At first glance, it looks like your average Mario platformer. The box shows Mario jumping over to some Bricks, while avoiding a Goomba with a Tandooki tail. But then you put the game cart into the 3DS, and this is where it shines. This review will be seperated into “Graphics”, “Gameplay”, “Audio” and then a summary of the game in general.

Graphics
Well, since New Super Mario Bros in 2006 was a disappointment (ie. it was 2.5D (some 3D elements while everything else was 2D tiles/sprites) instead of pushing the DS to it’s visual limit with a 3D rendered level), I personally can say that this is like a pocket Mario Galaxy. Sure, you won’t be getting all the sexy visuals that Mario Galaxy on the Wii provides; but it gets pretty damn close to it without becoming a dogs breakfast in the process.

When playing in traditional mode without 3D effects, on-screen visuals are crisp, clean and sharp. You can clearly see what’s lying ahead, either something to help you, or hinder your progress. However, Mario 3D Land excels in the 3D visuals department. Sit back, knock that 3D slider to the max, and watch objects become realistic. It’s almost like that object is sitting in front of you. On some levels, I found having 3D visuals enabled made the game almost bursting out of the 3DS screen. Pretty damn cool.

I’ve yet to see any rendering issues, but I have seen a little bit of clipping at times. Nothing serious, but sometimes some clipping will suddenly appear, then disappear. While most objects have been recycled from Mario Galaxy, some new enemies and objects appear in-game, which is always welcome in a Mario game because it breathes some new life into the game, rather than the traditional host of Goombas, Koopas, and you know the rest.

Gameplay
Nintendo has taken Mario Galaxy’s engine, pulled all that planet gravity jazz out of it, thrown in some new abilities for Mario, and made it feel like like Mario 64. And that’s a good thing, since Mario Sunshine’s engine was utter trash. If you’ve played Mario Galaxy, then that is a bonus, newcomers will need to spend time playing around with the control system. Sadly, no switchable controls like the ones in Mario 64 DS. The only gripe is that I found the levels too easy, and I’ve already cleared half the game on the same day I bought it!

Unlike how each world section (ie. World 1, World 2, etc) in older Mario games were theme-related (ie. Grasslands, Water, etc), each “World” in Mario 3D Land may have elements of the “theme”, but not all of it. For example, you might find a water level in a snow world, or a desert in a completely random world. It’s things like this that make it less of “Oh yeah, another boring level ahead”, and more “Oh wow, that level was good, this one looks even better!”.

Another cool feature is the item hold system, if you get a better powerup, it switches like it does in Super Mario World – for example, if you have a Tandooki Mario suit on, and get a Fire flower, you’ll turn into Fire Mario with your Tandooki suit in reserve. Makes switching back and forth between powers quite easy.

So, what’s the plot? Yes, it’s the tranditional setup. Bowser kidnaps the Princess, again for the umpeeth time. No cake involved though. There’s also some rather amusing cutscenes in the mix, I got a laugh out of the World 4 beginning cutscene.

Audio
Most music has been recycled from Mario Galaxy series (note to self: stop saying “Mario Galaxy”!) but there is some welcome additions to the party, either remixes of classics or completely original tracks. Sounds also have been recycled, but there are some remastered ones (ie. tandooki tail, etc) and power up/take damage sounds. Mario himself makes the traditional sounds he usually makes, but there’s a few new ones in the mix.

Either way, Mario 3D Land in the music department isn’t earcancer and provides a nice balance between classic and recent Mario title music.

Overall Verdict
Hands down, this is a solid Mario title. I like it a lot, and if you’re looking for something to test out the 3D functions of the 3DS, give this game a shot. Despite the game being a little too easy at times, it’s a winner for any Mario veteran. Don’t just dismiss the game as being another rehash of a exsting game – play the game first before you judge.

Coburn’s verdict? Well, I’d award this game 2.75 out of 3 stars. That missing 0.25 of a star is just that it’s a little too easy (in certain parts) and sometimes the controls can be a little annoying, but with those gripes aside, it’s a winner.

Here’s a video of the K-ON! themes in use

Watch this video on YouTube.

(Source Video)

Yeah, that error that you see above happened to myself eariler this evening playing the “Goalpost” mission of Modern Warfare 3. Unlike how the game would randomly crash in eariler versions of Modern Warfare, MW3 catches that error and kicks you back to the title screen. A little discomforting, shooting away, screen flickers and title screen appears. The exit button was also a little confusing – would I have to restart MW3 or was this going to close the popup?

According to this article on GameFront, to avoid getting the error, don’t randomly walk down the street. Here’s how to fix:

The solution is not to go along the street but jump inside the bulding with broken windows on the right. There will be several enemies there, you will kill them, exit the building on the other side and the checkpoint will save. Going along the street in the open causes this glitch.

This “fix” has been confirmed working by lots of happy camers on the GameFront article’s comments. Now, the question is: “Infinity Ward, MW3 Patch where?”

