Atlus may be struggling with its recent financial woes in Japan, but the company is still swinging for the fences hard and knocking it out of the park with some great titles on assorted platforms. Case in point, Dragon’s Crown, already a hit in Japan and headed to the PS3 and Vita in North America on August 6. George Kamitani and his team at Vanillaware have created an absolutely, outrageously gorgeous game that’s a throwback to classic side-scrolling arcade hits as well as a mighty challenging solo and online play experience. I know a few folks with the import and yes indeed, they’re very pleased with the game (and the AMAZING deluxe art book that came with it). Anyway, I’m looking forward to getting my hands on both versions, as I hear they’re different in a few key ways. Of course, I still want a proper Princess Crown remake or sequel one of these days, but at this point, Kamitani and company can make paper bag puppets and I’ll throw money their way…
Another favorite sci-fi flick from my younger days (OK, it still holds up today on a few fronts), Kurt Neumann’s 1957 film KRONOS is a really well-made and fun cheapie that benefits from some prescient scripting, pretty decent effects work (some nice for the era animation of the titular massive alien energy accumulator in a few quick shots), a snappy running time and a few unintentional chuckles from the usual overacting cast members emoting with relish about the over-sized and unstoppable alien threat of the week. Anyway, back in 2011 I was dinking around in MS Paint and had a sudden flash of inspiration to do a goofy tribute image and here you go. I guess it’s technically a piece of “fan art” although I have to chuckle at the “fan” part as it’s not exactly something I do on a regular basis. Yeah, I guess this gets added to the Random Film of the Week pile at some point. Feel free to check it out, as yep – it comes highly recommended.
I was going to do Saturday Night Fever as a longer Random Film of the Week post, but my brain is still in the freezer after last week. Still, it’s on MSG later this evening and even with stupid commercials breaking up the action every few minutes I’m still going to watch it once again for my favorite scene.
Yeah, it’s yours, too – go on, admit it.
Watching that dance sequence above always cracks me up to no end while I’m blown away by Travolta basically turning himself into a human special effect and stuntman in a really surprising film that’s well worth seeing in its entirety if you’ve never done so. You’ll want to go with the R-rated version, as it’s more raw and effective that the later PG edit whipped out later by the studio to draw in even larger crowds. Granted, it still has a bunch of loose ends that never get resolved (I’d like to think that Tony’s brother left the priesthood then got called back to do an exorcism in a later film or something), but as a capsule of 1970’s era Brooklyn and the disco age, it’s a pretty outstanding movie that still holds up as a classic.
A quickie description of Corundum Games’ first titleInvasodado- The Cube Invaders would probably go something like this: Space Invaders marries a Match 3 puzzle game and like any couple, a good fight breaks out as the two halves battle it out over their differences. Of course, a winner is YOU thanks to the mix working so well. Anyway, this free open source download is a mighty fine way to kill a few too many hours and also wish for perfectly working time travel. Could you imagine the millions this tiny NYC (Go, hometown!) developer would have made back in the late 70’s and early 80’s if this one was an Atari cartridge? Or hell, what the size of the pile of loot they’d be sitting on if this was a NES and/or Game Boy pack-in?
Yeah, Invasodado has that deceptively simple retro thing working for it BIG time. It’s really easy to play but of course, you get that side order of tough to master as any classic game should be. The visual familiarity brings an instant smile and makes wanting to try a few waves a total no-brainer. As in Space Invaders, blast down those pesky invaders before they reach your base ship at the bottom of the screen and you’re halfway there. However, you’ll also need to pay attention to the colors of the aliens you shoot so you can match and take out the colored blocks stacking up before they reach the top of the screen. You can also clear a column of colors by shooting down a special target that drifts across the screen at random intervals (a good thing if those blocks are stacking up too high).
You can play for a few minutes and get your fix in, but I’m betting a few of you who really appreciate this style of visual and vintage gaming bliss will be hooked in for wave after wave (which should make for some bizarre dreams later on, I’d bet). Anyway, let’s keep this short because you have a game to download (yes, it’s FREE!). I’d actually love to see this get enough of an audience so it can be ported over to the 3DS and Vita at some point (which will hopefully make Corundum some money), but I guess we’ll see what happens in the future. Hey, if anything, the game will prepare a whole new generation for alien defense tactics (er, provided those particular space invaders move in predictable back and forth patterns and come in bright colors making them easy to shoot down and those cubes they transform into or drop don’t hurt if they fall on your head). Anyway, stop reading this and go download already!
