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While other franchises boldly venture into the future, with fully 3D worlds, procedural gameplay and killstreak unlocks, "New Super Mario Bros. Wii" takes a look back. But can this retro reboot stand the test of time?

The Basics

Imagine the classic "Super Mario Bros." gameplay. Now add four people, all playing at once, jumping off one another, throwing each other into pits, stealing mushrooms. Suddenly it's a whole new experience. Well, that's the idea behind "New Super Mario Bros. Wii," a multiplayer-centric Mario game.

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Tags new super mario bros wii, nintendo

This weekend, in honor of the launch of "New Super Mario Bros. Wii," Nintendo has decked out the Nintendo World Store in Rockefeller Center with objects from the history of the overall'd plumber. My favorite, strange and awesome Mario shampoo, is pictured above, but there are plenty more shots from the event.

Check out the full gallery of the Mario Museum.

If you'd like to take a look yourself, Nintendo is hosting a public launch event for "New Super Mario Bros." at the Nintendo World Store on Saturday (tomorrow) from 3pm to 7pm.

Tags new super mario bros wii, nintendo, Nintendo World Store

"Heavy Rain" is definitely for mature audiences, since it features nudity, violence and crazy, murderous junk yard owners. It also features a level of realism which may disturb some players, even adult players, placing them in scenes that are stomach-churningly intense. It's this level of maturity and realism that made me wonder what the developers of "Heavy Rain" thought of the airport scene in "Modern Warfare 2." At a recent demo in New York City, I spoke to Guillaume de Fondaumiere, co-CEO of Quantic Dream and executive producer of "Heavy Rain," about the scene:

"My take on it is very simple. I don't see any reason why video games should be treated differently than movies, for instance. I think that we should leave game creators free of expressing their vision as they see fit. I think the guys at Infinity Ward had something very precise in mind when they did this scene. The real danger for me is, when you put out such a scene out of context. I can take any movie and take a sequence and make up a story and it will look like something that's amoral or that crosses the line. This is most of the time what happens in video games [in the media]."

It's worth noting that nothing I've seen in "Heavy Rain" comes close to the level or quantity of violence depicted in "Modern Warfare 2," and probably won't have any of the same controversy surrounding it, but it's interesting to see two adult-centric game developers basically agreeing with one another on what should be allowed in the medium.

Tags heavy rain, quantic dream, scea

BlizzCon may decide to move out of Anaheim for 2010, but then again it might not, and no matter what you've read anywhere Blizzard definitely isn't confirming that the show has been moved to Las Vegas. At least that's quick summary of speculation on the Internet today following a listing for the show at the Las Vegas Convention Center that has since been taken down.

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Tags blizzard, blizzcon

That Spring 2010 North American release date for "Final Fantasy XIII" just got a little more specific. Japan was already scheduled to get the new sequel on December 17, but the U.S. got its own launch date today as well, almost three months later on March 9, 2010.

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Tags final fantasy, final fantasy xiii, square enix

Blizzard's unrevealed release date for "Diablo 3" may not show up on the calendar until after 2010, along with other releases, including "StarCraft 2" expansion packs and an unnamed MMO. The expansion pack news may not surprise anyone, as the "StarCraft 2" beta launch was just pushed into 2010, but the "Diablo" faithful are probably going to have a long new year ahead.

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Tags blizzard, diablo, diablo 3

Infinity Ward isn't the only company in gaming faced with gamer-related hacking dilemmas on the heels of the "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" launch. Microsoft took decisive action this week by initiating mass bans of 600,000-1 million Xbox Live users found to be playing on modded consoles, which may catch a few cheaters, as well as unsuspecting console owners, off guard.

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Tags xbox live

There have been a number of shooters since the iPhone launched, but the control limitations of just having a touch pad have made them hit or miss affairs. Recently, though, we saw the release of three strong shooter entries which are definitely worth checking out.

"DOOM Classic" ($6.99)
I was particularly fond of the port of "Wolfenstein 3D" on the iPhone, and John Carmack has brought the same level of quality to "DOOM Classic." It's classic "DOOM," complete with the 4 classic episodes, all the weapons and even some multiplayer options (playable over the same WiFi network). As someone that didn't really play much of the original "DOOM" when it first launched, it's hard to blame my enjoyment with this game on nostalgia. Fact of the matter is, even after all these years "DOOM" still holds up, and Carmack has done a fantastic job bringing it to the platform.

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Tags bejeweled 2, buck hunter pro, doom classic, eliminate

The highest grossing movie opening of all time was "The Dark Knight," which raked in just shy of 160 million bucks in its first weekend. Emphasis on weekend. "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" went on sale this past Tuesday and, over the course of that day, made a whopping $310 million from sales in the US and UK.

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Tags activision, call of duty, call of duty: modern warfare 2, infinity ward

After officially announcing "Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight" last July, EA has moved another step forward and put a release date on the game, which is now open for pre-orders. Those pre-orders in turn come incentivized with access to a closed "5 vs. 5" beta test of the game's multiplayer mode.

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Tags command & conquer, command & conquer 4, ea