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Posted by Bob Muir on Dec 25, 2012 in Videogames 
You normally wouldn’t associate construction girders, rolling barrels, and giant apes with Christmas festivity. But consider the gaming enthusiast who doesn’t have room for a tree in their apartment. What are they going to decorate with? It’s probably a bit late to print it up, but ignoring that, this restructuring of Donkey Kong’s iconic first level would do the trick. Carlos Leituga finds the inherent Christmas-y aspect of jumping over barrels in a construction site. Just remember to pick up that purse and umbrella, Mario (neé Jumpman), I’m sure they’d make excellent presents for Pauline. Read more…
Tags: Christmas, Donkey Kong, Nintendo
Posted by Bob Muir on Dec 20, 2012 in Anime 
Man, I remember loving InuYasha back in early high school. It was a great premise with colorful characters and lots of action (or at least that’s how I felt at the time). Then all the plot beats started looping, which made it feel like the characters and plot were going nowhere, and by the time it picked up again, my tastes had matured too much to stand the expository dialogue and mounds of wretched filler episodes. Maybe that’s why we have the movies! Read more…
Tags: Inuyasha
Posted by Bob Muir on Dec 20, 2012 in Videogames 
It’s been a rough year for THQ, and though the recent Humble THQ Bundle raised some good money for the publisher, it seemed inevitable. THQ has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Deleware, entering an Asset Purchase Agreement with Clearlake Capital Group to transfer ownership of all of their assets, including all games in development and their four owned studios. Ouch. Read more…
Tags: THQ
Posted by Bob Muir on Dec 19, 2012 in Videogames 
We knew that Atlus was making an updated port of Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers, a spin-off of their massive Shin Megami Tensei franchise that includes the cult favorite Persona. However, there was no previous indication that the game would make its way west. Thankfully, Atlus is pulling through, announcing to their Atlus Faithful email subscribers that Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers will be released in North America come Spring 2013. Read more…
Tags: 3DS, Atlus
Posted by Bob Muir on Dec 19, 2012 in Videogames 
Corridor Digital whipped up this nifty video of what common game glitches look like when they interact with real people (or at least real people pretending to be game characters). You’ve got classics like “item stuck in floor,” “character teleporting in weird ways,” and “OH GOD MY FACE IS MELTING.” Give it a watch, and feel the memories of Bethesda games come flowing back to you. Oh Bethesda, your worlds are so expansive and life-like, and yet so utterly rooted in silly videogame nonsense.
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Tags: glitch
Posted by Bob Muir on Dec 18, 2012 in Videogames 
Fans of the Blue Bomber haven’t had the best luck lately. With Mega Man Legends 3 and Mega Man Universe getting canceled, and a lazy mash-up game called Mega Man Xover being released on iOS, the fans need some loving. Capcom is finally throwing them a bone by not only allowing but assisting in a fan-made PC game called Street Fighter X Mega Man, where Mega Man fights through new levels to battle 8-bit versions of Street Fighter characters. Read more…
Tags: 3DS, Mega Man
Posted by Bob Muir on Dec 18, 2012 in Anime 
If you haven’t seen Black Lagoon, an anime from 2006, let me bottom-line it for you: it’s a loving take on American action films and Western tones, as well as directors such as Quentin Tarantino and John Woo. It sounds like that would result in a parody, but it feels like an excellent homage, telling the story of a multicultural group of mercenaries and the people they meet in the criminal underground of Southeast Asia. The manga has been running since 2002, with most of it adapted in anime form, but has been on hiatus since 2010. Thankfully, fans won’t have to wait much longer for more! Read more…
Tags: manga
Posted by Bob Muir on Dec 13, 2012 in Anime 
As noted last week, there’s another Dragon Ball Z movie coming out, subtitled Battle of Gods. We now have a trailer to go along with the announcement, and as it expected, it looks far more visually exciting than the budget of the original TV series, filler plot be damned. The movie is also taking more cues from artist Akira Toriyama’s post-Dragon Ball Z art style, which feels a bit more cartoony than what he used before. Read more…
Tags: Dragonball
Posted by Bob Muir on Dec 13, 2012 in Videogames 
