Media Fix Review: You, the Living

Read Shane's brief review of one of the coolest looking movies of last year "You, The Living."

Media Fix Review: Capitalism: A Love Story

He's at it again. Does Michael Moore's latest outing capitalize on the hype? Or does it fail with a capital F? Find out inside as Stuart speaks softly about a serious movie.

Movies At Home: Once

Our staff recluse Shane spent his evening inside with the bargain bin DVD Once. Was it music to his ears? Find out as our aspiring music editor discusses a movie were music isn't just the soundtrack.

Gamebino Review: 'Splosion Man

Welcome to Issue #1 of Gamebino Review. This week: Does 'Splosion Man live up to the hype or does it go out without a bang? If you're hungry for some platforming action then read Adam's explosive 'Splosion Man review to find out what food 'Splosion Man would be, and it's not flamin' hot Cheetos.

Gamebino Podcast

Join Adam and Stuart as they discuss all the latest and greatest video game news and gossip on Addicted to Media's flagship game podcast Gamebino. In this episode: What's all the fuss about XBOX Live Prime time? Midterm Report card and EVO 2009.

Media Fix Podcast

Want the latest scoop? Don't come here then. All we have is personalized movie news and biased reviews. On second thought, join us. Each week we discuss a new topic in movies which is sure to leave you scratching your noodle.

Data East Remakes Incoming?

Posted by Adam Johnson Aug 1, 2009 0 comments















God I hope this is true...

According to CHR_AeON from Neogaf, "In the latest edition of german games magazine "M! Games" there's a small article about Snap Dragon Games (developer / publisher of, amongst others, "Karate Phants" (WiiWare)). They are currently working on remakes of the following
Data East games:
Bad Dudes Vs. Dragon Ninja (XBLA, PSN) Karate Champ (XBLA) Tumble Top (XBLA, PSN, WiiWare)"

Nothing says late 80's like Data East arcade games, particularly Bad Dudes Vs. Dragon Ninja, which recently has gained popularity by way of humorous internet memes.

If a new Bad Dudes does make it's way to a game system in the near future, I hope that they keep the tradition of having the player rescue the current U.S. president from the nefarious Dragon Ninja clan. It will be a historical event and will mark the first time a Democratic and an African American president has been kidnapped by ninjas.

Coming Soon

Posted by Stuart Jul 31, 2009 0 comments










There sure are a lot of awesome new trailers to talk about this week. A new Coen brothers movie as well as a Wes Anderson stop-motion animation and a few lower profile movies. So let's get this going.

‘45365’
captures the complexities and ambiguities of one towns shared experience. It is a patient and inquisitive look at the lives and landscapes that make up this community of 20,000 people. Multiple storylines eventually coalesce into a mosaic of faces, places, and events. It is an inquiring look at life in Sidney, Ohio.
The trailer is positively enchanting. I'm really interested to see what this one's all about.


Only is a movie about a boy named Daniel. Daniel lives in a motel, managed by his parents, in northern Ontario. People come, people go, Daniel hardly notices. Until one day a girl arrives and changes his world. Only is a glimpse into the heightened impressions and dreams of two unlikely 12-year-olds. Over the course of a single day, they venture on a journey, exploring deep secrets, dark fears, and first love in a pure and powerful meeting of young hearts and minds.

The Fantastic Mr. Fox is Wes Anderson's newest movie, it has much of his usual line up. It features the voices of George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Willem Dafoe, Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzman, Brian Cox, Michael Gambon, and even Wes Anderson himself (as the Weasel). It's cool to see him change his game up, although you'll recognize a lot of the dialogue pacing and structure. Fantastic Mr. Fox is both written and directed by the fantastic Oscar nominated filmmaker Wes Anderson, of Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and The Darjeeling Limited most recently.

Fox Searchlight is bringing Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox to theaters everywhere starting on November 13th this fall.


