South Park may have a real simple look, but it takes 34 Apple G5 workstations and a hundreds of thousands of dollars in off the shelf software to give it that look.

Apple.com’s “Pro” section takes a look inside what it takes to produce the show. Though heavy on Mac evangilism (it is Apple’s site), the article contains some interesting information about South Park Studios. They work 120 Hour weeks during the season to get a show done in time for broadcast so its as current as that day’s news. I always assumed Comedy Central never ran clips in commercials because the show was hard to advertise in advance, or they didn’t want to spoil the jokes. Its actually because South Park is delivered mere hours before its aired.

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Perhaps one of the last great Super Nintendo platformers, Kirby Super Star went above and beyond other games of its kind in terms of content. While most games simply offered huge overworld maps, this game divided its content up into 9 different games, each with their own distinct gameplay features. Although it can be beaten in a weekend, the game is still one of the best in the series. For those of you who don’t know about Kirby, he’s a little pink puff ball who swallows enemies. He can then either take on their powers for himself or spit out the enemy for use as a helper character, who can then be controlled by a second player.
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One of the best kept secrets of the original Sega Saturn was the Panzer Dragoon series. It was a mash up of 3-d polygonial graphics (which were ahead of their time even to this day) and old-school rail shooting action. You took control of a dragon rider, and it was your goal to bring down an evil empire. The story might have been all too typical, but it was window dressing for the intense sky-high combat. There were two more entries in the series before the Saturn was laid to rest, and the fate of the series was up in the air. That is, until 2003, when the series returned on the Xbox with a vengeance.
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Shaun Toub has been previously announced as a cast member of the upcoming Iron Man movie, but news sites are now saying that he’s been cast specifically as Mandarin, Iron Man’s enemy in this movie (much like in the recent animated feature). For those of you who don’t know, Mandarin’s super-powers involve being Chinese and wearing rings that shoot crazy beams (ranging from “ice blast” to “matter rearranger” – I’m betting they don’t keep “matter rearranger” one for the movie). Personally, I’m just surprised James Hong wasn’t cast for the role. I thought it was his job to play every Asian character in every American film.