The interminable question of whether or not video games may be considered as art may yet go unanswered. However, while the game software may not by some, their cartridges have proved themselves so. Enter Famicase, an exhibition of Famicom (that’s NES in the states) cartridges given new life with custom-made labels of fictional game titles. The group of artists behind the exhibit each designed very convincing labels, reminiscent of those found on video game cartridges of the 1980s.

Not that I like to promote artistic copycats, but that’s an idea that I’d like to see imitated with American hardware. I often see mock-ups made with Photoshop (or MSPaint, in some cases) in various message boards, etc, but none of them would I mistake for the real deal. What I think merits this as an artistic expression is that it exercises specific tones and themes that one would recognize from game packaging from that era. The above example being one of my favorite pieces, in that it certainly illustrates something to which those of us who have owned an aging NES can relate.

What gives me a tingle about the trailer is the use of a rare Smashing Pumpkins track for its soundtrack, The Beginning Is the End Is the Beginning. If it sounds familiar, that’s because its the sister track to the song The End Is the Beginning Is the End, which was used in the soundtrack for the 1997 abomination, Batman & Robin. “TBITEITB” can be found on a CD single released only in Europe, along with “TEITBITE” and two instrumental remixes.

Before the advent of digital distribution a la iTunes, many a time did I used to hear one song off of an album and wish I could purchase a CD single, only to resort to shelling out the expense of the full album. Thus was the case with the Batman & Robin soundtrack. Fortune smiled upon me when I discovered an import of the “TEITBITE” single in a local record store. It was the best $6 I’d ever spent because to this day, it’s probably my favorite Smashing Pumpkins record and still finds a place in my regular music rotation.

From what I understand about the plot of The Watchmen, I believe the use of “The Beginning…” is quite appropriate. If I’m interpreting the lyrics correctly, “The End…” feels like it symbolizes Genesis, or the rise of humanity. How we assume our rite as God’s chosen ones on Earth and the self-proclamation of our glory. Conversely, “The Beginning…” is more akin to Revelations in that it illustrates humanity’s downfall. Our own arrogance leading to our destruction and cries as God foresakes us.

My message to Warner Bros. is this: Mission accomplished. I am excited about this movie. Not only that, but I now plan to pick up the Watchmen trade paperback sometime in the next few months.

In Akihabara, Japan you’ll find this little stand that offers watermelon milk, among other mixed fruit drinks. This alone would pique my interest in that I’m certainly down with fruit-flavored milk-based goodness to cool me down on a hot day. However, the stand felt it needed a little something extra in it’s marketing. It claims that their drinks are a sexual aid, increasing one’s sex drive. They base this claim on the pretense of a supposed discovery by an American research group that eating watermelon is just as effective as taking Viagra.

I think we can chalk this one up to over-sensationalism of the media and then by someone trying to market the concept. I can see how watermelon can affect one’s circulatory system, but I’ve yet to eat some magic seedless that gave me an 8-hour erection. Both playing on men’s desire to increase their sexual prowess. I can see how it would work out for the guy hosting the milk stand since, let’s face it, what isn’t considered an aphrodisiac in Asia? Between rhino horn and bat’s balls…at least I can palate some watermelon.

I’m quite excited about this announcement! The anime is a personal favorite of mine, in that it mixes just the right amounts of excessive violence and sexuality without suffering from being overly gratuitous. It also helps that she show doesn’t at all take itself very seriously, lining its mature story themes with satire of the action show genre.

FUNimation announced just recently that it plans to re-issue the first season as well as the previously canceled second season of the anime later this year, relieving Geneon if its North American distribution.

He’s a straight-laced cop who’s tough enough to handle the street, but still plays by the book.Years of taking out the trash have turned him into a chain-smoking hard-ass. He wants to retire, but they keep pulling him back in.

She’s a rookie who grew up on the streets, looking to get her kicks on the night beat. Hip to the disco scene, she patrols the city in her pink bell-bottomed sequin fabric uniform. Careful, fellas! She’ll break your heart…and your collar bone!

