Tuesday, June 29, 2010

WTF: ColorFart?!

You just have to love a product whose name says what it does. That being said... who in the bloody blue smurf would want this?!

This has to be a joke, right? Like Bansai Kitten? Um... right?

So, yeah, if you've been just sitting around thinking you wanna rip one in lemon, this is the... um... crap for you!

4th Annual Supergirl Jam Series Kicks Off June 30


This just in...

"Warner Bros. Consumer Products, on behalf of DC Comics, and action sports event producer, ASA Entertainment, announced the dates for the 2010 Supergirl Jam event series today. For the fourth consecutive year, these unique events will feature more than 100 of the world’s top female action sports athletes competing in surfing, skateboarding, snowboarding and inline skating. The Supergirl Jam is the industry’s only large-scale, all-girls action sports competition and is designed to celebrate female strength, independence and empowerment. In 2010, the Supergirl Jam series will kick-off with three events, each highlighting the sport’s most talented female pros as well as up-and-coming amateurs."

Read the full press release here.

BotCon 2010: Transformers Hall of Fame

The first inductees into the 'Transformers Hall of Fame' were recently announced at this year's BotCon. TFormers.com has more...

"Hasbro inducted four individuals into the TRANSFORMERS Hall of Fame who helped shape the global entertainment brand that has spawned popular action figures, comic book series, multiple animated series, video games and two blockbuster live action movies. The inductees, who were in attendance at the ceremony, are:

Bob Budiansky: While working as an editor for Marvel Comics in 1983, Mr. Budiansky named and wrote the personality profiles for most of the first 20 or so TRANSFORMERS characters. He then became the editor of the very first TRANSFORMERS mini-series, which led to his scripting most of the next 50 issues of the monthly TRANSFORMERS comic book. As he continued working with the brand on behalf of Hasbro, he named and wrote the packaging copy and personality profiles of dozens more TRANSFORMERS, and developed story treatments as new lines of TRANSFORMERS were introduced.

Peter Cullen: Mr. Cullen is a voice actor best known for providing the English voice for the wise and heroic AUTOBOT leader OPTIMUS PRIME in the popular 1980s cartoon series “The TRANSFORMERS” and in the 1986 animated film “The TRANSFORMERS: The Movie”. He reprised the role again in 2007 and 2009 in the live action TRANSFORMERS movies, and will return for the third installment slated for 2011. Additionally, he has provided the voice of five other TRANSFORMERS robots during his career.

Kohjin Ohno: Mr. Ohno started his career at TAKARA TOMY, working on the design of the Microman and Diaclone toy lines, which would later become one of the inspirations for the TRANSFORMERS toy line. Mr. Ohno created SUNSTREAKER, which is considered the first “car to robot transforming toy”. He was also instrumental in the introduction of Beast Wars TRANSFORMERS for the Japanese market. He helped design toys for both live action TRANSFORMERS movies. He takes great pride in being the person who designed the largest TRANSFORMERS toy from Generation 1: FORTRESS MAXIMUS.

Hideaki Yoke: While working at TAKARA TOMY, Mr. Yoke invented the Micro-Robot segment within the MICRONAUTS toy line, which featured the engineering innovation of transformation in action figures that were no more than 3 to 4 inches tall. TRANSFORMERS characters MEGATRON, SOUNDWAVE and RAVAGE can trace their origins to Mr. Yoke’s efforts. He acted as liaison between TAKARA TOMY and Hasbro during the early years of their business relationship.


Hasbro also inducted five iconic characters into the TRANSFORMERS Hall of Fame. Heroic AUTOBOTS OPTIMUS PRIME and BUMBLEBEE, as well as evil DECEPTICONS MEGATRON and STARSCREAM were selected for admission by Hasbro’s TRANSFORMERS Hall of Fame internal panel of judges. DINOBOT, a character from the 1990’s TRANSFORMERS Beast Wars series, was elected by fans voting at www.transformers.com during the month of May."

Read the full press release here.


Zelda: Spirit Tracks is HALF PRICE on Amazon!


Here's another crazy game deal. 'The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks' is less than half price on Amazon today! Regularly $39.99, you can pick up this great game for only $18 even! I wouldn't wait, because Amazon's prices often fluctuate wildly throughout the day. Check it out here.

All aboard the bargain train! Choo choo!

Monday, June 28, 2010

Cheap Wii games you MUST own!

Just because a game is cheap, doesn't mean it's bad! The following is short list of critically acclaimed Wii games that can currently be had for under $15 (some even under $10!)

Here are some of my recommendations...
If you're looking for bargain games, definitely keep an eye on Amazon's game deals page as they're always posting some great deals. You really have to move fast, though, as its not unusual for prices to fluctuate throughout the day.

Video Game Deals Roundup for June 28, 2010


Here's a roundup of the video game deals I've posted today on Twitter.

