At E3, I visited the 2K Games booth every day of the show. Every day I went there, I saw these two guys from High Voltage Software in the 2K "Sports Bar," sitting in easy chairs, playing Nicktoons MLB. As far as I know, it was all they did all day.

After playing it with them, Nicktoons MLB is something I could see a couple of seriously stoned dudes playing on a fraternity couch, partly for irony, but mostly because it's a strong pick-up-and-play game that emphasizes head-to-head competition. Plus, punking someone with SpongeBob, or being punked by SpongeBob, adds another dimension to bragging rights.

How that disc ends up on that hypothetical coffee table is 2K Play's marketing problem. I'm guessing a lot of older gamers will be exposed to this through their little brothers or as a what-the-hell rental. But I wouldn't discount it as kids stuff. That's because the whole thing rides on the chassis of The Bigs, a well regarded arcade baseball game that disappointed at the cash register back in 2009.

The batter-versus-pitcher matchup, with its shrinking-and-expanding zones of dominance for either the hitter or the pitcher, should be familiar to anyone who played The Bigs 2. As a pitcher, your full-meter breaking balls have a nasty snap and your fastball arrives with extra mustard. As a hitter, if the other guy challenges you in your wheelhouse and doesn't get enough on the ball, you'll blast it to Mars. Four at-bats in, I was doing a home run trot.

All of this has an anchor in The Bigs, along with the licensed Major League Baseball players' look. That makes the Nicktoons characters the stars, and their participation is a fresh coat of paint that keeps the series going while opening it to a different audience. The Nicktoons roster is deep and full of characters with appeal for the bigger kids, notably Powdered Toast Man, who was never anything less than 4-for-4 on the day when I wandered by the High Voltage dudes. Powdered Toast Man is, unquestionably, the wrecking ball in this lineup.

In visuals, they got PTM's iconic ass perfect, though I didn't spy him farting, on a bowl of cereal or otherwise. All cartoon characters resemble their broadcast counterparts in 3D form; the major leaguers are beefier versions of themselves but more realistically modeled than cartoony. While Nicktoons characters will behave in ways that call attention to their cartoon abilities and mannerisms, the gameplay is balanced throughout - I did not see any character-specific powerups, cheats or the like.

You get 300 major leaguers from all 30 teams, very much Bigs like, and then a ton - the final number isn't yet confirmed - of Nicktoons characters from mainstays to supporting characters. Six of MLB's more-known ballparks are represented in the game, along with six cartoon-themed parks that offer zany visuals when you pound a home run or the crowd goes nuts.

The game is being built for Wii, the DS and Xbox 360 (notably, not the PS3). I did not see or test the Kinect controls, but they will be there for the game; the only game mode I saw was the Quick Play. Other previews have said there is no season mode, just a tournament setting. It wasn't clear to me if the game required you to pit major leaguers versus cartoons, or if it would allow for big leaguers to play big leaguers, or cartoon-on-cartoon crime.

Yes, slapping new characters and a new title on The Bigs assets is, at bottom, what we may be looking at here. The Bigs was still a fun ride, and giving it a trippy new look could be the shot in the arm the series needs.

What's next for Namco Bandai's smart, hi-def remake series, Namco Generations, after Pac-Man Championship Edition and Galaga Legions? Mappy? No. Dig Dug? Nope! Xevious? Not even close. How about that Namco classic Dancing Eyes, the video game that turns undressing virtual girls into a pervy puzzle? Err... OK!

Oddly enough, one of the next games announced for the Namco Generations series is a 1996 arcade game that never saw a home console version. Made for Namco's System 11 platform—which was based on PlayStation hardware—Dancing Eyes is an odd blend of arcade curiosities Amidar and Gals Panic. Players control a monkey who crawls across women's clothing with the goal of stripping them down to their unmentionables, rewarding players with a few seconds of virtual girl ogling.

This Namco Generations title is for the PlayStation 3 only and touts PlayStation Move support. The thrill of undressing Japanese school girls, French doctors and Italian businesswomen appears to be the game's major draw.

Namco has a Galaga Legions DX on the way, plus the already announced update to Metro Cross, known as Aero Cross, rounding out the Namco Generations line. That game is "coming soon" to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Our chances of getting Dancing Eyes outside of Japan? Well, we'll see about that.

Dancing Eyes [Namco via GameSetWatch]

It's hard explaining why syndicated dance party shows like American Bandstand and Soul Train were compelling television, unless you grew up in that analog era that predated VCRs, cable TV (in some stubborn households) and goddamn for sure the Internet.

If we used classic game soundtracks, now it becomes something listenable, if not watchable, and the dancing Billy Zabkas with butt-cuts and too-tight Izods become a smidge less dorky. Now I think you dig me. So here's Blaster Master, Level 3, by Naoki Kodaka. And you can bet your last money, it's all gonna be a stone gas, honey.

