My, oh my, what a day it has been. The Sydney Manga and Anime Show Convention was put simply a crazy whirlwind of announcements, special guests, excitement, cosplay and of course anime and manga goodness.
Many companies were present at the event and in what is a first for this particular company, Madman Entertainment announced several acquisitions at the event during their panel at 12:30pm.
Titles announced to have been acquired by Madman are as follows:
Baka and Test: Summon the Beast
Night Warriors: Darkstalkers Revenge
Trigun: Badlands Rumble
Madman announced a release date for each of them, with Baka and Test: Summon the Beast and Trigun: Badlands Rumble being released this November and Night Stalkers: Darkstalkers Revenge being released this December.
Along side these acquisition announcements Madman also answered several fan questions, from the Q&A session the following information was revealed:
Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood + Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood Movie (Box Set) – Later this year, specific date unconfirmed.
Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood Movie to be screened in Cinema’s nation-wide for one night only.
Trigun: Badlands Rumble to be screened in Cinema’s nation-wide for one night only.
Black Butler Season 2 coming 1st Quarter of 2012.
Dragon Ball Z Kai currently in legal struggle regarding music, however Collection 4 & 5 to be released in November and
Collection 6 to be released in December.
Macross series unobtainable to Madman due to issues with Japanese right holders. Not likely to ever make it to Australian
shores.
Madman anime and movies will now be regularly added to FOXTEL on XBOX 360, Playstation Network and iTunes.
What do you guys, think of these announcements? Let us know in the comments section below.
Yes, I know it’s been more than a week, but after a long hiatus, we are finally back to bring you even more of the worst video game covers of all time. This week, we will be looking over the Sony Playstation’s most hideous covers to come about during the prestigious console’s lengthy lifespan.
The late 90’s brought about boy-bands, the internet, and gaming in 3D worlds for the first time. Unfortunately, creativity was not included for some publishers though which lead to some quite questionable covers for some of the true gems on the console as well as the usual rush job releases that we could easily expect these shenanigans from. Join us as we look over and reflect upon the “Bad Boxarts” from the Sony Playstation.
E.T.: Interplanetary Mission
You would think a landfill of E.T. games on the Atari and the video game crash of the 80’s would have been a warning sign for some, but apparently the folks at New Kid Co. just had to have more of the beloved alien. E.T.: Interplanetary Mission released in 2002 with little advertising or promotion, and while the game was a step up from the trainwreck on the Atari 2600, the boxart for the game certainly didn’t help matters for the already doomed title.
I can honestly say that E.T. is designed rather well here aside from the soul-less death stare, but someone forgot to finish the job. Looking like a paint by numbers canvas, this cover and the creepy pedo-robot in the background helped cement the fact that Steven Spielberg’s creations from the past should stay in cinema, and far away from any home console.
Resident Evil
The Resident Evil series is without a doubt one of the top franchises in gaming today, but it did not become that way with the cover art that started it all years ago. First thing you will notice is Capcom’s first (and cringe-worthy) representation of Chris Redfield on the cover, giving off an expression of either shock or flatulence. Why is Chris reacting this way you may ask?
SOMEONE KIDNAPPED THE ZOMBIES AND REPLACED THEM WITH GIANT SPIDERS!!!!!
To be fair, there are actually enemy spiders in the game known as Web Spinners, but I don’t think anybody who remembers the original will say “Oh yeah, that was the one with those spiders!”.
Thankfully, the Director’s cut gave us some pure zombie love just a short time later.
Irritating Stick
Who can mention horrible boxarts on the Playstation without showing love to everybody’s favorite, Irritating Stick. Irritating Stick was a game where players must control a stick through various mazes with annoying commentary and tedious gameplay. The cover for the game however shows us…well, an Irritating Stick.
I don’t know if it’s the head-ache inducing colors used or the Microsoft Paint-like design, but I get a bit angry everytime I see this cover. I am still on my quest to track down those gloved hands and break that damn stick, but to do that one must go to the depths of mediocrity to find this title that has remained buried since 1999.
Street Racer
Ubisoft really know how to get your attention with their covers, and in the case of Street Racer, we have a whole lot going on at once. The first thing you will notice is the man who appears to be taking a bat to the blonde with the quite happy car. Apparently, the sumo approves and is ready to High-5 the greaser for this “fun” case of domestic abuse.
I have no clue what the rabbit is doing there, but you should turn your eyes to the background for a very eerie cameo.
Yea, right there.
Coincidence? I think not.
Jounetsu * Nekketsu Athletes: Nakimushi Coach no Nikki
I think I will just let this Japanese Olympic’s gem speak for itself…and yes, that is the genre oddly enough. (LOOK STEVEN! IT’S A DOUBLE RAINBOW!)
So tell us in the comments below your own opinions of these astounding masterpieces, and join us next time when we check out the many wonders of the Game Boy Advance!
One of the most pleasant surprises this year has to be Two Worlds II. The game went on to become quite a hit and completely washed away the sour taste of it’s predecessor in the process. Even more surprising news is that now Topware are planning on releasing a Game of the Year Edition for Two Worlds II on October 18th, and are going all out in the process.
