Awesome Nintendo

Artist Cameron Oehler of 1337motif makes awesome cutting boards and coasters inspired by video game pixel art. This set of six wooden coasters features pixelated images of Mario, Mushroom, Star, Boo, Bob-omb, and Goomba, each made from hundreds of cubes of colorful wood.

We always figured if you were going to upgrade the plastic case on a handheld game system, you’d want to go for aluminum or maybe carbon fiber. But Peter Knetter is a bit of a contrarian, so he downgraded his GameBoy Advance SP by building it a case, buttons, and D-pad out of cardboard.

In 2017, Mattel wanted to get in on the Nintendo Switch craze and created a limited-edition backpack that made the handheld console no longer handheld. Ultimately, only three of the $980 backpacks were produced. Peter Knetter offers his take on this electric blue oddity that may or may not have actually existed.

Franzoli Electronics is back with another great musical performance on his trio of tesla coils. This time the high voltage towers zap out an energetic cover of Koji Kondo’s oft-played theme music from Super Mario Bros. More of a Zelda fan? Be sure to check out his Tesla cover of The Legend of Zelda’s theme.

Louis Zong presents a magnificent medley of tunes from the world of Yoshi, performed in the style of jazz great Django Reinhardt. The tracks include music from the soundtracks of Yoshi’s Crafted World, Yoshi’s Island DS, Yoshi’s Cookie, Yoshi’s Story, and Yoshi’s Island. The EP is available for download from Bandcamp.

We wish real-life currency looked like Rupees from the Legend of Zelda games. Artist Squowks shows how they made a set of the colorful gemstones by pouring UV-cured resin into faceted molds they made from sheets of plastic. If you’re not feeling up to the DIY challenge, you can find similar sets for purchase on Etsy.

Previously, ClayClaim built a miniature scene based on a level from Super Mario 64. Now the Fimo clay artist is back with another build inspired by the N64 game – Princess Peach’s iconic castle. He achieved the low-poly look by cutting lots of sharp, angular blocks of clay. Those Mario, Yoshi, and Cameraman sculpts are adorable.

Svetlana and Benni of KamuiCosplay make incredible props and costumes. Their latest build is the eponymous mask from The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. They made it entirely from sculpting EVA foam and then added LED lighting and a colorful paint job. This thing always reminded us of Aku Aku from Crash Bandicoot.

This isn’t the first time we’ve heard the Super Mario Bros. theme performed on violin, but musician Teppei Okada’s version adds all the appropriate sound effects to a few different levels of the classic Nintendo platformer. He’s done the same for F-ZERO and Super Mario Kart among others.

These officially-licensed Nintendo notebooks look just like NES cartridges – if they got run over by a steamroller. They have A5-size (5-7/8″ x 8-1/4″) ruled pages, game graphics on their inside covers and come in a slip-cover inspired by an NES cartridge case. Choose from Super Mario Bros. or Metroid versions.

With the possible exception of The Homer, the vehicular version of Kirby from Kirby and the Forgotten Land is the silliest looking car we can think of. Adam over at North of the Border sculpted a real-world version of the bubbly pink ride out of aluminum foil and clay.

Studson Studio is a master at creating miniatures based on video games and animation. His detailed model of Luigi’s Mansion will bring a thrill to any Nintendo fan. He built it primarily out of foam and paper boards, coffee stirrers, and modeling compound. We love his creative use of food skewers for the fence.

ClayClaim is an expert at sculpting objects and scenes out of Fimo polymer clay. In this video, he shows us how he created an incredibly detailed miniature scene based on the Bomb-Omb Battlefield level of the Nintendo classic Super Mario 64. We love all the tiny enemies, especially King Bob-Omb and Chain Chomp.

This special edition Jenga game adds to the tower-stacking fun by adding some Super Mario fun. As players stack bricks, they must also climb the tower to make their way towards the top in order to battle and defeat Bowser. Play tokens include Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, and Toad.

To celebrate the holidays, software engineer Scottbez1 built a miniature replica of a Nintendo Switch to hang on his Christmas tree. The 3D-printed model is roughly 1:5-scale with a working LCD screen that plays animated GIFs of Switch games and has tiny clickable thumbsticks.

South Carolina’s Moore Than Just a Book makes works of illuminated using layers of laser-cut paper under glass to create a silhouetted depth effect. Our favorite is this scene inspired by the world of Super Mario. It measures 8″h x 10″w and comes with either a black or white frame.

If Super Mario Bros. and Tetris did a crossover, it might look something like this tabletop accent light. The set comes with 16 double-sided and stackable light blocks which you can mix and match to create your own custom 8-bit game level. Makes a great gift for any Nintendo fan.

The Rainbow Road levels are some of the most memorable in the Mario Kart games. Mutch Games built a real-world replica of the SNES course with LED lighting and mechanized Thwomps. He combined the track with gameplay footage using the Switch AR game Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit. He’s built several other levels too.

The moiré pattern created by moving a striped transparency over special images can create the illusion of movement. While we’ve seen the idea executed using printed images, this is the first time we’ve seen someone draw the patterns by hand. We’re guessing there’s some editing trickery going on here, but it fooled us.

This 2,064-piece LEGO set offers a challenge for Nintendo fans. It looks like a 3D question mark block, but hiding inside are four levels from Super Mario 64: Peach’s Castle, Bob-omb Battlefield, Cool Mountain and Lethal Lava Trouble. The set includes 10 Super Mario microfigures, and interacts with LEGO Mario and Luigi figures.

Nintendo Labo kits encourage players to build game accessories using cardboard. DanCreator took that idea to the next level by building a complete sit-down Mario Kart arcade machine to go with his Labo cardboard steering wheel. The total cost for the build was $150, not including the Nintendo Switch.

Super Mario Bros. turned 35 years old in September 2020. To celebrate the plumber’s auspicious anniversary, Nintendo fan Kas K created this joyous remix of classic sounds and characters from the Super Mario universe.

Nintendo fanboys and fangirls will get a kick out of this medley of console startup music performed by Korean a cappella group MayTree. Nintendo consoles always have had great music, but the GameCube theme is still our favorite.