The Pop-Culture E-Zine
Whoa, gotta set aside about 14 minutes and watch this brief tour of the Nintendo Museum with none other than Shigeru Miyamoto!
The Nintendo Museum is scheduled to open on October 2nd, 2024, in Kyoto, Japan! This is one item we definitely want to cross off the bucket list!
source: Nintendo Of America
Nintendo enthusiasts have reason to celebrate as the highly anticipated Nintendo Museum in Kyoto, Japan, is set to open its doors this spring (or autumn if you like in the northern hemisphere).
Originally slated for a 2021 opening, the museum’s completion has been confirmed in a recent financial earnings report. The final preparations are underway, with an official grand opening expected later this year. The museum promises to be a landmark destination for fans of the iconic video game company.
This will be another venue to add to the already growing “This to do and see in Japan” bucket list! For more details, visit the TimeOut article here.
There is no doubt that we are still in the honeymoon period with our gorgeous Taito EGRET II mini tabletop arcade, but there are a few seasoned classics that could easily knock it off its perch!
Of course the Sega Astro City mini is another beautiful little arcade in the mould of the EGRET, just a tad smaller in stature and without a number of bells and whistles that its bigger brother enjoys.
The arcade mini contenders face-off!
Going toe to toe!
Then there are the tabeltop heavyweights that have withstood the test of time, Grandstand’s seminal Astro Wars (1981) and Nintendo’s Game & Watch tabletops from 1983. We would’ve added the Vectrex too, but we thought otherwise 😉
Now don’t get us started about superior graphics and sounds on the Sega and Taito arcade minis, that is a given, however there is something quite charming about VFD (Vacuum Fluorescent Display) displays and simple pew pew pew sound effects – they never get old!
We have wasted too many batteries to count playing Astro Wars, Mario’s Cement Factory and Donkey Kong Jr., which we still keep coming back to till this day – that’s 4 decades, and counting! Let’s see if we will be saying the same about the new arcade minis from Sega and Taito in the 2060s.
Let the Tabletop Royal Rumble begin!
For now, the EGRET II mini with the trackball & paddle controller is consuming our gaming time!
After this week’s Nintendo Direct, we are obviously most excited about the Game & Watch: The Legend of Zelda announcement, with the green G&W beauty slated for release later this year (Friday, November 12 2021 to be exact)!
As part of its 35th anniversary celebration, this Game & Watch will let you play The Legend of Zelda, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening (Game Boy version), and a special Game & Watch edition of Vermin (featuring Link)! Just like the Game & Watch Super Mario, this will have a playable clock and timer too!
At a cost of AU$79.00 (via Amazon), who is pre-ordering one? Hit us up on Twitter or Facebook to let us know.
source: Nintendo
This is what we call fan dedication! Actually, French Nintendo collector, Fabrice Heilig is what we would call a dedicated SUPERFAN!
Not only does Fabrice have an extensive collection of all things Nintendo, he has gone the extra (massive) step to recreate Nintendo’s 19th century Kyoto office in his backyard. Fabrice has created what all collectors yearn for – extra space (to house his collection), which he has done in style and in keeping with his love of all things Nintendo.
We must say, the result is incredible! Fabrice has faithfully recreated the iconic Nintendo building, with a tasteful fit-out to match the traditional Japanese style. If he wanted to charge for visits, we’d be his first customer!
Read more about the process of recreating this amazing building (with a ton more pics!) at Before Mario. This is amazing stuff.
Let the planning begin!
Foundation done and now the framework!
Laying the traditional Japanese roof tiles!
The level of detail is unbelievable – bravo Fabrice!
Now, to re-home the massive Nintendo Collection!
The finished product – WOW!
image source: Before Mario
It took a while for our 35th anniversary Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros. to arrive, but we are so glad that it did!
Nintendo sure knows how to tug at our nostalgic strings, as we pre-ordered this as soon as it was revealed in early September. We recall how excited we were at the time and couldn’t wait for November 13th to come around! Well, November 13th come and went, with the dreaded postage notification advising us that good ole Aussie Post would deliver our Game & Watch (G&W) some time between Nov 16 – Nov 19, which was like a pixel dagger thrown right into our 8-bit heart. As it turned out (and luckily for us), Aussie Post took the median value and delivered this precious cargo today (November 17). At the time of writing, we still had a number of our friends that hadn’t received their units.
