Let's Hear It For Versatility

Two days ago, we received word from Square Enix of the overseas release dates of the upcoming PSP game Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, September 7, 2010 for North America and September 10, 2010 for Europe. To make things even more interesting, we have also been provided with five new all-star voices, including Mark Hamill, Willa Holland, Jesse McCartney, Leonard Nimoy, and James Woods. Judging on the English trailer, we are given the impression that Leonard Nimoy, famously known as Spock from Star Trek, has graciously provided the voice of antagonist Master Xehanort. We have also assumed that Jesse McCartney has provided the voice of Ventus, as he did for Roxas in Kingdom Hearts II and Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, but we'll have to wait and see. But what certainly surprised me and my brother is that Mark Hamill, famously known for his role of Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker from the original Star Wars more than 30 years ago, has provided a voice for the Kingdom Hearts saga. And having already voiced the main antagonist from Avatar: The Last Airbender, Fire Lord Ozai, we should certainly praise the man for being what we call versatile. And according to speculation, we should expect the following lineup for who does what voice:

Mark Hamill - Master Eraqus
Willa Holland - Aqua
Jesse McCartney - Ventus
Leonard Nimoy - Master Xehanort
James Woods - Hades (need we say more?)

Cherish the Thought

Here's a slide show of my favorite original character of mine, Bow the Cat! DISCLAIMER: The song used is "One Heart" from the album of the same name by Celine Dion and as such, I do NOT own it. Therefore, credit goes to Celine Dion. The song is not mine, but everything else is. Enjoy!


And here's another slide show which has mostly the same images, but a different song is used. DISCLAIMER: The song is "Ma Belle Evangeline" from Disney's The Princess and the Frog and as such, I do NOT own it. Therefore, copyright goes to Disney and credit goes to Jim Cummings, the voice of Ray the firefly who sings the song, and to the movie's staff. The song is not mine, but everything else is. Enjoy!

Black and White This!

Evidently, screen shots from Japanese sources have recently revealed the new starter Pokémon from the upcoming fifth generation games, Black and White. According to their classifications, the Grass-type is listed as a Grass Snake Pokémon, the Fire-type is a Fire Pig Pokémon, and the Water-type is a Sea Otter Pokémon. And as expected, their abilities are Overgrow, Blaze, and Torrent respectively, of course, of course. But then again, not everything has been considered official yet, but we'll soon enough when that time comes. Till then, happy catching!

Brutal Mario RPG

Those of you fans who derive interest in Super Mario World hacks, here's some news. If you remember, I stated in an earlier post that Japanese hackers are capable of surpassing our skills, particularly with hacks such as the Vip Wall Mix series and Brutal Mario. In this case, I am discussing Brutal Mario, a Japanese Super Mario World hack created independently by the Japanese user Carol, who is apparently a genius with ASM. Earlier demos hinted that while level designing was not way up on the hot list, the ASM in the hack more than made up for it with loads of custom bosses, several from video games that were only released in Japan. But now it seems that Carol has given Brutal Mario an entirely new makeover, as hinted by the newest screenshots uploaded to the VIP Wiki website, and is now giving the hack even more of an RPG style than ever before. I always did think that the boss battle with Zeal from Chrono Trigger would be a full-on RPG battle and it looks like it darn may well be with this new ASM enhancement! Also, the file select now has an ASM feature that keeps track of the current time spent playing, a typical RPG feature. Looks like this is still gonna be one hell of a hack when it is finally released in its entirety! Here's to you, Carol! Keep at it!