As I reported on back in the fall, the sequel to the cult-classic horror-adventure film The Lost Boys dubbed “The Tribe” has been released by MTV and has since been distributed to many other various video hosts since.

As can be seen, Corey Feldmen indeed reprises his role as Edgar Frog, “Surf Board Shaper and Vampire Hunter”. Reports also state that Corey Haim is back as Sam Emerson, and Jamison Newlander as Alan Frog. Gerard McMann, who recorded the song “Cry Little Sister” for the first film, recently announced he has recorded several new songs for the sequel’s soundtrack. The flick as a July release date, and hopefully won’t suck (no pun intended) as much as it may appear at first glance.

Castlevania fans and action figure collectors alike may not be getting anything new to look forward to in the Castlevania Player Select figure line for the future. In a Myspace Question & Answer session with toy distributor NECA, when asked if there would be any new figures to be produced in a second series of released toys, NECA didn’t look on the prospect favorably and gave the impression that there would not be a continuation of the line.

Questions:
1. Any plans for a 12 or 18-inch Alucard from Castlevania? If there may be one, I would love to see additional swords packed with it.

2. What’s up with news if any on a second Castlevania line? I suggest Richter..(and a MUCH better whip and improved paintjobs for all involved figures. The sculpts from the first line were great but the plastic used was VERY poor quality.)

NECA Response:
1) no plans for this at all

2) no news on more Castlevania – I don’t think we will be re-visiting this license

Some Castlevania fans speculate that this revelation comes as no big surprise, after complaints of less-than-excellent workmanship on the quality of the figures may have contributed to lack of sales in the first series line. Regardless, a cancellation of any additional series releases in the Castlevania line would prove disappointing and unfortunate, as series fans (myself included) have awaited a toy line for the long-running video game series for many years now, only for it to now seemingly be nipped in the bud soon after it’s debut. However, that may be how the cookie crumbles in this situation, if NECA truly decides to cut it’s losses rather than improve on past mistakes and trudge forward.

As seen on Anime News Network, Leonardo DiCaprio has been announced to produce Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira manga into two live-action films; one set for a 2009 release, and another that has yet to have it’s release date projected.

“Each film will cover three volumes of the renowned science-fiction manga about a governmental genetic project and a teenager’s attempt to save a fellow biker gang member.

The manga set in Neo-Tokyo, a city rebuilt after being destroyed in a mysterious explosion. Otomo directed his own animated film adaptation that premiered on July 16, 1988 — the same day that the story has the fictional Tokyo being destroyed. The first live-action film is scheduled for release in the summer of 2009 and will move the story’s setting to “‘New Manhattan,’ a city rebuilt after being destroyed 31 years ago.” “

So, it looks like not only will we be getting DiCaprio as a producer, they’re also going to try and adapt the original plot and premise to suit American ideals. Because that’ll go over well with fans of the anime movie and manga, I’m sure.

Warner Brothers originally had rights to the movie, until Executive Vice-President Greg Silverman (300, Batman Begins) had to re-acquire them from Kodansha after a large bidding war ensued. Ruairi Robinson will be making his feature directorial debut with this project, and Gary Whitta (Book of Eli) is taking the reigns of script-writing. Nothing has been mentioned about casting as of yet. Looks like we’ll all have to keep our eyes on this one, though I wouldn’t hold out much hope.

If you’re a big zombie buff like myself, then you may have traipsed along the webcomic “The Zombie Hunters” in your internet travels. The title is pretty self-explanatory as to the premise of the story if you haven’t though (post-apocalyptic world with only a fraction of human race left surviving amongst the living dead type stuff going on). I managed to snag a small interview with webcomic artist and creator Jenny Romanchuk about her work on her baby.

[Read the rest of this entry…]

What at first started as just a bunch of gossip on the GameFAQs forums has turned into something quite a bit more. A thread (which has been since deleted) started by a confirmed VIP of Konami America (supposedly a translator of the localization team) produced some interesting tidbits of information, including a supposed beta image of the upcoming game in production which can be seen to the right.

The game’s supposed name? Akumajo Dracula: Ubawareta Kokuin. (Castlevania: The Stolen Seal)

Of course this leads to much speculation and many denouncings by the Castlevania community, who are skeptical of the image, after a hoax game (the falsely titled “Duel Moons”) a few years back managed to fool even members of several gaming news sites. This new rumor could very well be the same photoshopped nightmare. What also make fans raise an eyebrow is the fact the image portrays the main playable character as a female protagonist – something series producer IGA has stated he doesn’t like doing. (secondary female characters are fine though, it would seem)

So, with no official word from the Konami bigwigs, and only an image and one man’s words to go by, we’ll just have to see if this is another hoax, or if it could be the first we see of the third 2D Castlevania DS game that has been confirmed by Konami. Once I know, you’ll know.

When we had an article back in October featuring our very own Mike Choi, I’m sure at least a few people were loudly expressing in their heads “I wish I could play game music on a piano too!”

Well, I’ve managed to find a place that could serve as a pretty good primer for those of you who don’t have adept skills are reproducing your favorite game tunes. NinSheetMusic.net features a steadily growing database of tunes from many of the popular video gaming series to date. Fan-submitted sheet music for the piano, using a freeware program called Finale Notepad, are judged and tweaked by the site staff before uploading. This provides a decent amount of quality-base, rather than everything submitted being automatically thrown up on the site. Originally, the site was only supposed to host tunes from Nintendo console games. However, as of fairly recently, popular demand has changed that status quo to the freedom to submit gaming music from *any* console. While this technically may make the site name a bit obsolete, I doubt many people will care.

Tunes range from fairly simple to rather complex, so your favorite themes may be beyond your ability at first. However, if you ever wanted to seriously sit down and try your hand at tickling the ivories, this would probably be a site to check out.

I can play Green Hill Zone! (…sorta)

For those of you who traverse the video game music scene like I do, we’ve got a bit of good news. VGMix (short for “Video Game Remix”) is now back online after over a year-long hiatus.

VGMix, which has been noted to be the largest gaming recomposition site on the net next to OverClocked Remix, is also known as being the most accepting of the two sites. Whilst OCR has a reputation for being very particular with what kinda of quality they let into their repertoire of music, VGMix is more of a user-friendly site for newer remixers to submit their works to the community at large in stages of WIP’s, and learn from the feedback they recieve. When VGMix went down completely (except for a placeholder and a makeshift forum) for a complete overhaul of their system, many VGmixers were to either brave the harsher judgments of OCR, or wait patiently.

As of New Years Day, VGMix X (formerly propositioned as VGMix 3) secretly launched a completely navigable site to the community. Whilst many of the features previously promised to be a part of the new version of the site have yet to be fully implemented, site Administrator Virt (of Contra IV musical fame) says it’s only a matter of time until everything is up to full running capacity. That is, after he and his staff return from their shenanigans at MAGfest 6.

Any of you junkies out there that have been itching to see actual footage of the upcoming Street Fighter 4 game currently in production can get your wishes fulfilled. The boys over at 1Up.com produced a video that gives the first ever seen gameplay straight from the game, as well as info concerning the game’s setup.

There’s an interview with game producer Yoshinori Ono that you have to muddle through before getting to the actual footage, which doesn’t appear until the 3:20 mark (in case you don’t wanna wade through). I just got a kick outta the little Street Fighter chibis behind Ono’s back. Too cute.