Constant re-releases of Street Fighter 2 notwithstanding, Capcom shows us how to do a remake the right way. (Check Maverick Hunter X and the Gamecube Resident Evil for proof.) With that said, what better game to remake than the beginning of one of the most classic and recognizable franchises in gaming? Mega Man Powered Up is a remaking of the original NES Mega Man, complete with new polygonal graphics, a remixed soundtrack, two new boss characters, and even a level editor! Players can either play in original mode (the original Mega Man with new graphics) or remixed mode, which adds in new bosses, different level layouts (even the old weapons won’t work on who they originally worked on), different item placements, and the ability to play as the bosses. There are also several unlockables to be found, and when you get tired, you can create your own stages in the level editor and upload them online. If you can get past the ultra-cutesy look, you’ll find the ultimate update to one of the greatest games in history.

Just a quick little weekend update for your gaming cravings. Bungie Entertainment and Microsoft have released the official box art for the highly anticipated Halo 3 game, slated for release in September. Ravenous fanboys can breath a sign of relief now, for gazing upon it’s cover is the next step between now and the game hitting the shelves. Master Chief, we salute thee.

It may be just me, but for such a highly waited-for game that fanboys have been drooling over since Halo 2 came out, the cover art seems a wee bit….anticlimatic to me. Of course, that’s just me, and I’m just a silly gamer girl who doesn’t know quality, right?

The rest of you can continue salivating now.

While we’ve known about the SDCC exclusive for about a month now and we had a teaser of Jitsu, we finally get our first peek at the next wave of mini-statues for the Masters of the Universe line. Sculpted by the Four Horsemen and produced by NECA, this wave features Battle-Armor He-man, Mosquitor, and Jitsu. This keeps with the theme of doing one character from 3 of the 4 factions in each wave. (The Masters, Skeletor’s Council of Evil, Hordak’s Horde, and the Snakemen)

The representative from the Maters is a surprisingly good looking He-man mini-statue featuring the battle-armor based on one of the more popular gimmicked he-man figures.

 

Representing Skeletor’s Council of Evil is Jitsu. This master of the martial arts features an over-sized mechanical hand making him the perfect foil to Fisto.

 

Mosquitor represents the Horde. The original figure was a lot of fun and this really captures that.

 

As for the SDCC exclusive from the Four Horsemen and NECA this year for the MOTU property, we will be seeing a classics colors He-man, apparently using the same base mold that the Battle Armor He-man staction is made from. I’m actually far more interested in the Battle Armor He-man, but this makes a nice addition to the line considering there wasn’t a He-man figure until this wave (which is a good thing!). You’ll also note that he is holding the classic version of the power sword.

  

The variant exclusives for the FANtastic Exclusives continue to be revealed this week. Two new variants were announced as exclusives to online vendors. As last week, each feature a different head that actually change the species of the characters. This series of variants continues to impress with only one more week left to show the final two.

You can see the previous reveals here:
Ramathorr
Part 1
Part 2

Tuesday brought us a welcome surprise in the form of the Gauntlet of Vassk. He features a head modeled after a rhinoceros. The Gauntlet will be an exclusive to Action Figure eXpress. He comes with two battle axes.

Charging into battle against all who oppose the realm of Animynthus comes – ‘ The Gauntlet of Vaskkh!’

  

Today we were pleasantly surprised with the reveal of the Helm of Xaanm. Featuring the head of a boar, the Helm will come with a long handled battle axe and a mini halberd and will be an exclusive to BigBadToyStore.

With a snort and a piercing battle cry that shakes the very foundations of Animynthus, in charges Ramathorr’s master of fighting dirty – ‘ The Helm of Xaanm!’

 

I just want to note that the rhino, hippo, and boar were all suggested on the FANtastic Forums by fans and its clear that the Four Horsemen were listening.

Also of note was the following statement on the FANtastic Exclusive site:

Coming Tuesday: The BIG finale! The final two characters making up the extremely limited Anitherian Nine set will be revealed TOGETHER! Evil finally rears two of its’ extremely ugly heads in the 7 th Kingdom!! The debut of Ggruxx and Ssejjhhor!

It would appear since so many movies recently have been based off of comic and gaming heroes such as Spider-Man and the upcoming Iron-Man film, that even the more ambiguous names in the hero world want a piece of the fame.

Tom DeSanto, who produced the Transformers movie slated to release next month, has announced he plans on bringing the multiplayer online RPG City of Heroes into the cinama world that has made so many other heroes blockbuster hits. DeSanto states that he wishes to take advantage of the variety of protaganists that could come from the game’s “mix-n-match” hero creation theme.

“You also haven’t seen a big superheroes vs. aliens movie. I see this as the next big superhero franchise.”

There’s also talk of DeSanto making a TV series based on the game as well. Given the influx of such hero movies as of late, this seems to look like it will either be genius or a complete flop.

Faceplates featuring the original Transformers are now available at Gamestop for the Xbox 360. I’ll show you how they look, and how they’ve got interchangable artwork!

Music by Tony Bacala

The controversial figure is finally reviewed!

It’s a widely known fact that, despite what your personal preferences may be, Final Fantasy 7 was undoubtly the most popular and well known games of the FF series thus far. Since its conception a decade ago, people have been wondering that, since it was so popular, shouldn’t the game be remade on the newest generation of consoles for an even better rendition of the classic tale? Of course this has always been a rumor, but never has there been cold hard facts that it was or wasn’t being considered by the good people at Square-Enix.

Well, looks like we finally got our first batch of “official” news on the topic, and it’s not a good report. Tetsuya Nomura, who was the character designer for the original game, states that overseas rumors are just that.

“My apologies, but we’re absolutely not making [such a game].”

So that’s it? That’s the cold hard truth from the horse’s mouth? Everyone hoping that a 10th Anniversary remake being secretly made are out of luck? Seems kind of hard to believe, given that even Normura himself has proclaimed in contrast, “We of course know ourselves what the fans want so we’d like to continue thinking up a variety of things. As long as there are people who want to make it and people who are waiting for it, we don’t want to proclaim ‘the end.”

It’s not like it’s a crime to report false testaments to media outlets, and considering some supposed PS3 production art for a technical demo that’s been featured on IGN such as [here] and [here], there may still be reason to hold out a bit of hope that the developers at Square-Enix still known what their fans crave.