| This year, as an April Fool’s Day joke, five teenage girls in the town of Raveena, Ohio placed 17 "Mario blocks" outside public buildings like the library and the high school. Town officials responded by calling out the bomb squad and HAZMAT teams. Police seriously considered laying charges after one of the girls visited headquarters with her mother and took responsibility for the action.
Police chief Randall McCoy didn’t care that it was a teenage prank. "In today’s day and age, you just cannot do this kind of stuff," he told the Raveena Record-Courier. He was amazed that the instructions for constructing the blocks were discovered by the girls on the Internet.
The painted cardboard blocks installed by the Raveena Five are recognizable as coming from Mario Bros., the iconic video game from Nintendo in which Mario jumps in the air and punches blocks that are above him. From those blocks come various "power-ups" that enhance Mario’s abilities: a mushroom makes him grow bigger, a fire flower gives him the ability to throw fireballs at enemies, a green mushroom gives him an extra life.
The idea of creating the blocks and installing them in shared public spaces came from Poster Child, an artist in Windsor, Ontario.
A product of the Nintendo generation, Mario and his fantasy land was a logical reference when Poster Child was in art school. "I create public installations that are both playful and political," he says in an artist statement at the website www.quantz.com/posterchild/.
The first blocks that Poster Child created included cardboard cutouts of different power-ups inside. Anyone accessing the box would find the prize. The idea is a curious blend of Warhol, Hirst, Beuys, Kruger and Pac-Man.
"I feel bad that these girls have landed in trouble," said Poster Child in an interview, "but I applaud their desire to engage their fellow citizens and to connect to their city.
"Street art is risky. It is alive, direct, engaging, powerful and, yes, even dangerous."
The girls from Ohio were not, ultimately, charged. "I wonder if the media reaction would have been different if it had been five young men instead of five young women?" Poster Child wondered. "What about five adults? Or five young men of Middle Eastern ancestry?"
· We Love Katamari (publisher: Namco; platform: PS2; rating: everyone)
Playing either this game or the original Katamari Damacy is an experience every person should have. It provides fun, wildly amusing and compelling gaming that requires virtually no prior experience with video games and is truly ideal for family game nights. Put Monopoly back in the closet and group around the television for a bit of Katamari instead. It’s a simple concept: roll a ball around various environments, making the ball bigger as items stick to it, enabling you to roll-up even larger objects. It’s colourful, wacky, and wonderful. Rated everyone.
· Daxter (publisher: SCEA; platform: PSP; rating: everyone, 10+)
Daxter is the side-splitting sidekick from Sony’s Jak and Daxter franchise. In this game, he gets what every sidekick dreams of: a chance to star in his own spinoff. The story integrates nicely into the mythology that’s already been established in the Haven universe, and the gameplay is a snap to figure out. Daxter the character walks the fine line between annoying and funny, and Daxter the game is an entertaining experience that made me turn off the television and play handheld.
· New Super Mario Bros. (publisher: Nintendo; platform: DS; rating: everyone)
Slip back to simple with New Super Mario Bros. and have fun with a straightforward game experience. Forget having to coordinate extensive button combinations and enjoy basic running and jumping. This title is much like the first Super Mario Bros. that Nintendo put into homes worldwide, but now you can take it with you. Added value comes from the quick minigames and the multiplayer features (you can play against a friend even if they don’t have a copy of the game). It’s the same, but it’s been refreshed, and running and jumping have never been more fun. |
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