Many are holding their breath in anticipation for Kirby’s Return to Dreamland, but according to a recent interview on “Iwata Asks”, this title could have taken a completely different visual approach. As you see in the pictures above, Kirby’s latest adventure almost went with a 2D cel shaded approach during it’s lengthy time in HAL’s development oven, rather than the bouncy 3D atheistic we have seen in the final product.
I completely dig the visuals we have seen so far for Return to Dreamland, but I must say that this much brighter style is just as pleasing overall. I know that Kirby’s Dreamland 3 went with a pastel design, which is far off from what we see here, but I get that same vibe from that age old SNES classic from these screenshots due to the bright colors chosen. If Nintendo and HAL partner up for a 3DS Kirby down the road, we can only hope that these old and reworked concepts will see the light of day once again.
Being fairly new to conventions like Armageddon and Manifest, each one brings experiences and lessons about this culture that I’ve never really been privy to. I mean, I generally consider myself a nerd, but the level of nerdiness I’ve encountered at these things makes me feel very normal. So, my fellow uninitiated geeks, here’s Ten Things I Learned at Armageddon Expo 2011.
1. Convention-goers are the friendliest people ever, and have an extremely high tolerance for weirdness in each other.
Although I don’t know a lot about what’s going on at these things, people are always ridiculously happy to stop and talk, and can make everyone feel welcome. This is great when you happen upon someone with similar interests or is just entertaining to talk to, but not so great when you get caught up in an excruciatingly-detailed retelling of the fifth time Goku died, or a heated debate over who is the best Doctor Who actor, with someone who is apparently unable to detect strong disinterest in the other person.
2. Conventions are designed to drain every last cent from rabid fans, and make nearby businesses very happy.
“Ten bucks for a tiny little figurine? No problem!” says the diehard fan. I myself am guilty of this when it comes to feeding my habit for The Simpsons merchandise, and the organizers of these events know this full well. For one weekend, everybody ignores the value of money and forgets that most of this stuff is available online for a fraction of the cost, and goes crazy. It’s the atmosphere! It’s just so intoxicating.
Any nearby coffee shops, fast food joints and bars also benefit greatly – to the chagrin of their regular patronage, when a swarm of Pikachus, Batmen and Spocks descend upon the venue.
3. Convention attendees are easily recognized from blocks away.
These swarms of Pokemon and superheroes also act as a breadcrumb-trail back to the convention venue. The few blocks between Southern Cross station and the Melbourne Exhibition Centre were populated by all sorts of characters coming and going, and must have kept the local office workers in a state of constant entertainment/confusion/terror.
4. Cosplay is simultaneously the greatest and most terrifying thing in the world.
Games, sci-fi and anime always have to include a token hot chick, so it comes as no surprise to find no shortage of overly-sexualized Officer Jennys, Harley Quinns and Sailor Moons. Whether or not you enjoy the source material, everybody can appreciate Lara Crofts competing to see who can wear the shortest shorts before they are more likely to be classed as underpants.
On the other hand, nobody wants to see huge Trekkie dudes strutting their stuff. Seriously, Star Trek is over. For a fair while now. Go enjoy something else.
5. You can spend the whole weekend trying to find your friends. And failing.
Amongst these bizarre crowds, it can be very easy to lose everyone you came to the convention with. Within seconds of entering the showroom – literally seconds – my girlfriend had vanished. I found her more than an hour later, but by then everyone else we came with had also disappeared. It became easier to just not look for people.
6. You will spend most of your time riding the Line Ride.
Of course, when someone disappears, most of the time they’re in a line somewhere. In line waiting to meet a semi-famous person, in line for food, or the toilets, or to get into a panel. My brother was addicted to playing the Line Game, to the point where he all but hired the rest of us to stand in lines for him while he stood in other lines.
When you’re not in a line, it can be fun to get your group to stand in a line formation to nowhere, and see how many random people you can get to line up behind you.
7. Streetpassing on your 3DS is very, very time-consuming.
With all this waiting, there was ample time to regularly whip out my recently-acquired Nintendo 3DS and collect any new Streetpasses. Seriously, there were new Miis waiting at your virtual gate every few minutes, and with three of us in our group owning a 3DS, a lot of our communication involved swapping virtual versions of ourselves. Those 3DSless members of our party looked on in frustration at how often we had to usher our new Miis in, steal puzzle pieces from them and send them off into dungeons to fight ghosts. But we had to! Those hats don’t unlock themselves.
