Having seen Natal in action back when 3DV (the creators of the original technology) was still pimping the tech on their own, I am really excited about the possibilities. As dumb as it may sound, I really want to use the Natal as a remote for my media center, because waving your hands in the air to change channels or turn the volume up and down on your television IS THE FRICKIN' FUTURE.

Capcom first teased you about Natal possibilities back in September '09 during Tokyo Game Show, when Inafune-san appeared on a panel of "Natal creators" along with Kojima and that weirdly orange guy who made the Yakuza game for Sega. Insafune-san didn't say much then, just as Christian doesn't say much in this snippet from a longer G4 interview he did during CES:

"I think you'll see again a brand focus on what we're doing there [on Natal], perhaps a brand we haven't seen in a while," he said with a coy smile, as Capcom public relations eyeballed us. "That's exciting."

It's true, we were eyeballing the hell out of him, 'cause Christian likes to drop the megaton on unsuspecting journalists just to see later what the internet makes out of his sekrits.

If you really want to be frustrated and confused over his very, very vague wordage, check out the rest of his coyness on G4.

Honestly, you will never, ever, EVER guess which franchise it is, but you will freak out when we finally announce.

Thanks, G4, for 'shopping our logo over a Natal unit so that I didn't have to!

You may look at this picture and think, "I know this dude is, like, totally awesome, but I can't exactly put my finger on the reason why." Some may cite his blow dryer-perfect mullet. Others would point to his acid-washed jeans, casually propped in a devil-may-care, anti-authoritarian posture atop his proto-IKEA shelf/desk mashup. Few would wonder why he's missing the extended pinky to complete the obvious Mahalo move he's trying so hard to casually pull off. But the truth is that this young neomaxizoomdweebie is clearly the 80s greatest fan of Capcom's Duck Tales, one of our lost gems of the NES Era, a game so popular that even Warren Spector wants to do another one.

Check it: promotional Duck Tales poster on the wall, which receives much more prevalent positioning than what appears to be a Contra poster on the opposing wall. Pristine Duck Tales NES box propped on the table in front of the TV. And, most importantly, Scrooge McDuck bouncing away on his pogo cane right there on the screen. So tubular, it nearly defies description.

Thanks to Very Demotivational for making my mid-afternoon websurfing seem mildly productive instead of the usual total waste of time and brain cells.

Interested in learning how you get from this:

To this?

Check out my photodocumentary, detailing the process of playing with my incredible new Soul Of Chogokin giant robot toy. What does this have to do with Capcom? Nothin'. But it's pretty rad if you're a toy/anime/video game/robot fan. Hit the More button to see the entire process

While in Tokyo for TGS, I hit up a couple amazing toy stores, but ended up spending most of my toy dollars at a BIC Camera near Tokyo Station, which is a bit like doing all your toy shopping at a Best Buy or Fry's. Thankfully, Japan loves its toys and models, so even an electronics retail chain like BIC carries a huge amount of robot-y goodness. I'm only going to post a few key pics here, as it may become overkill quickly. If you're a masochist and want to see the entire process, check out the entire pictorial here.

As soon as I saw this box, I knew I needed to own this toy. For those not in the know, read up on the high quality, insanely detailed Soul of Chogokin toys here. This particular set features two robots, Dygenguar (blue) and Ausenseiter (black), who, it turns out, were created for the Bandai Super Robot Taisen series of games. I had no idea who these two robots were, but BIC had them in a glass case and I was immediately sold. The set was pricey -- no PSPGo for me in the near future, for sure -- but the quality of the Soul of Chogokin line makes it worthwhile.

Straight out the box, you can see there's no foolin' with the packaging. These two robots are practically in jail. Note the careful packaging of all the additional pieces.

Step 1 was freeing the two robots. Dygenguar was moved to the side, as there wasn't really anything to do with him for almost an hour.

Next up was beginning the Ausenseiter transformation from robot to horse form. Thankfully, there's an incredibly detailed manual, which shows every step of the process. Unfortunately, it is in Japanese. Time to follow the pictures and make a lot of somewhat-educated, slightly panic-y guesses!

The head pops off (literally) and the chest piece is removed. Then the arms and shoulders swing out, down and back. There were lots of scary cracking noises at this step. Visions of 1000 Yen bills with wings on them flew out of my terrified head.

The legs bend back and fit into a clip-on piece that holds them together, while the entire top half of the robot flips out, down and backwards. Getting the legs clipped together was a bigger pain than I would have expected.

The head, legs and mane piece are added. While it looks really cool, this is definitely not a toy that encourages people to touch it, as the parts are pretty wobbly. And pokey -- those am some pointy knees.

With shields and stirrups attached, Ausenseiter is connected to the stand for a dramatic, rearing pose. Love the flowing plastic mane and tail. Drama!

At this point, I'd been sweating away on this project for about an hour. Randy Reyes (Double-R) dropped by to see what I was up to and ended up basically taking over from this point on. There was much nerdy laughter between the two of us as we fondly remembered attempting the awkward transformation of the Mospeada (Robotech) Cyclone motorcycle armor.

Good, but not yet finished. Dygenguar really needs something to complete his formal battle wear.

This rubber cape and collar should provide just the extra awesomeness needed!

Yep, that did it. Randy and I then decide to switch Dygenguar's hands so that he could hold a giant (sharp!) sword with his right hand while gesturing dramatically with his right. This process has now taken so long that Gerald and Sven have wandered into my office and begun playing Monster Hunter Freedom Unite and yelling at me to hurry up so I can hunt with them.

Done! Incredibly, this toy comes with a base that holds EVERY SINGLE PIECE that comes in the set, allowing you store all additional swords, hands, guns, bits and bobs together. Notice Sven does not care, as he is mining for ore. Dork.

Dygenguar and Ausenseiter join the much more forgiving Yatter-Wan and Yatter-Pelican on my desk, next to my helpfully labelled Xboxes.

It's got nothing to do with nothing going on here at Capcom, but if you grew up with Tatsunoko's Battle of the Planets, you probably also fondly remember Star Blazers, aka Space Cruiser Yamato. There have been a number of Yamato movies and TV shows in Japan over the years, but this new one looks pretty cool, incorporating CG space battles alongside traditional anime artistry. When I was younger, I had an incredible Yamato toy that was over a foot long and had a firing Wave Motion Gun, but my ditzy girlfriend at the time bumped it off its stand and smashed it. *sigh* I actually remember that toy more fondly than the girl.

Thanks to awesome sci-fi blog io9 for pointing this out!

Subcribers to EDGE Magazine recently received an amazing gift with their latest issue: a poster of a pixelated city being overrun by various video game characters, vehicles, monsters and settings. There are a ton of Capcom references in this poster, as you can see in the image above. While perusing the unfortunately low-quality image on their site, I also picked out Sir Arthur, Viewtiful Joe and Frank West. This poster is proof positive that there will always be a place for printed magazines. Mebbe you should subscribe?