You read right, the popular shonen manga Shaman King is set to make it’s serialisation return in April 2012. However while this may seem confusing to fans of the Shaman King manga, fear not this not exactly a continuation but more a sequel.
The new manga is somewhat of a sequel to the original series and goes under the title Shaman King Flowers. If that title rings a bell, you’d be forgiven for thinking it sounds familiar. Shaman King Flowers was the title of a spin-off one-shot chapter published way back in 2009. It seems that after all this time that one-shot is finally becoming a full serialisation.
The new manga will follow Hana Asakura, the son of former protagonist Yoh Asakura. What do you think of this announcement? Let us know in the shoutbox and comments section.
Little Lambs Developer: Orca, Inc. Publisher: Orca, Inc. Platforms: iPad, iPod Touch, iPhone (reviewed) Release Date: November 8th, 2011 Price: 99 cents – Available Here
Overview When the developers of Slice It! made Com2uS a significant amount of cash with their simple yet addictive game, they decided to call it quits with regards to the iOS publisher and start their own company, Orca Incorporated.
Now, Orca’s first bun out of the oven has hit the App Store. Little Lambs is an easy-to-use, one-touch puzzle game that puts you in charge of matching various animals in the confined space of a farm enclosure. Does the simple gameplay work as well as Slice It!? Or should this lamb get ready to be served up for Christmas?
Gameplay The premise of Little Lambs is a simple one: match sheep on a grid by having all of them bordering each other in adjacent squares. Slide your finger towards the left,and all the animals on screen will move left, and so on for right, up, and down.
You aren’t given any limit as to the amount of turns you’re allowed, but the fewer moves it takes you, the more stars you’ll be rewarded with (there are up to three per level). If you perform the challenge in the “Best” amount of turns, which is indicated at the top of the screen, you’ll be given a “Perfect” rating when you’ve cleared a level, and with many Games Center achievements related to getting perfect scores, there’s plenty of incentive for the completionists to go back and perfect their every move on each of the game’s 90 puzzles.
For the first few levels, the game eases players in with a square grid and only one type of sheep, but the game quickly turns into an interesting puzzler that involves a lot of thinking. Different animal types are thrown into the enclosure and you’ll have to contend with a grid-fence shaped in ways much stranger than a square. On top of that, some of the animals will occasionally be trapped in cages where they can’t move at all, and others will be stuck in bubbles, immobile until another animal bumps into them and busts them out. An array of boxes and passage-creating or closing switches both help and hinder you on the way to achieving the perfect score.
As you progress, the game really makes you think about what your next move should be, and the overcoming challenges thrown your way is ultimately very rewarding. If you get stuck, there’s a helpful shepherd boy at the top of the screen who will give you hints for a fee of in-game currency. As far as I could tell, you earn 3 coins every time you clear a level, and a hint costs 3 coins, so it’s a pretty good trade-off considering you’ll breeze through some levels, and spend up to ten minutes on others.
Despite its attempts at variety and challenge, however, the game does get repetitive over long bursts. It’s great to pick up and play for 15 to 20 minutes at a time, but anything much longer than that and you’ll find yourself leaving the game to check Facebook or listen to a podcast. But going, back after a while and playing another short burst of the game feels fresh and exciting. I can’t quite put my finger on exactly why this is, maybe my brain doesn’t like thinking for too long, but it is definitely an issue that the game couldn’t keep me entertained for the entirety of my 40 minute morning commute.
Audio/Visual The sound and visual design of the game are pretty standard for an iOS puzzle game. Cutesy looking cartoon animals, a bright green-hill background, and a forgettable tune that somehow makes you bob your head like a child when it’s playing.
Not that this detracts from the experience (though the barking of the shepherd dog every time you swipe in a direction does get a little annoying), it’s just something we’ve all seen and heard before, and we’ll probably see and hear it a hundred times again.
Overall For a developer to strike out from their parent company takes some guts, and for their first game to be as enjoyable as this shows that the guys over at Orca, Inc. have brains as well as bravado. The mental challenge, the sheer amount of stages, and the simple design all work together to bring a solid puzzler to iOS gamers.
However, maybe the simplicity is a little too much, as the game does become repetitive when played over larger bouts of time, and the cute style of graphics is something that is beginning to feel overused. On the other hand the game remains great fun in short bursts, and should provide hours of solid gameplay, particularly to completionists. Priced at just 99 cents, you’re certainly getting good bang for your buck.
Haunters Studio: Zip Cinema Publisher: Madman Format: DVD Release Date: 5 October, 2011 Price: $29.95 – Available Here
Overview
Haunters carries the critic quote that it is “more satisfying than any super-hero movie released this year” (Sound on Sight). I’m a big fan of Eastern cinema, I think that it takes a lot more risks and goes places that Western movies won’t. combine that with the quote and you’ve got some pretty big aspirations going on. Let’s see if Haunters lives up to this.
