Posted by Tim Sheehy on Jun 15, 2010 in Videogames
This is Space Invaders: Infinity Gene – Square-Enix and Taito’s latest attempt to revive the Space Invaders franchise. In all fairness, I haven’t actually had a chance to play this yet — though I might at this week’s E3 — and my first impressions are based on the video above. Still, I find myself completely confused by everything I saw. Sure it’s neat, and innovative, at least by comparison to the classic Space Invaders I knew and loved, but it’s as if the designers simply refused to draw a line. As a result, we’re left with a mess of lines and shapes which I really had trouble making heads and tails of. Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve seen the formula work – Geometry Wars was a great example — but until I really get a hands on with it, I’m simply not sold on this and I’m left wondering if I’m the only one who feels that way. Read more…
This is probably the largest stormtrooper toy I’ve ever seeen. At 24 inches, Super7’s two-foot-tall take on the Imperial stormtrooper comes complete with a spring loaded rocket propelled fist, and wheels. Why it would even need those is beyond me, but I’m not one to complain about the extras. Still, it’s not like it really needed them. It’s a two foot tall storm trooper wielding an E-11 blaster rifle, and that’s more than enough reason to want one if you ask me. Here’s the kicker, though — it’ll cost you about $299. Crazy, right? At least the details are pretty stunning up close. If you’re still willing to empty your wallet or bank account, you can order one online via the Super7 website. For more info on the toy itself, check out the mini-site here. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 14, 2010 in Fandom, Tech
La Carmina is one of my favorite subculture bloggers, so I was a bit upset to see that YouTube had censored one of her videos by claiming that it violated their community guidelines. But I’ll let you be the judge — shown below is her video. Now before you watch this clip I will warn you that there is some fetish footage at the end. However some of you may be a bit disappointed as the model in question is clothed (she’s wearing underwear), and that may be hard to see as the scene is shot in a low light situation: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 14, 2010 in Comic Books
I was pleasantly surprised to see that on Wednesday BOOM! Studios be taking their first steps as a publisher and putting out a real book which will be a collection of New Yorker styled cartoons by Shannon Wheeler with the title I Thought You Would Be Funnier. On the surface creating a New Yorker cartoon seem dead simple — they’re black and white, not always exquisitely drawn and have to have a clever punchline. However just try coming up with a few of these on your own and you’ll see just how hard it is to do something original or even just funny. So the few artists that can get their work published are always worth taking a look at — and in this case Wheeler deserves your admiration as he paid his dues with the cult comic Too Much Coffee Man. Here’s a preview of his book which make me smile a few times: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 14, 2010 in Comic Books
There was a magic moment in my life when I first ventured into Japanese bookstores here in New York City. Mind you that this was many moons ago, but as an art school student I knew that shows like Star Blazers came from Japan. Not speaking Japanese the first books that caught my attention were the Roman Albums, which were (and still are) published by Tokuma Shoten. These books were miniature coffee table guides to a series, but they left me with a hunger to see the comic books that inspired these amazing animated shows. Nippon Books was a tiny store (which went out of business a quite a few years ago) so it was with a great delight that I discovered the Kinokuniya book store. Read more…
I’m a journalism major, not a design major, but I have to say that the logos for the upcoming film adaptations of Marvel comics’ Thor and Captain America are…less than thrilling. And I mean that in the literal sense. They’re pretty boring. Let’s have a look-see. Read more…
In certain video games, there’s a phenomenon I’m going to call “Boss to Minion Progression” (or you may know it on TVTropes as Degraded Boss) in which an early level’s boss reappears– weaker, and perhaps a different color –as a regular-occurring baddie in a later level. Nearly every Final Fantasy has had this, along with games like Castlevania, beat-’em-ups like Double Dragon and Streets of Rage, a bunch of the Legend of Zelda games…it’s pretty common. Read more…
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Jun 11, 2010 in Videogames
I’m sure most of you were expecting to see the Mortal Kombat: Rebirth teaser that’s been floating around the internet the past few days. Well, instead we have a trailer for the upcoming Mortal Kombat game that, I could only imagine, would have been announced at E3 next week. This year however, everyone seems to have wanted to let their cats out of their proverbial bags, so we’re getting to see this stuff ahead of time — lucky us.
Medicom’s at it again with their ever-so-popular Be@rbrick line – this time, featuring characters from Star Trek’s original series. While I’m sure most of you were probably hoping to see Spock and McCoy along for the ride, Kirk’s instead joined by Uhura. A bit of a surprise, but definitely nothing to complain about. Being sold as a set, they’re current listed for 2604 yen, which comes out to about $28 USD. No word on when they’ll be available for order, though I’m sure we’ll end up seeing them for order via Hobby Link Japan in no time.