Having just gotten my 3DS a few days earlier, these were my stats:
Friday: StreetPass Hits: 4
Plaza Population: 3
Sunday: StreetPass Hits: 93
Plaza Population: 71
8. Special guests would much rather be somewhere else.
Once you get to the head of a line to meet a celebrity or watch a panel discussion, if you’re not blinded by the excitement of meeting said person, you can see the weary looks on their faces. Not being super invested in any of the guests, it was easy to see how tired they must be of the whole ordeal, repeated in every city with a fresh group of crazy fans. You’d feel the same if you were constantly asked about the minutiae of every aspect of every episode, worded like the asker had spent hours preparing it.
“Sorry, I don’t know why my shoes were blue that episode.”
“No, my character was not adopted. There was no hidden meaning when they referred to my father as Herbert instead of Hubert. Just a typo.”
“No, we were not high on glucose when we wrote that season.” (This question was ACTUALLY asked, repeatedly, honestly, of the Rooster Teeth guys.)
9. Conventions are a great way for indies to get their work known.
While the big names may be sick of the convention run, it’s a great way for indies in any relevant field to get their name out there and find an audience. We sat in on a gig by emerging Melbourne band TechnoDrome, who performed some awesome covers of classic video game tunes; we got a look at the game in progress from Swing Interactive, an independent studio fresh out of Qantm College; and of course, there’s the guy who built, from scratch, the iconic Delorean from the Back to the Future trilogy.
All these people deserve recognition for their hard work and passion, so keep an eye out for our interviews with them all this week!
10. Wrestling is gayer than two gay men having gay sex.
My final thought: wrestling really is terrible. I mean, this wasn’t a revelation to me on the weekend, but seeing it live invokes a whole new level of distaste.
We all know it’s fake, and some people don’t care. Each to their own. I can kinda understand why people might watch it if it was real – the appeal is like boxing or similar sports, where it might release pent up aggression or something. I dunno.
But if it’s common knowledge that it’s staged, I don’t see the point of watching two guys strip off to their underpants, climb into a ring and unconvincingly act like they’re wailing on each other. Since they’re trying not to actually hurt each other, all they really end up doing is cuddling until they fall on top of each other.
Ironically, the bogans who do enjoy it would probably call theatre gay. Any of Shakespeare’s work is much less gay. At least plays have far less extended scenes of man-on-man action.
That episode of South Park was dead right – wrestling popularized by the WWE and the like is just a soap opera for rednecks, and the real thing is quite gay.
Runner games on the iPhone are nothing new, there are heaps of them with a range of cute little characters running around our screen searching for fruit, or coins, or whatever else that they may want. Human G&A have launched the first iOS runner game to implement live multi-player functionality. That’s right, you can race your dragons against other dragons and find out who gets to be the dragon king!
Another thing that sets Mishu apart from other runner games is the HD backgrounds. While most games don’t pay that much attention to the backgrounds, usually settling for some pretty standard graphics, Human G&A have really taken it to the next level and the backgrounds look pretty sweet.
Mishu the Dragon is now available on iTunes with a free ‘Lite’ version – GET IT HERE
As well as the standard version for $0.99 – BUY IT HERE
NuOxygen have released Simple Racing HD (what is with the new fad of outright stating what kind of racing you’re in for?). Simple Racing is, are you ready for this, a simple racing game. At least they didn’t go for the irony points and name it Difficult Racing, some people may have gotten confused.
Kidding aside, Simple Racing is a 2D micro car racing game set on 3D tracks. Confused? Well it’s basically an arcade game with upgraded graphics, which is something I can definitely get behind. It’s got the classic arcade gameplay with a turbo button for overtaking and a touch-to-brake system that you’re going to have to utilise at just the right moment so your car doesn’t rocket off the track. Check out the gameplay in the trailer below.
There are rally championships, quick races, ratings and time scores, customisation, and ten different tracks in five environments. Steering away from the 3D intense racing games that have been coming out lately, Simple Racing may be just the welcome return to some gold old fashioned arcade racing.
