The 2008 Pokémon World Championships took place this past weekend, along with the first-ever Video Game Showdown. Over 400 players from nearly 30 countries qualified for and competed in the Championships, but the United States swept first place in all three divisions of the Trading Card Game (TCG) finals. Additionally, the U.S. won the Junior Video Game Showdown title, while a kid from Hiroshima, Japan, won the Senior division (though I’m not sure if it was revenge-driven or if his mutated genes gave him an edge).

The top TCG dork of each division (Junior, Senior, and Masters) received a $7,500 scholarship, which really makes me wonder why 62-year-old people are even competing in this (the youngest was 6, if you were wondering). I also don’t understand exactly how the divisions are broken up. I assumed it was by age, but unless their is some crossover, it doesn’t make sense. Check out the results:

2008 Pokémon Trading Card Game World Champions – Junior Division

First Place: Tristan Robinson (11) from Denver, CO USA

Second Place: Takuto Itagaki (11) from Japan

Third Place: Simone Zucchelli (10) from Italy

2008 Pokémon Trading Card Game World Champions – Senior Division

First Place: Dylan Lefavour (14) from New England USA

Second Place: Paul Atanassov (11) from Canada

Third Place: Nicholas Kolibas (14) from Boston, MA USA

2008 Pokémon Trading Card Game World Champions – Masters Division

First Place: Jason Klaczynski (22) from Chicago, IL USA

Second Place: Khan Le (15) from Norway

Third Place: Gino Lombardi (18) from Johnston, RI USA

I suppose it’s possible that some of these kids had a birthday between the time they signed up and the time they competed in the finals, right? Yeah, that’s gotta be what it is. I know you probably don’t care about my thought process there, but some people may have had a similar confusion of the divisions, so shut your face.

The Video Game Showdown featured the top 64 players of the videogames Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl from the United States and Japan, which were all flown to Orlando to compete in the finals. The top geek in each division won a “six-day vacation package for four to New York City, Honolulu or Tokyo” and a customized Nintendo DS. The winners include:

Pokémon Video Game Showdown Junior Champion

Knight Silvayne (11) from Chicago, IL USA

Pokémon Video Game Showdown Senior Champion

Izuru Yoshimura (21) from Hiroshima City, Hirsoshima Pre. Japan

I don’t know why there wasn’t a Masters division in the Video Game Showdown, but that conundrum won’t be in my head by the time I finish writing this sentence… yup, it’s gone. Speaking of conundrums, the popularity of Pokémon itself is a real mystery. Want to read some crazy Pokémon facts?

• The Pokémon comic book outsells every other comic book on the shelf.
• After the original Pokémon was released, sales of Nintendo’s GameBoy system jumped 249%
• The Pokémon animated series is broadcast in more than 30 countries in over 25 languages.
• Pokémon episode number 35, “The Ledgendary Dratini”, got banned in the U.S. because too many guns were shown in the episode.
• Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl sold more than 1 million copies in the first five days and more than 14 million copies since their launch.
• Total Pokémon videogame sales of 175 million copies are second only to the Mario series.
• The Pokémon Trading Card Game is the number one collectible trading card game in the world.
• Pokémon is blamed for youngsters becoming materialistic and developing gambling problems.
• Pokémon is banned in Saudi Arabia.
• There are Pokémon commercial airplanes that are painted with a Pokémon motif and the insides are plastered with Pokémon — Pokémon headrests, Pokémon cups, the flight attendants wear Pokémon outfits, etc.

Pokémon scares me.

Today’s edition of Smash Bros. Dojo brings us a pokemon new to the series: Manaphy.

When used, Manaphy will swap two characters’ hearts, forcing the players to play as the opposite characters for a time. Your health will remain the same and if you try to get smart and leap off the edge, you’ll still lose a life.

After a while, you’ll switch back.

I don’t know about you guys, but I think this sounds super awesome. At least, I will until it causes me to play as a character that I’m terrible with, and then I’ll hate it with a fiery passion.

Last week, Smash Bros. DOJO!! revealed that stickers you collect in the single player campaign of Super Smash Bros. Brawl would act as power-ups when applied. However, the website may have inadvertently revealed something much, much bigger.

The stickers can be stuck to the bottom of a character’s statue to grant that character certain powers in Subspace Emissary, the single player portion of the game. When viewing the stickers in your sticker book, the bottom of the screen shows what the sticker does and who the power is applied to.

Last week on the Japanese Wii web site, a preview video of Brawl was released. During this video, they showed the sticker book screen and down at the bottom of the screen – where the characters applicable to the selected sticker appear – were the heads of two characters that have yet to be mentioned.