Together, they’re the departments hottest new team to clean the streets. Coming this fall…

SMOKE & MIRRORS
Friday’s at 9 / 8 Central

HARD ROCK SAVE THE SPACE!

The Legend of Black Heaven is the electrifying story of Oji Tanaka, a Japanese salary man facing mid-life crisis. The glory of his early years as a rock star has since fallen into the doldrums of the married 9-to-5 daily grind. Crying into his sake one night, Oji is propelled from office space to outer space when he learns of an intergalactic war…a war where the safety of the Earth can only be won by the power of rock. As it turns out, the spiritual energy released by his music powers a super-weapon that the good aliens use to annihilate the bad aliens.

Oji’s liaison to the alien fleet defending our section of the galaxy is the buxom Layla Yuki, who disguises herself as an office coworker in order to get close to our hero. This disguise tends to backfire, as their secret relationship is often (and humorously so) misinterpreted as an extra-marital affair. None are more suspicious than Oji’s wife, Yoshiko, a former groupie that Oji met in his rocker days and now mother of his son, Gen. In order to maintain cover, Layla enlists her trio of ultra-cute and ultra-ditzy assistants Kotoko, Eriko, and Rinko.

As conflict in the stars escalates, the ultimate weapon soon requires more rock than Oji alone can provide. On his knees, Oji must convince his former band-mates–all of whom have also moved on to become blue collar family men themselves–to reunite and turn the tide of battle while rekindling the stage-lit fires of their prime. By the end of the climactic battle involving a shadowy figure from the band’s past, Oji saves the universe, his marriage, and his dreams with the strum of his guitar pick.

As the show’s tag line suggests, The Legend Of Black Heaven follows in the spirit of Macross 7, weaving action-packed space battles with the power of rock music. What makes this series unique is its take on the theme, framing it around the journey of Oji on his path to resolve the disillusion of adulthood and rediscovering meaning in his life. While there is the fair share of wacky hijinks (à la the ditzy trio), the series’s humorous forte is in the exaggerated glorification in all that is awesome. They just don’t make enough anime like this anymore…

Ever since its first announcement, I’ve been taking the news of Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom with a grain of salt. I’ve been disenchanted with Capcom’s “Vs” line of games for almost seven years. After Capcom Fighting Evolution, I believed that Capcom’s crossover-themed fighters were nothing more than for novelty’s sake…lazy design with flawed, boring gameplay.

However, after seeing this first trailer of Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom, I may be coming around! It has the 3D toon shaded graphics applied to fast 2D gameplay that I’ve been eager for. (Street Fighter IV looks great, but still too sluggish in speed for my tastes.) The gameplay looks true to the “Vs” games that I did enjoy, without the excess that Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 reeked of. It surprisingly looks fun!

I’m kinda hoping that it gets ported stateside, but I know that’s a tall order. When it comes to large companies like Tatsunoko, it becomes painstaking and expensive to bring together all the companies that have license to those characters in North America. So the same licensing issues that have saved us from a Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 now prevent us from a potentially worthwhile game Perhaps, if this game lives up to its hype, I may import it whenever I get around to getting a PS3.

Now, I’m hardly versed in Japanese freedoms of speech, but even if this had taken place in the USA, none of this would surprise me. We have the right to express anything we want in America, but that doesn’t exempt us from any backlash that expression may incur. You can’t call a Hell’s Angel a queer and not expect to get punched.

Funnier still, the dude claimed that he merely posted the message just to see what kind of reaction it would create. I hope that satisfies your curiosity, jackass. The thing about the authorities in Japan: They don’t less of a sense of humor than we do. They do not fuck around with that. Especially when the Akihabara massacre was preceded by a similar threat on another message board.