Simple Racing is available now on the iTunes store for $1.99 – BUY NOW
Magic Formula has been released on the iTunes store for those of you who love it when your games actually make you feel like you’re thinking. Magic Formula is a game that is focused on problem solving, not a game that hides behind other genres and sneaks a puzzle in every now and again. Magic Formula is obvious with its puzzles, it smacks you in the face with them and deceives you with its apparent simplicity and sneaky difficulty. This is a game that’s going to take you more than the standard hour or so to complete, with a depth that’s bound to surprise you.
There are 140 levels of puzzle fun, with seven evolution stages for you to go through. Watch the gameplay trailer for it below. It definitely looks like one of those games that starts off easy but it’s not too long before it kicks you in the ass.
Magic Formula is available for $1.99 at the iTunes store – BUY NOW
A new trailer for the hotly anticipated Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, has made it’s way online. This trailer is dubbed the Modern Warfare 3 launch trailer.
The launch trailer shows off the game as well as builds hype for the game’s release. You can check out the trailer below, which is sure to excite Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 fans, with some footage of the game as well as scenes perhaps from the story of the game, involving World War 3.
What do you think of this launch trailer Modern Warfare 3 fans? Let us know your thoughts in the shoutbox and comments section below.
Turtle Beach have announced their limited edition Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 headsets are shipping now and will be available in retailers in early November.
The limited edition headsets consist of four different models: Bravo, Charlie, Delta and Foxtrot (yes, we’re loving the names too!). They were designed to give gamers the ultimate experience when playing one of this year’s most anticipated titles, Modern Warfare 3. The headsets have unique sets of audio presets designed specifically by the audio teams at Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games.
Of course, the headsets will also work with all other games, and are available across Xbox 360, PS3, PC, and Mac. Delta, Bravo, Charlie and Foxtrot will be available from all major video game retailers around the world. If you want to hear more about these headsets, well…you can. Click here to check out our chat with Chris Eade from Turtle Beach at EB EXPO 2011.
Game: Metal Slug 2 Consoles: PS3 (Reviewed) and PSP via PSN Price: $9.99 or $6.99 Publisher/Developer: SNK Playmore/ NEOGEO Genre: 2D Arcade Shooter
MARCO and TARMA return to the battlefront on NEOGEO Station, this time accompanied by two new recruits FIOLINA GERMI and ERI KASAMOTO, in order to thwart the new coup attempt by General Morden, infamous leader of the Rebel Army and main antagonist of the “METAL SLUG” series. Fight alone or with a buddy, on foot or aboard a tank, and deliver the prisoners for freedom in this masterpiece of run-and-gun action shooting from SNK! (Official Description of Game from SNK Playmore.)
Continuing their streak of releasing classic NEOGEO titles onto the Playstation Network, SNK PLAYMORE has updated Metal Slug 2 for the PS3 and PSP consoles. Are you up to the challenge?
Metal Slug 2 was originally designed as a simple quarter muncher complete with frustratingly hard boss battles and unfair artificial intelligence. Luckily, this release of the game fixes all those problems. First off, your PS3 does not have a slot that accepts coins (we haven’t found one anyway) so you will only be paying one flat upfront cost of $8.99 ($6.99 for the PSP version), which is way cheaper than feeding an arcade bucketfuls of quarters. By our calculations, once you have used up 18 continues you’ll have definitely saved money by playing this updated port of the game. And that is if the arcade game costs only $.50 a pop! Trust us, you will use up the lives fast too, especially if you set the difficulty to MVS, the original arcade’s difficulty setting. Fortunately, there are options for EASY and Normal difficulties in this adaption so you won’t be getting too frustrated at the intense gameplay present.
Speaking of gameplay, Metal Slug 2 features extreme action with plenty of humorous circumstances and some great explosive weapons. At its core, Metal Slug 2 is a 2D shooting game with some unique elements that help it stand out from the rest of games in the same genre. Starting off, you will receive a single shot gun. By collecting items and mowing down the bad guys, this gun can eventually get upgraded to a machine gun, flame thrower or laser shot. There are plenty of other options available too. However, the best weapons are the ones you can mount. Tanks, jets and camels are all present in the game. Yes, there are camels with uber-powerful chain guns mounted on them and they deliver a wallop.
Overall, the gameplay is solid and addicting. The controls are not as finely tuned as I would like them to be and the game is firmly rooted in an older game design, but this game offers some great fun, especially because of its unique personality. In addition to being able to ride a camel, you can also turn into a mummy, a fat guy (where your weapon turns into a fork) and other hilarious cameos. This game doesn’t take itself seriously, at all. That is a good thing too, because although the difficulty IS rough, it isn’t one of those games that punishes the player just for the heck and the funny moments keep everything humming along just fine.
