Racing Kart games are the perfect genre for an established series with a bunch of recognizable characters to come together without any reason. We all know about Mario Kart and Crash Team Racing, but some other series such as Shrek, Nickelodeon and even M&M’s have also had their own kart racers (to varying degrees of success). Now it’s the time for the lovable lazy cat and his crew to jump behind the wheel and take their turn at driving in Garfield Kart.
The game is based off the Garfield comic books and will feature over 8 playable characters and 16 varied tracks all with their own alternate paths and shortcuts and of course a bunch of weapons to mess up your opponents with. There are also some items you can obtain to help customise the furry feline and his friends. While it all sounds pretty standard so far, what’s cool is that the game will feature a cross-platform 6 player online mode so you can race with anyone regardless of what device they are playing on.
Garfield Kart has been pushed back to a November release on PC, MAC, iOS and Android. Do you think it was worth Garfield getting off the couch for this game or will those toys that people used to stick to their car windows with suction cups be the closest thing to driving this cat should ever get to? We shall wait until November to find out.
Yesterday it was revealed by FUNimation that their release of Sankarea was the censored version of the anime and the company was going to offer replacement discs with the uncensored version to consumers who purchased the anime which was released this Tuesday.
However, FUNimation has now chosen to perform a complete recall of the anime due to the fact that the rating of the anime “will now change from TV14 to TVMA” after it is decensored. The full statement can be read below:
After reviewing materials, FUNimation has decided to issue a recall on the recent Sankarea release (this applies to both the Limited Edition and Alt versions), rather than the previously offered disc replacement, as the rating on the release will now change from TV14 to TVMA.
If you have purchased this release, and would like a refund, please return product to your retailer.
Be advised that although we are issuing a recall some retailers will still have this product available for sale in the marketplace. Please wait for the unedited release if the current version is not the one you wish to purchase.
We apologize for the inconvenience, and should you have any questions, please feel free to contact [email protected]
We plan to re-release this title with the new materials at a later date once the discs have been authored.
While gamers in North America are able to enjoy Rune Factory 4 since it was released here yesterday, gamers in Europe and other PAL regions have been waiting to hear about whether or not any European company would be bringing the game over to their region.
Well today Marvelous AQL and Zen United have announced that they are going to be bringing the game over to Europe sometime in Spring 2014. The game will feature XSEED‘s localization of the game and you can check out my full review of Rune Factory 4 here. Now if only I could decide between Dolce, Margaret or Forte…
Don’t you just hate it when you’re in Japan and are unsure about where the nearest maid cafe is? well if you have a smartphone then you’re in luck because now there’s an application for that.
Maid+Plus is a smartphone web portal that gives you information on 11 different maid cafes in Akihabara allowing you to search by location, theme, average price and even maid characteristics. The range of cafes the site contains really are something to be amazed by; from a European guild themed restaurant, an aquarium cafe to even one set in a spacecraft.
You can also collect virtual trading cards of certain staff members and use them to vote in surveys and receive coupons to selected maid cafes.
The web portal was created by TMS Entertainment, an anime studio who produced Lupin the Third: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine, our review of which can be found here, and Cardfight Vanguard. Check out the Maid+Plus website for a full list of associated maid cafes.
Last night, Warner Bros. hosted a special press event that showcased some of their upcoming titles. From imminent releases: Arkham Origins and Lego Marvel Super Heroes, to titles that are still a little ways away: Dying Light and Mad Max, we got to see how they all play, and then get our hands on with a few. I got to go one on one with Batman: Arkham Origins and Lego Marvel Super Heroes, and I have to say my experience with each was quite positive. Check out our thoughts on the games below:
There have been a lot of concerns with Batman: Arkham Origins since it was announced a few months ago. Many wondered if Warner Bros. Montreal could hold a candle to the legacy that Rocksteady had created for Batman. Well after my hands on experience last night, I can officially tell you that not only does the title look like an Arkham title, but plays like one too.
