I have a feeling this is semi-related to the issue regarding Japanese animation studios voicing their disdain for foreign(western) fan-sub groups. From Darkdiamond.net:
Good news for all School Rumble fans, the never ending school romantic comedy is bound for a 3rd season with all of the original cast and staff. Bad news is it appears this will be a straight to DVD deal.
Kodansha will bundle the DVDs of School Rumble: 3rd Term with volumes 21st and 22nd of the ongoing manga so don’t expect the same quality of previous seasons...
Gah.
Well, I guess either their budget isn't as high as it used to be, or they fear that if they spend to have the third term released on Japanese TV, raws and fan-subs of it will circulate back to Japan thus ending the otaku need to have a permanent re-playable copy of the show. Then they'd kiss bye-bye to extra profits from DVD sales. I guess in this case, DVD sales replaces advertising revenue; DVD sales also doubles as a cheap survey to see how large their loyal (money-spending) fan-base really is.
Remember how the previous version of Soul Calibur featured unlockable "secret" characters apt for the console you've got? The Sony version got Heihachi/Yoshimitsu and the Nintendo version managed to sneak in Link.
Well, the guys from Namco Bandai (or Bandai Namco, or however they decide to sequence the names in their now merged company) are at it again. Eyeball this:
Blizzard decided that March 10, 2008 would be the date that they present to those damned lucky Koreans a creepy Zerg Swarm intro video complete with epic Kerrigan narration:
Yes, Koreans are blessed with Blizzard love.
The voice over says the following:
We are Swarm. We burned a path of annihilation across the stars. And then -- We vanished. Four years ago we faded into the shadows. We thrived. We, evolved. Now, the time has come for us to step back ... into ... the light. Now, worlds will tremble once again. Empires will fall. Alliances will shatter. We are the swarm. But we are becoming much... much more. For the final metamorphosis, has only just begun.
That's not all though, after the intro they gave out a unit description session lecture style. Luckily, there's a video out there on them YouTubes that cuts out the boring lecture part, and just compresses all the featured gameplay related with each new Unit.
Behold:
Unit details:
Corruptor - New Unit - An air-to-air combat unit that instead of destroying it’s opponents, it infests them an turns them into a stationary turret-like unit/building, making them fight their own allies.
Infester - New Unit - A battle support unit, that does not have any attacks. It can however, move while burrowed. Can cast Dark Swarm, the effect of which seems to be the same as the original ability in SC1. It can also cast Disease, which creates and aura that damages a target unit. Can cast infestation, this time though it can infest any building and create infested marines from them. The marines are slow, but fires similar to regular marines.
Roach - New Unit - A peskyground unit that can regenerate HP at an incredibly fast rate. It requires powerful and concentrated fire to destroy. It has 90HP.
Overseer - New Evolutionary Unit - Evolves from the Overlord and has a larger vision range than the Overlord; can detect invisible/burrowed units.
Overlord - Upgraded - The new Overlord can no longer detect invisible/burrowed units. It can however, destroy or dismantle expandable areas and neutral posts. Can create small temporary zones loaded with creep.
Baneling - New Evolutionary Unit - Evolves from Zerglings. Snot balls that explode on contact with enemy units or buildings spraying acidic radioactive phlegm on opponents.
Swarm Guradian - New Evolutionary Unit - Evolves from the Mutalisk. Has an even longer range, and powerful against ground units. Unlike the Mutalisk it has some ground defense as it can create broodlings that attack for a period of time.
Nydus Worm - New Unit - A unit version of the Nydus Canal. Can create canals anywhere on the map. Think Dune.
Queen - Upgraded - The Zerg's super-unit. This one's focused on defense. Like the Terran Giant Robot, this one has an alternative creation method: this one's created directly from the Hatchery. Like the Mothership, you can only have 1 Queen at a time. It has many powerful abilities that are good for zerg and it mainly directs the defensive line. It can expand creeps or act as a defensive structure via turning an area of creep "toxic." It also has the ability Deep Tunnel, that allows it to move to any hatchery on the map. Although it seems more fragile compared to other super-units it is said that the Queen can evolve and learn more abilities.
Ultralisk - Upgraded - It can now burrow, and a swing from it's tusk damages in an arc in front of it. Did I mention that IT CAN NOW BURROW!!!
Old Units - The Zergling, Hydralisk, Lurker, and Mutalisk are mostly unchanged.
Also, I want the image below as a poster, or a wall scroll, or on an altar/shrine of some sort. My attempts at searching for a larger image size version was complete and utter failure. I blame the universe rolling a 1.
Image-boards will never cease to amaze me. They are a surefire way to get the lulz you need from the intertubes. Surfin' around, one such site, I found this image:
Cute huh? No, the site I visited wasn't just filled with cutesy animals. It had downright weird stuff. For example, tell me, what does this image imply?
Yep, it's FFVII for the Famicom. Why does it exist you ask? My bet is opportunistic Chinese pirates. The Triads need your monies, and they need it as bad as Edison Chen's hands.
Seriously though, responsible group is Shenzhen Nanjing Technology Co, Ltd, a company responsible for mp3 and mp4 players. Still, my spider-sense tells me that they might have something to do with M.A.SHADE Industries, you know, those guys responsible for all those 16 in 1 DVD packages that we all love.
Click the link I posted for more details. Who knows? You might find the 8-bit Cloud sprite cute and adorable.
