The 13 Most Shameless Super Mario Rip-Offs on iPhone

He's the most iconic cartoon character on earth - a video game legend and the star of nearly three decades worth of incredible platforming games, go-karting games, freelance gynecologic work and whatever the hell he was doing in that game alleyway. Yet aside from a few trips and stumbles, Nintendo always makes sure that every entry in the Super Mario franchise has fantastic quality control.

Sadly though, Nintendo doesn't make any of these terrible Super Mario rip-offs on the iPhone. Most of these have since been altered or removed entirely from the App store since their initial slips past Apple security, but here we have preserved them as they originally appeared in all of their awful, awful glory.

Editor's Note: Every single one of the titles below are (or at least were) real, actual games that hit the iOS App Store.

3D Cartoon Land Safari

You see, the way copyright law works is that if you change only one detail of a product you've completely stolen, nobody can ever sue you. Right?

A Kaizo World

"AVOID DON'T BUY DODGE THIS GAME TO SAVING A DOLLAR"

Barrels!

Donkey Wrong.

Cloud Run

DELETE ->

Game Guy

Remember when classic retro handheld systems had the phrase "Classic Retro Handheld System" on them?

Mole Kart

Instead of a blue shell, why not throw your credit card?

Monino

How many "lifes" have been wasted playing this shameless rip-off?

Otaku Dash

Yes, that's a pile of sh*t. On top of the pile of sh*t that is this game. So basically this game has pile of sh*t inside a pile of sh*t. Sh*t.

Super Daddio

This game runs at more frames per second than Mario 64, hence it's better so therefore checkmate.

Super Jump World

At least this one manages to ditch the anti-European stereotypes inherent in the actual Mario games. Oh wait, this one is just racist against the Irish.

Super World Adventures

Why play as Mario when there's a farmer who just realized how high he was?

Tommy's World

Oh no! Watch out, Tommy!

Wait, who the f*ck is Tommy?!?

Ultra Dario

When there's no more Mega Barrio, Duper Marlo and Superb Sargento in hell, the Ultra Dario will walk the earth.

Brian Altano and Mike Drucker are hopefully much more fun and original than any of these terrible clones when they write IGN's premier comedy news show, Up At Noon. Follow them on Twitter at @agentbizzle and @MikeDrucker.

Source : ign[dot]com

Street Fighter vs. Tekken vs. Mortal Kombat

Fighting games have bruised our fingers and battered our egos for decades. In the competitive gaming space, no genre does it quite like the fighter. They pound gamers over the head with mind-numbing combos and split-second timing. They take the spotlight in living rooms and Las Vegas tournaments. They're everywhere. And considering the rabid communities that spring up around these franchises, you can expect that the fighting game greats get compared to each other now and then.

The Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, and Tekken franchises have been brawling since the other 90s. We decided to pull out a few numbers and see how each series compares. We don't have any money on this fight. No legs will be broken. We just love the thrill of the game.

Brian Altano throws things together for IGN with enough class to impress this guy. Follow him on Twitter.

Ryan Clements writes for IGN and helped Altano stay positive today. He also ate a banana. Follow him here on IGN or over on Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com

A Visual History of the Tekken Series

Few fighting games endure the assault of their competitors for decades at a time. What started as a simple arcade game and PSone adaptation in the early '90s has evolved into a franchise filled with well-loved fighters, films, and spin-offs.

With the recent launch of Tekken Tag Tournament 2, we wanted to put together a few snapshots through time of the Tekken series. This fighter has fought its way across numerous platforms and has taken on different looks with each step. See how the King of Iron Fist Tournament has changed over the years below as we celebrate the awesome -- and often odd -- life of Tekken.

Tekken - 1995

Tekken 2 - 1996

Tekken: The Motion Picture - 1996

Tekken 3 - 1998

Tekken Card Challenge - 1999

Tekken Tag Tournament - 2000

Tekken Advance - 2001

Tekken 4 - 2002

Death By Degrees - 2005

Tekken 5 - 2005

Tekken 5: Dark Ressurection - 2006

Tekken: Dark Resurrection Online - 2007

Tekken 6 - 2009

Tekken 3D Prime Edition - 2011

Tekken Hybrid - 2011

Tekken Live Action Film - 2011

Street Fighter X Tekken - 2012

Tekken Tag Tournament 2

Tekken Tag Tournament: Wii U Edition

So which game in the Tekken series is your favorite? Scroll down to the comments below and tell us your most treasured memories from the Tekken universe. And let us know if you already picked up a copy of Tekken Tag Tournament 2!

