Friday, September 14, 2007

Good day for gaming!

Kotaku reports that TurboGrafx games will be released on the virtual console. The first to arrive will be "Ys Book I & II and Chou Aniki ."

Chou Aniki....can you believe it?

Majoria's News reports (September 13th post) that there is a new character in Soul Calibur 4 -named Hilde. She looks like a knight - very cool. Links to the pics are here at MadMan's Cafe.

One last thing (also from Kotaku) - The new version of Winamp will allow you to stream songs from you computer onto your Wii. Very cool. Then again, I never stopped using Winamp (but apparently everyone else did?)

Welcome to the NHK

ADV films has the first episode of Welcome to the NHK up at their site - to stream for free until 9/19. Also they have a preorder deal to get the first volume for $19.99. Downright reasonable.

Please be warned that this show would probably get an R rating if it was in theaters. There's lots of profanity (although it was awesome to hear the phrase "Turn that s**t down, you f**king otaku!" in English. I smell custom ringtone :) But I digress. In addition to the profanity, theres a scene of what looks to be a nun (Spoiler - She's not. Not even close.) having a fine old time getting herself off. (Technically, this never happened)

The theme of this show goes from a dark comedy to a serious social commentary, with a tearjerker in the last two episodes. I really enjoyed watching it and am happy to see that it FINALLY made it to the US.

You'll need to know a tiny bit of vocab before watching this show.

Hikikomori (ひきこもり or 引き篭り Hikikomori, lit. "pulling away, being confined", i.e. "acute social withdrawal") is a Japanese term to refer to the phenomenon of reclusive individuals who have chosen to withdraw from social life, often seeking extreme degrees of isolation and confinement due to various personal and social factors in their lives. The term hikikomori refers to both the sociological phenomenon in general as well as to individuals belonging to this societal group.

N.E.E.T. - "Not currently engaged in Employment, Education or Training.
In Japan, the classification comprises people aged between 15 and 34 who are unemployed, unmarried, not enrolled in school or engaged in housework, and not seeking work or the technical training needed for work.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Iron Man(g)

So yeah the Iron Man trailer is up and looking mighty cool. Seriously good casting on Tony.

I just think it's funny that they write him up in Marvel as such a GIANT ASSHAT so that everyone hates him, then drop a movie. It's okay, true believers - movieverse and comicverse are always very different. (XMen franchise anyone? Baby Rogue?)

Screencap swiped from CBR

Neo Geo on the VC

via my buddy Sharp, who found it on Kotaku - Great news for the fighting game fans (yes there are some of us left and we are rabid)

NEO GEO games will be available on the Wii Virtual Console!
Read the entire thing here.

The three they are starting off with are Fatal Fury, World Heroes and Art of Fighting. Naturally, being gamers, most Kotaku readers / posters complained. This was my two cents:

I think I'm the only on in here that's actually pleased to see some of these old fighters on the VC. They can only post so many rpgs and side scroller action/adventure games. Personally, I'm very excited about World Heroes. Would have preferred WH Perfect - but hey, they have to start somewhere.

For those that keep talking about these games being available on compilations, let me tell you, it is a giant pain to find the Fatal Fury Battle Archive vol 1.

Monday, September 10, 2007

Xmen X-plode..har har har....


So. After Xmen 204, the "Blinded by the Light" storyline ends (aka We Got Our Asses Kicked by the Marauders and all Rogue got was SHOT) - then Messiah CompleX will begin. After THAT, the fecal matter hits the oscillating unit. X-Men Disassembled will begin. It's a X-books crossover and everyone is getting shuffled and some books are allegedly getting dropped entirely.

Spoilers(?) ahead - for quite a few months ahead - it's okay though, you'll probably forget before then.

There's an article about it up at Newsarama and I must tell you, it makes me rather cranky. Allow me to quote and respond in a proper fangirl fashion. I'll be in blue :)

Surprise, surprise, Cable is alive and gets his own book! (and Deadpool loses his title to make room).
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Alex Alonso: X-Force is a new ongoing series debuting in February 2008. The artist is Clayton Crain. We’ll announce the writer later
Since when is X-Force new? I must say I'll be glad that the steaming pile that is XFactor gets an overhaul. (Wolfsbane will be on the XForce team) When your heroes are degraded to the point where they fight street musicians, something is royally f**ked up.

AA:...In the aftermath of “Messiah CompleX,” there is a new status quo for the X-Men. If indeed there is an X-Men.
drama queen...

NRAMA: Got to ask, the black and gray uniforms. Not only does it kind of marry the Morrison/movie era and Ultimate costumes along with the classic more colorful superhero-ish looks, but it suggests a tone, a flavor perhaps never seen in an mainline Marvel Universe X-title, but maybe that can be chalked up to Crain’s distinct style..?.

AA: The colors of the uniforms reflect the tone of the series and the team’s mission statement.
Go write about it on your journal - emo is the new astonishing. ~_~;

NRAMA: As Marvel is advertising it, this is the first X-Men crossover in over a decade. Why is that? Certainly, past history has suggested that X-Men crossovers sell. Why hasn't there been one, and why does this story merit one?
WHAT. Endangered Species anyone? House of M? Come the f**k on! There are crossovers aplenty running through the X Books. Crossovers make me break out in giant losses of cash. They're generally not worthwhile. The last time I dropped American comic books entirely was way back in Phalanx Covenant. All the fangirls/boys threaten to drop titles when stuff they don't like goes down - but it looks like Rogue is losing her team either way and add a Summers infested crossover after that? DO NOT WANT.

NRAMA: How was/is this crossover being organized? Was each writer given an element or two that they needed to touch in their title, or was a larger storyline laid out, and people chose what parts they wanted to tell?
NL: It started with the basic idea that actually came up in a retreat a few years ago, once the “No more mutants” thing came about.
Because No More Mutants/M Day/ Wanda's Gone Batshit Crazy was the best idea Evar. /sarcasm.
This was the best thing that storyline ever spawned.

NRAMA: The X-verse post-Messiah CompleX vs. the X-verse pre-Messiah CompleX. How different will it be?
NL: Completely. And that’s not just a company line. I swear. This will be the single biggest seismic shift in about 20 years of X-Men stories. This changes everything. In fact, who’s to say that there will even be a group of people who can call themselves X-Men when it’s done. What if I told you there wouldn’t even be an X-Men after the event?

What if I told you we're tired of all this "omg most important story evar! Every.Single.Arc.

It was Dan Slott day?

No one told me!
Newsarama has an interview up with ol' DS - one covering his thoughts on his last issue of She Hulk (21) - which was wonderful, fantastic and has a solution for ALL of the continuity errors in the Marvel U. A fine book to go out on, I salute you, sir! (esp the Juggernaut clarification ;_;)

For those that don't have the issue, that is, in fact, Jen Walters yelling at...Jen Walters. It's good times.