Those attending ComicCon later this week have a reason to stop by Nintendo’s booth as they will be bringing quite a few Wii, DS, and 3DS titles to the event. Today all of the planned festivities were announced, and by the looks of it, the centerpiece of Nintendo’s showing will be the highly anticipated Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, which will for the first time be playable by attendees.
Other titles that will be playable include:
3DS:
Super Mario
Mario Kart
Kid Icarus: Uprising
Star Fox 64 3D
The Legend of Zelda™: Ocarina of Time™ 3D
Pokédex 3D
METAL GEAR SOLID Snake Eater 3D from Konami
Shinobi from SEGA
Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition from CAPCOM
RESIDENT EVIL: THE MERCENARIES 3D from CAPCOM
DEAD OR ALIVE Dimensions from TECMO KOEI
Wii:
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Kirby Wii
Rhythm Heaven
Fortune Street
Captain America: Super Soldier from SEGA
Just Dance 3 from Ubisoft
Nintendo DS:
Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2
It doesn’t end with playable titles though! Nintendo also are out to continue Zelda’s 25th Anniversary with a large chalk drawing on display for Skyward Sword, created by an artist that was commissioned by Nintendo just for this event. This piece will be detailed as the event is happening so visitors can check in on the progress throughout, watching a masterpiece unfold over time.
Pokémon fans will also be pleased to know that there will be plenty for them as well, as a special meet-up will take place from 4-6 p.m. on July 21st where Pokemon Black & White owners can do battle and trade. Also on hand will be a a giant AR marker of the legendary Poke, Reshiram. Pokémon fans also will be able to get in on giveaways, including a set of three Pokémon AR marker cards, pins, Pokémon cinch sacks and Pokédex 3D T-shirts, all of which will be limited so those who want the freebies should pay a visit to the Nintendo Lounge early on.
Visitors to the Nintendo Gaming Lounge can also take advantage of other fun activities and daily giveaways (while supplies last) such as collectible Kid Icarus: Uprising AR Cards, posing for 3D photos in an oversized AR Card gallery, sharing StreetPass data with other Nintendo 3DS users and downloadable treasure maps for Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies.
Nintendo seem to be ready to pull out all the stops at ComicCon this year (Playable Skyward Sword!). It is interesting to see the Wii-U absent from the equation, but even at that, there is no doubt Nintendo’s booth is sure to be a popular one.
Nintendo Gaming Lounge for Comic-Con attendees will be located in the San Diego Ballroom at the Marriott Marquis & Marina at 333 W. Harbor Drive, adjacent to the San Diego Convention Center (booth #5135)
If you’ve been following Ignition’s El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron then you should have known that the game was meant to be released at the end of this month on July 26th, but unfortunately that won’t be the case anymore. After discovering that the game had been listed for August 16th on GameFly‘s rental schedule we contacted the company as to why this could be.
They responded saying that the game has indeed been pushed back to an August 16th release and the reason for it was that they had encountered “Unforeseen logistical issues.” This news is a bit surprising for a full delay, considering the game was only two weeks from release. Those in Europe will be happy to know however that the release date for the PAL version of the game is still set for September 9th and they shouldn’t experience any delay.
If you were hoping that one of the game’s that Ubisoft is working on for the Wii U was going to be a port of Assassin’s Creed: Revelations then you will soon be disappointed because Yves Guillemot, head of Ubisoft says that it isn’t going to be that.
Swedish website AftonBladet.se had an interview with Guillemot and in this interview Guillemot says that the Wii U Assassin’s Creed title is “not Revelations” but something different. He simply says that it will be something in “the future” which could mean that they are going to be working on the next Assassin’s Creed already. Maybe we will finally see an Assassin’s Creed 3 instead of more iterations of 2.
Feeling the itch to play some Final Fantasy Tactics but don’t want to dig out your PlayStation 1 disc, or have lost it in the many years since its release? How about dusting off that PSP Go? Because the PlayStation Blog revealed that Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions will be released onto the PSN tomorrow.
This means that you can download the game’s PSP version and play it to your hearts content after tomorrow. The game will have new cutscenes, items and characters that weren’t in the original version. Unfortunately this news doesn’t come as a huge announcement, simply due to the fact that the game itself is already available in UMD format and can be purchased for around $10 at most stores.
