Have a look at some of the great stuff written and created by Bitmobbers that you may have missed over the last few days...we've got everything from Plants vs. Zombies reviews (multiple) to a confession about crying at the sight of Pac-Man. (And don't forget to click 'Read more' to see the complete list.)

Intermissions
This humor series by Brett Bates is well worth checking out. Recent posts include Army of Two and a Half (think Army of Two meets Three Men and a Baby) and Power Surge Causes Kojima Countdown Timer to Reset.

Bitmob Community Podcast
Trevor H (hey what's the rest of that last name, Trevor?) is looking into starting a Bitmob community podcast. All you aspiring Robert Ashleys out there, here's your chance! We'd love to see this plan come together.

Plants vs. Zombies Review
I'm a little late to the party on this game myself (just started playing a couple days ago, and wish I was playing right now), but luckily others are more quick on the draw. Allistair Pinsof's review is linked above, and Eric Majkut's is right here.

Top Five Videogame-Inspired Music Videos
Top X lists are to blame for most of man's ills, but I enjoyed this one from Allistair Pinsof. I think this Architecture in Helsinki video is my favorite.

What is Your Earliest Gaming Memory?
Eric King poses the above question and then reveals that he used to cry when Pac-Man ate a power pellet and the ghosts turned blue. Anyone else have embarrassing confessions to make?

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If I'm understanding the official King of Fighters website correctly, the series is up to 2,004 games now. That sounds about right -- over the past few years, hasn't a new edition come out every three days or so? And we old-timers used to make fun of Street Fighter....

Oh wait, "2003" was a year, not a chapter count. OK, so I admit, I'm not the world's biggest KOF expert. But even though the series isn't at 2000+ titles, 12 is still a big number by anyone's count. Big enough that seeing a demo of The King of Fighters 12, due out this July for the PS3 and 360, wasn't really that high on our priority list here on Bitmob.

That is, until we found out who was doing the demo.

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Editor's Note: Funny, I also can't beat Mike Tyson either. But unlike Michael, I gave up a long-ass time ago. I mean, he's just so hard to beat. It's like he's made of iron or something. Y'know what? They should call him that:"Iron" Mike Tyson. What's that? They do? It's official: I'm a genius. -Michael

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I am nearly twenty six years old and have been playing videogames as long as I can remember. One of my earliest memories is playing Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!; another is grabbing the lit end of a sparkler on the 4th of July. I have played Punch-Out!! on and off over the years and have always been thwarted by Super Macho Man.

I have never made it to the titular heavyweight champ in my life. I have never used a cheat to fight Tyson. To me, the game will end when I have beaten Super Macho Man. The closest to victory over him I've had was knocking him down twice a few years ago. He is always where my play session ends -- once I lose I throw in the towel. Even if I start playing an hour later, I start over at Glass Joe. I suspect I do this to reassure my ego that I don't suck at the game.

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Yay -- more peripherals. We always wanted to be a DJ, specifically one who is a hero, so we couldn't be more excited about scratching our way into the Justice League.

News Blips:

• DJ Hero oddly about DJing, not Full House. The newest issue of Game Informer has all the deets about Activision Blizzard's upcoming DJ-focused game. Get this: It's like Guitar Hero with a turntable. Or Beatmania, that other DJ game from a few years back that no one bought. This one will probably sell better, however. Because nowadays people love clogging their homes with plastic peripherals. If only the turntable was bigger, though -- we can totally fit that in our closet. [RagingGamer]

• Assassin's Creed 2 is so big, 450 people have to make it. That's a lot of people making the sequel to Ubisoft's newest franchise. Y'know, if you think about it, with that many folks working on the game, it should be out twice, if not, three times as fast as a normal game. So if this game isn't out by next week, we're totally not playing it. [1UP]

• Tomb Raider film reboot will explore more raider than tomb. The producer for the upcoming Terminator flick said the next Tomb Raider movie will be more character-driven. Sounds fine to us, because that Lara Croft is so interesting. Who cares about the tombs, anyway? They don't even have boobs. [1UP]

• The Secret of Monkey Island coming to 360 apparently isn't much of a secret. Gaming site GamerBytes noticed that a German rating board listed (but later pulled) what appears to be a special edition of the original PC adventure game. This means it could either be a retail release (not likely) or a Xbox Live Arcade title (more likely). Or it can all be a bunch of bananas (delicious!). [GamerBytes]

Click the jump for some video blips, including a Fat Princess developer diary, a top-heavy role-playing game, real life Punch-Out!!, and...more.

