[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtUkphb_Pbg&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0]

Much-anticipated Futurama tribute game Invaders! Possibly From Space came out a few days ago, and can be downloaded from the author’s website. It’s beautifully done, if rather too easy, but it does keep adding things as you go along so there’s always something new to see. The default mouse control can be switched to joystick, the horrible prog-rock (from Fry’s all-Rush mixtape, I’m betting) can be turned off, and while it’s fullscreen-only it doesn’t screw up your desktop. As for the typos, you’ll just have to forgive those.

Been meaning to mention this for a while, ever since I stumbled across it in a dark corner of an arcade in the autumn of 2009. It’s the latest and arguably the weirdest Space Invaders yet.

Space Invaders – The Beat Attacker is a very fast-moving and usually short “redemption” game, for which you win tickets to exchange for prizes in the arcade’s prize kiosk. (You know the sort of thing – collect 1 million tickets, at a minimum cost of about £500, and you can get a digital watch.) You shoot the invaders by stomping on three static Laser Base panels on the front of the machine, and you have to be very speedy and accurate to stop the turbo-charged space monsters reaching the “Dead Line”, which ends your game.

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Come on, everyone else!

Who decided it should be called Earth?

Why are there pitstops in Formula 1? Why don’t they all just have one big fuel tank? Is the sport really meant to be about who’s quickest at handling a hose?

Why do cereals always have to be advertised with a disclaimer about being “part of a balanced breakfast”? Why do only breakfast foods get this special treatment? McDonalds ads don’t have to put “Have a salad sometimes, fatty” across the bottom of the screen.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkrREJSg9-0&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0]

“Mum’s a live wire, Dad’s a-” what, exactly?

Why is the UK the only country that has salt-and-vinegar crisps? And why do we call them that anyway? ALL crisps have salt on them, and we don’t say “salt and cheese and onion”.

What are you actually supposed to do for “Street Repairs” in Monopoly? What does it mean by “street”?

(And while we’re here, does ANYONE play Monopoly properly, with the auction rule? Is there another popular game anywhere in the world where practically everyone who plays it ignores one of the main rules?)

Why do girls’ and boys’ shirts button up different sides?