Will Mario Kart 8 Be The Wii U's Savior? Probably Not

     Ladies and gentlemen, Mario Kart 8 is here! After months and months of waiting, wishing, hoping and praying, it is finally here. Saying this game was highly anticipated is an understatement. Nintendo has been dropping gameplay and new stuff that has been having us begging and begging for this game to be released and in our hands. Anti-gravity, Koopalings, new updates of retro tracks, the new Mario Kart TV feature that let's you edit, mix, remix, and share your races with your friends, and let's not forget a new horn item that get's rid of the dreaded Blue Shell, what more could you want? Nintendo has been responsive to the fan feedback, making sure that the game delivers and gives everything a person could want from having an Mario Kart 8 app on your iPhone to you being able to race across the Mushroom Kingdom in a Mercedes Benz as DLC to ensure that it be a hit and get consoles to sell like hot cakes, but the question is will it?
     Mario Kart 8 will do good, but it might not do well enough to help Nintendo raise to its former glory. One of the main problems that has plagued the Wii U since its launch was its lack of games that would guarantee people to buy the system. They have had the horrible idea to let its consumers wait in-between months to have something worth playing for it. The games that were considered to be its console grabbers haven't done what they were suppose to do. It's top 3 highest selling games for the Wii U: New Super Mario Bros U (4.16 million), NintendoLand (3.09 million), and the most hyped of the bunch Super Mario 3D (2.17) while good, but fails in comparison to other titles. And without any good games to play along with it, sales are effected. It's no secret that the Wii U is doing poorly, even before the release of the other consoles of this generation, the PS4 and XBox One. The sales for the Wii U have been approximately over 70k for the month of March which is short compared to its console rivals XBox One (311,000) and the PS4. The Wii U did however did better this year than last with its sales in February with an 25% increase, but they're not out of the clear yet. The combined sales of Wii U so far has been 6.17 million which is not only dwarfed by the success of PS4 and XBox One, but its predecessor the Wii.
       Again, I'm not saying that Mario Kart 8 will be a total dud in sales. The reviews from both critics and gamers have been well received. A game this anticipated will do nicely, but at this moment, Nintendo has no need for anything to do nicely. They need an absolute hit. In order for Nintendo to catch up, they need in order to catch up with Microsoft and Sony they need a sure game that will have its system flying off the shelves. Hopefully Super Smash Bros. will be it.

Horrible and Creepy Mascots are Horrible and Creepy

Earlier this week, McDonalds and Lemonheads decided to unveil their new mascots in hopes to get new customers to buy their products, except by looking at them you wouldn't want to do any such thing. The new look bad. Really bad. Often when companies decide to put a face to their company, they make mistakes. Often, these mistakes happen to often. In celebration of the new, bad, face of these companies, I made this list of other bad mascots that Happy and new Lemonhead will soon be a part of.

The Original Ronald McDonald

We all know the Ronald McDonald of today with his yellow jumpsuit, red hair and happy face, welcoming children to urge their parents to buy the toy that comes with a hamburger and fries. What you probably don't remember is the original Ronald McDonald from the 1960s. This incarnation, played by radio personality Willard Scott, was a clown with a freakish cup nose and a creepily overdrawn red grin. No wonder people think clowns are scary. Anyway, McDonalds changed the appearance of the character over the years to what he looks now, interestingly, the 1971 version was even creepier than the original version.

Pierre the Pelican

Of course, no horrible mascot list is not complete with out Pierre. Sports has its share of creepy mascots. There was Izzy and King Cake Baby, but none take the cake like Pierre. Pierre was introduced as the new mascot for the New Orleans Pelicans last October and cause a internet and media storm. This led to the Pelicans redesigning Pierre citing it as an "beak accident" playing basketball with other mascots.

The Burger King

That blank soulless stare. That creepy mischievous smile. Makes you want a Whopper right? Burger King was actually introduced in the late 60s. In 2003, Burger King did a more creepy version of the character, which was a guy in an oversized creepy king mask. This Burger King would be featured in several commercial vacantly staring deep into the souls of people offering food from Burger King. The King has become an internet meme being photoshopped as a even creepier persona. Burger King retired the character in 2011.

Mr. Balls

Senor Testiculo or Mr. Balls was created by AAPEC, a Brazilian organization devoted to fighting breast cancer. Mr. Balls is described as a friendly "snowman" covered in hair that was created to help raise awareness of testicular cancer. Mr Balls goes around reminding people of testicular cancer and how they can check themselves to see if they have it. The AAPEC says that he's fun for both adults and kids and they love taking pictures of him. That's right. A giant ball sac is fun and is apparently popular with adults and KIDS!

Captain Crunch

I know you're all surprise to see Captain Crunch is on this list. He seems like a standup guy. He's a captain afterall... but here's the thing, he's not! The stripes on his cufflings don't indicate him being a captain. Captain Crunch is actually Commander Crunch. Why would a man lie about his rank? To get you into some false sense to security only to attack when you least expect it? This man is obviously up to no good and his cereal that shreds the top of your mouth adds to that belief.

