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ComicDive 6 Dives into Beijing

December 17, 2011

Are you living in Beijin China? Do you love Comic Books? Well then make sure you don’t miss out on ComicDive 6 that’s taking place tomorrow, 18th of December for one day only at the (National Agricultural Exhibition Center New Hall – 全国农业展览馆新馆). Now for anyone that isn’t familiar with what ComicDive is let me give you a brief run down. ComicDive is a Comic / Dojinshi convention that happens once a year in Beijing China and yes you guessed it has been running for its 6th year now. Comic Books / Dojinshi from all over China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan are on sale to the public and range from well known mainstream comics such as One Piece, Hetalia, Tiger & Bunny, Batman, Superman and Gundam etc along with popular Chinese video games such as GuJian (古剑奇谭), The Legend Of Sword and Fairy (仙剑奇侠传) to local and fan made ones. If you’re a fan of Comic books / Dojinshi this is certainly a convention you should attend.

This year ComicDive 6 will be held at the National Agricultural Exhibition Center New Hall 全国农业展览馆新馆.

Attendance price : 25RMB ($4-$5 AU/US)

Address : No# 16 E. 3rd Ring Road North Chaoyang, Beijing, China (link to google maps)

The convention Center this year is quite large (13000 meter squared) and will have approx 400 stalls with thousands and thousands of comic books/Doujinshi for sale. The Chinese really do love their comics and attend in full force for this event, so if you’re planning on making your way to the show tomorrow be prepared for the CROWDS! As this is Beijing’s biggest Comic Book convention all year, the amount of people attending go to the event will be huge. Unfortunately from what we’ve heard, 99.9% of comics on sale will be in Chinese so if plan on making your way down to the convention to pick up a comic book or two and can’t speak or read Chinese you might be dissapointed, still we recommend picking up a few just for the amazing artwork and drawings that go into them, especially some of the fan made ones.

Another great thing about ComicDive is the price of the Comics. Pretty much most of the comics on sale will only set you back approx 20-40RMB which is roughly $3-$6 AU/US each, so you can certainly stock up on Comics for the entire year if you really wanted to, this is why so many people will be there tomorrow. If you don’t live in Beijing or can’t be bothered trolling through the crowds and really want to get your hands on some comics, you can hire the services of certain people attending the event, all you need to do is provide them with a list of what you need and they’ll do the rest for you and pick up any comic you wish and for an extra 10% of the price payed will ship them straight over to you, now that’s what you call service and you don’t even have to leave your house.

ComicDive 6’s floor plan this year is broken down into two major sections. The top left section (休息区) is the entrance and rest area, the top right section (拍照区) is the photo section and everyone’s favorite where all the cool Cos-Play characters all congregate. YES they also have Cos-Play even in China, we’re not sure what to expect and what sort of characters will be in attendance tomorrow but don’t worry we’ll keep you posted with a special Cos-Play article tomorrow once we’ve check it out. The last section is business end of the event, the stalls and shops that sell all the comic books / Dojinshi. The stalls are broken down into 8 sectiond A through to G / EX. With each stall selling their own comics to the public, looks pretty straight forward and it is.

Now you might ask, “With all these comics how in world will you know what’s on sale and where to find it?” Great question, well let me answer that for you. If you purchase your ticket online, like I did, you receive an awesome 145 page guide / information booklet that provides you with everything you need to know about the event, and most importantly what each stall/shop is selling. Take for example a section from the booklet, section D Stalls D23-D32 (shown below) as you can see each stall has their own comics/Dojinshi on sale, so all you need to do is look through the sections find the specifc comic/Dojinshi series you are interested in, take note of where it’s located and on the day make your way through the crowds to the stall, reliquish your hard earn dollars in exchange for the comic book/Dojinshi you want, repeat till you run out of money then go home happy. The guide is very easy to follow and if you know or can recognise your favorite comic book artwork it will make your job even easier.

