Radd

"That's an ironclad battle tactic."

Word from Nintendo is that the game will not make use of the Wii controller, instead having more traditional Smash Bros. gameplay. I believe the man in charge of the project said, in an interview, that he had tried to think of some way to make use of it, but everything seemed gimicky and tacked on, so he decided to go with more traditional play. He even said people may want to hold onto their Gamecube pads for this. I'm not too dissapointed. I hope it will serve as an example that people ought not to use the Wii's controller simply because it's there, when trying to make a game that simply cannot use it well, just as there are plenty of great DS games that do not make use of the touch screen.

Fantastic, I must have it! Herlock is one of my alltime favourite anime series. Arcadia being one of my alltime favourite anime movies. Sounds like a winner to me. Heard about the series before, but never seen it anywhere until now.

I did, it's...ok. Nothing special. They really shouldn't have gone with the touch screen controls. The touch screen controls work...until you need to do a barrel roll, speed up, or slow down. And you have to do those often, and with some degree of precision. That gets really frustrating, when you're doing the motion for a barrel roll, and instead you just slow donw or speed up, or nothing at all happens. You also kind of have to stop steering while doing those things,, which is annoying when taking down enemy motherships, where you need to follow some beacons, then whiole still pointing your ship up into the mothership, you need to do a barrel roll at the right moment. SNES StarFox controls would have worked just fine. There's a lot of other stuff coming out for the DS right now, or in the near future. A lot of other stuff I'd reccomend first. Like MegaMan XZ, Phoenix Wright 2, and others.

I dunno about this. I enjoyed the series thoroughly, including the ending episodes that so many people seemed to hate. Then the movies came out, and I thought they were pretty terrible, as if someone rewrote the ending of 'The Watchmen' into a guns blazing action sequence. Sure, they were mighty pretty, but did they add anything to the story? If anything, they seemed to detract from it. I recently read a comment someone made about ending a series, that you do it "not with a victory or a defeat, but with an emergence." I have to agree with that sentiment, and found such an ending in the tv series.

Er, there have been enough problems with Sony's poorly designed hardware as to spark two seperate lawsuits over the matter. I believe Sony lost the first lawsuit, and settled on the second. The problems have to do with the internal layout and cheap materials used in the design of the units. The PSX primarily suffered from an overheating problem, while the PS2 faced a couple different 'disc read' errors. One because of a faulty laser alignment mechanism (this is limited to the earliest PS2s) and the second had to do with the amount of voltage to the laser itself. These issues are well known and documented. On a more anecdotal level, all of my friends have multiple game consoles. Out of all these friends, none of them has had to replace any console except for their Sony consoles, and in many cases those they've had to replace multiple times.

I dunno, the more I've seen of every game other than the MGS4 footage, it seems that the PS3 will not be that much more impressive than the 360, and that the price tag is mainly due to Sony trying to use the PS3 to push Bluray into households. If Sony maintains their commanding lead of the industry, and in doing so their lion's share of the developer support, I'll get one eventually, but given the price and how little home console gaming I tend to do...I imagine the PS4 will be in the news by the time that happens. Especially given that I've seen so many PSXs and PS2s die after a relatively short time, think I'll wait to make certain the same will not be said for this and its $600 price tag.

I'm betting, or hoping at least, for something similar to G2 Megatron. Sure the toy wasn't too hot, but the basic design idea is perfect.

To say you missed the point by a mile would be like saying "the Atlantic ocean is fairly large".

I dunno, I'm pretty open to change. If the designs looked good to me, I'd be able to accept different. I really dislike the whole design asthetic of the movie characters. Transformers characters tend to get a visual overhaul every year or so, I mean how many different variants of Prime have there been? I doubt too many TF fans are stuck on the original designs to any great extent. Some basic design aspects, possibly (Prime being a truck, Megatron having a large gun, Bumblebee being small and yellow, Starscream being a jet). Overall, though, I'm guessing most people simply hate the style and some of the design principles introduced for the new movie. Have you actually gotten them to lock into place, though? With my Mirage, the two panels will not sit at the same angle, and I cannot get either one of them to lock into the spot on the chest plate that looks like they should be able to lock into.

"It's aimed at kids" always rung more than a little hollow of an excuse to me. Maybe the reason so many people grow up loving, or at least accepting, the crap thrown at them, is because of the crap we shove down their throats when they're children?

I'm with the WDC. Not only did I expect them to change the character designs, I was looking forward to it. I thought that as long as they stuck to some basic iconic references to the characters, things would be fine. I liked that they were dumping the size changing and, and gleefully read reports that they were going for realistic transformations. Then they revealed that they'd gone with the illigitmate love child of General Greivous and Johnny 5. Heck, I like Alternator's Prime more than this movie Prime. I'm not too upset, though. Dissapointed, yes, but I won't waste time fretting. As much as I like Transformers, I've long since come to terms that I actually dislike most of what is done with the brand. As long as the Alternators and Masterpiece lines keep going, I'll be happy. Classics looks alright for the most part, too.

HOW DO YOU LIKE ME NOW!?

