Natalia brings you the latest news on Adele’s interview with Anderson Cooper, Kristen Bell’s interview on Ellen is auto tuned, Ladyhawke’s latest music video and much more!
Natalia discusses what’s new with Pharrell Williams and her thoughts on Karl Lagerfeld’s mean comments towards Adele’s weight. She also shows a roster of animals behaving like humans and, wait until you see the new size of coffee available at Starbucks!
Natalia dishes the latest news on the Juno Awards nominees, the upcoming Spiderman 3D film starring Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield and is Katy Perry hooking up with Tim Tebow? Watch today’s episode to find out.
When The Kooks are in the studio they’re focused and most importantly, sober. Watch Hugh and Luke explain their reasoning below.
The Kooks released a new album called “Junk of the Heart,” and you would think Hugh and Luke would be very excited about it. Well, they seemed rather indifferent to be honest. We spoke about that and why they don’t care about critics.
Natalia dishes the latest in entertainment news on Joan Rivers, Lana Del Rey and a brand new trailer for the movie Hunger Games.
Natalia talks about how Snooki might be pregnant, Nicolas Cage’s Cage Rage, Elisabetta Canalis is dating Steve-O and more for Feb 1, 2012.
Natalia dishes the news on Miley Cyrus breaking her tailbone, a 100 year old woman who plays the Nintendo DS to stay young and Houston, Texas contemplating a statute of Beyonce.
David Beckham debuts a new line of underwear, the worst dressed celebrity – Shy’m and Matthew Broderick is back as Ferris Bueller with a brand new commercial airing during the Super Bowl on Feb 5th 2012.
Daniel Radcliffe is back with his new movie The Woman In Black. It’s a bone chilling remake of a film from the ’80s. Ironically, Daniel actually scares very easily but he’s not afraid of ghosts. In this interview he tells us what really gives him the creeps.
Next time you’re struggling to make conversation, try asking this question: “If you could invite anyone (living or dead) to the perfect house party, who would it be?”
Graffiti6 is starting to make their North American invasion, and they are hitting up the Tonight Show. Does this sound familiar? Well the Beatles made the exact same journey over 40 years ago. Naturally, @jordans_life had to make some comparisons.
Nick plays World of Warcraft. Not only that, he’s the head of his guild, demonstrating that it IS possible to juggle being a hardcore gamer with being a top-selling recording artist.
During a LIVE interview on andPOP.com Nick Carter gave out a number and took phone calls from his fans. These were real phone calls from real fans who we gave exclusive access to one of the biggest recording artists of our generation.
There were great questions about music, fitness, the backstreet boys but the most popular question, however, was about his underwear. In this clip Nick talks about his his ‘Haynes’ and covering his fans with glow in the dark paint.
When releasing new music today, half the battle is online promotion. However, contests, signed merch and giveaways aren’t always the best solutions. When working on their latest album, Hedley came up with a brilliant idea, they decided to make trailers.
It’s hard to prepare for an interview with Hedley. So in this interview, we threw caution to the wind, got a 24 of beer and broadcast the interview live on our USTREAM (andPOP.tv). Eventually Jacob, Dave and @jordans_life ended up talking about hairy legs, their newest music video and more.
Diamandis from Marina and The Diamonds talks to us about her very serious disease. It’s called synaesthetic. And we lied, it’s not a disease. More like a cool condition. Diamandis explains further.
Would you be embarrassed if someone scrolled through your iPod? We sit down with Spee and Brendan to talk about the diverse music on their playlist.
Marina and The Diamonds are working on some new music, but Marina is being very secretive about it. Although the release has been delayed, she let’s us in on some secrets about the new album, and how alcohol changed her life.
What can be said about Nickelodeon’s Spongebob Squarepants featuring Nicktoons: Globs of Doom that couldn’t be said about any other past Spongebob game? This title, recently released under THQ’s new casual gaming label Play THQ, is more of a Nicktoons game in general than a flat out Spongebobber. With 10 characters to choose from, two from Spongebob Squarepants, two from Danny Phantom, two from Tak’s world, Jimmy Neutron, and Invader Zim, each world takes one good guy and one bad guy and teams them up in bizzaro cartoon fashion. And it’s not like Spongebob and Plankton team up, oh no, you get all sorts of wacky combinations like Spongebob and Beautiful, or Dib and Traloc. If these names don’t mean much to you, perhaps this isn’t the game you should be playing this holiday season.
