Awesome Games

Despite their primitive gameplay and rough graphics, we have a fond place in our hearts for the old Atari 2600. Mauri Helme pays tribute to the classic 8-bit console with a 3D voxel art animation, featuring scenes from Pitfall, River Raid, Frostbite, Keystone Kapers, and the oft-maligned E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.

RareBird Games created this VR gaming oddity. The game sends players back in time to a Blockbuster-style video store to wander the shelves looking for movies to rent on VHS and DVD. In survival mode, you’ll work to make money for bills and movie rentals, and you’ll even be able to watch some movies inside of the game.

Ever since the SNES game Donkey Kong Country, Nintendo’s big ape has lived in a wooden house up in the trees. Inspired by a fan request, builder Studson Studio made a model of the treehouse, incorporating twigs, dirt, and rocks he found outside to add to the authenticity. The tiny bananas are a nice touch.

God of War’s protagonist Kratos is one of the most iconic characters in video game history. In this video, the very talented Dr. Garuda walks through the process of sculpting a miniature of the character, first by drawing a 2D reference image, bending a metal armature, building his body from clay, then painting in all the details.

Merry Sunday’s unique board game set comes with modular square and triangular tiles which can be arranged to play dozens of different games from around the world. It comes with a 150-page book that explains each game’s layout and rules, a wood and linen-covered frame, along with 216 board pieces and 81 game tokens.

Not to be confused with Elgato’s similarly-named gadget, Valve’s Steam Deck is a powerful handheld gaming PC. Running a custom AMD Zen 2 + RDNA 2 APU, the portable plays all the games in your Steam library smoothly on the go. It has analog thumbsticks, a D-pad, trackpads, triggers, and ABXY buttons built-in. Drops 12.2021

This top-down action game puts you in the shoes of an android bounty hunter who must brawl, shoot, and drive their way through a dystopian future. Players will face off against endless hordes or gangs and corporate baddies as they tear through the neon-lit city. Coming to Steam Early Access 8.11.2021.

Boutique pinball machine maker Spooky Pinball created this sweet limited-edition pinball machine inspired by the classic Japanese Kaiju series Ultraman. The machine is covered with awesome artwork, and has interactive elements inspired by a monster-filled Toyko. Sadly, all 500 of the machines have already been sold.

The xScreen lets you play your Xbox Series S like a laptop. It attaches to the back edge of the game console and needs no HDMI cable or extra power cable. The 11.6″ screen has a 1080p resolution, and the lower part of the unit has integrated stereo speakers and controls for volume and display settings.

This new model of the Nintendo Switch offers the inky blacks, high contrast, and rich colors that OLED displays are known for. It has a slightly larger 7″ OLED screen, a wide adjustable stand, enhanced audio, and a dock with a wired Ethernet port and 64GB of storage. The $349 system drops 10.8.2021 just in time for the holidays.

Founded by Tim Schafer, Double Fine Productions is the game studio behind adventures like Grim Fandango, Brütal Legend, Psychonauts, and Broken Age. This 280-page art book chronicles the studio’s history through concept art, stories, and interviews. The Legend Edition of the book gets a cloth cover with gold foil details.

Modding Cafe has created the ultimate gaming system. The custom tower case combines a high-end gaming PC with a PlayStation 5 console. The PC packs a Core i9 11900K CPU and an ASUS ROG Strix 3080 GPU. Both systems are watercooled and the PS5’s Blu-ray drive allows game discs to be loaded from the side of the case.

Vocalist Smooth McGroove and his epic beard took a moment between his great video game tunes to perform this beautiful arrangement of the Beatles 1969 track Because. While we kind of miss George Harrison’s sitar, Smooth’s version is still candy for our ears.

Joel Haver makes fun of what it’s like to pick up and start playing a role-playing video game that you haven’t played in a while. His observations on the mundane side quests and the NPCs are especially on-the-nose. Along the way, he worked in a few references to his previous game parody videos.

DoodleChaos spent over 100 hours working on this musical Minecraft design. Sit back and enjoy this invigorating mine cart ride which syncs up perfectly with the Vitamin String Quartet’s phenomenal cover of the My Chemical Romance track I’m Not Okay (I Promise).

This action-adventure game drops players into a Tim Burton-esque world. Those who dwell in Random find their destinies determined by a roll of the dice. The game’s protagonist Even makes a new friend in the form of Dicey, a living, breathing die, and they travel the six realms of Random to learn the land’s dark secrets.

What you’re looking at here is an old digital pinball game that dates back nearly four decades. TysyTube found the yellowed and badly-scratched handheld system on an auction site, and painstakingly restored it to like-new condition. Using that ice cube tray as a screw sorter is a brilliant lifehack.

The developers of Prey and Dishonored are working on this new open-world co-op FPS. It takes place in an island town, where evil vampires have blocked out the sun and cut off access. The remaining humans work together to gather resources and slay vampires in a quest to survive. Coming to Xbox Series X|S and PC Summer 2022.

Filmmaker Devin Supertramp and team created this fan film inspired by the world of Metroid Prime and Super Metroid. Ainsley Bircher portrays Samus Aran on a mission to find the Chozo Temple and to fix her damaged suit. They did a great job taking advantage of the frigid location shoot and combining live action with VFX.

With its devilishly difficult gameplay and awesome animation, Cuphead achieved quite the following among gamers. Now, we’re getting a Cuphead animated series, and King Dice is voiced by none other than Wayne Brady. The Netflix series follows brothers Cuphead and Mugman as they get into trouble on Inkwell Isle.

Gamers will love to wake up and see this alarm clock, inspired by the design of the Xbox wireless controller. Its looks just like the white version of the controller, complete with thumbsticks, a D-pad, ABXY, and shoulder buttons. Just don’t pick it up and expect to play Gears of War with it. Pre-orders start shipping 10.2021.

We never could play Guitar Hero on Hard or Expert levels. Engineer Nick O’Hara has no such problems, thanks to the robot he built. Jon Bot Jovi uses AI and computer vision tech to detect the notes and timing, then triggers solenoids to push the guitar’s fret buttons and strum bar to perform even the most challenging tracks.

Remember 8-bit fighting games like Karateka and International Karate? The members of dance/comedy troupe Fair Play Crew did a great job replicating the staccato movements of the characters in retro games like those. The fun starts at 1:07:17 on this Shanghai TV talent show.

Beyond the It’sa Me Mario!, you have to admit that the sounds in Nintendo’s 1st-party games are often pretty silly. Comedian Gus Johnson takes a stab at envisioning exactly how they came up with all those sounds in the recording studio.

The curvy, oversized tower design of Sony’s PlayStation 5 has definitely been divisive among gamers. After building himself an amazing brass case for a PS5, DIY Perks decided to build something a little more subdued, re-wrapping the powerful gaming system inside of a handsome walnut wood and carbon fiber enclosure.

We’ve heard a million and one versions of the Super Mario Bros. theme music, but it’s still fun to discover a new take on the classic video game tune. The very talented Ukrainian duo B&B Project performed a live run-through of World 1-1, with the button accordion providing the music, and the bandura creating the sound effects.