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Pokémon Rumble Blast Due Out October 24th!

Dustin Spencer
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We first heard about the upcoming 3DS eShop title, Pokémon Rumble Blast at E3, and rather quietly I might add. Aside from a trailer, nothing else was really shown for the title, but now Nintendo have shed light on what players can expect when it hits the download service this fall. Much like it’s WiiWare predecessor, Pokémon Rumble Blast will let players collect and battle wind-up toy versions of the full Pokémon roster, and this time with the newly added Black & White selection added in.

If you have never played the WiiWare version, players take control of their Pokémon team and do battle in which types and stats effect the outcome, much like the battles from the main series. Pokémon Rumble Blast will offer up opportunities to take on dozens of monsters at a time, with large bosses also in tow that require further effort to conquer. After battles, players can then “befriend” Pokémon to add them to their roster to further strategies and add a bit of personal flavor to each experience.

Also available is the cooperative play mode that allows two players to work together and battle through levels to better befriend defeated Toy Pokémon. A StreetPass feature has also been added, allowing those who cross paths to challenge other users as well as view the rival players’ Mii characters in the game.

I honestly can’t think of a better fit for the now continuing Pokémon Rumble series than the 3DS, and with over 600 Pokémon, this first official Pokémon title on the eShop looks to be quite a substantial one. Pokémon Rumble Blast launches October 24th for the 3DS eShop. For even more information, check out the official website at http://www.pokemon.com/us/games/videogame-pokemon-rumble-blast/.

Nerdy Niches – SMASH!

Aura
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Sooo I’m going to be different this time and I’m actually going to talk about an event. One of the best events for the anime lovers just like me, Smash! I love Smash ever since I first went to it and I plan to go to it till I’m like way too old to cosplay or something. Why do I love Smash so much well… that’s what I’m here to talk about.

Today I’m specifically looking at the Smash which just happened, Smash 2011.

Here is some helpful information:
What: SMASH!
Where: Convention centre in the Sydney City

All that was rememberable:

• The great cosplay such as:
o Zero Suit Samus
o Agito and Akito
o Sebastian
o Grell
o Ciel
o A predator
o Zero (lelouch)
o The girls from K-On!
o A Scyther
o Lots of Hatsune Mikus
o Ok there’s no way I can name them all

• The art stalls that sold lots of:
o Posters
o Badges
o Art
o Comics
o Commissions

• The stalls that sold:
o DVDs
o Comics
o Models
o Pillows
o Manga
o Contacts

• The events that included:
o Ball-jointed dolls
o Fanfic competition
o Karaoke
o Maid cafe
o Trivia
o Bandai Model Kit World Cup
o BJD Competitions
o Cosplay Chess
o Cosplay Competition
o Mario Kart Competition
o Street Fighter Competition
o Mascot Music Madness
o Makeup Panel
o Pattern-making & Sewing Panel
o Photography Panel

• Guests that included:
o Shinichi Watanabe
o Little Kuriboh
o Kenji Ito
o Hiroki Kikuta
o Eminence artists and Mario Yoshida

So if you haven’t gone this year, I seriously advise for you to get next year as I personally can’t wait!

Check out our other Nerdy Niches here

Call of Juarez: The Cartel Brings the West up to date Today!

Dustin Spencer
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For those of you keeping up, the highly anticipated Call of Juarez: The Cartel is finally available as of today. Now for those who have been living under a rock since the game was announced earlier this year, this latest Call of Juarez title puts players into the roles of three unlikely heroes as they try to take down a cartel across the southwest. One of these protagonists is none other than Ben McCall, the descendant of Ray McCall from the original Call of Juarez.

I am still a bit on the fence with this one as the story honestly looks rather interesting and kind of like a modern day Mod Squad, but from what we have seen of the gameplay, there hasn’t truly been an element that stood out aside from it’s multiplayer. Hopefully there will be a lot more answered in that area now that the game is out, so stay tuned as we will bringing you a review soon. For now though, you can watch the trailer for Call of Juarez: The Cartel below and let us know what your initial impressions are in the comment section below.

SMASH 2011: Alex Ngai Strikes Back!

Matthew Vella
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One of the most memorable moment’s of last year’s SMASH! was when cosplayer/preformer Alex Ngai took the stage and preformed his highly popular dance preformance sketch, taken from the Xbox 360 game Idol M@ster, where even the judges joined in! Check it out here. This year Alex Ngai returns from Japan to preform yet another a dance, this time from the sequal Idol M@ster 2, infront of a much larger audience, at SMASH! 2011! His preformance was extremely accurate, and completly in sync with the video above him. Its clear to see a LOT of practice went into this, and it paid off! His preformance was amazing! Check out the pictures we took below, as well as the video we snapped as well!