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Twitter's great for spreading incorrect rumors of Patrick Swayze's death, and also for stalking the game industry...which is what Game Twits is all about.

Bungie Technical Artist Seth Gibson was the butt of a programmer joke. We think.

2K Games Producer Jason Bergman fantasizes about exclusive George Broussard (3D Realms) video.

EA's Jeff Green, former editor-in-chief of GFW/CGW, is due for a mean case of E3 Shoulder -- a rank stench localized in the upper shoulder area, suffered by booth babes and Jeff Greens at E3 as a result of repeated arm-in-arm photos with the unwashed.

Polytron's Phil Fish confirms that Fez will not come with a trampoline peripheral.

Serial bather and Digg founder Kevin Rose lights candles, scores touchdown, ruins iPhone.

Eat Sleep Play's David Jaffe hates Scottish people.

Game designer and professor Brenda Brathwaite's iPhone texting is simultaneously more interesting and more nerdy than yours.

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Editor's Note: I'll admit, I used to be somewhat weary of casual games, but not anymore. Hell, I mostly play them nowadays: Plants vs. Zombies is my new favorite brain-teaser. And I've been playing Crossword DS for a good month or two. And don't get me started about how much I adore Cooking Mama and Order Up. To be honest, I think this petty "hardcore vs. casual" battle will eventually die via a Peggle ball to the head. Because, in the end, who the hell cares? More people playing games means more games for us. So why fight when we can all play along? -Michael

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With the advent of the Wii and the "new" casual gaming market (most people, for whatever reason, don't seem to realize that casual gaming has existed since the ancient, black-and-white days of Spacewar!), there's been an ever-growing rift between the self-described "hardcore" gaming community and the outsiders: the old folks, "moms," non-gamers, and other dangerous folk who threaten our wonderful and exclusive hobby. If the History Channel has taught us anything, it's that you can't appease these people. If you do, bad things happen involving tiny mustaches.

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We never thought gamers would care so much about the weight of consoles. But apparently this is a big deal. Well, we think it's insulting -- consoles are people, too. Wait. Err, nevermind...

News Blips:

• PS3 weight rumors continue; many say bulimia is believable. Even though some Sony skeptics are finding the slimmed-down PS3 rumors a little hard to swallow, a kernel of truth may have just popped up. It seems tech site Engadget has been sent a cease and desist letter for hosting the leaked shots of the seemingly smaller PS3. The weird part? The letter wasn't sent by Sony, but by a Chinese company. Hmm. So is it true or not? Our gut says yes, but then again, he's just hungry after all these food puns. [Engadget]

• Robot Chicken lay mechanical egg; tastes like Spore DLC. The funny men behind Adult Swim's Robot Chicken series have helped create downloadable content for the Spore: Galactic Adventures expansion. If this news makes you say, "WTF," then you'll probably want to go visit the appropriately-named official website. Then OMG at the LOLs or something. [Kotaku]

• Randomly littered medkit gives 3D Realms small amount of health. So everyone thought Duke Nukem Forever developer 3D Realms died a pitiful death. We did, too. But we were all wrong, apparently. The studio confirmed it is still alive, albeit without the DNF team. Not sure how the studio will survive indefinitely, considering Duke Nukem doesn't own fancy dancy rechargeable armor like Master Chief. And, well, medkits aren't exactly easy to come by nowadays. [1UP]

• Japanese Capcom staff may miss E3 due to piggy pukers. Well, this is ironic: The company responsible for the Resident Evil series may be quarantined in their own country due to swine flu. We're sure they'll probably end up attending the State's biggest videogame trade show, but the news is still kinda funny. Except for the part about pigs giving us flu. Barf. [Kotaku]

• New Dynasty Warriors game is coming...hey, where are you going? Let me finish, thank you! Ahem -- like I was saying, Dynasty Warriors 6: Empires is coming to both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 next month. For those of you who care. Which is, sadly, no one. Sigh... [Joystiq]

Hit the jump for some video blips, including a bunch of Japanese Wii MotionPlus commercials, a Star Wars: The Old Republic story trailer, Half-Life 2 in block form, and...more.

