Excellent New Music Video Pays Homage to 8-bit Video Games

For those of you who enjoy electronic music AND video games - I'm betting that's a fair few of you! - here is a cool new video from the guys at Hospital Records. The track is from the always dependable High Contrast and, while certainly not in the same league as his classic tunes; Return of Forever, Racing Green, Twilight's Last Gleaming and The Road Goes On Forever, it is a pretty decent mix of drum & bass, electro and chiptune sounds. It is an energetic track with some lovely pads halfway through to give it some depth and emotion.

Coin-Op Classics - Bomb Jack series (Tecmo 1985 - 1993)

Bomb Jack (Tecmo, 1984)

Bomb Jack has always been one of my favourite arcade games of the 1980's. With its bright, colourful graphics, jaunty tunes and simple, yet addictive gameplay, it is a game I can come back to again and again. Join me, as I take a look back at a classic 1980's coin-op, the many home conversions it received and the sequels that followed.

Original arcade flyer for Bomb Jack

The original Bomb Jack coin-op was released in 1984 by Tehkan, which would later become Tecmo. It was a fast paced, single screen platform game that enticed players with its bright and colourful visuals and quirky tunes. What awaited  gamers willing to part with their coins was a highly addictive and extremely challenging game that defied its cutesy veneer.

REVIEW - Capcom Arcade Cabinet (Xbox 360 / PS3)

1980's Arcade Deju Vu

After the unfortunate failure of the underrated Game Room service, the release of half hearted compilations such as Midway Arcade Origins and the total lack of anything from Taito (boo!), retro arcade games have had a bad run this generation. The exception to this might be the excellent Namco Museum - Virtual Arcade compilation, but even this had flaws. So, while still excited about the prospect of playing old Capcom arcade games on my 360 or PS3, I remained sceptical about what would actually be delivered. Unfortunately it would appear my scepticism was well founded, as what we have here is the most uninspiring selection of 1980's 'classics' I have yet seen.

Capcom have the ability to release wonderful retro compilations, as seen in their collections on PS2, Xbox and PSP. The Capcom Classics packages contained all the arcade games you would expect, with several you wouldn't, and provided excellent value for money. I had hoped that here, Capcom would re-release all those titles again, with the added bonus of HD visuals and online leaderboards. However, 'twas not to be, and instead we are left with an extremely watered down version of those packs.

REVIEW - The Unfinished Swan (PS3)

There is an ongoing (it would seem) discussion in popular culture regarding video games. Can they be considered art? It is a fairly tedious discussion of which I will save you all the trouble by stating the answer. Yes, yes they can. If dancing, poetry and, especially, movies are considered art then video games must be too. Of course some games, like movies, are more arty than others. It's A Wonderful Life would probably be considered to have more artistic merit than, say, Bad Boys 2. And a game like The Unfinished Swan will certainly convince a lot more people of gaming's contribution to cultured media than Saints Row The Third. Indeed any game that starts off with a blank (read – completely white) screen with no clue as to what to do, clearly slides itself into the art game camp, as well as showing some serious balls too. It only takes a few seconds of tapping the various buttons until you locate the 'fire' button and a black ball arcs from your cross-hair. It makes contact with a surface and with a messy splatter, covers the area with black paint. It then clicks that you must reveal the world around you using this paint, identifying the walls, pathways and objects in the world around you. Welcome to The Unfinished Swan.

REVIEW - Tales from Space : Mutant Blobs Attack (PC)

They Came From Outta Space

So, Mutant Blobs Attack, a bit of a give-away in the title there, but then anything featuring slimy lumps of alien jello is hardly going to be called Mutant Blobs Take You out for Coffee and a Chat now is it? An updated version / semi-sequel to the previous Tales from Space game, About A Blob, that appeared on the PS3 in  2011, Mutant Blobs Attack is an extremely quirky and amusing 2D platform devour-em-up. A giddy mix of Pac Man, Katamari Damacy and the excellent, Globdule on the Amiga (look it up) that takes its inspiration from the 1950's Sci-Fi B-movies that featured gelatinous monsters from other planets (usually Mars).

The flimsy story that mirrors those found in the aforementioned B-movies has our titular blob escaping from captivity in a science lab on Earth. Rather than chill out and catch the next bus home, he decides to wreak a terrible vengeance on humanity. He does this by eating everything, and I mean everything, in sight. Blob has clearly no concern for cholesterol or looking good on the beach this summer, but then he's a blob so what's he got to worry about?

REVIEW - Shatter (PS3 / PC)

Bat and ball games have been around since the very start of video games. Atari's Pong is the game everyone will probably think of when asked to name the first computer game (they would be wrong of course – but it's a good guess) as its simplistic gameplay is an iconic image of early gaming. Breakout came soon after, way back in 1976, and added bricks to destroy with the ball, giving the game more of a single player focus. Taito came out with their own take on the format a decade later with the excellent Arkanoid. Taito added power-ups that granted treats such as multiballs, a laser for destroying the bricks, and one that would increase the size of your paddle. Enemies were also added and would move around the screen, getting in the way of your brick busting efforts. After that the genre didn't really expand much. New games such as Breakout 2000 on the Atari Jaguar and Breakout on Sony's PlayStation added a 3d perspective to the mix, but only made the experience slightly more confusing on the eye. There were also sequels to both Arkanoid and the original Breakout, but that was about it. After all, how can you really expand on such a simple formula? Well now we have the answer with Sidhe Interactive's Shatter. Released on PS3 first back in 2009, and on PC a year later, Shatter is a modern take on the most aged of video game staples. And it is bloody brilliant.

REVIEW - Spelunker HD (PS3)

The original cave explorer is back... in HD!

The original Spelunker is a classic 1984 Atari 400 game, but is more commonly known for the NES port that came out a year later. I have always had a soft spot for the home console version despite it being absolutely infuriating to play. It was this love for the Nintendo port, as well as the arcade version released that same year, that made Spelunker HD a game I have always had on my 'to play' list since its release in 2011. Much to my chagrin it never came out on either XBLA or PC, denying me the opportunity to discover whether it lived up to its predecessor. The low Metacritic score and amount of reviews bitching and moaning about its difficulty and miserable gameplay was a concern, but I wanted to see for myself. Only having recently purchased a PS3, I decided it was now or never and took the plunge, and boy am I glad I did.