It's the Off-Topic Internet Sightseeing Tour!

[Boo Destroyer]

Play it now before it goes away forever.

[Nester the Lark]

Nintendo of America tweeted about reaching 11 million Twitter followers... and Xbox congratulated them.

[nocturnal YL]

March 31 is coming soon…

[Da Robot]

MEANWHILE IN FIRE EMBLEM HEROES . . .



Certainly different from past years April Fools FEH updates.

[Nester the Lark]

Super Mario Bros 2 X Super Mario Bros 2.

[Nester the Lark]

According to Nintendo Life, Walker Boone, who voiced Mario in the Super Mario Bros 3 and Super Mario World cartoons of the early '90s, passed away earlier this year.

I used to watch the SMB3 cartoon as a kid (as well as the Super Mario Bros Super Show, where Mario was portrayed by Lou Albano in both the live action and animated segments). I didn't watch the Super Mario World cartoon much, but looking back on it now, it really wasn't worth watching anyway.

It's sad to lose these actors that portrayed Mario in the early days.

[Nester the Lark]

According to Nintendo Life, Lance Barr, who designed the North American NES and SNES (and "small" SNES redesign) consoles, as well as the Wii Nunchuck controller, is retiring from Nintendo after working there since 1982.

This is my personal opinion, but I've never understood why people disliked the NA SNES design. It's one of those things where it never even remotely occurred to me until I had internet access and saw so many people online comment on it.

[Spud]

For the life of me, I didn't realize the NA SNES was a different design until now. (^v^')

I kinda like the big purple pull switches, pretty unique.

[Da Robot]

While the LEGO Super Mario series has been releasing new sets (and Luigi) at a steady pace, they have just announced Luigi's Mansion themed sets. And yes, that is a brick built, E.Gadd and Polterpup.

[Nester the Lark]

Here's an interesting interview with Yoichi Erikawa, the founder of Koei. I didn't know they originally started out making business software.



Random musings: So, Dynasty Warriors is basically the action-game version of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and Samurai Warriors is the action-game version of Nobunaga's Ambition. In the mid '90s, Koei also made a simulation based on the American Revolutionary War called Liberty or Death. It didn't turn into a series, but if there were a Warriors game based on it, what would it be called? Revolution Warriors? Colonial Warriors? Liberty Warriors?

Come to think of it, it wouldn't be a hack-and-slash game because the war was fought with firearms. So maybe it would be a shooter more like WinBack (also by Omega Force)? But then it wouldn't be a Warriors game...

I'm putting too much thought into this.

[Nester the Lark]

Here are some pictures inside the building that used to be Nintendo's old headquarters. As mentioned before, it's currently being converted into a hotel.

[Nester the Lark]

The hotel that was converted from Nintendo's old HQ isn't quite open yet, but here's a really good tour of the inside. It has a lot of cool little nods to the building's legacy.

[Nester the Lark]

And now, according to Nintendo Life, the Yamauchi family has announced that they want to renovate the areas around the hotel. It'll be a gradual, long-term project starting in 2025, and could go on until 2050, with cooperation from local residents.

[Nester the Lark]

This is interesting. Here's a scan from a rare flyer given out at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show in 1987, and it shows mockup box art for The Legend of Zelda and Punch-out!! (before the Mike Tyson license) done in the original black box style.

There's been fan art of what black box artwork for non-black box game would look like, but these are actually real, and haven't been seen by most people for decades.

Game historian Frank Cifaldi comments on the rarity of it in this Twitter thread:

[Nester the Lark]

Just wanted to share this feature at GoNintendo about guitarist Marty Friedman.

Friedman was loosely the basis for the character Barry Goodman in Tokyo Mirage Sessions. He was the guitarist for the band Megadeth before going solo and moving to Japan. (Barry was in the fictional band Teradeth before doing the same thing.)

This article does not mention that, however. Instead, it talks about some guitar work he did for the soundtrack of the original Bravely Default. The author also talks about her experience meeting Friedman in person:

I was actually lucky enough to meet the guitar god himself back in late 2018. At that time, Marty Friedman announced a tour across the United States. As soon as I saw that he was coming to my hometown, I ran down the stairs, barged into my parents’ bedroom, and told my mother the news. The very next day, I purchased tickets and VIP passes for both myself and my parents. Finally, after four long months of waiting, my family hopped into the car and sped off to the concert. Once we arrived at the venue, we were taken to a waiting room with a group of VIPs who were all waiting to climb aboard Marty’s tour bus for a meet-and-greet. When my turn finally came, I could barely contain myself. I entered the tour bus and greeted Marty, who instantly came across as humble, down-to-earth, and a complete gentleman. I gave him a binder I had made for him, along with a box of Cap’n’ Crunch, his favorite cereal. Marty was quite excited to receive the gifts, going so far as to say he’d be having Cap’n’ Crunch for breakfast the next day! Finally, Marty seemed impressed that I knew of his work on Bravely Default, saying that when he returned to Japan, he would tell Bravely Default composer Revo that he met a fan in Pittsburgh.

Just thought this was a cute story.