Points of Interest – 9/29/07
InFormers: Robots in the News
- Once upon a Generation 2, the Decepticon “conehead” Seeker known as Ramjet was to have a desert camo color scheme, but it never came to pass. At least, not on toy shelves.
A mock-up was apparently made, and you can find out all about it here.
- Another blast from the Cybertronian past comes from TF Pulp, with part 5 of 12 of TransFormers: Zone, a story that was told only in TV Magazine in Japan, continuing from the single pilot episode that takes place far in the future of their G1 continuity.
The feature is accompanies by some neat boxart-style painted pieces, as well as a look at an early Dai Atlas prototype.
- Ben Yee has some new reviews up, including Movie Longarm and Botcon 2007 “Games of Deception”/Classics Springer, both of which seem to be great figures. Plus, Springer’s review allows some insight into the process of creating a convention exclusive, as well.
Assorted Mushrooms
- For those who like anime, PMO reader and occassional commenter Neoendgame has a new podcast in which he discusses that very subject, along with some tunes.
- Sometimes… sometimes, you just want to smack a bitch.
Seriously, over a damn soda? Ridiculous. And that’s coming from a guy who LOVES his soda and has had some problems in the past.
That reminds me, I need to finish writing my Otakon report one of these days… I wonder how much I still remember.
- If I had the means (and something better than a drinking straw to cover it with), I bet I could make a small fortune selling my own homemade WiFi antennas that add to the range and power of your connection.
- How does that old saying go? “If you can’t blind them with brilliance, baffle them with…“
- Looks like the 2007 GI Joe convention is under way, and Toy News International has some stories covering news and notes, unproduced Sigma 6 figures, exclusives, custom 25th Anniversary figures, and upcoming Snow Job and Crimson Guard figures.
YoJoe.com has their own coverage as well.
- What might have been a catastrophe in collecting turned into a really awesome one-of-a-kind collectible, as Daniel Castillo discovered when an errant shelf fixture saw his Iron Man bust shattered.
Rather than crying over spilt milk, he picked up the pieces and used them to create an awesome Stealth Iron Man bust, which he now has on eBay. It’s hard to believe he’d get rid of something like this.
Video Power
- A good argument against realism in games.
- A long, long time ago in an arcade far, far away… there was this game, and people flocked to it like a falcon to a fake moon. Or something.
It also features the best rendition of the Star Wars theme since John Williams took up the baton.
- Oh, that crazy Racketboy and his crazy lists.
His latest is the cheapest Neo-Geo games worth your time. HA! Neo-Geo games, cheap? That is indeed worth many laughs.
Still, the list itself might be a handy reference for when/if SNK and Nintendo ever put the system on the Virtual Console lineup over here.
- With no current signs of a US Virtual Console release, GameTrailers has managed to virtually smuggle the game Sin and Punishment here to grab some videos for our pleasure and our pain.
- Tonberry2K was kind enough to inform me that a preview for Super Mario Bros. Z episode 7 is now available.
- IGN’s readers have good taste when it comes to wanting characters for Super Smash Bros. Brawl, as evidenced in this week’s Smash It Up! column, which also looks at who else might make the leap from trophy to something more.
Sadly, though, I’m not sure how likely Bill Rizer would be to make the cut, since even Snake can’t use regular guns. On the other hand, the Spread, Flame Thrower, Laser, and such aren’t exactly regular guns, now are they?
Still, as cool as it sounds, I just can’t imagine him translating that well into a good Brawl character, since his thing is filling the screen with bullets, and I doubt any moves they’d give him would allow for that. So Assist Trophy would probably be best.
- A Zelda Wii, a Metroid Wii, and now a Zelda DS. I wonder what Jeremy could do with Mario?
- There’s no way that anyone would be stupid enough to release their new game during the height of Halo 3‘s hype, right?
In fairness, however, these games are all on other systems, which means they seem more specifically targeted at people who wouldn’t be playing Halo 3 anyway… that is, unless they were waiting for the game to buy the system. Even then, it’s not like everyone is rushing out to Finish the Fight, so a little “counter-programming” isn’t such a bad idea.
