February 8, 2010 by nmeunier
Four fresh freebie freeware games for your delicious amusement: Icycle, Devil’s Tuning Fork, Pixel Ranger, and Sausage Factory. Dig in!

“If only making delicious breakfast sausages was as easy as feeding cute barnyard animals into an automated hydraulic press. Pixeljam Games’ demented take on the meat processing industry in Sausage Factory is super funny and a little disturbing. This heaping mouthful of a rhythm puzzle game has you controlling color-coded crushing machines as an underpaid employee in a meat factory. As the conveyor spits out pixilated cows, pigs, chickens, and even a few less savory offerings, you get to violently smash them into a gooey pulp to prepare them for mass consumption. Yum.”
Check out the full feature here at MSN’s Game On.
Tags: Indie Games, PC, download, gaming, freeware, MSN, Game On, the devil's tuning fork, Freebies, icycle, sausage factory, pixel ranger, pc games, free online
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February 6, 2010 by nmeunier
You have to the love the fact that Joey Mariano aka Animal Style released his latest EP, Teletime, on an actual NES cart. That’s pretty hard to top on the awesomeness scale. Unfortunately, the old school format and limited release means getting your hands on the cart isn’t going to be easy. They’re sold out. The good news is you can download the album for free in mp3 format over at Pause or you can also get hooked up with the ROM file to play in an emulator to get the full audio/visual experience.
Teletime pairs Mariano’s dancy chiptune rock with snazzy artwork that cycles through like a slideshow with each track. There’s definitely a stronger video game vibe to the compositions this time around, perhaps due in part to the presentation. Musically, the high caliber tracks are on par with the tightness Animal Style fans are accustomed to. However, Mariano’s stellar guitar work (if it’s even present on this album – hard to tell since he masks it with an 8-bit sounding pedal) is far less prominent than on his Open Air EP.
Tags: animal style, animalstyle, Chip Bits, chipmusic, chiptunes, joey mariano, teletime
Posted in Chip Bits, Chiptunes / Game Music | 1 Comment »
February 5, 2010 by nmeunier
Yes! Free Bytes is back! Check out my weekly column installments highlighting a new indie freeware game in the PC section of IGN.com every Friday.
“If professional demolition teams were somehow legally allowed to use rocket launchers to take down old unwanted buildings, then I’d be changing professions faster than you could say “holy airstrike, Batman!” Since that’s probably never going to happen — quite possibly due to the inevitable collateral damage that would be inflicted on the surrounding human populace — we’ll just have to stick to getting our destructive kicks in the virtual world. And Nitrome’s charmingly explosive flash puzzler Rubble Trouble is just the ticket.”
Check out the full column here at IGN.com.
Tags: Indie Games, Column, Free Bytes, PC, indie game, flash game, IGN, IGN.com, online, freeware, nitrome, weekly freeware, Rubble Trouble, indie developer
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February 4, 2010 by nmeunier

“Aspiring young chefs would do well to heed the important lessons that Fast Food Panic inadvertently delivers like a swift smack upside the head. If you don’t know how to cook the meals you’re asked to prepare or how to properly wield the tools needed to do so, you’re bound to produce more than a few steaming plates full of burnt, awful-tasting rubbish. Even after you complete some quick tutorials, struggling with the confusing and imprecise controls during the first few minutes behind the grill in Fast Food Panic feels like trying to wrestle a greased ox–not something you want to be doing when you’ve got a dining room full of hungry customers.”
Check out the full review here at GameSpot.
Tags: cooking game, Fast Food Panic, food, GameSpot, Review, Wii
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February 4, 2010 by nmeunier

“Just in time to fill the traditionally quiet release period following the holidays with ample blood spray and excessive cleavage physics, No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle has arrived on the Wii, and it’s even wilder, gorier, and sexier than its predecessor. After meticulously exploring many of the game’s nooks and crannies, we’ve compiled all the important information parents need to know about this M-rated title.”
Check out the full article here at What They Play.
Tags: 8-bit, bloodspray, decapitation, esrb, Feature, grasshopper manufacture, mature rating, No More Heroes 2, no more heroes 2: desperate struggle, parents should know, partial nudity, sex, travis touchdown, Ubisoft, violence, What They Play, Wii
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February 2, 2010 by nmeunier
Like most respectable indie gamers, I’ve had Team Meat’s Super Meat Boy on my radar for some time now. A little while back I went hands-on with a preview build of the game’s first world. Man-oh-man, was it something else. My preview/feature write-up on the game is now out in the March 2010 issue of GamePro. Check out the three-page spread that starts out on pg. 19. The artwork/layout is simply adorable. Pork Chop Boy…so sad! Also, I wanted to point out that the new look and direction of the magazine is really impressive. Obvious bias aside, the last two issues have really kicked things up a notch.
Tags: Edmund McMillen, Feature, GamePro, Hands-On, march 2010 issue, nintendo, PC, Preview, Super Meat Boy, team meat, tommy refenes, WiiWare
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February 2, 2010 by nmeunier

“Who doesn’t want to see a dancing polar bear in a tight Speedo gyrate around to thumping techno and bright flashing colors? If you recoiled in horror after that last sentence, then hold on to your biscuits, because Namco has just served up one of the most bizarre WiiWare games we’ve ever played. Straight out of Japan, Muscle March is about a gang of ultra muscular dudes in tight g-strings flexing their manliness in different poses while chasing after criminals who repeatedly steal their protein powder. Uh… yeah.”
Check out the full review here at GamesRadar.
Tags: dudes, japanese, muscle march, muscles, ripped, silly, speedos, wacky, Wii, WiiWare
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February 1, 2010 by nmeunier

“After gunning and bombing through far too many uninspiring WWII flight combat games, it’s easy to be sucked in by the way The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces almost teasingly rolls out a compelling far-out story of airborne warfare built around wingman camaraderie and some intense flying and fighting. The game is based on the Sky Crawlers anime film and sports a cinematic progression that anime fans will immediately appreciate. And the fact it’s put together by the Project Aces team means it doesn’t skimp on the crazy dog fighting action in the least.”
Check out the full review here at Cheat Code Central.
Tags: action, anime, Cheat Code Central, cheatcc, flight combat, innocent aces, project aces, Review, sim, the sky crawlers, Wii
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January 28, 2010 by nmeunier
“With the glut of pre-holiday retail releases finally beginning to subside and pocketbooks slowly recovering from their recently empty, threadbare state caused by the big annual splurge of massive gift purchasing, it’s a perfect time to get caught up on some of this month’s top digital game downloads. Your wallet will thank you. We get a little zany this month with a fun medley packed with marching muscle heads, rocket-propelled pixel men, turn-based RPG adventure, and warring puzzle nations.”
Check out the full installment of my column here at What They Play
Tags: Column, dark void zero, DLC, DSiWare, esrb, games, Jan 2010, muscle march, parents, picks, psn, puzzlegeddon, Top Downloadable Games, top downloads, vandal hearts, What They Play, WiiWare, XBLA
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January 26, 2010 by nmeunier

“Throwing Molotov cocktails through storefront windows, curb-stomping passersby, dealing in illicit narcotics, popping caps from the open window of a speeding vehicle you just jacked, and running over pedestrians for thrills are among the many wicked pursuits that make being a cutthroat gangster in Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars a truly badass experience. The good news is iPhone gamers can now get in on the virtual thug action, but is it the definitive version? Here’s the rundown.”
Check out the full feature here at GamesRadar.
Tags: best version, chinatown wars, ds, Feature, GamesRadar, Grand Theft Auto, GTA, GTA: CW, iphone, PSP
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