Retro Sountrack Rampage!

You know about Retro City Rampage, right? If you don't then you should promptly kick yourself in the ass, but not until you get yourself up to speed.

The old-school homage-fest has released a 10 minute music sampler, chock full of fun, hilarious, and oddly familiar scenes from the game itself. The soundtrack is composed by chiptune pros virt, Norrin Radd, and Freaky DNA. With the rise of the indy game, and the chiptunes reclaiming some of their former glory of late, let this sampler be music to your ears.

And because you might not have to time or patience to sit through one video for more than 30 seconds, you can download the mixtape, as well as the theme song, right here. That way you can listen to it on your own accord. Everyone wins!

Retro City Rampage; Throwback Fun and Radioactive Plumbers

Hypothetical question: You're hanging out in the sewers, when all of a sudden, a radioactive plumber comes flying out of the nearest pipe and right at you! Sluggish to react, the plumber bites you on the arm! What do you now? Stomp really hard on someone's head, then throw his unconscious body into the sewer water, then go back above ground and stomp the shit out of anyone you can find, that's what. And that is exactly why I cannot wait for the 80's Easter egg hunt that is Retro City Rampage.

Side note: how awesome is the music? 

What's an Explodemon?

Explodemon!, is a game created by independent developers Curve Studios, based on old school 16-bit platforming, that takes some of it's artistic flair from Megaman X, and adds a physics based puzzle system to the mix. Say what? Say it sounds sweet, because it does. 

Curve calls Explodemon! a loving parody of badly translated action games, and a mixture of Yoshi's Island and Half Life 2 if they were fused into one game by quirky Japanese developer Treasure. Uh, I don't know about that exactly, but it's all good. It's a little bit of Megaman X, 'Splosion Man, puzzles, a combo system, slick art style, and lotsa purdy colors. Color me interested.

Sonic 4 Lights Up Your Life

Growing up, there were some things you could not separate me from. Forging my gangsta by listening to classic hip hop, molding my geek by playing video games, and refining my palette by eating raw dough. Don't front, you know you ate it too. As a hardcore gamer in training, I tried to own, play, and love every system I could, and I did for the most part, but for some strange reason, I was always a Sega fanboy. 

Maybe it's because I didn't need a game to entertain myself with the Master System, or because I didn't need blood codes to indulge in some fine gore, or because Sonic was an infinitely cooler mascot than Mario, who knows, but I miss Sega's heyday. Being a throwback to classic Sega vs. Nintendo days is probably why I'm so excited for Sonic 4. That and the fact that solid hedgehog games have been hard to come across since Sonic Adventure (which coincidentally is available to download on XBLA or PSN.)

Sonic 4 hearkens back to the two dimensional speed, spins, jumps, tilts, and power ups of classic Sonic the Hedgehog gaming, while infusing some elements of the newer Sonic titles, all sexy and high definition. It's really good stuff. Don't believe me, see for yourself in the attached trailer for the Casino Street Zone. It's just like the incredibly designed Casino Night Zone of Sonic 2, except, well, street. I can dig that, streets are gangsta.

So Sega, when are we getting Sonic Spinball HD? I'll just keep my fingers crossed for that one.

Epic Yarn Makes Me Feel Like a Cutie Pie

For all the bloodthirsty, action packed, stylized shooting, slashing, and face-mashing that I enjoy, I have an inexplicable soft spot for Kirby. Maybe it's because I love marshmallows? Who knows, but for some reason, Kirby is the fucking man to me. 

So without a doubt, I regress to the goofy, huggable little child I locked away when I turned twenty-one whenever I see Kirby's Epic Yarn. Give the world the gift that is Kirby, and universal peace will reign for a millennia, I kid you not.

If this latest trailer doesn't soothe your inner serial killer and turn you into a overgrown babbling infant, well, there is no hope for you sir. 

GC10: Retro City Rampage Just Blew My Mind

Why isn't there more buzz about this game? It looks like a flaming hot heap of freakin' awesome! I have no idea what the hell is happening in the trailer, but I know it rocks.

Retro City Rampage pays homage to tons of old school games including: Tron, Ninja Turtles, Metal Gear, Bionic Commando, The Legend of Zelda, Back to the Future, Skate or Die, Frogger, Contra, Super Mario Bros, Blaster Master, and Paperboy. I'm sure there's even more that I missed. Hidden in there are some other nods to the 80's, like Cheers, and Die Hard. 

Maybe Retro City Rampage is just an 8-bit GTA clone littered with nostalgic nonsense, but damn! It looks like 88 miles-per-hour of mad fun down memory lane. 

GC10: The History of Metroid in 7 Minutes

If you're like me, you're a smooth-talking, handsome, dynamite lover in the mold of Lando Calrissian. You'd also be a shameless geek, who has a hard time sitting through any online video over two and a half minutes, unless it's something really interesting. The latest Metroid Other M primer is seven minutes, but it's fascinating enough to keep your attention easily locked in place.

Maybe you've never played a Metroid game. Maybe you have, but your beer-soaked, pot-clouded brain can't recall details from it's above average story. That's definitely not the category I fall in to. Either way, the following trailer will bring you sufficiently up to date on Metroid's storyline in preparation for Other M. You should watch it. 

Metroid Other M Shows Us The Goods

Previously on the Metroid Other M saga, we saw Samus doing some platforming, running, ballmorphing, walking, inspecting, jumping, and other yawn inducing tasks. We also saw ourselves falling asleep to the tune of that horridly boring shit. Now here we are, just a shade over two weeks before Other M's release date, and we have an exciting new peek at the gameplay that excited me in the first place.

The Other M trailers have been Jekyll and Hyding the hell out of me with it's boring gameplay, exciting gameplay, boring cinematic, back and forth. I guess Team Ninjatendo did the right thing by saving the best for last. Samus is looking good in this latest tease, showing off a bunch of her killer moves in the most stylish ways possible. Hayabusa would be proud.

Metroid Other M releases Tuesday, August 31st. 

The Last Story is the Next Evolutuion

Role playing games? *yawn* I haven't played a good one in ages. Maybe there have been some released, but on their surface, none of them have gotten me hyped enough to go out and buy a copy. The last RPG I played through was Demon's Souls, which was awesome because it added some elements we've never seen before in an RPG. Aside from that, I'm sick of seeing the same thing over and over in these RPGs, aren't you?

That's why when I saw this trailer for Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi's The Last Story, I perked up a bit. Maybe there's hope for this bludgeoned horse after all. The esteemed Sakaguchi-san, who's behind what used to be my favorite game series is trying to redefine the genre with this title that mixes real-time action, a cover system, some crazy targeting system, guns, swords, magic, and an ass-kicking soundtrack. I think that's enough to get me playing. Only major drawback? Wii exclusive. ARGH, damned Wii!

E3: Golden Eye

The remake I have been waiting ages for. Now that it's been announced, I'm not so sure about it. I realize GoldenEye is originally a Nintendo game, but to put this on Wii as opposed to 360/PS3 is a step in the wrong direction. Does anyone even play Wii games online? Imagine having an 8 player slap match over Xbox live? I can't. Well, not anymore, now that GoldenEye has been announced for Wii. And did the trailer just say play as 8 classic Bond characters? Didn't the original GoldenEye have somewhere close to 40 selectable multiplayer skins? I want to play as the dude in the banana-yellow jumpsuit, damn it!