I’m really happy with this week’s episode.

This is the first of many episodes  shot and edited by Justin Yngelmo (Vamp from the MGS4 finale), who is taking over much of production while I’m at Gearbox working on Hot New Gamez™.

The awesomeness (if indeed you feel it awesome) of the ending is thanks entirely to him. I would have never thought to cut the scene like that — partially because I’ve become such a creature of habit that I don’t try anything new, and partially because I’m too lazy to look for music unless I absolutely have to — but, to me, it really works. Davis’ incredible cackling doesn’t hurt, either.

Sorry it took so long. We were busy filmin’.

This week’s episode, surprisingly enough, is full of talk about videogames. No, seriously — around 75% of the discussion is about videogames, and about 20% is about how mystery-driven shows like LOST and Battlestar Galactica are manipulative bullshit at times.

Davis and I bought Super Street Fighter IV to entertain the Dtoid guests at our wedding. We spent about twenty minutes trying to play it before deciding we were both too stupid and unskilled at fighting games to wring any real degree of enjoyment out of it (to this day, I have not gotten above a C rating in defense or technique).

While it’s obvious that there is a huge market for these sorts of high-level fighting games that hold an implicit respect for the player’s skill and understanding of fighter etiquette, I have to ask: why, unlike nearly every other videogame genre I can think of, do so many fighting games not include modes or options that cater to people who suck?

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As Ellis might say, it’s not really a ha-ha funny sort of episode, but more of a makes-you-think kinda thing. Weirdly, it feels a bit like a Once Upon a Pixel episode, even though Ash and I came up with it. Things will get even weirder when Davis posts her very HAWP-esque episode of her own show.

I can’t thank the fan artists enough (even those whose work didn’t make it into the final vid) for their work. I received a lot of really awesome stuff, all of which should be entered in every games-related art exhibit around.

Also: Manic Maverick, send me an email. You haven’t responded to my private emails so I assume I’ve got the wrong address or something.

OKAY SO LIKE WHEN YOU MEET SOMEONE FOR THE FIRST TIME IT’S LIKE HEY I’M IAN SHAKE THE HAND AND THEIR NAME IS LIKE BOB OR WHATEVER INDECISIVE OCTOPUS IT’S LIKE HEY I’M IAN

IT NEVER ENDS

…Scored to the Robocop theme song, with all the sprites replaced by copyright-infringing mascots.

Basically, after we finished the “real” version of Runner — a version considerably more mopey and ex-girlfriend-filled than this one — Jon said he wanted to make a joke version with funny sprites. We didn’t really have an excuse until Bit.Trip Runner was announced.

Long story short, we thought it’d be funny to fabricate some lawsuit with Gaijin to (A) give us an excuse to post about their game every once in a while, because we like those guys a lot and (B) give Jon an excuse to make the silly version of Runner under the wait-that-makes-no-sense pretense of copyright infringement. Most people either didn’t like or didn’t get the joke, so it was kind of a failure in that respect, but whatever — we got to put Robocop’s head on my body. I call that a win.

Weirdly, the music in this version syncs up with the action WAY better than it did in the original game. Like, eerily so.

I’m going to be editing the Bullet Bill HAWP in a few days, and I’d love to have more art (as it stands I’ll probably have to cut the poem down). Much of the art you guys did when I asked for it before was really awesome; I kinda just want, you know. More. Cause it was awesome.

So, just as a reminder: please do feel free to post fan images of Bullet Bill that might go well with a Maya Angelou-esque poem about him.

This week’s HAWPcast is about random, mostly TV-related stuff. That, and some self-analysis regarding HAWP’s style.

New episode is up, and it doubles as a Mother’s Day present because I ain’t buying that woman shit.

This is another one of those episodes that I’ve been sitting on forever — wanted to make sure it was actually around Mother’s Day when we released it. Anyway, hope you enjoy it, even though its connection to videogames is tangential at best.

YOU WILL MAKE REMARKABLY STRONG BABIES IF YOU WEAR THIS SHIRT DURING PROCREATION