Stubborn Gorilla: The Wonderfully Weird Ballad of Donkey Kong

     Did you think I had forgotten about this blog? Hot, original content coming  at you! Check out this thing I wrote about the strange history of my favorite Nintendo franchise: Donkey Kong.

     And if you aren't already, please follow me on Twitter @JordanWMinor. It's my main e-hangout space these days.

Considering the game named after him is what first put Nintendo on the map, Donkey Kong should be a pretty big deal. And yet, over 30 years after his arcade debut, he remains a B-level franchise at best. He's certainly no Legend of Zelda, and although he continues to appear in various Mario spinoffs, Super Mario 3D World got the big holiday release spot while Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze was pushed to last February. However, existing in this strange space between "important enough to keep around" and "not important enough to hang our hopes onto" has made Donkey Kong's history one of the most enjoyably bizarre among Nintendo's more prominent mascots.

Watch "Who Wore it Best?"

Remember when I said video was the future? Well the future is now! Check out my new video show for 148Apps where similar iPhone and iPad games go head to head and I pick a winner.

http://www.148apps.com/news/wore-gnarbike-trials-bike-mayhem-mountain-racing-motoheroz/

Here's this Metroid/ Daft Punk thing I made

Also news on my future online whereabouts is coming soon.

G Gundam Abridged Episode 1

Making an abridged series, for those of you who don't know, is the process of taking a show, usually an anime, editing it down and dubbing over the dialogue for comedic effect. The most famous of these is probably Yu-Gi-Oh The Abriged Series.

Anyway, a good friend of mine, known on Youtube as "TheHolyEpic" decided to get in on the action and make his own abridged series based on "Mobile Fighter G Gundam" (fighting robots). He collected the footage, edited it, and did the voices. But being the egotist that I am I've decided to post it here not simply out of selfless desire to promote my friend's material but also because I helped write the script.

Seriously though he did a good job. Check it out




Also, despite my feelings on Twitter, I do feel "obligated" (get it) to remind you guys that I do have one and It'd be cool if you followed @JordanWMinor

Hint: the W makes me more like Batman

“Runaway” from Transformers: Dark of the Moon

The title is referring to what you think


Happy Fourth of July! My "review" of the latest installment of this cinematic ordeal known as the Transformers franchise is after the jump. I use quotes because this is more of a structured rant that's been building for four years as opposed to a more objective assessment. If you really want to know if you should see this or not you'll find more useful pieces elsewhere on the internet.

But first I just wanted to share this video I’ve created that far better encapsulates my feelings, particularly towards the creators of these things, through images and music rather than the following absurd amount of written text.

Enjoy

Mind Dump 5- The Devil and Nic Cage, plus more shout-outs

This is a momentous mind dump because not only is it the first to be formed as a single story Linguistic Gimmicks style, but it is also the first to be presented in a revolutionary new format called video.

But first I wanted to remind you, as I will periodically do, that if you support this kind of nonsense from me then you can follow or subscribe through the box on the top right of this page




MORE AFTER THE BREAK

Video Game Design Colleges: Teaching the Developers of Tomorrow

I did my final project for my multimedia journalism class on the increase in schools offering video game design programs and what that means for the industry. You can enjoy the fruits of my reporting below.

READ THE TEXT STORY HERE

Video Story on DePaul University's Game Design Program



Audio Interview with Professor Jose P. Zagal

MORE AFTER THE BREAK

Oh Hey Bro, Gamecube? Sweet!

Life is hectic right now at Northwestern University as we enter the final stretch. Luckily, after this last week or so of hell (and slice armadillo heaven this Saturday), I'll be finished with my freshman year.

As such, there'll be little time for trivial acts like blogging. I'll be too busy doing important things like reporting on video games, which you'll see later. To tide you over here's some of the nonsense I've been doing here at NU. Bropocalypse Now (episode 1?), my team's entry for last Fall's Campus Movie Fest.

Old Stuff Part 4- things that talk but shouldn't

There's a part of me that wants to do something creative as a career whether it's being a screenwriter, writing a comic or making a cartoon show or something. My room has a fair amount of scripts and crude drawings that seem to make less sense the deeper you go into them.

An anthropomorphic glue bottle superhero named Glueman might have seemed appropriate in second grade. We all did dumb stuff as little kids like "adopting" an acre of rainforest in Belize for $30 or making up a country called "Chinito".

A comic/book/cartoon about a talking eggplant named Piff, that's where piffman2 comes from not what you were thinking of because I didn't know about that at the time, and his misadventures were pushing it in terms of how ridiculous a middle schooler should be. In fact, that whole thing only wrapped up like two years ago

Old Stuff Part 2- Videos! part 2

These are the videos of mine with a more musical flair. I've had a pretty solid relationship with music over the years. Played the trumpet for a hell of long time. But as these reflect, in varying degrees of quality, I prefer creating or manipulating music rather than playing it. Enjoy!

Earthbound Midi Medley

Old Stuff Part 1- Videos! part 1

Here are a bunch of videos I've either produced or have been a part of throughout the years. I like movies and I've been a very very very amateur flash artist for about six years now. I love living in a world when even the most incompetent of children can create ghetto animation.

My youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/piffman2 with such fan favorites like my Smash Bros series, game reviews and this




amazingly accurate