Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of the Super Mario series, confirmed that the long-awaited Super Mario Bros. movie will come to North American theaters on December 21, 2022. Nintendo and Illumination, the Hollywood studio responsible for animated blockbusters like Despicable Me, have been collaborating on the project since 2018. Worldwide dates aren’t confirmed yet, but it should land sometime during the 2022 holiday season.
The Nintendo Direct didn’t reveal much about the movie. Its story, setting, and even its official name are still a mystery. However, it did introduce the main cast. This brand-new Mario adventure stars Chris Pratt as Mario, Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Charlie Day as Luigi, Jack Black as Bowser, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, and Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong.
Other smaller roles include Kevin Michael Richardson as Kamek, Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong, and Sebastian Maniscalco as Spike. Charles Martinet, who has voiced Mario since 1992, will reportedly appear throughout the movie in a cameo.
Miyamoto says it might be a while until he and Illumination have enough footage to show fans. Hopefully, this film at least outdoes the Super Mario Brothers movie from the 1990s, which is considered a universal flop among video game fans. The new movie might even make the list of best video game movies of all time.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.