As you see in the picture above, this set will include a case crafted out of velvet (which will be black for the PC/Mac and red for the Xbox 360 & PS3) with corners made out of brass. While the case is honestly enough to make this version a collector’s piece, Topware are also offering a double-sided world map, a pirate head pin, and a bonus disc featuring wallpapers, two PVP maps, and an extended soundtrack with the game. Also included will be the upcoming expansion, Pirates of the Flying Fortress. That is a crazy amount of extra content and I must say bravo to Topware for making this edition all the more special.
Hopefully we will hear of a wallet comforting price soon enough, as I am already drooling over all of the goodies packed inside.
You may remember back in June we learned of the existence of Blades of Time which is a more or less sequel to the 2009 action adventure title X-Blades. This time around however, Ayumi is a little bit older and she has been transported to Dragonland which is a worldruled by a demonic creature that kills anyone who shows up there. Ayumi will use her sword and magic abilities to defeat this demon before it eliminates her.
Ayumi will also have a time control function that is named “time rewind” that allows her to assist herself in previous fights or leave items in the past to help solve puzzles. The mechanic certainly sounds interesting but certainly needs a video to show it in action. Instead we have a teaser trailer released today by Konami that shows only a small snippet of gameplay, but hey at least Ayumi is wearing pants in this game.
Captain America: Super Soldier officially makes it’s console (and handheld) debut next week, and with that Sega have now revealed a shiny new launch trailer for the game. In this clip, we see the Captain displaying some of his shield tossing skills as well as some fancy aerobatics in beautiful CG.
I know this game is a movie tie-in, and past history alone (Thor) should be enough of a warning that looks can be deceiving, but from what we have seen so far and how far Sega are actually going to promote Captain America: Super Soldier makes me think this might be a dark horse title for the year. I say not because of the trailer alone, but how polished all of the gameplay footage shown in that past appears to be. We should be getting this title anyday now and when we do, we will be sure to bring you a detailed review. For now, check out the launch trailer for yourself below and Captain America: Super Soldier launches on the PS3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, and DS next week on July 19th.
Hey at least if you end up buying Driver San Francisco used, you will be able to play a rather enjoyable sounding single player experience so this trailer says. The recently released trailer from Ubisoft, which you can see below, talks about all the features you can enjoy while playing the single player mode of the game, which is a nice tough but sounds rather patronizing.
Of course if you buy the game new you will have access to the whole game and the multiplayer aspects of the title, but unfortunately since Driver San Francisco will be the first game to feature Ubisoft’s Uplay Passport, used buyers will get the shaft and have to pay extra to get their online gaming on.
Australia at times seems to get the short end of the stick when it comes to some of Nintendo’s first party titles, as Kirby’s Epic Yarn released months after originally launching in North America for Australia. Thankfully, Star Fox 64 3D will be coming to the country just four days after the North American release date, which means that on September 15th players down under will finally get to experience Fox McCloud and his team in full 3D for the first time. Another interesting feature that has not been given enough merit is the live video feed that will display the competitors’ faces during multi-player, an element we first seen during Pokemon Black & White.
It is also worthy of mention that Nintendo of Australia seem to have dropped the whole name “Lylat Wars” for this remake, which the game was originally called when it hit the Nintendo 64 across Europe and Australia.
It’s a little sad that not a lot of gamers know of the existence of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. The demo shown off behind closed doors at E3 showed a very impressive looking title that should be acknowledged more. Especially when you hear about the pedigree behind the game. R.A. Salvatore is writing the story and that is enough to secure a purchase from me alone, but it is also being developed by crew who previously worked on the Elder Scrolls games.
Either way, you can see a new batch of screenshots that were released today for the game below and you can also read my demo impressions for the title when it was shown at E3 here. The game itself won’t be released until sometime next year.
Just yesterday, we received a release date of August 30th for the PSN (and the 31st for the XBLA) for Bloodrayne Betrayal. To hold over fans for six weeks, Majesco have now released 5 new screenshots for the 2D-Gorefest, all of which do a fantastic job at making the wait that much harder.
These screens show Rayne doing what she does best, finishing off enemies by decapitation and leaving a blood shower along her path to the finish. While the combo system is also prominently displayed, I can’t get over how detailed the actual environments are. This element in my eyes is a calling card for Wayforward, who have also shown the same kind of attention to detail with past releases such as Thor for the DS and Shantae: Risky’s Revenge. Make sure you have a quick glance at the rest of the screenshots below and then you can suffer for six more weeks until Rayne makes her anticipated return.
If you’ve been following Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten since it was announced and subsequently released in Japan then you should know that one of its cool features is that it contains a built in map editor that lets players make and share custom maps with each other. The map maker will still be included in the North American and PAL versions of the game, but unfortunately some changes had to be made to the system.
Jack Niida, NIS America’s producer had this to say regarding the changes to the system:
“Regarding Disgaea 4′s map edit system, regulation differences between regions made it very difficult to keep in. However, thanks to all the help from our development team and SCEA, we were able to keep the system by making just some minor design adjustments. Players won’t be able to create a completely detailed map, but this new system is still a great way to expand the Disgaea universe and share your own creations with players around the nation.”
Players will have to place preset “landforms” rather than be able to place individual blocks as they please, they can also not stack multiple objects of the same kind either, though Characters and Geoblocks are still stackable. Character names, map names and descriptions will be randomized which means that you can’t create a mini adventure of your own easily. Unfortunately no reason was given for these changes, but it could be related to making sure players don’t make inappropriate creations or make stages similar to other copyrighted games.
