I mentioned it on the last podcast, but we have to send our Wii off to Nintendo for repairs. This is the first time I’ve ever had to send a system away for a repair, and I’m kinda nervous about it.

Whenever we try to load up the Wii Shop Channel, the whole system just reboots. I have no idea why. It literally worked one day and stopped working the next. A Google search for some kind of remedy showed that it’s a common problem, but only on systems that have been modified, which our system is not.

We have a winnah!

Hello all you PK-Bloggin-ites out there in Internet-Land. It’s your friendly neighborhood Christina again. Long time no see! (Well unless you’re a member of the forums… Then you see me frequently enough. If you aren’t already a member, what are you waiting for?!) I’m here to bring you tonight’s podcast! We’re doing a continuation of our music selection podcast (see Episode 10 if you don’t know what I’m talking about) so I hope you all enjoy it! Please feel free to leave some of your favorites or comment on ours, either over on the forums or in the comments section!

PK Podcast! Episode 12 - 05/28/2010 [ 30:58 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Oh, so before you hear it for yourself, I kinda messed up. In the podcast I called the track from Donkey Kong Country 2 “Arctic Abyss”… but that’s actually the level name, not the track title on the OST. The song is actually called “In a Snow-Bound Land”. Just had to clear that up! Check out the full track-list of what we covered below.

01. Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire – “Battle! Wild Pokémon” – Junichi Masuda
02. Banjo-Kazooie – “Spiral Mountain” – Grant Kirkhope
03. Akumajo Dracula X – “Vampire Killer” – Konami Kukeiha Club
04. Castle Crashers – “Spanish Waltz” – Urbanus
05. Parasite Eve – “Urban Noise” – Yoko Shimomura
06. Donkey Kong Country 2 – “In a Snow-Bound Land” – David Wise

…I think this may have been our longest podcast ever?! Maybe. I don’t know.

ANYWHO. Look forward to tomorrow when we unveil the winner of our Super Mario Memories contest! See ya then!

I just saw this over on Kotaku and I thought it was really neat. The fine folks over at GameTrailers have tackled the decades-old myth, confirming once and for all that Mario can indeed jump over the flagpole in Super Mario Bros. for the NES. I remember attempting this many times as a kid, but never quite making it.

I heard my share of rumors of things hidden in Super Mario Bros. way back when, none of which ever panned out because little kids are liars and I should have known that none of the kids in my kindergarten class had relatives who worked at Nintendo. Live and learn, I suppose!

By now you’ve probably seen the commercial for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 racer Blur, because I don’t even watch that much TV and I’ve seen it probably 70 times. This commercial is awful and represents a lot of what’s wrong with video games these days.

Also, yes, I know Kotaku kinda wrote about this today, but I was going to write this up yesterday but decided to do the contest instead. Whatever. I didn’t steal the idea.

In celebration of the infinite radness that is Super Mario Galaxy 2, I’m running another contest! If you want to win a WiiWare or Virtual Console game of your choice, all you need to do is post a comment below telling me what your favorite Super Mario Memory is. Is it the first time you played Super Mario Bros? Getting to the roof of Peach’s castle in Super Mario 64?

Imagine if they were able to take the concept of awesome and refine it into something tangible, like a powder. The FDA approves this awesome powder for use in foods and medicine. The most talented baker in the world discovers that awesome powder can be used to make the most delicious cake in the entire world. Now imagine it’s your wedding day, and your totally smokin’ hot wife smashes a piece of the awesome cake into your face.

This is what Super Mario Galaxy 2 is like. Having tangible awesome smooshed into your face by a hot chick.

Hey we’re back with PK Podcast! Episode 11! Your Fridays just got awesome again. Just a heads up, though, we kinda ramble in this one. We have to get back into the swing of things, apparently! That leads me right into what’s quickly becoming my catchphrase, “It’ll be better next time, I promise!”

PK Podcast! Episode 11 - 05/21/2010 [ 17:14 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Next Friday we’ll be back with a little more structure. Monday I’ll be talking all about Super Mario Galaxy 2, so be ready for that!

So I rented Borderlands for the Xbox 360 a while back, I just never got around to writing about it until now. I’m a busy guy. Whaddaya want from me?

Anyway, Borderlands. It’s a team-based first-person shooter RPG. That is quite the jumble of genres! I decided to give it a rent after listening to Major Nelson, e, Stepto and lollip0p talk about it at PAX East. They praised the gameplay and leveling system, so I decided that sticking stats in a shooter is a pretty good way to get me interested.

When I was in elementary school, times were very different. I only had one console, and the controller only had two buttons. There was no Kotaku or Joystiq. Getting a new video game was a rare treat, not a Friday evening. My parents would surprise me with games they’d purchase while I was at school, hand-picked not based on review scores or my own personal requests, but whether the box art was something that would appeal to me or not. I acquired some pretty rad NES games that way, but one stands out in my mind as being extremely special: Trog!