After revealing a number of PlayStation Vita games, Sony revealed during their press conference this morning that they upcoming Vita system update 3.30 will feature “Themes.” These themes will be available for purchase through the PlayStation Store and although no price was announced, the company did show off themes for games such as Freedom Wars, Danganronpa: Another Episode, and Phantasy Star Nova.
While Vita owners could freely order their icons and change backgrounds at will, these themes will change the images of system icons as well as the music that plays on the menu screen. Currently it is unknown if this feature will be included in the update for Western countries.
We have been hearing a lot about the upcoming PS Vita game Danganronpa: Another Episode but unfortunately most of it has been in the form of screenshots or scans from Famitsu. As such when Sony took the time during their press conference this morning to show off some brand new gameplay footage for the game, fans of the series were quite pleased.
However if you happened to miss the trailer, which features gameplay footage as well as some anime cutscenes, you can still check it out below, though it is worth noting that it does feature some minor spoilers concerning the first game in the series.
Sony started off their pre Tokyo Game Show press conference by showing off a number of upcoming PlayStation Vita games and with this came the announcement of a brand new fantasy RPG title in the works from Marvelous called Luminous Arc Infinity.
While some gameplay footage was shown off and revealed that the game will be a strategy style RPG, very few details about the game have been released other than the fact that the world must learn the truth, though it is known that songs will play an important role in the game. You can check out the teaser trailer that was shown during the event below.
While Sony was highlighting a number of their upcoming PlayStation Vita titles during their pre Tokyo Game Show press conference, the company happened to give us a look at Samurai Warriors Chronicles 3 and in this trailer we also were treated to the release date for the game. As such, Koei Tecmo is currently planning on releasing this game in Japan on December 4th.
It is worth noting that this game is not a PS Vita exclusive and is also heading to the 3DS, and it is also worth mentioning that, at the moment, no Western release for the game has been announced.
Today during Sony’s pre-Tokyo Game Show press conference, one of the first videos shown off to viewers was for a new Spike Chunsoft game that just so happens to be one of the company’s oldest series. The company revealed that they are releasing a new Way of the Samurai for the PlayStation Vita.
A very short teaser trailer for the game was released and can be found below. At the moment however no release date or even an exact name has been given at this time. It is also worth noting that the last Way of the Samurai game, shown above, was released in the West courtesy of XSEED Games in North America and NIS America in Europe.
Many people have wondered what type of graphics and character models Koei Tecmo could pull off with Dead or Alive 5 if it was released on next-gen consoles and it seems that we will soon find out.
Today Koei Tecmo has announced that they will be bringing Dead or Alive 5 to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One under the name Dead or Alive 5: Last Round. Currently the game is set to be released in Japan for Spring 2015 but other than that, very few details have been released.
A bit of a teaser trailer was released, which can be found below, and it happens to feature footage of Marie Rose, Nyotengu, and Phase-5, hopefully meaning that all of these DLC characters, and hopefully many of the previously released costume DLC, will be included in the release.
The city needs heroes. Darkness has settled over New York City as Shredder and his evil Foot Clan have an iron grip on everything from the police to the politicians. The future is grim until four unlikely outcast brothers rise from the sewers and discover their destiny as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The Turtles must work with fearless reporter April O’Neil (Megan Fox) and her wise-cracking cameraman Vern Fenwick (Will Arnett) to save the city and unravel Shredder’s diabolical plan.
Based on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Characters Created by PETER LAIRD and KEVIN EASTMAN with a Screenplay by JOSH APPELBAUM & ANDRÉ NEMEC and EVAN DAUGHERTY, Producer MICHAEL BAY (the blockbuster Transformers franchise) and director JONATHAN LIEBESMAN (Wrath of the Titans) bring Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the popular franchise that has captivated audiences of all ages for decades, into the 21st century.
