A week has gone past us already, and it is time for the awesome folks over at Disney to shower us with free Disney Infinity maps in this week’s Toy Box Challenge. As with previous weeks, there are five free maps for Disney Infinity owners to download, as well as a new Toy Box Submission Challenge, and a video that showcases the winners of the previous challenge. Without further adieu, lets get into it!
TOY BOX SUBMISSION CHALLENGE
In this week’s Toy Box Challenge is titled the Halloween Challenge, and tasks players with building and designing their own spooky Toy Boxes, or Haunted Houses. Will you recreate Halloween Town in time for Jack Skellington to come play, or will you one up the King of Fright and show him what a real scare is? As always you can follow these instructions to send your Toy Box for approval
Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii U
Bring up the Pause Menu and select “Online/Multiplayer.”
Then select “Toy Box Share” > “Disney’s Toy Boxes” > “Submit to Disney.”
Follow the prompts. You’ll be asked to give your Toy Box an original name and description. Choose carefully – they will be shown to everybody if your Toy Box is featured.
iPad
Bring up the Pause Menu and select “Toy Box Share.”
Then select “Disney’s Toy Boxes” > “Submit to Disney.”
Follow the prompts. You’ll be asked to give your Toy Box an original name and description. Choose carefully – they will be shown to everybody if your Toy Box is featured
TOY BOX COUNTDOWN
This week’s Toy Box Countdown features the top 5 user generated maps that were submitted to Disney for the previous Royal Empire Challenge. Check out the video below to see the top 5 entrants in the challenge. All of which you can download right now!
You can check out last week’s winning Toy Box maps here.
That’s another week of Disney Infinity updates for you passionate Disney fans out there. Were you happy with the Toy Box Countdown winners? Will you be downloading any of the maps (wither from the winners, or from Disney)? Let us know in the comments below, and remember that for all the Disney Infinity news as it becomes available, stay tuned to Capsule Computers.
Overview
It’s not very often that you see media based on such unique subject matter as typographical history. A few years ago we saw the release of Helvetica, an independent feature-length film about the subject. Now, Bulkypix and friends are taking you back for another ride on the typographical history train. How does it hold up in a modern world? Is this game a forgotten cave painting or the new standard? Let’s find out.
Story
Mankind has been trying to communicate since the dawn of time. To pass information along to later generations, we’ve been trying to keep written record of stories, events, instructions and more. In Type:Rider, players will take control of two dots as they work through the history of written language and its evolution. You’ll explore cave paintings, Johannes Gutenberg, the printing press, and much more.
Gameplay Type:Rider‘s gameplay is fairly straightforward. As with most two-dimensional platforming games, you’ll move your two dots around the screen and through the levels jumping, swimming, and otherwise maneuvering around the obstacles that stand in your way.
The controls are so simple, any child can do it. There are three controls schemes: intuitive, buttons, and tilt. The “intuitive” scheme will just have you placing your fingers on the side of the screen you want to move toward, the “buttons” scheme will put a left, right, and jump button the screen for you, and the “tilt” scheme lets you move your device in the direction you want to go. All three are perfectly viable, allowing you to choose the best play experience for yourself. It’s refreshing to see more than one option given for the control scheme.
After completing a tutorial level, you’ll be set out into a hub world where you’ll work through typefaces (the worlds you’re playing through) one at a time. Within each world, not only will you maneuver from beginning to end and avoid dangerous traps, but you’ll also have to work to collect as many items as possible.
Each font has all 26 letters of the alphabet to snag along with a special character. The alphabet is typically in a fairly streamlined path, but you may have to do some digging for the special character. On top of those, there are several asterisks (‘*’) hidden within each world. These asterisks unlock educational excerpts you can read to learn more about the history of the font you’re dealing with. These add fantastic value to the title – especially for those genuinely interested in the source material.
Over the course of the game, you’ll work your way through several type faces, many of which you may recognize. Helvetica, Times New Roman, and more have their own stylized backdrops and level design, giving you a great sense of aesthetic and variety as you explore. This keeps the levels interested and keeps you on the move as you press to find the next thing.
For iOS players, the game was optimized to run on the iPhone 5. While that may sound great to owners of the newest and hottest phones, it presents a very real problem to anyone with an iPhone 4. While the game is technically compatible, there is some very significant screen stuttering that subsequently causes a lag in control, even on the “Fast” graphical setting. It can be very frustrating, especially when trying to make a well timed jump to grab that letter just out of reach. Hopefully it’s the sort of thing they can improve with a patch down the line.