If this screenshot is any indication and what we know of the stickers is correct, it seems Pokemons Lucario and Jigglypuff might just be playable characters. Jigglypuff is a series regular but Lucario would indeed be a new addition.

Other reports have claimed that Ness’s face appears alongside Lucario’s, but the face also looks like that of the Pokemon Trainer, so I don’t want to jump to conclusions there. It could be Ness, of course, but I don’t think there’s currently any reason to think so.

What makes this all the more suspicious is that Nintendo quickly took down the video in question and replaced it with another. Sneaky, sneaky!

Story and image via Destructoid

If you were lucky enough to be in attendance during this years Cal vs Washington State game, you not only witnessed a 3 point victory by the Golden Bears, you were also treated to a pretty amazing video game themed half time sow by the Cal Marching Band. This video will have you wiping the dust off your old console and itching to play some 16 bit Zelda. Have at it after the jump.

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Source: Milk and Cookies

Well, you knew it was coming. Nintendo has set the bar for gameplay and innovation since 1985, when it released its groundbreaking platformer Super Mario Brothers for the NES.

The gray, rectangular-shaped cartridge would revolutionize the way games were played and raise the videogame industry out of the ashes of the great crash that occurred earlier in the decade.

Shigeru Miyamoto, a man who needs no introduction, is the maniacal genius that manages Nintendo EAD (Entertainment Analysis and Development). He's possibly the most influential person in this modern video game empire, a kingdom that he helped create. Miyamoto would shine as Nintendo's lead idea man and obtain messianic status over the two decades for his contributions to videogames the world over.

His baby, Super Mario Brothers, was a bona-fide console seller. If you wanted to play it at home, you had to buy an NES, and everyone wanted to play. The game was like an adrenaline shot to the heart of an industry that crashed on poorly crafted software for graphically unimpressive consoles only a few years earlier.

With spot-on controls, challenging and intuitive level design, unforgettable characters and a high replay value, Mario showed us a glimpse of the future that was Nintendo.

But as this list shows, making one good game does not make you the world's greatest developer. While many promising companies are sprouting up in newly rented business parks, with high-budget, genre defying juggernauts in tow, time needs to be spent building a library before judgment can be passed down. For those of you who need things put in perspective, here you are: Super Mario Bros. sold more than 40 million copies!

Miyamoto received inspiration for his next opus by recalling his childhood. A young Shigeru once discovered a cave while trekking through the forests of Kyoto, Japan, an adventure that would linger until the boy became the man.

It was this memory of magic and wonder that would lead to the creation of one of his most vivid worlds-- Hyrule. The Legend of Zelda was a game that would, in many ways, show the possibility of becoming truly immersed in a videogame.

Before Zelda, games were closed track sprint sessions from point A to point B, all about gaining high scores and moving through portals. Zelda was more like a hike up an uncharted mountain. You were simply given a sword and an objective: save the world.

How you were to do this was in many ways up to you. Would you explore the wilds or brave the underground? Puzzle solving, boss battles, item collecting, secrets and exploration put Zelda in the spotlight, where it remains to this day.

Every few years brings a new adventure to the homes of gamers everywhere. The Zelda series has delivered unrivaled quality, time and time again. In 1998 Nintendo released what many consider to be the best game of all time: Ocarina of Time. Receiving perfect 10s from critics everywhere, the game would envelop a whole new crop of fans and keep the series popular almost a decade later.

And let it not be said that Zelda and Mario are the only mascots that would pave the way for the gaming giant that is Nintendo. Titles like Metroid, Star Fox, Donkey Kong, and Pokemon are interwoven into a gamer language, and they would further drive nails into the coffins of the competition. Lesser known carts such as Pilotwings, Balloon Fight, Ice Climber, and Kid Icarus may not have the worldwide acclaim of their bigger brothers, but they also have quite a big space in a lot of gamers' hearts.

For many, looking upon Nintendo's list of games triggers heartfelt nostalgia. Remembering a particular Nintendo game is to remember that point in time-- where you were, what you were doing, and what kind of person you were.

What makes Nintendo such a remarkable developer is the fact that many people can plot an entire lifetime by the release of one of their games. The first all-nighter you pulled trying to defeat Mother Brain in Metroid. That time you gave your brother a black eye for repeatedly bumping you into the wall in F-Zero. And who could forget the time you gave up a chance to get laid at your buddy's house party that weekend in 1998, because you were determined to beat the Water Temple in Ocarina of Time? We sure haven't forgotten.

Whatever your story, Nintendo has touched millions of people's lives on every continent, and for that they will always be number one.

Must Haves:
Super Mario 64 (N64),
Super Metroid (SNES),
Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES)

Have Nots:
Luigi's Mansion (GC)

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