Street Fighter IV: Here Comes a New Challenger

Do you want to know what the rest of the world thinks the average American looks like? Yup Rufus IS the embodiment of the steriotypical view of Americans. Makes me shed a tear...

If you've gone to see Kung Foo Panda in the theaters then you already have an idea of how Rufus will fight, that is all.

So sad, so very sad.

Macross Frontier Music

Since I first saw Macross it has always been a fantastic space opera with three prevalent themes, mecha, love,and music. Even if you have no idea what they're singing, the music in the Macross series is fantastic, songs such as "Ai Oboete imasu ka" from DYRL to Macross Plus'
Information High by Melodie Sexton. For this latest series, Frontier really seems to be coming out with some strong performances. Below is the ending theme song Diamond Crevasse performed by May Nakabayashi aka May'n, and below that is a live performance by May'n. Great performance but the host seemed kinda rude Watch May'n expression as she walks to the stage) and the audience needed more energy.

Sheryl Nome starring May'n - Diamond Crevasse on R-Zero
by omniscient73

Macross Frontier Episode 7: First Attack

As Sheryls farewell concert continues the Macross Quarter defolds near the battle zone. The Kaitos and Dulfim are taking heavy damage, Ozuma, the Skull Squadron and all of the SMS team launch to give the two ships some cover as they attempt to escape the Vajra assault.

For those of you needing your mecha fix this episode is for you! We get to see Ozma use the reticle tracking that was first seen in Macross Zero with Roy Focker, Mikhail shows off his Valkerie sniping from an asteroid, Klan Klan in her Queadluun-Rea, Kanaria lands on the deck of the Dulfim and unleashes a barrage of fire from the König Monster, we even get to see Luca's RVF-25 controlling three ghost's, Simon, Johanne and Peter.
Back aboard the Frontier Ranka arrives at Sheryl's concert just as she begins her second song; Don't be Late, only to discover Alto isn't there. Ranka get's a message from Ozma that he won't be home that night because he has to work and not to worry, she suddenly realizes he's flying and that Alto is too. Between acts Sheryl runs back stage to check on the battle via Graces hologram transmitter in her necklace.
Meanwhile the battle seems to turning as the SMS fight off the Vajra, the Kaitos is slowly escaping but out of nowhere a Vajra mothership defolds right behind one of Lucas ghost ships and opens fire on the Kaitos and destroys it with one shot. Luca flys in closer to the Vajra mother ship to try and get some intel and just as his RVF-25 discovers the ship has a fold reactor he is captured by a Vajra and brought into the mothership.
Back aboard the Frontier Sheryl finishes up her third song and tells the audience how much she will treasure her time on the frontier and the friends she's made, she dedicates the next song; Infinity to those who are out risking their lives to save the Macross Galaxy, she asks the crowd to sing along and Ranka realizes that Sheryl knew about Ozma and Alto being in SMS and fbeing Valkerie pilots, she also believes that Sheryl is talking directly to her.
Back at the battle Alto blasts his way towards the Vajra mother ship to save Luca, Mikhail spots a mysterious purple valkerie enter the battle and head towards the mothership also. Captain Wilder decides it's time for the SMS Macross Quarter to join the battle, against Catherine Glass' recomendation, Bobby Margot helms the Quarter Pounder full speed towrds the Vajra mothership, and like the original Macross it transforms into a giant battroid., but unlike the original Macross it also has a Gerwalk form! The Vajra mother ship opens fire on the Quarter Pounder as it takes cover behind a large asteroid. Inside the Vajra mothership Alto finds Luca and his RVF-25 tangled in tenticles but before he can rescue him he is attacked by two hammerhead vajra, somehow he hears Sheryl and Ranka singing and defeats them, but his valkerie is destroyed in the battle with the second and jettisons the cockpit in his EX gear. He links up remotely to Luca's RVF-25 and begins to break free when the mysterious purple valkerie Mikhail spotted makes it's presence known by shooting the RVF-25's gunpod out of it's hand. Outside the Quarter Pounder reaches the mouth of the Vajra mothership and the mystery Valk transforms and flys away Alto saves Luca and the Quarter Pounder unleashes the Macross Cannon at max power and destroys the Vajra mothership.
Episode 7 concludes with Brera Sterne piloting the purple valkerie through space fold and playing Aimo on a harmonica...
Amazing episode, the show just keeps getting better and better!

