The Pop-Culture E-Zine
The LEGO Group social media team recently teased us all with a tweet introducing the addition of Donkey Kong to the world of LEGO Super Mario!
They might as well take our money right now!
We can’t wait to show you the new additions to the world of LEGO Super Mario™! 🤩 pic.twitter.com/sa5XF0LdCo
— LEGO (@LEGO_Group) April 26, 2023
As a LEGO sucker, I mean a fan, yeah, let’s go with a LEGO fan, this teaser video from LEGO that I found on Facebook of their new Ultimate Collector Series version of the T-65 X-Wing Starfighter is mind blowingly detailed – with updated and authentic wing and engine design along with a new cockpit interior. There is even a place for your R2-D2 droid figure in the socket behind the cockpit!
With 1949 LEGO bricks to build this detailed X-Wing, you better get onto it on May the 4th and blast off to fight for the Rebel Alliance!
NOTE: This new set will be released on May 4th (Star Wars Day) and will retail for AU$369.99
Now this is something different and quite cool – the Hijinx Hotel has now opened in Chadstone’s The Social Quarter – their new entertainment precinct.
So what is Hijinx Hotel then? Well, rather than us paraphrasing, here it is from the horses mouth:
Hijinx Hotel is an immersive interactive game experience housed within the theme, wonder and theatre of a quirky New York style hotel where the rooms are reimagined into quick play, challenge rooms. Leave the suitcases at home – these are rooms where you play, not stay.
Each of the hotel wings home highly fun & experiential, game-afied rooms made up of 5 different collaborative games. Hijinx is perfect for the young and the young at heart, for groups, on a date or just out with a mate.
As lovers of escape rooms, we are very intrigued by this take on the hotel game-fueled concept which drips a lot of nostalgia. The company behind the Hijinx Hotel is Funlab, who also operate Strike, Holey Moley and Archie Brothers Cirque Electriq, so they know a thing or two on how to create fun for adults!
If you are intrigued, like us, then check out the Hijinx Hotel website to see what you can experience at this very unique hotel.
image source: Hijinx Hotel
DOOM has been run on a multitude of devices – if it has a screen, then DOOM has ran on it! With this being the case, why not have DOOM run on the trusty 8-bit micro, the Commodore 64?
As you can see from the video below, that is exactly what we have here – a DOOM tech demo going by the title of RAD-DOOM which enables gamers to play DOOM on their Commodore 64 via the RAD Expansion Unit by Frenetic.
The RAD Expansion Unit contains a Raspberry Pi that takes the role of a CPU replacement for the Commodore 64. The graphics are still rendered by the original VIC-II chip. All technical details of RAD-DOOM can be found in Frenetic’s GitHub repo.
The gameplay starts off with keyboard controls, with the 1351 mouse control enabled later on. The special settings menu is visible from time to time where graphics rendering options and screen presets are available.
It’s amazing (and darn awesome!) what is still possible on the 41 year old 8-bit computer! Long live the C64!
source: emulaThor
With the imminent release of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Nintendo’s popular plumber now has his own real life boots!
Minnesota-based Red Wing Shoes (their logo is very reminiscent of Honda’s) has teamed up with Nintendo to create pixel-for-stitch-perfect Mario boots which will be on display at the Nintendo World New York store at Rockefeller Center from now till April 30th!
Even the “making of” video of these boots is cool, so check it out below, wa-hoo!
source: Illumination
image source: Red Wing Shoes
Celebrating the start of The Mandalorian season 3 on Disney+, Microsoft/Xbox and Lucasfilm have teamed up to launch ‘The Mandalorian’-themed gaming gear, including cool Xbox Series X|S Mando livery!
The third season of The Mandalorian follows Grogu as he reunites with Din Djarin, so what better way to celebrate this much-loved Star Wars series than to have a colour-coordinated controller, a hoodie and best of all, a human-sized armoured floating pram (Pram XL), which doesn’t really float, but would still be cool to win.
The comp/sweepstajes for The Mando-themed Xbox Series X|S is open to everyone on the planet, with the only entry requirement being a retweet of this tweet!
PS: For more news and how to enter the sweepstakes to win the Pram XL, head over to the Xbox News site right now.
image source: Microsoft Xbox News
Pinball and Rock & Roll go hand in hand, so when a music pinball machine is released in the wild, it usually garners a lot of interest. The world’s largest pinball manufacturer, Stern Pinball Inc., know where it’s at with their latest cornerstone title, Foo Fighter pinball!
Designed by Jack Danger of DeadFlip fame, his maiden cornerstone title looks pretty darn impressive! From the Pro to the Premium and Limited Edition (LE) models, Foo Fighters looks every bit darn awesome and fun! We can’t wait to flip this one!
Official Trailer
source: Stern Pinball
Foo Fighters first stepped onto the world stage in 1995 with their classic self-titled debut album. Over the course of their career, the band has released 10 studio albums, amassed over 32 million records sold worldwide, won 15 Grammy Awards, were recipients of the first-ever MTV “Global Icon” award, and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021. One of the biggest headliners on the global stadium, arena and festival circuits, their music will soon begin filling gamerooms and entertainment locations in pinball form.
Stern’s Foo Fighters machines bring the Foo Fighters concert experience home as players are immersed in an epic pinball adventure featuring 15 iconic songs spanning the band’s expansive catalog, including All My Life, Best of You, Breakout, Everlong, Holding Poison, I’ll Stick Around, Learn to Fly, Monkey Wrench, My Hero, Run, Something from Nothing, The Pretender, This is a Call, Times Like These, and Walk.
