I have been looking forward to Disaster: Day of Crisis for Wii ever since it was first shown two or three years ago. Geez, it’s been so long that I don’t even remember how long it’s been. To be honest, after not showing up at E3 this year, I thought Disaster was quietly canceled just like that Hammer game. Anyway, the game surfaced out of nowhere about two weeks ago and it’s coming out in Japan in about a week. On top of that, it’s also coming out in Europe towards the end of October. Nintendo of America hasn’t said shit about the game, and they’ve already shown all their cards for the end of the year. Basically, Nintendo of America is just sitting on top of this and Fatal Frame 4 and god only knows why. Disaster’s dialogue is already recorded in English, so it isn’t like there is a lot of localization to be had. NOA doesn’t have a single traditional game in their holiday line up (with maybe the exception of Wario Land) and yet they could easily slip these two into the mix to satisfy the cries of all the whiny babies who hate Wii Music and Animal Crossing.

From the videos released today, Disaster isn’t looking like some Triple A title, but lordy does it look like a blast to play. The story line is some sort of bizarre 24 rip off, complete with terrorists, nuclear bombs, gun fights, and it even takes place over the course of 24 hours. Though I highly doubt the game will successfully combine all the genres it is looking to mix (action adventure, driving, shooting, Trauma Center-like events) I really can’t help but get behind a game like this. Nintendo hasn’t published anything like it on the Wii, and there hasn’t been a cool looking traditional game on the Wii since January’s No More Heroes (it’s been that long already?!) yet they’re just going to sit on this one.

Apparently Nintendo of Japan and America are due to have some sort of conference towards the end of October and reveal stuff (ie: nothing), but maybe NOA feels a little bad and will finally throw us dogs a bone. Keep your fingers cross, but I doubt it’s going to happen. In the meantime, here is another video.

I was always under the impression that Rare’s Grabbed by the Ghoulies for Xbox was one of the worst games of all time. It reviewed damn poorly when it came out in 2003, was a commercial failure, and whenever it’s mentioned these days it is usually met with laughter. I was browsing Gamestop’s used games early this summer and I spotted Grabbed by the Ghoulies for $4.99. At that price I figured it was worth satisfying my curiosity.

It kind of sat there sitting on my shelf all summer, but after playing loads of Viva Pinata, I was inspired to play another Rare game and decided it was time to play some Ghoulies. I’m going to say that I’m about halfway through it and so far I really just don’t get the hate for this game.

The game is a 3D brawler in the spirit of a traditional brawler like the classic TMNT Arcade games. All the attacks are done with the right stick, and aside from that it’s pretty much all you do. All the rooms are quite interactive (for their time) allowing the player to grab a boat load of special items to trash enemies with, and plenty of junk to bust up. After more recent 3D brawlers like God of War and Ninja Gaiden, Ghoulies’ battle system seems really stripped down. There are no crazy combos to learn, and no quick dodge or defend buttons to master. It is all fairly straight forward stuff, but I think that is part of the charm and what makes it easy to get into.

88 Minutes – Al Pacino is forensic psychiatrist working for the FBI who receives a threatening phone call saying he has 88 minutes to live. When it starts getting serious he must scramble to find the identity of the caller and the reason they are doing this.

Speed Racer – Emile Hirsch is the young racer who is blackmailed into competing in The Crucible, a race that claimed his brother’s life years ago. His father (John Goodman) designs the Mach 5 car for him to use in the race, and Speed goes up against the mysterious Racer X (Matthew Fox).

The Love Guru – Mike Myers is Pitka, the world’s second most famous love guru. He goes to the States to start his own business. He is hired by Jessica Alba to settle the romantic problems between a star hockey player (Romany Malco) and his wife who left him for another man (Justin Timberlake) before the Stanley Cup Finals.

