Longtime PTB readers will remember how much I love the two Aero the Acro-bat games for the Super NES, and even though the Game Boy Advance port of the first game isn't quite up to the original's level of quality (particularly the amazing music), it has enough going for it that it's worth a play (especially for the bit of new material).  I missed this news when it was new, but Forest of Illusion has recovered a very early version of that GBA port which apparently represents only a few days of work.  The Aero character's sprite set in use comes from the first game, while the final GBA port would use Aero's sequel sprites, for instance.  Hard4Games has created a playthrough video on YouTube so we can see the early progress and it's an interesting watch for those of us familiar with the game.

Check out this vintage piece of Nintendo merchandise from my collection.  I've held on to this Mario Christmas decoration over the years; it hung on my childhood game room door each December when I was a kid and as a teen, and now it hangs on my game room door of my adult home.  Dating back to 1989, this decoration sports the Super Mario Bros. 2 style of character artwork with the classic red overalls and blue shirt for Mario instead of today's modern color swap.  The pop-out tree was originally held in place with a small plastic clip that has gone missing since last year, so now a twist tie does the job.  It's also a little banged up from over thirty years of use and storage, but there's no way I would part with it.  I love the artwork on this decoration.  While I still love Super Mario games and the modern incarnation of the franchise, this version of the character was my Mario and always reminds me of those comforting holiday memories from when my biggest concern was wishing that I'd find a Super NES and Super Mario World under the tree.

Konami and Digital Eclipse teamed up to bring a collection of all of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games released by the publisher between 1989 and 1994 to modern platforms this year entitled The Cowabunga Collection, but since the Sega Dreamcast fans were feeling left out (as the console was discontinued over twenty years ago), they decided to do something about it.  I expect the lawyers will be working overtime this Christmas, but in the meantime here is a Dreamcast take on The Cowabunga Collection that includes all of the official collection's NES, Super NES, Genesis, and Game Boy games along with bonus games not found on the retail collection including titles for the ZX Spectrum and the Dreamcast itself.  There's even a homebrew take on the official version's museum materials with the inclusion of VHS versions of the pilot episode of the 1987 TMNT cartoon, behind the scenes promotion video of the Coming Out Of Their Shells tour, music videos from Vanilla Ice, and much more.  Homebrew coder Ian Michael spent five months refining this collection and working out the technical kinks on the emulator, and now the result is available to download, burn to a CD, and play on your Dreamcast.  I love it when fans take on a "because we can" attitude to homebrew conversions and hacks of familiar games (even if the copyright owners do not), and while the official version is the best way to play these games today, this Dreamcast version is worth a look for the sake of curiosity.

More and more development builds and assets from classic Nintendo video games have found their way to the Internet in the past few years, but it's still a nice surprise to see in-progress versions of beloved favorites pop up.  Today's game under the magnifying glass is 1991's Super Mario World for the Super NES, as Forest of Illusion has acquired and documented an October 1990 localization prototype used to prepare the game for its North American release.  This version contains a different title screen logo, different fonts, a few script changes, a slew of enabled debugging tools, and some other interesting changes.  Check out the video for the full set of documented differences. It's an interesting peek behind the curtain.

Mash up the perennial Christmas hit "All I Want For Christmas Is You" by Mariah Carey with the beloved background music from Nintendo's Wii Shop Channel and you get a little something like this tune as arranged by Kuribo98.  I'm amazed at how well these two songs intertwine, preserving the beats and riffs of both simultaneously.  The same treatment has been given to "Jingle Bells" and the Mii Channel theme, too.  Tis the season!

(via MetaFilter)

As the holiday season is upon us and people are planning to spend time with family, we thought it was the perfect time to recommend video games perfect for some family multiplayer fun time.  Gather the kids, your siblings, your parents, and everyone in your circle who enjoys controllers to spend some time with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection, Kirby's Dream Buffet, and many more.  Join us! Download this week's episode directly from PTB, listen with the player below, find us on Stitcher, subscribe via iTunes, Amazon Music Podcasts, and Google Podcasts, toss this RSS feed into your podcast aggregation software of choice, and be sure to catch up on past episodes if you're joining us late. Remember that you can reach us via , you can leave a message on the Power Button hotline by calling (720) 722-2781, and you can even follow us on Twitter at @PressTheButtons and @GrundyTheMan, or for just podcast updates, @ThePowerButton. We also have a tip jar if you'd like to kick a dollar or two of support our way. 

As part of the new Wave 3 update of the Booster Pass expansion, Nintendo has also added an extra surprise for all players of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for the Switch.  Players can now toggle individual items on and off in certain modes similarly as to what Super Smash Bros. offers for item customizations, so now you can disable the dreaded blue shells or have a race with just mushrooms and horns if that's your thing.  Or, if you want to go all-in on madness, you can race with nothing but blue shells.  Let the chaos begin!

you may not like it but this is what a peak mario kart match looks like #MK8D #NintendoSwitch pic.twitter.com/yYPPnEDQi0

— Akfamilyhome (@Akfamilyhome) December 7, 2022