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SMASH! 2011 Interviews from the Artist Circle

July 18, 2011

SMASH! brings artists from all over Australia to exhibit their creative works. It was great to have a chat with some of them to tell us about their work and their tips for all of you aspiring artists!

First up, we have the sleepy Kurimja!

What can you tell us about your work?

I’m just an amateur freelance artist. I’m still in uni but I just do it for fun and I’ve been coming to smash pretty much since 2008 continuously so I’m quite fun of the con.

How long have you been doing this for?

Doing art?

Yep.

I’ve never actually studied it. It’s just been a hobby of mine since as long as I can remember.

What made you want to do it?

It’s fun! *laughs*

What are your influences?

It started off with mainly Japanese manga and anime and it shifted more to Korean online games and concept art – that kind of thing.

What are your tips for aspiring artists?

Always look around for influences – never stick to the how to draw manga books – they will not get you far. If possible try not to sneer at fandoms because there’s a reason why those series get popular. If you just look at the art styles and stuff the more intake you get, it doesn’t matter if it’s nouveau, art nouveau, or manga, you’re still going to get lots of influence and in the end it’s gonna help you a lot in developing as an artist.

Can you tell us about any future projects you’re working on?

Me and my friend are planning to make an artbook slash recipe book where we’re going to base concept characters on desserts and coffees and teas and the like, while including the recipes on how to make them for a little bit of fun.

And is there anything else you’d like to say?

Not in particular, no, I’ve been up since 5 in the morning so I’m a bit dead! *laughs*

I hope you had a good rest after the convention! For more info on Kurimja, visit her website on www.kurimja.deviantart.com

–

Next is Elizabeth of Bloody Blue Rose

What can you tell us about your work Elizabeth?

It’s not really work. I’ve never seen it as work. It’s always been a hobby for me you know. It’s something that I enjoy doing, and something that gives me freedom to express myself so it’s not really work, it’s just enjoyment, fun, that kind of thing. I guess it is work as well.

How long have you been doing this?

I think since I was fourteen. I started like sketching at fourteen but I didn’t actually start properly CGing until 2007. That was actually funny enough the first year I actually did smash and had my first artist table and decided I need to improve and stuff. So yeah , I’ve been doing it for quite a while.

What media do you use?

I use mostly Photoshop CS5 for my digital CGing. For sketching, I sometimes sketch digitally or use my artbook.

What has inspired you to create artworks such as these?

A lot of things. I like to take inspirations from the world around me, from other artists, sometimes even from music as well. So, you get inspiration from a lot of places.

Can you give any specifics regarding influences?

A lot of deviant artists. I’m trying to think of all the ones, their names, their user names, but um… yeah usually a lot of like deviantart artists influence me like a lot of the ones that have really progressed to a certain stage where you see them and their art just really amazes you. Umm… other than that, sometimes a lot of nature areas coz I live near a park so there’s a lot of nature areas there. Sometimes I go down there and you know sit down and just look around me, you know observe the nature, see how it looks, how it’s formed in its natural surrounding and areas, yeah. Mostly from artists of deviant art and actually seeing physically with my own eyes.

And are there any future projects that you’re working on?

Future projects… doing smash next year again! Not really at the moment, I did have a big calendar project but it’s been put on hold for the moment because I’ve started school again so it’s hard to get in enough hours of time to do like 24 pictures and still be able to study for school and stuff. So yeah, at the moment no projects.

Is there anything else you’d like to say?

I love smash!

We, here at Capsule Computers love SMASH! too!

Visit www.dragon-goddess.deviantart.com for more info on Elizabeth!

–

Now we have Dean, from Sasu, who came all the way from Melbourne just for SMASH!

Would you be able to tell us about what Sasu does?

Just basically your fan art to sell and go to uni, that sort of thing. It’s just a nickname, Sasu.

How long have you been doing this?

Selling, first year, drawing fan art maybe [for about] five or six years.

What got you into doing fan arts?

I’ve seen quite a few nice ones on DA [DeviantArt] and I just decided I want to share my love for series as well so I started drawing.

Is there anything particular, like fandoms that you like doing?

Kingdom Hearts, I like drawing a lot. Ao no Exorcist, that sort of thing. That’s it.

Who are your influences?

