About a week ago, I was held up in a hospital. It was nothing serious, and the doctor said that the ink lines on my eyeballs should fade away with time. Unfortunately, during this experience at the hospital I had no laptop to read manga with. Complicating matters was that fact that my printed-text related eye infliction forbade me from bringing any of my physical copies of manga with me. To top it off, I had to stay awake for approximately forty eight hours, which I spent watching the game show network because all the other channels were crap. The point to this long winded rambling intro is that our game shows are boring and need better entertainment, a la Battle Royale. Sadly, my attempts at creating hobo chess with patients was ruthlessly put to an end by the crack team of night shift nurses at the 36th hour.
Not because they operated their invalids like chessmasters, thereby trouncing all my blitzkrieg strategies. Well played, ladies of the bedpan.
As I laid there in my bed, waiting for that glorious 48th hour, my mind came up with more brutal reality game show ideas – ideas that in retrospect could only be won if you were Rambo. Strangely enough, a particular manga came to mind – one where the challenges were both deliciously ironic and filled to the brim with blood and gore. That manga was Kamisama no Iutoori – where children’s schoolyard games meets The Running Man.
In the future, the Earth is invaded by entities from another dimension. Nobody knows where they have come from or why they have chosen Earth at their target. What everybody learned was that they were pretty damned good at destruction. These beings are called “Novas”, and fore every waking moment they are on Earth, they spend it by wiping out humanity. As par for the course, none of mankind’s conventional weapons were able to do damage to this new threat. But adversity pushes innovation and a new technology was produced – one that proved to be the edge humans needed to take the fight to the Novas. Uniquely manufactured tissue called “Stigmata” had the ability to create weapons and techniques that could damage Novas when implanted into a human body. This led to the creation of the Pandora and Limiters- human weapons able to counter the ever increasing Nova threat. Naturally, only the best of the best were selected to be implanted with these Stigmatas - after all, the fate of humanity lies on their shoulders. And since this is a manga the “best” consist of numerous teens that are...a bit off in the head.
WHAT. No Navy Seals, Spentsnaz, or British SAS!? Not even NATO!? WHAT THE HELL WERE WE SMOKING WHEN WE GAVE A BUNCH OF HIGH POWERED TECH TO A BUNCH OF TEENAGERS RIGHT OUT OF PUBERTY!? THIS ISN’T POWER RANGERS, GOD******!
…Yeah, I’ve got nothing.
Wasn’t it just only recently when I reviewed a New Super Mario Bros. game? Nintendo really needs to learn how spread apart their Mario games. Anyway, not much to say for background on this game that I didn’t already say in my New Super Mario Bros. 2 review: This latest entry for the 2D side-scrolling Mario games is one of the many launch titles for Nintendo’s brand new system, the Wii U. What really makes this special is that this is the first Super Mario game to launch with a new Nintendo console since the revolutionary Super Mario 64 on the Nintendo 64. So does this title prove to deserve the honor?
Pikmin 3 Coming to the Wii U Spring 2013 (New Trailer Inside)
Written by Mr. Pie
Nintendo has announced that their next game in the Pikmin series will be released in Q2 2013 on the Wii U. While it's not exactly a release date, it's better than what we had before. Namely, nothing. Pikmin 3 was the first game mentioned during Nintendo's keynote address at E3 2012 and has been hotly anticipated by fans since. To help placate those whom are waiting, Nintendo has also released a trailer depicting more gameplay of the strategy title. You will find it below:
Pikmin. So cute, yet so deadly...
Earlier today, Nintendo of America released a new video on their Nintendo Direct service. This video announced that Fire Emblem: Awakening, one of the 3DS's most anticipated games, is being released in the USA on February 4th of next year, and in April for European territories. The game has been out in Japan for quite a while, and they even got a special Fire Emblem-themed 3DS, but there's no word if that bundle will ever come out on our shores. Check back for more Fire Emblem news!
Kyoto Animation, the same studio famous (or infamous) for the ubiquitous K-ON!, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and this season's hit Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai!, recently announced that they would be undertaking a new project. While this isn't shocking, the surprising part is their new series, called Tamako Market, is a completely original work rather than an adaptation. Tamako Market is set to air this coming January. Read on to find out more and watch the CM.
Sleigh bells ring, are you listening? In the lane, snow is glistening. That can only mean one thing; a new anime season is just a few weeks away. So let's get down to business and start checking out the goods.
Back in July, Square Enix's Young Gangan magazine announced that Yuuji Yuuji's romantic comedy light novel series, Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi Shuraba Sugiru (OreShura for short), would be receiving an anime adaptation. Nearly 6 months to the day, they confirmed that the new series will begin airing on January 5, 2013. For more details and the trailer, read on!
The Nintendo Wii U has been out for over a week and it's time to check out its stats. Overall, it sold pretty well, but it isn't the best it could be.
The Wii U sold 400,000 units in its first week, which is not bad compared to the first TWO weeks of the PS3 and Xbox 360, which sold 197,000 and 326,000 units respectively. However, its older brother, the original Wii, sold 600,000 in eight days.
Another thing to note is the stock of the Wii U in stores. When the original Wii first launched, it was sold out for months. You couldn't find the system anywhere unless you were at a store during delivery. Websites were created to keep track the supply of the system in stores. People were hoarding and reselling them on eBay hoping to make a quick buck. If you wanted one, you pretty much had to go on a mission.
Fortunately for buyers (not so fortunately for Nintendo) the Wii U isn't experiencing the same trouble. While the Deluxe version of the system is still sold out online, I was still able to find the Basic unit in stock at target.com (Note: it may sell out again). And even then, using the store locator function, I was able to see that both versions of the Wii U are in stock in stores nearby me.
Sadly, the Wii U was not the biggest seller in the past week. Xbox 360 sales were nearly double that of the Wii U, selling 750,000 units in the same week. Unfortunately, Sony did not release their Black Friday week stats, so I cannot say how many they sold.
Overall, the Wii U didn't have a bad launch at all. However, it's more important to see how long it can keep this pace up. Even the Dreamcast sold over 350,000 units in its first week. I wish the best for the Wii U, and for continued success. Especially since I want it to last long enough for Bayonetta 2...
