Latest news with #Toad
Time of India
8 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
What did Mang0 do? Super Smash Bros. legend faces backlash for harassing female streamers live on stream
(Image via X/@millirxch) Super Smash Bros legend Joseph "Mang0" Marquez is no stranger to the spotlight. But this time, he's trending for all the wrong reasons. At Ludwig's recent Beerio Kart event, what was supposed to be a chaotic, fun-filled gaming night spiraled into an uncomfortable mess, with Mang0's actions sparking outrage across Twitch, Reddit, and beyond. Here's everything about the viral incident. The Viral Moment That Sparked It All The Beerio Kart event brought together top-tier creators like Valkyrae, Maya Higa, ExtraEmily, Will Neff, and more to drink and game live. Mang0, invited as a guest, quickly turned heads, not for his gameplay, but for his erratic and highly inappropriate behavior. Clearly intoxicated, Mang0 was shirtless and hyperactive throughout the stream. But what crossed the line were his interactions with female streamers, particularly Maya Higa and ExtraEmily. The Viral Clips that Broke the Internet Though many of the original Twitch VODs were pulled, the internet never forgets. Mirror clips have been circulating widely especially on r/LivestreamFail , showing Mang0: Walking up behind Maya Higa mid-stream and placing a leg on her chair while mimicking a humping motion behind her head. Gyrating on a Toad plushie right next to her. Pressuring ExtraEmily to end her stream while repeatedly patting her hair and invading her space. Using a cardboard cutout of himself to simulate more inappropriate movements toward her, even groaning audibly while doing so. Ludwig, who hosted the event, tried to pull Mang0 away multiple times. But Mang0 kept returning, crossing physical boundaries and making everyone visibly uncomfortable. Fans and Fellow Creators Speak Out Fans, Redditors, and even longtime supporters were quick to slam Mang0's behavior. While some brushed it off as 'drunk shenanigans,' others called it out for what it was — inappropriate, uncomfortable, and borderline sexual harassment. The fact that it happened on stream, live, in front of thousands, only intensified the scrutiny. Some viewers argued that Mang0 'crossed a line' and 'should've been kicked out the moment it got weird.' Others questioned why the event lacked clear boundaries or interventions, especially when multiple female creators looked visibly uneasy. xQc Reacts to Super Smash Pro Player "Mang0" Harassing Multiple Females on Stream Why This Matters This isn't just about one chaotic night. It's about the fine line between content and consent, party and professionalism. When someone as influential as Mang0 behaves inappropriately, especially around women creators, it sends a message. And the internet is loud and clear: this kind of behavior isn't okay, no matter how iconic your status is. Mang0's Beerio Kart behavior has sparked major backlash due to repeated inappropriate conduct toward female streamers. Viral clips, fan outrage, and growing concerns over harassment at content creator events have turned a chaotic stream into a serious conversation. Game On Season 1 kicks off with Sakshi Malik's inspiring story. Watch Episode 1 here
The Star
16-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Star
'Mario Kart World's' journeys are smooth and unremarkable
Mario Kart World is an incredibly clean game. As the latest iteration of a decades-spanning franchise, it has been winnowed into something smoothly efficient and entirely absent of blemishes. The series' hypercolored, candy-coated art style is rendered with impressive clarity on the Nintendo Switch 2's brand-new hardware. You can launch into a race in moments, whether playing on your own, sharing a split screen or playing online. In this well-crafted experience, there is very little standing in the way of the fun. Yet once I eventually put down the racing controller, I can only assume this iteration will be as thoroughly erased from my memory as Mario Kart 8 was after its release 11 years ago. It comes down to the nature of playing these games. They aren't linear narrative experiences. They aren't designed to provoke specific emotions at specific times, nor to generate thought or reflections on a theme. The Mario Kart games are toys, things to pick up and play, to boop and to beep, before putting them back down again. The karts and drivers you can select are