What’s French, colourful, cute, and features a cowboy hat wearing squid called Clint? That would be The Game Bakers Squids, a ‘casual RPG’ that has seen over 1 million downloads so far on iOS, and has just been released on to PC. The team behind the game have years of experience working on AAA games, but have thankfully taken all this expertise and used it to produce something that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Set in an underwater world threatened by encroaching black goop, a team of uniquely skilled Squids must protect their home from destruction against ooze infected crabs and shrimp. The gameplay mechanic is a simple one – grab a squid by the tentacles and chuck it at the enemy!

The iOS version scored an ‘excellent’  9 out of 10 capsules here on CC, so it’s impressive stuff. If you’re not one for portable gaming then now is the time to check out what could be an excellent little addition to your desktop:  if your interest is indeed tickled by some colourful kookiness with a bit of RPG and strategy, then head over to the Game Bakers website.

Namco Bandai Games have just announced the details of the launch of Tales of Graces F in Australia. As part of a special incentive for gamer’s to buy the title on launch day, Namco have announced that their will be a ‘Day One’ Edition exclusively available on the day of the game’s launch.

The game itself is said to launch on August 30th, 2012 and the ‘Day One’ Edition will pack a plethora of Tales goodies for fans to sink their teeth into. Along side the game itself there will also be a special art book, original soundtrack, behind the scenes video footage, exclusive DLC and a Playstation 3 Tales theme all wrapped in a neat folded box package.

So be sure to pick up the game on August 30th in order to get the special ‘Day One’ Edition of Tales of Graces F. What do you think of this special edition? Let us know in the comments section below.

This past generation, I’m sure many of you have seen a ton of Ben 10 games on shelves. The young licensed hero has seen nearly every platform known to man, and has been in many action, racing, and platforming romps to keep fans of the series busy. The brand new series, Ben 10: Omniverse is set to launch this fall, and with it will come a game by the same name for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii, 3DS, DS, and the WiiU.

Here are a few details for you to chew on until then:

Ben: 10 Omniverse, players will be immersed in exciting action-brawler gameplay featuring the new art style inspired from the show. Gamers will have the power to switch forms and battle as one of 13 playable alien heroes, including never-before-seen aliens like Bloxx and Gravattack, as they work with either Ben or Rook to defeat the evil plans of a fierce villain, intent on destroying the world.

Ben 10: Omniverse gives fans the option to play single-player or two-player co-op mode (for all platforms except the Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS), where one player controls Ben and his alien forms and the other can play as Rook with his Proto-Tool, a high-tech multifunction weapon designed to battle evil.

Ben 10: Omniverse is being developed by Monkey Bar Games for all platforms except for the Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS, which are being developed by 1st Playable Productions. The Ben 10: Omniverse television series is produced at Cartoon Network Studios with Matt Youngberg as supervising producer. The series will premiere on Cartoon Network this fall.

The quality we have seen of the Ben 10 games is debatable to those who are not in tuned with the series, but it’s nice to know that the WiiU will have something for everyone, and that the other consoles will be seeing some kid-friendly love this fall while the bigger titles hit the shelves, balancing out the lot.

Cat Planet Cuties
Studio: AIC Plus+
Publisher: FUNimation
Format: Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack
Release Date: May 15, 2012
Price: $69.98 – Available Here

Overview:
As far as we know, human beings are currently the only intelligent life form in the galaxy. However there are plenty of pieces of work which describe situations where humans encounter life forms from another planet. Most of the time these aliens are quite hostile and humans are usually either killed in massive amounts or manage to coexist with various treaties. However what if the alien race we happened to encounter was not strange or hostile but actually quite similar to us, minus a few furry additions. Originally called Asobi ni Ikuyo in Japan, does Cat Planet Cuties offer a purrfect story of a boy and his catgirl?

Story:
A strange message, the origin of which is unknown, has been received by nations all over the world, saying “We are going to drop by.” However the fact that this message has been appearing all over the media doesn’t concern Kio Kakazu who was living a rather basic life in highschool. That is until he encounters a beautiful girl wearing cat ears and a tail at a party with his uncle. Kio wakes up the next morning to find this beautiful girl in his bed wearing practically nothing.

However this girl isn’t some cosplaying beauty, she is actually an alien girl named Eris who has been sent ahead of the rest of her race in an effort to investigate Earth before making contact. Eris comes from a race of cat people called Catian who live on a world called Catia. Having a hot alien catgirl may sound like it is all fun and games but not everyone is happy to see that she is here. With the Japanese military moving in, a strange ragtag group of people wishing to have a “beautiful encounter” with an alien that looks nothing like humans and a mysterious organization waiting in the shadows Kio and Eris are in for a lot more than a simple catfight.

