Radd

If you merely meant that you don't like Nintendo's characters, sure. From your two posts together it sounded as if you were saying that Nintendo just puts out iterations on the same old games, which isn't an opinion. If getting a console with strong developer support is key to you, I'd reccomend waiting one year. It should be clear which, if any, of the consoles will wind up with the largest share of the market, and so the most developer support. As far as the controller, if you don't trust the gaming media or anyone who's tried one yet (and by now it's easy to find first hand accounts), well it's probably best to wait for a friend to get a Wii and see if it's any good. Personally, from how it's described at the very least it sounds like the best of both worlds between a gamepad, and the PC gamer's keyboard and mouse combo. Whether it works in practice is not something I'll pretend to have firsthand knowledge of until I've tried it myself.

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin has a special pre-order package that comes with an audio CD of various classic Castlevania music, an art book, a fold out timeline poster covering the history of the series, a DS Lite stylus, and I believe a few other things as well. All for only 5 bucks more. Already have mine pre-ordered.

The problem with this argument is that it falls apart if you look even slightly below the surface. Using the same characters is not at all the same as being "the same old game", and Nintendo tends to release several new franchises with every generation of console. Super Mario Bros. is not at all the same as Mario Kart is not the same as Mario Party is not the same as Super Smash Bros. is not the same as Wario Ware, etcetera. Heck, aside from Pokemon, even within the same game series Nintendo usually adds more than many other companies' series to push beyond simple iteration. And if you are simply speaking of the characters used, well it depends entirely on third party support to get the breadth of franchises that Sony has enjoyed two consoles running. Anyone who's played games since the NES days can tell you that developer support can swing in an entirely different direction for various reasons.

Bwuh?

Yeah, the skinny limb syndrome is one of the reasons I was kinda leaning towards seeing a Masterpiece G2 Megs rather than the original. If they're going to go with the original gun, I'm also wishing they'd beef up the grip to make his legs wider. We'll see how the final figure looks.

Nothing wrong with getting a 1/60 or two. I have the VF-1A Max, an Elintseeker, and a Super Ostrich all in 1/60. They're great for putting next to me 1/60 VF-0S, and soon the 0A, and the YF-19. The 1/48ths are definitely the better toy. Closer to the lineart, or at the very least a better compromise between the fighter/gerwalk/battroid modes of the lineart than the 1/60's, durable for the amount of detail, and huge. If all you wanted was a single VF-1 toy, I'd reccomend the 1/48. However, if you plan to collect, again the 1/60 VF-1 is not a bad toy, and and the 1/60 VF-1 line is almost the complete line of every VF-1 varient, with only one exception I can think of offhand. Also, the 1/60 VF-1 toys are much cheaper than the 1/48ths. As for the MPC line, the proportions in those toys bother me quite a bit. The Yamato 1/60 scale toys look a helluva lot better, and are like half the asking price. From all accounts, the MPC line is just not worth it. Poor prortions aside, the line is far from complete if you plan on collecting, unless you find them on sale they cost 70-80 bucks a pop, and gimmicks like the light-up-head just make the toys look cheap. If you can find them for 30 bucks, they might be worth looking into. More than that...I dunno. I wouldn't spend more.

And the DS continues to be my favourite gaming console. I picked up Final Fantasy III and Star Trek: Tactical Assault yesterday. Both are excellent so far. FF3 is gorgeous, easily one of the prettiest 3D games on the DS, and I really dig the old school gameplay with the modern graphics. Star Trek: Tactical Assault is basically the same as the Starfleet Command games for the PC. If you liked those games, the DS version is a must. Sure, you lose some options, like the ability to change the game speed from real time to super fast, you can't names your Captain or ships, and from what I've seen so far there's no tractor beams whatsoever, but it's still a fantastic handheld version. Looks like Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, was pushed back until December. That and Phoenix Wright 2 are the two titles I'm looking forward to the most in the next month or three.

Dead Rising and Chrome Hounds are both excellent games for the system. On the PS3, Best Buy has one set up you can play. Looks like the only playable game is NBA, though. It's kinda pretty. The sweat was far too much, though. My wife was there with me, she looked at it and said, "That man is made of plastic!" Really does look like all the players are laminated in glossy plastic. That's just a nitpick with that game, though. The trailers looked really nice. Looking forward to see what developers manage to get out of the hardware.

Speaking of paint and colour schemes, what's with the colours on that Classics Prime in the photo comic Greyryder posted?

That so? 480p widescreen anyone? A nice big widescreen image with no black bars. Not to mention the use I get out of it when not playing videogames. Depends on who you are, I imagine. For me, the day my parents dropped me off at college was the beginning of the best days of my life. They're still going, as near as I can tell.