To celebrate the return of our childhood icons, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, to the silver screen,we have three totally bodacious, wicked Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles themed prize packs to give awaycourtesy of Paramount Pictures Australia!
Each prize pack is valued at $95 and contains a TMNT bop bag, TMNT pizza cutter and a double in-season pass to see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Only at the movies SEPTEMBER 11. To enter the running, please answer the following question in our comments section below.
Who is your favourite Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle and why?
This competition will close on September 14. Make sure you use a valid email when you register with Disqus before posting your comment so we can email you if you are one of our winners. If you choose to enter by logging in with your Facebook account, your email is not required.
Go to facebook.com/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles.AU and teenagemutantninjaturtles.com.aufor more on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and use the hashtag #TMNT to join the conversation with fans on Twitter! Also, check out theTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtlestrailer embedded below! Our thanks go to the fine folks at Paramount Pictures for enabling this competition, and good luck to everybody!
Overview Cardcaptor Sakura may look familiar to some people, and for good reason. It was originally shown in the United States as Cardcaptors but it also suffered a fate that many anime did in the late ‘90s. Severe editing. The original seventy episode series was trimmed down to a scant thirty nine episodes that not only butchered the storyline but tried to make it appeal more to boys.
As such despite being given an English dub at the time, the series left a sour note with viewers and ended up becoming a forgotten series that barely saw a home release at the time. Now NIS America has gathered the entire seventy episode batch and put together a Blu-ray release of the series that not only contains the original unedited storyline, but even an optional English dub. However with a higher price tag than most of their releases, is Cardcaptor Sakura worth revisiting?
Story Sakura Kinomoto is a ten year old girl who is great at gymnastics and lives a happy life with her older brother and father. Her mother passed away while Sakura was at the tender age of three but she never let that fact stand in the way of enjoying herself. She is best friends with a very wealthy girl named Tomoyo and even has a crush on her older brother’s best friend Yukito.
One day while home alone, Sakura heard strange noises coming from her father’s study only to find an odd looking book glowing on a shelf. Upon investigating further, she finds that this book contains cards of some sort, and after reading the first card, Windy, she triggers a gust of wind that scatters the numerous cards within the book to the winds.
After being left with only the Windy card, a diminutive winged bear/cat crawls from the book to inform Sakura that he is called Cerberus and is the keeper of the Clow Cards, which happen to be the cards that Sakura just lost. If the Clow Cards are left to their own devices, they will injure and damage things in their path and in order to put a stop to this, Sakura is given the title of Cardcaptor. With this title and magical abilities that come from every card she manages to obtain, Sakura must track down every card that has been lost.
Many magical girl series have been produced since Cardcaptor Sakura was released, ranging from fan-service heavy series to dark deconstructions but what Cardcaptor Sakura has to offer is an innocent and fun story with long legs all centered on strongly developed characters with a decent amount of magical girl action and plenty of humor. You see, while the first half of Cardcaptor Sakura’s seventy episodes may simply follow the standard of Sakura finding a Clow Card and capturing it, many of the smaller developments and the characters we see end up becoming important later on.
While the series tends to spend quite a bit of time focusing on Sakura and her friends at school, it is this slice of life aspect that helps make Cardcaptor Sakura such a great series since all of the time spent focusing on the characters allows the viewer to watch them grow. We see Sakura grow as a character from the very beginning and watch her deal with the numerous situations she is thrown into and handle the various relationships in her life as she begins to understand her own feelings.
It also helps that although her mission is to initially capture the Clow Cards, throughout the course of the series her interactions with some of the cards begins to change as the plot shifts focus. With a great central character in Sakura, ever evolving side-characters and a plot that continues to progress through different stages with smaller plot points that begin to deliver in surprising ways later on, Cardcaptor Sakura may be an older series, but it is one that is certainly worth taking the time to enjoy.
