New Super Mario Bros. Review

He's been reincarnated in various forms and formats but this time the Mario that we all know and love has been resurrected in true classic, plaforming action in the latest DS game, New Super Mario Bros.

New Super Mario Bros. returns to Mario's roots. We haven't seen a Mario game like this in over 15 years, and even longer if you consider that the N64 version was rendered in 3D. This version is a 2D side-scroller but it does incorporate some excellent 3D graphics. Mario is rendered in 3D as are many of the enemies and environments, although you can't explore them like you could in the N64 version.

Right from the first few seconds of play you can tell that you're in for a good time. The game just reeks of quality. It looks great, sounds like nostalgia, responds brilliantly and is great fun - and that's just the first minute of game play. You can tell that Nintendo has done their homework on this game. It retains the look and feel of the side-scrolling Super Mario Bros. series but manages to update and upgrade it with new moves, enemies, booby traps, puzzles, bonuses and secrets so that you will always be mindful that you are playing a new game and not some reheated rehash. There are plenty of nods to its heritage, including goombas, Koopas, question mark blocks and flagpole jumping at the end of levels but these are classic elements that I believe must be included to give us a sense of familiarity. Maybe this wouldn't have worked five or ten years ago, but enough time has passed so that we don't perceive these elements as hackneyed.

With today's games we tend to take the storylines too seriously, when in reality the story can't fix a terrible game. The Super Mario Bros. storyline is about as basic as they come, and we don't really expect it to be any different. Come to think of it, it doesn't need to be any different. It's all laid out for us. Are mission is to rescue to Princess from the clutches of Bowser, in this case, Bowser Jr. He's kidnapped her and taken her to the castle at the end of the first level. Once you reach that castle, Bowser Jr. takes Peaches to the next castle. This continues on through numerous levels. There are eight worlds in all, and an overhead map allows you to see all the different levels in each world. It's quite easy to get through the entire game since there are plenty of power-ups and extra lives, but you'll miss out on the whole experience if you just go barreling through the levels without stopping to smell the piranha plants.

There are a couple of hidden worlds to unlock. You should explore all areas thoroughly to find all of the unlockables, secrets, surprises and shortcuts. There is also the added challenge of collecting coins. Not only will you earn extra lives by collecting coins but there are three huge coins in each level for you to locate. This challenge isn't easy and I didn't find them all yet but I'm intrigued to return to the levels where I missed them. The replay value is tremendous if you decide that you want to find everything in the game and take part in all of the challenges.

Mario has plenty of moves this time round. He will still run, jump and stomp but there are a few more moves that give him more flexibility, and he'll need it to negotiate his way through some of the more deadly platform elements and enemies that he will encounter. A butt bounce will allow him to smash the blocks he's standing on. He can grow large enough to take up the entire screen, which allows him to smash tons of blocks and take care of smaller enemies by trampling them. A mini-mushroom will make Mario tiny and allow him to enter into small places. It will also let him walk over water. A wall bounce lets him scale walls to reach new heights or can be used if he falls into a pit.
Platforms will twist, bend, warp, shrink, expand, hover, fall, elevate and destruct. I don't think the developers left anything out. Even the ground will undulate, causing Mario to experience a rippling effect not unlike a ship on a stormy sea. Despite all these new elements and moves, the game doesn't take full advantage of the DS's unique control system - not the touch screen control system or even the dual screen for that matter. The bottom screen is basically used just to display your progress in each level. The touch feature is used almost exclusively to access your power-ups. In other words, there's nothing that you would really miss, control-wise, if this game were released on the GBA. However, the graphics are what really matters and this game would never look this great on the GBA simply because of the DS's uber-powerful processing capabilities. This version not only looks 10 times better than the Super NES version, but it's just as big. Think about that for a moment. That should tell you how far Nintendo has come.

