Paper Mario World 2 is out now!!

Further to my previous post on the subject, I am very pleased to announce that my newest Flash online game, Paper Mario World 2, is now complete and is available to play online for free in my MarioSonicGames.com website.

It is the sequel to the very popular original Paper Mario World game, which is a Flash version of Nintendo's "Paper Mario" and "Super Paper Mario" games that also contains elements of the "Super Mario World" games.

The new game is much larger than the first one with 25 fully side-scrolling levels, and it has a checkpoint/restart function, features an original final boss level plus a special bonus level, and has a much smoother difficulty curve.

Play it here:

  Paper Mario World 2 online game

Download it to put in your own website here:

Paper Mario World 2 game download

(You might also like to check out these other great Mario and Sonic games that you can play online and download for use in your wesbsite - Free Mario and Sonic games)

WANTED: Flash Games Programmer to work for me

I need a skilled Flash/ActionScript Programmer to work for me making some new exclusive Flash games next year. I will pay the top end of the market rate.

If you're up for the job, please contact me via the email link in MarioSonicGames.com.

Thank you.

Paper Mario World 2 is coming soon!

Big News!! The long-awaited sequel to the hugely popular MarioSonicGames.com exclusive Flash game Paper Mario World is almost complete - it is currently undergoing final testing in the Newgrounds site.

Paper Mario World 2 is bigger than the first game, is fully side-scrolling, has a checkpoint/restart feature and has a smoother difficulty curve - although as with the first game, the new one gets very hard after a while and only the very best gamers out there will be able to fully complete it.

Check out this blog again soon for more details!

Sonic Colors is out now on the Nintendo Wii and DS

"Sonic Colors" for the Nintendo Wii and DS is out in North America today. (It was released in Europe on November 12th.)

It is a platform game in the classic Sonic style, with a mix of 2D side-scrolling and 3D third-person action in the Wii version (a little like, although much better than, 2008's "Sonic Unleashed").

Both the Wii and DS versions have received very good reviews, with Metacritic giving around 80% to both, and IGN giving 8.5/10 to both, for example. In particular, IGN gave it an Editor's Choice Award and called it "the best Sonic game in 18 years". High praise indeed!

It's been a very good time for new high quality Sonic games just recently, what with the release of "Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Episode 1" last month and "Sonic Free Riders" two weeks ago. Happy days! :-)

Sonic Free Riders is released in North America today

"Sonic Free Riders" for the Xbox 360 is out in the USA and Canada today. (It will be released in Europe on November 10th and Japan on November 20th.)

It is the third installment in the Sonic Riders series, following Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity (which is a favourite game of mine), and it makes use of Microsoft's new "Kinect" Xbox 360 motion-sensor control peripheral. Sounds like it could be good fun to me!

Finally got back to Thailand!

I had some travel problems on the way back home and it took three days to get from England to Thailand. Read why in my other blog here.

Going back to Thailand today

I've been in England for the past two weeks, and it's time to go back home now.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Episode 1 is out today

It's finally here - Episode I of the eagerly anticipated "Sonic the Hedgehog 4" game from Sega is now available for purchase and download via PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade, WiiWare and iPhone OS (iOS).

It has received some very good reviews, scoring 9/10 from GamesRadar and 8/10 from IGN for example. Hooray! All true Sonic fans have waited years for a decent new traditional-style Sonic game to be released, and it looks like one has finally been produced!

(This is a follow-on post to my previous post about Sonic the Hedgehog 4.)

I'm still here.....

.....I just haven't posted anything in this blog for a while because there hasn't been much new stuff going on in the Mario and Sonic gaming world. The recently released Super Mario Galaxy 2 is selling like hot cakes, of course, and we're all still eagerly waiting for the first installment of Sonic the Hedgehog 4 to be released, and that's it really - nothing else to report.

In the meantime, if you're looking for some free Mario and Sonic Flash online games to play, here is the web's best collection of them for you to enjoy:

MarioSonicGames.com

And here are some more great free fun and games sites for you to try out:

Dan-Dare.org
(which includes the Disney.Dan-Dare.org
and the DreamWorks.Dan-Dare.org sites)

Dan-Dare.net

DanDare.org.uk

The top 5 best Mario and Sonic online games ever!

There are a great many Super Mario Brothers and Sonic the Hedgehog Flash online games on the web, most of which are pretty good fun to play, and a few of which are so good they actually rival the real console games that they are inspired by.

You can play over 150 of the best ones at my MarioSonicGames.com website for free.

