At first, I wanted to don my fanboy suit and give CrunchGear a smackdown for decrying Nintendo’s highlights over the next few months, but that’s because I’ve only got Punch-Out for the Wii on the brain. That game will assuredly be awesome, but the rest? Meh. Excitebots: Trick Racing seems like an uninspired attempt to use the Wii wheel again, and Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat is just a weak Gamecube port. For the DS, there’s another Rhythm Game (Rhythm Heaven), a game that’s not really a game (Personal Trainer: Walking) and something that seems strictly for children (The Legendary Starfly). To be fair, I am looking forward to the Wii MotionPlus, due sometime this spring. Hopefully things will get better once we’ve got the accurate motion control that should’ve been included all along [via CrunchGear]

You thought you were obsessed with video games. Check out the articulate work done here on this custom Donkey Kong shower. Despite being gawked at by a giant primate, this shower would be pretty sweet to lather yourself with Irish Springs in. Colombian artists Andres Barragan and Miss Vynilos put this piece of artwork together pixel by pixel (read: bath tile by bath tile). I can barely even turn the shower on when I wake up in the morning. [Gizmodo]

Not content with limited color palettes and pixel counts, deviantArtist Mikaël “Orioto” Aguirre redrew scenes from classic video games, giving them the artistic flare that we could only imagine as kids. Mario, Mega Man, Samus, Sonic and more are rendered in a way that makes their work seem solemn and serious. Being a video game superhero ain’t easy. [deviantArt via Fubiz]

It seems that February is where it’s at for releasing new video games. Last week, we got Street Fighter IV and an expansion for Grand Theft Auto IV. Today, Playstation 3 owners can finally sink their teeth into Killzone 2. There’s also Dead Rising: Chop ‘Till You Drop for the Wii and, sadly, 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand for the Xbox 360 and PS3. For fans of the old-school, Nintendo launched the Commodore 64 as part of the Wii’s virtual console, with three games to choose from so far.

A couple of big sequels came to light yesterday, with Capcom announcing a follow-up to Lost Planet and Bioware revealing Mass Effect 2. In a twist, Mass Effect star Commander Shepard is killed in action, yet we’re told to keep our old save games. That probably means he’s either coming back from the dead or your good/bad actions from the first game will have repercussions in the sequel. I had good karma and a tough character, so I’m covered either way.

The Tiger Woods PGA Tour games for Nintendo’s Wii are a blast at first, but then you realize they don’t feel much like golfing. Even then, the games are still enjoyable, but you wish they were more like real thing given the motion controller you’re holding. So hopefully PGA Tour 10 will shock and amaze with its use of the upcoming Wii MotionPlus. The snap-on controller extension, due this spring, is supposed to be far more accurate, mimicking a full range of real-life motions. Does that mean we can work on our actual golf skills by playing the next game? Maybe, but one thing is for sure: MotionPlus games won’t be compatible with plain old Wii remotes, so be ready to pony up some extra cash for the extension when Tiger Woods comes around again. [Joystiq via CrunchGear]

Everyone who’s ever dreamt of taking a spin in the Back to the Future Delorean or KITT from Knight Rider is about to get a welcome addition to their game collection. Today marks the day that the Legendary Cars pack is available for download for Xbox’s Burnout Paradise. Four new iconic cars will be available, most anticipated among them the Jansen 88 Special, modeled after the legendary Delorean, flip up wheels and hovering action included. Ecto 1 from Ghostbusters will be played by the Manhattan Spirit, the General Lee goes by the name Cavalry Bootlegger and KITT takes on the alias Carson Nighthawk. The Jansen will be selling for $3.99/320 credits and the rest of the vehicles will be $1.99/160 credits each. Or bundle all 4 for $7.99/600 credits. [Auto Blog]

The video game industry was never one for graceful exits. Publishers tend to immediately franchise their best games, putting them on a two-year production cycle until the cash runs out, then sending them off to a tragic end at the glue factory. For the sake of decency, we’re dreaming of five titles that should exit, now, while they’re ahead (or at least they were a few titles ago).

…but we’re not just haters. Some games, hiding in seclusion for one reason or another, really ought to come back, so every game that we spit bile at below is paired with love for another.  Enjoy, GearCravers– the 5 video game franchises that need to die and 5 that should be reborn.

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At long last, Street Fighter IV hits stores today for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, and the employees at Gamestop will finally cease their endless hawking of reserve copies. Initial reviews are glowing, saying the game is good for nostalgia but plenty enjoyable in its own right. Also this week, the “Lost and the Damned” downloadable content for Grand Theft Auto IV comes exclusively to the Xbox 360, ticking off PS3 fanboys everywhere. New missions revolve around Johnny Klebitz, a veteran member of The Lost biker gang, and will only involve beating up hookers if you’re into that sort of thing.

While Capcom is basking in the success of its latest fighter, Midway — publisher of Mortal Kombat — is in tatters. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last week, but will continue business as usual for now. CEO, President and Chairman Matt Booty called the move “a difficult but necessary decision.” Too early for a fatality joke?

Upon request from a group of academic researchers, Sony forked over 60 TB of behavior data from its MMORPG Everquest 2. The nearly overwhelming amount of information spans four years and 400,000 players and was followed with a demographic survey. Researchers found the average player was 31 years old, and while most players enjoyed the game for entertainment, roughly 5 percent used Everquest 2 as a coping mechanism, often because they were minorities in race, ethnicity or sexual orientation and faced societal issues in real life. Another interesting find: Older women, many of whom logged serious hours with the game, tended to understate the amount of time they played. This casts doubt on other behavioral studies that rely on self-reporting. As for actual social interactions in the game, those are harder to quantify. Figures like “monster composite difficulty index” and “experience rate measure,” as one researcher is working with, don’t translate easily into the real world. [Ars Technica]