From all-new video games to fabulous cakes, the Super Mario Bros. and Castlevania games get lots of makeovers from fans and developers alike. Here are two more machinima renditions to add to the list.

First up is the disorienting and somewhat upsetting Half-Life Super Mario Bros. I guess in a 2D world, a grey haze is all Mario would see for miles around on either side of his orange brick path. But I can’t remember the last plumber I met that uses a crowbar. And guns? Really?

Next up is a Castlevania Half-Life 2 mod that makes a lot more sense in context. But it still has the inexplicable crowbar.

Both videos are brought to us by Machinima.com.

Digital Ranch Interactive is releasing a full Dino D-Day game onto Steam in 2010, but you can get an early taste of the twisted World War II dinosaur action right now, courtesy of a Half-Life 2 mod preview of sorts. You step into the shoes of Sgt. Jack Hardgrave, a renowned palaeontologist who thought he had left work behind, until Hitler raises dinosaurs to pit against the Allies in 1942. Suddenly he’s perhaps the most important weapon the Allies have against this new foe.

It sounds completely ridiculous, to be sure, but at the same time completely awesome. We’re conflicted. Head over to the mod page to catch a glimpse of the trailer, featuring two really bad tastes that taste horrible together.

Dino D-Day: The Mod – Released! [Mod DB}

Sure, Half-Life 2 is a shining example of how to do sound effects right, but still…sometimes it’s OK to have a little fun with it, and replace those mechanical sounds with something a little more human.

Valve founder Gabe Newell discusses this character in a newly uploaded YouTube video, which appears to be from that focus test. In it, Newell speaks of a hearing impaired character that Alyx “had a crush on” well before her first meeting with protagonist Gordon Freeman. According to Newell, Alyx taught her robot sidekick Dog to sign so she could practice, while this person is off, say, fighting the Combine.

Newell calls the character’s inclusion and use of sign language an “excuse to build the technology for signing” in an unspecified game. Joining Newell at that session was Valve modeler/animator Bay Raitt, who apparently attends to study facial movements made by the deaf focus testers.

Newell also asks the testers, some of them fans of Valve games, if they think the developer is serving the deaf community properly with its games, particularly in multiplayer.

We’re not sure what Valve has planned for Episode 3, but Newell has indicated before that its extended development cycle is related to some new technology that the company plans to implement alongside the expansion’s release.

But we’re definitely happy that Valve is paying attention to this sort of thing, catering to a small segment of its user base, the one’s incapable of hearing the soothing sounds of Gordon Freeman’s voice.

Gabe Newell w/ Deaf Character – Part 2 – Part 3 [YouTube]

Nearly five years in the making by Studio Radi-8, NeoTokyo borrows inspiration from Masamune Shirow’s Ghost in the Shell and Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira, plunging players into a future Japan fraught with strife both internally and geo-politically. When an attempt to alter Japan’s constitution to allow the country to perform military actions outside of its borders fail, the military attempts to overthrow the government. Their initial attempts fail, but with the formation of Group Six, a military force sworn to protect the constitution, tensions are again on the rise.

The game looks completely amazing. As a fan of works like Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Appleseed, and many others, this is a world I’ve wanted to explore for a long time. Of course, once I do get in there I will be shot dead in seconds, but I’ll really absorb the spot where my corpse lands.

Check out the official trailer below, and hit up the link to experience NeoTokyo for yourself.

NeoTokyo Client Download Page [Official Website]

All games included with The Orange Box – those being Half-Life 2, HL2 Episodes 1 & 2, Portal and Team Fortress 2 – will now work with the novel controller. And Valve’s other big shooters, like Left 4 Dead and Counter-Strike, will “soon” be supported as well.

If that sounds just too awesome to resist, Valve and Novint are offering an Orange Box bundle over on Novint’s site, where for $US149 you can get a Falcon and The Orange Box.

Barnett’s Fauxvism Series plays on the Fauvism style, a movement that followed the turn of the twentieth century, led by Henri Mattisse and André Derain. The painter’s artist statement, or something that looks similar to an artist’s statement, reads, in part: “There’s a whole spiel behind this, starting from frustration at 3D games slavishly imitating real life (though this has been lessened thanks to Braid and others), but really, artists should shut up and make pictures.”

Two more of those pictures, inspired by Team Fortress 2 and Fallout 3, are after this. More are available for sale at Barnett’s web site, including some lovely Grand Theft Auto IV cityscapes.

James Barnett’s Official Site

Dog is the sort of robot that can appeal to both men and women. He’s loveable, fiercely loyal, and downright cute at times, but he’s also capable of tearing open a Strider and ripping out its brains with his bare hands. He’s an amazing mix of cuddly puppy and unstoppable destructive force that just speaks to something inside all of us.

If dogs are man’s best friend, then Dog is his best with benefits.

Wait…

The developers of popular Half-Life mod Natural Selection are preparing to release standalone sequel Natural Selection 2 this year via Steam, and we’ve got the exclusive teaser trailer to prove it.

Last we heard, the development of the standalone sequel to one of the most played Half-Life 2 mods had hit a financial snag, with developers forced to sell their bodies Sudoku to get by. Now we learn that grassroots fund raising and investor capital have given developer Unknown Worlds all they need to finish the game, which will be released later this year via Steam.

Like the original Half-Life mod, Natural Selection 2 pits two teams of up to 16 players against each other in a battle between space marines and the aliens who would infect them, featuring real-time alien infestation effects and a great deal of strategic gameplay for those looking for something more from their shooter.

I’d have to say the game is looking absolutely gorgeous. The team at Unknown Worlds have crafted their own game engine for the project, and everything you see in the video is created using said engine. Not bad for a four-person development team, huh?

Oh, and for those of you unfamiliar with the mod, that giant beastie up there? That’s an Onos, and it’s playable. Yum.

Find out more at the official Natural Selection 2 website.

Sadly, that probably won’t happen. Ever. So we’ll have to make do with these custom HL2 LEGO figures and playsets, exquisitely crafted by ORRANGE.

Who would have thought our bleak, totalitarian future under the yoke of alien oppressors could be so cute?

LEGO Half-Life 2 [ORRANGE @ Flickr]