Woof! Yes, gog.com, Interceptor Entertainment and Apogee Software (wow, they’re STILL around?) all want you to pre-order Rise of The Triad (and get a bunch of other games for free in the process) and they’re not above (or is it below?) sticking a fork in the butt of a certain super-high profile game series that pops up in yearly installments. I’m sort of tired of this genre, but at least RoTT is supposed to be as funny as it is violent and isn’t trying at all to be the “best” looking game out there. I’m tempted… but we’ll see what a few friends who’ve pre-ordered this one say…
I’m not the biggest fan of these clip job teases, but they sure didn’t spoil District 9 for me by the time I got around to seeing it. Neill Blomkamp and his effects team certainly have a way with mixing CG and practical effects that doesn’t look fake or too overblown at all and yeah, Matt Damon as a cobbled together cyborg is making for a pretty interesting character.
As long as the ending feels right (and doesn’t necessarily set up a sequel), I think this might do well and yes, we may see someone at Microsoft kicking themselves in the ass for not letting Mr. B. do that Halo movie. Of course, those folks are still in desperation mode, so I can see them throwing money his way to get on board that Xbox One’s content machine for a super exclusive.
OK, I do need to catch upon a TON of stuff I’ve missed out on over the past few weeks, but I may as well drop in another random piece or three from the gallery for fun. These are from a “series” of fake vacation photos from a trip to hell, which looks just like here, but with more heat and different neon signs. I can’t say if it’s any more miserable a place than the “real” world, as both have good and bad points.
For one thing, despite what some tavern signs say (hey, lies are everywhere down there!)… they don’t serve beer in hell, but the food is always hot and cheap. Yes, that includes the ice cream, which is weird… but tasty and somehow holds that familiar shape when it’s scooped and put on a hot off the stack waffle cone. Yum-o(uch)!
Oh, I just KNOW you’re curious now. Don’t worry, though… you’ll find out soon enough. I went and got you a free ticket while I was there. The place is ALWAYS open and yep, they just love visitors. Don’t forget to visit the gift shop on the way back up. Everything is free and they’ll even gift wrap as much as you can carry. Just avoid the Sisyphus Rock replica, as it’s actual size, but to a mortal, only feels as heavy as an average-sized grapefruit in the underworld. However, it turns into a REAL 500-plus pound boulder when it leaves the basement level. if you can roll it home afterwards, it DOES make a great gag gift for a friend or enemy…
Well, well, well… and here I thought he was just a WWI Flying Ace, a failed author, a former owner of a multi-level underground doghouse fit for a billionaire (until it burned down!) and a few other cool things. My dad had this tote bag in storage with a bunch of other stuff and it’s a pretty cool find as I’ve never seen it until now. I did some quick research as I was typing this post and apparently there was indeed a TV special called “It’s A Mystery, Charlie Brown” – nice! I think it was also done as an illustrated book, but I’ll need to dive deeper into that research at some point.
Granted, as old as I am, I probably SHOULD know this already, but I haven’t seen EVERY single Peanuts special and hey, I don’t have catching up on the ones I missed high on my to-do list. Actually… as I’m sitting here thinking about it… I do vaguely recall seeing this one, but it’s been over thirty years since so my memory is supremely hazy about those days. Anyway, the mystery of yet another old item is solved. 30 boxes of stuff to go. Yikes. Anyone want to help out here?
While a small but vocal bunch of PlayStation 3 owners have been ranting away for Rising Star Games to contract Access Games to stop working on their upcoming Xbox One exclusive D4 to do some fixes for Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut, that’s not going to happen any time soon. On the other, stranger hand… the game was recently surprised-dropped onto Steam Greenlight for a potential PC release with even MORE content and wonder of wonders… it was approved in what seems to be record time. Wow. Now, I’ll be the first to say I’m shocked and thrilled at this news, but I’m not expecting the PC version to be “perfect” by any stretch of the imagination. Even higher resolutions and tweaked controls aside, the game will still look intentionally cheesy and probably have the same driving setup for the cars as the PS3 version did (which is much better than the original Xbox 360 game from a few years back). Anyway, this is indeed great news and soon, you horror game fans looking for something TRULY weird and memorable will all get a little FK in your own coffee when DP:TDC is finally let loose for PC. Once I get an actual release date, I’ll let you know…
OK, I’ve been not paying much attention to the upcoming film Gravity thanks to me not being much of a Sandra Bullock fan (yeah, yeah, she’s America’s Sweetheart #181 and blah-blah) and doing a coin toss with Clooney’s films because they can be great or not so great depending on the director. Granted, this isn’t the first time on the sci-fi carousel for either actor, what with Sandra earning her cred in Demolition Man (dumb flick, but the opening sequence was and is still amazing) and George doing a solid job in that Solaris remake from a while back (it’s a decent flick, but the book is still the best way to go). Of course, everything is really riding on the shoulders of director Alfonso Cuarón (“Children of Men”), as I’m betting a handful of pennies that some going in to see this will be expecting something of equal depth and design on a few fronts. Well, this trailer sure piqued my interest, that’s for sure… et tu?
"DESTROY ALL FANBOYS!" 