7. Sega, Sonic, Nintendo and Mario

In another dimension, in a different universe, the launch of Mario vs. Sonic at the Olympic Games was a colossal event. That dimension is the early nineties, where both companies and their trademarked mascots ruthlessly vied for market supremacy.

Of course, Nintendo vs. Sega began before the time of the Genesis and SNES. But it was here, in the midst of a 16-bit console race, where Sega’s answer to Mario (and indeed the Genesis’ lukewarm sales figures) was born. Sonic the Hedgehog not only pushed Genesis sales but also created a franchise that would, crucially, lure fans away from Nintendo’s mega-moneymaking plumber. 

The nature of the business dictated that, despite the widespread fantasy, Mario and Sonic would never appear in the same game, nor share a screenshot*. But a decade and dead Dreamcast later, Sonic and Mario did the once-improbable, starring together on a mediocre track and field title.

*Notwithstanding Sonic’s unofficial sneakers, pictured adjacent to a trashcan in Donkey Kong Country 2.




6. "Customers do not want online games"

Nintendo has typically taken a guarded approach to online gaming. While the Gamecube did feature an Official Broadband Adapter-sized hole, Nintendo never published a game for the console that went further out than a LAN party.

In fact, in an interview with Japanese economy magazine Japan Spotlight in July 2004, Nintendo’s president cemented his reluctance by claiming "customers do not want online games", citing costs for broadband connection and what he perceived to be a lack of ease with connecting.

A successful Live service later, one that crucially brought with it a buzzing revival of old IP via XBLA, Nintendo now finds itself embracing online revenue streams. And, if their E3 performance was anything to go by, it seems as though Nintendo is now betting core consumer tolerance on a single Wii title; the online-led Animal Crossing: City Folk.




5. “Cooper, have you actually played Mass Effect?”

Following the revelation that BioWare’s Mass Effect featured "the ability for players to engage in full graphic sex" with “full digital nudity” that “leaves nothing to the imagination”, mastodon of truth Fox News in January this year broadcast a news segment they entitled “SEXBOX?”.

The news group then dovetailed their report with a satellite discussion between self-help author Cooper Lawrence and Spike TV’s executive producer Geoff Keighley. “If you look at the statistics,” said Lawrence, “it’s the adolescent males who are playing videogames, not their dads.”

Her argument was that videogames portray women of having “no value other than their sexuality”. And though 99 out of 100 videogames would have given her line of reasoning some weight, Mass Effect was that elusive hundredth.

Unlucky, you might say. Then again, Keighley’s opening retort was a simple enquiry into whether Lawrence had actually ever played Mass Effect, to which her response was a dismayed “no!”

Just three weeks later – and soon after Amazon received over 400 new reviews for Lawrence’s self-help book, each with the lowest possible user-score and literally thousands of tags such as “ignorant”, “garbage” and “hypocrite” – Lawrence publicly withdrew her statement.

“I really regret saying that, and now that I’ve seen the game and seen the sex scenes it’s kind of a joke,” she said after observing the game for two and a half hours. “Before the show I had asked somebody about what they had heard, and they had said it’s like pornography. But it’s not like pornography. I’ve seen episodes of Lost that are more sexually explicit.”