More than two years in the making and with creative input from the band’s own Dave Grohl, Nate Mendel, Pat Smear, Chris Shiflett, Rami Jaffee, and the late, great Taylor Hawkins, Stern’s Foo Fighters is a top-shelf pinball machine—and so much more. An entire new universe has been developed with jaw-dropping hand-drawn artwork and custom animations including “Foo Fighters Saturday Morning Action Time!”—a fictional TV series chronicling the band’s quest to save rock and roll… AND THE WORLD! Join Foo Fighters on this rescue mission to thwart the evil, mysterious alien Overlord and his army of bots. Search the Area 51 upper playfield to break into and unleash pinball chaos. Jump in the van for a righteous tour of duty to save humanity from extinction and let rock rule!
Foo Fighters pinball models
Foo Fighters pinball machines include Stern’s award-winning Insider Connected™ system, which enables players to interact with the game and a global network of players in a variety of ways. Through Insider Connected, players can track progress, earn new game-specific achievements, engage with the player community, and participate in promotions and Challenge Quests. Insider Connected also provides an operator-focused toolset to drive location play through Location Leaderboards, build player loyalty, analyze performance, make adjustments remotely, and maintain the machines.
Main Design Team:
Lead Game Designer: Jack Danger
Lead Software Engineer: Tanio Klyce
Technical Lead Artist: Zombie Yeti
Limited to 1,000 machines globally, the highly collectible Limited Edition includes the Expression Lighting System™. With 96 intelligent RGB LEDs, the Expression Lighting System enables full color spectrum control. Positioned in pockets cut into the cabinet sides to provide color themed full playfield illumination, this integrated playfield lighting system is synchronized to custom light shows specifically designed for every song and dynamically responsive to game events. The LE version also includes an exclusive Rock-Battle inspired full-color mirrored backglass, exclusive full color high definition reflective foil decal cabinet artwork, custom high gloss Overlord green powder-coated pinball armor, a custom designer-autographed bottom arch, exclusive inside art blades, upgraded audio system, anti-reflection pinball playfield glass, shaker motor, a sequentially numbered plaque, and a Certificate of Authenticity signed by Stern Chairman Gary Stern and President & CEO Seth Davis.
Pricing and availability (Australia):
For more information on Foo Fighters pinball, head to the Stern Pinball website here.
Foo Fighters LE playfield
image source: Stern Pinball
Media release supplied
I really really don’t like the crapola that the new Atari dishes out (or promoting anything with their name on it), however, there are a few exceptions! Their Atari 50 Anniversary compilation was vintage Atari, with great curated content. It now looks like we can add AKKA ARRH to this very small and illustrious list of titles from the new Atari.
AKKA ARRH is the latest game from legendary game designer Jeff Minter and Llamasoft! AKKA ARRH is a frenzied kaleidoscope of neon insanity with playful psychedelic landscapes, which is right up Minter’s alley, as he takes on one of the rarest arcade games of the 80s era and turned it into a tough blaster for all of us to enjoy now! .
Will you become the hero in this mind bending universe? AKKA ARRH is available on pretty much every platform for under AU$30.00: Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Steam and the new Atari VCS!
image source: Atari Interactive
Yep, you read that right! The ‘Mega Book Collection – A Visual Guide to the Sega Mega Drive’ digital book – the Sega Mega Drive / Genesis visual opus is now totally gratis!
The author, Darren Doyle (Greyfox Books) explains the reason this book has now been released for free:
We attempted to bring this book physically to everyone back in 2021 via crowdfunding but alas we were unable to do so. So going forward, we decided rather than this amazing project to be left sitting on a hard drive gathering dust forever, we made the decision to offer it for free for everyone to enjoy and because we are very nice and generous people here at Greyfox Books and love to support the Sega retro gaming scene.
In case you were wondering, the great big SEGA put the kibosh on this book being published physically. So before they kill the digital one, grab it now! And while you are at it, please consider leaving a donation via the publisher’s PayPal account.
image source: Greyfox Books
Being in a future timezone, we in Australia had to wait a few extra hours for Zen Studios’ Pinball FX to hit Xbox and PlayStation consoles!
The latest in the FX series, Pinball FX has graduated from early access to full release at the Epic Games store, as well as making its debut on PlayStation 4 & 5, Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One! Nintendo Switch fans will have to wait a bit longer.
This is a new era of digital pinball from Zen Studios, including a day-one, ever-expanding lineup of 86 tables, plus an impressive suite of new features, the revolutionary pinball platform is inching ever closer to the real silverball game. If you love playing pinball video games, then jump on this right now and enjoy the Wild West Rampage table at no cost, and check out the trial modes for all other tables.
All returning tables from previous editions have been fully remastered in Unreal Engine, with ray-tracing-enhanced, 4K-HDR visuals, as well as upgraded Pro Physics. Not lacking plentiful fresh downloadable content, Pinball FX also introduces three brand new releases: Borderlands®: Vault Hunter Pinball, Brothers in Arms®: Win the War Pinball and The Addams Family (itself including a never-before-seen enhanced play, as with all Williams classics). At the same time, console players can get their hands on more than 15 tables for the first time that Pinball FX Early Access players enjoyed in 2022, such as Star Wars Pinball: The Mandalorian, World War Z Pinball, DreamWorks Pinball, five Zen Originals, plus Williams classics World Cup Soccer and The Machine: Bride of Pin-Bot. Zen will release new tables regularly, many involving exciting new licensed IPs – most immediately, Legendary Pictures’ Godzilla vs. Kong.
Go on, get flippin’ peeps!
source: Zen Studios