New Games

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• LulzSec quits, but not before hacking Battlefield Heroes
• Weekend Destructainment: Booth babe trivia
• The irrefutable, undeniable, official top ten Sonic games
• Weekend gaming wallpapers: Elven faux hawks
• Games I would rather see remade than Halo
• Weekend Mobile roundup: Tiny Tower, 1000 Heroz and more
• Bodycount to be counting bodies this August
• Live Show: Saturday Morning Hangover gets its ass to Mars
• Square Enix to release a righteous chiptune album
• Podtoid 155: Lung Lobster
• Vote in Backlog Series 18: Fun for the Whole Family
• The Daily Hotness: Saints Row: The Third = Awesome
• New Destructoid Episode: Free Crysis Dildos For All!

LulzSec quits, but not before hacking Battlefield Heroes Posted: 25 Jun 2011 01:30 PM PDT Lulz Security -- the anonymous group of info-divulging pranksters who have claimed responsibility for a wave of attacks on videogame publishers and government bodies -- has today called it quits. The group claims it had only intended a fifty-day voyage on the Lulz Boat, and declares its work over. That said, the Lulz Lizards could not leave without one last hurrah. Its parting gift was an info dump containing 550,000 batches of personal info from Battlefield Heroes beta users and a further 50,000 random game forum users.  The group states that it "truly believes in the AntiSec movement" and that it helped revive the cause. The self-described crew of six expresses hope that a "revolution" will occur as a result of the Lulz Boat's mayhem, and seems happy to pass the torch.  Well, it was certainly an interesting fifty days, whether you believed in LulzSec's cause or not. Now we wait and see if a new challenger shall appear. Bon voyage ... for now. @LulzSec [Twitter]

Weekend Destructainment: Booth babe trivia Posted: 25 Jun 2011 10:00 AM PDT more videos like this Bitmob's Chloe Dykstra interviewed some booth babes at E3 to test their knowledge on videogames. The results are ... interesting. Portal 2's theme gets covered, Halo: Reach gets a pinball table, a Contra henchmen gets smart, iJustine is not funny, Minecraft gets FPS'd, Dragon Age goes real life and L.A. Noire gets Awesomed all below.  Portal 2's "Want You Gone" on electric guitar. more videos like this Halo: Reach gets a pinball table. more videos like this A Contra henchman resigns. more videos like this An analysis of iJustine videos. Spotted on Reddit. more videos like this Minecraft as a first-person shoot. Thanks, Zach! more videos like this Dragon Age in real life. By the guys who did the Metal Gear Solid crossed over with Modern Warfare 2. more videos like this Awesome Noire. more videos like this

The irrefutable, undeniable, official top ten Sonic games Posted: 25 Jun 2011 09:00 AM PDT Sonic the Hedgehog turned twenty years old this week, and there was much rejoicing. Well ... there was a bit of rejoicing. There was something, at least.  To keep everybody in the Sonic spirit, I have consulted the greatest professors in the history of the Sonic franchise (I haven't) to create the most competent and least refutable list of the ten greatest Sonic games ever made.  You cannot argue this list (you can). 10. Sonic Spinball Sonic the Hedgehog, being a rampant whore, would appear in all sorts of spin-offs over the years, but one of the earliest and most successful was Sonic Spinball. At its heart, the game was a fairly unremarkable pinball experience, with a few notable differences -- chiefly the ability to have limited control over the "ball" and a set goal for each of the four interestingly designed tables.  Being developed mostly by Polygames, Sonic Spinball had a slightly different feel and visual style when compared to other Sonic games. Nevertheless, it was a fun little diversion and one that can still be enjoyed today. It's nothing that actual pinball fans could ever call good, but as a Sonic-themed bit of silliness, it does the job.  9. Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine You'll notice that the early picks in this list stretch the definition of "Sonic game" a little bit. Unfortunately, it takes some blurring of the lines to get this list up to a solid ten. With that in mind, it's worth noting that Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine doesn't even feature Sonic. It does feature Scratch and Grounder though, and those chaps really need to stage a comeback.  Mean Bean takes the form of a Puyo Puyo color-matching puzzler. The Scenario Mode has the player face off against various Badniks, and they're all rather merciless. In fact, the whole game is sadistic. You can be winning by a mile, only to have a lucky combo from the enemy snatch their board from the jaws of defeat and transfer a load of unmatchable "refugee" beans over to your side. This game was fun, but boy was it an asshole. 8. SEGA Superstars Tennis  Shut up! The game was pretty damn good. Okay, so being a SEGA-oriented game, it wasn't strictly a Sonic title but let's be honest -- the game was predominantly about the blue hedgehog and various other Sonic characters. Like I said, I was desperate for games that were both Sonic-related and good. I'll take what I can get. The game succeeded by keeping things simple. At its core, Superstars Tennis is a fairly standard little sports title, and that's why it works. The only convolution comes in the form of super powers that are granted to each character. Outside of the regular matches were a whole bunch of minigames that were nearly all surprisingly great fun.  Plenty of fan service, solid tennis action and great minigames. A far better title than many will give it credit for. 7. Sonic the Hedgehog The original, though not necessarily the best. While Sonic the Hedgehog was, for its time, a kick up the ass of platform adventures, it has not aged with quite the same level of grace as the rest of Sonic's Genesis outings. The lack of a now obligatory Spin Dash move, sluggish pace, and respectively drab levels don't make for a truly great game, but it's still a decent one when regarded in context. It's certainly not bad, and at least deserves a place for its legacy. As the starting point for the series, it laid a lot of groundwork and helped cultivate the kind of gameplay that would make Sonic a quasi-legend. Plus, there are a few standout levels -- most notably Starlight Zone, which had a fantastic theme tune and some cool little gimmicks.  It was easily outclassed by its direct sequels, but the game has earned due respect.  6. Sonic Colors DS Sonic Colors on the Wii was sub-par nonsense and that's scientific fact, proven by science. The DS version? Pretty good, as it goes. A lot of this is due to the increased influence of Dimps on the title. I've said it before and I'll say it again -- Dimps needs to be the primary Sonic developer and it needs some creative freedom, because the studio seems to understand what made the games so good to a degree that Sonic Team does not.  While not totally free of the extraneous gimmickry that has marred most console-based Sonic titles, Sonic Colors DS was at least a more grounded and sensible platformer with very little fluff, and that's why it was actually fun as opposed to infuriating. Decent level design that puts the focus on platforming skill over pure speed is what makes Colors DS a superior offering, and while a few frustrating levels and pointless narrative scenes remain, it is overall a pretty great offering.  5. Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 While Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 still remains a controversial game among the Sonic fan community -- many members of which despised it for the most arbitrary and ludicrous of reasons -- Sonic 4 was and is a lot of fun. Was it the huge mega comeback that everybody longed for? Not quite. What it was, however, was the first great Sonic game to hit a console in ages, and those who didn't demand the Moon floating in a bucket of Wish Water were left satisfied.  There are some definite low points. For example, there is a potentially excellent level in which Sonic rides decks of playing cards, which is summarily ruined at the end with an awfully dodgy pitfall section that undoes all the good the stage had previously done. A few bosses and gimmicky challenges reek of the game trying too hard to remain overly complex, when a simpler approach would be better.  Still, the overall experience is terrific, and that's despite the game's Zones being based on some of the least enjoyable levels found in the Genesis games. It takes a lot to make anything based on Sonic 2's Metropolis zone fun, but Sonic 4 managed it. That's worthy of a damn medal.  4. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is viewed by some as the best Genesis game, but I always felt it lacked the same tight level design and unique nineties aesthetic as Sonic 2. It was still a solid followup though, with levels that ranged from great to decent, and a number of inventive boss encounters.  The only real downside to Sonic 3 is how obviously significant the focus on graphics was. There's a whole section in Hydrocity Zone that puts Sonic on rotating plinths. From a gameplay perspective, it's dull stuff, but you got to see Sonic rotate a full 360 degrees, and that was the point. Blast Processing, bitch! While Sonic 3 is a fun game and worthy of its place among the series' best, it's interesting to note that, even this early on, there are signs of the overbearing gimmickry that would kill later games. Marble Garden Zone, for instance, was a boring, slow-paced mess of spinning disc platforms that could barely be controlled by the player, while Carnival Night Zone featured the barrel of mystery that required pressing Up and Down on the D-Pad to maneuver -- a trick that the player is never told. But ... Sonic 3 had Ice Cap Zone, so all is forgiven.  3. Sonic & Knuckles Sonic & Knuckles is, ostensibly, the second half of Sonic the Hedgehog 3. They were supposed to be one game from the outset, after all. Sonic & Knuckles has the edge over Sonic 3 thanks to more memorable levels, an excellent soundtrack (Flying Battery and Sky Sanctuary are amazing) and, of course, a second storyline that featured Knuckles.  Of course, both games can be considered as sharing third and fourth place once you lock the cartridges together to create Sonic 3 & Knuckles.  As good as the game was, it could have really done without the stage involving ghosts and doors that would slowly close shut. Screw that stage a thousand times.  2. Sonic Advance Sonic Advance is the reason why I say Dimps has a better handle on the series than Sonic Team, because it did exactly what New Super Mario Bros. would do several years later -- it kept things simple.  Adopting a "back to basics" approach, Dimps put its energy into proper platforming design and utilized speed as a reward, not as a central gameplay device. Its range of levels and excellent soundtrack evoked feelings of old school Sonic titles and ensured its place as a game I still happily play to this day. At the time, people would ask if Sonic could ever make a comeback. In 2000, he did so ... at least for a time.  Unfortunately, a certain demographic whined that Sonic Advance was "too slow" because they didn't have a clue what had made Sonic games good. The non-existent problem was "fixed" by Dimps, leading to a pair of inferior Sonic Advance sequels that did away with good platforming and focused on running fast. It ruined what could have been a great series, because idiots didn't realize that Sonic Advance wasn't "too slow by Sonic standards" -- it had brought the speed BACK to standard.  As far as I'm concerned, Sonic Advance was the first authentic Sonic experience since the Genesis days and, more importantly, it was the last. Time will tell if Sonic Generations can change that.  1. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 I hate to end the list on a highly predictable note, but Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is still the best Sonic game made to date and up there with the very best that platformers have to offer. Never has a Sonic been so consistent, with nearly every level being intensely playable, even today, and a range of unforgettable boss encounters.  Sonic 2 featured some of the best Zones in the entire franchise -- the speedy Chemical Plant, the charming Hilltop, and the delightfully oddball Oil Ocean to name but three. Had the game not insisted on THREE ACTS of the dreadful Metropolis Zone, it may well have been perfect. Seriously, three acts? It's like they knew how awful that Zone was and wanted to punish everybody out of sheer cruelty. Wankers.  Anyway, there's a reason why I still play Sonic 2 up until the end of Oil Ocean before switching it off -- it's just that damn good. A run of excellent and varied zones, the best soundtrack in the series, and of course the playable Tails to keep younger brothers occupied instead of bugging you to play the game next.  Yet SEGA does all it can to NOT do things the way they worked best. I'll never understand that, but at least SEGA's released it ten billion times, so I'll never be far away from the best Sonic game ever made.

