What companies or individuals make games that you will buy just because their name is on it? Vinnk and Sean examine the perils and the pitfalls of Developer Worship, and wonder aloud if there’s really anything our favorite personalites and companies can do to make us hate them. We list some of our favorites: Harmonix, Square and Enix (before they were one company), BioWare, Shigeru Miyamoto, Hideo Kojima, Grasshopper Manufacture and Suda 51 and more! Which ones are your favorites, and why?

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Last month, I reported on a fantastic fundraising project started by German video game composer, Chris Huelsbeck (Turrican, The Great Giana Sisters, R-Type, etc.). The fundraiser, based on Kickstarter, was a project started to raise funds for a new fully-orchestrated soundtrack anthology dedicated as a tribute to all three of the Turrican games.

Within 2 weeks of the project start, the entire goal of raising $75,000 in order to fund production was fully amassed, of which Huelsbeck was excited for. However, what he perhaps wasn’t prepared for was for it to nearly double it’s original goal. With less than 2 weeks left of the June 3rd cutoff, the fund has nearly broken $140,000. With this extra support from fans and backers, Huelsbeck has increased the pledge rewards as a thanks for any and all contributions, from signed exclusive merchandise to early beta releases of the anthology music, to a hand-crafted music box featuring Turrican music!

It just goes to show how much dedicated fans are willing to give to pay homage to the great loves of our childhood.

The past 48 hours have been a series of buzzings about a supposed new Castlevania game for the Nintendo 3DS handheld. Website GoNintendo’s rumor mill has been churning out speculation about the supposed handheld title, called Castlevania: Mirror of Fate. According to these rumors, the game will be developed by Castlevania: Lords of Shadow producer Davis Cox, will be 2D, will be a part of the Lords storyline, and will be co-operative play with 2 starting characters.

Cox himself, who took the Castlevania reigns starting with Lords from previous long-time producer Koji “IGA” Igarashi, is currently keeping tight lipped on whether or not any of the rumors are true, as he is prodded by obviously curious Castlevania fans on his Twitter.

Konami has gone on record saying that there will be a Castlevania reveal at this year’s E3 conference, though most believed it to mean the official drop of a Lords of Shadow 2 game. If rumors prove true, it might be a dual-wield info drop for Castlevania this summer.

The scheduled release date of GI Joe: Retaliation has been moved back nine months from June 29th, 2012 to March 13, 2013. According the Deadline, the reason is reportedly a decision to do a post-production conversion to 3D.

Choice quote:

We’re going to do a conscientious 3D job because we’ve seen how it can better box office internationally, … Jim Cameron did all of Titanic‘s 3D in post — and look how well that movie turned out.

As a fan, I’m utterly disappointed. As a business decision, I think they are foolishly ignoring the positive hype they’ve worked so hard to build around this movie. The move may allow the film to perform better, though, due to fewer blockbuster movies opening around the same time and the better performance of 3D films internationally, added to the increased cost per ticket.

I am curious to see how this year’s JoeCon will procede since it seemed pretty clearly scheduled to coincide very closely with the movie’s release. You can imagine the fan disappointment in that circle. How about Hasbro? They have an entire toy line planned for release this summer with no movie to support it for another nine months. I’m going to go ahead and call this a totally inconsiderate move by Paramount to all of its partners.

A scanned page from a Japanese magazine has been floating about today revealing the next figure in the Transformers Masterpiece line in Japan. That figure is MP-12 Lambor, or Sideswipe, as he is known state-side. The image looks like a cgi rendering of the figure. It is interesting to note that the image shows him being in scale with the MP-10 Optimus Prime figure. A silhouette is also shown of MP-13 whose identity is still a mystery.

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Welcome to the Powet Top 5, where we explore the top (and bottom) 5 items we think are relevant to any of a variety of topics that span the imagination. Sit back, read, and respond

Everyone knows that what Capcom and SNK are to fighting, EA is to sports, and Epic is to shooters, Squaresoft, now called Square-Enix (you know, since merging with Enix), is to RPGs. Or at least they used to be at a time. While their most recognizable title is Final Fantasy, they have created other classic RPG franchises. This article celebrates 5 of them. By the way, this list is specifically focused on Squaresoft and not Square-Enix, just in case you’re wondering why Dragon Quest or Illusion of Gaia isn’t on here.

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An email was supposedly sent out to all Club Eternia subscribers with the above image. I say supposedly because I, and many others, never recieved the email. The image announces Mekanek as an addition to the MOTU Classics line, at long last. As expected, he does not have an extending neck gimmick, but instead comes with neck extension accessories to show off his elongated prosthesis. The accessories will measure 2 and 5 inches a piece. He also comes with the classic styled mace based off the one that came with his vintage figure. Mekanek is slated to be available in October, but that is always subject to change.

This leaves a short list of core characters left. Who is on your must-have list?