Namco Bandai were here at Supanova this year with a selection of playable codes for upcoming games at their booth. The booth itself was flooded all day by fans wanting to get a chance to play some of these upcoming titles. Included in the playable builds were games like GRID2, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, as well as entries in popular Anime franchises, such as One Piece and Naruto. Also available at the booth were flyers with playable codes for the third Beta Test phase of Final Fantasy XIV, which began this weekend.
Us here at Capsule Computers were able to grab a quick interview with the head of Namco Bandai here in Australia at the booth. You can check that out in the box below.
Today at Supanova us here at Capsule Computers stopped by the Z Day (not to be confused with Day Z) Live Action Role Playing Event’s booth on the show floor. For those of you that don’t know what Z Day is, it’s essentially an event where people are able to play what seems to be a live-action zombie survival experience.
What’s interesting about this particular event is that players are given infrared tagging devices and are divided into three classes. You have the Spec Ops class, the Survivor class and the Zombie class. It sounds like an interesting setup. But don’t take my word for it, take a look at the video from a representative of the group in the box below.
Be sure to check out the official site for more info.
Imagine if you will; it’s a rainy Sunday at the Sydney Supanova Expo, fans are wet from the downpour and looking for salvation in the dome hosting the expo, the fans enter but they are met only with a battle of epic proportions! Two teams went head to head on the main stage for the prize of ultimate glory! Ok, so it wasn’t THAT epic, but it was still something really cool!
This year at Supanova Sydney the anime distributor Hanabee had an anime trivia session organised where two specially picked teams would face off on the main stage using their greatest weapons…knowledge of anime! The session went for a good half an hour and hosted five different rounds of questioning e.g. a multiple choice round, a lightning round, etc. The teams were made up of three special anime fans that were chosen and the winners of the challenge got themselves a $100 Hanabee gift card which they could use to buy…well…Hanabee products! The losers, well, they went home with nothing but shame…no Hanabee gave them a $50 gift card for trying their best and participating so nobody really went home a looser.
The questions were all anime based and could’ve been almost about anything. One of the questions was based on the series Digimon Frontier and another was based on the series K-On! so it just goes to show the range of knowledge the contestants would’ve had to have to get ahead. At the end of the day it was the team on the announcers left that went away the victors with their $100 Hanabee gift card and the loosing team just with their $50 gift cards. The audience had fun and so did the contestants and really isn’t that all that matters? No. Winning is all that matters, winning and free anime.
You can see all the pictures from the Hanabee Anime Game Show below in the Image Gallery and don’t forget to hit up our comments section below and drop us a line.
After spending two years in a coma caused by a traffic accident, Shiki Ryougi awakens with amnesia. Inexplicably, she finds, in turn, that she has also obtained “Mystic Eyes of Death Perception” in which she can see the invisible lines of mortality that hold every living and non-living thing together. Working for a small independent agency, Shiki attempts to unravel the baffling mystery behind a series of abnormal, horrifying incidents, but are they a foreshadowing that leads to something even more tragic and ominous? Things are not what they appear to be on the surface, but what dark revelations lie underneath? This is a modern occult-action thriller where Shiki must tackle supernatural incidents with her special abilities while searching for a reason to live.
Vividred Operation
They sure are vivid
Akane Isshiki, an innocent 14-year-old girl, lives a poor, but happy, life with her level-headed little sister Momo, who takes care of all the household chores by herself, and their grandfather Kenjiro, who is a genius inventor but creates nothing but useless gizmos. On clear days, they can see the artificial island Blue Island out across the water. And rising from the center of it is the Manifestation Engine, the revolutionary invention that solved all the world’s energy problems. The peaceful future that everyone had dreamed of had arrived. Tranquil days where everyone could be happy. But then, the world is confronted by a new threat. The mysterious Alone, who have appeared out of nowhere to attack the Manifestation Engine.
Bakuman
The anime based on the manga about making manga
Top student Akito is willing to do anything to become a hit writer in the Japanese comics industry, including manipulating his unsure classmate Mashiro into becoming his illustrator. Before long the pair have their backs up against the wall, fighting for a chance to get noticed in the intense world of manga publishing. But then, an unlikely series of events puts them face to face with what real comic artists have to give up: love, their health, and maybe even their futures. Get ready for a compelling race through the world of publishing, not limited to mere glimpses into the industry, but instead all-out panoramic views packed with insider details!
While there has been no details regarding Vividred and Bakuman’s DVD, The Garden of Sinners has been given an October release. The Limited Edition Premium DVD Boxset will retail for $149.95 SRP and will contain 8 discs, 14 postcards and a 36 page booklet. For more information, visit Madman’s official site and Facebook page.
