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I’ll try my best here, but honestly, words cannot accurately describe the weirdness of Monsteca Corral: Monsters vs. Robots. For that, you’ll need to watch this video. Notice how there is a caterpillar meter, and upon filling it up, a giant caterpillar Astromaggot starts flying around the world.

At least, that’s what I think was going on. The game itself looks rough around the edges — especially in comparison to the awesome, straight-out-of-the-’90s art (attached below) — but I can see myself being too distracted by what’s happening on the screen to care about visual fidelity.

Oh, right! The release date! Monsteca Corral hits WiiWare next Monday, August 16 (and August 20 in Europe) for 500 Wii Points.

I’ll try my best here, but honestly, words cannot accurately describe the weirdness of Monsteca Corral: Monsters vs. Robots. For that, you’ll need to watch this video. Notice how there is a caterpillar meter, and upon filling it up, a giant caterpillar Astromaggot starts flying around the world.

At least, that’s what I think was going on. The game itself looks rough around the edges — especially in comparison to the awesome, straight-out-of-the-’90s art (attached below) — but I can see myself being too distracted by what’s happening on the screen to care about visual fidelity.

Oh, right! The release date! Monsteca Corral hits WiiWare next Monday, August 16 (and August 20 in Europe) for 500 Wii Points.

I’ll try my best here, but honestly, words cannot accurately describe the weirdness of Monsteca Corral: Monsters vs. Robots. For that, you’ll need to watch this video. Notice how there is a caterpillar meter, and upon filling it up, a giant caterpillar Astromaggot starts flying around the world.

At least, that’s what I think was going on. The game itself looks rough around the edges — especially in comparison to the awesome, straight-out-of-the-’90s art (attached below) — but I can see myself being too distracted by what’s happening on the screen to care about visual fidelity.

Oh, right! The release date! Monsteca Corral hits WiiWare next Monday, August 16 (and August 20 in Europe) for 500 Wii Points.

Quake Live has been down for maintenance recently — now we know why. The free-to-play, browser-based game is getting two subscription tiers, which will exist alongside the current free version.

The Premium sub ($1.99 per month, billed annually) includes: 20 Premium-only maps, Freeze Tag mode, exclusive awards, the option to create and join up to five clans, custom profile wallpaper, and match statistics remain stored for six months.

The Pro sub ($3.99 per month, also billed annually) includes all of the Premium subscription features, plus the ability to start your own game server, specify a server location, determine the game mode and invite people to join you.

Also, you can: invite three friends with Standard-level memberships to play with you in any Premium-level map; unlock Pro-exlusive awards; create your own clan and join up to ten clans; and have match statistics stay stored for 12 months.

Niero said it best: “I feel like we just got a press release that was stuck in someone’s Excite Mail outbox for 12 years.” I can see longtime players sticking with this, sure, but it’s going to be a hard sell for the rest.

Okay, so we already got our first look at Street Fighter X Tekken during San Diego Comic-Con. Now, it’s Tekken X Street Fighter’s turn. The venue is set: it’s gamescom in Cologne, Germany. Before we go any further, you are pronouncing the “X” as “cross,” right? Keep at it.

Tekken director Katsuhiro Harada and Street Fighter producer Yoshinoro Ono will be battling it out at 2:00 PM on Thursday, August 19 in Konrad-Adenauer-Saal of the Kölnmesse. You may or may not need the Rosetta Stone to decipher that message.

This is where details get sketchy. There are conflicting reports about the specifics, but a tournament of some sort will go down. Apparently there’s going to be one for Tekken 6 and one for Super Street Fighter IV; I’ve also heard that there will be a tournament for Tekken X SF. Who do we believe!?

This is what happens when two separate developers create two similar-sounding games simultaneously.

I’m still struggling to associate Game Room with Wednesday, even after all these weeks of game additions. In case you couldn’t tell, that is, indeed, my passive-aggressive way of saying maybe you should skip straight to the good stuff, guys. Here’s what we’re looking at for today:

• Fishing Derby (Atari 2600)
• Barnstorming (Atari 2600)
• Quadrun (Atari 2600)
• Gyruss (Arcade)
• Hover Force (Intellivision)

Gyruss is the clear winner this week, although it is also offered on Xbox LIVE Arcade, as is usually the case for the more notable games. It’s got Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor, however, which is multiple kinds of awesome.

A curious listing from BradyGames on GameStop has sparked some discussion — it’s for a “Borderlands GOTY Official Strategy Guide.” In this era of never-ending add-ons, it’s become commonplace for Game of the Year versions to more or less just be the core game plus whatever extra content has come out so far.

In the case of Borderlands, that would be “The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned,” “Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot,” and “The Secret Armory of General Knoxx.” The GameStop listing is for September 7, and only includes PC and Xbox 360.

I suppose it’s entirely possible for BradyGames to pump out an updated guide that covers off-the-disc missions without there being any plans for an actual re-release of Borderlands, but that’d be weird. Plus, Borderlands totally deserves a GOTY edition.

