It’s hard to believe it’s been two decades since the Freelance Police first defended the streets of New York City, but lo and behold, their first official comic book, Monkeys Violating the Heavenly Temple was released 20 years ago today. The demented tale featured neither monkeys nor heavenly temple, but it did mark the beginning of the legacy of comic, cartoons, and games that thrives to this day.

To celebrate, Telltale is reprinting the 1995 compilation Surfin’ the Highway, which has been out of print for over a decade, and remains highly sought after, commonly fetching triple digit prices at auction. This tome chronicles all of the dog and rabbity-thing’s comic book adventures, and a smattering of one-page cartoons and other goodies. This reissue will be extended to include a lot of the loose odds and ends from projects since the original issuing.

I, for one, couldn’t be happier. As brilliant as the games are, Sam and Max’s humor has always been strongest in its raw, original form. I haven’t been able to read Surfin’ the Highway since my father gave away his copy to his brother, and I’ll be there for the reissue day one.

In related news, Telltale also unveiled their boxed version of their episodic Sam and Max games. This DVD packs all 6 games with a generous smattering of DVD-style extras, including commentaries, shorts, trailers, and concept art. It is available for free to those that downloaded the episodes, and for $35 for newcomers.

[Via Telltale Games]

The Magic of What!?

Games Radar has a funny and spot on article detailing the top 7 "horribly mangled" titles in video game history. Even better, it features my personal favorite NES title, The Magic of Scheherazade. When you stop and think about it though, Scheherazade sounds mangled whether you're pronouncing it properly or not. Anybody have any of their own personal favorite mispronunciations?

I like to keep tabs on my Xbox Live friends list, it's comforting to know at any given moment what my friends and family are playing while I'm busy reading about games instead of playing them. Anyone else not used to frequenting their friends list on Xbox.com, however, may not have noticed the site has gone under some redesigning in the last 24 hours. While not a huge change, everything looks a lot cleaner. The site also now features an enhanced Marketplace Ticker section, complete with the long asked for previews for Dashboard Themes and Gamer Pics so you can actually see what it is you're buying. In a more controversial move, Microsoft has apparently decided to do away with the Gregorian calendar, instituted by the 1582 papal bull Inter gravissimas, and has replaced it with a brand new dating system as seen below:  

 Either that, or the upgrade is just messing with their database. But I like my explanation better.

You can all stop working on those homebrew joysticks because Hori has plans to brings its latest joystick to the U.S. According to Play-Asia, the Fighting Stick Wii will be released in Japan this August, followed by an “planned” release stateside. If you’re wondering why this stick is in production, there’s an upcoming fighting game which goes by the name Guilty Gear XX: Accent Core (the first of many 2D/3D projects I hope). For those of you who can’t wait, the import model can be purchased at the website for the wonderfully low price of $52.90. (Thanks George!)

Awesome news, but it’s going to be difficult for me to consider playing without my DOA4 stick. Has anyone out there bothered to create the first 360-to-Wii adapter yet?

[Via Endgadget]

Over 750,000 XBL gamers have already sampled the truly evil demo. Tomorrow, the full experience will be lurking on store shelves all across the US, with the unsuspecting customers not realizing the sort of nasty, wicked, cruel fun that will be unleashed if they dare to take it home. Rated Teen and coming to both Xbox 360 and PC, Overlord is the tale of a fantasy land gone bad, and it’s about to get worse when you are awakened from your dark dreams to rule this miserable piece of land with the aid of your goblin hordes.

It comes out on my birthday, and is made by Triumph Studios, located in one of my favorite countries in the world, the Netherlands (lovely landscape, great people). So how could I not like this announcement? So download the demo, read our preview, and prepare yourself for one of the most darkly humorous games of the decade.