While I knew this show existed, I had no idea it had actually been released in English, along with the toys. Possibly because I’m not Australian. Or a child.

Like Yu-Gi-Oh or Beyblade, it essentially takes the target audience’s own experience with the toys and adds a layer of fantasy on the top of it. It’s a different relationship of the audience to both the toy and the cartoon compared to the toy based cartoons around when I was growing up. With Thundercats, He-Man, Transformers and the like there wasn’t a real viewer substitute in the cartoons (if there was, they weren’t the main hero), nor did the actual toys show up in the cartoons themselves. Instead the toys were representations of things in the cartoons and your relationship to them when playing was more director than actor. With a show like Crush Gear Turbo, you’re basically watching a kid, presumably your own age, play with same toys you’ve got (or will have if the advertising works!). You’re almost part of the show, part of the world of the show.

I think that’s where a lot of videogame adaptations come undone. You’ve got these toy shows adding a level of identification and immersion to the cartoons and toys, but in most cases a videogame adaptation is removing that. Pokemon gets it right by applying many of the “rules” of the game to the world of the cartoon, so you can identify with Ash and chums if you’ve played the game. Too often videogame adaptations are obsessed with the characters and game world, rather than the rules, despite the fact that whether or not they are conscious of it, the rules and mechanics of the game are what are most impressed on the player’s memories. That’s why Dave Chappelle’s Grand Theft Auto skit is better than 99% of videogame adaptations.

A promo VHS tape for a Urusei Yatsura pachinko machine!

The machine it advertises:

(via Pachitalk)

Late to the party, I was introduced to Hyadain via this song when it was posted on SWFBLOG yesterday. This version below is subtitled by enigmaopoeia. For people similarly late to the party Hyadain’s thing is to add hilariously literal lyrics to videogame music. Which is only the half of it, he’s also a great vocal acrobat and producer – all the vocals in his tracks are him!

I’m kind of resolved to not really being excited by the current generation of electronic game hardware, and my time to play WoW disappeared a couple of years ago when I started my current job. So I’ve been slowly catching up on cheapo PS2 games over the past year or so. And here is a post about that.

GTA Vice City Stories

First things first, what a horrible port. I don’t know if the PSP version was this buggy, but until the second island is unlocked this game froze fatally for me many times. You’d be driving at top speed, turn a corner and the entire world would grind to halt.

Secondly, while the protagonist is probably the most pleasant of these games, the NPCs are far more repellent, being plain nasty rather than comically nasty. Once familiar faces start showing up the tone lightens, but good grief some of those early missions and cut scenes are depressing.

On the plus side there’s some nice gameplay improvements with a much expanded hand to hand combat system, options to rebuy your lost equipment in one lump sum, and at the core of the game a crime empire management game. And bar the final mission, there’s no unforgiving missions to stall your fun.

Once I got over the twin speed bumps of bugs and obnoxiousness, it was fun game to play with the usual mix of free thinking sandbox missions and OTT set pieces (the highpoint being the Phil Collins concert).

Dynasty Warriors 3

I’m a big fan of games that involve pressing buttons or mice a lot to kill a lot of enemies. So I don’t know why I had put off playing one of KOEI’s Romance of the 3 Kingdoms-based historical hack-a-thons for so long.

It’s a bit daunting when you start the first level and it tells you that you have one and a half hours to finish the level. ONE AND A HALF HOURS! I’d not sat and played a game for more than a hour in ages. And now I was expected to rapidly hit buttons for 90 minutes? Well it wasn’t quite that bad, but I have to admit it took me a while to work out how best to progress in the campaign/musou mode (namely level up the character before pushing on to the next level). But soon I was obsessed with unlocking characters, weapons, items and battles. Yes it does suffer from popup and slow down on some of the more insane battlefields, but ploughing through 10s of soldiers with your gaudily dressed general as he propels them flying with some kind of polearm, has a visceral thrill that only this “Gauntlet as wargame” franchise can give.

ISSUE 4~! OCTOBER 1993~!

IN THE UK:

• Manga Video were releasing Doomed Megalopolis II: Disaster, Crying Freeman II: The Enemy Within and Tetsuo II: The Bodyhammer.
• Anime Projects had Hurricane Live 2032 & 2033 out.
• And in computer games, ICE were releasing Akira for Commordore Amiga, CD32, PC and PC CD-ROM.

  Maybe in a later issue Wil Overton will overrate it in his videogame review section. Good lord, the tat that got 7/10s in that section of the magazine, this issue has SD Great Battle II getting the videogame review “average”.

