The famed wandering samurai Himura Kenshin is heading to the big screen in Japan. Instead of being an animation, it is going to be a live action film. The film is based on the manga created by the famed Nobuhiro Watsuki. However, which chapter or arc the movie is going to be based on is currently unknown.
The movie now has its first image. It shows actor Takeru Sato dressed as Himura Kenshin. He actually looks the part. He’s got the cold stare of the assassin Kenshin, although whether he will pull off the more positive Kenshin is yet to be seen. For the picture, it is at the bottom of the article.
Kenshin is not the only role that has been cast. JEFusion notes that other prominent roles have been given. Here is a list of those below, with the actor/actress on the left and the character on the right:
The film is currently in production and is being taken care of by Warner Bros. Japan, who also did the Death Note live action films. It is slated for a release on August 25, 2012.
So Mega Man Legends 3 got cancelled earlier this year, but Capcom have at least been busy in one form or another. Today it was announced that the famed company would be developing the first ever game based on the Sour Patch Kids, now known as “World Gone Sour”. Yes, you read that right. A full video game based on the candy that goes sweet after it’s sour is headed our way.
This platformer will put players in the role of a little jelly creature as he tries to find his way home by trekking throughout movie theaters, streets, and houses. If you thought this news couldn’t get anymore bizarre, Method Man has released a music video that apparently will be in some way affiliated with the game, featuring a small teaser of what’s to come. World Gone Sour is slated for the XBLA, PSN, and PC for $4.99 or 400 points.
Check out the music video for yourself below, and get ready to hear Mega Man fans let out yet another sigh.
The 1980’s classic Choplifter is finally coming back and in HD. Konami and inXile Entertainment are re-creating the game and making it available exclusively over Xbox Live Arcade. inXile Entertainment will also deliver Choplifter for the Playstation Network and PC.
Choplifter HD will offer a variety of experiences to the player. Over 30 missions are available to play through having realistic as well as fantasy features. From rescuing hostages in a military base to fending off a zombie infestation, Choplifter HD offers quite an interesting mix objectives.
Brian Fargo, president of inXile Entertainment, offers the following message:
Choplifter HD takes everything we loved about the classic Choplifter game and amps it up with more choppers, more weapons, more rescues, lots of zombies and more over-the-top explosions to appeal to today’s action-thirsty gamer.
Do you have what it takes to scream, “GET TO THE CHOPPA!”? Dare to risk your life for the sake of others? Take a gut check and watch the game trailer below.
It seems that Sony is quite confident in the Playstation Vita. Actually, confidence seems to be at a all-time high as Sony Europe boss Jim Ryan porclaiming that “We will beat that with Vita.” So what is “that?” Surprisingly enough, “that” happens to be the record of the biggest video game hardware launch in the United Kingdom. That record is held by the Playstation Portable and it stands at 185,000 units.
Speaking with Eurogamer, Ryan said, “We’re planning for a condition of success. Launch quantities will sell out – I think that’s looking pretty certain.” He also commented on the lackluster launch of the Nintendo 3DS, which was expected to beat the PSP numbers, but fell short, only selling 113,000 at launch. He specifically talks about the launch lineup,
“Looking at the competition, perhaps the launch line-up was not as strong as they’d have liked it to be. We have always had in our minds that we needed to have a great line-up at launch and we’re very pleased with how that’s panning out. I think it’s comfortably the strongest line-up we’ve had for any platform launch and I’ve been around since the year dot.”
How about that killer game at launch? Every launch lineup needs one. Ryan believes that there is one within the ranks and he identifies Uncharted: Golden Abyss as “looking very much in that category”. I tend to agree with him, but that shouldn’t take away the other first-party and third-party titles which will launch alongside the Playstation Vita on February 22 or February 23 if you live in Australia and New Zealand.
In 1997 Bandai released the popular Digimon Virtual Pet that spawned the anime Digimon: Digital Monsters. The series’ most popular season is arguably the first one and now it’s finally been given an English release on DVD splitting into two halves. The first half concluded at episode 27, with the evil Myotismon crossing the threshold from the digital world into the real world as he begins his assault on Earth. Now with a swifter, more action-packed start and a stronger focus on character development, it is clear that this really is the better half of the season. However many of the same flaws are still to be found, but if you were able to look past them and enjoyed Collection 1 then your simply going to fall in love with this second collection.
Ok so first up if you missed out on the first collection or are completely unaware of the Digimon plot, the tale is basically seven kids who get transported into a digital world, get their own talking digital monsters and have to fight a bunch of digital bad guys. Pretty straight forward stuff right? What works so well in this series is the dramatic focus on the emotional journey as well as the physical one, touching and various deep and meaningful issues that can is really impressive for a show aimed at such a young audience. These creatures that hang with the group (A.K.A Digidestined, try and keep up you digimoron!) can transform into bigger and badder digimon by digivolving as well. Basically, if you love the word digi, your going to love watching Digimon!