Let this be a lesson to all forum trolls…

What I’d found is a 300-page hardcover vernacular guide that lists, breaks down, and examines the slang used in Buffy The Vampire Slayer. The thought that not only did someone get paid to meticulously research and compose this lengthy guide, but then the publisher felt it worth to pull all the stops on its presentation. Decent sized, hardback, and a snazzy dust jacket… I’m happy to give it a home on my bookshelf.

Kaloo Kalay! Fanboys rejoice for we have our first look at Chrono Trigger on the Nintendo DS in this official trailer. So far, nothing really new. In fact, I can’t be sure that the footage revealed above is of the port or just scenes from the original SNES version. Since the DS port will no doubt be derived from the original ROM, I’m sure it won’t make a difference.

The one thing I am most curious about is information on the new bonus dungeon that will be introduced in this version. I’m familiar with the extra dungeons added to some of the Final Fantasy remakes, but I’m curious to learn how they apply that to Chrono Trigger. Though if it also means a new ending that can be achieved, that would be awesome too.

One thing that struck me as funny as I watched the first episode is that as it starts out, the lead character finds that his wife has thrown away his beloved guitar from his rocker days. He calls her from work and she insists that it was an accident. When he returns home, his wife confesses that she did it on purpose and has thrown it away again. The dude runs out to rescue it, but alas, the trash has been picked up…his guitar lost, buried beneath tons of garbage. When he drowns his sorrows in tears, he’s approached by the alien woman who tells him how much his music means to her and that she wants to take him to heaven. She means that she wants to take him into space so that he can fight evil, but he believes that she wants to sleep with him. Drunk and missing fan adoration, he agrees to go with her…

Now, here I am watching this show where this guy is supposed to be our hero, but within the first episode he’s totally cheating on his wife. But then I remembered: Bitch threw away his guitar…twice. And lied about it. I’m not saying he was right in cheating on her, but I understand.

It’s like me and my Dreamcast. I love that console. I don’t care how many years go by and how many inches of dust blanket it, I’m taking that thing to the grave. I doubt I’ll be buried with it, since I intend to be cremated. But I plan on requesting that my ashes be contained in the Dreamcast as an urn and then buried in that. If my girlfriend were to throw that away, I don’t think I’d cheat on her, but it would certainly put a strain on our relationship.

In the spirit of Independence Day weekend, I thought I’d post the trailer to one of the most patriotic video games never to be released in America… Metal Wolf Chaos. In this game, you play as the president of the United States who has been betrayed by the vice president. As a fugitive, your only means of escape is by shooting your way out in a giant armored robot. The VP pursues you in his own mech while using the media to label you as a terrorist in the eyes of the American people. Your mission is to blow shit up, clear your name, and restore great justice. Fucking awesome.

• Shattered Angels Vol 2
• Shattered Angels Vol 2 (with art box)
• Kanon Vol 6
• Tokyo Majin Vol 4
• Welcome to the NHK Vol 5, 5th Conspiracy

Matt Greenfield spoke at the ADV Sneak Peak panel at this week’s Anime Expo, expressing licensing troubles. Specifically, ADV has officially separated from its Japanese licensing partner, Sojitz. While the above titles may be lost into the ether, they did say that they were in negotiations to carry 23 other new titles.

This kinda sucks for me since I was really enjoying Welcome to the NHK. With luck, maybe someone else will acquire the license stateside so it can be completed. Although I suppose that loss is not in vain if the balancing factor is that garbage like Kanon is also brought to a halt. I hope the pedophiles that enjoy that show drown in their tears.

UPDATE: Thank you, Funimation!

Of course, there’s more than just conventions. Halloween is in a couple months and no doubt we’ll find some other excuse to dress up for fun. I found this sweet Princess Peach costume on Yandy.com that I’m trying to talk my girlfriend into wearing for me. Of course I’d have to compliment her by adorning the Mario costume. But it would be a small price to pay for that hotness.

