After a weekend of the blogosphere bouncing around a November 6 launch date as fact based on a remark in Sports Illustrated for Kids of all places, theres a little bit more legitmate info to be had.
CNN Money‘s game guru Chris Morris report the Wii could be here earlier than that. In fact much earlier. The Wii has been in production since June 21st apparently, meaning a launch date could be feasible as early as September! It remains to be seen if Nintendo will hold back the date to launch at a time when there is a better supply, but after shortages rocked the Xbox 360 and the DS in the past few months, It would be nice to know you could walk in a store and get one on launch day without having to trample someone’s grandma.
As the Nintendo fanboy in all of us is no doubt thinking: there is a working complete console fresh out of the factory right now. Obviously games aren’t done, and launch titles like Red Steel, Metroid Prime 3, or Twilight Princess won’t have to go gold until literally a few weeks before systems hit stores. But, new hardware is new hardware, and I’d be happy to have it just to play GameCube titles on it right now. Right. Now.

Kotaku send word that Nintendo of America will be presenting US President George W Bush a Nintendo DS Lite and a copy of Brain Age for his 60th Birthday this saturday.
I’ll now open the floor on the comments section for jokes about why Nintendo thinks Brain Training is a good idea for Dubya.
Link: Nintendo Gifts DS Lite to President Bush

Throughout gaming, mega man has been one of the most consistent franchises ever.  There have been over 40 games on nearly every major system, a cartoon show, a comic book, an action figure line, and several spin offs (mega man x, legends, zero, and battle network).  This collection contains the first 8 games of the core series, and two unlockable fighting games that until now, had been only seen in japan.  Also, players can unlock artwork and music.  You can play the games in their original 8-bit form, or in navi mode, which has remixed music,(PS2 and Xbox only) new subs menus, and a hint feature for various level points. Still, you can’t power up until mega man 4 or slide until mega man 3.  For the few players who don’t know about Mega Man, the series stars a blue robot. There are 8 stages in each game (6 in the original) which you can tackle in any order.  After you beat each boss, you acquire their weapon.  The trick is knowing which weapon works on which boss.  Mega man 2 introduced a password feature (although each game on this disc can be saved to memory card), while mega man 3, (considered to be the best in the series by many fans) introduced Rush, mega man’s cyber canine side kick.  Mega man 4 and 5 improved on the formula, while 6 didn’t garner much attention since it was released towards the end of the NES’s life cycle and mega man x made it’s debut on the Super Nintendo at the same time.  Mega man 7, which almost didn’t come out due to the SNES being near the end of it’s own life cycle, was the first game of the original series to hit the Super Nintendo. (until then, there was just the mega man x series) Mega man 8 bought the series to Playstation, with cd quality music and anime scenes.  This compilation is pretty much required for anyone who considers themselves a true gamer.

Becuase I’m late and it’s the holiday, I’m gonna break you off with two 20 dollar GOTWs this week. So happy 4th of July everyone!

For all of you whining about original IPs dying out, here ya go. An original IP from the creators of the phenominal Star Wars: Knights of the old Republic. Jade Empire is a nice take on the old RPG conventions. It’s set in a mythical land not unlike Ancient China, and you take the role of one of several customizable characters, each with thier own abilities and attributes as you try to find out the secret behind your past. You’ll gain several abilities throughout the course of the game, such as magic, weapons, and th eability to change your form. Just like in KOTOR, you can choose to be a good guy or a bad guy, but soon, the choices won’t be that easy. You can also enlist the help of several followers who will add thier own might and muscle to yours. The combat system is thankfully all real time, with the ability to preform basic strikes, power attacks, blocks, dodges, and even combos.
I can’t understand for the life of me why this game didn’t take off as well as it should have, but it’s still solid. I found a copy of the limited edition at gamestop for 12 dollars! This is an excellent game for RPG fans looking for a break from the same old conventions. WIth Bioware exclusive to Microsoft, this game is a sign of things to come, particularly thier upcomming 360 sci-fi RPG Mass Effect.

Anime on DVD reports that Bandai has acquired the rights to the live action Cutie Honey movie. This movie by Hideaki Anno of Evangelion fame is a live action version of the popular comic and manga. It’s an over the top action/comedy/drama movie that’s hard to compare to anything else but is certainly worth checking out.

Thanks to Dave for the heads up.

The first wave of Revoltech figures has finally hit retail and I was able to get my hands on a Shin Getter 1 figure a couple weeks ago. I have taken a number of pictures of the figure and posted them in a gallery available here.

Continue reading for a review of the figure.
[Read the rest of this entry…]

CKY as a band have been plagued with bad reviews throughout their career, but that never stopped the fans from supporting them.
However, CKY has never been plagued by Zombies, so who knows where the breaking point is.
Unkown comics is preparing a CKY comic for August with a $3.99 cover price. While the band is now the more well known side of CKY, I wonder if stars of the CKY videos (Bam Margera, Ryan Dunn, Brandom Dicamillo, etc) will make appearances in the book.
Listen to CKY

If you’ve seen the original Transformers movie, you know this song. Why not bring it back for the 2007 film?
Sign the Stan Bush “The Touch” in Transformers 2007 Petition