Best of GameSetWatch: From New Super Chick Sisters to Choose Your Own Adventure

[Gamasutra highlights a week's worth of alternative video gaming news, media, and other curiosities from sister blog GameSetWatch, as written by editor Eric Caoili.] This round-up brings news on the passing of Kenichi Nishi's dog Tao (who appeared in Chibi-Robo and Moon: Remix RPG Adventure), a marriage proposal between two Pokemon cosplayers, and an experiment that turns real people into avatars and real environments into virtual world settings. Other highlights include a look at PETA's New Super Chick Sisters (pictured), a parody of New Super Mario Bros. and a commentary on McDonald's alleged chicken cruelty; and a well-designed set of diagrams deconstructing Choose Your Own Adventure books. This past week's top stories: - Choose Your Own Adventure Books Deconstructed, Visualized "Interactive designer Christian Swinehart posted an extraordinary analysis of Bantam/Chooseco's Choose Your Own Adventure gamebooks, breaking down the structure (described as a 'finite state machine') and flow of their branching narratives with an series of accessible and even appealing charts." - McCruelty: PETA Releases New Super Chick Sisters "Animal rights group PETA (People for the Ethical of Animals) is taking advantage of Nintendo's New Super Mario Bros. Wii release to put out its own platformer sequel, New Super Chick Sisters. Nugget and Chickette, both chicken baby versions of Mario and Luigi, return to save PETA member (Princess) Pamela Anderson." - All Dogs Go To Heaven: Kenichi Nishi’s Tao Passes "Japanese game developer Kenichi Nishi (of Love-de-Lic, Skip, Ltd., and Route24 fame) posted a note that his dog, Tao, passed away last month due to kidney complications. While many game developers have dogs, the Love-de-Lic founder immortalized his with cameos in Moon: Remix RPG Adventure, GiFTPiA, and L.O.L.: Lack of Love." - Real World Turned Virtual: Avatar Machine "Combining a goofy, low-poly outfit and a wearable system to film users as they walks around, Marc Owens created this project as a way to envision the real world as an MMO/virtual world environment, and the users as characters roaming that video game environment." - Cosplaying Raichu Proposes To Cosplaying Pikachu With Pokeball "After three and a half years spent with the love of his life, Chris 'Satoshi' Hebert finally popped the question to his Pokemon partner Belle 'PikaBelleChu' Starenchak, presenting an engagement ring encased in a Pokeball while on bended knee." - Bring A Friend Along For Tobe’s Vertical Adventure "For those of you seeking an indie co-op platforming alternative to New Super Mario Bros. Wii, keep an eye out for Tobe’s Vertical Adventure. Singaporean developer Rayteoactive recently submitted the two-player game to XNA Club for review and hopes to release it through Xbox Live Indie Games in the next few weeks." - Infinite Ammo Teaches You Unity3D "To help acclimate newcomers to Unity, Infinite Ammo's Alec Holowka posted a set of videos designed to ease novices into the game authoring tool. While there are already dozens of official and unofficial tutorials online, this series has the benefit of coming from an indie dev whose games you might've previously enjoyed (Paper Moon, Aquaria)."