Here are what are universally considered to be the "All-time Top 5" Mario and Sonic online games:

  New Super Mario Flash

  Super Mario Sunshine 64 Flash

  Ultimate Flash Sonic

  Shadow the Hedgehog Flash

  Super Smash Bros. Brawl Flash

Enjoy!

Super Mario Galaxy 2 wallpaper (multiple sizes available)

Further to my recent posts about the release of Super Mario Galaxy 2 (see here and here), I am now pleased to be able to provide you with a fantastic Super Mario Galaxy 2 desktop wallpaper picture based on the game which you can use on your computer if you wish.

It is available in 800 x 600 pixels, 1024 x 768 pixels, 1280 x 960 pixels, 1280 x 1024 pixels and 1600 x 1200 pixels sizes:

A new "About Me" page for this blog

Since Blogger have now so kindly provided us with the ability to create up to 10 extra pages attached to our blogs, I have just now created simple "About Me" pages for my two blogs, just in case anyone out there is interested.

You can view the new page for this blog by clicking on the link at the top of this page, and the same page for my other blog by clicking on this link:

A bit about Peter Inns, the author of this blog

Super Mario Galaxy 2 is out in Europe today

Following on from the US release of Super Mario Galaxy 2 last month, European Nintendo Wii owners can now enjoy the best game ever made as of today, hoorah!

Those of you in Australia and New Zealand wanting to get hold of the game will have to wait until the beginning of next month though, sorry. However, it's worth the wait, it really is!

Super Mario Galaxy 2 is released in North America today!

It's here at long last, the ultra-eagerly-awaited "Super Mario Galaxy 2" game for the Nintendo Wii is out today in the USA and Canada. It will be released in Japan on May 27th, Europe on June 11th and Australasia on July 1st.

Early reviews of it give it the highest rating of any video game ever released, currently scoring 98% at the Metacritic website, so it sure is a good reason to go out and buy a Nintendo Wii now if you don't already own one!

You can buy a Nintendo Wii and the Super Mario Galaxy 2 game from Amazon.com here:

     

I've been blogging for 4 years now!

On Monday it will have been 4 years since I first started blogging in this blog, my England, Thailand and Other Things blog and my WordPress blog.

The statistics show that to date I have posted a total of exactly 320 entries across the three blogs, giving an average of 80 posts per year, or approximately 1.5 per week.

Here are my personal favourite posts (with the most recent ones first):

In this blog:

• Free Mario and Sonic games to download
• Mario and Sonic Scene Creator and Character Designer online art games
• Mario and Sonic game releases due in 2010
• Super Mario shooting games
• Flash online games that run directly within this blog
• Mario Pac-Man, Sonic Pac-Man, Pac-Man Pac-Man!
• New Super Mario Bros. and new Pokemon online games
• Megaman and Pokemon animated GIFs / sprites
• Mario and Sonic animated GIFs / sprites
• Play Nintendo and Sega Flash games online
• Super Smash Bros. Brawl - one year on
• Play new Super Mario Bros. Flash games online
• Play new Sonic the Hedgehog Flash games online
• Giant-size Mario and Sonic wallpaper pictures
• Mario & Sonic Online Game Recommendations - Part 8
• Mario & Sonic Online Game Recommendations - Part 7
• Crash Bandicoot, the 3rd platforming hero (after Mario and Sonic)
• Mario & Sonic Online Game Recommendations - Part 6
• Mario & Sonic Online Game Recommendations - Part 5 (With a Summary of Parts 1 to 4)

In the England, Thailand and Other Things blog:

• Today is Dan Dare's 60th Anniversary!
• Pac-Man, plus Mario Pac-Man and Sonic Pac-Man
• Disney's The Princess and the Frog online games and wallpaper
• The Matrix online games and wallpaper
• South Park online games and wallpaper
• Avatar is now the number 1 movie of all time!
• Disney's A Christmas Carol movie is released today
• Astro Boy goes 3D after more than 50 years in 2D
• Updated list of wallpaper backgrounds in my websites
• Hanna-Barbera online fun and games
• Tom and Jerry online fun and games
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince online games
• Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs online games for you to play
• Play Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen games online
• Play Pixar's UP games online
• Play Power Rangers games online
• Star Trek 2009 movie - watch trailers, play games online and get wallpapers
• Play Pinball games online
• Play Monsters vs. Aliens online games
• Play Mario, Sonic, Nintendo and Sega games online
• Play SpongeBob SquarePants games online
• Play Pokemon games online
• Play 10-Pin Bowling games online
• Play Disney's Bolt online games
• Play Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa online games
• "Naruto" online games and "Ben 10" online games
• The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, and the other Narnia stories
• WALL-E, and other Disney/Pixar movies
• So, GTA IV is released at long last!

