Happy Birthday, Shigeru Miyamoto!

Happy 62nd Birthday, Shigeru Miyamoto!

One of the most influential members of the gaming industry, Shigeru Miyamoto is responsible for some of the best-selling, critically acclaimed games of all time. Joining Nintendo in 1977, Miyamoto helped to create the companies' most popular franchises, such as Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Star Fox, Pikmin and Donkey Kong. He can be credited for lending his creative vision to the companies' popular systems, such as the Wii, SNES, N64 and more.

A true gaming legend, Shigeru Miyamoto now works for Nintendo as a 'Creative Fellow', a title given to him after Nintendo President Satoru Iwata's death. 

So, happy birthday Shigeru. Your games were credited as the reason I got into Nintendo as a kid, and I really thank you for that. 

Game Boy 25th Anniversary: My Favourite Games

Happy 25th anniversary 

to the Nintendo Game Boy! 

25 years ago today, Nintendo's successful handheld console the 'Game Boy' was released in Europe. The first in the Game Boy line, it was created by Gunpei Yokoi and the staff behind the Game & Watch series. Although redesigned versions were released in 1996 (Game Boy Pocket) and 1998 (Game Boy Light), there is something so memorable about the original. 

Originally bundled with puzzle game Tetris upon release (smart move, Nintendo), the Game Boy went on to become one of the highest selling handheld consoles of all time, selling an impressive 118.69 million units worldwide along with its successor, the Game Boy Colour. 

For me, the Game Boy holds a lot of special memories. It was the first time I had been introduced to gaming after my parents picked one up on release. It can also be credited to getting me into the Legend of Zelda series after first watching my dad play through Link's Awakening (I completed it later on by myself when I was a little older).

Join me as I share a few of my favourite games that were released on the Game Boy. 

Gaming Memories

I guess I'm feeling a little nostalgic lately, so I decided to compile a few old gaming memories running through my head from when I was growing up. How many of these do you relate to?

Watching Dad Game

Watching my dad play through a game was a family event. Me, my brother and mum would routinely sit in the living room and watch him try a level or two, offering suggestions on what to try next.

A few of the games my Dad played back when I was a kid ended up being games or series that resonated with me, and I enjoyed myself at a later date.

To name just a few:
Tomb Raider-Lara became one of my favourite characters since watching my Dad play through each game in the series. I absolutely love the reboot too!

Resident Evil-Such a great zombie horror series. It was funny watching dad jump in Resident Evil 2 in the Nemesis sections!

Links Awakening-My introduction to the Zelda series! This remains my favourite Zelda game, to this day. I credit my Dad for that one. 

Super Mario World-I admit it, I've always been a bit rubbish at Mario, even though I enjoy playing them. My dad was much better!

Taking it in Turns to Complete A Game With My Brother

Me and my brother often played through games together when we were growing up. We would take it in turns to complete each level, handing the controller over when one of us died, and vice-versa. A few games that stand out for this are as follows...

Donkey Kong Country & Donkey Kong 2-I remember us especially liking the underwater levels and the minecart races!

Super Mario World-As I said previously, I'm not amazing at Mario. But we persevered anyway!

Crash Bandicoot-I especially remember us finding the Warthog ride level hilarious. I still remember the music!

Smash Bros. Melee-We got pretty much every trophy/statue in the game. Absolutely fantastic game.

There were plenty more than this, but these are the ones that I remember the most.

Trying Out Cheat Codes

Remember those cheat books that came with Playstation Magazine, Nintendo Magazine and Games Master? I relished those! I remember trying out the Aladdin cheat codes to gain instant access to my favourite levels. As a Disney kid and a huge Aladdin fan, I loved going back through the familiar landscapes.

Talking of freebies in games magazines, this leads me to my next point...

Working Through the Demos on Demo Discs

Every time a games magazine gave away a demo disc, me and my brother would work through every available demo, good or bad. I remember this is where we first discovered Parappa the Rapper, Ridge Racer and old fighting games, like Rival Schools. 

Some demo discs were also a bit of a novelty. For instance, one time, a fighting demo disc came in a fake blood bag/drip. These demo discs were also the first time I discovered indie games, as often, especially on the Playstation demo discs, small indie titles were included. 

Sinking Hours into The Sims

I've loved The Sims since my Mum surprised me coming out of school one day with a copy of SimCity 3000 and The Sims 1. I have a lot of fond memories of spending hours designing houses and families, and of course, resorting to the typical Sims torture.

Creating 'Masterpieces' on Mario Paint

Mario Paint was one of the first games we got on the SNes. I remember finding the fly swatting game a little freaky when I was much younger (I think it was the fly swatter screaming in pain, and the creepy boss bug's face), but I also have good memories of trying to beat it.