The Legacy Music Dance Party [Funny or Die]

LOS ANGELES | A show attendee wears a box on his head as he walks the Los Angeles Convention floor during the Electronic Entertainment Expo on June 7, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

Tomb Raider Hopes to Recreate a Gaming Icon

Don't think of Tomb Raider as an origin story, think of it instead as a sort of metaphorical creation myth, a game that won't redefine just who Lara Croft is, but also the world in which she exists. Gone not only is her over-sexualized physique, two guns and ponytail, but also her past, her way of... More »

How Do You Stop a Team Fortress 2 Addict From Playing?

Playing video games is normally a harmless hobby, but when a game consumes every single waking hour of your existence there's a problem. Commenter Wtfisthisidonteven is looking for help breaking his little brother's Team Fortress 2 habit in today's very special episode of Speak Up on Kotaku. More » More »

Dig These Minecraft Pads

Joining a host of t-shirts and fridge magnets born of a Minecraft licensing deal are these foam pickaxes and sticky notecubes. Now you can wear a Minecraft Union shirt and smack around a block notecube with a faux pickaxe while you kill time waiting for the game to finally launch. The notepad,... More » More »

Troll Faces and Empty Jackets Populate This Animated Look At the Hacker Civil War

Next Media Animation's army of computer graphic animators churned out a story today neatly encapsulating the week's escalating hacker wars. LulzSec, depicted as the bad guys in this video, are responsible for attacks against a number of sites including Sony, The Escapist, Minecraft and Eve... More » More »

One Very Odd Circus of Video Games

They call it E3, which isn't that cool a name. Absurdly, you may have also heard, that E3 is Video Games, or what (some/most) of the big, rich companies in the gaming industry would have you believe is Video Games. That's kind of right. More » More »

Shigeru Miyamoto Wants to Unite Inverted and Un-Inverted Gamers

During the same Nintendo developer roundtable where we were given a Tanooki suit history lesson, Nintendo godfather Shigeru Miyamoto discussed the new control scheme for Star Fox 64: More » More »

A Look at Call of Duty: Black Ops Annihilation in Action

Here's our first look at the next map pack coming to Call of Duty: Black Ops. In the video we get a quick walk-through of Annihilation's four maps: Hangar 18, Drive-In, Silo and Hazard. Hanger 18 takes place in Area 51 and is packed with conspiracy-theory Easter Eggs. More » More »

You Don't Have to Play Battlefield 3's Silly Pre-order Game to Get Its ‘Physical Warfare Pack'

Don't worry, Battlefield fans. You don't really need to engage in pre-order incentive nonsense for Battlefield 3, at least not if you want the "exclusive" weapons, ammo and add-ons that Electronic Arts is dangling in front of first-person shooter enthusiasts. Earlier this week, Battlefield 3, the... More » More »

What Is Japan's Fetish This Week? Foreign… Flair

Someone once told me, "Half-Japanese kids grow up to either be TV celebrities or porn stars." Flip on television, and there's half-British male model Joy selling Samurai Road 4 or singer Becky promoting her latest CD single. More » More »

Redbox Game Rentals Are Live

Starting Friday the denizens of grocery stores, Walmarts and gas stations nationwide can quickly rent video games from kiosks at $2 a day. Ignoring for a second the option to rent by mail through Gamefly, that means a month's rental will end up running you about the same amount you'd spend on... More » More »

Take Assassin's Creed, Mass Effect and Other Gaming Greats, add Jedi

Everyone loves Star Wars. If you don't love Star Wars, you're wrong. Some people love Star Wars so much, they want more things to be Star Wars. Forevergeek.com has taken 50 Star Wars Mashups from all over the internet and thoughtfully put them all in one place. More » More »

Mega Man Zero and his group of reploids team up in Samuel Donato's rad entry into UDON's Mega Man Tribute Contest.

More Mega Man Tribute submissions can be found HERE!

Related Rampage: Assassin's Creed

Mega Man Zero by Samuel Donato / DXSinfinite

Need your daily fill of geek eye candy? If so, head over to Justin Page's Rampaged Reality and get your fix. Republished with permission.

One of the big brains behind next year's BioShock Infinite walks us through the back story of this layered, alternate history shooter, another chance to (at the very least) see more footage of this exciting BioShock spin-off.

Irrational Games' Ken Levine explains the war between the Founders and the Vox Populi, the factions that have turned the once glorious flying city of Columbia into a globe-trotting disaster. Irrational peppers in some footage you might not have seen before, moments culled from our pre-E3 walkthrough of BioShock Infinite.

If you prefer your developer diary things a bit more action packed, perhaps you'd like to learn more about BioShock Infinite's skylines?

We're still at least five six months and change from the release of BioShock Infinite on the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, so you'd better settle in for a slow drip feed of content from next year's game.

In video games, death is anything but final. We've been playing games with some form of immortality or reincarnation for decades, whether that's gamesaves, extra men, whatever. NeverDead enforces the concept in gameplay itself. No matter what grisly mishap befalls your hero, he will not die.

