Toys News International is showing off some of the first wave of Marvel Legends under the direction of Hasbro. While a few fans have expressed distaste for the future of this line, I’m going on record as saying Planet Hulk looks cool.

See the gallery of Emma Frost, Ultimate Iron Man, Banshee, Planet Hulk and Hercules here: Hasbro Marvel Legends Series 1

One thing I think all can agree on, the new bubble packaging looks really nice. Its a big departure from the rather rectangular boxes Legends has has for years now, but its a lot more vivid and eye catching. Now it appears we’re losing the pack-in comic book, but we’re gaining a much better logo.

Ultimately we’re going to have to get these in hand before we can really tell whether Hasbro has improved or doomed this line. Either way, distribution is about to get a lot better and we’ll have to chase a lot less variants.

Thanks Josh!

If unlike Eric Cartman you can wait a little longer for the Wii to come out, then this will make it easier. Wii.com has posted several new videos, the most notable being the introduction cinematic for The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Though only 1:22, it captures the same grand thematic feeling the Ocarina Of Time intro did.

Nintendo has also posted the final launch trailer. More Twilight Princess gameplay videos and demonstrations are available here.

Ramping up to the big Iron Man feature and follow on the heels of 2 successful Ultimate Avengers direct-to-DVD releases, Lions Gate and Marvel will release Invicible Iron Man on January 23rd. The invincibly tiny cover art was provided by DavidDVD and heres a synopsis of the plot:

While raising the ruins of a long buried Chinese kingdom, billionaire inventor Tony Stark digs up far more than he bargained for. He unleashes an age-old prophecy that foretells the resurrection of the Mandarin, the emperor of China’s darkest and most violent dynasty. To confront this destructive force, Stark creates an armored suit infused with high-tech weaponry to stop the evil that he himself has raised form the earth.

I’m supposing this will take place inside the Ultimate Avengers continuity as a prequel or something.

Special features include featurettes on the origin of Iron Man, a gallery of Iron Man armor, and a first look at the 4th Marvel DVD feature, Dr. Strange. Suggested retail is $20 as usual but theres a Gift Set planned with Iron man and both Ultimate Avengers movies and a Marvel Icons Iron Man bust. That will set you back $60. They obviously carefully planned this gift set release for the busy Valentines day season. Ladies, you now know how to charm your comic nerd boyfriend, and its with cartoons and the torso of an alcoholic in a suit of armor.

Hollywood Reporter is breaking news that the Matrix directing Wachowski Brothers are now going to helm a Live Action update of Speed Racer for producer Joel Silver.

The article mentions Vince Vaughn being screen tested for Racer X, and that Larry & Andy want to make a more family friendly movie unlike their existing efforts (Bound, The Matrix, V for Vendetta).

They’re of course promising mind blowing effects and racing in ways we’ve never seen before. I certainly hope so because after this summers 1-2 Nascar punch of Cars and Ricky Bobby, I’m not sure racing is very interesting to film without the type of unexpected chaos a car chase in a movie allows. That said, I’m a fan of the car chase in Matrix Reloaded and hope they’ve got some fresh ideas.

Speed Racer is of course an infamously cliched Japanese animated series, and one of the first to ever be imported to the US.

Of course, instead of posting an actual Speed Racer clip to go with this article, I’ll go with the Dexter’s Lab send up. Its funnier and less boring.

You know Zelda, you know Red Steel. You may even know Rayman, and you expect Madden. Nonetheless heres the entire 60 game (SIXTY!) list covering all the white boxed discs you’ll find in store and Virtual Console titles you’ll find online. Most are expected launch day or launch week, but all by December. Wii goes on sale November 19, 2006.
[Read the rest of this entry…]

A press release from Peter Jackson’s Wingnut films confirms what may have been obvious to all after the studio fall out 2 weeks ago.

As was previously confirmed, we deeply regret that both Universal and Fox did not choose to move forward with financing the Halo film under the original terms of the agreement. At this time Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, along with their partner, Microsoft, have mutually agreed to postpone making a feature film based on the Halo video game universe until we can fulfill the promise we made to millions of Halo fans throughout the world that we would settle for no less than bringing a first class film to the big screen. We are fully supportive of Director Neill Blomkamp’s vision of the film. Neill is a tremendously gifted filmmaker and his preliminary work on Halo is truly awe-inspiring. While it will undoubtedly take a little longer for Halo to reach the big screen, we are confident that the final feature film will be well worth the wait.

Ain’t It Cool’s Quint had some nice things to say, being one of the few people who has seen the pre-production work on Halo.

Some sites are touting this as a cancellation but the text of the release still implies the movie is on, just not on for a release any time soon.

I previously mocked the state of the corporate giant with my post “Where Is Mighty Sony?” But I’ll be damned if they don’t keep falling on their face over and over.

First up, the battery recall. Seems Sony was a popular provider of Lithium-Ion batteries for companies like Apple and Dell. Suddenly, it was discovered the batteries can “short-circuit, causing some computers to overheat or even burst into flames.” as a Yahoo report stated. 9.6 Million batteries have been recalled at a cost of over $429 Million in US dollars.

Next, the deal with Lik-Sang. Lik Sang was a popular import shop that provided gamers the world over access to new games and systems. When Sony pushed back its release of the PSP last year in Europe, Lik-Sang filled the gap by allowing many to buy the portable from its stockpile. Taking notice of possible lost revenue in their important European Launch (and overlooking that any PSP sold is still a dollar in their pocket) Sony filed suit that the import was unlawful. Lik-Sang, unable to fight the injunctions and legal accusations in the multiple European nations it delt to was forced to close shop since they could not afford to fight the case. Gamers and Bloggers are furious, but Sony seems to think they did their EU customers a favor by protecting them from using voltage adapters to plug in their games.

Finally, a report today reveals the PS3 is more than just the most powerful game system, its a power hog! The PS3 will gobble up a whopping 380 watts! The Xbox 360 only takes 160 watts. I certainly hope the PS3 overheats as it will keep your gas bill down so you can spend more on electric this winter, because this will cost consumers more if you play the PS3 regularly.

On the bright side, Sony Announced a Silver PS2, and it looks like I might finally break down and buy one. That is unless Sony breaks down before I get the chance.

Update: Minutes after posting this article, I see the Japanese PS3 Launch is Downgraded to 80,000. Whether this will lead to more Wii sales or grudging acceptance of Microsoft’s gaijin console, only time will tell.

If at first you don’t succeed: fail, fail again.

12 years after Universal dropped the Jean Claude Van Damme “Street Fighter” onto an unsuspecting populus, Capcom has given motion picture rights to Hyde Park Entertainment. The new live action movie will focus on Chun Li, but the story is not being mentioned at this time. Justin Marks has been tapped to write the script, who also wrote 2003’s “The Stranger” starring powet.tv fave Xander Berkeley.

There’s no shortage of animated Street Fighter product, and UDON keeps comics on shelves, but every time someone tries to dress up like these characters, it looks corny.

They’re aiming for a 2008 release, in time for the 20th Anniversary of the series. Will this movie be any good? Hard to say. I mean, the first Street Fighter game was pretty dismal too, but we all know Street Fighter II.

source: Variety