Now I’d just have to figure out what hoops I may have to jump through to get her into some of these other sexy numbers…

I don’t normally like to directly post video periodicals, but the latest episode of Zero Punctuation has struck a special cord with me. Rather than picking apart the usual video game of the week, Yahtzee has instead aimed his sharp tongue and wit toward gaming-themed webcomics. Being a fan of both video games and comics, how can I not sink my teeth into this?

Yahtzee paints a fairly accurate image of the standard “Mary Sue” template that most webcomic wanna-be’s derive from, lacking the imagination to create a premise outside glorifying their own ego through wacky hyjinks. Like most web-based media, there’s the double-edged sword in that anyone can create a webcomic…but that means anyone can make a webcomic. It’s more a detriment to the medium when the web is flooded by people who can, but arguably shouldn’t. It makes the task of sifting through the hacks and copycats all the more painful when searching for genuine talent.

While I’m cheering Yahtzee on, he then gets to the deathblow, singling out the recent poor storytelling choices recently made in Tim Buckley’s Ctrl+Alt+Del strip. Said story inturrupted the usual “video games are teh lol” antics with a sudden miscarriage, both literally in the strip as well as in its attempt to shift gears into deep, personal drama. Buckley’s received much due criticism for this move, not so much for trying to transform his mediocre Penny Arcade clone into a legitimate artistic expression, but by how poorly it was executed. Had he not been so abrupt, easing the readers into the tragedy, the webcomics community might have responded more with praise, rather than amplifying its regular ridicule of his work and devotees.

Since the advent of the Game Boy Advance, with it’s ability to support portable versions of classic SNES titles, gamers like myself have begged for a port of Chrono Trigger. Seeing reproductions of the Final Fantasy series and the Nintendo DS’s additional X and Y buttons continued to generate hope that we may finally get our wish.

Why not port one of the hottest selling games of all time right off the bat? Well, there’s a hitch. Chrono Trigger was a collaborative effort put together by different development groups, known as “Team Dream”. Because of this, resolving copyright issues between all parties has always been the bottleneck of making any progress.

O-joyous day, it seems that those parties have finally understood the demand of their product and the riches awaiting to be raked in. For as of this writing, Square-Enix is heavily hinting toward Chrono Trigger being released on the DS, at least in Japan. One can assume that a North American translation would be quick to follow, but it’s still too soon to tell. (After all, it did take two years for NA gamers to recieve the PlayStation port, which was mostly intended to generate hype for its sequel, Chrono Cross.) Whether it will be a direct port akin to the “Advance” versions of Final Fantasy IV, V, and VI, or recieve a 3D upgrade as was developed for the DS versions Final Fantasy III and IV is still anyone’s guess. But it’s safe to say that a new Chrono Trigger port of any kind at this point will be well-recieved.

UPDATE: Confirmed.

Of course, I’d be in favor of that idea. As I’ve said before, I as a consumer would much prefer tangible media over digital distribution.

If you would humor me, I’d like to explore a theory… Now, let’s assume that Street Fighter IV’s price tag upon release will be the usual $50. The way I would further envision it, Capcom could still release SSF2THDR online for the (again, assumed) price of $20. Meanwhile, Capcom could add it as a bonus to SF4, raising its price to around $60. To me, this would be an awesome deal. People who only want SSF2THDR could still buy it digitally for only $20. Those who want SF4 would only have to suffer an additional $10, but they’d be getting two full-sized games for that price. I believe that in the long run, Capcom would profit more by that arrangement and consumers like me would get the physical copy of the game that they’ve been pining over.

Alas, I understand that this is not to be. For nigh upon each game’s release, those gears are already in motion. However, I do propose a compromise: I would suggest that after a year or two of both games’ release, Capcom could re-issue SF4 in the form of a “special edition”, which includes SSF2THDR as a bonus. This is something that we’ve seen precedent and proved successful. (Resident Evil: Director’s Cut, Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence, Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix+, etc.) By then the price may even drop to a comfortable $30-40.

