Nintendo Wii U and New Super Mario Bros. U are out today!

Nintendo's new gaming console, the Wii U, is released throughout the PAL zone today (i.e. Australia, New Zealand and most of Asia, Africa, South America and Europe). Hooray!

It is the replacement for the original Wii, and is the first eighth generation console - Sony's PlayStation 4 and Microsoft's Xbox One will be the other ones, but they won't be launched for another year. See the excellent Wikipedia article about it for more information.

One of the most eagerly awaited launch games for the Wii U is "New Super Mario Bros. U", the fourth game in the "New Super Mario Bros." series, and the direct sequel to "New Super Mario Bros. Wii" that was released back in 2009. It is the first High Definition Mario game, and up to 5 players can play simultaneously, so it certainly sounds like it will be a true family game.

You don't need to rush out and buy yourself the new console and game to be able to enjoy some New Super Mario fun though. There are lots of brilliant free Flash online versions of the classic Super Mario Bros. games available in the MarioSonicGames.com site, and you can play five of them right here:

  New Super Mario Bros. Flash

  Super Flash Mario Bros.

  Monolith's Mario World

  Super Mario World Flash

  Classic Mario Bros.
(the last game above is a Flash version of the first ever Mario Bros. game)

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed is released this month

"Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed" will be released worldwide on all the major consoles (except the Nintendo 3DS) during the course of this month. (The 3DS version will be out in February next year.)

It is the sequel to "Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing", the fourth installment in the "Sega Superstars" series, and the eighth racing game in the "Sonic the Hedgehog" series overall.