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WTFriday: A Serial Killer's Ideas for Wii Games

The Internet is good because it lets talented cartoonists like Chris Onstad of Achewood put together comics about serial killers penning their own ideas for Wii games. Gamer humour isn't absent from the syndicated newspaper slurry we're fed every morning, but you can't really expect the jokes to go beyond, “Ha ha, my wacky husband plays video games more than my kids (Also, Mary Worth keeps meddling in my life)!”

Achewood's Nice Pete is the most eccentric member of a bizarre cast: he's a mass murderer—it's implied he might in fact be a child murderer—but Onstad never asks the reader to pass judgment on him. Pete's proposal for “Cereal Pro 5000,” complete with its own Protip, is one of several quick glimpses we're given into a past composed of a broken family, rusted screen doors and hungry, limping dogs. The drunken father that Pete obviously had to work around on “bad” days is the same father he aims to make proud by designing Wii games. Wii games that he evidently believes everyone can relate to.

It's impossible to feel just one emotion at the end of an Achewood cartoon.

Related Links:

WTFriday: Mario Versus Airman
WTFriday: Mega Man A Cappella
WTFriday: The Splash Woman Rap

Posted Mar 20 2009, 11:42 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 1 comment(s)

Filed under: nintendo, wii, webcomics, fan stuff, nadia oxford, achewood

Penny Arcade Sums Up E3

Penny Arcade is pretty good at expressing its game-related displeasure without resorting to millions of words.

Abracadabra: Gabe and Tycho have done it once again, summing up this year's impotent E3 in a manner that made me laugh out loud in a very quiet library (it's air-conditioned in here, unlike my apartment). Applause all around.

How are you doing with this year's E3, anyway? I can't say I've met too many people who are thrilled with what's being offered; the Chosen Ones for the Big Three are mostly going up on stage to talk about sales and statistics. Big titles? Shocking drama? Aside from the news about Square-Enix jumping from the deck of the S.S. Sony Exclusive, 2008's E3 has been a lullaby.

On the other hand, we knew E3 had become the bloated whore of a digital Babylon by the time it finally deflated in 2006. E3 is no longer about glitz and thumping music and booth babes in spaghetti-strap Ubisoft tops. It is supposed to be about statistics and numbers and other dry matters. Just because Nintendo didn't reveal anything particularly interesting this year doesn't mean we'll be waiting another year for something worthwhile; there's no reason for companies to save their big announcements for E3 anymore. It'll take some getting used to, but eventually we'll all be comfortable with that fact.

Posted Jul 16 2008, 10:00 AM by Nadia Oxford with | with 2 comment(s)

Filed under: nintendo, penny arcade, webcomics, e3, reggie fils aime, gabe, tycho, statistics

Yahtzee and the Webcomics Plague

Yahtzee, possibly the only game reviewer capable of out-talking a five-year-old with a new Poekmon game, recently made clear his feelings about gaming webcomics. To give you the five-cent summary, Yahtzee believes that video game webcomics are the putrid nesting grounds of wannabes and hacks.

What do you think, class?

Personally, while I have no love for the webcomic that served as the primary target for Mr Yahtzee's rant (Ctrl+Alt+Del), I bear little ill will to webcomics in general. There's a popular opinion going around this here Internets stating that only kings and God should be allowed to produce creative work because humanity is generally not very good at anything. I don't think that's the case.

Posted Jul 03 2008, 10:35 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 3 comment(s)

Filed under: penny arcade, yahtzee, zero punctuation, webcomics, art, rant, writing, creativity, ctrl+alt+del, internet

Webcomic Watch: Eegra

Videogame-themed webcomics are a mixed (and dizzyingly numerous) bunch; for every Penny Arcade, there're a few hundred semi-comedic fan-fictions stapled together from sprite sheets and MS Paint doodles. It's always a relief to find something with some genuine craft put into it. The relatively new Eegra's got craft in spades — artist Patrick Alexander deploys an impressive range of visual styles — but it's also got a glorious mix of old-timey wordplay and visual grotesquerie.

Posted May 23 2008, 01:00 PM by Peter Smith with | with 1 comment(s)

Filed under: pac-man, peter smith, penny arcade, mario, patrick alexander, soul calibur, webcomics, eegra

about the blogger

John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Nerve, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.