Constellation Prize...

The Nice List

Super Mario Bros. 3

The popularity of Super Mario is hard to match, with his games occupying the top three spots on the chart.

Diddy Kong and James Bond round out the top five.

A lump of Kremling Pirate Gold will be found in your Holiday Christmas stocking if you play as Oddjob in Multiplayer.

STAR CHARTS Navigating the Retro NintendoSphere  Game System Released 1 Super Mario Bros. 3 NES 1990 2 Super Mario Bros. NES 1985 3 Super Mario All-Stars SNES 1993 4 Donkey Kong Country 2 SNES 1995 5 GoldenEye 007 N64 1997

Donkey Kong Country 2:
Diddy's Kong Quest

Onatopp of Things...

Famke Janssen as Xenia Onatopp

Watching the 1995 GoldenEye movie and couldn't believe how young Xenia Onatopp (Famke Janssen) looks...

She was only about 21 at the time of the movie's release.(Izabella Scorpuco as Natalya was 25).

Xenia looked more mature during the casino scene, but it was during the Bunker scene when she looked incredibly young.

Back then, my first thought was "Damn, now that is a woman!".
Now, my first thought is "Damn she's hot - and barely out of high school!".








From the GoldenEye 007 video game, can't recall ever posting this text from Miss Moneypenny.
It still makes me laugh:

A text message from the early days of instant messenging...

One of those women has hostile intentions...

Always glad when she gets there first...

These VHS tapes will barely fetch a dollar...

I technically own three copies of the GoldenEye movie - The VHS tape, GoldenEye DVD and another disc from "The Pierce Brosnan Collection".

How have these movies stood the test of time? Which ones have endured as the most watchable?
Some have aged like a fine wine, and others haven't fared so well.

GoldenEye

GoldenEye (1995)
Some of the "newer" Brosnan movies seemed more exciting at the time, but I'd still have to pick GoldenEye as my favorite Brosnan 007 movie.

This is also the first Bond movie to really feature the new "Internet" technology (complete with 14.4K modems!). Now the internet is everywhere, completely encompassing us as if we're in "The Matrix"...

Tomorrow Never Dies

Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
Not a great movie, but it still has many great parts that makes it genuinely entertaining.

Give it a chance. Like Darth Vader, this flick can still be turned from the dark side of your movie collection. "There's still good in it!"

The World is Not Enough

The World is Not Enough (1999)
Overall, the movie seems a bit long and tends to drag in spots... But I am still fond of this one, because it's different.

The talents of Denise Richards are a bit wasted, as I feel there could have been more of her...

Die Another Day

Die Another Day (2002)
Possibly the most agonizing Brosnan Bond flick to sit through (thankfully Casino Royale is up next!).

Even the villains in Die Another Day manage to be a little more than mildly interesting.

Brosnan looks old on the cover. At first glance, I thought Halle Berry was helping him hold his gun upright.

Speaking of Halle Berry, she pulls off the beach "homage" scene quite nicely, a testament to her ability as an Oscar-winning actress.
But sadly, the rest of the movie is just dreadful for the most part. But as a completist, I simply could "not" not have it in my collection.











I see they've cleverly incorporated the orange bikini onto future releases of the Die Another Day box art...

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DKC3: Harder Baby

Back in 1996, we assumed getting 103% on Donkey Kong Country 3 meant you'd found everything... Before the Internet, there was no real way of knowing about secret codes unless they were published in a magazine... Turns out that "Cheat" codes can entered to make the game more difficult... Doing so rewards the player with up to 105% upon completion.

While codes can be used on existing files, the game will only give you extra credit if difficulty-enhancing codes are entered before starting a new file... So you gotta do everything all over again if you want to earn the fabled 105%.

Enter Code Screen:
On the Select Game screen, choose a new file, and access the code prompt by pressing:
L, R, R, L, R, R, L, R, L, R.

You'll hear a sound effect, and "ENTER CODE" will appear.
After entering the code, choose a name your file as usual.
(When a code has been correctly, Dixie Kong cries)

HARDR
Removes some of the DK barrels. Find everything with this handicap and earn up to 104%.

TUFST
Removes most DK barrels AND replaces checkpoint save barrels with a banana bunch, rewarding you with 105% if you can manage to complete the game with this difficulty setting.

(It's advisable to use the HARDR and TUFST codes separately, as both codes used together will still have save barrels barrels without DK barrels.... So one could assume your final score may only be 104%)

Other codes:

COLOR (alternate character clothing color. Purple for Dixie Kong, green for Kiddy Kong)
MERRY (Christmas ornaments and music in bonus games)
MUSIC (Dixie Kong's Music Test: Listen to tracks from the game)
LIVES (50 lives - *game will flag this and if you finish the game will called out as a Cheatin' Chump*)

Sean Connery
aka James Bond
(1930 - 2020)

Adventures of Super Mario Bros 3

Do the Frog Suit!

I always keep a sharp eye when browsing through secondhand junk... For five bucks, I snagged the entire animated series of SMB3.

Thwomp definitely takes pride in his work.

My favorite part of the show was seeing the 8-bit baddies brought to life as cartoon characters on my Saturday morning TV screen.

 The joys of torturing younger siblings...

With a castle full of spoiled teenagers, the Koopa Klan is about as dysfunctional as The Osbournes.

Princess Toadstool aboard the Doom Ship
with King Koopa and his minions.

The Princess is captured, yet again...Who didn't see that one coming?

"The dungeon???"

In fan favorite episode "Kootie Pie Rocks", Bowser finally has enough of his daughter's over-dramatic temper tantrums and threatens to lock her ass in the dungeon... Now that's just good parenting.

Game Over for Nintendo Power

A few final thoughts on the end of Nintendo Power  magazine, a publication that lasted for nearly a quarter century. It's sad that many people seem to have a "Good Riddance to Nintendo Power" attitude.

Sure, anything in print tends to be considered obsolete nowadays. But it kinda bugs me that people are so quick to not only care that Nintendo Power is gone, but to actually be happy about it's demise.

Obviously countless subscribers were lost due to the internet, with the abundance of free guides and walkthrus. It's hard to compete with that. Especially since NP was asking $20 for a year. That's $1.66 per issue. Can't even buy a pad of paper for that... Plus you got to choose a free Players' Guide, which is good to have on hand if you're playing with friends who are new to a game.

Another phrase that's been used to describe the magazine is "thinly veiled advertising". What can be expected from a magazine published by Nintendo? New game reviews tended to be biased, but I really didn't care. I just took it for what it was... A free player's guide, and a thick stack of video game screenshots, previews and newly released games every month. Not to mention the cool artwork and posters.

I haven't subscribed to the magazine in well over a decade, and the last issues I received tended to cater mostly towards the 10-13 year old audience... Still, I somehow think the world needs quirky monthly magazines like this one.