Super Mario RPG Hits Wii Virtual Console

One of the quirkiest role-playing games ever released is now available for purchase via the Nintendo Wii Virtual Console. For a measly 800 Wii Points, you too can be the proud owner of Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars.

A collaboration between Nintendo and Squaresoft (Square Enix), Super Mario RPG was one of the best Super Nintendo titles of the mid-nineties, blending familiar characters and locations with some pretty deep RPG gameplay not too dissimilar from the earlier entries in the Final Fantasy series. It’s offbeat enough to be a must-own, whether or not you fell in love with the title when it hit store shelves in 1996.

Visit Nintendo.com for the latest updates on this and other classic titles available on the Virtual Console. See you in the Mushroom Kingdom.

Brett Ratner’s Guitar Hero?

In a disturbing bit of news from MTV’s Multiplayer blog, Brett Ratner (Rush Hour, X-Men: The Last Stand) says he wants to helm a film adaptation of the Guitar Hero video game franchise. As if video game movies weren’t bad enough. Here’s what Ratner had to say:

“I love Guitar Hero and I think it’s a part of pop culture. I would love to do a Guitar Hero movie, if Activision would ever let me. I’m trying to convince them, but why would you have a movie screw up such a huge franchise? Not that I would make a bad movie. So that would be cool, to do a Guitar Hero movie. ”

“It could be about a kid from a small town who dreams of being a rock star and he wins the Guitar Hero competition. One of these dreams-[come-true] kind of concepts.”

Well, at least he’s not Uwe Boll, and there’s really no story to Guitar Hero that Ratner can ruin. But wow, a movie based on a game that’s loosely based on playing actual guitar? The only way this could work is if they positioned it as a mockumentary. Think King of Kong meets This is Spinal Tap. But that concept is far too inspired and might actually require some filmmaking efforts.

Also, didn’t South Park already do a Guitar Hero episode that used nearly the exact same plot as the one Ratner is describing? If Ratner's going to rip off Matt Stone and Trey Parker, one hopes he at least includes a Heroin Hero segment. Then it might be worth ten bucks.

Box Office Disaster

And there was much rejoicing in the streets. Reuters reports that the latest Jason Friedberg/Aaron Setzer comedic misfire Disaster Movie earned a paltry $6.2 million at North American theaters this weekend, serving as a triumphant example of cinematic justice. Could this mean that audiences have become wary of blatantly lazy writing? Was I not alone in actually being offended by commercials for this movie? Or did America’s teenagers simply find another dimly-lit place to make out over the weekend?

Opening at number 7 at the domestic box office, Disaster Movie may be the final nail in the coffin for Friedberg/Setzer’s brand of comedy. Here’s hoping, however, that there’s still room in Hollywood for parody films in the competent hands of filmmakers who can actually tell the difference between reference and irreverence.