geekosystem

Street Fighter celebrated its 25th anniversary back in August of this year, and the SF crew are going to help Mega Man ring in the big two-five the only way they know how, by kicking the snot out of him. On December 17th, the 25th anniversary of Mega Man, Capcom will be releasing Street Fighter X Mega Man, a crossover title that pits Mega Man against classic Street Fighter characters standing in as robot bosses. Before you can shout, "Shut up and take my money!" We have great news. It's free.

In all fairness, my knowledge on perfumery comes from this movie, while Epic-Scents has the Bedoukian Research Inc behind it, all 40 years of fragrance development. But the way I see it, they really are going about it the wrong way. If you want to know what Mega Man smells like, you don't ask other people; you play Mega Man.

The Leicester branch of the UK's Teenage Pregnancy Strategy (which sounds an awful lot like group with a strategy to make teenagers pregnant, rather than help prevent it) has developed a YouTube campaign in order to help remind teenagers to wear condoms. Entitled "Game On!," the video seems to rip assets and ideas from Mario (warp pipes, bricks), Mega Man (the boy's sprite and animations), and Sonic (the title screen) in order to convey the safety involved with using a condom by having the boy fight off evil STIs.

The Internet loves its homages to retro gaming; however, only a select few of said homages ascend to a higher level where craftsmanship and art evoke just as much of a response as nostalgia and referentialism. Jeff Swenty's 8BITWOOD creations manage to do just that. He writes,

I work in the videogame industry and I thought what better way to pay homage to my favorite games than to cut out thousands of little blocks of wood, stain them, glue them together, seal them and then hang the result on the wall? I work at a videogame developer that is kind enough to let me create murals of pixel art and put them up on the wall for display.

More pics below:

Zero Lives blogger Das Chupa has a son who's going to be "out of beta" in a little over 3 months, but he's not a fan of parents with "crap bumper stickers about their six year olds making the honor list." We think that you'll agree that his old-school gaming-inspired sticker designs are far more original:

Words cannot describe how very excellent this is: DeviantARTist Suzuran drew 54 Marvel characters in the sprite-tastic style of classic Mega Man. If you wish to weep tears of joy, click to see the full panorama.

Ever want to act like you played through all the old school classics, even though the truth was that you just bought a NES console just last week? Well, now plot spoilers The Fine Brothers, who brought us such video gems as "100 Reality Spoilers in 2 Minutes," are back with "50 Classic Nintendo Spoilers." Now you, too, can casually bring up how Mega Man 3 ends in a conversation with your superior geek associates. As for the rest of us, we'll smile as we fondly recall the games of 8-bit happiness. Need I warn you of the spoilerfest that lies in wait ahead?

Wow. If you don't have enough pocket change to see Iron Man 2 this weekend but still want to get a good dose of metal on metal battling action, you are in luck. A few years ago, filmmaker Eddie Lebron announced his plans to make a feature length Mega Man version and, today, his finished product was unleashed on the world. The completed movie is a whopping 90 minutes long and does the little blue wonder more than proud. You can watch the whole thing after the jump.

While it may not pass Roger Ebert's muster, anyone who has played a video game since the dawn of Pong will be hard-pressed not to call Exploding Rabbit's Jay Pavlina's flash game Super Mario Bros. Crossover a work of art. The game allows the player to play the entirety of the classic Super Mario Bros., but do so using some of the greatest characters in video game history as well as the mustachioed plumber. The ridiculous thrill one gets when using a warp pipe while playing as Mega Man, Samus, Link, [Contra's] Bill R., or [Castlevania's] Simon has to be felt to be believed. Pardon the hyperbole, but it's true. Fortunately, Pavlina has been nice enough to allow us to embed an updated version of his baby so you can play it right here. Take a turn at it after the jump!