Story
If there’s one thing I can say for Haunters, it has a range of moods throughout the movie. It started off gritty and incredibly involving, setting me up to expect angsty angst angst (like most superhero movies, cough Batman), but then the entire tone of the movie changed as the focus shifted from the anti-hero Cho-In to Kyu-Nam. Suddenly the movie started showing off its funny side, with the lead actor Go Soo being able to pull of the little humorous moments easily.
At first the change was jarring, especially since the cover and first ten minutes of the movie had set up such a dark outlook. But after adjusting to that the movie was quite easy to settle in to. I have to say, the story was quite interesting and had a quite unique way of attacking the idea, without the usual clichés.
Cho-In is a psychic who can control people’s minds and had an extremely rough childhood, so he pretty much goes around and does as he pleases, taking money, killing people and angsting away in his hotel room. One day he tries to steal money from a loan office and he encounters the one person who he can’t control, Kyu-Nam. Kyu-Nam is his polar opposite, a fun-loving and moralistic man. After Kyu-Nam’s boss is killed through Cho-In’s mind-control powers, Kyu-Name goes on a mission of vengeance.
Taking on a guy who has unbelievably strong mind-control powers is about as terrifying as it sounds, because no only are you taking him on, but every other person in the crowded city of Seoul as well. But Kyu-Nam doesn’t stop, he gets pummelled to near death and still hunts down the increasingly violent Cho-In.
The characters have a good depth to them, as I said before, this movie doesn’t approach the genre like you would usually see. Instead, of having a fairly black and white situation, there are greys. While the hero is a good guy, the anti-hero has layers to him and you kind of feel sorry for him in parts.
The ending was a little disappointing for me. I won’t go into it, but it started off really well and then kind of gave up on that idea and took those steps back. Another small disappointment were some of the lines, although that may have been because of the translation from Korean to English. While Kyu-Nam has some really great morals under his belt, at times it comes off too righteous and I found that I was taking a step back from his character and questioning some of the things that he was doing so determinedly.
Dong-won Kang (who played Cho-In) did a fantastic job of bringing the amoral anti-hero to life, his performance really rises above and is worth a mention. Go Soo as Kyu-Nam also does a good job, bringing the comedy to small parts of the movie and levelling out all the angst of Cho-In.
Visuals
The movie certainly benefits from some really great shots, the cinematography is stunning in places. However, there is an odd range when it comes to the entire product, while some are beautifully set up, other shots seem strange and a little odd. The suspense in the film is constructed well through the pace and shots, and shots have clearly been set up with the visual element in mind because they turn up amazingly.
Audio
The audio helps out with the suspense that the movie loves to get a hold of, as well as the action scenes. The only odd and jarring audio in the movie came at the end during the credits, when loud K-pop blared and clashed against the ending of the film.
Extras
The extras included in the DVD are the trailers and some of the deleted scenes. These scenes are interesting to watch and, while its good that they didn’t include the scenes in the movie, they are interesting and will add to your context of the film.
Overall
Haunters has a great concept, a really solidly individual storyline, and good acting. It truly isn’t what you’d expect, in a good way. Although there are little things which could be improved, it really is an enjoyable film overall and I have to say, while I wouldn’t call it the best superhero movie, it certainly does list among the better ones, especially in it’s originality in places.
This screenshot above is the transferring of data (possibly save date) from the game Hot Shots Golf 6 (Everybody’s Golf 6 in the West) from the Vita to the Playstation 3. This is backing up the data, something that will be useful for all the users out there.
This is a screenshot showing that the Vita may copy either video, audio or image files.
So, what can you do on the handheld side of things?
In case you don’t have space on your Vita Memory Card, you can download games from PS Store to your PS3 or PC first.
Move Vita content that you’ve finished on to your PS3 or PC for storage.
A special program will be required for the PC, which will be released at a later date. For the PS3, expect compatibility after a firmware update presumably near the launch date.
In case you were living on another planet or under a rock, it was about a year ago that the PlayStation 3 console was hacked, with major repercussions for Sony and the hackers alike. George Hotz (aka Geohot) found himself in court facing serious charges of circumvention and jailbreaking, while the original sellers of the Jailbreak dongle I don’t think have yet to see the inside of a court room. Sony, on the other hand suffered the backlash of many, prompting a hack on their PSN network, effectively shutting it down for an extended time period and compromising millions of users personal details and accounts.
Well all has been quiet on the PS3 hacking front for quite some time, since Sony effectively changed the master keys they use to encrypt their games. Since the jailbreak could only be exploited on specific firmware, newer games encrypted with later firmware keys could not be played. That is until now. Very recently a small Indonesian team released the Jailbreak 2 (JB2), claiming it allowed users to play all previously unplayable titles from special blu ray discs. While it is not readily available everywhere, the fact it has been confirmed working has massive implications for Sony.
