Raise your broom in victory. Dustforce released last week, picking up the torch from Roger Wilco in showing just how heroic janitors can be. You can grab the delightful speed platformer on Steam right now.

But it would be a shame to let the game’s music be swept under the rug. Instead, grab Lifeformed’s original Dustforce score, Fastfall. If you purchase the whole soundtrack (for $3.99), you’ll also get three additional bonus tracks. Even if you haven’t tried the game yet, it’s a nice, relaxing album of mellow electronica that’s easy to enjoy. You can hear a sample of the game’s music in the trailer below. (more…)

Gundemonium Collection may be over a year old, but it just released on Steam with a few new features. This package of doujin shmups contains Gundemonium Recollection, its sequel GundeadliGne, and their vastly different prequel Hitogata Happa.

The most obvious changes in the Steam version are the remixed soundtracks. They’re quite a step up from the originals thanks to the talent of DM Ashura and Woofle (Dance Dance Revolution, Beatmania IIDX). You’ll also find a new online co-op mode for GundeadliGne allowing you to play with your Steam friends.

But I’m sure many out there haven’t had a chance to check out these games in the first place since they are a niche within a niche.

Both Gundemonium Recollection and Gundeadline are horizontal shooters with unusually large sprites. This allows for a lot of personality to be put into each character and enemy design. They often approach Cute ‘em Up territory with their goofy pumpkin enemies, Parodius-like women in bunny suits, and other equally wacky things. Of course, it’s all fun and games until somebody gets cut in half. (more…)

You know that moment in gaming where you’re no longer making conscious decisions and instead find yourself relying on pure, razor fast instinct? This is how I felt for almost the entirety of the time I spent with SkyDrift. Much like the fantastic Split/Second, SkyDrift‘s brand of racing puts you on the verge of death constantly, and everytime you manage to narrowly escape certain doom at the hands of the track’s terrain or your opponent’s weapons it feels like a miracle.

It’s amazing how much the concept of flight changes how a racing game plays. The added verticality of racing in an airplane instead of a car allows for a sense of freedom that really makes every race play out differently. This is also helped by some really superb track design. There aren’t a ton of tracks, but the ones that are there are filled to the brim with branching pathways, a ton of variety, and plenty of extra dangerous obstacles that reward players willing to take risks.

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How many airplane racing games can you think of off the top of your head? Any? Without resorting to Google, all I could come up with was one third of Diddy Kong Racing. This is exactly why I was instantly fascinated by Digital Reality’s SkyDrift. It’s in a sub-genre that’s rarely explored.

You could call it “Mario Kart in the sky”, but that really isn’t fair to the game. SkyDrift may be a weapons-based racer, but it’s far more deliberate and skill-based than any racing I’ve ever done in the Mushroom Kingdom. The fact that you need a second analogue stick to control your plane’s knife position is proof enough that the game is deeper than some of its contemporaries.

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“We need a better word than video game.”

This is a statement I’ve heard a lot in the last few years. With the expansion of the medium, many have felt that the term unfairly describes certain forms of interactive entertainment. While I don’t necessarily agree, Trauma is the type of game that sparks this kind of discussion.

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Popular fantasy/satire game, Magicka, just released its first piece of DLC today on Steam: the Wizard Survival Kit. The pack includes a sweet, sweet “Wizard Hat” (an item desperately missing from the game), “Sharp Sword” (comes with the instructions “stick them with the pointy end”), “Staff +1″ and the brand new spell “Meteor Shower”.

At 99cents, the pack will be a welcome addition to Magicka’s frantic spell casting action. This is the first paid DLC for the game (the first pack was part of a free update), and according to the game’s publisher, more is on the way.

"Poorly-Photoshopped Representation"

If you could put your ear to the tubes that make up this internet thing, you would hear thousands of people talking about digital distribution. There is no question that digital distribution is the future. You can already download your favorite songs, books, movies, and thousands of games. In the future, there might not even be discs or cartridges. Everything will just download out of the ether onto some crazy futuristic device.

I am a Steam weekend deal addict. My PSP memory sticks are full of PSP Minis and old PS1 games. I have so many Xbox Live Arcade, PSN, and Wii downloads that I am a little embarrassed. I have nothing against digital downloads, but it seems to me from looking into the muddy waters of the future that a war is coming between digital and physical goods. (more…)

Sometimes a game will catch your eye for no other reason than an interesting piece of cover art. In the case of Toki Tori, it was the high adorability factor that drew me in.

Toki Tori was originally developed for the Game Boy Color by Two Tribes B.V. and released by Capcom. They have since done versions for the iPhone, Windows Mobile, WiiWare, and PC. The GBC version was itself an update of Eggbert for the MSX 2.

I saw it on one of the many Steam sales last year and picked it up on the cheap. I had heard it was a cross between Lemmings and a platformer. They had me at Lemmings.

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Most of the time, the Wingdamage offices are filled with sunshine, lollipops. But today I stand in defiance of that harmony. I read spambot‘s article and I find myself at the opposite end of the spectrum. Like the Pink and Orange hungry hungry hippos, we are staring at each other across a chasm of differences.

The PC will never replace the console for me. As much as I enjoy services like Steam, GOG, and Gametap the PC is always my second choice for gaming.

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"Fat Stacks (of games)"

Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year, has now come and gone. Its follow-up, the invented by online retailers Cyber Monday is officially over.

While I didn’t brave the big box retailers, I did take advantage of many online deals. I ended up picking up Borderlands, Left 4 Dead, and Lucidity from Steam, and Mass Effect from Direct2Drive. I even snagged a copy of Resident Evil 5 from the very limited supply Amazon posted up on Monday.

Now I have lots of stuff to get through and hopefully get some reviews up in the next few weeks. But what I really want to know it, how about you? What deals did you take advantage of, game related or otherwise?