Based on the comic book of the same name, Bucky O’Hare was one of those shows that had a cult following without achieving much commercial success. Taking place in an alternate dimension where animals live as humans, it told the story of spaceship captain Bucky O’Hare, his crew, and their quest to defeat the Toad Empire, which has been brainwashed by the supercomputer KOMPLEX. It only lasted one season, but it was enjoyable for what it was. The obligatory marketing blitz followed, and Konami, riding the success of their Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle games, snatched up the gaming rights. Along with a solid arcade beat-em-up (which featured the show’s voice actors and served as a conclusion to the events of the cartoon series), they released this equally solid NES platformer which seems to draw inspiration from Capcom’s Mega Man.
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In the late 90s, Metal Slug was to the Neo Geo’s answer to the NES and SNES Contra games. It was a side-scrolling 2-d blastfest which bought back memories of classic shoot-em-ups of old, while at the same time injecting a twisted sense of humor. After picking a character, you (and a friend if playing co-op) must blast your way through enemy soldiers, terrorists, zombies, mummies, aliens, and whatever else stands in your way. There is a storyline involving a rebel army and martians, but that’s not important. You’ll find several weapons and vehicles to help you in your journey. There are also POWS that you rescue for additional points. The main series has spawned 6 games (along with Playstation and portable entries) with a 7th heading for the Nintendo DS this fall. Each game in the series has added zany new levels, characters (Metal Slug 6 even includes Clark and Ralf of Ikari Warriors and King of Fighters fame as selectable characters), weapons, and vehicles. As with several of their franchises as of late, SNK/Playmore has collected the majority of the series on a compilation pack. This disc includes Metal Slug 1 – 6 as well as Metal Slug X, a remake of Metal Slug 2 released on the original Playstation. Beside motion controls on the Wii and Ad-hoc wireless play on the PSP, there isn’t much in the way of extras. However, fans of the series will be happy to have the series wrapped up on one disc, where they can see how far the series has come along. Action game fans will enjoy the challenge and classic gaming feel that the series is known for.

What if Taito had made a Mega Man game, but instead of a little blue robot, you played as a Arnold Schwarzenegger look-alike*, and instead of an upgradable arm cannon, you used an upgradable boomerang to fight enemies? Well the end result would resemble Taito’s NES side-scrolling platformer, Power Blade 2. A sequel to 1991’s Power Blade, PB 2 once again casts players as Nova, a secret government agent in the year 2200. The Delta Corporation has created a new cyborg warrior and wants to sell it to the United States. The president refuses, and the Delta corporation is threatening to sell the robot to an enemy power. This doesn’t sit too well with the Department of Defense, so they send Nova on a secret mission to destroy Delta. It’s not going to be easy, as scores of enemy robots will stand in his way. However, Nova has his trusty boomerang at his side, ready to take on anything.

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Ever wanted to make your own block-rockin rap beats? Can’t afford thousands of dollars worth of studio equipment? Got a PSP? Well, Eidos has something for you. Traxxpad basically places a sequencer, sampler, and drum machine in the palm of your hand. The learning curve is a bit steep (especially if you are unfamiliar with music-creation software), but the disc is divided up into four basic functions. You lay down samples in the R.T.I.S.T editor, use the M.E.L.O.D to adjust their pitch and volume, and use the S.T.A.C to combine sequences and create a track. The Myxxer is basically a portable jam session, which makes it best for experimenting with the different samples. You can create tracks, export them as MP3s, or just save them to edit later. The WAV editor can be used to trim and crop your sounds, and you can use a PSP microphone to record vocals. Traxxpad contains over 1000 samples to use, and many of them have been supplied by outside producers and labels such as Sha-Money Management, Traxxamillion, and even Psychopathic Records (of ICP fame). The samples have been organized into sound banks, which you can load up and switch between at any time. You can even swap out samples from one bank and create a custom sound bank for whatever you need. There is a variety of different instruments, bass lines, and vocal effects, so if you’re creative, then you can come up with just about anything. Of course, seeing as how this is a PSP and not a computer, the limited controls will present some interface issues. Navigation through the menus is tricky, and there is a steep learning curve. The instruction book contains a brief tutorial, so you’d be wise to follow that before jumping in to the game.