collectibles to rotate around and admire, not embody. They're like video game versions of Parcheesi . They don't come bearing rich characters, plots or motivations, all useful tools when it comes to creating something that can memorably exist on its own as a piece of art. When Mario Kart 8 came out for the Wii U in 2014, the most active discourse about it online focused on Luigi. More specifically, the evil way he seems to smirk at other racers while caught on the replay camera that rolls after a race. We couldn't get enough of the anodyne plumber shooting murderous looks at his competitors. But Luigi wasn't designed to be a giant jerk. His demeanour was an accident of his default facial expression paired with players' desire for meaning and humour in a game without much consideration for either. Since the release of Mario Kart World , I've already seen popular social media posts with a picture of a smiling Toad driving a police car, instigating questions of whether anti-cop slogans apply to this gormless talking mushroom. All of these memes work as a kind of fan fiction for Mario Kart , adding a layer of narrative. Most of the racers in Mario Kart World are series regulars who carry decades of back story from previous games, movies and comic-book spinoffs. It's easy to project pathos onto the cartoonish frames of Wario or Yoshi or Donkey Kong. We get hints of character, too, in the way that racers side-eye one another while waiting in the starting line, or in the shape of Waluigi's lanky form as he wraps himself around a tiny scooter. There's a sense of humour implicit in certain character choices, too: a flying, limbless Para-Biddybud behind the wheel of a go-kart, or the cows and moles who normally serve as course obstacles. These tiny details form an impressionistic pattern over time, reminiscent of the ghostly indentations a pen's tip leaves on the opposite side of a page. They wind up feeling superfluous to what the game actually is, though: a kart racer on tracks inspired by various Nintendo properties. It is a racing series that marches in lock step with a long legacy, to the extent that I can't say with any confidence that completing a race on the Switch 2 feels substantially different from playing the original Mario Kart on the Super Nintendo. There are many more bells and whistles in Mario Kart World , of course, with lots of floors added onto the original game's blueprint. It comes packed with new vehicles, new characters and new tracks (as well as variations of classic ones). There are dynamic new ways of moving, such as rails you can hop onto and grind along, Tony Hawk-style, before somersaulting back onto the track. Racers are now able to flip themselves into the air, leaping over their competitors, obstacles and – with enough timing and practice – even red shells. There's an exciting new mode, Knockout Tour, an endurance race that combines several tracks into one long one and eliminates drivers after each checkpoint. It benefits particularly well from the chaos and fun of bringing online players into the mix. There's also the game's much-touted Free Roam mode, which allows you to pick any character and drive around an open-world map, passing through existing tracks, discovering different collectibles and accomplishing location-specific challenges that test your skill and accuracy. Though a promising addition, this mode can't compete with the robustness of Forza Horizon or hold a candle to Burnout Paradise , the originator of this open-world approach. Both games make the concept central to their structure, so they naturally fill them with variety. Here, the Free Roam mode sits at the bottom of the game's main menu, wedged between its collectible sticker book and user manual. Like the rest of the game, this mode is elegant, but mostly empty of anything terribly meaningful. The roads and freeways are lined with outfit-transforming fast food, Bob-omb-driven cars, Hammer-throwing Bros and colorful rides that produce no exhaust, drip no oil and leave no skid marks. The boulevards crisscrossing this pristine landscape are congestion-free and quiet. Mario Kart World's surface is entirely smooth, free of any bumps or indentations. Slipping off it feels inevitable. – © 2025 The New York Times Company This article originally appeared in The New York Times
The Star
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Star
Nintendo's Switch 2 soups up the graphics, but does it deliver the games?
