To those watching, Hudson's downfall wasn't a surprise, but it was still a sad occurrence.

Today, Hudson Entertainment is shutting its doors, with all operations subsumed by Konami. Growing up with a TurboGrafx-16, Hudson has held a special place in gaming for me, and I wanted to reflect a little on their closing.

I will note that I have a tiny bit of history with Hudson. Hudson Entertainment was the first video game company that I had the pleasure of visiting. Back in 2006, I was invited to their beautiful Redwood Shores offices thanks to a Bonk fan site that I created, and I even wrote a feature on Bonk for their website. Over the past few years as press, I’ve had the pleasure of interacting with some great people, especially John Lee, John Grenier, Amar Gavhane, Mike Pepe, and Morgan Haro. I haven’t had any involvement outside of that, so consider this a simplified and incomplete outside perspective of Hudson’s downfall.

Find out who won, and what they won right here.

A couple of weeks ago the NWR Japan crew recorded the very first episode of the Famicast, which concluded with a chance to win some fabulous Japanese swag.

The question: "How many postcards am I (James Charlton) holding at the end of the Nintendo World 2011 tour video.

The answer: Two

If you haven't already listened to the episode, check your Radio Free Nintendo RSS feeds to find it sitting snugly between episode No.234 and the Live PAX Panel show.

This is possibly the coolest construction project I've seen this year.

Yesterday, I was linked to this little project tutorial, and after mulling over it, I've decided the word must be spread.

Instructables user brunoip has created a real life coin block from Super Mario Bros. that when hit from beneath, produces a coin, with the same familiar 8-bit sound effect.

The block attaches to a wall to add to the illusion that it's floating in the air, and the slot the coins are fired out of is so well hidden that the whole thing looks incredibly authentic. It would make for an awesome, albeit slightly geeky storage solution for loose change.

Curious how you can donate to the relief efforts in Japan? Read on to find out how you can help.

The 9.0 earthquake that struck Japan on March 11 was a horrific tragedy that not only caused tsunamis and damage to a nuclear power facility, but also claimed thousands of lives. In light of this catastrophe, Japanese companies and citizens as well as people from all over the world are coming to the aid of Japan. Whether it be through the donation of funds, goods, or manpower, people are really pulling together to help Japan through this trying time. Perhaps some of you out there are wanting to help in some way but don't really know how you can. I thought I could throw out an option for you. The Red Cross is a worldwide organization that exists in nearly every country in the world. If you would like to donate to relief efforts in Japan, you can do so by visiting one of the links below:

Need some Pokemon Black & White themed accessories? You've got options.

Yesterday, I received a large post office box to my porch. Inside, I found a whole bunch of Pokémon merch from Power A, a company whose accessories I often see lining Wal-Mart and Fred Meyer's gaming shelves. I'd seen many of these Pokémon Black & White accessories before, as well, and was genuinely curious about a few of them. I think that box may have included one of every B&W-themed accessory they've released. I can now review them for your entertainment and education in this humble photo essay.

Complete juggle wet trees tomato (New Yoooooork).

Everyone knows that Tepig is the best starter in Black and White (I''m looking at you, Ronaghan/Lindemann).

Following our adventures at PAX East 2011, I took the opportunity to take a stroll around New York, the city that Black and White's locale is inspired by, oddly enough. And what trip would be complete without a visit to Nintendo World, the store of dreams.

Walking in you will find a range of Nintendo 3DS consoles to sample, though since it was my fifth time seeing the system, I didn't feel the need to explore the console again. Nintendogs + Cats (minus cats), Steel Diver, Super Street Fighter IV 3D, and LEGO Star Wars III were among the games on offer, in the same versions we had just played at Nintendo's booth during PAX East.

Fan-made AR card makes for super-sized Mario.

Inspired by Club Nintendo's announced gift of a giant-sized AR card, French site Nintendo-Master has experimented with their own custom-made card. Using his printer and 36 sheets of A4 paper, fan SpiderPom fashioned a gargantuan replica of the 3DS's original Mario card, measuring over 1.50 meters tall. As of today it is the largest (so far) in the world.

The experiment proved to be a big success, popping out a larger-than-life plumber. The relatively small resolution of the photo leaves a bit to be desired, but from a technological standpoint, it shows the potential for some interesting game developments in the future. I can't wait until someone inevitably takes a photo of a colossal Mario stomping on buildings or Link doing battle with skyscrapers. Nintendo provides the AR cards in PDF format, so you can try to replicate SpiderPom's results yourself.

Life isn't a game...

At about 3:00pm, I was just finishing work, and I heard someone shout "JISHIN" (Earthquake) in a panicked voice. I braced myself expecting the usual few shudders, but it turned into much more than that.

I was on the second floor, and as the ground shook outside, it felt like a giant was pushing and pulling the building back and forth.

Outside, even though there was no wind, trees were swaying vigorously back and forth, pylons and their cables were swinging wildly and cars were bouncing up and down. This happened for about five minutes nonstop.

One of my favorite moments at PAX East last year was opening a sealed copy of Sonic R for Sega Saturn. 

The 2nd annual PAX East will be starting tomorrow. While I am one of the few people from the site who will not be attending this year, I thought I would share with you one of my cherished memories from last year's convention. 

At PAX East, they had a classic consoles room where people could play retro games on a wide variety of systems. There was Genesis, NES, SNES, Saturn, Atari 2600, and many more systems available to play. To borrow a specific game, you would choose from a long list and then be handed a copy of the title you desired by some of the friendly staff they had there. I decided to borrow a copy of Sonic R for Sega Saturn. Amazingly, the copy they handed me was still sealed and the people there insisted I open it and play it. Here is the unboxing video that my friend Greg filmed.

Join in live for Iwata's GDC 25th anniversary keynote address.

Live video here.

9:01:00: The keynote will begin shortly. Really.9:01:29: It begins.9:02:25: Happy birthday to Gordon Walton.9:02:47: Skyward Sword trailer accidentally appears. Whoops.9:03:11: History of Iwata's GDC experiences.