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Posted by Ben Huber on Jan 11, 2014 in Videogames 
Yoshi is finally back! Nintendo has announced that Yoshi’s New Island will come out in the US on March 14th. Thankfully that’s not too far away. The game is a new addition to the Yoshi’s Island series featuring Yoshi once again rescuing baby Mario. The art style attempts to recreate the classic original’s visuals, but I’m not sure it’s quite there. It still looks alright, but I feel that one more pass might’ve made it pop a bit more. I love the idea of soft, painted graphics though. It’ll be available in stores and digital download via the eShop. Read more…
Tags: 3DS, Nintendo, yoshi
Posted by Ben Huber on Jan 11, 2014 in Animation, Anime 
You know, a lot of people pick on The Simpsons nowadays, but when they put their heads together and do a tribute in reference to something, they really do it well. The latest tribute features Homer getting drunk in Little Tokyo and then everything goes as little crazy, Miyazaki-style. Cat-bus, the moving castle, Kiki, and of course, Spirited Away, are all there. I think I saw a few smaller references as well, so watch the video below and see if you can catch them all. It’s a pretty lengthy sequence to devote to one gag. Read more…
Tags: Hayao Miyazaki, The Simpsons
Posted by Ben Huber on Jan 10, 2014 in Cinema, Comic Books 
Many fans weren’t happy with the twist involving Ben Kingsley as the Mandarin. If you haven’t seen Iron Man 3, bail out here. Unless you don’t mind being spoiled. Since he was merely posing as the Mandarin, fans were upset that we’d never get to see the version of the famous villain from the comics, clearly ruining his legacy. I thought it was a great twist, although sadly Guy Peace couldn’t really hold his own as an interesting villain once the “Mandarin” was gone. Anyway: Ben Kingsley is back as the actor Trevor Slattery again, but it seems that the whole Mandarin thing was perhaps… appropriated from the already existing terrorist group The Ten Rings. And hints that perhaps the real Mandarin is very upset that someone is using his namesake. This could be a neat twist on things, but we’ll have to wait till the one-shot arrives — it’ll be on the Thor 2 blu-ray, which comes out February 25th. Till then, have some pictures of Ben Kingsley looking nervous! Read more…
Tags: Iron Man 3, Marvel, Thor: The Dark World
Posted by Ben Huber on Jan 10, 2014 in Videogames 
If the name Turtle Rock sounds familiar, it’s because they’re the crew that originally made Left 4 Dead. Once they were acquired by Valve, they made Left 4 Dead 2 and its accompanying DLC, but then split off back into their own company (some staff stayed at Valve and others returned to the original studio). Now, after dealing with the hassle of the THQ (their original publisher) bankruptcy mess, they’re now being published by Take-Two and 2K, and are back with a brand new multiplayer game: Evolve. Four players act as hunters on one team, and one player gets to be the monster they hunt. There’s a variety of classes and monsters to play as, and it sounds like a great twist on what made Left 4 Dead so much fun. Check out some images below or visit Game Informer’s page for the game that’ll have frequent updates with more details. Read more…
Tags: Evolve, Turtle Rock
Posted by Ben Huber on Jan 6, 2014 in Fandom, Hobbies and Collections 
So, did everyone bust on the LEGOs over Christmas break? Because there are a ton of amazing creations popping up this week. Ok, it doesn’t quite apply here because this was uploaded a little bit ago but it didn’t catch my attention until now. This huge model made by LegoBrickbaron looks impressive in pictures, with its bright colors and insane attention to detail, but it looks even better on video. Why? Because it moves and has a bunch of little mechanical moving parts. Check out the entire video to see Batman battling the Joker, Robin struggling to hang on, and the Penguin unleashing his penguin horde. Read more…
Tags: Batman, Joker, Lego
Posted by Ben Huber on Jan 6, 2014 in Hobbies and Collections 
This is just a great time for mechanical ball machines, isn’t it? First the LEGO ball machine earlier this weekend and now The Works Museum in Minnesota has commissioned an enormous K’nex ball machine that they proclaim is the largest in the world. The machine stands 23.5 feet tall, 40 feet long, and used over 100,000 K’nex pieces. In the video below, you can catch the highlights of the machine, like a 20 foot drop, a 60 foot long pathway, and 2 lifts to transport the balls to the top. Check it out! Read more…
