You won’t be disappointed.

So take that you pansies that always selected Maka Wuhu!

The update is available on the eShop and starting 5/16/12 players will be required to have it to play online.

For $4.99 you can get Lightning’s Story: Tears of the Goddess, which hopefully resolves that “To be continued…” issue with Final Fantasy XIII-2. Clearing it gives you… Lightning as a playable character! But wait, most people already have Lightning as a playable character. Don’t worry, this is a different Lightning, the goddess version that you saw throughout the game. Not that old soldier Lightning who vaguely reminded me of General Celes.

Next up, for $3.99, you can snag Snow’s Story: Perpetual Battlefield, which involves Snow fighting in the Coliseum to get to Serah. Perhaps this also deals with the end of FFXIII-2? Upon completing it you get Snow in your party. I assume “spikey haired Snow” and not “douchebag hat” Snow.

Check back for reviews of these bad boys later!

So, as you may have noticed, our old friend Carlos Chinchilla has not been writing for Sestren for quite some time. Neither has Andrew Stevens. This is because these two have gone on to add a gaming section the entertainment site Fanbolt.

So where does that leave us?

Well, I (Jonathan Patrick) will be taking the helm of Sestren. Anyone that had been “writing for Sestren” that wasn’t originally a member of Sestren is long gone (and will not be coming back). We now have a whole new stable of contributors to the front end, and they are as follows:

Basil Berchekas
Expertise: Anything Nintendo and anime
About: Basil will not only be contributing to the front end, but he has also taken over the Sestren DreamCast (our podcast). The first one has been recorded and should be going up in the near future, so look forward to that!

Jake Bell:
Expertise: Horror games
About: Jake is a huge fan of horror games and I suspect that will be what he focuses on here. His favorite franchises include Silent Hill, Splatterhouse, and Fatal Frame. He’s also a huge fan of Suda51.

Adam Bowers
Expertise: Movies, TV, Sports, Gears of War, and Halo
About:  Adam actually isn’t new, and has been a contributor since damn near the beginning of our front end. He will continue to primarily focus on television and movies (aka “entertainment”), but I imagine he will have opinions to voice on various games as time goes on.

Dave McCormick
Expertise: Movies, Sega, Microsoft, FPS, Halo, snowboarding, jet skiing, beer
About: Dave is a huge fan of Halo, in fact, probably one of the biggest Halo fans you will ever meet. He is also currently employed as a “mad scientist”, so hopefully in between killing folks online in Halo and his pursuits in biological transmogrification he’ll have some nice articles to kick out our way.

Rodrigo Torrubia
Expertise: Movies, TV, Sports, Theme Parks, Nintendo, PS3
About: Rodrigo is actually fairly well known as a movie reviewer in Mexico and also has a solid amount of experience as a video game journalist.  And thankfully, he’s going to be bringing that all that experience to Sestren to make it that much better!

And that’s it, that’s the new crew! So look forward to great new things from Sestren as we move forward, and check back often this week as I’m going to attempt to keep things jumping this first week of the brand new Sestren!

So… +1 for Nintendo’s somewhat obscure Western development team.

Summer is coming earlier and earlier every year apparently. The day might come when the blockbuster season for hollywood is no longer called by that season, replaced by spring. Or maybe seasons have nothing to do with it anymore, and simply, big releases and box office wonders are dictated by a far more interesting phenomena than kids being out of school: kids reading books.

The Hunger Games, based on the book by Suzanne Collins, take place in the futuristic world of Panem, where districts once rebelled against the government established in the Capitol, and now, 74 years later, are both blood sport and government oppression tool. A boy and a girl, between 12 and 18 years of age, will combat the representatives from other districts in mortal combat. The last one standing is the victor.

Katniss Everdeen takes care of her family. Is a grown woman, despite not being of age, and looks after her sister Prim, since the death of her father and their mother’s struggles to cope with it have both Everdeen siblings fighting for their survival.

Against all odds, only on her first year of eligibility, Prim is drafted to the games. Katniss quickly jumps out of the crowd, and volunteers to be District 12′s tribute instead. And so begins the journey to the arena, one that is more complex than initially advertised, and that has more to it than other manhunt movies done before.

For some, The Hunger Games might feel a bit slow. I believe the pacing is solid, very steady, and needs to take its time to build the place where these kids will face each other. The games might give the story its name, but its the outer world that gives it all its character and importance.

Its difficult for a movie to squeeze in all the context and themes included in a book of such density as this one. This is not Twilight. The political themes, social analysis and family issues all make their way to the screen, and do it with strength and conviction, giving the characters even more depth.

The casting has been superb. Jennifer Lawrence is a great leading lady, and the whole ensemble, which includes Donald Sutherland, Stanley Tucci, Woody Harrelson and yes, Lenny Kravitz, are charismatic and effective. I was, however, extremely surprised by Josh Hutcherson’s performance. His character, Peeta, is very difficult. Here you have a desperate underdog, who understands the odds are against him, and is driven to survive, yet, he never abandons his real self, and puts ethics before anything else. He pulls it off convincingly, and in my opinion, steals the show.

Sometimes, the art direction reminded me a lot of Speed Racer by the Wachowski Brothers, but I don’t mean this in a bad way. While in speed racer too much color, broadcast booth shots and overall speed affected the movie in a bad way, in Hunger Games, the colorful takes and big brother-ish elements are only present when needed, and in a much understated, powerful way that really help the viewer get immersed.

