According to the Associated Press, Disney has purchased Marvel Entertainment — home of Spiderman, the Hulk, and even Darkhawk (ha! obscure comic reference GO!) — for $4 Billion, including 5000 of Marvel’s characters and assets (as soon as the proper paperwork is completed, that is).
I repeat: HOLEE FRIGGIN’ CRAP!
The news sent instant shockwaves throughout the entertainment industry this morning, as marvel now becomes a Disney brand. No word on any potential changes to Marvel or Disney’s staff was revealed.
Robert A. Iger, President of The Walt Disney Company, stated the following: “This transaction combines Marvel’s strong global brand and world-renowned library of characters including Iron Man, Spider-Man, X-Men, Captain America, Fantastic Four and Thor with Disney’s creative skills, unparalleled global portfolio of entertainment properties, and a business structure that maximizes the value of creative properties across multiple platforms and territories.”
What this means for Marvel games is currently unclear, as Marvel has (had?) contracts with publishers other than Disney to create games based on its properties.
So the question relating to we gamers is this: What would you like to see Disney do with Marvel’s characters in games? Iron Man in Kingdom Hearts? Marvel vs Capcom vs Disney?
Well as gorgeous as two overweight mushroom-smoking turtle murderers can be, anyways. This collection of incredibly stylistic Super Mario fan art is pretty spectacular. The amount of variety, from realistic portrayals to almost Cubist and cartoon versions, is impressive to view and showcases the beyond-niche impact the Bros. have had on counter-culture.
The collections includes artwork scoured from Deviant Art as well as various blogs and fansites.
Have a gander at the masterpieces over at TheDesignInspiration, or continue reading the article for some of our personal favorites.
This Tuesday on #gamechat: The big RPG battle set to brew in 2010 is the one between Mass Effect 2 and Final Fantasy XIII. What are the merits of either game & series? Which game is “more important” for the RPG genre in 2010? Join us and discuss!
#gamechat begins on Twitter at 9PM EST every Tuesday.
It’s #FreeStuffFriday here at SideQuesting! This week we have some sweet iPhone cases to give out (two to be exact)!
The Cellshield cases are two-piece plastic cases. The ones we have to offer are clear w/blue center stripe and white w/black center stripe (pictures after the jump). The cases have an apple logo in the middle that helps clip the pieces together.
So how do you win such sweet cases? Leave a comment below telling us what cool feature you’d love to see in a redesign of the iPhone, whether physical or software. Also tell us which of the two cases you’d prefer to win. One comment per person, please. Ends Sunday, August 30th at 10AM EST. One winner from each case color preference will win.
Apart from Super Mario, there is probably not a video game series more iconic than the Legend of Zelda. Its sales were always good and its legion of fans never faltered in accepting another new edition in the land of Hyrule. It regularly recieves high review scores with each new entry, with critics and newcomers alike regularly going ga-ga. The series has also spawned what many consider to be the best game ever made, Ocarina of Time.
But since Wind Waker‘s artistic take, the series has been dubbed “stagnant” in terms of innovation. The first Wii incarnation, Twilight Princess, although including the ability to transform into a wolf, centered more on story and character development instead of the action and adventure that previous Zelda games had enriched themselves in. Miyamoto’s love of cave exploration and action had become second to the glitz and glamor associated with new hardware, it can be said.
In line with our recent “Redesigning the Console” feature series (see: Redesigning the XBox or our Wii topic), we’ve decided to tackle individual game series as our next endeavor. We all have opinions on what will get us to buy a game, or what we would like to see improved to keep our joy of a series going.
The first falls on the shoulders of Link. With a new Zelda announced at E3 this year, many have high hopes for what the next iteration will bring. What would you change in the Zelda series, if anything? What would you improve, add, or remove? Or, does the series need any changing at all? Is it on the right path? Leave your comments below, and we’ll compile as many as possible into a feature article next month.
