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There's always much to do when it's discovered that some game system or another isn't region-free. The recent "revelation" that Wii U will also be region-locked has drawn no small amount of ire from the perpetual justice-seekers of the world who seem to think that such a move is without precedent. Of course, what's more uncommon is indeed a system that happens to be region-free by default. And wouldn't ya know it, literally every single home console from Nintendo has been region-locked in one way or another.

As a self-admitted "well-adjusted" Nintendo fan, I routinely take time to mine the fragmented memories and interests of my past via the realm of retrogaming, which is a stupid word. Lately I've been pretty into the "Sega Genesis," but more specifically its Japanese incarnation, the Mega Drive. One thing that surprised me when I first started really learning about the thing is that unlike the Nintendo systems I'm most particularly familiar with—the Famicom and Super Famicom—essentially no Mega Drive cartridges use any special hardware to enhance the functions of the game beyond what the system is capable at the base level.

If you have ever gotten your hands on a Neo-Geo cartridge and thought "mercy me, blow me down and snap off my wimpie these things are huge," wait till you get a hot load of these hushpuppies. Holy shif! These are Nintendo's special cartridges for the Super Famicom Box system, a relatively rare variation of the Super Famicom that was built specifically for installation in Japanese hotels in the mid-90s.

This DLC for New Super Mario Bros. 2 comes out in another day or so and as usual something Nintendo has done has gotten me all thinkin' about OTHER stuff (that is only tangentally related, cause I was thinking how it was neat that these levels only cost a couple bucks). I mean first and foremost I'm gonna buy the packs, oh of course! Of course Nintendo, I'll buy the packs!

You know, it's easy to forget, in these godlessly offensive modern days, how bad gamers actually used to have it when it came to console launches. The Wii U is gonna launch with twenty-three games, many of which co-exist as major installments of bigtime franchises happily among the piles of worthless spew-ware. A new Mario? Ninja Gaiden, Assassin's Creed, Tekken, Black Ops 2, Darksiders, Batman? No man could even play all these damned things with any amount of timeliness.

When Satoru Iwata first started to interrogate his staff for the amusement and enlightenment of the gaming public, it was the beginning of something magical. Until then, virtually all insight into the workings of Nintendo's development process was provided through the lens of "video game journalists." Mere men, slaves to their biases and desires, like any of us. We ask only the questions we want answers to, and tinge the "

Yeah, I got a 1080p set. But let me tell you about the TV I actually use to play sweet games on. I dug it out of the garbage on a Sunday morning once. The garbage, outside, down between my building and the other building, where the old ladies secretly sneak down to in the middle of the night to throw out old luggage. It looked the right size, not too big.

There's a part not long after you start the brutally difficult La-Mulana where you come across the first section of what you are told is a big waterfall. You only see the little top of it, going over the rocks. There's a sign in front of it that basically says don't do it man, it's not worth it! And at this point you've probably gotten a few items, done some things you'd rather not have totally eradicated by plummeting to your instant death, who knows what's down there.

I don't usually do this, I really don't. I hate stories on the Internet that make me watch videos, cause I am often at work, or on my phone, or whatever, goddammit I do not want to watch the video. But just this one time, I promise, would you watch this video before we do this? I wanna talk to you about it a little bit. So, I mean, if you could spare a minute and a half, just click it up.

Boss' new Drive Shot canned coffee isn't brown or yellow but somewhere in-between, the color of what you'd get if a Hershey bar could take a piss. As I pop the lid I notice it smells about the same, watered down, sweet, a hint of milk, the memory of coffee beans. I imagine some old man down at the local rotary club sucking it down like a babe at the teat out of a paper cup with the fold-out handles, and start to gag, even as I pour the thin swig down my gullet, dampening my cavernous gorge.