Fans of the Call of Juarez series have probably had The Cartel in their sights ever since the game was announced earlier this year, but it seems at least some of these fans will be missing their mark. This is because, although the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game will be released tomorrow, the PC release of the title has slipped into September 13th.
This move went unannounced by Ubisoft so far, though Valve’s Steam service as well as Amazon.com have placed the PC version of the game’s release back nearly a month. We’ve contacted Ubisoft to see why the delay has come about and also why they have decided to withhold any announcement regarding the delay.
The second of the Nabeshin panels was held at one of the Bayside Gallery rooms which overlooks Darling Harbour with Sydney’s skyline in the backdrop. A moderately sized room with a great view, perfect for a fun panel with Nabeshin! This second panel was less structured than the first and mainly consisted of fans asking him questions. The panel should have probably been re-named to “Up close and personal: a Q&A with Shinichi Watanabe!” Why up close and personal?
Well Nabeshin basically talked about anything and everything that came to him. There were mentions of women’s panties (I think that was from the first panel actually), his constant invites to his hotel room, invitations to be your boyfriend (sorry guys, girls only!) and the maintenance of his awesome afro!
Watanabe, best known for directing anime such as Excel Saga and Puni Puni Poemy, entered the stage with “Yeahs!” to get the crowd going!
The first question was about his nickname Nabeshin coming to him from the gods. He said that he likes his nickname very much and it came from a god with no responsibilities and that he’s the only one called Nabeshin in Japan – a big thanks to, Shin, who was Nabeshin’s translator. Without him, all of us non-Japanese speakers would have been left out in the woods!
This article would be pages and pages long if I transcribe the whole 58 minute interview so here are the highlights:
*When asked if he could sing the afro song from Excel Saga, he replied with “Since I’m a voice actor, if you want to see me singing, you have to pay for it! As you know it’s pricey! But if you guys pay us $300 each, I’ll sing! Anyone?” silence in the crowd, “$100?” still silence, “How about $50 and I’ll sing? $10?” There was laughter and he sang an excerpt in the song anyway!
*A female attendee asked him if his sunglasses were Ray-Bans and that if she could have it. He answered, “Yes you’re right they’re from Ray-Bans. These sunglasses I’m wearing now I bought it with a 1000 yen, which is $10, in Tokyo, so you can buy it instead of giving it to you! Even if it’s only $10, since I’m wearing it, it’s more valuable. Even if it’s kind of precious, I’d like to auction it now! I’m gonna start with $7 000! You wanna
buy it?”
*When asked if he has a girlfriend, he responded with, “I’ve got 100 girlfriends, that’s it for now. If you want to do this you can be my girlfriend!” He then told her that he can be in a boyfriend/girlfriend triangle relationship [pertaining to her male companion]. Next he asked, “In the first place, do you really want me to be your boyfriend?” She replies with “Daijoubu desu (it’s alright).” This prompted him to ask “Do you mean you hate me? What if your boyfriend dies now, will you be my girlfriend? Does anyone here want to be my girlfriend?”
*A guy asks him, “What’s the secret behind your beautiful afro?” “It’s top secret because if I tell you guys, you will take my hairstyle… I don’t want anyone to get my hairstyle. But do you want to get afro hairstyle? You can come to my hotel tonight so I can teach you! I was just kidding, please don’t come!”
*The host of the Q&A panel, I think his name was He-chan, asked Nabeshin what he thought of Australia. Nabeshin replied, “No offence, but when I came to Australia for the first time, I didn’t know that this country is full of discrimination. Why can’t I hug koala? Why can’t I touch koala? It doesn’t make sense to me, because I’m paying for it to enter the zoo, so why can’t I take photo or touch koala or that kind of stuff? And then why is it ok for kangaroo? Besides, in the café over there yesterday, I had the meat of kangaroo, so why koala cannot be touched or eaten but kangaroos are ok? I don’t understand! So in terms of ranking it’s koala, people then kangaroo!”
*What do you think about American comics? “Even though I don’t know about American animation much but I think I American comic animation is more direct in a sense. So as for American animation the idea is pretty simple; what’s cool is cool, what’s fun is fun, and what’s scary is scary. But in terms of Japanese animation, the whole itself includes the implication of what IS cool and vice versa; so American animation has a sort of powerfulness whereas Japanese animation is more like technique.”
To wrap things up, Nabeshin, showed us his famous Nabehameha which is his version of Dragon Ball Z’s Kamehameha, and got the audience to do it with him!
