QCF: Regular Show-Best Park In The Universe

e live in a day and age where a blue jay and raccoon can make a living being hilarious through the lenses of rose-colored glasses of nostalgia, and it works... really well. Nostalgia is a strange thing, regardless of whatever we hold close to our hearts. Regardless of its age, the argument over whether or not it’s a product of the time becomes nullified; it’s a beast of philosophical proportions and a prevalent one within media -- especially video games. In this case, though, it’s been a mine of delight for nerd-culturist and artist J.G. Quintel and his wildly successful property, Regular Show, a program full of homages and references to video games. It only makes sense that a video game adaption would soon follow suit.

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QCF: CastleStorm

ith its stunning and unexpected popularity, Angry Birds has popularized a genre that was mostly confined to flash games before the iOS boom. Many titles since have tried to replicate its success by using its puzzle and slingshot elements to their advantage. But of course, nothing has topped the multimillion dollar franchise since its inception. Now while I seriously doubt that Zen Studios wanted to get a crack at the mountain of cash that Angry Birds generated, there's no denying that their latest XBLA title, CastleStorm, at least takes some cues from the popular series. However, these are where the comparisons stop, as CastleStorm aims to rejuvenate this style of gameplay by adding tower defense, action, and even RPG elements into the mix. All these vastly different mechanics add up to a great idea indeed, but one that unfortunately threatens to spoil the simplicity that made its inspiration fun to begin with.

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Bullet Heaven HD, Episode 76 - Xevious: Fardraut Densetsu

ne of the very first scrolling shooters from the very dawn of gaming itself is Xevious, released by Namco all the way back in 1982. Introducing time-tested gameplay mechanics that would last over 3 decades, Xevious saw numerous ports and spinoffs. One such game is Xevious: Fardraut Densetsu on the PC Engine, released in 1990...

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QCF: Towerfall

ideo Games have the unique ability of making you constantly hate your friends with what should be a fun time making digitized pictures move with one another. The appeal of getting your buds and pals on a couch together, huddled around the glow of a television has always skirted towards the edge of violence and fits of rage that ranged anywhere from thrown controllers to controller unplugging. And you know, the internet makes me miss those days. The days of swearing at Bomberman because Chad pulled a dick move, or sitting back and watching Lisa ruin Mario Party because she somehow took everyone’s stars in one foul dice roll with Bowser are nearly long gone now. The good news is that the indie scene keeps the labor of love that is "couch play" alive.

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QCF: New Super Luigi U

ou know, if there’s one thing I hear or read more often than not when Nintendo is involved, it’s that Mario is for babies, but that couldn't be more untrue with New Super Luigi U. This expansion of downloadable content hitting New Super Mario Bros. U stars Mario's sibling in a retread through the HD Mushroom Kingdom like you’ve never played it before; this return isn’t for the faint of heart, so be prepared to die—and not always with a "well, I deserved that" smile.

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Bullet Heaven HD, Episode 75 - Rock-On

t was hard enough to take Rock On seriously with its hilariously bad box art. Its side-splittingly bad attempt at its English prologue didn't help things. By the time we got to the gameplay, it just wasn't funny any more. So how does Rock-On (which was supposed to be titled "Lock-On") fare, exactly? Watch to find out.

Did you like what you saw here today? Questions and comments are not only welcome, but encouraged! And don't forget, new episodes of Bullet Heaven go live every Tuesday!

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QCF: State of Decay

ver the last five years, zombie survival has become its own sub-genre. From first-person shooters such as Left 4 Dead and third-person action games including Dead Rising, zombies have been used in many different forms. Love it or hate it, the zombie as an enemy type is here to stay. State of Decay attempts to focus more on the survival aspect of the genre, while many parts of the game gets in the way of greatness, what state of decay does accomplish is something that you would normally only find in those flash games on Kongregate. And to be honest, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

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QCF: Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D

ack in the day, when they weren’t developing half-hearted motion titles or games with papier-mâché animals in them, Rare had a partnership where they developed games for Nintendo, and they got their big break reviving one of the Big N’s biggest icons; Donkey Kong.  While the reception toward the Donkey Kong Country franchise has always been wildly mixed (seriously, what’s up with these guys?) it’s definitely secured enough of a following for Retro Studios to live up to their name so to speak, and release a modern sequel on Wii…

Flash forward to 2013, Nintendo makes the call for Retro to port the monkeys over to the 3DS, and Retro being the forward-thinking bunch that they are, decided to work on all of the criticisms of its Wii cousin, it’s safe to say that they succeeded.

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