Atari has announced that they have a new entry in one of the oldest video game franchises around. Qomp2 is an upcoming game developed by Graphite Labs, and is the sequel to the shortform 2021 indie game, Qomp. It’s scheduled to hit PC, consoles, and mo??bile platforms in 2024.

Qomp was a spiritual success to 1972’s Pong, which is a game I probably don’t need to explain. Qomp is said to be the answe??r to the question, “What would happen if the pong ball escaped the paddles?�Well, I already know the answer to that. A point would be counted for? the opposite side. It’s the point of the game.

If it was up to me, the ball would break out into the real world and discover that it has to get a job to afford to live. Then, it would struggle with a dead-end job, bills, loneliness, and an uncaring society. It would yearn to return to the Pong playing field.

//youtu.be/tah154H6i1o?feature=shared

Emotions about balls

However, in Qomp’s universe, the ball goes on an adventure through a deadly, minimalistic labyrinth. Minimali?stic is pretty much the defining word here, as the challenges and movement are all based on a single button that changes the direction of the ball. It was also a short ?game, but it got some modest acclaim.

Qomp2 is bringing a second button to the input table. This one is a dash, and dashes make everything better. It promises “an enigmatic story of doubt, fear, and self-acceptance, told wordlessly with simple animations, effects, and the game mechanics themselves.�That sounds like an indie game, yeah. Interestingly, though, I’m not sure if the original developers are involved. The first Qomp was a group of indie devs united by Stuffed Wombat, but the sequel is being done by frequent Atari collaborator Graphite Labs.

Qomp 2 will release on PC, consoles??, and mobile platforms in 2024.

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Check the dates, not a joke

One of video gaming's grandfather brands, Pong, is set to make a metal-as-fuck comeback this spring. Publisher Atari and developer Chequered Ink have revealed the new action-adventure title Pong Quest, which will c??ome bli??p-blipping onto PC and consoles.

Pong Quest sees the retu?rn of the paddle bat from the 1972 arcade classic, as it comes screaming into 2020 with a new, colourful, genre-bending adventure. Traveling through dungeons, negotiating mazes, and engaging with friends and enemies alike, players will guide this brave rectangle as it fends off attackers with an arsenal of over 50 "Pong Balls," each with their own unique effects and attributes.

Alongside the story campaign, Pong Quest will feature a slew of multiplayer Battle Modes, adding fun new tweaks to the classic bat 'n' ball gameplay. A full customisation mo??de will allo??w you to unlock clothing and accessories for your paddle, making it the coolest bat on the block. Check out the new trailer below and remember: Avoid Missing Ball for High Score.

Pong Quest?? launches this spring on PS4, PC, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.

Pong Quest is a new Atari?? RPG starring a Pong paddle [IGN]

The post Remember Pong? It’s back, in Quest form! appeared first on Destructoid.

I nominate this as The Official Sport of Destructoid

In today's contest, we're giving away copies of wacky and weird multiplayer game Toasterball!

Yo??u guys know how much I love weird stuff. I don't have to kee??p telling you -- but you can bet your sweet ass I won't stop. Today's prey is a nice little treat that falls perfectly in line with that mantra!

Toasterball is a party game where you hit a ball back ?and forth. Using toasters. And also the toast. This is great, and I'm not even going to say any more about it. We've got some Steam Early Access keys to give away, so just shut up and win one!

I've already said all I'm going to on the matter -- you bounce a ball back and forth using toasters. You can score against the other team if their toaster isn't up to snuff. You can either play for the Burners or the Defrosters, and ca??n select different toasters with their own personalities. There will be mini-games once it fully releases, too! Yay!

Honestly, if you're reading this article and don't think this sounds like the perfect game to become Destructoid's Official Sport, then maybe you should rethink some things?.

So, that's how you enter to win -- either agree with me in declaring Toasterball the official site esport, or come up with a suitable alternative. Nay, a better alternative. Ya gotta?? make this one a doozy, folks. It's up against some real stiff competition.

We've got 10 Steam Early Access keys to give away; winners will be drawn Tuesday, January 21. Make sure to comment using a Dtoid account with your current email address on file. Don't have a Dtoid account? Create one here to prove how right I am at this kind of thing.

Toasterball is available in Steam Early Access with a full release expected this summer. Head over to our sister site, PC Invasion, for more chances to score a copy!