IN THE US of A:

• There had been some Anime Conventions and they were briefly, vaguely, reported on:

• Anime America (25-27 June 1993) – 1200 attendance listed. Guests: Haruka Takachiho, Monkey Punch, Kenichi Sonoda and Megumi Hayashibara. Described as having great events, but poorly run.
• Anime Expo (2-4 July 1993) – 1800 attendance listed (wikipedia gives 1,693). Guests: Well I don’t know, it lists a load, then says four didn’t show, but beyond mentioning Haruhiko Mikimoto not showing, I don’t know who the other three who didn’t show were. Described as having poor events (presumably down to lack of guests), but well organised.

  Depressing thought of the day: The biggest anime-based con in the UK is now roughly at the size of the Anime America of 1993 (and has been for the last few years), and it’s idea of a guest is Monica Rial.
  

• CPM/US MANGA CORPS were releasing Venus Wars, Area 88 Act II
• ANIMEIGO had Dagger of Kamui, Urusei Yatsura OAV Vol. 6
• DARK IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT made with Devilman – The Birth of Devilman
• US RENDITIONS released The Guyver Vol. 4.
• Manga releases:

• Dark Horse Comics: Caravan Kidd, Version 2.2
• Eternity Comics: Robotech II: The Sentinels, Robotech: Return To Macross, Robotech: Invid War, Ninja High School, Zilliion
• Viz Comics: Battle Angel Alita, Maison Ikkoku, Ranma, Genocyber, Sanctuary, Pixy Junket, Crying Freeman, Sanctuary, Nausicaa, Guyver, Silent Mobius
• New Society Publishers: Barefoot Gen: Out of the Ashes

IN JAPAN:

• The Cockpit
• Dirty Pair
• Votoms
• Borgman
• Idol Defense Force Hummingbird
• Erotic Beast High School “Climax Collection”
• KO Century Three Beastketeers II – Chapter 3
• NG Knight Ramune & 40 DX, Chapter 3
  
  The Satoru Akahori script machine in full effect here.

• A-Girl
• Ah! My Goddess
• Eight Man After
• Epic Fantasy Ellcia
• Chameleon 2 “Siblings From Hell”
• Machine God Corps
• No Need For Tenchi:Demon Emperor Ryou Special – The Night Before The Festival

  Still loving that translation

• Bad Boys
• Moldiver

ELSEWHERE:

• Tsui Hark announced as directing the Mai the Psychic Girl live-action film.

  Did this ever get anywhere? I remember at one point reading Sparks had the rights to make the film.

Ben Ettinger writes far more than we have any right to expect to see in the English language on the Tiger Mask anime.

WFMU’s Beware of the Blog dicusses “midcore” gaming

Twitch brings the noise on 20th Century Boys.

More from Twitch! Ani-Kuri 15

The Best of Oh Word in 2007

OK, I’ve just found tetrisconcept and I am going to peruse it further before spouting the insanity I wish to propose vis a vis tetris theory. If anything at least the probabilities will have already been calculated for me. Plus I love that there is a Tetris Guideline.

First up it’s arguably the oddest anime OP theme of all time. Episode 24 of 80s anime Maison Ikkoku suddenly had 70s Irish singer-songwriter Gilbert O’Sullivan delivering the theme tunes. And by episode 25 he was gone again. Apparently it was an ill-fated attempt to promote his back catalogue.

Next it’s the all-star, never completed, insane 3DO video game Duelin’ Firemen.

Quite.

Sumire, Age 17! - a review of what appears to be an odd and awesome and awesomely odd manga about a strange middle-aged ventriloquist who pretends his dummy is a 17 year old girl called Sumire. Apparantly there is a sequel, Sumire 16. Which you may be able to get fan translations of here.

Dave’s World – Home Of The Games Animal – Remember bandana’d, Dominik Diamond-mocked, talking head Dave Perry from Gamesmaster? Well here’s his website. Apparantly he is the GAMES ANIMAL! An object lesson in self-promotion.

Windows version of MB/GW’s HeroQuest boardgame – Remember when Games Workshop really tried to go mainstream with HeroQuest and Space Crusade? Well here’s one of those games as a Windows program.

Japan’s Anime Culture – A Foreign Press Center Japan briefing from Ryusuke Hikawa, the presenter of Anime Maestro. Talks about animation history, before discussing Mamoru Hosoda and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.

Lucha Wiki - It’s a wiki all about people who have wrestled in Mexico at some time or other.