Mario's Panic Restaurant

You know what? I'd love it if Nintendo made a game that somehow combined its Mario Bros. series with Taito's kitchen-centric platformer, Panic Restaurant.

I can't see the company brass green-lighting a full-fledged release based on that premise, but maybe they would find a downloadable one (sold through the eShop, for instance) a bit more palatable?

As for what prompted this epicurean epiphany: I just stumbled across the following t-shirt design, produced by Los Angeles-based artist herky (aka Flickr user Lucky1988):

If you find this design--called "Trouble in the Kitchen of the Ristorante"--to be as delicious as I do, cast a vote in favor of it at shirt.woot.com between now and next Thursday at noon.

See also: More of Lucky1988's designs

Let's Play: 'Which Box Art is Better?' (Final Fantasy XIII-2 edition)

Although my interest in mainline Final Fantasy games has diminished quite a bit since the dusk of the PlayStation (as in, PSone) era, that doesn't mean that I ignore them completely.

Actually, I was pretty interested in Final Fantasy XIII until it came out and everyone complained about it. (Granted, I had neither a PS3 nor an Xbox 360 at the time, so my interest in the game was bound to give way at some point.) I'm similarly interested in that game's strangely titled follow-up, Final Fantasy XIII-2, although I have to admit I have my doubts as to whether I'll ever acquire or play it.

While I hem and haw over that decision, why don't we play another game of "Which Box Art is Better?"--with the focus of said game being the aforementioned semi-sequel.

For starters, here is the art that will grace the cover of the Japanese version of Final Fantasy XIII-2 (which will hit store shelves on Dec. 15):

As far as I can tell, by the way, the European version of the game, which will be released on Feb. 3, 2012, will feature the same box art.

The cover of the North American version of Final Fantasy XIII-2 (due out on Jan. 31, 2012), on the other hand, will be a bit busier:

Personally, I prefer the black-purple-and-white simplicity of the European and Japanese cover art. That's not to suggest that I think the North American art is bad. Rather, for me it's more of a case of--how should I say this?--gilding the gaming lily.

Pre-order: Final Fantasy XIII-2 (PS3 version) or Final Fantasy XIII-2 (Xbox 360 version)

Reason #400 I could be considered an 'eccentric' (aka bat-sh*t crazy) gamer

If I could find an FM Towns Marty system at a reasonable price--most of the ones I've seen on eBay go for around $899--I'd buy one quicker than you can say "are you nuts?"

Even nuttier: I'm only interested in buying three games alongside said system at this point--Bubble Bobble, The New Zealand Story and Rainbow Islands.

That's not where the nuttiness ends, though. The trio of games I just mentioned are, with a few exceptions, simple ports of the arcade originals. Also, I can already play all three of them on my PS2 thanks to the copy of Taito Legends that I picked up a few years ago.

Still, I can't help but want both an FM Towns Marty and the above-mentioned titles. Here's hoping I never find one cheap enough to make this nutty dream come true.

See also: Other reasons I could be considered an 'eccentric' (aka bat-sh*t crazy) gamer

Get yer pipin' hot Sugar Shooter 2 demo here!

And when I say it's piping hot, I mean that literally--as in, it's freshly released--and figuratively--as in, well, it features some smokin' content, just like the first Sugar Shooter.

I've only played the Sugar Shooter 2 demo for a few minutes this far, but already I can tell it's going to be just as fun as--if not more fun than--its fabulously gay predecessor.

One thing that's certain at this point: Sugar Shooter 2 will have a lot more options--such as a bevy of difficulty settings and selectable "partners"--than Dudedle Studio's original effort.

To see what the Japanese version of this boss-rush, bullet-hell shmup for bara lovers looks like in action, check out this trailer:



If you'd rather experience it firsthand, download the one-stage demo of the game from the Dudedle Studio blog.

It appears Sugar Shooter 2 will be playable on both Macs and Windows-based PCs, by the way--something that couldn't be said about the series' initial installment.

Finally, for more information on the first Sugar Shooter, read these previous posts: 'A somewhat gay review of Sugar Shooter (PC)' and 'I think it's about time I played a bullet-hell shmup starring beefy boys in underwear'

Eh, I prefer the pea-soup-green version anyway

The good news: Nintendo of America added the should-have-been-a-classic GameBoy title, Balloon Kid, to the 3DS eShop earlier today.

The bad news: They added the pea-soup-green version of the game rather than the superior, colorized one that hit Japan's eShop a few weeks ago.

Granted, the colorized update of the game, called Balloon Fight GB, was a rather limited, Japan-only release--and we all know how Nintendo of America feels about those (I mean, just look at all of the import-only games that have been added to the Wii's Virtual Console service in the last few years)--but that's not much of an excuse when you realize the bulk of Balloon Fight GB is in English. (The title and map screens are the only ones that feature any Japanese.)

All that said, at least they're giving us access to some version of this pint-sized platformer, which was produced, in part, by Gunpei Yokoi and Yoshio Sakamoto. (Also, the peerless Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka composed the game's perky soundtrack.)

See also: 'I'll bet you can't guess which game I bought in the place of Xenoblade Chronicles' and 'Speaking of Balloon Kid ...'