Remember the days of Super Mario Land, a platforming video game developed by Nintendo for the Game Boy handheld game console? 

It debuted in Japan on April 21, 1989, in the United States in July 31, 1989, and in Europe on September 28, 1990. Super Mario Land marked Mario’s first appearance on the Game Boy and is the first true Mario game for the system.

Video games were introduced as a commercial entertainment medium in 1971, becoming the basis for a new entertainment industry in the late 1970s/early 1980s in the United States, Japan, and Europe. After a disastrous industry collapse in 1983 and a subsequent rebirth two years later, the video game industry has experienced sustained growth for over two decades to become a $11 billion industry, which rivals the motion picture industry as the most profitable entertainment industry in the world.

As affordable broadband Internet connectivity spreads, many publishers have turned to online gaming as a way of innovating. But unfortunately, Nigeria hasn’t had an effective and efficient broadband Internet connectivity that supports online gaming.

However, it seems that video gaming is gradually becoming the next big thing in Nigeria. Recently, I started watching gaming trends in Nigeria and have been following a few discussions about gaming in Nigeria. From the discussions, I noticed that Nigerians are very enthusiastic about video gaming, but face challenges with efficient broadband Internet connectivity that can support online multiplayer gaming.

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Sturvs, Nigeria’s Digg-like site has just launched their mobile site, which I feel it’s been a long time coming. With this launch, you can view Sturvs on your mobile phones by simply visiting m.sturvs.com from your blackberry or other mobile devices.

Launched on May 13, 2007, the social bookmarking & video-sharing site has become one of the fastest-growing Web 2.0 websites from Nigeria. We gave a report when they turned one. Sturvs launched its Facebook Application in October 2007 and started displaying Hot Sturvs, Latest Sturvs & Sturvs TV. 

Sturvs launched its own Search, but the feature has since been hibernating, and we’re still wondering if it’ll ever relaunch. Could that be the death of a great search tool? 

Despite the failure of Sturvs search, the site was given a comparative analysis with Muti.co.za, South Africa’s social bookmarking site. Sturvs redesigned for 2009 and later launched Sturvs Ads, an advertising platform which lets you gain exposure to over 3000 Nigerians who visit the website daily. I’m not sure if this ad platform still works.

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Nigeria music superstar, D’Banj has just added another intellectual property to his collection. Popularly known as the ‘Koko Master’, D’Banj now owns ‘Koko Mansion’, a TV Reality Show in collaboration with HiTV, Nigeria’s multi-channel digital satellite pay TV service.

We heard the gist a few days ago, but thought it was a rumour. It was officially announced at a press conference held on Friday, April 17, 2009 at Terra Kulture, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Koko Mansion (see Facebook page) is a reality TV show which will exclusively be aired on HiTV beginning from the 1st of June. If you are in the UK, you can watch ‘Koko Mansion’ on the HiTV Channel on Sky Channel 204.

The idea of the show is to have 12 girls (kokolettes) who will reside in a state-of–the-art mansion somewhere in Lagos city, while living lavishly as any Kokolette should. For several weeks, the young women will be groomed and tested in various Diva tasks and activities in order to determine the one with the greatest Koko Virtues.

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I’ve been playing around the latest social networking site in town which happens to be the only functional social site by any telecoms operator in Nigeria. Launched by Zain Nigeria, the second largest telecoms operator (in terms of subscriber base), Central Station is a social networking site that allows users to connect with other people.

With similar features of other social networks such as blogs, groups, videos, chat, forums, etc, the community is gradually becoming one of the most popular desinations for entertainment & fun lovers in Nigeria (not just for Zain subscribers).

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After several weeks of nominations and voting for the Naija Bloggers Awards 2009, winners have finally been announced for the Category A.

They are…

1. Bloggers Choice Award - Solomon Sydelle
2. Best Intellectual Blogger - Aloofar
3. Best Student Blogger - Bumight
4. Best Political Blogger - Nigerian Curiosity (SSD)
5. Best Religious Blog - Jaycee
6. Most Inspiring Blogger - Jaycee
7. Best Entertaiment Blog - Bella Naija
8. Best Fashion Blog - Jadore Fashion
9. Best Use of Media - Bella Naija
10. Best Use of Theme - Stand Tall (Activism)
11. Best Use of Visuals - Afrobabe (Blog not accessible:o)
12. Best Literary Blog - Nigerian Drama Queen
13. Most Creative Blogger - Fine Boy Agbero
14. Dedicated Blogger - Good Girl Naija
15. Best Personal Blog - Good Girl Naija
16. Best Everyday Read - Vera
17. Most Likeable Blogger - Vera
18. Best Male Blogger - Tobenna (shirak)

Note: I’ve not yet found the links of the other blog award winners. If you know them, please tell us their links.

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