*note* Some stalls have a STAR next to their name – this means that some of the comics/Dojinshi they are selling are going on sale for the very first time.

Now with every great Comic Book Convetion there’s always specials guests, right? Well yes, but if you’re not a fan of Chinese Comic book / Dojinshi you might not have any idea who the guests in attendance are, but still guests are guests and here is a list of who they are :

Catfish – 猫鱼 (Creator of the most famous Dojinshi website in china – http://doujin.bgm.tv/)

钠欧 (Very famous writer in the Dojin circle)

Sherry (ComicDive VIP Orgaizer that also organized ComicDive 2&3 – also known as the ComicDive Queen)

香香 (Special Comic Book/Dojinshi store owner, Store name : 龙堂 Longtang – Dragon’s Hall – website www.i-tang.blogbus.com)

绝对无视 (Organizer of ComiDay, which is another comic book convention in Cheng Du, China)

El ifaus (Presenter of Comic Book group called 绘墨文坊 Hui mo wen fang)

For more information on Comic Dive 6 make sure you head on over to the official website : http://acg88.org/comicdive/ (take note that it’s all in chinese) The official website contains all the information provided in this article, floor plans, ticket pre-sales and also on online guide to to all the comics that will be on sale sale along with other useful information.

Anyone attending the event, let us know what you’re looking forward to doing, buying or getting up tomorrow. If you’re dessing up and Cos-Playing what will you be dressing up as. Let us know leave a comment below. We’ll have a special follow up article in the next few days to recap the event and also share with you the great Chinese Cos-Players which I’m personally excited about.

SummitX Snowboarding shreds it on the iOS and Android

Jessica Barabas-Bui

December 17, 2011

SummitX Snowboarding is the new release from Com2uS and Free Range Games, a super fun, super sexy looking, realistic snowboarding game. So come on guys, who is ready to shred some mountains? As someone who has never seen snow, I’m definitely up for some shredding, without the embarrassing learning how to balance thing, and also not ruining my romantic view of snow.

SummitX Snowboarding includes 36 multi-branching runs on six different mountains with some slick terrain, six customizable boards, and a licensed soundtrack with over 20 rock bands to pick from or – and this is my favourite feature – pick your own iTunes play list. With Airplay support, you can play on your big screen .

The controls use two-thumb sliding, as well as tilt controls and beautiful UI and art design, so this is definitely something to pick up!

Available on Android for FREE – grab it HERE
As well as on iPhone and iPad for $4.99 – grab it HERE

Toy Shot brings back nostalgic puzzles to iOS

Jessica Barabas-Bui

December 17, 2011

Toy Shot, Gamevil’s new physics-based puzzle game, has been officially released onto the App Store. Toy Shot has got a hugely reminiscent quality in terms of the graphics, and features over 100 levels of casual yet tricky puzzles, this one looks very innocent but don’t take it just as that, because you might find that you’ll be surprised.

You play as a knight equipped with boomerangs, crossbows and more, with the aim of breaking the walls of Undead Warriors guarding their block castles. You collect gems across each levels and your main aim is to rescue the princess (seriously, they need to beef up security on princesses, or teach them martial arts or Capoeira or something, they get kidnapped way too often).

There are also boss levels and defense levels, each which will provide some definite challenges, and give a good variety to the levels.

Toy Shot is available NOW for iPhone, iTouch and iPad for $0.99. Grab it HERE

Galaxy on Fire 2 at 50% off for a limited time!

Jessica Barabas-Bui

December 17, 2011

Fishlabs Entertainment have been put in such a good mood after winning the ‘Best Studio 2011’ award at the German Game Developer Awards that they are going to spread the cheer around a little bit by knocking 50% off their award-winning sci-fi shooter Galaxy on Fire 2 until 10am Monday, December 19 (Central Eastern Time). So make sure to grab it quick while it’s still on sale and get your Galaxy on Fire on!