At its very core Cat Planet Cuties can be seen as a harem anime with plenty of ecchi elements mixed in. We are quickly introduced to all of the main characters of the series which are actually quite refreshing as they break out of your standard harem archetypes. Rather than being perverse or socially inept, Kio offers a kind main character who handles nearly all of the situations he encounters splendidly, though he is still a bit dense when it comes to the other females in his life.

The refreshing male lead is joined by a small number of female characters who all shine on their own as well, with no one girl receiving any special focus. In fact, his longtime friend Minami and Aoi provide some of the best moments of the show which is quite impressive given the fact that they have to compete with a busty catgirl. Aoi is a very shy girl who has difficulty communicating her feelings while Minami is loud and hands on but keeps her feelings locked away.

Both of these girls have plenty of secrets of their own however and as these secrets are revealed we are presented with a number of twists and turns in the storyline which keeps things going at a brisk pace. Despite its ecchi harem roots, Cat Planet Cuties offers a surprisingly well thought out storyline with a relatively large number of characters and plenty of action as well in the form of explosions and gunfire.

Even with a great storyline, Cat Planet Cuties is without doubt an ecchi anime with plenty of harem elements. Eris herself just happens to be close to her first “heat” meaning she is looking for her mate, which she just happens to find in Kio. As such there are plenty of sexually charged moments where Eris certainly wants Kio all too herself.  Despite this however Cat Planet Cuties never turns down that road and remains relatively innocent minus all of the breasts that are shown on screen at any given time.

Those who love fan service will certainly receive an eye-full and more as the women in Cat Planet Cuties often are scantily clad or have their clothing off, disintegrated off, blown off or simply taken off. Along with all the fan-service is plenty of tongue in cheek humor about the genre as a whole. The show offers plenty of funny moments which will often leave the viewer laughing as well as a few dramatic ones as well.  This creates something which is hard to find in a genre polluted with mindless harem titles, a genuinely enjoyable ecchi title which offers an enjoyable storyline with interesting characters which often switches gears between humor and action.

Visuals:
Visually Cat Planet Cuties is quite enjoyable and not because of all the fan service it contains (which is quite a lot). The character designs are impressive and well detailed, with a multitude of outfits and science fiction elements thrown into the mix. This is especially true with all of the Catian characters with their catgirl appearances and animation very well done.

To go with the great character design, the backgrounds viewers are presented with are equally appealing, with a few of these backgrounds are exceptionally well detailed. This level of quality continues with excellent animation which remains consistently exceptional during action scenes.

Audio:
As standard with a FUNimation release, Cat Planet Cuties contains both the original Japanese voice track as well as the new English dub. While the Japanese voices have performed their jobs admirably, it seems that the English casting has surpassed the original. Tia Ballard’s performance of Eris is well done as she continues to perform excellently in her roles and the rest of the cast did a great job placing emotion into the characters they were voicing.

In fact, one of the standout performances for the entire team comes during Episode 09 where the song, “Oira wa Sabishii Spaceman” was translated fully and nearly the entire voice cast sang the words impressively. In fact, as mentioned by the voice actors themselves in one of the commentaries, the song may end up sticking in your head. The opening song for the series is “Now Loading… Sky!!” which is catchy and enjoyable to listen to, while there are actually three different ending songs which rotate every episode, with two episodes receiving special ending songs.

Extras:
Cat Planet Cuties comes with quite a plethora of bonus content. There are your standard inclusions of trailers for past and upcoming FUNimation releases as well as the English trailer for the show itself, as well as a clean version of the opening song. There are also clean versions of all five ending songs which is an impressive collection, though perhaps it would have been nice to also include an easy to access version of the English song sung in Episode 09.

Alongside these extras there are a number of small bonuses which is simply a collection of bonus bumpers at the end of each episode. The Ichika Special!!! which is a consecutive version of these bumpers is a cute little diversion featuring English commentary by the character Ichika.

There are also two episode commentaries included in this release. Episode 01’s commentary features Scott Seager, the ADR director, Monica Rial who voices Aoi Futaba, Tia Ballard who voice of Eris. This commentary doesn’t follow the episode much but will provide plenty of laughs as Monica and Tia spend most of the commentary joking around and talking about how they sometimes compete for roles.

Episode 09’s commentary features Christopher Bevins, the voice director, Aaron Dismuke, the voice of Kio, and Brittney Karbowski the voice of Manami. This episode commentary actually follows the episode plot a bit as the three discuss a number of characters including the mysterious Ichika. They even explain a number of references the show makes including why A&W appears so often.