When we last left our heroes, the evil Myotismon and his army had begun their assault on Earth from the digital realm. With an faster paced start in a situation that seems almost hopeless, Collection 2 has a much more engaging and faster start than Collection 1. Furthermore, the very predictable ‘monster of the week’ pattern isn’t repeated as often, and when it does it’s a lot less obvious. To mix things up a little, an eighth digidestined is also introduced as well as a bunch of new enemies like The Dark Masters who are a lot more threatening as well. It is revealed that previous threats Devimon and Myotismon have been simply tests for the real digital threat, The Dark Masters of which the Digidestined have no chance against, and the only way they can hope to defeat the enemy is by searching within themselves and finding how to embrace their crests and digimon. This works as a very effective tool in giving the season a lot of surprisingly deep character development and really helps you appreciate the characters. The Collection continues to keep things exciting throughout however before kicking it off with an epic finale.
Collection 2 starts off strong and action-packed episodes filled with adrenaline, especially through episodes 35-39, and episode 40 ‘Enter The Dark Masters‘ providing a nice change of pace compared to the rest of the season. From there onwards, the show takes an interesting turn and begins to focus more so on more heart-felt episodes that are equally if not more engaging such as ‘Trash Day‘,’My Sister’s Keeper‘ and most importantly ‘The Crest of Friendship‘. Where Digimon does fall weak however is with episodes such as ‘The Ultimate Clash‘ and ‘The Fate of Two Worlds‘ where the writers try and explain the history of the digital world. As an audience member you can appreciate what the show is trying to do by giving it some depth, but it never really comes across as being as well-told as other aspects of the show.
While Digimon Collection 2 is filled with positives and improvements over the first collection, it isn’t flawless. Just like the first collection, many of the show’s flaws are simply because it was dubbed so poorly, and therefore is completely filled with plot holes that can really take away from the experience. In collection 1, characters Matt and T.K were established as half-brothers, but in this half of the season they are brothers by blood with the same parents. Furthermore, about half way through the show gets a narrator when it didn’t have a narrator previously before. There’s no explanation, nothing. While these are two major inconsistencies, tiny little jokes are thrown in for western audiences are throw in that are simply wrong by the show’s logic. For example, in one particular episode a whale-like Digimon, Whamon is subject of a punchline where Izzy corrects Tai in saying that a Whamon being a whale is a mammal not a fish. While this may of been thrown in for comedic or educational purposes, it’s not true-Whamon is a intelligent, talking, fighting digimon, not a whale. It seems all the major plot points that can disengage the audience are results of the dub aiming to be more americanised. While the intension of such may be to help draw the audience in, the inconsistency of the approach actually does the opposite and harms the show overall. While these are just minor flaws of the show, they do build up and there are a lot of them. That being said however, if you ignore the relationship of Matt and T.K being randomly changed and the odd inclusion of a narrator being added in mid-season randomly, there are a lot less plot holes in Collection 2, but that’s not saying much.
Visuals
Much what can be said about the graphics and audio of the first collection can be said here as well. The character designs are equally as impressive and filled with creativity. There still is a sense of inconsistency with Agumon and Garurumon being the only Digimon in the season to receive 3D animated transformations while the rest are stuck with 2D ones although this is easily overlooked. Unfortunately while in Collection 1 the constant re-use of stock footage of each Digimon’s primary attack and transformation. With now an eighth main Digimon in the main ensemble cast, this repeated stock footage gets really boring and repetitive very quickly, as even more digivolving and combat is involved in this season. While this all still looks great, it get’s really annoying that a good 15-25% of each episode is usually re-used stock footage and after 54 episodes it really easy to get sick of it.
Audio
Again, little has changed in terms of audio. Digimon: Digital Monsters still includes it’s kick-ass opening theme. The song Hey Digimon still sucks, feels out of place and is played at very inappropriate times as it is often played at high-adrelanline action/combat scenes and sounds like it’s played by The Wiggles. Needless to say it always ruins the mood of every scene it appears in, which happens in almost every episode. There is still an issue of some Digimon speaking without properlly moving voices, and some Digimon have bizarre voices that don’t suit them, such as MetalSeadramon. The worst offender is a hugely important one; half way through a narrator randomly starts narrating the story. Yeah that’s right-after spending about 30+ episodes with a narrator randomly there is one. It’s a major issue of inconsistency and it makes no sense at all. While this doesn’t take away from the experience, it’s still really, really stupid. Again, no Japanese dub is included, and only the English dub is available, but this time around Japanese openings and closings are included under special features, so that’s nice to be included.