Brian Altano kicks it at IGN. The thought of giant pandas fighting in a martial arts tournament alarms him greatly, and upsets his hip-hop sensibilities. Follow him on Twitter.

Ryan Clements writes for IGN and always gets his ass kicked in Tekken. He'd rather watch this music video on repeat instead. Follow him here on IGN or over on Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com

The Iceman Review

Richard Kuklinski worked as a contract killer for the mob for four decades. He claimed to have murdered at least 100 people and possibly more. He died in 2006 while serving out five consecutive life sentences in prison. He was characterized as brutal and unflinching and an outwardly emotionless man. He had a grisly penchant for chopping up his victims and freezing them before disposal hence the underworld moniker “The Iceman.”

Michael Shannon plays the terrifying title character with amazing control. His performance is an exercise in precision, showing us a coldly exacting killer boiling just under the surface. His tightly-controlled performance works so well because we see the character under incredible stress. Kuklinski may have been a hardened killer, but he was also a family man. He had a wife and children who knew absolutely nothing about his mob work. To them he was a devoted husband and father, perhaps a bit distant at times, but unequivocally a good man. Balancing this double life proves ample fodder for a fascinating film.

The Iceman himself is a truly captivating character, but, unfortunately, as memorable as Shannon’s performance is the same can’t be said about the other actors. It’s definitely an interesting cast, and they all seem to be trying, but no one here is acting on the same level as Shannon. Kuklinski’s wife Deborah is played amiably by Winona Ryder. It’s nice to see her in a substantial role again, but this is not her best performance. When she gets mad and starts yelling at her husband, you’ll totally believe his reaction but her end of the argument just isn’t quite there.

Similarly, the rest of the supporting cast gives passable performances that might work in a different film, but when put up directly against Shannon’s Iceman pale in comparison. Ray Liotta shows up and doesn’t stretch very much to play mob boss Roy DeMeo. Small scenes with James Franco and Stephen Dorff are both overly emotional and end up coming off as artificial. The only actor who really comes close to standing toe to toe with Shannon, surprisingly, is Chris Evans. He plays another contract killer, Robert Pronge, nicknamed “Mr. Softee” after the ice cream truck he drives around town. Since his character is written more as a peer to The Iceman perhaps that gives him an edge on relating to him more believably. Pronge and Kuklinski develop a respect for each other’s work and eventually start taking jobs together.

The kills here are suitably gruesome, but they’re all designed to serve the story. There’s nothing gratuitous here. Kuklinski is cold-blooded, never betraying emotion outwardly, but we can see there’s more going on. It’s the contrast between the public Kuklinski and the inner one that makes this film such a fascinating character study. You keep watching because you want to see how he holds it all together under such enormous pressure, what might break him, and where those boundaries lie.

The Iceman is a good film despite the secondary characters falling flat. The central story is excellent, and Michael Shannon gives a praise-worthy performance. This is the kind of character study that makes you question how some people can be the way they are … or realize that people are definitely not all they seem to be.

Source : ign[dot]com

The Symmetry of New Super Mario Bros. Wii

You'd think there'd be a difference. Mario's been doing this kind of thing for decades – running, jumping, saving the princess. You'd think he'd have some advantage, some noticeably better skillset than a pair of simple upstarts setting out on their first-ever adventure. But, no. Nintendo decided against that. Nintendo decided that, in 2009's New Super Mario Bros. Wii, the world's most famous platforming hero would be able to be matched step for step, jump for jump by a couple of nameless, personality-less Toads.

From Mario's perspective, it doesn't make a lot of sense. He should run faster. Jump higher. Something. But, from the designers' point of view, it must have been better to make all players created equal.

