
7 Japanese women responsible for “some of the greatest games ever to ever grace the store shelves.”

Gamer Girls remind everyone, “Don’t be racist. Don’t be homophobic. Don’t be sexist. Follow that code and everybody will have a good time. And when someone breaks that code, CALL THEM OUT. Don’t just let it ride.” And the comments bear out why it has to be said again and again.

R-Type has a funny way of showing its affection. It doesn’t give you black eyes, but it still makes them red and twitchy. You don’t eat as much. You abuse caffeine and other stimulants, as if that makes much of a difference. Its benchmark of expectation keeps rising. Make no mistake: The standards presented will [...]

Learn to make a peanut butter and jelly sammich the Kratos way.

Here’s the Japanese trailer for the upcoming Studio Ghibli game: Ni no Kuni Shiroki Seihai no Joou. (via Comics Alliance)

The small pleasures of gaming: Red Dead Redemption and Q*bert.

Sing, O Muse, of a man of twists and turns, driven off course time and again. Of hacking and slashing and blowing shit up. Of a man who tears enemies in half and twists off their heads. Of saturnine goatees. Of blood red tattoos. Of a moon pale man. A psycho, a murderer, a ghostfaced [...]

Boing Boing has sketches and art from Little Big Planet as well as a little meditation on its wonder, joy and charm. Very little, mostly art.

Laura Hudson looks at 8 Bit Batman and beyond through 23 years of Batman in videogames. (via the ISB)

“Maybe it’s too bad that a game with such a strong visual imagination is entirely about kicking people in the face. But violence is your compass. You’d be lost without it.” It’s only been a few weeks since Duncan has stopped writing his fine, thoughtful pieces on games, but I miss them. Go read Hit [...]

The Design Inspiration collects 45 portraits of the Mushroom Kingdom’s favorite heroes, Mario and Luigi.

Just how many times do I have to kill this guy? It’s a question I’ve certainly asked myself while playing various games, along with Why aren’t you dead yet? and How many damn heads does it have anyway? Everybody’s version of tedium is different, but endlessly dodging around waiting for some gargantuan horror to blink [...]

The arcade was a place of refuge for the outcasts of adolescent social circles, where time would be spent dumping quarters into some dumb machine instead of studying or playing ball hockey or parking their ass in front of the TV like every other kid. Communities were built among the cabinets with their sticky buttons [...]

As the game industry continues to expand at an alarming rate, the hunt for mindshare continues. Hardware manufacturers and game publishers don’t care about people like me, the guy that buys at least one game a month and considers part of their daily intake of current events visiting sites like Gamespot and Evil Avatar. I’ve [...]

Before the press conferences of the Big Three at E3 2006, TIME magazine explains why Nintendo’s strategy for success is “don’t listen to your customers”. And given the anticipation for their revolutionary new console, it seems to be working.

The line between gimmick and innovation is sometimes hard to draw. Game purists look down on specialized peripherals, and while I like my shotguns and dance-pads in single-purpose arcade games, I rarely think they’re justified in a multi-purpose home system. Maybe I know too many people who bought the Power Glove. This Mattel peripheral was [...]