The All Star Game is nearly upon us, and Konami is all ready for it. The MLB Bobblehead Stars is now available for download from XBLA. This new DLC goes along with the MLB Bobblehead Pros game released last week. Check out our review of the game here.MLB Bobblehead Stars is a bobblehead themed version of the All Star Game and includes the complete roster of the players competeing “the State Farm Home Run Derby All-Star participants hitting it out of the park at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona.”This DLC costs 400 Microsoft Points ($5) and also incluses the My Bobble career mode, where you’ll get to choose a favorite player and play a complete career with said character.
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Konami announces DLC: MLB Bobblehead Stars – Available for download right now
Nintendo Video Available Now In Australia
If you live in Australia and own a 3DS you should switch on your WiFi RIGHT NOW! The Nintendo 3DS Video Application is now Live In Australia! 3DS owners will receive a notification from Nintendo telling them they can now download videos via SpotPass, and these videos can be downloaded even whilst in sleep mode. Once the application is downloaded, you can see that two videos have already been uploaded to the application: A 7 minute mini-episode by Disney Australia called Oscar’s Oasis: Oasis Cup, and also another named Magic Trick 01. Both videos are available until the 20/07/2011. By then Im sure we can expect many more videos such as movie trailers, animations and classic concerts, as they have been promised for the application, as well as episodes of Shawn The Sheep, as was discussed earlier this year at the Nintendo 3DS launch.
By looking at the screen, it appears the chanel will only hold four videos at a given point, until one is replaced by a newer one. However this is just us speculating.
Below is a notification email sent to all 3DS users by Nintendo.
We hope you are enjoying all the online services your Nintendo 3DS has to offer.
Now we are pleased to announce that Nintendo Video, a new video service offering short 3D videos, is being introduced exclusively for the Nintendo 3DS. The Nintendo Video Service allows you to receive assorted kinds of exciting video content via SpotPass without lifting a finger.
With a broad range of 2D and 3D videos available, such as movie trailers, sports clips, music videos, cartoons and more, there is sure to be content to appeal to everyone!
When you have access to a wireless internet connection, you will automatically receive videos which will be saved for a limted time on your Nintendo 3DS system. You can watch the videos repeatedly, until they are replaced by new content.
Your Nintendo 3DS can also receive SportPass data, including content for Nintendo Video, automatically from supported public Wi-Fi access points.
The Nintendo Video software is available to download for free from Nintendo eShop. Note that a system update might be required to access Nintendo eShop and to receive SpotPass data from supported Wi-Fi access points.
Have fun with the new Nintendo Video application, and stay tuned for news of additional software and features coming to your Nintendo 3DS.
Oscar’s Oasis, Currently Live For Free Download
Magic Trick 01, Currently Live For Free Download
Street Fighter IV: Volt Battle Protocol Review
Super Street Fighter IV: Volt Battle Protocol
Platform(s): iPhone (Reviewed), iPad, iPod Touch
Publisher(s): Capcom
Developer(s): Capcom
Genre(s): Fighting
Release Date: 30 June 2011
Price: $8.99 BUY NOW!
Overview
HERE COMES A NEW CHALLANGER! Street Fighter IV has Hadoukened its way onto the iPhone once again as Street Fighter IV: Volt Battle Protocol. Starting its life out as Street Fighter IV on the Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360 in 2008. In true Street Fighter tradition, an updated retail version of the game was released, known as Super Street Fighter IV in 2010, and a simplified 3D version with a few minor differences known as Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition was released as a Nintendo 3DS launch title in 2011. Super Street Fighter IV originally received a port to iOS devices in March this year, and less than 5 months later we already have received a new version for the iTunes store; Super Street Fighter IV: Volt Battle Protocol. This version is basically the same as the previous one, with two major differences. Firstly the inclusion of four new fighters: Balrog, Vega, Cody and the unlockable Akuma, and secondly but even more importantly, the inclusion of online play, which is a massive extension to the game. Street Fighter IV continues to hold its title as the best fighting game on the iphone, and Super Street Fighter IV: Volt Battle Protocol (try saying that one ten times!) only builds on that, making an almost flawless game reach near perfection.