Galaxy on Fire 2 follows Keith T. Maxwell as he investigates an alien menace wreaking havoc on the warring races occupying a piece of space on the edge of the galaxy. At the same time he has to try and make his way home, and if that isn’t enough, he also brings the war to an end. Because Keith T. Maxwell is a bit of a badass.

With superior graphics and over 10 hours of gameplay, this is a hugely immersive game and something that will give you a lot more than most standard iOS apps.

Galaxy on Fire 2 is available for $4.99 for THIS WEEKEND ONLY on iPhone and iPad! Get in quick and grab it HERE

School is in! School 26 comes to PC and Android

Jessica Barabas-Bui

December 17, 2011

Popular young adult (or tween, as all the cool kids say) female game, School 26 has made the transfer over from the iOS market to the PC, as well as the Android. School 26 was the first release from the Silicon Sisters (the first Canadian female owned and operated video game studio – girl power!), and the popularity that School 26 gained on the smartphone, as well as all the queries for a PC version caused Silicon Sisters to branch out into the PC market.

School 26 follows a teen girl, Kate, as she joins a new school and uses her social and problem solving skills to help friends survive the daily drama of high school. Focusing on empathy, the storyline is filled with real-world scenarios that the target demographic comes up against regularly, meaning that the game is something they can really connect with.

The Android app is available NOW for $2.99. Get it HERE. Not convinced? Try out the free-to-play version HERE

Want to try out the PC version for FREE? Well, grab the one hour demo from HERE

Check out the official School 26 site and join the Facebook community

Pokemon + Nobunaga’s Ambition crossover for DS

Justin Mienkiewicz

December 17, 2011

Yup. That’s not a thing I would have ever imagined coming to fruition, but it’s happening and it actually looks pretty cool. This collaboration between Tecmo Koei and the Pokemon Company was recently revealed at the Jump Festa in Japan. For those who don’t A) live in Japan or B) have a love of Japanese culture, Nobunaga’s Ambition is a strategy role-playing franchise developed by Koei (now Tecmo Koei) that more or less stayed in Japan. We got one of the games on Virtual Console but that’s not saying much compared to the army of games Japan got. Nobunaga’s Ambition is one of the many games that revolves around Nobunaga Oda, iconic warlord of the Sengoku era in Japanese history (and all-time badass). If you still don’t know who I’m talking about but you’ve at least played one Dynasty Warriors game, he’s basically Cao Cao, only a little more evil (not historically, but the culture loves portraying him in that light and it just works).

Enough about Nobunaga, let’s get down to the most unexpected series crossover in recent history (of which there is very little detailed information, so bear with me). The game is truly a child of two worlds, in subject matter, development and gameplay. The game’s development is reportedly a joint operation between the two teams. It’s easily recognizable as a tactics game (think Final Fantasy Tactics or Disgaea), though with some obvious differences that set it apart. It appears that pokemon make up the bulk of the units, though in some screenshots you do see some of the Sengoku fighters on the field but it’s unknown if they are there as true units or are perhaps relegated to something else. It also appears that there is a bit of an overworld/battlefield structure, similar to Final Fantasy Tactics, where the player will navigate their party along paths on a map to navigate the world and will do battle within contained battlegrounds at specific points along the way.

So here’s the breakdown of important people and which pokemon they use.

The main protagonist (who can be either male or female, depending on the players choice) starts out with Eevee (most likely due to it’s variety of elemental evolutions so as to not force the player down a set path),

Nobunaga’s signature pokemon is Zekrom (flagship pokemon of Pokemon White),

Kenshin Uesugi’s (famously dubbed the god of war during the Sengoku era) pokemon is Mewtwo,

Shingen Takeda (another very powerful warlord) gets Groundon,

and Hideyoshi Toyotomi gets Infernape (most likely due to Nobunaga’s nickname for Hideyoshi, Monkey, due to his facial features resembling that of a monkey’s).