The post Contest: Pong a??nd a Kit?chenAid made love, birthed TOASTERBALL appeared first on Destructoid.

Industry pioneer co-developed Pong and Computer Space

Samuel "Ted" Dabney, electronics engineer and co-founder of legendary studio Atari, passed away this weekend at the age of 81. The sad news was broken by friend and gaming historian Leonard Herman.

Dabney, who was born in San Francisco in 1937, picked up a taste for electronics during a three-year stint in the Unite?d States Marine Corps. After attending university to hone his skills, Dabney would later work at data processing service Ampex, where, in 1969, he would meet another soon-to-be industry legend, Nolan Bushnell.

Together Bushnell and Dabney would form Syzygy, (later Atari Inc.) in 1971. The duo would create Computer Space - the first arcade game ever made - and later, along with fellow Ampex employee Al Alcorn, Atari would develop the immensely successful bat-and-ball title, Pong.

Dabney would ?leave Atari in 1973, continuing to work in the field of computers and electronics, before leaving the industry completely in the early '80s. The video game pioneer would then settle for a quieter life, managing grocery outlets with his wife, Carolyn.

While Ted Dabney's contributions are not always referenced as often as those by his former colleagues, his impact on building ?the industry that we know and love today is etched indelibly in video? game history. We at Destructoid offer our condolences to his friends and family.

Ted Dabney, Atari co-founder, passes away. [Leonard Herman]

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One of gaming's greatest minds

Ralph Baer was an electronics and engineering pioneer, known as the "father of videogames." Baer designed the Magnavox Odyssey, starting work on the machine in the late 1960s before releasi?ng it in 1972, when it became the world's first commercial home console.

This footage of Baer playing The Brown Box (a prot?otype of the Odyssey) dates all the way back to 1969. Throughou??t his life, Baer stayed active in the electronics and gaming communities to which he helped give birth.

He received the National Medal of Technology from President George W. Bush in 2006. I'm su?re that Mr. Baer would be happy to know that he's affected millions upon millions of people. Not bad f?or a life's work.

_{This post has been updated to correct factual errors.}

The post Father of videogames Ralph Baer passes away at 92 appeared first on Destructoid.

Make the gamers dance 'cause he's rock 'n' rollin'

What's more metal than a 17-minute instrumental medley featuring some of your favorite video game tracks? Anything Nathan Explosion touches, but that's beside the point. This impressive project was three years in the making, and it features 38 different songs ranging from Pong to World of Warcraft.

The 23-year-old artist, Jules Conroy, has obviously put an abundance of time and energy into this project, and it has to be heard to be believed. Even if you're not a metal or hard rock fan, there's s??omething to like in this megamix. Just don't call it "epic" and you'll stay on my good si?de.

The post Get stuck in the metal?? with this 17-minute tribute to video games appeared first on Destructoid.

One of Nintendo's first "characters" joins the all-star cast

There was a time when Pong was one of the most popular videogames in the world. This was a time when games were often freely copied by anyone who wanted to take a stab at the fragile, untested world of videogame publishing. Case in point -- the Color TV Game 15, a Nintendo home console from 1978 that played 15 slightly different versions of Pong-like called Light Tennis.

The console will be making an appearance in the Wii U version of the next Smash Bros as an assist trophy that, like the Devil in Smash Bros. Brawl, transforms the entire screen into a recreation of a classic game. It sounds like Sakurai and the rest of the development team has worked particularly hard on keeping the pad??dle speed consistent with the original game. ?;

Stuff like this that shows that Smash Bros. is still a labor of love. Pong is not exactly hot with the 18-35 year-old male demographic that most of the videogame industry is tripping over itself to appease right now, but th??ey're still going for it.

Smash Bros. Wii U/3DS - May 15th screen [Gonintendo]

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Trust me, you want to watch this video

There were a lot of highlights out of Awesome Games Done Quick 2014 this year, but this one in particular takes the cake for me. During the Tool Assisted Videos portion of the marathon, the people behind TASVideos.org shared this very special demonstration based on Super Mario World.

Masterjun is the creator of this TAS, and basically he was able to make Pong and Snake within Super Mario World without hacking it. There were eight controllers connected to the Super Nintendo via multitaps (??remember those?) all synced to the TAS Bot,  a Raspberry Pi attached to that R.O.B.