In the end, The Hunger Games is a very good exercise in book adaptation. It reminds us that a popular franchise doesn’t have to stumble on its way to a screen. It can move millions while bringing quality and freshness to the table. Lionsgate has a monster in its hands. Now the challenge is ensuring the second installment is even better than the first.

Score: 4.5/5

Admittedly, the early parts of the 3DS’s life weren’t quite the smashing success Nintendo had hoped they’d be. Hell, they weren’t the smashing success consumers had hoped they would be. Coming out at an awkward time (i.e. nowhere near a holiday season), with a less than stellar launch line-up, and with a fairly commanding price for a handheld, the 3DS certainly seemed to struggle out the gate. As far as the launch line-up went, it was hard to find much beyond Pilot Wings Resort, Steel Diver, and Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars, and once the launch was over it was months before any other major releases came out (though some nice filler came out to kill the time with in the meantime).

But many of us early adopters never gave up on the dream. One day we knew we would have our new Mario, our new Mario Kart, our Resident Evil (ahem, the good one), and a plethora of other titles to enjoy in our glorious glasses free 3D world. But it was a long and, quite frankly, tumultuous wait before we would get to that point. The biggest shock came when Nintendo announced that they would be cutting the price by $80, a fairly dramatic cut for a system that hadn’t been out for half a year yet, and a move that had many people wondering if the 3DS was doomed to become the next Virtual Boy.

Of course, during the time of the price cut things weren’t exactly going bad for 3DS owners. The eShop finally opened up on June 6th and during the summer we got The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D as well as Star Fox 64 3D. Nintendo also made peace with the early adopters by bestowing them with 20 ports of classic NES/GBA games. Of course, some of the choices for these games left me scratching my head (Yoshi’s Cookie? Mario Golf? Mario Kart: Super Circuit on a system that just got Mario Kart 7?), but regardless, it was a nice gesture.

Of course, once Christmas hit all of the doom and gloom was pretty much gone. Earlier in the year the 3DS had gotten ports of N64 classics The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Star Fox 64, but around the holiday season, we finally received what we had been wanting all along: Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7. And to be sure, they did not disappoint one bit. Nintendo also snuck in some downloadable gaming goodness with a wonderful title named Pushmo that had critics abuzz. And those rumors of Nintendo killing off the 3DS? Gone, since the 3DS’s sales numbers had surpassed the original DS during the same time frame.

And more recently, Resident Evil: Revelations and Kid Icarus: Uprising have graced the 3DS, giving it one final injection of excellence before celebrating its first birthday.

So in retrospect, how did the 3DS fare during year one? Well, I challenge you to reflect on the first years of other handheld systems and consider how they compare. Personally, I think the 3DS’s first year runs circles around those of any other Nintendo handheld (at the very least), so I would say that Year One has been an absolute success, and now I anticipate what all greatness will be coming to the 3DS in Year Two.

And now for my personal 3DS stats. Feel free to share your own on our boards!!!

JP’s Records:
Steps Taken: 193,300
Titles Played: 107

Top 10 For Time Played:
1. SMT: Devil Survivor Overclocked (54:36)
2. Tales of the Abyss (50:47)
3. Ocarina of Time 3D (40:22)
4. Mario Kart 7 (39:40)
5. Fire Emblem (34:25)
6. Super Mario 3D Land (31:27)
7. Resident Evil Mercenaries (25:43)
8. Super Street Fighter IV (23:53)
9. Shinobi (23:24)
10. Pilot Wings Resort (22:21)

Top 10 Play Frequency
1. Internet Browser (144)
2. StreetPass Mii Plaza (122)
3. Notifications (86)
4. Mario Kart 7 (74)
5. Friend List (70)
6. Super Mario 3D Land (69)
7. SMT: Devil Survivor Overclocked (67)
8. Nintendo eShop (63)
9. MGS Snake Eater 3D (58)
10. Super Street Fighter IV (50)

Top 10 Average Time Played:
1. Donkey Kong (GB) (1:45)
2. Zelda II (1:41)
3. Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX (1:36)
4. Ocarina of Time 3D (1:33)
5. The Legend of Zelda (1:23)
6. Netflix (1:19)
7. Tales of the Abyss (1:13)
8. Kid Icarus: Uprising (1:12)
9.  Metroid Fusion (1:09)
10.  Gargoyle’s Quest (1:04)

The collection will consist of three games: Wonderboy, Wonderboy in Monster World, and the previously unreleased in the U.S., Wonderboy IV.

Also, info recently leaked about another upcoming collection from Sega titled the Alex Kidd Vintage Collection. Bizarrely, the collection is set to only include one Alex Kidd game, the details are as follows:
“Experience a blast from past with this collection of classic Sega titles! Save kingdoms, shatter time trials, and destroy evil in Alex Kidd in Miracle World, Super Hang-on, and The Revenge of Shinobi! Now available on Xbox LIVE, Alex Kidd & Company have been updated with all new achievements, challenging new trial modes, and other goodies like recordable and downloadable game sessions, 3D mode in Super Hang-on, in game juke boxes, and the original Japanese dialogue! ”

Anyways, now for screenshots from the Wonderboy Vintage Collection:

As for the previously announced Wii U version, THQ confirmed Death will wreak havoc on Nintendo’s new console on day one, so all of you Zelda fans won’t have to wait much longer for some dungeon crawling. Among the features for this version is the ability to switch weapons on the fly, thanks to the Wii U’s touchscreen capabilities.

Without further ado, here’s the horseman.