The freeflow combat that was introduced in Arkham Asylum, and expanded upon in Arkham City makes a triumphant return, and is just as fluid and intuitive as ever. In the brief time that I played, I fought no less than four groups of enemies using the series’ renowned combat style. Everything felt exactly the same as it did in previous installments, but had a few added extras like different enemy types to combat as well as enemies who can counter Batman’s own counter-attacks. The additions may seem small but go a long way in differentiating enemy types, which in turn keeps you on your feet as a player. One more addition to the combat system is that you are now graded at the end of every fight. Staying more fluid and mixing up your use of gadgets and martial arts moves scores you higher, which in turn awards you with more EXP to spend on upgrades for the Caped Crusader.
Moving away from combat, the scope and feel of the game is awesome too, and while I was unable to explore much of Gotham City, what I saw will definitely make Bat-fans feel at home. The dark and dank cities that are covered in a thick layer of snow are daunting, and downright chilling (no Mr. Freeze style pun intended). It all plays really well into the story for Arkham Origins.
We all know that Origins is a prequel to the events of AA and AC, and yesterday we had conformation from the horse’s mouth that this takes place during Batman’s second year of crime fighting. Up until this time, the Bat has only been facing off against street crime, and has never encountered any of the costumed or fantastic rogues gallery that we as fans have come to know and love. That all changes on this snowy Christmas Eve however as Black Mask hires some of the world’s best assassins to eliminate the Dark Knight. Due to this game being set in what is without a doubt the formative years of Bruce’s life, the Batman we see is not the same cool, calm and collected figure. Instead, here is brash, caustic, cocky and even downright emotional at some points. This is certainly a different type of Batman than we are used to, but one that is a joy to see none the less.
One huge benefit that the game has by taking place so early in Batman’s career is that we get to see him when he is still an urban legend to the people of Gotham. Nobody knows for sure if he is real or not, and this makes for a largely different experience when it comes to interacting with thugs and even the police. I have only seen a brief snippet of the game, but I can tell that this urban-legend status will come up more than once.
Also, I made sure to ask the game’s Creative Director; Eric Holmes if the game will be rife with easter eggs and secrets for batman fanatics to scour the city to find. In response he showed me a section of the game that takes place within the Batcave (still under construction during the events of the game) and more specifically, Bruce’s crime board, which shows newspaper clippings for a certain red-hooded criminal among others, confirming that yes, the game will be FILLED with secrets and easter eggs.
So although my time with Arkham Origins was brief, and I can’t make a complete judgement call on the game as of yet, I think it is safe to say that if the rest of the game is anything like the demo, then it will be a great experience and we can all rest east: Warner Bros. Montreal have proven their mettle here, and have shown that they are worthy of wearing the symbol of the bat.
I still can’t get over how much of a logistical nightmare this game must have been to put together. You have Marvel heroes (who are owned by Disney) in a game that is published by Warner Bros. The fact that this game exists at all is astounding, and the fact that it is any good is even more so!
The demo for Lego Marvel was just one stage in the game, giving players an opportunity to play as Mr. Fantastic and Captain America (with Spider-Man joining later on). What initially caught my eye was how different characters and their unique powers play into the level design and puzzle solving a lot more than previous entries. You will have to squeeze through a sewer grate with Mr. Fantastic, then switch back to Captain America and use his shield to activate a lever etc. It is stuff that we have seen before in Lego games, but the bar has definitely been raised here. The biggest benefit to this is that multiplayer often feels like a more co-operative experience, instead of just having another player tag along. Although oftentimes I found myself stuck waiting in the same spot while my co-op partner figured out their section of the puzzle and then vice versa.
Visually the game is about on par with other titles in the series; Lego is pretty hard to screw up. However, I was playing the PS4 version of the game, and there wasn’t much visually that really impressed me. The textures all looked like they would on a current gen console. This isn’t really a criticism, as the game still looks great and is filled with a tonne of colour and vibrancy that will have everyone’s attention glued to the page, as well as rife with easter eggs for the knowledgeable comic book fan.
