Arcade

Stephen Totilo of Kotaku provided a fascinating look at Zach Gage's Lose/Lose, a curious statement-game (I would call it an "art game," but that label comes with its own baggage and may obfuscate the analysis below) that posits players in a pretty lousy situation:  Get "killed" in the game, and the application running the program is deleted from the computer. Destroy "enemies," however, and a file on your computer—represented graphically in the game as a blurry mess of pixels scrolling down the screen in true Galaga fashion—gets deleted. That's right. The game deletes your files. Of course, that's only if you choose to play the game as a game... and not experience it as a question of will and complicity.

Swing Low, Ghoulish Chariot

HIGH Look at that castle! That giant jack-o'-lantern! The moon!



LOW Aw man, I plummeted into a track again. Darn those vertical drops.

WTF I put the game down and I can still hear the background tune in my head.

The Blunted Blade

HIGH Gloriously detailed artwork.

LOW Repetitive, simplistic combat.

WTF To access the hot springs, just ask a bath monkey.

You'll have to forgive me for the unimaginative headline on this post. There are only so many inventive ways to title a story on zombies and I think after covering the undead for over a decade I've run out of cool ones.

Konami's Zombie Apocalypse is now available for download and was the most downloaded title on the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade. You'd think that would be good enough for Konami, but it's not. They think there are still some of you out there who haven't splurged for a copy of the game and indulged in its Smash TV-esque wholesale zombie genocide. To entice you to pay your money and take the ride, they've released a new trailer for the game–one that basks in the gory glory of the experience of taking out hordes of flesh eating monsters in satisfyingly violent ways.

Can you survive the zombie apocalypse for 55 days, spread over seven different environments? It'll cost you $9.99 or 800 Microsoft Points to find out.

Empty calories

HIGH Holding both princesses for the last few seconds while the entire enemy team is running wild in the castle.

LOW The sudden realization that almost every match plays out the same way.

WTF The sudden realization that almost every match plays out the same way.

A summer blockbuster in more ways than one

HIGH It was a feast for the eyes and ears all the way to the end.

LOW When it's over, it's really over.

WTF The "storyline" piqued my curiosity more than it probably should have.

Not nearly as sharp as it looks

HIGH The hand-drawn artwork is incredible eye-candy.

LOW Feels empty and barren; a rough sketch of a bigger game.

WTF Did the developers honestly think that style trumps substance?