4/28/2009 - Super Mario Bros. 1 Drag & Drop

I will say this for the Wii: some of the titles have been pretty innovative in their approach to using limited technology and a unique control scheme. I mentioned Super Paper Mario last time for its 2.5-D gameplay. Super Mario Galaxy has a rather unique 2-player mode, or I should say 1.5-player mode since the 2nd player doesn't control a character like Mario or even Luigi. Instead, he or she uses the Wiimote to collect and use star bits to help out the first player. It's not exactly hardcore competitive or even cooperative gameplay, but it is an accessible feature that can be fun for non-gamers or newbie gamers.

This next mod may have taken some inspiration from that feature in Super Mario Galaxy. It's actually a pretty cool concept that surprisingly hasn't made it into an actual game. Imagine being able to have a second player have the ability to manipulate live gameplay by having an all-powerful drag-and-drop cursor. I guess it's similar to the Little Big Planet level designer, but I predict that it will make it into some game as part of its main gameplay.

4/25/2009 - Mega Man 2.5D

One of the neatest concept games for the Wii was Super Paper Mario. Even though Super Mario 64 and Mario Galaxy perfected 3-D platforming, Mario's roots were in 2-D sidescrolling. It would be hard to come out with a game these days that was strictly 2-D sidescrolling and have it not be considered outdated or merely a nostalgia game. For example, Mega Man 9 was a wildly successful game, but it was geared almost exclusively to nostalgic gamers. Super Paper Mario, on the other hand, added the third dimension to it's 2-D gameplay in a very clever way. It merely allowed you to switch your perspective to the back of Mario so that you could see what was previously behind or in front of him as now being to the left and right of him. It's hard to describe with words, but if you watch any gameplay video of it, you'd understand.

While not all classic 2-D sidescrollers could benefit from such an enhancement, I think the makeover would be ideal for the Mega Man franchise. As shown by Mega Man 9, the Blue Bomber belongs in the 8-bit world. But for future installments, I would hope that Capcom could think a little out of the box and adapt some of the Super Paper Mario innovations. A game modder has done just that with a Mega Man 2 stage and it looks absolutely terrific:

3/10/2009 - D-Pad Hero

Except for the "controller" and the CD-quality music, there's nothing about Guitar Hero's gameplay that prevents it from being a game that could be played on retro systems like the NES. It's just a rhythm-based game that tests how well you can follow the button presses and strumming directions on the screen. This fact is not lost on modders who can make custom games that can run on NES emulators and potentially on the console itself. And thus the game "D-Pad Hero" was born, and it actually looks hard:



I mean, it seems difficult to me to separate the directional nature of the left-B button and the right-A button from the directions you have to press on the D-Pad. Even trying to follow the motions in my head is giving me a headache.

2/1/2009 - Zelda Ocarina of Time on Halo Custom Edition

Even though they are fun and can be very well done, I feel that first-person shooters are overdone in today's gaming landscape. It's even worse than it was in the 90's when fighting games were overdone. Almost every other game on the XBox 360 is an FPS, and that's probably not an exaggeration! I suppose what makes them popular now is because they lend themselves so well to online play. Gamers who are hungry for violence let out their frustrations by "killing" others live on the internet. I keep waiting for the next big genre to break through, but I fear that the FPS will stay for quite some time. It's gotten so bad that people are converting games of other genres into first-person shooters. You wouldn't think that the Nintendo 64 classic The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time could be modded into an FPS, but if there's a will, there's a way:

1/17/2009 - PS3 + xbox 360 = PS360

As a person in the Playstation 3 camp, I'm not sure how to feel about this video. It's a demonstration of a Playstation 3 console whose guts has been replaced with the core components of an XBox 360. Essentially, it's an XBox 360 with a Playstation 3 faceplate. It's an impressive mod to be sure, it's just that it seems to be a waste of a perfectly good Playstation 3.

5/23/2008 - PS3 Laptop from Ben Heck

I've talked about video games being "modded" before, where the ROM images have been modified so that you can play the games in ways not normally intended. These were all software hack and it's probably not surprising that people mod hardware as well. Why do they do it? Simply because they can! Perhaps the most well known gaming hardware modder is Ben Heck, who has made pretty much all the non-handheld video game consoles out there portable in some way. Now, these systems may not truly be "portable" in that they require an AC power connection, but they are truly self contained systems in that the built-in LCD screens negate the necessity for an external television.