WASHINGTON: I'm cruising around Bowser's Castle with my old pal Toad. It's not exactly relaxing, what with all the lava pits and banana peels and turtle shells littering the road. Add 23 other characters – is that a cow driving? – who are trying to get to the finish line first, and it's chaos. The hectic, high-speed insanity of any race in the new Mario Kart World would have caused the eight-year-old Switch console to wheeze a bit. And that's why we've got the Switch 2 (US$449.99/RM1,907), the souped-up sequel to Nintendo's popular home-and-portable hybrid. It looks prettier, too. The 7.9in portable display (up from 6.2in) boosts the resolution to 1020p (from 720p), and while the LCD screen isn't quite as sharp as an OLED screen might have been, it's much cleaner than the original recipe Switch. It looks even better when connected to an HDTV since it now supports 4K and HDR. Nintendo has always stood apart from the technological arms race that fans of Sony's PlayStation and Microsoft's Xbox obsess over, insisting that first-rate games don't necessarily depend on high-powered computer chips. But you could feel the strain in 2023's The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom , with its at-times blurry graphics and sluggish framerate. The Switch 2, with a faster framerate of 120 fps, corrects much of the fuzziness. That's not to say it comes close to matching the high-definition performance of the PlayStation 5 or the Xbox X/S. If you're expecting the jaw-dropping graphics of, say, Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Shadows ... well, no. There is good news for those of us who have gotten weary of the old Switch's dinky 32 gigabytes of internal storage. The Switch 2 multiplies that by eight, for 256GB. Of course, flashier games take up more space, so if you want more room you'll have to invest in a microSD Express card – which is a bit pricier than the standard memory card used in most portable devices. Magnets, how do they work? The Switch 2's Joy-Con controllers have undergone some tinkering. As before, you can attach them to the sides of the screen if you're playing on the go. If you're at home, you can attach them to a doohickey that feels more like a traditional joystick. Either way, they're now more firmly connected with magnets, which provide a satisfying snap. Both the left and right Joy-Cons now include an optical mouse, which you can use by placing the controller on its edge and rolling it around on a table. (Nintendo says you can also use it on your pants, but I prefer using a clipboard on my lap.) It remains to be seen how many Switch 2 games will call for a mouse, but 2K's port of Sid Meier's Civilization VII seems like a good candidate. What about the social options? And then there's a new button labeled "C' on the right-hand Joy-Con. That calls up GameChat, which lets you start up a conversation with other players – provided you've all taken the time to register yourselves as friends. (Eventually, you'll also need to subscribe to the Nintendo Switch Online service, but that requirement doesn't kick in until March 31, 2026.) The microphone is built into the Switch 2, though if you want to upgrade to video chat, you'll need to buy a separate Nintendo camera. Finally, there's GameShare, which lets you play selected titles with other Switch users even if they don't own the software. Nintendo has been emphasising the new social features in its marketing, though it feels like it's catching up to the competition. The kids I know who play Fortnite or Minecraft on competing consoles seem to have figured out long ago how to chat with their pals. Welcome to the 2010s? Who's got game? As with any console launch, the driving question is: Does it have the games? There are just a couple of Switch 2 exclusives out now: Mario Kart World and Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour , a US$10 (RM42) demo package that really should have been free. There are some new-to-Nintendo ports of excellent titles like Split Fiction and Cyberpunk 2077 . You can get upgrades of classics like the last two Legend Of Zelda adventures. And the Switch 2 is fully backward-compatible, so you can play everything that came out for the Switch as well as a substantial library of older titles. There's no other machine that will let you play future installments of beloved franchises like Zelda , Super Mario Bros , Super Smash Bros and Animal Crossing . None of those have been announced yet, but some marquee names – Donkey Kong and Kirby – will star in Switch 2 exclusives later this year. There's plenty of competition out there, though, and not just in the TV-connected console market Switch shares with the PlayStation and the Xbox. Nintendo no longer has the portable market to itself, thanks to Valve's SteamDeck. Some models of that device cost less than the Switch 2, and it already has a huge library of PC games. Meanwhile, Microsoft announced over the weekend that it's teaming up with Asus on the ROG Xbox Ally, a handheld that will be out before Christmas. Honestly, we'll probably have a better idea of the Switch's quality a few years down the line, after developers get a handle on what the new hardware can do. If you're dying to get back behind the wheel with Mario, Luigi and Princess Peach right now, though, you know what you need to do. – AP
Arab Times
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Arab Times
Nintendo's Switch 2 boosts graphics, but where are the games?