Zack Snyder made his way down to Australia ahead of the Man of Steel Sydney premiere tomorrow night at Event Cinemas, George St. and appeared at the expo to grant us a last-minute addition to the FilmInk theatre panel line-up. It was actually announced during the events of Day 2! The following are some key quotes (paraphrased) from the Q&A session; mostly – naturally – revolving around Man of Steel, releasing here on June 27th.
We all have an idea from trailers and other promotional material, but Snyder elucidated us on what his intentions were with his Superman film and how he pulled it back down to realism;
The main thing I wanted to do was take the idea of Superman and image a point of view where you look through his eyes and feel what he feels. […] And I wanted him to beat the shit out of some people!
It’s really also about the human man that is inside Superman. […] This man who is still struggling to be accepted by society.
One member of the audience asked the question of how the project came to be, which sprouted from a lunch between Zack and Deborah Snyder and Christopher Nolan and his producing wife Emma Thomas;
I got a call from Chris and emma for lunch. On the phone, Chris said “Oh, I’m gonna talk about Superman at the lunch, is that cool?” and I was like “okaaay…yeah, of course”. […] Then during the lunch we kind of kicked around our ideas of what Superman should be about and like. He pitched me a little bit of his idea and I thought it was super cool…super in the usual way; sorry, I didn’t mean to do that!
The thing that’s amazing is that Chris is an amazing producer because he said to me: “Hollywood makes two kinds of movies – films by committee and movies by filmmakers. And those committee made movies suck!” So he always backed me from the beginning.
One of the more interesting topics for filmmakers in attendance was how Snyder handled the cinematography and dealt with the speed of these Kryptonian warriors. In past films, the action was put in slow-motion just so it could be clearly visualised. Snyder took a completely different approach;
The main thing I tried to do is I wanted to try and make the movie in the most realistic way I can [with respect to the rules of the characters and world]. The more embellished the cinematography is, the more it gets away from you. […] We tried to make it that he would be hard to photograph or film because he’s so fast! And when the fighting starts, it’s just mind-blowing!
Snyder continued to shed some light on some of the major elements of the film – character design, villain choice and the score;
On Superman’s new suit: I love the underwear personally! I tried hard to get the underwear in. […] I got the costume artist to try it out and I was like, “wow…that’s underwear isn’t it!” [Realising the Sillyness of it]
On the choice of Villain: Well, I picked Zod for the movie because he is the first battle where you can imagine he is the equal of Superman, at least physically. He poses a real challenge physically. For future films, there can be a progression in terms of the ‘chess move guys’. […] My favorite villain is probably Lex Luthor though.
On Hans Zimmer’s score: Even when we were making the movie, we had to pretend those movies [Superman I-IV] didn’t exist. […] When I sat down with Hans, he was petrified by the frickin’ thing – as he should be and as I was. […] The theme was that it’s not all about the glory and himself for Superman.
One attendee asked a loaded question that garnered what could be considered a controversial answer from the director. He was an aspiring filmmaker who asked Snyder’s thoughts on piracy, specifically as an avenue for independent filmmakers to get their work seen without having to “go through the system”;
As long as you’re not pirating my movies! [Jokingly] […] I do believe that if you’re really into it, then no one’s going to stop you. If your passion is so that you would break the law to make it, then that’s correct.
Finally, if you have wondered whether or not Henry Cavill was top choice for the starring role, here’s your answer;
I really wanted Henry from the beginning. […] We wanted to test-fit the suit to see what it looked like on him, but we didn’t have our costume yet, so we got the Christopher Reeve costume; they brought it over from the archives.The guys were like “oh, you cant touch that!…we thought you just wanted to look at it!” […] But we got the pattern so we sewed an exact copy and put Henry in it. You know how some people, you just look at them costumed up and you say “look, that’s a pretty good costume”. But looking at him, we just thought “look, it’s Superman!”.
And soon after, the panel was over and the very busy Snyder was on his way. Something to leave you with is the answer to the not-so-age old question – who would win between his Watchmen‘s Dr. Manhattan and Superman: “Dr. Manhattan would win for sure! Are you serious? That’s ridiculous!”
Moments ago, one of the bigger Anime conventions here in Australia, SMASH! announced that they will be hosting an Anime dance party themed on the popular Vocaloid music selection inside of Japan. This party will be held in Sydney and is open to all Anime (and non) fans aged 18 and over.
The dance party itself will be host to a wide variety of music from the immensely popular virtual Vocaloid popstar, Hatsune Miku, and will have renown Japanese DJ Hachioji P (8#Prince) providing mixes. Also at the event is another popular DJ, Kz, from the group Livetune.
