(no subject)

The Super Mario franchise has gone feminine -- a game called Super Princess Peach allows you to rescue Mario and Luigi.

This may be the first platformer I know of where you can use crying to advance through the level. Watch the videos for proof at X-Play and Gamespot.

I think I'd rather play through Super Mario 2 while selecting the Princess for each level. In fact, I may do just that; I don't think I've done it before. She had that cool hover ability.

(no subject)

Remember that campaign to use that Supreme Court ruling on eminent domain to confiscate the land of a Supreme Court Justice? That failed recently. That's too bad, because if it had succeeded, it would be a memorable story for the history books.

Some stories endure for a long time simply because they're funny, or have other memetic properties. In school, every American learns the story of Archimedes running naked through the streets yelling "Eureka", and the story of the apple hitting Newton on the head, and the story of Franklin's kite experiment. There's also touching stories like the dog that was returned during the American Revolution, and the Christmas truce during World War I. Not all of these are earth-shaking events or discoveries, but they're all unique personal stories that are attached to earth-shaking events and discoveries.

I wonder if there are any such stories that are older than Archimedes, or that come from farther east than Greece. I also wonder what kind of historic event within my lifetime will be remembered a thousand years from now as a personal story.

(no subject)

From metafilter:

Takeshi no Chousenjou may be the hardest videogame ever written. With a title screen warning that it was "created by somebody who hates videogames" (actually writer/actor/director/comedian Takeshi "Beat" Kitano) "Takeshi's Challenge" forces gamers to endure such tasks as singing karaoke for an uninterrupted hour and holding a single button for four straight hours. Players who endure to the end are rewarded by having to hit the final boss 20,000 times.

Kibo responds, "Bitchin'! I love video games but I wanna play this one because I hate it."

Takeshi no Chousenjou on Wikipedia.