Even with the steep learning curve, Traxxpad is an impressive piece of material. You’ll have to spend a lot of time with it to get the most out of it, but when you learn its ins and outs, the interface will become second nature, and you’ll be making dope tracks in little time at all. This PSP disc is quite powerful when it comes to the options you have available for making beats. There are better and more complex tools out there for producers-in-training (especially on the computer), but for beginners and seasoned veterans alike, Traxxpad is a good way to start out.

A number of Powet.tv members have been attending Otakon for a few years. What follows was at some point intended to be some kind of comprehensive overview of the con, but it should be immediately obvious that we weren’t able to follow through with such an ambitious goal.

Enjoy the trannies, furrie, LARPers, and some even seedier perversions that plague the geek community attending a standard convention. All things considered, the simple act of Cosplaying really isn’t that weird at all.

To be eligible for the contest to win the Yaoi book mentioned in the above video, please leave your relevant comment to this blog post in the next month.

Out of all of Capcom’s intellectual properties, Mega Man stands as one of their best. The Blue Bomber has been around for more than 2 decades, and the franchise has branched out in several directions, including cartoons, action figures, comic books, and other merchandise. The series started off simple enough. As the title character, you fight a series of robots in whichever order you choose. When you defeat an enemy, you gained his weapon. The trick of course, was the find out which weapon worked best on which enemy. When you defeated all 8 robots, you went on to face Dr. Wily at his castle. As time went on, the series eventually spawned several spin-offs. While games such as Mega Man X placed a different face on the classic game play, other spin-offs such as Mega Man Legends have slowly moved away from what made the series great. Thankfully Capcom has recognized this, and as part of their retro-revival have created a new Mega Man game…for the NES! Of course seeing as how very few people these days have a working NES, Capcom did the next best thing: release it as a downloadable title via WiiWare, Xbox Live Arcade, and Playstation Network. The new game, Mega Man 9, will be released this month. In celebration of the new title, this week’s $20 GOTW and Lost Classics will be dedicated to the blue bomber himself. Coincidentally, this also marks the three-year anniversary of Powet’s $20 GOTW, so head right on in and check out this small tribute.

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This little known title from Capcom is basically a homage to 80s action films. You play as a secret agent, sent into South America in order to stop a terrorist group and rescue its prisoners. You travel your way through several stages, shooting enemies and rescuing hostages. It even takes a few pages out of Rolling Thunder’s playbook, as you have to enter doorways to collect ammo and rescue hostages. While it may not have revolutionized the 2-d platformer genre, it was still an enjoyable experience for what it was.Hopefully this should show up on the Wii Virtual Console soon. Or better yet, Capcom will show some more retro gaming love and give gamers an next-generation update/sequel a’la Bionic Commando Rearmed, Street Fighter IV, and Mega Man 9.

Capcom is one of the most celebrated developers in the gaming industry. Throughout the years, they have released dozens of games. Many of these titles have become classics amongst gamers, achieving only cult status at the worst (Okami, Killer 7, Pheonix Wright), while at their best Capcom has created games that have spun off into mega-franchises (Mega Man, Street Fighter, Devil May Cry). One of their most prolific titles from the past decade casts players in the role of a hapless protagonist who has been thrust in the middle of a town infested with zombies. Using what little they have at their disposal, players must discover the truth behind the madness, assist any survivors, and live through the madness long enough to escape in one piece. The game I’m referring to of course, is 1998’s Playstation classic Resident Evil 2. The eagerly anticipated sequel pushed the series to new heights, becoming an instant best seller, and was regarded as one of the best games on the PS1. Capcom followed it up with more hits, including 2005’s Resident Evil 4, which changed the face of the series. Oh yeah, a while later Capcom released Dead Rising for the Xbox 360. While this sleeper hit carried the same basic premise of RE2, it was completely unrelated to Resident Evil. In fact, it gave gamers an experience that was unlike any previously seen survival horror video game.

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