Welcome, Poweteers, to a brand new original column 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!

MAKE SURE NOTHING LIKE THIS EVER HAPPENS AGAIN.

I think there are some toons worth adapting. Either because they’d work just as well or work even better in live action. I’ll tell you why, and I’ll even try to tell you who should play them. [Read the rest of this entry…]

At the end of last August, this countdown went up, and the gaming scene went crazy. Sure it wasn’t exactly Marvel vs Capcom, and granted, these companies have worked together before, particularly on the Dynasty Warriors vs Gundam franchise (which just saw its third title released this past summer), but this could potentially be huge. What could this signify? Could Taki and Mitsurugi be joining Samurai Warriors’ Yukimura Sanada and Magoichi Saika on the battlefield, killing thousands of enemies? Could Soulcalibur 5 be seeing Ryu Huyabusa stepping onto the stage of history? Could Dynasty Warriors 8 see Lu Bu weild the dreaded Soul Edge against the three kingdoms? Could DOATEC be sponsoring the next King of Iron Fist Tournament, allowing Hayate and Kasumi to do battle with the Mishima Zaibatsu? Could the Fatal Frame 2 sisters be teaming up with Rick and the Terror Mask to discover the secret of Splatterhouse? Could the secret agent duo from Rolling Thunder be teaming up with Rygar and his mighty diskarmor? Could Paul Pheonix and Marshall Law be hitting the field in Tecmo Bowl with Nina and Anna as cheerleaders? Could we be getting a sequel to Winback featuring Gituaroo Man? Could that douche from Winback join with that guy from Time Crisis to thwart the mother of all terrorist attacks? Could the ladies of Tekken and SoulCalibur be joining the DOA girls on the beach? It would be a week before gamers would find out.

Then a week passed.

And boy, was it a letdown….
[Read the rest of this entry…]

Holy San Diego Comic-Con info dump, Batman! With so much news about Marvel and DC’s upcoming movie and TV projects, it’s almost hard to forget that this weekend also saw the Season 5 Finale of Doctor Who on BBC America, some great Dragon Age announcement, and more!

Direct Link: Powetcast 38: King of the SDCC Castle

Audio Netcast Details
Subscribe to the Powetcast on iTunes

(What was your favorite SDCC news? Excited for Dragon Age II? Leave your thoughts below!)

Show notes after the jump!

[Read the rest of this entry…]

Like Encounters in Space in my $20 Game of the Week, this week’s Lost Classic, Gundam Wing: Endless Duel is one of the few good Gundam games in existence. For those of you not in the know, the Gundam Wing series takes place in the After Colony Universe, which is outside of the Universal Century universe depicted in the original Gundam series, War in the Pocket, Stardust Memory, and pretty much any other Gundam series which had been released up to that point (besides the G Gundam series, which itself takes place in its own universe, but that’s another story). Like the original Gundam series, Gundam Wing tells of a war between Earth and the space colonies. A group of young pilots wage a war against a corrupt organization which is trying to play both sides against each other. The series spawned movie, Endless Waltz, which takes place a year later and deals with the aftermath of the war. The series proved to be a favorite among fans everywhere, despite a few annoying characters here and there. Unfortunately, at the time of this game’s release(1996), Gundam, like many other classic anime properties, had no presence in North America (indeed, the Gundam Wing series wouldn’t make its U.S. debut until 2000). It goes without saying that Bandai didn’t bother with an English translation, leaving this game a favorite of importers and emulation pirates.

Endless Duel is pretty much your basic mid 90s fighting game which makes use of a preexisting intellectual property. You take your pick of several pilots and defeat the rest in a series of one on one battles. Each mobile suit has its selection of special moves. They can also hover for a short time. There is a super meter which allows players to preform more powerful versions of their special moves as well as machine gun attacks. Players can play through arcade, versus, and trial modes. Some of the music has been lifted from the show. By completing the game on hard mode, players can unlock a secret code to play as the boss. Although there isn’t much in the way of replay value, the control is responsive, the backgrounds are detailed, and the game does a good job of representing the source material.

Although Endless duel makes no huge attempt to set itself apart from the numerous other fighting games out there, it does a good job of providing fun gameplay and representing the series in interactive form. It’s doubtful that we will see this game come to Virtual Console any time soon (as Wing’s popularity has waned in favor of more recent Gundam series), but since Namco-Bandai still holds the rights to the license, there is always hope.

As one of the better games utilizing the Gundam license, Encounters in Space has a lot to offer Gundam fans, and it plays decent too. The game focuses on the Universal Century universe (which includes the One-year war from the first TV series, as well as the events of the Stardust Memory miniseries), but there are also some Easter eggs from G-Gundam, Gundam Wing, and Gundam Seed. What makes the single player modes of this game interesting is that instead of simply having one huge campaign, there are several smaller ones, each starring a different main character and having their own separate storyline. The main storyline takes players through the last half of the original TV series. Along with that, there is a game-exclusive campaign featuring an all new character and a storyline which takes place parallel to the main series. The Ace Pilot mode is a series of vignettes in which players play as different faces from the Gundam Saga. Along with a few choice members of the Earth Federation, you’ll also play as several of Zeon’s finest including Char Aznable, Anavel Gato, and even the Black Tri-Stars. There are dozens of mobile suits to choose from, and each character has their own special abilities. There is also a training mode, in which you can create a character, and train through 8 missions in order to build up his/her stats as much as possible. You can then take your pilot into a two-player versus mode, where you can build a team of any three characters using any mobile suits you wish.
[Read the rest of this entry…]

I know what you’re thinking: “Hey, the Wii has been out 5 months, where all the Gundam games?!?”

Well step down off your mobile horse and take a look at this.

I can’t read a lick of Japanese so someone will have to tell me if the Kanji for “minigames” appears on this page. Otherwise, looks like motion controlled shooting in the Universal Century as the RX-78-2. Now I gotta get me one of these. Char’s Wiimote!

This little number came out nearly 2 years after the PS2 launch, when PS1 support was all but a joke. As a result, some really good games slipped by, including this. Gundam, one of the biggest franchises in anime, hasn’t had very many good games, making this a real stand out. In fact, I would go on to say that this 2-D fighting game is one of the best games to make use of the licence. You take control of over 30 mobile suits from each major period in Gundam; the one year war, Gundam Wing, and G Gundam. In the story mode, you select one of 8 characters and take them through an individualized storyline based on thier series, complete with mid-bosses and final bosses. Although the character selection and storylines for G Gundam is somewhat dissappointing, (no Sweede Gundam, Schwartz Bruder, or Shining Gundam, and Master Asia remains a good guy but at least there are no major spoilers for the people who haven’t seen the anime) Many of your favorites from UC and After Colony are here, including some really big ones like Dorezil’s big mech and the Neue Ziel. The animation is pretty unique, animating individual parts of the mobile suits rather than the whole. This is a fun game to check out for anyone who likes 2-d fighting games, especially Gundam fans.

So often these Gundam games turn out to be not good.
But if you like Gundam, you probably won’t care too much right now, since at least the trailers are cool.
Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire will be released on PlayStation 3 next year.

wait… another Gundam game? Oh yeah, theres a completely different one for Xbox 360. Mobile Ops: The One Year War thats also being shown at Tokyo Game Show this week.

Both games are about Gundams and shooting. I can’t imagine anything really revolutionary. I think we’d all be happy if it controlled well, had decent AI, and a story/voice acting that didn’t make me want to take my own life.