Idolator

You may have noticed that I'm blogging solo today. It's not bad, really! Although the news cycle is a bit dry. So while I try and figure out the ramifications of the British government's announcement that they'll start monitoring its citizens' file-sharing habits, please enjoy this Mario Paint version of Dragonforce's Guitar Hero-busting "Through The Fire And Flames." Apparently it took the creator some 10 hours to complete and perfect, and I'm sure the fact that he forgot to eat didn't help. I know I'm not the only Idolator audience-member who wishes that she could try and play along with this on her Wii. [YouTube / Earlier]

In 1992, Nintendo released a program for its Super Nintendo system entitled Mario Paint, a cartridge bundled with a PC-style mouse that was probably ground zero for my interest in, um, digital art. But in addition to letting those without home computers sketch 16-bit masterpieces, Mario Paint also included a simple MIDI program that allowed players bleep and blorp your way through tunelets like this Mario-ified version of Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up." And because the Internet refuses to let anything recede into pop cultural history, there are not only multiple programs that recreate the Mario Paint sequencer for the ProTools age, there's a thriving YouTube underground dedicated to reviving the sounds of musical mushrooms and fire flowers. Now, after spending a few hours trawling through multiple shakily captured takes on "In Da Club" and "Chocolate Rain," we present five of our favorite Mario Paint musical moments, pop recreated through meowing kitties and bouncing Mario heads. More »