As a relatively young medium, videogames have been evolving at a dramatic rate. Back in the late 1970s/early 1980s gaming was in a very primitive and abstract form. Games were glorified technical demos with simple concepts, simpler graphics, and a nagging sense of addiction that had videogame enthusiasts itching to insert coins in a huge arcade cabinet for another round of play. Now in 2009 (30 years later), we've got big budget games with hyperrealistic graphics and game physics built on real-world principles that can be played in the comfort of your own home.

As with our movies, most gamers gravitate towards games founded on easily defined concepts. We love to imagine we're the latest greatest guitarist in an up and coming Rock Band. We love living our criminal fantasies through gameplay sessions of Grand Theft Auto. We want to kill things with guns in one of many excellent First Person Shooter games like Halo and Left 4 Dead.

Even the groundbreaking interactive game systems from Nintendo found it's success in easily definable concepts. The Wii became "the" system to get when parents and grandparents discovered that with it you could play 10 frames of Bowling in your living room. The Nintendo DS was seen as a quirky project until kids whose parents refused to buy them a pet dog could get the next best thing: an interactive puppy in the sensation that was Nintendogs.

It's interesting how even with the limitless options that are provided to us within the context of videogames, consumers positively respond to the most familiar of concepts (why do you think licensed games continue to succeed despite mostly poor quality product?). But I firmly believe there is room for stuff that's a bit more experimental... and I'm happy to say that it seems that most developers are finding that opportunity in the newly explored realm of downloadable games on the newest game systems like PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, DSi and (to a lesser extent) Iphone.

Of the more experimental games, I LOVE games that attempt to give players a psychadelic experience. With videogames' ability to surround players with a multi-sensory interactive experience (audio, visual, tactile) its possible to overwhelm the player's senses and create an experience unlike any experienced in the real world. Here are some of the finer examples of videogame psychadelia: Tempest (1980s), Rez (1990s), Frequency (2000s), Bit Trip: Beat (2009).

BIT TRIP: BEAT (WII)

FREQUENCY (PS2)

REZ (PS2)

TEMPEST (ARCADE)

A new trailer of the Nintendo Wii Zblucops game debuted at the recent E3 Video game convention. Why should you care? Well, ZBLUCOPS is the other amazing comicbook being made by the fabulous Bill and Gobi (our LUCHA LIBRE being the first!). Bioroid's trailer reveals more levels, playable characters, and a platform game sequence featuring some old school 8-bit graphics. Of particular interest to Muttpop fans is JUBBEI as a playable character (at around the 1:45 mark). Jubbei is the Samurai warrior in our Tcho! By Ohm minifigure series.

After spending time with his recently purchased copy of Street Fighter IV, Gobi (cartoonist and character designer of Tequila and El Panda) decided to reenvision the Street Fighter IV that could have been. Gobi sees the latest entry in the Street Fighter series as a regression in both gameplay and character design in an effort to reach a more International audience.

It appears that Capcom has consciously been homogenizing their style to reach a massive global audience. Calculated efforts have been made to take away the stylings that make their fabulous character designs both Japanese and Capcom-like so that Capcom games can fit naturally next to franchise juggernauts like Halo, Gears of War, and Grand Theft Auto.

I can understand the decision. But considering the great imprint Capcom's art style has had on a global scale, it's all a bit depressing. Before the rapid proliferation of manga and anime, Capcom videogames singlehandedly brought the Japanese big-eyed style to children worldwide. As a child, I wasn't all too familiar with Tezuka's Astroboy... but I knew and LOVED the many amazing robot designs from Mega Man. I had a vague familiarity with Kenshiro and Fist of the North Star, but I thought that FINAL FIGHT was the purest encapsulation of bad-assery!

Obviously, I wasn't the only one to feel this way. Many of the more popular US comic artists of the mid-90s like Ed McGuinness (EMC2) and Joe Madueira (Mad!) openly acknowledge the huge influence that Capcom (and Street Fighter in particular) had on their illustration styles. To this day, both artists have large loyal followings that carried over into their recent runs on Marvel's HULK and ULTIMATES 3 becoming two of the more popular comic series of the past year. Even our Lucha Libre artists give credit to the Capcom artists. Look closely at Tequila and you'll see quite a few design homages to Street Fighter's Akuma.

Included below is Gobi's revision of Ryu for the Street Fighter IV that exists in his brain (as originally posted on his art blog). In Gobi's ideal gaming world, Street Fighter IV would be a HD 2D sprite game that takes the animation nuance of Street Fighter 3 to the next level. Ryu is a bit older in the game (hence the white hair), but continues to train and hone his craft as one of the World's premiere fighters. Even after a debilitating injury to his right arm, Ryu continues to fight in the World Tournament. His adaptation of his fighting style using only his left hand, would result in a new take on the classic Ryu gameplay (it's also a nod to Gobi's favorite SF3 character: Oro).

Damn. As much as I admire the hearts of the guys working on Street Fighter IV, there's something integral missing to the spirit of Street Fighter. I couldn't figure out what it was until I saw the latest trailers for KING OF FIGHTERS XII; it's the pixels.

King of Fighters XII is more than happy to fill that niche with the most beautiful animated pixel graphics I have ever seen. The characters are enormous. The animation is fluid. Even the colors feel just right. But seeing these expertly crafted visuals breaks my heart, because I would LOVE to see the same approach taken with the Street Fighter universe.

As mentioned on Kotaku, 3D models were rendered for each of the KOF fighters. The 3D models were then re-rendered in 2D and colored by hand to give it the fluidity of polygon graphics and the crispness of 2D sprites. It's a pain-staking process but the results are jaw-droppingly gorgeous.

CLICK HERE FOR THE ORIGINAL HD TEASER TRAILER.

NEW US TRAILER:

Kotaku did a wonderful job putting together this article on making WRESTLE JAM, the fake NES game starring Mickey Rourke's character (Randy "The Ram" Robinson) in THE WRESTLER movie. It's a fascinating synopsis of the various elements that attributed to the games creation. It's pretty fascinating how ambitious the project was for a minor element of the critically praised film.

I particularly love the faux game's music (it's included below as a YouTube file).

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL ARTICLE.

WRESTLE JAM theme song (visuals are from the classic NINTENDO PRO WRESTLING):

Video trailers for Bill & Gobi's ZBLUCOPS Nintendo Wii videogame have gone live. The game is being developed by Biodroid Entertainment. Biodroid Entertainment also has the licensing rights to develop the LUCHADORES FIVE into a console videogame for the PS3 and Xbox360.

In addition to illustrating and designing TEQUILA and the LUCHADORES FIVE, Bill & Gobi collaborate on writing and illustrating ZBLUCOPS for Tcho. Jubbei, from the TCHO! BY OHM figure line, is a character from this comic book series (currently published in France by Glenat).

As can be scene by the videos, the game is still in the early stages of production. Despite that, it's still very cool seeing Biodroid attempt to capture Bill & Gobi's artistic style into a three-dimensional videogame world.

CLICK HERE FOR THE ZBLUCOPS WII GAME WEBSITE.

NEWEST TRAILER

EARLY PROTOTYPE TEST