Tags: K'nex
Posted by Ben Huber on Jan 5, 2014 in Cinema 
Wes Anderson needs no introduction, does he? His latest film, The Grand Budapest Hotel looks fantastic so far, and I’m very interested in seeing it. Leading the marketing push, two clips have been uploaded (one via Apple and one via Yahoo), to give you a taste. Ralph Fiennes is just having a blast here, chewing the scenery and devouring every line. And Tony Revolori is fitting perfectly into the role of a boy who is a bit too nervous, but it plays well into the energy the rest of the world has. Check out the two clips below! The film arrives March 7th. Read more…
Tags: Wes Anderson
Posted by Ben Huber on Jan 5, 2014 in Hobbies and Collections 
Not the real thing, mind you, that’d be a bit expensive. Instead, you can own the NASA Mars Curiosity Rover… in LEGO form! For $30! That’s a bit more affordable, eh? It features the 6-wheeled suspension system and poseable robotic arms for gather data. The coolest part? It was designed by LEGO fan and Curiosity engineer Stephen Pakbaz. So this dude made both the real rover and the LEGO version — if only I could be half as cool as he is! You can buy the set online here (or in stores) but of this writing it’s currently out of stock and will be back January 17th. Read more…
Tags: Lego, Mars, NASA
Posted by Ben Huber on Jan 4, 2014 in Star Wars
For a bit now we were aware that Empire Strikes Back and Raiders of the Lost Ark scribe Lawrence Kasdan would be working on a Star Wars script for spinoff movie in addition to helping JJ Abrams write the new trilogy. What we didn’t know, though, is what that spinoff film would be about. We had our suspicions, and rumors ran rampant about a Yoda film and a Boba Fett film equally. Well, according to Jon Schnepp, who has worked on The Venture Bros. and Metalocalypse and probably has some friends who worked on Star Wars: The Clone Wars, says that he’s heard that Kasdan is penning a Boba Fett script. Neat! Now, the big question is, can Boba Fett be interesting enough for an entire 2 hours? I’m not sure. Read more…
Tags: Boba Fett, Lawrence Kasdan
Posted by Ben Huber on Jan 4, 2014 in Comic Books, Star Wars 
Farewell, Dark Horse! You’ve been a lovely friend for Star Wars all these years — over 20, actually. But given that Disney owns both Marvel and Lucasfilm, it was only a matter of time until the comics were brought under the same roof. Marvel will be taking over publishing of all Star Wars comics in 2015. Whether they’ll continue currently running series or halt them remains to be seen. I imagine at the very least they have plenty of plans for comics that’ll support the new films that begin in 2015. What’ll happen next? And what will Dark Horse do to fill the gaps? Read more…
Tags: Dark Horse, Marvel, Star Wars
Posted by Ben Huber on Jan 3, 2014 in Hobbies and Collections 
Akiyuky, the intrepid Japanese LEGO mastermind behind several incredible contraptions, is back with another impressive ball contraption, delivering hundreds of balls in a loop through a variety of neat machines. While the scale is always impressive, I’m liking this one a bit more for the extra character involved: those adorable colored animals picking up the balls and throwing them back is great! I hope Akiyuky and his crew of talented builders do more of the that in the future, because it adds some much-needed color to some amazing LEGO gizmos. Watch the blue ball travel through the contraption below! Read more…
Tags: Lego
Posted by Ben Huber on Jan 3, 2014 in Cinema, Comic Books 
Straight from the New Year’s celebration comes this new clip of Amazing Spider-Man 2, featuring shots of Spidey, Electro, and 1.2 seconds of the Rhino. Of course, it’s all set in Times Square. Also, am I alone in noticing how… video game-y this trailer looks? I’m not sure if it’s the over-saturation or the glossy effects, but everyone looks like a CGI model. Rhino also didn’t look great for his brief appearance. At least Spidey is wise-cracking, though! I’m worried about all these villains, still, as I’m not sure Marc Webb can pull it off. Read more…
Tags: The Amazing Spider-Man