I have said before that Lego Marvel Superheroes looks like it will be the definitive Marvel game, and seeing it in action, I maintain that mindset. The character roster is well over 100 different heroes and villains, each with their traits and abilities in tact from their various iterations. The game even features relatively unknown characters like Howard the Duck, who is pretty much just a duck in a suit.
All in all, Lego Marvel Super Heroes looks like it will be a fun romp through a Lego-ised version of the Marvel Universe, and one that all Lego fans or comic book fans need to give a look too.
So there you have it, our hands-on experience with Batman: Arkham Origins and Lego Marvel Super Heroes. Each of these games hits store shelves soon, Batman on Oct 25th and Lego Marvel on Nov 13th. So, as always, for all the Super Hero and Warner Bros. news as it becomes available, stay tuned to Capsule Computers.
Sengoku Basara – Samurai Kings The Complete Collection Studio: Production I.G Publisher: Madman Format: Blu-Ray (Reviewed), DVD Release Date: 18th September 2013 Price: $69.95 – Available Here
Overview
There are a great deal of Anime series’ out there that try their hand at a storyline which takes place within a time in Japanese history where there is a great deal of war, those same series’ try their best to make history seem fun and interesting to the general populous, those same series’ don’t always hit their mark when it comes down to the crunch. It’s only once in a while that an Anime like Sengoku Basara comes around that kicks arse and blows people away.
Sengoku Basara was originally a game, and still is, by Capcom. It’s a hack and slash title that has been brought into the Anime world in a way like very few game-to-anime titles have. After having the two seasons and the movie individually released a while back, Madman has donned their Samurai armour and released the Sengoku Basara Collection which has both seasons of the series and the Anime movie; Last Party (you can read the review here). Read on to see my full thoughts on this, seemingly, incredible release.
Story
I ask that you bare with me during this part of the review. Considering that this release holds both the two seasons of Anime and the movie, there are three big storylines to cover. I’m going to try my best to supply a general explanation for the entire series without dragging on too much. One thing you have to know about the story behind Sengoku Basara is that it is loosely based around actual events throughout history, more specifically; The Sengoku Period. Real people throughout history are main characters within this series, people like Sanada Yukimura and Date Masamune who just so happen to be, what I would call, the series’ main characters. Season one of the series covers the almost-rule of Oda Nobunaga who sought to unify Japan but not in a way that would seem “appropriate”, he intended to rule with an iron fist.
Within the first series all of the characters are introduced and a lot of the relationships between them are built, especially the one between Date Masamune and Sanada Yukimura. The second series covers the rule of Toyotomi Hideyoshi who is, basically, the next man who intends to do the same as Oda Nobunaga. Within the series he has no real connection with Nobunaga which shows that it is not entirely historically accurate. The movie takes place a fair while after the series’ completion and details the Battle of Sekigahara which is an actual battle that determined the next Shogun of Japan. The two characters most focused on go head to head for different reasons; one intends to unify Japan in a, mostly, non-hostile way whereas the other only seeks revenge for the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
Sengoku Basara does a fantastic job at making an audience grow an interest in Japanese history, I know that is the effect it had on me as I constantly had my laptop on hand ready to search the names of any new characters that were introduced, I also think that adds to the experience of Sengoku Basara. They do say knowledge is power. While the names of the characters are sometimes forgettable, only because they are very traditional Japanese and can sometimes be confusing, the characters themselves are incredibly memorable. They also interact very well throughout the story, each of the characters have a “counterpart” somewhere within another army and it’s interesting to see them interact as the story goes on.
Some would say that the story is incredibly simple, that it is just battle after battle but what they havn’t thought of is the fact that, first of all, it is set in the “Warring States Period” and each part of the story was based on real events. To me the series has done a good job at throwing the history of Japan into the new age and while I wouldn’t study the Anime series as a replacement for school work I would use it as a base for further investigation and research. I’ve seen a few of “these types” of Anime series’ in my time and none do it better than this.