A lot of DA artists like [simicon/simikun?], ZuZuMoo, doubleleaf; there’s a whole list that influence me from DA.

Do you have any tips for aspiring artists?

Never give up, keep practicing. Just practice, practice, practice, and eventually you’ll get to where you want to be.

Are there any projects that you’ll be working on?

I’m working on a comic called Waiting. It’s based on Kingdom Hearts, and I should be releasing the first volume early next year.

And out of your products which is like the best selling?

These bookmarks here, the Ao no Exorcist ones.

And is there anything that you’d like to say?

Not particularly *giggles*

Visit www.tehsasu.deviantart.com for more info on Dean

–

And lastly here’s Jeremy from Red Ape

First of all Jeremy, what can you tell us about your work?

My work in general, um… it’s pretty much, we do everything. From anime to storyboards, from you know for ad agencies, more on the realistic, less stylized side. We do a lot of 3D animation. So basically what we’re at Red Ape is that we’re a media boutique. We cater to anyone. Whatever you need, we’ll be able to like manage for you. So if you guys want pictures for a storybook, we can draw it. If you want a 3D bear, we can work it off for you. If you want to do a commercial from us, so long as we get paid for it we’ll be happy to do it.

How long have you been doing this?

I’ve been doing this for all my life. I started sketching ever since I was old enough to hold a pen. I started drawing anime when I was 13, but you know when you’re in high school you don’t really take this seriously enough for like being “alright I’ll be doing this for the rest of my life”. I took it seriously when I was 18 finishing high school being “alright now what am I gonna do for the rest of my life?”. And I figured illustration is awesome. I have fun. I love doing the work that I do, might as well turn it into a career and here I am working at Red Ape.

How did you get into Red Apes?

Basically like any other job, you basically show your resume. My boss, I guess he has a keen eye for like talent. So you just basically got to be good at drawing, got a passion for it. Well I applied and here I am!

Who are your influences?

Well one of my influences is would have to be Musahashi Kishimoto, the author for Naruto. A lot of my work derives from his style. It’s so awesome. I grew up reading the manga and watching the anime. Before that would have to be Akira Toriyama, like you know from Dragon Ball Z. Again I used to watch it with my dad so those two artists, they really come to mind whenever I think about anime and manga.

Do you have any tips for aspiring artists?

I’m gonna have to like be really blunt but basically if you’re passionate about what you do, don’t make excuses by procrastinating. If you’re fully committed into like creating the best works of art, then do it, fully commit to it and don’t make any excuses not to do it. Coz talent can only get you so far, it takes a lot of commitment and dedication.

Can you tell us about any future projects?

As for commercial stuff I’m not allowed to say that, we do have a confidentiality agreement but there is a lot of work to be done in regards to the ad agency. In regards to personal work, in about a month’s time we’ll be releasing an animation based on one of my comics that I’m selling for SMASH! It’s called Battery Operated. If you go on to the site redape.com.au you can check it out in a month’s time.

And is there anything else you’d like to say?

You guys rock!

–

Thanks Jeremy, we try our best to rock!

For more info on Red Ape and Jeremy’s comic Battery Operated, visit www.redape.com.au

A huge thank you shout out to Kurimja, Elizabeth, Dean and Jeremy for taking the time to speak with me!

Check out the rest of our coverage of SMASH here

SMASH! 2011 Interviews with JAUWS and AnimeMQ

Jorel Alvarez

July 18, 2011

SMASH! 2011 Interviews with JAUWS and AnimeMQ

Like the anime clubs from Genshiken, real-life anime clubs can be considered as great organizations where friends can indulge themselves in everything anime, manga, gaming and Japanese pop-culture in general. They’re a great social meeting with fellow anime fans especially when the next anime convention is months away. It’s a great relief from all the uni work where you can just come in after a long lesson and watch anime with friends. At SMASH! 2011, five anime clubs exhibited themselves to promote their organisations and creative works. I was able to talk with Sean, the president of JAUWS, the University of Western Sydney’s anime club, and Ken from the Macquarie University anime club, AnimeMQ.

First up JAUWS president, Sean.

Sean with club members Jana and Sam

Sean what can you tell us about your anime club?

We’re pretty much the oldest student club at UWS and one of the oldest anime clubs around. We’re actually 15 this year. We’ve been around for 15 years yeah. As far as the club itself, we’re mostly just a small group of friends who get together to watch anime, play games, just generally hang out and have fun.