Presentation
From the second you click on the icon, you know you’re in for something special, mainly because that something special is all wrapped up in a beautiful looking package. Super Street Fighter Volt: Battle Protocol is a feast for the eyes and it’s presentation rivals the home console titles. A high quality opening video greets players before leading them to the main menu, which is coloured brightly and animated smoothly. Music is loud and adrenaline-charged and grabs the player’s attention. The art direction is beautiful and navigating the menus is a breeze. During game play the pause button is easy to reach in the top-middle of the screen, and a command list is easy to access that is shown in a simple and easy to manner. A superb soundtrack, only surpassed by its spectacular voice acting and sound effects, supports all this. The font is awesome and seeing it pop up as your perform combos and saying words like ‘You Win!’ And ‘K.O!’ feels really rewarding. Players are given loads of content such as the ability to save replays and gain achievements. Players are also given alternative modes such as a combo challenge and a survival mode, to ensure you’ll be sticking around for quite sometime. Unfortunately there are no bios or story elements shown in the game, so we don’t ever really know much about the people we’re playing as. It’s not a hugely important aspect, especially since Street Fighter is more focused on arcade action rather than telling a cinematic story, but it would’ve been a nice inclusion, even if it was just a paragraph of text. Instead we get some pretty lame trash talk sentences after fights, but hey at least its something! Street Fighter Volt is an amazing game by itself, but it is also presented with such an inviting manner that you’ll never want to leave it or put it down. I honestly doubt I’ll ever see an iphone game that presents itself as well as this for quite some time, it’s truly a work of art. The only downside to all this is that it has a MASSIVE file size of 382 Megabytes, but I suppose that’s the trade off to having such a high-quality game with so much content.
Gameplay
Volt uses the same fighting system as the console editions, and it contains the same solid feel that has translated beautifully to the iphone. Yeah so that means you got to win the best of three rounds by beating up some other dude and destroying his health bar, but you already knew that….right? For those unfamiliar with the latest Street Fighter engine, Super Street Fighter 2 massively influences it. So this means going back to the basics and focusing on strategy and tactics by out –thinking your opponent and striking them as a timed response. For example if your rival is performing a jump kick towards you, that’s a perfect opportunity to punish their manoeuvre with an uppercut or Ryu and Ken’s signature shoryuken attack. On the other hand combos are a big deal, but their not huge like the ones seen in Marvel Vs Capcom although they can get lengthy if you’re a pro, but on the most part your wanting to string together 3-4 well placed consecutive hits in close range to send the flying father away, and performing counter attacks, blocks, and waiting for an opening while defending against an assault leads to alternative ways of placing well-timed attacks on your enemy. This is a common standard these days, but Street Fighter pretty much started this all back in the 90s, and is arguably still the masters of it today. Street Fighter IV however does have a few influences from Street Fighter III Third Strike, and also introduces some new features to spice up the gameplay. The title ditches the anime-sprites for 3D models, such as the focus attacks, which charge and can knock down an opponent and give you a free hit. The biggest thing however is namely the inclusion of not one but two special gages: the Super Combo Gage and the Revenge Gage. Long story short, super combos are pretty cool and build up the more you hurt your enemy and perform special moves, while the more you get hurt the more your Revenge Gage builds up, and once filled you may perform an Ultra Combo which are well, ultra awesome. These also add another level of strategy to the action, which only makes the game even more fun to play. When performing a cool move like these, the camera will break from its fixed position and show you the fighter preparing for the attack in true anime-styled fashion that really intensifies the moment.
All of this action that was in the consoles has been ported to the iphone and it feels wonderful and very familiar. The only major difference between the iphone version and consoles besides a few missing characters and such and obvious graphical cutbacks is the control scheme. The port keeps the eight-way directional system for movement, but as for attacking rather than being a six-button fighter, it is now a four-button fighter much like the 3DS version. Players get a punch button, a kick button, a focus attack button and a special attack button. Now rather than having to input various combinations of buttons to perform a special attack, they can now be preformed by either just pressing the button, or holding the directional stick in one direction and pressing it. This more simplified control scheme not only makes it easier to control on a touch screen, but also makes it easier to play and more accessible to casual gamers and new comers. However, while it can be easily used to spam attacks, players will realise doing so will make them predictable and easy to out-think and be defeated, so it is actually discouraged. Therefore it doesn’t really ruin the gameplay as players will often not want to abuse it. Simply tapping their gages as well can perform Ultra Combos and Super Combos, and being able to perform such devastating attacks so easily is quite rewarding.
