It’s hard to believe that nearly two years ago, I wrote the first exclusive preview of Double Dragon II: Wander of the Dragons for Co-Optimus. A 3D remake of the classic Double Dragon II arcade game, it seemed destined to revive the historic beat-em-up franchise after years of inactivity. Korean game developer Gravity Co, Ltd. and publisher Barunson Creative Co Ltd. understood the series’ importance in the gaming landscape and found the second game’s story most exciting, hence their decision to remake it for modern audiences.

Guns of Icarus has had an interesting life. What started as a web-based airship combat game eventually turned into the more full-featured Steam release Guns of Icarus Online. The co-op play for the series has always been unusual, allowing teams of players to work together to battle rival airships in some intense rounds of mid-air combat. Even still, the game was a bit thin under the surface, offering a lot of combat with very little else.

In a world where hockey masks don the faces of the most feared mercenaries. No wait. In a world where fist bumps, explosions, and doors are all better with two people - Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel is the series 3rd game with an all new campaign, all new characters, and an all new setup. We dive in with our full co-op review.

I reminisced about Hanna-Barbera cartoons the other day, looking back on all the kooky stuff they put forth over the years. One that really stood out from the rest was this show called “Wacky Races”, where a dozen unique car racers used various slapstick devices to run each other off the road and win the race. Flash forward to today and I recently was notified of a new co-op racing game called “Pressure” that captured that same sort of wackiness the show brought. German-based, independent studio, Chasing Carrots, aimed to make Pressure a unique, fun 2-player experience due to their passion for co-op gaming.

It's April 1st, so information on the internet won't be worth a damn today. You've been warned. But I assure you these games are coming out this week, unless the folks who run Amazon are being a bunch of jerks.

Bungie has always been known for their top notch art direction and the latest pieces of Destiny concept art to come out of last week's Game Developer's Conference continue to reinforce that. There's seven new pieces of art that are worthy of any computer desktop or even, hanging on your living room wall. There's also a handful of pieces looking at the characters and their clothing.

When former developers of Assassin's Creed, Army of Two and Dead Space get together to make a game, what sort of experience might you expect? Probably not a co-op puzzle game where you play as tiny little creatures being subjected to the experiments of a mad scientist. That's exactly what the upcoming Tiny Brains will be, however, and even if it wasn't the first thing on your mind, it still looks like an interesting release.

Magicka for mobile tablets might not sound like a logical next step for the franchise, but as soon as you try Paradox Interactive's Magicka: Wizards of the Square Tablet, you'll be all like "NICE". Recently released for iPad and Android tablets, the touch screen incarnation of Magicka features all the same spell creation, goblin frying, shield making, meteor summoning elements from the PC release reworked to feel a bit like Castle Crashers. It even preserves online co-op play, allowing up to four players to head out and "accidentally" burn each other to death in the heat of battle.

For me, one of the gems of PAX East 2013 was a game located in a tiny booth on the edge of the expo floor. Entitled Eon Altar, developer Flying Helmet Games ambitiously combines a tabletop RPG with a video game for a unique cooperative experience.

Join Luigi for another night in the haunted house. Explore a terror-filled valley filled with ghosts in order to track down the shattered pieces of the Dark Moon. Search every nook and cranny of five different levels in order to find hidden treasure and Boos. Make use of your Poltergust 5000 and the new "Dark-Light" to capture a wide variety of adorable ghosts. Team up with up to three other players and tackle the Scarescraper for even more ghostbusting action.

Ah, Easter weekend. A time for many of us to get together with family, eat lots of food, and pass out in a chocolate coma. A time for gamers to spend the weekend tending to the backlog. A time for, well you get the picture. There was a lot of news in the gaming community this week, thanks mostly in part to GDC 2013 in San Francisco. Oh, and the release of Bioshock Infinite (or GotyShock, as I lovingly call it). Finally, we bear witness to another machination from Hideo Kojima.

Chances are you've caught an advertisement for Defiance, the new shooter/MMO crafted by Trion Worlds. The game also happens to have an accompanying TV show of the same name debuting on the Syfy channel on April 15th. I recently visited Trion Worlds and put some time in with the sci-fi shooter, talking with developers, engaging in the Shadow War, getting crushed in PvP, and most importantly, checking out the co-op.