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One of the most uncanny moments of my young life was wandering through a dollar store and stumbling upon a rack of action figures with the most boring packaging imaginable. Each toy sat in its bubble pack on a red card that was completely blank except for the word "SPACE" written in bizarre cartoon letters.

It was pretty much the kind of thing one would expect to see in a dollar store, except that I immediately recognized the figures themselves as Zitz, Rash, and Pimple, the stars of the infamously difficult 8-bit classic Battletoads.

I never understood how those figures got there, or what was up with that packaging. My point, though, is that these Battletoads sculptures, courtesy of artist and toy designer Sam De Jesus, are cooler than those other ones in every possible way.

De Jesus crafted the Toads out of Super Sculpey modeling clay for a commission. You can see more of the making of these statues in this image gallery, and you can check out more cool gaming artwork at his website.

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James Rolfe, better known to his fans as the Angry Video Game Nerd, has entertained gamers with his hilarious and vulgar reviews of terrible retro games for years, but one title has eluded his ire: E.T. for the Atari, which many call the worst game ever made.

Well, Rolfe will finally take on E.T. but not in a short 15-minute video. Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie is a feature-length film which sees the nerd search for the rumored landfill where Atari supposedly dumped unsold copies of its horrible game.

You can check out the first trailer for the movie after the break.

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LA Game Space wants to upgrade and democratize the creative video game community. The non-profit company is aiming to create a facility in downtown Los Angeles where people of different disciplines can come together to research, collaborate, and make new forms of interactive entertainment. The founders also envision it to be a place for workshops, lectures, and more.

They’re currently trying to collect enough coins from backers (via Kickstarter) to unlock this promising center. Some of the prizes for donating include 30 exclusive, independently developed games (including a collaboration from the creator of the animated series Adventure Time), founders credit, T-shirts, and even a cameo in the next Bit.Trip Runner title.  

I had a chance to talk with directors/co-founders Daniel Rehn and Adam Robezzoli, along with advisory board member Jeremy Douglass, about their objectives with LA/GS. Check out my interview to see why this just might be one of the most important new headquarters for the future of game theory, culture, and development.

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The Community Spotlight features some of the best unedited articles that didn't quite make the front page. This week, we ask if the upcoming Devil May Cry is crippled, call Microsoft out on a racial faux pas, search for a permanent multiplayer partner, and more. Join us!

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Is Devil May Cry running on a game leg?
By William Franklin

The stylish action of the Devil May Cry series relies on fluid, high-quality graphics for its thrills. So what happens when you cap the framerate at 30 frames per second instead of 60? William explores the reasons and ramifications behind this technical decision.

Microsoft Hispanic culture flub
By Louie Castro

The Xbox Live video dashboard features a section devoted to Hispanic TV and video...but to promote it, they chose an image of the very not-Hispanic Tommy Chong. (Stoner buddy Cheech Marin would have been an appropriate choice.) "This is the kind of thing that makes me glad I never purchased an Xbox," Louie says. 

Video games: Children's heroes and role models
By Brielle Wesley

Video games have made a lot of strides over the years, but as far as protagonists go, it's still a boys club. Brielle says developers need to think more about how their characters will influence young people and gender roles.

The pursuit for Player Two
By Cassandra Brabon

Cassandra takes a look at a recent Kotaku article about how gaming affects personal lives, especially in romantic contexts. "As with any relationship, it all comes down to respect," she says. How open are you about your gaming with potential partners?

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Beginning with the original NES title, the music in the Metroid series has been about more than just catchy compositions.

The first game's composer, Hip Tanaka, specifically wanted the sounds of Planet Zebes to evoke a sense of organic life, even (or especially) if that life was terrifying. You can hear his intentions in much of Metroid's ambient sound effects and melodies.

For the Super NES sequel, Super Metroid, new composers Kenji Yamamoto and Minako Hamano maintained that feeling...except this time they had a broader audio palette to choose from. The SNES's improved hardware allowed for some of the most evocative, even chilling, sounds ever heard in a game.

These days, videogame culture seeks to remake and improve everything we loved as kids, many times to great effect. But the unnerving electronic tones of Super Metroid fit the game's aesthetic better than a modern orchestra ever could.

Take a listen to the tracks below for a few good examples:

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Man, where did 2012 go? Must've been all that time I spent playing video games. Anyway, it's time for another round of Bitmob's Big 10, where we feature the most popular stories of the previous month, as written by you, the Bitmob community.

This month's list has a great mix of first-timers and old site veterans, covering topics as diverse as sex, drugs, and Final Fantasy. (OK, maybe those aren't that diverse. Anyway.) Congrats to everyone!

