mikeszekely

I'm actually more excited that it's being made by Artdink than any of the previous Macross game developers. Yes, including Sega/AM2. While the Sega one was good for a Macross game, it was still pretty mediocre as far as games at large go. On the other hand, I'm a HUGE fan of the Gundam Battle games, and if it plays just like (and the screenshots do look very similar, just with a more Macross-y HUD) them it'll easily be the best of the Macross games. Perhaps this will be the start of a series of Macross Ace games? Well, if MAF follows suit with the Gundam Battle games, you can expect a TON of different VFs.

Elmo's a Kridanik?

Well, that's a little better, but honestly, if Hasbro wants to sell me an Ultra Magnus bigger than a Voyager, Magnus had better do something really cool between now and the end of the season. EDIT: Hit my local Target and Wal-Mart, and what can I say except that this region sucks. There was no endcap at my Target (although it looks like they might be doing something with a Speed Racer endcap... I'll check back later in the week). There was a solitary peghook with four lonely Deluxe figures hanging from it. Mind you, I don't think someone cleaned them out already, as the shelves were full of movie Scouts. That peghook was simply the only place slotted for Animated toys. Wal-Mart was little better. They had a pair of the Battle Begins packs out, and two peghooks with a total of six figures. If I wanted, I could have had Prowl, Bumblebee, Lockdown, Ratchet, or Blackarachnia. Surprisingly, I was most tempted by Ratchet. His figure looks a lot more tempting than I would have thought from the cartoon. But I ultimately held off on buying any more for the time being. No Voyagers, unless you count the Starscreams and Bulkheads I'd already found last week at Toys R' Us.

I was at Target last night, and there was nothing but a handful of movie toys. Imagine my surprise to hear today then that Targets are setting up endcaps with Animated toys. I might swing by there and Wal-Mart tomorrow. We're getting close enough to the actual date that I'm hoping to see some, even if I didn't this past weekend. Not sure which ones I'll buy even if I do see them. I'm totally not interested in Ratchet or Lockdown, and I definitely am going to wait for the Samurai Armor Prowl. Much as I like Bulkhead, Blitzwing, and Lugnut, I don't think I like any of them enough to spring for Voyagers. Black Arachnia and Bumblbee, maybe. Grimlock and Starscream, definitely. I think that's about it for the ones that have been sighted, right? As far as other characters go, I do want Voyager Earth Prime and Leader Earth Megatron, as well as Soundwave. Wreck-Gar, maybe, if he's a Deluxe. Swoop for sure, Snarl maybe. Jazz definitely, and Swindle too. I hope Swindle's a Voyager. I'm gonna pass on the Constructicons. I wanted an Ultra Magnus, but it looks like he's going to be a Supreme, and I'm sorry, that's just too much for a character whose little screen time has been mostly bossing Prime around and ignoring the fact that Sentinel's being a dick. Oh, yeah, I'll probably get Sentinel. I'm a sucker for Primes. I don't want to go too nuts with them. The Animated cartoon is great and the toys are awesome, but G1's still my first love, so I've got to save some cash for Universe/Classics, since I'll probably be buying all of them. I just wish Sideswipe was coming before Sunstreaker, since he's the first Transformer I ever owned. Oh, and I also wish that Shockwave was getting a Classics treatment, but that's a pretty minor gripe.

I was watching the DVD that came with the two-pack (essentially, the first episode, but just the part 1, not the whole thing), and I was pretty shocked to see that, while Prime's toys are fairly accurate, minus a few details, that Megatron's Cybertron alt-mode is way off. The most glaring difference is that, like his Earth mode, he carries his Fusion Cannon underneath and pointed outward. The other differences are small and easy to overlook, but I can't help but wonder why they decided to mold the cockpit to the Fusion Cannon and stick the cannon on top of the toy. Not only is it an inaccurate alt mode, but throws off the look of the cannon in bot mode. From the looks of the cartoon, they'd have been better off having the cockpit as a sort of back pack (like his earth mode), that would pull up and over his head, fold the legs up, have the arms make the tail, and peg the cannon to his butt. But what do I know, anyway?

