Kategoriarkiv: International

The Alternate Cast of Soul Calibur V: Silver and Rihma

One of the great things about Soul Calibur is how it allows, no, welcomes additional characters in its universe. Based on history with a good helping of fantasy, there’s plenty of room for the imagination. Here are my entries to the stage of history…

Qillakiak ”Silver” Madell
Age: 29/46
Birthplace: Thule, Greenland
Height: 158 cm
Weight: 56 kg
Weapon: Seong Mi-Na/Xiba

Backstory (Soul Calibur III and IV):
Silver was a skilled seal hunter, often making long journeys in her kayak in the waters of Baffin Bay, south of her home town Thule. One day she came across a ship larger than she had ever seen. She approached and climbed aboard. The ship was a northern expeditionary ship from Cervantes de Leon’s fleet which had gotten lost. It’s supplies were low and the men diseased and of low morale. Silver shared her food and soon taught the crew how to find nourishment in the cold waters. ... Läs hela texten

The Alternate Cast of Soul Calibur V: Shaana

Lämna ett svar

One of the great things about Soul Calibur is how it allows, no, welcomes additional characters in its universe. Based on history with a good helping of fantasy, there’s plenty of room for the imagination. Here are my entries to the stage of history…

Shaana Meneghan
Age: 25/42
Birthplace: Scotland
Height: 171 cm
Weight: 64 kg
Weapon: Siegfried

Backstory (Soul Calibur III and IV):
Shaana was the daughter and only child of a wealthy trader with a highlander heritage, although now living on the southeast coast. Her mother had died in child-birth, and her father had decided to raise Shaana as his heir, despite local opinion that he should simply marry her off. He trained her from the age of ten in using the traditional claymore and took her with him on his journeys to the continent. On one of these journeys, when Shaana was fourteen, they were travelling by cart through the German forests when suddenly an arrow came flying from the bushes and embedded itself in the canvas just above her father’s head. Before they could react, more arrows rained over them, striking her father and the horse pulling the cart. The horse panicked and took off. The road was in very bad condition and a few hundred meters down the road Shaana was thrown off the cart. Half dazed in the long grass, she watched her father disappear before she lost consciousness. ... Läs hela texten

Universal Game Crossover Chart 1.14: Ubisoft Edition

Lämna ett svar

So, another couple of months and loads of new series to add to the crossover chart. Most notably, Ubisoft has been including Rabbids and variations on Assassin’s Creed outfits in pretty much everything they do, but now they’ve included Ezio in Soul Calibur and Mario in Just Dance, so I finally had a good reason to add them. I also found that their football game included a bunch of Ubisoft characters, making it a good addition.

I’ve generally spaced out the chart to make some connections more readable, and rearranged the Sony neighborhood. While adding Ubisoft I also made room to expand Nintendo’s space, making it somewhat easier to follow. I added Ilomilo, Monster Rancher, Beach Spikers and Guardian Heroes. I’m looking to add Phantasy Star if I can get a clear list of what guest characters it has. ... Läs hela texten

A little more international

Lämna ett svar

For some time now, I’ve been writing in English whenever there’s a subject I feel would find an audience internationally. More specifically, things like the Universal Game Crossover Chart, my Smokescreen build project, the Soul Edge artwork and most recently the Auto Assembly reports. Since many of these have gotten loads of views from international readers and I don’t write in English all the time, I wanted to make it a little easier for those readers to find more stuff. So I’ve added a little flag to the top menu, to collect all my English language texts. ... Läs hela texten

Making Ultimate Optimus Prime a little bit more ultimate

Lämna ett svar

I won an Ultimate Optimus Prime at Auto Assembly Europe which was interesting since I never, ever intended to buy it. Not only did it look fairly ridiculous in previews, in Swedish stores it costs roughly a kidney and a half, and since he’s so huge, importing is just as expensive.

