Last night I got an exclusive sneak preview of the Christmas update to Killing Floor, in which the familiar range of nightmarish mutants are replaced with an even more disturbing group of gingerbread men, murderous elves, fiery snowmen, and super-powered death Santas. It’s an impressive piece of work, and also a little strange, and comes with free stuff for TF2 players. More on these things, to the slightly off-key tune of Jingle Bells, below. (Also, a seasonal trailer.) (more…)

RPS reader (not making this up) Fuggles the Lightfuggly One sends word that PETA, aka People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, has published a parody of Super Meat Boy. You can play Super Tofu Boy here. Is it still a parody if it’s just kind of… Super Meat Boy, again? There’s not much ridicule going on here, except for Bandage Girl two-timing Meat Boy. But you know, I always suspected she was bad news.

Which brings us to an interesting point. While Super Tofu Boy is a hundred miles away from the 24 carat running and jumping of SMB, it does use the same running and walljumping mechanics. For a quick & dirty look at the mechanics of Super Meat Boy, Super Tofu Boy can provide.

EDIT: Brave RPS commenter Terry points out that you could just play the Flash version of Meat Boy. So, I suppose this doesn’t need to exist after all.

Kieron had big love for this year’s Toki Tori, a fiendish puzzle game by indie developers Two Tribes. They’ve got a new game that’s due out in two days, and just received a debut trailer: RUSH. It’s a puzzle game, but completely different from their previous game. This time it’s a 3D cube-rolling affair, which at first glance made me think of the iOS game Edge (the one that suffered from Tim Langdell’s impotent attacks.) But it quickly becomes apparent that it’s not the same at all. It’s about guiding multiple blocks to their targets, creating paths for the perpetually moving cubes. And from the trailer below, it looks pretty lovely.

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EDIT: The following is based on extensive time spent with the 360 version of SMB, and we’re hearing reports that the PC version currently has memory leak and gamepad support issues. We’ll be posting a full review of the PC version very soon.

EDIT 2: We’ve spoken to Team Meat, and they tell us they’re working hard on an update to fix issues right now, which will be out today.

EDIT 3: Pow! Team Meat slurp into action.>

Super Meat Boy is OUT, you know. You could be buying it over at Steam right the hell now with £11.99 of your (let’s face it) ill-gotten money. The only problem is, there’s no demo. This is me letting out a sigh like a shot from an air rifle.

Super Meat Boy is a steaming steak of brilliance, served with a rich, leathery wine with a label that reads Chateau Just One More Go. A demo will unquestionably result in Team Meat selling more copies, and the sooner it arrives the better. Until then, I suppose I’ll have to sell you this game with my trademark hyperbole. You got a minute? If so, let’s do this. You need Super Meat Boy in your life because… (more…)

In the relatively thin history of first-person puzzle games, The Ball stands out as having the largest metal ball and also the most terrifying ape. It was knowledge of these two facts which motivated us to speak to Sjoerd “Hourences” DeJong, bossman at Teotl, and project lead on The Ball, and ask him all about matters pertaining to the spooky Unreal-powered puzzler.>

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Acclaimed Wiiware title BIT.TRIP BEAT hit Steam last week, and the Pong-inspired musical pixel extravaganza is now available to us for £6.29. It’s a fair-sized asking price for a game with no demo and only 3 (15 minute) levels, but perhaps the video beneath will convince you. As for me, I’m automatically convinced by any game that swaps to either Mega Mode or Punishment Mode depending on how well you do. (more…)

Just over a week back, Jim and I found ourselves recommending you play The Ball. A full-length first-person puzzler, which costs £15. “But £15!” you cried. “That’s enough to get almost one large pizza at Dominos!” You already know you like a large pizza at a price so unbelievably high that it makes your insides clench, but how are you supposed to know if you like The Ball? Well, listen, okay. It’s possible. There’s now a demo. It’s got a few levels, and one of the Survival maps, which seems like a reasonable chunk to whet appetites.

The Ball is released today, via Steam. Jim and John have been playing it for the last couple of days, leaving them no choice but to have a chit-chat about it all. Which you can read below. Warning: contains monkey death.>

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Tripwire has released the third free content pack for their co-op multiplayer zombie-shoot, Killing Floor, as well as a new 99p character pack, which is currently available at half price. 49p! That’s a bag of crisps. The Incendiary pack brings a new weapon and four new maps, as well as upgrades for the Firebug perk. Bonanza! A video of some professional-sounding people completing the West London level of killing floor awaits your judgement beneath. (more…)

When the lovely puzzle game Toki-Tori’s demo was released, I decided to drop a line to Two Tribes to have a little exchange about their debut on the PC after years working primarily on the hand-held. Co-founder and creative director Collin Van Ginkel took a little time to share some thoughts… (more…)