Would you be able to give us more detail about the activities you do in the club?

We hold screenings, usually twice a week. We do games days at least once a semester, depending on availabilities of people with consoles all that sort of stuff. We have big outings to go see especially nerdy movies

What kind of movies?

Like Thor, we went and saw Thor that was good. Pirates of the Caribbean, Iron Man. We were gonna do a Harry Potter one but then everyone sort of went off on their own and saw it already.

You mention video games, we specialise in video games so what kind of games do you guys play?

Everything and anything pretty much. Except for sport sims, that’s basically the only stuff we don’t play.

How about the anime screenings you have. Is there a particular genre that you guys favour?

Not as such, but I’m a big mecha fan myself so sometimes it does lean towards more of the mecha stuff when I’m left in control to just pick the series

How do you become a member of JAWS?

Just either send us an email or go to our website and just fill in a membership form.

Do you have to be part of the University of Western Sydney?

No it’s open for everyone. Anyone’s welcome to join.

And what are the benefits for joining the club?

There used to be a membership fee, but we’ve abolished the membership fee, so basically the membership is you just basically go on our mailing list so that you’ll always like be up to date with what’s goping on and all that sort of stuff. Screenings, we’re open to just about anyone anyway, your free to come in whether you’re a member or not. Actual members get to sort of go to the conventions and work the tables and just basically get into the convention for free.

And what can you tell us about your products here?

We sell mostly sort of anime and internet related badges and stickers. We also – sometimes we get good artists in the club so some of the bigger conventions we’ll get an extra table and we’ll have them basically doing commissions on the table.

Do you get specific group of people doing the badges or anyone can do it?

Anyone can do it really. I usually get stuck doing it in the last minute. Today I’ve had most of the staff here have been rotating doing the pressing of the badges and getting that ready. As far as designing them, everyone in the club just chips in with different designs and ideas that they come up with.

With the money raised from selling the product, what do you guys use them for?

The money goes to cover room hire for games days and such. Last year we couldn’t get a room with the uni because there was some issues and we just rented a hall. The club laptop, like the funds to get that comes out of like what we make here, and to just generally continuing to get to conventions. The money from the convention goes to get us to the next convention, just basically to get our presence out there.

And what do you think of SMASH! 2011?

It’s been really good. I probably shouldn’t bad-mouth SMASH! 2010 but things went wrong. This year things have gone really right. It has just been absolutely fantastic. The venue is brilliant. I am just absolutely loving it!

And is there anything else you’d like to say?

Not really *laughs* I’ve had like an hour’s sleep so my mind’s not working too well at the moment.

For more info on the JAUWS, visit www.jauws.org

–

Here’s Ken from AnimeMQ

What can you tell us about your club?

Well we’re kind of situated at Macquarie University so we’re a pretty small club compared to some other ones like Sydney Uni. Because we’re not really in the city, we do other things mainly at the campus so like marathons, plan parties and all sorts of things.

Do you know when this anime club was formed?

Not too sure, but we should have at least about 10 years behind us.

Do you cover a particular genre in regards to anime or do you like cater for all?

We’re very free like, happy to show any kind of anime.

Can you tell us in more detail about the things you do in the club?

Screenings we normally just watch anime during like lunchbreaks; marathons we book a room and we watch from like 9am to 6pm; and we have LAN parties. LAN parties are dealt with other groups so we have yeah, games, all sorts of games as well. And normally we have to try organise other parties like small things; picnics, karaoke nights, bowling. And then we also have – at the moment we have – we might be organising a cruise with another society at our university, the Japanese Society. So we have very close ties with our Japanese Society in our uni so we’re organizing a big cruise and then of course at the end of the year we’ll be having a big Christmas party with all the other universities.

How do you become a member of Anime MQ?

Basically they just come during our O-Week, or the university week, and just sign up there. The membership fee is 5 dollars only but it covers all the [?] and the lunch library and screenings so just come during our university week and then you just sign up from there.

Can you tell us about the products you’re selling at the moment?

Well we’ve been working on badges. Our main attraction is the1 pokemon badges, and we did sell these little nyan cat phone straps which sold out almost instantly. We always like trying something different. So yeah at the moment, pokemon, and the badges – all kinds. We have from Shugo Chara and [The] World Ends With You which is a DS game.

