Artist Katie Hampton has created some amusing images that feature classic video game characters aging in real-life situations. Most of her drawings focused on classic Nintendo characters.

Everyone who was invited to Nintendo’s press conference yesterday got to take a firsthand look at the latest Wii game, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. It was a good opportunity, especially since everyone watching was teased by the game for at least 10 minutes when it was shown onstage. While the massive crowds temporarily detered me from taking my turn then, I had plenty of time to check the game out on the show floor.

Motion controls are much more intuitive this time around. The Wii remote is used as a sword, for general hacking and slashing. The nunchuk is used as your shield. You can press the A button to dash when your sword isn’t drawn, or to step and jump while fighting. The shield can be used to bash enemies, or in the case of Octoroks rebound their projectiles back at them…

If creasing paper seems like a dull pastime, then you obviously haven’t been exposed to the wondrous world of papercraft.

These artists take colored paper or printed patterns, add a few well-placed folds and creases and turn them into 3D masterpieces.

Case in point is Matthew Hawkin’s Pac-Man papercraft sculpture.

As with anything these days, there are fans in abundance and many of them gather at Paperkraft.net to share designs, several of which involve classic and modern video game characters.

Like many of its predecessors, this is a strange story starring a little guy in a green, elfish suit wielding a sword (called Link, of course) and a princess (Zelda) that needs to be rescued, though not quite in the princess-in-another-castle way. This time there is a mysterious train and disappearing tracks that need to be re-mapped by beating level bosses and involving Zelda as a ghostly, albeit chatty, presence.

And so, here we are at the pinnacle of our list of the top 5 hardcore Wii franchises. We’ve been to fantasy worlds, we’ve been to hospitals, we’ve been in outer space and we’ve explored dungeons. Now, we’re going to a quiet little town named Raccoon City for a home tour, to take in the local color, and maybe get our head eaten off. Resident Evil is likely as hardcore as franchises get on the Wii. You’re killing zombies, after all. Violently. There are shotguns and chainsaws and axes and RPGs and giant fish, but there’s also fancy jewelry you can wash off for cash reward. See? Something for everyone.

The Legend of Zelda series is the reason we own Nintendo systems. That’s right, I’ve said it. You can keep your Mario. It’s the Zelda games that keep us enthralled for weeks—even months at a time as we work our way through amazing adventures in Hyrule. Without fail, the games in the Zelda franchise have been epic in scope (well, CD-i games not withstanding), which is why we wait with baited breath at every Nintendo press conference for the announcement of a new Zelda game.

E3 2009 is all over now and the games have all been announced. It’s time to look at the best of the best, specifically for the Wii.

There were a ton of games announced at E3 that all look very good, so I limited it to the best ten, which really only makes this a sampling. Games are listed in no particular order.

For my latest melted beads project I decided to remain old school, this time with Link from The Legend of Zelda (NES).

I found a lot of sprite designs online for this one but none were lage enough to maximize the 29×29 pixel grid. Again I used PCStitch to convert images I had found and edit it to make the desired design using the Pyssla beads 10-color pallet…

We know that game tie-ins to a movie usually end in utter disaster. Ironically enough those games tend to sell very well despite their quality. Brash Entertainment knows that which is why they’ve published movie games including Jumper: Griffin’s Story, Alvin and the Chipmunks and Space Chimps. Brash’s latest endeavor moves beyond cinema adaptations and into television with a game based on the television show Prison Break which is scheduled for release in February 2009 on the PS3 and Xbox 360.

Proof of the games existence came from an ad inside the Prison Break Season 3 DVD box set telling us all of…

My latest cross stitch was a request from one of my best friends. She’s a Legend of Zelda fan, so she asked if I could make a Link for her. This was the result. It is Link, accompanied by a little Navi. (If you’re a Phantom Hourglass fan, you can pretend that it is Ciela.)

Click through to learn more about the piece.