There are two other characters that have so far been revealed, a girl who uses Jigglypuff and a samurai who uses Articuno, who I’m unable to identify though I’m sure they are prominent members of the Sengoku period (UPDATE: The girl is Oichi, Nobunaga’s sister, and the man is Mitsuhide Akechi, former general under Nobunaga). It hasn’t been stated how many pokemon or Sengoku warriors will be present in the game. I would say to expect all of them would be a little foolish though I really wouldn’t completely dismiss the possibility.

The game sports the same graphical style of Pokemon Black and White. An isometric viewpoint looks down onto the action, pokemon are rendered in basic 3D models while it appears the Sengoku warriors are displayed with sprites. It won’t win any graphical awards but it get’s the job done and the game looks like it runs pretty smooth. The gameplay appears to be turnbased, which is a safe assumption to make considering both Pokemon and Nobunaga’s Ambition are turn based.

All in all, this is looking to be a very niche title, which has its pros and its cons. Both Pokemon and games centered around the Sengoku period do incredibly well in Japan while only the former really makes an impact overseas. I, personally, love the Sengoku period and the games that it’s inspired but they unfortunately do terribly over here unlike the Dynasty Warriors franchise, which doesn’t do incredible but it does considerably better than its samurai counterparts, so I wouldn’t get your hopes up for this being localized. Pokemon + Nobunaga’s Ambition is slated for a Spring 2012 release in Japan, no word or mention of any possible localization yet, though do keep in mind this was just revealed so give it some time.

Let’s Create! Pottery Featured in Museum Exhibit

Jorel Alvarez

December 17, 2011

The Maritime Experiental Museum and Aquarium (MEMA) in Singapore is featuring an exhibit using Infinite Dream’s popular application, Let’s Create! Pottery. Visitors at MEMA will be able to use the application on 32 inch LCD screens in high-resolution, instead of the average-sized smart phone or on the Nintendo DS. The exhibit provides a hands-on experience to familiarize visitors to artistic pottery.

Let’s Create! Pottery is available for the iOS and Android devices, and more recently on the Nintendo DSi and 3DS. Due to its popularity, Infinite Dreams has released a festive edition of app in time for Christmas rightfully entitled, Let’s Create! Christmas where instead of pottery, users create Christmas ornaments.

If you’re going to Singapore, then surely you will visit the country’s world famous landmark, the Merlion, located at the resort island of Sentosa, also home to the MEMA. So make sure you drop by at MEMA and experience the gigantic version of Let’s Create! Pottery.

Let’s Create! Pottery for the Nintendo DSi and 3DS

Let’s Create! Pottery for the iOS

Let’s Create! Pottery for the Android

Click here for more information on the MEMA

Armored Core V’s Over Weapons

Justin Mienkiewicz

December 17, 2011

Fans of the Armored Core series should be happy to know that From Software’s newest installation, Armored Core V, is adding a new slew of weapons that are sure to turn some heads. Dubbed “Over Weapons”, presumably due to their immense size and power, these tools of destruction are famed for being able to destroy a mech in one fell swoop and look cool while doing it.

Those who prefer to get in close and tear your opponent apart with a sword will want to get their hands on the Grind Blade. The Grind Blade is a stunning assortment of six chainsaw blades attached to a gear. The Grind Blade rips it’s victims apart by fashioning its blades into a drill to pierce it’s opponents with all six swords at once.

The Huge Cannon is pretty straightforward, as it’s name would suggest and is for the kind of person who prefers to deliver one massive blow from a distance. It’s an immense cannon (roughly twice the size of a mech) which seems to be powered by another device held in the opposite arm.

Not too dissimilar is the Huge Missile which, again as the name suggests, is a device that fires a…well…huge missile. This one appears to attach to the back of the mech and will fire upward, meaning it would be perfect for hitting a mech who’s far away and is hiding behind some sort of cover.