Visuals
Though simplistic in its presentation, Type:Rider offers unique, powerful aesthetics that are sure to grab your attention. With worlds that mix letters, words, and other typographical material with water, fire, and more, Type:Rider gives players a fun look that will leave a lasting impression.
Audio
When you first fire up the game, it suggests you play with headphones on. While I was skeptical at first, I can handily say this was a good decision. Type:Rider has a fantastic, serene soundtrack that complements that the visual design and keeps the players at ease. There’s nothing distracting here – it seeks to put you in the flow and keep you there, and it does so wonderfully.
Overall Type:Rider manages to be casual, educational, charming, and melodic all in one masterful stroke. The gameplay is simple enough for anyone to pick up and enjoy and the look and feel of the game are fantastic. If you have an iPhone 4, your experience will be significantly hampered, and that’s a real shame. Type:Rider is a ride worth punching your ticket for.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Warner Bros have today released a brand new game for iPhone and iPad devices called AdvenChewers. In AdvenChewers, players use the mighty power of bubble gum to race through levels, defeat enemies and collect coins. AdvenChewers is primarily a casual auto-runner, not completely unlike Dead Ahead, but with its own mechanics and gameplay gimmicks. Tapping on the screen causes you to jump, and holding on the screen makes you fly. The game also includes a well crafted story, with fully animated cut-scenes to keep you entertained.
AdvenChewers’ story follows the child of a renowned inventor renowned inventor. After the inventor is kidnapped by an evil mastermind who is hell-bent on creating flying machines to further his evil goals, the Kid, armed with special bubblegum, winged companions and his fearless heart has to save his father and thwart the evil mastermind.
I am already playing AdvenChewers and it is awesome! If you want to know a little more about the game, then we have attached a trailer below for your enjoyment. AdvenChewers is available now on iPhone and iPad for the low, low price of $0.99 so if you are looking for a fun, casual game to pass the time then be sure to grab it here (also, the game has Facebook integration so you can prove to your friends who is better). As always, be sure to stay tuned to Capsule Computers for all the Warner Bros. news as it becomes available.
Stardock, the folks behind our favorably reviewed iOS card game Dead Man’s Draw, have announced a Kickstarter project related to their swashbuckling game of chance today. The Kickstarter will not actually be raising any money for the digital copy of the game at all, but will go to create physical decks of the game for fans who were interested.
Fans of Stardock’s turn-based RPG PC title Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes will also be happy to hear that the newest patch of the game has been released. It will improve the AI of the game and give monsters some new toys to use against players.
To get yourself a real deck of Dead Man’s Draw cards, please check out the Kickstarter here. Fans interested in the Legendary Heroes patch notes can read them all here.
The new trailer, which showcases some of the features of Ghosts‘ clans, will give you a pretty good idea of some of the goodies you can expect when playing with your buddies.
Several big features are mentioned in the video: The clan app to download and tool around with, clan wars for bragging rights and more, and perhaps one of the coolest clan features yet – cross-platform clans. That’s right, folks. Your brother has it on PS4 and you bought it on Xbox 360? No worries! You can still be in the same clan.
For more information, be sure to check out the full trailer in the video player below this article.
Today Tecmo Koei had quite a bit of news for Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z. Not only have they announced that they will be teaming up with Dark Horse Comics to create a digital comic that will be written by Tim Seeley and Josh Eamons and feature art from Rafael Ortiz. There will be three comics released digitally for free but a brand new full-color print comic is also going to be released near the game’s release in early 2014.
The company also detailed their plans for New York Comic Con which will involve none other than the World Zombie Day. Between the dates of October 10th to the 13th Tecmo Koei will be hosting a large number of events such as scavenger hunts, various food trucks and giveaways where players can also get their hands on early demos of Yaiba Ninja Gaiden Z. The times and details of which can be read in full detail below:
October 10 – 13
3:00pm – 7:00 pm: Yaiba Scavenger Hunt featuring Yaiba cosplayer Dan Sarkar, representative Jessica Nigri and artists Newsha Ghasemi and Amanda Schank.