The story begins with Spongebob and Squidworth walking down the street, orange goo falls on Bikini Bottom and lands on Squidworth, turning him into a zombie. Before you can say holy tahitos, Jimmy Neutron comes out of nowhere grabs Spongebob and takes him into a portal leading to Jimmy’s secret lab where all heroes and villains from Nickleodon are already waiting and apparently know each other. You are then given a special Mawgu gadget specific to each character (bubble blower for spongebob, Plunger of Doom for Zim, etc) and sent to go stop this orange goo invasion, known as the globs of doom.
The game plays easily as a button mashing romp down familiar paths, walk a bit, beat up orange things, break boxes, repeat. Simple for the little kids and mind-numbingly repetitive for the older folks playing along. You do have the option of changing between characters if your health gets low however (in single player mode). I was surprised with the control layout for this game though, and mostly in a good way. With most games that are available both on Wii and other systems, the developers think it to be a good idea to toss in some random wiimote actions to make it worth buying on the Wii instead of another system, looking through the manual and playing the game it turns out you don’t need to point, shake or swoop the wiimote or nunchuck to play this game as its all controlled by buttons. While some fans might think this to be a lazy cop-out, I found it refreshing to not be frustrated by pointless movement that breaks up the flow of a game… that is until I came across the special moves known as gadget combos. In these gadget combos you must move your wiimote in the shape and direction shown on the screen whether it be a simple up and down or an upside down four shape, before the time runs out. And if you are playing in two player mode, two different shapes must be achieved. I would be fine with this if it wasn’t for the fact that the game could not pick up a simple up down movement let alone anything else, and most times I try to do a combo it takes four or five attempts. Now, I’m a 24 year old university graduate, and if it frustrated me, how is it going to be handled by the kids that this game was developed for? (I hope they can’t get it on their first try for the sake of my ego).
Now, we all know how hard it is to improve the graphics if they’re attached to simple drawn cartoons, however, with the technology we have today, one would hope that the ability to replicate cartoon animation in a playable game was an option. That being said, the cutscenes look great, 3D smooth animations of familiar characters are well done and feel like improvements for some (such as Spongebob) and what they should be for others (such as Tak and Jimmy Neutron). The gameplay graphics are nice for a gamecube or PS2 game, but otherwise I feel the graphics engine could use a revamp, after all, this game is new for 2009 (so says the sticker on the box), not a rehash of 2002. Soundwise the game is what we could all expect, voices used in the shows (they’re on contract after all), music used from the shows, and sound effects common to all cartoons around the globe. It would have been nice to have more one-liners to avoid repetition, but the amount given is more than I expected in the first place, so I’m happy with it, it’s just extra annoying when your at a part that kills you if you jump into the water and at that part, one character makes a specific quip. So if you die 4 times, you hear the same comment 4 times… Otherwise, sounds pretty good for a game that falls flat on other aspects.
In terms of lasting appeal, you can go one player and switch characters or have a second player jump in or out at their discretion. As well, players can collect coins (red, blue or gold) to save up and upgrade their weapons, strength, speeds, life and so on. While this doesn’t physically make anything look cooler, it will help players in future levels. A final aspect to keep the game going are hidden trophies strewn throughout the cartoon worlds that allow players to go back and find them to get that 100% completion feeling in the pit of their prepubescent tummies.
All in all, if you’re a Nicktoon fan and have a Wii, pick up this title, if you’re looking for the perfect Christmas gift for a child between the ages of 6- 12 (or higher) that has a Wii, PS2, or DS, this might be the best bet you have going. Or if you enjoy a simple colourful mash-em-up casual title with screechy voices, hey, why not pick up Nickelodeon’s Spongebob Squarepants featuring Nicktoons: Globs of Doom?
Gameplay: 3.5/5
Graphics: 3.0/5
Sound: 2.5/5
Replay Value: 3.0/5
It couldn’t have happened to his pineapple under the sea, but over the weekend vandals set fire to a SpongeBob playhouse.
The children’s playhouse was one of seven being sold as a fundraiser for a Habitat for Humanity house in Aurora, Ontario.
Marlene Johnston, communications chair for the Habitat for Humanity York Region, said that the fire and subsequent loss of the SpongeBob home will only further delay building a home for a family in need.
“SpongeBob, a popular character with the younger ones, is an enthusiastic and optimistic hero, who always looks on the bright side of life,” Johnston said.
“It is important for the Habitat team to be optimistic that their fundraising goals can be met. The time, money, energy, effort and sheer joy that the donors and volunteers put into this project should not go unnoticed. It will just take longer and we will have to work harder.”
The committee plans to rebuild the SpongeBob home and put it up for raffle again. Funds raised from the raffle will go toward building a home for a family.
Pictured is John Volpe, President of Habitat for Humanity York Region (courtesy of Habitat for Humanity)
