Yesterday I finally got around to playing Machinarium. Well, the demo at least. If you're unfamiliar with it, it's a point and click adventure game from the makers of Samorost. If you're unfamiliar with that, then do yourself a favour and play it already.
 
But back to Machinarium. From the beautiful hand drawn art style to the dreamy soundtrack to the clever puzzles, the game oozes charm. Seriously, Jude Law ain't got shit on this.
 
So, who else is looking forward to this? Most likely not many, since the forum here is practically dead. I'm considering buying the German boxed version.
 
 
 

Earlier today I came across this cool video of Mario autoplaying a custom but cool nonetheless level. In the comments a dude posted a link to this blog, edwilde, hosting an apparently "NOT fake" autoplay video.

There I found some of the coolest shit on the web collected in one blog. 77 pages of it. I know this sounds like an advertisement, but where else would you find a psychedelic milk video?

When it comes to video games, most people consider the 16-bit era the "Golden Age" of video games. Classic Nintendo franchises such as Super Mario Bros., Zelda, Metroid etc. arguably reached their peak on the SNES while Sonic was doing his thing on Sega's Mega Drive/Genesis. Not to mention the Neo Geo and the TurboGrafx-16.

As we approach the end of the decade talk has already begun on next-gen consoles. Will Microsoft and Sony follow Nintendo's lead? Already we've seen them play catch-up with Project Natal and ball-on-a-stick respectively. Will Nintendo simply release Wii HD? Or will newcomer OnLive change gaming as we know it? Who knows? All we can do is speculate, but some things are certain. Namely, price. Gaming will continue to remain expensive and consumers will respond accordingly, opting for the cheaper alternative such as the Wii. Where am I going with this?

Well, I have a dream.

Wouldn't it be cool if one of the big three, say, Nintendo, turned back the clock and released a 8 or 16-bit console? It would be:

1. Affordable

   Cheap to produce, cheap to develop for and most importantly, cheap to buy.
   

2. Easy

   Developers are no doubt familiar with the existing technology, so surely devoloping games for it wouldn't prove to be that difficult, right? Perhaps they could even make it open platform and let us develop games?
   

3. Reliable

   How many of you have a working Nintendo 64? On the other hand, how many of you have sent in your 360 to be repaired? Since the introduction of the CD, it seems consoles have become less reliable.
   

But EVO, Nintendo are already doing this with the Virtual Console! Sure, but what would you rather:










This raises the whole digital vs. physical debate, which is a whole different story. But personally, I think you're a little dead inside if you wouldn't wanna physical copy of Mega Man 9 in your hands.

So, would you welcome this idea?

Well, you'll love Little Wheel. I was browsing lbpcentral earlier and came across this gem of a flash game. Synopsis:

"There was once a world of living robots. But one day a bad accident occured in the main power generator. The world fell into a deep sleep. Bring life back to the world!"

As you can see the art style is beautiful and it has a killer jazz soundtrack to boot. It'll only take you 10-15 minutes to finish, so if you haven't already, you owe it to yourself to check it out.


Also, I'd love to see Giant Bomb do reviews or even quick look-type videos on flash games like this. I think it could make for some funny viewing whilst promoting games that deserve attention.