61 Frames Per Second

Browse by Tags

(RSS)

Licensing Tragedies: The Donkey Kong Country Cartoon

Nine out of ten platformer fans with two working eyes agree that the computer-rendered sprites used in Donkey Kong Country were a bit more impressive fourteen years ago. Even so, Donkey Kong Country's visuals still succeed in its portrayal of certain key environments: lush (if flat) jungle foliage, colourful coral, atmospheric snowstorms, and rich orange-and-red sunsets. Additionally, the series' characters were likable until Donkey Kong 64 dragged each simian into monkey hell.

The Kong clan may have been slain by the DK Rap, but I maintain that 1996's French Canadian Donkey Kong Country cartoon helped engineer the gallows. The two disasters are not necessarily connected, except by name, but both can be accused of bland presentation and a noticeable lack of humour and fun.

I will admit that I am criticising a pile of alphabet blocks, here: the Donkey Kong Country cartoon was meant for very young audiences, and it was the family-oriented showpiece for the launch of Teletoon, Canada's animation channel. It was no surprise Nelvana saw fit to give Donkey Kong a vocabulary beyond “Ook ook grunt,” and a story beyond “Beat up reptiles for bananas.” Even so, the crew rarely did anything except thwart King K Rool's attempts to grab Donkey's, uh, “Crystal Coconut” episode after episode. Also, there was a prophecy about Donkey Kong ruling the island or something. Hooray, life under a gorilla regime.

Posted Mar 16 2009, 07:39 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 4 comment(s)

Filed under: snes, donkey kong country, super nintendo, 16-bit, cartoon, nadia oxford, donkey kong country 2, licensing tragedies

WTFriday: The Super Mario Bros. Anime

Note to readers: WTFriday is a weekly feature where I find something stupid about video games and get you to laugh until it goes away. Please try to forget this is what I normally do every day of the week.

For as popular as Mario is, it's surprising that anime adaptations of The Mushroom Kindgdom have been shockingly few in number. That isn't exactly the case for American animation, though; if you were "lucky" enough to grow up in the late 80s and early 90s, there's no doubt that at some point your butt was parked in front of a TV airing one of the three Super Mario Bros. series painstakingly crafted by trained apes. For whatever reason, Japan never thought to inflict an animated version of their most popular fictional celebrity on the nation's youth, aside from two projects--and if you think I'm being unfair to the American Mario cartoons, watch about one minute of Super Mario World and feel free to change your opinion after you purchase a seeing-eye dog.

Today's WTFriday spotlight falls upon the 1986 Japanese movie, Super Mario Bros.: Peach-Hime Kyushutsu Dai Sakusen! (or, if you don't know what any of those words mean, Super Mario Bros.: Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach!).

Posted Jan 16 2009, 02:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 4 comment(s)

Filed under: nintendo, mario, super mario bros, anime, cartoon, bob mackey, wtfriday

Doing the Mario Over Christmas Break

From everyone here at 61FPS, I'd like to wish each and every one of you a merry Christmas. The other writers would probably like to wish you a merry Christmas too, but I'm going to go ahead and do it for them, because that's just the kind of guy I am: a massive jerk. Unfortunately, we're not going to be back until 2009, but there's no need to despair; sure, you could go read other blogs in the meantime, but that would be insane. Instead, I suggest you do what I'm going to waste the next week-or-so doing: watching embarrassing programs from my childhood through the power of modern technology.

That's right; if you have an XBox 360 and a Netflix subscription (as well as a high-speed internet connection and a total lack of shame) you have the ability to see how you may have thrown away your most formative years on this terrible planet. Currently, Netflix offers three different TV shows from the not-too-distant past that most of us watched non-ironically as children--irony having only been invented in 1997. Allow my brief reviews to help you find what's right for you; or, grab your favorite Frito-Lay snack and enjoy all of the video game-related programming from that wonderful decade known as the 1980s. Just make sure your heart doesn't stop beating from all the inactivity.

Posted Dec 23 2008, 04:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 7 comment(s)

Filed under: nintendo, the legend of zelda, cartoon, bob mackey, super mario, captain n, 1980s

Quickies: Homestar Ruiner

While we were all ridiculously pumped for Bionic Commando: Rearmed last week, there was another highly-anticipated downloadable game to tide us over for the first half of the week: Telltale Games' point-and-click WiiWare adventure Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People Episode One: Homestar Ruiner. Odds are good that if you're on the internet you're already somewhat familiar with the world of Homstar Runner and its brash luchador masked star Strong Bad, and, if you're anything like me, you were with them from fhqwhgads and quit right around Cheat Commandos. A quick glance through the Toons section of the site shows that, like The Simpsons and Family Guy, I'm probably better off for having missed the past few years of redundancy. How does this bode for the first official H*R video game?

Posted Aug 18 2008, 05:00 PM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with no comments

Filed under: derrick sanskrit, wiiware, adventure, eden, bionic commando rearmed, cartoon, homestar runner, strong bad, telltale games

Sonic is for Porn

Dic's Saturday morning Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon--often referred to by its (very dedicated) fanbase as "SatAM"--remains an example of one of video gamedom's higher quality cartoon adaptations. The intro lives on in the hearts of our inner children. When we hear it, we recall our bowls of Trix and waking up before everyone else and oh my God, I can't even concieve of not sleeping in on a Saturday morning. Not even for Sonic.

Most of us have grown up and become stale adults with worries about bills and running out of Dulcolax. Our tastes have changed as well; now instead of laughing along with Sesame Street, we laugh along with Avenue Q (maybe).

Ah, but perverts may yet rejoice for this opportunity to recapture and distort their childhood. A thoughtful Sonic fan crossed Avenue Q's "The Internet is For Porn" with the animated cast of Sonic the Hedgehog. (Mildly NSFW.) Of course, every genius with free, spyware-laden editing software has crossed Avenue Q with every franchise ever (including your mom. Oh!--Zing!), but there's something very special about the obese Dr Robotnik bellowing "For porn!" Unfortunately, the image of Robotnik surfing the Internet for delights now hovers in my brain like a spectre.

Someone get me a funnel and some lighter fluid.

Posted Aug 18 2008, 03:18 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 5 comment(s)

Filed under: sega, sonic the hedgehog, parody, cartoon, robotnik, the internet is for porn, satam, sonic the hedgehog cartoon, avenue q, dic

about the blogger

John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Nerve, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.