And how are you enjoying SMASH 2011?

I think it’s great. I’ve been to most SMASH!es and I thinkit’s probably one of my favourites because the place is good, it’s good location and there seems to be a lot of open space for everyone. It’s quite good yeah.

And is there anything else you’d like to say?

I dunno *laughs* I hope everyone can come and support the clubs and the vendors and yeah, thank you.

For more info on AnimeMQ visit www.animemq.com

A big thank you to Sean and Ken for taking the time to speak with me!

Check out the rest of the SMASH coverage here

Jonah Lomu Rugby Challenge announced for Xbox 360, PS3, PS Vita, PC

Jack Joly

July 18, 2011

Jonah Lomu Rugby Challenge announced for Xbox 360, PS3, PS Vita, PC

In a crazy turn of events, given that only a few weeks ago I revisited the classic Jonah Lomu Rugby and said how it was overdue a reboot in our What we are playing this week segment, Home Entertainment Suppliers Ply Ltd have revealed that they are bringing Jonah Lomu Rugby Challenge to Xbox 360, PS3, PS Vita and PC. It’s in development at New Zealand-based studio Sidhe and has secured the licenses of the major European rugby union leagues Aviva Premiership Rugby, TOP 14 Orange, and RaboDirect PRO12, which should make the playing experience all the sweeter.

The game will be released in Europe as Jonah Lomu Rugby Challenge, All Blacks Rugby Challenge in New Zealand, and Wallabies Rugby Challenge in Australia, with a rough Q3 2011 penciled in for the game at the moment.

The features and content of Jonah Lomu Rugby Challenge include:

•   Play in Single Match Mode, Competition Mode, and multi year Career Mode as well as extensive help and Tutorial Mode options available for players new to the sport
•   93 teams and 31 stadia featured including official team and competition licenses for the All Blacks, the Qantas Wallabies, the USA Eagles, Tri Nations, Bledisloe Cup, Super Rugby teams, Aviva Premiership Rugby, TOP 14 Orange, RaboDirect PRO12, ITM Cup, and Ranfurly Shield
•   Enjoy the game with groups of friends locally, or compete in online multiplayer with support up to 4v4 via PlayStation®Network, Xbox LIVE®, or Steam
•   Create or customise players, teams, and competitions using the extensive customisation tools to shape the game to your own preferences and keep the game fresh season after season
•   Dynamic presentation delivers a true on-field rugby experience with enhanced replay angles, lifelike cut-scenes, rich sound, and real-time commentary from seasoned rugby commentators Grant Nisbett and Justin Marshall

The Secret World Screens

Jared Hilliers

July 18, 2011

Remember Age of Conan, anyone? Well The Secret World is funcom’s next big MMO and it’s coming out either sometime this year or next, the release date is rather broad and unconfirmed, but it is an MMO. The games been in development for quite a few years now, it’s a big project and will get a release on the 360 as well. The Secret World is attempting to give players “Freedom of progression” to play the game their own way, including taking away the standard class and level system. However factions still exist – Illuminati, Dragons and the Templars, it should be interesting once it’s finally released, the industry needs something fresh in the MMO market. Check out the screens!

Batman Arkhum City Two-Face Character Bio Unveiled

Roger Ma

July 18, 2011

The first piece of Two-Face’s official artwork for Batman: Arkhum City has today been released by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Rocksteady Studios. ‘Good guy turned bad’ Two-Face aka Harvey Dent is one of Batman’s most infamous villain. Batman Arkham City, the sequel to 2009’s Batman: Arkham Asylum, is set in a part of Gotham City that has been transformed in to a new maximum security prison. Two-Face will take on a much larger villainous role in this game, which might explain his absents from Arkham Asylum where he was given no more than a brief cameo.