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Click here to check out more of our coverage of SMASH 2011!

Ubisofts UPlay Passport Announced

Benjamin Webb
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Ubisoft has recently announced it’s latest online service for gamers, UPlay Passport. The Passport is designed as a delivery method for gaming content, such as bonuses and DLC, as well as Multiplayer. The Passport works in conjunction with UPlay and is set to be implemented in a few months.

Each UPlay game that is released will hold a physical code that must be entered in order to gain access to the UPlay features of that game. You will know if a game is UPlay compatible by checking for a logo on the back of a games packaging. Pre-owned players will still be able to access the UPlay content by paying a charge of $9.99US.

Is it worth it? You decide.

QuakeCon Tournament Line-Up

Benjamin Webb
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In Dallas, TX on the 4th – 7th of August comes QUAKECON, the woodstock of gaming, and with it comes a slew of tournaments. These tournaments are freaking awesome (especially to me as a HUGE QuakeLive fan and player), and feature both QuakeLive and their latest game Brink.

There are three different tournaments in play that weekend. The first being a duel sponsored by Intel, the second being team deathmatch and the final being an open tournament in the upcoming Brink. Each tournament has it’s own winnings, which are listed below.

The Intel® QUAKE LIVE Duel Invitational Masters 

The Intel QUAKE LIVE Duel Invitational Masters will feature known professionals and top QUAKE LIVE competitors in their own exclusive tournament. Sixteen (16) of the world’s best QUAKE LIVE players, hand selected by tournament staff from the open online registration, will face-off in the 1 vs.1 duel for more than $14,000 USD in a single elimination bracket, with each match played in a best-of-three-games format.  With two competitors remaining, thousands will gather to watch as these two best-of-the-best survivors go head-to-head in a single elimination, best-of-five-games throw-down with an $8,000 USD cheque written to the champion.  Matches will feature a pool of five arenas.

The QUAKE LIVE Team Deathmatch Invitational Masters

The Team Deathmatch Invitational Masters will feature 4 vs. 4 competitions for eight (8) teams battling it out in a single elimination bracket and best-of three-games format using five arenas. Players who come out on top will share prizes of $28,000 USD, including $16,000 USD for the team of champions.  Matches in the tournament will feature five arenas.

The Brink Open Tournament

Available for up to sixteen (16) teams of amateurs with five players per team, the brink Open will offer up-and-coming competitors a taste of the excitement and pressure of professional gaming. Battling for prizes ranging from top of the line video cards to autographed copies of Brink, players will compete in a stopwatch single elimination bracket.  Matches for the Brink Open Tournament will feature Aquarium, Resort, and Terminal.

Make sure you register between July 15th and July 31st to secure your position in a prospective tournament. And to all prospective competitors, GLHF 😀

For more information, visit the following links.

Registration

Tournament Rules

Official QuakeCon Site

SMASH 2011: Interview with ParraNOIA

Matthew Vella
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SMASH 2011: Interview with ParraNOIA

How good are clubs? They’re full of stuff like people and… clubs. Seriously, they’re great. A lot of us SMASH! people used to be in clubs and look what happened to us!-SMASH! Official Website

Amoungst all the various vendors and booths at SMASH!, a few were occupied by various clubs and groups. I spoke to a member named William of a club parramatta-based group of University students called ParraNOIA, who aims at spreading anime awareness. Coming from the western suburbs of Sydney myself, I was particularly interested and spoke to him about what they do. You can see the breif interview ebedded below, and you can vist their website, their Facebook group here, and access their forums here. My fellow editor did a few written interviews with various booths from the artist circle which you can check out here.

The also did interviews with some other clubs which you can see here.

Click here to check out more of our coverage of SMASH 2011!

Space Invaders Gets A Hollywood Movie

Matthew Vella
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One of the producers of the Transformers trilogy plans on making THIS into a film. Good luck buddy!

Yep. You read it right. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the 1978 video game Space Invaders is preparing to invade the big screen. Producers Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Odd Lot Entertainment’s Gigi Pritzker have teamed up and got their hands on the rights to make film adaptation of Space Invaders. And yeah, I know what your thinking! Your thinking ‘Oh no! Lorenzo di Bonaventura? Isn’t he behind that Doom movie and that GI Joe movie? Sad Panda!’ Well cheer up emo kid, he’s not Uwe Boll! di Bonaventura also produced Constantine as well as all three Transformers movies. The two are currently looking for someone to write the script, but many are wondering how the hell a good script based on Space Invaders in the first place. Apparently di Bonaventura thinks makings movies based on 80s videos games are a good idea, because he agreed to produce a movie based on the game Asteroids when Universal Studios snatched up the rights to make a movie for it back in 2009, with Matthew Lopez writing the script who wrote Race To Witch Mountain. Oh well, it can’t be much worse than that Mario Bros movie. Can it?