The Press Release goes into great detail about the careers of both of the DJ’s. We have reproduced the most relevant and interesting sections below –
Hachioji P spearheaded his career in music creation with the Vocaloid program featuring the vocals of Hatsune Miku. With a view count of over 8million, his most famous works include “Sweet Devil” and “Electric Love”, made in collaboration with MMD (Miku Miku Dance) producer Wakamura P. These music videos feature electric sounds with a dance music base, and high quality video taking him instantly into the Vocaloid Music World’s hall of fame. Ranking high with his music releases, he has gained the attention of audiences around the world with features from NHK’s Weekly News, and tie-up theme song titled “Fukayomi feat. Hatsune Miku” which was used as the theme song for the show attracting over half a million views in just 5 days.
Hachioji P has also collaborated with famous creators such as kz of livetune for the Playstation Vita software “Hatsune Miku – Project DIVA – f” with the split release of “Weekender Gir” and “fake doll”. More recently, he has been involved in producing work for real vocalists such as Shouko Nakagawa, Hikari Shiina. He has also done arrangement work for Kikkawa Yuu, Watanabe Mayu (AKB48) and Hirano Aya.
New Album ViViD WAVE will be released under his new record label Toy’s Factory on the 17th of July.
Kz (livetune) famous for his album and single releases using the Vocaloid software and featured vocals of Hatsune Miku, first made his major debut with “Re: package” in August 2008 ranking 5th on the weekly charts in Japan. Kz has contributed to the world wide success of Hatsune Miku with his hit song “Redial” where the music video was created in collaboration with world famous designer creator Takashi Murakami. His best known work so far is undoubtedly the song “Tell Your World” that brought Hatsune Miku to theadvertising campaign in Japan for Google Chrome web browser. This song received over 1million views in the first week, and is currently at over 6.6million views.
More recently, he has collaborated with various famous artists and commercial tie-ups, composing songs for KOTOKO, ClariS, Maon Kurosaki, Ryo of Supercell, Hachioji P, Nakajima Megumi,TM Revolution, Zedd and much much more.
In June 2013 he released “Take Your Way” which includes vocals from the hit band SEKAI NO OWARI his latest work.
Vocaloid Night 2013 will be held at the Pontoon Bar in Sydney at Darling Harbour on the 10th of August. Be sure to check out the official website for ticketing and more info.
Just this afternoon at this years Sydney Supanova we got word from Hanabee that they have scored the license for the series; Lupin The Third: A Woman Called Mine Fujiko. There has been some great news that came out of Hanabee in the past couple days and this sweet release is just the icing on the cake that is awesome anime releases. The series is thirteen episodes long and will be released in two separate parts; part one will be released on the 16th of October and part two will be released on the 20th of November. The release is to mark the 40th Anniversary of this huge series and what a great one it is. There will be a limited edition combo pack and hardcover book that will be released along side the standard editions. The animation studio behind it is the same that did both Baccano and Knight Rayearth.
If you have no idea what Lupin The Third: A Woman Called Mine Fujiko is then keep on reading because you’re about to find out. It is a series directed by Sato Yamamoto who did Redline, Eureka Seven, Samurai Champloo and much more. The music of the series will be done by none other than Shinichiro Watanabe himself who directed Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo and Kids On The Slope which is another great Hanabee release.
The official Hanabee series synopsis is as follows:
Behind every great man, there is a great woman. A cult has become the target of Lupin III’s latest heist but he might not be the only one after the treasures that their leader has kept hidden. It seems the alluring lover of the cult leader may just be a thief herself and more than capable to handle Lupin in the race for the treasure. But in this chase to outsmart the other, this little game takes a twist for the unexpected when Lupin has set his sights beyond the cult’s treasure to the female thief herself. Her name, Fujiko Mine, and Lupin may just be a little infatuated with this femme fatale beauty. What he doesn’t know is that behind her wily charms lies a greater tragedy at hand.
This is the story of how Lupin III, the greatest thief of his generation, met his match in Fujiko Mine.
Once again Part one of Lupin The Third: A Woman Called Mine Fujiko will be released on the 16th of October so keep an eye out and start getting excited. Also don’t forget to hit up our comments section below to drop us a line.
Even if you’ve never heard the name Chris Claremont before, you’re most likely aware of his work with comics, especially the X-Men. All the X-Men movies are largely based on his work, especially X-2 which takes influences from God Loves, Man Kills, and X-Men: The Last Stand which draws inspiration from the classic Dark Phoenix Saga. If that’s not enough for you, he’s created about 500 comic book characters and even co-wrote the best-selling comic book of all time. Today at Supanova 2013 Claremont held a seminar discussing his work, where fans were eager to ask questions and learn more about the legendary writer.
A major focus during the seminar was The Dark Phoenix Saga, where he spoke of killing off Jean Grey. When asked what he thought about other writers bringing her back from the dead, he said “I’ve been in better moods.” In fact, when he first heard it was going to happen while eating dinner at a pub, he ran down to the office enraged, only to find out it was locked and walked all the way back to the pub to finish his dinner.