TWO-FACE
Real Name: Harvey Dent
Alias: TWO-FACE
Occupation: Professional Criminal
Base: Gotham City
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Brown/Grey
Height: 6 ft
Weight: 182 lb
First Appearance: Detective Comics #66 (August 1942)
Attribute 01: Hideously scarred on the left half of his face, which he plays up with clothing that’s differently styled on one side
Attribute 02: Extremely skilled with his weapons of choice: twin .45 automatics
Attribute 03: Psychotic obsession with duality, designing crimes around the number two
Attribute 04: Defers to his half-scarred coin in choices of life or death
Background Story: District Attorney Harvey Dent was one of Batman’s strongest allies in Gotham City, until a criminal threw acid in Dent’s face, hideously scarring him. The wounds fractured his psyche, and he was reborn Two-Face, a schizoid criminal mastermind obsessed with duality. His former good-luck charm, a “two-headed” trick silver dollar, was damaged on one side in the attack, and Dent has seized on it as a reflection of his half-scarred visage. He flips it to decide the fates of his victims. Two-Face is thriving in Arkham City, rallying inmates to join his gang using tried and true campaign tactics.

Batman: Arkham City is set to be released on October 19^th and 18^th in North American and Australia respectively for Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC and Wii U.

SMASH! 2011:Recap By Matt Vella

Matthew Vella

July 18, 2011

SMASH! 2011 was INSANE this year! After last year’s venue selling out and reaching maximum capacity, you can tell the organisers knew they were going to have to step things up, and oh man, these guys brought their A game! They put together an outstanding atmosphere for anime and manga lovers alike. It was organised nicely and everything seemed to go to plan. Here’s a quick recap of my experience for all those suckers who missed out, and for anyone who may of caught amnesia somehow since yesterday and may of forgotten the epic time they had on Saturday!

I can’t help but wonder why Pedobear has not been arrested for molesting children…and me. 🙁

From my experience the staff was both friendly and helpful, and it wasn’t hard to find a crew member to ask a question. The special guests were also friendly and super passionate and eager to answer any questions fired their way, and the attendees…oh man! Filled with otaku, hyper fanboys and fangirls, rushing back and forth for photographs and socialising. Everybody shined in their own particular way, and it was filled with excitement and things to do. One of the greatest things I enjoyed about SMASH! 2011 was the attention to detail and how they knew what to deliver to the audience they had.

I’veheard this guy is really good at boxing!

Although pop culture is clearly getting more popular in recent years, everything at SMASH! seemed to be targeted at the hardcore audience and not the wannabes who just came there because they saw an episode of Pokemon or Dragonball Z that one time. I mean, just look at the special guests! First we had Shinichi ‘Nabeshin’ Watanabe known for Excel Saga and Puni Puni Poemy, who did a live dub in Japanese! Then we had Kenji Ito and Hiroki Kikuta, two Japanese composers known for their Square Enix works who mostly spoke of composing in Midi for the Super Nintendo, and then we had Little Kuriboh, who is known for just re-dubbing and editing episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh in his works, Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series. The night came to a close with Eminence and Mari Yoshida preforming their Memories of Fantasia concert, preforming compositions from various film, animation and video games. The entire convention held NOTHING about Twilight or Harry Potter was seen at all. Perfect!

This was my personal favourite. This was made from scratch. WOW!

After greeting some cosplayers with my epic pink microphone (which wasn’t plugged into anything!) I quickly ran to grab a seat for Kenji Ito and Hiroki Kikuta where Hiroaki Yura, the founder of Eminence Symphony Orchestra, talked to us about his experience as a composer, and showed us some music he did in Midi for Ace Combatt for PSP, and also spoke about his works on various other titles, including Diablo 3. Next up was Kenji Ito and Hiroki Kikuta, who really gave us a nice look into the world of video game music composition. One particular fact that caught my attention was when Kikuta told us about working with the limitations of the Super Nintendo when he did the classic soundtrack of Secret of Mana. Apparently for a particular whale noise, he recorded a real life whale and used pre-rendered sounds to emulate it.

Akuma cosplayers are often like most rappers: they’re usually white guys wishing they were black.

I didn’t even bother leaving my seat because next up was the Shinichi ‘Nabeshin’ Watanabe Panel. He took the stage in his awesome Nabeshin outfit, and sporting an equally-awesome afro. He did a live dub and showed us footage of his most famous work, Excel Saga. He also informed us that the reason he always dresses like the character Nabeshin, is because it’s not clothes but rather his skin, and he loves to walk around naked. Also, he said his doctor told him to not let boys touch him. The entire panel was more focused on his love for women’s panties and gay jokes rather than his life as an anime director/voice talent, and the laughs were plenty! He also gave some advice to aspiring anime directors: get an afro!

