BorneAgain

From Gamespot SAN JOSE, Calif.--Last E3, Nintendo gave us a lovely little nostalgic gift in New Super Mario Bros., the first core 2D Mario action game to hit a Nintendo platform in who knows how many years (at least, one that isn't a remake of an existing game). The graphics are polygonal and the gameplay is pure side-scrolling, but since any video game fan of age cut his or her teeth on the old Mario games back in the day, the game is sure to warm a lot of Nintendo DS owners' hearts when it hits stores in mid-May, just days after E3. We were among the lucky few to check the game out early at the Game Developers Conference currently underway in San Jose, California. New Super Mario Bros. will feature three gameplay modes: a single-player game akin to the original NES version of the game; a two-player game that pits brother against brother in competitive action; and a variety of minigames, which fall into different categories such as action, cards, and puzzles. Nintendo has done a good job of including with its handheld Mario releases these last few years lots of different things to do besides the main game, and it looks like that trend continues here. You don't exactly need a storyline to have a new Mario game, but Nintendo has gone ahead with one anyway in New Super Mario Bros. The game opens with a little cinematic intro in which Mario and Peach are walking along and spy the Mushroom Kingdom's castle being struck by lightning. Dutiful plumber that he is, Mario trots over to check things out, and while he's gone, Bowser shows up and steals Peach away--yet again. Time for a new Mario game! The first two levels on display from the single-player game in New SMB were awfully familiar, since they look like they were taken right out of the NES classic. The first level looks a lot like the eminently familiar first stage, and the second is set in a similar dank, underground level as well (you're probably humming the music right now). You'll find the gameplay here quite familiar, as it's in the same run-and-jump vein created by this very series 20 years ago. You stomp on enemies, break blocks, and so on. You know the drill. Then again, Mario has a lot more moves now than he used to. For one thing, you've got a new BUTT stomp, which lets you smash blocks downward, in addition to breaking them from below. There are a bunch of new power-ups to collect, such as blue coins, a super-duper mushroom that makes Mario about as big as one of the DS's screens, and a tiny mushroom that actually shrinks him, making him bounce off of goombas instead of squishing them. There's even a blue shell power-up that works like the tanooki suit from Super Mario Bros. 3. You wear this shell on your back, and when you duck, you'll pull it over your body so that when enemies run into you, they'll go back the way they came. The final icing on the cake is that you can save up some of these items and use them later, much like in Super Mario World. This time, though, you'll see your stored items on the bottom screen, and you can use them with a simple tap of the stylus. Speaking of games like Mario 3 and Mario World, New Super Mario Bros. will feature a map-style over-world hub, much like the ones featured in those old classics. Previously, we'd only seen a sequence of side-scrolling levels, but the latest demo sends you back to the map after every level, and much like in Mario 3, there will be opportunities for you to access bonus stages and gain special items between the platforming levels when you find hidden elements on the map screen. The game will be packed with plenty more gameplay besides the old-style 2D platforming. In the two-player mode, you'll pit Mario against Luigi in a heated side-scrolling sibling rivalry. The two of you will compete through an endless stage to collect the most coins, and you can attack the other brother to make him drop all his coins so that you can pick them up. But come on, he's your brother! That's not very nice. Then there are the minigames--of which we only got to see one--which had us rolling a snowball up a hill with the stylus. You'll have to move the snowball left and right to avoid traps as you go, and the fact that the thing gets bigger the farther you roll it doesn't exactly make it any easier. By the way, if you've been waiting as impatiently as we have for the new DS Lite to hit stores in America, you'll be tickled to know that all of Nintendo's DS software at GDC is running on the new little handheld. Wouldn't it just be a marvelous coincidence if the redesigned machine came out in time for the New Super Mario Bros.' May release? Hmm? Wouldn't it, Nintendo? Screenshots I've loved pretty much every Mario platformer ever, so I'm really looking forward to this. Gamespot's got some decent videos up at Gamespot as well.

^ I'm hoping somewhere out there someone has made Family Guy equivalent.

At the rate heels are disappearing on Smackdown, Finlay be put in the main event by default alone. Short of an early Benoit return or Kane jumping from Raw, they really have no choice but to have Booker/Batista as the summer program.

The more I think about it, the more I suspect either Batista in the WHT match or they send Big Show over to do a one night appearance. They already have set up Taker on ECW so its not out of the question.

More Boo/Yay.

It can't be too worse than shilling those commemorative coins on an infomercial a few years ago.

Apparently no one actually part of ECW can main event the program.

I miss Fonzie.

Halloween Costume Contest, OVW Style Is it wrong that Melina in green body paint is a real turn on for me? Must be the Orion slave girl fantasy thing I got going on in my head.

