Quicktequila’s Lovely Planet is the anti-modern FPS. Instead of being multiplayer, gritty, and easy, Lovely Planet is single player, cutesy, and incredibly difficult. Calum Bowen’s happy, catchy soundtrack only really fits the first couple worlds. After that, the game introduces cruel new mechanics that demand precision trick shots on the run. I couldn’t beat a single stage in world 5 except the ending. If your keyboard-and-mouse skills are awesome, give this game a shot. It’s different.

Source: http://www.quicktequila.com/lovelyplanet.html via their booth at PAX East 2015, also YouTube and Bandcamp
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I just got on the train headed for another PAX East! 70,000 gamers get together in Boston every year to play games, and you can find competition in any game there is. Last year, I took second place in the tournaments for Tetris DS and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2, and I’ve been training to win them both this time around. I’ll be updating Twitter just like last year.

Anyway, enjoy some high-energy Game Boy chiptunes courtesy of Xinon. This album has gotten me through some long, tiring weekends.

Source: https://xinon.bandcamp.com/album/origin via a Spotibot playlist based on my Last.fm recommendations
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Columbus Underground interviewed Chris Bidwell about what’s cool about retro gaming, his invite-only tournament, the Hexadecathlon, and its expansion into a public tournament series, the Columbus Retro League. Retro games bring out a completely different crowd from the modern fighting game events, and it’s been great to get to know them. They know how to get hype, too! Come on out to Video Hockey Day in Columbus on Sunday!

Source: http://www.columbusunderground.com/retro-gamers-celebrate-bygone-era-of-video-game-classics via JD Lowe and Columbus Underground’s RSS feed, photos via Chris Bidwell and my phone camera
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For Super Mario Bros. 3‘s 25th anniversary, I present Captain Southbird’s romhack Super Mario Bros. 3Mix. Similar to Rockman 4 Minus Infinity, it implements great ideas from several later Mario games, but this one stays true to the level design lessons of the original. The Rev 1 release from two days ago fixes bugs Mike Matei found in his review, so make sure you get that one.

Update: Captain Southbird has released Rev 2B which fixes a couple bugs, so get that one instead.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ck_a8Y3Gefo via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9rIGa9R9bE via YouTube subscription, also http://sonicepoch.com/sm3mix/
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A couple days ago, I stopped by Gotcha Gachapon’s awesome new arcade. It has DJMax Technika 3, Jubeat, Dance Maniax 2nd Mix, DDR Supernova 2, and other Japanese music games that Columbus arcades have never had before…but it’s in basically a storage unit in a bad part of town. Yeah, it’s pretty much this music video. It’s Mindless Self Indulgence, so the lyrics are NSFW.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UR0UkTiKxmc and https://mindlessselfindulgence.bandcamp.com/track/never-wanted-to-dance via Spotify via some OLd THPS videos and other friends
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