One of my favorite toy lines as a kid was M.U.S.C.L.E., which stood for Millions of Unusual Small Creatures Lurking Everywhere! Unfortunately, there was little to no story given to these bizarre two inch figures. One must look to its Japanese origins from the series Kinnikuman (literally ‘muscle man’) to really understand what M.U.S.C.L.E. was all about. That is why today is K for Kinnikuman.
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Half Minute Hero is a tongue-in-cheek tribute to the classic titles of the 8-bit era while at the same time providing a new and frantic style of gameplay. Half Minute Hero depicts the story of the Time Goddess’s battle against an ancient evil that spans several centuries. You’ll take control of 4 heroes, each with their own style of play. Hero 30 is a role playing game in which you have 30 seconds to clear each level. You’ll have to discover hidden treasures, level up, and even perform sidequests, all within a 30 second time limit. You’ll have to visit the goddess statue to refill your time. Evil Lord 30 is a real time strategy game that places you in the role of a former villain who is out to lift the curse placed on his lover. You’ll have 30 seconds to complete each stage, and you’ll battle enemies by summoning monsters. Princess 30 is a shooter in which players take control of a princess who is out to find medicine for her sick father. You’ll have 30 seconds to make it to the other side of the screen, grab the item, then run back. In Knight and Wizard 30, players control a knight who has to guard a wizard as he casts his spell, which takes him 30 seconds. There is also a hidden 5th mode, and a multiplayer mode.

Half Minute Hero gives players something new and different, and the frantic 30 second action (along with the Time Goddess’s one liners) while have you grinning from ear to ear. It’s also an awesome parody of the 8-bit era, and it’s a must have for PSP owners. It’s too bad that it didn’t do the numbers they should have, but now that it’s at the $20 price range, it shouldn’t have much trouble finding it’s way into a few more PSP units.

Show Notes after the cut.
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Its been years since Chris Parnell and Andy Samburg did the “Lazy Sunday” sketch on SNL. It gave birth to one of the best segments of the show, the Digital Short. It also brought mainstream attention to The Lonely Island, who released probably one of the best comedy albums ever last year.
Parnell was on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon last night and for the first time ever, “Lazy Sunday” was performed in front of an audience, with beats by the legendary Roots crew. [Read the rest of this entry…]

In a teaser image for Brandweek, it appears that Hasbro has given us our first look at what could be the new Transformers show’s Bumblebee.

From the Allspark:

Allspark member Monocle has posted an ad for the Hasbro/Discovery Hub network that he found in Brandweek…And Transformers fans will be giddy to see who makes an appearance! Making his debut to the world, a new character model for Bumblebee (one would assume he’s from the next new Transformers TV series that will be broadcast on Hub). This Bumblebee looks familiar for those fans of the Transformers movies, but has been tweaked to look younger and, well, cuter.

Looks like some My Little Pony fans will happy as well with this ad.

FF XIII hits stores this week. It’s the first FF game to go multiplatform on day one, hitting both Xbox 360 and PS3. Like its predecessors, it will no doubt do huge numbers and will be nominated for many a year-end reward. Is it any wonder? Ever since FF VII, Final Fantasy has enjoyed the mainstream success reserved for American games like Halo, Grand Theft Auto, and Madden. However, during the franchise’s 16-bit it wasn’t always this way. Final Fantasy, along with RPGs in general, had a hard time getting over with an audience that was used to fast-paces sports, action, and fighting games. So to that end, Square theorized that maybe, it’s flagship RPGS were simply too hard for American audiences. So to that end, they released Final Fantasy Mystic Quest. It was aimed at people new to RPGs, so Square decided to ‘dumb it down’ a bit. Problem was, that it ended up getting so dumbed down that it got to a point where it actually insulted the intelligence of the RPG newbies whom it was aimed at.
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I totally missed all of the announcements for JoeConCobraCon 2010, in addition to the Collectors’ Club updates. After a little reconnaissance, I’m happy to report back with my findings!

Intelligence can be found after the jump!
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