1. Operation Overdrive has a new interview with Johnny Yong Bosche, a man who wears many hats. Among those would be the voice of Trigun‘s Vash the Stampede, as well as being Adam, the second Black Ranger/Zeo Ranger IV: Green/Green Turbo Ranger, who recently appeared on the Power Rangers 15th Anniversary two-part episode “Once A Ranger…”

   C’mon, the guy’s favorite food is FIRE, how can you not dig that?

2. Ah, machinima. Usually the word brings to mind World of Warcraft or Halo, but some more enterprising creators manage to use less likely subjects, such as this collection of hacked Mario Kart 64/Super Mario 64 “bloopers”, which seems to have enough people checking it out that I thought it might warrant a link here.
3. And the newest challenger to face off in Super Smash Bros. Brawl is… Chuck Norris?!

   No! But that’s what one might think if they aren’t able to tell the difference between Smash Bros. DOJO!!, the site updated during the weekdays by the game’s producer Masahiro Sakurai, and Smash Bros. MOJO!!, a parody update site run by the enigmatic fan Rick Gardiner.

   The site does a good job replicating the DOJO experience… perhaps even a little too good, as it even has the copyright notice “All content on this website, including articles, artwork, screen shots, graphics, logos, digital downloads and other files, may not be used on any other web site, in any publications, in public performances, in connection with any product or service that is not Nintendo’s, in any manner that is likely to cause confusion among customers, in any manner that disparages or discredits Nintendo, or in any manner that is otherwise exploitative for any commercial purpose or that otherwise infringes Nintendo’s intellectual property rights.”

   Oops.

   Still, one would hope that anyone looking at it would be smart enough to tell the difference, but of course, this is the internet. That’s clearly not going to be the case. Still, until Nintendo sics Edgeworth and the von Karmas on Rick, the site is good for a well-meaning, laughably fun look at the basic ideas of Smash, such as how “the higher your damage percentage is, the more you suck.”

   Thanks to AggroChan at the Penny Arcade Forums for the tip.

4. “Time travel. The quickest way to solve any problem.”

   It’s a universal fact.

   Of course… the problems that result from time travel are an entirely different story.

5. Someone at Capcom’s forums posed the question that we’ve all secretly wondered deep down: “What’s it like to work there?”

   Well, Capcom has heard the query and responded in kind:

   “Our meetings usually consist of me flash kicking and sonic booming people who piss me off. Occasionally Jack will charge up his Mega Buster and fire a few lame shots my way until Nique dragon punches his ass into submission.

   Yeah, that?s pretty much business as usual here.”

   Enlightening. Might also explain a few things, but I digress.

   In all seriousness, though, they proceed to narrate a photo tour of their inner-sanctum, where all the magic happens.

   …why the hell does Mega Man look like Brian Peppers?

6. Remember that desktop wallpaper you used to have? You were browsing one of Nintendo’s sites for a game, and came across an image that tickled your fancy. You proceeded to download it, and enjoyed it, for awhile. Then it became mundane, and without a second thought, you replaced it with a newer, cooler one.

   And you moved on.

   And eventually, your thoughts turned back to that special wallpaper, and you wanted it back. And so you returned to Nintendo.

   But, they moved on, too. And your cherished wallpaper was gone, forever.

   Or maybe not. Matt over at Press the Buttons has discovered that The Mushroom Kingdom has apparently been holding on to these bauble bits for some time, or at least the Mario ones.

   “Just in case.”

7. Ignorance is nothing to be ashamed of. At its most basic, it can be viewed as a reason to learn something.

   But what to do about young gamers who don’t know of the world that came before 32-bit?

   Incidently, with a lot of ports to the Game Boy Advance over its lifespan, and maybe some of the Virtual Console downloads, I wouldn’t imagine things to be as bad as all this, but perhaps I’m mistaken.

   I think it a sad state of affairs that someone might be a fan of something like Super Mario Bros., but can’t be bothered to look back because the graphics may not be as pretty as more recent installments. Especially if Super Mario 64 was their first. I mean, seriously, most of the characters in that looked like crap, which is why Super Mario 64 DS made me so happy, with its improvements on an already great game’s framework.

   With all the crazy college courses available these days, you’d think there would be room for one like this.

   “Hi, my name’s Dr. Oxford, and I’m here to teach you about the Legend of Zelda…”

8. The Japanese are known for being very polite and formal. But to what degree?

   Thanks to a link from jackscarab, “The Japanese Tradition” shows us in one of their many videos that focuses on the various methods in which the Japanese apologize, from casually bumping into someone to other, more severe practices that would require some real sweet talk.

9. IGN prepares for the impending release of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption with The History of Metroid, a look back at 20 years of trying to get Samus to take off her clothes as fast as we can.
10. GameDaily peers into the depths of the souls of many an otherwise innocent-seeming game, showing why even E-rated fare like Katamari Damacy and Yoshi’s Island have their disturbing sides.
11. Halo 3 on September 25th? That’s an entire month away! Waiting is for saps! I want to know the story NOW!

    NOW! NOW! NOW! NOW! NOW!

    Actually, I’m not that eager, but apparently the folks at Games Radar are, and have supposedly compiled the single-player campaign story by hacking the beta code.

    Is it on the level? Got me. But there’s the link if you’re curious.

12. Remember the CollegeHumor series Street Fighter: The Later Years?

    After too long a hiatus, a teaser has surfaced, letting us know that the old World Warriors are going to be back in September, with one new episode a month for the next 6 months.

13. Nice hat.

    It’s cool, because it looks like the Metroid is sucking the life right from her skull.

14. Jason Rubin, co-Founder of Naughty Dog and Crash Bandicoot creator, thinks that console prices are too high, and that graphics aren’t as important now as they once were, i.e. the 32-bit era when you NEEDED good graphics to not look like crap.
15. PSP Slim at PAX.

    Read the article to find the awkward catch.

16. Speaking of PAX, Tycho and Gabe weren’t able to score Jack Thompson, but you won’t believe who they DID get.
17. Wil Wheaton of Star Trek fame had the honor of giving the PAX keynote, and this is what he said.

–LBD “Nytetrayn”

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 25th, 2007 at 11:03 pm and is filed under Points of Interest. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.