Weekend gaming wallpapers: Elven faux hawks Posted: 25 Jun 2011 08:00 AM PDT Massive multiplayer games generally don't have bathrooms and hair products. The fauxhawk must be magical.  You'll find this one from Aion and 40 more in this week's update. Our massive gaming wallpaper archives also include Infamous 2, Asphalt 3D, Hellbreed 2, Transformers, Hunted, and some classics like Devil May Cry, Final Fantasy X2, Heavenly Sword, Ninja Gaiden, and Street Fighter.  Our archives also include wallpapers from Uncharted 3, Dirt 3, Ridge Racer 3D, The Settlers Online, Homefront, Shogun 2, Lord of the Rings: War in the North, Might and Magic Heroes, Motorstorm Apocalypse, Armored Core, and Duke Nukem. Our archive also includes Operation Flashpoint, Test Drive Unlimited, Splinter Cell, Shogun 2, Magicka, Homefront, a few others. Enjoy! Want more or to upload yours?  There's a Destructoid forum thread with high res video game wallpapers. Do it. This gallery was provided to us by the sleepless people at Gamewallpapers.com, as well as some CG art by our friends at Flamy Frog Interactive. Hundreds more are available on their site, which also feature variants for dual-screen downloads.   Want some Destructoid-flavored ones?  Go steal them from Hamza.

