Platform: PS3 (Also on PS2)
ESRB Rating: T
Publisher: SCE
Developer: SCE London
Rating: 
Review by: Bill Jones
Sony’s competitive karaoke series gives Freddie Mercury and company a much-deserved full-band release treatment with SingStar Queen. And while the stand-alone title does little to advance the SingStar experience, the band proves to be the perfect choice for such a release, much like Metallica’s Guitar Hero outing. (more…)
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Huge news in the comic world came today in the form of a press release from The Walt Disney Company, which is set to acquire Marvel Entertainment, Inc. in a stock and cash transaction of $4 billion. With the move, Disney acquires ownership of more than 5,000 Marvel characters, including Iron Man, Spider-Man, X-Men, Captain America, Fantastic Four and Thor.
Marvel’s Chief Executive Officer Ike Perlmutter will oversee the Marvel properties as part of the deal.
Both the Marvel and Disney boards of directors have approved the transaction, but the deal is subject to clearance of antitrust and merger control regulations. The agreement also requires the approval of Marvel shareholders.
For those with stock interests in the companies, it was announced that Marvel shareholders are to receive a total of $30 per share in cash plus approximately 0.745 Disney shares for each Marvel share they own, pending approval and timing of the agreement.
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Platform: 360 (also on PS3)
ESRB Rating: T
Publisher: SNK Playmore, Ignition Entertainment
Developer: SNK Playmore
Rating:
Review by: John Gustafson
King of Fighters XII departs from the long running 2D fighting series with a number of changes to the roster, graphical presentation, combat system and addition of online play. Unfortunately in doing so, this reboot feels incomplete and littered with minor complaints and one major problem.
The three-on-three elimination team system remains, making a team’s selection order as important as ever and fighter selection a tactical decision. KOFXII has done away with many of the additions King of Fighters XI brought to the table, and introduces a critical counter system and guard attacks. (more…)
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Week 2 of Trailer Madness brings with it a slew of new trailers for upcoming games. Leading things off is the new “Abbey Road” trailer for Beatles: Rock Band. It is followed by a behind-the-scenes video for Section 8, and trailers for Borderlands, Def Jam Rapstar, Napoleon Total War, Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, and Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, plus a series of gameplay videos for Soul Caliber Broken Destiny. Enjoy!
(more…)
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Platform: XBLA (Also on PSN, PS3)
ESRB Rating: T
Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Backbone Entertainment
Rating: 
Review by: John Gustafson
Before the demise of the North American arcade community, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 was a soul-sucking, time-consuming, quarter-eating machine. Its legendary status in the fighting game community is well documented and its popularity is still strong, albeit less than it was nine years ago, as evidenced by the numerous tournaments held each year featuring the mash-up cast.
Marvel vs. Capcom 2 saw releases on the Dreamcast (the best port), PlayStation 2 and Xbox before this new release for the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade. Old fans and continued players will be happy to know that Backbone went to the Dreamcast port for this update, and the quality shines. (more…)
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By: John Gustafson
Jason Aaron, Chris Yost and Craig Kyle concluded Marvel’s convention attendance with a panel devoted to the X-Men.
The panel began with the new series S.W.O.R.D. The organization originally created in Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men as Earth’s galaxy equivalent to S.H.I.E.L.D. will see a renewed focus on the home world. Agent Brand, Beast and Lockheed will be running the primary duties concerned with alien monitoring and intelligence gathering. The tone of the book was clearly set when it was announced that Henry Peter Gyrich would be in charge of S.W.O.R.D. The audience was told that the grand mission directive will surprise readers and it was then explained that the first goal is to remove all alien presence from the planet, it became clear how serious S.W.O.R.D. is playing. (more…)
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Format: DVD
Produced by: Marvel Animation and Lionsgate Entertainment
By: John Gustafson
The second volume to the piecemeal release schedule of Wolverine and the X-Men has arrived with five episodes continuing the animated tale.
Viewers would be wise to pick up the first volume before watching this release to have the framework of the plot explained and a proper understanding why Wolverine leads the team over Cyclops – which Pads & Panels detailed in the volume one write-up.
Episode #4, “Overflow,” harks back to Storm’s origin story with the Shadow King. Xavier contacts Wolverine from the future to warn him that Storm will lose control of herself and lay waste to the African continent, sending the team on a rescue mission. Emma Frost plays a large role in the episode, being the only member of the team able to fight the Shadow King’s astral realm form. The episode suffers from a “been there, seen that” nagging feeling due to past comics and shows covering this story before, with little variety to make it fresh. (more…)
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By John Gustafson
At Marvel Comics’ first of two programs on Saturday, the Mondo Marvel Panel featured Jim McCann as moderator for editor Mark Paniccia, Lauren Sakovitch, Craig Kyle, Chris Yost, Dan Slott, Jason Aaron and Sean McKeever.
McCann began by announcing a Mysterio arc in Amazing Spider-Man written by Slott with accompanying art by Marcus Martin. There will also be a new miniseries in December 2009 titled Spider-Man and the Secret Wars. Special note by McCann that this series will not be an “Adventures” book, rather a part of historic continuity from Spider-Man’s viewpoint.
Jeff Parker will be taking over the Thunderbolts book beginning with issue 138. Look for Songbird and the original Thunderbolts to rally against Norman Osborn and the current squad. (more…)
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Artist: Yoshitaka Amano
Publisher: Dark Horse
Review by: John Gustafson
Fans of the original four Final Fantasy video games should take notice of Dawn: The Worlds of Final Fantasy, a collection of artwork that inspired the games, released outside of Japan for the very first time.
Yoshitaka Amano and Square-Enix, with the help of Dark Horse, have finally decided to publish the paintings, watercolors, inks, preliminary sketches and murals for North American fans. (more…)
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So, we finally got an account set up over at YouTube (padsandpanels) and are kicking on the video end of things. We plan to expand that, like everything else, as we go, but for now it has allowed us to include trailers and gameplay footage in our stories, in addition to screenshots. We’ve also been busy uploading trailers sent our way over the course of the week, so make sure to friend us over there and keep on top of things. We’ll try to do wrap-ups like this at the end of every week with all of the trailers we’ve uploaded. This week, we’ve got a Lego Rock Band vignette, East India Company: Privateer and Ship Simulator Extremes trailers from Paradox Interactive, and a Section 8 story trailer from SouthPeak. That’s in addition to the God of War 3, Alan Wake, Shadow Complex and Madden NFL 10 trailers uploaded and used in stories throughout the week. Enjoy!
(more…)
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