The last of the Over Weapons that was so far revealed by From is the Multiple Pulse. The Multiple Pulse seems to be the most peculiar weapon. It appears to be a massive array of generators that wrap around your mech and fire electricty at your opponents. In some of the screens it also appears that it is capable of rapid firing bullets? It’s a little hard to discern what is actually going on when there is so much awesome flying around the screen, but it’s safe to assume that whatever it does, your opponent won’t like it.

Armored Core V is slated for Japanese release on January 26th. No date has been officialy set for localization yet, hopefully it won’t be too far off from the Japanese date.

Heaven’s Lost Property Review

Travis Bruno

December 17, 2011

Heaven’s Lost Property
Studio: AIC
Publisher: MADMAN /FUNimation
Release Date: December 20, 2011
Price: $59.95 – Available Here

Overview:
Many anime have based themselves around an average high schooler who happens to either come across something mysterious or have an unknown power about themselves unlocked. While some of these anime usually involve a magical world being revealed, others introduce winged humanlike creatures with strange abilities to steer the main character’s peaceful life right off of a cliff.

Sora no Otoshimono, or as the English localization from FUNimation is called, Heaven’s Lost Property began as a manga in Japan back in May 2007 and is still being published monthly to this day by its author Suu Minazuki. The series was then given its first anime adaptation by AIC and was aired in the Fall season of 2009 with 13 episodes and an OVA released almost a year later. Now, FUNimation has brought us the entirety of the first season Heaven’s Lost Property, should the series be accepted with open arms?

Story:
Tomoki Sakurai is a relatively average young man who just happens to have a very active libido, making him quite the pervert. But beyond his perverted thoughts, he believes in the motto that “Peace and quiet is the best” and tries to live his life relatively simply despite having a childhood friend named Sohara Mitsuki with a karate chop viscous enough to break a wall. Despite his motto for peace and quiet, one thing has been bothering him lately and these are mysterious dreams involving an angel he does not know speaking to him.

Attempting to find the reason for the consistent repeating dream he meets with Eishrio Sugata a strange man who is obsessed with a black spot circling the world which he believes is the “New World.” Along with this strange man he also meets a sadistic Mikako Satsukitane… the president of the Student Council. After learning about the black spot Sugata tells Tomoki to investigate a certain field one night and there his life changes forever when a black hole opens in the sky and a mysterious being crashes into the earth from it.

The strange creature turns out to actually be a woman with angel wings on her back. She introduces herself to Tomoki as Pet Class Angeloid type Alpha Ikaros and she is now willing to do anything that her master Tomoki tells her to do. With the people around him already being strange, what more harm could a winged girl from the sky do?

The story of Heaven’s Lost Property revolves around the life of this young man Tomoki as he tries to live a rather normal life alongside the Angeloid Ikaros. The mystery behind who Ikaros is, what she is and why she was sent to him all drive the story forward but rather than be story focused, Heaven’s Lost Property quickly switches into comedy mode with plenty of ecchi fan service goodness.

Now before Ikaros even enters into his life, Tomoki had quite a perverted mind but now that he has an Angeloid who can fly at super speed, contains amazing technology and is super strong his perverseness reaches another level altogether. Becoming invisible to spy on his childhood friend changing and groping her, causing hundreds of pairs of panties to fly around like a flock of birds and even turn into a girl himself to sneak into the women’s locker room or bath are just a few examples of the lengths of Tomoki’s perverted nature. In fact, Heaven’s Lost Property is full of various fan service moments and some of it is quite obviously fan service for the sake of fan service, but in the end, the show never actually tries to hide its true nature.

While the show is indeed full of ecchi things and plenty of fan service, there is no outright nudity nor does it distract from what the show is truly about. From the moment Ikaros is introduced to Tomoki’s life she begins to grow as a character. In fact, the story introduces Ikaros as a blank slate which is then developed through various actions and situations throughout the rest of the series in perhaps one of the best character developing journeys you could ask for.