Games I would rather see remade than Halo Posted: 25 Jun 2011 08:00 AM PDT [Wrenchfarm doesn't give a crap about a remake of Halo, but he does give multiple craps about some other great potential remakes. A surprising and entertaining list! Want to see your own writing on the front page? Write something awesome and put it in the C Blogs. -- Kauza] Everyone is in a titter. Halo: Combat Evolved is getting an HD remake on the 360. The original adventure of Master Chief on the very first big artificial planet ring/weapon is getting all pretty and saucy for another night on the town. This is the sound of me not caring. Now don't write me off as a hater. I can understand why Halo is getting a remake. It is an extremely popular series with a huge rabid fan base. Halo fans are fucking into Halo. They have read the books, played the RTS side games, and followed the ARG marketing campaigns. There is true love for the franchise and a real nostalgia for the original (or at least for the original pistol). With Halo coming up on its ten year anniversary, the time is right to celebrate the game that started it all. Beyond indulging the fanbase, Halo is an important game in the development of the latest generation of games and consoles. Before Halo, FPS games were the PC's bread and butter. Aside from a few stand out titles like Goldeneye, everyone knew that if you wanted shooters, you had to get a PC rig; consoles were for platformers and JRPGs. Halo put an end to all that. A brand new FPS IP released to glowing praise and featuring tight natural gameplay that felt right on the Xbox's mammoth pad, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that consoles could do FPS games. It paved the way (for better of ill) for the current market of dominating shooters and FPS hybrid titles. The ripples from Halo's success are still felt today. On a personal note, Halo 1 was by far my favourite of the series. While 2 disappointed and I fell out of the franchise until Reach (which was very good), number one grabbed me by the nutsack of the imagination from the very first time I played it and did not let go for a single year. I had a nightly routine of watching DS9 reruns and playing Halo at 2:00AM for months, a period of my life where I believe I attained spiritual bliss. That game was fucking amazing. I had just as much fun messing around with Warthog jumps and creative suicides as I did blasting my way through the campaign on every difficulty setting. But alas, even with all the extra syrupy love I feel for the original, I can't muster up any excitement for this remake. We've seen an HD graphical upgrade for Halo, it was called Halo 3. We've seen throwback multiplayer maps and homages to the original set in every game since, and we have custom maps for the ones not officially included. We have Reach style multiplayer in, well, Reach! I will admit, playing the classic campaign with a few buddies might be cool, but I don't know if its cool enough to spend $40 on yet another Halo game. And as I look at all this Halo: Anniversary news, I can't help but feel sorry for all the stragglers. All those poor emaciated games shivering in the corner begging for a remake or a reboot. Watching Johnny "star quarterback" Halo flocked with another accolade while they waste anyway, forgotten and abused. A remake for Halo: Combat Evolved might have been a wish for Halo fans, but I have a wish list of my own. A sullen group of beautiful losers that I believe for one reason or another deserve another shot at the popular audience. Most of these either never made the pavement shattering impact they should have or were one-time hot properties that have since fallen into hard times, not unlike the actress who goes back to cable soft-core after her second big movie flops and she can't find work. Now I'm a nostalgic guy, fact is there are a lot of oldschool 8 and 16-bit era games I would love to see remade with HD sprites. But to keep this wish list focused and relevant, I'm basing my desire for remakes and reboots on some rough criteria. 1. Games that were screwed over or not given a fair chance in one way or another. - Like the horse surreptitiously doped full of morphine before the starting-gun, these guys tripped right out of the gate and never got a fair race. Executive meddling, the money fell out, crippling bugs ruining an otherwise intriguing idea, that sort of thing. 2. New technology or gameplay innovations that have been made since the original that could be used to enhance the game in some way. Obviously every old game could benefit from a graphical bump, but lets not forget all the other innovations that have been made in the past years. Motion control, the blending and fusion of genres, added control complexity, drop-in/out online multiplayer, ect. 3. Historical worth. Now this is a tricky one. I think of games that were important in someway. Maybe the game was the progenitor of a new genre, the first innovator that would become the formula to those that follow. Games that are especially nostalgic or harken back to a type of gameplay we don't see anymore. Classic games coming up on an anniversary or milestone. Think of the Street Fighter Turbo HD Remix. Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines The poster child of the brilliant but screwed, Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines is a game you can't mention without hearing the moans and lamentations of "what could have been." Set in White Wolf's grim World of Darkness setting, Bloodlines plunges players like a stake into the heart of a vampire conspiracy. Turned into a vampire ("embraced" by the game's rich world building parlance) without the consent of the ruling kindred powers, your vampiric sire is killed before you even have a chance to realize there are two fang sized holes in your neck. Spared the same fate solely on the basis of political posturing, you are left to fend for yourself as the lowest of the low in vampire society, subject to the errands and whims of your betters (who include just about everyone). Played like a pawn in a great and subtle political game you don't have a hope of understanding, you try to eek out the best unlife you can by selecting your friends and enemies carefully and playing them off each other in a time of multiple crisis. A new Prince tries to assert his dominance over an increasingly resentful community, a terrible kindred artifact has been uncovered sending even the elders into a panic, monsters from the far-east threaten to invade, and the werewolves howl through the night. Oh, and did I mention it may just be the end of the world? Tensions are running high. Fortunately, you have a few tools at your disposal to aid you. Along with the typical vampire package of super strength, resilience, and a poor ability to tan, each clan of vampire (determined by your choice in the character builder) has a unique set of talents and skills to draw from. Tough Bruja's can tap into super-speed to rushdown prey, Tremere can craft a vile sort of blood-magic, Nosferatu can slink into the darkness, while the upper crust Venture can use their powers of hypnosis and persuasion to make friends and influence victims. Many of these abilities can be used outside of combat to great effect. Talking, manipulating, and side-stepping your way around conflict is often just as effective if not preferable to diving in fangs first. You also keep and expand your human talents such as your gift of gab, hacking ability, and business savvy, all of which you will need if you are going to maintain your charade of humanity in front of public eye and survive the harsh and unfair kindred night life. Your clan affiliation has long reaching effects into the game beyond your suite of powers. The vampire world is one rife with class disparity, bigotry, and truly unfair fates. While moneyed and powerful clans enjoy a rich network or resources and control, the more rough around the edges clans are lumped into the slums of the city and marginalized. Nosferatu vampires are horribly disfigured by their curse and for them even being seen by a normal human is a breech of vampire law, forcing them to crawl the sewers and stay in the shadows. And of course the poor maligned Malkavians carry the burden of madness in their veins. Playing as a Malk radically changes all dialogue options as everything you say and hear is filtered through a screen of instability and sideways thinking. Malks are privy to whispered secrets of terrible things and have an uncanny insight. They also have arguments with stop signs. What this means for the gamer is a rich world that you can explore again and again having radically different experiences each time. From the clan you choose, the allies you cultivate, the paths you take, and topped off by a 4-way ending, there is so much richness and depth to this game its almost unbelievable. Which makes it such a shame that all that brilliance is hidden at the bottom of an almost unplayable game. The swan song of Troika Games, development for Bloodlines was a struggling mess. An overly ambitious vision ran headlong into the difficulties of a rushed development schedule, technical set-backs, a team too small to handle the workload, and a battery of rewrites and redesigns. What results is a game with incredible guts, but zero polish. Working with a very early build of Valve's Source engine, the dev team was forced to make due with some limited tools. Basic things like enemy AI were not fully implemented yet, leaving the team to try their own hand at patch-work solutions and work-arounds. Needless to say, these attempts lacked the poise and craftsmanship Valve would show with Half-Life 2. Releasing on the same day, not only did the titanic HL2 walk all over the obscure single player RPG sales-wise, it also drew the disparity of technical polish into sharp relief. Whacky targeting controls, dog shit stupid enemies, and repetitive character models are just the tip of the iceberg. That kind of thing can be overlooked if the rest of the game is good enough. However, scripting errors rewriting your choices and changing the narrative (sometimes irreparably) half way through a game, levelling glitches eating XP points, and constant crashes are a different story. Despite these horrendous flaws the game managed to do fairly well on review scores, and while initial sales were pathetically low, the game began to accrue a cult status it enjoys to this day. Troika had no money left for the invasive surgery that would be necessary to patch the game up to speed. Laying off the majority of the company, several employees worked for free to issue a final patch to fix some of the most crippling of errors. Such was the affection for this game that fan communities have since taken up the torch and a widely known "fan-patch" has managed to not only smooth some of the rougher corners off the game, but restore some of the dummied out content that was cut in the last phases of the games frantic development. If you ask me, that kind of commitment is proof that there was something special about this game. Buggy games are released all the time, you don't see laid off workers coding for free and dedicated fans coming together to fix them up. I think Bloodlines deserves another shot. I would gladly shell out $60 for a remake of Bloodlines. I am no developer, I don't know how difficult these things are, but it seems to me that it wouldn't be impossible to rework a game made with a beta of the Source engine with the tools and refinements they have for Source now. Imagine a Bloodlines that looked and ran as well as Left 4 Dead 2. Overhaul the graphics, add more character models, redesign some of the less than special effects, the whole package. Take the time to add the polish and finesse that the original so sorely lacked. Along with cleaning up graphics and the technical side of things, there are quite a few gameplay elements that could use some refinement. Rebalance some of the skills and make them more useful (haggle in particular). Redesign the way the engine handles melee and guns, find a way to make both options feel natural. Take a mulligan on the games third act which most players agree turns into a train wreck, whip-lashing from the smart choice based gameplay previously enjoyed into a difficult dungeon crawl (that may be near-impossible for some characters). Find a more elegant solution for the loathed sewer level, add more options to the late game content for characters that are less-combat focused. I long for a day when some developer will take up Troika's fallen torch and give this beauty of a game the treatment it deserves. