Happy New Year for 2012!

That's 2011 over with then, the year that saw Mario's 30th Anniversary and Sonic's 20th. That was all a lot of fun. Here's to another happy and prosperous year this year!

Mario Kart 7 is out on the Nintendo 3DS today and tomorrow

"Mario Kart 7" is released on the Nintendo 3DS in the UK, Europe and Australasia today and North America tomorrow. Hooray - an almost simultaneous worldwide release for once (it was released in Japan yesterday)!

This is the first Mario Kart game for the 3DS, and is the follow-on to the hugely successful "Mario Kart Wii" which was released back in 2008.

New gameplay features include hang-gliding attachments for the karts, the ability to drive underwater, the ability to fully customize the vehicles, and support for both local and online multiplayer modes for up to eight players. Wow!

To keep you going until you can get hold of a copy of this great new game (if you haven't already got one), here are a couple of silly but fun Flash online Mario Kart games from the MarioSonicGames.com site which you can play here:

  Mario Kart Racing

  Super Mario Kart Xtreme

Super Mario 3D Land is released on the 3DS in the UK today

"Super Mario 3D Land" is out on the Nintendo 3DS in the UK and Europe today. It was released in North America last week, and will be out in Australasia next week.

This is the first Mario game for the excellent 3DS handheld console, and as such it is the first ever Mario game in 3D (of course). It is also a new type of Mario game, combining elements from the traditional 2D side-scrolling Mario games with the more modern free-roaming 3D Mario games.

Early reviews for it are very positive indeed, so it's bound to be a top seller. Sounds absolutely brilliant, and I can't wait to have a go!

If reading about this potentially revolutionary new game has made you fancy a quick play of a classic Super Mario Bros. game, here are four excellent free Flash online versions (two of them with interesting twists) courtesy of the MarioSonicGames.com site:

  Super Mario Sunshine 64

  Mario's Adventure 2

  Super Mario: A Koopa's Revenge

  Super Mario: Bullet Bill 2

Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games is out now

"Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games" is the third title in the Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games series, and it is released on the Nintendo Wii in North America today. It will be available in Australasia on November 17th and Europe the day after that. It is also going to be released worldwide on the Nintendo 3DS in February next year.

The game continues in the style of the previous two games in the series, this time bringing together the two title characters and eighteen more from both game franchises to participate in environments based on the official venues of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. The characters are divided into four performance categories, namely: all-around, speed, power, and skill.

Several new Summer Olympic events, including football/soccer, badminton, and equestrian will debut alongside improved versions of previously existing events such as athletics, aquatics, and table tennis. There are also new "Dream Events", which are alternate versions of Olympic events taking place in locations from older games in the Mario and Sonic series.

Now, why not get in on all the Mario and Sonic fun for free - there are hundreds of fantastic Mario and Sonic online games for you to play in the MarioSonicGames.com website.

Sonic Generations is out on the PS3 and Xbox 360 today

The newest Sonic the Hedgehog platform game, "Sonic Generations", is released today on the Sony Playstation 3 and Microsoft Xbox 360 in North America. It will be released in Europe and Australasia over the next couple of days. A Microsoft Windows version will be released everywhere during the next three weeks and a Nintendo 3DS version should be available everywhere at the end of this month.

In case you weren't aware of it, this year is Sonic's 20th Anniversary, and this game is a celebration of that important video gaming milestone. It is the first ever Sonic game to support stereoscopic 3D graphics, which is utterly amazing I think!.

The game features levels derived from all 20 years of Sonic the Hedgehog platform gaming history, spread across the three main Sonic eras of Classic, Dreamcast and Modern, and these are played as either Classic Sonic or Modern Sonic. Classic Sonic's levels are two dimensional side scrolling stages (of course), using classic moves like the Spin Attack and Spin Dash, while Modern Sonic's levels follow the 2D/3D style gameplay of Sonic Unleashed and Sonic Colors.

Since you're currently here online, you might like to know that there are lots of Flash online versions of classic Sonic games which you can play for free at the MarioSonicGames.com website.

Super Mario is 30 years old today!

Last month it was Sonic the Hedgehogs's 20th birthday, and now it's Mario's turn - it's his 30th birthday today.

The first ever game featuring Mario was the first ever "Donkey Kong" arcade machine released this day in 1981. Originally Mario was called "Jumpman" in that game, but that was very quickly changed to the name he has been known by ever since.

Since 1981 there have been more than 200 Mario related video games, introducing other famous characters like Mario's brother Luigi, friends such as Yoshi, Toad and Princess Peach, and enemies such as Bowser, the Goombas and the Koopa Troopas. The Mario franchise is the best-selling video game franchise of all time. Happy 30th Birthday Mario!

Have some fun and celebrate this second amazing video gaming milestone in a month by visiting my MarioSonicGames.com site, where there are more than 60 Super Mario Flash online games for you to play for free!

Sonic the Hedgehog is 20 years old today!

20 years ago today the first ever Sonic the Hedgehog game was released on the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis console. Happy 20th Birthday Sonic!

Since that first famous appearance there have been over 70 more Sonic the Hedgehog games, and they have introduced a host of other famous video game characters along the way such as Tails the Fox, Knuckles the Echidna, Amy Rose and Shadow the Hedgehog.

