More 8-bit Mega Man goodness? More hideously inappropriate artwork? Proto Man selectable from the get go? SHEEP MAN!? I'm sold, and I've only skimmed the too-brief article preview that NP has posted regarding the follow-up to Mega Man 9, coming soon to a Nintendo WiiWare service near you. I'd steal Nintendo Power's thunder, but I've already borrowed their magazine art, so you'll have to hit up the link below to find more details.

Could this be what's inside Capcom's mysterious energy block?

Mega Man 10 [Nintendo Power - Scroll down for article - Thanks Justin!]

8 Bit Weapon is one of my favorite chiptune bands, using their arsenal of old computers, consoles, handhelds, and various electronic toys to craft some very impressive tunes. Their holiday release, It's a Chiptune Holiday, is an exquisite example of what traditional music can become in the hands of capable 8-bit artists.

The album features 8 tracks perfect for replacing your family's traditional holiday music, at least until they figure out what you've done. You'll probably get away with "Ave Maria," "O Christmas Tree," and possibly "Joy to the World," but the beats in "Deck the Halls" and "Jingle Bells" will be a dead giveaway, and that's only if they manage to miss the electronic voices.

And yes, they've got Hanukka in there as well.

It's a Chiptune Holiday is currently on sale at both 8 Bit Weapon and ComputerHer's websites for $9.95, with each CD shipped in case handcrafted from a 5.25" floppy diskette.

It's the perfect way to remind your family that you're the odd, video-game loving member of your household.

Now, that's not to say this is exciting. I kept waiting for a crescendo event and then realized this emulator probably cannot handle that many characters on the screen. But the common infected are a little too sedate, especially considering 8-bit games are remembered for being muuuuuch harder.

There's also only one special infected - the Boomer - although the creator Eric Ruth says all of the other special infected will be added in later some point. Ruth promises that all maps and campaigns will be represented, too, when the game is available for free download on PC on Jan. 4.

NES Left 4 Dead Gameplay Video 1 [YouTube, thanks Eric.]

I'm not generally one for rap music alone, but combine it with just about every other genre and I'm sold, and that includes chiptune. This video for "Follow Me" by Pato Pooh ft. Adam Tensta captures the spirit of the awesome genre merger perfectly, with old-school 8-bit graphics given an amazing hip hop makeover.

Thanks to everyone who sent in the tip!

The Wrestler, Robert D. Siegel's heart-wrenching tale of Randy "The Ram" Robinson-played by Mickey Rourke-a former professional wrestler far past his prime, is layered with metaphor. That includes metaphors like The Ram's foil Cassidy, an aging, single mother stripper—played by Marisa Tomei—as much a physical fantasy as Randy. Later, through Randy Robinson's doomed stint as part-time butcher-cum-performer, Siegel and Aronofsky drag the viewer through the titular wrestler's struggle with lost fame, estranged family, and the physical suffering that The Ram must endure.

But one scene, in which The Ram plays a fictional NES game with one of the neighborhood kids living in his trailer park, a boy who seems on the cusp of putting aside his hero worship of Randy "The Ram" Robinson, is perhaps most subtly affecting in its use of video game metaphor.

Following a particularly brutal wrestling match, with Randy "The Ram" Robinson recuperating at home, Mickey Rourke's character asks the young Adam (John D'Leo) to "play some Nintendo" with him. The two play Wrestle Jam '88, a decades-old 8-bit wrestling simulator starring The Ram.

Their exchange:
Adam: So, you hear about Call of Duty 4?
Randy: The what?
[The Ram, suffering from hearing loss, leans in to hear Adam better.]
Adam: Call of Duty 4.
Randy: What?
Adam: Call of Duty 4.
Randy: Call it duty for?
Adam: Call of Duty 4.
Randy: Call of Duty 4?
Adam: Yeah. It's pretty cool, actually.
Randy: Really?
Adam: (sighs) This game is so old...
Randy: What's it about?
Adam: It's a war game. Most all of the other Call of Dutys are, like, based on World War II, but this one's with Iraq.
Randy: Oh yeah?
Adam: You switch off between a marine and an S and S British special operative. So it's pretty cool.

Perhaps more affecting than the startlingly accurate description of Call of Duty 4, in pre-teen terms, rife with slight misinformation, is the contrast between the two games. Like Randy and Adam, Wrestle Jam and Call of Duty 4 are decades, generations apart—one antiquated, one highly-polished and contemporary.

Wrestle Jam is a work of fiction, a faux NES game created specifically for the film by motion graphics artist Kristyn Hume and programmer Randall Furino. The brother and sister team created the game from scratch, taking influence from 8-bit fighting games like Nintendo's Pro Wrestling and Acclaim's WWF Wrestlemania.

Hume, also responsible for The Wrestler's laboriously accurate title sequence, said that the film's producers and directors wanted that "classic video game" look and feel for Wrestle Jam, an effort that took weeks to create.

"Darren is a little bit unconventional," Hume said of the Wrestle Jam project, saying that the director wanted a fully functioning demo for Rourke and D'Leo to interact with. "It ended up being a working game. He wanted the actors to be able to play the game instead of them trying to act like they were playing."