Capcom should be commended on the controls for this title, as they work perfectly. To make things better, I have to say that the on-screen joystick is one of the most accurate I’ve ever used in an iphone game. Many these days seem to struggle, which in a game like this is highly important, and Volt has it down flawlessly. To top it all off, the weight of all the 17 characters feels right, and the balance is quite good, although amateurs often will just pick either Ryu or Ken and stick with them. However if you look into the rest of the roster, you’ll see how everyone plays almost completely different to each other and has various different styles, so playing with a different person will really effect the gameplay and overall feel of the game. This is very rare in fighters these days and its great to see such variety. In conclusion, playing solo is amazing.
Online Gameplay
Unfortunately, playing online isn’t as impressive. Online Verses is very hit-and-miss, and ranges from great to terrible. Sometimes a game will run quickly and smoothly, and those matches are really fun. Sadly, a little bit more than half the time it isn’t as good. Some matches will be basically unplayable due to constant lagging, and the frame rate drops so low that you’ll actually get bored waiting for a punch to connect. Sometimes however the game will run more smoothly, but in those you can expect a lag between when you press your attack button, and when your character will actually perform the attack. This destroys the gameplay as Street Fighter is all about timing the execution of your moves. However what hurts Online Verses the worst however, is rage quitting. It is so easy to leave a game all thanks to the iphone’s home button. Pressing it will disconnect the game and make you leave, ending the game. The worst thing about it though is players who do this aren’t punished, and it doesn’t effect their gamer card score. So therefore its really easy to cheat, and there are a LOT of sore losers out there who are more than willing to do so to steal your victory away from you. However its not all bad, and the games that do work are actually a lot of fun, plus there’s much more to explore as well. You have the Wondering Warrior mode where you can upgrade an avatar and record stats, as well as a Challenge Bingo where you can even exchange points for stats. Overall, the online section of the game features some interesting content and aims to entertain and reward the player, but is only fun about half the time as the other half contains a bit of lag and a few issues. If this can be addressed in a future update however, this can be a massive hit and loads of fun, as it does show a huge amount of promise.
Graphics & Audio
Capcom are a cleaver bunch! In order to maintain the beautiful character models from the original console games, it appears rather than including full 3D models into the iphone version, they have taken stills of the fighters from the console versions and used them as digitized sprites. It works well as the characters have rich textures and detail, although some edges of the can look a bit rough at times, but the animation is fluent and smooth so most of the time you won’t notice this. The bright colours, detail and anime-inspired design compliment the game and works wonderfully. While the backgrounds are just simply stills, they still look nice. Same can be said about the soundtrack. Its synthesized adrenaline-charged beats maintain a catchy, enjoyable feel to them, that represent the art style and gameplay by maintaining this old-school-meets-new-school feel to them. The sound effects are flawless and when you hear that classic Street Fighter sound effect of when an attack hits your opponent you feel a sense of a little victory inside yourself and can’t help but smile. Same can be said for when you select something in the menus. What is most impressive however, is the voice acting. Most characters may only say two sentences throughout the entire game, but they are of very high quality and further expand on the personalities of the characters beautifully.
Conclusion
Super Street Fighter IV: Volt Battle Protocol is an amazing game and is hands-down the best fighter on the iphone and ipad, and definitely one of the best games on those devices. The presentation, graphics and audio are amazing and the controls are flawlessly tight. It has 17 very different characters and they’re all well-balanced out, and there is a stack of content and alternative modes to keep you around. However, if you already own the original Street Fighter IV for a iOS device, the question is ‘how big of a fan are you?’. Your paying for the exact same game just with three new characters and the ability to play online, but the online system is flawed. Volt relies on promoting itself based on its online play, but with it’s rage quitting issues and the amount of games that have lag its questionable. If Capcom release a patch to fix this however, it’s a must buy even for owners of the previous title. Never the less, even without online play Super Street Fighter IV: Volt Battle Protocol is a must-have for any fighting or action game fan. It has set a new standard, and the standard is quite high. A near-perfect game.
