After snagging the new in-store demo download of the America-only sequel to a well-loved Japan-only Nintendo DS rhythm game, SeanOrange and myself do a quick & dirty introduction and comparison of the franchise.

The long awaited convention video.

We travel to Botcon, accomplish nothing, leave satisfied.

When the new Ghost Rider trailer was released, apparently a lot of fans assumed that what we saw in it was the full transformation of Johnny Blaze into the Ghost Rider, despite the quick cutaways that likely suggested otherwise. Well, the writer/director Mark Steven Johnson immediately hit the internet – most specifically at the SuperHeroHype boards – to say this:

I just wanted to say thanks for both the kind words and the criticisms on the new trailer. It all goes towards making a better movie. There’s a couple things I thought I’d mention that might help explain what you’re seeing. First, the TRANSFORMATION. Ghost Rider is a PG-13 movie, albeit, a very intense PG-13 movie. The MPAA governs the movie trailers as well. And one of the rules is that you can’t show people on fire in a PG-13 trailer. Obviously, this presents a problem for us. So for the fans who have wondered if that’s all there is for the transformation — God no. Not by a long shot. But that’s all we can show. In fact, we had to cut many shots out of the trailer for being too intense or horrific. … Second, the VOICE. The voice of Ghost Rider can’t be judged on an internet trailer. There are multiple tracks of animal growls, fire, rusty chains, etc. mixed into Ghost Rider’s voice. But all of those tracks have to be terribly condensed into a trailer like this and so all you can really hear is a deep, raspy voice. Trust me, GR’s voice will rock the movie house.

He speaks more on other points, but those are the two I found most interesting.  And today he lives up to his word on the first one, showing us the full transformation of Blaze (Nic Cage) into Ghost Rider (flaming skullhead), available HERE.  Trust me, you want to check this out.  It’s good ‘n creepy.

Sorry I’m late this week fans.  I had a few job interviews and whatnot, but here I am.  This week’s $20 GOTW celebrates America’s love affair with 80’s action movies.  You know, the kind with one man against a crime syndicate, shooting up a whole bunch of $!#t.  Dead to rights was a game that came out in the second year of the Xbox’s life cycle.  What’s surprising about it is that it was made by Namco, an Japanese company.  At the time, they had Americanized action down pat.  It would be released on PS2, Gamecube, and PC several months later with new features such as the ability to bypass some of the more annoying minigames.  You play as Jack Slate, a former cop out to clear his name and avenge his father’s death.  Your quest for revenge takes you throughout Grant City’s slums all the way to the top of it’s criminal empire, as crooked cops, businessmen, foreign white slavers (yes you read that right), and even the mayor are wrapped up in the conspiracy.  It implimented the popular “bullet time” gameplay device, something which would be whored out in several other games.  Also of note were the cool disarm moves, where with a button combination and quick reflexes, you could disarm an opponent and kill him with his own weapon.  Your canine friend Shadow also helps out in some of these sequences, hitting up an opponent and taking his weapon for you to use.  As mentioned before the game uses several minigames to keep the action from getting stale.  These minigames involve disarming bombs, participating in boxing matches, and even a gallery-shooting level.  It was followed up with a rather dissappointing sequel last year, and a planned spinoff, “Grant City Anti-Crime”, was cancelled altogether.  Even so, if you love all out balls-to-the wall shooting, you can’t go wrong with this.  It may not reinvent the wheel, but damn if it ain’t fun.

The second round of voting for the Four Horsemen‘s FANtastic Exclusive 2007 has ended. This round determined the actual character from the property chosen in the first round. The first round determined the fans wanted to continue with the 7th Kingdom property. By a landslide vote, the winner for the second round of voting was another representative from the animal kingdom, the Elephant Swordsman, beating out the distantly tied Elemental Warlord and my favorite the human Queen.

The Four Horsemen also passed word along that last year’s exclusive Xetheus and his minotaur soldiers have arrived at 4H’s offices. That means we’ll be seeing them in the mail very soon. I was fortunate enough to get a full set, except for the recently added Royal Guardsman. You can be sure that an episode of PowetToys will feature these figures.

The third round of voting will be starting very soon and will determine the scale height of the figure along with the amount of articulation it will feature.

Even though Batman is one of the most prolific names in movies, comics, and TV, his history in video games has been somewhat less than encouraging as of late, as evidenced by the recent Batman Begins game. However, things weren’t always like this. Lets head back to a time when Batman games were *gasp* good.

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A review of the new 2 disc platinum edition release of Disney’s The Little Mermaid which includes the infamous Priest boner scene!

Nearly 3 years after the release of the Black Album, Jay-Z has released a new single.
“Show Me What You Got” is a classic banger from producer Just Blaze, and we could expect nothing less. A video for the song has been shot and will appear on MTV monday, and on YouTube within minutes, no doubt.

Jay-Z’s very public retirement has had him taking over Def Jam and even appearing in NBA Live 07, though few believed he would leave rapping behind, as he continued to appear on albums by the likes of Kanye West and Beyonce.

MTV reports Hova’s long rumoured comeback album, Kingdom Come will be released November 23rd.