The two-disc package includes the original movie, as well as a “Reformat the Planet 1.5″ featurette that follows up with the next couple of years of the New York chiptune scene (a clip of that can be found after the break). The discs also have music videos and songs from some of the included artists.

In addition, 2PP partnered with Fangamer to create some lovely merchandise that can be purchased in bundles with the DVD. If you want to look like a person who knows a lot about music made with Game Boys, you can buy a shirt, square buttons (how is this possible?), a poster, and Blip Festival DVDs and CDs. Then you can watch the movie and actually know a lot about it!

The music was written by Daniel Larsson and the animation was done by Tomas Redigh, of the Swedish electronica duo Rymdreglage.

8-Bit Trip [YouTube]

This is 8bitone, by Japanese devs Yudo, and it lets you arrange your own chiptune soundtracks on the fly. It’s not a professional solution, of course, but hey, it’s a program for your phone. And for that, it looks pretty good.

It’ll be available on the App Store in June, but you can check out a preview in the clip below.

8Bitone [via GSW]

Bit.Trip creators Gaijin Games have just let slip that NYC chiptune star Haeyoung ‘Bubblyfish‘ Kim will be bookending their latest WiiWare rhythm-pong game, Core, doing the same title- and end-screen musical duties that Bitshifter did for their debut game Beat.

Above: my video of Bubblyfish performing at Kokoromi’s 2007 Gamma256 show in Montreal — give it a minute or so to really hot up. To hear more, see Kim’s home page and MySpace, and BBTV’s BlipFest 2008 coverage and interview.

Special Guest Star for BIT.TRIP CORE! [Gaijin Games]

Yes, it’s been an awfully long time, but it appears that The Secret Of Monkey Island is coming back, and to the Xbox 360.

The German USK rating board has revealed that The Secret Of Monkey Island – Special Edition is on its way. This was the very original Monkey Island game, from all the way back in 1990. As for what makes it a Special Edition is currently unknown — could they be re-doing the graphics? Could the game possibly have a voice cast?

The rating suggests that Activision might have some involvement in the project, but most likely this is simply Activision Europe rating the title for LucasArts, as they are the European publishing arm that LucasArts use. We can only assume this is an Xbox Live Arcade title, but there is a slim chance that this is a retail retelling of the original too.

Source: German USK Rating Board. From: [GamerBytes]

Suffice it to say: there’s considerable serenity packed deep within its outwardly militant core (a core guarded by, as you’ll see, this decade’s best flower-pot-security-bots), and a disquieting ending that its creator assures me shouldn’t sink my heart as much as it does.

If Saltsman’s name rings a bell it’s because — along with collaborators Infinite Ammo and Flashbang — he had a hand in designing recent Blurst release Paper Moon, as well as physics grappler Gravity Hook, the recently mentioned Dr. Dobbs promotional game, and the iPhone’s original word game best-seller Wurdle.

Saltsman’s pixels are effortlessly charming, his underlying concept — once you “get it” — is genuinely quite brilliant (here’s a hint, if you find yourself a little lost in the dark: the things around you? They’re trying to tell you something), and the game’s chiptune-prog score by Danny ‘dB Soundworks‘ Baranowsky (previously featured for his work on Flashbang’s Blush) works perfectly in concert with the rest to make a fantastic, thoughtful short-story of a game.

As a bonus, Saltsman and dB have given Offworld an exclusive track from Fathom‘s soundtrack, “Boss of Doooooom”, which you’ll recognize from the struggle pictured above. Stream it below, or download directly here.

Fathom [Adam Atomic, dB Soundworks]

More than 25 new artists means that we’ll find at least 26 songs we’ve never played before included on the disc for Guitar Hero 5, which will feature master tracks from 85 of the “hottest bands of today and the biggest classic acts”. Such distinctions are of course open to opinion, but Activision lists Kings of Leon, The Rolling Stones, The White Stripes, Santana, Vampire Weekend, Tom Petty, Johnny Cash, and Bob Dylan. All of those, plus you’ll be able to import all of your Guitar Hero World Tour tracks, because if you couldn’t there would be a riot.

Most of those names we already heard in Crecente’s story on Friday, which also discussed the ability to play any combination of instruments, the drop-in play, and the new Rockfest multiplayer mode.

Other new features include a new Guitar Hero Music Studio revamped for accessibility; Band Moments, in which groups are rewarded for performing special note groups together; and song challenges, which task players to perform songs in certain ways.

As for the new art style, I can’t say much for it with only two screenshots to go by. Judging from the screen at the top of this post, however, I’d say it’s certainly a nice deviation from what we’ve already seen.