VGMP: Videogame Movie Podcast

The record-breaking Super Mario Bros. Movie from 2023 is the first videogame movie to break one billion dollars at the box office! This juggernaut film was initially met with controversy when Chris Pratt was cast as the voice of Mario but this didn't hinder the film when it came time to rake in the big bucks! This show started with the 1993 Super Mario movie so it feels fitting, as we near the final days of the show, to review the 2023 movie!

Now this is a real first, at least as far as we can see, massively popular videogame Fortnite used its engine to render a deleted sequence from Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill" and made it viewable in game. It was such an unusual and unexpected thing to happen, we just had to cover it.

A Christmas themed videogame movie staring Barney from How I Met Your Mother? Surely this can't be bad. Right? Right?

Now, you probably thought that Super Mario Bros. (1993) was the first videogame movie, right? That's what mummy and daddy told you when you were a tiny child who hadn't been awoken yet to how bad videogame movies could be? Well, your parents lied kid.The ACTUAL first videogame movie is THIS: Mirai Ninja from the fine folks at Namco Bandai was made in conjunction with the videogame of the same name and was released in 1988 a full five years before Super Mario Bros. however, it was only released in Japan at the time which is why most people don't remember it. This low budget movie is an odd blend of martial arts, sci-fi and Power Rangers. Seriously. It has to be seen to be believed.

It wouldn't be the final days of VGMP without Jamie having one more rage-filled meltdown and Rory certainly saved the best for last! King Koopa's Kool Kartoons is a forgotten (not to mention lost) TV series from 1989, of which only 8 surviving minutes have been found. How bad can 8 minutes be? Well, strap in and pop on your headphones as we discuss the worst eight minutes you have ever heard in your life. Seriously.

It's a bumper episode this week as we cover multiple game adaptations in one! Saturday Supercade was a compilation cartoon series which aired in the USA and included adaptations of games such as Donkey Kong, Q*Bert, Frogger and Space Ace amongst others!

This is one of the oddest things we've ever covered here on VGMP. Purportedly based on a 1980s computer game (though bearing essentially no resemblance to said game), this sitcom includes Eugene Levy (Schitt's Creek, American Pie) amongst its writers and several guest stars including Martin Short and David Cronenberg. The show ran for 3 seasons in the early 90s but is now largely forgotten, so the question is, is there any value to be found in digging this back up?

A bonus mini-episode to look at this forgotten oddity from history; the TV Powww was a videogame system sold to local TV stations in the USA in the 1970s that allowed contestants to call up and play an interactive game by shouting the word "pow" into their phone.