Monthly Archives: April 2007
FOUND Magazine
FOUND Magazine was born in 2000, when creator Davy Rothbart discovered a note mistakenly left on his windshield. The note was left for a man named Mario, and it chastised him using strong, foul language for a perceived infidelity. At the end of the note, the author ironically asked Mario to page her later, suddenly [...]
Super Paper Mario
Keeping Mario games fresh isn’t easy. Super Paper Mario is approximately the 117th game to carry the name “Mario” in it’s title. If you add in games in which Mario stars or appears that don’t bear his name, the number of titles jumps past two hundred. Since every game, even those in a series, bears [...]
Post Secret
In 1973, Dougles Huebler, dean of the California Institute for the Arts, published a collection of secrets recorded by random people. There were nearly 2,000 secrets recorded in his collection and it was published as part of his Variable Piece series. In 2004, Frank Warren reinvigorated this idea at the Artomatic event in Washington, D.C. [...]
WarioWare Smooth Moves
Dance is an art form. It isn’t one we have written about at all on Novus Literae, but it is an established medium all the same. Like most forms of art, it is highly subjective. What one sees as a thought provoking and moving interpretive dance could be seen by another person as an asinine [...]
Rayman Raving Rabbids
The Rayman game series has never been known for realism. The main character doesn’t have arms and legs. Rather, his hands and feet “orbit” his body so his extremities are implied. This made him easier to render into games, and gives him a unique visual style. But with this latest game, Raving Rabbids, game designer [...]
Mii & My Pooch
With it’s Wii, Nintendo has tried to bring the entire family into the game. By using the highly intuitive and user friendly input method with the Wii remote, Nintendo uncomplicated things enough to bring Grandma, little Suzy, and other uncoordinated family members into the game. But what about Fido? Dogs, even smart ones, just can’t [...]
Representations of Family in Video Games
Traditional narrative forms of art overflow with examples of familial representation. Family plays an enormous part of many novels, films, and television shows. Many of these examples also demonstrate non-conventional family structures. This does not necessarily refer to same-sex couples or a woman with 27 cats. It often refers to groups like professional colleagues, circles [...]