The Negative Edge News Report 03.05.08

Posted by Tommy Coloma on 03.05.2008

A better way to enjoy Red Alert 3, the best thing in the world for European gamers, and getting your name into the next Bionic Commando game. Plus, the song of the day, this week's releases, a look back at the Claymore anime, and More!



After being rear-ended, one of the things that I've noticed is that whenever I get mad I can feel the blood rush into my head. It's pretty weird. I played a lot of Alpha 3 online this weekend and I felt that weird sensation a lot. I need to learn some relaxation techniques. Is there a DS "game" that teaches that?

Let's get to the news -


The Music Box

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Since Brown was able to figure out what last week's song was, I figure that I might as well name it for those of you who were wondering. So, the game in question is called Little Big Adventure in America and Relentless: Twinsen's Adventure in Europe. LBA and its sequel are both abandonware, so you can download them and their soundtracks without fear of persecution at lbahq.com. If you do download the games, try using Internet Explorer first. Things seemed to hang when I tried it with Firefox.

Now that we have that out of the way...

This week's song comes from one of the best real-time strategy games in existence. It's a sequel that took everything that gamers loved about the original, and turned them up a notch. Unfortunately, the developer that was in charge of the series was bought out by a company that, at the time, was known for destroying everything in its path. When the studio was bought up, everyone in the know knew what was going to happen next. I know that when I heard about the acquisition, I was seeing red. It was like seeing an a-bomb slowly approaching its target and knowing that everything in its path would be decimated. Though the sequel to this week's game is in development without the help of the original developers, I'll give it a chance. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised.


The News As I See It

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Play the Red Alert 3 beta for $50, get Command & Conquer 3 for free
According to ars technica, this month's release of Command & Conquer 3: Limited Collection will not only include Command & Conquer 3 and its expansion pack, Kane's Wrath, but it will also give gamers access to the Red Alert 3 beta.

Now, I'm willing to bet that many of you have never played Red Alert or Red Alert 2. I say this because it was on the PC, more people were into Warcraft and StarCraft when the RA games were at their peak, and I've never really seen that many people online (maybe a few hundred at a time max). I could be wrong, but that's how I see things. If that's the case, I'd say that it would be better to instead get Red Alert and Red Alert 2 (or, at the very least, just Red Alert 2) and play through their campaigns, especially the Soviet missions. Not only will you have fun completing them, but I guarantee that by the end of the game you'll be quoting stuff left and right. They did that good of a job making it memorable. Plus, the music is all kinds of awesome. Playing through the games will also give you a better appreciation for the series when RA3 comes out. It'd be nice to see what all the fuss is about, right? The last time I checked, Red Alert 2 was $9.99 in the shitty games section at Walmart and Office Depot, which is pretty good unless you want to spring for one of the newer C&C compilations.

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It's just in time... for Europeans
It looks like Codejunkies has finally released its Wii FreeLoader. With this magical disc, gamers can finally play games from other regions without resorting to either buying an import system or getting a mod chip. It's unknown how the FreeLoader can withstand the awesome might of Nintendo's system updates, but until one comes out, it looks like importers are safe.

There's one phrase that comes to mind when I think about the Wii FreeLoader, and that's "missed opportunity". Can you imagine how many units would have been sold if it were released just a month ago? I know that I would have bought it without hesitation, along with an import copy of some fighting game made by Nintendo. Instead, I had to resort to using some shady methods in order to play said fighting game. The good thing is that at least now Europeans will no longer have to wait months or years for their Wii games. Doesn't the happiness of others make you smile?

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The NCSX Quote of the Week
I just love browsing the NCSX product pages. I've never seen a company that openly bashes the games that it's trying to sell. For some odd reason, it makes me somewhat interested in the product. This week's gem (I'm still not sure if I'm going to make this a weekly thing) comes from the description for Simple Wii Series Vol. 6: The Wai Wai Combat.

"Newsflash: the Wai Wai Combat won't sell any Japanese Wii consoles. It will however cement D3 Publisher's mediocre record in the run and gun category."

Harsh, NCSX, very harsh.

"If you've ever watched the Power Rangers television show, there are times when a huge explosion sends a Ranger flying while his arms and legs are flailing. The bazooka causes an effect that's like that."

I can see it in my head right now. That... is... awesome!

The game is published by D3 Publisher, a company known for releasing budget titles such as this. Thankfully, it's priced accordingly. If I ever get a FreeLoader, I'll start picking these games up for review. Some people put a lot of time and effort into making these games. Someone should play them...

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No Doubt about it - these songs are good!
Last week Guitar Hero III players got the opportunity to download No Doubt songs. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like a lot of people liked the song choices. Well, I still have the copy of Tragic Kingdom that I bought over ten years ago and it still gets a lot of playtime at my house, so I know which songs from that album are good. And let me tell you - the three songs that were made available - Don't Speak, Excuse Me Mr., and Sunday Morning - are some of the better songs on the album. When the games section still did the Top 5, I actually mentioned Excuse Me Mr. and Sunday Morning as some of my honorable mentions. Sunday Morning was my top choice among No Doubt's songs. I also mentioned Spiderwebs and Just a Girl as many others have. I think that those two would have been better than Don't Speak. Two out of three isn't bad, but on the whole, the song pack is good. Ok, rant over. Just remember - if you have some points to burn and you can't decide on which pack to get, the No Doubt song pack is worth it for Sunday Morning alone. Believe it!

