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Movies aren’t the only entertainment medium fond of ripping off ideas, video games have been ripping each other off from day one. The games on this list compiled by Dorkly are made up of familiar games with a slightly different look, proving that imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but it generally doesn’t help you sell your product.
From Super Mario Bros. to Street Fighter, to (relatively) newer games like Team Fortress and Grand Theft Auto, no popular game is safe from copycats, yet sometimes a rip-off game takes on a life of its own and makes it big. So, should we hate on imitators, or enjoy the way they lampoon the big names in the industry?
The team at Exploding Rabbit have a gift for any fan of classic Nintendo games, and/or those looking to kill some time online with a really fun retro side scroller- Super Mario Crossover, a custom Super Mario Bros. game that allows you to play through as one of eight playable characters!
You can play as Link from The Legend Of Zelda, Samus from Metroid, Bill Rizer from Contra, Mega Man, even Simon from Castlevania, just to name a few.
Just think how fun it will be to smack Koopas around with a whip, or shoot Bowser in the face when he least expects it, all the while taking in the classic video game soundtrack slightly re-imagined. It’s like the NES threw a party, and you’re invited!
Link –via ComicsAlliance
Show off both your mad video game skills and your muscular body with this modified Nintendo Entertainment System controller. Brian Kaminski’s interface lets you control Mario’s movements by flexing your biceps and forearms. His instructions at the link show you how to build one that just plugs into a USB port.
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Itsa mashup trailer, featuring gameplay footage of everyone’s favorite stereotype plumber and the audio track from the latest Grand Theft Auto V teaser. Every time Mario tries to get out they pull him back in, like a giant pipe with a secret chamber inside.
–via GeeksAreSexy
Digital artist Jonathan Fletcher has created the player select screen for a bizarro version of the Super Mario Bros. video game that would apparently take place in the Gulf of Mexico.
This has to be the skeeziest incarnation of the Bros. i’ve ever seen, but nobody ever said plumbing was a glamorous job!
Link –via Geekologie
Lori Turnbull’s crocheted Mario and Luigi caps come with elastic bands to help them stay on your cat’s head. As though that would even be necessary! Cats love to wear hats.
Link -via Fashionably Geek
Comments Off Fans of the Mario Bros. video game franchise draw inspiration from the moustachioed plumbers in so many creative ways, but i’m generally most impressed by the musical tributes. This operatic styled song released on YouTube by legolambs has hilarious lyrics that go along with the gameplay so well that you’ll be entertained even though you’re watching someone play Super Mario Bros. for the millionth time.
–via Geekosystem
This visual guide has been released in order to prevent confusion when you discover these magical items in the world of the Mario Bros. Created by Juxtapop, this nicely illustrated guide was inspired by the Harry Potter universe:
I finally got around to watching every Harry Potter film. Never saw them before, never read the books. Then it hit me. They have all the same powers as Mario.
So, while they may have the same powers at their disposal, Mario totally pwns Harry Potter in every way.
Link –via GeeksAreSexy
Like in the Super Mario Bros. games, eating these quesadillas will make you temporarily invincible. If you’re going to sustain this ability, you have to keep eating them — as many as necessary so that people start avoiding you. You can find a recipe at the link.
Link -via That’s Nerdalicious!
After hearing this Bulgarian accordionist version of the Super Mario Bros. theme song, i’m starting to rethink Mario’s heritage. Maybe he spent some time in Bulgaria as a kid, or he has a Bulgarian doppelganger, because this song sounds so Mario!
–via BuzzFeed
Mario’s brother Luigi once had his day in the sun, thanks to a Nintendo Gamecube game called Luigi’s Mansion, in which Luigi wins a haunted mansion and must rescue Mario from his ghostly captors using a vacuum pack to bust the spooks. Sounds like the perfect game to turn into a live action movie, right? Well, watch this spoof trailer made by YouTube user SAXjewell and see what you think.
–via Ology
Comments Off Brad Slattery made Super Pixel Bros., a version of Super Mario Bros. that is played with 64 alternating lights. The whole design is quite minimal. There’s a 8X8 LED matrix, a digital display, and controller buttons mounted onto a circuit board. There are multiple levels in the game, each of which is 120 pixels wide. Mario is represented by a simple yellow dot.
Link -via Bit Rebels
Itsa Mario, as a cute and cuddly cube! No arms, no legs, no problem cause the only adventure this little guy is going on happens in the dreamworld. Sugarcubes handmade sells all kinds of cuddly cubic characters on Etsy, from Link to Harry Potter, and their adorability cannot be denied! However, Mario’s new cubic body may make it hard for him to slide down pipes…
Comments Off Morgan Day and Emily Wigger definitely deserved the “Golden Budgie” award at this year’s National Jitterbug Championships. Their swing dancing routine got increasingly geeky by incorporating theme music and elements of game play. -via Comics Alliance
Etsy seller Elizabeth Kohn made a set of earrings that look like the piranha plants from Super Mario Bros. Ouch! Hopefully these don’t spit fireballs. Link -via reddit
Darick Maasen made this taxidermed version of a Koopa Paratroopa from the Super Mario Bros. franchise. It’s the perfect display item for a man cave — far superior to a mere mounted deer head. Link -via Uniblog
Doryan of Eyes of a Brownie decorated this dollar bill in a Super Mario Bros. theme. What, did you think that we were still using gold coins? Shoot, it’s not even backed up by gold coins anymore. Link -via The Mary Sue
In this re-dubbing of the classic Super Mario Bros first level, we see how Mario would sound if they had used today’s more realistic video game sound effects. See link for full video.
