Nintendo dropped a Tweet today mentioning that they are going to be releasing a new Mario Kart game on mobile.

"The checkered flag has been raised and the finish line is near. A new mobile application is now in development: Mario Kart Tour! #MarioKartTour Releasing in the fiscal year ending in March 2019."

I'm pretty interested in a Mario Kart game on phones but I hope it's not a badly paired down version of what makes Mario Kart games great. Super Mario Run was a really great version of New Super Mario Brothers on smartphones but I felt like Animal Crossing was a bit of a miss. I think a Mario Kart game could work with touch controls but I hope it doesn't get bogged down in modern free to play trappings that make those games more annoying than entertaining. What do you all think, does a phone based Mario Kart sound fun or should this franchise stick to proper Nintendo systems with a better control systems and a traditional price tag?

https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/status/958876622517452801

Retro game console re-releases have been a really popular market in the last few years and everyone is getting in on the action. The latest entrant, the Commodore 64 Mini will now release on March 29th featuring 64 licensed games, a USB connectable joystick and the ability to use it as a C64 family computer including the ability to write Commodore BASIC programs. They've also said the C64 Mini will be up-gradable via USB firmware updates and I imagine will be somewhat hackable as well.

The keyboard on the unit itself isn't functional but it does come with two USB ports so you can plug in your own keyboard. Depending on the price and how much of a functional C64 system this is, I might pick it up. The first computer my parents had was a C64 and I started writing software for the first time reading BASIC programs out of computer magazines and changing them so I could create my own games.

https://thec64.com/
https://www.facebook.com/THEC64computer/posts/1772462536392313

If you are interested in knowing more about how Rian Johnson came to direct Star Wars The Last Jedi you absolutely must listen to this epic two hour interview with him about The Last Jedi. Firstly, the whole interview is incredible and you should listen to it all but Rian mentioned a few things I thought were interesting based on some of the feedback for The Last Jedi. One interesting bit is that Rian was writing The Last Jedi as The Force Awakens was filming and, at that point, he had the script and dailies to help him write The Last Jedi. He notes that he had no idea what aspects of The Force Awakens would resonate with fans. Rian also mentioned that Snoke seemed to be a particular fan favorite and that if Snoke backstory had been written into The Last Jedi it would have been cut because of time and other character considerations.

This interview also happened on the Slashfilmcast one of my favorite podcasts that adds a really personal touch to The Last Jedi discussion. Soon The Last Jedi Bluray will hit and according to Johnson a ton of deleted scenes are going to hit along with behind the scenes footage that should be interesting to watch. I'm curious what people think of this interview and how the discussion of The Last Jedi has continued since it's launch December of last year?

http://www.slashfilm.com/filmcast-ep-451-an-evening-with-rian-johnson-director-of-star-wars-the-last-jedi/

Project Octopath Traveler is a upcoming Switch game that looks to bring back some of the best parts of classic JRPG's from the 16bit era to modern gaming with a 3D flavor. The demo launched on the Switch last year and it showed a ton of promise but many people had issues with some of it. Looks like the developers of the game have addressed many of these concerns and talk about how they've updated the game in the developer update video above. Specifically they improved movement in terms of speeding up the character and allowing them to run much faster than before. They bumped up the encounter rate when running at full speed but that seems a fine trade off to get around the game faster.

In the next episode of Cheerful Ghost Radio we all talk about Project Octopath Traveler as one of the games we are excited about playing in 2018 and I mention that the game might be getting updates based on all the demo feedback and it looks like that was right.

John Riggs reviews the new Retro-Bit Super Retro Trio+ that melds the Nintendo, Super Nintendo and Genesis together in an interesting way. Not only can you play nearly all of the game karts of those systems with it but it allows you to switch between the different regions as well as provides composite video/audio out as well as HDMI at 720p. Like all X in one systems it supports the controller ports from all the systems so all your controllers work as well as provides a fair NES & SNES Controller out of the box. I have the Hyperkin RetreoN 3 which works really well for composite video/audio but I am looking at picking something up that will do HDMI out and this looks like a really great new option to look into.

"Step up your retro-gaming experience and relive three classic systems like never before, in crisp 720p resolution! The SR3 Plus is the premium top loading console for all of your original NES, SNES, and Genesis games. Custom built with three cartridge slots, six controller ports, and now with HDMI compatibility!

Retro-Bit Super Retro Trio Plus Features

• Compatible with original NES, SNES, and Genesis game cartridges


• Custom built with NTSC/PF/NJ/PA region switch


• AV and HDMI (6 ft. cable included) compatible


• Includes two 10 ft. wired six button controllers


• Controllers compatible with SNES and select Retro-Bit consoles


• Two controller ports for NES, SNES, and Genesis controllers

http://retro-bit.com/super-retrotrio-plus

Continuing the Awesome Games Done Quick 2018 wrap up series with another set of amazing speedruns starting with the Mega Man 1, 2 & 3 relay race with Team Auto, Team Beat, Team Roll and Team Rush in 1:26:59. 4 teams all racing through the three Mega Man games in under an hour and thirty. If you are interested in getting some tips on running these games, this is the run to watch.

