PixlBit

Ninception

If you told me when I was a kid that Super Mario Bros. 2 was merely a localized version of a pre-existing game from Japan, I wouldn’t have believed you. But in fact, that’s precisely what Nintendo did for the US release of the next chapter in the Mario series. This was mostly due to the fact the original Japanese sequel was nearly identical to Super Mario Bros., only with slightly improved graphics. There was also concern that the game’s high difficulty would be off-putting for American audiences. The solution? Take Doki Doki Panic, swap out the main characters, slap a “Super Mario Bros. 2” label on that bad boy, and you’ve got yourself Nintendo’s best-selling game of 1988.

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Friend of the site, Greg Meyer, had a chance to go hands on with the Switch at one of the exclusive events. In anticipation of tomorrow's release, he's put together a bunch of impressions to get you excited for what's coming next for Nintendo.

On Friday, February 17^th, I had the opportunity to travel to Chicago and check out Nintendo’s upcoming new system—The Switch, as well as fifteen different titles releasing within the Switch’s first year. As a longtime fan of video games, I’d read about events like E3 and press preview events and dream about going to one of these one day. Since I’m not involved in games journalism and live in the Midwest, I never imagined I’d have a chance to attend a preview event. The only time I went to something of this level was Nintendo’s E3 Best Buy event in 2013, where I spent three hours in line so I could play one Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze level. When Nintendo emailed me an invitation to preview the Switch, I immediately snagged two tickets. When I left for the event with my friend Marcus, I expected something similar to that Best Buy preview.

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The staff sounds off on their favorite Halloween games - what's your go-to Halloween gaming experience?

Halloween is here! A time of all kinds of scary things like werewolves, zombies, and diabetes! Not to mention plenty of great games. Whether you want something fun and lighthearted, something that will scare the pants off you*, or something in the middle, the Pixlbit staff has you covered as we talk about our favorite Halloween video games! 

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Mario Paint for the 21st Century, if it allowed your childhood dream to come true.

Most of us have played a 2-D Mario game at some point in our lives, and I'm sure I wasn't the only one that really wanted to make a Mario level and have others play it in years past. Granted, people have made attempts to make their own Mario levels with varying degrees of success, but Miyamoto and friends finally granted my wish for Mario’s 30^th anniversary in the form of Super Mario Maker. As far as level creation tools go, Super Mario Maker is a great level creation tool that has seen over six million levels created since its launch last year. Needless to say, the game is a hit with Mario fans everywhere. However, there are still flaws it has to iron out.

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