OK so let’s talk about Robot Unicorn Attack.

I got a link from my friend last night who just told me, “play it. beautiful music.”

I didn’t follow the link right away because I was reading a book. I know, I’m lame. But tonight, I noticed two of my roommates were playing this flash game with extreme interest.

Simply put, Robot Unicorn Attack is the next big thing.

In the game, you play as a robot unicorn who jumps over floating pink cliffs, collects rainbow butterflies, and avoids giant metallic stars.You have three tries or “wishes” to go as far as you can. The further you go and the more rainbow butterflies you get, the higher your score.

While all of this is happening, “Always” by the British synthpop duo Erasure loops in the background. This really sets the tone and defines the game’s character. The endless chorus of “Always, I wanna be with you / And make believe with you / And live in harmony, / harmony oh love” while you’re jumping around as a rainbow-shooting robot unicorn (did I mention the rainbows?) is pretty mesmerizing. Half of the discussion about this game is about the music.

Then there are the dolphins. Yes, dolphins. Conversations like this are happening between college kids right now.

Guy 1: Have you gotten to the dolphins yet?
Guy 2: No?
Guy 1: Man up.

The dolphins appear every time you get 5,000 points. Some people have been trying to figure out what the dolphins do, but as one user on the Adult Swim discussion board put it, “they don’t mean anything, just that you are awesome.”

So just to recap: unicorns, stars, butterflies, and dolphins. And everything is pink and baby blue and sparkling all over.

OK. The presentation is stellar and the gameplay is addicting, but what is it about Robot Unicorn Attack that’s eliciting this kind of response from people? The game has been played 1.6 million times and there are endless comments about how “amazing” and “incredible” it is. One person wrote on Facebook, “Robot Unicorn Attack completed my life. Ive never played a game so simple yet so amazing. Everything is so rainbow its great. Live on Robot Unicorn Attack!” Something about this game has struck a cord with young Americans right now.

There’s a layer of darkness underneath the game’s cheery exterior. Before you start, you get messages like “A fiery death awaits you” and “Persistence is futile.” When you lose, the unicorn explodes and you see its severed head with wires sticking out and tears streaming down its cheek.

Maybe there was a unicron on some girl’s binder in second grade. A cute girl. A lost love, perhaps. A robot is an emotionless husk that doesn’t dare to feel or think for itself. Meanwhile, there are butterflies and rainbows everywhere and a voice sings, “Am I here in vain? / Hold on to the night / There will be no shame.”

Put all of that together, and you’ve got the mind frame of the 21 year old who is about to graduate from college into this bleak economy.

Robot Unicron Attack is the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” of my generation. Play it. Feel it.

Screw hip-hop for a second. A group called Zelda Reorchestrated spent the last six years recreating the soundtrack to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time to sound like it was recorded by live musicians. Ocarina is possibly the greatest game of all time and the soundtrack is freaking timeless.

Zelda Reorchestrated almost realizes the dream of a fully orchestrated Ocarina soundtrack – the project uses a virtual orchestra, which sounds good, but isn’t entirely convincing. We’ll have to wait until another day for the real deal.

Download ZREO’s Ocarina of Time Soundtrack

via Joystiq

Rockstar has shown time and time again that it has good taste in music. DJ Premier and DJ Green Lantern hosted two of GTA4’s radio stations; Oh No, MF Doom and Ghostface did the title track for Chinatown Wars; and Statik Selektah did the soundtrack for The Lost and Damned as well as a banger for Midnight Club: L.A.

So their collaboration with Timbaland on a music game should come as no surprise. Beaterator, which came out last week, is Rockstar’s first big foray into the music genre.

Rockstar is quick to point out that Beaterator isn’t a game in the traditional sense in that it doesn’t have goals and challenges like Rock Band or Guitar Hero. With Beaterator, Rockstar aimed to create a portable, powerful, user-friendly music creation suite.

Continued after the jump

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My other passion in life is video games. E3 (the Electronic Entertainment Expo) takes place this week in Los Angeles which means video game companies are making major announcements. The most fun part of game announcements (aside from actually playing said games) is the shiny new trailers. AaronM gave you a taste yesterday, but here’s the blowout. And I’m keeping it strictly Nintendo because that’s how I roll.

No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle. Game designer/auteur Suda 51’s , over the top, stylish action game. Jidaigeki meets punk rock meets miscellaneous American pop culture references. It’s OK to be a little confused.

I put the rest after the jump because it’s an assload of videos.

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Presumably you’ve heard of this videogame.

Everything about this clip is great, especially the cartoon renderings of the Beatles. Giant elephantmen? Walruses? Bring it on.

Via GRANDGOOD

I’ve been neglecting Remix Tuesdays as of late, so allow me to share this dope remix with you: a crazy 8-bit remix of Finale’s stellar “One Man Show”. This is what you could have received if you beat Super Finale. Of course, a Casual guest spot is always welcome. His voice and flow plays off Finale’s nicely – I think I might actually like this more than the original. We’ve been on a videogame kick lately, huh? Dunno how that happened.

DOWNLOAD: Finale – One Man Show (8-bit Remix ft.Casual)

Here’s a great Casual throwback that’s perfect for the summer.

DOWNLOAD: Casual – Later On

A Pipe Dream And A Promise is in stores now. Cop that.

Bonus Beats: Check out a nice mix of recent Finale tracks at Fresh Selects.

Via Infinite Lives

You know we stay on that videogame rap. This is a genius mixtape which blends hip hop a capellas with beats sampled from the soundtrack of The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time. The beats are by the excellently named Team Teamwork. Some of my favourite remixes are Edan’s “Fumbling Over Words That Rhyme”, the Clipse’s “Virginia”, and Aesop Rock’s “No Jumpercables”. Granted, a few of the remixes don’t really work, but it’s still worth your time.

DOWNLOAD: Team Teamwork – The Ocarina of Rhyme

Vaguely related: awesome commercial for The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time.

Via …Shot Then!

BK based producer Tugboat put together this dope little medley of hip-hop singles done chiptune style (Wikipedia link for those not in the know). I’m pretty impressed with his other beats too, definitely worth checking out. I love how he censored Jay at the beginning with an NES sound effect!

Here’s the list of tracks included in the medley:

Jay-Z — Dirt Off Your Shoulders

T.I — What You Know

Chamillionaire — Ridin’

Ludacris — What’s Your Fantasy?

Bonecrusher — Neva Scared

Kanye West— Overnight Celebrity

Ludacris — Move Bitch

Lil’ Jon — Get Low

Kanye West— Gold Digger

DOWNLOAD: Tugboat – 8-Bit Remix Medley

Between this and Finale’s videogame, I’m digging this recent intersection of rap and 8-bit culture. Shouts to my friend Adam for hipping me to this.

I’ll be honest- I haven’t played a Midnight Club racing game (or any other kinds for that matter) in about 4 years. But when I had MC2 on xbox, It was kind of addicting & fun. With that being said, the 4 year drought might be coming to an end since this caught my eye. The landscape looks really dope, kinda like the previous GTA (which I didn’t play much of either *ducks*).  This downloadable content comes out March 12 on Xbox 360 & Playstaiton 3. Also, Statik let us know via twitter that the song in the trailer is Kali Ft. Glasses Malone & Termanology and is produced by him.

I told you Chinatown Wars looked dope. Now if only we can get a trailer with some more gameplay. Apparently, the Ghostface song in the trailer also features MF Doom and is produced by Oh No. Rockstar needs to start a music label stat.

Download the trailer in HD here.