Arcade Daze

Sorry for the protracted silence; two weeks of swine flu meant I had two weeks of catching up on life after the fact, and I haven't had the chance to sit down and do any proper updates until now.

Iconset: "Arcade Daze" by Gedeon Maheux. Wallpaper: "Vaporware 2.0" by AuraHack. Winamp skin: "El Argento Proyections DA6 Version" by Fernando Adorneti

Gedeon Maheux has a handful of high-quality icon sets available for free download at IconFactory, inspired by classic, 8-bit games. Perfect for tricking out your desktop and broadcasting your love of all things pixelly and retro. Check them out; you won't be disappointed.

"Arcade Daze"
"Arcade Daze: Apps vol. 1"
"Arcade Daze: System"

(All sets available for Windows, Mac and CandyBar iContainer)

Fast Food Fighters

This one's been floating around the internets for a couple of years, but I feel bad for not updating much this last week while my white blood cells combat a horrible invasion force from beyond, AKA influenza, so here you go.

Extra Value Combo Alpha, by ~Lysol-Jones

Why this has not yet been the subject of some kind of M.U.G.E.N. mod is a true injustice. Unless it has. I'm too sick to research it right now.

EDIT: It turns out that a) I'm NOT too sick to research it, and b) someone HAS ported this (in part, I guess?) to M.U.G.E.N., or at least has made Ronald McDonald and Colonel Sanders characters. So the balance of the universe has been restored... For now.

Epic Mickey - Slowly Becoming Reality

I've been fighting off illness for the last week and today it finally developed into a full-blown (swine? maybe!) flu. My weekend has been spent sitting on the couch listening to The Cash\Dylan Sessions (the aural equivalent of chicken noodle soup), re-watching Twin Peaks, and trying to keep down greasy take-out, but I couldn't resist posting this update on what is starting to look like my most anticipated upcoming game of 2010: Epic Mickey.

Until now, precious little information had been released on Epic Mickey other than some intriguing concept art (which you can see below the cut). That's starting to change, however, with Game Informer's leak of their November issue wrap-around cover.

Game Informer also promises a month of regularly-posted updates on the game at their Epic Mickey Portal, which you can be sure I'll be keeping a close eye on.

What has been revealed about Epic Mickey thus far:

· It's being developed by Junction Point Studios and produced by Warren Spector, the man behind Wing Commander, Ultima, System Shock, and the brilliant Thief and Deus Ex games (fun fact: he also designed the pen-and-paper RPG Toon for Steve Jackson Games with the legendary gaming god Greg Costikyan, whose blog is required reading for anyone interested in gaming culture).
· It will be released on the Wii with a projected date of third quarter 2010.
· "Epic Mickey" is most likely a working title and not final.
· It will be a platformer and has been described as "steampunk" (coincidentally, before I started coughing up chunks of lung and downing Nyquil like Kool-Aid, I was working on a post on steampunk-themed games, so watch for that once I return to my typical fine fetter).
· It will blow your mind.

I've long held the conviction that Disney is a lot more subversive than the watered-down, family-friendly image it's known for. That, or it's such a massive superstructure that internal subversion goes overlooked. If you still have your doubts, check out their 1995 short "Runaway Brain" below:

Anyway, on to the Epic Mickey gallery:

By Fred Gambino:

By Gary Glover:

3D Dot Game Heroes

3D Dot Game Heroes, from From Software (presumably the software development branch of the Department of Redundancies Department) and Atlus, tickles my novelty bone SO HARD. I'm adding it to my list of reasons to finally buy a PS3 (along with Little Big Planet, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Katamari Forever and the upcoming Final Fantasy XIII) and I DON'T EVEN CARE that it's a complete crib of The Legend of Zelda. You could rip off worse games.

I don't know much about Atlus (although I have their Knights in the Nightmare for my DS, which I hear great things about but have yet to play) and even less about From Software. I firmly believe that they, on the other hand, somehow know ME, because 3D Dot Game Heroes is tailor-made to cater precisely to my videogame demands. If I was ever approached by a game company and asked to make a list of all the things a game would have to include to ensure that I would buy it, 3D Dot Game Heroes would go ten for ten.

That said, I'd be remiss in my responsibilities as videogame blogger if I didn't return to the point mentioned above, namely that 3D Dot Game Heroes is, at heart, an unauthorised clone of The Legend of Zelda. It may be all gussied up in self-aware, ironic new clothes, but the gameplay looks to be pretty much identical to the classic NES title. Personally, I couldn't care less, but others (namely, Nintendo) may have a different take on it.

Gallery and an in-game video clip under the cut.