When she is first introduced to us, she knows nothing about the world around her or who she even is besides that she must always protect and stay by her master (as well as caring for a watermelon) . Then, although the story takes more random twists and turns and plenty of moments where you’ll wonder what the world is going on, there is always development occurring in the background for each of the characters, especially for Ikaros and even for the later introduced Angeloid Nymph.

Heaven’s Lost Property may seem like one of the last places to look for an endearing story but those who judge a book by its cover will always miss out on a great story and once you start watching you cannot help but become attached to the characters and their interactions with one another. Just one question remains however, why would a pet-class Angeloid have so much power?

Visuals:
One of the hardest things an anime can try and do is deal with a character that has practically zero emotional range. With Ikaros’ very limited emotions the series actually does an amazing job of providing subtle nuances in her character to let you know how she is reacting to various occurrences around her. This is usually done through subtle animations in her ears. These little touches extend to the rest of the series where the animation quality displays rather consistent levels of quality.

There are a few moments in the show that the characters will be drawn in chibi-like style with very little detail, usually whenever the character is stunned by the occurrences around them, or in Tomoki’s case whenever he isn’t being serious. While Tomoki may spend a lot of his time in chibi-form, the series does have rather well detailed characters, and as I said before, this is especially true to the Angeloids. Now being that the series doesn’t focus around a lot of action, the high quality that is displayed in the way the characters’ attacks are portrayed puts other action oriented anime to shame. As a whole the animation is truly a treat for the eyes, and no I’m not just talking about all of the fan service either.

Audio:
As standard with FUNimation’s releases, Heaven’s Lost Property contains both the Japanese and English voice tracks so the viewer can choose whichever preference they prefer but the obvious highlight here is the portrayal of the characters by the English cast. Brittney Karbowski provides an excellent job handling the rather emotionless voice of Ikaros, and bravo for the inserted song performance by Karbowski as well, while Kara Edwards provides a suitable fit for Nymph’s personality. The only complaint I have about the way the characters were performed was with Greg Ayres performance of Tomoki, as it made the character seem too whiny at times, even when the situation is serious.

The opening song for Heaven’s Lost Property is “Ring My Bell” by Blue Drops and is enjoyable to listen to as a whole, and I found myself listening to it quite often whenever starting a new episode. Those who pay attention to the opening may also notice slight differences near the end of the series as extra sound effects are mixed into the song. Now the actual highlight of the music in this anime is all of the ending songs.

Rather than use just a single ending song and animation each episode of Heaven’s Lost Property will have a different ending song. Now these ending songs will usually always be visually set to something that occurred during that episode and the songs themselves range from okay to excellent in quality. This is quite a treat as a whole however as each song is fully subbed in English so the viewer will never be left in the dark about what is being sung.

Extras:
The first two discs of Heaven’s Lost Property contain only the 14 total episodes of the series while a third disc holds all of the extras. The extras on the third disc include your standard FUNimation inclusion of past and future release trailers but also clean versions of the opening and endings. When I say endings I do mean all of them. Each ending song in the series has been given a clean creditless version of the ending for the viewer’s enjoyment. The first episode’s ending and the thirteenth’s are the same so those are not doubled up.

Those who want the series to come in a collectible hard art box can do so by purchasing the Limited Edition version of the anime for an extra $5 here, but I was unable to review this art box’s quality at this time.

Overall:
Who would think that an anime full of fan service could be so interesting? should be the question ringing through many viewers minds as they watch each episode of Heaven’s Lost Property unfold throughout this first season collection. There are plenty of laughs to be had and more than enough comedy to keep people watching and of course tons of fan service if that is more your thing. Even with all of the fan service the shining star in Heaven’s Lost Property is the character development. While some people may not enjoy seeing so much fan service, they will be missing out on a great anime that takes its comedy and fan service to another level and still shines through with an amazing plot and lovable characters.

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