Now while I continuously talk about the historical accuracy I want you all to know that it is only “based” on historical events and, yes, a lot of it is accurate yet the development team did intend for it to be an over-the-top and action-packed Anime so you will see a great deal of flaming swords, ground-breaking screams and even a cyborg with a jet pack. I know it sounds odd but even the cyborg, Honda Tadakatsu, was put in the same position as his real-life counterpart and served under the same man both in reality and within the Anime so they have really done their research and have hit the nail on the head with names, dates, military positions and battles.
I’m no history buff so I can never be 100% certain of all these facts but, as I said, I did do a lot of research throughout my time watching the series. Before you tackle Sengoku Basara I suggest you, one, watch the series all in order because each iteration does follow it’s predecessor and, two, go in expecting an extremely romanticised version of what would have happened back then. Don’t go in expecting it to be a great deal of convoluted story but don’t go in expecting it to be 100% accurate, Sengoku Basara lies comfortably somewhere in-between.
Visuals
Whenever I speak about good-looking Anime titles from now on I’ll be talking about Sengoku Basara and it’s incredible animation. This Anime is a couple years old yet it looks as good, if not better, than a whole lot of the Anime titles we’re seeing released in the present. Not only does the animation look fluid and fantastic but the motionless backdrops have almost the same effect on the audience as the animation. The fight scenes escalate to such incredible levels and it allows the animators to go wild with their imaginations, between the sparks of two swords clashing and the colourful flames of each individual character, it makes to be visually stimulating beyond believe. Costuming is done in a great way in Sengoku Basara; each army has their own colours and their own small details that seperate them from the others.
The Leaders and the Generals on the other hand are incredibly unique in aesthetics and even in the weapons they choose to use. Armours that look like leather jackets to horses decked out to resemble motorcycles , Sengoku Basara oozes style. This series stands visually in the same way it stands story-wise; some aspects are extremely accurate like Date Masamune’s crescent moon helmet and eye patch and Meiji’s (A vagabond character) Cloud-like buster sword. It all fits in a way that doesn’t entirely seem right but it, kind of, “just is”. Some things do become too over the top but by the time they come along, audiences are already used to the style of the series so it ends up working out in the end. CGI is used throughout the series mixed in with traditional animation yet it is not used enough for one to get annoyed at. It is used more for background characters so as to put the focus on the main head-to-head battle.
Audio
This is on much the same level as every other aspect of the series, especially the voice acting! Sound effects like swords clashing and fires blazing are great and work simply well with the series in it’s entirety but it is not so over the top as to have a bigger mention in the review. What is fantastic is the voice acting in the series, I’ve seen it in both English and in Japanese and the two are, basically, on par. The Japanese does it better than the English for a couple fundamental reasons: One is the fact that the series IS based in Japan so it’s only natural for the Japanese language to fit the series more and two is that, for the most part, some characters are speak quite traditionally and that doesn’t entirely translate well into English, that’s not to say the voice actors are bad, it’s just the dialogue that limits them, fortunately it is only like this for a few character.
A lot of characters speak extremely traditionally yet other say things like “Let’s GUN it!” and some refer to each other “Dude” so it’s not entirely traditional. This relates to what I said above; because all aspects of the series are divided evenly between traditional and crazy, it tends to work extremely well. This is no different for the audio. The music is also quite good and treads those same lines; one moment it could be traditional Japanese music as the camera pans over a landscape and the next minute it could be fast rock music that highlights the intensity of a major fight scene.
Extras
I have, up until this day, never seen a release with more extras than this. It has a fairly long list and the items on those list are quite extensive. Not only does it have a short film about the making of the movie “Sengoku Basara: Last Party” it also has things like “Sengoku Basara II Katakura-kun” which is a short list of even shorter episodes that are done in traditional ink-looking style mixed with that of the chibi style and is basically a light hearted “side-series” to the main series which, although not canon, does prove to be fairly fun.