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Oh my, what can be said about the better-half of the Metroidvainia genre? A brilliant masterpiece of design that sparked the birth of an entire genre and featured some of the best/worst voice over work to ever grace a console. True, there have been countless sequels to this game, mostly incremental advancements following the same formula with a different pretty boy protagonist fighting in a different castle. I'll admit it seems a little hypocritical to call Halo: Anniversary out on this and then clamour for a re-make of a game that has essentially enjoyed a bunch of remakes. However, a few things set SONT apart that I think justifies its own HD Remake. As mentioned, SOTN really cemented the Meroidvainia design of the 2D exploration adventure game. Taking the best parts of Metroid's labyrinth architecture and item gated progress and melding it with the best of Castlevania's platforming and boss battles. It was one of the most compelling games released on the PlayStation despite that even then it was considered anachronistic. That was over a decade ago, yet the success of its sequels, Metroid's continued popularity, and fellow travelers like Shadow Complex, have all proven the genres classic appeal. On top of that longevity, SOTN is still held as the best of its type, I think that should be celebrated. The classic SOTN style sequels have been the domain of handhelds. An injustice of the highest order, forcing the artists to work with a mere pittance of sprite pumping power. I never understood how the deep and dangerous dungeon exploration of those games fit with playing for fifteen minutes on the bus or on a lunch break. Maybe its just me, but for portables I want games like Tetris and SF, games you turn off without a second thought or play by the round. Quick light snack gaming. I only ever played the GBA Castlevania games on my couch; straining my eyes like Mister fucking Magoo peering into a matchbox sized screen while my 30 inch television is mere feet away. Laughing at me. Meanwhile the consoles have been "graced" with various attempts at 3D Castlevainia games that have ranged from the utterly horrid to the "so-average-its-mediocre". True we had the XBLA game Harmony of Despair, but it wasn't a true HD upgrade and its whacky gameplay was unlike any of the other Castlevania games. The Four-Swords to their Zelda. I want the real Castlevainia experience at home. Powered by today's excessively over-muscled hardware. Oh yes, I want to use all the power of the 360 and PS3 to kick out 2D sprites. The best looking sprites you have ever seen. In my perfect world we would see a remake with 100% new assets. I don't want to see a filter on the old pixels, I don't want smoothing or a new polygons on a 2D plane job, I want to see Alucard do battle with luscious hand-drawn HD sprites. I want to hear a full suite of remastered music featuring those classic gothic tunes we remember as well as fresh rearrangements, options to play the original or the new, and even some of the power metal remixes done by folks like the Minibosses and Powergoat. And to top it off, an expansion on the inverted castle area. For the uninitiated, SOTN featured an amazing bonus area for those who strove for the best ending. Just when you think you're done, the dark forces at work in Castle Dracula create a mirror of the keep on-top of the original, forcing Alucard to make his way through the entire game again, this time upside down and filled with new monsters and obstacles. It was a masterstroke of level design and bonus content, but in truth a player could whip right through it with all the mobility powers you have by that point in the game and the enemies were weirdly unbalanced, some being boss encounters in their own right while others were pitiful chaff. I would love to see the inverted castle hammered out to a full third act instead of a short but cool bonus area. Complete with more elaborate traps and boss encounters, and maybe even a new ability or two. A tall order, but I did preface this with "in my dream world." Act Raiser I'm sure lots of Dtoiders remember this SNES launch game. Act Raiser was a strange nut, two parts platforming action and one part Sim City, the game combined action and world-building in separate phases that had an effect on each other. Throwing the player into the role of a deity, it was up to you to make sure that the peasants of your world had half a chance to grow fat and die of old age. This meant that laying down plans for a wheat field was just as important as slaying the local Manticore terrorizing the coast. Good civic planning and a strong moral upbringing meant more worshippers, and more worshippers meant more health and power in the action sequence. The higher the score achieved in the platforming and slashing Acts, the more resources you got to play God-Mayor. Pretty sweet feedback loop. On top of the interesting premise the game had solid platforming chops and an amazing musical score that was frankly ahead of its time. It got a sequel that I never had a chance to play and I understand is in every way inferior to the original. Abysmal controls, terrifying difficulty, and worst of all it stripped out the simulation phases, robbing the game of what made it so unique. The sequel was so bad it effectively killed the franchise, a real pity. The original Act Raiser got a straight port to the Wii on the virtual console a few years back indicating that at least some people remember it. As opposed to a straight remake, I want to see a Wii U update to this game. A successor to the original updated and manicured for today's audience. A 3D action-adventure game in the vein of God of War that slams both the action and simulation elements of the original together. I envision a game where the player takes command of a heavily armed avatar of justice on the TV screen while the Wii U's controller screen is used as a window for your godlike omnipresence. Providing a birds eye view of the action, you could use the touch screen to call down lighting to your location, encourage the growth of trees and vines to make a bridge for your battling avatar, or punch holes in clouds of darkness to let protective rays bathe your warrior, all that good God-power stuff. When not immediately assisting your character, the simulation view could be used to check in on the local population and manage the business of world building without stopping the action on screen. There are all kinds of options there. It would run the risk of over-stimulation, too much juggling the action spread out over two screens, but I think a careful development team could pull it off. Obviously the action couldn't be as frantic as GoW's or DmC's if you had to keep track of the hand screen, but not every action game has to be as murderously difficult as those examples. I think it would be a good display of the flexibility and usefulness of the new controller. Show that it isn't just for menus and minigame fluff, that the touch screen can be integrated into a more "hardcore" game experience. It also lets Nintendo tap into that nostalgic well they love so much, but without using one of their first-party licences. It could be used as a subtle sign that Nintendo is reaching back to the SNES hey-day, when third-party support was strong and just as capable of releasing classic gems as Nintendo themselves. Alpha Protocol The most recent game on my wish-list. Alpha Protocol got a bad turn. Billed as a triple A action espionage adventure with branching plot elements and a deep dialogue system; a sort of "Mass Effect meets James Bond". Players were going to be put in the shoes of a hard-boiled secret agent named Michael Thorton as he kicked ass, played the ladies, and slithered his way through a globe spanning conspiracy. Sadly, the result was less a glorious Goldeneye and more an embarrassing Moonraker, and Thorton turned out to be an Octopussy. Blatant show stopping bugs that could ruin entire playthroughs, controls with less finesse than the Wright brothers aeroplane, and depressingly uninspired action and level design all conspired together in a wicked plot to toss the game directly into the bargain bin. If internet scuttle-butt is to be believed, this was largely due to classic executive meddling. A "tired dev" posting behind the shield of internet anonymity complained of a prima donna lead designer deaf to criticism and advice, a busybody Sega bureaucracy constantly interrupting development with notes and new bullet points to hit without ever finishing up the last batch of ideas, and a dev team who burned out on the project almost immediately but were forced to trudge through it for years of redesigns. After the absolutely savage reviews the game (deservedly) gathered, most players could hardly be bothered to give it a chance. Its a shame, because if you are able to wade through the sea of bugs, sloppy control, randomly spraying weapons, and poor voice acting, there are some surprisingly sharp gameplay elements to be found. Despite its designed by committee bullet-point nature, the best part of the game really was the plethora of choices available to the player. The game had an experience point system that let you buy skills and upgrades to build your character in a myriad of different ways. You could go down the typical "run and gun" or "sneaky assassin" type trees, but there were also some really interesting technological and equipment based options. Your homebase inventory screen provided some of the most interesting content and choices. From your black market and agency connections it was possible to purchase or trade favours for intelligence and aid to assist you in the field. Maps of the enemy stronghold, troop movements, paying a crooked guard to leave a door unlocked or a concealed rifle in the rafters, or just bio info on some of the most elusive criminals on the planet. Valuable commodities, but where is your money going? I had a lot of fun with these options, often spending more on planning the perfect infiltration than I did on my gear. Dialogue was handled similar to Mass Effect, but with a few key differences. Instead of just the typical aggressive/neutral/positive options, AP threw in deceptive, snarky, and skill based responses. Not only that, but the game put you in the hot-seat, giving the player only a few seconds to choose a response instead of lingering on the options all day. It was a joy to actively lie to my asshat of a commanding officer about the location of some stolen weapons that I decided I would rather keep for myself than turn in like a good boyscout. Fuck the man. Which brings me to another thing I liked about the game. Similar to Mass Effect and Dragon Age, you could foster individual relationships with your various handlers and contacts. Some of them preferred an efficient no-nonsense professional rapport, others respected assertiveness both in conversation and in the field, and still others were searching for a friend. Again though, as a manipulative spy it was up to you if you wanted to be genuine with these people or play them like a fiddle. Pile all this onto a plot that, if you so desired, could include some of the most convoluted and magnificent double-triple-quadruple-back stabbing to be found this side of Metal Gear. Except instead of passively sitting through a cut scene where a cowboy geezer explains why he is so much more clever than you, its YOU who are playing puppeteer to the hopelessly misinformed intelligence agencies and tragically trusting "friends". Obviously I don't want a direct remake of Alpha Protocol, its too recent. I wouldn't even hold my breath for a direct sequel -that well has been poisoned, nobody is going to drink from it again. However, I would love to see a spiritual successor to it. A game that could take the best parts of its multi-branching conspiracy heavy plot-line, quick-thinking dialogue choices, sneaky spy options, and character building elements, and incorporate them into a game that actually fucking works. You know, one that isn't a chore to play. I want to see a really good spy game, one that pays as much attention to the way you talk to people and control information as it does spraying random mooks with automatic gunfire because that was the most compelling part of the game. We need a spy game that puts the intelligence back into intelligence work. One that rewards doing your espionage homework and developing a network of contacts and resources. Get a dream team of Deus Ex, L.A Noire, and Mass Effect devs together, and let them make a game that features all the complex multi-pathing, dialogue options, character development, and action of those games -and keep Sega management the hell away from it. Dungeons and Dragons: Shadow Over Mystara If I had written this before E3 I would have added Dungeons and Dragons: Shadows Over Mystara to the list. It was an incredible arcade beat-em-up based on the D&D world that featured light RPG elements, branching paths, hidden items, and unique skills, all discovered one quarter at a time. But it looks like Dragon Crown has rendered that unnecessary! My wish has been granted. Listen closely, you can hear an angel receiving his wings. Not much is known about the game so far other than it seems to feature very similar gameplay and GORGEOUS art. Alright, so maybe the tits are a bit overdone but hey, they call it fantasy for a reason right? All I know is that in the less than two minute trailer reveal I saw a Drawf pec-dive his burly chest into a caterpillar squid monster. Fucking sold.

