Here’s where we celebrate Nintendo’s pervasive influence on popular culture. Or, in other words, we show you this month’s collection of knitted goodies and things made out of hot glue and cheap supermarket ham.

1) Mega paper animation

You’ve got to see this amazing celebration of retro Mega Man. The blue bomber leaps and shoots his way across real environments via the power of painstakingly assembled frame-by-frame animation and lots of pieces of paper. How about a game that looks like this? Brilliant.

2) Bob-omb bag

You’d have to keep this bag stuffed with soft things, otherwise the Bob-omb’s face would get all horrific and lumpy. Marshmallows, perhaps. Maybe even socks. No, it’s not very practical, is it?

3) Smash Bros. bento

Bento is the intricate art of creating edible artwork in a lunchbox. At least that’s what it is when it’s applied to gaming – check out these Smash Bros. scenes that probably taste as good as they look. Meatballs, rice, yellow stuff – it’s all there. 

4) Mario steel drums

The internet will not rest easy until the Mario theme has been played on every instrument ever devised. Here it is on steel drums, and yes, it sounds exactly like you’d imagine it would. We haven’t heard Mario’s classic tune on a lute yet. How about a lute, somebody? (No, Sting, not you. Sit back down.)

5) Cart art 

This is more of a suggestion for a craft project than a recommendation to buy, as these framed NES carts cost far more than the sum of their parts. But why not give it a go yourself? Build a frame that matches your cart of choice, mount and seal it, put some glass in the front… Actually, perhaps it’s not so easy after all.

6) SNES PSP

The best thing about the PSP is that it’s powerful enough to run all sorts of emulators. The worst thing is that it doesn’t have a SNES controller socket in the back. Oh – now it does! Slightly pointless, since the PSP has exactly the same button layout as a SNES pad anyway.

7) Console destruction
 

One sure way to make console fans quite angry is to make a video of you smashing up their favourite machine. This time it’s all in the name of science, as some wealthy nutbags test (destroy) three consoles to see which one can take the most punishment before it stops working. Place your bets now.