Here's the technical breakdown from TASVideos.

"In short: I manipulate where the moving objects (sprites) are located or where they despawn, then I s??wap the item in Yoshi's mouth with a flying ?-block (thus the yellow glitched shell) and using a glitch (stunning) to spawn a sprite which ??????????????????????????isn't used by SMW and since it tries to jump to the sprite routine location, it indexes everything wrong and jumps to a place I manipulated earlier with the sprites (OAM) and because of the P-Switch it jumps to controller registers and from there the arbitrary code execution is started."

You can watch the live demonstration and explanation starting at around the 32-minute mark.

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Mo' games

In March, New York's Museum of Modern Art added 14 videogames to its Architecture and Design collection, with the intent of acquiring 40 over the next few years. The initial group was a varied sample, from Tetris to Vib-Ribbon to Canabalt.  

Among the hopeful additions are Grim Fandango, Chrono Trigger, Space Invaders, The Legend of Zelda, and Super Mario 64. However, the newest additions come mostly from the 70's and 80's, outside of the wildly popular Minecraft, including a console addition: the Magnavox Odyssey. Architecture and Design supervisor Paul Galloway said of the recent selections, "[i]n the infancy of this field a small number of visionaries laid the g??roundwork for where? we are now: an industry of tremendous range and creative output."

So: the Magnavox Odyssey (1972), Pong (1972), Space Invaders (1978), Asteroids (1979), Tempest (1981), Yar’s Revenge (1982), Minecraft (2011). Anything else you th?ink needs to make it in??to those hallowed halls? 

Video Games: Seven More Building Blocks in MoM??A’s Collection [MoMA]

The post MoMA adds retro pioneers, Minecraft to ?its art collection appeared first on Destructoid.

'dat adorable bear

Of all the news I expected to be covering during E3, I never thought I'd be typing the words "Google Chrome," "Pong," and "Bear" in the same sentence, but there you go. Google has launched another goofy in-browser experiment called Cube Slam, and it's basically browser Pong with cute animals, ?power-ups, and a retro soundtrack.

All you have to do is head to Cubeslam.com to play. You can either game with the AI in the form of the bear or generate a live link to send to our friends for multiplayer -- although the latter is only available in a Chrome browser itself. O??r you could just let the screen sit and watch the wildlife roam around -- which I totally didn't do while writing this article.

The post Play pong with Bob the Bear in Google Chrome’s Cube Slam appeared first on Destructoid.

Celebrate PONG's 40th anniversary in style!

[Update: Contest over! Check Atari'??s Facebook page for the winner!]

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the release of the original PONG! To commemorate the occasion, Atari is releasing Pong World, the $50,000 grand prize winner of the Pong Indie Developer Challenge and first ever official Pong game to appear on iOS devices. Go check it out!

But that's not all! Atari is also partnering with your friends at Destructoid to give away the amazing Atari 2600-skinned Xbox 360 you s?ee above! Complete with an attached LCD screen, this one-of-a-kind system is the ?complete package!

To have a chance at winning, all you need to do is complete the word puzzle you see below and submit your answer via Atari's Facebook page. Be sure to leave us a comment here as well letting us know you've submitted! (But no posting ?the answer -- that'd be cheating!)

Here's your puzzle:

Word Scramble
Unscramble the words in the image below.
Hint: Naturally, it has to do with PONG.

Remember, once you think you know the answer, submit it via Atari's Facebook page. You have until December 2 at 11:59 PM Pacific to enter, and you can find more details ??on the contest page. Good luck!

The post Contest: Win an Atari 2600-themed Xbox 360! appeared first on Destructoid.

Pong is almost 40 years old, which means it's probably going to get a sporty wee convertible and start hooking up with people half its age. To celebrate Pong's impending anniversary, Atari has challenged indie developers to do the impossible. They will have two days to circumnavigate the globe in a Pong themed hot air balloon. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating. The reality is infinitely less cool, Atari actually want indie devs to make Pong for iOS. The winning version will be published on the App Store by Atar??i and the victorious developers will receive a $100,000 prize. A panel of industry folks, including Nolan Bushnell, will be judging the games and picking three winners.