Like many, I’ve noticed a growing trend in gaming journalism in which websites and blogs will host Top Ten lists about various gaming subjects as a web-traffic grabber. Top Tens typically do well on news aggregators and user-submission sites like N4G, reddit or Gamekicker, pulling in votes or bumps as fanboys duke out over their favorite topics.
Top Ten Gaming Sex Scenes
Top 5 Best Free-to-Play FPS Games
10 Reasons Why the XBox 360 is teh Gr3at3st Thing in teh H1story of the Universe
The redundancy of these lists, in which duplicate lists often appear almost on a weekly basis, is nearly appalling and often brings down the credibility of a website’s content. Face it: anyone can create a Top Ten list about anything in video games, but that doesn’t mean that the article will be worth reading. These “filler” articles are often created when there are either slow news days or a lack of original work coming through.
That’s not to say that all list articles are bad. List articles that are based on facts and details — and not pure opinion or fanboyism — and offer up valued information have the merits of investigative journalism to carry them. And, those that are done as opinions of online communities (ie: “XXX Website Community’s Top Ten Most Wanted Games”) are often great ways to gauge how a smaller social network looks at the industry. These are no different than the “Most Wanted” lists found in magazines like Nintendo Power or the now-defunct EGM, reflecting what the readership wants/likes.
Whenever I come across gaming Top Ten lists these days, I tend to view them as cash grabs for traffic hits that usually find ways to piss me off. Someone’s saddest RPG moment may not actually be the saddest RPG moment, or at least not mine. But, people still read them if for no reason than to spark their inner gaming fanatic in hopes to disagree with the person who wrote it.
What do you think? Are you sick of videogame Top Ten lists as much as I am?
Oh, we beg to differ Mr Iraqi Minister of Information… There IS new DLC in our Mass Effects! Available now, yet still unannounced, is the latest Mass Effect DLC: Pinnacle Station. The damage is $5, or 400 in alien spacecraft bucks.
The fabled battle-based DLC is finally here. Now, go get yourself some Spectre-infused baddassery!
Test the limits of your combat prowess aboard a remote, top-secret Alliance space station. Do you have what it takes to hold the top spot amongst the best of the best? This module includes a new land-able space station, 13 exciting combat scenarios, and approximately 2-3 hours of game play. Required: you must achieve Spectre status before embarking on this mission.
Welcome to the SideQuest, your semi-weekly podcast devoted to gaming, culture, and gaming culture, with the occasional tangent.
Episode 113 is another epic fail in bad technology gone worse. Will Dali’s editing save the show, or will his fanboyism of Wii Sports hold him back? Will Ryan’s editorial skills come under fire? Will Mike solve Nathan’s issues? And, who is Nathan? Well, he’s the latest addition to the SideQuesting team, and he gets a hazing like no other. Answers to all these questions and more on this week’s SideQuest.
Hosts:
Dali Dimovski, Ryan Gan, Mike Wehner, and Nathan Andrews
Music:
Intro – Main Finger – Disco Link Returns
Outro – Main Finger – Doomsday Village (Thin Sliced Mix)
8-bit Trip is an epic music video. Like a few other LEGO inspired videos, including the one we featured last week, this one is tied to retro gaming in a whimsical way. Included are several gaming-related Easter eggs that only true hardcore gamers would appreciate.
To sum it up it would be best to use the words of one of the video’s YouTube commenters:
For this week’s #FreeStuffFriday we bring you Roogoo Twisted Towers, the Wii puzzler that has you spinning and turning puzzle discs while mixing in a story and action sequences.
How do you win this glorious prize?
As per usual, we demand ask that you leave a comment in this post. This time, tell us your all-time favorite puzzle game. Was it Tetris? Peggle? Rubik’s Cube? Whatever the case may be, just post your fave by 12PM EST on Sunday, August 23rd. Open to US residents only. We’ll contact you via email.
in alien spacecraft bucks.
