Aeropodcast #53.

We had actually written off #52 due to several days of technical errors, but Stephen managed to cobble it together. And then #53 went off without a hitch.

Careful listeners may notice the catch in my voice when Haygood suggests that the LittleBigPlanet demo ends Saturday night (podcast night) instead of Sunday night. Thankfully he was incorrect.

Also, I got to bring up some favorites during the Tokyo Game Show segment... No More Heroes, Katamari, Klonoa. And I describe Let's Tap, an upcoming Wii game that uses a cardboard box for a controller. No lie.

And McCain bashing around the hour mark.

What's this "copy" button in LittleBigPlanet? Code for "lying asshat"?

Just before the demo deadline hit today, I noticed the "copy" button available inside a menu panel when you're browsing online user levels. I'm guessing this lets you download an editable copy of that level.

I sure hope that one cannot then re-upload that downloaded level, or else we're going to see thousands of shitheads grabbing the best levels, adding a smiley face sticker, and then publishing it as their own work. Bad, bad moon rising.

Buzz Quiz TV just is not hard enough.

The vast majority of the trivia questions are way too easy. "Which characters were on Buffy? Lana, Willow, Xander, Piper." I've never seen one full episode of that show and I know that. How about "Willow Rosenberg, Willow Vanderschmeer, Xander Foulwill, Laura Palmer"? You know, something to make you actually have to think about answers?

This downgrades most online matches to playing the game, not answering the questions. IE, you win by having the fastest buzzer finger or by smart wagering in the final round. Not by knowing trivia.

Also, online mode has a truly terrible round called All That Apply, where - like the Buffy question - you have multiple correct answers. For some unknowably stupid reason, you can see what the other players are choosing, as the clock ticks down. So guess what everybody does: beginning players ring in right away and have their answers copied... and practiced players either wait until 1 second before stabbing all the buttons, or select all four answers and then turn off the wrong ones just before time runs out. Either way, it is unnecessary and irritating.

IGN clarifies the Animal Crossing DS-to-Wii transfer.

Hey DS players, you get to keep your character, your catalog (IE, the list of what you have unlocked), and your inventory. But not your bells. So it's back to Nook's for you!

I'll restate my hope that City Folk will contain 10x as many items as the DS/GameCube games.

We finished Ben 10: Protector of Earth.

Was a fun little game all the way to the end. Some of the boss fights were a little too obtuse for their own good. But we're living proof that you can roll through this game with a three-year-old on P2 and make it no problem. Yes, there appears to be bonus levels post-credits. And Vilgax survives, the bastard! Way to make the game almost completely inconsequential to series continuity.

Somewhere there exists a less annoying cut of the Ninja Turtles CG movie.

Perfectly fine film. The rooftop-in-the-rain fight looks amazing in HD. I appreciated the bizarre attempt to make the film copacetic to both old school comics fans and animated series fans. Like, they eat pizza in one scene, but they don't go on and on and on about it.

One thing I noticed... in a lot of cases, whenever the turtles had to give one of their silly, action movie cliche lines (like "I love it when they play hard to get!" when chasing a bad guy), the character would either have the back to the camera, be far enough way that there was no distinct lip sync, or otherwise have their face obscured. Could this mean that we can get a "serious" cut without all (most of) the dippy empty-headed pun dialogue?