There are free Flash online games, free wallpaper backgrounds and graphics, free game downloads and much more in amongst all that lot, so there should be something for everyone, lol! :-)

(See also here, here and here)

Update on Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Sonic 4

Further to my posts earlier this year about the two most eagerly awaited video games of 2010, Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Sonic the Hedgehog 4, here are the latest updates about them, including release dates:

Super Mario Galaxy 2 is now complete and is due for release on the Nintendo Wii on the following dates: North America - May 23, Japan - May 27, Australasia - June 10, Europe - June 11.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 (previously known as Project Needlemouse) is going to be an episodic series, and Episode 1 is due for release via the PlayStation Network, the Xbox Live Arcade and WiiWare in the summer. The actual release date is still to be confirmed because the game is still undergoing development.

Free Mario and Sonic games to download

MarioSonicGames.com now has 9 free fantastic Flash games that have been made specially for the site. You can download them and use them in your own web space or site if you wish, or download them and play them on your computer without the further need of an internet connection (.zip compressed files):

Newest game:

  Sonic the Hedgehog: Super Sonic Pinball

(View it and play it online here: Super Sonic Pinball Online)


Other games:

  Super Mario Bros.: Mario Matchit

(View it and play it online here: Mario Matchit Online)


  Super Mario Bros.: Paper Mario World

(View it and play it online here: Paper Mario World Online)


  Sonic the Hedgehog: Sonic Matchit

(View it and play it online here: Sonic Matchit Online)


  Sonic the Hedgehog: Sonic Sky Chase

(View it and play it online here: Sonic Sky Chase Online)


  Sonic Sky Chase (2nd Version)

(View it and play it online here: Sonic Sky Chase (2nd Version) Online)


  Sonic the Hedgehog: Amy's Whack-A-Nik

(View it and play it online here: Amy's Whack-A-Nik Online)


  Sonic the Hedgehog: Sonic Abstracta

(View it and play it online here: Sonic Abstracta Online)


  Super Mario Bros.: Super Shy Guy Universe

(View it and play it online here: Super Shy Guy Universe PSP Online)


To use the downloads and play the games, click on any of the links above, 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. Once the .zip file has downloaded successfully, unzip it and then you can play the game by double-clicking on the .htm file that was unzipped. (Note that the .htm file is an offline webpage that runs the .swf file which is the actual Flash game - you don't need an active internet connection to run it.)

To use the games in your own website, simply upload the .htm webpage files (which you may want to modify to your own site's style first) and the .swf Flash game files to your webspace, link to the .htm files from you site's home page, and you and your visitors can then play the games in your site. Enjoy! :-)

Mario and Sonic Scene Creator and Character Designer online art games

These brilliant Super Mario Bros. and Sonic the Hedgehog Flash online art and design games (from MarioSonicGames.com) are amongst my favourite free web games, so I thought I'd put them all together in one place here to see if you like them too:

  Super Mario Brothers: Scene Creator

  Super Mario Brothers: Scene Creator 2

  Super Mario Brothers: Mario Dress Up

  Sonic the Hedgehog: Scene Creator

  Sonic the Hedgehog: Scene Creator 2

  Sonic the Hedgehog: Scene Creator 3

  Sonic the Hedgehog: Character Designer

  Sonic: Chao Character Designer

If you like the above games, then you'll hopefully also enjoy these other art and design games (from Dan-Dare.org):

  Transformers: Character Creator

  Cars: Ramone's Coloring Book

  Cars: Ramone's Painting

  Finding Nemo: Paper Toys

  Finding Nemo: Create-A-Scene

  Toy Story: Etch-A-Sketch

  Meet the Robinsons: Mural Mania

(See also here)

Free Mario and Sonic game downloads

For those of you out there that like free game downloads, I've just added links to free downloads of all the Mario and Sonic Flash games that I've designed so far to a new index page in MarioSonicGames.com here:

Mario and Sonic Flash games exclusive to MarioSonicGames.com

Sony have now fixed the PS3 problem

Sony say they have now fixed the worldwide PlayStation 3 problem. So that was a nice PS3-free 24 hours for most of the world then!

I was absolutely right - it was caused by PS3's wrongly thinking this year was a leap year, and then crashing when they discovered it wasn't February 29th after connecting to the PlayStation Network yesterday. Double Triple Doh!!!

Apparently you can all now safely switch on your PS3's and connect to the PlayStation Network, and the bug should go away automatically. If it doesn't, you will be able to reset your system clocks yourselves now, and that will fix everything.

