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Now Listening - Lapti Nek

I grew up incredibly fond of all things Star Wars, so something like this is guaranteed to bring a smile to my face. At the risk of posting about yet another artsy Flickr user in the same day, I have to profess complete admiration of Kit Lane’s cuddly Jabba the Hutt creation, above. Despite capturing the vile gangster’s disgusting figure, including the skin folds, it somehow still manages to be cute. I think the bunny he’s holding has something to do with it. I have a store-bought stuffed Jabba the Hutt that was part of the Star Wars Buddies toy line, but Kit Lane’s work is far cooler.

source: Boing Boing

File this under WTF: Universal Pictures has apparently secured film rights to the classic Atari game Asteroids. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Mathew Lopez is penning the script, and the film will be produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventurea. But what I really want to know is who they’ll get to play the triangle.

The studio also owns the rights to film adaptations of Battleship, Candyland, and Stretch Armstrong among several other questionable nostalgia-heavy brands.

source: Film Junk

Update: Toronto Thumbs got their hand on an exclusive teaser of the movie. You can see it after the break

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Now Listening - 54-40

Flickr users oliveroliverbarrett created this hilarious composition showing the fifth Pac-Man ghost for the the Make Something Cool Everyday project. I had seen the image before but never thought to look up the creator till now. Check out his other graphic designs on his Flickr page - the dude’s a talented artist with a great sense of humor.

If Cobra Commander really was in Pac-Man, I have a feeling he’d always be running away from the player.

Though June started fast with E3, it ended nice and slow, giving us all time to kick back and enjoy some games. Read on to hear what we played during the month that was, and be sure to chime in and share what kept you busy, too. Which I already know was Karnov.

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While most my childhood friends had Nintendo Entertainment Systems, I somehow ended up with a Sega Master System. I was supposed to get a Nintendo, but Toys ‘R’ Us was sold out of the system the day my dad took me there. Instead, they had this other system that was kind of like a Nintendo, so we got that instead.

It’s a great system and I still love it, having eventually overcome NES Envy when my friends got to play the super cool Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game while I was left with Ghostbusters as the only licensed game in my collection. But dammit, I loved that game, and playing Ghostbusters: The Video Game on Xbox 360 and Wii has made me nostalgic for the Sega Master System version to the point where I almost want to play it.

Instead, I’ll settle for watching this speed-run of the entire game (EDIT: Here’s the second part). I was never able to defeat Gozer in that last stage, and damn that stairwell level was a bitch. The Slimers move too fast, and what’s with those elongated Slimers? On second thought, maybe I don’t want to know. If ghosts are supposed to be apparitions of deceased humans, I gotta wonder what Slimer might have looked like.

Anyhow, enjoy the clip and crank up the volume. This is actually one of the better 8-bit renditions of the Ghostbusters theme I’ve heard. Even though I’ve heard this loop thousands of times, and despite the fact that this tune makes my tinitus go crazy, I still get a kick out of it. The author of the clip has wisely replaced the music about three minutes in so regular folk like yourself don’t go crazy from it. Alas, it is too late for me.

Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is probably the title that has my interest this week.

Check out the full list of releases after the break.

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Brian Cronin on Comic Book Resources has uncovered a race fail from the 1970s, courtesy of DC Comics. A survey in Justice League of America #83 (which likely also appeared in other DC titles of the time) features a number of standard questions marketers use to get to know their audience. In the above scan, we see Question 5 asks kids what they’re interested in reading about. Among “Hobbies” and social issues, we have “Black People” as a potential topic of interest to young readers. Check out CBR for a decent scan of the full survey.

source: Batman Obviously

This weekend I played the Wii version of Punch-Out!! for the first time. I’ve always enjoyed the series –especially the SNES version – so I was perhaps a little too excited to play it. I’ve only played the first two circuits, but damn is this game ever fun!

Before getting my hands on this game, I’d read a few comments online in favor of the old school controller option. But after playing it with the motion controls, I can’t imagine wanting to play it any other way. The feeling of swinging my fists to beat the pineapples out of King Hippo is unrivaled by any other boxing game I have played, and I think it has a lot to do with how well these new controls work in terms of making you feel like you’re in the game. It’s actually quite adrenaline-pumping.

The characters have their distinct look and fighting style, and the game still feels like a Punch-Out!! title. Screenshots from the game don’t do it justice, and neither does watching video of it in action. It simply must be played to be appreciated. The theme music has been stuck in my head all weekend, and it’s the perfect pump-up music during fights. The first few challengers are easy to beat down, but the difficult steadily increases till it’s quite ridiculous.

Have you played Wii Punch-Out!! yet? Do you like the motion controls, or are you a fan of the old school control option? Chime in.

