This is perhaps the best movie poster we’ll see all year. Reminiscent of the work of Drew Struzan, it’s got a classic quality and fully conveys how ridiculous this movie will be. Do note that all credits at the bottom say “BLAH BLAH BLAH.” Thats not placeholder text, thats the real deal.

Our favorite animated extra value meal will also appear on Playstation 2 with… a combat golf game. It’ll be written by series creators Matt Mallerio and David Willis, Midway will publish. Apparently Frylock has been admitted to a country club to play golf, but Shake and various villains from the show ruin your game with traps and boss attacks. If games based on comedy series in the past are any indication, this has the makings of a terrible game. Of course, it couldn’t be any worse than Home Improvement, and with the talent behind the show actually writing it, it may at least be funny if not fun to play.

Activision has formally announced some of the details of the forthcoming game based on the Transformers movie. IGN reports the Xbox 360, Wii, and DS will be joined by Sony’s systems as well: PS3, PS2 and PSP. Oh and theres a PC one too. So, just about anything you’ve got.

Better yet, the console developer has been revealed as Traveler’s Tales, who are responsible for LEGO Star Wars, arguably one of the best movie games in the past few years. They’ve confirmed seperate Autobot and Decepticon campaigns, along with massive destructable environments, and on-the-fly transformations. IGN has a short interview with producer Andy Burrows, who hints that they’ll mix in some non-movie bots inspired classic Generation One characters. Confirmed playable characters right now include Optimus Prime, Ironhide, Bumblebee, Megatron, and Starscream.

Transformers on DS will be handeled by Vicarious Visions, who have a massive catalog of successful ports for Activison, including Doom 3 for Xbox, Tony Hawk and Marvel Ultimate Alliance for portables. Savage Entertainment(developer of Star Wars: Battlefront II) takes the PSP, and is promising a very different game with over 20 (!) playable Transformers spanning further into the movie’s extended universe.

A playable demo of the game will be available at Toy Fair in New York City this weekend. Since this is an industry/press affair, we’re hoping to see a video come along soon. We’ll keep an eye on the official site.

In the meantime, here is the first screenshot from the game. It’s a picture someone took of a catalog of Transformers merchandise that just happened to have a tiny page advertising the game. If you can’t make it out, it’s Bumblebee fighting the Decepticon Barricade in the first shot, and then a single shot of Barricade. Its not much, but we’re starving for info here, so give me a break.

UPDATE! IGN has added lengthy impressions of the demo, but still no screens. Read it all here.

I should really know better than to get excited about a video game based on anime, but Lupin is one of those characters and shows I have an endless supply of affection for. Look Inspector Zenigata is playable!

I should really grow my sideburns out again.

In the early days of the PS1, the Twisted Metal series was to players what Halo pretty much is to Xbox players these days. It was an intense and bizzare car combat game that was filled with bizzare characters with equally bizzare vehicles blowing each other up with bizzare weapons. The first two editions were developed by developer Singletrac. The second game in the series, World Tour, was at the time considered by most to be the best in the series. However, the games took a dip in sales with Twisted Metal 3,when most of the developers had left after a contractual dispute with Sony and joined with GT Interactive. Sony’s in-house development team 989 studios handled the production, rewriting the code for the artificial intellegence and driving physics. These changes attracted new players while turning off longtime fans of the series. Twisted Metal 4 had corrected many of the faults from 3 and had even added a 4-player mode, but by then players had already moved on. Sony wanted to revive it’s flagship vehicular car-combat series for the Playstation 2. Enter Twisted Metal Black.

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Due to the holiday (and becuase I’m feeling lazy), I’m gonna skip this week’s $20 Game of the week and lost classics columns. Don’t worry though, I’ll have twice as much content for next week. Until then, check out this review.

In 1983, director Brian DePalma created a film starring Al Pacino that would forever change the way we would think about drug dealers, cocaine, Cubans, immigration, and pelicans. This film would be known as the story of a man named Tony Montana. It was the chronicle of his journey from yet another Cuban refugee looking for the American dream to the biggest drug dealer in all of Miami, all the way to his violent end as a desperate man consumed by a coccaine-fueled blind rage. This film would be the stuff of legends, serving as inspiration to entire generations of rappers, actors, gangsters, and other entertainers. This film is called Scarface. Nearly 2 decades later, Tony Montana’s story would continue on as a video game courtesy of Vivendi Universal.

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One time, I saw a TV commercial for Guitar Hero II. In that commercial, two young men are shown playing different controllers side-by-side. One hero holds the Cherry version of the SG controller, which has been available through various means since the original Guitar Hero game came out, and is now commonly bundled with Guitar Hero II. The other player is shown holding a strangely-shaped white and black guitar that I’d never heard of before, and never heard of again until I saw it at my local Target store.
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Yes, I know there is an enhanced version of this out (MGS 3 Substance), but I couldn’t wait to feature this game. Besides, the enhanced version of the game is already $25, so it will drop in price soon enough anyway.
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Sorry I was late this week, but I was caught up in the holiday. So without further ado, here’s the $20 GOTW.
For all of you wishing for a return to the 16 bit glory days of gaming, and don’t plan on buying a Wii (even if you are and don’t want to wait until these games come to virtual console) this one is for you: Sega Genesis Collection on PS2
If you thought system fanboy wars are bad now, you should have been there when Nintendo fanboys went head up against Sega fanboys. Even though multiplatform releases on the SNES were better most of the time, Sega had a lot of classic games as well. They pretty much had to, since they had to catch up thanks in no small part to Nintendo’s rough licencing policies. The Genesis was graphically inferior to the SNES, so Genesis game programmers had to make the most out of the hardware. When they did however, some pretty sweet games were the result. Sega has packed nearly 30 games from thier genesis catelog as well as a few unlockable arcade games into this one handy dandy PS2 disc.
Many of your favorites are here, such as Sonic, Phantasy Star, and the Golden Axe series (including 3, which was never before released in the US!). There are also several cult classic titles such as Comix Zone, Ecco the Dolphin, and Vectorman. Of course, what Sega comp would be complete without Altered Beast? Each title is accompanied by a history feature, as well as artwork and game tips.
Even though there are some glaring omissions, (NO STREETS OF RAGE? WTF?) this is an excellent alternative to shelling out the cash to grab these on virtual console or hunting them down in your favorite gaming stores. Hopefully Sega will give us a sequel with even more classic goodness.