You know who I’m talking to. You went back and checked out the original “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” novel after playing the strategy game of the same name to read up on your favorite character. You compared notes to the in-game Dynasty Warriors encyclopedia to see if they got your favorite character right. You decided to major in history after playing Samurai Warriors gave you an intrest in feudal Japan. Yeah, I see ya hiding. Don’t make me call out your name. It’s all good, becuase I’m one of you.

Koei’s games sell like hotcakes in Japan, but they don’t get nearly enough love over here. Samurai Warriors is a spin off in Koei’s Dynasty Warriors hack and slash games. Samurai Warriors differs from Dynasty Warriors in that it’s set in ancient Japan. The original SW had a number of gameplay features that made it unique from DW, and after playing SW, I was disappointed to see that these features weren’t integrated into Dynasty Warriors 5.

Samurai Warriors 2 comming to Xbox 360 and PS2 later this month will take the series where it has never been before: online. Although it’s only for 2 players, it’s long overdue. Also, Xbox 360 users will notive that several special mounts and bodyguards are already available for purchase over the Xbox live market place. Beside conforming a Sony/Nintendo fanboy’s biggest criticism against the Xbox 360 (Charging people for a special item! GRRRRR!!), this opens up the possiblities for what Koei could have planned for future Xbox support. Unfortunantely though, it seems that just as in the 360 version of Dynasty Warriors 5 Empires, this new version will receive minimal graphics enhancements at best. If you don’t care too much for graphics though, get ready to sharpen your sword and head back to the battlefield this fall!

He-man.org has posted a number of VERY tentative release dates for upcoming NECA He-Man products.

• Wave 4 Mini-Statues (Leech, Snake Face, Webstor) – OCTOBER 2006
• 15″ Trapjaw Statue – NOVEMBER 2006
• 8″ Zodak Mini-Bust – NOVEMBER 2006
• King Randor repaint Mini-Statue (AFX Exclusive) – FALL 2006
• Wave 5 Mini-Statues (Rio Blast, Sssqueeze, Evil-Lyn) – FEBRUARY 2007
• 15″ He-Man Statue – FEBRUARY 2007
• Kobra Khan Mini-Statue (Exclusive for unrevealed retailer) – SPRING 2007

Also mentioned was the availability of a quantity of the classic colored Evil-Lyn mini-statue to the NECA collector club.

On the anniversary of Judgement Day, The Movie Blog brings us news that the franchise seems to be getting ready for a TV property, following the life and times of Sarah Connor after the events of the second movie. David Nutter, of the Smallville pilot, will be directing.

Another day, another leak from the set of Transformers: The Movie. The Movie Blog brings us the face of Bumblebee. I have included the picture after the jump to avoid any spoiling. The only spoiler though is the face. It is good to see an Autobot sigil finally. Its good to know something hasn’t changed.

[Edit – Crazy: It seems that Roberto Orci has chimed in on the Don Murphy boards with this quote: “without confirming or denying anything, all faces will have CG elements augmenting them.”.]
[Read the rest of this entry…]

Oh happy day! The Tick Season 1 is out! I ran out to the store to get my copy. What a great show it was and how I was excited to watch the first season again in it’s entirety!

Looking at the package I had some trouble telling how many episodes were in season 1. I still wanted it I just wondered whether it was a bargain or not because to be honest if it was just 13 episodes for 37.99$ Canadian that’s a pretty crappy deal. Looking through the episode titles on the back I see “Does not contain episode 11”.

Why the God damned hell not?!

Needless to say the DVD remains on the shelf where I found it. I may very well buy it later but 12 episodes for 38$ on it’s own is pretty sub par not to mention the aggravation of knowing I’m missing that one episode. What a debacle of Sailor Moon R ADV boxed set proportions. Okay sorry I take it back nothing could be that bad. Anyway I was just too pissed off so I left it on the shelf and thought I’d look in to what the hell was going on.

Well apparently Internet has known about this for about 3 months now. I get all my relevant news from Powet and they must have missed that one. Oh well. The reasons it seems have something to do with rights. Not sure why. The episode is the one where the Mole people come up from the ground and the one Mole wants to marry the supermodel with a mole on her face like Cindy Crawford has. Now I get that this was a Cindy Crawford parody but I’m sure they don’t pay Batman royaltees for the Die Fledermaus character who’s a rip off of him or Superman for that matter. Bah. Anyway that pisses me off. And maybe that’s not even it but those fat cats at Disney felt while it was okay to rip an episode out of this boxset it wasn’t acceptable to give us an honest explanation of why we’re not getting it.

It’s so God damned easy to do things right. Why the hell do idiots have to make it so damned complicated? Think twice before picking this one up my friends and screw all you Tick fans who say it’s no big deal just so you can justify your purchase. You’re allowed to buy something and still be pissed off about it you know.

