Today Compile Heart released a new trailer for Hyperdimension Idol Neptunia PP and this time we see Blanc take the stage and perform the song “Dear… every day” (idol dance ver.) sung by her voice actress Kana Asumi and also witness her transform into White Heart.
Since we’ve already seen Neptune and Noire make their trailer debut, this leaves only Vert to be given a trailer next week. Currently it is unknown whether Hyperdimension Idol Neptunia PP will be released in the West but the title is currently slated to be released in Japan on June 20th exclusively on the PlayStation Vita.
Tiger & Bunny Set 2 Studio:Sunrise Publisher:Viz Media Format: Blu-ray, DVD (Reviewed) Release Date: May 14, 2013 Price:$44.82 – Available Here
Overview Tiger & Bunny may seem like a basic series on paper, as it features an odd couple pairing of a fresh super hero partnering with a veteran hero as they take on various crimes while being televised, but despite this, the first half of the series left quite an impression as viewers watched Kotetsu, Barnaby and the rest of the heroes protect the city of Sternbild against the villainous Jake. Now that the heroes have succeeded, what does the second half of the series hold?
Story Since the capture of Kriem and death of Jake Martinez, ten months have passed and in these ten months Tiger and Barnaby have begun to mesh as a team and work together like true partners. In fact they have worked together so well that Tiger managed to rank in the middle of the Heroes while Barnaby was crowned the new “King of Heroes.”
During this time not only has Kotetsu (Tiger) been able to work well with Barnaby, he has earned the respect and friendship of the rest of the heroes and his co-workers. So much in fact that his boss which always said that if he didn’t like it, he could just quit, now begs him not to mention the Q word again. However even though things have been on the rise for Kotetsu and Barnaby, everything that goes up must fall down.
During the initial case in Set 2, which develops Blue Rose and cements her feelings for Kotetsu, Tiger is surprised to find that his “Hundred Power” NEXT ability has made him faster and stronger than ever. But when his powers begin to last for less and less time each time he uses them, a dark truth behind Kotetsu’s personal heroes and a rare condition amongst NEXT is discovered. To make things even worse, when Kriem awakes from her coma she reveals that Jake is not the murderer of Barnaby’s parents. With the real culprit behind Barnaby’s parents’ deaths still on the loose and Kotetsu attempting to hide his condition from his fellow heroes, can this partnership pull these two through even the darkest schemes?
While the first set of Tiger & Bunny may have been a bit unfocused at times and only started becoming special during the Jake story arc, the hero/villain of the week episodes helped build the characters that viewers will now be following throughout the two intertwining story arcs in this second set of episodes. Thanks to the amount of development and the time-skip between releases, the characters are now friendlier with one another and seeing Kotetsu respected by his peers is a great development.
Also thanks to the aforementioned first half, the focus on storyline is clearer in Set 2. There are a few one-off episodes still, but even amongst these there are additional storylines which reveal Kotetsu’s changing NEXT power, a new threat on the horizon or even a change in Kotetsu’s family. Thanks to these developments the second half never seems to slow down and the plot moves at a well-written pace that will be pulling on the viewer’s heartstrings more than a few times, especially when it comes to a certain former King.
With a decently developed cast of characters, a number of which viewers will care about, the series heads into dark territory that sees the true mastermind behind the events of Barnaby’s parents’ death surface and twist the heroes to his own malicious ends. The final emotional story arc for Tiger & Bunny does wonders for bringing the cast together and closing the series out not only on a high note but with a possibility to continue in the future. As they say a hero’s job is never done and with how amazing Tiger & Bunny has turned out, let’s hope that it doesn’t finish anytime soon.
Visuals
Throughout the entirety of the series, Tiger & Bunny has offered an impressive blend of standard animation and CGI elements that look wonderful. It is difficult to make CGI look decent when paired with normal animation techniques but the animators at Sunrise have managed to pull it off throughout the second half of the series as well.
A number of the heroes’ suits are nicely detailed and are well animated and thanks to the amount of action that takes place in Set 2, the series benefits from the studio’s great attention to detail. This detail expands to the world itself as the city of Stern Bild is extensively detailed with impressive landmarks and buildings always surrounding the characters. It is worth noting that the Hero TV broadcasts are a bit limited in the second half but still are impressively portrayed with various scan-lines mimicking those of older televisions.
