Gamers thrive on a good two-man fight. Xbox or PS2? PSP or DS? Every generation throws a hero down the unpop charts. And one fight with a clear winner, right out the gate, was the 8-bit battle between the chunky little NES and the big-padded underdog, the Sega Master System. Could there be an alternate reality where the Master System came out on top? Where playground battles were fought not over whether Mario's Tanooki Suit was better than Link's Master Sword, but over the best way to save all the hostages in Rescue Mission? As a matter of fact there was. I know because I'm from that reality. And I'm here to tell you that the Sega Master System never got its due. In fact, let's say it: the Sega Master System is the most underrated machine in the history of gaming.

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If you already beaten New Super Mario Brothers for Wii, you are already craving for more. With no signs of a sequel coming on the horizon, one fan has gone as far as hacking together his own levels. Only known as NSMBWHacks, one fan has managed to remake an entire Super Mario DS level on the Wii and was kind enough to share it with all other Nintendo junkies and the world.  The video displays both the Wii and the Ds versions of the Mario games with the exact same level layout, enemies and power ups.  The Wii level at the top of the screen was directly from the older DS version of the game that he managed to recreate.  How did this user accomplish such a task? Well gamers are crafty little buggers, often times more so than the developers.  PC gamers have been doing

Remember just before Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games was released way back in 2007 and plenty of people were saying; "This looks rubbish" or "This is never going to sell," and it ended up selling about a *billion copies? (*Figure might not be accurate... in fact I made it up).

Well it looks like Mario & Sonic still have it, as SEGA has announced that Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games has already sold over 6 million copies, since it was released last October.  That's 6 million in about 4 months, that's pretty damn impressive!

I can't remember how many copies the first Mario & Sonic sold now, but it sounds like Mario & Sonic Winter Olympics could be on track to do just as well as the first title, and I'm very happy about that.  I think that while the first Mario &

Still can’t quite convince people that you’re a huge dork? I know it's hard when you're as hip as parachute pants, but if our earlier gamer décor guide didn’t help you geek out your pad before, perhaps even more gamer furnishings will help. If you need the perfect Space Invaders blanket to curl up in with your Nintendo DS or some Zelda candles, do we have a website for you. Oh, and these are sure to impress the opposite sex by the way *cough*[nextpage]

Posted up on artist “Punzie’s” store via artist marketplace etsy.com, these awesome home furnishings feature Boos, Pac Man, and even Mario in his Mario Bros. 3 raccoon glory. Here's a couple of our favorites:

Trust us, if you’re having any trouble in

When fans geeky fans get creative/bored the results are often too cool to describe in words. From in-game mods, to crazy spin off stories, to even artistic mash-ups, certain game IPs truly inspire people to do great works. Posted up recently, one fan made just such a mash up, combining two classic titles into one awesome piece of art: Chrono Trigger/Super Mario World. [nextpage]

Seeing as both Super Mario World and Chrono Trigger are two of my favorite titles of all time, I couldn't help but geek out at this pic. Sent to me by several, equally geeky friends, I must say the production quality is fantastic on this pic. Posted up on picture sharing site "imgur" earlier this month, this is one geek culture reference you can't afford to miss if you grew up in the SNES golden age:

Ahh, Super

Being that it is Valentine's, I thought it would be appropriate to discuss a game I love more than any other game I have ever loved: Super Mario Bros. 3.  Back in October my friend set me up on a blind date with a girl he worked with who was as enthusiastic about games as I am.  She came over to play video games one day and we loaded up SMB3 on the Virtual Console.  After I demolished the first level she said, "Wow, I can see you have this game memorized."  I responded by saying, "I had this game memorized before I even started to form memories."  It's true.  I have no idea when I started playing SMB3 I was so young.  Trying to pinpoint when I was introduced to the games many secrets is like trying to remember the day I spoke my first word.  I have

Back when Tears For Fears wasn't fat and old...

Twenty or so years ago, rich business tycoons walked around with gigantic pieces of black plastic glued to their heads. These things were called "cell phones." No one had imagined that these would ever become practical, or even necessary to daily life. Today, few people can go out without a cell phone, for fear of an emergency, or even to use it as easy way of recording the scene of an accident (because, really, nothing says, "My life is morbidly monotonous and boring" like recording someone else's misery for our own pleasure). A lot has changed since those giant, clunky phones showed up in major cities. And I guarantee you that most of the critics back then are absolutely glued to their cell phone, blackberries, iPhones, or whatever.

Oh gangsta rap and video games. While this is often a recipe for epic failure, people occasionally can make absolute gold mixing clever lyrics, sound effects, and video game references. Just gaining momentum and internet fame, a new Super Mario Land rap video is definitely the latter of the two outcomes, being both spot on in its game references, and effin funny as hell.[nextpage]

Just posted up within the last week on YouTube, rapper Duane Zwuala busts a 3 minute flow summarizing the entire Game Boy classic game. Surprisingly accurate, this video will be far more amusing if you've played Super Mario Land due to the references, but I promise you'll enjoy it one way or another. Check out Duane's YouTube channel under 8BitDuane to see some of his other game inspired raps and show the group

After my friends and I smashed our ways through New Super Mario Bros. Wii, I took on the other Wii game I received for Christmas: 2007's Super Mario Galaxy.  Now where I was just a tad bit disappointed with NSMBW for its heavy reliance on nostalgia instead of climbing any really new mountains, SMG did not give me that same feeling.  Yes, the game did play some music from the original Super Mario Bros. at some points, and for some reason that's still just as thrilling as it was back when they did it in 1988, but it also has a lot of new stuff in it like shifting gravity, ice skating, bee hovering, and those stars you hold onto with the pointer.  There was a lot of fun things in this game that I had never done in a Mario game.  Then look at the fact that those new things