Happy New Year!

It's just after midnight here in Thailand, so all the very best for 2010 (or 2553 as it is in the Thai Buddhist calendar)!

My wife has a proper web presence now

Further to my post in my personal blog earlier this year listing all my different places on the web, I am pleased to say that my wife Su is now on Facebook, plus she has a Blog and a YouTube channel of her own too. Top girl!

Merry Christmas!

It's one minute past midnight here in Thailand, so it's officially Christmas Day here now! On that basis, even though it's probably not quite actually Christmas Day yet wherever you are reading this, MERRY CHRISTMAS to you!!

I hope you've enjoyed my blogging this year - check out the rest of this blog here and my other blog here to make sure you haven't missed anything, because there are loads and loads of lovely free online games and wallpaper backgrounds listed throughout both blogs.

The Top 10 Video Games of 2009

The Daily Telegraph newspaper recently published its idea of what the top 10 video games of 2009 were, and you can read a summary of their list here:

1. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

2. Street Fighter IV

3. Batman: Arkham Asylum

4. Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

5. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

6. Wii Sports Resort

7. Assassin's Creed II

8. Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story

9. Left 4 Dead 2

10. DJ Hero


TIME Magazine also recently published their version of the list (which you can check out in full detail via my other blog here), and it is quite different because it includes only 5 out of the 10 games in the Telegraph's list, and places the Telegraph's number 1 game at number 10:

1. Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

2. Batman: Arkham Asylum

3. DJ Hero

4. Borderlands

5. New Super Mario Bros. Wii

6. Geo-Defense Swarm

7. Scribblenauts

8. Halo 3: ODST

9. Assassin's Creed 2

10. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves


To my way of thinking when comparing these two lists, "Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" must really be the best game of 2009 because it is number 1 in TIME's list and number 4 in the Telegraph's list, with the runner-up being "Batman: Arkham Asylum" because it is number 2 in TIME's list and number 3 in the Telegraph's list. What do you think? :-)

New Super Mario Bros. Wii is out now

Further to my post last month (see here), today sees the release of the New Super Mario Bros. Wii game in North America, following on from its launch in Australasia three days ago. It will be launched in Europe in five days time, and in Japan on December 3rd.

Problems with www.Dan-Dare.org

My sincere apologies to everyone who likes to visit my www.Dan-Dare.org site for the fact that it has been rather unreliable over the past 3 days or so.

The outages were a result of my hosting company (Fasthosts.co.uk) suffering a major server failure in the second half of last week, which has only just now been fully resolved. Not good! Sorry.

Everything should be fine now, at last - hoorah! Thanks for your patience, you can fully enjoy the site once more.....

It's almost time for New Super Mario Bros. Wii

The latest game in the main Mario series, the 2-D side-scrolling "New Super Mario Bros. Wii", is due to be released in Australasia on November 12th, North America on November 15th, Europe on November 20th and Japan on December 3rd.

For the first time ever in a Mario game, it includes simultaneous multiplayer capability for up to 4 players. It is a further development of the "New Super Mario Bros." game on the Nintendo DS. See this excellent article in Wikipedia for more information.

If you would like to play a free online version of a classic Super Mario Bros. game, then check out the brilliant New Super Mario Bros. Flash Online Game, which includes a level editor that you can use to design, build and save your own levels!

There are hundreds more fantastic free Super Mario Bros. online games for you to enjoy in the MarioSonicGames.com website.

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games 2010 is out now

The second title in the Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games series - this one designed to tie-in with the Winter Olympics being held in Vancouver, Canada early next year - is released on the Nintendo Wii and DS in Europe today, following on from its recent releases in North America and Australasia. (It is due for release in Japan early next month.)

So far "Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games 2010" has received excellent reviews, based on the fact that it features 21 playable characters (10 each from the Mario and Sonic franchises plus a Mii) and 27 winter sports events to compete in. Some events in the Wii version can be played with the Wii Balance Board, and the snowboarding events have been highlighted as being especially good fun when played that way.

You can watch an official trailer for the game, showing a short clip of the snowboarding, here.

And you can play a free Sonic Snowboarding online game here.

There are hundreds of fantastic free Mario and Sonic online games for you to enjoy in the MarioSonicGames.com website.

Classic Mario games - Super Mario World

Further to my post yesterday about classic Sonic games, the set of secondhand PS2 games I bought recently also included a disc with a Super Nintendo (SNES) emulator and 500 SNES games on it. I was quite surprised to see such a thing, and I was rather doubtful it would work properly. But when I tried it on my PS2 all but a very few of the games worked perfectly. And to my joy, all the classic Super Mario Bros. games worked fine, including Super Mario All-Stars, both Super Mario Worlds and Super Mario Kart. In particular, the first Super Mario World is still a wonderful game to play - even after all these years it stands up well against the more modern 3D versions of Mario.