However, what I remember most fondly is the music maker and art creator. I created so many musical pieces that probably sounded brilliant as a kid, but is probably complete nonsense now! 

I know we have Mario Maker coming, but if Mario Paint ever made it to the WiiU, I'd definitely be taking that up again.

So there you have it! Here's just a few of my old gaming memories (I have plenty more!). What are your best memories of gaming as a kid? Leave some comments, or Tweet me! 

Watch The Wreck-It Ralph Trailer!

Many of you have probably already seen this by now, but if you've got a spare few minutes, then definitely check out the trailer for Disney's Wreck-It Ralph. 


Wreck-It Ralph tells the story Ralph, a Donkey Kong style game character that gets fed up of playing through the same game for the past 30 years. Soon enough he is jumping through a number of games, and meeting plenty of familiar game faces along the way. 


Check out the trailer below. You'll notice several familiar characters, including Bowser from Super Mario, Zangief from Street Fighter, and Clyde from Pac-Man amongst others. There's also some witty nods towards characters, such as a Samus style space chick voiced by Glee's Jane Lynch. 


Wreck-It Ralph will be released on the 15th February 2013. 

Art Feature: Xiaobaosg

Check out this excellent piece of Donkey Kong fan art created by William Chua (known as Xiaobaosg). William has given this classic retro game a traditional Chinese look, which works perfectly.


More of this style can be found in his Prints Gallery over on his Facebook page. 

Review: The King of Kong

Having previously seen Chasing Ghosts, a documentary about a group of gamers who have broken video game records, I finally got to check out The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters today. I thank my month's trial of Netflix on my Xbox 360 for that one. Anyway, on to the review.

Seth Gordon's documentary The King of Kong follows Steve Wiebe, a family man who becomes addicted to the idea of breaking the world record for the arcade classic, Donkey Kong. Billy Mitchell has held the world record for over 20 years, and the film covers Steve's attempts to make it to number one. The idea of watching others play video games may seem boring for some, but The King of Kong manages to convey the competitive side of it, rather interestingly too. 


Not only does The King of Kong follow the exploits of Billy Mitchell and Steve Wiebe, arguably the two best Donkey Kong players in America, but it also focuses on the Twin Galaxies organisation and those associated with it. For those unaware, the film quickly establishes that Twin Galaxies is the organisation that serves as the official referee and scorekeeper in the gaming world.


The film touches on how this seemingly innocent passion for gaming can quickly turn into an unhealthy obsession, which the two main competitors, Billy Mitchell and Steve Wiebe, both suffer from (Mitchell on a much larger scale than Wiebe).

The film begins with the introduction of Steve Wiebe. Judging from brief facts about his past, Wiebe is a rather talented man who cannot handle his failure to succeed within his own personal ambitions. Finding himself unemployed suddenly, Wiebe is left with a great deal of free time, which he spent earning his Donkey Kong record from his garage. 


Mitchell, being the egotistical man that he is painted to be, of course isn't happy that he's been replaced as the Donkey Kong poster boy after more than two decades, so a bit of controversy ensues over Wiebe's home-set record, and Wiebe is then challenged to embark on a 3,000 mile journey to re-claim his title on a public machine. 


Whether the claims that Mitchell's part in this documentary has been heavily edited or not is not that important. What we do gather from watching The King of Kong, if you are inclined to believe this depiction (which, gathered from Chasing Ghosts, I am) is that Mitchell is not only a egotistical, overly competitive and snide man, but he's also a bit of a coward. It is rather frustrating seeing Mitchell refuse a live Donkey Kong showdown against Wiebe every time, until eventually, we end the film on the realisation that such a showdown will never materialise. Mitchell shows his cowardice by contradicting his claim that records can only be genuinely accepted "live" in a public setting by failing to show up to Funspot, and submitting a dodgy copy of his score set at home. After slating Wiebe for setting a record at home, then going ahead and doing this himself, it just seems a little hard to actually like this man.

Perhaps just as odious as Mitchell is his right hand man, and phone-spy, the weedy Brian Kuh, who rather blatantly shows his dislike of Steve Wiebe and his record breaking ambition in a pathetic, "sore loser" fashion. 


Not only does the film show the frustrating but fascinating look at the competitive American wannabe gaming record breakers, but it also fraught with some moments of high-strung tension. The prime example of this would be the moment when Wiebe and Mitchell finally meet, after Mitchell finally makes an appearance at Funspot (and no, he doesn't play whilst he's there either). It's an awkward moment where Mitchell refuses to acknowledge that Wiebe is even there, but tries to distract him from his session. The scene is brief, ending with Mitchell sneaking away without uttering even a simple "hello" to his rival.