Weekend Mobile roundup: Tiny Tower, 1000 Heroz and more Posted: 25 Jun 2011 07:00 AM PDT more videos like this Holy Ezio that game looks familiar! After last week's pretty barren landscape on the mobile gaming front, iPhone devs somehow decided to throw a ton of games at us this week. Since I'll be away next weekend, here is an extra large and unapolegetically tl;dr roundup for you to enjoy. Android users: Cut The Rope is free on Android for a week starting last Friday, and GAMEVIL is bringing ZENONIA 3 and Baseball Superstars II from iOS to Android. Those games should've been on the Market already, but of course there's not a hint of them if you look it up on the Android Market website. Unless it's Baseball Superstars 2011, which is available and looks pretty crazy. KAMI RETRO was released over a week ago though, and it's free. Every other game this week is for iOS however, so there, I saved you the trouble of going through the list of this week's games. There's always Grand Prix Story to rub in the iOS users' faces! Weekend highlights:  1-bit Ninja (iPhone, $1.99) more videos like this I already wrote at length about 1-bit Ninja earlier this week, so I'm not going to do that again in here. It's still worth a shout-out, so if you like old school platformers with a twist, just go grab it.  Continuity 2: The Continuation (iPhone & iPad -- universal app, $0.99 more videos like this The iOS sequel to Flash game Continuity, Continuity 2 is a mix of sliding puzzles and platformers. Levels are cut into sections, on which you platform and both collect coins and the elusive door key that opens the door to end a level. By sliding the sections around, you can run and platform between sections -- but only if sections match at the edges. It starts out pretty easy, but things get harder as you progress to levels with 8 sections to slide around and levels to pull. You can zoom out to slide around, and it's easy and pretty addictive to solve these platforming puzzles. With 48 levels there's plenty of content for your buck to keep you going for a while, and of course there is the challenge to get an under par time while collecting all the coins. Just try out the Flash game if you're not sold, and/or try out Office Rush (lite) which is very similar.  1000 Heroz (iPhone, $0.99; iPad, $1.99) more videos like this If you are fooled by the aesthetic, don't be. 1000 Heroz is great. It has some of that addictiveness that Tiny Wings can give you with the score, except here it's all about the times. The controls are pretty standard for an iOS platformer, with left/rignt and jump in the bottom of the screen. The key is to use the momentum of the terrain to get to the finish line in the shortest amount of time possible. That's easier said than done, especially because you're always ranked against a global leaderboard with ridiculous times. It's incredibly addictive to keep trying to beat your own highscore, and even to get the gold medal on a level can keep you occupied for plenty of spare moments throughout the day. 1000 Heroz also gives you one new level every day, for 1000 days. That's a ridiculous amount of value, even if you might forget about it for a couple of days or a week. You can always go back and try to beat those times in all of the previously released levels if you want. If competitive highscore-based games are your thing, you should definitely check it out.  Hills of Glory: WWII (iPhone, $0.99) more videos like this This game has been called "castle defense but without the castle" which is as accurate as it gets. You man a stationary jeep/bunker/helicopter/whatever at the top of the screen, and soldiers and tanks attack you from different directions at the bottom. Depending on what characters you have in your squad, you use different touch controls to defend your position. Tap to shoot, slide a line to shoot a machine gun down that line, hold down a finger to lob an explosive, swipe horizontally for a horizontal attack, etc. It's fun, easy to play for up to 10 minutes at a time, and being able to upgrade and configure your squad adds to the replayability. Once you finish the campaign, you also unlock what looks like a survival mode. As a tower defense whore, I'm still enjoying it as a casual break here and there, after spending hours on end on traditional TD games.  Reflection Connection (iPad, $1.99) more videos like this I thought this game was an iPhone game for some reason, but alas it is not. Of course, I only figured that out after redeeming the code... One of the reasons I was interested in it in the first place is because I love the idea of getting a complete mindfuck when you have to solve a 20x20 board using mirror reflections. In most action adventures there's some kind of mirror-reflection puzzle, and this seemed like a great way to get better at it. Or a way to just blow your mind. Unfortunately I can't vouch for whether it's any good, but I can't imagine it's wildly different from what you'd expect from its trailer. It looks a tad unpolished on the graphical side, but just imagine how quiet that talkative stoner friend will be if you shove this in his hands. Knighty Knight (iPhone & iPad -- universal app, $2.99) more videos like this I can't say I've ever seen a proper jousting game on the app store before, so of course I donned my The Mountain armor and gave it a try. Knighty Knight pits you against a series of very British opponents, who spout lines that are funny to anyone who is not British and thinks they all talk like in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Fun fact: the guy who did most of the voice acting was an extra in Game of Thrones. Every jousting run, you choose a weapon ranging from a soiled mop to a lance and a cricket bat. Each weapon has different values for attack strength and attack power regeneration, and some weapons don't let you defend. Just before you reach your opponent in the run, you choose whether to attack either the head, shield, or armor of your opponent, who does the same. You also guard one of those three, and if you're lucky only your shield will take a hit instead of your health. Guarding can be pretty hard though. Unless I am totally missing cues here you have a 33% chance to block, making the choice of guarding in favor of attack strength a bit useless in singleplayer. Attacks use up attack power, indicated by soccer balls. Some weapons, like the rubber ducky, don't do much damage but increase your attack power for a next run's full-on assault. Most of the gameplay goes into having to manage your attacks across a number of jousting runs per match. This game is really meant for multiplayer which unfortunately only works through Bluetooth, so I couldn't test it. I can imagine it being quite a bit of silly fun at something like PAX though, where you can taunt your real-life opponent with fake British accents before you smack him in the head with an inflatable sword after you lose. Real opponents would also make it more fun to try to figure out their attack patterns. However, at $2.99 it is a bit overpriced. It's not expensive, but a $0.99 pricepoint would make it far easier to recommend as a novelty purchase for mobile consumers, especially when you need two copies for multiplayer. If you see it on sale though, give it a try because it's unique.  Breitling Reno Air Races The Game (iPhone & iPad -- universal app, free) more videos like this A free sponsored kind of game with a way too long name. It looks really good though, and controls ok for a mobile arcade flight sim. Tilt to control the plane, use two buttons for yaw control, and two others for zooming. It has multiplayer via Game Center too, which works really well actually. However, it does not have F-22's so I couldn't care less about it. But if you like those air race things, it's not a bad free game by any means. I doubt you'll end up playing it a lot though. D.A.R.K. (iPhone, $0.99 during launch sale -- normally $2.99) more videos like this You've probably played this type of twin-stick shooter before. While there are a ton of those available, D.A.R.K. has a Dead Space vibe to it. It's not particularly scary though, and some of the mini cutscenes are in fact hilarious, but I liked it quite a bit. The gameplay is pretty straightforward, although it's packaged in a more action RPG fashion with some minor exploration, leveling, and weapons & armor to buy. It took me about 2.5 hours to finish it, which isn't very long. But you can do a New Game+ and a new episode in a completely different setting is going to be released for free down the line. Of particular note are the cutscenes, which are really well done for a game which probably didn't have a huge budget to work it. Together with the music it sets the atmosphere nicely and although it's not the hardest game out there, it's