Yet another character he was asked about was Captain Britain. Stan Lee said they needed a new character to appeal to the British market and Claremont put his hand up excited, stating his thoughts were along the lines of “Hey it’s a gig! $12 dollars a page? That’s $120! That’s rent for the month!” With this in mind, he wasn’t upset about other writers who later on changed the character. While ten issues were published, Claremont revealed he actually wrote eleven. The first issue was apparently “trashed” because it didn’t have an origin. He suggested the second issue could tell the origin story, but Stan Lee said that idea was “stupid”.
When asked about his Wolverine collaboration with Frank Miller, Claremont told the audience a story about how he was giving Miller a three and a half hour lift in his car. Claremont said that Miller originally didn’t want to do Wolverine because he thought the character just snarled and killed things, but Claremont convinced him there was a lot of depth to the character. The plot for the debut issue was 20 pages long, single spaced in 12 point font with excruciating detail. Details included the color of the water and the breed of bear Wolverine fought. However soon after this, Claremont realised Miller had the same idea for the texture and just needed the action to pencil. So Claremont then learned to “shut up” and by the fourth issue the plot was done within just a 20 minute phone call. He also joked that the reason Wolverine is popular is because “he is Hugh Jackman” and in the next film he would like to seem him do a dance number with Anne Hathaway. But then said he thinks the character is popular because he has lots of mystery, and the worst thing a writer can do is to reveal Wolverine’s personal secrets.
When asked what his favourite X-Men was, he struggled to think of one but eventually settled on saying Kitty Pryde. He said he spent 5 years fighting to get Kitty but then the “son of a gun” Joss Whedon killed her off by sending her away in a “giant space bullet” which he thinks was cheesy. That being said, he concluded with “…but I like Joss. I saw The Avengers four times!”
Another major theme of the seminar is the future of his works. In regards to The Wolverine and X-Men: Days of Future Past, he said he’ll be just as surprised as we will be as he doesn’t know anything about them. He said he doesn’t know what WILL happen, just what SHOULD happen as he wrote the source material. When asked about Days of Future Past being set in 2013 (it was published in 1981), he defended himself by stating “I didn’t think we’d make it to 2013…we were on the brink of nuclear war!”
After a good showing at E3, Nintendo have came out swinging with this week’s showing in the eShop, with an update that includes both new and old. The big-hitter this week is none other than New Super Luigi U, which retools over 80 stages of New Super Mario Bros. U for the brother in green. Now, keep in mind that in August, this title will receive a stand-alone disc for the platform, but those wanting the pack as DLC should definitely consider giving this bro a go.
Game and Wario also debuts this week on June 23rd, and looks like a brand new type of Wario mini game fun to be had, featuring 16 games that take full advantage of the Gamepad controller.
As for the Virtual Console, Wii U owners can now find Wrecking Crew and Mario Bros., both selling for $4.99 each. The 3DS version of the service is going blue this week, with several Sega Game Gear titles seeing a release, such as Tails’ Adventure ($4.99), Sonic Blast ($3.99), and Defenders of Oasis ($3.99). The Blue Bomber can also be found in Mega Man 6, bringing yet another classic installment to the 3DS at $4.99.
The big title to talk about this week is Keiji Inafune’s oddball action romp titled Bugs vs Tanks. As part of the Guild series, this game can be purchased for $7.99 and offers some interesting combat mechanics with a full Streetpass feature as well some co-op. The music software tool Rhythm Core Alpha 2 has also come available for $9.99, while Farming Simulator 3D does what is promised at the same price point.
Finally, those looking for a nice sale should invest in Little Inferno for just $4.99 (until June 26th), and also take a gander at Super Little Acorns 3D Turbo while it is marked down to $3.99 for the time being.
And there you have it! A huge week with a lot to talk about. What are you going for?
Indie developer Brain Slap Studios and publisher Namco Bandai Games Europe have just put out the new twin-stick shooter HEXODIUS. The game tasks players to explore, equip, and escape from six different worlds through levels varying in objectives from survival, destruction, and defense. Players better watch out though as additional enemies are added throughout the game for a total of 25 enemy droid types, each with there own powers.
HEXODIUS doesn’t leave the player drone completely outmatched however and provides more than 40 customization upgrades and items that can be mixed and matched to create the plenty of combinations to try out. With all that on their side, players stand a chance against all the enemies and bosses to be able to reach the end, plus each difficulty also has its own ending.
Players wanting to see HEXODIUS in action can check out the trailer embedded below, while those wanting to download the game on PC can find it on Steam. Those that prefer console will also be able to enjoy HEXODIUS when it releases this Autumn for XBLA.