Do you have any creepy mascots that you would like to add to my list?

Video Game Mythbusters: Digging Up E.T. Cartridges in Desert Edition

     On Saturday, one of life's great mysteries was solved. E.T. cartridges were unearthed in the desert in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Filming for an upcoming documentary, XBox Entertainment Studios, along with Fuel Entertainment, hired a excavation crew to go out to into the site and attempt to dig up where the cartridges were supposedly buried. There's not a complete number of how many E.T. cartridges are buried. So, far they have found a few hundred copies and are still digging to find more. The tale of Atari burying millions of E.T. cartridges in the middle of the desert one of the great urban legends of video games, if the not the king of video game urban legends being referenced and the talk of gamers for years.

     For those who haven't heard of the urban myth, set back and I will tell you the tale. Once upon a time E.T. came out in a June in the year of 1982 and it was good. It became a blockbuster hit debuting at #1 with a gross over 11 million and stayed at the top spot for seven weeks. E.T. became the highest grossing movie of all time with $359 million until it was dethroned by another Steven Spielberg film, Jurassic Park in 1993. With a hit movie, it's only right to further cash in on its success with a potentially hit game right? Atari secured the rights to make the game in July 1982, giving its designer, Howard Scott Warshaw, five months to make the game as they wanted it to be released for the Christmas season.

     E.T. the Game came out as planned in December and it was bad. Actually, it was horrible. Due to Atari wanting the game to be released for the holiday season, it was rushed leaving an incomplete and buggy mess. According to Warshaw it took five weeks to make the game. The game started off strong, but after word of mouth on how bad it was and negative reviews, sales dropped and the game became what is considered to the biggest failure in video game history and one of the contributors in the video game crash in 1983. Atari suffered hard in losses. E.T. the game sold 1.5 units and made $25 million in sales, but left Atari with $100 million  loss and 3.5 million cartridges that nobody wanted to buy. The only solution Atari had was to bury the unsold copies in a landfill in the middle of the desert and try to recover. E.T. the Game was a pioneer, not only being the first of its kind, video game/movie tie-ins, but also the trend of them sucking.

This Is a Hot Video Game Character Post

     On Thursday, Nintendo did a direct conference for its upcoming game Super Smash Bros. for the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS. It presented a ton of news about the new game, most importantly, one announcement was that not only would Samus Aran and her Zero suit counterpart would have their own separate slots, but Zero Suit Samus was getting a updated look. In the previous game in the Smash Bros. series Samus, when performing her final smash firing her Zero Laser. This attack would cause her power suit to break apart, becoming Zero Suit Samus. Zero Suit Samus was a weaker form with most of attacks not racking as much damage compared to her suited counterpart. To accommodate this better, director Mashiro Sakurai made some tweaks to Zero Suit Samus, designing her with a new pair rocket heels. Good news, right? Nope. News of this has set the internet on fire, in a bad way.
     Zero Suit Samus's new footwear has caused a bit of outrage to fans of the series. Samus' new redesign has people addressing the issue in gaming with oversexualizing its female characters for the sake of fanservice. This isn't new with female characters in video games, as in almost every game, there is a female character who is just T&A. The video game industry is a male dominated industry where it is made for men for men so, it's no wonder that we have female characters that are designed to be fanservice. Oddly enough, the issue mirrors this situation has been the design of women in games, being styled as oversexualized objects of male fantasy. There have been concerns of women in MMORPGs, being dressed up in armor that doesn't necessarily does what it design to do: Protect. I understand that video games are suppose to cater to fantasy and that seems to be the excuse for the fanservice but it still, in some form, have to portray things in a realistic manner and fully represent people as accurately as possible. Meaning that we might to give up a bit of the fanservice fantasy and have to design women, most notably in fighting games and MMORPGs, in outfits that make sense to their roles in games.

     Samus is suppose to be a kickass bounty hunter and is suppose to be the representation of female empowerment. You can't really carry that mantle in a pair of rocket heels, not even good looking rocket heels.  Overall, I'm not saying that Samus should be in a burqa in the next Smash Bros. or Metroid game, but designer her in a way that makes sense. Even though the heels are suppose to make her attacks more powerful, are still not believable that a person who regularly engages in fights, would wear. In the last Smash Bros. game, the developers were aware of that issue and gave her boots with a short heels. Samus hasn't been a stranger to being sexualized in the Metroid series, but the past directors did it in a way that matched who her character was, except for the people who did Other M. The only thing worse than rocket heels are wedges.