Audio I must say that while I did have issues with Wally Winger’s voicing of Kotetsu in the first half of the series, his portrayal as Kotetsu in this second half is wonderful. The character is nicely handled and the amount of emotion that Wally can put into the character really pulls the drama together. As for the rest of the English cast they continue to perform excellently with the characters they are voicing, even surpassing the original Japanese voice actors in a few sequences.
The background music throughout the series continues to be rather standard and a bit forgetful at times, though a number of reoccurring themes do become noticeable and the playing of one of the series’ theme songs during a poignant moment in the final episode is enhances the moment to an entirely new level. New songs and animations have been provided for this half of Tiger & Bunny, with “Missing Link” by Novels as the opening and “Mind Game” by Tamaki as the ending. Both of these themes are worth listening to and are paired to the animation well.
Extras Being the DVD version of Tiger & Bunny Set 2, this release is rather lacking in the way of bonus features. What is included is rather basic in the form of trailers for other Viz products, the Japanese trailer for the series and the clean opening for the second half of the series as well as the main closing theme and a full-screen version of the final episode’s ending animation sequence.
Outside of that there is also the inclusion of digital production art which mostly focuses on the characters from the series with a few pieces of art focused on the vehicles and scenery of the series. Outside of that there is nothing else included in the DVD release minus a pamphlet for Neon Alley and for the first volume of the Tiger & Bunny manga.
Overall Tiger & Bunny Set 2 put my concerns to rest over Kotetsu’s English voice work and has capitalized on the first half of the series’ character building to produce a second half that is packed full of emotional moments, tense situations and a few exceptional action pieces. Tiger & Bunny Set 2 may be a bit limited on extra content but the series itself is one that should not be missed. Tiger & Bunny is a rare series that blends a nice chunk of humor, great action sequences, moving storylines, and characters viewers can care about into a series that should not be missed.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Wolverine has just been confirmed as appearing in the upcoming Deadpool game which stars none other than, yes you guessed it – Deadpool. Unfortunately for Wolverine, Deadpool doesn’t seem all too pleased that he has to share the spotlight with ole’ short and stabby.
Deadpool had some sharp words for his co-star Wolverine:
Oh hey, LOOK, it’s everyone’s faaaaaaaaavorite comic book character – Wolverine – appearing in yet ANOTHER thing he doesn’t belong in – MY upcoming video game from Activision Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Entertainment, DEADPOOL, starring ME, Deadpool, and NOBODY
Who approved this?! What is with everyone loving Wolverine when I am cooler in every possible way? Who has the cooler costume color palette? Deadpool. Who can fight in melee AND at range? Deadpool! Who forgets his past through repression, like a NORMAL PERSON, rather than dumb amnesia?
Sigh…some top brass are telling me I’m contractually obligated to say ONE nice thing about Wolverine before I go, so here
Dear Wolverine: I guess, when put aside the grand history of human conflict and suffering, the lame tank tops you insist on wearing sometimes aren’t THAT bad, bub.
Looking forward to working with you,
Deadpool
The Deadpool video-game is slated for release on both the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC on the 25th of June, 2013. You can check out the infographic for Marvel’s resident badass Wolverine below. Just so you all know, Deadpool does not approve of Wolverine’s inclusion in the game because it stars Deadpool and no one else. Insecure or egotistic? You decide.
Today Ubisoft announced what games they will be bringing to show off on the floor of E3 next month between June 11th to the 13th. It is interesting to note that these aren’t all the games that they will be showing since the company mentioned that “more” titles are going to be announced on Ubisoft’s media briefing which will be held on June 10th which will include “exclusive next-gen games.” Those wishing to watch the presentation can bookmark the video page here and keep an eye out for it when their presentation begins at 3PM PDT.
Man of Steel is set to touchdown in theaters everywhere in just a few short weeks and as we draw ever closer, Warner Bros. has been pulling out all the stops and driving their hype-train at full speed.
The aggressive marketing style being employed by the film and game publishing giant reminds me a lot of a particular episode of The Simpsons, where Homer sells his soul for a donut, after which he is condemned to Hell and sent to the “Ironic Punishment Division.” Here he is forced to eat “all the donuts in the world!” Though Homer, much to the chagrin of his gaoler, just sits in his chair growing steadily fatter and demanding “more!”