well above average as a package. However, the next episode really needs more exploration because it's way too lineair as it is now. I can see this selling well for $2.99 already, so it might be worth a look while it's on sale. In Case Of Fire (iPhone, $0.99) more videos like this The trailer explains pretty much what the game is about: don't get burned. You tap to summon temporary movement reversal signs for a very slow walking character, tap on the top or bottom of a staircase to make him use it, tap on buttons to make them do things, and swipe to make him run. It works well, and it's basically a one-person Lemmings with more hazards and touch controls. Playing it comes down to following paths to unlock a safe path to the finish, by turning on sprinklers and finding keys to unlock doors and whatnot. It looks really crisp on a Retina display, which works in favor of the simplistic art style. But it was also not really my kind of game, and it can become a bit tedious if you play it too long. Mostly because you need to control your character pretty well as stages progress, and it can become a bit chaotic to do so when you need to tap and slide frantically in order to do just that. I found the controls to be working against the type of puzzles that are meant to create more excitement, and instead they created more frustration for me. It's not a bad game by any means, but nothing about it screams must-buy either. Powerslide Penguin (iPhone (not retina!), $0.99; iPhone & iPad HD, $1.99) more videos like this A really curious game, this one. The pull-back-to-launch mechanic has been done countless times before, but instead of creating an arcade type of game it has somehow become a game that is too hard for youngsters and not interesting enough for older gamers. At its core, Powerslide Penguin just requires you to slide to the finish gem in the least amount of slides while collecting as many coins as possible. Problems arise when enemies that explode and kill you are introduced. They chase you around, and it's not easy enough to fully control the penguin (called Penn Gwynn) to effectively dodge them in any way that is fun. Kids will probably get bored of it after a couple of deaths. After the first few levels with enemies, I gave up on caring about scores. And after breezing through 47 levels (out of 79) within half an hour or so, I just quit and never looked back. There is way too much stuff put into this game's design to be simple and fun for all audiences, and without that fun factor you're unlikely to go back for better scores. Selling the Retina version as HD for a buck more adds insult to injury. Peter Packer (iPhone, $0.99; iPad $1.99) more videos like this When Peter Packer was announced, that trailer made me think "What am I, three years old?" We got a code for this among a bunch of Chillingo games though, so I figured I'd try it out anyway. And yep, it's for three year olds. But if you own an iPhone or iPad and have a toddler, and you let it play some games, this is probably a lot of fun to play together. Two conveyor belts provide geometrical shapes that you swipe to the right hole. If they reach the end of the belt, you lose a life. I can't believe I'm even explaining it. You get bonus points for throwing multiple boxes in the same, right hole in a row, and you can multi-touch to throw two boxes at once. A bunch of challenges might keep mom and dad occupied, but they are too hard for most toddlers -- beside the fact that they can't read the instructions. I'm not 100% convinced that kids will have the motor skills required for this, but I've seen my kid nephew at work on an iPhone and he's surprisingly good at it. If you have an iPad, I'd say this is a pretty fun way to keep your kid occupied while training its motor skills and helping it through the pre-operational stage of development. If you are still reading this far, you have a kid and you know exactly what that means.  Marty Mongoose (iPhone, $0.99 & lite) Marty Mongoose is the product of game industry artist Brian Clarke, who decided to learn how to code and create his own iPhone game. And frankly, as just another $1 game it's nowhere near good enough to recommend. However, and here's the thing, it's a fascinating app that provides insight into the kind of things that come into play when people create an iPhone game. The goal in Marty Mongoose is to guide a blind mongoose to a nest of eggs in a tree. Fans that blow him sideways or upwards can be placed, as well as wooden see-saws and girders that will stick anywhere you place them. The idea is good, and in theory the tools work together well to solve puzzles. The reality is another matter. You can only reset the entire setup you've created with the tools at hand, and while the tutorial explains the basics, the truth is that the game leaves it up to you to figure out how everything works exactly. Despite the game working against you when it should instead be easing you into its design elements, it gives you a unique look at someone's experience trying to create a mobile game. You should all check out the free version just because it's intriguing. Expect to fiddle around with the tools until you figure it out. But if you ever wanted a look inside the mind of a mobile game developer, or are thinking about getting into mobile game development yourself, this might be one of the best ways to learn more in a hands-off way.  Tiny Tower (iPhone & iPad -- universal app, FREE GO GRAB IT!) more videos like this I savd this for last because this game... it's hard to put into words how amazing it is. Imagine Sim Tower with social game type of gameplay, but then without the need to have any friends. Then imagine that it has pixel art like Fez or Constructoid. That's Tiny Tower. You build different kinds of floors to fit housing and need-fulfillers like retail, recreation, food, etc. Shops provide money, which you save to build new floors. Every shop needs to be stocked with goods, and the more employees (up to 3) a shop has, the more expensive kinds of goods it can stock and sell. The social game kind of gameplay comes into play when stocking and building takes real world time, so you probably won't be playing this for an hour straight. The game notifies you when something is done though, so this is a game you can easily play throughout the day while you're at work or in school. You can skip the wait by using "cash" that you can either buy with real money, or earn through a number of in-game actions. You don't really need to spend money ever if you don't want to. Tiny Tower also has a pixel-art menu with a Bitbook, where your Bitizens post messages about their life in the tower. And while it takes real time to stock goods, you can always earn coins or cash by moving Bitizens and VIPs around with the tower's elevator while you wait. I've already said enough, because this game is free and if you are reading this, you are not playing it right now. Which is pretty much a crime against humanity; I'll see you in The Hague's ICC. WTF / Good cause: Ask Rocco Zamboni (iPhone & iPad -- universal app, $0.99; Android, $0.99) more videos like this There's only two reasons for mentioning this although it's not even a game. The best reason is that 10% of proceeds go to the "I'm too young for this!" cancer foundation for kids with cancer, about which you can read more here. The other is to be able to post this trailer. DAT HAND! It's just one of two voice sample apps that donate proceeds to the cancer foundation cause, and there's another one called Ask Some Drag Queens -- but that one just has random samples that aren't very funny. Ask Rocco is not high comedy either, don't get me wrong, but at least the app does let you select some topics that he says something about in an Italian-American accent. I had a mix of "Heh wtf" and "God, really?" feelings for the two minutes it lasted. Why am I still writing words about this? Weekly news roundup: Peggle was released on Android, but is no longer free by now. Something called Sonic the Sketch Hog is coming to iOS. Fruit Ninja iOS received a Pomegrenate update. Phil Harrison paints a dire picture of Apple owning the game industry. Please no. Deus Ex: HR iOS QR code scavenger hunt thing is only for the US. Coin Drop is no longer free, but still worth picking up. Sonic and SEGA All-Stars Racing goes iOS for $1.99. I hear it runs badly on older gen. Also worth noting is that Marathon fan Daniel Blezek has been working on porting the classic Bungie game to the iPad, and got Bungie's approval to release it to the Apple app store. You can read about the development process in an interview on Bungie's site. That's it for this weekend. If you know of a ridiculous or cool new Android or iOS game, hit me up on Twitter or send us an email. Or post it in the comments!

