As much ink has been spilled on the seemingly senseless slaughter in Dennaton’s Hotline Miami as has blood in the game itself, but not nearly enough attention has been given to its sounds. Early demo versions of the game included a playlist of music both officially licensed and not — some having been placed in-game to set the mood as development progressed.

What has been announced is that the entirety of 2011’s MOON EP, from Boston musician Stephen Gilarde, aka |M|O|O|N|, will be providing the backdrop for much of its action.

Mastered in part at LCD Soundsystem front man James Murphy’s DFA Studio (and sounding every bit the part), the EP is streamable below via Gilarde’s bandcamp, where you can name your price for a download of the album in anticipation of the game’s October 23rd release.

As previously mentioned, also making an appearance on the score is artist & musician Niklas Åkerblad, whose Do Not Lay Waste To Homes… EP is also already up for sale on bandcamp, and is most noteworthy for Daisuke, the laid back beats of which have already made it into the game’s trailer.

And finally, placed here for good measure: Sun Araw‘s Horse Steppin, which hasn’t been confirmed for inclusion, but which made a perfect wind-down counterpoint to the early demo’s disco-death — a song which seems to drip and melt through the cracks between the game’s neon-lit nightscape pixels.

Unexpectedly probably the news I’ve found myself most excited for today, Sega’s just officially announced that ToeJam & Earl — the 1990s roguelike relic that’s honestly not lost a lick of its appeal some 21 (!) years later — will be repackaged for download this November for XBLA and PSN, most importantly bringing online co-op to the game for the first time ever.

The XBLA release will also package in side-scrolling sequel Panic In Funkotron, purchased separately on PSN. Interested parties can take a time-trip back another 10 years and revisit TJ&E Productions’ similarly sort-of antiquated tribute site to all games in the series, released alongside the Xbox exclusive ToeJam & Earl III, which was much more inventive & approachable than most gave it credit for at the time, and wouldn’t at all be another good candidate for re-release.

Rocktober comes but once a year, giving me reason for a quick post to note that Double Fine, developer of Psychonauts, Brütal Legend, Costume Quest & all your other favorites have just announced their Mega-Action Mega-Sale, dropping prices by as much as 50% on basically pretty much every game they’ve ever made across Steam, XBLA and the Mac App Store.

The full breakdown of all the sales can be found here, which has the extra bonus advantage of allowing me to remind people of this Boing Boing post I put together for Brütal Legend‘s launch, which showcases a number of amazing concept pieces by Scott C, Peter Chan, Nathan Stapley, Levi Ryken, Razmig Mavlian, and Mark Hamer, all of which will be housed in this upcoming art book that’s expected to drop just in time for Christmas.

Skyrim‘s otherwise fearsome tree spirit Spriggan bids his forest good morning before being wiped out by a lone marauder, a piece by Toronto illustrator Andreas Schuster for Skueruem, a site full of similarly wicked Skyrim fan art that appears to unfortunately have fallen into some disuse. [also via .tiff]

Bay-area artist Robert Iza’s tribute to what is indisputably one of the finest rhythm games of all time — iNiS’s Gitaroo Man — at the tip-top of my list for PSP downloadables that desperately need to come to the PlayStation Vita. See more of Iza’s game fan art here, and his portfolio of pieces for games he’s had a hand in here, all via .tiff.

Suddenly officially the Wii U game I’m looking forward to most, Capcom’s just released this ultra-adorable video explaining the cross-play features of its upcoming Monster Hunter Tri overhaul, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, which will allow players of both the 3DS and Wii U versions to use their same characters to play at home or away.

While 3DS play will be limited to local multiplayer only, the new hunting companions explain, 3DS users can use the platformer as controllers for the Wii U version, or play online with other Wii U owners.

If you’re still one of the way too many uninitiated Monster Hunter fanatics, March 2013 should probably be the date to wait for as it’s released for both platforms: longtime fans will otherwise be fully aware of just how incredible the series is at capturing both the essence of adventure and the minutiae of a drawn-out, exhausting hunt against an intelligent, brutal and ridiculously oversized foe.

Above and below the fold are new shots taken from the Wii U version — keep an eye on Capcom’s Monster Hunter site for an update to the new version. [via Capcom-Unity]

(more…)

Fernando Ramallo — developer of the recently-featured MIDI-controlled soundscape Panoramical — and Vlambeer’s Rami Ismail have just announced Fuck This Jam, a black-hearted week-long worldwide game jam that asks devs to “make a game in a genre you hate”.

The duo add their hope that “through utter ignorance for conventions and hate for the established rules of a genre, beautiful things will happen”, which may seem naive and slightly cynical, until you remember that the last time someone tried to tackle a genre they despised — namely Bit Pilot creator Zach Gage — the resulting Spelltower near instantly became an iPhone & iPad smash success.

The jam’s also notable for being the second application of the Beautiful Mess Organizer, the web platform Brett Chalupa originally developed for our Adventure Time Game Making Frenzy, hopefully eking its way toward worldwide game jam standard.

The jam will start November 9th and end November 17th — interested parties can sign up for more information at the official Fuck This Jam site.

Via the PlayStation Blog comes the announcement that Sparpweed‘s gorgeously gradiented co-op platformer ibb and obb has officially been slated for at Spring 2013 release, a slight delay from its original plan, which the Dutch indies have explained follows the decision to add a key feature: online multiplayer.

Originally designed as a local two-player game only (and most recently exhibited as such at the recent Joue le Jou show at Paris’s Gaite lyrique), the trailer above shows just how key perfectly synchronized play will be, as well as the game at its best, where both players dip in and out of each others’ gravity fields, describing super beautiful sine waves arcing across each others’ paths.

The video also highlights another of the game’s best features — its score, composed by renowned electronic artist Kettel. Read more about the history of the game and its long road to PSN at its official website.

One final Zelda tribute for no good reason other than they were all amazing: Zac ‘Magical Game Time‘ Gorman, best known as “the guy who does those amazing animated Nintendo fan comics” has just released the Seafarer Combo, a print/T-shirt/square-pin combo for Fangamer that pays tribute to classic GameCube entry, The Wind Waker.

You can buy all the items together or separate at Gorman’s own Magical Game Time shop, where you can also still find the print that put him on the map, the sweet & sad Earthbound/Mother 2 ‘Everything Was Perfect’ strip.

Bonus points will be doled out for anyone who wants to take the time/effort to translate the Hylian on the shirt design at top.

Link leaves adventure behind for the stability and security of a full time job, only to encounter his greatest enemy: middle management. The illustration was created for the recent Fangamer vs Attractmode art show by Mikko Walamies, who you’ll recall as the artist behind Hand Circus’s early iPhone platformer Rolando & PS3 adventure Okabu, as well as Venus Patrol’s own Kickstarter T-shirt.