Visuals Although the screenshots in this review show otherwise, Cardcaptor Sakura is presented in a pillar box 4:3 style format, is the aspect ratio it was originally broadcast in back in 1998. The upgrade to Blu-ray has seen a significant improvement both in the crispness of the release as well as the vibrancy of the colors.
That being said, those who are familiar with anime from the late ‘90s should know what to expect when it comes to the animation style. The artwork is far from complex and although a few of the main characters have unique designs, many of the background characters are extremely detailed and even the backgrounds aren’t quite as detailed as many would like.
One thing that is a nice touch however is the way that the Clow Cards all have unique forms, many of which are humanoid, and the fact that Sakura rarely wears the same magical girl costume which gives the show plenty of visual variety.
Audio It is interesting to note that although this release includes an English voice track, the feature is best seen as an extra and not actually something one should try out. You see the reason for this is because the English dub was recorded in mono by Animax for airing in Asia, mostly due to the fact that the one shown in the US was cut and butchered due to the aforementioned reasons.
This means that, it is far from perfect with many of the voice actors not fitting their roles and sounding terrible for the most part, including complete character name changes. It also doesn’t help that there are also moments in the series that the English dub features no dialogue when characters are meant to be talking. As such, the best and perhaps only way one should watch Cardcaptor Sakura, outside of sampling it here and there, is with the original Japanese voice track.
The Japanese voice actors fit their roles very well and bring life to the series. Once you hear Sakura Tange as Sakura or Aya Hisakawa as Kero it is hard to go back, especially since Sakura does such an amazing job with her character. The background music used throughout the series works quite well for the classic magical girl genre that Cardcaptor Sakura operates in and only one of the ending themes is a miss throughout the series while every other opening and ending works well.
Extras Similar to their recent release of Toradora!’s premium edition, Cardcaptor Sakura’s premium edition comes in a chipboard art box only slightly larger than a DVD case, making it smaller than their usual oversized releases. The art box features a school uniform wearing Sakura on the front while the back has artwork of Sakura in one of her more familiar looking pink and frilly costumes. Inside of the box we have a hardcover art book, a mini pamphlet advertising other NIS America anime, and the large nine Blu-ray disc holding case.
This is the first time I have ever seen a case like this, though it works well considering the number of discs it contains. It is a bit unfortunate though that, although the case is nice, buyers are given only one piece of artwork whereas multiple cases might have been a better option. As for the art book, despite being seventy-six pages long almost all of the pages feature episode summaries written by Tomoyo with images from each episode. Only four pages of artwork featuring Sakura are included which is a bit of a disappointment considering the art book is little more than an episode guide in the end.
The on-disc bonus features come in the form of clean opening and ending themes for each of the three parts of the series included on the third, sixth, and ninth disc, as well as some trailers for other NIS America releases. As mentioned earlier, the English dub is also considered an extra feature due to the fact that it is not only incomplete but also very outdated.
Overall By releasing the entirety of Cardcaptor Sakura on Blu-ray, NIS America has righted a wrong that happened so many years ago in the anime industry by providing fans of the series and of the magical girl genre the best possible way to watch the series. That being said, the $199 discounted price tag can be seen as a steep price, even with the release offering 1,750 minutes of anime, since the bonuses are very basic. Those that do dive into the series will find themselves a charming series with very few faults and a great cast of characters.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
It seems that there is no stopping The Walking Dead. From its comic book origins the property has spread to nigh on every medium that it can manage. Season One of TellTale’s The Walking Dead is perhaps the most critically lauded of all of the undead offspring (particularly where games are concerned, although Overkill Software could be working on a new champion), and The Walking Dead Pinball pulls its inspiration from Lee and Clementine’s journey. Whilst this pinball table is all about the characters and locations of that story it’ll be a far bigger draw to those who are already fans of the base game it is a part of- this about a cool pinball table, not the zombie apocalypse.