Bodycount to be counting bodies this August Posted: 25 Jun 2011 06:00 AM PDT more videos like this Remember Bodycount? It was the spiritual successor to Black, before director Stuart Black left the development team and now who knows what the game's going to be like? It was slated for an early 2011 release date, but it's finally been given a release month -- August. I hope it'll turn out okay. What I played at last year's E3 had potential, but potential is never a guarantee of eventual quality. I can never get enough solid shooting action, so I'll keep my fingers crossed on at least one hand.

Live Show: Saturday Morning Hangover gets its ass to Mars Posted: 25 Jun 2011 05:00 AM PDT [Tune in to Saturday Morning Hangover every Saturday at 10am Pacific for the latest Xbox Live Indie Games, co-op play and assorted hijinks. We have a couch! Come join us live on Destructoid's Justin.tv channel!] We've been at this early morning live-streaming business for many months now, but this may well be the first time one of us truly lives up to the name Saturday Morning Hangover. If you caught Conrad on Backlog last night, you'll know what I mean. I'm told the selection of Xbox Live Indie Games this week is of higher quality than normal, so that's something to look forward to. With a little bit of luck, we'll also play the 17th-century British Colonial Mars shmup Jamestown. And if that doesn't go according to plan, there's always Trenched.   Watch live video from Destructoid on Justin.tv more videos like this more videos like this