Posted by Ben Huber on Dec 30, 2013 in Videogames 
After a series of heated votes, a heroine design has been picked for the Mighty No. 9, Keiji Inafune’s wildly successful Kickstarter video game. They had been leaving voting to the community to determine the most popular design for Call, the heroine of the game, and after a heated session, they’ve picked the above design. Granted, she looks pretty similar to Roll from Megaman, but given that this game is a spiritual successor to that series, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. Check the second and third place designs below! Read more…
Tags: Kickstarter, Mighty No. 9
Posted by Ben Huber on Dec 30, 2013 in Anime 
Space Dandy is finally here on Saturday, January 4th! Aren’t you excited? I know I am. Featuring all the animation talent of the Japanese industry, along with tons of musical artists, and back up by director Shinichiro Watanabe of Cowboy Bebop, it looks like 2014 will start off with a bang. It’ll air on Toonami at 11:30pm and every Saturday after that for 24 episodes! And that’s even before Japan, which gets it the day after! Dubbed or subbed, live on TV or streamed via the internet, pick the way you want to watch it and have fun. It’s a good time to be an anime fan. Watch the trailer right here! Read more…
Tags: BONES, Shinichirō Watanabe, Space Dandy
Posted by Ben Huber on Dec 29, 2013 in Hobbies and Collections 
Please, Hot Toys, please. What dark magic do you use to shrink actors’ heads down to figure scale? It’s insane. Also, making a Dark Knight armory replica with Alfred to boot? You’re just killing my wallet here. Both Bruce and Alfred look fantastic, and the cabinet containing all of Batman’s weaponry looks like a great way to store all those extra figure pieces, right? At the very least, if you’re already deep in the Hot Toys pit, this armory is basically the last thing to complete the collection. No word yet on a release date or price, but I bet it’ll be expensive. Check out some more images below. Read more…
Tags: Batman, Hot Toys, The Dark Knight
Posted by Ben Huber on Dec 29, 2013 in Cinema, Videogames 
Now there’s a title you don’t see every day. Clancy Brown, most famously known as the voice of Spongebob Squarepants’ Mr. Krabs, has join the World of Warcraft movie cast. No word on what part he’ll play, but he did voice Scourgelord Tyrannus in Wrath of the Lich King. Also announced was Daniel Wu. Previously, we had also heard that Travis Fimmel, Ben Foster, Toby Kebbell, Rob Kazinsky, Dominic Cooper, and Paula Patton had been cast as well. And remember how it opened on the same day as Star Wars Episode VII? Well, no longer! It was moved to March 11th, 2016. A smart move. Read more…
Tags: Warcraft, World of Warcraft
Posted by Ben Huber on Dec 28, 2013 in Videogames 
I love goofy in-universe ads for fictional products, so seeing this new trailer for Titanfall presented as an ad by Hammond Robotics is pretty cool. It’s got a 23% lighter frame! Obviously! I’m pretty interested in Titanfall, not because it’s another multiplayer FPS, but because it introduces a lot of verticality into the game. Most of my favorite multiplayer FPS games (or at least the ones I keep coming back to) have an emphasis on being mobile and getting vertical space between you and your opponent. Titanfall isn’t far away now: it’ll arrive March 11th. Read more…
Tags: Titanfall
Posted by Ben Huber on Dec 28, 2013 in Cinema, Fandom 
Alright, I know what you’re gonna say: another Kickstarter? But this one’s good. And with so many people using it, it really has become less of a novelty and more a legitimate pathway to funding your project. Kung Fury is an 80s-themed live-action movie by David Sandberg. It features vikings, Norse Gods, dinosaurs, guns, neon lights, and renegade time-travelling kung fu cops out to kill Hitler (the Kung Führer, of course). It looks suitably insane and has the look down pat. You can watch the trailer below made up of their existing footage, and then head over to their Kickstarter page to find out all the juicy details! Read more…
Tags: Kickstarter, Kung Fury
Posted by Ben Huber on Dec 27, 2013 in Cinema, Fandom 