Realizing a Dream

When New Super Mario Bros. Wii was revealed three years ago and then shipped to stores in late 2009, it sparked a new revival for 2D side-scrolling platformers – but it was a focused one, not just a general revisit to the genre. 2006's first New Super Mario Bros. on the DS had already done that, so the Wii follow-up's larger contribution wasn't just pulling platformers back into the spotlight, but pulling platformers back into the spotlight with a new emphasis on simultaneous multiplayer play.

It was four-player Mario! A design dream that Shigeru Miyamoto had hoped to realize for decades, finally materialized in Nintendo's fifth console generation. At long last you could set out to rescue the kidnapped princess with friends alongside you, having Mario accompanied by his brother Luigi and the two new characters, Blue Toad and Yellow Toad.

Well, calling them new characters is being a bit generous. These two Toads were about as generic as could be, as Nintendo refused to give them any kind of storyline introduction or even their own names. They were simply there to serve as alternate-colored clones of the red- and green-clothed plumbers. Some fans cried foul at the time – why not use established characters like Wario and Waluigi, or the "normal" Toad, or even the Princess herself to fill those spots?

The answer was simple enough – because the designers wanted everyone to play the same.

Symmetry and Asymmetry

New Super Mario Bros. Wii was designed to offer a wholly symmetric multiplayer experience. You've heard the opposite term thrown around a lot recently. "Asymmetric" gameplay refers to games in which different players experience different things while playing at the same time, and it's a big focus for the upcoming Wii U and its new GamePad controller. "Symmetric" gameplay, then, would refer to games in which every player essentially experiences the same thing. Like New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

Whether you're controlling Mario, or Luigi, or Blue or Yellow Toad, your abilities are no different than anyone else's. Everyone runs at the same speed, jumps to the same heights – it's a level playing field for all. And it works well, no doubt about it – New Super Mario Bros. Wii is a brilliantly fun multiplayer experience. It's a good time. Hopping and bopping around, picking up your buddies and tossing them into pits, "bubbling up" when you're about to die and begging your pals to come pop you out so you can keep going. Nintendo's designers picked a good direction for the game.

But it's not the only direction they could have chosen. In the wake of New Super Mario Bros. Wii's success, we got several more examples of ways that four-player simultaneous 2D side-scrolling could be handled with a bit of asymmetry tossed in. Ubisoft's Rayman Origins cloned the approach of pairing two established characters with two generic tag-alongs, but Rayman, Globox and the Teensies all had wildly different animations that made them feel more individual. Kirby's Return to Dream Land took things to the next level by giving each character a different skillset – Kirby could suck up and copy enemy powers as normal, but Meta Knight, Waddle Dee and King Dedede had wholly their own identities wielding a sword, a spear and a giant mallet, respectively.

And Donkey Kong Country Returns, while only two-player, nevertheless made Donkey and Diddy distinct from one another – which enhanced the teamwork element of playing that game with a friend, as you both had your own unique roles to play.

Going Forward

So the question becomes, is there room for a little more asymmetry in the New Super Mario Bros. series, going forward? The upcoming New Super Mario Bros. U will explore one extreme with its "Boost Mode," which will give one player the power to insert blocks into the environment through the GamePad's touch screen while the others run and jump along as normal. Rayman Origins' sequel, Rayman Legends, will similarly invite an extra, fifth player to pick up the GamePad to control the environment-altering new character, Murphy.

But those may be examples of asymmetry taken a bit too far, at least for the crowd who cried foul about the two generic Toad Bros. in 2009 – because the initial expectation for many for a multiplayer Mario design wasn't a game where someone sat off to the side dropping extra bricks into the scene, or even for four players running and jumping around with the exact same skill set. The expectation was more in line with what Kirby's Return to Dream Land delivered – a game in which established individual Mario characters used their established individual skills to each contribute something different to the action.

So you'd have Wario as an option, bulkier and more powerful than the others and unleashing his trademark shoulder-forward bull rushes from his Wario Land series. You'd have Princess Peach, floating through the air with her hovering long jumps, maybe even wielding Parry the Parasol from her standalone platformer Super Princess Peach. Maybe you'd even have Bowser stomping along and breathing fire in playable form, as he has been a time or two in the Mario role-playing games.