You can play a superb free online version of a classic Mario game here: New Super Mario Flash

If you ever see one of these emulator discs for sale anywhere, I thoroughly recommend buying it - also included on the disc I got were all the SNES classics such as Zelda, Kirby, Donkey Kong, Mega Man, Metroid, Street Fighter, Mortal Combat, Starfox, F-Zero and so on. Wicked!

You can play free online versions of many of the above games here: Super Mario Online Games and here: Nintendo Online Games

Classic Sonic games - Sonic Heroes

I bought some secondhand games for my Sony PS2 a few weeks back, including a number of Sonic the Hedgehog discs, and I haven't been able to stop playing the classic Sonic Heroes game from 2004 since - it's still utterly brilliant!!

If you haven't got it even after all this time, you must go and get yourself a copy. It's the way a Sonic game should be - fast and furious fun. Why oh why can't Sega go back to that classic style instead of all these sad "pseudo" Sonic games they've been churning out over the past few years? Oh dear!

You can play a proper classic Sonic the Hedgehog game online for free here: Ultimate Flash Sonic Online Game

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story for the Nintendo DS is released tomorrow

The third title in the Mario & Luigi RPG game series, "Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story", is due to be released on the Nintendo DS and DSi in North America tomorrow (and in Europe on October 9th and Australasia on October 22nd).

The game's new features compared to the previous title in the series include lots more mini-games, plus the ability to play as Bowser and use his own unique battle system, which allows players to hold the DS sideways and use the touchscreen and microphone to perform special moves (such as blowing on the microphone to make Bowser breathe fire). Additionally, Bros. Points (BP) have been brought back from the first game in the series, only this time they are called Special Points (SP) because of Bowser's playability.

You can play a free online Mario RPG game here if you wish: Super Paper Mario Online Game

There are hundreds of fantastic free Mario and Luigi online games for you to enjoy in the MarioSonicGames.com website.

Super Mario shooting games

If, like me, you like Super Mario games and shooting games, here's a treat for you because there are a number of such games available online for free. First up, here are 3 awesome Super Mario first-person shooter (FPS) games:

  Mario World Overrun - Luigi Gunman

  Super Mario: Rambo Bros.

  Super Mario: Rambo Bros. - Reload It


Next up, here's a great little Super Mario shoot-'em-up game:

  Super Mario Fly


Next, here's a world-famous rampage game:

  Super Mario Rampage


And finally, here's a fun Super Mario meets "The Godfather" spoof game:

  Super Mario: Super Mafia Bros.

Sorry I haven't posted much here lately.....

.....life got a little "challenging" recently, but things are improving rapidly now and the normal fun service will be resumed soon!

The web's best free online games and wallpapers

Check out this latest post in the England, Thailand and Other Things blog because it promises to give you the best free online games and wallpapers on the web:

(Quote)
Disney and Pixar online games

Shrek, Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda, Ice Age and other CG movie online games

Naruto and Ben 10 online games

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa online games

Disney's Bolt online games

Pokemon online games

SpongeBob SquarePants online games

Mario, Sonic, Nintendo and Sega online games

Monsters vs. Aliens online games

Star Trek online games

Power Rangers online games

Pixar's UP online games

Transformers 2 online games

Tom & Jerry, Flintstones, Scooby-Doo, Wacky Races, Hong Kong Phooey and Looney Tunes online games
(End quote)

Flash online games that run directly within this blog

Don't know if you've ever seen them, but there are three Mario and Sonic online games that actually run directly within this blog, so you can enjoy them here without having to go to another site and mess about with clicking through loads of links, trying to avoid pop-ups, and so on.

You can either go to the home page of this blog, if you aren't already there, and jump to the bottom of the page (hint: press the "End" key to do that in one quick and easy step) - you'll find the three games in posts from January and February 2008.

Or you can go directly to the relevant blog posts here:

A nice little Mario "time-waster" game

Mario & Sonic Online Game Recommendations - Part 6
(This post is about the classic 1980's Nintendo "Game & Watch" LCD handheld games, and includes links to a number of Flash recreations of those lovely little games, as well as the "in-blog" one)

A Flash online Super Sonic jigsaw puzzle...

You can find these games plus 150 more free Mario and Sonic online games in MarioSonicGames.com, a site with no annoying pop-ups, no click-thru links, no tricks, no gimmicks - just loads of lovely free online games for you to enjoy!

PS. There's also an "in-blog" game over in the England, Thailand and Other Things blog if you're interested in that too..... A great little Scooby-Doo web-browser game

Mario Pac-Man, Sonic Pac-Man, Pac-Man Pac-Man!

Pac-Man (much more commonly, though incorrectly according to Wikipedia, written as Pacman) was one of the first colour video games and made its debut in video arcades way back in 1980. It was the first ever video game to become truly popular in global mainstream culture, to the extent that the Pac-Man character became an instantly recognizable icon during the 1980s. It is a true gaming classic, and is still very popular today - indeed, its simple, fun and addictive gameplay puts many a modern 3D "mega-game" to shame.