The new Coen Brother's movie looks awesome as expected. A Serious Man is the story of an ordinary man’s search for clarity in a universe where Jefferson Airplane is on the radio and “F-Troop” is on TV. It is 1967, and Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg), a physics professor at a quiet Midwestern university, has just been informed by his wife Judith (Sari Lennick) that she is leaving him. She has fallen in love with one of his more pompous colleagues, Sy Ableman (Fred Melamed), who seems to her a more substantial person than the feckless Larry. Larry’s unemployable brother Arthur (Richard Kind) is sleeping on the couch, his son Danny (Aaron Wolf) is a discipline problem and a shirker at Hebrew school, and his daughter Sarah (Jessica McManus) is filching money from his wallet in order to save up for a nose job. While his wife and Sy Ableman blithely make new domestic arrangements, and his brother becomes more and more of a burden, an anonymous hostile letter-writer is trying to sabotage Larry’s chances for tenure at the university. Also, a graduate student seems to be trying to bribe him for a passing grade while at the same time threatening to sue him for defamation. Plus, the beautiful woman next door torments him by sunbathing nude. Struggling for equilibrium, Larry seeks advice from three different rabbis. Can anyone help him cope with his afflictions and become a righteous person – a mensch – a serious man?


And finally here is a short featurette for Where the Wild Things Are with Maurice Sendak.

Tron Legacy trailer doesn't dissapoint.

Posted by Stuart Jul 29, 2009 0 comments











At Comic con 2009 Disney showed a brief trailer which was actually test footage for Tron Legacy. It's been posted all over the internet and I'm re-posting it because it looks pretty awesome and I'm excited to see it go the 3D route. Enjoy.












To be honest, I just started listening to this. Me and Adam were watching the Blu-ray yesterday when I remembered how awesome the soundtrack was. The Bruno Coulais score is particularly moody. It might be a bit melancholy at times but this counteracted by a feeling of youthful optimism and exploration.

There is a They Might Be Giants track which is my least favorite, but it's still fun. My favorite songs are the ones with the Hungarian choir, like the tracks exploration and party. They're all gibberish with hints of French and Latin. I'm pretty sure this will be on my player all this week and perhaps the next.
Here's a sample of the one of my favorite songs:

Gamestop and the Recession Blues

Posted by Adam Johnson Jul 28, 2009 0 comments













During these tough economic times it's really hard to plunk down fifty or sixty clams for a new game. I mean, for that kind that kind of money you could get yourself a full skid of tomato soup or a really nice blanket.


This may be surprising, but the stingy misers over at Gamestop (aka EB Games) have realized that when you don't have money to give to them, they don't have money to give to their CEOs and stockholders. This would explain their motive to drop the price on a stack of generally well-reviewed titles, spanning all platforms, most selling to sweet tune of $20 (for a "new" copy, even cheaper for used).

I cherry picked the lot for you, and here is what I found...

PS3/360 Games

Street Fighter 4
$20

F.E.A.R.2: Project Origin
$20

Prince of Persia
$20

Sonic Unleashed
$20

Bionic Commando
$20

Star Wars: Force Unleashed
$20

Mirror's Edge
$20

Ninja Gaiden 2
$20

LEGO Batman
$20

The Simpsons Game
$20

Wii

*note that almost every good Wii game is for sale.

Madworld
$20

Donkey Kong Jungle Beat
$20

Excite Bots
$20

Wario Land Shake It!
$20

Wii Music
$20

Deadly Creatures
$20

De Blob
$20

House of the Dead 2 & 3 Returns
$20

Animal Crossing City Folk
$20

Have fun gaming and enjoy your savings! Just make sure you have enough cash left over for the power bill.











Wow...If you are an animation and game geek, this will totally blow your mind.

Legendary 2D effects animator Michel Gagne is trying his hand at his very own video game.




You may not be familiar with his name but you probably know his work. He was responsible for the fancy whiz-bang explosions in Iron Giant and also animated the "tasting" scene in Ratatouille.

I'm absolutely astounded that he's managed to craft this gorgeous looking game in his time away from working at Pixar. All the footage shown in the trailer is claimed to be in-game. If this is indeed true, Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet will be the benchmark in 2D gaming for years and years to come.

Gagne is still in the process of shopping this title around to publishers and financial partners, so a solid release date and platform have yet to be determined.

For the love of god, I hope someone bites on this. It would be a crime for this game to become vaporware!

