I’ve been meaning to start this up for a while.  The purpose of this feature is to spotlight classic games that don’t seem to get enough recongnition.  Ganked and gaffled from my $20 game of the week, I’m gonna try to do this weekly.

We’re gonna set this off with Konami’s Cybernator, a side-scrolling shooter in the vein of Contra 3, but with giant mech!  How cool is that?  You have several upgradable weapons at your disposal, and you blast up enemy robots in an attempt to bring an end to a war that has ravaged the planet.  Some of the enemies you fight are mechs that can fill up the entire half of the screen, and you can destroy anything not nailed down as in true mech fashion.  Along with the graphics, the music is also to be noted here. It does well in order to get you into the game’s atmosphere.  Download this rom and check out it’s greatness.  Hopefully it will be available on Wii’s virtual console as well.

Who the hell said that I was restricted to just this generation?  Beside, you can play this on your PS2/PS3 if that counts, and seeing as how there is a massive resurgence of intrest in it (Advent Children dvd, release of new sequels and prequel games fot it), now would be a good time to take a look at the original.

I can almost hear the peanut gallery of Nintendo fanboys now up in arms about the franchise’s move to Playstation.  Heck, until I got my Playstation, I was one of them.  I even wrote a letter to squaresoft explaining my anger.  At the time I was dead set on getting the Nintendo 64, and Squaresoft’s decision to develop for Playstation felt like utter betrayal to me.  However, it became apparent that the N64 wasn’t really worth spending dough on (at least until WCW/NWO revenge was released in 98).  encouraged by my friends who had made the jump to Sony, and lured by games such as Disruptor, Legacy of Kain, and Tekken 2, I decided to make the jump to Sony.  Ironic then that this object of my anger would be one of the main reasons  behind my abandoment of Nintendo.

No matter how you may have felt about it at the time, or how you feel about it now, this was a major turning point for the Final Fantasy series, role playing games, or perhaps gaming in general.  RPGs have always been big on storyline and character development, but until FF7 was released, the graphics had been (with a few notable exceptions such as Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 3/6) lacking the eye candy to compete with the Mortal Kombats, Donkey Kong Countries, and the FX chip games, thereby condemning them to a niche audience.  FF7 changed all that, involving beautifully rendered CGI cinema scenes along with animated polygonial graphics so that the storyline could be illustrated better than ever.

The storyline wasn’t bad either.  Involving love and heartbreak, evil corporations, conflict between magic and science, and one of the most sinister video game villians ever (Sepiroth), the storyline is a major example of how to properly break away from the norms of RPG storytelling, and still remains a classic to this day.  It set the basis for the more serious style of art in later entries of the series such as VIII and X.

Confession: I like Phil Collins and Genesis. They did some pretty cool shit back in the 80s and 70s before they evolved into adult contemporary band in the 90s and disbanded.

One of their best songs was the politically themed “Land Of Confusion” and this morning I heard the new single by Disturbed, which is a cover of this song.

While I love the Cold War symbolism in the original, its resonates today. The vision for the song is assisted in both cases by the music video, where Genesis and political figures of the day are presented as puppets resembling political cartoons. The Disturbed update is directed by Todd MacFarlane, and bears a stylistic similarity to a previous video he’s done, but its much more confrontational with its message, calling out the war mongering and greed of many nations far more directly.

Presented for your enjoyment, the original Genesis video and Disturbed version, after the jump.
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This is big enough news to warrant a post outside of the Daily wrap-ups.
Look to the left. See that? Its VENOM. Topher Grace is officially, 100% on record as being Spider-Man’s hideous doppleganger.
Ain’t It Cool has a major rundown of the panel featuring Grace, Tobey Maguire, Sam Raimi, Thomas Hayden Church, Kirsten Dunst, and Bryce Dallas Howard.
They also whipped up some character posters you can see here.

The biggest news in the Halo universe this week (this week having no Halo 3 news of course) is that Marvel and Bungie are going forth with an ongoing Halo comic book.

Frank O’Conner was also caught by a pirate at ComiCon, which explains why he didn’t pen this week’s update.

I found out about Halowiki, which is vast repository of information on Halo 2’s multiplayer. These guys are experts and mapped out every advantage and weakness of every weapon on every map. Best of all, they’re sharing the knowledge so we can all be better players. Of course it goes without saying they beat Bungie in 3 game match.

Last week some friends got up in arms about Oscar Winner Denzel Washington playing Master Chief John Spartan. Denzel was in New Zealand recently and was spotted chatting with Richard Taylor of the Weta special effects design team (Lord Of The Rings, King Kong). Apparently theres something wrong with a highly respected and talented actor lifting this franchise beyond its inferred b-grade game roots. Well relax, denizens of the internets: according to AICN Denzel was just making a visit to Weta workshop for another movie he’s directing. Richard Taylor isn’t even working on Halo, since Bungie is doing all art and conceptualization in-house. Weta is just going to build and model what Bungie designs.

If you like boxart and you like fan art, then how about some fan box art? With limited elements at hand and no knowledge of the game itself, these are some convincing Halo 3 covers.

Finally, Joyride studios made a new ODST figure for ComiCon. He’s limited to only 1200, and is probably gone by now. I can’t imagine how much this will fetch on the secondary market as first wave figures like Sgt Johnson already command $80 and over.

Day 2!

Once again, keep checking back because I am updating this as I find stuff through tomorrow afternoon, when I start Day 3’s coverage. Details for Day 2 after the jump.

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I will be updating this post throughout the day with news and announcements as I find them. I will include coverage of last night’s previews as well.

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Transformersthemoviedvd.com has finally revealed the new cover for the re-release of the 1986 Transformers movie, featuring new art by Don Figueroa.
More than just a new box, the movie will feature both widescreen and full frame formats, as well as commentary from Director Nelson Shin, Story consultant Flint Dille, and voice actress Susan Blu.
Sony BMG also claims they’ll include many original commercials and materials for the original 1986 release, as well as a “Matrix Of Knowledge” version of the movie with pop-up facts, in-jokes, and other trivia.
Finally there will be a peek at the new Transformers movie with comments from Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg.

Hey, wheres The Touch?

Full press release after the jump.

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