2007.07.12
Their page on the delightfully whimsical and increasingly homoerotic "Cho Aniki" series brought me to i-mockery's Cho Aniki page, part of their amusingly sophomoric Sexual Moments in Video Games series. I liked these images from the classic "Rampage"
These are your characters after they've de-morphed from their giant monsterous forms after taking too much damage. The amusing part is that you're then vulnerable to one of the other monsters coming over and gobbling you up as you're shamefacedly trying to slink offscreen...
Two last points... thanks to their explanation I now see "R-Type" as one of the coolest game names ever... a (somewhat obscure) evolutionary biology term describes "K-types" as species who have few young and invest resources into helping them thrive (ala most mammals) vs. "R-types" that try a more scattershot approach of many young cheaply, and maybe some will survive. A bioengineered "R-Type" (from the future, I think) makes a great enemy and scenario, an explanation why it's always one guy in a ship vs screaming alien hoardes.
Finally, The Phoenix had an OK piece on the best Video Game bosses.
15 Reasons Mister Rogers Was the Best Neighbor Ever.
The 7 minute sopranos (meant as kind of a prep for the final season I guess...) via this Slate piece on minisodes, turning sugary pop culture into, I dunno, pure glucose or something.