Finally we have the bonus OVA episode which wasn’t included in the original broadcast of the series. This episode doesn’t feature any actual plot development but does place the main cast in a series of different games where the winner can select a prize they want. This OVA is the same length as a normal episode and is enjoyable to watch, especially if you haven’t seen enough fan service yet.

Overall:
Cat Planet Cuties certainly makes a name for itself by being a fun and enjoyable show which may have plenty of fan service but also a great storyline worth sticking around for. Watching the Catians slowly experience everything Earth has to offer while also dealing with a number of problems creates an appealing story. As mentioned before, the harem ecchi genre may be full of mindless shows with plenty of breasts but Cat Planet Cuties will likely silence any naysayers about the genre and offer a great viewing experience to anyone who wants to pick it up.

Rockstar Games’ Max Payne 3, the Assault Rifle class of weaponry serves as the meat and potatoes to Max’s arsenal and staple diet; the G6 Commando, MD-97L, FAL, and my personal favourite the AK-47 all deliver powerful long range accuracy while still being agile enough to handle enemies at shorter distances with their rapid rate of fire, and high-capacity magazines.

Armed by various factions of enemies in Max Payne 3 from vicious favela gangs to paramilitary commandos, these intimidating two-handed killing machines can literally make mincemeat out of unlucky foes.  They’re even more fun to use once you switch to bullet time, making the mincemeat even more tender!

To help you familiarize yourself with the battle-proven Assault Rifles check out the video below that show off the individually modeled components of the daunting G6 Commando.  Imagine the fun you can have once Max switches to bullet time and pulls the trigger on this awesome piece of weaponry!

Who’s already picked up a copy of Max Payne 3? Let us know what you think of it in the comments section below.

Probably the biggest why hasn’t this come out yet? game for the iPad finally was released today. Popcap is rolling out Bejeweled HD around the world in the next 24 hours. The game supports the new iPad’s Retina screen and sports four game modes, Classic, Butterfly, Diamond Mine, and Zen. Giordano Bruno Contestabile, Bejeweled franchise business director at PopCap Games says that “This native adaptation is one of our best yet, and will enthrall players with fantastic HD graphics and optimized gameplay.  As Bejeweled further evolves, we’ll continue to bring exciting new iterations, updates and content to millions of new and existing players.”

Bejeweled HD will set you back $4.49 AUD or $2.99 USD on the App Store. Buy it here.

While Kingdoms of Amalur may have been praised as a success by Electronic Arts, the developer, 38 Studios may not be seeing dollar signs. In fact the only thing the company is currently looking at is a rather substantial debt they owe the Rhode Island government.

It was revealed by WPRI that Rhode Island gave 38 Studios $75 million in an effort to get them to relocate from Massachusetts. This was done to generate jobs and tax revenue for Rhode Island, however it seems that taxpayers may not be too happy when everything is said and done. You see, 38 studios missed their last payment of $1.25 million and are now behind that much. As such, if 38 Studios can’t afford to pay their bills, taxpayers may have to pay for them. The final total will reach up to $112.6 million by 2020 which is just lovely…

If you were hoping to have a DiRT Showdown on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on May 29th then perhaps you should find something else to tide yourself over until June 15th because Codemasters revealed today that the game has been delayed on these consoles until that date.

The PC version of the game is still going to be available on Steam on May 24th so no worries there if you enjoy some PC gaming. The reason for the delay is to give the game a “clearer release window.” This usually translates into the fact that there are either A. too many games coming out at the same time or B. the game will be released the week before E3 and will be lost in the hype.

Many of you may remember when Cartoon Network used to feature a great block of animation every day back in the ’90s. That block of anime used to always air during Toonami, however over the years Toonami was gradually reduced until it was eliminated completely. However back on April Fools’ day last month Adult Swim ran a classic block of Toonami anime.

The outcry of support for Toonami was absolutely overwhelming so it only makes sense that Cartoon Network choose to re-instate the Toonami block. Adult Swim revealed on Twitter that the much loved Toonami will return on May 26th. Exactly what shows will be airing on Toonami have yet to be revealed, though let us hope that it contains a number of brand new shows.

North American fans of Square Enix’s limited editions can finally celebrate because they will not have to worry about importing Square Enix’s most recently revealed limited edition. Today the company revealed that Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance will be released both as a standard edition and a Mark of Mastery Edition.

The Mark of Mastery Edition will run $15 more expensive than the basic version of the game, but as you can see above it will contain a number of extra bonuses. Besides coming with a copy of the game, the Mark of Mastery Edition will include a fancy hardcover case for the 3DS, 12 art cards, 5 AR cards and a special case with a magnetic clasp. Sounds quite neat doesn’t it?