PROS
- Iconic Street Fighter Gameplay
- Excellent Controls and Great Feel
- Great Graphics
- Awesome Soundtrack And Sound Effects
- 17 Very Different And Well-Balanced Fighters
- Includes Both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi Play
- Heaps of Content and Alternative Modes
CONS
- Online Play Doesn’t Punnish Rage-Quitters
- Online Play Lags About Half The Time, But When It Works, It’s Great
- Massive 382 MB File Size May Not Be Worth It To Everyone
I give Street Fighter IV: Volt Battle Protocol:
Check Out These Other Street Fighter IV Articles And Reviews!
Super Street Fighter IV-Xbox 360 And PlayStation 3 Review
Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition-3DS Review
Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition-Xbox 360 And PlayStation 3 Review
MLB Bobblehead Pros Review
Game: MLB Bobblehead Pros
Publisher/Developer: Konami
Genre: Baseball Simulation/Sports
Price: 800 Microsoft Points – $10
Consoles: Xbox 360
Download the demo here!
MLB Bobblehead Pros is a baseball simulation game published by Konami for the Xbox Live Arcade. There is one big difference between this game and other baseball sims though. MLB Bobblehead Pros has character models that are made up of, you guessed it, Bobbleheads. Every batter, pitcher, 3rd base coach etc is a bobblehead. In other words, your favorite pro baseball player, in my case it is Todd Helton, is actually a bobblehead, thereby replicating the experience of bobblehead night at your baseball park (where bobbleheads of a particular player are passed out to the first 1,000 or so fans.) In this game, you no longer have to show up early to get your grubby hands on a bobblehead though. Plus, you actually get to be a part of the game, and you can see every player ever in bobblehead form, which is virtually impossible in real life.
Of course, besides collectors (and Dwight Schrute), who really feels that bobbleheads are more than a novelty? Who really, truly cherishes the bobbleheads they have received? More than likely, that bobblehead, like the one I got one time when I was lucky enough to show up early to a game, is sitting somewhere unknown (be it a landfill, storage area or shelf) right now.And that is one of the larger problems problems with this game. The whole bobblehead idea is just a big, fat gimmick. The game is marketed by the premise that the bobbleheads will be involved in some spectaular fashion, but in reality, the bobbleheads are just the player models and that’s it. There is no gallery to admire your bobbleheads. As a matter of fact, there is no way to even collect bobbleheads. All of them are just given to you at once. Either bobbleheads are so important to the baseball experience that they are worth creating a game around them, or, they are so worthless (like the one I can’t find. Where is IT?!) that they can’t even be respected a little more in a game that is based around them. Either way, bobbleheads are not the reason to get this game, despite the few laughs you’ll get seeing your personal favorite pro bobbing his head and having no legs.
All in all, it all comes down to gameplay. MLB Bobblehead Pros is an undeniable star in this department, although this star has some issues shining sometimes. MLB Bobblehead Pros, despite its cutesy exterior, is in reality, a very full featured sim. Plenty of stats, a full 162 game season mode and the ability to create your own teams showcase how serious this game is about adhereing to the true nature of the game. Once you get onto the field, matters do not change. Pitching and batting all strive to give a true to life experience, although it should be noted that pitching is super difficult and batting takes some serious practice. In both cases, you’ll have to line up the indicator properly (its harder than it sounds) and work on your timing to the second. There is no tutorial either, making it all the more taxing to accomplish the tasks of pitching and batting. It is very rewarding when you finally succeed in these matters though.Fielding, rather than being difficult, is nigh impossible. The bobbling players literally bobble the ball all the time. And the lack of legs must really slow them down too because unless the batter hits a super high pop up, it is literally impossible to get them under the ball. On top of that, the controls for jumping and sliding are the same as those used to throw to the various plates. So if slightly mistimed, your spectacular double play will fail miserably on account of your diving into the dust instead of throwing to first.
Once you have mastered the arts of pitching, batting and fielding, there are plenty of modes to get your play on. Online and offline coop, season modes, exhibition and online competitive modes are all there to extend the life of the game. There is DLC as well, coming soon.One feature that is really different in this game than in other baseball sims is the lack of a soundtrack. On top of that, commentary is thin at best. At the end of an inning, a voiceover will make jokes about bobbleheads, but other than that, there is no play by play or anything similar. I personally hate the commentary in most games, but for hardcore enthusiasts, this will undoubtedly make the experience less fun.