Wii deals:

Nintendo DS/DSi deals:

Xbox 360 deals:

Wiiware for June 28, 2010: Mario Tennis and More!

WiiWare

Jett Rocket
Publisher: Shin'en Multimedia
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) – Mild Cartoon Violence
Price: 1,000 Wii Points™
Description: Jump and run and fly. Let Jett Rocket explore the beautiful planet of Yoroppa and find out why it has been attacked by the evil Power Plant Posse. Visit tropical islands, poisonous swamps and freezingly cold glaciers. Ride the ocean on your Jet Boat, parachute from giant cliffs, speed through arctic regions on your Jet Snowboard or skyrocket with your Jet Turbine. You will need everything you've got to fight back and save Yoroppa. Just be Jett Rocket in this epic futuristic full 3D action adventure.

Pong Toss Pro – Frat Party Games®
Publisher: JV Games Inc.
Players: 1-4
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) – Alcohol Reference, Comic Mischief, Mild Language
Price: 600 Wii Points
Description: Born on college campuses, Pong Toss is the ultimate party-game favorite. Now Pong Toss Pro takes it to the next level by featuring a completely redesigned throwing system for complete accuracy and improved graphics. Also new to Pong Toss Pro is Tournament Mode. You can have a four-, eight-, or 16-team bracket play in Pong Toss & Speed Pong. Pong Toss Pro features six regulation tables and the ability to modify simple house rules. Rock it with a high-energy rock soundtrack; listen to the announcer commenting on your play. Rule the table with Fireball bonuses for consecutive shots. In Speed Pong, up to three challengers can compete at the same time. Speed and strategy are the keys to this fast-paced game. Jack up your opponents by using a slew of power-ups that will slow them down. The first one who sinks the last cup wins it all.

Robin Hood: The Return of Richard
Publisher: Nordcurrent
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E 10+ (Everyone 10 and Older) – Violence
Price: 500 Wii Points
Description: While Richard, the true King of England, is absent from his throne, his country rages in chaos. England has been invaded, and enemies burn and destroy local towns and villages. After the house of expert archer and hunter Robin Hood was burned down, he, together with a group of free archers like himself, hides in Sherwood Forest and begins his fight for justice. The fate of the people now lies in your hands. Help Robin to defeat the villains and restore peace in this shooting game.

Features:
  • Complete 12 levels, defeating numerous enemies and visiting different locations in medieval England
  • Search for hidden objects to get bonus points
  • Fight with super villains, such as the Sheriff of Nottingham
  • Replay the game to improve your score in the High Score Table
Virtual Console

Mario Tennis
Original platform: Nintendo 64
Publisher: Nintendo
Players: 1-4
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
Price: 1,000 Wii Points
Description: The Mushroom Kingdom welcomes another sport to its lineup in the Nintendo 64 smash Mario Tennis. In addition to the bright graphics and intuitive, but incredibly tight, controls that all Mario™ games are known for, a cast of 16 Nintendo characters (including the first introduction of Waluigi™) is ready to take to the court. Along with the ability to unnerve an opponent by varying shots and precisely target their destination, each character has specific attributes in categories such as speed, power and control, all of which combine to offer multiple play styles to choose from. A variety of game modes ranging from a standard tournament to the crazy, item-filled Bowser Stage will keep you – and up to three of your friends – running around the court for quite some time. Whether trying to unlock all the secrets in single-player mode or challenging friends with some intense fun in multiplayer mode, this is a game that definitely holds its serve.

Nintendo DSiWare

Maestro! Green Groove
Publisher: Neko Entertainment
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) – Animated Blood, Comic Mischief
Price: 500 Nintendo DSi Points
Description: Hello. Do you like music? Do you like platforms? Do you like pink bird-like things? Do you like the jungle? You'll love Maestro! Green Groove edition! So jump in and enjoy this wonderful feeling of being a virtuoso using your heart, stylus and voice. Everything you do is music – EVERYTHING! Hit the spiders to play some drums, shoot the fruit to bring out the melody, pinch the strings to play the tune and so on. Challenge the mischievous Staccato the Spider in a melodious battle in which the most talented one will win. For those of you who have no fear, once you have finished the adventure, you can activate the SING/WHISTLE mode to bug everyone around you with your precious talents. And for the talented ones, there is an improvisation mode in which you'll play the levels with the instruments and at the speed of your choice. Enjoy, Maestros from all around the world!