Enough with the negativity regarding pre-orders not arriving on the day of release (although, this should be fixed!), this Game & Watch has exceeded our expectations by a country mile. The see-through sleeve on the gold packaging was an indicator that this thing was going to be special. Upon opening and holding the G&W, it was like being in the playground at primary school, being wowed by this little contraption made by Nintendo and showing it off to our friends. The look, the feel – including the D-pad and buttons, has been nailed by Nintendo. We didn’t need any LR-44 cell batteries to power this unit, so that was a plus. The only niggle we had, this new G&W did not come with the little tuck-in stand that the old school ones have. But like we said, it’s a very very small niggle. Of course we compared it to a number of our original Game & Watch units, including its namesake, and we can say, this new one fits right in!
The only wish we have at this stage is for people interested in this 35th anniversary G&W game (that missed out on the pre-order) get an opportunity to get one, at a non-scalped price! Oh yeah, we also wish for a Donkey Kong Multi-Screen G&W next, with the original Donkey Kong and perhaps Donkey Kong Country – surely that’s not too much to ask for!
This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to own the Guinness World Records’ largest playable Game & Watch device!
Back in 2018 we told you all about Dr. Tom Tilley’s massive Game & Watch Octopus creation which absolutely blew our minds! Well guess what, now is your chance to own this unique creation and be the talk (and envy) of the town.
If you are interested in this MEGA Game & Watch, head on over to Tom’s for sale page to get more details about the sale and to register your interest.
source: WithProfessorTom
We must admit that the latest Nintendo Direct got us excited with all of the games, products and events that are coming up to celebrate Super Mario’s 35th anniversary!
In particular, we were most excited about Super Mario 3D All-Stars, the Augmented Reality (AR) induced Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit and the awesomely cool Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros. These will all be launching in the very near future (make sure you pre-order, as they will go quick)!
We have included the rest of the announcement further below, so let us know on Twitter or Facebook of what you are most excited about!
Wahoo!
source: Nintendo
To keep up-to-date with the latest Super Mario news, check out the official Super Mario Bros. 35th anniversary website.
Related videos:
| Super Mario Bros. 35th Anniversary Direct | https://youtu.be/pmEhxzbPjCI |
| Super Mario 3D All-Stars is coming September 18th! | https://youtu.be/tXcHqmPI_3k |
| Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit – Coming October 16th! | https://youtu.be/5W_MNv65UMc |
| Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury comes to Nintendo Switch on February 12th, 2021! | https://youtu.be/1LoC9hK_zLo |
| Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros. – coming November 13th! | https://youtu.be/DrCI0Z-_o5E |
| Super Mario Bros. 35 – Announcement trailer (Nintendo Switch) | https://youtu.be/AMpi0rTvCuQ |
Nintendo Ball holds a dear place in our heart as it was their very first (Silver) Game & Watch product, released on this day [April 28] in 1980! This was the game that kicked off the iconic electronic handheld series.
Being the company’s first Game & Watch title, Ball is celebrated among the gaming community and within Nintendo itself, as evident from their many re-releases and remakes.
In case you never played Ball, the user controls a character who must juggle a few balls at once, ensuring that none of them are dropped. The control to keep juggling the ball is pretty straight forward – by pressing the left and right face button. It is this simplicity that made Nintendo’s Game & Watch series so memorable with its fans.
Do you have still have your Game & Watch(es)? Which one(s) is/are your fave?
source: Wikimedia Commons
Wa-hoo, it’s that time of year when we celebrate the greatest video game character of all time, that little Nintendo plumber who likes to munch of mushrooms, Mario! Or should that be Mar10? 😉
To celebrate (Super) MAR10 Day, we encourage you all to play one of his many many games, from the classic platformers, adventure, karting, to tennis, party games and even his old school Game & Watch based games!
Today is the day we honour one of the most iconic video game characters of all time. We are going to celebrate by playing something very old and also one of our favourite Mario games of all time. Oh yeah, we may even throw on a pair of overalls to get right into this great day!
Which Mario game will you play in celebration of MAR10 Day? Hit us up on Twitter or Facebook to share the Mario love.
