Nelvana and Teletoon are joining together to release some Canadian animated shows on DVD, starting April 4th.
Among the first round is the usual crap that NO ONE wants to see, much less own (ie “Tales from the Cryptkeeper”), but behold, what’s that? Why, it’s CLONE HIGH, canned after only 13 episodes and loved in cult-fashion by many as the funniest cartoon show since Family Guy.

I guess I can toss the bootleg DVD I got on eBay last year….
Life is good.

The Mars Volta have launched a new website to promote their upcoming album Frances The Mute, which hits stores on March 1st. They have also created a video for their first single, “The Widow”, which if I’m not mistaken was directed by aspiring filmmaker/guitarist Omar Rodriguez himself. As you might expect, the video is pretty weird and at times downright creepy. It almost has a Twin Peaks feel to it. Check out the Windows Media stream at the link below or head to www.themarsvolta.com for more info.

That’s right dudes, more of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon is headed to DVD on April 26th. Volume 2 actually contains the entire second season of the animated series, which consisted of 13 episodes. However, they have titled this release “Volume 2″ as future releases will probably break up the seasons into smaller volumes since there were a whopping 47 episodes in season 3. No special features are expected, however the retail price for this DVD is only $14.98 U.S.

After the runaway success of Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, it seems that the game market will now see a surge of gangsta related titles as opposed to mafia rip-offs. Director John Singleton (Boyz N The Hood) is developing a game with Midway called “Fear And Respect” that will also star Snoop Dogg. Much like GTA San Andreas you will play the role of an O.G. pulled back into a life of crime. Paramount Pictures has already reportedly optioned the rights to a movie adaptation of the game. Expect more details about the game soon, as it is expected for a holiday 2005 release.

X-Men Legends (X-Box)
Developed by: Raven Software
Published by: Activision

For all the mainstream success video games have had in the past few years, they are still very much the domain of nerds, geeks and dweebs. A large majority of games continue to rehash tired fantasy and sci-fi themes, and guess what… a lot of them sell! But I have to wonder why there hasn’t been more attention paid to the comic book genre, because we all know that comic fanboys love their videogames too. Perhaps the problem is that a horrible streak of bad comic book games have turned people off and forced developers to pursue other avenues of income. This is unfortunate, because when it is done right, a comic book video game can be an exhilarating experience. Just look at Treyarch’s Spider-Man 2… of course, that particular game never would have existed without a blockbuster movie tie-in.

This is why I find X-Men Legends to be such an exciting proposition. Not only is it not directly linked to the movie franchise, but it is also well-designed and captures the spirit of the X-Men comics quite well. It is quite possibly the best X-Men game ever to be created, and while that may not sell you on it, you certainly shouldn’t write off this game because of past disappointments.

Developed by Raven Software (who are known more for first person shooters like Soldier of Fortune I and II, Jedi Knight: Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy), X-Men Legends is an action RPG that utilizes an isometric overhead view similar to the Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance games. You may wonder how an RPG can work with superheroes instead of fantastical wizards and warriors, but I have to say that it works surprisingly well. Actually I’m wondering why more roleplaying elements haven’t been added to other genres too.

As you progress through the game, you gain access to more of the X-Men (15 playable characters in total… not too shabby), each of which have their own arsenal of powers and specialties. Characters actually level up along the way too, and at each new level you have points to spend on new abilities so you can customize the character to your preferred style of play. Do you want to speed up Wolverine’s health regeneration or give him the ability to go into a raged state for a brief period of time? Do you want Iceman’s freeze blast to be more powerful, or would you rather take a defensive approach by investing points in his Ice Armor? It’s all up to you baby. Of course, if you find this kind of technical RPG stuff tiresome, you can also just hit a button to do all the customization automatically behind the scenes.

There’s even some fun loot to be collected… not swords and shields and potions, but rather high-tech backpacks, belts and armor that enhance your mutant powers. Of course, a lot of these items are dropped by enemies, but it’s kind of odd that some are also found by smashing objects within the levels — you wouldn’t really picture the X-Men going in to save the day and completely trashing the place as they go. However, destroying the environments is a lot of fun… a lot of the levels are very interactive, and nothing quite gives you the feeling of super power like throwing a guy with enough force to smash through a wall.

To flesh out the story and dialogue for this game, Raven Software recruited the comic writing group Men Of Action, many of whom are former X-Men writers and it shows. Not that the story is especially deep but the characters are done right and there are a lot of fun little details that fanboys will love. The main storyline centres around Alison Crestmere, aka Magma, a lesser known X-Men character who was part of the New Mutants. In between missions you control Magma and wander around the X-Men mansion, getting to know the facilities and the other X-Men. However, there are also side stories such as playable flashbacks to other comic book storylines.

During missions you will almost always have your choice of a variety of X-Men. Following up on one of the most fun aspects of Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance, X-Men Legends opens the game up to be played co-operatively with up to 3 friends. However, you can assign any of these players to be computer-controlled as well, or you can simply cut down the size of your team. In some cases this is preferable, as 4 characters sharing the same pool of health and energy packs (a maximum of 10 of each can be carried at a time) makes it difficult to keep everyone healed. It also gets a little chaotic with 4 players in the fray, and since the characters are all wearing their Ultimate X-Men outfits, it can be hard to tell them apart in a group. This leads to a lot of unnecessary resentment when your buddy throws an explosive barrel at you by accident. However, the flexibility to change your team on the fly is a great thing, as you can be playing through the game as a single player, but then have some friends jump in to the game part way through if they drop by for a visit.

