Bleach, shown Saturday nights on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, is one of the most watched anime shows among adults and teens. If not for its late night time slot and liberal amounts of blood and cleavage, it would be popular with younger viewers as well. Based on Shonen Jump’s manga of the same name, the series centers around Ichigo Kurosaki, a teenager who has the ability to see the spirits of the dead. When a mysterious woman visits him, he is attacked by a creature known as a hollow. To defend himself and his family, he takes his strange visitor’s power and uses it to become a Soul Reaper, (or Shinigami as they are known in the Japanese version) who are samurai-like warriors who have special abilities they use to defeat hollows. While the series has nearly reached 200 episodes in Japan, it recently returned to U.S. TV last March after a brief hiatus, and at the time of this writing, it’s only at 77 episodes, so North American fans who don’t watch the online fansubs still have much to look forward to. While it may not be as huge and popular as Naruto, Dragon Ball Z, or Pokemon, Bleach has devoted a fairly large fanbase, and there is a decent variety of merchandise available for fans. There have been action figures, a collectible card game, English translations of the original manga, and most importantly, video games. Thus far, Sega has published two Bleach games on U.S. shores, one of which, Bleach: The Blade of Fate for the Nintendo DS, is this week’s $20 game of the week. As a special bonus, we’ll take a look at the other game, Bleach: Shattered Blade for the Nintendo Wii. Both of these games are fighters, and both vary in degrees of quality. Die hard fans of the series probably already have these two games, but more moderate fans will probably be on the fence about them. So if you want the word on how well these games play, continue forward.
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It’s been a little while since we heard definitive information concerning Midway’s upcoming game, “Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe”, but just recently some new info and new sights have helped quell some of the unrest the game originally set with its fans.

For starters, series head Ed Boon has gone on the record stating that, yes, there WILL be Fatalities in the game, however not every character will have them.

All of the MK characters and all of the DC villains will have fatalities. The DC heroes who don’t kill that often will have brutalities that will function just like fatalities but don’t actually kill the opponent.

Boon stated in an interview with Gamespot he was quiet shocked seeing fan uproar about a possible lack of Fatalities in the game, when no official statement had been made, and also went on to say how pleased he was that so many MK fans were up in arms about the ordeal. He also made mention of an E3 demo that will be available with only 4 characters and 2 stages to be shown. It seems that even the publicity of E3 will not stave the MK team from keeping key details of the game hush-hush.

Thus far the confirmed line-up for the game includes previously seen Batman, Superman, Scorpion and Sub-Zero, and has recently revealed that Flash and Sonya Blade will also be included. Despite speculation, no others have yet to be confirmed by the MK team, though there will be 20 in all.

Capcom has announced a new 3rd person action adventure game for Wii that quite frankly looks like real fun. They’re going for an 80s afternoon cartoon vibe, complete with minigames taking place of commercial breaks. Spyborgs doesn’t have much to show yet (just this trailer and a press release after the break), but the new team Bionic Games has members who worked on some of the biggest games of the last few years, including members of Insomniac (Ratchet & Clank) and Activision (Tony Hawk, Call Of Duty).
Game comes out next year, but a goofy over the top action game is always welcome.

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Zac posted a listing of some of the various galleries from this year’s ToyFair in New York. This is one of the big events each year where toy companies like to reveal new product offerings for the coming year. Many rumors are confirmed. Others are quashed. Every once in a while there is also a pleasant surprise. Lets take a deeper look at what this year has to offer toy collectors .

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Back in September, we reported near-live from the Tokyo Game Show floor about an upcoming SNK arcade collection, which SNK elaborated upon over the weekend with a complete game listing:

SNK PLAYMORE USA CORPORATION, the U.S. publishing arm of the SNK PLAYMORE CORPORATION, today announced SNK ARCADE CLASSICS: VOLUME 1 for the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system and the PSP(r) (PlayStation® Portable) system.