Snakes on a Plane #1 (of 2)
Written by Chuck Dixon, art by Gordon Purcell, covers by J.G. Jones and Jerome K. Moore

For the sake of honesty, I’m going to be perfectly up front and admit that I will not be buying this comic. I just want the world to know that it exists. Also, this image I believe is just for the variant cover, for all you Snakes on a Plane comic book collectors out there. The normal one should just be photo work. Exciting!

Since that’s just about all the nice things I have to say about the book, here’s DC’s fantastic description of it:

You’ve heard the Internet buzz…seen the hair-raising trailer…now experience the 2-part comic-book adaptation of the sensational soon-to-be released major motion picture from New Line Cinema Snakes on a Plane, written by Chuck Dixon (NIGHTWING) with art by Gordon Purcell and painted covers by J.G. Jones (52) and Jerome K. Moore (JSA: LOST)!

Snakes on a Plane stars Samuel L. Jackson as an FBI agent assigned to escort a government witness on a flight to Los Angeles. But when a crimelord sets loose hundreds of deadly snakes during the flight, the agent must band together with the pilot, frightened crew and passengers in a desperate attempt to survive and protect his witness!

2000 was a good year for fans of Square-Enix, or Squaresoft as they were known back then. They released nearly a dozen titles, each gaining at worst cult status and at best critical acclaim from gamers and crtics alike. This was one of those titles, Vagrant Story. This game featured a complex plotline, lots of puzzles, a weapon customization/upgrade system, and espionage action not unlike Metal Gear solid, but in the dark ages. Although it didn’t use stealth, it made use of a sphere targeting system previously seen in Parasite Eve. Different weapons could damage different enemies, and they could all be upgraded and enhanced at a blacksmith’s shop. By timing your button presses correctly, you could unleash devastating combos on your opponent, doing massive damage. The trade off however, was that the farther you went along in the combo, the higher your “risk” meter became. The higher your risk was, the more damage you could do, but the less accurate your strikes were. The key to this game was keeping a good stash of weapons for whatever enemy you faced, and managing your risk. In the game, you play as Ashley Riot, a agent of the Valendia Knights of the Peace, or VKP for short. You were involved in a simple operation gone wrong, and now you are up against the kingdom’s elite troops, an apocalyptic cult leader, and a horde of beasts, both living and undead as you try to clear your name and get to the bottom of the conspiracy surrounding the ancient town.

When I got the game, I was at first dissappointed that it wasn’t the Midevil Metal Gear Solid I had been led to believe, but the game quickly redemmed itself with it’s mix of puzzles, story, and action. Even though it may not have sold like it should, you’d be hard pressed to find a gamer who didn’t enjoy it. This game ending leaves it open for a sequel which may unfortunantely never see the light of day.

Fun fact: This game was the third game to receive Famitsu’s (Japan’s gaming magazine) perfect score of 40/40. It was the first one earned by Squaresoft, and not even it’s Final Fantasy games have earned this score until Final Fantasy XII this past March. To date, only 5 other games have earned this score.

Since the early 90s, Capcom has been known for it’s fighting games. It’s three main franchises in the genre are Street Fighter, the Marvel games, and Darkstalkers. Of the three, Darkstalkers has had the least exposure, with only 3 games in the series and a few Japan-only “Championship edition” upgrades. Darkstalkers was unique due to the anime reinvention of classic universal studios monsters like the wolf man, dracula, and the mummy to name a few. Even though it’s based on the 6 – button street fighter engine (also seen in the marvel games), the game features crazy attacks and moves that you would never see in an SF or even any X-men game. One character summons a god from heaven to stomp on your opponent while another has an attack that turns his opponent into a female version of themself! Darkstalkers 3 is the most recent in the series, with 18 characters, 4 of which are new to this installment.

Darkstalkers chronicle (also the first PSP game featured here) gives players the “Street Fighter Anniversary Edition” treatment by allowing players to select versions of each character as they played in previous games in the franchise (i.e. Nightwarriors Morrigan vs Anakaris from the original Darkstalkers). Also, you can choose to play using rulesets from each game in the series as well, also accessing the music from them. The game also throws in a new “Chaos tower” mode, where you pick three characters and try to make it up the tower as fas as you can, unlocking artwork and features on the way. Some of the matches force restrictions on you, such as no punching and no specials. This game is light on the features as are most Capcom fighters and the PSP control pad is a bit cumbersome to work with, but the music and bizzare characters make up for it. This release proves 2D fighting is neither dead nor dying. Hopefully Capcom will give us a sequel, or at least a new 2D fighting game that’s not a remake or a rehash of 10 year old sprites.
Note: Darkstalkers 3 is also availabe on PS1. You can’t interchange characters and battle systems, but the rulesets from Darkstalkers 1 and Nightwarriors are unlockable. The game features a color edit mode in place of the PSP’s Chaos Tower mode. You create a character by editing the color palette of another and then build it’s stats. I’m sure it’s cheap too, so if you don’t have a PSP, find a copy.