The perfect gift for the gaming geek in your life

If you've ever wondered what an Inception game might look like, Robert Penney is your guy. Well, sort of.

The London-based artist recently created a fictional box cover (below) for an Atari-esque (and Pac-Man-inspired) game version of the popular film.

Penney didn't stop with Inception. He also produced fake box art for game versions of Avatar, Cloverfield, Dark Knight and a few popular TV shows, too.

Prints of each of these illustrations can be purchased here for as little as $16 (and as much as $86).

(Via superpunch.blogspot.com)

I'm always game for a Pac-Man-inspired music video

The members of Sweden's Bondage Fairies have described their band's sound as "Nintendo death punk," so it should be of little surprise to hear that they like to inject their music videos with a smidge of 8-bit revelry from time to time.

The video below, for the band's "Pink-Eye Paranoia" (from their 2006 album, "What You Didn't Know When You Hired Me") is a perfect example:



(Via retroist.com)

$3,600 for a sealed copy of Panic Restaurant?

I've played a lot of games the last few days. Among them: Taito's Panic Restaurant (aka Wanpaku Kokkun no Gourmet World in Japan), released for the NES in late 1992.

For those of you who have never heard of Panic Restaurant: It's a cute platformer which puts players in control of a chef named Cookie ("Naughty Kokkun" in the Japanese version) who has to make his way through a cursed restaurant. (See part of it in action here.)

Anyway, I've been playing the game using an emulator because, well, it's pretty darn expensive. Case in point: One eBay auctioneer is trying to sell a sealed copy of it for $3,599.99. (Another is selling a similarly pristine copy of the game for just $1,799.99.)

Opened copies of the game are cheaper, of course, although I'd hardly call them cheap. Loose copies, for instance, commonly command prices above $100.

Happy birthday to me (for real this time)!

Yep, it's finally my birthday. Yay!

It's been a great one so far, thanks in part to my husband and my parents--who not only sent me a copy of Kirby's Epic Yarn but also sent me the money that was used (a few days ago) to buy a Twin Famicom (and a select few Famicom games).

My sister-in-law added to the greatness yesterday by sending me a birthday package that included a ton of candy (I've got a *bit* of a sweet tooth) and a copy of Art Academy for the DS.

I've had my eye on this edutainment title since it hit the streets late last month, so I was enthralled when I opened said sister-in-law's package (that sounds dirty) and saw it staring back me.

I haven't played it yet--Kirby's Epic Yarn still has a hold on me--but I plan on getting to it as soon as possible.

See also: 'I've been called a lot of things ...'

Happy Thanksgiving!

To all of the American gamers who visit this site: Happy Thanksgiving!

I know you're going to eat for most of the day, but are you going to play a few games too? I am! I'm going to start with Kirby's Epic Yarn, I think, and then switch over to Animal Crossing: City Folk.

Fingers crossed that I'm able to fulfill Franklin's (above) need for silverware while I also rid my town of all the weeds that (surely) have popped up since I last played the game.