SNK ARCADE CLASSICS: VOLUME 1 will include the following SNK games:

• ART OF FIGHTING – The first game in SNK’s second fighting-game franchise, set in the same universe as FATAL FURY.
• BASEBALL STARS 2 – The sequel to SNK’s popular baseball arcade game.
• BURNING FIGHT – New York detectives battle organized crime in this fighter.
• FATAL FURY – First released in 1991, FATAL FURY introduced the two-plane fighting system.
• KING OF FIGHTERS ‘94 – The first game in the popular KING OF FIGHTERS series.
• KING OF THE MONSTERS – In KING OF THE MONSTERS, giant monsters fight for power in epic battles.
• LAST RESORT – A challenging futuristic shooter.
• MAGICIAN LORD – Players help the wizard Elta save his homeworld in this platformer.
• METAL SLUG – Known for its humor and fast- moving gameplay, this run-and-gun side-scroller was the first in the popular series.
• NEO TURF MASTERS – A golf game which debuted on the Neo Geo Pocket Color in 1999.
• SAMURAI SHODOWN – Set in the 18th century, SAMURAI SHODOWN features bladed-weapon combat and an international cast f characters.
• SENGOKU – In SENGOKU, players face off against undead feudal Japanese armies.
• SHOCK TROOPERS – In this run-and-gun adventure, players save a scientist and his granddaughter from the Bloody Scorpions.
• SUPER SIDEKICKS 3 – A soccer game featuring teams from all over the world.
• TOP HUNTER – Bounty hunters protect colonists from space pirates in this futuristic action game.
• WORLD HEROES – This classic fighter pits players against historical figures in a tournament enabled by time travel.

“With 16 of our most beloved games, SNK ARCADE CLASSICS: VOLUME 1 is a must-have addition to any arcade fan’s collection,” said Ben Herman, president of SNK PLAYMORE USA CORPORATION. “It’s the most comprehensive SNK compilation to date.”

SNK ARCADE CLASSICS: VOLUME 1 will be available for PlayStation2 system and the PSP(r) (PlayStation(r) Portable) in the first half of 2008.

This almost makes up for being four months late about the rest of our video coverage!

There’s no mention of a Wii title in the release, but we’re confident there will be one eventually (as per our video report), and various other sites have mentioned finding an ESRB rating for a Wii version.

Thanks to sites like Nintendo Wii Fanboy for giving credit where due.

In the realm of 2-D fighting games, SNK is second only to Capcom in terms of sheer longevity and quality. Even though Sammy’s Guilty Gear is the current reigning champion, the series owes its existence to SNK, Capcom, and the gameplay mechanics that they established. Throughout the years, SNK has produced a number of hit franchises, both fighting and otherwise. Any gamer worth their salt has been exposed to at least one SNK game, weather it’s Metal Slug, King of Fighters, Fatal Fury, Athena, or Samurai Showdown. This new fighting game is a celebration of SNK’s 20 plus year history. Even though many gamers will find this game a bit lacking (especially graphics wise), this game is a dream come true for hardcore SNK and fighting game fans.
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Viacom has mentioned in this press release that Paramount and Dreamworks are now exclusively backing HD DVD over the competing Blu-Ray format. In recent months as many studios who had been backing HD DVD began releasing movies in both formats it’s a bit unusual to see studios taking the side that’s having less economic success.

Studios affected by this deal are Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks Animation SKG, DreamWorks Pictures, Paramount Vantage, Nickelodeon Movies and MTV Films. The first features to be released exclusively to HD DVD will be Shrek the 3rd, Blades of Glory and Transformers.

No doubt this will mean great things for HD DVD as this format war really comes down to who gets the better exclusive titles. Naturally some biased people are getting their panties in a bunch over the whole debacle.

Coupling this with the resent increase in the number of weekly HD DVD titles released it certainly looks like the early lead Blu-Ray had in this format war may not have been the quick end it once seemed to be.

Apologies if it seems a bit over edited. Remember to check out the show notes after the jump for more information not in the video!

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