QJ Top 10 (or 11): Nintendo (mostly Wii) videos

Now there are a lot of videos out there. We can’t possibly do justice to them all. And since we’re so close to the Wii launch, any Nintendo top 10 list would naturally be heavily biased towards Wii vids.

Two old-school Ninty vids

To get us into a Nintendo mood, let’s look at Nintendo in popular culture. This first video is by far one of the best in this list. Martin Leung, aka the Video Game Pianist aka VGP aka The Blindfolded Pianist became famous (on the Internet and in real life) because of this video. This 10-minute medley will make you wee in your pants – especially when Mario’s running out of time and has to run really fast to get to the flag!

Redefined, a group from the University of Wisconsin sings theme songs (while acting out scenes) of Super Mario Brothers, Tetris, Mortal Kombat, and, featuring a right-handed Link, Legend of Zelda.

Never mind if the SNES port of Mortal Kombat was one of the worst ports of the game (gray blood – what were they thinking?! – that looked like the fighters were sweating grease… and no uppercut countering of air attacks?!), because it was also one of the best (graphics and sound outstripped those of competitors at that time, in our humble but very perfect and very correct opinion). Trust us, we have some very old people here who remember the 1980s and 1990s with clarity.

See the other eight videos (plus the bonus 11th video – think “Zelda pornography” and other happy thoughts) after the jump. Click on the Full Article link below!

Now there are a lot of videos out there. We can’t possibly do justice to them all. And since we’re so close to the Wii launch, any Nintendo top 10 list would naturally be heavily biased towards Wii vids.

Two old-school Ninty vids

To get us into a Nintendo mood, let’s look at Nintendo in popular culture. This first video is by far one of the best in this list. Martin Leung, a.k.a. the Video Game Pianist a.k.a. VGP a.k.a. The Blindfolded Pianist became famous (on the Internet and in real life) because of this video. This 10-minute medley will make you wee in your pants – especially when Mario’s running out of time and has to run really fast to get to the flag!

Redefined, a group from the University of Wisconsin sings theme songs (while acting out scenes) of Super Mario Brothers, Tetris, Mortal Kombat, and, featuring a right-handed Link, Legend of Zelda.

Never mind if the SNES port of Mortal Kombat was one of the worst ports of the game (gray blood – what were they thinking?! – that looked like the fighters were sweating grease… and no uppercut countering of air attacks?!), because it was also one of the best (graphics and sound outstripped those of competitors at that time, in our humble but very perfect and very correct opinion). Trust us, we have some very old people here who remember the 1980s and 1990s with clarity.

Two trippy ads

We call this the “M” video. A jaw-droppingly nice vid for Nintendo fans. Non-Nintendo fans tend to say things like “What a nice ad for a crappy console”, but at least they admit it’s a good ad! The ad, by the way, was filmed in Hong Kong (with some shots in Japan, if memory serves) but everything’s Japanese (the writings on the board, the signs). We just wanted to clarify that so noobs don’t make mistakes (I know I did when I first saw this vid ages ago).

The second video is the Red Steel “get a gun” ad. It’s so-so, but we’re childish so it made us laugh.

Two “definition of gaming” videos

The first vid shows an old-school NES ad with Duck Hunt and good old Rob the Robot – it’s a blast from the past (we would have shown the “Tektite!” Legend of Zelda ad or even any of the stupid Zelda rap ads, but Rob the Robot and the Zapper make this ad a better representative of Nintendo gaming). OMG. The ’80s.

The one next to it is the 2005 “Expand the Definition” video. At the time this video first started going around the Internet, it seemed a bit arrogant (some of us we were like, “Yeah, so? Get to the point!”) but if you think about it, this video makes its point: “We (Wii?) expanded the definition of gaming experience.”

“We (Wii?) expanded the definition of gameplay.”

The E3 Wii stampede

This video would be number one if we were doing an ordered list.

The Kotaku E3 2006 Nintendo Stampede video always makes us smile. Nothing captures Wii-lovin’ better than this video. Some videographer was lucky enough (and smart enough to have staked out a bird’s eye view location) to film the nerds, geeks, reporters, and Wii fans (don’t those terms really all mean the same thing?) running straight for Nintendo’s display area. By this time most of them are running slowly – you should have seen the mad sprinting that was happening at the door. It’s a surprise nobody got trampled!

A gameplay trailer and the Wii trailer

EA Sports and the Madden franchise aren’t universally popular (you know all about the debate: EA Sports doesn’t seem to be trying as hard as they used to, EA Sports makes buggy games, the games are just ports from old platforms, etc.). But the Madden Wii tutorial and unique features video got positive reactions – even from Wii skeptics and EA haters.

“Wow! EA Sports is actually trying for a change!”

If you want to convert one of your buddies to the Wii side, try this video.

As for the second video, it’s the Wii E3 2006 trailer. It features so many games (including Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess) and it’s really just a fun video to watch. This is another nice vid to get non-gaming people interested in gaming, and it’s a nice vid to get non-Wii people to consider the gameplay possibilities of the Wii.

And last but not least…

Matt Casamassina of IGN and his detailed close-up of the hardware. It’s actually a technical (boring?) video, but for some reason we keep watching it and we vote this the number two video in this list. Either we have the hots for Matt (which we don’t because he’s already taken – he’s Perrin Kaplan’s bitch, hehehe – we kid! we kid! don’t flame us!). Or we have the hots for this console. Matt does a really great job of pointing out all the details that we’ve all been wondering about. An excellent video.

And a bonus:

The Wii is coming. So close and yet so far. We feel just like Cartman. (By the way, most of the Cartman wants a Wii videos have been taken down. Copyright and all that.) Here’s a video of the Wii and Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess being assembled and going into boxes. Oh. If only looting was legal…