But wait, there's moreThe game also features a two-player verses mode featuring Luigi. The premise is a race of sorts, to see who can be the first to grab five stars in a platforming obstacle course. You can purposely attempt to injure the other player by banging into him. This will cause him to drop his star and allow you to claim it for yourself. This mode can be played via sharing with only one copy of the game card. The same mini-games from the Super Mario 64 DS game are also included but they can be played with other players, requiring only one copy of the game. These mini-games make better use of the touch controls but they aren't incredibly exciting.

The sounds are fantastic. It's like having an arcade in the palm of your hands. "Is that an arcade in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?" Mario has a voice in this game and repeats a few Italian-soaked clichs. Thankfully he avoids saying, "That's a spicy meat-a-ball-a."

New Super Mario Bros. is new in looks, feel and gameplay but thankfully we still get to visit Mario's old super stomping ground. This game is reason enough to purchase the DS system if, gosh forbid, none of the other killer Nintendo titles have tickled your fancy yet.

Check out Cheat Code Central's full review of New Super Mario Bros., which includes our scores and screen shots for the game. For tons more reviews, previews, and cheats for PS2, Xbox, PC, Xbox 360, GameCube, PSP, DS, GBA, and more, check out Cheat Code Central.

AP - The nation's stores are pulling all-nighters and deepening discounts in the final hours before Christmas, trying to draw in all the shoppers they can as they face dismal sales in what will likely end up as the worst holiday season in decades.

Xbox 360 Freezing - How to Get Rid of it Today

Have you ever been playing a game on your Xbox 360 only to have it freeze up in the middle of play? This is an especially frustrating experience that can occur quite frequently. Any progress that you might have made in the game will be lost, and you will have to restart the console to get the game going again. Why does this happen, and what can be done to prevent it? The Xbox 360 is an amazing piece of hardware, but it suffers from a number of design flaws. Overcoming those flaws will allow you to truly enjoy the console. Read on for some great tips on how to prevent Xbox 360 freeze ups.

The first step in preventing these annoying halts in gameplay is to understand why they occur in the first place. The Xbox 360 functions much like a desktop PC, with a CPU, GPU, and motherboard providing the processing power for gameplay. Unlike most personal computers, however, the Xbox 360 is built solely for gaming. Under normal circumstances, a personal computer runs at less than its maximum potential. An Xbox 360, however, is always running with its CPU and GPU processing as much as possible. This produces an incredible amount of heat. The heat generated during gameplay, in fact, is hot enough to melt the soldering that holds the CPU and GPU to the motherboard. When the soldering has melted, the CPU or GPU may lose electrical contact with the motherboard. When this happened, you will notice the "three rings of death" on your power button. This is a surprisingly frequent problem, and thousands of Xbox units have been returned with this malfunction. Once this has happened, all that can be done is to ship the unit back to Microsoft for repair.

What about those troublesome freeze ups? When this occurs, the Xbox is attempting to save itself from overheating by shutting down automatically. The easiest way to prevent more frequent freezing is to give the unit time to cool down. When the Xbox is immediately restarted it will most likely shut down again before too long. This can also cause damage to the motherboard, leading to the three red rings. When the Xbox 360 shuts down, leave it to cool down until the case is no longer hot to the touch. In order to prevent freezing, make sure the hot air vents on the unit are placed so that they can properly vent the heated air. This alone is sometimes not enough to prevent freezing by itself.

For more protection, consider placing a fan next to the air vents, blowing cool air into the unit. The Nyko Intercooler is specifically built to attach to the back of the Xbox 360, providing much needed ventilation for the unit. This can be a worthwhile investment, as it can prevent the unit from breaking down due to overheating.

This article is by Richard Goldie the owner of http://fix-xbox-cure.blogspot.com/

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AP - A massive, aging water main ruptured Tuesday and sent a wave of water down a suburban Washington road, transforming the street into a raging river and trapping nine motorists who had to be rescued from the frigid deluge by emergency workers in helicopters and boats.

The Best Places to Find Sony PSP Downloads

There are more places than I can think of where you can find sony psp downloads.. So here are just some of the great perks of downloading sony psp games. I will show which sites I use at the end of the article.