The story in Metal Slug 2 is nearly nonexistent. After playing the game for awhile I still had no idea who anybody was why soldiers were attacking me or why huge boss battles would take place. Even searching through the menus and in-game booklets did nothing to help me out in this department. Only after I looked it up on the official website and Wikipedia did I get a clue as to what was going on. Sure, this game was made back in the day, but there should at least be a paragraph in the instruction manual or menus explaining the background. Even a bare bones explanation would have sufficed.
Undoubtedly the weakest part of Metal Slug 2 is the graphics. SNK did hardly anything to make them different than the ones that were already a part of the game. Although retro game fans may rejoice at being able to replay the game in its original pixelated form, modern HD fans will feel like tearing their eyes out. For $9.00, it would seem like maybe this game could be at least be remastered.
One feature that SNK did implement well was the coop. Metal Slug 2 can now be played in online or offline coop. Playing with others is always more fun and being able take down baddies with a buddy almost makes you feel like you are in an actual arcade.
If you have a spare few dollars in your PSN account or this game is on sale, it is a a good buy. There is lots of replay value in this game and the coop is awesome. Arcade gamers will love the tough difficulty and true to form nature of the game. However, the lack of updated graphics and the lack of any other features makes this game a little disappointing. That being said, you could buy much worse on the PSN than Metal Slug 2.
Event: Armageddon Expo 2011 Melbourne
Date: 22/23 October 2011
Location: Melbourne Exhibition Centre
Time: 9am – 6pm
It was an exciting couple of days as we played human Tetris through the exited crowd at the Armageddon Expo at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre this weekend. The Costumes, the variety of memorabilia and the special guests would make any sci-fi nerds dream.
A lot of well-known companies and products had booths set up such as Madman Entertainment, Ubisoft, Kings Comics, Rooster Teeth’s Red Vs. Blue, Batman Arkham City and wide variety of local businesses who cater to the video game, anime and comic markets. There was funny t-shirts, plush characters, hats, posters and of course light sabres and there was the DeLorean time machine that was based on the Back to the Future movies, with items from the movie itself.
With the huge list of special guests who held panels for the fans who could finally get their questions asked. We dropped by a few and was lucky to get into the over-crowed (they needed to add an extra session just to fit everyone in) Red vs. Blue panel with the amazing guys from Rooster Teeth. Allowing an insight to their processes and getting a sneak peak at the release of Season 9. Other special guest panels include Amanda Tapping from the hit series Stargate SG-1 and Sanctuary.
Also the comic and anime fans were appeased with guests including Steve Blum, Paul Eiding, Fred Van Lente and Frank Cho, just to name a few. There was also an array of independent comics who were able to get the attention they deserved. For the music fans, the band Technodrome was also there to do covers of our favourite video game themes.
The newly released Batman: Arkham City had their own booth for people to try the fantastic game. As well as his DC Comic Pal the Green Lantern, for his game to try! Check out the review for Arkham City by Travis Bruno here!
As well the Ubisoft booth had games to try that have not been released yet, including the Adventures of Tin Tin and Rayman Origins. These games look really fun, so look out for the reviews.
Then there were the costumes… Ah the costumes. It is wonderful that people are dedicated enough to their passion of video games and anime to dress up in thick cloaks and skin tight leather even when the weather was a little sweaty and people continually stop you for
photos (Like I did, sorry guys!).
With the live events as well as the fantastic booths, this weekend was so exciting and exactly what us die hard sci-fi fans need from time to time. Look out for interviews that will be coming up from some of the guests that attending the event.
The Hunter Exam arc, kicked itself into gear last week with Hunter x Hunter’s third episode. Several of the voice actors for the Hunter Exam story arc have been revealed. Now two more roles have been filled, Menchi and Gittarackur.
It has been confirmed that Aya Hirano, known for her role as Lucy Heartfilia on Fairy Tail, will play the Hunter Examiner Menchi. She will debuting the role in the next few weeks.
The other confirmed is Masaya Matsukaze, known for his role as August 7 on Darker Than Black: Gemini of the Meteor, will be playing one of the examinees Gittarackur. Which he will debut this week.
What do you think of this? Let us know in the shoutbox and comments section?