October 11
11:00am – 12:00pm: Giveaway of signed limited edition YAIBA: NINJA GAIDEN Z lithographs created by famed comic book artist James Stokoe
(Dark Horse Booth 1636)
11:00 am – 2:00 pm: Yaiba food truck
9:00 pm – 2:00 am: Dead NinjaZ After Dark at Concrete Bar NYC
Concrete Bar NYC
320 W 37th St
New York, NY 10018
(212) 967-9121
October 12
11:00 am – 2:00 pm: Yaiba Food truck
9:00 pm – 1:00 am: Dead NinjaZ: After Dark at Smithfield NYC
Smithfield NYC
215 W 28th St,
New York, NY 10001
(212) 564-2172
October 13
4:00 -6:30 pm: NY Zombie Crawl at Twins Pub
Twins Pub
421 9th Ave # 1
New York, NY 10001
(212) 564-7288
8:30 pm – 1:00 am: NY Zombie Crawl After party at Culture Club
Culture Club
20 West 39th St
New York, NY 10018
(212) 921-1999
New York will be packed this coming weekend with fans from around the nation (and world) converging for this year’s New York Comic-Con. Capcom wanted to let fans that can’t make it get in on some of the action too, however.
Strider
Though many have come and gone over the years, none can keep up with Strider Hiryu when he’s running through Kazakh City. If you blink, you’ll probably miss him, his robot allies, and his dangerous Plasma Cypher. You can check out the special New York Comic-Con trailer here:
Dustforce
There’s a job opening. We need cleaners. You can start in January 2014. You’ll join other hard-working janitors to cleanse dirt and disorder from the world of Dustforce. We’ll even provide a broom and vacuum for you. See it in motion, kickin’ dust and takin’ names here:
Dustforce will be coming to PlayStation 3, Vita, and Xbox 360 this January. Strider is schedule for release in early 2014 for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and PC.
While we’ve seen a number of characters from Utawarerumono shown off via their character cards, today Atlus USA has decided to highlight these fighters and put them together in a trailer focusing solely on their fighting capabilities.
The trailer can be found below but before you check that out, you can also find three brand new character cards, this time highlighting one Utawarerumono fighter and two Toheart 2 fighters, below. Currently AquaPazza is set to be released in North America on November 19th as both a digital download and physically for $29.99.
Hakuowlo – the honorable Emperor of Tuskur who wields a metal fan with great dexterity
Konomi – the cheerfully hyper high school student who is deadly with her bookbag
Manaka – the timid student who takes on the esteemed position of class president with a supernatural affinity for books
Revolutionary Girl Utena Studio:J.C. Staff Publisher:Hanabee Format: DVD Release Date: 2nd October 2013 Price: $59.99 – Available Here
Overview Once upon a time, many years ago, there was a little princess who was sad…
Everybody knows how the fairytale goes. The princess is in peril with no hope of rescue, until a dashing prince arrives just in time to save the pretty damsel. That’s how it normally goes. But what if the princess vowed to become a courageous prince herself? What if the villian thought he too was the prince? How would the story play out then?
Once upon a time…
Story Revolutionary Girl Utena takes place in that most thoroughly explored locales in all of anime: highschool. Within Ohtori Academy is Utena Tenjou, an extremely popular girl idolised by almost every other student. At some point in her past, Utena was saved by a “prince” who deeply affected her own sense of self. Presenting her with a ring bearing a rose crest, the prince promised that they would meet again. Longing to become a prince like her saviour, she possesses a very courageous, tomboyish and in some ways naive nature. She also stubbornly wears a boys uniform, her belief being that it is another step closer to the prince she longs to be.
During one of her many moments spent staring out of school windows, Utena witnesses a male student slap a girl across the face in, what she assumes to be, a lovers quarrel. Angered by the students actions, Utena challenge him to a kendo duel after school. He agrees, though declares that it will be held in the forbidden Arena Forest, believing her to be a challenger he was told he would face. At the entrance to the forest, Utena stumbles upon a large gate, emblazoned with a rose crest. Though the door seemingly refuses to open, her ring reacts with it, beginning a mechanism that that reveals a large spiral staircase. Ascending to the top of the staircase she discovers a strange floating castle, along with her duelling opponent, Saionji, and the girl whom he slapped, Anthy. After drawing a sword from Anthy’s chest, because of magic, Saionji explains the rules of their duel: the first to lose the rose that will be pinned to their chest is defeated. Despite uses a wooden training sword against Saionji’s magical blade, Utena surprises him by claiming victory. As is apparently the custom of these duels, Utena is now Anthy’s fiancée, revealed to be the Rose Bride. Which is important…for reasons.
