Metroid Prime 3: Corruption

ith the release of Metroid: Other M just a few days away, now is the perfect time to scan through Nintendo’s venerable sci-fi series and poke fun at all its physical inconsistencies. We did it for Mario and Bowser, then for Link and Ganon, and now it’s time for Samus, Ridley and Kraid to fess up and explain why they can’t pick a size and stick with it...

The characters and environments of the gaming world are so colourful and exciting, it’s little wonder they inspire many of us to pick up our crayons and coloured pencils and have a go at recreating them – or even reimagining them – ourselves. The numbers of drawings we've seen of your favourite characters just goes to show how popular it’s become to take the game art world into your own hands.

Metroid Prime Trilogy is out, which gives you a great excuse to finally beat all three games, unless you bought a GameCube instead of an Xbox or PS2, then you’re just re-beating them (with motion controls) – way to go.

Ever wondered what it would be like to have video game characters in your Pokemon party? Why choose boring old Bulbasaur when you can choose a beautiful Kasumi? Or a level 50 Sackboy?

We've given 21 game characters the Pokemon treatment, with four moves to choose from and some evolutionary states too.

Who would you choose?

Don’t get us wrong – we’re big time Nintendo fans. But you have to admit, the past year has been rather trying for longtime followers. Last year’s “surprise” reveal of Wii Music at E3 just about made our heads explode, and the continued domination of Wii Play and Wii Fit have us preemptively bracing for the worst possible outcome at next week’s massive trade show in Los Angeles (which we’ll be updating from every six seconds).

We’re taking a slight detour into the world of television for this week’s audio-visual aberration. More specifically the terrifying, hallucinogenic nightmare that is kids’ TV. And more specifically, the Tellytubbies.

We always knew there was something not right about them. Those vacant, blank smiles. Those lumpy, deformed bodies. The penchant for subterranean living and -  sweet baby Jesus save us - that horrific

“Guns don’t kill people, bullets do.” But do they have to? Not at all, and in fact, this is all the destructive power you’re going to get out of shooting bullets.

Death happens a lot in videogames, but for some reason it never seems to stick. From heroes who get infinite do-overs to supporting characters who “die” only to resurface at the nick of time down the road, videogames might be the only medium in which the audience feels surprised, and perhaps even cheated, if a dead character isn’t magically brought back to life.

While game content, design and technology constantly change year after year so does game packaging and design. This interests us. So we've taken 10 major game series and visually charted their logos' progression to see how they've evolved.