Get your butt over to teefury.com tout de suite (aka pronto) if you find that last option particularly titillating, as the ninjaink-designed shirt will be pulled from the site in less than 10 hours.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Mucha Metroid
What can you get for $10 these days? If we're going to keep our options within the realm of gaming, it can (almost) get you a copy of Elite Beat Agents for the DS, it can get you Pac-Man Championship Edition DX (via PSN or Xbox Live Arcade) ... or it can get you the following Metroid-inspired and Mucha-styled t-shirt:
Get your butt over to teefury.com tout de suite (aka pronto) if you find that last option particularly titillating, as the ninjaink-designed shirt will be pulled from the site in less than 10 hours.
Get your butt over to teefury.com tout de suite (aka pronto) if you find that last option particularly titillating, as the ninjaink-designed shirt will be pulled from the site in less than 10 hours.
Get yer pipin' hot Lesbian Spider-Queens of Mars soundtrack here!
Now that you've not only played auntie pixelante's Lesbian Spider-Queens of Mars, but read a review of it (here), and read a pair of interviews about it (here and here), too, I'd say it's about time you downloaded the game's soundtrack, wouldn't you?
For those of you nodding your heads, here's a link to the site of Amon26, the man responsible for the twitchy title's wicked soundscape. Scroll down to and then click on "Lesbian SpiderQueens of Mars--OST" and, whamo, your day/week/month/year/life are set.
For those of you nodding your heads, here's a link to the site of Amon26, the man responsible for the twitchy title's wicked soundscape. Scroll down to and then click on "Lesbian SpiderQueens of Mars--OST" and, whamo, your day/week/month/year/life are set.
Friday, April 22, 2011
Eight more questions with auntie pixelante (or, why she won't make a game about 'a boy who hates his dad and wants to bone a princess')
In an interview I posted earlier this week, Anna Anthropy (aka auntie pixelante) kindly answered a few questions about her latest creation, the fabulously addictive Lesbian Spider-Queens of Mars.
Well, consider today's follow-up to be a "bonus round" of sorts--in which the affable Anthropy answers questions related to two subjects that are near and dear to my heart: LGBT content in games and... Bubble Bobble.
The Gay Gamer: Pretty much every one of your games includes an LGBT character or storyline of some sort. Is that simply because you're gay, or are there other reasons you tend to include LGBT characters/storylines in your games?
Anna Anthropy: Well, who would I make games about if not myself? I'm a perverted queer transwoman--I'm not going to make a game about a boy who hates his dad and wants to bone a princess. That's why it's so important to me to make my voice heard, though: There are so few games by and about queer women.
GG: Why do you think so few of your colleagues in the industry do the same (include LGBT characters/storylines in their games)? Is it because most of them aren't LGB or T? Or maybe it's because even in this day and age there still isn't a much of a market for games that feature LGBT characters and/or storylines?
AA: Video game publishers cater to a very specific, exclusive culture: Straight manchildren. Because they're the ones immersed in the culture of video games, the ones who all the video games are designed for, they're the ones who become excited about making games and become the next generation of game developers. then they make games with their values, intended for an audience that is themselves. It's a vicious cycle. People to whom video game culture is hostile and dismissive do not tend to be the people who make space in their lives for making video games. That's something I'm trying to change: To get people like me excited about creating games outside the established games culture.
GG: What is the key, in your opinion, to making LGBT characters and storylines more palatable to publishers, developers and even so-called mainstream gamers?
AA: Don't ask me how to make queers more appealing to publishers. I had to argue with Adult Swim for the inclusion of the word "lesbian" in the title of [Lesbian Spider-Queens of Mars].
GG: Part of me wonders if the key, or at least one of the keys, to this may be to treat LGBT characters/storylines like you seem to, which is to adopt an attitude along the lines of, "Don't like it? Too bad!" Would you agree with that?
AA: Video games are never going to have anything to say to anyone until they become a place where sex and identity can be discussed in a healthy way, the same as any other form. I don't see any reason to be apologetic or coy; mainstream developers certainly don't apologize for their dull male power fantasies.
Well, consider today's follow-up to be a "bonus round" of sorts--in which the affable Anthropy answers questions related to two subjects that are near and dear to my heart: LGBT content in games and... Bubble Bobble.
The Gay Gamer: Pretty much every one of your games includes an LGBT character or storyline of some sort. Is that simply because you're gay, or are there other reasons you tend to include LGBT characters/storylines in your games?
