The Daily ‘Shroom – 8/25/07
Hoo-hoo-hoo…. boy. I’ve had some late updates before, but…
The wife wanted a day off yesterday, though, and as hard as she works, damn if I was going to deny her, and so we wound up going over to the Toronto islands/Downtown for… well, pretty much the whole day. It was fun, but tiring as hell by the time we got back.
Anyway, I’ve not forgotten you peeps, so here we go! The news in the nighttime, alright! And be sure to check back later for a little something special, if you’re a fan of Contra…
- Good news if you own an iPhone: no more trees coming to your mailbox.
Of course, if you still hate AT&T (whatever your reasons), there’s more good news, as someone has found a way to unlock the iPhone from AT&T’s service.
- A few nice TransFormers tidbits today.
For starters, it looks like Takara-Tomy are warming up the molds for more G1 reissues, including the likes of Ironhide and Ratchet. Cool as these are (and I’d love to own these, just because they’re so unique… but someone should release “cartoon face” stickers for them), I’d still hope maybe Classics will someday deliver a simple Ironhide and Ratchet pair that look like the old toons somewhat. Make them IDW style or whatever, but really. They’re due.
And the Club exclusive toys don’t count.
So, if you loved the robots in the major motion picture, but don’t care for the slightly-compromised toy representations, then you’re still in luck with Hasbro’s Robot Replicas, non-transforming action figures that more closely resemble the robots in the movie, and whose second wave has been spotted at retail. Don’t go into a frenzy, just buy a Frenzy.
What happens when Optimus Prime scans a bowl of Froot Loops for his new alternate mode? You get Fusion Cluster Protoform Optimus Prime, of course!
Actually, it’s not as bad as all that; it only uses two main colors, orange to show the heat of entry into the atmosphere, and a cooler comet-esque blue trail behind.
- Nintendo has a new TV commercial for Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, and you can see it here.
I do have to wonder, though, just how good an idea it is, in this post-9/11 world, to show a commercial that depicts people making shooting motions inside of a busy airport.
Personally, I don’t care. I like the spot. It just seems like something that someone would get in a complete tizzy over.
- On a related note, the Penny Arcade Expo is going on now, and the Big N is in attendence with Metroid Prime 3, as you can see from GameSpot’s tour of the Nintendo booth.
- On an interesting note, I don’t usually think too much about IGN’s Wii-kly podcasts, but this week’s has a few interesting bits, most notably the re-emergence of the subject of Metroid: Dread.
Also, I think that last item might be calling out 1up, but I could be wrong.
- While there is no questioning that TransFormers The Movie was a smash hit and gained acceptance from a lot of uncertain fans, there were still quite a few who felt that the movie “raped” the franchise, ruining now and forever that which they once loved.
Supposing that were true, then I shudder to think what this means that they’re doing to GI Joe.
“G.I. Joe is now a Brussels-based outfit that stands for Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity, an international co-ed force of operatives who use hi-tech equipment to battle Cobra, an evil organization headed by a double-crossing Scottish arms dealer. The property is closer in tone to X-Men and James Bond than a war film.”
What.
“A Real American Hero” no more, it seems. Ok, fine. I can accept the international part, since the original Joe team was pretty diverse in its own right.
But Cobra, what the hell? That description of its leader fits Destro to a T. Does that mean Cobra Commander is out of the picture?
Also, with the new acronymization of the G.I. Joe name, I think one might assume that Commanding Officer General Joseph R. Colton (the original G.I. Joe) won’t be putting in any screentime. And personally, I think that blows. Unless they decided to have art imitate life, where the acronym is made to fit the name.
Maybe this won’t be horrible… it seems they’ve backed off of Action Man and the “buddy” idea. Still, going to have to see a lot more before I’m convinced they’re going in the right direction. As it is, it reminds me of the constant flux the last Superman was constantly in.
- Speaking of ARAH…
o/~ He’s here, he’s here, to train some Iron Grenadier… o/~
Master Collector has updated over on the GI Joe side of things to show off their new exclusive, Destro’s own counterpart to Sgt. Slaughter, the Iron Grenadier trainer known as Rowdy Roddy Piper.
