WYOU Community TV in Madison, WI is in the middle of a 4 week series of airing local Rock Band gamers playing short sets and pitting them against each other for prizes. I stopped by the studio last week and filed this report for The Daily Page: Stars are born with Virtual Rock Band on WYOU

Read more by Zac Shipley at The Daily Page.

Mattel’s panel at NYCC has brought us some great news for He-Man fans. Mattel announced an upcoming line for MOTU spanning all previous incarnations of the property. That includes the classic figures from the 80’s, characters from the original mini-comics, the New Adventures of He-Man, the 2002 MYP MOTU relaunch series and She-Ra, Princess of Power. It was unclear if the She-Ra figures would be based on the series of the original figures.

Some quick details from He-Man.org:

• The line will be a 6″ Masters of the Universe collector’s line
• The line will be super-poseable, using high-end articulation
• It will be comparable to the DC Universe line that is currently being produced by Mattel and sculpted by the 4H
• Mattel stated this line is definitely going to be for the collectors, and not for children
• They will be shipped in even case ratios. Mattel said “You are not going to see six Skeletors and one Beastman”
• The first figure in the line will be King Grayskull, who will be a SDCC Exclusive.
• King Grayskull will have a chase variant that is colored to look like the statue of King Grayskull seen by Adam from the MYP Power of Grayskull episode.
• This collector’s line will contain “the entire pantheon of MOTU characters”, which will include characters from the classic MOTU toy line, the New Adventures of He-Man, MYP cartoon characters, characters from the mini-comics (a photo of the Green Goddess was flashed), characters from the unproduced Powers of Grayskull line (a photo of He-Ro was flashed), and POP characters (a screengrab of Force Captain Adora from SOTS was flashed)

I have included the lengthy notes from the Fan Q&A and He-Man.org’s exclusive Q&A after the jump.

I found it interesting to note that Mattel does not own the rights to any character in the Filmation series that was not a toy or in the original mini-comics.
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Swedish developer Atod developed this 2-player puzzle game for Amiga. Publisher Seika remade this game for the Super Nintendo, and there was also an MS-DOS release. It’s gameplay can best be described as a simplified version of Lemmings with platforming elements. Although it was highly unique and addictive, it received very little attention upon its release. A shame too, as fans of Lemmings will take a liking to it. Two wizards, Hokus and Pokus inadvertently release the lemming-like troddlers, mindless little creatures that, if left to their own devices, will march to their deaths. Their boss, the grand wizard Divinus, has tasked them with cleaning up the mess and getting the troddlers safely to the exit. To do so, you’ll have to use your magic wand which generates blocks. The blocks can be used to either kill enemies or create platforms for the troddlers to walk on. You’ll also have to watch out for hazards, collect gems, and fight off various enemies. The game has 4 different modes: Training, Solo, Co-op, and competitive multiplayer. The game is backed up by a password save feature, and the Solo and Co-op modes have dozens of missions to complete. The game starts off simple, but the levels get trickier and trickier. Weather you play alone or with a friend, Troddlers is quite enjoyable. SNES players can even use the mouse to play the game. This is one of those games that need a sequel on the DS, a 3-d remake on the Wii, or even a Virtual Console re-release, but since the developers and/or publishers are MIA, (Atod was snatched up by Mace Griffin developer Warthog and I’m not sure if Seika still exists) it may never receive the type of attention it deserves. Thus, if you want to enjoy this great puzzle/platformer, then you’ll have to hunt down the cartridge.

Show Notes:

Sky Lynx comes with no accessories.

The name Sky Lynx was reused only once for a repaint of Armada Mini-con Gunbarrel. He was released in the Cybertron mini-con two-packs with Thunderblast, a repaint of Armada Mini-con Bonecrusher.

Go here if you’d like to discuss this video or give feedback.

Its been years since Marvel Vs Capcom hit arcades, and its still one of the most popular fighters with both casual players and tournament pros. But Capcom doesn’t hold the Marvel license anymore so re-releases and sequels aren’t happening any time soon.
To tap into this audience, Midway is going to announce shortly what heard back in September, that Mortal Kombat is going to be taking on the DC Universe. Noob.com has been running blurry images trying to hype things up for a big reveal, but Mortal Kombat Online has spoiled the whole thing with this:

Sub-Zero vs Batman.
Since this is still not fully announced, details are scarce; but one rumor persists: No fatalities, little blood. Last week on 1up.com’s 1up Yours podcast, Shane Bettenhausen said the next MK would be rated T, and this move is consistent with that thought. We’ll keep an eye out for a full press release soon.
The official website www.worldscollide.com is up and I’ve added the trailer at the top. See also Gamespot’s interview with Ed Boon. Mortal Kombat VS DC Universe is due fall 2008.

	Subscribe to iTunes POWETcast  Choose your own reader Episode 1 – Fit the First Episode 2 – Fit the Second Episode 3 – Fit the Third Episode 4 – Fit the Fourth

(Fit the Fourth starts at 07:30.)

It’s finally arrived, boys and girls — the final of the four originally-completed episodes by Not Them Productions. Our heroes make their escape from the planet of Magrathea to… where exactly? Those familiar with the original story may be surprised (but not unpleasantly so) by the answer.

(Check out our new POWETcast thread in the forums to leave some feedback about the show. Alternatively, you can write a comment below and let us know what you think, and/or leave a review at our iTunes store to let others know what they should think!)

Show notes:

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Interesting little video that’s circulating the net is one that was featured on X-Play that tackles the topic of video game violence and its effect on children. The perk of this comes in the fact that Doctors Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl Olson discuss the fully-encompassing figures that revolve around video games, and even go so far as to mention that research showed kids that didn’t play video games at all are as much at risk for developing emotional problems as those who played too much. Certainly sounds much more balanced that some other rants made by politicians that all video games are bad for kids.

Check it out:

Paramount sent a photo to JoBlo of actress Rachel Nichols all dolled up as the heroic Master Sergeant Shana M. O’Hara, better known as Scarlett.

Click to Enlarge
Looks dead-on, right down to the cross bow. Not unlike Wolverine in X-Men, she gave up the yellow on her suit to a more realistic all black. Combine this with our first glance at Snake Eyes, and I’m a pretty excited fan. No telling how good the acting, action, and writing will be until we see the movie (or at least a trailer), but if Michael Bay could make Transformers, maybe Stephen Sommers can make GIJOE.