SBS September DVD Highlights!

Kelly Teng
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September already has a great lineup of Madman DVDs (you can check them out here), and now they’re is adding to it: here’s a few of the SBS shows that will be coming to DVD and Blu-ray in September.

Sex: An Unnatural History

It has been five decades since the release of the contraceptive pill in Australia. Could the scientists who created it ever know of the sexual revolution it would create? We like to believe we are more sexually liberated than our parents or grandparents, but are we really? What is it that makes us tick and how has our sexual behavior changed since the 1960s?

Starting with a look into why we started having sex and how we became hardwired to monogamy, and moving through to the subject of taboos and where we go from here – from top to tail – presenter Julia Zemiro explores these and more questions encompassing the last fifty years of our sexual landscape in this witty, frank and factual six-part series.

Release date: 31st August 2011

Go Back to Where You Came From

Following its phenomenally successful screenings on SBS in June, GO BACK TO WHERE YOU CAME FROM will be available on DVD August 31st, 2011. Igniting the Twitter universe upon its broadcast on SBS in June, GO BACK TO WHERE YOU CAME FROM is one of the most controversial series ever made in Australia, and a must-see program for all, no matter what your political bent.

Choosing six Australians with deeply differing views on refugees and asylum-seekers, GO BACK TO WHERE YOU CAME FROM takes them on a very real refugee journey, in which the participants agree to challenge their preconceived notions by living with and as refugees for one month. To do so, they will trace, in reverse, the journeys that real refugees took to reach Australia. Along the route there will be debates, arguments and changes of their opinions, but not one will be untouched by the experience.

Release date: 31st August 2011

Seduction and the City

In 1852, French entrepreneur, Aristide Boucicaut, created the world’s first department store, Le Bon Marché. His genius idea was to target the new middle class woman and attract them into a fantasy world which could be enjoyed without a chaperon, and where all types of goods are available to purchase. The concept is so successful that it is very quickly copied all over the world. Soon there is Selfridges in London, Myer’s in Melbourne and Macy’s in New York – all of which invent ever more enticing ideas to attract customers and sell industrial goods in huge numbers.

Through expert interviews, beautiful photography and extraordinary diary excerpts, SEDUCTION IN THE CITY tells the story of the department store, and the social history of the phenomenon of shopping which took hold of the world and transformed the lives of women, national economies and societies forever.

Release date: 31st August 2011

SMASH! 2011 Vendors

Luke Halliday
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SMASH! 2011 Vendors

SMASH! Con has always been home to a great number of vendors, selling all sorts of bits and bobs, however this year we saw an unprecendented amount of vendors. This year held so many great vendors, it was difficult to keep track of them all. For interest of time I will highlight some particularly awesome vendors at the event this year, as well as provide a list of who was present with a booth or stall.

Stand out vendors included:

– Madman with there giant booth featuring a plethora of manga ($10 per book!), anime (discounted prices) and plenty of other Madman licensed merchandise.

– Siren Visual giving out free posters for When They Cry, The Tatami Galaxy and Clannad: After Story as well as selling a bunch of anime from them.

– Hondarake – Full of Books was there with awesome discounted manga and anime, some of which are incredibly rare or out of print, so if you managed to pick some of them up, congratulations!

– Anime at Abbotsford were selling a truck-load of anime merchandise, particularly figurines and models as well as plushies, and other miscellaneous merchandise.

– Pinin were also great and featured a wide range of plushies, cuddle pillows and other anime merchandise all for great prices.

– Lets not forget the Hobbyco booth which had all the great Gundam models on display and for sale.

– Finally another stand-out was the Japan Foundation, who do alot of great work with bringing Japanese culture to Australia through various means.

If your favourite vendor wasn’t above, don’t fret, they were all brilliant, here is the full list of vendors below:

  • Madman
  • Hobbyco
  • Japan Foundation
  • AIE
  • Alice Overture + Forgotten Memories
  • Animavericks
  • Anime at Abbotsford
  • Armoured Heaven
  • Battle Axe
  • Critical Hit
  • Design Centre Enmore
  • DJ Cosplay/X-Seven
  • Graphic! At the Sydney Opera House
  • Hondarake – Full of Books
  • JMC Academy
  • JP Mode
  • Kiseki Magazine
  • Manga Arts
  • Meon
  • Panda Sparks
  • Pinin
  • Quantm College
  • Siren Visual
  • Sugart
  • Supanova
  • Transreality Simulations
  • Wacom
  • Zombster

Plus of course all of the artist circle and anime clubs which were also great. So what did you guys think of the vendors? Who was your favourite? Leave a comment below letting us know!

Click here to check out more of our coverage of SMASH 2011!

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