InFormers: Robots in the News

1. One planet full of Decepticons.

   300 Autobots.

   Or something like that.

Assorted Mushrooms

1. Wow, now here’s an opportunity that doesn’t come along often.

   If you’re a fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, then it may interest you to know that you can now commission TMNT art from Mirage Studios artists Steve Lavigne and Ryan Brown!

2. Thylacine2000 turned my attention to a couple of cool Flash movies, Animator vs. Animation parts one and two.

   Think of this as the modern-day non-DS equivalent of the classic Looney Tune “Duck Amuck.”

3. WebbAlert has a collection of various viral videos up, this week regarding the many versions and spoofs of the whole “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” schtick.
4. Are you skilled enough to land a plane on a moving motorhome? These guys are.
5. Who can you trust when you can’t trust your own colleagues? That’s what CSI: CSI is for.

   On a related note, I don’t have a sandwich at home in my fridge. But I hope that I will… someday.

6. The Rock speaks out about wanting the role of Black Adam in the upcoming movie version of Shazam.

Video Power

1. SOTA has unveiled a new resin statue, this time based on Ibuki from Street Fighter III.
2. Racketboy’s Retrogaming checks out the best modern 2D games for the GameCube, many choices with which I agree, such as The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures and Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, among others.
3. Toastyfrog has scored himself a Pimp Daddy Destro (I never knew he was into that), as well as giving Super Mario Galaxy an early review score.

   Not to spoil anything, but from The 1up Show, it seems the game is good enough to drive him to song.

4. Yours truly has gone to the effort of finding out more about Corgi International’s upcoming line of Mario collectibles, and there’s more to come. In the meantime, find out what’s in store (more than the last link I gave about it, promise) over at AMN. And if you can, please Digg. Every little Digg helps.

   Oh, and big thanks to RMC at Go Nintendo for linking to it. You rock, man.

5. Sounds like Nintendo isn’t looking to introduce a new portable any time soon. And who can blame them? DS, prints money, lol, you know the deal.
6. Iwata also goes on to discuss how Nintendo is stronger as a hardware and software provider, and his thoughts on combining gaming and other devices for the sake of “trimming the fat.” Which doesn’t seem to usually go over that well. PSP hasn’t really replaced the iPod, and N-Gage hasn’t replaced anything.
7. So, of course you probably know about this new game coming out, Super Mario Galaxy, which is about Mario in space.

   “What good is a fat Italian plumber in space?” is probably the question asked by a lot of cynics. I haven’t heard anyone ask, but I’m sure it’s out there, and if not, it’ll come up eventually.

   Regardless, I feel that it is important to note that for this outting, Mario has retrieved training from some of the best:

   

   Mario, Nintendo’s iconic video game character, floats with famous astronaut Dr. Buzz Aldrin (and ZERO-G coaches) in zero-gravity atmosphere to train for his upcoming game set in space, Super Mario Galaxy for Wii on November 03, 2007 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The game is available in stores Monday, Nov. 12.

   And apparently, the ZERO-G guys and Buzz were all lucky enough to become a part of the Super Mario Galaxy Flight Crew.

8. GameTrailers, after a long and arduous journey, reaches the zenith of their journey with the final part of their Final Fantasy Retrospective.
9. The Mario & Sonic “Airhorn” video is available again, this time at GameTrailers.
10. Part 2 of the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Ninja Pro-Am opening is now available, with Shake demonstrate’s the finer points of playing the game.
11. Next Generation takes an exhaustive look at Super Mario Galaxy‘s launch in Japan, plus the fear Japanese gamers have of possibly getting motion-sick from the game.
12. Oh boy. So now Game Daily has a new feature, in which they find stuff people in gaming are saying, and kindly tell them to shut their trap.

    Is it me, or does it seem like every gaming site is on about other gaming sites this week?

13. I guess a question that’s going to be around for awhile is whether or not we’ve hit the uncanny valley yet (granted, it refers to robots, but I imagine it’s about the same in principle for games). No doubt, they’ve been working on it since the gaming industry began, and we’re clearly closer than ever. And yet… well, just how close are we? Games Radar draws up some comparisons for us, featuring photographic stills alongside screenshots.
14. Hate thieves, especially those who steal from people (it’s all bad, though). But I do like happy endings. So I have sort of mixed feelings about this story.
15. Go Nintendo spots a difference between the North American and Japanese versions of Resident Evil 4. You might say it’s very moving.