Nabeshin was awesome to listen to! He’s spontaneous and has a quirky yet funny sense of humour. He tried to get what seemed like a non-responsive audience (for most of the time), involved. He did a great job entertaining us with his interesting anecdotes and funny jokes. The host did a good job too. He tried to keep the questions going; asking questions he thought of himself to give more time for the audience to think, and lastly, Shin, without you, most of us there wouldn’t have understood a thing! Before SMASH! 2011, I didn’t really know much about Shinichi “Nabeshin” Watanabe. After sitting through two of his panels, his charisma and personality won me over and now I consider myself as a budding fan!
I ended up attending his signing to get a Nabeshin artefact for myself!
So those who did go should know how it was already but if you were just wondering how others felt or maybe if you didn’t go and are wondering what is there and if it’s worth going to next year you should really read below.
I loved Smash, especially with all the new space but let’s just not take my own word for it. Here is what other people had to say:
1. What did you come to Smash for?
• To observe the anime/manga community and to reassure myself that I am not the only nerd in Sydney. – Flem
• Porking babes. – Link
• Do media stuff and meet LK. Also catch up with friends and the like. – Link
• To hang out with my friends, and check out the Gundam shows and workshops. – Spike
• The experience, work. – Matt Vella
• To see all the GREAT COS PLAY outfits – Phil
• Media shit and to meet all Capsule crew in the flesh for the first time, was good and sexy. – Luke
2. How have you liked this convention?
• Fantastic venue and well organised, but not entertaining, only because there wasn’t anything particularly interesting to purchase – Flem
• This was my favourite convention this year. OK, maybe equal to Armageddon. – Spike
• Loved it! – Matt Vella
• SMASH was probably the best convention this year !! Very well organized the staff were well trained and knew what they were doing.- Phil
• In all my years of convention going (since 2k4) this is probably the best one I’ve attended. – Link
• It was also good and sexy. – Luke
3. What was the best thing about this convention?
• The Professional Photo Booth – Aura
• Events for the fans to interact with. Limiting special guests I think worked in its favour. –Spike
• Organization. – Matt Vella
• COS PLAY !!! We had some amazing outfits this year!- Phil
• Easily my interview with LK. – Link
• I loved the organisation and the location, bloody brilliant also it was good and sexy. – Luke
4. What was the worst thing about this convention?
• Not enough time to do everything we wanted to! I wish it ran a little longer, or perhaps over 2 days. – Spike
• Lack of food stalls inside. – Matt Vella
• Probably lack of access to decent foods, or themed foods. – Link
• I’m sorry I had to say it, but the MAID CAFE was really really bad, I just go back from Japan and this Maid Cafe was nothing like the ones in Japan. – Phil
• Not enough food outlets. – Luke
5. What do you think of the price of the ticket?
• Perfectly reasonable. I liked paying for those badge passes. 🙂 – Spike
• Good. – Matt Vella
• Ahh Media Passes are great = FREE 😉 – Phil
• Pretty reasonable considering the quality. – Link
• Reasonable. – Luke
6. What do you think about the venue?
• Big and great for the number of people – Aura
• Perfect size for the number of people that attended. – Spike
• Perfect! – Matt Vella
• Excellent location easy for everyone to get to without too much hassle.- Phil
• Loved it! – Link
• It was good and sexy. – Luke
7. How was this convention compared to other conventions?
• Equal in greatness to Armageddon this year. Oddly, I found the smaller the better this year. 🙂 – Spike
• Better 🙂 – Matt Vella
• SMASH in my honest opinion was the best one this year, yes it was the smallest but it had a more personal touch and feel to it. I felt like all warm and fuzzy inside when I was walking around. I didn’t want it to end 😉 – Phil
• As stated in number 2. – Link
• It was personally the best convention I have ever attended. – Luke
8. What was your favourite stall?
• Anime at Abbotsford – Aura
• Zombster and Madman. – Spike
• The Japan Foundation.- Phil
• @Anime atAbbotsford – Link
• I personally really liked a cute little stall called Hondarake – Full of Books, I picked up some really check manga there, loved it. – Luke
9. What was your favourite moment of the convention?
• Littlekuriboh events. – Spike
• Cosplay Competition, SF comp, Panels. – Matt Vella
• The COS Play Competition. Very well Organzied- Phil
Believe it or not folks, there is actually a World Cup for Model Kit Construction. This year at Sydney’s SMASH! 2011, the model builders of Australia got to show off their skills by submitting their works to be admired and judged by a panel of model kit experts. Naturally, as they are the best known internationally, the model kits used The best efforts would be rewarded with prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd placements in an one of five categories with five 1st place prizes to be given out in total, two of which included a round trip to Hong Kong for the Bandai World Cup Finals. The categories were as follows:
Close up of Unicorn Gundam
Open Category: The “anything goes” category which allows builders to fully customise their Gundams or mobile suits, include extra scratch built parts, and diorama construction for people over 15 years of age.
