Coming soon to an Xbox 360 near you: Atari 2600 games. It appears that the former Infogrames, which has been using the Atari name since purchasing Hasbro Interactive in 2001, will be remodeling classic titles and packaging the old and new versions for Xbox Live.

Atari has had a rough few years and has sold off many of its newer properties. Just as the company was quick to abandon the name Infogrames and rely on brand recognition, this latest move is consistent with cashing in on Atari's heritage — but no maneuver can be as effective and memorable as the Atari of three decades ago. 1UP.com has a video gallery of the thirty "The Best, Worst Atari Commercials", which sure does bring back memories: I'd forgotten just how awful the home version of Pac-Man was. It wasn't all bad, though, as represented by this stylized montage:

I sometimes find myself longing for that era, despite the crude graphics — or perhaps because of them. In Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud outlined how the more generic an avatar's features are, the more conducive it is to player identification. That is, today's protagonists have clear personalities and representations: you're not playing as yourself, but as Master Chief, Tommy Vercetti, or Harry Mason. But, as Next Generation recently pointed out in an outline of the 50 greatest game design innovations, "The first adventure games, and most other computer games too, described the world as if you, the player, were actually in the game—not a representation of you, but you. Consequently, the games could make no assumptions about your age, sex, social position, or anything else". That blank slate made it easy to insert yourself into the Atari's nascent virtual worlds. As any fan of the Metal Gear Solid series will tell you, the proliferation of cutscenes means better storytelling, but less player interaction.

Are games and movies true melding? Or is one simply transforming into the other?

It's Monday — and that means three new releases for the Nintendo Wii's Virtual Console. Let's review today's additions:

• Pokemon Snap — imagine the theme of a Disney World ride, crossed with the gameplay of the original Star Fox and Fatal Frame. Despite sounding like a chimeric horror from the Stygian abyss, it's actually a fun, if simple, game.

• Baseball Stars 2 — I've never played this game, but I have many fond memories of the NES original. I'm still trying to figure out how it is Nintendo can offer Neo Geo games to be downloaded to the Wii's wee 512MB hard drive. I remember Neo Geo cartridges having huge capacities, and a quick visit to Wikipedia confirms then run up to 90 megabytes. Will Nintendo eventually update the Wii to support external hard drives through its USB port, similarly to how v3.1 of the system software allowed USB keyboards? Or will we have to use SD memory cards? I don't own any of those, but I do still have my Neo Geo memory card — all 8 KB of it.

• Ghosts 'n Goblins — the original game in the franchise and the third for the Virtual Console. I remember tearing my hair out over this one as a kid, not just because of the difficulty (which is still high enough to turn me bald), but because I could never get the level select code in the Official Nintendo Player's Guide to work. No wonder: it was misprinted.
  

Rather than check the actual plodding Shop channel every Monday, my weekly fix for this news is The Virtual Console Archive. Though their editing could stand some work, they provide a fairly thorough gist of each VC game, as well as a rating and YouTube video. Other parts of their site include indices and news, which is how I learned about the new Wii Gift feature. (Guess Nintendo decided this holiday option wasn't worth making my disc slot glow blue.)

Hello everyone! The name's Robert Boyd. I did some forum and review work with Ken back in the day. When he told me that he was reviving the Gamebits site with a new look and new content, and I just had to get onboard. I'll be doing a little bit of everything: discussing the latest gaming news, sharing impressions of what I'm currently playing, talking about various aspects of the industry, game reviews, and even going back in the past for a bit of nostalgia. [Just like me! -Ken] Shall we begin?

For today's entry, I'd like to talk about a game called Aquaria. A week ago, I had no clue this game even existed; now I'm thinking it just might be the best surprise of this holiday season. Aquaria is an independent PC game that won the grand prize ($20,000) at this year's Independent Game Festival. It's about the mermaid-esque Najia and her quest to discover herself and explore her underwater world. Gameplay could perhaps best be described as a cross between Ecco the Dolphin and Metroid. The player guides Naijia through a massive and intricate 2D underwater world, finding new powers that allow her to explore areas that were previously unreachable.

Several things stand out about Aquaria. First is the shock that it looks and sounds as good as it does. The underwater environments that Najia explores can only be described as gorgeous. The music is equally impressive with dozens of songs that really make you feel like you're right down with her. If you have a decent video card, you can turn on some special water effects that make the whole thing look even better, but even with that option turned off, this is still one of the better presented 2D games I've seen in a long time. What makes the whole thing downright amazing is that the game looks better than many commercial game releases, despite the whole thing being created by only two people (three if you count the voice actress who does a hauntingly beautiful British voice for the heroine). One guy did the music and programming, while his partner did all the art. Truly outstanding and an inspiration for all would be indie game designers.

The other thing that really impressed me with what I've played of the game is the level of immersion that they've managed to achieve with this game. Several aspects work together to build this effect. There's the aforementioned high presentation values. There's a control system that works wonderfully that allows the player to play the entire game using only the mouse (keyboard & control pad options are also available for those who so desire). And there's the level design. Sure, there are plenty of areas that follow traditional game design rules with puzzles, enemies, bosses, treasures, and the like and these are well done, but then there are also areas where you're just meant to explore for fun and take in the experience that really make the world seem alive. Finally the story of Najia's quest for discovery is expertly told in a minimalistic fashion that leaves plenty of scope for imagination.

I highly recommend you check the game; the company's Web site has a demo that lasts about an hour or two that should give you a good idea of whether or not this game is for you. The full game costs $30, and though I was leery of paying that much for an indie game at first, if the rest of the game is as good as the demo then the game is well worth what they're asking for it. It's currently for PC only, although they are working on a Mac port. I'll be sure to give a full review after I purchase the game (I have some eBay auctions ending soon, plus there's always Christmas) to let you all know if the full version fulfills on the promises made by the demo.

New today to the Will It Blend? line of commercials is Halo. If you've ever wanted to see a master chef take on Master Chief, here's your chance — though I don't find the blending of a single DVD nearly as entertaining as the puréeing of an entire Guitar Hero:

Over on my film blog, Showbits.net, is my review of 10 MPH, a documentary of four people who drove from Seattle to Boston — on a Segway.

I mention it here due to its tangential connection to gaming: one of the four sojourners, Alon Waisman, is host of the ChatterBox video game podcast. Alon and I graduated from high school the same year, not too far from each other; he even installed the mod chip in my PSX on one of his off-days from Electronics Boutique. I bumped into him at E3 a few times after that and now listen to his radio show every week; with this film, it was nice to not just hear, but see, him again. He's a funny guy. Check it out.

I am pleased to announce the launch of a redesigned Gamebits.net!  Having featured the same design since its inception seven years ago, Gamebits has finally caught up with Web 2.0 and now features CSS, RSS, AJAX, and more, all to offer you a great way to get your video gaming fix.

The classic Gamebits content you're already familiar with, including 300+ reviews and 200+ news updates, are still available in the new format, and without breaking any of your existing links or bookmarks.  There's plenty more to come, too, for although this relaunch does not suggest a return to weekly game reviews, I will be using the blog to offer regular news and commentary on the latest gaming developments. (Older news can be identified as those with the date as the title.)

Use the site's navbar to explore this site and its resources, and click the "Subscribe" link to learn about the four ways you can get automatic notification of new site content.  The site automatically reformats itself for best viewing from your Wii, DS, iPhone, or iPod touch, so use whatever device you like to access the updated Gamebits!

Email me with any questions, comments, or suggestions, or respond to this post.  Thanks to Peter Watson for starting me on this project, and to Ewen Wannop for giving me the means to finish it!