This commercial was released in Japan to promote the Super Nintendo/Super Famicom game The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past/Kamigami no Triforce.  It’s kind of like Michael Jackson’s video for Thriller, but with a much smaller budget and some crazier situations.  I can’t stop watching it, and I can’t stop laughing about it.

It’s absolutely brilliant, isn’t it?  Something about dancing Japanese girls and bad 90’s rap makes me want to go play video games.

I found an interesting bundle offer at GoNintendo today.  If you head down to your local GameStop, or hit up GameStop’s web presence, with the purchase of any $250 bundle of pirate temporary tattoos, water guns, or rubber ducks, you get a free Nintendo Wii.  Just in time for summer!

Actually, the deal is that the Wii is what you buy, and the stickers, squirters, and quackers are part of the summer fun bundle.  This is quite possibly the weirdest video game bundle I’ve *ever* seen, and I’ve seen pretty much all of them.  It’s like buying a computer and getting a Happy Meal toy thrown in with the deal.

It’s a good sign that the Wii is readily available (finally) but what on Earth possessed GameStop to look around the warehouse and say, “You know what would move these Wiis?  Temporary tattoos!”  Maybe it was some sort of delivery snafu that GameStop is on the hook for.

I love pretty much anything Star Wars related.  I can’t help it, I grew up on those movies, I own several copies of them, and I believe the original trilogy is one of the few epic movie experiences from the early 80’s that still holds up today.  The stories, based on mythic archetypes, are timeless, as are these absolutely adorable Star Wars flash drives.

Just look at Yoda and tell me you can resist that cute little face.  My one complaint is that there’s no R2D2.  R2 is the robot who stored the Death Star plans in his memory, so why couldn’t you store your dinner plans in your own little astromech?  You can pick up the four at Entertainment Earth once they’re released.

Shame they’re not coming until October, as I could use a new 2GB storage device that just so happens to look like Darth Vader.  It’s completely not related to my mad love of Star Wars, not at all.

H/T: Ironic Sans via Neatorama.

What happens when you give a kid from the iPod generation a Walkman?  Well, the BBC did just that, plopping a first generation cassette player into the hands of 13-year-old Scott Campbell.  The results, well, will probably make you feel old.  It definitely makes me feel like an antique.

It’s amazing just how much has changed in the past five years when it comes to the progress of technology.  For example, was there ever a need for people to carry around 32 gigabytes of music in the old days?  No, we just carried around giant books of easily damaged CDs or a few tapes that we listened to until we were sick of them.  In a way, it’s an explanation of why the record industry has fought so hard against the rate of technological change.  Things have radically changed in such a short time and physical media, the method of music delivery that the industry knows inside out, isn’t there anymore.

Two merchants hold all the power these days, Apple and Amazon.  Do you know anyone who regularly buys MP3s from a source other than one of those two?  I can’t think of a single person, and I’m in the minority as an Amazon user who doesn’t bother with iTunes.  I’m not sure how the profit margins might work, but I’d guess that $15-20 CDs are more profitable than a $1 (or less) electronic file.

Anybody who uses any social networking site knows that sinking feeling.  You get that email saying, “So and so is following you on MySpace!” or whatever, and it turns out so and so is someone you never wanted to hear from again.  That’s the trouble Pacman is in right now, thanks to artist Scott Hampson.  It’s funny, but it’s funnier because we’ve ALL been there.

H/T: Kotaku

Mike Giepert noticed something unusual on his Mac.  When he glanced at his Mac Dock, he noticed that the icons were spelling out the word browse.  You can see it in the above screen capture.  Of course, that realization caused him to start exploring to see what other word combinations he could spell out using only program icons.  Check out his discoveries here, along with the discoveries of some of his readers.

The dock is one of the features of OS X I like the most; the fact that you can now communicate via the dock is that much more impressive.  I just wonder how many possible words you could wring out of simple program icons?

Taito, the Japanese arcade game manufacturer, also makes prize machines.  You know, those little machines that you feed 50 cents into so you can manipulate the claw around and attempt to scoop up a stuffed lion or zebra or something like that.  However, like most things, the prizes in Japanese game machines are way more awesome than the prizes we have here in America.

For example, in Japan?  Taito’s game machines give little electronic gadgets, most of which are powered by USB.  For example, they have a four-piace chocolate chiller (because when you’re working at the computer you need the calories chocolate can give you, apparently).  They also have some more interesting gadgets, like a USB mini-shredder, a mini-air conditioner-type device, and my favorite, a USB-powered single drink cooler (that looks like a fridge!).

If I could feed a machine a dollar and I had a shot at landing something like a USB shredder, I think I’d end up feeding it more thatn it would cost just to buy the thing off the shelf!  I love those claw games anyway, but if you give me something I could use rather than a fluffy critter, I’d spend hours in front of one of those things.

People are bored with the traditional doormats.  “Welcome” and the like are totally played out.  That’s why, for the truly geeky, Chiasso has some awesome “Enter” and “Home” doormats designed to look like computer keyboard keys!

I have to admit I’m a sucker for a good novelty doormat.  If it plays music or threatens me if I don’t leave?  So much the better.  A normal, generic welcome mat says nothing about the owner of the home in question.  You need to make an impression right away, so why not do it via flooring?

H/T: Design Milk

You seriously will not find a cheaper Blu-ray player on the market.  Meijer has a Curtis Mathes Blu-ray Disc Player right now for $99.  That includes shipping.  If I were you, and if I had even the slightest interest in ever owning a Blu-ray player, I’d run over and buy one right now.  Just remember to use the code DOTMJR09 when checking out!

The only qualm about this machine is that it apparently doesn’t have surround sound analog outputs (digital only) or Profile 2.0.  But does that really matter when it’s several hundred dollars cheaper than the closest cheap Blu-ray player?  I didn’t think so.