Personally, I'd suggest selling your PS3 and getting yourslf a Nintendo Wii instead - Super Mario Galaxy 2 is due out this year, which will be the best game ever, for sure.

It's "World Sony PlayStation 3 Failure Day" today!

Every single original "fat" version of Sony's flagship PlayStation 3 games console failed to work properly today, all over the world!

Apparently the newer slim model seems to be fine, but since most of the millions of PS3's sold so far are of the larger variety, that's not a lot of help. No-one anywhere with the original model can connect to the PlayStation Network, no games any of those people have ever downloaded from the network will work, and no disc-based games with trophy functionality (i.e. most games) will work either. Oops.

It seems a calendar bug of some sort in the firmware might be the cause of this rather epic system failure, because the problem only started today, March 1st. Is it some sort of leap year screw-up I wonder? It isn't a leap year this year of course, but perhaps part of the PS3 firmware thinks it's February 29th today resulting in an unresolvable conflict elsewhere in the system. When I used to work in IT for big blue-chip corporations complex programming errors like that would slip through testing unnoticed from time to time, because not too many people would think to test for the relevant erroneous scenarios in advance of them actually happening.

Anyway, if you've got one of those original PS3's and you haven't recently switched it on and gone online, DON'T!!!

Keep checking the official US PlayStation blog (using your computer, not your PS3) and wait until Sony announce that they have fixed the bug!

Maybe now's a good time to buy one of the unaffected slim models:

Sonic & All-Stars Racing is due for imminent release

"Sonic & All-Stars Racing" will be released worldwide on all the major consoles during the course of the next 10 days.

It is the first Sonic racing game to be released on the latest generation of consoles, and hopes are very high that this will be a great game. It is also the third installment in the "Sega Superstars" series and the seventh racing game in the "Sonic the Hedgehog" series ever.

Project Needlemouse is Sonic the Hedgehog 4!

Sega yesterday announced that the forthcoming Sonic game previously given the codename Project Needlemouse (see my previous post about new game releases for this year) is in fact going to be Sonic the Hedgehog 4:

(Quote from an article in Yahoo! yeaterday)

Sega has announced that the game formerly known by the codename ‘Project Needlemouse’ is actually Sonic the Hedgehog 4.

Sonic 4, we’re pleased to report, heralds a return to his two-dimensional roots. In other words it’s a side-scrolling, high-speed, gold ring-collecting action/platform game, just like the good days of the Genesis/Mega Drive. That’s certainly no bad thing in our book – especially given the travesties of recent outings. Furthermore, being a bit, y’know, old school the new game doesn’t require the large storage capacities offered by DVDs or Blu-Ray discs. Instead it’s bound for download via Xbox LIVE Arcade, WiiWare and the PlayStation Network this summer.

The other significant component of Sega’s announcement is the new name – ‘Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1’. Sega doesn’t illuminate on the implications of this, but it certainly looks like there will be other episodes in the pipeline. Let’s just hope that this is more than a means to pick our pockets several times over.

And that’s pretty much all there is to know at the moment, save to inform you that Sega has just launched an Official Sonic 4 website that boasts a number of countdown clocks, each ticking away towards the unveiling of new gameplay information, concept art and so on. In short there are plenty of reasons to be checking the site over the next few days and weeks.

(End quote)

Personally, I think it's fantastic that at long, long, long, long, long, long last (it's been 16 years in fact since Sonic 3!) Sega are producing a brand new proper style Sonic the Hedgehog game. It's about time! Hoorah!!

You can watch two trailer videos for the new game in my main YouTube channel here:

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - First Teaser Trailer

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Second Teaser Trailer

While we're all eagerly wating for this milestone game to be released, here are five great proper style Sonic the Hedgehog online games to play for free:

  Ultimate Flash Sonic the Hedgehog

  Sonic on Angel Island

  Sonic Mega Collection Mini

  Sonic Xtreme 2

  Sonic Sky Chase Zone

And if Mario is also "your thing", here are two proper style Super Mario online games too:

  New Super Mario Bros. Flash

  Ultimate Super Mario World

You can find all the above games, plus 150 more great free Sonic and Mario games, in the Dan-Dare.info and MarioSonicGames.com sites.