While remaking an archaic tennis game for an increasingly irrelevant publisher might sound like a dream come true, the devil is in the details. The fine print reveals that this deal is slightly sour. Developers will lose any rights to their games, so there's nothing stopping Atari from stealing the ideas from various applicants and just making their own Frankenstein Pong. The not insignificant $100,000 prize is also not all that it appea??rs to be. Half of that su?m is dependent on the game actually being a success.

While it sounds like a good opportunity for indie developers to get some more exposure I can't imagine that remaking Pong is going to be the most fulfilling experience. I'm certainly not jealous of the poor bastards who are going to have to go through all these potential Pong remakes to make a short list. Atari's u??nsurprising caveats in the fine print might put a few developers off, as well. There's probably more than a few indie devs who are independent so they can avoid this sort of shifty bullshit.

The post Atari is bringing back the pong appeared first on Destructoid.

I was lucky enough to bump into Mike Roush and Alex Neuse of Gaijin Games at E3 while shopping for bananas. I was even luckier to find that they had a work-in-progress build of Bit.Trip SAGA (the 3DS collection of all six critically acclaimed Bit.Trip titles) in their pocket.

"F*ck bananas," I told t??hem. "I need to play this thing, li??ke, yesterday."

So I played it, and here's what I thought.

Bit.Trip SAGA is a relatively straight port of the six Bit.Trip games as they previously appeared on WiiWare. That said, there were a few changes. For one, the two Pong-influenced games in the series (Bit.Trip BEAT and Bit.Trip FLUX) that utilized motion-based "paddle" controls on the Wii, now use the touch-screen cont?rols.

It's similar to how Bit.Trip BEAT controls on the iPad and iPhone, but without the risk of your own fingers obscuring the action on screen. The game is displayed on the 3D top screen, while you gently glide your finger or stylus around on the bottom screen. It feels a bit like the rolling ball bits of Elite Beat Agents/Ouendan, but even more fast paced and insane.

You can also use the 3DS' circle pad controls if you want, but as anyone who has played Bit.Trip BEAT or Bit.Trip FLUX knows, you'r?e not going to want to be limited by a conventional control scheme when the action gets really crazy.

The other game to get major changes in its control scheme is Bit.Trip FATE. Instead of using the Wii pointer to aim, you now guide the aiming reticule on the touch screen. Again, you won't have to risk obscuring your view of the game, as all the action takes place on the top screen in 3D. Spe??aking of 3D, every game in this collection look great.

The relatively flat Bit.Trip VOID now has a subtle pop, like you're peering down at the bizarre dietary habits of some pixel based amoeba. The deep, complex backgrounds in Bit.Trip CORE are even more eye catching (and potentially visually distracting). As for Bit.Trip RUNNER, that game always looks amazing, but with the 3D ??on, the game's world looks even more alive. 

The improved visuals aren't just related to the new 3D display. I noticed right away that some of Bit.Trip FATE's character models look more striking. Specifically, they look a lot shinier, like they had some sort of reflective texture applied to them (though it's not certain that these new textures will be in the final build of the ??game).

It sounds like the guys at Gaijin intend to add little fixes and visual flourishes whenever possible, but seeing as they're also working on a Bit.Trip Complete for the Wii, and? some unannounced secret projects, they're going to have to keep their priorities straight.

For me, getting Bit.Trip on the go will be enough. Every game in the series makes for perfect pick-up and go play (particularly RUNNER and FLUX), and having the option to play the games whenever I want, wherever I want, is a luxury I think I can afford. The 3DS is also the perfect vessel for me to show these games off to ??the world.

It still pains me that so few people have given the Bit.Trip series a try, but with the SAGA in the palm of my hands, it will be easy to hit the streets and spread the Bit.Trip gospel wherever I go.

The post Bit.Trip SAGA pops and locks on the 3DS appeared first on Destructoid.

While many of us would argue that Pong in 3D is called tennis a few enterprising gamers out there thought differently. They thought that Pong in 3D should be Pong. So they went ahead and made a tabletop versi?on of it with a real ball a??nd little flippy pads. It's an interesting concept, but in practice it seems to fall a little flat.

The guys describe this as their first attempt at it so I suppose the lack of functionality can be excused, but you'd think they would have thought to slant the table towards each side a bit so the ball wouldn't stop rolling. I think if they do a bit more work on it and maybe make those numbers change automatically when the ball is missed they could have the next Crossfire in their hands.

