Ring, ring, ring... it's Mario calling...

I don't know why this surprised me, but I just read (on many other gaming sites) that at one time the mighty Nintendo thought about entering the phone business with a game-enabled cell.

According to engadget imobile, the patent was first filed in 2001 but only issued just last June. The patent supposedly describes an "electronic apparatus having game and telephone functions" and details how the device would pause a game for an incoming call and resume after the call was completed.

In the end it's not all that revolutionary (cell phones have included game-playing capabilities for some time), but the idea of playing Metroid 2 or Super Mario Bros. DX while waiting for a call still sounds pretty cool!

Possible Super Paper Mario box art

One of the slew of gaming sites I visit every day, GameCrazy.com, has just revealed what is likely to be the final box art for the Wii's Super Paper Mario. Sorry it's so small--this is the only version I've been able to find.

Looks good to me. Very much like the Paper Mario game for GameCube, which was a very good game indeed.

My Virtual Console wish list

More and more old-school games are being added to Nintendo's Virtual Console every week. And although the company that brought us Mario has provided us with plenty to be happy about so far, there's still quite a few games that I'd like to see show up on the VC eventually. Here's just a smattering of them (not in any particular order):

NES: Bionic Commando, Blaster Master, Crystalis, Duck Hunt, Excitebike, Kid Icarus, Little Nemo, Metroid, Punch Out!!, R.C. Pro-Am, , Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Bros. 3, Tetris, Zelda II: The Adventures of Link

TG-16: Air Zonk, Bonk's Revenge, Parasol Stars, Splatterhouse, World Court Tennis

Genesis: Dynamite Headdy, Landstalker, Shining Force, Shining Force 2, Shining in the Darkness

SNES: Earthbound, Final Fantasy IV, Final Fantasy VI, Secret of Mana, StarFox, Stunt Race FX, Super Mario Kart, Super Mario RPG, Super Metroid, Super Tennis, Tetris Attack, Yoshi's Island

N64: F-Zero X, Mario Golf, Mario Tennis, Paper Mario, StarFox 64, Super Smash Bros., Yoshi's Story, Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Zelda: Majora's Mask

I'm sure I've forgotten quite a few, but I'm sure you get the point.

Oh, I only included games that were released in the U.S. There are about a million games that never made it here that I'd love to see released on the VC, but Ninty hardly seems open to that idea so I figured there wasn't a point to including them here.

No Kid Icarus today, but Mario will do...

I was hoping today was going to be the day Nintendo would finally release Kid Icarus on the Virtual Console. Of course I was wrong. They didn't release Chew Man Fu either, darnit. But, Super Mario World is nothing to sneeze at, and it was one game I definitely was looking forward to, so as soon as the clock strikes 11 a.m. here (that's when VC games are available in the Midwest), I'm going to download for myself a copy of SMW!

I know a lot of people are griping about Nintendo's VC releases so far, but I think they're doing a pretty good job (with the exception of a few lean weeks). There's usually one great game released every week, and that's what I'm looking for.

Oh, the two other releases today are Vigilante (a beat'em up originally released on the TG-16) and Gain Ground (a strategy-esque game released for the Genesis). I've never heard anything good about Vigilante (hell, it was a launch release here in the U.S.--and that means something) and Gain Ground just doesn't look interesting to me. So I'll stick with SMW this week.

A really gay game coming soon to the Wii VC

If you're a gay gamer looking for some gay gaming goodness, you should be happy to hear Hudson's Chew Man Fu (originally released for the TurboGrafx-16 back in 1990) is expected to be released on the Wii Virtual Console sometime in February.

Although I completely passed up this cute puzzler (which features a pair of big-eyed, big-headed gals who push colored balls through maze-like arenas while avoiding monstrous porcupines and such) when it was first released, I've recently been taken in by its charms.

It's the perfect game for me these days--the kind you can pick up, play a few rounds and then turn it off again.

Apparently another of Hudson's great TG-16 games, New Adventure Island, also has been given the green light for a February release. Sounds good to me, though I'd prefer Bonk's Revenge or Air Zonk instead. Maybe soon, Hudson?