Recent additions to my blogroll

I added three more sites to my blogroll today (see "other great sites for gay gamers" along the right side of the screen) and thought I should mention them here so they aren't completely overlooked.

The Border House--This blog, headed up by social-game producer Tami Baribeau, "celebrates diversity in gaming from a wide variety of cultural angles." For instance, it aims to be a friendly, welcoming space for LGBT folk, people of color, people with disabilities, women and "any other marginalized group"--as well as their allies.

Radiator Design Band--This blog features the musings of Robert Yang, an MFA student studying design and technology at Parsons, The New School for Design. If Yang's name sounds familiar, it's probably because he made headlines last year for his Half-Life 2 mod series, “Radiator,” which deals with (so-called) gay marriage and divorce.

Vorpal Bunny Ranch--Denis Farr, the guy behind this particular blog, also writes for GayGamer.net and, surprise, the above-mentioned Border House. Interestingly, his and Baribeau's blogs have similar raisons d'être, with Vorpal Bunny Ranch focusing on video games as well as "gender, sexuality, race, and all those other parts of intertextuality."

Be sure to check them out when you have a few minutes (or hours, if you're like me). Also, feel free to let me know of your favorite gaming (gay or not) blogs or sites.

You know you want it: i-dong

Why waste your money buying Sony's Wii-esque Move controller or Microsoft's Kinect peripheral when you can have the best of both worlds (or not) for the low price of just $222?

That's all Chinese gamers will have to spend on the recently announced--and demoed, at the China Hi-Tech Fair that's currently taking place in Shenzhen, China--"i-dong" system. (Unfortunately, it doesn't yet have a release date.)

No, your eyes aren't deceiving you--the powers that be at Taishan Online Technology Co Ltd. actually gave their "motion controller system" a name that's more, er, phallic than "Wii." (An added bonus: The system's controller, right, looks like a sex toy if you squint a bit.)

As for how the whole thing works, well, it sounds like the Move-ish controller detects and reflects the infrared light that's sent out by the Kinect-esque sensor unit (which has to be connected to a PC or a set-top box), all of which allows users to play games or otherwise interact with their TVs.

(Via techon.nikkeibp.co.jp, by way of 1up.com)

Super Mario Extravaganza!

According to the most recent "Iwata Asks" interviews (part one can be read here, while part two can be read here), that's what the developers responsible for Super Mario All-Stars--Super Mario Collection in Japan--first called their 16-bit Mario anthology.

It's really too bad they didn't stick with Super Mario Extravaganza! (Note: I took it upon myself to add an exclamation point to the end of the title.)

I mean, they could have promoted it with commercials showing Mario and his cohorts doing jazz hands while the athletic theme from Super Mario Bros. 3 played in the background. Can you imagine anything cooler than that? I sure can't.

(Via tinycartridge.com)

'Pac-Man Week' continues with ...

... the funniest Pac-Man-related video I've ever seen.



This video was produced by famous French prankster Rémi Gaillard, by the way.

(Thanks to NeoGAFfer cjrocksforever for making me aware of this year-and-a-half-old video.)

Super Mario Bros. 2 is my favorite of the 8-bit Marios. There, I said it...

Most old-school gamers, if asked, name Super Mario Bros. 3 as their favorite of the mustachioed plumber's 8-bit outings. Not me.

Don't get me wrong, I think Super Mario Bros. 3 is a swell game--more than swell, actually--but if I was forced at gunpoint--hey, it could happen--to choose between it and the game that we in the Western world know as Super Mario Bros. 2 (in Japan they call it Super Mario Bros. USA, in case you haven't heard), I would, with just a smidge of hesitation, go with the latter.

Why? Well, I love its graphical style, for starters. Everything just looks, I don't know, softer in this game than it does in its predecessor and successor.

Other things I love about this rather awesome (in my opinion, of course) Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic re-imagining:

* For the first and only time in a mainline Mario game, you can choose to play as Peach and Toad as well as Mario and Luigi. (I almost always go with Peach, by the way. What a shocker, right?)

* Any and all of the aforementioned characters can pluck stuff--turnips and other veggies, mainly--from the ground and throw it at the game's many enemies.

* It introduced a number of inventive and imaginative characters--including Birdo, Bob-omb, Shy Guy and Snifit--into the Mario canon.

There are many additional reasons to love this, er, dreamy platformer, of course, but those mentioned above are the ones that keep me coming back to it time and time again (often at the expense of its predecessor and successor).