The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters is an insightful and engrossing look into the competitive world of gaming. Seth Gordon has successfully portrayed Wiebe as a down-on-his luck family man who you cannot help but root for right until the ending. On the opposite end, Gordon has presented us with Mitchell, who, you guessed it, we can't help but dislike. It's a great battle between good and bad, which will hold the attention of even those who do not dabble in video gaming. In short, it's an underdog story, and a damn good one at that. 

OverClocked Remix Panel

Four of the UK team of OverClocked Remix were on hand to present a panel and performance at this Saturday's London Gaming Con. 


OverClocked Remix is an online community dedicated to the recognition of video game music as an art form. The panel started with a performance of the Pokemon Battle Theme, which had been transformed into a more rockier, metal type song. 


After the song had finished, the team introduced themselves as four of the admins who remix and moderate OCR. They stressed that  anyone can submit to OCR, which goes through to an approval process by the judges. If you make it through, your remix is available on the site. There are plenty of workshops available to view on the site to help out potential remixers. The team also stressed that the forum on the OCR website is the "most supportive community in the world."

The site also hosts interviews with remixers and composers, such as Danny B (composer of the music in Super Meat Boy), and David Wise (Donkey Kong Country). OCR is a completely free organisation that has released a number of albums, such as Sonic the Hedgehog-the Sound of Speed, Mega Man 9: Back in Blue, and Pokemon Missingno.


A great thing is that many of OCR's remixes and composers have made it into actual gaming titles, such as in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2, God of War: The Ghost of Sparta and Mass Effect 2.

After discussing their website for a while, the team then initiated a short contest, which involved listening to a few clips of some of their remixes, and answering questions about each one. The first one to put their hand up in the air and shout out the answer wins one of their CDs. So, guess who won one? Me and Lewis Terry, who thankfully has a much louder voice than me and managed to get their attention. We had to answer a question on who created a particular Zelda remix. Many answered with "System of a Down", but we knew it was Rabbit Joint. Woo! 


This is what we won-Donkey Kong Country 2 (Diddy Kong Quest): Serious Monkey Business:

The panel was ended with a Sonic remix and the battle theme for Final Fantasy 7, both of which sounded brilliant on the guitar. You can check out the Sonic one below. Apologies for the shaky hands and the poor sound quality-recording on a Blackberry has never been my forte.

I urge you to check out the remixes on the website, which you can find here. 

Retro Review: Donkey Kong Country

Donkey Kong had only previously been known as the damsel-kidnapping ape in the 1981 video game of the same name. However, 1994 marked the release of Donkey Kong Country, a game which allowed this hulking ape to take on the protagonist role.


Released by Rare on the Super Nintendo, Donkey Kong Country allowed gamers to play through 40 side-scrolling platforming levels. Like many retro games, the premise was a simple one-navigate Donkey Kong through each level so that he can finally take back his stolen banana hoard from the Kremlings.

Side-scrollers can sometimes fall victim to repetitive game play, where players can find themselves repeatedly fighting the same styles of enemies, and nothing more. Thankfully, Donkey Kong Country avoids this issue by including a variety of objectives, such as mine-cart riding (my personal highlight), swinging from vines, launching Donkey Kong from barrels, swimming, riding on a host of crazy looking animals, and much more. These activities are only further enhanced by the welcome addition of multi-player functions, so you and a friend can work together to make it through each level. Players get to choose between playing Donkey Kong or his nephew, Diddy Kong. Both have different abilities, so it is up to you which you prefer, but personally, I have always felt that Donkey Kong was the stronger of the two, so defeating enemies was a lesser challenge than with the more weaker, but agile, Diddy.


What makes Donkey Kong Country so memorable, even in today's standards is the graphics adopted within the game. Back in 1994, Rare adopted some rather revolutionary pre-rendered 3D graphics, which resulted in an impressive and memorable look which had not been seen on the SNes previously. Coupled with a catchy and crisp soundtrack, it is evident that a lot of time and effort went into making this game. 

As for the negative points, in all honesty, there are not many. My only concerns is that the game can get rather challenging, especially if played on the single player mode. However, rope in a player who you know deals well with a tough challenge for the multi-player mode, and you should be able to sail through the game with less struggling points.


So, after all these years, is it still worth trying out Donkey Kong Country? My answer to that would be a solid yes. The game is full of exciting and well-designed levels that are enhanced when played with another player in one of the multi-player modes. The graphics for it's time definitely helped to make Donkey Kong Country stand out above the rest, and for this, I feel that it is worthy to be checked out. Donkey Kong Country Returns has since been released on the Nintendo Wii, but I suggest giving the original a go first before  launching yourself into this re-vamped version.