Burn After Reading – a disk containing the memoirs of a CIA agent (John Malkovich) ends up in the hands of two weirdo gym employees (Frances McDormand & Brad Pitt). They attempt to blackmail him for some moolah. Written and Directed by The Coen Brothers. Also starring Tilda Swinton and George Clooney.

Righteous Kill – Two old school veteran NYC detectives (Robert Deniro & Al Pacino) investigate a vigilante-type serial killer who is targeting “bad” people in the city. They identify a possible connection to a case they solved years ago.

A buddy of mine, Zack Finfrock, is doing a live 24 hour event in an effort to raise money to move off to California so he can live his wildest dreams. For the last 20 hours Zack has been taking live requests for all sorts of drawings. You can check out his gallery here and watch what is left of the marathon below. Good luck dude.

Produced in Flash and After Effects, “On The Bubble” is a web series which is being worked on by a few buddies of mine: Mike Luzzi directing and Mark Pecoraro as one of three animators. Jim Manocchio does a bang up job art directing and designing the backgrounds. The show follows a campus “news program” , put on by college screw ups, Kevin, Luke, Gordon, and Andrea, as it takes shots at pop culture and the entertainment industry. The show is written by Adam de la Pena who created G4’s “Code Monkeys” who also voices Luke, the stoner of the group. Dana Snyder, of Aqua Teen Hunger Force and other cartoons, lends his voice as the basement dwelling, shut-in nerd, Gordo.

Keep a sharp eye out for a caricature of yours truly in episodes 113 and 108 as a college book store clerk and as a cosplaying ewok respectively. Check it out at http://onthebubblenews.com/!

Baby Mama – Tina Fey is a single woman who wants to have a baby but she isn’t able to. So she hires a surrogate mother to carry her kid. The surrogate is Amy Poehler and when they start living together, Fey realizes Poehler is a crazy woman. The story is also written by Tina, Amy, and…. Sigourney Weaver?!

The Forbidden Kingdom – a kung-fu obsessed teen is transported back to ancient China where he must attempt to team up two rival martial arts warriors (Jackie Chan and Jet Li) so they can help him save the imprisoned king.

Also being released today is the greatest movie of all time The Big Lebowski 10th Anniversary SE, Cool Hand Luke SE, How The West Was Won Ultimate Collector’s Edition, Pumpkinhead SE, Child’s Play SE, Grey’s Anatomy Season 4, It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia Season 3, Ugly Betty Season 2, Smallville Season 7, In Treatment Season 1, CSI Miami Season 6, Wings Season 7, Medium Season 4, and WWE’s The Life and Times of Mr. Perfect.

Here comes the pain… Shamoozal Radio Podcast #18. We play a new game called ‘Are You Smarter than an Idiot?’ which is chock full of lols, lawls and lawlruses. We talk about the upcoming Fall TV Season and lots of 90210! Shit is absolutely off the wall. Check it out the usual ways…

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Bangkok Dangerous – Nicolas Cage plays a hitman with a bad haircut who travels to Bangkok for a series of jobs. While there he falls for a woman and bonds with a young boy who runs errands for him. Written and Directed by The Pang Brothers who are remaking their own Thai film from 1999.

THAT’S IT?!?!?!?
I guess we can tell the summer is over because Cage is the only new obstacle in the way of Tropic Thunder going for four straight weeks atop the box office.

Join us… or die. Well, not die… but you’ll definitely be pissing and moaning in our forums about how you missed it. This Saturday, September 6th, at our normal time of 8PMish EST. As always, you can catch us LIVE on our UStream Page and witness something more profound than a statue of Mary that cries Hefeweizen. Also, you can chat with us live and tell us what a bunch of tools we are. We always embed the video feed and chat room here at the Nerdlog, but for whatever reason UStream doesn’t allow you to log into your account from here. So unless you want to be known as lame-ass ‘ustreamer-6539×32′ you’d better go make an account and log in.

So come on out and witness the comedic event that critics are calling ‘Clearly another podcast’.