Awesome Games

Vectoroid may be nothing more than a bunch of lines and points, but this homage to Asteroids is a literal blast with upgrades, enemies, hit points and a gun that never stops firing.

Made by RMIT student Kyle Downes, A Short Visual History of Videogames starts from 1972’s Pong and stops just short of current gen consoles, but is wonderfully rendered nonetheless.

Madden NFL-era kids won’t care much for Mattel’s Football, but for 70s kids, LED Football 2 is a nostalgic iPhone app; it includes running, punting, field goals and passing.

Dissidia: Final Fantasy is out in Japan; this runnin’ / flyin’ / jumpin’ opening cinematic is both gorgeous and torture for North American fans, who will have to wait until mid-year 2009.

Do want, please: the Street Fighter IV Collector’s Edition includes a limited edition figure (Ryu/PS3; C. Viper/360), an anime movie (Blu-ray/PS3, game disc/360) and CD soundtrack.

This trailer celebrating the 5th Anniversary of TrackMania is a walk down memory lane from the French-made game’s 2003 beginnings; you can download the free version here.

Connecting the real and virtual worlds, Mightier is an indie game where players draw the solution to a puzzle on paper, draw the main character and scan both of them into the game.

We have a weakness for tower defense games, so it’s no surprise we’ve wasted countless hours on Viking Defense; there’s nothing like a horde of pillagers to get your heartrate up.

“What if Uwe Boll made Contra?” will send shivers down the spine of any old-school gamer, but the hilarious parody above is so spot-on we wish it was made into a full-length movie.

LEGO has really outdone themselves with this LEGO Castle Giants Chess Set; it’s stuffed to the gills with 31 minifigs and pieces, including knights, trolls, wizards and siege towers.

Above: the digital artists at Realtime:UK have released a group of stunning cinematic sequences from Stormbirds, a near-future fighter combat game that was unfortunately canceled.

Fans of car chases should checkout this trailer for Wheelman; set in Barcelona with your car is your primary weapon, the racing game stars Vin Diesel and is due out 2/16/09.

Fast-paced, mech-on-mech combat, what’s not to like? Robokill is a top-down shooter filled with upgrades and spiffy graphics; the full version gets you over 460 rooms and 10 levels.

Fight Night Round 4’s trailer is an aspiring boxer’s dream, pitting Muhammad Ali against Mike Tyson; imaginary matchups aside, it’ll feature more realistic knockouts and fighting styles.

A less violent, more vertically oriented version of Bionic Commando, Frost Bite 2 uses a grappling hook that lets you catapult your way up walls and cliffs; it also doubles as a weapon.

The result of a collaboration between theory11 and WA007, these Propaganda playing cards not only fan and snap well but feature fresh, military-style artwork ala Shepard Fairey.