The graphics in the game also fall a little short. There are plenty of stadiums and each is very well replicated. The bobbleheads are also finely detailed and you can distinguish who each character is. However, there are a lot of jagged edges and it just seems to lack that pop and polish that many HD games have.In conclusion, MLB Bobblehead Pros is a hardcore baseball sim. There are plenty of faults, but in reality, it is one of the better baseball games for the Xbox 360, especially for those who want a challenging, realistic baseball game. It truly has all the features that many of its $60 competitors have. And for a mere $10, there is hardly any fault too big not to recommend this game to someone looking for well stocked baseball video game.
Witch Wars for iOS Recruiting Previewers!
Com2us are now recruiting previewers for their up and coming title Witch Wars for iOS! (created by the development team of Slice It!)
If you go ahead and make it into the beta you can end up winning iTunes Gift Cards while testing out Com2uS’ new game in beta!
This is how you can enter :
-If you want to participate as a general previewer, follow the directions below.
— Create a Facebook account or use your existing one
— Send to [email protected]:
1. Email address linked to your Facebook account
2. iOS device UDID
3. iOS device type
4. Your name.
Recruiting 200 previewers!
– Applicants will be accepted from July 11th to July 18th, 2011
– Selected applicants will be announced on July 19th and 20th, and will be reached individually
– Testing dates are July 22nd-July 29th, 2011.
Game Features
– Cast spells on other witches with magic blocks
– Match 3 of the same blocks in a row, be part of the ultimate battle by connecting to the Witch Wars network
– Network battle against other witches
– 7 witches with distinct battle skills…collect coins to unlock a new character or upgrade your witch’s attack, defense, and health abilities!
The iControlpad: Physical Controller For Smartphones
The iPod Touch had the right idea. Or at least the right name. It was all about touch. I feel that the more Apple develop, the further they get away from the haptic nature that the technology first utilised ever so well. At least in gaming. Sure, swiping, tilting and whatever else the game might ask you to do is well and good, and I’ve played some really innovative iOS based games that have just blown me away in terms of control and interface design. But there is still something so nostalgic and warming about a button. The multi-purpose nature of iOS devices makes them a key target for casual game developers, but what about those with a little more hardcore blood? Those who long for the warm touch of a button? Sure, there are other portable gaming devices, but as I said, there are some fantastic games developed just for iOS, some which might benefit from a more traditional video game interface. Enter the iControlpad (the developers are fond of the abbreviation iCP). The iCP is a portable extension for iOS devices that brings that traditional gaming interface to iOS. It features: digital D-pad, two analogue nubs, six face buttons and two rear buttons and a side clamp system to lock in phones. In the video shown, there are emulators being run on both the iPhone and iPad, I should note that users can only use these on jail broken iOS devices, but the controls themselves will work with a number of games from the App Store. The iControlpad also works for Android, Maemo, WebOS, Windows Mobile PC and MacOS, as well as iOS and judging from the video can be operated wirelessly. The iCP can be purchased for $56.99USD on its own or as a pack for $69.99 USD. Check out the iControlpad official website for more information on the product, as well as information on how to order it.
Weezer are hosting a festival on a Cruise Ship
Yes it is as epic as it sounds. Weezer, that rock band you sort of know about but never cared enough about, have announced that in January 2012 they will be holding a rock festival on a cruise ship. They have already announced a line-up for the cruise:
- Dinosaur Jr.
- Sebadoh
- Gene Ween
- Dave Dreiwitz
- Wavves
- The Antlers
- Yuck
- Free Energy
- Boom Bip
- J. Mascis
- Lou Barlow
- Keepaway
- Ozma
- The Nervous Wreckords
- Sleeper Agent
- Yacht Rock Review
That is without a doubt an impressive line-up which of course will be opened and closed by the headlining act themsevles, Weezer. Fans will be able to chill out with the bands between performances and take advantage of all of the luxuries of the cruise ship as it travels from Miami to a Mexican island called Cozumel.
This may be the wierdest Weezer news in a long time, but they are certainly no stranger to the wierd (check out the cover art of their past two albums). If you want to set sail with Weezer and friends this January, prices start at $799 USD for double cabins or four people can travel togethor for $599 each. Pre-sale tickets go on sale here on the 21st of July and tickets for the general public go on sale on the 11th of August.
Get in quick, this is probably the wierdest thing Weezer has done thus far and probably will continue to be until they purchase the mexican island at the end of the cruise and force everyone to become part of their own sick recreation of the television series Lost. Oh and they will probably throw Hurley onto the island against his will as well.