Anna Anthropy: Well, who would I make games about if not myself? I'm a perverted queer transwoman--I'm not going to make a game about a boy who hates his dad and wants to bone a princess. That's why it's so important to me to make my voice heard, though: There are so few games by and about queer women.
Screenshot of Mighty Jill Off
GG: Why do you think so few of your colleagues in the industry do the same (include LGBT characters/storylines in their games)? Is it because most of them aren't LGB or T? Or maybe it's because even in this day and age there still isn't a much of a market for games that feature LGBT characters and/or storylines?
AA: Video game publishers cater to a very specific, exclusive culture: Straight manchildren. Because they're the ones immersed in the culture of video games, the ones who all the video games are designed for, they're the ones who become excited about making games and become the next generation of game developers. then they make games with their values, intended for an audience that is themselves. It's a vicious cycle. People to whom video game culture is hostile and dismissive do not tend to be the people who make space in their lives for making video games. That's something I'm trying to change: To get people like me excited about creating games outside the established games culture.
Screenshot of REDDER
GG: What is the key, in your opinion, to making LGBT characters and storylines more palatable to publishers, developers and even so-called mainstream gamers?
AA: Don't ask me how to make queers more appealing to publishers. I had to argue with Adult Swim for the inclusion of the word "lesbian" in the title of [Lesbian Spider-Queens of Mars].
GG: Part of me wonders if the key, or at least one of the keys, to this may be to treat LGBT characters/storylines like you seem to, which is to adopt an attitude along the lines of, "Don't like it? Too bad!" Would you agree with that?
AA: Video games are never going to have anything to say to anyone until they become a place where sex and identity can be discussed in a healthy way, the same as any other form. I don't see any reason to be apologetic or coy; mainstream developers certainly don't apologize for their dull male power fantasies.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Speaking of Tomohiro Nishikado ...
I didn't know until last night, when I wrote my review of Taito Legends 2 (read it here), that more than a decade after Tomohiro Nishikado designed Space Invaders he designed one of my all-time favorite PC Engine games, Parasol Stars.
That was a mind-blowing discovery to yours truly. After all, few, if any, of Nishikado's other noteworthy titles--like Chase HQ II: Special Criminal Investigation, Darius II and Darius Twin--could be described as bright or cheerful (two words that are practically plastered across the front of Parasol Stars' manual, below).
Of course, Nishikado also had a hand in creating the SNES RPG, Lufia & the Fortress of Doom (known as Estopolis Denki to Super Famicomers), so clearly the man wasn't against creating a colorful game or two.
See also: Other posts about Parasol Stars
That was a mind-blowing discovery to yours truly. After all, few, if any, of Nishikado's other noteworthy titles--like Chase HQ II: Special Criminal Investigation, Darius II and Darius Twin--could be described as bright or cheerful (two words that are practically plastered across the front of Parasol Stars' manual, below).
Of course, Nishikado also had a hand in creating the SNES RPG, Lufia & the Fortress of Doom (known as Estopolis Denki to Super Famicomers), so clearly the man wasn't against creating a colorful game or two.
See also: Other posts about Parasol Stars
The Great Gaymathon Review #23: Taito Legends 2 (PlayStation 2)
Game: Taito Legends 2
Genre: Arcade Compilation
Developer: Taito
Publisher: Destineer
System: PlayStation 2
Release date: 2007
Although it's not as immediately appealing as its predecessor--which features such arcade classics as Bubble Bobble, Elevator Action, Rainbow Islands and Space Invaders--Taito Legends 2 offers its fair share of old-school entertainment once you scratch the disc's surface (figuratively, not literally). Even without the benefit of nostalgia, for instance, games like Cameltry, Kiki Kaikai, The Legend of Kage and Qix are a blast. And then there are the slew of Bubble Bobble-esque games in this collection--Chak'n Pop, Don Doko Don, The Fairyland Story and Liquid Kids--each of which are enjoyable and unique enough to stand on their own. Sure, there are a few duds--I'm lookin' at you, Crazy Balloon and Wild Western--but even those tend to have a redeeming value or two. I'd highly recommend giving each of the 39 games included on Taito Legends 2 a try at one point or another regardless, as you never know which previously unknown (or ignored) title will surprise your heart into skipping a beat. For me, that game was the Parodius-esque--or maybe I should say Pop'n TwinBee-esque--Space Invaders '95, which introduces bosses, cute protagonists and (most importantly) pastels to Tomohiro Nishikado's magnum opus.
See also: Previous 'Great Gaymathon' posts
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