We hope this helps!

Now, this guide is basically a “Where to buy”. Nothing special, but I recommend shopping around. Don’t just go to a store that has it for $100 when you can get a genuine copy for $20 less from another store. No ripoffs, no scams here – what you see has been researched and are clean providers.

Let’s go:

1. GAME Australia. Yes, somehow, the UK gaming brand has worked it’s way down under. Formly known as GameWizards down south australia, they’re popping up around the place. They’re selling MW3 for a respectable $98.00. Present two $50 notes or a $100 note and she’s yours with $2 to boot. Nice. (Check out the GAME website here.)

2. Big W Australia. These guys have a little confusing website, but the latest Big W catalogue shows off Modern Warfare 3 for $78. If you want a Call of Duty T-Shirt with that, pop on a extra $10 and make it $88. Not bad. The tee comes with sizes from M to XXL. We’ve yet to see the MW3 sunglasses, though. See the staff instore, or hit them up on their website.

3. Dick Smith Electronics.
I personally pre-ordered though the DSE crew, they only wanted a $8 deposit and a copy was reserved for me. They are selling the game for $80. Two bucks dearer than Big W, but they have great service too! Check out the website. You can’t say no for a deal like that.

4. GameTraders Australia
Apparently, GameTraders will stock Modern Warfare 3. Since our newsdesk PC doesn’t support Flash (or maybe I’m just too lazy to install it), a quick google revealed they’ll be selling it. The website should reveal the goods. Requires Flash.

5. Last but not least, EB Games Australia.
These guys are the most hyped up for the release, if you check out their website they have gone nuts with the Modern Warfare 3 gear. Although, some of the gear’s price tag will sting your wallet. The game itself will cost $98. Falls into the same category as the first crowd above.

Don’t forget that various drink companies have made energy drinks (or even various cola flavoured drinks) with Call of Duty: MW3 codes on it that can double your XP points online or give you bonus stuff. An example is V-branded drink – they have codes that double your XP, etc.

Conclusion
Being the gamer I am, sometimes it doesn’t hurt to wait until the launch rush has subsided. I mean, sure, you might have issues finding a copy, but hey, no pain no gain! Plus, hunting around allows you to save a few $$$ in the process.

Also, a word of advice. Avoid eBay and other auction crowds unless you know the copy is genuine. People have been arrested for pirating the Modern Warfare series in the past and a person who got busted – big time – even said to others not to buy a illegal copy. Why? You’ll experience the same situation that he did.

If you don’t check the founder’s twitter (@coburn64), you may not have known that a Team Fortress 2 Server was quietly on the to-do list. Well, we’ve made this possible, harnessing the power of a old laptop* that we had kicking around in the storage room.

At the moment, we have capacity for just 6 players, which is ideal for 3v3 matches. As we get more bandwidth, we’ll expand to a maximum of 12 players (hopefully).

Your Gold Pass Details
TF2 Server: tokiko.coburndomain.net
TF2 Port: 57777
Web Server: http://tokiko.coburndomain.net:57778 (use this if you want to query the TF2 server status).

Make sure you read the Message of the Day, and if you like our server, please drop a penny in our donations jar so we can pay our hosting bills!

Also, we only use Stock Maps – we don’t have the resources to provide custom made maps. You can still have fun on stock maps, no?

Report any bugs in our IRC or alternatively, speak to CubeBurner in-game.

*Note: by “old laptop”, we mean that the battery doesn’t even last more than 10 minutes, at the most. It’s also a Core 2 Duo.

According to a hacker under the nickname of “MSaki” on our IRC channel, who chimed in to say that unauthorised (aka homebrew) binaries have been successfully running on the Nintendo 3DS, homebrew has seen the light on the supposedly locked-down console.

We cannot confirm if the guide is genuine, as we don’t have a test Nintendo 3DS to try it on.

This is not for the faint-hearted. His instructions involve a corrupt game save, soldering iron, wire, a (electronics?) sniffer and a Serial Converter. It also butchers up a PliotWings 3DS game cart, so make sure you beat that game before you decide to hack it.

Here goes. This is a cut and paste from the channel provided by Weremuffin, and has been edited for clarification.

[17:15] <MSaki> btw open pilot wings card, solder wires to the chip pinouts on back, then attach to sniffer. Once you have the four points, mark them, then desolder other wires and disconnect from the sniffer. Build a converter, then attach said converter to your serial I/O on pc (i think you can figure the rest so ill simpilify it for you – inject a corrupt save file and leave it decrypted). The 3DS will give you a message that the card save data is corrupt do you wish to
[17:15] <MSaki> continue, tap yes, if all done correctly it should go to a black screen on top and red on touch now you may execute a binary from the serial i/o via a comunication terminal.
[17:15]<MSaki> Enjoy

While the guide seems pretty interesting, we’ll have to put the question mark on this method until we can get a brave hacker to test it out.

