Kombolói

Japan never ceases to impress. Here’s a gem from Plus-Tech Squeeze Box. They could be singing about a cancerous little boy whose dying wish is to sing for the pope and I would still be bopping my head and cracking a smile.

A neat physics-based puzzle / construction game by 2D boy. Finalist for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize at the 2008 Independent Games Festival. This game looks like it might be addictive in ways that four Russian blocks conquered the world.

I have never been so excited to reuse an extending grabbing tool/bionic arm.

Rearmed [HD Trailer]
(also available in 3D)

Until scientists grow tasty chicken breasts in a petri dish or until someone explains to me why Londonian pigeons are such cripples (yes look closely), birds don’t get better than this. I’ll admit I do want one for myself, but this selfishness wouldn’t be as pleasurable as buying this stuffed beauty for a young child whose arms are slightly too short to hug it. Then, the chicken would get cornered, literally, and everyone’s happy.

squishable.com

I recently became obsessed with Rez, a Dreamcast and Playstation 2 game released in Japan in 2001. At first, the gameplay struck me as the genius approach that must have been suppressed by the masses as I have not come across anything that offers something quite like it. The musical game isn’t a new concept, and the Bemani series released by Konami must be the most well known cases. I still hear the sound of dropping quarters and feel the pain from the countless hours of Dance Dance Revolution, but Rez promised and delivered a novel experience. The primary aspect of the Bemani series’ gameplay happens externally. The games are all about dexterity, kinesthesia and performance and use the visuals, a sequence of symbols, to direct your body to push the right button, wherever it may be. On the other hand, Rez is limited by the common controllers of the game console it is conceived for, but merges the sonic and visual space to create it’s experience, which happens mostly internally. And, although the addition of the trance vibrator tries to bring an external aspect to the game, it does so, not by engaging the player with its environment, but by triggering the right brain synapses based on where you decide to place it. Again, pushing the right button. I can’t help but wondering what the merger of those two types of games will lead to, once unconstrained from the limited input devices we are so deeply attached to, and reaching into visual representation that defy the common everyday world. This a second aspect of Rez which is of particular interest to me.

After learning that Q Entertainment, Inc. is producing an high-def version of Rez for the Xbox Live Arcade that will come out in 2008, and looking at some of the early screeshots, I couldn’t help but go back to Char Davies‘ work. Osmose and Ephemere were to the art world and virtual reality what Rez became for games and rail shooters. It defied the typical 3D representations that were trying to mimic the real-world, with their opaque physical models and collision detection, and replaced with an artistic rendering of a semi-transparent world you can freely float through, layer after layer. Of most importance, Osmose and Ephemere harnessed the body of the participant and immersed her dirrectly into the world, using an head-mounted display and a navigation based on the participant’s respiration, floating as you would while you scuba dive. Considering the experience created by a game like Rez, it is certainly possible to augment this experience by engaging the body, even without the technical requirements of works like Osmose and Ephemere.

Till then, bunnies will entertain, so grab Vib Ribbon and try to stop listening to the catchy tune, I can’t.

Vespertilium. Just too slick not to be shared. And, shame to whoever say they are just for Halloween. Hang hem year long, and please don’t ask for little angel ones for Xmas.

Art Lebedev Studio, who designed the clothespin, have a few other gems that are worth mentioning, such as these geek infatuated Russian dolls and a tetrius magnet set.

Art Lebedev Studio [via Neatorama]

After my encounter with the Funkeys, I couldn’t help to resist, once again, the temptation of browsing the Kidrobot repertoire. This time what I found made me want to have a kid (well, more like an 8+ nephew) for all the wrong reasons. Meet Bernd. Despite the fact that this is the first toy with a myspace page that comes to my attention, I assume it is not the first, specially if you consider the iPod a toy (no i do not own one and i don’t want it to be my friend). Now that people can use the web to create and maintain social networks around their possession, it will be interesting to see what happens when those artifacts becomes discrete objects.

Bernd is part of the peecol collection (make sure to read his biography) and was designed by eBoy, a German pixel-art group who, aside from their creative and sometime oh-so-wrong toy design, produce impressive isometric imagery. Not only do they use cultural icons in their designs that will trigger synapses for just about any viewer, but the overcrowded isometric 3D makes me want to take out my C64 to be a faux-3D Ninja again.

UB Funkeys are a new generation of collectible toys produced by Radica, which was recently added to Mattel’s portfolio. Whereas a plenitude of kidults will not hesitate to mention that your typical collectible vinyl figurine should never be defamed by being referenced to as a mere toy, the Funkeys do just that, merge both world with the use of computation.The Funkeys are 42 collectible teddybear-shaped vinyl figurines reminiscent of the oh-so-cute emotion inducing Munny produced by Kidrobot (also refer to similar emotion when in contact or proximity of bunnies). The original set divides in 14 tribes of 3, where each group holds one normal, one rare and one very rare Funkey. In addition to adding to the visual experience of having are large number of similar but different Funkey designs sitting on your (kid’s) desktop, this whole scheme titillate the collector inside you and gives an identity to each Funkey, identity that integrates in the gameplay.

A starter kit comes with the one Mega Funkey, two standard characters and the software. Standard Funkeys must be place on/in The Mega Funkey’s head, which connects to the USB port of your computer, and serves as portal between the desktop and the virtual world of Terrapinia. The character you play in Terrapinia becomes the Funkey you place in the hub, as simple as that. Then, based on which Funkey you are playing with, games and zones will unlock, access will be granted, and different objects will be offered to you.

The gameplay is simple, roam around the world to discover and play games that will give you coins with which you can by objects to decorate your crib. All set within an interesting storyline around the mobility of the Funkeys using their portals that suffer a great catastrophe, the game feels it could extend considerably. Multiple portals are ‘broken’ as you enter the game and left for you to activate using the crystal gems they need to operate.

Up to now, I can easily say this is addictive and will cost parents a great fortune for xmas. Luckily, the kits are 19.99$ and each separate character goes for 4.99$, but don’t forget there are 42 of them, and that you’ll surely be asked to scavenge for the rarest and fight for you life ‘Jingle All the Way’ style. The merge between physical toy and virtual games is fairly new on the consumer market where the WebKins are the Funkeys closest cousins, but the possibilities are far from being reached. Funkey are made for a single computer. Characters you create in the game are not easily accessible from other computer you’ve started playing on as Knowledge Constructs explains. It would be interesting to connect players together as the games already uses an internet connection to download , some of the infrastructure is already present. Is this already a future planed update as the official Funkeys website announces a Funkey Community? Or will they dismiss the possibilities?

Once the virtual characters can connect, where does it leave the physical Funkeys?