Hyper Light Drifter by simplyfir in 31:16 - Hyper Light Drifter is a new Indie game that melds the classic Zelda formula with the soothing music of Disasterpiece. It's an expert run by simplyfir and if you want to soak in this game it's a quick way to do it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzqE6tCOZck

Risk of Rain by scaz.zaf in 13:42 - It takes me, at most, an hour to go a few levels in to Risk of Rain to only die a horrible, horrible death but scaz can complete the game in a blistering 13 minutes! It's such a quick run that it's over before you can blink and scaz makes it look incredibly easy which it isn't.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knT_tzikWRI

Contra by TheMexicanRunner and angrylanks in 9:58 - Remember when you used to play NES Contra with a friend and used the up up down down left right left right code to get 99 lives and beat the game? Well TheMexicanRunner and angrylanks beat it together with a handful to strategic deaths to make the the whole run clock in in under 10 minutes. UNDER... 10... MINUTES...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZETvYopcHs

Dragon Warrior by NEScardinality in 27:19 - Not sure I've watched a run where it showed more RNG manipulation and control over a game than NEScardinaity running Dragon Warrior on NES. In games like Dragon Warrior you randomly run into enemies a lot through the overworld and NEScardinality uses RNG manipulation to avoid nearly all fights except the ones used for gaining experience or gold to get items and levels needed to complete the game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bgh30BiWG58

The local retro game collector community is pretty strong and as such we have a lot of local events strung through the year that are well worth attending even if you are lightly into the retro scene. In October Cheerful Ghost runs a booth at Portland Retro Game Expo and in January some of the same folks host the PRGE/NWCGE Swap Meet. It's hosted at the Portland Double Tree and it's much smaller and more focused on buying, selling and trading retro games. Will and I hit it up this year and were some of the first people in line to peruse the crazy amount of amazing retro games and collectables. One of my yearly goals is to limit myself to only buying 5 games this year and that makes going to a retro game expo tough but I had a game in mind I've wanted to get for a long time. One of my favorite games on the Super Nintendo is King Arthur's World and it's one of the more obscure games on the platform. I never thought the game got the recognition it deserved as a kind of Lemmings inspired knights and wizards RTS. Since the game doesn't have a huge following it doesn't sell for a lot so I picked it up for a good price.

As Will and I were rounding the show floor I overheard a vendor saying they wanted to move their issues of Nintendo Power and were selling them for a dollar. They were bagged and boarded and in great condition so I immediately was interested. The guy that the vendor told that to directly nabbed each issue he could find but missed a box so after he left I swooped in and walked away with 18 issues. I'm thinking about slowly working to owning a nearly complete collection and this is a really great first step. The issues I bought were Top Secret Passwords, Super Mario Bros. Inside Out Part 1 & 2, Issue Number 9, 23, 24, 26, 28, 37, 45, 48, 55, 63, 68, 70, 71, 74 & 107. I'm thinking a complete collection up to about issue 70 or so sounds good so i'm fairly well on my way to that.

I also picked up a couple versions of Star Wars on VHS I didn't own yet in The Empire Strikes back 1992 release along with The Making of Star Wars VHS released in 1995. I've nearly completed my Star Wars on VHS collection and all I need to button it up is Empire and Jedi on the original CBS/FOX VHS run and Revenge of the Sith. I'm still not sure if I plan on collection all the versions of Star Wars on Laserdisc or if i'll just go for one version of the trilogy on Laserdisc. It's a really obscure format and like Betamax i'm interested in how hard it might be to find locally.

The Humble Store is giving away Amnesia: The Dark Descent and Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs as a collection right now for the next 24 hours. If you are interested in some of the more well reviewed indie horror games and don't want to spend any money, head over to Humble and grab a free Steam key.

A little taste of what's in store for you in Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs...

"The year is 1899

Wealthy industrialist Oswald Mandus awakes in his bed, wracked with fever and haunted by dreams of a dark and hellish engine. Tortured by visions of a disastrous expedition to Mexico, broken on the failing dreams of an industrial utopia, wracked with guilt and tropical disease, he wakes into a nightmare. The house is silent, the ground beneath him shaking at the will of some infernal machine: all he knows is that his children are in grave peril, and it is up to him to save them."

https://www.humblebundle.com/store/amnesia-collection

It's a sad thing to hear that Nintendo is shutting down Miitomo only two years after it's initial launch in 2016. After it hit the scene Miitomo was pretty huge and most people on Cheerful Ghost and the local PDX indie game scene were playing it. That said, after a couple months, my usage of it faded entirely and it seems that was the same for most people as Nintendo is now shutting it down. It's a pretty epic rise and fall and shows the fragility of some online communities you can spend real money with to buy in game or app items. What happens to all your digital stuff you've payed for when the services goes away? In the case of Miitomo, almost everything is lost except your Mii which can copy over to certain other systems. This is partly why I don't buy much in game DLC or online content and have really enjoyed heading back to buying game carts, retro systems and games without DRM.

All that to say Miitomo was a cool idea and kudos to Nintendo for trying it out. I thought it would act as a sort of single sign on system that bridged the phone and new console world of Nintendo but that wasn't to be. The Switch is missing something like Miitomo or Miiverse and I wonder now if it will ever get anything like it as Miitomo is moving to retirement and Miiverse has also been shutdown? Maybe Nintendo is retiring from creating another social network and just focusing on games? Kind of sad if that were true as both Miitomo and Miiverse had a lot of simple charm and no one is making anything quite like them.

https://miitomo.com/en/notifications/180125/

Nintendo released a Japanese exclusive follow up to The Legend of Zelda a Link To The Past on the Satellaview. The Satellaview game broadcast went to subscribers over Satellite and Link to the Past Ancient Stone Tablets was one such game that went out to players in 1997. Youtuber AwesomeFaceProd created a really great historical breakdown of the game, the Satellaview and it's history as well as the team of people that brought this rare game to a playable ROM form and translated it. It's nice this game wasn't entirely lost to history and can be enjoyed by players today. I've seen this game pressed on recreation SNES carts and i'm thinking this might be a fun oddity to add to my collection.

http://bszelda.zeldalegends.net/