The figure is limited to a mere 1,000 pieces and is available exclusively at JoeCon, unless of course they have some left over, which you will then be able to purchase via their web store after the convention.
They did a really nice job on this one. Did they ever update Slaughter?
- Better late than never, as they say.
And while it’s too late for Mega Man ZX to receive the blessing of English voice acting, it seems safe now to say that it won’t be “never” for the series at large as Capcom (via Atomic Fire) has announced in the ironically non-English staff blog that Mega Man ZX Advent will indeed feature voices we can understand.
Question of the moment now, is “will we get the same voice actors who were cast in the recent X series games?” One should hope, given the carried-over characters between the two series.
- Peach and Yoshi pump those crazy legs as players race to the finish in a hurdles event in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games.
And is it me, or do those mascots on the balloons in the background near the end look like some sort of bastard cross between Hello Kitty and the Blue Badger?
Of course, what everyone’s coming out to see is Mario himself taking on the Blue Blur (and, well, everyone else) in the 100 meter dash.
The winner may come as no surprise, but hey, he had to WORK for it, dammit.
- Go, Galactic!
Ok, so no Quasar Sabers or Galactazords here, but Super Mario Galaxy still has some of the strangest worlds in this or any other universe, as this video shows.
Meanwhile, these two videos show off what looks like the earliest part of the game, as Mario awakens to find himself faced with a mysterious rabbit leading him around.
Incidently, I love how the word balloons seem to occupy an actual space, where it stays fixed with the world rather than static on the screen. I imagine there are potential drawbacks to this, but it remains a cool visual.
Plus, CVG has another look at the elusive Cookie Factory… but this one has music. Why is that of note? Take a listen and see… and if you don’t get it, you probably were never meant to.
- Looks like Rockstar has finally caved and snipped their baby, as Manhunt 2 is coming this Halloween.
You’ve got to wonder just what they did cut, though.
GameDaily ponders this industry self-censoring with other industry heads in this feature.
- Wow.
Way to go, Sony. Microsoft. Capcom. SEGA.
At this rate, it looks like “E For All” is going to be “Nintendo and some Third-Parties Who Like Fans”, or something.
I dunno, there’s a joke there, but it’s just not clicking. Probably because the whole notion really sucks ass.
- Gamers are known for playing Super Smash Bros. to cause havoc, but it looks like Brawl will be doing it in a whole ‘nother way thanks to Havok’s physics engine.
What will this mean for the gameplay? Guess we’ll see!
- According to developers for the upcoming PS3 title Little Planet, the game’s customization is in fact so robust that you can easily create Mario as user-created content.
Go Nintendo thinks “As long as it?s user created there shouldn?t be a problem.” And of course, that’s true, so long as Nintendo and Marvel Comics don’t share the same lawyers.
- The King of Kong opened in eight more cities yesterday, and none of them are Toronto. Blast!
But the movie has held up extremely well, netting $10,000 per screen, just trailing Superbad… which was on “roughly 590 times more screens.”
This, plus 98 percent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and 83/100 on Metacritic makes me crazy that there’s nothing for the thing around here. Confound it!
- While I can easily understand no plans for a Player’s Choice Wii lineup, is one for the DS so much to ask? Hmm?
–LBD “Nytetrayn”
August 26th, 2007 at 12:18 am
1. That’s really cool news, about unlocking the iPhone (even if it sounds too complicated for many people to attempt). I hate the idea of particular phones being bound to particular carriers. They should compete on terms of SERVICE, not who has the shinier gadgets. But the iPhone seems more like a status thing right now… It seems cool and all but I don’t know how much use I’d get out of one.
I’m no big fan of T-Mobile, but lately I’ve been discovering its usefulness… Since I got an Internet plan for my phone, which includes Hotspot access, I’ve found a lot of places to get free, reliable Internet while traveling. It’d be better if it were free for everyone… But at least having T-Mobile is better than nothing, in those situations.
13. Some dumb comments on that thread… “BYE BYE WAVEDASHING.” It was never meant to be in the game in the first place, and was removed from later copies… I can’t see this changing the gameplay too much, but like some have mentioned, maybe it’s only really affecting secondary objects, like crates and such. It might be a neat little touch.