It would seem that the PS3, with all of its advanced hardware design and power consumption and cooling needs that it would be difficult to turn into a portable system. And according to this video, it was Ben's longest project, taking 14 months on and off. But the end result looks like it was worth it:



It may be humongous, but it still looks sleek... and that may be the biggest accomplishment of all.

4/2/2008 - iPod with NES controller

As much as I respect the geeks out there who produce these creative mods of tech products, sometimes I think they're nuts. I mean, it's great being able to show off all these skills, but isn't there a more practical way they can contribute to society? Take this mod, for example. It's the coolest thing, alright: an iPod with Linux installed just so it can play a modified version of Doom. But that's not the extent of the mod. They took a regular old NES controller and added an iPod docking port to it so it can control your character in Doom!



As impressed as I am with this, I can't help but think that it's not going to win the Nobel Prize for engineering.

3/13/2008 - Doom Rickroller

One of the things that defines a first-person shooter is the weapons it employs. GoldenEye had the laser wristwatch, a weapon that was used in the movie on which it was based. Perfect Dark had the Farsight XR-20, a weapon that not only honed in to an enemy's heat signature, but could fire through walls. Turok 2 had the infamous Cerebral Bore which could drill into a dinosaur's skull and extract its brain matter. Needless to say, it was a messy weapon. I think the signature weapon of Quake would be the rocket launcher. Now you may say, "rocket launchers are in every FPS game". That may be true, but in Quake, you can actually use a rocket launcher to propel yourself to large heights and distances by a technique called "rocket jumping".

What about one of the granddaddy's of the genre, Doom? Most people would say the signature weapon is the B.F.G., a weapon probably best known for what the acronym stands for (and no, it's not Bio Force Gun). Yeah, it's a powerful gun, alright. But a Doom modder has invented something far more powerful. Something far more deadly. It's so horrifying, words can't describe it. Luckily there's a video:

2/12/2008 - Mario Meets Halo

In the history of video game crossovers there have been a few standouts: Battletoads & Double Dragon, Marvel & Capcom, Capcom & SNK, and the latest being Mario and Sonic finally together. The Mario/Sonic crossover is such a big deal because Nintendo and Sega were such bitter rivals in the console wars of the Nineties. Sonic was supposed to be the "anti-Mario" that would be Sega's answer to Nintendo's popular sidescroller. Sega was pretty successful with the Genesis, but couldn't overtake the Super Nintendo during its reign. Once Sony entered the market Sega's decline really accelerated and they ceased becoming a hardware company.

Now there's a new console war with Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft. While Nintendo's mascot is still the ever-loving Italian plumber, Mario, Microsot's decided their mascot would be the silent soldier of Halo fame, Master Chief. Since the console war is still ongoing, of course, it will probably years until we see a Mario/Master Chief crossover, if ever. That is, unless someone were to program such a game on their own:

1/20/2008 - Bizarro Super Mario Bros. (2 videos)

Most gamers have played the original Super Mario Bros. so many times that they can play through Stage 1-1 with their eyes closed. Oh wait, here is an example:



But wait... as cool as it is, this is not the video I wanted to feature today. It's just an example of how we can be hard-wired to complete a stage of a video game through repeated play. I can time my jumps on the multiple-coined blocks to collect the maximum amount of coins, for example. I know where the 1-UP is after the fourth pipe. I know when the invincibility wears off after collecting the Star-Man.

Well, what if someone took Stage 1-1 of Super Mario Bros., recreated it, but completely made it hell to play... ESPECIALLY for those who is all too familiar with the game. For example, instead of spawning a power-up mushroom by hitting a certain block, how about spawning an enemy instead. That's just one of the dozens of devious, dastardly changes in this Super Mario mod:



The missile coming out of the flagpole is just plain evil.

11/15/2007 - GTA: Anime Style

So far we've seen Grand Theft Auto mods pay tribute to Superman and Back to the Future. There are plenty of other mods out there, but I think this may be the weirdest. It's based on the Lucky Star anime, I believe, and it has Pikachu of Pokemon fame as substitutes for the regular police officers. Pikachus being shot dead with blood coming out if them is a visceral sight that actually seems more violent than when regular people are shot. And when the Lucky Star girls are laughing after they shoot them... just creepy. The addition of the Big Blue theme of F-Zero as a radio selection is nice, though.

