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For those of you who can't get enough of Shatter's soundtrack -- we must have mentioned how great it is here at least half a dozen times already -- have a look at this music video for "Amethyst Caverns", one of several tracks from the PSN (and soon-to-be PC) game.

The scenes in the video really don't have much to do with the game, but it does feature an appearance from composer Jeramiah "Module" Ross halfway through. It was also shot and edited by Sidhe's lead artist Corie Geerders.

Again, you can stream for free or purchase/download Shatter's "electro rock and retro beats" soundtrack, which earned the game a finalist spot for the 2010 Independent Games Festival's "Excellence in Audio" award, at Bandcamp.

[Via Mario Wynands]

Richard Johansson's fan art, I just wanted to fix the pipes:

The character art is so super, super stylized, without actually competing with my childlike nostalgia or the stock, canonical iconography of Mario universe characters and settings I have in my head. So it really appeals to my inner eight-year old's sense of What's Happening in Those Games.

As a counterpoint: Winona Nelson's Turnip Murder is an eerie, artful, surreal revision of SMB2, and I love it, but it does not make me feel like my eight-year old self at all. (Also, I can't look at Mario without seeing John Kransinski in a mustache.)

[Via Albotas]

I usually steer clear of Mario remakes and the like, but this is way too clever an idea to pass up on. Initially playing out like a normal game of Mario, you'll soon come to a wall of blocks which seems impassable. But never fear - pressing space will switch to 'Tetris Mode', and you'll then be able to make a route for Mario to climb over using Tetris blocks.

I've seen developers try to meld the two classics together before, but never this well. Tuper Tario Tros. may be experimental, but it just works so beautifully. You also have 2 different scores which are added together at the end - your Mario score, and your Tetris score. Yes, you can indeed build 'Tetrises'.

Just make sure you make it all the way to the end of the level - the final part is pretty clever. Newgrounds ahoy!

You might already be familiar with Glen Brogan's work -- the illustrator's recent t-shirt design for "Mario's Closet" has picked up a lot of press from major video game blogs, and it's likely to be voted up for a production run at Splitreason.

That Mario tribute isn't his latest gaming piece, though. He posted the above pinball girl last weekend as part of a pinup drawing contest to win an original painting from Bill Presing, known for his own cartoony pinup girls. Brogan didn't win, but I still wanted to highlight his excellent art.

It's actually a great complement to another one of his earlier works, a "Girl Gamer" arcade pinup available to purchase at Split Reason as both a baby tee and an art print. You can see the full piece after the break.

Tim recently linked to the news that Nimblebit's upcoming karting game Zero Gear has now entered the beta stages and is available for signups. If you haven't already got in on the action, you can visit the Zero Gear site to signup. Over 50,000 people have applied, so you're sure to get a decent sized game going.

My number one concern was how badly lag was going to affect the action - warping karts and weapons all over the track could spell disaster. Of the races I participated in, I experienced only a few individuals who were doing the lag-warp, and my own driving was pleasantly lag-free. Put a tick in that box.

The driving itself works exactly how you'd expect and if you've played karting games of old (see: Mario Kart) you'll know what you'll be dealing with. Floating boxes on the tracks can be picked up and contain weapons and upgrades to help boost you forward and take out the opposition. There's also a boost bar which fills up as you pass checkpoints on the track. Continue reading

Tobe’s Vertical Adventure is a retro-style platformer coming soon to Xbox Live Indie Games. In the game, player will face some retro platform puzzles similar to those you see in mario, sonic, megaman, etc… except that the player have a few different “moves”, like rolling, wall run, wall jump, etc. There’s also 2 items (rope [...] Continue reading

Some people really dig genre pieces, works that stick to convention and don't really deviate from the norm. You experience them because you enjoy the tropes of the genre and the familiarity of it all. This game is a standard hop-and-bop platformer, but if you have a platformer fetish like I do you'll most likely squeeze some enjoyment from it. Obake takes elements from Mario and Kirby and mixes them in a not-too-radical fashion, but does it with a decent amount of polish and a fair amount of charm.

You play as the titular Obake (Japanese for 'thing that changes') and take him through a six-world romp. The aesthetic is slightly off-kilter retro, and should appeal to fans of the 16-bit era. In your normal ghost-like form you can only move and jump, but if you press the down arrow you can possess an enemy. When you do so you gain their mobility and attack patterns, each of varying strength. The game takes Kirby's absorption motif a step further by also giving you that enemy's health. This coupled with generally low difficulty makes the game fairly easy, but it's fun to mess around with the various forms and explore the levels. The six worlds go a long way as well, so if you're into this sort of thing there's a lot of content to be played.

Nothing revolutionary, but a nice way to kill a couple hours.

And because I like you guys so much, here's an extra game at no additional charge: http://mogera.jp/gameplay?gid=gm0000000345
You play an albino deer,tripping on some psychedelic, that throws rocks at police. Enjoy.