The Nintendo 3DS Hacking Wiki is a wiki deciated to portable freedom on the recently released Nintendo 3DS. By portable freedom, we mean, custom software (also known as homebrew) running on the 3DS, such as console emulation, movie players, system software mods and 3DS Linux, just to name a few.

The 3DS Hacking Wiki can be found here, at http://3ds.coburndomain.net. Of course, it’ll be a slow start, but if we all pitch in and help out, before we know it, we’ll have homebrew running on our 3DS consoles. See you there!

Remember how the Nintendo 64 Emulator, n64oid, got removed from the Android market for some reason? Well, thanks to the long hours of searching here at Coburn’s Domain, we’ve managed to find the emulator and bring it back for the public to download.

Now, the latest version we found was version 1.1.4, and the author doesn’t seem to have a homepage. That aside, you can grab the installation package at this link. Plug in your Android device, select USB Mass Storage (or Memory Card Access) and copy that file over. Then, use your favorite File Manager to install N64oid.

Our lab’s Android test rat, a HTC HD2 hacked to run Android natively, plays Mario Kart 64 nicely even when using the accelometer as a steering wheel! Sure, there’s some lag, but no emulator is 100% perfect. Speaking of lag, running the emulator on my own Motorola Milestone worked a treat, although Frappe Snowland in Mario Kart 64 seemed to crash N64oid on the final lap…

Load a few Nintendo 64 ROMs (Google is your friend…) on your device’s SD Card, kick up a chair, sit back and enjoy a round of blasting shells at CPU players in Mario Kart 64. Shoot down the enemy in Star Fox 64. Or maybe some Kirby 64? You decide.

Please note that we’re not taking credit for making N64oid, which we didn’t make. If the developer does have a website, please kindly link it to us in the comments and we’ll add it to this article. Thanks!

Here at Coburn’s Domain, we’ve been observing the recent attacks that Sony’s online intrastructure has been copping from unknown identities. While the details vary, we can confirm, from a trusted news source and local news and current affair programs, that the Australian side of the PlayStation Network was indeed hacked and large number of Australian PlayStation Network gamer profiles (that contained personal data and also credit card identification) were crippled as a result along with the massive hack that the global network suffered.

Sony needs to spill the beans on the situation, or risk losing a large percentage of their fanbase. If you take a look at YouTube, you’ll see many frustrated casual to hardcore gamers complaining about PSN being terminated until repairs are complete on it’s intrastructure.

While the media might have made such a big deal about the hack, Coburn’s Domain recommends you deactivate any PSN Account links to Debit or Credit Cards, check your account for unauthorised transactions (and contact your bank if there are) and/or cancel that card and have another one issued. Even if you think it’s silly to do so, prevention is better than the cure – you would want a PSN hacker to tap into your credit card and sap your funds, would you?

The web is a dangerous place, and as hackers get smarter and write highly complex exploits and hacks, such threats like these will become more common.

A new report from French technology website 01net says that the recently rumored Nintendo HD platform is currently codenamed Project Cafe. The site, which leaked NGP specs before its announcement, claims to have tech specs and controller details for the console.

According to the report, the console will run on a custom IBM PowerPC CPU with three cores, a ATI R700 family GPU with a shader unit at version 4.1, and at least 512mb of RAM, which is “a bit more powerful” than an Xbox 360.

The site reaffirms that Project Café will have backwards compatibility with both Wii and Gamecube titles.

Hm, could this be Nintendo’s take on the Xbox 360? 512MB of System RAM seems enough for HD games, however the total amount could be less if the GPU stores textures, model data, etc in the system RAM instead of dedicated RAM for the GPU. Let’s hope it has native HDMI support out of the box. Homebrew (aka unoffical console apps) should be a winner on this console, if it’s hackable.

The controller boasts a six-inch touch-screen, a front-facing camera, d-pad, two bumpers, two triggers, and “possibly more,” according to the site. It can also be used as a Wii sensor bar.

The console will release in late 2012. 01net says another “big surprise” about the console will be revealed at E3.

All in all, it’ll be a matter of time before the big N drops the bombshell, stunning gamers. If the next-gen console can do 3D output, this should be the Nintendo 3DS’ big sister. Here’s hoping that they adopt Blu-Ray for their console media.

The Original post from the Emuparadise forums is available here.

We’ll keep you posted.

EDIT: Just in – more confirmed facts:

1 – The console is more powerful than the PlayStation 3.
2 – Publishers are developing games for it.
3 – The new console is compatible with the Wii software.
4 – Nintendo will unveil the new console at E3 in June 2011.
5 – It will support resolutions (QFHD) Quad Full High Definition, but early games will be 1080p only.
6 – Gamers have a new control solution, with with two analog (sticks?) and Full HD touch screen.
7 – Full support for new engines, like Unreal Engine 3, CryEngine 3 and Frostbite Engine 3.

This looks like a epic console in the making. Your thoughts?