WASHINGTON, June 10, (AP): I'm cruising around Bowser's Castle with my old pal Toad. It's not exactly relaxing, what with all the lava pits and banana peels and turtle shells littering the road. Add 23 other characters - is that a cow driving? - who are trying to get to the finish line first, and it's chaos. The hectic, high-speed insanity of any race in the new Mario Kart World would have caused the eight-year-old Switch console to wheeze a bit. And that's why we've got the Switch 2 ($449.99), the souped-up sequel to Nintendo's popular home-and-portable hybrid. It looks prettier, too. The 7.9-inch portable display (up from 6.2 inches) boosts the resolution to 1020p (from 720p), and while the LCD screen isn't quite as sharp as an OLED screen might have been, it's much cleaner than the original recipe Switch. It looks even better when connected to an HDTV since it now supports 4K and HDR. Nintendo has always stood apart from the technological arms race that fans of Sony's PlayStation and Microsoft's Xbox obsess over, insisting that first-rate games don't necessarily depend on high-powered computer chips. But you could feel the strain in 2023's The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, with its at-times blurry graphics and sluggish framerate. The Switch 2, with a faster framerate of 120 fps, corrects much of the fuzziness. That's not to say it comes close to matching the high-definition performance of the PlayStation 5 or the Xbox X/S. If you're expecting the jaw-dropping graphics of, say, Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Shadows ... well, no. There is good news for those of us who have gotten weary of the old Switch's dinky 32 gigabytes of internal storage. The Switch 2 multiplies that by eight, for 256 GB. Of course, flashier games take up more space, so if you want more room you'll have to invest in a microSD Express card - which is a bit pricier than the standard memory card used in most portable devices. The Switch 2's Joy-Con controllers have undergone some tinkering. As before, you can attach them to the sides of the screen if you're playing on the go. If you're at home, you can attach them to a doohickey that feels more like a traditional joystick. Either way, they're now more firmly connected with magnets, which provide a satisfying snap. Both the left and right Joy-Cons now include an optical mouse, which you can use by placing the controller on its edge and rolling it around on a table. (Nintendo says you can also use it on your pants, but I prefer using a clipboard on my lap.) It remains to be seen how many Switch 2 games will call for a mouse, but 2K's port of Sid Meier's Civilization VII seems like a good candidate. And then there's a new button labeled "C' on the right-hand Joy-Con. That calls up GameChat, which lets you start up a conversation with other players - provided you've all taken the time to register yourselves as friends. (Eventually, you'll also need to subscribe to the Nintendo Switch Online service, but that requirement doesn't kick in until March 31, 2026.) The microphone is built into the Switch 2, though if you want to upgrade to video chat, you'll need to buy a separate Nintendo camera. Finally, there's GameShare, which lets you play selected titles with other Switch users even if they don't own the software. Nintendo has been emphasizing the new social features in its marketing, though it feels like it's catching up to the competition. The kids I know who play Fortnite or Minecraft on competing consoles seem to have figured out long ago how to chat with their pals. Welcome to the 2010s? As with any console launch, the driving question is: Does it have the games? There are just a couple of Switch 2 exclusives out now: Mario Kart World and Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, a $10 demo package that really should have been free. There are some new-to-Nintendo ports of excellent titles like Split Fiction and Cyberpunk 2077. You can get upgrades of classics like the last two Legend of Zelda adventures. And the Switch 2 is fully backward-compatible, so you can play everything that came out for the Switch as well as a substantial library of older titles. There's no other machine that will let you play future installments of beloved franchises like Zelda, Super Mario Bros., Super Smash Bros. and Animal Crossing. None of those have been announced yet, but some marquee names - Donkey Kong and Kirby - will star in Switch 2 exclusives later this year. There's plenty of competition out there, though, and not just in the TV-connected console market Switch shares with the PlayStation and the Xbox. Nintendo no longer has the portable market to itself, thanks to Valve's SteamDeck. Some models of that device cost less than the Switch 2, and it already has a huge library of PC games. Meanwhile, Microsoft announced over the weekend that it's teaming up with Asus on the ROG Xbox Ally, a handheld that will be out before Christmas. Honestly, we'll probably have a better idea of the Switch's quality a few years down the line, after developers get a handle on what the new hardware can do. If you're dying to get back behind the wheel with Mario, Luigi and Princess Peach right now, though, you know what you need to do.
Asahi Shimbun
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Asahi Shimbun
Nintendo's Switch 2 soups up the graphics, but does it deliver the games?
