In honor of the 25th anniversary of Super Mario Bros., and the release of Super Mario All-Stars: Limited Edition, Satoru Iwata has gathered up more members of the Mario team for another round of questioning. The developers probed include Katsuya Eguchi, who joined the team in 1986, and Super Mario Galaxy director Yoshiaki Koizumi, who didn't join until 1991.

As always, Iwata proves an expert interrogator, drawing neat information out of his employees. For example, New Super Mario Bros. on DS was originally conceived as a fifth game in the GBA's Super Mario Advance series. "After we released Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3," says Hiroyuki Kimura, "people were asking if a '5' in the series would be released. That's right when the Nintendo DS system came out, which was perfect timing, so I thought if we're gonna make it, it should be a new title."

Additionally, Koizumi describes the experience of working with Miyamoto on Super Mario 64, which Miyamoto directed himself. While Koizumi expected written instructions, instead he got, well ... "it was just Miyamoto-san and me in the office, and he starts showing me how Mario is supposed to swim while saying, 'It's not really a breast stroke, and not a crawl, but something like this maybe...?' And he was completely sprawled out on the desk doing these swimming motions." This is the part where you laugh, perhaps nervously.

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For the week ending December 11, Chart-Track's UK All Formats chart had Call of Duty: Black Ops at the top, FIFA 11 in second and the highly anticipated expansion, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, in third. Yes, that math feels all kinds of wrong. Here's a perfect example of how the lack of online sales tracking can create an issue when looking at Chart-Track and NPD results. Cataclysm was the first WoW expansion, a game that reportedly has 12 million subscribers, to be available both at retail and online. It seems that unless players were interested in baubles, they were more than happy to just pay Activision-Blizzard for the authorization key directly online.

In other news, it looks like the UK caught on that Disney Epic Mickey launched. The Wii exclusive, created by Warren Spector's Junction Point Studio, finally broke into the Top 40 at 37, "misunderstood" design and all.

And because it's our obsessive fascination, we'll tell you that Just Dance 2 slipped a mere single spot into sixth. That means we are only a few weeks away from a member of the Just Dance franchise holding a place in the top ten for nearly all of 2010. Check out the UK's top performing titles after the break.

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It is, without a doubt, an actually good, not disappointing day on the Wii and DSi Shops. It's a Christmas miracle! The very cool iPhone reflex / rhythm game Lilt Line is now on WiiWare, published by Bit. Trip developer Gaijin Games. And Taito's Darius Twin shoots 'em up on Virtual Console.

On DSiWare, Little Red Riding Hood's Zombie BBQ, originally a retail DS game, can be downloaded for 800 Points, obviating the need to go to a store and hunt down that somewhat obscure (but fun) shooter.

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It's fairly common for retailers to offer store credit to help drive purchases of certain items, but this is why Amazon's taking over the world: If you buy a 160 GB PS3 or a White Wii console, you'll get $75 or $50 (respectively) in Amazon bucks, which you can then use to buy a George Foreman grill.

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There could only be one winner. After it was all said and done, Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption took home the coveted Game of the Year prize from the VGA, besting Call of Duty: Black Ops, God of War III, Halo: Reach and Mass Effect 2.

Other noteworthy winners throughout the evening include Costume Quest's victory as downloadable game of the year, and Limbo's victory as indie game of the year. In addition, BSG's Tricia Helfer finally won an award for something, as a voice in Starcraft 2.

For the full list of winners, click past the break.

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God, are we really doing this again?

OK, fine.

For the fourth (yes, fourth) year running, my brother (and fellow Joystiq editor) Griffin McElroy and I are going to watch the VGAs so you don't have to. Traditionally, we make fun of them in the cruelest and most profanity-laden way possible, but maybe they'll, you know, be really great this year? Like, super duper classy?

... Maybe? Bookmark this page and let's find out together after the break at 8 p.m. EST.

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Spike's Video Game Awards are about an hour away (we'll put up our liveblog shortly), but our own Mike Schramm got to the red carpet early to snap some shots and dish with the celebrities attending this year's event. As he forwards us more pics, we'll be sure to add them to the gallery below. In the meanwhile, let us know what you're looking forward to most at this year's show. Is it the Guillermo Del Toro game? Is it Batman: Arkham City? Mass Effect 3?

It's, uh, it's Mass Effect 3, isn't it?

You're telling us you didn't finish all of your holiday shopping two weeks ago, like everyone else in the civilized world? You're cutting it close -- maybe you can polish off your list with the GameStop Power Saver sale, with offers like a $50 DJ Hero 2 bundle, or $10 off a few dozen EA games?

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The latest de Blob 2 screens and video offer a lot of information about various iterations of the sequel. For example, the DS version, developed by Halfbrick, is revealed as a 2.5D platformer, rather than the 3D paintathon of the console versions. And the Wii version looks pretty similar to its predecessor, with evidence of some more open environments.

As for the trailer, it offers an indication of the kind of storytelling we'll see in the games and, most likely, the tone of the SyFy "transmedia" programming as well. And it's as close as you could get to a Raving Rabbids TV show.

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