There are some great Flash online versions of the Pac-Man game in the MarioSonicGames.com site for you to try if you would like to experience the legend for yourself - two versions with a Super Mario Bros. theme and one with a Sonic the Hedgehog theme. There is also a very good reproduction of the classic original too!

  Classic Original Pacman

  Super Mario Bros. Pacman

  Baby Luigi Pacman

  Sonic Knuckles Pacman

Fun trivia: Did you know that Pac-Man was actually originally called "Puck Man" and that the name was changed in case any mischievous people vandalized the video game cabinets replacing the "P" with an "F"? I kid you not - you can read it here for yourself: Pac-Man Wikipedia article

New Super Mario Bros. and new Pokemon online games

Nintendo's announcement earlier this month of the coming-at-the-end-of-this-year "New Super Mario Bros. Wii" game was very interesting - see here for more details. I have mixed feelings about it, given that it appears to be along the lines of a port-and-upgrade of the DS New Super Mario Bros. game. It doesn't sound like there will actually be all that much difference between the two versions, and perhaps not enough to justify the Wii version's purchase price for those who already have the DS game. But perhaps I'm wrong, Nintendo aren't generally known for "pulling fast ones" after all.

Anyway, while I'm on the subject, check out this lovely "New Super Mario Bros." Flash online game, complete with a level editor which you can use to design, build and save your own levels - it's brilliant!

Also, I recently added some "New Pokemon" (!) Flash online games into MarioSonicGames.com. Here's the updated Pokemon game collection:

  Pokemon: Breakdown Blast

  Pokemon: Towering Legends

  Pokemon Match

  Pokemon: Trading Card Match-Up

  Pokemon: Chikorita's Adventure

  Pokemon Trainer Dress Up

  Pokemon Shooting Gallery

  Pokemon Shoot 2

  Pokemon: The Revolution

Enoy!! :-)

Master password cheat for the Ultimate Flash Sonic online game

The best Sonic the Hedgehog online game ever - Ulitmate Flash Sonic - is very much like the classic original 16-bit Sonic games from the 1990's in terms of graphics, sound and most importantly gameplay. It is utterly brilliant, and includes multiple levels, multiple playable characters, a password save system and unlockable bonuses and cheats. If you haven't ever played it, try it out for free now at any of these locations:

Sonic the Hedgehog: Ultimate Flash Sonic (US Chicago server)

Sonic the Hedgehog: Ultimate Flash Sonic (US Houston server)

Sonic the Hedgehog: Ultimate Flash Sonic (UK server)


There is an elusive master password for the game that unlocks all levels, all characters and all cheats, and I am pleased to be able to give it to you here:

595313131313131

Try it out for yourself using the links above, you'll be ever so glad you did! :-)

Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comic reaches 200 issues

This month sees the publication of the 200th issue of Archie's excellent "Sonic the Hedgehog" comic. To put that into a more meaningful perspective, that means it's been running continuously now for 16 years and 3 months, which is a very long time indeed for a single character-derived comic. Well done to everyone at Archie Comics!

Here is a wonderfully detailed article all about this happy milestone which I thoroughly recommend you to read: Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog Celebrates 200 Issues

Megaman and Pokemon animated GIFs / sprites

My post the other day showcasing some Mario and Sonic animated GIFs / sprites proved to be very popular, so here are a few more of my favourite video game animated GIFs to go along with them, this time featuring Megaman X and Pokemon characters:





You are welcome to use any or all of these animated GIFs in your own website if you wish, but please copy them and upload them to your personal webspace - don't "hotlink" to the ones here. And please also include a link back to this blog by way of a credit to me. Thanks. :-)

You can find them all, plus loads more, on the following pages in my group of fun and games sites:

Megaman Images, Music and Games

Pokemon Images and Games

Mario and Sonic animated GIFs / sprites

I love animated GIFs, they're great fun to watch if they're properly made. Here are some of my favourite Super Mario Bros. and Sonic the Hedgehog game sprites and other images made into animated GIFs:















You are welcome to use any or all of these Mario and Sonic animated GIFs in your own website if you wish, but please copy them and upload them to your personal webspace - don't "hotlink" to the ones here. And please also include a link back to this blog by way of a credit to me. Thanks. :-)

You can find them all, plus loads more, on the following pages in my group of Mario, Sonic and general fun and games sites:

Super Mario Bros. Images, Music and Games

Sonic the Hedgehog Images, Music and Games

More Mario and Sonic Images and Games

And just in case you're interested, here are a few pages containing animated GIFs of some other famous fun characters:

Megaman Images, Music and Games

The Simpsons Images, Music and Games

Complete List of Wacky Races Cars and Drivers

More Games-Related Images and Music