In it’s 40 year history, hip hop music has seen many changes, for the better, and for the worse. We’ve seen it go from New York all the way to the West Coast, Down South, Midwest, and even international. Many different artist have left their own mark on the genre, and what was once considered a fad is now one of the most influential forms of music in the world. This 1997 album from Priority records is a testament to hip hop’s influence. This album consists of cover versions of classic rap songs performed by then-top artists, many of which have gone on to become big names in their own right. Some of the album’s standouts include Bone Thugs-N-Harmony’s remake of NWA’s Fuck Tha Police, The Wu-Tang Clan’s cover of Run-DMC’s classic Sucka MCs, and Mack 10’s remake of NWA’s Dopeman. I’m not sure if this album is in print anymore, but if you can find a copy, check it out. It would be interesting to see another version of this album with today’s artists. It would be interesting to hear Kendrick Lamar, T.I, and 50 Cent do remakes of classic 80s and 90s hits.

Remember that old arcade/NES game Jackal? Of course you do. Well, this game is its spiritual successor. There isn’t much of a storyline. A terrorist is attacking the world, and your team must defeat him. Picking one of several characters, each with their own vehicle, you tear across several levels blasting things, killing enemies, and rescuing hostages. The PC version of the game contains Half-Life’s Gordon Freeman as an extra character. You can play 1 or 2 player spiltscreen offline or 4 player co-op online. There are online leaderboards as well. Like those classic arcade games of old, there isn’t much more to say about this game, and not much needed. Just download it, and enjoy the mindless destruction.

If you’ve never heard the name Junji Ito or read any of his works, then congratulations. You’ve been able to sleep a little more soundly at night.

Ito is a horror manga artist from Japan who revels in delivering his scares with tales of the strange, unnatural and the unexplainable. And copious amounts of body horror. He’s notorious amongst manga fans for his sheer ability to create nightmare fuel with his style of drawing and his love of putting his story’s protagonists through ungodly amounts of hell.

Out of the over one dozen volumes of his horror collection, and several stand-alone stories that can span many chapters, there are some that stand out above the rest, be it for their superior story or their extreme ability to make us squirm.

These are those exemplars in my book.
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Based on the film of the same name, Terminator 2 the arcade game was an excellent arcade blast-em-up that made good use of the license. Taking control of the T-800, players must make their way to the past in order to protect John and Sarah Connor from the liquid metal T-1000. You’ll play through several levels inspired by the movie as you blast dozens of enemies. The SNES version used both the Super Scope and the Mouse, while the Genesis version used the Sega Menacer. It features a few ‘Ahnold’ sound bytes, but other than that, not much was special about the game. That was okay though, it was still fun, and it did justice to its source material.

Welcome to the Powet Top 5, where we explore the top (and bottom) 5 items we think are relevant to any of a variety of topics that span the imagination. Sit back, read, and respond.

This year, Botcon will revisit the KB Exclusive Machine Wars subline in the 2013 Botcon set – Machines of War! In this Top 5, we’ll explore what makes Machine Wars so meaningful for fans, and why it’s deserving of celebration. So pick a new color scheme, take off your faceplate, and get ready for the Machine Wars!  

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Pro Wrestling X is little more than a playable concept. However, it represents the culmination of a decade-long dream. Several years ago, members of a wrestling gaming forum were lamenting over the state of wrestling games at the time while longing for the glory days of Nintendo 64 classics like No Mercy. A troll remarked the usual ‘if you think you can do better, make your own game!’ line. A group of people soon calling themselves Wrestling Gamers United took him up on his challenge, and thus Pro Wrestling X was born. Built from the ground up (as the programmers had zero programming knowledge), PWX Uprising is a playable proof of concept which aims to bring back the glory days of the Aki-developed classics. There isn’t much to it, you pick one of 8 wrestlers and you can battle it out in 1 or 2 player matches. However, the game’s files are modable, and already fans have changed textures to give the game a new look. You can purchase it with a $5 donation, and you can get even more extras with a higher donation. While the animations and controls are a bit on the stiff side (this was in development for years), it shows the progress of dedicated fan labor and hard work. When the completed game is released, it will be even better. Learn more about the game at http://uprising.prowrestlingx.com/

Welcome to the Powet Top 5, where we explore the top (and bottom) 5 items we think are relevant to any of a variety of topics that span the imagination. Sit back, read, and respond.

Toy Fair 2013 has come and gone. As a gigantic snowstorm descended on the northeastern United States, a hurricane of toy news was felt all over the internet. There were so many great announcements and revelations during the show, its hard to put it all in perspective. Lets give it a shot anyway! Here’s a Powet Top 5 list of what I thought were some of the most impressive reveals of Toy Fair 2013.

Join us after the jump to join in the excitement!
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This past week saw the release of the critically panned Aliens: Colonial Marines. The low rankings this game received have led many to believe that it’s next to impossible to make a good Alien game. However, if one looks to the past, there was a near perfect Alien game for Super Nintendo which was based upon the third film in the franchise. Playing as heroine Ellen Ripley, you make your way through the halls of a prison planet completing various objectives in a nonlinear format. Rather than producing a straightforward adaptation of Alien 3, LJN instead presents a nonlinear platforming game in which Ripley can use a different variety of weapons to defeat the Xenomorphs. The graphics are dark and dreary, perfectly suited for the horror franchise, and the soundtrack does a good job of making the already creepy atmosphere even more tense. This is one of those carts you’ll have to do some searching for, but if you’re a fan of the franchise, or if you like Metroid style sci-fi exploration, you’ll want to check out this classic.