Don’t Take it Personally: A Mushroom Kingdom Mindset
The very first time I loaded up the original Super Mario Brothers on the NES, I was transfixed… I couldn’t wait to explore this colorful, magical world and unlock all […]
A Lesson From Nintendo: Co-op Built in From the Start
While it might sound obvious in retrospect, one of the most critical design decisions Nintendo made when developing their home gaming console was including more than one controller port. Even […]
The Infamous Konami Code: Cheating the Game, or Cheating Ourselves?
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A… that simple series of inputs known as the “Konami Code” was a game-changer that I used many times to finally […]
The Truth About Tetris: A Destiny Hidden Under the Surface
Nintendo changed the gaming world forever with the release of the NES home console, but it was the “Game Boy” that brought them to an entirely new frontier… a dedicated […]
Nintendo: Are You Playing With Power?
In the early NES console years, gamers looked to Nintendo’s consoles to replicate our experiences with the games we played in the arcade, but because the 8-bit platform lacked the […]
Deconstructing the Duck Hunt Dog
The gaming villain who had the greatest impact on me at a young age wasn’t Ganon, Ridley, or even Bowser… it was the Duck Hunt Dog. It wasn’t because he […]
Console Wars: Sega Does What “Nintendon’t”?
The original “console wars” between Sega and Nintendo got a little bit feisty… both companies battled it out for the hearts (and wallets) of the gaming audience in each successive […]
Super Mario Bros: Desperately Seeking Shortcuts and Finding the WRONG Secrets
Back when the original NES Super Mario Bros. game first came out, I heard rumors that there was a secret level hidden within the game… the mysterious “World -1”. After […]
Mega Man: Balancing Free Will and an Optimal Path
My original console gaming experiences were pretty linear affairs… games like Super Mario Brothers simply took me from one level to the next, while Zelda gave me a rudimentary feeling […]
Fight, Flight, or Choosing the High Ground?
From my very first experience playing Legend of Zelda on the original NES through the Zelda games of the modern era, I’ve found a very important fact to be proven […]
Finding God in Video Games 