To celebrate this milestone in the history of video gaming, why not treat yourself to a session of retro Sonic gaming over at my MarioSonicGames.com site, where there are more than 50 Sonic Flash online games you can play absolutely free!

Su and I are now both on Newgrounds

As I mentioned over in my personal blog yesterday, Su has now joined me on the Newgrounds Flash Portal site, which will be very useful for promoting new Flash games we develop for our MarioSonicGames.com site in the future. Our Newgrounds profiles can be found via these links:

Peter Inns's Newgrounds Profile

Sureephon Inns's Newgrounds Profile

All our Mario and Sonic Flash games at Newgrounds

Nominations for the 2011 BAFTA Video Games Awards

This is an exact quote of the official announcement email I received earlier today:

London, 16 February 2011: The Academy today announced the nominations for this year's GAME British Academy Video Games Awards. 44 different games have been recognized and together they represent some of the most popular, innovative and cutting-edge creativity in today’s gaming industry.

Summary:
Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood leads with seven BAFTA nominations,
Call of Duty: Black Ops and Heavy Rain each garner six nominations,
Mass Effect 2 follows with five, LIMBO and Super Mario Galaxy 2 with four.

Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood and Call of Duty: Black Ops are both nominated for Action, Artistic Achievement, Multiplayer, Technical Innovation, and Use of Audio. In addition, Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood is nominated for Best Game and Gameplay, and Call of Duty: Black Ops got the nod for Story. Heavy Rain and Mass Effect 2 received nominations for Artistic Achievement, Best Game, Gameplay, Original Music, Story and Heavy Rain got its 6th nod for Technical Innovation.

LIMBO is nominated for Artistic Achievement and Use of Audio. Super Mario Galaxy 2 received nominations for Technical Innovation and Original Music, and both games are also nominated for Best Game and Gameplay. Alan Wake, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, God of War III, and Halo: Reach all have three nominations. Bioshock 2, Fallout: New Vegas, FIFA 11, Kinectimals, LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4, and Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty all received two.

This year’s new Social Network Game category garnered nominations for the following games: Bejeweled Blitz, Farmerama, FIFA Superstars, My Empire, Zoo Mumba, and Zuma Blitz.

Other nominated games include: Civilization V, Cut The Rope, Dance Central, DJ Hero 2, F1 2010, Fable III, FIFA Manager 11, Football Manager 2011, God of War: Ghost of Sparta, Gran Turismo 5, International Cricket 2010, James Bond 007: Bloodstone, Kinect Adventures, Kinect Sports, Napoleon Total War, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, Plant vs. Zombies XBLA, Pro Evolution Soccer 2011, Professor Layton and the Lost Future, Sonic Colours, Super Scribblenauts and Toy Story 3.

This year’s Awards will also include the publicly-voted category – the GAME Award of 2010. The shortlist was compiled by a panel of gaming journalists and enthusiasts, and comprises of Call of Duty: Black Ops, Dance Central, FIFA 11, Halo: Reach, Heavy Rain, LIMBO, Mass Effect 2, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, Red Dead Redemption and Super Mario Galaxy 2. Voting is now live at www.baftagameaward.com.

While the Academy recognises those individuals at the top of their field, it also nurtures the developers of tomorrow by recognising up-and-coming talent. This year’s nominations for the BAFTA Ones To Watch Award in association with Dare to be Digital are Mush, Sculpty and Twang.

The GAME British Academy Video Games Awards will take place on Wednesday 16 March at the London Hilton on Park Lane. The Awards will be streamed live for the first time at www.bafta.org.

Mario Sports Mix is out on the Wii in the UK today

"Mario Sports Mix" for the Nintendo Wii is released in the UK today (having already been released in Australasia and the rest of Europe in January). It will be out in North America on February 7th.

The game features Mario and friends in Mario-based locations, and the sports that can be played are volleyball, both field hockey and ice hockey, dodgeball, and street basketball.

In addition to the usual Mario characters, guest appearances are made by The Ninja, White Mage, Black Mage, Cactuar and Moogle characters from the Final Fantasy game series, while the Slime monster from the Dragon Quest series also appears.

2011 is a very special year for Mario and Sonic!

This year is the 30th Anniversary of Mario, and the 20th Anniversary of Sonic - how cool is that?!

I think we can expect some very special Mario and Sonic games and events to celebrate these milestones as the year progresses. I will report on what's happening as soon as I know anything worth writing about, rest assured!

Don't forget to check out my MarioSonicGames.com website for loads of free Mario and Sonic games that you can play directly in your web browser.

Paper Mario World 2 is a hit game!

I wasn't sure it would be a hit because it took so long to develop, but it turns out my new Paper Mario World 2 Flash online game is proving to be very popular, and it has been copied into many other game sites from my MarioSonicGames.com site. Hoorah!

If you're a true Mario fan you'll know that a new official Paper Mario game, with the current working title of "Paper Mario 3DS" (for the new Nintendo 3DS handheld console), is going to be released at some point this year, hopefully before the summer. So my "Paper Mario World 2" game can be a nice little "sampler" while we're all waiting for the official game to be released! :-)

Happy New Year for 2011!

All the very best to you for this coming year, wherever in the world you are!

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.