Geek of Oz

In years past, gaming franchises such as Nintendo's Mario Brothers and Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog managed to infiltrate the mainstream. Hell, the Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo Super Mario Brothers film won multiple awards after its release and gained worldwide theatrical release.  Sure, everyone has heard of the Super Mario Brothers but not all of those people will be fans of the property. Bioware's Mass Effect, however, seems somewhat more restricted to current gaming fans and RPG fans at that. Regardless of how subversive the fan base seems to be, the Mass Effect franchise is a best selling, multiple award winner and continues to be a fan favourite to this day. Enter Mass Effect: Paragon Lost, a bridge between Mass Effect 2 and 3. It tells the tale of Alliance Marine James Vega and his elite squadron who are posted to a remote colony and tasked to combat the "Collector" invaders. Of course, things don't go according to plan.

On Wednesday the 5th of September 2012, the official Twitter account of Bioware's latest anime outing, Mass Effect: Paragon Lost, reported that there is going to be a 6 week delay in the DVD and Blu Ray release in the US. The newly revised release date, 28th December 2012, is well outside of the current Australian release date and while no confirmation is yet available from Madman we can only speculate that this revised release date in the US will see a local release possibly pushed back to early 2013.

As always, Sly from Madman kept the crowd well and truly entertained at SMASH! On top of a number of acquisition announcements, Sly gave away a Fullmetal Alchemist: Sacred Star of Milos signed by Miki Shin-Ichiro and a Cardcaptor Sakura poster signed by Sakura Tange. Of course, these goods weren't just given away. They were won, or lost, through a mass game of Jan Ken Pon! Sadly, I didn't even attempt to win. Although I would have loved a poster (the Cardcaptor Sakura one looked awesome), my Jedi training would have given me an unfair advantage. Follow on after the jump for a swag of new releases from Australia's number 1 anime company, Madman!