Converse will release two different styles of Super Mario low-top in Japan in March 2012 — I like the overall look, though I think I’d prefer them in canvas over leather.
It comes in a black and a white premium leather version, with the Converse star logo being replaced with the star icon from the iconic video game. Furthermore the colors of the sneaker have been adapted to the signature colors of the Super Mario character and the Super Mario Bros., Mario and Luigi, are printed on the heel of the sneakers.
I began today posting a spoof video of the SNES’s Mega Man, with a Portal gun. It made me smile. I end today posting a genuine video of a game where two people are remaking the original Super Mario Bros, with a Portal gun: Mari0. It made me smile much bigger. I got hold of an early version. It made me do that weird mix of smiling and frowning that Mario Bros games do, except with the bigger grins for clever portal application. They’re going to get sued into space by about fifteen different companies at once, but fortunately they don’t seem to mind.
Perhaps that’s to be expected from an indie developer with the name Stabyourself. A German, Maurice Guégan, and a Slovenian, Sašo Smolej, make up the team who say they aim “to create enjoyable experiences for anyone to easily get into and enjoy.” Also noting that the sorts of people who might want to contact them are Nintendo, wanting “to send us a cease and desist letter?” I really hope they have the good humour not to, and recognise what is very clearly a tribute, not-for-profit game released as open source.
The game itself is brutally hard. I think that might be something to do with the lack of programming for mushrooms at this point, meaning Mari0 is always on one life. But by golly, it works. You control Mari0 with WAD, and aim the Portal gun with the mouse. Left click and right click, just as our Lord Gabe intended. Just now the gun doesn’t seem happy to aim at the floor, which does rather limit the options for chicanery. But say there’s a gaggle of Goombas between two green pipes, and a Koopa on the other side: stick a portal entrance by the turtle, another next to the chestnut gang, and then jump on the shell to fire it through. It’s surely what Shigeru Miyamoto always wanted.
