Awesome Video Games

Electronic musician Maro Maro lets his hands fly with an impressive medley of video game music performed on pair of stylophones. He had to tune the rudimentary analog synthesizers to different ranges in order to produce a wider range of notes.

Ahoy presents an incredibly in-depth analysis of the origins of video games, swiftly debunking any confusion that Pong was the first video game ever, and looking back at early titles like Computer Space, SpaceWar!, Tennis for Two, and their programmers. Turns out hunting down the very first video game isn’t that simple.

Musician Marcos Kaiser is a master of fingerstyle guitar technique. Check out his awesome renditions of themes from Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Mario World, and Mortal Kombat, then browse his YouTube channel for more great covers from TV and movies.

It’s a few years old, but that doesn’t make FamilyJules‘ hard rock medley of classic video game music any less entertaining. Whenever we hear video game music played with this much energy and speed, we think our character is about to run out of health. Grab the MP3 here.

This lighthearted game puts you in control of a little bird who’s learning to fly – on a skateboard. The tiny skatepark is made up of office supplies like staplers, scissors, and sticky notes, offering a fun place for our avian friends to take flight. Grab the Alpha demo version of the game here.

Galaga is one of our favorite ’80s arcade games. We still load it up on our MAME cabinet and play it. Now, it turns out our high score is threatened by artificial intelligence. Watch as LearnFun and PlayFun’s AI figures out the game’s tactics, and becomes an expert player.

Data Radar look back at the incredible progress made in video game graphics in the last five decades – from the rudimentary black and white pixels of the ’70s, to the near-photorealistic imagery of today. Next time you gripeabout a game’s graphics, watch this.

A handheld edition of the classic Atari 2600 game console with a 3.2″ color display. It comes pre-loaded with 60 games, and can also play game ROMs loaded onto an SD card too. Has a built-in rechargeable battery, and can connect to a TV with RCA composite inputs.

Toronto outfit GlitchArtwork crafts each of these pieces of arcade and console game art by hand, painstakingly cutting and assembling their layers together into a 3-dimensional work of pixel art. Each framed work includes a glass cover not shown in the images.

(PG-13: Language) Ever since it was possible to discern faces in video games, celebs have been showing up as either themselves or as characters. But not every in-game appearance makes sense, as AlltimeGaming points out. That creepy Burger King product placement, eesh.

Musician Seth Everman returns with a special holiday version of his game genre music video, in which he plays classic Christmas tunes in the style of classic games. Our favorite is the Super Mario 64 version of Deck the Halls.

A hilariously weird video in which 11,000 penguins take on 4,000 Santa Clauses, courtesy of the upcoming game Epic Battle Simulator. As insane as it is, what’s truly impressive is the sheer number of characters on screen at once, all using an off-the-shelf PC and graphics card.

A wonderful book for anyone who loves video games. Author Dustin Hansen explores the origins of arcade, console and PC games dating back to Pong, all the way up to modern games like Overwatch, with an eye towards the creators and their sources of inspiration.

One of the hottest gifts this year is the miniature remake of the NES, but we’re thinking of investing our cash in this versatile palm-sized console instead. It works with a variety of retro game emulators and USB controllers, has an HDMI output, and works as a 4K media player.

(PG-13: Language) Videogamedunkey looks at some differences between video game marketing in the U.S. and Japan. In general, it seems the level of enthusiasm on the other side of the planet is just a bit higher than here in the States. That’s not to say it always works.

Ahoy looks back at 1982 to 1983, some of the darkest days of the video game industry, born from over-saturation of the market, low quality games, and competition for shelf space. Fortunately, things turned around by 1985, but the cycle could repeat itself.

A mashup of epic proportions is set to hit the Wii U in 2014 as The Legend of Zelda receives a Dynasty Warriors tilt in what is being tentatively titled Hyrule Warriors. Link laying ruin to legions upon legions of enemies? Sign us up.

There are two things that never cease to amaze us: one is the courage of hobbits and the other is the way that trailers for LEGO video games like this one for the upcoming reimagining of The Hobbit always get us smiling.

The gaming-IRL guys of Mega64 take the artful PS3 title to the streets, meeting up with strangers and confusing them with their silly antics. We’re guessing it made even less sense to passersby without the VFX.

(NSFW: Language) A 20+ minute supercut of classic (and not-so-classic) video game references in movies, compiled by Travis Greenwood and Brett Roberts for Slacktory. Shall we play a game?

It’s still months from release but that hasn’t kept Rockstar from giving us incentives for pre-ordering Grand Theft Auto V. This bundle includes everything shown and a whole lot of in-game extras. A special edition is available too.

An open world survival horror title, The Forest is an indie project currently in development for PC. Don’t let the beautiful scenery in the middle of the trailer fool you, this forest definitely harbors a darkness to be reckoned with.

The debut trailer for the next installment of WB Games’ award winning Arkham franchise is here and we will be the first to tell you that it does not disappoint! Looks like young Bats will be having one brutal Christmas in this prequel.