Once you come down from the initial fanboy buzz, you will notice that there are some definite problems with X-Men Legends. One of the biggest complaints people seem to have is related to the multiplayer implementation. You see, not every level in the game is playable with 4 players. When you are back at the mansion your buddies will have to sit and watch you walk around and scan through endless screens of dialogue just so you can get to the next mission. It’s also annoying that you need to spend tech credits to revive a character that gets killed. It doesn’t take long before your list of available X-Men is whittled down to only the ones you are currently using. Also, since character revival and swapping can only occur at Xtraction Points, a player who dies in action can sometimes be waiting for at least 10 or 15 minutes before they can get back in the action again. One smart thing they did do is allow dead characters to continue to gain levels even if they are not being used. Otherwise, the majority of your X-Men roster would quickly become useless.

The overhead perspective also brings with it some frustrations. It’s nearly impossible to judge jumping distances and hard to tell where you can and can’t go. There are also a lot of invisible walls in the outdoor environments that tend to get on your nerves.

Voice acting in the game is okay, but there are many cutscenes with pieces of dialogue that feature only text and no voiceover. It’s very inconsistent and feels pretty sloppy. There are also some places where you get to choose what you want to say during conversations but there is no real point as it doesn’t affect the outcome. It just seems there to give the player the illusion of interactivity, and in the end you still get bored of reading too much text.

Still, X-Men Legends is a lot of fun and once you get past some of its annoyances you can really get a lot out of it. There are so many different ways to play it, and they packed a lot of extras into the game like the Danger Room, which allows you to train against computer generated opponents or spar against friends. It’s mostly an action game, but the combat never gets boring with all the different characters and attacks at your disposal, not to mention the multiplayer combos. The RPG element adds some nice customization options without getting too carried away. But most of all, it uses the X-Men franchise in the best ways possible, and if you’re a fan of the X-Men you won’t want to miss it. — Sean

Those of you who remember the band The Causey Way, who posed as a cult and upset quite a few people during their short-lived musical career, may be interested to know about the new project from Scott (aka Causey) and Tracy Cox-Stanton. Combining both of their first names to come up with a clever reference to the Thunderbirds, this new band’s schtick is that they dress up like airline pilots and stewardesses but the music is very similar in style to The Causey Way. Their first album “Flight 0713″ received minimal distribution as it was released on their own indie label What Else? Records. Their new record “Any City” is out on Alternative Tentacles (The Causey Way’s old label, run by Jello Biafra… duhhh) on Feb. 1st, 2005. Check out an MP3 of the song “Human Earthquake” at the link below.

Another DVD double dip anyone? On May 3rd, MGM will release a new special edition of Mel Brooks’ Spaceballs. Of course, the movie is a classic but I don’t know how many people are that interested in having the “ultimate” Spaceballs DVD. Special features will include an audio commentary track by Mel Brooks (I assume the same one on the original DVD release), as well as Spaceballs: The Documentary, a featurette called “John Candy: Comic Spirit”, “In Conversation: Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan”, outtakes, photos, costume and art galleries, and a storyboard to film comparison. Sounds like a dream come true for the 2 or 3 hardcore Spaceballs fans out there. I’m not sure but I have a feeling this new DVD has something to do with the fact that Mel Brooks is currently writing a sequel to Spaceballs. Whether or not you can actually rekindle interest in a movie like this however, remains to be seen.

A massive lawsuit is being compiled against MGM DVD for “widescreen fraud”. Apparetly, many if not most MGM DVDs are not actually widescreen, but a pan&scan version of the film with the top and bottom cut off. I have not noticed this while watching MGM DVDs but I will have to dust off my Bill and Teds Bogus Journey DVD and compare it to the VHS. You can view the full list of titles at the site, some including: 24 Hour Party People, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Silence of the Lambs, Man on the Moon, and Ghost World

The Postal Service’s 2003 album “Give Up” has gone on to become one of Sub Pop’s best selling albums of all time. I believe it’s 2nd to Nirvana’s Bleach but I could be wrong on that. At any rate, can you believe they are still releasing singles for it? The latest, “We Will Become Silhouettes”, features a new b-side entitled “Be Still My Heart”. Of more interest however, is the music video for the song which was directed by Jared Hess of Napoleon Dynamite fame. It seems like it could have been shot in the same house as Napoleon Dynamite, and it uses the same drab colours and kitschy retro feel. Check out the video in Quicktime format at the link below.

Larry Clark, the often criticized director of Kids and Bully, has a new movie in the works entitled “Wassup Rockers”. Once again, it would seem to be a study in youth culture, following Latino skateboarders from South Central L.A. who got into skateboarding and punk rock instead of the typical gang-related stuff. The film will be largely improvised, following the main characters as they go on a trip to Beverly Hills to skateboard and find themselves stranded and unable to get back home. Word on the street is that this may be Clark’s most accessible work to date. I wonder if having his movies banned in every theatre was starting to hurt his income a little bit. What ever happened to Ken Park? Did that ever come out on DVD?