Igrice: Super Mario

We love featuring Super Mario toys and other oddities here at Nintendo Nonstop. Continuing that tradition, today we’re featuring one of the most well-loved artifact in gaming: mushrooms!

Yup. Those things that make Mario bigger and other cool stuff. Mushrooms have become so iconic that they’ve inspired the design of otherwise everyday things. If you were racking your brains out for a gift idea for your gamer friends, these might put a smile on their faces. And just for fun, you can get some for yourself.

Mushroom Coin Bank

This is an officially licensed Nintendo product, imported right from Japan. Mario Mushroom Banks come in red and green, for the 1up Mushroom and the Super Mushroom. They measure 6.5″ in height, making them cute but still very functional. Use these to save up for the next must-have game for the DS Lite. They also make a nice room decor, however that might not be the safest thing to do for your savings, expecially is you have a mean brother around. Highly recommended for gamers who are both geeky AND thrifty. More…

Mario Mushroom Candies

Got a sweet tooth? Try this! Mushroom-shaped candies inside as mushroom-shaped tin can. Just pop off the cap and you’ll get multi-colored sweets. Blue is raspberry, red is cherry, and green means apple flavor. These tins are about 3.5″ high. When you’ve finished off the candies, don’t throw the can just yet! You can use them as storage for small things, like paper clips, push pins, or use it as a pencil holder. Perfect for your study or office table. More…

Mario Mushroom Lamps

These Mushroom Lamps use two white LEDs inside, filtered by the red, blue or green color of the mushroom cap. It looks great at your bedside, making your otherwise boring lamp come to life. And since they are using LEDs, they don’t consume much power, so if you doze off leaving them on overnight, there’s no need to worry. Power comes from 4 pieces of trusty AA-sized batteries. These nifty lamps are 13 cm in diameter and 14 cm in height. More…

There you go. If you love mushrooms as much as I do, whether they be shiitake, oyster or plain button mushrooms, these will be nice additions to the holiday fest.

Gaming consoles are hot this Christmas. During this crucial period when everyone is shelling out their cash, the biggest players have been aggressively jostling for position to get your hard-earned money. So what does the verdict say?

Overall, there’s been very little change. Back in October, the sales chart showed Wii leading the pack with 42.5% market share. That has remained steady, getting 42.6% (14.92 million units sold) by the end of November, or a 0.1% increase. XBOX is still a close second, but has fallen by 1.2% to finish at 39.4% (13.72 million units). And after all the price cuts, Sony’s PS3 is beginning to get some momentum, closing the month 1.1% higher at 18.2% market share (6.36 million units). With prices becoming more competitive, PS3 has actually out-sold Wii in Japan last week. Playstation 3 turned in 183,217 units as against the Wii’s 159,193 consoles. Good job, Sony gaming executives! You can now show your faces in public.

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Is Mario just that popular or have Canadians gone apolitical?

I don’t know where they got the idea to do it, but Nintendo Canada commissioned Harris/Decima to do some research on the iconic character created by Shigeru Miyamoto. According to the survey, more people can identify a photo of Mario, than can identify a photo of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Even in Calgary, Harper’s hometown, Mario was more recognizable (47% vs 41%). Women were also more likely to identify Mario than the country’s top politician (66% vs 63%). Nationwide, everybody’s favorite plumber is just as well-known as the prime minister, both being recognized 70% of the time. The photographs used were unavailable, though, and keep in mind that images can be pretty subjective.

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Zero out of ten. That’s the not-so-flattering rating given to Nintendo recently. Out of all the companies Greenpeace studied for their Greener Guide to Electronics report, Nintendo placed dead last. Basically, this means that the millions of Wiis and DS Lites sold today are likely to pollute the environment in the near future, after gamers give them up for the next generation of consoles. Thanks, Nintendo. That’s a very comforting thought.

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