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)

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.