The combination of half-time shows, videogame medleys and marching nerds is nothing new, but this could be the best example we've seen yet. The footage above was shot at the UC Berkeley versus Washington State game earlier this month, and sees a rigorously drilled band belting out a string of songs from a glut of Nintendo favorites, including Zelda, Mario, and Pokemon. We only hope some of the crowd can appreciate the brilliance that's unfolding before them.
It's the formations that really make it for us, though. That bit with the flag at the end is an absolute win in our book.
Any time mascot characters from different game companies converge, it's a big deal. As mascot-converging deals go, it doesn't get much bigger than Itadaki Street DS, which forcefully jams the worlds of Dragon Quest and Mario together onto a game board. There's also the fact that another long-time Square Enix franchise heading to the DS is likely to cause a sales supernova. We enjoy keeping tabs on this game in anticipation of that upcoming cosmic event.
While you wait for that June 21st release date, and ponder learning how to read "slime" in Japanese (スライム), why not take a look at some new screenshots?
Nobody's going to believe we're a real Nintendo gaming site unless we have our own obscenely enormous Mario statue, right? This is our credibility we're talking about. This is important. We want people to walk into our office complex and see that we mean serious business. Would you deal with DS no-Mario-statues Fanboy?
Importers extraordinaire NCSX are offering this five-foot tall Mario statue, usually available only to stores, to normal people like us for the low, low price of $3000 plus shipping. Five feet tall may not be big for a person, but for a video game character statue? Man, look at that Mario. It's huuuge.
The DS is well-known for its unusual design features, the two-screen format and the touch screen. Many of the DS's most popular games make good use of these features, and there are many outstanding games, like Meteos, that make strong enough use of them that they could fairly be said to depend on these features. There wouldn't be too much to Brain Age without the handwriting input, and it is hard to imagine Elite Beat Agents existing at all without either the unique interface or the simultaneous cutscene/gameplay presentation.
But for as much attention as the DS gets for its unique features, many of its best games use them in only the most cursory of ways. Some of the best-reviewed, most popular DS games have only optional touch-screen use, or some function that is nonessential to gameplay. Some games squander their second screen on inventories and maps. Many such games not only could have worked just as well on other systems, they are from long-standing series that worked just fine back in the dark ages when game systems only had a single screen and controls were mapped only to buttons.
The games on this list are the highest-ranked games according to Metacritic that fall under the category of "traditional" games. In fact, the top four DS games according to Metacritic are all traditional. Each game on this list is an excellent DS game that is excellent independent of the DS' inherent advantages.
We recognize that the fanbase for video games and anime overlap quite a bit, and so do a lot of companies out there. It's no surprise, then, that popular anime properties get adapted into game form quite a bit. We've seen it on the DS with Fullmetal Alchemist and Bleach, not to mention the ultimate in anime tie-ins: the JumpSuper Stars series.
If you like anime, does this kind of thing have any influence on you? Do you get excited hearing about a game version of your favorite show, despite the years of punishment licensed games have dealt us? Or do you get worried that a game will somehow tarnish the reputation of the source material? And if you don't like anime, have you run across any anime-based games that you love separate from the license? The GBA slot in our DS is often occupied by Sega and Treasure's brilliant Astro Boy: The Omega Factor despite our not being the most devoted Astro Boy fans.
We're not based in Kansas City, which isn't so much a bad thing, but it does keep us from receiving certain newspapers on a regular basis. One writer for the Kansas City Star had a few things to say about the DS Lite and a certain game for it known as Super Princess Peach. Stating that she "never thought I'd be one of those people who would choose a video game over a party," Jeneé Osterheldt has first-hand felt the fever we all so frequently fail from: Nintendo fever.
So whether you want to consider her personal experience a downward spiral of self-loathing and disgust akin to how one gets hooked on, and subsequently dies from, drugs or a clever look at the appeal of gaming in the modern world, it's all an interesting read.
Do you love those Mario brothers? Do your dreams encapsulate not the sheep languidly springing over an undefined, isolated wooden fence, instead opting to fill your mind with the pleasing sounds of a fat plumber and his skinny brother stomping Goombas to death and riding around in pipes? Are you a sick, obsessed fan with a ridiculous mural of Luigi on your wall?
If you've sat there anxiously reading that above paragraph, feverishly biting what little bit of nail you have left on each of your fingers, sweating that someone might find you on a site called DS Fanboy only to out you to your friends and family, then how about signing up for this contest? That way, when people look at you with disgust in the street, you can hold your head high and say "Yeah, well who bought you 2 DS Lites?!"
You'll likely then proceed to jump on the person's head.
With the year half-way over, Nintendo of America's Rufus has seen fit to put out his list of top 10 games so far this year. What's surprising is that Big Brain Academy comes in at the number one spot, a place which we're fairly sure should be given to New Super Mario Bros. instead. What isn't surprising, however, is that the list is dominated by DS titles.
Big Brain Academy (DS)
New Super Mario Bros. (DS)
True Swing Golf (DS)
Drill Dozer (GBA)
Super Princess Peach (DS)
Chibi Robo (GCN)
Super Monkey Ball Touch & Roll (DS)
Tetris DS (DS)
Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day (DS)
Odama (GCN)
What would your own personal list look like?
[Via Infendo]
[Note: This has nothing to do with sales numbers. This is a list purely based on personal opinion of one Nintendo of America employee.]