Junior Category: The same as the open category, but for builders under 15 years of age.
Best BB/SD Gundam: For the out-of-proportion model kits that are famous from the Brave Battle Warriors anime series.
Best 1/144 High Grade: For best construction of a stock standard model kit of 1/144 HG quality. Colour customisation allowed.
Best 1/100 No Grade/Master Grade: For best construction of a stock standard model kit of 1/100 NG/MG quality. Colour customisation allowed.
A VERY cleverly customised Z’GOK built to look like a certain bear…
Although the model kits were being shown off to critics and fellow model kit builders, there’s no doubt that the builders would relish the opportunity to simply have their works shown off in a public forum such as the SMASH! convention. The layout of the competition display was VERY cool, and I would personally like to give all of those model builders a pat on the back for their hard work. Every single one of them that was displayed was a work of art. Kudos to you.
Ultimately, the competition was won in the Open Category by a VERY well customised 1/60 scale DOM mobile suit, from the original ‘Mobile Suit Gundam’ anime. Congradulations to the builder! Your victory was well earned.
This year, the SMASH convention clearly aimed to be bigger and better than ever. And we were not disappointed! There was plenty of anime, manga, gaming and general nerd lovin’ to go around over the entire day. However, for those amongst us who wanted to try something a little different from just watching, reading and playing, a number of events and workshops were made available to the public, free of charge! The Gundam Building Workshop, sponsored by Hobbyco offered fans of every kind the chance to dive into the world of constructing miniature model kits, direct from Japan.
Event sponsored by Hobbyco
While you had to register for a time in which to enter, this free event provided everyone who attended with a free mobile suit model kit, use of a basic modelling toolset and a mentor to assist those of all skills. The mentors provided very helpful advice to those who had never constructed a Gundam before, as well as tips for more intermediate builders looking to further their skills. Each session ran half an hour long. Not long enough to completely finish the model kits provided, but just enough to get people started. Even so, it was still fun to be able to see how Gundams come together when properly built. Building these model kits, or “Gunpla” as they are know in Japan required no glue or adhesives of any kind. The success of these models as a collectible hobby item is perpetuated by the easy assembly and accuracy to detail of the mobile suits.
Virtue Gundam, which I got to build!
As a huge follower of the Gundam anime series, as well as many popular Mech-animes in general, visiting this workshop was a must for me. Admittedly, I have built numerous Gundam and Zoids models in the past, as was in need of no instruction, although I was very helpfully advised on the proper way to apply the VERY VERY small stickers to the right places. Since I was fortunate enough to register in a morning session of building, the free model kit I received was a First Grade 1/144 scale Virtue Gundam, from the Gundam 00 series. Those who got in early definitely got away with the better mobile suit model. After we had left, I saw that the groups to follow were only going to be getting the much lower quality 1/144 Blue-Frame-Astray Gundam from Gundam SEED: ASTRAY. Truth be told, I’m much happier with the Virtue Gundam I obtained. 🙂 Regardless of whether or not you’re a fan of mech anime, if you were an anime fan that was part of this workshop, you would not regret it. Seriously, for those who have not, make sure you catch it next time!
When going to conventions, you’ll easily spot hundreds of attendees dressed up from all things fiction, whether it be characters from movies to television series, books to video games, anime to manga. Cosplay is one of the activities many convention goers love to take part in. It’s fun and cosplaying at conventions enables cosplayers to meet and be with other people who share their interest in cosplay! The first time I ever attended a convention a couple of years ago, I had no knowledge of cosplay. I didn’t even know people dressed up as characters from the fictional world for fun! I was so surprised and excited when I saw legions of people bringing my favourite anime and video game characters to life!
SMASH! 2011 was filled with vibrant colours and designs. While the convention attendees were lining up, waiting to get in, I took the opportunity to interview a couple of cosplayers to give us an insight on cosplay.
