You signed a lot of Guitar Hero controllers. Is that cool?

It's fucking way cool.

Our kids love playing Guitar Hero and Rock Band. It's awesome. There's something really positive coming out of video games. It's so cool to sit there and have your kids talk to you about Deep Purple and Black Sabbath and Soundgarden.

Sonic's Thrilling Return to 2D [UK:R]

My 13 year old managed to break the vacuum....thinking it would release him from that duty. He also has a list of other chores that were TYPED up for him to do Friday afternoon....one thing on the list was done...mind you these are simple things...empty the trash, clean your room, etc. Then I go thru the cookies on his computer and find out he has been checking out porn sites. Now there is a password so he can't even get on and his my-space page has a picture of snoopy on it now. Apparently I'm the meanest mom in the world, were his words.

I'm a single mom. I can't let them walk over me or I might never get up.

Hit the jump for another pic.

Pokemon Telegram [Pokemon.co.jp via Japan Newbie]

I was bored over Easter and after reading something about a kid making his own DS out of paper, I decided to try and make one of my own, surprisingly it actually started working...

Maybe, tomorrow, too.

According to Lafemmereaper:

I wanted the icing to be black, however I settled for grey - the black colouring got so messy (as I watched somebody else get black staining on their hands...that wouldn't wash off for two days...)

It still took me three weeks just to get it to the right grey colour.

Before you DDR freaks criticize that the speakers are not meant to be that way, I was trying to stay true to the machine, but icing bags are awfully hard to control when you are learning to decorate a cake for the first time. The arrows on the screen were all piped on when the cake was standing up - ie. it was vertical. I also realise that the red "bars" (those 3D curvy bits at the front) should have a black bit on them, but I've left that off as it was too complicated to stick on (the black icing didn't want to stick to anything.)

Thunderous applause!

DDR Cabinet [That Girl's Site]

Oh. Wait. Sorry.

Anyway, hit the jump for two more pics and zero disgusting shirt sex puns. Promise.

Stickers, buttons and awesome labels — the little touches are just great.

Thanks, Josh!

Zelda on a carrot [Jyouhouya]

The game is one hundred percent hand drawn. There is zero cell shading in The King of Fighters XII.

Hardcore. That means that an actual human hands lovingly drew and colored in everything in the game. Every single frame, every character and every background. Everything — down to the game's in-game title. SNK gave us the full rundown, so here's how it worked: The original character drawings were modeled into 3D. Those 3D models were then rendered back into 2D. That way the 2D characters could have a greater depth of motion. Since the 2D models were devoid of color and details, artists went through each character, background, image and painstakingly added colors and drew in details pixel-by-pixel on a tablet PC. In one day, one artist would be able to draw one frame and a half for whatever image he or she was working on.

"We knew it was going to be hard going in," says Kukino. "But we wanted to make the ultimate 2D fighting game." Up close, that meticulous attention to detail becomes apparent, and you're always noticing a flourish here or a nice touch there. Every inch of the screen has something interesting going on. "We wanted the look of the game to have more in common with manga or anime," Kukino adds. With KoFXII, it looks like SNK hasn't only created another stylized 2D fighter, but this time, a genuine work of art.

NES FFVII [Insert Credit]

Locust Toy [Action Figure Insider Thanks, Chris!]

Controls were what you would expect from the game, nice and tight. But the graphics, oh man, they look soooooo nice! The backgrounds are incredibly detailed. If you look at them, you noticed all sorts of nice things. Like some letters were falling off a sign after a big attack. The entire game is an absolutely stunning package. You play on a widescreen high-res screen, and all the characters were beautifully rendered. Even the chest hair on the wrestler guy Zangief looked nice! It's one of the most beautiful, complete fighters I've seen. Ever.

[Thanks, Jean!]

PlayTV in Action [Three Speech via Gay Gamer]

Hit the jump for a higher quality clip. Do it!

The last few years, we've seen an all-time high in sales of machines for home use... The buyers of these machines are families, husbands and wives who grew up playing the games in the arcades and today want them for their game rooms.

Mizuguchi: ...What is music? Music has many elements, so how can we cut and separate and remake the parts in the process of game design? So then, game designers have to know what is fun, what is the essence of music?

Matsuura: Essence of music, I don't know. I really don't understand the essence of music. I've been composing music for thirty years, and I still don't understand what music is. But I'm still looking for the certain shape of my music. Anybody who can define the existence of music, I really respect.

Mizuguchi: Yeah, I agree with you. Music is like a universe — many, many elements. Lyrics, chords, rhythm, beats, playing, listening. Emotionally, you feel something. When I was 11 years old, I listened to my first Beatles music. I couldn't understand English, but I felt emotion or something, sort of... I want to love somebody! It's the power of music, of chords... very physical things, very emotional things. Not logic — I don't know, maybe logic. If I understand the lyrics, and it's a new chemistry. Music, we have a long history with music, but new music is coming still. I don't know why. It's a universe. Amazing.

Thanks, Witz!

Thanks, Torokun!

It was dwarfed by some of the larger creations there but was still very cool to see. A lot more cool than the Al Gore snow sculpture that looked like Kim Jong-il.