9/21/2007 - Hare Hare Mario

Excuse me if I totally geek out right now. You know I've been highlighting these Super Mario World mods that show "self-playing" levels and the Hare Hare Yukai remixes that are also popular on YouTube. I never thought the two could combine into a mashup. So imagine my delight when I saw that a modder did just that:



That is simply one of the greatest things I've ever seen. Not only is it a decent self-playing level with some intricate cause and effect happenings, but it's all synchronized to the tune of the Hare Hare Yukai! I can only imagine just how long this took to map out each note of the song to the appropriate sound effect in the video game. And then to force the sound effect to play in a self-playing level? Damn.

9/16/2007 - Super Mario World Rube Goldberg

Oh man, I love these Super Mario Word mod videos. Here's another one that emulates a Rube Goldberg machine with great, uh, craftsmanship. I like how the green shells were timed to get caught in the coin blocks after the timer on the switch box runs out. How Mario doesn't get killed at the 38-second mark is a wonder. Oh, and Yoshi makes it through this time. :)

9/3/2007 - Self-playing Super Mario World Level

I've said in a previous post how awesome Super Mario World was for the Super Nintendo... especially considering the fact that it was a pack-in game. I mean, I really would have paid $50 for it (standard fare for the time) and still would have been happy with it. One of the things that made it great was the play mechanics of the game. It took all of the best gameplay elements of the first three Super Mario games and added a myriad of new ones without making it overly complicated. One modder (or probably a group of them) wanted to showcase these elements by fabricating a level where Mario does absolutely nothing but stand while the level itself moves him around and eventually completes it. It's easier to show you than to describe it:



I know everything is contrived, but, WOW. It truly is an amazing thing to see. Everything is placed so perfectly that anything that's even a millimeter off would mean death for Mario (unfortunately, Yoshi didn't survive). Rube Goldberg machinists should definitely take note of this video as this is even better than most of those contraptions, no matter how complex they are.

9/1/2007 - GTA: San Andreas (2 Videos)

Rockstar really started a revolution in video gaming when they developed Grand Theft Auto III as the first sandbox video game. Before the Playstation 2, there simply was not enough horsepower or storage to contain a virtual world the size and scope of Liberty City, where you can use your human character to unleash havoc upon its citizens in ways that you would never dream of doing in real life. That kind of freedom to cause mayhem in a realistic environment is the hallmark of the Grand Theft Auto games and has been copied numerous times by other developers with often mediocre results.

The last Playstation 2 game of the series, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas really elevated the series by giving you an entire state to play in as opposed to just a single city. They also gave your character the ability to develop himself physically (by exercising) and socially (by dating), just to make it all that much realistic. The coolest addition, in my opinion, was the ability to ride a bicycle. Sure, it may sound like small potatoes compared to carjacking a Porsche, but riding a bike was surprisingly fun. I just wish I could do some of the cool stunts displayed in this video:



Of course, if you want to have total freedom in the game and alter its realism, you can mod it. Like that Back to the Future mod I featured in an earlier blog entry, you can do a lot with the PC version of the game. One of the coolest mods I've seen is this Superman mod, where your character is replaced by none other than the Man of Steel himself. I really like the inclusion of the John Williams score in this vid. Ironically, this may just be the best Superman video game ever made.

Past Favorite - Super Mario 64 Classic NES Edition (Updated)

So we know by now the main gimmick of Super Paper Mario... take the 2-D world of the NES Mario games and add the 3rd dimension as a gameplay element. It's one of those "why didn't I think of that before" innovations, and it looks like we have another million-seller for Nintendo.

Well, how about taking that concept, but switch it around? Mario 64 was the first true 3-D Mario game and EVERYBODY who had a Nintendo 64 has played this game. Even though it was in 3-D, it had all the classic Mario game features... Goombas to stomp, shells to push, and Bowser to defeat. Well, some clever game modders decided to make it even more "classic" and replaced the polygon textures with the original 2-D sprites of the first Super Mario Bros. game! They even re-colored Mario's overalls to match his 8-bit counterpart's!