Like BioShock before it, BioShock Infinite looks to marry a unique, fantastical world with interesting story and fun game mechanics. With such a strong concept, fans were understandably disappointed to not see it reflected in the game’s cover art, which is reminiscent of any number of FPS games featuring a man (chin down, eyes up) holding a gun. Irrational Games’ Ken Levine has stated that this was to help capture the attention of those not in the know (by apparently making it look the same as other games?), since he felt that BioShock‘s more appropriate cover of a Big Daddy and Little Sister could be misinterpreted as being about a robot and a little girl. But fret not, you don’t have to deal with lame art once you buy the game! Read more…
Tags: BioShock: Infinite, PS3, Xbox 360
Posted by Bob Muir on Dec 12, 2012 in Videogames 
Metro 2033 was a pleasant surprise when it released in 2010. Work has been progressing on the sequel, Metro: Last Light, which means we’ll soon be able to return to post-apocalyptic Russia and fight creepy super-powered mutants. The latest trailer, called “Genesis,” recounts the story of how God made the Earth in seven days, before concluding that he either left or died on the seventh day, because the excrement has hit the fan. If I was living underground in a metro system fighting horrible monsters, I’d probably feel that way too. Read more…
Tags: post-apocalyptic, PS3, Xbox 360
Posted by Bob Muir on Dec 12, 2012 in Cinema, Comic Books 
I admit, I’m not the biggest Superman fan. The character is often just too powerful, removing tension and making everything around him dull, and when combined with his unwavering good nature, I find it hard to care about any of his problems. Why worry when you can throw any problem into the sun? If Superman’s personality is altered or presented in a different light (Red Son), then I can find enough interest to stick around. Fortunately, that seems to be what’s going on in this full trailer of Man of Steel. Read more…
Tags: DC Comics, Superheroes, Superman, Warner Brothers
Posted by Bob Muir on Dec 11, 2012 in Star Trek, Star Wars 
Do computer parts and spaceships not have enough geek cred for you? Why not combine them? Etsy user Shankalonian makes a variety of objects, mostly bugs, out of old computer parts. But what’s coolest are his recycled versions of famous spaceships, such as the USS Enterprise, a Klingon Bird of Prey, and an X-Wing Fighter. He seems to have sold the Bird of Prey, but the Enterprise, X-Wing, and a whole lot of bugs are still up for grabs if you’re looking for a distinctive holiday gift. The models are both environmentally responsible and incredibly nerdy! Read more…
Tags: Klingons, USS Enterprise
Posted by Bob Muir on Dec 11, 2012 in Videogames 
Grasshopper Manufacture does some quirky, yet interesting work, often courtesy of auteur director Suda51. Their latest game is a collaboration with Digital Reality, who also worked with them on previous downloadable game Sine Moria. Black Knight Sword uses a dark, yet charming puppet theater aesthetic to tell the story of a knight and his sword, questing through a sidescroller. The game also features music by former Silent Hill composer Akira Yamaoka. And as of Tuesday, it is out on PlayStation Network! Read more…
Tags: PS3, Xbox 360
Posted by Bob Muir on Dec 6, 2012 in Videogames 
Game Freak, the studio that makes the main Pokemon games with Nintendo, is putting out their first non-Pokemon game since 2006’s Drill Dozer. Rhythm Hunter Harmo Knight is their take on the runner genre, with a fantasy hero running automatically while the player controls the jumps and attacks. Each stage is a song, as the hero must gather notes and whack enemies in time with the music. And while this was previously only announced for Japan, Nintendo confirmed a Western release during their latest Nintendo Direct! Read more…
Tags: 3DS, Nintendo, Pokémon
Posted by Bob Muir on Dec 6, 2012 in Anime 
Look at that robot above. That’s a mech from Star Driver, the 2010 anime from Bones that features fabulous mechs. There is a semi-new anime movie coming out simply called Star Driver the Movie, and I can immediately tell that there are not sufficient levels of fabulousness to be found in the ad. For something that is being termed a “new construction” of the TV series focusing on Takuto, Waka, and Sugata (plus a new segment about their lives after the TV series), it seems they are taking the sass right out of that robot. The movie opens in Japan on February 9, so there is plenty of time for them to put those fabulous poses back into trailers to recapture the spirit of, well, that picture I posted above. Get on it! Read more…
Tags: Robots
Posted by Bob Muir on Dec 5, 2012 in Anime 
Dragon Ball never really goes away, does it? Despite the anime finishing its run in 1996 (or 2003 in America), they just keep making more and more of the franchise. Besides the sequel-series Dragon Ball GT, there’s the reedit Dragon Ball Z Kai, plus tons of movies and OVA episodes. So it’s no surprise that Toei is making another movie called Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods. Read more…
Tags: Dragonball
Posted by Bob Muir on Dec 5, 2012 in Videogames 