Speaking of huge, though. It’s quite fun to read the claims on the box, saying he’s 55 centimeters tall. It’s extra exciting since the biggest Transformer toy of all time, Fortress Maximus, is also 55 centimeters. But it’s pretty much a lie. Optimus Prime himself is fairly small, somewhere around the Ultra size category. He then transforms his trailer into a huge battle suit which extends his legs and arms and gives him a new diaper. Pretty cool, but still only about 30 centimeters at the crest of his head, and his head is tiny by the way. Then you deploy… the fairy mode. ... Läs hela texten

Simon Furman interview at Auto Assembly Europe 2011

3 svar

During Auto Assembly Europe 2011 in Uppsala, Sweden, I sat down with Simon Furman to talk about his role in Transformers mythos. The following is the result of that interview as well as a presentation Simon made that weekend. While he obviously couldn’t say much concrete about issue 81 and onwards, he gave lots of intriguing examples of things that might be revisited.

For those who don’t know who you are, tell us a little about yourself and how you’re related to the Transformers brand
My name is Simon Furman and I’m a writer for comic books, TV animation, and just recently movies. My relationship with Transformers goes all the way back to ’85, when I was hired to write an adventure for the UK version of the comic. And since then I’ve been involved with pretty much all the publishers; Marvel in the US and the UK, Dreamwave, IDW, Panini and probably a few others I’ve forgotten about. I’ve written an episode of the Beast Wars TV show, Transformers: The Ultimate Guide, so basically lots of stuff for the past 25-26 years. ... Läs hela texten

Auto Assembly Europe 2011 – day two

Lämna ett svar

After a huge hotel breakfast (one of the reasons to stay in a hotel to begin with), Auto Assembly Europe 2011 went on. The day started with another quiz, this time with random, stupidly hard Transformers facts. I consider myself fairly knowledgeable but I could answer maybe 1/10 of them.

After that, there was another charity auction, this time with more interesting stuff. There were some figures but mostly a bunch of signed cards of voice actors and Rosie whatshername from the last movie, in an appropriate lack of dress. Some went rather low but a few invited bidding wars, mostly from the auctioneer himself who paid a rather stunning 1500 SEK for a Frank Welker autograph (the voice of Megatron and Soundwave). Since I’m happily unaware of most of the actors, I could resist paying here. ... Läs hela texten

Auto Assembly Europe 2011 – day one

Lämna ett svar

Today was the big day. My second Transformers con (third if you count the mini-con held in Predaking’s apartment, I kinda don’t). After four and a half hours by train I arrived at the hotel in Uppsala, ready for Auto Assembly Europe 2011.

Arriving right on schedule, I was happy to see the con hadn’t started, so there was some time to piece my Supreme Smokescreen together in the lobby.

Having entered as one of the last participants, I entered a room filled with Transformers fans browsing the seller tables. There was a lot to choose from: a huge bunch of everything (the fan sales table, where I also had some stuff to sell), a collection of pretty much all the Transformers video games, another largish selection of random stuff, and a table specifically for Japanese classics (Henkei, United and some E-hobby). People were already scouring the tables and a Fortress Maximus I spotted briefly was sold almost right away. ... Läs hela texten

Rare Soul Edge art: Edge Master and extras

Lämna ett svar

Finally! With all the main cast done, I could have a look at some of the other art hidden in the official guide book and fan book of Soul Edge/Soul Blade. And there’s a rather big surprise for those of us who didn’t scour the Japanese sources way back in 1997. You know Edge Master, the bearded guy in Soul Calibur who could use all weapons? Who was introduced out of the blue as Kilik’s master? Well, he wasn’t completely out of the blue. He was created at least as far back as this book. The official guide book is kind of a story about him and what he knows about all the characters. That he later became playable was basically fan service to really dedicated fans. And there’s plenty of art of him too. ... Läs hela texten

Universal Game Crossover Chart, now with 15% more crossovers

Lämna ett svar

Well, of course the last edition of the Universal Game Crossover Chart wasn’t complete. I’ve spent the last few months improving it further. Notable additions include the Wai Wai series at Konami (connecting a whole bunch of new titles), a whole lot of Data East titles that actually crossed over with SNK at one point, the addition of the Queen’s Gate series which pulls together girls from all kinds of games including Arc Systems’ fighters, more Sega stuff and generally new updates here and there. ... Läs hela texten