    But don’t say it’s touching, though. That’d just be wrong.

16. Go Nintendo has a review up of Mega Man ZX Advent. I mention this because, in reading, I find it funny the way “Mega Man” is constantly referred to as a singular entity, no matter how much evidence there is to the contrary.

    Not counting evil doubles, we can name two in the Battle Network/Star Force continuity right off the bat. I think I even heard that the former shows up and meets you in the latter if you put a GBA Battle Network game into the DS’s GBA slot.

    Then we have the “main” timeline. There’s the original, and his successor Mega Man X. After that it gets a little questionable; the next series is titles Mega Man Zero, though he’s never, ever called as such within, nor are the Four Guardians (who were based on Mega Man X), though users of the BioMetals in the next series, Mega Man ZX, are referred to as Mega Men (the plural is even used in the original). So there are Vent and Aile, plus Giro and Serpent, and purportedly Pandora and Prometheus, all holding the title of “Mega Man” in that game alone. Then we get to Advent, where Models L, P, F, and H are held by four more individuals, plus the two Model A holders.

    And finally, we have MegaMan Legends, the first game to show more than one Mega Man existing at the same time with MegaMan Volnutt/Trigger and MegaMan Juno.

    So, in total, that’s 23 potential Mega Men, 16 definite, all distinct, save for the recurring use of arm cannons and wearing blue. Really, after the original series, Mega Man has become less of a name and more of a title, sort of like “Green Lantern” or “Power Ranger.” They are legion, and God help if they ever all get into a room together.

    Incidently, one of my favorite art pieces from the 20th Anniversary is this wallpaper, featuring many of the protagonist Mega Men standing together.

    Sorry, RMC (like he’ll ever read this, I’m sure), not trying to rag on you or anything, it’s just a recurring thing I’ve noticed and finally wanted to address.

17. Speaking of Mega Man‘s 20th anniversary, there’s some new Rockman swag to commemorate the occassion.

    I dunno, felt like they went more “all out” on the 15th, especially in America. Still, these look neat, though I much prefer character art than pixel art. Put the above wallpaper on a shirt, and then we’ll be talking!

18. Sounds like Nintendo is trying to make nice and help out third parties more. I wonder how many would accept? It sounds beneficial for all parties involved.
19. Konami has blessed us with a kick-ass website for Contra 4.

    I’m going to be spending a bit of time checking this out later, as it looks to have plenty of good content for the Contra fan.

20. Incidently, Konami used to have a really cool site for Neo Contra, with some fun anecdotes from the developers and such, but it’s no longer there. Since this is specifically a “Contra 4” website, I imagine its days are numbered as well. Is there any way to “save” a website like this, like to disc or something? I’d love to know.
21. 1up’s Matt Leone, Go Nintendo, and now PMO are telling you to give Donkey Kong Jungle Beat a try before Super Mario Galaxy sees release; they were made by the same new team (mostly) of Nintendo’s out of Tokyo, and seem to both be products of quality.
22. Game|Life seems to like Penny Arcade’s take on why GameStop doesn’t care for Eye of Judgement, at least as a product.

    Sadly, it all makes sense, serving to further perpetuate the idea that GameStop is less a specialty store and closer to a specialty pawn shop.

23. Joystiq has coverage of the debate in Philly between Jack Thompson, Oddworld’s Lorne Lanning, and moderated by Newsweek‘s N’Gai Croal.

    And I hate to say this… maybe I was not of sound mind and body when reading this, but Thompson didn’t seem nearly as bad as usual here. And from the lovely Jenn Frank’s account of the matter, it seems that I am not alone in that thinking.

24. I wish my mom still cross-stitched.

    Then again, I wonder if she’d ever do something as cool as that. Of course, once upon a time…

25. Great, now I’m hungry.

    Thanks a LOT, guys!

    Seriously, though, where in the hell is that from?

26. Kotaku has a new feature wherein they ask who the big loseWeight Exerciser of the format war will be: BluRay, HD-DVD, or you.

    Me? I’m just sitting this one out until a victor is declared. Low risk, high reward seems to be the call this day.

27. Hey, remember that part in Back to the Future part III where Marty schools those old west kids in a rousing game of Pac-Gentleman?

    Yeah, me neither. But you know it would’ve been cool.

–LBD “Nytetrayn”

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 4th, 2007 at 2:17 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.