Just your typical upside-down sky castle
Over the course of the series it is revealed that the Student Council is seeks a mysterious power, one said to be able to revolutionise the world. What this means exactly is left fairly ambiguous, though each member believes it will grant them the chance to make their dreams come true. Pursuing this power, the Council continuously challenges Utena to duels, in the hopes of reclaiming Anthy. Each duellist notes the power of Anthy, though none ever specify what this means beyond being able to “revolutionise the world”. Within these first twelve episodes, Utena engages in seven duels. The overarching theme of these duels is actually best explained in the preview for episode thirteen. It is explained that each duel was fought for a different core reason, these being: friendship, choice, reason, love, adoration, conviction and self. Each duel is also prefaced by a strange cutaway featuring two girls, though only their shadows are seen. These odd girls discuss a number of strange stories, which often relate to the main plot in some way.
Occasionally the series will also reference Utena’s goal of finding the mysterious prince of her past. Unfortunately the series leaves a lot of this fairly untouched, save for an occasional mention. Even after discovering that the Council bears the same ring that the prince gave to her, Utena never really investigates anything. She also just kind of accepts the duelling system, never even asking Anthy about her true power.
The duel that started it all
Amidst the seriousness of the series, it also has a sense of humour and throws some random plotlines out. In one of particular note, a magical curry spice forces Utena and Anthy to switch personalities…not sure why…screw it, it was magic. Also they don’t seem particularly annoyed by this fact, spending at least a whole day before even trying to find out what happened. This episode also sees Nanami, a rival of the girls, trek to India…or the stereotype possibly known as India…not even that, there’s just a bunch of elephants everywhere. This episode does, however contain, one of the funniest moments of the series. Utena, in Anthy’s body, explains her “true feelings” to Saionji, simply writing dumbass in big red letters…jerk deserved it.
One of the core themes of Utena is infatuation. Each episode deals with various characters and their powerful feelings for others. Whether or not these feelings are reciprocated, or even healthy, is another matter entirely. At one point its openly stated that Nanami has a big brother complex and she does not react kindly to those who get between her and her brother. One of the main attractors of attention in Anthy, the Rose Bride. With it being her duty to be bound in marriage to the top duellist, she essentially becomes a prize for people to fight over, a destiny she wholeheartedly accepts. Due to, what can be assumed, was a tough life, Anthy simply follows orders without voicing her own opinion. If she even has one. She also seems to wind up on the receiving end of slaps at startlingly frequent intervals. Though slapping does seem to be the main way to express unhappiness in this series…it happens a lot.
Nice to meet Chu
Visuals Utena definitely possesses an old school style, what with it being sixteen years old and all. It has the unmistakeable colour style found in these older series, featuring far more subdued and somewhat faded colours. That being said, you’ll know how important a character is based on the colour of their hair, the brighter it is, the larger a role they’ll have in the series. Anime 101. Characters also have a very angular style about them, featuring fairly pronounced noses and chins. They have an overall lanky build, with none really deviating from this build, though height does vary quite a lot.
The series also has a running style depicting characters as shadows devoid of details. This visual is generally applied to flashbacks, denoting gaps in memories or the overall mysterious nature of some figures, such as the prince. Roses also play heavily into the visuals of Utena, representing the Student Council’s true form, along with the prince of Utena’s past and Anthy, the Rose Bride. Each character involved in the duels also possesses their own colour of rose, generally relating to their overall look, furthering the colour centric theme of the main cast. The series will also occasionally place a border around certain scenes. The border itself is comprised of thorns with, you guessed it, roses in each corner. This generally appears to highlight a characters.
Not your average prince and princess
Audio The English dub of Utena is…not that great. It, more than anything, dates the series. Harking back to some of the older anime dubs, it feels as if the dub is almost afraid to translate the vocals of the original Japanese version. The characters don’t really have an emotional range, never seeming to raise or lower the volume of their voice regardless of the situation. Intense moments are met with a dull surprise at best. This really takes away from any given moment that the visuals and dialogue itself are attempting to create, and it can honestly get kind of painful to listen to.