Religious Freedom: The Separation of Church and Your Paycheck

     The supreme court is looking into a case of whether or not the mandate in Obamacare that demands certain corporations to give access birth control violates their religious freedom. The two businesses, Hobby Lobby Stores and Conestoga Woods Specialties are both Evangelical Christian companies seeking an exemption to the mandate using the Religious Freedom Restoration Act as. This isn't the first time we heard the words religious freedom and it being intruded on. Not too long ago, we had two bills introduced in both Kansas and Arizona that if passed, would allow businesses to not serve people based on their religious freedom. This was controversial since the bill was targeted not only to gay people, but people of other religions. Kansas' bill was defeated and Arizona's bill was vetoed. According to the first Amendment they do have the right to practice their religion, but to what extent? Where does the border of them practicing their religious freedom infringe on my freedom?
     Religion is the core of a person's belief. I understand that people who hold their religions in a high regard attempt to take their beliefs everywhere they go and it should be implemented in everything, like education and our judicial system but, they cannot because there are certain limits on where they can practice their religion. We have limits to our freedoms to ensure that our society functions properly. We have free speech, but we cannot go around yelling fire or unjustly slandering a person's character because that hurts our society. What supporters who claim that their religious freedom should realize that they do have right to practice their religious freedom, but not the expense of someone else's rights. Their religious freedom doesn't trump everyone else's rights. We are a nation that is comprised of people that practice different religions, or choose not to and for those reasons, the Constitution also establishes a separation of church and state to ensure that religion isn't influencing any laws in order to benefit everyone.
       Let's not forget that these companies and the people who feel that their religious beliefs should exclude them from certain policies are businesses that are open to the public. Their rights as human beings come before their religious freedom. They are going to deal with people that don't share their religious beliefs and practices. That would not be very fair or ethical to turn them away or deny them services. So, proponents of freedom of religion, you will have to make wedding cakes for gay people and give the "whores" their birth control.

Fred Dropped Dead

   

     The founder and former leader of the Westboro Baptist Church Fred Phelps has been pronounced dead. For those who haven't heard of Phelps or the Westboro Baptist Church, it is a church that was led by him and his family members. The Westboro Baptist Church is notorious for picketing soldier funerals, damning 9/11 victims, and spreading anti-gay rhetoric declaring that "God Hates Fags." The church is very vocal about what God apparently hates, which isn't only exclusive to dead soldiers and "fags", but America, celebrities, the world, and pretty much everything else you or they can think of. Looking on the last few years of his life you get a perspective that for a majority of it he has wasted it by being an example of ugliness and bigotry and choosing to hold hate in his heart for anyone that wasn't like him.
     Hate isn't a healthy thing to have in your life. Hate is like an anchor. It holds you down, sinking you beneath the waters leaving you to drown. It prevents you from being human and enjoying life. As being the loving Christian he claims to be, it would have been more productive if Phelps had spent most of his life loving God's creation instead of trying to find ugliness in everything and spend every waking moment despising everything based on your narrow view of the world. Life is too short and wonderful to spend most of it focusing on what you see as wrong. You have to let that hate go in order to truly live.
    I should be shouting to the top of my lungs Ding Dong Fred Phelps is dead. But, I won't. That would be what he wanted. That would be what his congregation which thrives on hate and hating others in order to live would want and inspect. I will not give them that satisfaction. As a gay man, I should hate him. Fred was the face of homophobia in religion. He was the guy that tells you that you are an abomination because it's what the bible says. He was the reverend that tells your parents you are no longer deserving of their love and that they should be tossed aside like trash for not living up to God's standards. He was the person represents the serious flaw in religion and why many are turning their backs from it. He was what the people who claim they just hate the sin, not the sinner really are inside. Fred represented the ignorance and how evil people can twist what is suppose to be good into their own sick ideas and agendas. Instead, I will just pity him, reflect on sad his life was, and try live mine for the better. Let Fred be an example that you should love your fellow man like God says, instead of condemning them, treating them like they are less than human.

100 Years A Slave Movies (A Black History Rant)

    Nick Cannon posted this tweet a few months ago, upset at the recent Hollywood trend of making slave movies like Djano Unchained and 12 Years A Slave. You get that he is frustrated and he's right to be. Whenever Hollywood decides to do a movie about black history, they either do a slave movie or a movie and civil rights. These are important issues in our history. These movies showcased how we as black people, suffered due to prejudice and were able to overcome those hard times. These movies are not necessarily bad, but need more. We need movies that has to dig deeper into our history.
    We are a people that were descendants of great civilizations. We came from kings and queens that not just ruled the in Egypt and had empires like the Mali empire and the Ethiopian empire. We came from scientists, and scholars. We had expeditions to other countries like America before Columbus. We come from architects that constructed pyramids and other monuments in other countries, but you never know that because Hollywood never shows that. We can go all the way back to 10 million B.C. and tell the story of Troy, and Pompeii to tell white history, but we just can't seem to get past slavery? Hearing these stories of African history and getting a since of who we were and where we came from will do more to inspire and motivate our people more than 12 Years A Slave ever could. But, how do we get Hollywood to make these movies? Do we get them interested by motivating our black directors and producers to make these movies? That is the question. I would like to hear what you think should be done.