While remakes, spinoffs, and re-releases of the demon summoning franchise Shin Megami Tensei series seem to be released every few months these days, for the longest time the releases were confined to Japan only. In Japan, the franchise is the third most popular RPG series after Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. However, the game didn’t hit U.S shores until almost a decade after its 1987 debut on the Game Boy, largely in part due to its religious themes and Nintendo of America’s stance against such material. Thankfully Sony, just beginning the recognize the popularity of RPGs like Suikoden, Vandal Hearts, and the upcoming FFVII, had few such restrictions.

The first SMT game to be released in North America was part of SMT spinoff series Persona. What’s so unique about this game, and much of the SMT series in general, was that the game didn’t take place in some sci-fi/fantasy timeline, but instead in Modern Day Tokyo. Instead of summoning demons, the characters summon figments of their psyche. Playing as your typical nameless RPG hero, you and your friends, a group of Japanese high school students, find yourselves at the center of some weird happenings after visiting a sick classmate. From there, it’s up to you and your crew to save the city from a demonic threat. You do most of the exploration in a first person view (at least until one of the many random encounters, this being an JRPG and all), while you go into an isometric view for battles and conversations. The game underwent several changes for its U.S release. It was re-named Revelations: Persona, and its cast underwent several changes to make them more westernized. In many cases, characters were given different faces. One character originally named Masao was renamed Mark and made into an African-American. Several places were also renamed as well, and some enemy names were changed in order to avoid referencing Japanese folklore.
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As seen above in the banner:
“Patriot Cologne, inspired by Captain America, pays homage to the confident, stand-up-to-bullies, hard-working average Joe in everyman. The cologne features hints of green lime and white pepper with finishes of dry oak wood, sandalwood and tequila.”

Read on for more of the heroic scents unveiled.

[Source: ComicBookMovie.com]

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There are a lot of couples in video games, but is there romance? Mario and Peach, Luigi and Daisy, Link and Zelda, The Brooding Loner and the Star-crossed Japanese Flower Girl Who Loves Him, and — of course — Samus and the baby Metroid. Do any of these games do romance well, or is it just assumed? And how far is too far with player-to-NPC romance? Sean and Vinnk wonder if video games can truly ever be your Valentine as they discuss these problems, the likelihood of your characters ever finding true digital love, and the potentially unfortunate state of Princess Zelda’s armpit hair.

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The Voltron display was about as disappointing as the Thundercats display from Bandai. Mattel had the 5 lions from the MattyCollector.com Voltron Force subscription on display. Nothing from the new Voltron Force series was displayed aside from placards promoting the show.

Continue after the jump for a few shots of the subscription lions and pilots.

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Happy President’s Day! For this very American holiday I’m joined by aDam, Sean, and Crazy to discuss fictional presidents in movies and TV, as well as real presidents used in popular movies. In the end, we nominate our favorites for a real run for office. Well; aDam, Sean and myself do. Crazy doesn’t make it to the second term.

Listen live on this page, or subscribe via RSS or iTunes.
Direct Link:POTUScast 114: Hail To The Chief

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Playmates has put together a surprisingly nice showing for their long time Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles license. They had a basic line of figures that matches up to the new forthcoming animated series from Nickelodeon, the new owners of the franchise. They also had a collector’s line that seemed very well received. To top it all off, Playmates had a massive new sewer playset that will be a sure hit for any kids whose parents can afford it.

To see all the details continue reading!

Image in banner from TheToyverse.com.
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The PlayStation Vita will be released on Wednesday February 22nd. Should you pick one up? Now that I’ve had a few days with the system, I’d like to share my first impressions of the system itself and the game I’ve spent the most time with, Uncharted: Golden Abyss. The PlayStation Vita is a powerful machine with great graphics and the best controls a portable has ever seen, but it’s UI and launch titles are plagued by an unnecessary overuse of it’s various gimmicks such as two touch screens, cameras and gyros. At a $250 price point, getting one is a no brainer to me, but the real value of the system won’t be obvious until we see how successful it will be, and what kind of support the system gets from developers.

A PSP, PlayStation Vita and 3DS

The size of the system is larger than Sony’s previous handheld, the PSP and Nintendo’s current offering, the 3DS. It’s not so large that it’s not portable, and a lot of that size is in the screen, which is really noticeable. With an amazing resolution of 960×544, the 3DS with it’s laughable 400×240 main screen offers no competition and this is apparent by the breathtaking graphics this system is capable of pulling off.

Last night, GTTV premiered the first gameplay footage from Transformers Fall Of Cybertron. It is within the full episode, so the footage isn’t available separate on the website. An interview with High Moon Studio’s Matt Tieger is from the one minute mark to the three minute mark.

Tieger mentions that Optimus Prime will be able to command Metroplex during one of his levels. Also of note is that the campaign will alternate from Autobot to Decepticon and back, unlike War For Cybertron, which had separate Autobot and Decepticon campaigns played back to back.

Another segment starts at around 6:15 and shows Jazz using a Bionic Commando-style grappling hook and gameplay footage with Vortex before and after combining with Bruticus.