Overall
Digimon Collection 2 is easily the better half of the first Digimon season thanks to a less predictable and repeated storyline with faster pacing, as well as including many more exciting plot points. That being said however, there is much more use of stock footage that is constantly being reused which can get frustrating to watch, and there are odd inconsistencies with the story such as Matt and T.K’s relationship and the switch in narration style mid-season. Regardless, if your a true Digimon fan this will not bother you one bit, and fans of the franchise will truly love it. If your not a fan but would like to check out Digimon, Collection 2 may arguably be the best DVD available along side the original movie and definitely worth checking out. Just try and overlook some minor issues to enjoy the anime to it’s fullest.
With Sony revealing the UMD Passport last month, which particular games that would be supported was on the minds of PSP owners everywhere. Sony revealed that 262 games would be supported at the launch of the program, which will be a couple of weeks before the launch of the Playstation Vita.
So, any particular games on that list that would interest anyone? Well, Sony’s first party titles, such as Patapon, Locoroco and God of War have made the list. The Persona games will also be supported from the get-go, alongside Disgaea, Harvest Moon, Dynasty Warriors and even Metal Slug XX. However, the Playstation Store in Japan boasts 606 PSP games, so it isn’t exactly half the store.
Also noticeable are games from the bigger publishers. Although Sony did reveal that these company did support the program, Square Enix, Namco Bandai, Konami and Capcom do not have any games on the list. It does not mean they won’t support it, but don’t expect Monster Hunter, Metal Gear Solid and Dissidia on the list when the service launches on December 7. There is no word on whether this program will be launched in the West.
For the full list, click on the following links: 1-100, 101-200, 201-262. Pages have been translated into English.
Wow, Frogger has been around for quite sometime. First appearing in 1979, the addictive arcade game celebrates 30 years of crossing roads and rivers. To celebrate the landmark, Konami is bringing two games for two different platforms: Frogger 3D for the Nintendo 3DS and Frogger Free for the iOS.
Frogger 3D expands the original 1981 arcade game’s basis of steering the amphibian hero past road and river-based areas to the safety of his lily pad. The new game boasts all-new graphics, novel level design and new friends to help guide Frogger to safety with six new worlds to explore spanning 60 uniquely challenging stages. In Frogger 3D, Frogger ventures from the streets and sidewalks of his hometown to new locations including New York, the Far East and even other dimensions.
Frogger Free boasts three new game modes including ‘Turbo’, ‘NightTime’ and ‘Inferno’, wherein users are reintroduced to the cars, logs, turtles, alligators that established the original Frogger coin-op as such a classic. Players can participate in classic arcade-style gameplay with multiple control options including swipe, touch and tilt, and collect up to 10 achievements to become the ultimate Frogger player. With both new and classic graphic options, Frogger fans can also connect with fans through Facebook Connect, competing via local and global leaderboards.
Frogger 3D and Frogger Free will be available this week.
The Final Fantasy Type-0 Ultimania has been released and Tetsuya Nomura discussed the Moogles in two games: Type-0 and Final Fantasy Versus XIII. An Ultimania book is a comprehensive information book for a video game, usually from Square Enix. It prodives info on the game, hints and tips, as well as character bios and more.
The Type-0 Moogles, known as the Cranberry Knights at the school, have been described as “cute” by Nomura. The Cranberry Knight name was in fact created by the scenario staff. When voice recording started, Nomura was surprised by the name. There was also meant to be a scene with all of the Cranberry Knights in the game. Nomura revealed that the scene didn’t make it in because Hiroki Chiba, lead scenario writer, simply forgot to add it in the game He had also joked that they should have been sold as some sort of good, like a plush toy. That would have been interesting.
Nomura also went into what the Moogles will be like in Final Fantasy Versus XIII. This is a first that Nomura has revealed that Moogles will be in the game. Nomura didn’t reveal much, only noting that the designs of the Versus XIII Moogles will follow a similar design to those in Type-0. That’s all he said. He didn’t go any further than that, so what he means isn’t clear.
After the first commercial for the Playstation Vita aired on November 28 in Japan, Sony has detailed more of their advertising campagin, which will feature two of the launch titles: Uncharted: Golden Abyss and Everybody’s Golf (known as Hot Shots Golf 6 in Japan). The tag line for these ads will be “If we play, we’re friends.”
Both ads will star Japanese actors Eita and Ryuhei Matsuda. They will be playing with a Playstation Vita with a number of people in a school that has been fitted with a massive 30×16.8 meter screen on their field. The first spot will show Eita alone with Uncharted while the second spot will show off Hot Shots Golf 6 as well as Matsuda in golf attire.
Sony released some stills from the ads. Below are the screens showing the gigantic screens with gameplay.
Uncharted: Golden Abyss:
Hot Shots Golf 6 (Everybody’s Golf):
The Uncharted spot starts airing on December 1 while the Hot Shots Golf spot starts airing on December 8. The Playstation Vita will be released on December 17 in Japan.
[UPDATE] The first of the two spots is now available to watch. You can see it below. It also includes a making of feature.
