Thanksgiving Leftovers – 11/24/07
Alright, time to see what’s transpired over the past couple of days of Thanksgiving break…
InFormers: Robots in the News
- If you’ve a question for legendary TransFormers scribe Simon Furman, now’s your time to ask.
- So… Animated Megatron will turn into… an Osprey-styled helicopter?
- Oh, wow. Time for a history lesson.
Back around the end of the 20th century, about 1998-2000, if memory serves, Hasbro released a show and toyline called Beast Machines as a follow-up to their successful, Emmy-award winning franchise-reviving Beast Wars. And to follow that, they were going to make a series called TransTech, using plenty of designs from a studio known as Draxhall Jump…
…until Beast Machines more or less bombed. At the very least, it just didn’t do well enough to warrant continuing along the train of thought. As a result, Hasbro stalled for time by importing the popular Japanese cartoon TransFormers: Car Robots here as Robots in Disguise. This bought Hasbro enough time to team with Takara to make a cross-ocean franchise in Armada/Micron Legend and so on.
Anyway, didn’t take long for a portion of the fans to get sick of beta animation, misscripted lines, and toys that couldn’t lift their arms or bend their legs, and so they started to wondering aloud about the MIA TransTech.
Until now, as the Official TransFormers Collector’s Club has revealed that TransTech will be their focus for 2008. The interesting question that remains is, what are they going to do for toys? The TransTech designs never made it into production, with possibly less than a scant few even reaching the prototype stage. Since Master Collector doesn’t typically use new molds to make their figures, but rather retools…
Maybe redecorated Movie toys? I have said that they do sort of look the part, except with realistic vehicle modes.
Assorted Mushrooms
- They may not be Spartan-class of Chozo-worthy, but the military’s exo-suits are getting there.
If they want more funding, they ought to make a good game to promote this thing.
- Ouch! I think I’d have given him the ten bucks anyway.
- Maybe you’ve seen that video of two cats speaking. But did you ever wonder just what they’re saying?
- Epic fail on the Wheel of Fortune.
- WebbAlert brings viral videos to ring in Turkey Day, including two “Will It Blend” episodes.
- Thanks to Kanuck, we’ve got word that Kamen Rider Dragon Knight is coming to the US.
…wait, Dragon Knight? Dammit. I really should’ve found another name for my fighting team…
- The Stages. Happens to a lot of guys.
- Captain Kirk is pissed after being snubbed by the makers of the new Star Trek film. They’d better watch it, lest his Shaman strike them down. Nevermind the Night Elf Mohawk reinforcements.
- Beware of spoilers as the site for The Dark Knight takes it up a notch and The Joker mocks the media.
Video Power
- Heatman has decked the halls with thanks (wait…) by offering up some Battle Network/EXE and ZX tunes from the Japanese soundtracks on The Mega Man Network.
- And Smash Bros. DOJO!! makes us thankful for Lucas’ Special Moves, and the art of Charged Special Moves.
- Press The Buttons has updated with their annual Holiday Gift Guide. Mine didn’t seem to go over so hot last year, so I don’t know if I’ll mess with it this year.
- Gamasutra has a new feature up that looks at the secret ingredient of the feel of a game.
Speaking of leaning into the turns and such, I remember when a friend and I had rented Star Fox on the Super NES, and the first time we’d gotten to Andross, he was playing, and was literally down to his knees trying to keep from being sucked in.
Now THAT is how you do it.
- I’m not much a car person. I just know what I like, and someday, I wouldn’t mind a small collection. Like, count the number on one hand.
Actually, part of the dream is to have a custom hybrid Hummer that can drive me into the city from the country, in good weather or bad, and have the back open up to deploy a Smart car. Ah, to be rich…
Anyway, Jeep has a new piece that I’d like to add to the list which strikes some folks as… inspired.
- GameTrailers pits Super Mario Galaxy head to head with its predecessor, Super Mario Sunshine, in both standard and HD.
- They’re STILL making trailers for Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games? Maybe it’s to keep momentum going for the DS version.
Anyway, here’s Team Mario. Say, you’d sorta think Bowser would be on Team Sonic, wouldn’t you?
- ScrewAttack looks back at one of the few basketball games I’ve ever set my hands on in NBA Jam. It was kind of fun, but really, the main reason I ever picked it up was because it was the second game in the first Blockbuster World Video Game Championships.
- A game I’ve regretfully been ignoring until I read the feature in the new Nintendo Power: No More Heroes. Check it out, it’s actually kind of interesting.
- The team at MoCap tackles one of the most profitable businesses around.
Um, this one might not be so good for the kiddies. It’s not exactly uncut, but… just keep the kids away.
- Next Generation has been running a series of features called “The New Generation.” Part 1 looks at the games leading the way, while Part 2 takes a look at five figures who’ve helped shape what’s to come.
And the newly-added Part 3 looks at five elements that are helping to facilitate the shift forward.
- Games Radar has reminded me that I should really go back and visit my Animal Crossing towns.
Actually, that comic the other day did that, but in a much sadder way.
Anyway, they went back and found TONS of weeds, which will no doubt await me. Here’s a montage to the Benny Hill theme of them cleaning up.
- The many gross, crazy, and funny ways to die in Halo 3.
- Games Radar asks, “why the hell are PS3 games always late?”
- Nintendogs, meet Wii’s Kitty Luv.
I have no idea what it’s about, but it’s inspired me nonetheless; I’ve an idea for a game. Animals doing animal things. You take snapshots at weird moments, and add word macros, then send them to friends and post them on a Wii channel.
Budget title, if not Wii Ware. Watch it sell.
- GameVideos has a neat documentary about the Super FX chip, the 3D graphics chip for the Super NES which made games such as Star Fox and Stunt Race FX possible on the 16-bit system.
- Nintendo of Japan spruces up their Super Mario Galaxy website with some wallpapers for your desktop. I like the one with Mario and all the bosses.
Speaking of which, Kotaku hit upon the idea that it’s that very picture which should have been the box art, and even went so far as to make a mock-up of it. Good show.
- Go Nintendo has found a collection of DS icons, the little ones that appear when you start up your game. RMC thinks they’re useless, but I could see these working well as instant messenger icons, perhaps… How many can you name?
- By hook or by crook, Contra IV has been engineered with a way for you to get 99 lives in death.
- Nintendo has revealed that they’re working on a fix for the Fire Emblem problem between the Wii and GameCube games’ save files.
- Dengeki has some neat Ryuusei no Rockman (MegaMan Star Force) 2 art and cards and stuff, whatever it is…
- Super Mario… Sisters? This in no way could have been good.
- Check that, unless maybe it was something like this.
- “GTA for girls?” The idea sounds like it COULD have some merit, but not like this.
And hopefully, that’ll do for now. See you in a couple more days!
–LBD “Nytetrayn”