"And I didn't want to hand animate the entire game because it would be way too time consuming," Hume said.

That meant that Furino, a tools programmer at Denver area developer NetDevil, had to program Wrestle Jam from the ground up, writing rendering, input, and artificial intelligence routines for the two playable characters, Randy "The Ram" Robinson and The Ayatollah.

"[Wrestle Jam is] completely playable. There was an intro screen, character select, win / loss conditions, opponent AI, eight different attacks," Furino explained. "It was as close to a genuine old-school wrestling game as I could make it in the time allowed. I even mapped an old Nintendo controller to the input system so they could play it that way."

Hume noted that one of the bigger challenges faced when creating Wrestle Jam was limiting her character sprites designs to the reduced palette of 8-bit hardware.

"Recreating yesterdays game with today's technology was hard," Hume recalled, saying that early Wrestle Jam designs were aesthetically inappropriate, "a modern style version of an 80s game," designs that had to be throttled back to match antiquated hardware.

That even meant dumbing down the programming.

"To get that exact look and feel encompassing everything we knew an 80s wrestling game to be, meaning the awkwardly timed reactions to punches and kicks to the generally stupid AI," Furino said.

Where the film's producers also added authenticity to Wrestle Jam was its soundtrack. Although the NES game features sound samples from the Atari 2600 versions of Donkey Kong and Pac-Man—the unofficial Wilhelm Scream of video game sound effects—it also came with a custom theme, an original 8-bit score composed by musician Joel Feinberg.

Feinberg's original direction for the Wrestle Jam score was surprisingly different from the final product.

"Originally they wanted it to sound like 'Bang Your Head' from Quiet Riot, but you know you have to be really careful doing something like that because it could end up costing you a lot of money," Feinberg said. "At the time there was no real buzz for this movie so things were tight. This was really a low budget film."

That real-life version of the Quiet Riot song would become The Ram's signature track, used during his approach to the ring.

Feinberg also took direction from Nintendo's classic Pro Wrestling for the NES.

"It reminded me to keep everything simple, not to 'over-write' the track. I think I made about 6 completely different versions, each one more simplified than the previous arrangement and different sound events."

"The director opted for the the most simplified version, I believe."

That track, titled "8-bit Wrestler," is barely audible in the final cut, but Feinberg has made a version available on YouTube.

While Wrestle Jam may not be a technical marvel, a month's worth of work from its two creators, plus Feinberg's score, went into making the NES game convincing as a narrative device.

"Given the prevalence of video games, you would think you'd see more of it," commented Robert Denerstein, former film critic at the Rocky Mountain News. "Advances in technology, like the introduction of the cell phone, have made things possible in storytelling that weren't possible before."

"I think it's something you'll see more of," Denerstein added. In the case of The Wrestler, the film critic says the references to the NES and Call of Duty 4 add a sort of poignancy, helping to make narrative leaps.

"I knew how Aronofsky was planning to work it in to the story but seeing it done was completely different. The way [Rourke] looked when he asked D'Leo to play, the whole back and forth about COD4, it really gave the feeling that Randy was living in a world that outgrew him," said Wrestle Jam programmer Furino on seeing his work in the film.

"I believe the movie would have been amazing without the game but I do like to think that my sister and I added a little something special. It was great that Aronofsky chose to go the rout of creating an actual game and I'm really grateful to him and my sister for the opportunity."

Similarly grateful was Infinity Ward to have their ultra-popular shooter used in the film.

"We were totally unaware that CoD4 was going to be referenced in the The Wrestler pre-release," explained Robert Bowling from Infinity Ward. "We got word of it before it went public, due to one of our guys getting into an early screening of the film and seeing the reference. Other than that, it was a total (and awesome) surprise to us."

"Personally, I thought Robert Siegel did the best game reference in a film I've seen in a long time, if not ever. It was natural and sold what they were going for with the scene," Bowling said.

But Bowling brushed aside accusations that the Call of Duty 4 reference was pre-planned or even product placement.

"I wish this was product placement," he quipped. "We should get some ‘Call it Duty 4?' shirts made."

D-Pad Hero, a retro "demake," uses rather simple-looking pad controls — simply press a button and one of the directional pad's axes in time with the beat — one's that appear to ramp up in difficulty rather quickly. This is a fully functioning Nintendo Entertainment System game, one that you can download and play on the emulator of your preference.

As you can see in the demo video above, it's not unlike Beatmania or Dance Dance Revolution in its interface. But the stylings are totally NES. Go on, grab yourself a copy. It has "Sweet Child O' Mine"...

D-Pad Hero [Official Site via Offworld]

With new jams like "Bubbles We Have Heard On Bobble" and "Have Yourself A Final Little Fantasy" we're not sure how you could resist. Or how you could hold on to your measly fifteen bucks, considering a donation of that amount will net you a physical copy — with snazzy artwork — in the coming weeks.

Go easy on those servers, kids. They look crushed.

