Tonight, WWE aired its annual two-hour Tribute to the Troops show on USA, and guest starring throughout the show were none other than the Muppets! Right here is what might be the best segment with them, as The Miz asks the hard questions about Kermit and Miss Piggy’s relationship on his talk show-within-a-show, “Miz TV.”

You can find more clips on WWE’s YouTube Channel, and miraculously, people outside the United States can actually view them! It’s a very nice and welcome change, to say the least.

For those who’d rather see the televised version, there will be a one-hour version running on NBC this Saturday night, December 22nd, at 9pm.

WWE posted something interesting to their YouTube page recently: Some holiday-themed clips from their old television show Tuesday Night Titans, a talk show of sorts hosted by Vince McMahon and Lord Alfred Hayes which ran from 1984 through 1986. I’ve only seen bits and pieces, but it seems like an interesting enough program, and if WWE ever gets their network off the ground, maybe they can create a new version of it. Then again, part of the appeal here is in how 80′s it all feels.

The first of the two clips shown here features Captain Lou Albano, better known to some for his role of Mario in The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, listening to Christmas wishes from members of the studio audience. Be warned, though, he’s a little rowdier here than he was as Nintendo’s mascot a few years later.

The second clip has McMahon and Hayes joined by future Minnesota Governor Jesse “The Body” Ventura as a representative from the Sharper Image catalog shows off some of their hot items for that holiday season. This portion alone is fun simply for seeing what sort of things were new and innovative at the time, though in truth, it feels like getting a live demonstration of products from the Skymall catalog.

All in all, it’s a fun way to kill just under 15 minutes while wondering if the company would ever consider releasing more on DVD.

This was one I was eager to do, because it pretty much writes itself as one of those games which, while its quality may be up for debate, has definitely made its mark on history by helping to influence the industry like no other. Plus, I’ve always had a soft spot for the series ever since discovering the first game with my cousin on a trip to California.

Anyway, I hope you’ll enjoy that while I get back to work, and hopefully I can actually write something up about my trip to the Wii U launch in NYC sometime before Nintendo announces the Wii V.

From Slide to Play:

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic – I have no idea how I was selected to do this one, but I was. No regrets; it’s a pretty decent game, though not without its downsides.

Twist Pilot – It’s a maze-puzzle game… with a twist! Ahahaha… okay, you can put the pitchforks away now. Weird concept, as you control an always-turning propeller.

Nutty Fluffies – This is actually a neat game about riding roller coasters after the park closes down for the season.

Wreck-It Ralph – Like that scene in the movie where all the Niceland Apartments people throw Ralph off the building? Then this is the version you want. Plus, it comes with a climbing game based on the “Sugar Rush” trees from the movie, and a version of Hero’s Duty that plays like Smash TV. Pretty good for 99 cents.

Mensa Academy – A brain-training game from the unlikeliest of sources.

Spooky Xmas – These zombies seem to have their holidays mixed up, as they’re all coming out for Christmas. Using your samurai sword in a Fruit Ninja-like manner, your goal is to stop them from assaulting your dojo, tower defense-style.

Endless Road – Endless runner meets the open road. This one has potential, but…

Update: Rayman Jungle Run – I covered this a while ago, actually, but a new pack of levels came out recently, so I had to update it.

From Gamezebo:

Deep War – A side-scrolling shoot ‘em up that takes place under the sea.

Nun Attack – “Betraying the Lord Almighty and turning to evil? These sisters will have “nun” of that! Okay, we think it’s out of our system now, but no promises.”

Freeskate Xtreme – Another endless runner-type game, but with a skateboard and a hint of Jet Set Radio.

Nomsters – It’s slingshot-action meets pinball as you try to beat the Fruit Fly Army to collect all the fruit.

Magic Orbz – The PlayStation Network game comes to iOS. Think Breakout with pirates and sharks.

From Mario’s Hat:

Pokémon Black/White Version 2 – The more things change, the more they also stay the same; so long as it’s still good, right?

Transformers: Fall of Cybertron – Autobots versus Decepticons isn’t the only conflict here; how does one who has never been a big player of first or third-person shooters fare when confronted with just that when it involves one of their all-time favorite franchises? Find out here!

That’s it for now, though rest assured that there is plenty more coming to Mario’s Hat; so many games, so little time. And as always, you can keep up with my Slide to Play reviews here, my Gamezebo reviews here, and my Mario’s Hat reviews here.

Ah, right; I should have mentioned this last week. In addition to my other stories for 1UP for their Cover Story “Mega Man: 25 Years of Theme-Park Levels and Stolen Robot Powers,” my wife and I collaborated on one other piece.

“Mega Man’s Comic Career: The Good, The Bad, The Bizarre” looks at a sampling of noteworthy comics and manga from around the world, each of which treating the franchise in its own way. From the bizarre self-gratification of bad writers in Brazil to the current Archie Comics series (with comments from series writer Ian Flynn), and several stops in-between, there’s a lot of ground covered here.

Please check it out, and feel free to leave comments on what you think of any of my articles here or on 1UP!

That wraps up that theme. Hopefully I can soon get my foot in the door for another!

Courtesy of “The Medium Large TV Holiday Special: O Christmas Tree, My Parents’ Christmas Tree (Interrupted with Classic Christmas Commercials).”

