Tag Archives: super mario 64

Gaming Secrets and Hoaxes: Can You Tell the Difference?

April 14, 2015 duckofindeed 8 Comments

This month’s community challenge is a most fitting one for the month that is home to April Fools, revolving around the many secrets found in video games, from the ridiculous to the outright fake. I have encountered a good number of these secrets and have managed to unlock many of them, to feelings of great glee all around, while on the other end of the spectrum, I have experienced frustration and befuddlement as I attempted to unlock a secret I later found was all false. I’m sure we’ve all had this happen to us, so I decided to create a little quiz to see how good you are at distinguishing between hoaxes and the real thing. Whether or not you’ve heard of the game or the secret involved, try and guess which ones sound legitimate and which are merely pranks designed to trick the gullible gamer (myself included). Continue reading Gaming Secrets and Hoaxes: Can You Tell the Difference? →

Challenges, Collaborations and Projects

Six Favorite Gaming Secrets…Or Maybe Five?

April 9, 2015 cary 10 Comments

All month long, United We Game is celebrating secrets, hoaxes, and trickery in games with a new writing challenge. Click here for the details and join in the fun!

I’m not much of an artist when it comes to discovering secrets in games. While it seems that some players are imbued with a magical honing beacon that guides them towards easter egg after easter egg, for me, the act of finding secrets has mostly been the equivalent of blindly stumbling around in the dark hoping that I don’t impale myself on something sharp. I don’t necessarily go searching for secrets in games, so happening upon a secret something-or-other is a pretty special feat. Over the years I’ve run into a fair share of extraordinary moments where I feel like Indiana Jones grabbing that golden idol. And the giant rolling boulder of Internet spoilers isn’t enough to make me feel any less superior at those times when I discover something I hadn’t before. Here’s a rundown of some six memorable secrets I’ve come across in the games I’ve played.

Continue reading Six Favorite Gaming Secrets…Or Maybe Five? →

Collaborations and Projects, Posts By Active Authors, Top #'s

UWG Top Ten: #3- Super Mario 64

April 30, 2014 gimmgp 7 Comments

I can distinctly remember the first time I played Super Mario 64.

It was the last time buying a video game console was a family event. My father had purchased a Nintendo 64 the day it released and brought home one of the two launch titles for the system. This was the third time over 11 years that we had all gathered around the television to watch our favorite plumber run and jump across the screen. After hooking up the console to the TV in our den, my father passed the torch of first play to his sons; handing the controller to my brother. I slid the power button on, and sat by my brother as the Nintendo 64 launched in our household.

Continue reading UWG Top Ten: #3- Super Mario 64 →

Top #'s

Community Post: The Duck’s Top 5 Mario Levels

March 1, 2014 duckofindeed Leave a comment

Screenshot by Flickr User: JEAN-Louco por Animes e Mangas

United We Game’s February community posts continue, with today being the day the Duck will present you all with my entry on the topic of levels in the “Mario” series. Gamer or not, pretty much everyone’s heard of Mario, and there’s a reason this squat plumber is so popular even after people have been playing his games for over three decades. Because the games have something in them for everyone. They have good, old platforming goodness through a wide variety of environments, an innocent charm that people of all ages can enjoy, challenge (and boy, can they be challenging), not to mention princesses to save and big Koopa Kings to toss. There are so many “Mario” levels out there, and yet they still manage to find ways to do something new with each one and make them stand out from the rest. So I decided for my post that I would list my top five “Mario” levels, and to make it fair, I am going to list my top level from each of my five main “Mario” games in order from least favorite to top favorite. The games I considered for this post span 1991-2010, “Super Mario World”, “Super Mario 64”, “Super Mario Sunshine”, and the two “Super Mario Galaxy” games. Continue reading Community Post: The Duck’s Top 5 Mario Levels →

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Community Post: Mario, You Lead and I Shall Follow

February 28, 2014 cary 3 Comments

No matter how many times Mario’s adventures are hashed and rehashed, games that prominently feature that famous plumber, his princess, and that evil dinosaur we call Bowser, remain fresh, fun, and playable dozens of times over. Mario games are level-driven games — you’ve got to make your way through stages or levels in a series of worlds in order to reach the final battle with Bowser. And only a few games, like Paper Mario and Super Mario RPG, have deviated from the platformer tradition started by Super Mario Bros. Despite that fact the games usually contain worlds of similar themes, each is unique in presentation and design. Even so, I will never cheer upon traversing a snowy/icy world because Mario is already slippery enough, no matter how many penguin suits he owns. I will never get excited for those pre-Bowser, fire worlds, as I will never have enough patience with lava and fireballs. So when it comes to my favorite Mario levels, there will be nary an ice storm or fire waterfall in site. But there will be something “big.” Curious? Read on!

Continue reading Community Post: Mario, You Lead and I Shall Follow →

Game Series, Retro

Community Post: Mario, The Innovator

February 27, 2014 Derek "Gamer Crash" Leave a comment

My childhood was dominated by Nintendo, it’s fearless red plumber and his crew. My first exposure to the world of video games came when I was very young with the Nintendo Entertainment System and of course, Super Mario Bros. It’s safe to say, I was hooked for life after pushing the jump button on the controller for the very first time. I’ve gone on countless adventures with Mario from his 8 bit days, all the way to modern times so there’s a lot of material to draw from when thinking about what aspects of a franchise you love. Have you ever stopped to think about why the Mario franchise continues to be a force after all these years?

As any person who is invested in games can tell you, the levels themselves are what make these platformer games great. I mean, think about it for a moment. Pretty much 100% of your time is spent running and jumping through them so if the levels are boring or poorly made, the game as a whole will suffer. That’s the key to understanding why Mario is consistently great. It’s the level design that shines through. Continue reading Community Post: Mario, The Innovator →

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Community Post: The World’s Most Talented Plumber

February 25, 2014 niallsramblings 3 Comments

He’s probably the most iconic video games character of all time, having now appeared in over 200 games, and sold over 240 million copies in his time, Mario is a plumber that hasn’t done too bad for himself! This week the United We Game bloggers are going to each be discussing the levels behind the legend, what makes them so good, standout levels and how an Italian plumber, ran, jumped and dropped in their favourite games.

My experiences with Mario started at a young age, i was bought a Nintendo 64 for Christmas and fell in love with Super Mario 64 and MarioKart, in my mind still 2 of the finest games he has appeared in to date, but to be honest, since those days i’ve not played many more, when i started playing Playstation and Xbox i never really looked back, but this doesn’t mean i’ve not played any of the more recent titles, i think Super Mario Galaxy was a great game and on the DS Super Mario World is always a great play. Continue reading Community Post: The World’s Most Talented Plumber →

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