Awesome Games

Celebrate your love for classic video games every time you take a sip with these fun drink coasters from CoastyMarshmallow. These hard plastic coasters are inspired by both arcade and console games, from Street Fighter II to Dance Dance Revolution to Q*Bert. They also have an extensive pop culture coaster collection.

Software engineer Stephen Rogers aka TheCaptainSpain is developing CoasterMania, a virtual reality/augmented reality game that lets you build tiny roller coasters in your living room. This brief demo video shows off its Line Rider-style gameplay on a Meta Quest VR headset. Enjoy more fun gameplay footage here.

Backyard Resin creates bold and dramatic wood tables with inlays of colored resin, small objects, and artwork. Their Nintendo Switch coffee table is CNC-cut from walnut with colorful resin-filled Joy-Cons, and custom airbrushed artwork based Mario Kart. They also make a Game Boy table with Donkey Kong artwork.

Before you start scratching your head, Tetris doesn’t feature a bunch of animated anthropomorphic puzzle blocks. Instead, it’s based on the true story of the man who invented it, the publisher who discovered it, and the hurdles he faced in licensing it from the USSR for Nintendo’s Game Boy handheld. Coming to Apple TV+ 3.31.23.

French artist MOKA pays tribute to the characters of their childhood by creating virtual trophies of their heads. Among his digital creations are taxidermied versions of Pikachu, Mario, Luigi, Toad, the dog from Duck Hunt, and the ghosts from Pac-Man. MOKA hopes to make real-life versions of these trophies using a 3D printer.

This unique macro keypad features an aluminum and acrylic case based on the shape of the Nintendo Gameboy Advance. It has nine programmable keys, six triggers that look like a D-pad and start/select buttons, along with two clickable scroll knobs. It’s also got RGB backlighting. Available in five color combos.

Caverns of Mars was one of the best games for Atari’s 8-bit PCs. Caverns of Mars: Recharged revamps the downward-scroller with HD graphics, trickier obstacles, new power-ups, destructible environments, local co-op, and global leaderboards. Coming to Atari VCS, Steam, Epic, PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch on 3.9.23.

This insane iOS and Android game puts you in control of gigantic ocean vessels that you float down a ramp and send flying into structures with the goal of crash landing into buildings and cities. It kind of reminds us of the addictive Burnout crash modes.

With the success of The Last of Us, HBO has proven that video games can be turned into quality television programming. During his guest spot on Saturday Night Live, TLOU star Pedro Pascal joined the cast of another famous video game franchise turned prestige TV drama, with a little help from Nintendo.

Reimagined Wood Shop has the perfect gift for the video game fan that has everything. This substantial 12″ x 5″ valet tray holds your coins, wallet, phone, keys, and more, all while looking like the classic Nintendo Entertainment System controller. Each one is CNC-carved from a block of solid lumber and comes in a variety of woods.

This first-person puzzle-adventure game takes place inside the brains of a smartphone. It’s your job to solve puzzles, find cheat codes, and decide if the latest OS update should be installed. Available now on Steam, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. Coming to Nintendo Switch and other PC gaming stores soon.

Wakka Wakka Wakka. The iconic arcade character Pac-Man gets a tribute from TheDominoKing. It took about 10 days to set up all 35,949 dominoes and under a minute to knock them all over. Along the way, the dot gobbler takes out every ghost in the maze before being felled himself.

Taking a hike through the great outdoors can be a relaxing and serene experience. But if you’re squeamish about bugs and other wildlife, you’re better off staying indoors. Thanks to the Molski Brothers’ A Trail Tale, you can experience a hike along the Appalachian Trail without leaving the comfort of your web browser. (Thanks Rob!)

Radiohead’s In Rainbows was some of their most experimental and best work. Now you can listen to the album as if it was the soundtrack to Super Mario 64. On4word created this amazing interpretation of the entire album using the game’s soundfont. It’s available as a pay-what-you-want download on Bandcamp.

This upcoming action RPG drops players into an artful world that has lost its color. Your objective: saturate the place with color while battling an array of challenging enemies and bosses with weapons and magic. Download the Windows demo on Steam, and sign up to be notified when their Kickstarter launches.

ExtenPro is back with another entertaining BeamNG.Drive video. This time, they used the vehicle physics simulator to attach wheels to steel shipping containers, then rolled them downhill into oncoming traffic. The carnage is spectacular, though we thought for a moment that Dodge Viper would escape unharmed.

We recently got a look at Sean Hodgins’ unique (and dangerous) spinning Christmas tree that creates the impression of a tree using lights and a persistence of vision illusion. After fans asked him if it could be programmed to play DOOM, he posted this video demonstrating the tree’s ability to be used as a gaming display.

It’s not easy being green. Kermit the Frog finds himself in a dystopian world where he encounters terrifying creatures, a fascist army, and an interdimensional bureaucrat. eli_handle_b.wav dropped the chief Muppet into Half-Life 2 where we fully expect him to go all higgledy-piggledy the first time he encounters a headcrab.

We’ve witnessed first-hand how car companies test the suspension setups on new vehicles. They also use computer simulations with realistic physics models. This video from ExtenPro shows how various vehicle suspensions might handle on a punishing course they set up in the vehicle simulation game BeamNG drive.

Magnetic Games teamed up with Devcafe to create this fun hybrid live-action and CGI animation starring versions of Mario, Luigi, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Yoshi made out of tiny magnetic spheres. While participating in a round of Mario Kart they are pursued by a powerful magnetic block capable of ripping them apart.

The opening credits of King of the Hill are still one of our favorites ever. Udge created this great bit of machinima that replicates the opening of Mike Judge’s classic comedy, but with characters from the Nintendo 3D platformer Donkey Kong 64 along with sounds from the game. Here’s a side-by-side comparison for fun.

This colorful Artist Edition watch celebrates 50 years of Atari. The forefathers of video games and Misfit teamed up with artist JK5 (Joseph Ari Aloi) to create this collectible 42mm watch, illustrated in a vibrant pop art style incorporating classic gaming elements. Limited to 500 pieces.

Animator Alan Becker is best known for his Animation vs. series. When he’s not making those, he spends his time painstakingly replicating the vibrant worlds of Studio Ghibli entirely inside of Minecraft. You can join his Ghibli Minecraft server here, and check out the GhibliCraft YouTube channel for more videos.