Donkey Kong had only previously been known as the damsel-kidnapping ape in the 1981 video game of the same name. However, 1994 marked the release of Donkey Kong Country, a game which allowed this hulking ape to take on the protagonist role.


Released by Rare on the Super Nintendo, Donkey Kong Country allowed gamers to play through 40 side-scrolling platforming levels. Like many retro games, the premise was a simple one-navigate Donkey Kong through each level so that he can finally take back his stolen banana hoard from the Kremlings.

Side-scrollers can sometimes fall victim to repetitive game play, where players can find themselves repeatedly fighting the same styles of enemies, and nothing more. Thankfully, Donkey Kong Country avoids this issue by including a variety of objectives, such as mine-cart riding (my personal highlight), swinging from vines, launching Donkey Kong from barrels, swimming, riding on a host of crazy looking animals, and much more. These activities are only further enhanced by the welcome addition of multi-player functions, so you and a friend can work together to make it through each level. Players get to choose between playing Donkey Kong or his nephew, Diddy Kong. Both have different abilities, so it is up to you which you prefer, but personally, I have always felt that Donkey Kong was the stronger of the two, so defeating enemies was a lesser challenge than with the more weaker, but agile, Diddy.


What makes Donkey Kong Country so memorable, even in today's standards is the graphics adopted within the game. Back in 1994, Rare adopted some rather revolutionary pre-rendered 3D graphics, which resulted in an impressive and memorable look which had not been seen on the SNes previously. Coupled with a catchy and crisp soundtrack, it is evident that a lot of time and effort went into making this game. 

As for the negative points, in all honesty, there are not many. My only concerns is that the game can get rather challenging, especially if played on the single player mode. However, rope in a player who you know deals well with a tough challenge for the multi-player mode, and you should be able to sail through the game with less struggling points.


So, after all these years, is it still worth trying out Donkey Kong Country? My answer to that would be a solid yes. The game is full of exciting and well-designed levels that are enhanced when played with another player in one of the multi-player modes. The graphics for it's time definitely helped to make Donkey Kong Country stand out above the rest, and for this, I feel that it is worthy to be checked out. Donkey Kong Country Returns has since been released on the Nintendo Wii, but I suggest giving the original a go first before  launching yourself into this re-vamped version.

Chasing Ghosts: Beyond The Arcade

For video gamers in the early 1980s, the place to hang out and play the latest video game was not necessarily on a console in their own homes, but rather, at their local arcade. Soon enough a frenzy of people competed to gain the highest score on a machine. Chasing Ghosts: Beyond The Arcade focuses on a group of arcade goers who became record breakers on their favourite arcade machines.

This documentary is largely a platform for a lot of reminiscing. Viewers are taken back to the birth of the video game culture, back at the end of the 1970s. Arcades became not only a source of recreation, but a serious competition to most. The man at the centre of it all is Walter Day, owner of his own arcade, Twin Galaxies, who intends to beat the records to some of the most popular games of this period. Walter soon gained some sort of celebrity status, and paved the way for many more record breakers.

As well as introducing each record breaker in great detail, and including plenty of interesting (and nostalgic) footage of the guys in action on their chosen arcade machine, Chasing Ghosts: Beyond The Arcade also comments on the decline of the arcade culture as home console gaming became more prominent. With this decline came a decrease in the majority of these competitors celebrity, and this documentary allows viewers to find out exactly what these men are up to now their time in the limelight has lessened. 

The film focuses largely on the golden days of their record breaking days, including tales of attracting groupies, featuring on televised gaming tournaments, signing autographs for fellow arcade fans, and much more. I found this to be the most interesting part of the film. The most ridiculous person award goes to a record breaker by the name of "Mr. Awesome." The film presents him as an egotistical, laughable and somewhat pathetic individual-but it works to add in some humour in between the serious musings. 

Mr. Awesome promoting his "porno".

An unfortunate part of the documentary is that a large proportion of it focuses on Donkey Kong champion (and still practising record breaker) Billy Mitchell. While his excerpts are interesting,and do show him in a hugely egotistical light rather than glorifying him, it would have been nice if it was a little more balanced between each of the men featured.

Sadly Chasing Ghosts: Beyond The Arcade does drag a little in the middle, but the  beginning and end sections are compelling. The film allows a glimpse into retro gaming, the glory days of arcade stores and the element of celebrity associated with these record breakers at this time. For the most part, viewing is interesting, enjoyable and sometimes amusing, and I would recommend it.