Date or Ditch
Publisher: Gameloft
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: T (Teen) – Mild Suggestive Themes
Price: 500 Nintendo DSi Points
Description: Think you're a real Casanova? Let's see how you act in real-life situations when you face a whole gamut of dates, from romantic to wild. Date or Ditch is an absorbing dating adventure for both guys and girls, testing you through an evolving scenario. Discover unique game play mixing social simulation, hilarious face-to-face conversations and fun quizzes. Randomly meet someone at a party, go to the movies together, invite your date to dinner and more. And a surprise visit from your ex may spice up your love story a bit. Enter even deeper into the game thanks to the exclusive camera feature: Add your photo within the game and change your face according to your feelings. In real life, make sure you are compatible with your date by taking the Love Test: Based on your names and appearance, are you made for each other? Love has always been a game. We just made it more fun.

Animal Color Cross
Publisher: Little Worlds Studio
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
Price: 500 Nintendo DSi Points
Description: Get hooked on colorful puzzles. The goal of the game is to reconstruct a mysterious animal image that lies beneath the grid. You just need to fill in each square of the grid with one of the appropriate colors available. To solve the puzzle, you can simply deduce the right color by using the numbers written around the grid. Don't worry, a short tutorial shows you the basic rules within a minute. Puzzle-solving champs, sudoku fans or even kids can enjoy the game. You can play 72 individual grids in up to 50 hours of game play. Players can select among eight levels presented as geographical zones including Europe, Oceania, North Pole, Pacific, North America and South America to discover local fauna. Enter a new world filled with fancy colored pixel art.

Ancient Tribe
Publisher: CIRCLE Entertainment
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) – Cartoon Violence
Price: 500 Nintendo DSi Points
Description: In the ancient world of Savage, you play the god of an ancient tribe in this real-time strategy game. Expand your village by guiding its inhabitants on the hunting grounds to find food and resources. Use them to upgrade your village and increase its population. When the primitive tribe develops to a certain level, they will build a temple to pay tribute to your mightiness. You can recruit new troops and research new classes of tribal people by upgrading the existing tribe's equipment and technology. Besides improving your tribe you can improve your godly powers by sacrificing some of your tribesmen and resources. On the hunting ground your tribe will explore forests, deserts, volcanoes and frozen lands. They will meet various kinds of beasts such as boars, elephants and even dinosaurs. You can help trap and tame them so your tribe can ride on them as part of your army and hunting troop.

Brain Drain™
Publisher: Enjoy Gaming
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
Price: 500 Nintendo DSi Points
Description: Brain Drain is a funny and challenging puzzle game. You have to place the elements of a scrambled puzzle according to a given model. Select four elements at a time with the stylus and spin them to move the elements to the right positions. Some puzzles may feature malicious game effects that will slow you down during your puzzle solving. There are three game modes to choose from:

  • Challenge: 200 fixed puzzles with preset best times to solve and beat.
  • Race: A stream of puzzles and best time tables to beat in four difficulty levels.
  • Random: Relaxed, random puzzling that continues endlessly.
Battle of Giants™: Mutant Insects – Revenge
Publisher: Ubisoft
Players: 1-4
ESRB Rating: E 10+ (Everyone 10 and Older) – Animated Blood, Mild Fantasy Violence
Price: 800 Nintendo DSi Points
Description: After the defeat of the Mutant King, the Mutant Queen rose up from the core of the Earth and forced the remaining giant insects into submission. Now it is your job to locate and free the Scorpion Champion, the only giant insect with the ability to defeat the Mutant Queen. Complete 10 new missions, defeat your enemies and liberate the Scorpion Champion! Customize your giant insect with tribal stripes, equip it with special powers and enhance your abilities. Challenge your friends to duels of supremacy on the Nintendo DS™ system. Are you strong enough to win this Battle of Giants™?

Nintendo adds new titles to the Nintendo DSi Shop and the Wii Shop Channel at 9 a.m. Pacific time on Mondays. Users with broadband Internet access can redeem Wii Points or Nintendo DSi Points to download the games. Wii Points can be purchased in the Wii Shop Channel. Nintendo DSi Points can be purchased in the Nintendo DSi Shop. A Nintendo Points Card™ can be purchased at retail locations. All points from one Nintendo Points Card must be redeemed in either the Nintendo DSi Shop or the Wii Shop Channel. They are not transferable and cannot be divided between the two systems.

Remember that both Wii and Nintendo DSi feature parental controls that let adults manage the content their children can access. For more information about this and other features, visit Wii.com or NintendoDSi.com.

(source: Nintendo)

Kooky cult advertises on Monster... the result is pure comedy gold!

So my wife was doing a little job search today. She came across this listing for a local company on Monster.com. Let's take a closer look at this gig, shall we?
"Our income-sharing community runs a rapidly growing out-patient psychiatric/​substance abuse practice, as well as national advocacy efforts against the prescription of opioids for any condition.​ We are in need of someone who can help network out computers, help reconfigure and manage our websites, and help make out security systems operational as well as do many other tasks."​ 
"Income-sharing community?" Um... please tell me that's supposed to be "profit-sharing."  


And continues...
"We are an income-sharing community eating together and living in adjacent buildings."​ 
Oh, alright. It wasn't a typo after all. 