Regardless of the method they have used to make these new games playable, the developers are in the process of reverse engineering the device, potentially allowing it to be ported to other devices. According to many sources some of the developers within the PS3 hacking communities have stated that they already have the new 3.72 master keys and a public payload is on the way.
I’m sure Sony are keeping a close eye on this, but this time are dealing with a very unregulated market in Indonesia, as well as hackers who unlike Geohot have remained anonymous. In this case I think the developers have done s goof thing releasing it to the public. While it has uses that filer over in piracy territory, making it freely available is much preferred to someone profiting from it. The other exciting news that many have been waiting for is now legitimate users who don’t want to give up the ability to have homebrew applications and want to buy new games can do so without having to have another console to get online and do so.
With WWE All Stars getting new life on the 3DS in just a couple weeks time, THQ have now released a new video to give further insight into the new modes that will come exclusively on the 3D version. The first mode is known as Score Scramble, where the player gains score based on the variety of attacks executed. The more familiar new addition though is the “Gauntlet Mode”, which is pretty much a re-imagining of the Smackdown series’ Slobber Knocker where one player fights Superstar after Superstar to see for far they can go.
Slobber Knocker was one of my favorite modes for the older Smackdown titles, so if this works as well as advertised, this portable wrestling game could be bound for greatness as that is just one of the many modes included in the port. Check out the full video below for yourself to get a better look of both new additions in action.
Activision have confirmed what everyone who knows just about anything about Call of Duty, already knew – that a new Call of Duty game is set to be released in 2012. While this may come as very little surprise to fans, it is worth noting that Activision still see it fit to announce Call of Duty titles instead of just pumping them out en mass from the Call of Duty mill they have clearly heavily invested in.
Whether or not you are interested in a new Call of Duty title, it is clear Activision thinks you are as they have pumped out a new title every year since 2005. Will they ever take a break or will Call of Duty follow the same route as another Activision published title that now has a comfy home six feet under? (Guitar Hero or Tony Hawk, take your pick!)
The title is set to be developed by Treyarch (Call of Duty: Black Ops). Other than that, very little is known about the title, besides the fact that people will probably say that Modern Warfare is better. We can all of course take comfort in knowing that the next year of our lives will feature the ever present inescapeable tidbits of news and hype surrounding the next Call of Duty title. What do you think about this shocking announcement? Let us know in the shoutbox and comments section.
Namco Bandai have today released a new trailer for the forthcoming Saint Seiya: Sanctuary Battle fighting game for the Playstation 3. This news coincides with the earlier announcement of the Black Saint’s making an appearance in the title as bosses.
The new trailer shows off some intense beat-em-up gameplay coupled with the introductions of several playable and appearing characters (including the Black Saints battle). The Bronze, Silver and Gold Saints are all present in the trailer as well and beat down enemies like only the Saints know how.
You can check out the trailer for Saint Seiya: Sanctuary Battle below. Does it get your cosmos burning? Be sure to let us know what you think of it in the shoutbox and comments section.
Joining the Gold and Silver Saints in Saint Seiya: Sanctuary Battle is the villainous Black Saints. Namco Bandai have confirmed the appearance of the Black Saint’s as midbosses in the title for Seiya and his Bronze Saint companions to combat.
That’s right you will be able to play as your favourite character’s from the Saint Seiya universe such as the Bronze, Silver and Gold Saints, and take on the Black Saints.
Saint Seiya: Sainctuary Battle is set for it’s release in Japan for the Playstation 3 this month on November 23rd. The title is also set to hit European shelves next year. It is unknown whether the title will be localised anywhere else in the world however. What do you think of the Black Saint’s appearance in Saint Seiya: Sanctuary Battle? Let us know in the shoutbox and comments section.
Yesterday, I brought the news that Sony will be introducing the UMD Passport to allow those with UMD copies of PSP games to retrieve a digital copy for use on the Playstation Vita at a special discounted price. More details have emerged about the Passport program including how Sony will make sure the system isn’t abused.
Sony has announced that, when a UMD is registered with a PSN account, it sticks with that account, meaning that the UMD is not allowed to link up with other PSN accounts. This is obviously a measure to stop anyone who wishes to give the UMD to another person who never owned the game. Also, the digital copy can be shared between the Vita and PSP/PSP Go (if you want to).
So far, 40 titles have been officially announced, while 200 are planned for the program. Hopefully that number jumps right up, considering how many PSP titles are available. Of course, those with titles announced fully support the program. Several other developers have pledge support but have not announced any titles for the program as of yet. Titles that will be compatible at the start of the program, which happens to be December 6 ahead of the Vita’s December 17 launch, will be revealed in mid November on the PS Vita site. No word as of if and when the program will extend to other territories.
You read right, the popular shonen manga Shaman King is set to make it’s serialisation return in April 2012. However while this may seem confusing to fans of the Shaman King manga, fear not this not exactly a continuation but more a sequel.