Street Fighter IV: Here Comes a New Challenger

On May 30th Capcom will be revealing another new character and the final boss! The pic to the left is most likely the new final boss, Seth, doesn't his name just instil fear? From what has been translated Seth is the CEO of a weapons R&D company with the acronym S.I.N. He has altered his body into a living weapon and his nickname is the "Master of Puppets". Notice his abdomen has been replaced with some sort of eye shaped mechanism...probably some type of weapon that can focus chi and profect it through that thing. Up till now there has been no characters referencing Street Fighter III, but this guy does seem similar to Urien. So is Seth the link between Street Fighter II's Shadaloo and Street Fighter III's Illuminati?

More Street Fighter IV info will be revealed at this years

Gamer's Day now called Captivate '08!

Westchester County NY Rock Band Tournament

I found this on the Rock Band message board:

Rock Band tournament in White Plains NY which is in Westchester
county and about 20 minutes north of Manhatten. It is in a big venue and will be
played on a professional stage used for large touring bands usually. There will
be professional lighting and stage effects just like a real show. Big Prizes and
going to be a ton of fun. Your band even gets to build its own setlist.
Guaranteed to be an amazing time.The tourny will also be double elimination so
everyone is guaranteed a Great time.guitar and bass on expert, drums on hard,
vocals on medium.

Kinda cool, my band would be booed off stage plus we're older than 25 so we can't >.>.

Macross Frontier Episode 6: Bye Bye Sheryl

After hearing Ranka's cover of Sheryl Nome's What 'bout my star? at Folmo Mall, Elmo Kridanik a Zentradi promoter for Vector Entertainment offers his services to Ranka but first needs to convince Ozma.


The next scene we see Alto gazing at Sheryl's missing earing when Mikhail asks him if it's a gift for his girlfriend. Alto doesn't realize Mikhail and Ranka saw him with Sheryl at the mall. Nanase breaks up the face off when she announces that Ranka was scouted. Later the group meets up at a coffee shop and Nanase forms the Ranka Lee Fan Club and declares herself fan #1, Luca jumps in and declares himelf fan #2, then Mikhail and finally Alto, during the excitement Ranka apologises to Alto, saying she wanted to to him first, He mentions he was at the mall, and Ranka asks with who and he says no one...O.0. Alto then hands Ranka the ticket to Sheryls final concert before she returns to the Macross Galaxy.


The excitement of the formation of Ranka's good news is interupted by an offical public announcement from NUNS president Howard Glass, he makes public the existance of the Vajra and announces the attck on the Macross Galaxy fleet, Ozma calls Mikhail and orders the three back to SMS HQ. Back at HQ Mikhail explains to Alto that due to President Glass' announcement the watime act is now activated so they cannot resign from service. A press conference for Sheryl comes on the monitor and Alto watches as the press ask if Sheryl will cancel the concert due to the Vajra attack on the Galaxy. She assures everyone that the concert will not be cancelled and that the Galaxy will defeat the Vajra onslaught. At that Alto rushes out of the dorm and heads out to keep his promise and return Sheryls earing. The two meet up and Alto goes to return the earing, Sheryl tells him that the earing was from her mother and tells Alto to hold onto it as it has brought her good fortune. This scene totally felt like the scene in DYRL when Hikaru hands Minmay the translated lyrics right before he goes out to the fight against Golg Boddole Zer's armada. The Alto <---> Sheryl relationship is really overshadowing the Alto <---> Ranka aspect of the triangle at this point. The end of this episode is spectacular Sheryl's final concert of the galaxy tour begins with the ending song Diamond Crevasse as The SMS Quarter disengages from Frontier Island 1 and begins the space fold to the Macross Galaxy meanwhile Ranka is running to the concert and sees SMS Quarter entering space fold all this as Diamond Crevasse is heard in the background and continues into the credits as normal.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/yt-JMjywH9Slmc/sheryl_nome_sings_diamond_crevasse_stereo/