The problem is NeverDead didn't inspire a matching will to live, from what I saw of it. The novel premise notwithstanding, a rather run-of-the-mill demon boss battle broke down into quite a chore as the hero, a modern-day demon hunter named Bryce, fought to regenerate his body, and was constantly broken apart by his foe's charge attack. At least with death, video game death anyway, you arrive at a natural starting-over point. There didn't seem to be any relief from this fight, something more interminable than it was epic.

It's an unfortunate way to drive home a point that immortality can be a curse, the theme of NeverDead's back story. In the game, coming to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 this fall from Konami and Rebellion, the main character is half a millennium old thanks to an encounter with a serpent god 500 years ago. In the showdown, Bryce lost his wife, and was stabbed through the right eye by the demon's tail, bestowing him with the curse of everlasting life, though not freedom from its pain.

As such, Bryce may be electrocuted, beheaded, burned, stabbed and shot without any consequence. He will eventually regenerate whatever part went missing. I saw Bryce open faulty gates by grabbing their control boxes and electrocuting himself. Willingly lighting himself on fire, Bryce added a flame attack to his melee.

Bryce's head is the core part, wherever it goes is where you go. It's useful, for example, in tearing your own head off and flinging it over a gate or through a skylight to get around barriers. Assuming he's not under attack, Bryce's entire body will regenerate onto the head, and you're going about your business.

The only mortal threat I saw was something called a "grandbaby," a kind of demon puppy that, to a full-bodied Bryce is a nuisance, but when he's only a head, it can scarf up his noggin and that, actually, will result in a level restart. As a head-only, Bryce can roll around and even use a charge attack, provided he's unlocked it on a skill tree that lets him pull all kinds of stunts, from the self-dismemberment to explosive body parts, in which his own limbs act as grenades.

He packs a sword and twin pistols by default, and his dual wield means twin reticules (a hip-firing angle) that converge into one if the player aims down the sights. But in combat I didn't see Bryce's immortality or resilience manifested as any great advantage. He flung his arm at some larger demons, who went slobbering after it, and then blew them apart with a timed explosion. But in other battles, I saw much more of Bryce's rolling head and limbless torso inchworming away from danger as he struggled to evade foes to let his healing complete.

There will be a few instances in which one plays as Bryce when he was mortal, in flashback-type levels. And occasionally Bryce will be accompanied by a sidekick who is mortal, and that character's death will require a level restart. As if sensing the eye-rolling, director Shinta Nojiri quickly pointed out that not every mission will be an escort level. Perhaps, but it's not a good sign when the easiest way to balance out player immortality and offer a battle with some penalty or consequence is to serve up one of the most despised mission types in singleplayer gaming. NeverDead will not have a co-operative campaign mode, either.

Nojiri said the game can at times look comical, but it is meant to tell a serious story. "He knows there is no hope," Nojiri said, "and he hides his pain with jokes." In the game's trailer and the gameplay dialogue, Bryce came off as less of a tragic figure and more as one cut from the wisecracking antihero mold, in a manner that suggested he didn't want to talk about his circumstances but was secretly flattered when others did.

Multiplayer modes weren't given much discussion but they sounded like scored game types, which nullifies Bryce's immortality in such contests against other characters who will have their own special attributes.

NeverDead starts with a very novel concept, and it's integrated throughout the gameplay, but it's not something that is either an awe-inspiring video game power or, in the other direction, an anything-goes romp with zany visuals and slapstick outcomes. NeverDead's delivered the means to live forever in a video game. What it really needs is a compelling reason to live that long.

Mr. Commander Shepard, star of Mass Effect video game box art, is going to have to share the cover with his female counterpart, Ms. Commander Shepard, at least in the collector's edition version of Mass Effect 3, BioWare says.

While the masculine version of Shepard has dominated official screen shots, wallpapers and box art for the first two Mass Effect games—he's also prominently featured on the standard edition Mass Effect 3 box—the feminine Shepard is finally getting some attention from BioWare. "FemShep" will also get her own official trailer, according to BioWare's director of marketing David Silverman, via NeoGAF.

Silverman says Mass Effect 3's collector's edition art is "One side male, one side female," but it sounds like the official look for female Shepard is still being locked down. Silverman tweets that BioWare "are working on the look now."

Hopefully, given the diversity of Mass Effect players' millions of Shepards, they'll surprise us with something other than the default female version of the commander.

Image credit: Margaret from FemShep.com

Documentarian Kurt Vincent says that after raising over 29,000 dollars through Kickstarter he plans on releasing his film, Arcade: The Last Night at Chinatown Fair, this fall. [Arcademovie.com]

We understand that many new video games ship with glitches. We (sometimes) forgive them. We also understand that some glitches are features or Easter eggs. We celebrate that, just as we celebrate this glitch from Duke Nukem Forever.

Duke Nukem Forever - Plane Glitch [YouTube]