The table is DLC for Zen Pinball 2 or Pinball FX 2, depending on your platform. The base games are free, with an ever growing selection of downloadable tables that riff on a particular property;there are Star Wars and Marvel tables aplenty, with Plants vs Zombies and Street Fighter tables already representing for video games. It’s no surprise that The Walking Dead has been granted the same treatment, and given the quality of this table I’ve now got my fingers crossed for a Wolf Among Us table- just think of the pretty colours!
Gameplay
Play pinball. Get high score. Obviously. Anyone who has picked up a Zen Studios pinball game will know that the basic mechanics of their tables are incredibly solid. On the PlayStation 4 the flippers are controlled with those nice new triggers and the tilt mechanism is on the sticks. That’s all there is to it; the hook is in learning the ins and outs of the table, which in this case includes a tricky skill shot and plenty of game modes to keep things rolling.
The most obvious of these is the Walker near the middle of the table. Hit him three times and he’ll retreat into his lair, leaving the path free for the ball to kick off one of the five missions modelled on the episodes of Telltale’s original game. These can be accessed in any order and do their utmost to include the choice mechanic that made the original so engrossing.
Whilst the intention is good the lack of context to the choices means that those who haven’t played the original won’t have a clue what is going on. Fans of the series will get a better deal of course, but they better be fans of pinball too. It’s a pretty tough table and the story elements – whilst a nice flourish that honour the original – are essentially used to choose bonus modes on the table. The variety of these is impressive though, and it is certainly the first pinball table I’ve ever seen that has a gun barrel sniper section in it.
The story missions aren’t the only special modes either, with plenty of stuff to be triggered including a zombie horde, collecting rations and playing a game of football with Clem. Having Lee and Clementine inhabit the bottom of the table is a nice touch, even if they can be a bit distracting when playing the story missions. Making a choice is accompanied by a small animated scene with Lee and/or Clem, and a split second after it finishes the ball is back in play, more often than not in the gutter as you’ve been paying too much attention to what’s happening with the characters. It’s something that you get over as you spend more time with the game, but in the early stages it is a little irritating.
Getting good mileage out of the table (and indeed the base game) is all about dedicating time to getting better, getting good with shot placement and thus triggering more special modes more often and racking up a higher score. The choice mechanic is really window dressing, and whilst it is extremely faithful window dressing, a love of The Walking Dead does not necessarily mean a love of the pinball table too.
Audio & Visual
The art and voice work of The Walking Dead table are a mirror to the original game. Lee and Clementine are both voiced by their original actors and have some new lines, and nigh on every setting from Season 1 is crammed into the table. Walkers roam the streets of Savannah, the train nestles between some of the rails, and Everett’s and that barn also get a look in. It’s impressive just how much of Telltale’s game has been put into one table, and thanks to the music and voice acting the whole thing not only looks as it should, but feels it too.
Overall
Zen Studios have held a mirror up to Telltale’s The Walking Dead and reflected it on to a pinball table. That’s pretty good going. It’s challenging, has plenty of variables and features and oddities to discover, and has the usual complement of high score tables and multiplayer to round out the package. Trying to implement the choice mechanic is a brave decision, and even if it doesn’t quite work it still gives the table a unique feel that will please fans of Lee and Clementine’s adventure.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
We weren’t expecting another character reveal so soon after Kano‘s, but we did get some new gameplay footage showing off the variations of half the currently revealed roster for Mortal Kombat X at PAX Prime 2014.
Netherrealm‘s Twitch session revealed little new info, but really continued to whet our appetite to go hands-on with the title. Two matches were showcased: Scorpion vs Sub-Zero and Raiden vs Kano. Again, Scorpion’s full fatality was not shown, with the demonstrator purposely flubbing the input. But we did get to witness Kano’s full fatality, and it is gruesome (duh!). Oh, and for those wondering, the laser came out of the right eye this time, so we can cease the odd rumours of experiments gone wrong on our favorite Black Dragon mercenary. Check out the footage embedded below.