8-Bit Jesus: Full Album Release [Doctor Octoroc]

Don't fight it, just download the nine blippy holiday jams, especially "Carol of the Belmonts" and "We Three Konami" if you know what's good for you. The good Doctor writes on his blog that the 8-Bit Jesus recordings seen here represent but half of the planned album. Oh goodie!

Maybe it's just the clever naming, but it does sound like he's nailed the beloved aural style of each and every game. Impressive. And merry!

8-Bit Jesus: New Christmas Chip-tune Album [Doctor Octoroc via Offworld]

LittleBigPlanet may be the stunt-modder's level design palette of choice these days, with some truly spectacular creations, but its not the only game in town.

Speilbergian Wii favourite Boom Blox comes with a nifty level editor too, and someone has spent a lot of time waggling that WiiMote to create Boom Bloxified recreations of 8-bit classic including Galaga, Duck Hunt, Pac-Man and Donkey Kong.

8 Bit Games Recreated in Boom Blox [GoNintendo]

Nestography [via GayGamer]

By way of GameSetWatch comes GameLab's mini-collection of video game inspired music videos, a rather solid grouping of retro and modern day nods to the genre. One that's missing, included above is DJ Shadow's "This Time", which is not only a finger-snapper, but a fine pixelated ode that's also fan created. Some respectable choices, including Cadence Weapon's video that's heavy with Punch-Out!! references. Other suggestions are, of course, welcome in the comments.

Top 5 Game-Inspired Music Videos [GameLab via GameSetWatch]

PQ Crash dropped us a line to point out that The Seattle Post-Intelligencer's playoff preview for the upcoming Seahawks' this weekend. The spread shows quarterback Matt Hasselbeck transformed into an 8-bit sprite in a landscape ripped from a Super Mario Bros. title.

Here's a nice weekend craft for all you olde shcool video game crafters. Lenore at Hacker Zen has made these awesome 8-bit Mario and Peach shirts using a few household sundries and acrylic fabric paint. The end result is really terrific and nothing wears better than something you made yourself. This way you won't be in danger of going to a party and finding three other people wearing that Pac-Man shirt you got from Target.

Lenore gives step by step instructions for you folks who are willing to put down the controller for a few hours and dedicate yourself to the project. But for god's sake DON'T USE PUFF PAINT. Flynn De Marco

Make a Video Game Pixel Art T-Shirt [Hacker Zen]

Apparently an IKEA employee in West Covina, California took it upon himself to create a little 8-bit art display at his store using IKEA's Perler Beads and Pegboards.

Where's the Metroid? Where dammit? Wheeeeeeeere? Brian Crecente

From ThinkGeek:

Hey! You! Quit emailing us to make this for REAL already ;) We promise, we'll make it. In fact we are already working on it. You've just forced our hand! Click the 'email me when available' link above to get notified! Thanks! I guess the joke is on us this year :p

But that WiiHelm? You're probably going to have to make your own. Thanks Janson! Michael McWhertor

The ThinkGeek 8-bit Tie [ThinkGeek]

For instance, the above pic is a teaser of Blain Hefner's Ms. Pac-Man tribute "One Call Does It All." He says of his inspiration:

I thought she was hot. Like, a Betty Rubble hot. In a polaroid taken at Pepperment Palace (a Chuck-E-Cheez-esque place that was Wichita Falls, TX looong ago), I can even be seen affectionately leaning up against the Misses, with her hubby none-the wiser next to me.

Not only did Ms. Pac-Man kick ass munchin' on ghosts, she did it all wearing nothing but red shoes, gloves,a bow and a smile. Long before Lara Croft, Ms. Pac-Man was THE original video game sex goddess.

Insert pause here. The rest of the entries are far less sexually confusing, but show off similar talent, so check them out. I'm going to go take a shower now. Michael McWhertor

Monki has the winners of the 8-bit Art Contest!! [Ain't It Cool News]

We've see a lot of gaming cakes, but here are some gaming cupcakes!

Little Gia is a new Zelda fan, apparently having reached a gaming epiphany with Twilight Princess. She wanted a Link cake fro her birthday, so instead of going the traditional route, mom, dad, grandma and her "crazy gaming uncles" came up with this 8-bit Link made from 143 delicious cupcakes.

At 36" by 44", this might be the biggest game related dessert treat we've seen. I have to say it was a pretty clever idea to use the cupcakes in place of the pixels. Maybe this will spawn a whole new generation of gamer cakes. Anyone want to try for a Samus? Flynn De Marco

link cake's photos [Flickr - Thanks, Chris]

Forget Lara Croft, Kasumi, and Vanessa Z. Schneider (rawr). They've got nothing on the girls of the NES, and Syd Lexia knows it. He's compiled a list of the 23 hottest 8-bit hotties, and rated them in three categories - hotness, inner beauty, and a special arbitrary category. I'd have to say Ariel from The Little Mermaid is my favorite.

Ariel is a mermaid which means that while she may look human, her lady business has been replaced with a fish tail. That's not cool. And while I certainly wouldn't WANT to make love to a mermaid, I probably would out of morbid curiousity; I need to know if fish genitalia smells like a woman.

Girls of the NES [SydLexia.com via Dark Diamond]