Super Mario World has a deceptively amazing soundtrack. I don’t know if you ever noticed this, but that game basically has one song that’s repeatedly re-imagined throughout. By changing the tempo, instrumentation and bits of the melody here and there, Koji Kondo created a varied, yet wonderfully cohesive soundscape for my all-time favourite Super Mario game. I didn’t pick up on this until many years later, though there’s one audio cue that caught my ear immediately. Whenever Yoshi was on screen, he was accompanied by a sweet bongo arrangement. Those bongos in my mind became synonymous with the awesome that Yoshi brought to the table.
amiibo
Jett Plays Splatoon Global Testfire
I get my bearings in this first beta for Nintendo’s latest. It doesn’t come through in the video, but once I got a hang of it, I had a blast! Can’t wait to play the final product!
Amiibo Story: Ike
In the eyes of most, Ike is probably just another sword dude like Marth in Smash Bros. or one of the Amiibo figures that are seemingly impossible to find. To me, Ike is so much more than that. He’s a star character from Fire Emblem; a series that is one of my all-time faves. He also happens to be the star of my favourite game in the series.
Amiibo Story: Mega Man
I vividly remember the first time I ever played a Mega Man game. It was the summer of 1990 and a family friend that was a year older than me had come over to my house with his new copy of Mega Man 2. Having never heard of the franchise up until then, I had no idea what to expect when I booted it up. Within seconds, the music in my ears was all I needed to hear to know that I was in for something special.
Amiibo Story: Sonic
It’s easy to make fun of Sonic the Hedgehog. For the last 15 or so years, the games he’s starred in have been mediocre at best to dumpster fires at worst. His glory days may be long behind him, but I’ll never forget the time when he was the king of video games.
Amiibo Story: Sheik
Due to a lack of foresight, I kind of already said everything I wanted to about Sheik in my Zelda Amiibo Story post from a gameplay perspective. Because of that, let’s just skip to the shopping experience and what I think about this particular figurine.
Amiibo Story: Kirby
My history with Kirby is short. Despite his many appearances in Nintendo titles since the 80s, I’ve only played one Kirby game in earnest. That game was Kirby’s Epic Yarn. Featuring a wildly creative and adorable yarn-based art style, that game won me over with its look and clever gameplay.
I may play more Kirby titles in the future, but for now, he sits on my shelf with the rest of my Amiibo collection. It didn’t hurt that I got him on clearance at a Target closing sale, which certainly impacted this particular purchase. In any case, glad to have him as a reminder of the good times that came from that game, and hopefully they make another one!
Amiibo Story: Bowser
In a weird way, Bowser has been my life long video game arch nemesis. Since the original Super Mario Bros. was the game that got me into video games years before I was even old enough to go to school, I’ve been battling the King Koopa for as long as I can remember. Nowadays, I usually give him the boot with relative ease, though things certainly weren’t in my favour back then.
Amiibo Story: Toon Link
From A Link to the Past to Ocarina of Time, the hero of Hyrule is the star of some of my all-time favourite games. However, for those of you who follow the nuances of Zelda lore, the Link you play as isn’t always the same guy. I’m most familiar with the more humanoid Link, while the Toon Link, as christened in Smash Bros., is largely alien to me. So why do I have a Toon Link instead of an adult one?
Amiibo Story: Diddy Kong
Flash back to the summer of 1994. I’m only 10 years old at the time, so there’s almost no reason for me to receive mail. On this particular summer day, I open the mailbox with a VHS tape addressed to me from Nintendo. With no idea what this tape was or why Nintendo was sending it to me, I threw it in my VCR and watched it as soon as I could.
In Third Person 