Like Panon and Veritas, I'm not a fan of the original, however I can definately sympathize.

I had the exact opposite problem. Found Mirage right after the boards went down, but I'm going to need to pump his hip joints full of gluge because they're too loose. Seriously, if Mirage had ratcheted hips and his chestplate somehow snapped into place, he would be, quite possibly, the best Transformer ever designed. He looks fantastic in both modes, his transformation is very interested, yet never too difficult or frustrating, and it's Mirage/ I always liked Mirage as a kid, he's one of the few early Transformers I remember owning. Him and Sunstreaker and Prime. I also nabbed Alternators Prime when I found Mirage. Figured I'd to it for completeness sake. He doesn't look as bad as I'd imagined, but he's a floppy mess. Nothing seems to have a way of snapping into place. His arms kinda of hang there, as does his chest plate. His legs are too short up top, and too long on the bottom. You can't pose his head up or down, just left or right. The front fender falls off icnredibly easily, especially during transformation. I'd thought this particular design would make a good Ironhide or something, but it's just poorly done all around. You can tell there was a lack of interest at Takara (or whatever they're called these days). Has anyone heard anything about any more Alternators releases? I get the impression that the line is on the way out, as sales for the Binaltechs in Japan have been lacking. Still, I hope they at least get Rumble, Frenzy, Red Alert, Blaster (if that's what they're going to call Binaltech Broadblast overe here), and the others that we've seen concept work of, or have been released in Japan. Ack, must have missed a page. I'm guessing this means they're still on the way!

Can't say Startscream looks bad at all in the kibble department, though the photos aren't too clear, and it seems this thread has long ago proven that kibble is in the eye of the beholder. The only bits I would even consider kibble so far would be the tail pieces attached to his hips, and from the look of the wing and leg design it does not seem as if those will get in the way too much.

And I dig Classics Prime for the most part. I do agree with David, though, the colour scheme makes him look cheap. I still look forward to nabbing one, but could be a bit better with just some better colour choices.

Further proof that you're not going to please everyone. If only the movie designs were like MP Starscream.

They look too cluttered to me, I've never liked the design asthetic it seems they were going for with these.

Reminds me of when I ran into someone reading the Onion who didn't realize it was purely satirical, and actually believed the headlines were real.

I heard the nods to 'DYRL?' were what got the license pulled from Antarctic. HG, at the time, was apparently uncomfortable with treading into that territory and the situation was not clear to the artists involved. This was before, of course, HG's wild claims that they owned the 'DYRL?' designs.

Personally, I do see Basara as a plot device. I don't neccessarily see that as a bad thing, because I agree with Keith's point that everyone else is adapting to him as if he were some kind of force of nature. I found that character developement abounded in Gamlin, Mylene, Ray, Max, Millia, Gigil, and most everyone else Basara affected. I thought it was good character devolopement, too, not forced. Gamlin wasn't a Firebomber fan overnight, Gigil didn't break into a rousing round of 'Totsugenki Love Heart' after hearing Basara once or twice, and Mylene wasn't on the same page as Basara right from the opening concert. All this took time, a lot of time just as it would to real people meeting such a unique individual with such unusual ideas. It is through these characters that Basara's own character is explored. Exactly why he is the way he is, and what compromises he has to make with the situation around him. I don't see him as completely without flaws, there are times when others have advice for him, primarily Ray. And not everyone was swayed, there were many that held on to their long held ideas despite what was going on. Also, I don't think the show was that childish because of the ideals presented. Seems to me if most problems arise from an 'us versus them' mentality that exists entirely in people's minds, and that most people do not grow out of. I do, however, differ in my opinon from Keith in that I believe the presentation itself, primarily in the directing and some of the design work, as well as the pacing, leaves something to be desired. Didn't stop me from enjoying the show, overall, but I do think a lot of the detractors might have different opinions if the same themes and the same strong character developement were presented differently. A lot of the same themes are present in Macross Zero, yet more people seem to like that and I've yet to hear anyone call it 'kiddie'.

Personally, I would have to say the 1/48 in all modes. Fighter mode by far goes to the 1/48th, as well as Gerwalk. The level of detail is astounding compared to all other toys, and it flows together so much more nicely than the 1/60 version from Yamato. For battroid mode, again the 1/48th. Sure, it has small hands, but it seems to me the most realistic proportions without sacrificing fighter mode too much and with no reliance on anime magic. The 1/60 is a distant second, but there's one thing that has always bugged me about the 1/60. The hips. They made the legs removable to get rid of swing bars, but then stuck them with these huge hip bulges that look as bad or even worse than swing bars. So the sacrifice of perfect transformation winds up being for NOTHING. Not to mention the terrible V-1S head.

Actually...HLJ just sent me an email telling me they were cancelling my CF order from a month or three ago because it was out of stock completely and Yamato currently had no plans to make more.

I still want a copy of the version of 'New Frontier' that appears in Dynamite 7. That version being by far on of my favourite Fire Bomber songs. The only version I've heard off an album isn't nearly as good, as it lacks that excellent lead-in.