First up we have Deborah and Katie who cosplayed as Russia from Axis Powers Hetalia and Watari Yutaka from Yami no Matsuei, respectively.
When did you guys start cosplaying?
Katie: Probably four or five years ago when I started university and started going to conventions
Deborah: I think it was about three years ago but this is actually only my second costume so it’s been a big gap for me.
What got you into cosplaying?
Katie: um… I dunno, I really like dressing up, and dressing up for anime is heaps of fun coz there’s a huge community to join in with
Deborah: I like sewing, it’d fun. I didn’t actually sew this one [the costume], my friend did, but I like sewing so it’s fun to make the costumes, then I get to wear them which is also fun.
Did you make your costumes?
Katie: Mine’s sort of pieced together from what I’ve had around.
Deborah: My friend’s made the costume for me so I didn’t make this year’s one sadly.
Do you have a dream cosplay?
Deborah: Lightning from Final Fantasy 13!
Katie: Oh, that’s hard. Maybe… part of me wants to cosplay as the Dark Magician Girl from Yu-Gi-Oh! but it’s a bit revealing and I don’t have the self confidence to do it.
And lastly is there anything you’d like to say about your cosplays?
Deborah: um… I don’t know what to say. I’m looking forward to finding other Hetalia characters. It’s going to be fun.
Katie: It’s gonna be interesting… my character is from a pretty old anime. It’ll be interesting to see if anybody actually recognises the character.
–
Next we have Tricia, who was in character when I interviewed her. When I asked what her name was, she replied “Yuna from the Besaid Island!”
What can you tell us about your cosplay?
The character I’ve chosen is from a video game that I like to play. I’ve spent a lot of time with this character while I was playing this game and I really liked her. While I was playing the game I thought she was a really good main character so I picked her to dress up as.
This is the first time you’re cosplaying right? What made you decide to cosplay?
I’ve been to a couple of couple of the cosplay events before and I really love watching everybody in their costumes and I thought I’m gonna be a part of that this time so here we are all dressed up!
Can you tell us about a dream cosplay that you’d like to do?
Um… we haven’t really discussed the cosplay that we’re going to do in the future yet but there’s definitely going to be more costumes and a lot more fun and more events for us [referring to her friend Jesssica].
–
Now we have Tricia’s friend, Jessica, who cosplayed as the popular Miku Hatsune from Vocaloid!
What can you tell us about your cosplay?
I’m Miku Hatsune from Vocaloid and basically I went online trying to find an outfit and thought it looked cool so I got that one.
Is this also your first time cosplaying [referring to Tricia]?
Yes, very first to any convention and definitely the first time I got dressed up for one.
Why did you decide to dress up as Miku?
Um… I like the look of the outfit. I very much like all the sort of cute looking anime characters. It was either that or Sakura from Cardcaptors but Trish thought I looked too much like a little girl so Miku it was!
Is there a cosplay that you’d like to do in the future?
Yes, I don’t know what they are, but I’ll definitely be in another one with a slammin’ outfit for that too!
–
Up next is Karla who was interview-shy but participated anyway! Thanks Karla! She dressed up as Aerith from Final Fantasy 7.
What made you choose to cosplay Aerith?
She’s one of my favourite characters of all time and I just really loved her character so much above everyone else.
Did you make your cosplay?
No I have no skill in sewing so if I was to this would have not happened!
Have you cosplayed before?
Yes, I cosplayed last year.
And what made you think of cosplaying?
I used to see it all the time over the internet and I just really wanted to do it, like so much!
And lastly is there a dream cosplay that you’d like to do someday?
One day I want to cosplay as England from Hetalia.
–
And lastly, we have Gloria, cosplaying as Grell Sutcliff, from Black Butler.
And why did you pick this character?
Because he’s really eccentric and he’s really out there.
What made you think of cosplaying?
It really looks like fun and I just see a lot of photos about people cosplaying.
Did you make your own costume?
No, I had to buy and assemble em together.
And do you have a dream cosplay?
I want to cosplay as Stocking from Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt.
–
I haven’t heard of Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt so I googled it up and found that it’s about sisters called Panty and Stocking who were kicked out of heaven and have powers like being able to transform their stockings and underwear into powerful weapons! What a fascinating concept!
A shout of thanks to Deborah, Katie, Tricia, Jessica, Karla and Gloria! You guys were awesome!