DS homebrew hero ali banana has come up with a customer application entitled Super Smash Bros. Tactics. With two confirmed playable characters in Samus and Link, along with another character being shown in Kirby, the application looks to be a huge step in the right direction. While this blogger has yet to actually download the files and get it going on the DS, maybe one of our fine readers would like to step up to the plate and comment on the gameplay?
During all the chaos that was E3, we totally neglected to check the New Super Mario Bros. site for updates. That's where trusty reader Jeremy swooped in, wet fish firmly gripped in hand, and waved the large tuna directly into our collective faces screaming "post it!" Not one to ever turn down a crazed madman fan, we happily report that the site has received a major overhaul, but if you're too busy actually playing the game to check it out, we'll understand and suffer our fate as best we can.
Some videos popped up yesterday over at IGN showcasing several different situations the portly plumber might get himself into in his travels of eating mushrooms and balancing on ropes over lava pits in New Super Mario Bros. The first video even shows Mario duking it out with the big bad Bowser himself in the truest fashion, that is, in a recreation of their very first encounter back during the original Super Mario Bros. This time around has an exception, however, as once he is thrust into the liquid magma, Bowser emerges to the surface, much in the way T1000 did at the end of Terminator 2, thrashing about in great pain, yet displaying a ghastly skeletal visage. Could this finally be the end of Bowser?
Also, how odd is it that his hair doesn't even get scorched?
If you're unfamiliar with Jump Super Stars!, it can be best summed up as a hodgepodge of anime characters brawling it out in one game. Goku is there, Naruto is there, and so is Yugi. Just about everyone who's bothered to import the title from Japan will hold it as one of, if not the, best games on the DS. Well, those without the desire to try and battle through screens upon screens of Japanese dialogue, there is hope! TranlastionRL seeks to take all that incomprehensible Japanese script and provide a translation into the Queen's English so that the full title can be enjoyed by those of us without the gift of Japanese gab.
Here we have some more screens for you all to drool over on the long overdue New Super Mario Bros. Of the new screens, the inclusion of a snapshot of one of Super Mario 64 DS' more fun minigames brings joy, but the included snapshot on the right has to be the most interesting. Taking heavy inspiration from one of the most popular time-wasters Snowcraft, this minigame looks like it should fit in fine and be one fun time. Other screenshots show one of Bowser's dispic children and what appears to be the world map, a map which features 8 game worlds on a route that leads you to the "Big B's" castle.
Any time mascot characters from different game companies converge, it's a big deal. As mascot-converging deals go, it doesn't get much bigger than 
Nobody's going to believe we're a real Nintendo gaming site unless we have our own obscenely enormous 
We recognize that the fanbase for video games and anime overlap quite a bit, and so do a 
Do you love those Mario brothers? Do your dreams encapsulate not the sheep languidly springing over an undefined, isolated wooden fence, instead opting to fill your mind with the pleasing sounds of a fat plumber and his skinny brother stomping Goombas to death and riding around in pipes? Are you a sick, obsessed fan with a ridiculous mural of Luigi on your wall?
With the year half-way over, Nintendo of America's Rufus has seen fit to put out his list of top 10 games so far this year. What's surprising is that Big Brain Academy comes in at the number one spot, a place which we're fairly sure should be given to New Super Mario Bros. instead. What isn't surprising, however, is that the list is dominated by DS titles.
DS homebrew hero ali banana has come up with a customer application entitled Super Smash Bros. Tactics. With two confirmed playable characters in Samus and Link, along with another character being shown in Kirby, the application looks to be a huge step in the right direction. While this blogger has yet to actually download the files and get it going on the DS, maybe one of our fine readers would like to step up to the plate and comment on the gameplay?
During all the chaos that was E3, we totally neglected to check the New Super Mario Bros. site for updates. That's where trusty reader Jeremy swooped in, wet fish firmly gripped in hand, and waved the large tuna directly into our collective faces screaming "post it!" Not one to ever turn down a 
Some videos popped up yesterday over at IGN showcasing several different situations the portly plumber might get himself into in his travels of eating mushrooms and balancing on ropes over lava pits in New Super Mario Bros. The first video even shows Mario duking it out with the big bad Bowser himself in the truest fashion, that is, in a recreation of their very first encounter back during the original Super Mario Bros. This time around has an exception, however, as once he is thrust into the liquid magma, Bowser emerges to the surface, much in the way T1000 did at the end of Terminator 2, thrashing about in great pain, yet displaying a ghastly skeletal visage. Could this finally be the end of Bowser?
If you're unfamiliar with Jump Super Stars!, it can be best summed up as a hodgepodge of anime characters brawling it out in one game. Goku is there, Naruto is there, and so is Yugi. Just about everyone who's bothered to import the title from Japan will hold it as one of, if not the, best games on the DS. Well, those without the desire to try and battle through screens upon screens of Japanese dialogue, there is hope! TranlastionRL seeks to take all that incomprehensible Japanese script and provide a translation into the Queen's English so that the full title can be enjoyed by those of us without the gift of Japanese gab.
Here we have some more screens for you all to drool over on the long overdue New Super Mario Bros. Of the new screens, the inclusion of a snapshot of one of Super Mario 64 DS' more fun minigames brings joy, but the included snapshot on the right has to be the most interesting. Taking heavy inspiration from one of the most popular time-wasters Snowcraft, this minigame looks like it should fit in fine and be one fun time. Other screenshots show one of Bowser's dispic children and what appears to be the world map, a map which features 8 game worlds on a route that leads you to the "Big B's" castle.
It seems our 