This is what awesome looks like.

Next on the list I checked out the create-a-cast panel. One of the artists pointed to me and said “You with the sunglasses! Pick a word!” First thing I thought was “oh crap! I forgot to take them off since I was outside!” and the second thing was “Turtle!” He then got two other people to say words, which were “Spartan” and “Armadillo”. A Spartan Turtle-Armadillo was then drawn, and it was amazing. I can’t believe I didn’t take a picture! I can’t recall the other two, but one of them was some form of evil cupcake. I also caught a couple of minuets of the Little Kuriboh Panel, and I was blown away! It felt like I was at some sort of rock concert with everybody screaming, and I swear the line to the microphone to ask him questions reminded me of a mosh pit! But I couldn’t stick around for long, I had to go check out the Street Fighter 2 tournament!

There are people who get paid to wear costumes like this and hug people, but at SMASH! people like this guy pay to dress like this and give people hugs.

I caught the first few matches of Street Fighter 2, and it was easy to pick the experienced players from the noobs. I didn’t watch all 64 people duke it out though, I left to check out a little bit of the Madman panel with my fellow editor Luke, and then we had to quickly run to meet the rest of the Capsule Computers crew to make our a scheduled booking at the SMASH! Photo booth. We were one of the many attenedees who grabbed a FREE professional studio photo shoot that looked epic. Well, everyone except MasterAbott of coarse, who couldn’t be found because he was covering the Mario Kart competition which you can see here. The photos turned out pretty awesome though, we even got a shot of me jumping in mid-air, just saying!

I was scared at first to talk to an assasin, but then I figured, when in Rome…

I spent the rest of my day checking back in every now-and-then for the Street Fighter Tournament and checking out the floor and it’s various booths. One in particular that interested me was Parranoia, which is a small Parramatta-based organisation spreading awareness of anime, founded by some students at the University of Western Sydney. Nice! I then checked out the cosplay competition and was blown away by the amount of people that packed out the place. It was huge! There were heaps of creative costumes and hilarious acts, one of which was a dance based on The Idol M@ster 2. The judges were what made the night for me though, they were hilarious and great at hosting the event, and began the night with a parady of aussie hip-hop group Hilltop Hoods’ hit song ‘The Nosebleed Section’. Somebody somewhere was smarter than me and recorded it for youtube, you can see that here.

I don’t know who this girl is, but she can have the key(blade) to my heart.

I didn’t get the chance to catch the winners of the cosplay contest, but I did get the chance to see the final round and meet the winner of the Street Fighter 2 Tournament. Her name was Chyna and cosplayed as Chun Li, even though she played as Guile! You can check out that interview here. I then had a few minuets to leave before the place shut down, so I quickly spoke to a few more cosplayers and got the chance to even meet the winner of the ‘Judge’s pick’ award for the cosplay competition. Her name was Reggie and she cosplayed as Card Captor Sakarua, and she and her costume both looked outstanding!

LinkageAX and I both agree: the judge’s pick of the cosplay competition, Reggie, looks like an angel.

Overall the day was amazing, I hate myself for not being able to stay for the Eminence concert! I did hear however that it was amazing. Overall SMASH 2011 was definitely the most fun I’ve had at a convention in a long time. The atmosphere was great, the staff were nice, the guests were passionate and there was always something to do. The team on the most part well organised and everybody was more than pleased with the venue. Looking VERY forward to next year, where we plan to have more editors and more cameras storming the floor for an even more extensive coverage of SMASH!, so make sure you stick by us, ok? Hope you enjoyed this recap, don’t forget to comment on all our SMASH! articles and tell us about your experiences, and by adding us on Facebook and Twitter! We also have more articles and videos of this year’s convention coming within the next few days so keep an eye out for them! 🙂

On behalf of the entire crew of Capsule Computers, I’d like to thank the entire crew at SMASH! for having us. Can’t wait to see you next year!

Now Im not 100% sure, but Im pretty sure this dude is dude is cosplaying as Jesus from Passion of the Christ. I think.

