Awesome Leisure

Happy hour just got more competitive with Jigsaw Duel Cocktail Clash, a puzzling (and guzzling) game for two. Each player gets their own 70-piece puzzle — a Manhattan or a tiki concoction — to simultaneously try and complete before the winner grabs the final, double-sided piece that fits both puzzles. Best played while imbibing.

Serious video game nerds might have heard of the never-released Atari arcade game Akka Arrh. Created by Tempest and Gridrunner dev Jeff Minter, a modernized version has been released for consoles and gaming PCs. Like other Llamasoft games, expect a trippy array of colors and insane swarms of attackers.

Brick Technology has a keen interest in testing LEGO cars in all kinds of driving environments. This time they take a look at what it takes to give LEGO vehicles enough traction, mass, and stability to be able to traverse a sand-filled pit reliably. As you’ll see, it’s not just as simple as going with four-wheel drive.

Bethesda Softworks presents a new mobile game set in the animated DOOM universe. This fast-paced, top-down shooter has players taking down massive hordes of cute and cuddly demons in familiar locations and with smartphone-friendly single-finger gameplay. Drops 3.21.23, with pre-registration open now.

Nestled on 12,000 acres in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, the Primland Resort is a special place to get away from it all. Mixing quiet luxury with an adventurous spirit, the resort offers accommodations in its Lodge, cottages, and treehouses, where you’ll enjoy amazing vistas, delectable dining, and a plethora of outdoor activities.

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.

Wyrwood’s gaming tables come in various sizes and with modular accessories for versatility. Use the top layer as a dining table, then remove its sections to access a felt playing surface for tabletop gaming, jigsaw puzzles, or other hobbies. Use the table configurator to spec yours in one of 12 woods, and rectangular or hex designs.

Antonis and Stavros Fylladitis and a team of dedicated DC Comics fans created this CGI short inspired by Alex Ross’ incredible Kingdom Come Superman. Created with Unreal Engine 5, the film drops us into a world where chaos has won, and even the greatest superheroes have lost their way. Can Superman rise from the darkness?

Wood model maker Ugears was clearly inspired by robots when they engineered this mechanical marvel. Once assembled, the six-legged creature ambles along on smooth surfaces when you wind its spring. The 388-piece, flat-pack model takes about 8 hours to assemble.

We love watching videos of old things being made as good as new. In this clip, Old Things Never Die got their hands on a vintage mechanical soccer game, disassembled it, sandblasted off the paint and rust, fabricated custom replacement parts, and painstakingly repainted its playfield and players.

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.

We recently went down the rabbit hole, creating a playlist of original versions of hit songs. SecondHandSongs helped us find lots of obscure originals and also revealed tons of unique covers we never knew existed. Like, did you know that this guy recorded Girls Just Wanna Have Fun four years before Cindy Lauper did?

Musician David Bennett performs accurate recreations of classic songs. After impressing us with his version of A Day in the Life, he teamed up with vocalist Guy Bangham to produce a spot-on version of The Doors’ Riders on the Storm. The Rhodes V8 virtual keyboard helped recreate the sound of Ray Manzarek’s keyboard.

The reason for shaking dice before rolling them is to randomize them from their starting positions. But the guys at Atypyk Paris seem to think that shaking dice also makes their pips move around. Their nonsensical Shaken wood dice come with the dots already shaken for you. Another first-world problem solved. Or not.

This star-studded science fiction series is set in a future where society has overcome many challenges with science and technology, but climate change eludes them. As eight interconnected stories unfold, we learn about humanity’s battles in the face of a seemingly insurmountable crisis. Drops 3.17.23 on Apple TV+.

We’ve seen a LEGO machine that could make pancakes, so the idea of a brick-built cake bakery isn’t that far-fetched. But Tomosteen made their LEGO cake factory using stop-motion animation. The fanciful facility is run by a team of tiny cats, who surprisingly don’t lap up the batter before it can be baked in the LEGO brick oven.

These Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle collectible cups from Numskull Designs and Merchoid are lean, green, and mean. Each 14 oz. ceramic cup features a wraparound design of your favorite turtle. Choose from Michaelangelo, Donatello, Leonardo, or Raphael designs, each sold separately.

Art of Play teamed up with The Eames Office to create this playing card deck that embraces the mid-century modern aesthetic of Charles and Ray Eames. A geometric numbering system pays tribute to the duo’s film Powers of Ten, while the card backs feature the Eames’ signature starburst. Designed by Dan and Dave.

Since wind is a requirement for flying kites, it’s typically an outdoor activity. However, experienced kite flyers like Spence “Watty” Watson know how to get them off the ground indoors. At the 2023 SPI Kite Fest, Spence showed off with a 25-foot-long 8-stack kite that he flew over spectators heads. Video by Tommy J. Saenz.

Pakistani singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was beloved for his incredible vocal talents and songwriting skills. Now Andre Antunes has taken part of his performance of Akhiyan Udeek Diyan and blessed it with a heavy metal companion track. The result is a sublime mix of two very different cultures. Turn on captions for the translated lyrics.

Good morning! It’s time for your wake-up call, and there’s no better sound to get you up and going than the screaming vocals of metalhead Leo Moracchioli. This time, he sharpened the edge of the Simple Minds track Don’t You (Forget About Me</a>. Rain keeps falling, down, down, down works really well as a metal lyric.

This limited-edition Premium+ version of the arcade classic Skee-Ball features a light maple laminate cabinet with real hardwood maple trim. It’s got a digital scoreboard with six gameplay modes and authentic arcade sounds. Its thick cork ramp, rubber target cups, and wood polypropylene balls will last for years.

As part of his “Should I/Can I Cover It?” series, musician Thomas Benjamin Wild Esq. performs a track that clearly wasn’t designed to be played on a tiny 4-string ukulele. But the old-fashioned musician gave it the old college try regardless. If Thomas looks familiar, it’s because he has No More F**ks to Give.