There’s a whole bunch of episodes which have audio commentary from the cast, two different chibi-style short series’ based off of the main series, a few trailers and commercials both for Sengoku Basara and other Anime titles, text-less opening and closing sequences and a small feature called Four-Panel Theatre: Another Last Party. There’s enough extra content here to keep you going for hours and hours on end, this release continues long after you’ve finished the series so if you do pick up this release I suggest you go through the extras, there’s a lot of really great stuff to be seen.
Overall
I think that the Sengoku Basara – Samurai Kings Complete Collection is a perfect release. Now obviously this kind of thing’s target audience is fans of Anime so I’m going to speak directly to you here: You will love it! Simple. Not only does it have a nice story and even better characters it also has some of the greatest animation I’ve ever seen in an Anime outside of a movie release like the Rebuild of Evangelion series. There’s so much style to keep you attached to the series and, if I’m going to talk about the release itself, it is well worth the money. I guarantee this Anime will make you enjoy history in a way you probably never thought you could. I would highly suggest it to any Anime fan and, in fact, any fan of Japanese history. It has so much to offer and it is definitely on my list of all time favourite Anime and I think it will be on your list too.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Developed by ORiGO Games and Extend Studios, A.R.E.S. is an action-packed side-scrolling platform game originally released on Steam in 2009. Redesigned specially for the Xbox Live Arcade, the new release features awesome graphics, new bosses, new stages, a new character, and much more content.
Folks interested in checking out the Xbox Marketplace website for the game can go here.
It has been announced, once again through the Weekly Shonen Jump Magazine, that two more characters from a whole new series have been added to the, already massive, lineup of characters from the upcoming action brawler J-Stars Victory Vs. from the Manga Medaka Box have been added to the fighting game’s roster. We know one thing for sure at this point in time; Medaka will be a playable character whereas Misogi will be a support character only.
– Medaka Kurokami and Misogi Kumagawa –
Medaka is said to be able to move at the speed of light while in her Ranshin mode within the game and Misogi will weaken opponents who are hit with his screw weapons. The game is set to be released on the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita systems and while there’s no exact release date as of yet we should be hearing of one very soon.
We’re getting closer and closer to the release of the Attack On Titan3DS game; The Last Wings of Mankind, that’s obvious but now we’ve been given the Official Japanese Boxart of the game and it’s finally hit me that the game isn’t THAT far away. Now onto the point of this article: There are two things I want to outline and I also want you to take note of them while you scan the image itself. The main thing that sticks out is that it is shown to have a D:17+ rating. It seems like this game isn’t just going to be a typical and basic 3DS game, considering it is an Attack On Titan game I’m glad that it has been given this rating, this means that there will be no holding back when it comes to story and action.
– Attack On Titan: The Last Wings Of mankind –
The second thing I noticed was that the cover art looks a lot more like the Manga than the Anime, now whether or not this means it is going to continue the story past the Anime and into the Manga is not confirmed but I’d like for it to turn out that way. This is a big case of wishful thinking because it’s not often that we see something like this. The game is being both developed and published by Spike Chunsoft and is set for a release on the 5th of December just in time for the holiday season.
Riding on the success of Toki Tori 2 on Wii U, Two Tribes is releasing three classic games for the Wii U. Toki Tori, EDGE, and Rush will be made available for the Wii U over the next three months. The games will cost €3.99 each. A special deal during the launch will drop the price down to €1.99. The games are all optimized to run with the Wii U GamePad.
Toki Tori is a puzzle platformer. It supports off TV play, touch screen controls, and the Portal 2 ARG content. EDGE is a platformer that supports off-TV play at 60fps at 1080p resolution and includes the EDGE Extended content. Rush is a 3d puzzle that supports off-TV play, touch screen controls, the Portal 2 ARG content, and can be played with just the GamePad.