Pong Fans Create 3D Version Of Atari Game [KFSM]

The post Pong goes 3D, fails appeared first on Destructoid.

Have you been looking for a far less efficient, but suitably awesome way to control your games? Let's say a guitar so you could jam out while performing a fatality? Yale School of Music graduates David Hindman and Evan Drummond have come up with a way to play Mortal Kombat III with a classical electric guitar. It's art. Called Modal Kombat, the artistic experiment "lies at the intersection between music, visual arts, and digital media that results in the defining of a new genre of audio-visual performance: the public guitar-controlled video game battle." Uhhhh...GUITARISTS FIGHTING EA?CH OTHER!!!

From the videos of the events that they hold it looks like the controls are cool, but not very functional. Of course they probably aren't supposed to be. The scheme seems to be designed more as a show or art piece than anything else. They play some Pong and Super Mario Kart as well, but again it seems less like actual controls and more like artistic experiment. It's a cool concept whether it works really well or not and they're doing live shows. If you'd like to check them out then you should head here and make sure you live in New York, California or Toronto. ?;

[Via noobde's Twitter]

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This really awesome video you’re about to watch was originally created as the prologue for a documentary on addictions to MMORPGs. Not sure what’s going on with that documentary, but wh??o ca??res. This video by Vimeo user MuscleBeaver is just full of win.

It starts off simple with some animations from Pong, Pac-Man and Space Invaders. Nothin??g too weird yet but then Mario pops out of the Space Invaders ship and goes on a f**k??ing rampage. Beats the sh*t out of everything, kills a Piranha Plant by peeing on it and just acts like a giant douchebag.

Then Guybrush Threepwood comes out of nowhere, the film turns into an FPS, Mario has sex with Lara Croft's leg and a giant vide?ogame orgy occu?rs.

Yup.

Check it out for yourself after the break.

[Via GoNintendo]

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I just got an email from an anonymous source featuring an image (seen above) with the file name "9_113_141520_11215145" and the text "Soon, our trip will continue. Sincerely, Only a man". At first I assumed it was Tron related, what with my well known love of the movie and that new sequel coming out. Then I thought harder, and remembered this wallpaper from a while back, which led me to get really excited. 

I think this may be the new teaser image for the next Bit.Trip game.

Simple, original, and compelling are the three words I'd use to describe Bit.Trip Beat. It's without a doubt one of my favorite games of 2009, so the thought that I may be one of the first to get an exclusive look at the next entry in the Bit.Trip series has my mind all aflutter with joy. Very little is currently known about what's in store for the next Bit.Trip, other than it's planned to be a totally new experience, but will be rhythm/action base?d just like the original.

Is my wild, unbridled excitement for more Bit.Trip blinding me, or do you th?ink I'm on the right track? What do you think that file name means? What kind of gameplay does the image imply?

I'm too excited to think straight, peopl??e. Help me understand what's going on.&nbs??p;

The post Is this an exclusive sneak peek at the new Bit.Trip ??game? appeared first on Destructoid.

Out of all the games that make up this "retro-revival" thing that's going on right now, Bit.Trip Beat is probably the "retro-est." Like the Geometry Wars games, Bit.Trip Beat takes its cues from the pre-NES era of gaming, but unlike that new American classic, Bit.Trip Beat doesn't just feel old-school; it completely revels in the fact that it's basically a glorified Atari 2600 game. From controls to graphics to sound, the game is often indistinguishable from something made in 1975. To borrow that strongly from an era that predates many Wii owners b??????????????????????????y ten, twenty, or even thirty years, is a bold move indeed.

Bit.Trip Beat feels like a game from an alternate version of Earth, where Space Invaders, Pac-Man and other games with actual "characters" never came into being. Imagine if after Pong, games just kept evolving in that direction: remaining totally abstract, button-free, and with all player movement restricted to the Y-axis. That's Bit.Trip Beat, a game from a wo?r??ld where the Atari 9999 is the most popular console on the planet.

Is this alternate reality a place ?you want to go to? Does rejecting ??of thirty years of gaming "evolution" lend itself to a fun experience? Hit the jump to find out.