Here are the most-read community articles for October 2012:

10. Far Cry 3 might lead to a new era of first-person shooters by Chandler Tate

9. Video game music just isn't the same any more by Bryan Harper

8. The Legend of Zelda needs to evolve by Brandon Guerrie

7. My completely objective Resident Evil 6 review based on other reviews by Mark Purcell

6. Experimenting with video games as drugs by Nathaniel Dziomba

5. The one Final Fantasy game you should play by Nate Ewert-Krocker

4. A run-and-gun retrospective of three modern-day gaming classics by Jonathan Oyama

3. Stop the witch hunt: Exploits are not cheating by Carlos Alexandre

2. How I sold my soul for sex in the Mass Effect series by Michael Westgarth

1. 5 games you should play for Halloween by Jesse Meixsell

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Do you want to be on next month's list? Here are some tips:

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It's my dream to write for a major gaming publication. I work hard to hone my writing skills and make contacts in the industry. It can be demoralizing at times. But this is my dream, and I want to succeed.

Then, after one Eurogamer article questioning journalistic integrity in the industry, I watched Twitter explode with game journalists defining what "Games Journalism" is. Personally, that opened my eyes a little. Not so much in terms of the ethics (or lack thereof) within the game industry, but in terms of what this industry needs to provide for people like me.

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I’m quite curious to see what it was like for freelance journalist Justin Amirkhani to ingest hallucinogenic mushrooms and play through PlayStation 3 title Dyad. He’s launching a crowdsourced fundraiser to pay for the production costs of making a short film about the experience. Amirkhani even had the game’s creator, Shawn McGrath, reluctantly guide him through the trip. I suppose this is art.

Dyad, available on PlayStation Network, already has quite the psychedelic look to it (think arcade-classic Tempest meets the music-infused on-rails-shooter Rez). Amirkhani wants to show, however, that looks might be a bit deceiving.

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Had I been born in another age, chances are that I would have been an explorer. Once upon a time, our world was wrapped in magic and wonder. Nowadays, an airplane ticket and a few hours time can span oceans. And, if you’re really ambitious, you might venture a mouse click and a keystroke or two to reveal the particulars of your destination on the flight over.

Perhaps, then, it stands to reason that the biggest draw of video games has been very much the urge and challenge to unravel the mystery of what waits behind the next door, inside of locked chests, or beyond distant mountaintops -- a sort of surrogate thrill in a world divested of secrets.

This seduction of exploration -- if only virtual -- caused me to slip out of bed at 4 a.m. on school days to sneak in a few extra hours of the original Zelda while my need to chart the unknown came up during parent-teacher conferences in the form of maps I had sketched of Metroid’s long shafts in the margins of my math homework. I doubt I’m alone here.

Clearly, games scratch a deep itch for adventure and discovery in an world now containing little opportunity for either. But what happens when the vistas and environments of video games become more familiar than the scenery outside our front door?

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Once again, we demand a recount with our army of paid pundits!

It's here! It's finally here...an end to all the commercials, robo-calls, and street teams knocking on our doors! Today we choose the leader of the free world! At last, the democratic process upon which we founded our beautiful country will leave us the hell alone. And whether we canonize Mitt Romney or extend Barack Obama's contract (with America), you know one lucky winner will strive make our lives better and run the entire country into the ground. Well, that's what my TV tells me, anyway.

What say you, panel of experts? Any plans or predictions for election day?

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"I'm busy today."

- The Master Chief, Halo 4

 

 

 

 

 

 

"I'm voting for the Peace and Freedom Party's one-two ticket punch of Rosanne Barr and Cindy Sheehan. It's like the best Saturday Night Live sketch ever!"

- Isaac Clarke, Dead Space 3

 

 

 

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Fans love the epic, emotionally charged music from The Legend of Zelda role-playing franchise. I recently chatted with Jason Michael Paul, creator of The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses live-concert series, to ask him what makes Zelda's music so special, what his dream project would be, and what the future might hold for video game music concerts.

Louis Garcia: Why do a show focused on Zelda?

Jason Michael Paul: I just think that with a 25, now 26-year, history, Zelda is one of the most [storied] franchises. We saw the success of those concerts [Paul previously created Dear Friends: Music from Final Fantasy and Play! A Video Game Symphony], and it was kind of [a] necessity that we do a concert to continue on. It’s more or less a natural progression. There’s only two franchises worthy of getting their own concerts: Final Fantasy and Legend of Zelda.

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Halloween is over, but that doesn't mean you can't drink in the coolness of this custom-painted Castlevania Game Boy. French artist Oskunk used a damaged first generation model for this design. It's a shame that the screen is broken.

Considering how much I loved Castlevania: The Adventure when I was a kid, seeing a handheld like this would have blown my six-year-old mind. So what if you climbed ropes in that game rather than going up or down stairs? It was still Castlevania in my hands that wasn't the horrible Tiger Simon's Quest LCD system that my grandmother picked up at a yard sale years before.

So, given my first handheld Castlevania experience, those quirky Game Boy titles were amazing. 

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