Some detailed spoilers with Dark Match and ECW notes. DARK MATCH: Casey James/Aaron "The Idol" Stevens d. Christian Gibson and Scott Commodity Gibson and Commodity were announced as being from "Eden Prairie" while Idol and James were announced as being from "Green Bay" so we knew who to cheer and who to boo. All and all an ok match, Stevens is obviously a seasoned pro, and Gibson and Commodity worked well as a team. Really nothing spectacular though. After that, the ring crew brought in Booker's throne and William Regal told us to "All Hail King Booker" as Booker made his way to ringside. That's REALLY annoying live. SMACKDOWN -Regal reads a Royal Proclaimation that he is going to beat Rey Mysterio tonight so that King Booker can have what's left for him at the Great American Bash. Booker narrates over some clips of "after Smackdown" last week, when he beat Rey up in the locker room. He claims that Divine Intervention will finally strike Rey's title reign down (I guess God has turned heel?). After Booker gets done talking, Rey runs out and sends Regal, Booker and Sharmell scattering. -Matt Hardy d. Ken Kennedy Kennedy puts a little extra zing in his "Hailing from GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN" this week, and the crowd never really stopped dogging him. However, before he can get to his "Mister Kennedy-Kennedy" part, Hardy attacks. It's back and forth for a few minutes until Hardy scores a quick roll-up for the win. Right after my section got done discussion how Matt Hardy never wins. -Last year's Diva Search Losers Krystal and Michelle talk some smack about this year's contest and about Ashley, who arrives shortly with Jillian Hall. A catfight ensues that is quickly broken up by referees and officials. -Great Khali and Daivari come out, and Daivari thinks it's rather strange that while Undertaker's voice has appeared on Smackdown, Taker himself hasn't shown up. So he dares Taker to come and face Khali. Well, of course, the lights go out and Taker is in the ring (huge pop for that, by the way). Pyro goes off (I'm assuming that's the lightning bolt pre-production?), but Khali doesn't back down. Eventually Daivari drags him away while Taker poses. -Jaimie Noble (w/ Kid Kash) d. Paul London (w/ Brian Kedrick) A little slower than I expected from these two, but the match told a pretty good story with London firing up at appropriate times only to be met by Kash and Noble's cheating. Eventually Noble hits an Inverse Back Cracker (rib cracker?) on London for the win. Ok match, but a dead crowd. -The Miz is backstage and says that the Divas are getting ready for the Boot Camp. -In the most seemless transition of the night, Sylvan comes on the Titan Tron and tells us that while the Diva Search girls are beautiful, nothing matches the beauty of Quebec. T-eddy Long comes out and dances. Then he says that Batista/Henry is for the #1 Contendership at Summerslam, but if either guy touches the other, the one who did the touching forfiets his title shot. Batista comes out and cuts a promo about how he's been waiting seven months to crush Mark Henry, and then he gets all choked up because the fans are chanting for him. Mark Henry comes out and tries to cut a promo about how Batista crossed the line by making him bleed, but we out "What"ed him (yes, I participated, yes, I'm embarrassed), and he ended up getting frustrated. So they signed the contract, and Batista beat the shit out of the table. -Fit Finlay d. Bobby Lashley for the WWE United States Championship Lashley wasn't as over as I thought he would be. Anyway, the match was pretty good except for Finlay constantly stalling with restholds, but both guys hit real hard, so that kind of made up for it. The finish came when the Leprachaun (the most over participant in the match) popped up and threw Finlay a sheleli while the ref was distracted with a chair. Finlay tried to pass the sheleli back to the midget, but it bounced off his hands and back into the ring, but they just went on with the finish anyway. Afterwards, Finlay indicated that it was now an Irish Championship while Lashley looked crestfallen. -The Diva Search Boot Camp featuring Sgt. Slaughter and The Miz (who posed for a faux cheer when he got the numbers for the contestants right the first time, but then screwed it up the second time). Same as last year's boot camp with no "wardrobe malfunctions." Really excruciating stuff, though. Layla (the black British chick) won with a time of 37 seconds in case you care. I don't know if it will make TV or not, but the fat, bethonged stripper (Big Dick Johnson) demonstrated the course before the girls. -Rey Misterio d. William Regal Relatively cleanly too. Booker was at ringside providing commentary and distracting Rey. After a few minutes, Michael Cole got in Booker's face about something, and Booker left the announce table and started to get into the ring, but Rey got to him first, and then pinned Regal for the win. After the match, Booker was regrouping with Sharmell at ringside, when Rey swung around the ringpost and kicked him in the face. ECW TAPINGS You already saw it or know what happened. Just two notes: -Flair and Show really won the crowd over after a slow as fuck start (which included both Flair and Show leaving the match), by just being bloody and brutal. Good stuff at the end there though. -CM Punk was very over with about 33% of the crowd. DARK MATCH 2 Rey Misterio d. King Booker and Fit Finlay A lot of people didn't stick around for this as they didn't send Teddy Long out to announce it until the ring crew had already started taking down the ECW set pieces. The story of the match was Booker and Finlay working together until Booker went for a cover, and Finlay pulled him off. That set about a confrontation between the two of them which ended with Finlay getting busted open. Then Rey got back into the match, hit the 619 on both guys, and the Frogsplash on Booker for the win.

Holy crap. Even if this is for only three weeks, Finlay's champ!

I will say this is the best booked Big Show has been in some time.

I wouldn't really fit ECW, but I'd mark out for a 3 count reunion. I'm surprised no one else has tried the boy band gimmick considering how much easy heat it gets. Hell even if it wouldn't be timely, Vince has never been known to use trends at their height anyway.

Link from the Television Without Pity forums. Semmed unique enough to warrant a sig placement, if just for a month or so.

I see Shannon Moore follows the Jeff Hardy school of public appearance.

Would this be the worst then?

I'm curious as to whether or not they'll progress from last week and have Punk wrestle.

3 minutes. Now I want Rosey and Bischoff to show up for no reason.

...In bed. Edit: Well that came across more gay than it did in my head.

Putting aside winning the U.S. title for Booker, tts funny how little Orton did on Smackdown. He's in the exact same spot he was a little over a year ago.

Oh, like Grisham doesn't add to the doucheness already? When you watch Smackdown regularly, Miz's MTV persona and... "Hoo Rah" beat even Grisham.

Well the douchebag has spread to Raw.

Gotta love how the Smackdown main event was completely ignored in the SNME promo.

I have to say accidental female abuse is an orginal premise for a fued albeit a terrible one.

God we need a WGTT reunion. I don't care if there isn't a tag division, I just want them back togther.