Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Hipster Iron Man

I’m gonna keep saying it: M Ward of She & Him looks like Tony Stark with a guitar in their new video.

My crush on zooey deschanel knows no bounds.

Koopa Kids – Morton Koopa Jr.

Morton Koopa Jr. brings some controversy with him. How’s he Bowser’s Junior if he’s named Morton? Is Bowser’s real name Morton? Is he really Bowser’s kid?

Doesn’t matter. What does matter is that Morton is named for Morton Downey Jr. a singer, tv host and DJ. I don’t know an awful lot beyond what Wikipedia has to say, but a few moments of seeing Morton Downey Jr. on screen tells a lot. With cigarette in hand you can tell he’s from an era that it’s hard to believe ever existed.

 

Monday, March 8, 2010

Koopa Kids – Larry Koopa

I hate to start the week off like this. For every other Koopa Kid I have gorgeous art and a cool story about their name. Oh well, Larry Koopa is the first of Bowser’s Brood that you meet in SMB3 so he goes first. All the other kids are named for famous musicians so we assume Larry is, but we can’t figure out who he’s supposed to be! Experts (people geekier than me) have guessed at either Larry King, or Larry Mullen. Larry King not being a musician means we get to hear some Larry Mullen today.

Larry Mullen was the drummer and front man for U2, but when Bono showed up he lost fronting privileges. Here’s a rare moment of him singing instead of drumming.

Friday, March 5, 2010

Baddies – Boom Boom

This is the last of the regular baddies. We’ve come so far! Boom Boom guards Bowser’s fortresses and has a couple cool tricks up his sleeve. He takes three hits to kill. he can duck down to reveal spikes. Later on he can even grow wings and fly. Even though he’s aggressive and dang fast, he really isn’t much a danger since he’s isolated when you fight him. If you’ve got a fire flower going in then you really can’t lose.

Baddies – Angry Sun and Tweester

Tweester

angry_sun Angry Sun and Tweester show up in the same level and make quite and impact. Angry Sun will make a second appearance in SMB3 but there is only one Tweester in the whole game.

The only way past a Tweester is to run right at it and let it throw you forward. This was a complete roadblock for me as a little kid. Nowadays I look forward to the split second I get to see Tweester as I run right past it.

Angry Sun flies about the level chasing you wherever you go. He’s also really really angry. You can take him out with a turtle shell but he’s tough to hit. If you make it to the end of the level you can turn him into a coin by hitting the roulette block.

There is a lot wrong with this video but its worth it to see what I’m talking about.