Video Games

The Shifty Look webcomic portal has just announced a Katamari comic by Alex Culang and Raynato Castro, the duo behind the site's Buttersafe. Launched this summer, Shifty Look is dedicated to resurrecting old NamCo Bandai video game properties as webcomics. Katamari Damacy is of course the much-beloved video game where players roll a giant magnetic ball around to pick up crap and rebuild the sky. You could say it's a literary nerd classic, and these designs are adorable.

A new survey shows console sales are down! Suggesting that the US gaming audience is shrinking, with a mere 211.5 million people playing video games in 2012, as opposed to 223 million in 2012.

The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia a Dark Horse-published compilation of notes, artwork and even a comic about the Nintendo classic, which hasn't even been released yet has, for the moment anyway, displaced the juggernaut 50 Shades of Grey atop Amazon's bestseller list.

Pink Bird's power involves exploding into a gust of floating bubbles. As pink things do.

And you thought comics had it bad. It's been a banner year for video game sexual harassment—or at least video game sexual harassment awareness. The Anita Sarkeesian Kickstarter and subsequent online abuse has been well documented, and it's been discussed so much that the Times is ON it with a piece that nonetheless serves as a good round-up. This is the last frontier, as anonymity and youth add up to a culture of harassment—which spills over into the real world as when a female gamer was harassed by the captain of her own team IRL (above.) The Times says it's gone so far even video game makers are trying to do something:

Stopped by the Cryptozoic pop up at 411 Market Street and things are hopping with free zombie make-up, game demos and signings. Tonight there's a big launch party for The Look-outs. It's a good...

J. Michael Straczynski has announced the formation of a new studio which will create comics, films, TV, video games, more; also announces revival of his 'Joe's Comics' imprint for Image; next will create world peace before flying off into space, searching for more worlds to conquer.

Yet another carnival! This one, as we understand it, is set up next to the Gaslamp Hilton in that area where the Scott Pilgrim Experience once stood. It's a video game arcade set up by ShiftyLook. Details below, but the pr notes that the Shifty Look panel will feature Scott Kurtz and Kris Straub and an announcement so...add it up.

Angry Birds Space, trailer above, which offers revised physics and gameplay to the time-tested time suck, is out today! Forbes says it's a key launch for Rovio:

ShiftyLook, the Namco/Bandai webcomics portal devoted to re-presenting old and revamped games as webcomics, has announced two more properties: ALIEN CONFIDENTIAL and ROCKET FOX, both of which are being developed as games for smartphones and tablets.

Disney's Facebook-based AVENGERS ALLIANCE game is a new direction for them, Variety writes, as they are putting more effort into these lucrative, reliable social media game as opposed to the volatile console game market:

Avengers Alliance is now live on Facebook. This is basically Mafia Wars with superheroes. You're a SHIELD agent. You recruit superheroes (initially Iron Man, Hawkeye and the Black Widow) to go on missions with you. The story arc involves chasing around Hydra and meteorite fragments as you beat up henchmen and fight bosses like Whiplash and Viper.