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Would life make more sense if you suddenly realized that you’re actually inside Super Mario Bros.?
Also: turtles can climb fences? If snapping turtles can do this and develop opposable thumbs, we’re in trouble.
via Geekosystem | Photo: unknown
If you are a fan of the classic Super Mario Bros franchise, you might have always wondered how the evil Bowser recruited and maintained such a strong army of Koopas, Goombas and those annoying Mario eating plants. It turns out he uses some slick World War II style propaganda posters! Link
Silvas’ girlfriend April loves Super Mario Bros., so he decided to propose marriage to her in an appropriate way. He decorated his living room with game backgrounds and placed the wedding ring in a yellow cube hanging from the ceiling. And then, once she said ‘yes’….
via Kotaku
You ever feel a need for a little boost? Punch the underside of this wall-mounted box made by Instructables user Bruno Pasquini. It spits quarters (with appropriate sound effects) out of the top, just like the coin boxes in Super Mario Bros. You can watch a video of it working at the link.
Link via Make | Maker’s Personal Website
Comments Off Angst, drug addiction, and unrequited love. Super Mario Bros., as Joe Nicolosi discovered, has always had the potential to be an indie film. This trailer was shown at the current SXSW festival in Austin.
via Geekologie | Director’s Website
Previously:
Star Wars Retold By Someone Who Hasn’t Seen It
Super Mario Bros. Intervention
It’s only a matter of time before Juilliard starts up a Super Mario studies program. In the meantime, this prodigy is getting the ball rolling with his spectacular rendition of the Super Mario Bros. theme in real time – adjusted for speed boosts, trips into the warp zones, coin grabs, and other sound effects.
When I win the lottery and become a zillionaire, I’m going to have a room with just an NES and this guy in it. It’s gonna be awesome.
Confession time: back in the ’80s, I spent a pretty sizable chunk of time cutting class and playing Super Mario Bros. on that beautiful grey box that was the NES. I also listened to Danzig – until I realized that it was drowning out that hypnotic siren song that is the Super Mario theme.
And I’d say I turned out alright. What’s more, it turns out I’m not the only one who was mentored by Mario. Case in point: Julia Leptit’s Dorkly piece “Everything I Need to Know in Life I Learned From Super Mario,” which is not only brilliant but is also not the craziest thing a kid could learn. Or an adult, for that matter.
Now if you’ll excuse me, Redneck Bob the inbred comic is hosting a History Channel special on the Kennedy-Triceratops treaty of 1812.
Children at the Maria Imaculada School in Porto Alegre, Brazil, put on a Super Mario-themed classical ballet. It was entitled “The Abduction of Princess Peach.” I’m waiting until they do Grand Theft Auto.
Link (Google Translate) via Kotaku | Photo: Reino do Cogumelo
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Donald, an electrical engineer in El Paso, Texas, made this mech inspired by Yoshi from Super Mario Bros. You can see more pictures at the link, as well as similar past projects at his website.
Link via DVICE | Artist’s Website
Martin Spitznagel performed this ragtime medley of music from Super Mario Bros., Harry Potter movies, and Star Wars. Andrew Barrett and Tom Warner accompanied him on washboards. This performance took place at the West Coast Ragtime Festival in Sacramento in 2008.
via reddit | Spitznagel’s Website
YouTube user yankeyan altered his Kinect gaming interface so that he could play Super Mario Bros. by mimicking Mario’s movements:
I programmed it to recognize my motions and passed the virtual button presses to the NES emulator. I could have placed a simulated keypad right in front of me that I can press with my hands, but I thought full body gestures were more in the spirit of Kinect. Of course, Mario isn’t designed to be played like this, so this is really really hard.
via Technabob
A housing development in Zaragoza, Spain, will name its streets after classic video games. Last Saturday, residents dubbed one road “Avenida de Super Mario Bros.”:
Other planned roads in the neighborhood include streets named for “Sonic the Hedgehog,” “Space Invaders” and “The Legend of Zelda.”
Video games won out over more traditional options in an online poll that residents used to pick their street names, said Antonio Almudi Miranda, president of the Arcosur neighborhood association.
“We are people who grew up living with video games. We know them very well,” he said. “I’m 25. I’m the same age as Mario.”
Link via Nerd Bastards | Photo: CNN