You're saving a lot of money - If that isn't the most obvious answer, I don't know what is. Video games are expensive and only seem to be going higher throughout the years. Even though the psp is hand held system, you'd think that the games would be reasonable in price. Well, unless you call $40 retail price reasonable, I don't think so.

It's a lot more convenient - Unless you enjoy the pain and suffering of going to stores, then you'd probably rather just get the games from the comfort of your own house. Who needs the long lines, loud noise and the traffic congestions? Certainly, not me.

You don't have to be stuck with a bad game - Being the huge video game freak that I am, there is not a worst day when you come home from the store after buying a video game that you think is going to be awesome, and it turns out to be terrible. Not only have I wasted my money, but I also wasted my time. When you are able to find sony psp downloads, you can test them out beforehand. It's like you're at a Baskin Robbins and you have free reign to sample all the ice cream in the store.

Don't have to worry about games breaking - If you don't have children or pets, than this might not have ever happened to you. But sadly its happened to me before, and it makes me want to scream. There's $40 down the drain because one of my kids wanted to see what if the CD looked good dipped in Peanut Butter or the dog wanted to use it as a chew toy. Well, with sony psp downloads, these aren't really an issue. I could just download another copy. No big deal.

I was real lucky to have come across a couple of sites where I could find unlimited PSP downloads. To my surprise there was even a ton of great extras in that I can download music, movies, game cheats, etc...It took me all of a couple minutes and there I was. I had unlimited access to all the sony psp games I could handle. I made a list of my favorite two websites. For a review and full details you can follow the link. FIND SONY PSP DOWNLOADS.

Don't even think about downloading a single game until you have read this FIND SONY PSP DOWNLOADS

AP - A military-led group seized control of the airwaves in Guinea and declared a coup Tuesday after the death of the mineral-rich West African country's longtime dictator, but the prime minister insisted he remained in charge.

Beautifully Designed Computer Games

As a result, those first games included gems such as Pong, Pac Man (while fun and a classic, let's face it: it was a yellow circle that moved around in circles "eating" dots); and asteroids (stick figure space ship shoots at stick figure rocks).

The next generation of games sought to improve the visual appeal somewhat. And so we received the slightly better games like Donkey Kong, Galaxian and Frogger. While these were definitely primitive by today's standards, they did at least have some more color and in some cases, a "cuteness" factor.

It was in the late 1980s that two things impacted the graphic look of computer games. First was the dawn of graphical adventure games. As classics like Space Quest, Police Quest, and George Lucas' Monkey Island became hits, they showed that there was a market for games that were not only fun, but which were pleasing to look at. Here were games that, at least for their time, were genuinely beautiful in their look.

The second thing that impacted computer games' graphic look was the appearance of the first Nintendo Entertainment System. This showed the world that electronic games could and should not only have fun game-play, but be fun to look at as well. Almost immediately, computer game designers began modeling their games to reflect the Nintendo style and philosophy. From that point on, almost monthly, some computer game was released that surpassed the graphic look of anything that had come before it.

One game in particular floored fans and critics alike for its beautiful design: MYST. The game was gorgeous, in addition to being mysterious and captivating. Around the same time, the first DOOM game was released. This was the first 3D-shooter that was truly beautiful to look at. It inspired the look of 3D games for years afterward, and in fact, its impact is still felt on the 3D genre.

The late 1990s and early 2000s brought new generations of all of the major gaming consoles. We now have Playstation III, XBox 360, the Nintendo Wii. With these, the visual look has approached photo-realism. With some games, it's almost impossible to tell the difference between a computer generated person and a live person. This is important for the continued evolution of the industry, as the next big thing will be virtual reality. And true virtual reality can only come to pass as the graphic looks become more and more realistic looking.

And so, the beauty of computer games will, more and more, reflect the beauty of real life.

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AP - If you're looking for an extra bargain before the holidays, you may only have to ask.