Square Enix to release a righteous chiptune album Posted: 25 Jun 2011 04:00 AM PDT Earlier this month, we told you that Square Enix would be releasing a gargantuan 20-disc collection of Mana series music. Well, SE isn't done making love to your eardrums and is readying another collection of jams, SQ Chips, that pulls tracks from the Final Fantasy series, Chrono Trigger, Unlimited SaGa, Brave Fencer Musashi, the Mana series, and more! This is not just any ol' arrangement album, though. Each of these tunes is run through the retro filter and spit out as 8-bit chiptunes. Ever heard of Chiptuned Rockman, that awesomely meta remix CD that reworked music from the entire Mega Man series, even the SNES and PS1 titles, as NES tracks? If SQ Chips is even half as amazing as that, we'll be in for a treat! SQ Chips will drop on September 7 for the (cheap by Japanese standards) price of 1890 yen ($23.50). I'm getting it! Square Enix Releasing Retro Chiptune Album [GamePro]

Podtoid 155: Lung Lobster Posted: 25 Jun 2011 02:00 AM PDT This week's Podtoid is later than usual because the original recording ... never recorded. No idea why, but sadly a rather excellent episode got lost. We didn't want the listeners to go without, however, so I was able to get Jonathan Holmes and myself together for a re-recording.  Although we don't have Max and Tara this week, there was still over an hour of drivel and exaggerated videogame passion to go around. This week, we discuss Shadows of the Damned, videogame reviews, Sonic the Hedgehog's birthday, why Nintendo of America needs to pull its head out of its ass, and invent two new demons -- the Inside-Out Alligator and the Lung Lobster. As always, you can subscribe to iTunes or RSS, and download directly.

Vote in Backlog Series 18: Fun for the Whole Family Posted: 24 Jun 2011 06:30 PM PDT Things got a little ... adult at times during our previous series of Backlog. My own foul response to the challenges of playing Parasite Eve II when paired with the unusually salacious dialog (helped in no small part by my desire to make Kyle come off as a serial something or other) has made me feel the need to take a shower and wash the filth off. So for our next series, we're going to venture into the some more lighthearted fare. That doesn't mean that there isn't a little subversion to be found here and there. Check out the list and make your selection in the comments. Backlog returns Monday at 8pm Pacific with the whole new series on Destructoid's Justin.tv channel. Kameo: Elements of Power Developed by Rare Released on November 7th, 2005 Microsoft had a lot riding on their acquisition of Rare for a then record-breaking price of $375 million.Kameo: Elements of Power is the first of two launch titles developed by Rare for the Xbox 360 (the other being Perfect Dark: Zero) and almost certainly the title most aimed at a youth market out of all the games available for the console at that time.  Age is almost never kind to launch titles and I already wasn't too terribly interested in it back in 2005. There is some clever play at work, however, as Kameo changes forms both for advantage in combat and to solve puzzles and I hear it's a pretty short ride on the whole.  3D Dot Game Heroes Developed by From Software Released May 11th, 2010 Apart from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Alundra, both of which I've completed multiple times, the genre of adventure games which 3D Dot Game Heroes is a love letter to is one I routinely fail to finish. They either run on too long or, well, they're the same thing I've seen a dozen times before in otherZelda clones. 3D Dot Game Heroes has a lot of charm going for it, which may help to push me along. And then there's you guys of course. And I suppose with a game like this, there could be some opportunities to play with some rather creative designs on a nightly basis. Food for thought. Pikmin 2 Developed by Nintendo Released August 30th, 2004 The most adorable gangbang ever to grace a screen, the Pikmin series is rabidly loved by people. I love swarming games of its type where you direct these large masses of characters around the screen (see also: Overlord) and Pikmin 2 is the pinnacle of that gameplay to a large audience. I have never finished more than an hour of it and that is a crime in some municipalities, I'm sure. Captain Olimar is ready to go if you are. A Boy and His Blob Developed by WayForward Released October 13th, 2009 I'm a big fan of David Crane's original A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia conceptually, but the execution of that particular title makes it hard to love. That's why I was so excited to watch the development of Wayforward's take on the unlikely paring of metamorphic alien and jellybean-packing tyke.  It's one of the cutest games made in recent memory and I had quite a bit of fun in the brief bit of time that I've spent playing it. One on the list I'm very much looking forward to enjoying in earnest. Mystery Game Finally, we have the Mystery Game. Don't make the mistake of choosing this for curiosity's sake, as people have clamored before to know what it was and groaned when they learned. The intent here is to select the Mystery Game if none of the other games appeal to you, so voting for it just because you want to know what it is is kind of a dick move.  If the Mystery Game is not chosen, it'll roll over into the next series where it will continue to be a mystery. There you have it. Make your selection in the comments below and get ready for a whole new series of Backlog!

The Daily Hotness: Saints Row: The Third = Awesome Posted: 24 Jun 2011 04:59 PM PDT more videos like this Seriously, just watch this. Easily one of my most anticipated titles for 2011. Jim reviewed F.E.A.R. 3, TMNT: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled is getting pulled, Journey is getting a beta and more happened on 6/24/11. Destructoid Original: The Question: Classic Sonic or Modern Sonic? Destructoid and iPlayWinner SSFIV: AE on Justin.tv Live show: Mash Tactics community picks Live Show: Backlog never says die Friday Night Fights: Summer soltice edition Community: Community blogs of 6/24/11 Forum thread of the day: PAX 2011 Contests: Contest: Win Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon! Reviews: Review: F.E.A.R. 3 News: Dragon Age II 'Legacy' DLC detailed by achievements Brink 'Agents of Change' DLC on July 30, free for 2 weeks Japanese PSN still not back up, no return date given Letter writing campaign for Last Story, Pandora's Tower Journey beta announced, details arriving Monday Sony allegedly laid off security staff before PSN hack Uncharted, R&C, and Resistance packs coming July 22nd BioWare got hacked TMNT: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled getting pulled from US Team Fortress 2 free-to-play whiners demand a refund Star Wars Galaxies to close up shop in December Sony sees iPhone/iPad gaming as an opportunity Xbox Live indie dev Radiangames is raising prices soon Obscure RPG Solatorobo: Red the Hunter coming to NA Xbox 360 is halfway through its lifespan, says Microsoft Bit.Trip Complete scheduled for a September release Rumor: Xbox 360 readying for free-to-play games Offbeat: Better names for Renegade Ops Jamie Kennedy lashes out at gaming 'dorks' who hate him Media: Swallow these Sonic Generations 3DS screens! SWALLOW! This Saints Row: The Third video will cost you up to $60 The first F1 2011 dev diary has people talking about cars

New Destructoid Episode: Free Crysis Dildos For All! Posted: 24 Jun 2011 04:36 PM PDT more videos like this Happy Friday, Destructoiders! Surely your weekend fun is already underway, so let's waste no time breaking down today's episode. First up on everyone's radar is the new Saints Row 3 trailer that debuted today. Needless to say, Max was quite pleased with the inclusion of economy-sized dildos. Also, Team Fortress 2 is free to play now and someone on the internet is mad about it. In other news, Crysis 2 for PC is getting a much-needed performance patch and Destructoid is on the hunt for a talented and semi-literate intern! Last but not least, many congratulations to YouTube user GrandmastahT who was the lucky (and talented!) winner of our Fruit Ninja Kinect contest.

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