It's like the sexy, wacky Out Run spin-off I've always wanted but never got to play

What do you think of when you look at the digital collage below?

When I first saw it, I thought of an only-in-my-dreams Out Run spin-off that features a wacky splash of Parodius. I'm not sure how such an idea would work as an actual game, mind you, but I'm sure it would be amazing if handed to the right developers.

Anyway, enough about me and my odd ideas. Instead, let's delve deeper into the aforementioned collage, which was produced by Atlanta-based artist Ashley Anderson.

It's one of three pieces that were commissioned by the owner of a local pizza joint, by the way. Although the commission fell through, Anderson completed the series anyway.



The one above is the series' first and is titled, "Memory Beach, Part 1." According to Anderson, it's about "an octopus who drives to the beach to forget about his ex-girlfriend, who has cheated on and/or left him."

Anderson doesn't say on his blog where he found each of the sprites that appear in this piece, but he does say that the "Japanese pornographic mahjongg video game industry" is responsible for the girl and the lipstick. (He also says he learned to operate a Famicom emulator while working on the "Memory Beach" series, so I'm guessing a number of the sprites were pulled from Famicom titles.)

For more behind-the-scenes info on how Anderson produced "Memory Beach, Part 1," check out this blog post. To order 7-3/4-inch-by-7-3/4-inch prints of it, check out Anderson's etsy shop.

See also: Other posts about Ashley Anderson and his art

Is that a banana in your pocket, King of All Cosmos, or are you just happy to see me?

I think you'll find the headline above to be pretty appropriate after watching the following video, which apparently will welcome gamers when they boot up their copies of Namco's Katamari Damacy Novita.



Anyway, I don't know about you, but the combination of the King of All Cosmos' skin-tight, banana-yellow jumpsuit and his colossal bulge has me feeling just a bit ... conflicted.

(Via andriasang.com)

The Great Gaymathon Review #44: Katamari Damacy (PlayStation 2)

Game: Katamari Damacy

Genre: Arcade-Action

Developer: Namco

Publisher: Namco

System: PlayStation 2

Release date: 2004

I'm sure this has been said many times before, and by better writers than myself, but I think it's quite possible that Katamari Damacy's backstory--which involves the colossal King of All Cosmos getting plastered, destroying the solar system and then asking his diminutive son to rebuild it--is the best to ever appear in a video game. At the very least, it's one of the wackiest. It's only a smidge wackier than Katamari Damacy's gameplay, though, which puts players in the role of the aforementioned pint-sized prince and tasks them with rolling the titular katamari (Japanese for "clump" or "clod") over anything and everything in sight in order to make it grow as large as possible. (Most of the objects in each stage stick to said katamari if they touch it and if they're smaller than it. All of that junk is then somehow used to recreate the stars and other celestial bodies that were obliterated by the king.) Unsurprisingly, this Keita Takahashi-designed title's graphics and soundtrack are pretty wacky, too--the latter, the bulk of which was composed by Yū Miyake, especially. Don't take that to mean this is one of those games that is so weird it's no fun; Katamari Damacy has fun in droves. In fact, I'd say it's one of my all-time favorite titles. The only possibly negative thing I can say about it is that I wish every stage had an "eternal mode" and that said mode was unlocked from the start (as it is, each level begins with a strict time limit), as exploring the game's beautifully realized set pieces at will--with Miyake's energetic tunes blaring in the background--is an absolute blast.

See also: Previous 'Great Gaymathon' posts

Remember that interview in which Shigesato Itoi mentioned a Mr. Saturn spin-off game?

Unless you're Japanese and you're old enough to have read the November 1996 issue of The 64DREAM magazine, you're probably shaking your head in the negative right now.

No worries. Lindsey over at the Yomuka! blog has you covered. She recently translated into English the above-mentioned interview--in which Shigesato Itoi not only chatted (briefly) about a Mr. Saturn spin-off (an action-puzzle game, to be more specific), but also discussed his original intent to make Mother 3 two-dimensional (back when it was still a Nintendo 64 game), his role in naming the Nintendo 64 and more.

Is it strange that I drooled over this screenshot as a teen?

Despite its age, the translated interview--which can be found here--is well worth a read if you're any kind of Mother/EarthBound fan (and, really, what self-respecting gamer isn't?).

See also: Other Mother-related posts

I know what my first 3DS game is going to be

Most of you are expecting me to say Super Mario 3D Land or Mario Kart 7, right? Although I'm definitely planning to acquire both of those games shortly after I buy (or, hopefully, receive as a gift) a 3DS, neither of them will be my first pick-up for the system. No, that honor, at least as of now, will be the downloadable curiosity known as Freakyforms, which hit the North American eShop on Thursday.

The fact that this game has leapt to the top of my 3DS to-buy list is as surprising to me as it likely is to some of you, by the way--especially since my first reaction to it was something along the lines of, "eh, a lame-looking kiddie game."

After scrolling through the game's official thread over at NeoGAF, though, I decided it had to be mine, $6.99 asking price be damned. I mean, just look at some of the "Formees" owners of the Japanese version of the game have concocted:

This may be the cutest Link I've seen since Wind Waker.

Yep, that's Poo from EarthBound/Mother 2!

That's not to suggest North American owners of Freakyforms are a bunch of talentless slouches. All you need to do is look at the following creations to see that's far from the case:

Inspector Chelmey, courtesy of NeoGAF user artwalknoon.

Prinny, courtesy of NeoGAF user BooJoh.

To see more Japanese-made Formees, check out this site. For more North American-made ones, check out the NeoGAF thread mentioned earlier.

For more information on this wonderfully odd-looking game, check out its official site: freakyforms.nintendo.com. Also, check out this "Iwata Asks" video, which sheds a light on Freakyforms' history (for instance, that it began life as a DS title) and how Nintendo's president, Satoru Iwata, pushed producer Kensuke Tanabe and director Hiroshi Moriyama (creator of Chibi-Robo!) to "make it so people won't get bored of it."

Have any of you picked up this game, or are any of you planning to pick it up? If so, let me know--and share some of your creations in the comment section (if you can).