopter hair spin. It also adds a Turbo Attack mode which essentially turns every level into a speedrun challenge. Finally, a free Switch 2 upgrade will give the game better resolution, improved visuals, and faster load times. It'll also include support for GameShare so two players can play local coop on separate devices using only one copy of the game.
Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 owners can save big on officially licensed wireless controllers with eye-catching lenticular or glow-in-the-dark designs. Amazon has all four editions of the Turtle Beach Rematch Wireless Controller for 25% off or better. Most notably, the Donkey Kong Edition with lenticular artwork is on sale for $41.61 (was $60). Select customers can get an extra 25% discount, which drops the price to $31.20. If you're eligible for the bonus discount, you'll see a coupon box below the price.
Ecco the Dolphin doesn't have nearly as strong a legacy as many of its '90s action game brethren, but just mention its name to anyone who was a slightly weird kid with a Sega Genesis at the time, and you'll probably get a very different impression. With its eco-warrior sensibilities, completely unique gameplay, and baffling dolphin-versus-aliens premise, Ecco the Dolphin is a gloriously bizarre relic of the Genesis, but after decades of silence from the series, it's finally poised to return soon.
They've never all appeared together at once, except on lists of video game legends. And, surely, in the dreams of some gamers. They would certainly make a peculiar group: a mustachioed plumber, a fearless archeologist, a lightning-fast hedgehog, a warrior and a princess, a monkey in a tie, a marsupial in jeans and a strange yellow rodent. Outlandish, to those unfamiliar with them. But for those who know of their existence, these creatures are global icons.
In Big Hops, you play as a frog named Hop. Early on, Hop is taken away from his home, and he works to get back by collecting airship parts from a few different areas, each with its own cute animal characters and storylines. Because he's a frog, the primary way you interact with things is by slinging his tongue. You can use it to grab pots to toss and break them for coins, as a grappling hook to reach new areas,
Returning to old games isn't always easy. Depending on how old the game is, you might run into various problems, including unusual controls or compatibility issues. Another common point of friction you might encounter is an older game running poorly. This can make it a slog to replay some of the modern classics, even if they're just a decade or so old. So I'm happy to see Ubisoft going back and updating performance in games like Far Cry Primal and Assassin's Creed Unity.
She is the glue that holds our family together. But right now, I am kicking her ass at video game bowling, and it feels good! In the 00s, my mum was the best Wii Bowling player in the world. She was unbeatable. Strike after strike after strike. The Dudette in our family's Big Lebowski. So when she said she was coming to visit us in Canada, I thought the time was right to buy the updated Nintendo Switch Sports version of her favourite game.
The Analogue 3D, a premium gaming console that's fully compatible with Nintendo 64 games, just got of translucent colorways replicating five colors that were prototyped for the N64 but never released. The new Analogue 3D: Prototype Editions follow the limited release of Analogue's Funtastic line, which replicated the N64's Funtastic colorful translucent shells last December and in less than two hours.