Bionic Commando Rearmed does so much right that it’s pretty tough to decide where to begin. As a fair warning, it’s entirely possible that the rest of this review will be nothing short of gushing praise for a game that not only sets the bar as far as remakes of classic games, but for digitally distributed games as well. Ladies and gentlemen, games on Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network simply do not get better than this.

For Hironobu Takeshita, it’s not enough to just use 8-bit sprites and old-school music to recapture the true 8-Bit experience for Mega Man 9 (coming soon to a WiiWare/PSN/XBLA near you!). Every fan of the NES era of games knows that things like sprite flickering and slowdown were inherent evils simply due to the limitations of the hardware. Obviously an 8-bit game would have no trouble running on a Wii (to say nothing of an Xbox 360 or PS3), but Takeshita wants gamers to get the true old school experience so he’s including the option to turn on “defects” like flickering. That’s some serious dedication to authenticity.

It’s also interesting to note that Takeshita considers doing a game like this as more of an artistic choice than simply just emulating the 8-bit style of design. And considering Koji “IGA” Igarashi is pondering doing a new Castlevania in a similar vein, well, this may be the most unexpected retro revival the gaming world has seen.

He Is 8-Bit: Hironobu Takeshita Speaks (via Gamasutra)

Next 2D Castlevania Could Crack Whip On WiiWare (via Joystiq)

By Stewart Smith

Sega, having gone from game console maker to game publisher, and now toy maker, have stepped up their robotics game with this lovely little specimen. As part of the “Dream Pet Series,” Segatoys Division has created this lovely frankenpet, the “Dream Hamster.” The little cutie moves and squirms in your hands, and likely doesn’t do much else. Hey, at least you don’t have to feed it and clean up its poop. Hardly a robotics revolution, at least we know that the tech industry has our rosy dreams of Blade Runner-esque futures in mind.

Segatoys Adds New Animals to Its Dream Toys Series (via Akihabara News)

By Jesse Mann

It may be pretty apparent that we kind of love Mega Man here at New York-Tokyo, but when such great things like this come along, it’s hard to stay quiet about it! Capcom has recently announced the release of Mega Man 9 on Nintendo’s WiiWare service, Xbox Live, and Sony’s Playstation Network, but the real news was that the title would be a true old school NES throwback!

Those of us who grew up with the blue bomber will get to relive our fondest memories with full on 8-bit graphics and music! Capcom then went one step further and commissioned artist Gerald de Jesus to make a wonderfully bad retro boxart design for some limited edition t-shirts! Those that owned Mega Man 1 or 2 as a little tyke will know just how great this is.

Mega Man 9 (via Capcom Blog)

By Jesse Mann

Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3 (for Xbox Live Arcade and the Playstation Network) is like video game comfort food. It’s not the best thing out there and probably done better elsewhere, but it’s satisfying because you know exactly what to expect.

It is the first of what is to be a string of modern updates to some of Capcom’s most classic franchises (1942 Joint Strike, Bionic Commando: Rearmed and Super Street Fighter II HD Remix are set to follow later this year) and shows that even when they’re not firing on all cylinders, the company still knows what it takes to give gamers a good time.  More after the jump.

Rhythm Heaven is a DS port of the quirky Japanese classic Rhythm Tengoku for the Gameboy Advance. That title never saw the light of day in the US, but thankfully Nintendo has seen the light and developed the touch friendly version for us tens of millions of DS owners, both in Japan and stateside.

The title involves a series of mini-games that challenge your rhythmic dexterity, pressing buttons and tapping the touch screen in time with some rather unusual visuals and clever electronic beats. The vibe of Rhythm Heaven is not too far removed from another classic handheld game, Wario Ware, and fans of that wonderfully absurd series should lap this one up. Nintendo even posted a gameplay video on their site. Check it.

Rhythm Heaven (via Nintendo.com)

By Jesse Mann