Nintendo’s got a great holiday line-up of games this year. One such game is Wii Fit Plus, the follow-up to the extremely successful Wii Fit. So what’s the Plus all about? It seems to be in indication that there’s a lot more to this title than its predecessor, and from the short time I spent with a preview build, I’d have to say the Plus is for Chicken Suit.

The game includes the workout routines from Wii Fit but will feature a more streamlined user interface so that navigating between different activities and between different players (and exercisers) isn’t such a tedious process. But in addition to this, there seems to be a lot more in the extras department. Unlike Wii Fit, it looks like Wii Fit Plus will have a lot more in terms of games. This time around there are 15 new balance games and six new strength training and yoga exercises.

I didn’t spend a whole lot of time playing around with the various games in the non-workout part of the disc, but I was nevertheless worked out. In fact, days after the preview I began to wonder why my calves were feeling the burn so much when I’d climb stairs. Eventually, I realized it was from testing out Wii Fit Plus just days before. I also realized I’m somewhat out of shape.

Read the rest at Toronto Thumbs

As much as I joked when I heard the news of Michael Jackson’s death, the shock is subsiding and I’m realizing that this man whose music and talent was a huge part of my childhood is now gone, for real. I have joked that he actually died in 1983, because his mental condition took a noticeable dive around that time - and this notion is in fact sadder to me than his death itself. But I sincerely hope when I die, someone will make jokes about me and have fun with it. In fact, you should start thinking of some now.

Yesterday I listened to Off The Wall and Thriller, twice each, and it evoked memories of having heard those songs for the first times. I’d dance along, sometimes with my parents. I’d practice my cool guitar moves, and I’d sing the lyrics all wrong. But to say it was all about the music would be inaccurate. Michael Jackson was a hero to me at that point. He danced well, he could light up sidewalk stones just by stepping on them, and, he had a second set of eyes that he could make roll over his existing ones. That last part scared me, but I still liked him.

It’s easy to recall childhood with fond feelings. It’s a time when most of us didn’t realize how horrible the world truly is. To me it was a time when my greatest concern was losing the small Lego pieces that served as lights to the space stations I’d create. They’d fall between the shag in the carpet and be gone forever, as those days are now.

Michael Jackson will always remind me of those days, and for that I will always have a special place in my heart for him. So, after all the insensitive jokes are forgotten, those memories will live on as long as I do. And at the end of it all we can only hope to be remembered fondly, because whether we like it or not, we all eventually become memories.

This week I was sent a review copy of Guitar Hero On Tour: Modern Hits for the DS. Removing the guitar peripheral – which is what made the series famous – is an odd, if not questionable step. But in the interest of system portability, it’s understandable why it had to be done. Instead of a plastic toy guitar, we have an add-on to the DS that plugs into the GBA game slot. We now have an emulation of an emulation of a guitar.

The Nintendo DS is one of the more ubiquitous gaming devices seen on public transit, and yet I had never seen anyone playing a Guitar Hero DS game in public. There are a few reasons for this. First, anyone playing this game immediately looks like an idiot, and not in the same way you look like an idiot playing certain Wii games. Second, the game requires you to yell at it to activate Star Power. Not going to happen on a crowded train. Lastly, and most importantly, the game is uncomfortable and bad for your wrists.

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Mama Robotnik has come through again! The ever-creative NeoGAF poster has imagined what New Super Mario Bros Wii would look like if it had been done in the respective styles of SMB, SMB2, SMB3, and SMW, and the widescreen results are awesome.

If I had to choose, I think I’d pick the SMB2 look. Seeing the colorful wackiness of SMB2 in widescreen equates to an all-out sensory overload for me. What about you?

NSMB Wii Re-imagined at NeoGAF


I got The Conduit tonight, but haven’t had the time to play it yet. I will this weekend, though, so let’s trade our friends code in the comments below — I’ll add mine soon.

Also, let us know what you think of the game. Is it living up to your expectations?

The Conduit is finally coming out this week. Will it live up to the hype? I sure hope so. Fight Night Round 4 and Overlord II are two other worthwhile mentions for the week.

Check out the full list of releases after the break.

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Now Playing - Black Sigil

Tower Defense games are usually not my cup of tea. “Not my cup of tea” being a euphemism for stronger, harsher words that more accurately describe my distaste for the genre. Lately, however, whether due to my seeking them out in great fits of boredom or more or less having them shoved in my face by people recommending I try them, I’ve been slowly swayed towards the opinion that the seemingly mundane, simple, and simply mundane genre can have a few titles that are of genuine quality when infused with the proper mechanics and interesting elements.

So, does Robocalypse: Beaver Defense have the right stuff to make it not just “another one of those ****ing tower defense games” but an actually interesting title?

Not yet. (but keep reading to find out why the “t yet”)

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