If you want to be a part of this, get in quick, tickets will go fast and be sure to check out the Weezer Cruise promo below.
Bruce Campbell May Have Confirmed Evil Dead 4 or a Remake of the Original
In a conversation over twitter, renowned nerd icon and actor, Bruce Campbell may have confirmed the existence of the Evil Dead 4 movie. This movie is likely under production, should the rumour be true and this will surely make all fans of both/either Bruce Campbell and/or Evil Dead.
In the responsible twitter post, Bruce Campbell expels his excitement over the project –
@TheMike31 Believe in the remake, dawg! The project is real. In the works. Cool as hell. Scary as hell.
Though, if you follow Bruce Campbells official twitter, it also brings up the possiblility that it could, infact, be a remake of the original movie.
@mondojay @reddit Good people. My tweet was about remaking Evil Dead – not Evil Dead 4.
If this is to be true, this is exciting news for all fans everywhere!
Be sure to check out Bruce Campbells official twitter or his official website for more info.
Props to Topless Robot for pointing this out. More Props to First Showing for finding this gem.
Bleach Collection 9 Review
Bleach Collection 9
Tag Line: Goodbye, Halcyon Days
Produced by: Viz Media (US) Madman (AU)
Run time: 325 minutes in 13 episodes
Language: English, Japanese
Genre: Action, Adventure, Shounen, Supernatural
Release Date: 15/6/2011
Available for purchase at Madman Online Store ($49.95)
Overview:
Bleach is by no means, a perfect series. In fact it’s so very far from it, that I have come to enjoy it simply for what it is: a fun action series. There is a stigma attached to Bleach that is by and large unwarranted or at the very least unnecessary. So often the series is put down for it’s minor problems or issues, however if it were in any other series, those problems would be ignored. The stigma attached is that Tite Kubo, the creator of Bleach is put simply, a troll. A creator who does not care for his fans and simply wants to troll them. I don’t believe this is the case at all, in fact it’s more a case of Kubo being a better artist than a writer.
Sure he can write, but more than anything he is an artist. By and large he does his art better than his writing, which is known for several plot-holes or an inconsistent pacing. But is there a way to enjoy Bleach on a more simpler level than applying such hounding expectations upon it? Why yes, yes there is. Bleach when it hits it’s stride can do great things and in some cases, astonishing things.
Story:
The overarching storyline of the chapter can be summed up by the arc phrase “Goodbye, Halcyon Days” which roughly means “Goodbye, Peaceful Days”, or more literally “Goodbye, Peaceful Days Before the Winter”. All of those phrases sum up the storyline of this collection which is all about saying goodbye to peaceful days.
Things in the world of Bleach have become rather heavy, with mounting revelations and new character introductions, it’s hard not to think Kubo has layed things on a little thick here. Which he has, there is little explaination, but plenty of questions raised.
The arrancar arc in general is comprised of new revlations and a large slew of new characters introduced. How many characters does Bleach have by now? We have hundreds of Human and Soul Society characters and now we have all these Hueco Mundo inhabitants? More doesn’t always mean better. Think of it like this, Kubo has created hundreds of characters. How many of them actually matter? Less than 10? That is a serious problem with the story-telling of Bleach and something that bogs it down from the flashes of greatness that it is capable of.
Sadly a large portion of this collection is dedicated to the series spinning its wheels. We have limp filler episodes that simply take any random character that I’d hazard a guess was simply drawn out of a hat and throws them into a random storyline that may very well also be drawn out of a hat. I mean, a random soul reaper from the research squad is sent to the human world for no other reason then to help a chef make a cake?
On top of these simply pathetic filler episodes we have the series spin its wheels even further with more random Arrancars come to the human world for a few episodes to fight and to slow things down even further. However, thankfully after this is all said and done, the story kicks into hyper speed and finally gets to the good stuff.
The heartbreaking interaction between Orihime Inoue and Ichigo Kurosaki is without a doubt the series best moment thus far. That moment right there is proof that Kubo isn’t entirely without writing talent. Also the invasion upon Hueco Mundo was well done and absolutely overdue. The ending of this collection more than made up for the beginning which was dreadful. Thank god for that.
Characters:
Bleach has too many characters, its that simple. It’s so difficult to focus on what everyone is doing at one time, that eventually you decide to just focus on whomever you care most for and more than likely there is only 1 character you can truly identify with here and if they don’t get much screen time then all of this may seem somewhat monotonous to you.