And goes on...

"We are currently treating over 280 opioid dependent patients with Suboxone or tramadol maintenance with a gradual withdrawal goal in addition to many psychiatric patients of all types.​ We expect to continue our current rapid expansion to at least 660 active opioid dependent patients by next year along with several hundred psychiatric patients."​
Oh, this job sounds great! Communal living and drug addicts! Sign me up, cap'n! 


So what's the salary like?
"The position is full-time with you becoming a member of the community after a six to twelve month trial period.​ All expenses are paid for including food, lodging, transportation, vacation expenses, and most health care.​ We payoff your student loans if you have any and possibly other debts as well.​ We give you $3000 after six months if you decide not to stay.​ You get four weeks of paid vacation a year plus $2000 is put into a Roth IRA for you each year.​ We provide high quality private day care and academically strong schooling for your present and future children during grade school and high school years.​ We pay for college expenses your children when the time comes.​ You are provided $100 per month additional spending money and $300 per week when on vacation."​
Salary? Um... salary? Y'know... cold, hard, cash money? Oh wait, you're just letting me live in one of your communal condos and paying me an allowance. Gotcha. 


It's just like living at home. When I was twelve. 


Well, shoot, it's probably got some great perks to compensate, right?
"We are willing to pay for in vitro fertilization or artificial insemination if these are needed."​
Oh. Oh snap. I was thinking more like dental...
"We currently own two houses in Clarion and recently purchased 117 acres of land in Venango county for further development.​ Our part of Pennsylvania is a beautiful, forested region full of great hiking and bicycle trails, rivers for canoeing and kayaking, and plenty of friendly people."
Translation: You'll be stuck out in the middle of the deep woods -- where no one can hear you scream. 
"Our income-sharing community encourages the academically gifted to have larger families in order to help out the future of our world.​" 
Erm... say what? You're "breeding" smart people in the middle of the woods. With the help of artificial insemination, I presume....? 
"Alcohol consumption is restricted to adults over age 21 and no more than one drink per day for health reasons only, preferably not until middle age."
Can't let the young breeding stock go ruining their nubile young bodies with booze and cigarettes, can we?
"Non-violence is another important value, both politically and in our lifestyle.​"
Translation: We don't want any conflict when we tell you you're not allowed to leave.

"We are looking for individuals who are likely to become permanent members.​ New members are not required to contribute any current savings or possessions which they already have.​"
Oh, so new members don't have to turn over anything they own to you. How thoughtful to wait until everyone is nice and comfy (and preferably knocked up) before draining their bank accounts to fund your fruity little Super Adventure Club
"We are very concerned about global warming.​ Thus, we accept pets, but limit any off-spring or replacement pets.​ We plan to build using Passive House technology, where with proper design and ventilation, no heating or cooling systems are needed.​ Our vehicles are fuel efficient and not overused.​ We live frugally but comfortably, while helping others but locally and globally.​"
I bet the houses are dome shaped and fruity. Just sayin' ...

"Of course, we do not discriminate based on ethnic background or nationality.​"
Of course not! Sounds like they need all the... er... willing bodies they can get!


Good grief. If you're actually interested in hooking up with these kooks, here's that link again.


Sunday, June 27, 2010

New webcomic? Look for it on 09.09.10...

As I mentioned before, we've been frantically working on a new webcomic over the past few months. For the first few months we're planning updates on Monday and Thursday, with Thursday, September 9, 2010 being the official launch date.

In the meantime, here's a sneak peak...

Swagbucks = Free LEGO Harry Potter for Wii!

It's no secret to anyone who knows us -- we're cheap. So to pass along the bargains we've unearthed, I thought I'd pass along this little deal.

My wife signed up for some points program called Swagbucks. With it, she does searches with their search engine and racks up points in the process. On a good day, you can have a pretty good haul. In fact, just using Swagbucks instead of Google this month has landed her enough points to buy my son LEGO Harry Potter on Amazon.

It's totally legit, or I wouldn't be passing it along. It reminds me of the now-defunct iPodsweepstakes.com, which we successfully used to nab three free iPods (a Touch, a Nano and a Shuffle.) Check it out!

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Unseen He-Man mini-comic?


It looks like an unpublished Masters of the Universe mini-comic has been unearthed. Over on the He-Man.org forums, James Eatok (aka Busta Toons) posts this:
For those that don't know, MANY years ago I was fortunate enough to stumble upon ALL the artwork for an unpublished Masters of the Universe minicomic titled "Return from Terror Island!"
This is just to announce on a more official level that the entire minicomic will see print in a future issue of cereal:geek magazine - Until then, here are a couple of panels from a battle between He-Man and Rattlor!
Fascinating! He intends to post the whole comic in its entirety in an upcoming issue of cereal:geek magazine.