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We just discovered that Gears of War 2 and Unreal Designer Cliff Bleszinski is twice the geek we are, which is pretty incredible because we're pretty damn geeky.

How did we find out? He told us, in the latest round of 21 Random Qs. We're not referring to his love for Iron Man (see No. 1) or George Jetson's car (see No. 3). We're referring to...well, see for yourself (see No. 15).

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1. Who's your favorite comic-book superhero?

Cliff Bleszinski: Iron Man. Because I love flawed heroes, and he's such a lush and a womanizer.

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Editor's note: GameSetWatch first uncovered the strange story (and alternate reality game) behind not-actually-real blogger Rachael Webster, AKA PixelVixen707, but this update is well worth checking out. Read Webster's interview with Robert Ashley here (her initial contact email to Robert included a link to the GameSetWatch article, but he didn't click it and was none the wiser). -Demian

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Genuinely thoughtful commentary on videogames doesn’t come by all the time, and how much the rarer is the emergence of a truly worthy and unique voice. So when Rachael Webster, an aspiring writer stagnating at a menial job at a small and mostly unknown city newspaper, first took up the pen for her blog in the fall of last year, she quickly found herself amongst enthusiastic supporters and a welcoming community. PixelVixen707, as she called herself, brought a sharp-tongued but winsome pluck to the conversation about games, along with unusual, sometimes genuinely surprising, insights. Rounding out the program was an occasional note about her personal life— and that is where things fell off the rails a little bit.

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We all love videogames, sure. But some folks out there love them a wee bit more than us. Don't be jealous, though -- these superfans show their adoration by creating tons of cool, cultural things for our own amusement. That's why we've starting the Cultural Corner -- each week we'll showcase a fan whose talents extend far beyond pushing a bunch of buttons.

First up: Grub-time doodler Derek and his personalized lunch bag art. Every day he makes some cool art for his kiddos and posts them on his website. It's here you can check out his near-perfect renditions of videogame characters, Pixar-inspired Batman rides, and even KHAAAAANNNNN! We recently chatted with the talented food-cover scribbler to find out more about his hungry hobby.

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Here it is. Monday. Podcasting day. Mobcasting day. And while we taped a delightful episode, with G4's Patrick Klepek joining the gang of Shoe, Demian, Ford, Donahoe, and Robert "voice of God" Ashley, something happened. Maybe it was a bum fetzer valve, maybe an inadvertently ejected dilithium core, but by the time Robert made it back to his HQ, the file was gone, and no file-recovery utility could bring it back again. We all knew that one day there'd be an unexpected disaster and a "lost Mobcast," but we didn't know it'd be so soon. Mobcast #2, you never deserved this.

But next Monday is a new Monday -- tune in then when we bring on three more special guests to discuss five topics of our choosing, plus one of yours. To submit a topic you'd like us to yap about, shoot an e-mail to letters@bitmob.com with "Mobcast" in the subject line.

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Editor's Note: I really have nothing to add except: read it! -Demian

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Almost ten years ago to the day I was crammed in the back of a Jeep with three friends, slowly climbing the impossibly steep roads that snake their way up the Himalayas. Our destination was Darjeeling, India, the “Queen of the Hill Stations.”

We had initially planned Darjeeling to be a stop-off on the way to Tibet, but when 1600 Maoists laid siege to a Tibeten police post, we were advised against unnecessary travel. We didn’t argue.

Darjeeling had its own attractions, though. Our lodgings looked out on the vast expanse of lush tea bushes stretching down along the hillslopes. You could just about make out the figures of tea-pickers in the fields, old ladies with baskets draped over one arm, quickly making their way along the steep, leafy rows. The town itself is so high that when we opened the balcony doors, clouds poured into our room. Everest loomed in the distance. It was stunning.

Despite this, it isn’t the views that are my enduring memory of Darjeeling, but something a little more unique. For among the little shops and restaurants sat high in the Indian sky is a small room, little more than a shack really; the highest arcade in the world.

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Editor's Note: Rob makes a strong case for the little-known but very importable Demon's Souls, a game that features zero historically accurate giant enemy crabs. -Demian

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The question on most readers' minds will not be the one posed in the title, but rather, "what is Demon's Souls?" While I won't have anything to write that likely hasn't already been written elsewhere by now (since the game has been out for several months), I haven't read anyone discussing the title here and I believe this is a game that deserves as much print as it can muster.

