Earlier today MSN premiered the first photo of the cast from the X-Men First Class movie, but later took the page down. Bleeding Cool News was able to save the picture before it went offline.

Left to right we see: Magneto (Michael Fassbender), Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne), Emma Frost (January Jones), Azazel (Jason Flemyng), Beast (Nicholas Hoult), Havoc (Lucas Till), Angel Salvadore (Zoe Kravitz), Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), and Charles Xavier (James McAvoy).

This is a reminder to all Masters of the Universe Classics (MOTUC) and Ghostbusters collectors that today is MattyCollector Day! Starting at Noon EST the following items will go up for sale:
MOTUC Vikor, He-Man of the North
MOTUC Eternian Palace Guards
MOTUC Goddess (Not a reissue, just leftover stock)
MOTUC Grayskull stands
Ghostbusters Courtroom Peter Venkman with ghost (Nunzio Scoleri)

Please note that Evil-Lynn will no longer be offered this month. She has been postponed and some leftover stock of the Goddess will be put on sale instead.

(Sorry didn’t have time to put together the other images for today!)

The original Elevator Action was nice, but it got pretty monotonous. Taito decided to create a sequel which has about as much in common with its predecessor as Final Fantasy 7 does with Final Fantasy 6. Eschewing the first game’s light-puzzle gameplay in favor of a action shoot-em-up, EA2 adds a plot and additional characters, things that the first game didn’t have. EA2 has players taking control of one of three secret agents as they battle a terrorist organization. The first level is a remake of the apartment complex in the original game, but afterward you’ll travel across a variety of different levels. The graphics are crisp, the controls are smooth, and most importantly, it has VARIETY, something the original game sorely lacked.

Note: This game is available on PS2 and PC as part of the Taito Legends 2 compilation.

Releases are still a bit sparse coming off the new year, but I think I am most please to announce the release of Plants vs Zombies for the Nintendo DS featuring new mini-games and more. LittleBigPlanet 2 is also being released for the PS3 and Mindjack for the XBox 360. Remember, if you want to purchase any of these titles, please do so by clicking on the links below to help us out.

[Read the rest of this entry…]

It looks like two more characters are entering the fray. No stranger to the Marvel vs Capcom franchise, Akuma will be an unlockable player at 2000 Player Points (which is said to be about a single play through of the Arcade mode). Newcomer Taskmaster will also be an unlockable player at 8000 Player Points. Taskmaster is a Marvel comics character that has the ability to duplicate the fighting style of anyone he has ever watched or fought.

Supposedly there are still two more characters we have not seen yet. Feel free to speculate in the comments!

Taskmaster:

Akuma:

This time I talk about DJ Cutman’s new album, a (free) disc of podcasts, and a Famicom game I’ve been trying to track down for a while!

Since the alphabet is the building block of our language, the Powet Alphabet is the building block of what makes us geeks.

When Steve Rogers was forced to either blindly serve the government or give up his identity as Captain America, he chose the later, and was replaced by John Walker. When Bruce Wayne’s back was broken by the villain Bane, leaving him unable to continue being Batman, he handpicked Jean Paul Valley, previously known as Azarel, to take over the cape and cowl. When Tony Stark succumbed to his alcoholism, he asked long time friend Jim Rhodes to take over his role as Iron Man. When Superman perished in battle with Doomsday, no less than 4 successors showed up, each either claiming to be him or wanting to pick up where he left off.

If there is one thing comics teaches us, it’s that no one is anybody until they’ve been killed, crippled, or forced to retire under dubious circumstances, only to be replaced by a younger, cooler, sexier, more badass version of themselves. However, there is another side of the coin as well. Usually this replacement doesn’t last very long, maybe a year or two, until the successor is killed, goes insane, or is revealed to be a pawn of a sinister plot, and the original hero is either resurrected (or revealed to not have been dead at all), recovered from their ‘crippling injury’, or is forced to come back out of retirement and resume their identity. Indeed, John Walker’s stint as Captain America was revealed to be a plot by the Red Skull, and soon Steve Rogers resumed his identity as Captain America. Jean Paul Valley had gone off the deep end, forcing Bruce Wayne (whose spine was miraculously healed) to retake his identity of Batman. Iron Man recovered from his alcoholism to battle Obadiah Stane after Rhodes was injured by the villain, while Superman recovered in the Fortress of Solitude and reclaimed his identity after the Eradicator sacrificed himself to restore his powers.
[Read the rest of this entry…]