The announcement a lot of people have been waiting for:

LucasArts to Unleash the Force on the Wii in Spring 2008

Star Warsâ„¢: The Force Unleashedâ„¢ Coming to Nintendo’s Platform with Exclusive Duel Mode

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – Sept. 18, 2007 – LucasArts today revealed that Star Warsâ„¢: The Force Unleashedâ„¢ will come to the Wiiâ„¢ home videogame system from Nintendo next spring, offering owners the unique chance to live out their Jedi fantasies by wielding the Wii Remoteâ„¢ as a lightsaber while using the Nunchukâ„¢ controller to torment foes with their Forceâ„¢ powers.

The Force Unleashed casts players as Darth Vader’s “Secret Apprentice” and promises to unveil new revelations about the Star Wars galaxy. The game’s expansive story is set during the largely unexplored era between Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope. In it, players will assist the iconic villain in his quest to rid the universe of Jedi – and face decisions that could change the course of their destiny.

The Wii version, in development by Krome Studios, will also add an exclusive duel mode in which players can compete head-to-head with their friends to determine the ultimate Jedi Master.

“The Wii is a great platform for The Force Unleashed, because the console’s motion-oriented controllers really bring the game to life,” said Jim Ward, President of LucasArts. “We’ve worked hard to make the Wii version of the game unique in order to truly let you unleash the Force.”

Now the questions begin. Will “Duel Mode” be online compatible? Will players duel with their Mii’s or in-game characters? Will you be able to customize those characters? If both duel members are playing on the same system, will they face the screen or each other? Will I be able to find a Wii? Will I get one for Christmas? Will Carter dig this game as much as I will?

Important questions, all of them. Maybe some answers will be revealed at the official Star Wars: The Force Unleashed site or perhaps I must pursue other avenues or information.

I’ve had a few questions/comments on using Custom Styles with FCK Editor, so here’s a style that I created that will format any link you apply it to as a red button that changes color on mouse over.

Add this CSS to the fck.css and portal.css files in you PORTALS folder.

/* Both variations --a.color-- and --span.color a--
    are needed to handle DNN's span applications
    not being consistent */

.red_button, a.red_button:link, a.red_button:visited,
 span.red_button a, span.red_button a:link,
 span.red_button a:visited {
        font-weight: bold;
	font-size:10px;
	color: #FFF;
	background-color:#C00;
	padding:4px 8px;
	text-decoration: none;
	border-top: 1px solid #DFDFDF;
	border-left: 1px solid #DFDFDF;
	border-bottom: 1px solid #333;
	border-right: 1px solid #333;
	}

a:hover span.red_button,
span.red_button a:hover {
	background-color:#900;
	border-top: 1px #31557f solid;
	border-left: 1px #31557f solid;
	border-bottom: 1px #666666 solid;
	border-right: 1px #666666 solid;
	text-decoration:none
}

Be sure to add the following to the fck.xml file, to append the style to the menu in the FCK editor.

<Style name="red_button" element="span">
  <Attribute name="class" value="red_button" />
</Style>

Hope this helps, post any questions in the comments.

Superman Clone (Kel) from the 41st Century in the Legion of Super Heroes Season 2

A few preview images have popped up over at Comic Book Resources for the Season 2 premiere of Legion of Super Heroes. The Legion looks older, which is a move that surprises me. I would have thought the younger kids/teen Legion would market better. I do know, the older Legion presented here looks more interesting to me. The premise for Season2 has a few interesting tidbits, like a clone of Superman from the 41st Century–Legion is set in the 31st. He recruits the Legion to help him battle Imperiex, who actually follows the Superman clone to the 31st century and gathers all of the Legion’s villains into an army. Lots of heroes and lots of villains – cool.

Eddie Brock from the new Spectacular Spider-Man animated seriesNext up, be sure to check out the ENI interview with Spectacular Spider-Man animated series director Victor Cook. He offers up a few bits of interesting information, but the highlight of the article are the character drawings featuring the main cast. They’ve done a great job in updating the characters while retaining the uniqueness of that character.

For instance, look at Eddie Brock. Counting the original, the Ultimate Spider-Man version, and the Spider-Man 3 version, that’s 3 different version of the character the series could have adapted. Instead, the version on the left looks like a perfect melding of those versions. He’s big and bulky like the original, but young like the Ultimate version. I always liked the huge Venom as opposed to the mirror image of Spider-Man that the film portrayed. He’s more menacing and threatening. Can’t wait for this show to premiere later in the year. It’s previewed so well, the original season has been extended from 13 to 26 episodes. Be sure to check out the rest of the images at ENI.

Finally, I just now discovered this Season 5 interview with the Teen Titans animated series head writers. It’s full of information on the fifth and final season and answered a lot of questions. The fifth season was always planned as the last, but 20 episodes were originally ordered instead of the typical 13. If you’re a fan of the Cartoon Network Teen Titans show, it’s definitely worth a read.