Google's playable Pac-Man anniversary logo provided the grist for last week's 'Shop Contest, which returned a staggering number of excellent submissions - including an actual playable logo.
Whittling this down to 20 was difficult; if you felt like you should have made the final gallery, you're probably right. We had tons of tributes to Zelda and to old-school platformers, OmegaNine, Spidery_Yoda (Bomberman) and The Yellow Peril (Mega Man) were a cut above. GoldVRod's Donkey Kong tribute and buckyboy2009's Dig Dug doodle look like ones we might actually see some day. Ditto (Zombie) Jölan's Pong logo, which looks like it would take about 10 seconds of coding.
Boopadoo came through with the obligatory Oregon Trail Joke. Burning read my mind and recognized the anniversary of GameSpot firing Jeff Gerstmann. XINVADER gets the typography award, and Edifice Complex went the extra mile for a desktop-worthy Fallout tribute.
In the end, Black Knight Rebel's playable Echochrome level (No. 4 in the gallery) gets the best-in-show blue ribbon, demonstrating creativity, industry, and a willingness to think outside the box. To play it, you need Echochrome on the PS3 with the latest firmware update. Then search for BlackKnightRebel under Cloud / ID Search / Blackknightrebel
Thanks again for making this 'Shop Contest one of the finest in the feature's short history, and we'll see you all in here tomorrow for another challenge.
(Zombie) Jölan
BKG67
boopadoo
Black Knight Rebel
buckyboy2009
Burning
data_enabler
Edifice Complex
FiveSpeed
GoldVrod
Jetter
Ogbert
OmegaNine
P4KO
rymas1
Spidery_Yoda
The Yellow Peril
Walnut Soap
XINVADER
Zak Canard