WASHINGTON--I'm cruising around Bowser's Castle with my old pal Toad. It's not exactly relaxing, what with all the lava pits and banana peels and turtle shells littering the road. Add 23 other characters — is that a cow driving? — who are trying to get to the finish line first, and it's chaos. The hectic, high-speed insanity of any race in the new Mario Kart World would have caused the eight-year-old Switch console to wheeze a bit. And that's why we've got the Switch 2 ($449.99), the souped-up sequel to Nintendo's popular home-and-portable hybrid. It looks prettier, too. The 7.9-inch portable display (up from 6.2 inches) boosts the resolution to 1020p (from 720p), and while the LCD screen isn't quite as sharp as an OLED screen might have been, it's much cleaner than the original recipe Switch. It looks even better when connected to an HDTV since it now supports 4K and HDR. Nintendo has always stood apart from the technological arms race that fans of Sony's PlayStation and Microsoft's Xbox obsess over, insisting that first-rate games don't necessarily depend on high-powered computer chips. But you could feel the strain in 2023's The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, with its at-times blurry graphics and sluggish framerate. The Switch 2, with a faster framerate of 120 fps, corrects much of the fuzziness. That's not to say it comes close to matching the high-definition performance of the PlayStation 5 or the Xbox X/S. If you're expecting the jaw-dropping graphics of, say, Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Shadows ... well, no. There is good news for those of us who have gotten weary of the old Switch's dinky 32 gigabytes of internal storage. The Switch 2 multiplies that by eight, for 256 GB. Of course, flashier games take up more space, so if you want more room you'll have to invest in a microSD Express card — which is a bit pricier than the standard memory card used in most portable devices. The Switch 2's Joy-Con controllers have undergone some tinkering. As before, you can attach them to the sides of the screen if you're playing on the go. If you're at home, you can attach them to a doohickey that feels more like a traditional joystick. Either way, they're now more firmly connected with magnets, which provide a satisfying snap. Both the left and right Joy-Cons now include an optical mouse, which you can use by placing the controller on its edge and rolling it around on a table. (Nintendo says you can also use it on your pants, but I prefer using a clipboard on my lap.) It remains to be seen how many Switch 2 games will call for a mouse, but 2K's port of Sid Meier's Civilization VII seems like a good candidate. And then there's a new button labeled 'C' on the right-hand Joy-Con. That calls up GameChat, which lets you start up a conversation with other players — provided you've all taken the time to register yourselves as friends. (Eventually, you'll also need to subscribe to the Nintendo Switch Online service, but that requirement doesn't kick in until March 31, 2026.) The microphone is built into the Switch 2, though if you want to upgrade to video chat, you'll need to buy a separate Nintendo camera. Finally, there's GameShare, which lets you play selected titles with other Switch users even if they don't own the software. Nintendo has been emphasizing the new social features in its marketing, though it feels like it's catching up to the competition. The kids I know who play Fortnite or Minecraft on competing consoles seem to have figured out long ago how to chat with their pals. Welcome to the 2010s? As with any console launch, the driving question is: Does it have the games? There are just a couple of Switch 2 exclusives out now: Mario Kart World and Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, a $10 demo package that really should have been free. There are some new-to-Nintendo ports of excellent titles like Split Fiction and Cyberpunk 2077. You can get upgrades of classics like the last two Legend of Zelda adventures. And the Switch 2 is fully backward-compatible, so you can play everything that came out for the Switch as well as a substantial library of older titles. There's no other machine that will let you play future installments of beloved franchises like Zelda, Super Mario Bros., Super Smash Bros. and Animal Crossing. None of those have been announced yet, but some marquee names — Donkey Kong and Kirby — will star in Switch 2 exclusives later this year. There's plenty of competition out there, though, and not just in the TV-connected console market Switch shares with the PlayStation and the Xbox. Nintendo no longer has the portable market to itself, thanks to Valve's SteamDeck. Some models of that device cost less than the Switch 2, and it already has a huge library of PC games. Meanwhile, Microsoft announced over the weekend that it's teaming up with Asus on the ROG Xbox Ally, a handheld that will be out before Christmas. Honestly, we'll probably have a better idea of the Switch's quality a few years down the line, after developers get a handle on what the new hardware can do. If you're dying to get back behind the wheel with Mario, Luigi and Princess Peach right now, though, you know what you need to do.
