Game: FIST OF AWESOME

For the most part, bears are pretty nice. Oh sure, a mother bear will fully rip your face off should you get in between her and her cubs, but usually the world's largest land predator would rather just hang around waterfalls catching salmon and looking cute and stuff like that. But imagine waking up to a world in which bears were the dominant species. Walking upright, they dress as humans do, populate zoos with mankind, and learn to speak. That would be totally weird, right? And yet this is what happens in the aptly titled Fist of Awesome from developer Nicoll Hunt's imprint, I Fight Bears - an indie publisher which proclaims from the title screen that they make "games for people with beards."Our hero, a lumberjack type named Tim Burr, is enjoying a reunion of friends and family when his fist suddenly explodes in size (think Foo Fighter's excellent Everlong music video) and begins to speak to him. The fist goes by the name of Awesome, and he is here with terrible, bone-chilling news! At some point in history, the space/time continuum was disrupted resulting in an alternate present in which bears call the shots. Tim appears to be the one human left who can recall what once was, and he, along with his newly gigantic, wise-cracking fist must undertake a heroic quest to discover what went wrong and right this new and terrible bear-heavy world."First of all, developer Nicoll Hunt needs to be congratulated immediately. According to the credits, most of the development duties were handled by Hunt (with three animators providing support), and the level of detail conveyed with the charmingly retro pixilated graphics is nothing short of astounding. Here is a developer who clearly loves the early days of gaming and has created a universe accordingly. Fist of Awesome reinforces this nostalgic feeling with a healthy does of humor as well. "What the Hall & Oates is going on!?" Tim exclaims early on, and the laughs build from there. Awesome is a great sidekick and provides plenty of jokes and sarcastic banter throughout your adventure in addition to his set of powerful moves.