Rick and Morty season five arrives in June 2021. While we wait for the premiere, here’s a little something fun to fill your eyeballs with. Paul Robertson created this amazing 17-minute pixel art animation that envisions the duo battling an endless stream of baddies in an epic side-scroller video game. thE sIMuLAtioN iS coRruPt!
There have been tons of covers of music from the various Super Mario games, but the members of the Super NES Band likes to play video game music using the actual tone generators classic consoles. Listen as they perform live medleys of tunes from Super Mario World, Super Mario Bros. 3, and Super Mario Land.
The climactic battle scene in Avengers: Endgame is pretty damned epic. Now relive the fateful skirmish between our heroes and Thanos’ army of outriders playing out as a level from a 16-bit video game, courtesy of Mr. Sunday Movies. Check out Part 1 here.
NoQuarterArcade handbuilds these sweet mid-century modern style arcade tables which play a wide variety of classic arcade games. They come with authentic arcade quality controls for two players, and pre-loaded with a number of games. They sell a 60-in-1 version, as well as a 412-in-1 version, and an 800-in-1 version.
Ratalaika’s arcade game combines the strategic elements of a tower defense game with an old-school platform shooter. As your spacecraft is invaded by aliens, you must use a combination of turrets and handheld weapons to keep your level from being overrun. Available 6.12.20 on Nintendo Switch and Xbox One.
This artful Nintendo Switch action game is jam-packed with gameplay and graphics inspired by the 16-bit gaming era, but the games are framed within the coming-of-age story of the kid playing the games at the arcade.
The 70s, 80s, and 90s gave us tons of classic arcade games, and along with them came lots of great pixel art. Typeface designer Toshi Omagari’s book catalogs some of the many cool pixelated fonts which were used for displaying scores on arcade machines. ReadOnlyMemory has a limited-edition hardcover version as well.
Back in 1994, Battlefield developer DICE started work on this side-scrolling shooter back for the Sega Genesis and Commodore Amiga. The 16-bit game known as “Hardcore” was shelved for more than two decades, and has been given new life on the PS4 and Nintendo Switch thanks to Strictly Limited Games.
(Gore) Director Ansel Wallenfang’s awesome music video for metal band Red Fang’s track Antidote looks like a level from a 16-bit video game, is packed with retro gaming tropes, and culminates with one of the greatest boss fights of all time. We so want to play that van beatdown level.
Whether you loved or hated The Last Jedi, most of us can agree that the fight sequence in Snoke’s Throne Room was pretty awesome. Here, Mr. Sunday Movies brilliantly recreated the scene as if it were played out on a Super Nintendo or Sega Genesis console.
Artist The Poncho Pilgrim used the low frame rates and coarse edges of 16-bit style graphics to put together a beautiful short film that really creates a sense of place despite the technical limitations. Check out his YouTube channel for more of his art and animation.
The NES Hoodie is about to become obsolete. Merchoid’s officially licensed SNES Classic hoodie borrows the ribbed sleeve details of its predecessor, but with the SNES logo embroidered on its chest. We hope they make a purple and grey track jacket too.
Currently on Early Access, Dead Cells is a 16-bit-style action-adventure game with fast gameplay, fluid controls, rogue-like elements and pattern-based bosses a la the Souls genre. On PC now, Mac and Linux later.
Electronic music phenom Ronald Jenkees’ music video is a tour de force of colorful retro-style pixel art, created by animator Ben Luce of Soul Proprietor, who will use funds raised by fans of the video to support cancer research. From the new album Rhodes Deep. (Thanks Scott!)
Mauri Helme created a pixel perfect 16-bit style version of the opening titles of Mike Judge’s animated classic King of the Hill, complete with an appropriate chiptune theme song. We’d buy this video game in a heartbeat.
DoctorOctoroc returns with a 16-bit holiday greeting, a fictitious Christmas level for the SEGA classic, complete with the perfect holiday chiptune which could have come straight from the game.