GAMEBINO Review: 'Splosion Man

Posted by Adam Johnson Jul 26, 2009 0 comments











Why is it so damn fun to compare video games to food? Wha?” You say? Let me get you up to speed…

-Gears of War is a steamy plate of beef ravioli, smothered in red sauce.
-Wii Sports is a basket of chips and salsa you get while waiting on your entrees.
-Braid is a glass of dry red wine.
-Halo 3 is ramen noodles (something you can live off of for months).

Splosion Man, the latest from Twisted Pixel (of The Maw fame) is a delicious game that’s good for what ails those hungry for a fresh new take on the classic 2D platformer.

So what exactly makes this such a tasty dish? Perfectly seasoned game play is a good start. Tactile, responsive controls are crucial to platformers, something that the folks behind this game obviously get. Remember how fun it was to simple run around and jump off stuff in Mario 64? That same sentiment is found in Splosion Man, a game that’s character has but only one proper “move." Hit any of the XBOX 360 controllers face buttons and Splosion Man will do what he was born to do, “‘Splode!” ‘Sploding off the walls, vending machines, platforms, and unlucky mad scientists inspires a giddy sort of joy that only comes along in video games ever so often. The core mechanics are so fun to play that you wont mind getting hung up on some of the later levels.


A key ingredient in a good platformer recipe is an appealing protaganist that the game will undoubtedly be named after. In Splosion Man you wont find any stuffed animals with plasma rifles or cute and cuddly babies made out of burlap sacks. Twisted Pixel opted for a homely, slaphappy screwball made of magma that delights in blowing himself and everything within eight-feet to complete smithereens. For a video game character,Splosion Man has a lot of, well…character. S-Man’s animation library is more expansive than any game character in recent memory and borders on Hollywood quality. Splosion Man is more Bugs or Daffy than Mario or Sonic.

Sure Splosion Man plays and looks great, but what glues the entire experience together is the games cheeky and unpredictable humor that draws from both past and present eras of comedy. The game’s “escaped monster reeks havoc on creators” premise conjures up the spirit of golden age cartoons while stuff like the in-game song “Everybody Likes Donuts” is like something straight from Adult Swim. The gags never turn stale and the laughs lead up to a jaw-dropping crescendo of an ending that would make Hideo Kojima blush. Gamers will talk about it for years.


So if Splosion Man was a food what would it be? Perhaps it’s a bit early to say, but it would definitely be something scrumptious that will have you coming back for seconds.











Hi everyone. Welcome to Addicted to Media's This Week's Addiction. This week, all I had on my mind, and my 360, was Battlefield: 1943. The game which is available for xbla, psn, and pc costs about 15 dollars. And from my experiences, is worth every penny. Even though it's not as in-depth or as customizable as other shooters there's still plenty here to keep you invested until the next COD comes out.

There are only four maps, one which is an all airplane map, and sometimes match making just plain sucks, but the ability to join up with squads that my friends are in makes me smile. The vehicular combat is pretty fun for the most part. I haven't really got the hang of flying yet, but I think there's a reason the designers made flying so difficult. Oh, and I especially like launching the air raids.



The ground vehicles roll pretty smooth; it's pretty awesome jumping in a movie jeep grabbing the mini gun and mowing down enemies. But what I really enjoy are the quiet parts. I love defending a base and, even though there's no activity around me, hiding in an vacant building waiting for someone to try and take the base.

The game rewards the player heavily for playing smart. If you come out guns blazin' you probably won't get too many points between re-spawns. And you need your points to level up, although leveling up doesn't really do anything as far as I can tell. My best strategy is to pick a place, post up, and if it gets a little to hot to hold the fort, skip to the next one. Firefights rarely pay off, I prefer to lay low. Maybe that's just my style.


When you can get a good match, this game is worth every penny. When you can't it's still fun to putz around world wreaking your own havock. For me this game is a budget conscious alternative to COD. I can still get my fix of combat without killing my wallet. And although it can be a time-sink, I can pick up a match here or there, and I don't have to devote a huge amount of time to learning it. So, go get it. I'm hooked.

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