Demon's Souls is a dark fantasy action-RPG from developer From Software which aims to be a spiritual successor to their previous series, King's Field. Played from a 3rd-person perspective in real-time, Demon's Souls charges the player with ridding the land of (what else?) soul-stealing demons. The game is largely influenced by western RPGs -- you'll select a character class with a set number of attributes, level up, and equip your character with various weapons, armors, magic, and miracles. Those are the basics; the other gameplay concepts are what really make Demon's Souls worth your time.

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Capcom does a really good at pleasing its hardcore fans. People asked for bizarro Wii fighter Tatsunoko vs. Capcom to come to the States and Capcom promptly set up a green card. Now if we only had a new Bionic Commando game. Oh, wait... Uh, Resident Evil 6?

New Blips:

• Tatsunoko vs. Capcom boards small white plane for USA. Gaming mag Nintendo Power officially announced Wii fighter Tatsunoko vs. Capcom will soon be coming stateside. Don't know who Capcom is fighting? It's cool. We won't tell 'em. [Kotaku]

• Kojima Productions teaser page continues teasing for your displeasure. Yep, it's that damn site again. The one we talked about on two occasions already. So what's new? Just a countdown clock. Oh, and a storm. Get this: We hear at 48:15:16 it will start raining. But we could be teasing. Come back here tomorrow morning to find out. [1UP]

• Bethesda's spastic arm motions indicate Wii game announcement soon. The folks behind Fallout 3 and Oblivion will be revealing a "big" title made specifically for the Wii later this year (E3?). No word on what kind of game it will be, but if it doesn't involve prettying up ponies with armor, we're so not interested. [GamesIndustry via Kotaku]

• Team Ninja turndown Pirate offer; stick with Ninja Gaiden franchise. Even though former series director and lover of physics-defying boobies, Tomonobu Itagaki, is no longer working at developer Team Ninja, the members left confirmed they will continue making Ninja Gaiden games. Or at least until Robots give them an offer they can't compute. [Kikizo via Joystiq]

Hit the jump for a pre-teaser teaser for Mass Effect 2, Microsoft press conference scuttlebutt, hot Mirror's Edge cosplay, and...more.

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Editor's Note: Despite Reed poking fun at the fact that he's doing a list, he's covering a pretty interesting topic that demands more feedback. Also: probably the only time you'll see Pocahontas' Colors of the Wind referenced on this site. -Greg

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Hey, you guys love lists, right? I love lists, too! This is a list of games that aren't simply revolutionary like Wolfenstein 3D or Super Mario Bros., but games that really showed that they can be considered art while using the medium they're on to its highest potential.

1. Shadow of the Colossus

This game has improved the medium for two main reasons: 1) its minimalistic storytelling that was not spoon-fed to you, and 2) its beautiful graphics for the time. SOTC's storytelling has been mirrored in games like Braid, where you actually have to think, and I like that. The graphics, on the other hand, blew my mind. The fact that when you climb a colossi you actually feel like you're holding onto its hair/moss is remarkable. This game is an obvious contender for "Games as Art" because of its stunning visuals.

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This week, we talk writing tips, games journalism, EGM back issues, and GTA sales on DS. As always, send your letters to letters@bitmob.com -- because the spam filter never lets our stuff get through. And away we go:

My boss and I were having a discussion about Flash-like minigames (Bejeweled, and other PopCap and Pogo games) becoming a huge hit within the last few years for various reasons. He alleges that these games are actually pulling graduating talent away from the higher-end gaming market. I argued that minigame developers are probably mostly self-taught designers without a ton of traditional education, and that people graduating from various schools are still going to larger companies like EA or Activision Blizzard. Who's more right?

-SjSchoo

 

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Howdy, folks! Here's the second episode of The Hoe Down. This week, I attend the Burn Zombie Burn party and yap it up with zombies. Oh, and I eat brains, too. And y'know what? They actually tasted pretty good. Mmmm...purple.

Just like last week, I wanna thank Area 5's Jason Bertrand for his help slicing this up. And I also wanna thank fellow Bitmobber Aaron Thomas for his help filming me acting like a jackass.

Aight -- hope y'all enjoy it.

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