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

Gameloft 3D Gaming For Android

Kyle Moore

July 17, 2011

While the 3DS has caused a little bit of trouble lately for Nintendo, causing a law suit against the company, Nintendo could be in a little bit more strife with this announcement from mobile gaming giants Gameloft. Owners of Android devices with 3D capabilities are in luck, with Gameloft announcing that they will be releasing 17 3D titles in total for Android devices. Currently there are 6 games out with 3D capabilities: N.O.V.A 3D, Let’s Golf 2 3D, Asphalt 6 3D, Assassins Creed- Altairs Chronicles 3D, Avatar 3D and GT Racing 3D. Like the Nintendo 3DS, these titles work without the use of 3D glasses, and unlike a lot of titles that are released for mobile gaming devices, some of these games are pretty big titles. At the moment these games are starting at $4.99, which isn’t too bad for 3D Assassins Creed if you ask me. Obviously we will have to wait and see what sort of impact this has on the portable 3D gaming market, but I am sad to say it doesn’t sound like great news for Nintendo. The former mentioned titles are currently available at the Gameloft Store.

SMASH! 2011 What I loved

Benjamin Webb

July 17, 2011

I have to say that my experience with SMASH! this year was much better than my experience with SMASH! last year. I don’t mean that negatively either, last years Sydney Manga and Anime SHow (intentional caps) was easily my favorite convention of my entire convention going life (since 2004! missing only 2009).

There was something about this year, and I’m not too sure of what it was, that made this easily the best event I’ve been to. Perhaps it was rediculously good venue? Maybe it was all the awesome attendees? The rediculously good cosplayers? The interesting, yet entertaining, panels? Surely, it could not have been just one of these factors. No, it must have been them all combined with a few others that I couldn’t have realised, but were surely in practice at the convention.

Out Ninjaed by an Android.

The staff at the event were all incredibly professional and the event was handled beautifully. I quite like how they handled the guest speakers especially; giving media a chance to interview them before the event, rather than try and disrupt their timetables within the convention itself.

The way the queues were handled that morning was incredibly well done and efficient, and from my convention going experience, queues can be one of the biggest time-sinks if they’re handled inappropriately. I’m fairly certain they died out pretty early into the conventions lifespan.

Our own Matty Vella with a Code Geass group.

And of course, the cosplay contest was amazingly popular and it was well anchored by the guys hosting it. They had some amazing moments and did their best to make all the cosplayers feel comfortable, as well as trying to push them into causing a little more mayhem than usual, all in the name of fun of course.

Though the one thing that I *really* loved, was the nice passes that were given out to (not only us from the media, or the organisers) everyone who attended the event. These weren’t just cheap wristbands or anything like that, we’re talking tassles and tags. Amazing!

It’s Dante! Bloody Amazing job!

Overall, I’d say that SMASH! 2011 was one of the best conventions within Australia for not only the year, but since 2004 at the very least.

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

SMASH! 2011 Little Kuriboh Panel

Benjamin Webb

July 17, 2011

Little Kuriboh, one of the biggest names in not only the Yu-Gi-Oh! fandom but also the Anime fandom at large, was a guest speaker at SMASH! 2011. His panel was largely entertaining and was filled with all kinds of interesting tid-bits.

Not only was the panel informative, but it also had a special advanced screening of the newest episode of Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series, which was incredibly entertaining! Everyone in the audience was ecstatic and incredibly greatful for the opportunity to see this special episode!

I’m sure that I speak for a lot of fans when I say this – ThankYou Little Kuriboh, the wonderful host Jamaica Dela Cruz (Thanks to Smashy for the correction!) and of course, all the personnel at SMASH! who got the panel to go forward smoothly.

Be sure to check out the video embedded below for our coverage of the panel (56mins).

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

SMASH! 2011 Cosplay Contest!

Benjamin Webb

July 17, 2011

Cosplayers! They’re easily one of the most exciting things about any convention, and SMASH! was no different. While most cosplayers are happy enough to just to walk around the convention centre getting photos and being in general attendance, some of them opt for the more fun and amazing cosplay contest.

The cosplay contest was amazing to observe from the superior seating, but the shots in this photo were taken from a better location by our own Editor-In-Chief. The Competition was amazing! There were so many cosplayers in attendance of the competition and all the entrants did so amazingly well! Props to everyone that won in that contest! Also, special shout out to the friend of mine cosplaying Card Captor Sakura with the massive wings!

Congrats to everyone who entered, the photo’s were great!

Check out the gallery below!
Click here to check out more of our coverage of SMASH 2011!

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