Monday, April 28, 2008

Mario and Sonic animated GIFs/sprites, MP3 music, desktop wallpapers and more

Just in case you haven't seen it all yet, my MarioSonicGames.com site includes a huge collection of free Super Mario Brothers and Sonic the Hedgehog (and other related Nintendo and Sega) goodies for your enjoyment, in addition to all the free Flash and Java online games and Flash movies.

There are loads of Mario and Sonic images, animated GIFs/sprites, MP3 and MIDI music samples and WAV sound effect samples, all of which come from the all-time classic 16-bit era of both game franchises. There are also dozens of desktop wallpapers/background pictures, plus lots of other Nintendo and Sega surprises for you to find. Here is a list of links to all the relevant pages...

Mario, Sonic, Nintendo and Sega images, animated GIFs/sprites, music and sound effects (plus Flash and Java games and Flash movies):

Super Mario Bros.

Sonic the Hedgehog

Mario and Sonic Bonuses,  More Mario and Sonic Bonuses

Extra Mario and Sonic Bonuses,  Even More Mario Bonuses

More Games-Related Images and Music,  Even More Games-Related Images


Mario, Sonic, Nintendo and Sega desktop wallpapers/background pictures:

Super Mario Bros.

Sonic the Hedgehog

Super Smash Bros.

Donkey Kong

Pokemon

Megaman

Super Monkey Ball

Puyo Pop Fever

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Free Mario and Sonic game downloads

Here are three excellent free game downloads for you to play on your computer - one Super Mario game and two Sonic the Hedgehog games. They are written in Flash, so you can even upload them to your own website to entertain your visitors if you wish. :-)

To use these downloads and play these games, first click on one of the game download links below. Then select "Save" for the .zip compressed file that will be downloaded, and select a folder on your computer to save the .zip file into - I give you my personal guarantee that all three of these downloads are virus free! Once the .zip file has finished downloading, unzip it into a folder of your choosing, and then simply double-click on the .htm file that was unzipped. This starts a simple webpage that runs locally on your computer - you don't need an active web connection to run it, it isn't part of a website. The game runs within the webpage, and you can play it there (because the game is Flash, it needs to open and run inside a webpage to work properly).

To use the games in your own website, simply upload the .swf Flash game files and the .htm webpages (or your own customised versions of them) to your web server or web space. Link to the game pages from somewhere in your website, and the games can then be played online from within your site.

Here are the three download links - the game titles give you a good idea of what the games actually are:

Super Mario Bros.: Paper Mario World -> .zip format, 9.57 MB

Sonic the Hedgehog: Amy's Whack-A-Nik -> .zip format, 0.45 MB

Sonic the Hedgehog: Sonic Sky Chase -> .zip format, 1.28 MB

Remember, you don't need to be connected to the internet to play any of these games once you have downloaded them. Enjoy! :-)

All three games, plus over 140 more, are available to play online at my MarioSonicGames.com site.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

U.K. games industry sales figures for Q1, 2008

According to data released yesterday by the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) and compiled by Chart-Track, the UK games industry earned a record total of £418.4 million (US $828.9 million) in software sales in the first quarter of 2008.

Nintendo was the biggest winner, with 37% of all unit sales thanks to the success of its Wii and DS consoles, which took the top two spots. The PC was the third most popular hardware platform for game sales, followed by Microsoft's Xbox 360. The report also showed that "Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games" was the best-selling game in the first quarter.

ELSPA's director general, Paul Jackson, used the release of the figures as an opportunity to urge the government to increase its support of the UK games industry. He said, "The UK continues to blaze a trail in terms of creativity yet over the last few years it is becoming apparent that some talent is being lured away by more attractive prospects overseas. As it stands, the UK is already down to fourth place from third as the world's creative centre for games. It is time the Government recognised the massive financial contribution we make to the UK economy, especially when compared to the film, TV and music industries."

A very sensible point, in my opinion. I hope the UK government listens and acts accordingly.

Friday, April 18, 2008

Super Smash Bros. Brawl U.S. sales figures for March '08

It's selling better than expected... this is from an article at GamesIndustry.biz yesterday:

(Quote)
Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. Brawl was the top-selling game in the US for the month of March, with 2.7 million units sold according to NPD data.

Brawl sold more than three times as many copies as the second game on the sales charts, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2.

Overall, US $1.7 billion worth of hardware and software were sold in the month of March - a 51 per cent increase from last year.

"You'd never know that the U.S. economy was under distress by looking at the videogames industry sales figures," NPD's analyst Anita Frazier said in a statement.

Three Nintendo Wii games finished in the top 10 - including Super Smash Bros. Brawl at number one, Wii Play in the fourth position and Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock at number seven.

Two PSP games - God of War and Crisis Core: Final Fantasy - also made the list.

The ten best-selling US titles for the month of March were:

1. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii) 2,700,000
2. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (360) 752,300
3. Army of Two (360) 606,100
4. Wii Play (Wii) 409,800
5. God of War: Chains of Olympus (PSP) 340,500
6. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (PSP) 301,600
7. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Wii) 264,100
8. MLB 2K8 (360) 237,100
9. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (360) 237,000
10. Army of Two (PS3) 224,900
(End Quote)

Friday, April 11, 2008

Mario Kart Wii is released in Europe today

Another absolutely fabulous game from Nintendo...

Mario Kart Wii

...which was released in Japan yesterday, is being released in Europe today and is due for release in Australasia on April 24th and North America on April 27th.

Each copy of "Mario Kart Wii" comes with the Wii Wheel accessory, a steering wheel device designed to house the Wii Remote to give a more realistic control interface for racing the karts. Cool!

You can visit the official site for the game here.