As much as I love achievements, they can often ruin the surprise of secrets and easter eggs. When being told to look for something, it’s much less fun when you find it than if you just happened to stumble upon it. I haven’t gotten to play Far Cry 3 yet, but there are some subtle secrets that may tie it into the conflict between the Assassin Brotherhood and the Knights Templar in the Assassin’s Creed series. Read more…
Tags: Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, Ubisoft
Posted by Bob Muir on Dec 4, 2012 in Videogames 
I can’t believe that it’s been ten years since Grand Theft Auto: Vice City came out. While some may prefer San Andreas‘s ridiculously sprawling map and length, to me Vice City was the best of the PS2 generation GTA games. And now it’s on mobile phones? Even if I saw it happen recently with GTAIII, it still blows my mind. These screenshots show off how crisp the game looks on iOS and Android, which makes me wish this was coming out to PS3 and Xbox 360 in HD. Admittedly, the games are quite out-dated when it comes to controls, game design, and polish, but at least they’d control better in an HD collection than with touch controls! Read more…
Tags: Grand Theft Auto
Posted by Bob Muir on Dec 4, 2012 in Cinema, Comic Books 
Talk about blowing your load right away. So The Avengers 2 will feature Thanos, an intergalatic villain that seems natural for the Marvel Cinematic Universe to build up to. DC wants some of that superhero team-up money, so enter Justice League, a film from Warner Bros. coming in 2015. Justice League‘s Big Bad will reportedly be Darkseid, an intergalactic villain that is a horrible choice for a newly-launching franchise.
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Tags: DC Comics, Justice League, Warner Brothers
Posted by Bob Muir on Nov 29, 2012 in Videogames 
Atlus is keeping it old-school with its Etrian Odyssey series. The player controls a party and traverses dunegons while fighting monsters. It’s like Wizardry, but far more modern. But some things never change, like the need to draw your own map as you go along, like people did back in the NES days. I respect that fact that some developers are keeping alive old traditions like that in an era where many games involve following an arrow down a straight corridor, in terms of how much freedom you’re granted. There’s a new game coming up, Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan, and there’s a new trailer showing off what it’s like.
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Tags: 3DS, Atlus, RPG
Posted by Bob Muir on Nov 29, 2012 in Cinema, Star Wars 
File this one under “rumor,” but at least it has some evidence to justify its existence. We’ve heard about the writer for Star Wars VII (and rumors of writers for VIII and IX), but no director is yet attached, and considering the difference that directors made in the original trilogy (compare A New Hope to Empire), that could very well be the major deciding factor of how much we love or hate the new films. Now Matthew Vaughn, who directed Kick-Ass and X-Men: First Class, may be directing the movie for Disney, based on several things. Read more…
Tags: Disney, Star Wars
Posted by Bob Muir on Nov 28, 2012 in Videogames 
Bungie has been silent on the new game series they’re developing for Activision, possibly because all eyes are on the creator of the Halo series. We know that for now it’s called Destiny, but details have been nonexistent, at least until an advertising document leaked to IGN. Bungie has confirmed the leak by officially releasing one of the pictures (the one above) and promising more to come when they can talk about it, but for now, let’s look at the first story premise! Read more…
Tags: Halo, PS3, Xbox 360
Posted by Bob Muir on Nov 28, 2012 in Videogames 
The story of Link questing to save Princess Zelda from the clutches of Ganon is pretty established by now, to the point that some consider almost every Zelda game to be an differently-elaborated retelling of the same primal story, despite the fact that Nintendo has released an official timeline. It has been represented in various forms, but this is the first time I’ve seen it recreated across many, many Apple screens. Read more…
Tags: Fan Art, Legend of Zelda
Posted by Bob Muir on Nov 27, 2012 in Videogames 
Many were surprised that Mass Effect 3 actually had a multiplayer mode worth playing, instead of what seemed like a tacked-on feature. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea (and not what I bought the game for), but it’s certainly a well-made co-op mode. When I was playing it though, I never left Bronze difficulty, the lowest of four difficulty settings. For those who aren’t pros at shooting games, it provided enough of a challenge that I wouldn’t dream of not teaming up with partners to beat the computer. And yet, there are those who can solo not only Bronze, but the next difficulty level Silver, and one of those people can do it without possessing control of his limbs. Read more…
Tags: Mass Effect 3
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