New Super Mario Bros. Tips and Tricks, More About Microsoft's Numero "Uno", Toys R Us Wii Preorder Rumors and the Maturing of Nintendo

Anyone know what time it is? Yup, it's Game Time once more. After writing the first edition of my new column, I felt so comfortable doing so that early one morning I decided to put in my second release to make it ready as soon as I could! So here it comes, right smack at you... again. (Please note, however, that some details in this article were added and/or changed during the wait for approval to better reflect events which occurred after the original version was submitted.)

So what have I got this time, you ask? Well, how about some nifty tricks for New Super Mario Bros. for your Nintendo DS? I'm sure that you've heard of Nintendo's first all-new side-scrolling Mario adventure by now - after all, it's the first of it's kind since the days of Super Mario World et al - so I'll bet you're itching for some trickery to get back in to the swing of this reinventing of a videogame classic!

I've also got another way to play Uno online that I missed the first time around, along with a rumor, its confirmation - and some bad news about it - that involves preorders, the Nintendo Wii, and Toys R Us (and the general state of preorders at thisw time. Finally, I'll touch on why this Nintendo console launch is different than before where maturity is involved. So let's get started already!

First, though, I'll share those handy tips for New Super Mario Bros. And if you prefer green over red, you'll like this first one which lets you swap a green plumber (that is, Mario's brother Luigi) for red (as in Mario himself) when you play this hot game. You'll probably pick up on a hint as to how to perform this trick when you complete the game, but if you're impatient and want it sooner, here it is: from the file selection screen, choose a file, hold both the L and R shoulder buttons, and press A. Bam! Now you're playing as Luigi!

Not enough for you? Then here's another good trick for New Super Mario Bros. that let's you replay cleared stages in a more difficult manner. And it only works on those already-cleared stages, so don't even try it if you haven't got past World 1 Act 1 yet. First, pause the game on the map screen, then press these buttons in the exact order: L, R, L, R, X, X, Y, Y. You should see a message saying you've started the mysterious Challenge Mode. Now when you play any previously-completed Act in any World, the screen scrolls only in the direction that leads to the end of the stage, like in the original Super Mario Bros.

Oh, and speaking of the original Super Mario Bros., remember those fireworks that went off when you completed a stage with the last two digits of the timer having the exact same digit? That trick works here, too - but now you also get a nice fat bonus along with it: when you perform this trick in New Super Mario Bros., a Toad House appears at the starting point on the Map Screen corresponding to the current world as follows: for timer readings of x11, x22 or x33, you get an item chance Toad House: x44, x55, x66 gets you a Toad House that can earn you green mushrooms for extra lives, and x77, x88 or x99 gets you a Toad House containing a Mega Mushroom!

Finally, have you unlocked worlds 4 and 7 yet? In order to do this, you must complete the ending castles of Worlds 3 and 5 as Mini Mario. Or, do what I did and complete only World 3 in this manner and find the alternate exit in the World 4 Ghost House to unlock a warp cannon leading to World 7!

So those are my favorite tricks for New Super Mario Bros. Now you're probably itching for a Wii, right? Well, you may have missed out for now: preorders at GameStop and EB Games sold out not too long ago (and within minutes to boot) - and then came a rumor that you could try again at Toys R Us on October 29th, which was confirmed first from scans - and the release - of the "big toy book" that the retailer puts out this time of year courtesy of Go Nintendo (on the web: http://gonintendo.com/?p=7072) , followed by one from my local Toys R Us store and lastly an official press release on the web at http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/10-26-2006/0004459881&EDATE=)... but again, those preorders went extremely fast (in fact, too fast for online preorders to even take place).

So now you just might have to wait until launch to secure a Wii, as there is no sign at this point that any online retailers will even be able to provide any more preorders (especially since even Amazon.com sold out of a second round of them - before they could even get the e-mail notifications out!) In other words, if you're still on any preorder notifications for the Wii - well, tough luck.

And speaking of Wii, with titles like The Godfather, Far Cry and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent headed to Nintendo's new console, it appears that for the first time in the history of both the current videogame rating system and Nintendo hardware launches, the list of accompanying software titles at launch includes, for the first time as far as my knowledge goes, at least one or two titles wit a class M rating, as in Mature.

That's right: In all my knowledge of videogame hardware launches, this has never happened like this with a Nintendo hardware launch - only with the Playstation and XBOX consoles could this have traditionally happened (and rumor has it that according to retailer GameCrazy (on the web: http://www.gamecrazy.com/), the upcoming Metroid Prime 3: Corruption could see a class M rating itself, a first for the Metroid series that is undoubtedly due to the game's darker plot).

In fact, according to Nintendo's own Reggie Fils-Aime, "The fact is there will be M-rated content on the Wii console. EA has already announced that they're bringing The Godfather to our console." And that's not all: Reggie even said that "We want every single best-selling game to be available on Wii. Whatever that content is." Which could possibly mean that, at this rate, a Wii version of Grand Theft Auto might not be far behind. Any bets?

Finally, a little update to my first column: when I mentioned the ability to play Uno online, either through XBOX Live or MSN Games, I forgot to add that if you use MSN or Windows Live Messenger on your Windows-based computer, you can also play Uno through that as one of the instant-message client's instant games. Another thing I sould add about the online Uno game is that it goes much faster than the offline version, since you only need 250 points to win instead of the traditional 500, so you'll go from one game to the next more quickly.

Well, that's it for release #2, so until next time keep those gaming fingers moving and stay in the game like there's no tomorrow! In the meantime, post your thoughts here in the comments or drop me a line at jdavis9172@hotmail.com if you have any gaming tidbits to share. Happy gaming!