Life Through The Pixel Glass-02/20/2014

id everyone enjoy his or her V-day celebration? Or was it all just a straight lonely hearts club of farts for you? Well, everyone can rejoice either that it’s all over now, no more tears or upset stomachs filled with powdery garbage chalk hearts, it’s back to the basics and the really important question out of everyone’s mouth— who got in on that Titanfall Beta? It’s pretty nifty right? Well, I’ll share some words on that at some point, but now’s a better time more than ever to give you all another Life Through The Pixel Glass to cleanse the palate before we share some thoughts on the Microsoft’s exclusive Hype-Train.

Music soothes even the most savage soul right? However, have you ever heard of souls using soothing music to get savage? One person takes the concept head on with his two favorite passions as he puts it, the beauty of a Piano symphony, playing notes that input fighting commands on Tekken Tag Tournament 2. While the majority of the chords don’t exactly flow like Mozart, they’re more than enjoyable to the ear and the way every character is able to channel their own beat and personality in the unique styles in which they fight, the video is a marvel to watch. Now that we have Doom & Tekken, I wonder what the next video game to get the 88-key controller treatment is going to be.

While you ponder that, take a gander at this; a sweet fan film based on a first-party darling that’s not only faithfully done well, it’s awesome! The people at Mars Rising Films tasked to delivering a short film of the silent Hylian hero’s exploits to stop the bullshit of the evil wizard of Link to the Past Agahnim’s terror, as he terrorizes the Happy Mask sales man from Majora’s Mask in order to procure a specific headpiece to further his sadistic designs. Fan films like these are getting better and better, and this is one is a particular popcorn grabber folks—and here’s the exciting part. If this particular video can get a million views than the film group promises to task away on producing the next installment to its cliffhanger ending, check it out and give these fine dudes a like for their efforts.

If you dug that, then allow me to introduce one of the oldest ways to play The Legend of Zelda, and I’m not talking about the NES classic, I’m talking about the Game & Watch version; oh and don’t worry, there’s a shit ton more. A labor of love from the strange yet lovable people at Hipopotam Studio comes the website by the name of Pica-pic; a collection classic Game & Watch, Mattel electronic, and Tiger Handhelds authentically reimagined into flash-ware browser games—welcome to one of your new favorite websites. From rediscovering your favorites to uncovering some classics for the very first time, each game even comes with it’s own leaderboard so you can test your mettle against other visitors, go ahead and click the link, we won’t mind, promise.

The amount of creativity seen in the crafts and sundries made from the passionate artists of the video game community will never cease to amaze me. Since we’ve already dabbled on mixing music and games one way, check out what Etsy curator Celentanowoodworks’s take on the famous yellow guy in the form of a Ukulele. The bright yellow instrument magically capture’s the insatiable sphere in a prominently stoic representation of Pac doing what he does best—swallowing. This iconic stringer can be yours for only a mere $600, get at it.

Most of the memorable commercials from the nineties came from Nintendo during the reign of the Nintendo 64—usually involving the N64 logo rotating or doing some wacky shit. Now picture that same logo immortalized into a tasteful coffee table to put somewhere in your house, and the craftsmanship alone begs for this fine piece of furniture to enter your home, especially for the much friendlier price of $125; just get it already! This thing is straight classy you guys.

A group of musicians the state of Texas came together and retold Street Fighter their way—in a recording studio. The third installment of the indie rock opera based on Capcom’s fighting game giant is the band at its best; Harrison White delivers the somber effervescent notes of each song’s breakdown with an effective pitch in every octave. Ken Settles the Score is definitely the standout here and for $7, you could do a lot worse, this needs to be in your music library.

A little bit of both of freeware and flash games, Twinkle Tales and Of Guards and Thieves are the downloadables in the list this week, while we round out the fun flashware with the classic Rose and Camellia from Nigoro and Displaced capping off our picks for some sweet flash game play (Pica-Pic being its own sweet thing.) so we hope you guys enjoy!