Bit.Trip Beat (WiiWare)
Developer: Gaijin Games
Publisher: Aksys Games
Released: March 16, 2009
MSRP: 600 Wii Points

On paper, Bit.Trip Beat is just a really weird shmup: a shmup where you can't shoot, can't move horizontally, and have to hit bullets and obstacles instead of avoid them. That may sound fun to you, or it may not. Either way it doesn't matter, because Bit.Trip Beat on paper has nothing to do with Bit.Trip Beat in practice. Actually playing Bit.Trip Beat is like nothing else I've ever done; it made me laugh, cry, and most importantly, completely dissociate from my body. The game's name is totally literal; Bit.Trip Beat really can take you on a trip, but it's not a trip to another physical place. Instead, the game can take your brain to?? another state of mind: that "zone" that p??eople usually can only get to with hallucinogens, meditation, or tantric sex.

Unlike most modern games, Bit.Trip Beat doesn't try too hard to create a believable visual world for the player to enter; instead, it hypnotizes you by throwing a series of increasingly complex visual patterns on screen, all arranged in perfect unison with the game's driving soundtrack. As the game progresses, this combination of sights and sounds becomes so engrossing that passing hours will feel like minutes. The more you play, the less aware you become of the world around you, until all that exists in your world are you and the beats (the formal? name for those little dots flying at you).

Sadly, due to necessity of design, the game takes its time before it gets that engrossing. The whole game is controlled via "tilt" controls, and requires no buttons or even D-pad/analog sticks. People who haven't be?en into gaming since the 1970s will feel right at home here, but anyone used to manipulating analog sticks or 6-12 button controllers might need some time to get acclimated. For this game, "some time" means two o?r so minutes at the start of the first level, which consists of very easy beat patterns to contend with as you learn just how much a twist of the wrist affects your paddle on-screen.

After that, the game goes completely bananas.

Just when you think you've seen every kind of beat that the game could throw at you, another one rears its evil head. There are bouncing beats, shrinking beats, laser beats, disappearing beats, wall beats, streaming beats, power-up beats, stalling beats -- the list goes on and on. This leads to many moments through the course of a game where you'll start to feel a false sense of security. You'll think you have the beats under control. You'll think that they can't possibly get the best of you (again), then suddenly a flurry of never-before-seen beats will show up and? you'll have no idea how to deal with them. This flow between panic, calm, and panic forces the player to be constantly on their toes.

If you miss too man?y beats in a row, you're screwed. Conversely, if you hit enough beats in a row, you'll be pleasantly rewarded. With every successful hit, a meter at the top of the screen fills a little bit more. Fill it all the way to the end, and the music will change from a straight chiptune arrangement to a more fully fleshed out synth sound. It's a truly satisfying reward to hear the game's soundtrack become more "legit" as you, in turn, become more "legit" at playing it. If you play for points, entering this mode (called Multi+) is an even bigger deal, as it also increases your score multiplier (seen in the bottom right hand corner of the screen). Any combo above ten hits increases this multiplier as well, so staying in Multi+ mode while racking up huge combos is the best way to get a monster score. 

Miss too many beats, and you'll drop out of Multi+, and back into the game's standard "Hyper" mode. Lose more beats from there, and you enter "Nether" mode, where everything is in black and white, and the music dies completely. Suddenly being unable to see what color the incoming beats are makes it almost impossib?le to tell what type of beats they are. If you don't know what kind of beats are coming at you, you won't know what their movement patterns are, either, which makes it extremely tough to hit them with any accuracy. Losing the music also makes it harder to stay on beat, making it even harder to know where you should be at what time. Being in Nether is really a fate worse than death, which causes a genuine sense of panic as you struggle to hit enough beats to climb back into Hyper mode. 

There are no checkpoints in any of the game's three levels, so if you die, you have to start over. Seeing as each of the game's three levels are about 15 minutes long, it can be really frustrating to die 12 minutes into a level and be forced to start over from the beginning. But since the game?? is so damn weird, you??'ll really want to stuff that frustration down to see see what happens next. The game's bosses are especially surprising. I don't want to give it all away, but let's just say that the game's agenda to provide a new take on "paddle" gaming doesn't stop with its boss fights. They'll all evoke a sense of familiarity for those who've been playing videogames for over 25 years, but never in a way that feels cheap or forced.