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Design a Bionic Commando room and make me your biggest fan
Capcom is now holding a level creation contest for the upcoming Bionic Commando Rearmed -

"The BCR team will choose a winning entry and bring it to life, using your idea as the inspiration for a finished level. You get your name in the credits, the level goes in the game, and you become internet famous (it's like regular famous, only with less groupies)."

I'll spend a few hours putting something together this weekend. You want to give it a try too, right? It doesn't take much. You can even use crayons. Find out more about the contest here.


The Release List

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There are two big releases this week. Of course I'm talking about Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii) and God of War: Chains of Olympus (PSP). I think that I'll skip out on God of War for now. I already have enough PSP games and I'd rather play this if/when it gets ported to the PS2. The one title that I will definitely pick up is, of course, Smash Bros. If you run into difficulty locating a copy this Sunday, try Sears or Kmart. Nobody ever goes to those places to get games. Other notables for this week include Mazes of Fate (DS) and Dungeon Explorer (DS and PSP). Guess what kinds of games those are.


Eco Creatures: Save The Forest (DS)
I was going to completely blow this off as just another crappy shovelware title (just look at the name), but I managed to find a video that changed my mind (look down below). Here's a quick description -

"Employ woodland creatures to strategically protect the woods and recover the polluted land."

It's being described as an enviro-RTS, which is awesome. You can build with woodland creatures or use them to attack other woodland creatures. I've been waiting for a decent RTS on the DS. Wouldn't it be weird if this ended up being one of the best ones around?


woodland creatures attacking other woodland creatures

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Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer (DS)
Oh no! A DS roguelike! Another time sink for me! In simple terms, a roguelike is a dungeon-crawler that will kick your ass while reminding you that, yes, video games are a lot easier than they used to be. That reminds me - I need to finish that review for Izuna some day.

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THE iDOLM@STER: Live for You! (Xbox 360 import)
Hey! It's one of the biggest sellers in Japan... and that's all that I will ever say about this title...


The Anime Circle

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There are a lot of Anime series out there that don't get as much attention as they deserve. Everyone knows about Bleach, Melancholy, and Naruto, but how about older series like Tenshi na Konamaiki or newer ones like Nodame Cantabile. Since I'm watching that stuff anyway, I thought that I might as well write about them. It gives me a chance to reflect, and it gives you a chance to find out about some of the shows that you wouldn't normally watch. I'm not going to be doing full-on reviews; I just want to pass on enough info to spur interest. I'm always open to suggestions, so if there is a series that you think that I should take a look at, feel free to email me about it. While the purpose of this section is to inform the masses about some of the lesser known series out there, I will on occasion talk about some of the more popular ones at the moment. It's nice to vary things up every once in a while...

The last time that I did a full Anime Circle was back in October when I talked about School Days and the whole Nice Boat fiasco. Back then I had a queue of shows that I wanted to cover. I also wanted to take another look at Claymore since the series had just been completed the month before. That was all derailed when I got rear-ended. Well, just the other day, I found out that Funimation had secured the license for Claymore in February, so I figured that now is as good a time as any to get back into things. If I'm going to talk about Claymore again, I might as well do it before everyone else does it, right?

Note: A good chunk of this is taken from what I had written before. However, when I originally wrote about Claymore, only the first eighteen episodes had been released, so expect some changes that reflect the fact that I've seen it all. A few more chapters of the manga have also been released and those have been taken into account as well.


Claymore takes place in a somewhat medieval setting. In this world, humans are constantly attacked by shape-shifting creatures called Yoma. Not only are these creatures extremely strong, but they can take the form of humans, thus being able to live amongst their victims without fear of discovery. In order to counter this threat, a secret organization has been formed. By implanting Yoma flesh into humans, this organization has been able to create hybrids which can not only stand up to Yoma, but can also detect them even when they are in human form. These hybrids are known as Claymores, after the huge swords that they often wield. Unfortunately, it is the fate of all Claymores to lose their humanity as their Yoma powers increase. The more they use their abilities, the closer they will be to becoming full Yomas. The knowledge that some day they will become the very things they are hunting causes most Claymores to live solitary lives.

The anime and manga focus on one particular Claymore named Clare. On one of her missions she befriends a boy who reminds her of herself before she became a Claymore. We follow her as she struggles to hold on to her humanity while protecting both herself and her new companion.


