Games
PC/Mac Bang! Howdy Yee-haw! It’s a massively multiplayer online cowboy game. Create anime-style avatars and enter a steampunk Wild West to engage in turn-based cattle rustlin’, claim jumpin’, and fightin’ with cavalry and steam-powered robots. It don’t cost nothin’ to play — but any of y’all scalawags aimin’ to get an unfair advantage can convert dollars into virtual gold for in-game use. 
— Alex Handy
Wii Gunstar Heroes Feel like some old-school action? This 1993 cult fave for the Sega Genesis console is now available to any Wii owner with $8 and a Net connection. It’s fast-paced, colorful, and wicked hard — maybe the best 2-D run-around-and-shoot-everything game ever made. Plus, Nintendo is adding a few more retro-classics to its downloadable library each week. Digital distribution rocks! 
— Chris Baker
Screen
DVD Captain N: The Game Master Nintendo’s short-lived early-’90s cartoon series stars Kevin Keene, a California teen who travels through the Ultimate Time Warpzone into Videoland. There, he gets a magical Power Pad belt and a Zapper Light Gun, enabling him to fight a bunch of 8-bit all-stars — Donkey Kong, Link, that terrifying talking Game Boy, and others. It’s a goofy trip down memory lane for gamers with pre-Wii Nintendo nostalgia. 
— Jake Swearingen
Theaters The Host Superstar director Bong Joon-ho’s horror flick, a Jaws-style blockbuster in his native South Korea (with a Hollywood remake in the works), joins the hunt for a slimy, razor-toothed, giant tadpole spawned after the US military dumps toxic waste in the Han River. The Host itself is a mutant — a spine-tingling monster-mashup of political commentary, impressive f/x (some by Peter Jackson’s Weta Workshop), and powerful family drama. You’ll never go in the water again! — Jason Silverman
TV This American Life What happens when you adapt a quirky public radio show for television? Surprisingly good things. Debuting in March on Showtime, the long-awaited TV version of This American Life combines the original’s charm with edgy photography and solid video production. Host Ira Glass (pictured here) and his cohorts get to show — not just tell — their twisted tales. A Utah artist on the hunt for bearded men to pose for religious paintings? You do have to see it to believe it. — Joanna Pearlstein
Music
I’m From Barcelona Let Me Introduce My Friends Yet another geographically misnomered megaband — this one’s a 29-strong squad from Sweden. Their sunny alt-pop debut is a poly-Nordic spree of catchy choruses, palm-searing hand claps, and happy-is-the-hipster lyrics. — Jake Swearingen
LCD Soundsystem Sound of Silver Producer James Murphy’s side project is once again front and center. LCD’s second album (not counting that Nike exercise) leaked all over the Web last December, and it’s no wonder: With Murphy’s signature self-effacing dance-floor stompers (like “North American Scum”), Silver is pure gold. — Ken Taylor
Arcade Fire Neon Bible The long-awaited second coming of Montreal’s art-rock collective yields another orchestral mille-feuille of pop dirgettes. Bells and pipe organs ring a little heavy on the salvation theme, but, hell, by then you’re wailing in the aisle. 
— Neil Geller
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PLAY
Reviews
| Drive Safely — Big Brother Is Watching
| Test