Much like my previous contribution about “The Many Versions, Ports, and Re-Releases of Super Mario Bros.,” so too have I written one for the many versions and variations bearing the Mega Man name. Another which went up today is a little more editorialized as I reflect on the first time Capcom let me, a lifelong Mega Man fan, into the Blue Bomber’s world in “The World View of Mega Man.”

There’s one more to come, and I don’t go it alone. Stay tuned, and I’ll let you know when my third and final(?) piece for the week goes up.

Yahoo! has an article which, as the title says, looks at 13 fast food items with cult followings. With a hook like that, how could I resist?

It has some of the usual suspects on there, such as Shamrock Shakes and the McRib (both of which I enjoy, especially the former), and some other unexpected offerings as well. Who knew that McDonald’s pizza (the top 3/4 of the sideways arches are sort of like a “z”, you see) had such a following? I only regret never getting to try it myself. There are other items on there, including newer fare such as the KFC Double Down and Taco Bell’s Doritos Locos taco.

Some of these others sound like interesting items to try, but what I wish there was more of a following for is the Arch Deluxe. I did love that burger so, particularly the sauce, but it seems like it will be one of those items which is destined to remain locked away in the storehouse of our memories alongside Ecto Cooler, the Colonel’s Rotisserie Gold, and Crystal Pepsi. I do wonder if there are other like-minded individuals who would like to see its return, though.

You’ve probably seen this already, as it seems to be everywhere– or at least on a lot of male-targeted programming, anyway. I’m not especially inclined to play the game, but I do enjoy this ad more than last year’s version. I guess there’s something about Tony Stark bringing a jet to a gunfight that I just find appealing.

Incidentally, how many of these people are celebrities, anyway? I don’t watch enough TV or anything to really know unless they guest-host Monday Night Raw.

I’ll start with the second one first: Altered Beast for the SEGA Genesis. My wife is something of a fan of the game, and I like it as well– it’s sort of a guilty pleasure, but not one we’re shy about, perhaps because it’s so goofy. Suffice to say, I think we– and her especially– have put in a lot of time on it on Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection, probably more than anything else on the disc.

After an unfortunate set of circumstances which led to me losing her early Christmas gift on the way home, I wound up giving this to her in its place. Amazingly, I found it at a good price, and it’s complete: Case, game cartridge, and even the instruction booklet! But as I said, we have it for the Xbox 360 through Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection, so this was more a novelty gift than anything.

What’s interesting to note is that the bottom is branded with the logo of Irwin Toy. It looks like they were the distributor for SEGA in Canada back when the Genesis first came out here, much as Mattel did for Nintendo, and as Tonka did for SEGA early on in the U.S. Irwin also distributed the Atari Video Computer System/2600.

The other item you can see there, Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence, is one I’ve been after for a long time… and it killed me to find out that one of the employees I talk to there all the time was planning to get it. Still, he said he’d rather I had it, and he could get another one at some point; I went ahead and let him know about the current Metal Gear HD Collection available on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, which should more than cover his needs.

Granted, I could have gone for that, too, and still wouldn’t mind it. But the fact is, I wanted only one thing out of this package:

This is what I’ve long been after: Disc 2: “Persistence,” which contains the now-useless version of Metal Gear Online, “Snake vs. Monkey” mode with Solid Snake hunting the monkeys from Ape Escape, and most valuable to me, the MSX versions of the original Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. These are on the HD collection as well, but to drop $30 for just these two seems a bit much.

Konami hasn’t been much help, either, by not releasing these games as downloadables. They did collect Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance, and Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence together in a PlayStation 2 compilation for the series’ 20th anniversary; however, it was only the Japanese version of that collection which contained the MSX games, while Konami of America left them out, much to my chagrin.

I’ve been after this one for years, but have always been thwarted at every turn– specifically, whenever I would find a used copy of the game, it was always the first disc and only the first disc. I figured it would be the same this time, but to my surprise and delight, I finally got it. Meanwhile, The Wife is interested in checking out the other disc, so it all works out.

I wouldn’t mind the HD collection for convenience’s sake, but for now, I’m just content to finally be able to play the original two games. This is largely due to my having been introduced to the series with the NES game and its style of play– plus, I suck terribly at Metal Gear Solid, and just seem to have an easier time with the oldschool versions.

Screens courtesy of The Video Game Museum

Incidentally, I wish Konami would do more/better classic compilations. I’ve long wanted a Metal Gear collection featuring the two MSX games, the two NES games, and Metal Gear Solid: Ghost Babel, aka Metal Gear Solid for the Game Boy Color, plus some nice bonus material. And I know people say that Metal Gear and Snake’s Revenge for the NES weren’t as good as the MSX games, but they were still pretty good in their own right, and remain some of my strongest memories of the franchise.

I could also go for a Contra collection with the two arcade games, two NES games, the Genesis game, and the Super NES game (and bonus material, of course).

To close this out, there were two other games there which caught my eye, but I passed on. One was last generation’s version of N.A.R.C. by Midway, which was a terrible Grand Theft Auto-styled “update” of the original. I sort of want to check that out, just as a fan of the original and to see how bad it really is. Sadly, it was for Xbox and isn’t backwards compatible.

The other was the NES game Mach Rider, which was priced around eight bucks. Not terrible, but I can get the original on the Virtual Console for five, and it was just more than I was willing to spend on top of the other two at that moment.

All in all, though, a pretty good haul.