"Coolest Gadgets" List Includes Gaming Toys
May 30, 2005
Today's installment of "Fun Reading for a Slow News Day" brings us to UGO's list of the coolest gadgets in the entertainment realm such as Batman's crime computer and James Bond's laser watch. Included with other properties such as Austin Powers and Buffy the Vampire Slayer are four video game franchises: The Legend of Zelda, Metal Gear Solid, Metroid, and Super Mario Bros.
Samus' alien-hunting arsenal is stocked with a wide variety of gadgetry, some of it more mundane than others, such as the Missiles (which are just what they sound like) and Power Beam (a standard blaster-type weapon). However, things rapidly take a turn for the outlandish, with additions such as the Space Boots, which allow our heroine to jump in mid-air, and suggestively named Screw Attack, an item that generates a damaging field during any of Samus' jumps.
While it's always good to see video games included in fluff lists such as this, I have to question the inclusion of Zelda and Mario. If we're talking about gadgets then it seems implied that we're discussing items that are technological in nature; things that have been designed and built from parts. While Metroid and Metal Gear are a natural for this kind of list, I don't recall Link ever taking an engineering class and Mario's power-ups tend to grow out of the ground rather than from a lab (except for FLUDD from Super Mario Sunshine which is unfortunately not included here). So why are they on this list? Some questions just don't have answers.