Yeah, I don't get this G1-gray thing. Maybe because my family was poor, and pretty much the only first-season toy I had was Sideswipe, so I never had a G1 Megatron toy. (Honestly, the G1 toy looks kinda crappy, but that might just be me). But I'd always thought of him as silver. Masterpiece Megatron is spot on, IMHO, and the cartoon and comics have always done that silver as white. So one of the things I really like better about Voyager Cybertron Megatron is that it's more of a silver white than the gray of the Deluxe. With that in mind, yeah, Voyager Megatron is more detailed, and transforms better, and looks better in alt mode. But it seems like more of a display piece to me. Deluxe Megatron is by far more fun to play with. Indeed, my only real complaints are the battle damage paint, the fact that his face is showing in alt mode, and the aforementioned lose legs. Deluxe Prime is pretty good, for a Deluxe. It does really make me long for the Voyager (but again, the Supreme figure doesn't look to good), but it's not bad. I agree, though, that Cybertron mode Deluxe Prime is better. They both have similar transformations, Earth mode has a cooler axe but Cybertron mode stores his better. Earth mode loses to Cybertron mode, though, because of the battle damage paint (again), the punching gimmick limits his posability and always leaves him with the hips turned slightly to the right of his chest, the fact that his legs have him kind of leaning forward, and the fact that he looks a little fat compared to Cybertron mode. Now, as fans and toy connoisseurs, we're prone to cataloging the flaws we find, and that's okay, but I want to take a moment to stress that, despite their flaws, they're really good figures. Previous Transformers seemed to make a lot of concessions. G1 toys were spot on in vehicle mode but fell short of capturing the look of the animated bots. The movie toys had the same problem, combined with complicated transformations and automorphing gimmicks that have prevented me from playing with mine much for fear of breaking them. Energon and Cybertron toys looked like their animated counterparts, but their alt modes (to me, at least) looked more like folded up robots than trucks and planes and what not. The animated toys, though, have interesting but not too complicated transformations and totally capture the unique animation style in both modes. I might still prefer Classics/Universe for their updated take on classic G1 characters, but that's certainly no flaw of the Animated toys. And they're far and away better than even my favorite movie toys.

Yeah, from your description, I'll like the Deluxe better anyway. I hate the blade gimmick period, and I like the cannon better on the deluxe. The ratchets on my Voyager are loose, and his legs pop off a lot. In any case, I'm not really looking for one to replace my Voyager, but to compliment it (just like I'll buy Voyager Earth mode Prime).

Stopped by my local Wally World on my way to visit my dad, since he's busy tomorrow. They still don't have any Animated toys. I asked an employee, and it was painfully obvious that he didn't have a clue. He said something about changing the aisles and to check back at the end of July... even if they stick to the street date, they should still have them out in about a week, right? Thinking about going back to Toys R' Us tomorrow. I like my Voyager Cybertron Megatron, but I'm not living it. I am loving my Deluxe Cybertron Prime, though. The Voyager Earth Prime looks okay, and the Supreme Earth Prime looks like crap, so that Deluxe Earth Prime in the two-pack is really looking good, and I'm hoping I like Deluxe Cybertron Megatron better than the Voyager. Even with the crappy battle damage paint.

No kitbash necessary. I'm pretty samurai armor Prowl is getting a release. In fact, I think I'm gonna hold off for that Prowl.

One issue I'm surprised no one brought up (except David Willis at Shortpacked!) is the strut connecting Voyager Megatron's fusion cannon to his arm. The instructions tell you to fold it back. The pic on the back of the box has it folded all the way back. But a largish hunk of plastic prevents the cannon from being folded back on the actual toy. Willis apparently dremeled his, but I can't see from his pics how much he dremeled or how such dremeling affects vehicle mode. For that matter, I do no even own a dremel.