Macross Frontier Episode 5: Star Date

Episode 5 begins with Sheryl visiting Alto at Mihoshi Academy to find her earing she lost at some point in episode 3. With only a few days left before her farewell concert Sheryl is desperate to find her earing which she explains to Alto is very precious to her. Meanwhile Ozma finds out that Ranka was in the Miss Macross contest and that she was suspended from school, Ozma goes on to tell her that she's too shy to be a singer and Ranka begins crying and runs out.
Unable to find Sheryls earing in his locker Alto suggests they look in another location, Sheryl thinks he's making up excuses to spend time with her. Back home Ozma waits for Ranka but gets a visit from Cathy instead, who brings him to Frontier security counsel meeting that Leon organized....I don't trust this guy!
Back at Mihoshi academy Nanase breaks the news that Ranka was suspended to Mikhail and Luca, Ozma calls Mikhail and asks him to go find Ranka, later Luca sees Alto leaving school with someone, he calls Alto to tell him about Ranka, Alto then trys to call Ranka while with Sheryl after getting the news but she has turned her cell phone off. Alto and Sheryl spend the rest of the day traveling around the city, riding the tram, eating "hot" dogs and going to a Zentradi farm! Hippocows FTW!
Meanwhile Mikhail finds Ranka outside Mihoshi Academy and Mikhail tries to convince Ranka to go home but instead they wander around the city and end up at a Zentradi Mall. There Mikhail tries to tell Ranka she may have been able to sing during Miss Macross infront of an organized crowd but she doesn't have the determination to sing when no one is listening.
After spotting Mikhail and Ranka on a monitor getting on a skyrail to the Zentran Mall Alto offers to take Sheryl on one too, Sheryl mentions how beautiful Macross Frontier is compared to Macross Galaxy.
When Alto and Sheryl arrive at the mall Sheryl is amazed at all the wonderful Zentradi macronized sites like plates and shoes, she suddenly gets inspired and grabs the first thing she finds to write on....which happens to be a pair of giant Meltrandi panties LOL! Klan Klan shows up and asks Alto whats going on.
At another section of the mall Ranka spots a paper airplane floating in the air and remembers what Alto told her about "hoping and wishing", sudenly Ranka begins singing one of Sheryl's sogns and a crowd gathers to watch her perform, thus proving Ozma and Mikhail wrong. Alto and Sheryl watch her and after the performance Sheryl thanks Alto for a nice time and kisses him, Ranka and Mikhail spot this.
The episode concludes with a small craft defolding from the Galaxy fleet with a distress signal that a large swarm of Vajra have attacked the Galaxy fleet.
I really enjoyed this episode for many reasons, first the relationships between many of the characters get further developed ie: Cathy Glass and Ozma Sheryl and Alto and Ranka and Alto...in a less direct manner. Also I've read that at the beginning of Star Date, when Alto and Sheryl are in the locker room, Sheryl says, "Atashi to ishou ja, iya?" almost indentically to the scene in DYRL, when Hikaru meets Minmay in the park, and he recognizes her, she says, "Atashi to ishou ja, iya?", i.e. "You don't want to be {seen} with me?". Also the scene in the Zentradi mall felt very reminiscent of the date scene in DYRL. Another fantastic episode that fans of Macross can enjoy and newcomers will too!

Episode 4: Miss Macross

Episode 4: Miss Macross begins with Alto getting shot down in the SMS training simulator and being rewarded by Mikhail with twenty five laps in his EX gear. Ranka gets a message while working that she made the Miss Macross finals and celebrates with her friend Nanasse. She sends Alto the good news via a text message, just as he passes out in a locker room. This episode has so many refrences to the series roots, for instance Alto's training for SMS/ Hikaru's training for UNS service in SDFM episode 5 Transformation, Ranka competing in the Miss Macross contest and singing My Boyfriend is a Pilot, the same song Lynn Minmay sang after being crowned the first Miss Macross in SDFM episode 9. And just like how Hikaru was called to duty during one of Minmay's performances, Alto is called by Ozma during Ranka's performance for his final training exam. I really was impressed how the episode intertwined Ranka's performance at the Miss Macross contest with Alto's mock battle against the Meltrandi ace Klan Klan and the pixie squadron, the editing was spot on during this part of the episode, we also get to see a Zentradi corpse and a Zentran capital ship during the exam which is interupted by a Vajra. Klan Klan faces off against it after Alto rushes at it with only his valks dagger. The episode wraps up back at Nyan Nyan as Alto celebrates joining SMS with Michail, Luca, Klan Klan and Ranka, who unlike Lynn Minmay did not win the Miss Macross contest. With all the refernces and fanservice Macross Frontier still feels fresh and original, and Ranka's Valkerie bookbag is awesome ^^.