Something I didn't realize about the game at first is that it allows for up to four-player simultaneous co-op. This is what really takes the game from being great to superb. For a lot of people, the Wii has become their "living room" console, which means that having the option to include the family in the gaming experience is a must for keeping a shared space from becoming monopolized by just one person. Bit.Trip Beat's gameplay turns out to be perfect for this, as co-op really does work to accentuate nearly every aspect of the game. For one, co-op can make the game less painfully difficult, but not to the point where it ever gets too easy. On the flip side, co-op can also make the game more panic-inducing. The more players there are, the smaller all ??the paddles become, making it harder for each individual to successfully hit beats. Also, when the game goes to black and white, good luck telling your pa??ddles apart from each other. It's stuff like this that makes thes the co-op work so well; it helps the game to achieve all its goals to an even greater extent, while simultaneously allowing for more people to enjoy the game at once. 

While co-op is definitely one of the game's greatest strengths, it also belies its one major design flaw. All padd??les are forced to share the same movable area, causing inevitable overlaps. This causes unnecessary confusion and could have easily been fixed by staggering each player's movable area by a few p?ixels.

There are a few other things I could imagine people might find irritating about the game, though none of them actually bothered me. One is that in order to start at one of the game's three levels whenever you want, you have to not only get to it, but get a high score on it as well. Personally, I thought that was a cute touch, as if the game's designer was saying, "Only those with high scores are worth remembering," a very old-school arcade notion. Game length might also be an issue for some. It too??k me over ten hours to beat the whole game, but it's my understanding that some particularly talented paddle-jockeys have done it in about half that. People's eyes might also get tired from playing the game, as keeping your eye on the ball(s) gives both your eyes and your brain a huge workout. Again, none of these factors were an issue for me, but others might find? them bothersome.

All in all, the game is must-play for anyone studying game design and/or fans of high-pressure gameplay. Bit.Trip Beat feels like a an intentional deconstruction of videogames as a whole, with all forms of complexity stripped away in favor of delivering a simple, concentrated experience. This lack of pretense isn't totally new; WarioWare and Shadow of the Colossus both went for it in their own ways, but never to this extreme. All hoity-toity analysis ??aside, the game is just really fun, filled w?ith catchy music, interesting design decisions, and both "eureka!" and "oh shit!" moments to spare. The only people I'd advise to stay away from the game are those who hate everything about gaming pre-1985. Everyone else will find at least $6 worth of fun here.

Score: 9.0 --Superb (9s are a hallmark of excellence. There may be flaws, but they are negligible and won't cause massive damage to what is a supreme title.)

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I've seen enough cheesy gamer shirts to last me a lifetime. That's why a company like G8 catches my attention by taking a different type of approach. The concept here is both brand-aware and dynamic - a more understated look for some styles and a totally over the top look for others. The Tetris and Space prints are my personal? favorites, but I'm definitely interested to see more of what they will do in the future. The  goal is to go for a Quiksilver type of brand, ?but aimed at the gamer lifestyle and produced in limited quantity.

G8 is owned by Tony Crisp, who has won an award for Best Fashion Designer and spent solid time in the fashion industry. With a brain like that behind the idea, it could be great. However, most gamers will tell you they just want to buy a t shirt. We've laughed at high-end designers incorporating game references into their products before. With? a price point higher than the average shirt, but not venturing into the laughable range, would slightly higher-end gamer apparel appeal to you? 

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CNN, Ted Turner's foray into the acrimonious world of televised dog-wagging, launched its first foray into gaming recently with the release of Presidential Pong, a Flash title destined to be exactly as entertaining as the original Pong; that is, not at all.

While this newly politicized update of the classic adds special abilities for the characters (drawn from the ranks of the Republican and Democratic presidential hopefuls) based on tongue-in-cheek depictions of their campaign strengths, it also loses the innocence that made the original Pong so insanely addictive, and, as the years went on, an electronic counterpart to the heartwarming traditionalism of a Thomas Kinkade painting. I guess?? the sort of people who don't giggle after saying 'caucus' migh??t think this spin on the formula is clever, but those of us without direct access to Ted Kennedy's hooch closet will tire of it after a few moments, and only the lingering bitterness of a group of candidates that clearly embody the collapse of the last world superpower will remain etched in your mind.

Am I the ??only one who misses the wily antics of Ross Perot?, or the fat-assed joviality of William Howard Taft?

Ah well, it could be worse. We could be English. 

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