This collection however took leaps and bounds with a few characters development, particularly ones who desperately have needed it for a long time (Orihime, Chad and Uryu). With the series defining moment in Orihime’s “Goodbye, Halcyon Days” scene and Chad and Uryu’s decimation of some lowly Arrancar in Hueco Mundo, Kubo has taken great steps towards better futures for these characters. However everyone else takes a back-seat to the action, as is the case in nearly every episode of Bleach since the Soul Society arc. Which is really a shame.
The fact that Kubo has accumulated hundreds of junk characters is more than anything the greatest flaw in the entire series, thankfully the characters who aren’t junk get time to shine this collection.
Artwork:
As usual the art and animation is particularly good, with fluid fighting scenes and great character designs. We got to see all of the Espada this time around and I have to say a lot of their designs were hit or miss. Thankfully though, they all looked interesting at the very least.
It is interesting to note the similarities between Hueco Mundo and the Shinigami world of Death Note, which are nearly identical. I’m unsure whether this is simply a common form of imagery for this type of world in Japanese culture, but it was hard not to make comparisons. Both worlds are suitably baron and desolate, however the physics behind the Los Noches fortress in the distance was completely illogical, but its nothing that bad.
Bleach has always had an interesting style, which is very distinctive and that has not changes in this collection. That is nothing but good.
Audio:
The music was great in this collection. I loved the incidental music in both the Orihime/Ichigo goodbye scene and the invading Hueco Mundo scene. Both fit the scene perfectly and raised it to the next level, from average into epic. Both scenes have resonated with me and I believe that the incidental music is a large part of that.
We also had a new opening and ending theme introduced in this collection both of a which were great and will be a great theme for the Hueco Mundo invasion and beyond.
The voice work was all on par, minus a few dodgy one off character voices (that Chef in the filler episode was terrible). As usual Johnny Yong Bosch owns the screen as Ichigo, but this time around Stephanie Sheh stole the collection with the series defining moment from Orihime. “Goodbye, Halcyon Days” indeed.
Special Features:
This time around we nothing new besides the regular Production art, textless songs and trailers. I personally wish that Viz would give us commentary on these Bleach collections. Imagine Johnny Yong Bosch and Stephanie Sheh doing commentary on the Goodbye, Halcyon Days episode? That would have been amazing, unfortunately that isn’t what Viz has in mind it appears.
Thankfully the production art gallery is rather nice and features some interesting concept art and sketches of characters and locations. Other than that we have Madman’s trailers for their other releases which are nothing too interesting.
Conclusion:
Bleach Collection 9 features the series defining moment, but it also features some pretty terrible filler episode. Regardless of the filler, that defining moment helped to raise this collection to the greatest heights the series has thus far reached and for that..
I give Bleach Collection 9:
Ubisoft Acquires Owlient Studio And Their MMO Howrse Brand
Today Ubisoft announced it’s acquisition of Parisian developers Owlient, and with them, their incredibly large Howrse Brand and it’s 2million+ playerbase. The devloper has been around since 2005 and is largely focused on MMORPG development.
On the Merger, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot had this to say –
“We are thrilled to welcome the talented team at Owlient to Ubisoft. Over the last five years they have developed an architecture dedicated to delivering and monetising games as a service, as well as the skills of attracting and retaining online communities,” said Yves Guillemot, chief executive officer at Ubisoft. “This acquisition is the next step in the acceleration of Ubisoft’s free-to-play strategy following last year’s launch of Settlers Online, CSI Crime City and heroes Kingdoms, as well as the recent beta launch of our ambitious title Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Online.”
Owlient seem to be quite pleased with the merger, with their own CEO, Oliver Issaly responding to the event thus –
“Joining the Ubisoft team will allow us to accelerate our international business and to expand our expertise and our games to new platforms. It also lets us integrate our proven online services architecture with Ubisoft’s so that we can help grow their brands online,” affirmed Olivier Issaly, chief executive officer of Owlient. “We are proud of what our team has accomplished and confident that joining Ubisoft will allow us to continue that success. We’d also like to thank our shareholder Innovacom, who has accompanied the Owlient team over the years as we developed.”
The Owlient merger is the latest in a series of mergers by the Publisher.