Awesome Games

Play all your favorite pinball games on one cabinet with a virtual pinball machine from The Pinball King. Their premium models have a 43-inch 4K playfield, an HD backglass, an analog plunger, a shaker motor, haptic feedback, a real DMD (dot-matrix display), and more. They also make a 32″ model. Save $300 on any Kings Choice system with the code “awesomer”.

Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? SpongeBox X-Pants! Microsoft’s game console is the ideal canvas for SpongeBob’s boxy yellow body. The special $699 bundle comes with a colorful cartoon character controller and the game Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 packed in. Grab one starting 3.7.2024 via Best Buy Drops on the Best Buy Mobile App.

We used to play the hell out of the Sega Dreamcast game Crazy Taxi. The ride-and-drive simulator Taxi Life is a far more sedate take on the same. The sim puts you behind the wheel of a cab to pick up passengers in Barcelona, Spain, and also to create and manage your own taxi company. The game hits PS5, Xbox, and Steam on 3.7.2024.

This upcoming adventure game from Slow Bros. features artful animations that started as real-world miniatures, transformed into 3D digital models. Players take on the role of Harold Halibut, a resident of a spaceship submerged in an alien ocean on a quest to find a permanent home for his shipmates. Download and play a PC demo of the game on Steam.

Jeff Minter is the mind behind video game classics like Gridrunner, Attack of the Mutant Camels, Tempest 2000, and Polybius. Known for his offbeat and psychedelic style, 42 of his games have been collected into this interactive documentary, which lets you learn about their creator then play the games. Coming to Switch, Xbox, PS4, PS5, and PC 3.13.2024.

Ubisoft and Netflix just dropped this lighthearted take on Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six franchise with a cartoony Roguelite shooter. Build your squad and head out on stealth missions to save the world of SMOL by defusing bombs, freeing hostages, and taking down baddies. It’s free to play but requires a Netflix subscription. Available now on iOS and Android.

Because the theme song from Super Mario Bros. never gets old, here’s a banjo cover version by the trio Foggy Mountain Spaceship. After bringing their twangy styling to World 1-1, they head down the warp pipe for a banjo version of the Underworld theme. But it’s not all bluegrass here, and things head down a psychedelic prog-rock path by the end.

After releasing its Atari Gamestation Pro retro console, My Arcade is now working on a handheld version of the 8-bit gaming system. In addition to coming with more than 200 classic Atari 2600 games, the Gamestation Portable will have a 7″ display, joystick, paddle, numeric, and mini-trackball controllers built right in. Drops Q4 2024 for $149.

My joystick has a first name, it’s O-S-C-A-R; my joystick has a second name, it’s M-A-Y-E-R. Hyperkin teamed up with an unlikely partner to create the wackiest game controller of the year. The hot dog-shaped Bluetooth controller works with Nintendo Switch, PC, Mac, Android, and iOS and is decorated in shades of bun gold, mustard yellow, and hot dog red.

Developed by TeamKill Media, the first-person shooter Son and Bone follows a sheriff who is transported to a world filled with angry dinosaurs while chasing down a gang of bandits. While the story premise sounds silly, a game of kill-or-be-killed with T. Rexes and raptors looks like good fun and like Turok Meets DOOM. The game hits PlayStation later this year.

The Atari 400 Mini emulates all of the classic Atari 8-bit systems, including the 400, 800XL, and Atari 5200 game consoles. The modernized system has an HDMI video output and USB controller inputs. It comes with 25 games, including Berzerk, Millipede, Miner 2049er, M.U.L.E., and Star Raiders II, and you can load more via USB. An Amazon UK exclusive.

1up your drinks and warp your thirst to another level with this Super Mario Bros.-inspired can koozie from Toynk. The insulated foam cooler holds cans or bottles in style and is guaranteed not to contain any dangerous piranha plants. Its base is stable enough to use it as a pencil caddy or a small planter, too.

Ten years ago, we visited Stern Pinball in a small suburban Chicago factory that made up to 100 pinball machines a day. Since then, interest in pinball has grown substantially, and they’ve moved twice. Between the two buildings of their new factory, they now have almost 250,000 square feet of space and are the largest pinball factory in the world.

In 1994, Sony and Nintendo collaborated on an unreleased video game console that birthed the PlayStation name. While there is a rare prototype of the system, James Channel thought it would be fun to build his own. His Frankenstein’s monster of a console has the body of a Super Famicom, the brains of a PlayStation, and a sketchy exposed CD-ROM drive.

Celebrate classic 16-bit gaming with these SEGA Genesis and MegaDrive watches from ANICORN. The limited-edition watches come in US, EU, and JP versions to celebrate each region’s game console. The watches have a black PVD finish and a visible movement beneath a mineral glass back. Packaged in a special edition console box with a numbered metal plate.

Lots of us think that current-gen Xbox consoles look like appliances. After launching the Series X mini-fridge, Microsoft has licensed Ukonic to make an official Xbox Series S toaster. The boxy 2-slice toaster looks just like the game system, has an extra-long, wide slot that works for bagels, and burns an Xbox logo graphic into your bread.