Tag Archives: Mushroom Kingdom

The Mushroom Kingdom's Oddest Jobs

No matter where you’re born, and no matter what you do, existence is costly. That’s why denizens of the Mushroom Kingdom often need to pick up odd jobs — even in a place where Star Bits often rain down from the sky like candy-flavored manna.

What’s more, everything and everyone is interlinked in Princess Peach’s realm. The Mushroom Kingdom’s main export may be giant turtles that kidnap royalty, but like any other self-sustaining country, it needs retail, services, and, er, “families” that keep everyone shell-deep in black market goods. But picking up a part-time job in Mario’s adopted country isn’t a simple matter of driving down to Walmart.

From running hotels to sitting around on a cloud and holding a fishing pole, here are some of the Mushroom Kingdom’s oddest jobs.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at IGN Video Games

How to Keep Mario Kart from Going Stale

It’s been three weeks now since Nintendo President Satoru Iwata confirmed the development of a new Mario Kart sequel for Wii U, an announcement that shocked absolutely no one. The Kart series has solidified itself as one of Nintendo’s no-brainer franchises – it’s just a foregone conclusion that a new sequel will show up on every new piece of hardware the company puts out.

For some, that regularity has become a comfortable consistency. For others, the series has grow too stale after too many sequels. So how can the upcoming Wii U edition keep the racing feeling fresh? We have a few ideas.

The easiest thing to wish for with any new Kart game is simply more of everything – more characters, more karts, more courses. We want to have new faces from the Mushroom Kingdom to put behind the wheel of vehicles we’ve never seen before, driving through racetracks that are all new. All of that will happen anyway, though – so what could make it feel fresh is a new approach.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at IGN Video Games

Getting Luigi’s Mansion Right

Poor Luigi. While Mario routinely sets off to fight Bowser, rescue Princess Peach and save the Mushroom Kingdom, his taller, thinner brother is whisked off to help a crazy old man research haunted mansions. Hardly fair, is it?

Such is the life of an often-forgotten brother, perhaps. Yet that’s exactly what happened to Luigi over a decade ago, as he helped debut Nintendo’s GameCube by strapping on a vacuum and busting some ghosts. But his first solo adventure was flawed, and despite the game being a relatively impressive technical demonstration of the ‘Cube’s capabilities, the first Luigi’s Mansion was a shallow experience that managed to simultaneously be too short while still exceeding the depth of its gameplay.

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Source: IGN Video Games