Why you should care:

I've been watching anime for close to ten years now. Not too many things surprise me these days since I've pretty much seen it all. When I first started watching this series I thought that it was good, but it didn't really blow me away. The concepts were cool, but I felt like I'd already seen this stuff before. Then I got to episode five. At that point the series went into flashback mode. It took me a little while to figure out what was going on because I thought that I was watching a different branch in the story with a new set of characters. However, at one point one of the characters is revealed to be someone that we already know from the previous episodes. At that point my interest was immediately piqued. The reason? Thanks to that revelation, I could already predict what was going to happen to a new character that was just introduced. Unfortunately, that particular character was built up in such a way that I did not want my prediction to come true. I was already dreading what was eventually going to happen. Those who've seen this series already know which scene I'm alluding to (it happens in episode 8 in the anime and volume 5, chapter 23 in the manga). It's already ingrained in my head because of how... overwhelmed I was. This is pretty much the first time I've ever watched something that caused be to yell "FUCK!" in the middle of it. Not only was this scene surprising despite the fact that I knew it was coming, but it gave one of the characters a legitimate reason to fight, which in turn catapulted this series to the top of my "going to buy the DVDs when they come out" status. They did a very good job in making people care. Just get the DVDs when they come out or buy the manga. It's worth it!


Status of the series:

Official Site (US)
Official Site (Japan)

- the manga


The manga is licensed by Viz in the US. As of now, ten volumes have been released with the 11th one coming out this month. In Japan they are up to volume 14, chapter 78. You're on your own if you want to jump ahead. If you're low on cash you can hop on over to the manga section at Borders and just read before you buy read it for free. But that's a little bastardous. You wouldn't do that, right?

- the anime


As I mentioned earlier, the anime was just licensed by Funimation. I'm putting the finishing touches on reviews for two animes that were brought to the US by Funimation - Speed Grapher and Witchblade - so I've already seen their work. While watching the DVDs I was never tempted to switch to the Japanese tracks, and I'm someone who only a few years ago would have shunned anyone who even thought about watching anime in English. So they can do a good job. Also, one of the extras in the Speed Grapher DVD talks about the process that is used to choose voice talent. If they follow the same formula that they used with Speed Grapher, I'd expect a decent job as far as voices go. I'm defintely looking forward to the DVD release so expect a review from me when it comes out.

- the differences

There have been many times where I'd watch an anime first and then move on to the manga once the show is done. It is at that time when I usually find that the show actually diverged from the manga in one way or another. I remember loving Kenshin's Tokyo and Kyoto arcs, hating the bullshit filler episodes that followed, and then finding out why I was subjected to that crap in the first place. Essentially, the studios that put the anime together started to produce the series before the manga was finished. Since the story hadn't been completely written out yet, they have to make stuff up as they went along. The same thing happend with Gantz. Ever wonder why the series turned to complete shit towards the end? One show that I know of that this hasn't happened to is Hunter x Hunter. Instead of making fillers, the studio decided to make OVAs when enough of the story was fleshed out in the manga. Why the hell can't they do this more often? I'm sure that they'll make more people happy (important!) while also making more money in the long run. Anyway, in case you haven't guessed already, Claymore is also a show in which the original story was changed. The story shift happens in episode 22. If you really like the show up until that point, I'd suggest that you just keep in mind that much of what happens during and after that episode isn't part of the original story. If you want to see things as they should be, just pick up volume 11 of the manga and continue from there (volume 11, chapter 59 to be exact). Isn't it convenient how volume 11 is getting released this month?

Now, I'm not saying that the end of the series is horrible. It is actually decent and provides a somewhat satisfactory conclusion for those that have no intention of ever reading the manga. Some of the powering up is a little Dragon Ball Zish, but it isn't too bad. My main problem is that the anime was headed toward a spot that could have easily been used as an ending while still allowing them to make OVAs down the line ala Hunter X Hunter. Because of the changes that were made, we'll never get to see all the cool things that happen after the seven year gap in animated form. No look into the shady organization, no epic fights with the Dwellers of the Deep, no further dealings with Riful of the West, no Galatea, and no closure between Clare and Priscilla. It's pretty frustrating considering how good the show was until episode 22.


The 411:


So, is this series worth watching?
Despite my feelings about the way it ends, Claymore is still one of my favorite shows from the past few seasons. It was already shaping up to be solid, but it was catapulted into greatness thanks to The Scene. While some parts are highly predictable, there are still a lot of surprises that balance things out. Most of the characters are likable and you actually care about what happens to them. Again, the last few episodes of the anime are disappointing if you are following the manga, but for those of you that have no interest in reading it, the show finishes things off in a satisfactory way.


The Cover of the Day

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Has a game's cover ever caused you to stop and ask, WTF? That's happened to me on more than one occasion. Here is a cover that's done that to me a few times -


Don't deny it. You know what you were thinking when you first saw that. It took me a little while, but I finally took a closer look at the cover a few days ago and found that it actually stands for "Work Time Fun". After a quick look on the 'nets, I found that the game is a collection of fun looking WarioWare-esqe minigames. I was pretty much glossing over PSP games back when this was released, which is probably why I never paid attention until now. The reviews for the game look decent. Anyone have any first-hand experience with it? Or must I pick it up and give it a rundown when it hits the bargain bins?


To Be Continued...

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That's all I have for this week. Seeing as how Fate/unlimited codes is going to be released soon and another Melty Blood is on its way, maybe I'll devote The Anime Circle to Type-Moon shows next time. But right now...

I just met a girl who says that she's all about justice. I honestly think that she's all about destruction. If I can tell her that without getting my money beaten out of me, I'll be back next week.