Muramasa: The Demon Blade feels like the product of an alternate timeline. If polygons had never ushered in an ice age for 2D gaming, hand-drawn sprites like the ones perfected in Muramasa might still rule the earth. Smaller versions of today's intelligent but homely 3D visuals would be forced to scavenge their eggs, festering with jagged pestilence.
Space Invaders Extreme is a re-imagining of the original arcade classic released in 1978 ( yes, Space Invaders came out over thirty years ago. You can start feeling old now ). Smartly opting to hammer home nostalgia, the backbone of the game’s visual design has been left unchanged. The enemies and the protaganistic cannon are all styled as blockily as they were in 1978.
As a child, guest reviewer Kellbot saved up her $2/week allowance for multiple years to buy a Nintendo Entertainment System. She is an entrepreneur and hacker, and is probably better than you at Geometry Wars 2. You can read more about her projects at Kellbot.com.
I caved to internet peer pressure and picked up a copy of EA Sports Active. I was getting a little bored with Wii Fit, and sort of annoyed that it takes you 45 minutes to get in 30 minutes of exercise because you have to pick a new task each time... you can't just queue up a workout.
In one form or another, lag is something that most gamers have had to contend with.
In the 90s, "lag" usually referred to network latency. It was a direct reflection of the speed and stability of your internet connection. A low ping time could be the difference between a visceral game of Quake and trudging through a soup of seemingly random death.
Thanks to more widespread broadband internet access and better programming tricks, network latency isn't as big a problem as it once was. Unfortunately, modern technology has introduced a new type of lag into our games: HDTV processing lag.
Ever since our How to Be Me interview with Petri Purho, HCF has been eager to delve deeper into the world of indie game developers and their awesomeness. Indie darlings (and budding BFFs?) Cactus and Petri Purho, who recently gave back-to-back lectures at GDC, agreed to sit down with us for some fancy, three-way IM action. In the conversation that follows, we cover topics ranging from game-related depression, to the fear of the judgment of our peers, to making games that aren't fun, to the winner that's inside each and every one of us.
Cactus, do you think you could tell us a little about yourself? Better yet, Petri, do you think you could tell us about Cactus?!
Cactus: That's way more interesting, yeah.
Petri: He's awesome and he does awesome games.
And then Cactus can take a turn describing you...
Cactus: Petri's Finnish, makes cool games when he's not being a magician. He has really nice hair. [ read more ]
The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai is a frantic 2D hack-n-slash title available on Xbox Live Arcade. Developed by indie outfit Ska Studios, it combines the fun of classic beat-em-ups with a cartoonishly morbid sensibility.
How to Be Me is HCF's series of casual, vaguely instructional interviews with games industry professionals, conducted entirely over instant messenger services.
For this week's interview, HCF chatted with Matt Chandronait, former producer of The 1UP Show and co-founder of Area 5 Media, a video production company comprised of the former members of 1UP's Gamevideos team, who were laid off following the UGO buyout of 1UP. Matt works as producer, editor and *actor* for Area 5 Media's flagship show CO-OP, "a weekly look at the meaningful, the important, the interesting, or the just plain fun games that are out there or will be coming out." If you're unfamiliar with the show and have a moment (or half hour), you should definitely check out CO-OP's last episode, Indie Special -- Roundup of the Best of IGF:
Howdy, Matt! Could you tell everyone a little bit about yourself and what it is you do?
Matt: I edit videoz fer da internetz. Done! Interview over! Wow, that was easy!
Ever since our How to Be Me interview with 
How to Be Me is HCF's series of casual, vaguely instructional interviews with games industry professionals, conducted entirely over instant messenger services.