A free Super Mario game download for the Nokia N97, 5730 XpressMusic and 2700 Classic (and others)

If, like me, you love having great games on your Nokia mobile phone, then here's a lovely treat for you - a FREE with NO ADVERTS download of a really fun Super Mario Bros. Java game called "Super Mario Planet" for the Nokia N97, the Nokia 5730 XpressMusic, the Nokia 2700 Classic and other Nokia models (I have installed and tested the game on all three of the above-named models and it works fine, so presumably it will work okay on other modern Nokia models too):

Super Mario Planet .jad and .jar files - installation and executable game files

Download the .zip file above and unzip it, and then transfer the .jad installation file and the .jar executable game file to your Nokia phone, preferably to your phone's mass storage or memory card if you have either of them, in a new folder named "Web Games". Then check the new folder via your phone's File Manager to see if you can directly run the "Super Mario Planet" .jar game file - if your phone doesn't have File Manager, you should see the .jar file in your phone's gallery in the new "Web Games" folder.....

If you can directly run the "Super Mario Planet" game (as happens on the Nokia 2700 Classic for example), you should see the game start and you can play it from then on whenever you wish (and you can delete the .jad file as it isn't needed);

If you can't run it directly (as with the N97 and 5730 XpressMusic for example), select the .jad installation file to install the game on your phone's mass storage or memory card, then delete the .jad and .jar files, and then you should find the "Super Mario Planet" game in a folder named "Games" in either your phone's Main Menu or the Applications Menu. You can play it from there whenever you wish.

The game works perfectly on both the N97 and the 5730 XpressMusic, and it is also fine on the 2700 Classic except that the sound doesn't work on that particular phone. It is great fun to play, and has really good graphics as you can see from the screenshots at the top of this post. The first time you play it you will have to watch a short tutorial level, but after that you can play the proper game every time you start it. Very usefully, the game remembers your progress each time you play it for when you go back to it in the future.

As an extra special treat for you, here are two more great free Nokia Java game downloads, both of which also work fine on the N97, the 5730 XpressMusic and the 2700 Classic (and presumably other Nokia models too):

Space Cowboy .jad and .jar files - installation and executable game files

Yet Another Tetris .jad and .jar files - installation and executable game files

Install both games in the same way as the Mario Planet game above. Have fun! :-)

Mario and Sonic game releases due in 2010

Looking through the official Mario and Sonic video game release schedules for this coming year, the first thing that stands out is that there aren't very many releases scheduled! However, the second thing that stands out is that these few releases do look to be of the very highest quality indeed! This is a really good thing, trust me - quality is way better than quantity, every time!

There is only one new Mario game currently scheduled for a 2010 release, but given that it is Super Mario Galaxy 2 for the Wii, I think we can all forgive Nintendo for that, lol!

Nintendo promise that it will be an even better Mario experience than the first game, which will take some doing in my opinion - it's not easy to improve on virtual perfection! Nintendo also promise that this game will be a lot more challenging than the previous one. Not so sure that's such a good thing myself, but whatever - the "Big N" know what they're doing. The release date is still to be confirmed.

Update 24/02/10: Nintendo announced today that Super Mario Galaxy 2 will be released on May 23rd.

There are three new Sonic games currently scheduled for release in 2010, and they are:

Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing - A Kart racing game featuring Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, Amy Rose, Big the Cat and Dr. Eggman plus Alex Kidd, Billy Hatcher, Ai Ai from Super Monkey Ball, Amigo from Samba de Amigo, Ryo Hazuki from Shenmue, Beat from Jet Set Radio and Zobio and Zobiko, the zombie couple from The House of the Dead EX plus Banjo and Kazooie from Banjo-Kazooie! Due for release on the Xbox and PS3 on February 10th, and on the Wii and DS in early March;

Sonic Classic Collection - For the DS only, this promises to be a little gem, containing the first four ever Sega Genesis / Mega Drive "Sonic the Hedgehog" games, namely: Sonic the Hedgehog from 1991, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 from 1992, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 from 1994 and Sonic & Knuckles from 1994, complete with reportedly enhanced Sonic & Knuckles "lock-on" features for the earlier games. Due for release on March 10th;

And finally, an as-yet unnamed Sonic main-series game currently referred to as Project Needlemouse - All that is currently known is that this will be a 2D side-scrolling platformer very much in the style of the classic original Sonic games, with an emphasis on speed! Yes, Yes, YES!! It's been far too long since Sega made a "proper" Sonic game! I want it NOW!!

Anyway, here are some totally awesome free Mario and Sonic online games for you to play while you're waiting for the above games to come out, all courtesy of the famous MarioSonicGames.com site:

  New Super Mario Bros. Flash

  Super Mario Sunshine 64

  Ultimate Flash Sonic the Hedgehog

  Sonic the Hedgehog Rivals Dash

  Super Mario Kart Racing

  Super Mario Kart Xtreme

(See also here)