Borderlands GOTY edition teased by GameStop strategy guide listing [Joystiq]

I hope you’re sitting down, because we have the cover art for NBA Jam, courtesy of Twitter. This is the biggest story of the day, no question. My criteria — “is there a basketball on fire?” — has been met. You win this round, EA Sports.

Out of seemingly nowhere, my family and I have been getting back into the Nintendo 64 version of NBA Showtime: NBA on NBC, a game very much in tune with NBA Jam. It’s got the same out-of-control vibe, so yes, we always play as mascots, and we always go for half-court shots — and often make them, too — as the countdown dips below the one-second-left mark.

We’re not normally a competitive bunch, but when it comes to this game, for some insane reason I have yet to fully grasp, sh*t gets real. My hope is that this revival of NBA Jam will foster these same feelings.

That’s a direct quote from Hamza. With the massive Steam sale still carrying on, I imagine most of us will be playing PC games this weekend. I would have bought more than just Osmos, but many of the better deals were for titles I already own in some capacity.

Surprisingly — to me, anyway — it seems like there’s something of a following for Realtime Worlds’ MMOG APB. If you’ll allow me to be a jerk for a second, it looks rather sketchy. But hey, if people are able to extract some fun out of the game, more power to them.

New to FNF? Read this: Each week, a bunch of Destructoid readers and usually an editor or two get together to play some videogames online. Basically, this is what Friday Night Fights are all about.

The planning for FNF takes place in the forums, where community members volunteer to host by posting their information (gamertag, time to meet up, game, etc.) in the forum post corresponding to the system they’re interested in playing on.

Then, every Friday, reminder posts for those who don’t read the forums regularly go up in the community blogs section all thanks to a dedicated group of cool individuals. And for everyone who wants their info all in one place, they have got my weekly recap posts to look forward to between 4:30 – 5:30 PM EST.

Now that you’re here, just scan the list below and find a game you want to play. All that’s left to do after that is to join the match by contacting the host below using any means necessary. For Wii, you might have to be a little creative, but for 360/PS3 a simple “invite me” message will be fine.

The names on the left are our Destructoid handles, while the ones on the right are our online handles (PSN IDs, for example). Don’t see a game you want to play? Feel free to post a comment offering to take up hosting duties yourself.

Totally cool stuff:

• APB
• EU movie night
• Monster Hunter Tri

Tonight’s Hosts (more info from Subenu):

• Platform: PC/Mac, Steam. (Meet up in Steamtoid chat!)
  Game: Team Fortress 2
  Maggots: Tarvu, Subenu, Kris_S, Mollygos,
  Time: 19.00 BST (GMT+1)

• Platform: Xbox 360
  Game: Left 4 Dead
  Bill Killers: Tarvu, The Guy with the Hat, Subenu
  Time: 20.00

• Platform: Xbox 360
  Game: Red Dead Redemption
  Murderers of the Long faces: Fusion

• Platform: PS3
  Game: Red Dead Horses
  Masters of Equestrocide: Kris_S_273, Foolishbean69, JJMccallum

Tonight’s Hosts (all hail garethxxgod):
• garethxxgod – garethxxgod:
  Left 4 Dead @ 8:00 EDT
  Left 4 Dead 2 @ 9:00 EDT
  Gears of War 2 @ 11:00 EDT

Tonight’s Hosts (more info from Y0j1mb0):
• Jack of No Trades – JackofNoTrades85 (BlazBlue @ 8:00 EDT)
• Liam (Transformers: WfC @ 9:00 EDT)
• SantanaClaus89 – Moosehole (Bad Company 2 @ 9:00 EDT)
• Elsa – Elsa (MAG @ 11:00 EDT)
• Y0j1mb0 – k0wb0y-b33b0p (SSFIV @ 12:00 EDT)

Tonight’s Games (more info from SPNKr):

• The Ship
  IP: 72.233.56.10:27017
  Gametype: Elimination
  Play Time: Whenever (Official start time is 6 PM EST)
• Team Fortress 2
  IP: 63.209.35.100:27015
  Map rotation: Stock only rotation with customs in Rock The Vote.
  Play Time: Whenever (Official start time is 6 PM EST)

• IP (Europe): 85.234.148.9:27055
  Map Rotation: Stock Rotation.
  Admins: Dtoid | watermanx, Dtoid | Awesomeist
• Counter-Strike: Source
  IP: 64.69.39.176:27015
  Map rotation: de_dust2 and cs_office
  Play Time: Whenever (Official start time is 6 PM EST)
  (Thanks to TewDee for the server)
• Bad Company 2 Server 32 Slot
  SAFL Bad Compay 2 -Hardcore and Ranked-
  -In the server browser on the right hand side, where it says server name, put SAFL and it will find the server for you, then add to favs!
  Play Time: Whenever (Official start time is 6 PM EST)

• If you want to find people to play with, get your ass to mars Steam chat

Beyond FNF:
• The Steam group
• The WoW guild