Sigh. We’d all like to forget the Star Wars Christmas Special, wouldn’t we? What if other beloved movies had gotten something just as terrible? Well, Nerdist decided to subject us all to the hilarious pain of imagining what a Blade Runner Christmas Special might look like. Yes, it’s as silly and terrifying as you might guess. Santa, Jesus, and elves that “just do toys” are involved… although I’m not sure what the point was of the random Chuck Norris joke? Maybe I’m missing a deeper level of meta-commentary. Check out the video below. Don’t say I didn’t warn you! Read more…
Tags: Blade Runner
Posted by Ben Huber on Dec 27, 2013 in Videogames 
Another returning character has been announced for Smash Bros., and it’s Zelda! This is really no surprise, but her upgraded look and (seemingly) some new moves involving the Phantom Armor from Spirit Tracks. Just recently we had gotten news of Rosalina being included in the game, so I’m glad to see more female fighters in the game. Especially when it’s called Smash Bros. I will say, I really like her design, as she looks even more fierce than before. Now we just need to wait for the inevitable Sheik reveal, eh? I’d also like to see Ganondorf get a more original moveset, ok Sakurai? Thanks. Read more…
Tags: 3DS, Super Smash Bros., Wii U
Posted by Ben Huber on Dec 23, 2013 in Videogames 
Get ready to be sucked back in again: Co0kie Clicker has returned with a new holiday update. It adds a bunch of Christmas cheer, holiday upgrades, and a little elf that you can upgrade in the bottom corner. I’m not sure what this elf will do, given that I haven’t upgraded him the whole way yet, but it seems slightly nefarious. If you haven’t played the addictive web game Cookie Clicker before, it’s basically all in the name. You click, you get cookies. Once you click enough, you can spend those cookies on devices that will auto-click for you, thus netting you more cookies, which allows you to buy even more auto-click items. Suddenly, you’re opening portals to hell and generating millions of cookies per second and it all becomes quite terrifying. Try it! Read more…
Tags: cookie clicker
Posted by Ben Huber on Dec 23, 2013 in Cinema, Comic Books 
Well this is a weird story to write. Apparently Vin Diesel, despite saying publicly that he was playing Groot, was not “officially” announced as part of the project. Disney and Marvel never denied it, and Vin Diesel was talking about it, so everyone assumed it was a done deal. But now, Disney has sent out a press release along with a new promotional image officially telling us all about this super-cool new actor in Guardians of the Galaxy. Thanks guys! Hey, if anything, at least we’re getting a better look at how Groot will look in the film, although James Gunn says that his appearance has changed slightly in the final version. Neat stuff! So, Disney, when are we going to get that first real trailer? Soon I’d hope? Read more…
Tags: Guardians of the Galaxy, Marvel
Posted by Ben Huber on Dec 22, 2013 in Cinema 
Here’s the first trailer for Wally Pfister’s directorial debut, Transcendence. Christopher Nolan’s dedicated director of photography is stepping out on his own to make his own films, and he’s got quite the cast for his first: Johnny Depp, Morgan Freeman, Rebecca Hall, Paul Bettany, and Cillian Murphy just to name a few. It looks like working on the Dark Knight trilogy paid off, eh? It features Depp as a scientist who promises a world of super-intelligent computers and the eventual merging of man and machine. But once he’s killed by anti-technology radicals, his wife uploads his consciousness into a superpowered computer and things get a bit crazy from there. It seems like an interesting idea, but I’m not sure where Depp is getting those supernatural powers from? I suppose we’ll understand more when the film comes out on April 18th, next year. Read more…
Tags: Johnny Depp, Wally Pfister
Posted by Ben Huber on Dec 22, 2013 in Design 
You’ve probably seen some of those Photoshop videos that reveal how much retouching goes on in a typical model’s photoshoot. It’s made to show that we shouldn’t rely on ads and magazines for the body image to strive for, as it’s completely artificial. Well, Victor & Spoils has done a great little video about the dangers of Photoshop, except this time they’ve put a holiday twist on it. I won’t spoil it for you, but suffice to say, if you’re looking at Photoshopped models, you should be prepared to see some skin. It just might surprise what you’re seeing though! Read more…
Tags: Christmas, Photography, Photoshop
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