The soundtrack, on the other hand, definitely fits the overall feel of the series. Centred on the more historically refined instruments, the audio adds a sense of flair to the series. Trumpets provide the regal feel sought by Utena in her goal to be prince-like. “Zettai Unmei Mokushiroku (Absolute Destiny Apocalypse)” also begins to play each time Utena opens the Rose Gate, becoming synonymous with the series’ numerous duels. This possess some pretty intense lyrics, though they appear to simply be a collection of thematically relevant words.
The piano and, more specifically, the song “The Sunlit Garden” also plays directly into the story as it is central to the relationship between Miki and Anthy. In the two episodes focusing on the dynamic between them, the tune is played numerous times by both characters, representing the connection between them, if any actually exists that is.
Do you know? Do you know? Do you know what that means?
Extras Utena contains the regular extras for an anime release, featuring a clean version of both the opening and ending themes, “Rondo – Revolution” and “Truth” respectively. Also included are a number of TV spots for the remastered series, one for each duelling opponent along with a general thirty second trailer. A TV spot and the official music video for “Rondo – revolution” are also present. Also included in the collection is a book featuring episode commentaries by director Kunihiko Iruhara, along with his thoughts on the opening theme and closing animation. It also includes staff discussions about the updated audio and visuals, a look into the shifting ideals in “girls’ manga”, excerpts of notes found in the original laser disc release of Utena and an art gallery. Whew.
The power to revolutionise the world!
Overall Utena is immediately recognisable as an older anime series. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a bad thing. Though dated, the animation has an almost nostalgic air to it, calling back to a different time of anime. That being said, the plot is also dated in a different way, tending to leave much ambiguity. Though this may be attributed to the collection presenting a third of the total series, it still feels as if the characters are too shallow for the amount of time they’ve had exploring them. Revolutionary Girl Utena is an odd series that amidst its bright colours, explores some of the more twisted and unspoken forms of “love”. Though you might want to watch it in Japanese…trust me.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
I personally thought that, with only one day left until the release of Pokemon X and Y, that no more actual Pokemon announcements would be made, looks like I was wrong though because the latest issue of CoroCoro Magazine has dropped some crazy Poke-Bombs on the world and it’s just made Pokemon fans everywhere more pumped up for the game’s release tomorrow. Alongside the Official Release of the Starter Pokemon’s Final Evolutions, we were also given 4 new Mega-Pokemon.
It was also announced that the magazine itself will be giving away a special in-game Garchomp within their next issue. The Garchomp will be holding a “Dragon Fang” and will come loaded up with the moves; Crunch, Dragon Claw, Dig and Draco Meteor. The magazine has said that details on how to get it’s Mega Stone will also be revealed in the next issue of the magazine.
– Chesnaught – Delphox – Greninja –
There has been a fantastic amount of leaks from Pokemon X and Y over the past week or so including the names of the the Starter’s Final Evolutions and, while there has been no Official confirmation, I believe it’s safe to assume the following information about these ones: Chespin’s final evolution will be a Grass/Fighting Type called “Chesnaught” with the ability “Overgrow”, Fennekin’s final evolution will be a Fire/Psychic Type called “Delphox” with the ability “Blaze” and Froakie’s final evolution will be a Water/Dark Type called “Greninja” with the ability “Torrent”.
These evolutions will take a little getting used to but I’m sure once you’re using them in-game you’ll come to love them just like every other Pokemon out there. Click the image above to see it on a larger scale.
– Mega Tyranitar – Mega Aggron – Mega Kangaskhan – Mega Gengar –
Here we have the next four Mega Pokemon to be released, two of which were already leaked but have now been confirmed. Allow me to take you through the info that we have so far: Mega Tyranitar will keep it’s original Type and ability so there’s no big change there apart from stats, Mega Aggron will turn into a pure Steel Type and gain the ability “Filter” which reduces Super Effective damage, Mega Gengar’s type hasn’t been confirmed as of yet but it’s ability has been confirmed as “Shadow Tag” which keeps the enemy Pokemon in battle no matter what, making it a huge asset to one’s team, Mega Kangaskhan will have the ability “Parental Bond” which allows the Pokemon to attack twice in each turn, so far no changes in type have been confirmed.
Pokemon X and Y for the 3DS is set for release tomorrow on the 12th of October worldwide so start gearing up for the ride of your life and for an adventure that you won’t soon forget!
