Pop-culture

Let's get this out of the way: King of Kong is a documentary in the loosest sense of the word. Don't get me wrong, I love this movie, but its biggest strength is also its biggest weakness: King of Kong skews unbiased truth for entertainment.

It's the Streets of Rage Remake! A wonderful fan-made tribute to the classic brawlers on the Sega Genesis, the remake is a project that deserves some attention, which I am hoping to give to it. I'm playing through the Streets of Rage 2 route, and naturally starting off with Stage 1. Enjoy!

I don't know about you but the side-scrolling platformer wasn't just a genre, it was the genre for most of my childhood. The games that got it right were the ones that kept ushering you forward—to the right—even when it only seemed to be getting tougher.

There is probably some life lesson or allegory in there somewhere. This video with its nice editing and great music does a good job of highlighting that.

In another example of "any publicity is good publicity," Microsoft invites Conan O'Brien into the offices of 343 Industries so that he can expose millions of his viewers to its upcoming Halo 4 game.

As one would expect from the Conan O'Brien Show, it degrades into an opportunity for silliness on O'Brien's part with very little of the game actually shown. To be fair, O'Brien is funny and the representatives for 343 Industries take their beating pretty well.

I have to preface this by saying I wasn't much of a fan of Streets of Rage—I stayed away from the Sega Genesis and was more into Final Fight and Double Dragon. However, I do understand that there are people out there that absolutely love Sega's contribution to the console beat-'em up genre.

Nintendo doesn't get much credit for its advertising and deservedly so. At times, it's PR efforts have been known to leave you more scratching your head than reaching for your wallet. At other times, it seems that Nintendo is barely aware of the latest cultural trends.

This video that Nintendo secretly posted on its own YouTube channel (Yeah, Nintendo had a YouTube channel, who knew?) is a positive sign that the company is at least more aware than it used to be and has gotten better at selling its product overall.

Lincoln Ruchti's Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade takes us back to a time when the country was gripped in the throes of a serious case of Pac-Man Fever and chronicles not only Twin Galaxies' Official Scorekeeper Walter Day, but the pimply-faced teenagers who were the kings of the arcade. It is at once a fascinating look into a relatively new medium's (videogaming is only set to turn 40 this year) past and an examination of how these men's lives were influenced by their passions.

Greetings all. We're trying out a bit of an experiment here, and no, it isn't "how many times can I fit the word 'game' into the headline?" It's the first ever GameCritics game night, which will hopefully give our wonderful community the chance to play, interact, and mercilessly embarrass each other all in the name of good-natured fun.

The first game that we're going to try is Team Fortress 2, for which we've set up our own server (details below). If you haven't played before/aren't experienced, don't worry! This is going to be about having fun above all else, and all skill levels are welcome.

The first date we're shooting for will be Thursday Feb. 23rd, at 7pm CST/8pm EST. I will also post an announcement in the Steam group around that time. Also, we'd like to know what games you would like to see for possible future game nights-post your suggestions in the comments.

Hope to see you there!

TF2 server address (add to favorites in the game): 8.6.75.26:27015

Steam group: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/gamecritics

Ok, so it doesn't actually work—it only lights up—and it will be expensive even at the expected $120 price point. But, we all know that something like will only improve a bedroom or gameroom full of helmets from Halo 3 Legendary Edition and night-vision goggles from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Prestige Edition.

The one good thing that came out of those terrible Mortal Kombat movies was the soundtrack, or more specifically, the opening song from the soundtrack. Not only does it get the heart pumping and the blood going when you first hear it, it also gets the feet moving too.

That must be what compelled these "cosplayers"—at least I think they are cosplayers—to just break out the ghetto blaster and dance like fools.