Sorely tempted, but there's the 1/60 YF-19 to consider, and I may cave and get MP Starscream, too. I've made a little extra cash lately, but not that much extra. I'd be more certain about this if it were larger, those close-up shots really show how the detail gets a bit fuzzy due to the scale. I also agree that a Battle 7 would be fantastic. Personally, I love it in both modes, so hey if you hate one mode but love the other, then simply leave it in the mode you like. I never understood the idea of wishing to actively deny others of things you might not personally like.

Now THAT is fantastic news.

One of the cruelest lie ever told to me during my teen years in highschool, "These are the best days of your life." I'm looking forward to staying up all night playing Twilight Princess on my HDTV, in my own apartment, until my hot wife wrests the controller from me so she can play.

Check out the Mighty Orbots opening. The show didn't last long, and the style might not be to everyone's taste, but it had mighty fine animation. If I recall correctly, at least the first episode maintained a similar level of animation quality as the opener. *edit* Sheesh. I was tired then. Here's the link on YouTube; http://youtube.com/watch?v=SLcJXR7twoQ

Crusher Joe is fantastic, but I don't really recall it being a mecha anime.

Ack, I was just at the comic shop today and didn't see it. I'll have to poke around there again sometime soon.

I gotta wander outside the 80's because it is just not right to leave out one of the greatest robot anime series of all time due to the date it released. Gao Gai Gar (1997 - 1999) Also, would Giant Robo (1992) fit in here, or are we discerning "mecha" from "giant robot" anime?

Wow, picked up Classics Megatron today. I thoroughly expected to regret the purchase within moments of opening the package....but I don't. Yes, like many recent Megatrons he looks like he'd be more at home popping pills while listening to repetative music in a dark warehouse than on a battlefield, but like all the other Classics toys I've picked up, he's definitely fun. Not only that, but he's fairly large. He towers a couple heads over Classics Prime. Heck, he's a bit taller than some Alternators. And while he may look a bit colourful and cheap, he's still by far better than any Megatron/Galvatron toy we've seen in ages. While I'd still like to see the Alternators line continue (and expand to non-street vehicles and weapons), I'm enjoying the Classics quite a bit. I might even get Astrotrain afterall.

Luckily they haven't just been sitting on their behinds about it. From the sounds of it, the control changes they've made since E3 have really helped things. We'll see, though, when more hands-on reports come in very shortly.

I'd probably feel better about it if the paint job wasn't so painfully cheap. He's a great little toy, a lot of fun, but again I simply enjoy my Alternators every bit as much (Alt Prime, once again, a painful exception), and they have the added benefit of looking well worth the asking price. Classics Prime would look so much better if the colours were a little less garish and cheap. Make the grill shiney, the red a bit less bright, etcetera. Megatron looks even worse, all the photos I've seen he has such a shoddy paint job, in addition to such a poor choice of colours. I've no problem with the $10 Classics, though. Hot Rod, especially, is fantastic. I still need to nab Bumblebee. I'm kinda torn on Astrotrain, though. I'm looking forward to Mirage, Grimlock, and I'd love to see Soundwave and Kup get the classics treatment.

Picked up Classics Prime, and I must say he's really neat. Still, I don't know about him being worth 20 bucks, he's no Alternator (not that Alternator Prime is all that good, then again Alt Prime is probably the worst Alternator out there). He's fun, though. Still, don't know if I'll get Megatron. I really want a Megatron, but Classics Megatron looks even cheaper and more garish than Prime, still for 20 bucks. We'll see, I might cave just to hava a Megatron figure. I'm really looking forward to MP Megatron, but the Classics are the perfect toys to throw in a bag and take to work.

You know, I saw this recently and it wasn't bad at all. The visual style worked, the acting was actually a lot of fun, and they actually did not stray too far from the original story. I'd reccomend this movie.

Every console launch is bad as far as finding them in stores, it just sounds like the PS3 launch will be especially bad. Then again, with the price so high, there might not be as much of a turnout. It'll still be bad, though. I'm sure there's many more people willing to buy a PS3 at launch than there are units promised for launch.

A friend of mine, a bigger Transformers fan than I am, told me it had been announced that the next two Alternator's we'll see, Rumble and Ravage, will be the last due to the line doing poorly. Is this confirmed? The way I'd understood it, it was the Binaltech line that was doing poorly, but as recent as a few days ago I'd read that the Alternators line has been doing great in the States (I believe I read that in Toyfair). I'd thought it was Takara that was taking the break from the Binaltech line for a year. I just want to know if I should consider importing the Kiss Players version of Rodimus. I really don't want to do that because I'm not interested in paying more for Alt levels of diecast and a silly figurine.

Early adopters shape the market, though. It's a vicious cycle.