Yes Virginia, there is a “Mario Twins”. This is the story of one crazy night with Group X Arabian Rap Sensations.

Who is Group X? What is Group X? Why is Group X? This past weekend, I went to Atlanta searching for the answers to these questions and more. And I got answers. Bizarre, psychotic, cream-filled answers involving chemical spray-pumps and blue hair gel. But let’s jump back to the beginning of this twisted story…

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been trading emails with Blade Razorr of the…unusual…rap group called Group X. Many of you will recognize them as the crazy guys behind “Mario Twins”, an extremely hyper and extremely funny verbalization of Koji Kondo’s immortal Super Mario Bros. score. Anyway, in our emails I was trying to help Blade set up a gig at my college later this summer. In the process, I had signed up for the Group X newsletter, and a notice went out on it that the band would be playing at the Masquerade club in Atlanta on March 23. This date falling on my otherwise empty spring break, I decided immediately that I’d make the long drive from home to ATL to see these guys.

Max reflects on the Resident Evil movie and why it's different than the video game-based flicks that have come before. (And no, he doesn't spoil anything...)

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Over the weekend, I got a chance to see the Resident Evil movie. I hadn’t seen any previews (which is often better, because you don’t know what to expect) or really bothered to keep up with the development of the film for a long, long time. Still, when I found it was coming last week, I decided to go see it. Like Tycho & Gabe in a Penny Arcade strip about the RE flick, I felt obligated to check it out. Good or bad, I was going to support gamer cinema. Not that I had gone out of my way any time before to see gamer movies recently.

One cynical bastard takes a look at the news that’s shocking the videogame industry …

I’ll be the first to admit. I didn’t see it coming. At least, not this soon, and certainly not spearheaded by the one man responsible for Square’s absence on a Nintendo platform for this long. Until today, it was widely accepted that until “Old Man Yamauchi” retired, there was no way we’d see Square develop for Nintendo. And in some way, that’s still true.

I should have known that something strange was in the offing when it started snowing. In Seattle. In March. Four inches at my house just last night alone, and more today. Surely it was an omen, but I was too blind to see it.

PGC welcomes longtime colleague Aldo Merino to our ranks with a look at Nintendo’s new arcade hardware made in collaboration with Namco & Sega. The Legend of the Triforce is just beginning…

Although any real concrete GameCube news has certainly been sluggish in the last few weeks, seemingly limited to only more screenshots of Resident Evil, Metroid Prime and Mario Sunshine gradually seeping through to the public, one of the bigger announcements has certainly come as a bit of a surprise. Back in September 2001, Nintendo, Namco, and Sega all jointly entered an agreement to “to expand arcade video game market; to create a cost- effective environment for arcade video game development; and to establish a totally new game system that will bridge game play between the home and amusement facilities.” An interesting move as Nintendo has pulled away an distanced themselves from the arcade scene for around 20 years now, thanks in large part to due its booming home console business which has proven to be its bread and butter of income in those last two decades.