No Voyager Earth-Mode Megatron...? Well, in happier news, Toys R' Us finally had some Animated figures! They had the Battle Begins pack, which I passed on, as well as Deluxe Prowl, Cybertron Prime, Lockdown, and Bumblebee, plus Voyager Cybertron Megatron, Starscream, and Bulkhead. As tempting as it was to just buy them all, I went with Cybertron Prime and Cybertron Megs, and called it a day. I do want Starscream, but I'm on the fence about the rest of them. The only other certains for me right now, which they didn't have anyway, are Grimlock, Ultra Magnus, Sentinel Prime, Jazz, and Soundwave.

At this point, I'd kill for my Wal-Mart to have Ratchet and Blackarachnia. Wife got a Pizza Hut flier in the mail, and wants a P'zone now. Maybe I'll head out to Toys R' Us tomorrow afternoon, since there's a Pizza Hut nearby, and kill two birds with one stone. Although, at the rate my stupid area is going, I'll have to wait until the 22nd. Hey, does anyone know if that Deluxe Cybertron Megatron will be sold outside the two pack? I really want it, but I want the Voyager Earth Optimus. And none of that battle-damage junk. (Yeah, I'm thinking Deluxes for both Cybertron modes, Voyagers for both Earth modes...)

Where at? I usually scope my local Target for great clearance game deals, but nothing's really grabbed my attention there since I picked up the PS 3 version of Orange Box maybe a month ago for $15.

I'd play.

I've managed to ignore the debate about the animation quality in Frontier for awhile mostly because, despite its ups and downs, it never took me out of the story. Sure, you could maybe show me screen caps later, and I'd agree that they look kinda bad, but I don't really see it when I'm watching the episode. That is, until episode 10. I'm not talking about the fact that it's not animated as well as Zero, or that they reused a lot of Zero's backgrounds. That's all fine with me. I mean, specifically, when Alto and Brera are fighting the hydra. The animation there hit an all time low. It's like the animators decided appropriately colored fuzzy blobs were good enough.

I used to love JRPGs a lot, but there's just too many, and most of them are a little cliched now. I'm glad to see some coming to the 360, and when I get a hankering for one, I might pick one up when they drop in price, but I'm not actually interested in any of them on launch day. If they released a new Shin Megami Tensei (and not a spin off series like Persona), that'd be a different story.

I've been to Target this week, plus Wal-Mart three days in a row. No Animated toys yet.

I was going to bring it up, but I was having trouble accessing the site this morning, and haven't been home to check again until now. For the well-rounded gamer, this is pretty good news. The 360's been my gaming console of choice since I've had it longer and it seems to have more exclusives that I like, but JRPGs are the one area where Microsoft's always been lacking. But for the hardcore JRPG enthusiast, I don't see them jumping ship to the Xbox crowd over it.

Hey, all those ninja killings have consequences. In other news, I picked up Ninja Gaiden II Sunday, but haven't played it. A friend of mine was over Saturday, and we played Fight Night Round 3 until midnight, and since it's the game that's been in my box, that's the one I've been playing. Only got one more Achievement to unlock on it, too. And the irony of it all? While the game is really fun, in real life I don't even like boxing.

I'm sure something like that is bound to happen. It's happened for pretty much every other Gundam Vs. Game. But I was replaying one of them recently, and I realized that I like the Battle series better.

...and a box that says "Universe"...

Greensburg, Westmoreland County. About an hour east of Pittsburgh.

I'm not going to get too greedy, so I don't mind if the story stops at CCA. That's better than stopping at Zeta. When they do eventually get around to releasing one that adds suits and scenarios from Unicorn, Crossbone, F90, F91, Victory, and Gaia Gear (screw G Saviour), I hope they move the series to PS3. I actually bought Crossfire despite the bad reviews because the HUD looked like the Battle games, hoping for a graphically gorgeous console Battle game.

That's pretty much my experience with the demo too. Difference is, I'm going to pick up Ninja Gaiden and pass on Metal Gear. The MG hype had me seriously considering it for awhile, but when I think back to some of the levels and boss fights in the first two (never even played the third), I realize that it's simply not the kind of gameplay I'm craving. Also, like previous Metal Gears, I expect everyone else to buy it now, trade it in, and I'll find a cheap copy after Christmas.

Zaku III!