A new Reuters article claims the 21st 007 film “Casino Royale” will play closer to an origin than I’d thought. The director’s claims of “no-CG” sound exciting, but taking out Q, Moneypenny, and most of the gadgets makes me wonder if this will be a refreshing change or a colossal mistake. Whatever the case may be, I’m glad they’re going to try something different with the new Bond. I didn’t dislike the last few ones, but they felt closer to sci-fi action movies than any kind of spy game stuff Bond is known for. Driving the invisible car in the castle made of ice wasn’t really a bad, just didn’t seem like a Bond idea…

Oh, and by the way, this new “Casino Royale” is not to be confused with the 1967 “Casino Royale”, which starred Peter Sellers, David Niven, and Woody Allen as variations of James Bond.

Take a classic style Super Mario Bros. game, switch Mario with Peach and what do you get? Super Princess Peach.

In a terribly obvious role reversal we see Mario get kidnapped (by a goomba of all things) and Peach now tasked with the role of saving him. Pretty basic concept that one would expect to produce an inferior style title. But no! This game is solid. It really does play just like a an old school Mario Bros. game. This game is what I was hoping New Mario Bros. would turn out to be like. So why are all the fanboys out there drooling over New Mario Bros. without giving this one a shot? … maybe they just don’t want to look gay like some guys who always choose Peach in Super Mario Bros. 2? I bet they don’t have such reservations about playing Metroid!
So basically you’ve got peach walking around in a world which looks kind of like Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World and a bit of Yoshi’s Island tossed into it without having that ugly looks like it was drawn with crayon style Yoshi’s Island had. She doesn’t use standard power ups but instead uses her emotions to fly, cry on enemies, burn things or heal. You can also purchase power ups with the coins you collect in levels to do things like tricks with your super parasol to get through levels. The object of the game is to rescue 3 hidden Toads in each stage and then fight a boss at the end of each world. This plays out pretty well because, through the use of your special abilities, there’s quite a variety of ways in which the Toads can be hidden. While the game starts out as being quite simple it picks up in difficulty soon enough. While not a terribly difficult game the maze like levels do offer a challenge reminiscent of later levels in Super Mario Bros. 3 or Super Mario World. The bosses all require little tricks to beat in the style of a Yoshi’s Island or Super Mario Sunshine boss. This keeps things interesting.

Simply put I recommend this game to anyone with an appreciation for side scrolling Mario games who wants to try something new.

Now check out the official site which has tons more content then your average game’s official site. And it’s just bizarre stuff like t-shirt designs and a little app to make a fake magazine. Nintendo.com also has a nice page for the game put together.

tfw2005.com has posted a listing of the initial assortments for the Transformers Titanium line according to the pre-order webpage for an Australian store.

3″ Wave 1 (April): War Within Optimus Prime, Unicron, Beast Wars Megatron
3″ Wave 2 (May): Sideswipe, Starscream, Jazz
3″ Wave 3 (June): Beast Wars Optimus Primal, Megatron, Autobot shuttle
3″ Wave 4 (June): Optimus Prime, Smokescreen, Bumblebee
3″ Wave 5 (June): Scorponok, Grimlock, Predaking

6″ Wave 1 (May): War Within Optimus Prime, Megatron
6″ Wave 2 (July): Jetfire, Thundercracker
6″ Wave 3 (September): Optimal Optimus, Scourge

Of particular note is the wave 3 for the 6 inch figures. We have not heard of Optimal Optimus not Scourge prior to this. It is unknown at this time what version of Scourge this will be.

Pixar’s Cars gets a shiny new trailer.
I’ll be honest, if I had to make a list of my favorite stars of all time, Paul Newman and Owen Wilson would be at the top, and they’re both in this movie. And Pixar has yet to release a dud. Who doesn’t want to see this movie?

Gentle Giant is expanding their successful line of maquettes beyond the Clone Wars animated series. According to this announcement, with the addition of another Clone Wars character, classic characters from the original trilogy will also be added. The new maquettes will include Leia with Artoo, Darth Vader and Boba Fett. Each of these statues will be made in the same style as the Clone Wars animation. Between Padme and Leia, there looks to be plenty of fan service for the fans of the animated series.

Toy Fair 2006 came and went pretty fast with a deluge of new initiatives by most of the toy companies. In all the press, it was easy to miss several of the more prominent announcements, nevermind the smaller ones. One of the larger initiatives shown came from Toy Biz on their plans with the future of the Marvel Legends Line. Things are looking up if you follow this fan-favorite line.

The next 4 waves of the main line were tentatively announced, each with its own build-a-figure in the tradition of Galactus, The Sentinel and Apocalypse. Each figure in the wave will come with one piece of the larger figure included. When you have all the figures in the wave (not including chase variants) you will have all the pieces necessary to assemble the larger figure.
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I was busy all weekend and neglected to post the 20 dollat GOTW, and I’m just know figuring this new system out, so here we are.

After the original Devil may cry redefined action in 2001, capcom followed it up with a rather lackluster sequel in Devil may cry 2. In early 2005 however, the series returned to it’s roots in a major way with Devil May Cry 3, even being a prequel to the original game. Howevber, it ended up being overshadowed by several other titles that year, not the least of which being Capcom’s own Resident Evil 4. Thanks to SOny’s greatest hit’s banner, Capcom has given gamers another chance to check out one of the more slept-on games of 2005.As is the case with many greatest hits games as of late, this version adds in new special features not in the original, such as th eability to play as Vergil. Best of all, if you already have a save file from the original DMC 3, these features are unlocked automaticaly.

While Capcom fighters have always been easier to find (with many Street Fighter releases going back to the SNES), SNK titles tended to be every bit as good and sometimes better. Naturally, these 2 companies had to pit their characters against each other sooner or later, and the results are a mixed bag.
Dragonsama of the Penny-arcade forum offers a history and tribute of these games, going from the silly chibi card battles on the Neo-Geo pocket, to the graphical delight of CVS2, and ending finally with the last game ever on the Neo-Geo MVS.