- So GameDaily decided to name Princess Zelda as their Babe of the Week, and I was behind that when I saw the picture of the Twilight Princess Zelda from Brawl on the front page.
…but clicking the link (ha) and seeing the pre-teen Zelda from Ocarina? Man, that just feels SO wrong. To GameDaily: You owe me a new bar of soap. Jerks.
- Do you remember the 3DO? I do. Sort of. I don’t think I ever saw one, except maybe one time when my dad took me to Sears, but I read plenty about it in magazines.
If you don’t? Well, that’s understandable. It flopped, and how. So is it fair to compare the PlayStation 3 to Trip Hawkins’ ernest attempt at creating a console? That’s what GameDaily seeks to find out.
- So you’ve mastered “Legendary” mode on Halo 3 already and are wondering what to do now? Games Radar has the answer, as they show off some twists on the Halo gameplay to create new games within the game.
- Getting away from Halo for a moment, Games Radar is (one would assume) preparing for the impending release of The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass with a look back at the many games of the now-classic franchise.
- EGM has a new article in which they look at the old Nintendo Seal of Quality and proceed to completely miss the point.
Like Nintendo’s the only one that winds up with bad games on its systems. The seal is supposed to assure you the thing’s not going to fall apart in the disc drive or hijack your credit cards or anything crazy like that, not tell you if you’ll like the game or not. Eesh.
- Shacknews talks Harvey Birdman with lead designer Micah Skartika, drawing parallels to Phoenix Wright along the way.
- An interview with GameCock reveals that Nintendo doesn’t allow developers to be mentioned on the front of the box for a game. Apparently, they’re concerned that people with problems would try to call the developer with consumer service issues instead of the publisher.
So what? Let them take the risk if they want to.
- What amazes me more than the fact that dirty words are allowed in Scrabble DS is that this one is considered a legitimate word at all.
-
Are you a Nintendo historian? Score: 80% (8 out of 10)
Average is 53%. How’d you do?
- The ESRB do more than just tell you how likely you are to start killing people when you touch a gaming product. What else? Read and be amazed!
–LBD “Nytetrayn”
September 29th, 2007 at 12:27 pm
Just a few days ago I got my latest issue of EGM in the mail (didn’t realize my subscription was still active) and actually read that atrocious article. The issue’s cover highlights the article as, “Wii Crap: Why So Many Bad Games Are Flooding the System.” I thought it might actually be an interesting and thought-provoking article, maybe covering issues like developers needing to adjust to the control scheme, or riding the wave of success and being over-eager to make games that don’t utilize the controls well or show off the system’s strong points.
Instead, I turn to the actual article and, yes, it’s nothing more than, “Remember the Nintendo Seal of Quality? How does that explain Ninjabread Men? LAWL”.
It was a total filler article and a waste of time. They go on to cover their bases, saying it’s better to have more games out for a system (it was including the DS with the Wii at this point), even if it means more crap games, because overall it means more good games and publishers more likely to take risks with less than sure-fire hits. They also have a sidebar mentioning that Sega had a seal of quality, but Microsoft and Sony do not, essentially admitting their entire article is based on nothing more than a unusual interpretation of semantics.
It was just rubbish, telling you nothing more than you already know. It reminded me of a high school book report, with a goal presented to the author desperately trying to make the words fit the requirements. The rest of the issue was like this, with articles on how work should be more like a game and one on how to “decipher nonsense games” (which was mentioned on the cover but I’ve still been unable to locate), leading me to think next month will include things like a horoscope and “what the games you play mean for your love life.” It’s like a school newspaper with better spelling. I’m just going to let this subscription run out… Absolute garbage.
September 29th, 2007 at 1:11 pm
Speaking of the author, does it say who wrote it?
–LBD “Nytetrayn”
September 29th, 2007 at 5:26 pm
Thanks a lot for the link. Next update i will try to remember to put a link on the sit.
September 29th, 2007 at 5:31 pm
Sure, no sweat.
Next time, though, it might be simpler just to use the regular PoisonMushroom.Org URL. 
–LBD “Nytetrayn”
September 29th, 2007 at 6:12 pm
oops, sorry, the megaman empire one is the one i use.