I feel like we are the ones strapped to the chair, with Warner Bros. telling us that we can have “All the teasers in the world!” Today they have given us yet another TV Spot. For those playing along at home, this is the ninth such teaser video (you can check out spot number seven here).
The spot, although only thirty seconds long, gives us a little more as-of-yet unseen footage. As much as I am one of those people who keeps demanding more, I just hope that with all we have been fed while strapped to our Ironic Punishment Chairs, our hunger and appetite for the film hasn’t been spoiled.
You can check out the latest video below, and if thirty seconds isn’t enough Superman goodness for you, then check out the latest full-length trailer. As usual, be sure to stay tuned to Capsule Computers for all the Man of Steel information as it becomes available.
FUSE is the explosive new video-game from EA and Insomniac Games, which is every bit as fun as it is wild. FUSE is now available across Australia and New Zealand in stores for both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles.
We recently got our hands on FUSE for a hands-on preview, you can check out what we thought of FUSE here.
Not only did we get to try out the game but we got to talk with the man behind it all, Ted Price the CEO of Insomniac Games. You can read our interview with Ted Price for a greater insight on FUSE here.
FUSE is out now in stores for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, it is also available on Origin for PC players. Go and buy FUSE now if you are prepared to have your mind blown.
You may recall a game that was brought over to North America last year by XSEED Games that was called Unchained Blades. Well that game was developed by FuRyu and today Famitsu has announced that they are now working on a brand new title for the 3DS and Vita called Exstetra and they have also given us some details about the game’s story and characters.
In Exstetra players take the role of Ryoma Narusawa who is a “Prisma” that is destined to save the world after Tokyo is fused with a parallel world called Amasia. To do this, he must defuse the worlds to bring things back to normal and it looks like to do this, he will have to kiss people. You see, according to Famitsu, Ryoma has the ability to absorb energy from enemies which can be used to perform various miracles, including the ability to kiss those close to him to awaken their abilities and fight against their foes.
The three main characters have been announced for the game and we have Ryoma who suffers from amnesia and plays the hero role, Shiho Inaba who is a seventeen year old high school student that wants to become an idol until the worlds are fused together. When this occurs she kisses Ryoma to become a Prisma Knight. The third main character is an up-beat young man named Masaru Mitarai who also fights alongside Ryoma as a Prisma Knight. Currently Exstetra is set to be released in Japan on October 17th and it will be interesting to see if this heads to the West in any form.
Today it was revealed that the Japanese release of Killer is Dead will come in a special “premium edition” package for early buyers of the game. Kadokawa Games has announced that when the game is released on August 1st, the Premium Edition will cost the same price as the normal game but come with a number of goodies.
These goodies include a reversible cover, a code to download what they are calling “Beauty & The Beast & The Lingerie,” a Temptation of Miss Vampire gigolo mission, an executioner mission and a tool that will help for gigolo missions. Currently it is unknown whether these bonuses will come to the West but at the moment XSEED has not announced any pre-order bonuses for the game.
As you may have heard, Nintendo has partnered with Best Buy to bring a select number of their E3 Wii U game reveals to various Best Buy locations in the continental United States. However not every store will be getting these demo and because of that, the company has just released a list of locations and times that the games will be playable.
On Wednesday June 12th from 4-8PM the games will be available and on June 15th from 1-5PM demos will be set up and those who attend may be able to get something Nintendo is calling “Luigi Loot.”
The full list of store locations sorted by state can be found below:
As you may or may not know, I reviewed Deep Silver and 4A Games’ Metro Last Light a few weeks ago and found it to be an exceptional title that fixed the few problems that existed in the original game. Now with the most recent announcement from Deep Silver, it looks like I wasn’t the only one that found the game to my liking.
Today the company announced that Metro: Last Light has enjoyed a great first week of sales, selling far more titles than Metro 2033 during the same launch period and earning stellar reviews amongst the three versions released. On PC the game tripled Metro 2033’s worldwide sales in the opening weekend while in Australia and New Zealand alone the game sold more boxed units in a week than Metro 2033 did in a month.
To make things even better, Metro Last Light has rested at the #1 weekly sales chart in multiple territories in Europe and will likely hit that high of a mark in Australia and New Zealand. To capitalize on this success the company has already planned DLC and detailed a season pass which can be read about here.