That would provide the product the extra value to draw in people who passed on it the first time and give the hardcore fans an excuse to buy the same product again. My feelings won’t be hurt if they don’t adopt my plan, but I think it would be a solid idea that both Capcom and their consumers can benefit from.

Sometimes, though, there are issues that I have with the English language itself. For example, placing words like “that” twice in succession in the same sentence. To illustrate: “I believe that that is annoying.” When spoken, such a phrase would make complete sense, since one would normally place extra emphasis on the second “that”, distinguishing the two. Yet when in written form, it could be mistaken for a typo.

I can see some people suggesting to omit the second “that”, believing that that would be acceptable. (You see what I did there?) It’s not that simple since there is a value to the second “that”. It serves as a qualifier, directing your attention to a specific point in the idea you’re expressing in such a sentence.

For example, “You can see that color is red,” is different from “You can see that that color is red”. In the first form, it gives the sense that you could be looking at that color anywhere around and acknowledge that it is red. On the other hand, in the second version, the speaker is still identifying the color, but on a specific object. Or it could be that the speaker is differentiating that color from other colors that are visible.

It’s a personal pet peeve of mine and it’s a challenge to construct sentences that detour from using that syntax. Some of my alternative sentences may appear a bit funny as a result, but I believe that they’re still far less confusing to read. Or maybe no one cares but me.

Within this past year, we’ve seen evidence of development of new fighting games using classic franchises, including Final Fantasy, Mortal Kombat, and just recently Castlevania. Not only that, but we surprisingly also got to see a North American release of doujinshi fighter, Arcana Hearts. (Now if only they’d port Melty Blood!)

I believe that as they perfect the net code to support the precision accuracy required to play fighting games online, the genre is more likely to make a comeback. This greatly excites me since the video arcades are practically dead. Online play will never replace the glory of the arcade scene, but if this opens the door to reviving a genre that’s been limping along for the past 10 years, I’d support it!

However, my attention does draw toward the third option in the survey, that being a Halo-themed racing game. In my vanity, I’d like to take credit for this, should it ever come to fruition. My friends will vouch (and I’m sure I have recorded proof somewhere) that I conceived the idea of “Halo Kart” about three years ago.

I couldn’t be that hard to do, really. You already have the vehicle driving engine, a good couple vehicles to choose from, and the ability to use weapons. All you really need are some decent tracks and you’re off! To make it interesting, I suppose they could make some kind of gameplay element where you can leave the vehicle to engage in on-foot shenanigans.

I confess, I’m no fan of Halo (outside of the Red Vs. Blue series), but I can certainly see potential for the franchise.

What’s worse is that when I click on a synonym that is closer to the idea that I’m trying to find a word for, half the time there’s no listing at all for it! I’ll either be redirected to the word I’d originally entered or I’ll get a “Did you mean…?” page. That’s just useless.

I know that I shouldn’t depend on sites like that as a crutch, but they still provided a healthy exercise for my own vocabulary. It just disheartens me when I can think of several synonyms to a word myself that the database at thesaurus.com failed to consider.

Oh, and for the curious, typing in “synonym” into the search will not cause an explosive feedback loop, as I would expect.

Some of the wiser gamers providing feedback are offering their perspective on the gameplay. Not that I want to discourage players from punishing the hell out of the game to iron out all the kinks, but at the same time I gotta remember that the developers have already turned to the best of the best tournament players on task for consultation.

What I think the significance of the open Beta is more so to test the net code for online play. Testing this element of the game can only be tested by unleashing it upon the masses across the globe. There’s only so much field research you can do from within the development house, even if you have people working from different points in North America. In order for this game to be the beautiful piece of software that it’s foretold to be, the net code is key.

So go forth, XBLA monkeys! Do whatever you must to cripple your bandwidth, so that Capcom may learn how to compensate. Now is the perfect time to fire up BitTorrent, download those critical software updates, and play your entire YouTube playlist. Abuse this game so that it may grow stronger in the end!