The opportunity is there – and, in fact, the template for how it would work was laid down around 25 years ago, way back in Super Mario Bros. 2. Even without letting the villains get into the mix, you've got an established framework for how to make the heroes feel different right there – Mario is the average everyman. Luigi jumps higher than anyone else, kicking his legs wildly in the air. Princess Peach has those floaty long jumps and Toad ("the" Toad) is stronger than the rest. So perhaps it's time for a new Super Mario Bros. 2? (Not to be confused with New Super Mario Bros. 2.)

In Conclusion

The possibilities are there. The template is there. It's just up in the air whether or not Nintendo would ever choose to take New Super Mario Bros. in an asymmetric direction, after setting the definitive symmetric standard three years ago. New Super Mario Bros. Wii was great, and no doubt this year's two new sequels in the series will prove themselves to be solid entries in the franchise as well. But there's an opportunity for Nintendo's designers to refresh this franchise further some time in the future – if they follow the example of games like Kirby's Return to Dream Land and even the old Super Mario Bros. 2, and if they can actually embrace the established diversity of the Mushroom Kingdom's many diverse characters, instead of just tossing us more generic, nameless Toads.

Lucas M. Thomas led the charge to give Blue Toad and Yellow Toad a bit more personality back at E3 '09, and to this day he still personally refers to them as Yvan and Wolley. You can tell him your own nicknames for the Toad Bros by following him on Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com

Rise of the Triad Doesn’t Make Any Sense

It’s been almost two decades since Apogee’s Rise of the Triad was first released. That reaches all the way back to when nonsense ruled the first-person shooting genre, when few attempts were made to develop characters and layer themes. You loaded in, picked up a floating gun and killed absolutely everything you saw. Things bled, exploded, died, you moved on and ten seconds or less later you repeated, shooting and circle strafing until the credits.

With the reboot, Interceptor Entertainment is hoping to keep much of the original’s nonsense intact. You’ll pick up floating weapon icons that bob and rotate in place in stages. Your MP40 will have infinite ammunition and you’ll need it to cut down swarms of fast-moving enemies. You’ll use a weapon called the Excalibat – a baseball bat with a magical eye set in its center that as a secondary fire will launch a wave of explosive baseballs.

When shot enemies will be cut to pieces. Their hands and legs will snap and flip off their bodies and their heads will roll away like gruesome bowling balls. Your character will unload one-liners because dismembering an enemy wasn’t quite satisfying enough. You’ll rocket jump, uncover secret rooms, catch enemies in environmental traps and put together kill chains to drive up a score to post on leaderboards.

The game will feature a single player mode where you infiltrate an island overrun with cultists trying to destroy Los Angeles. To stop them you’ll use a drunk missile launcher to fire clusters of unpredictable spinning explosives, use a flame wall gun to ignite enemies and watch as they flail around before exploding, and pick up other strange tools of destruction. Infiltrator is still working out how all the alternate fire modes might function, but the examples given so far have especially interesting implications for multiplayer. For instance, the Split Missile launcher will fire out missile in different directions, and the alternate fire might cause them to converge on the same point and collide, which could be useful for splattering a player hiding behind a pillar.

While shooting at others online, expect the type of experience that emphasizes control of fixed weapon spawn points. Particularly powerful weapons may also be set on top of traps, so if you wait for someone to walk into the room to try and scoop up a coveted weapon, you might be able to drop the floor and watch as they’re skewered in a spike pit, or crush them under bricks, or burn them with jets of fire.

Built with Unreal Engine 3, this version of Rise of the Triad looks great so far, the perfect kind of experience for someone who just wants to sprint and shoot and not have to think about much beyond where the next enemy might attack from. Though it’s only scheduled to launch on PC, Interceptor is open to creating a console version as well if there’s interest. The only sticking point could be the user sharing features. Rise of the Tried will be completely moddable when it’s released. Interceptor is very enthusiastic about giving users the ability to generate and share content and isn’t very interested in putting together a version that doesn’t allow for that.

Source : ign[dot]com