December 31 (5MVG: Five-Minute New Super Mario Bros.)
 

<p>Well, this month was a total writeoff, an unfortunate if appropriate capper to a particularly weak year at 5M.net. Fortunately, thanks to Derek, we'll be ending 2006 on a high note. Until recently, Derek was strictly a NES guy; hence his fiver of <a href="../videogames/supermariobros.html"><i>Super Mario Bros.</i></a> (a site classic, and a personal favourite of mine). But this year he made the excellent decision to pick up a Nintendo DS. This enabled him to play -- and five -- <a href="../videogames/newsupermariobros.html"><i>New Super Mario Bros.</i></a>, an old-school platformer that harkens back to Mario's beginnings. NSMB really grabbed me (the first Mario game to do so), so I was delighted to get this. Press Start to read.

Good fiver. My only complaint was that it's too short. I was kinda expecting more cross-fiver references between Original and New SMB, though.

Princess: HELP! HELP! Somebody saaaaaave me!
Smallville jokes are always in good taste.

DISCLAIMER: A lot of stuff in here is owned by Nintendo. In fact, by now it's probably illegal to even be an Italian plumber without paying them royalties. But that's Italy's problem.
This is one of the better disclaimers I've seen. It's up there with "All rights reserved, and most of the lefts, too."