Final Fantasy IV: The After Years is a scam, but the kind of a scam you're going to be happy to buy in to. For $8, you get about 30% of the game-- the rest is in downloadable chunks that come... when they're ready, apparently, as only part of the game is available today.

Figure of the Day has updated once again! The daily feature on figures you might have but might not-- either way, here's what you've been missing! Spanning from the original Power of the Force series of 1995 to the latest of The Legacy Collection, it's almost like a history lesson!

So what's new this week?

Comedy Is Dead has updated with A Slow Week for Funny, which tells you about key talk show appearances and comedy retail releases. There's also a funny Ice Age poster.

If you like your folk music a) angry, b) from Arizona, and c) on a budget, we assume you are already familiar with Phoenix's favorite sons, Andrew Jackson Jihad. (The band's music has nothing to do with those words.) They're releasing a new album called "Can't Maintain" this Fall, and they posted a few previews and some album art (pictured). You are welcome.

Figure of the Day has updated once again! The daily feature on figures you might have but might not-- either way, here's what you've been missing! Spanning from the original Power of the Force series of 1995 to the latest of The Legacy Collection, it's almost like a history lesson!

From Hasbro's always pleasant PR stooges: "There's a new wave of Marvel Legends 2 Packs on the way in 2010 and you help to decide who's in them. The basics are simple - six total characters, you pick three and we pick three. Sound like fun? Voting for this all new Fan's Choice will start on July 22nd when we reveal all of the possible choices at San Diego Comic Con."

Two new games are up this week for $10/800 points!

Your lone new game this week is Punisher: No Mercy. It's $9.99, unless we were misinformed. From the publisher: "Powered by the latest version of the Unreal Engine, it offers frantic, arcade-style shooting action with a heavy focus on multiplayer modes, supporting up to 8 players online."

A group of games dropped this week. The downloadables are: Capcom Classics Collection Remixed ($19.99), Mind Quiz ($9.99), Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Essentials ($19.99).

Comedy Is Dead has updated with Mollie Sugden, BBC's Mrs. Noah and Mrs. Slocombe, Dead at 86, which pretty much is the story. The British actress was best known as Are You Being Served?'s Mrs. Slocombe, but also the title character of Come Back Mrs. Noah, a much less beloved show about a nice lady who wins a cooking contest and accidentally gets blasted off into space. We haven't seen it in years but it seemed worth bringing up.

Ad: New movie toys are based on the new film and old toys, which may make the Rise of Cobra toy line a good one.

Galactic Hunter has posted a new Q&A column this week! Be sure to click through and read up on the latest!

In a move to make what is quite possibly the most retro thing ever, a group of developers cranked out a very short demo of what the Elec Man stage might look like if it were made for the Atari 2600. If you have an appropriate emulator, go here and grab the file to give it a shot. It's actually really quite impressive, despite being short and the boss being, effectively, impossible so far for us. But we're quite impressed.

They be there! Or somewhere. They've been leaking for over a week, but you should find the entire full suite of G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra products from Hasbro in stores now. These should include a couple dozen action figures, some weird chunky battle figures, numerous vehicles, and a giant playset. The figures are mixes of new molds, movie-inspired parts, and repainted 25th Anniversary figures, so odds are if you like Joes you'll find at least something in the movie range that will appeal to you.

Comedy Is Dead has updated with Road Trip Album Picks Dr. Demento's Basement Tapes #1, a hard-hitting look at something that was actually marketed and consumed as "comedy" about 20 years ago. If nothing else it serves as a pop culture time capsule, and is notable in that a lot of the timely jokes from the release of this CD are still being used by hacks to this very day.

have you been reading our side project, Playmoblog? It's the only English-language Playmobil blog updated with any sense of regularity or, quite possibly, at all. We've added some new content for you to enjoy and/or ignore.

While it isn't known for sure if this will see any North American distribution, the LEGO shop has a link up for a Wind Turbine Transport, which some are speculating is to make up for the exclusive windmill sold a little while back. It's about 59.99 euros, so odds are it'll be close to $60 if/when it hits the USA. If you have friends going overseas, maybe you should ask them to get you one, or keep an eye out on LEGO retail stores for more.

Figure of the Day has updated once again! The daily feature on figures you might have but might not-- either way, here's what you've been missing! Spanning from the original Power of the Force series of 1995 to the latest of The Legacy Collection, it's almost like a history lesson!

In quite possibly one of the most revealing documents to be released concerning sites like this one, VGChartz.com listed what appears to be a pretty complete rundown of the Top 50 bestsellers of the 1990s. It's quite telling what's on here and what isn't, mirroring similar expectations in the toy business-- specifically, the stuff kids love does great business and the critics/reviewers/etc. picks don't amount for squat.

Shout! Factory delivers on a new boxed set of Mystery Science Theater 3000 on DVD this week, as promised. The 15th volume sports new-to-DVD releases like The Robot vs. the Aztec Mummy, The Girl in Lover's Lane, Zombie Nightmare, and Racket Girls. We are informed these are not the greatest episodes.

Two for WiiWare this week, including Bit.Trip: Core which Nintendo is touting as its 100th WiiWare title! It's 600 points, as is Bust-A-Move Plus! from Taito. It's the bubble-bursting classic which, frankly, is generally always a good time. Rounding out the trio is Heracles Chariot Racing for 800 points, and from the pictures it's a pile of crap. We haven't played it.

Got a DSi? You can get Art Style: BASE 10 for 500 points, and it has sliding puzzles and numbers and other things which sound suspiciously like homework. Asphalt 4: Elite Racing is 800 points, and includes camera functionality if that matters to you.

Comedy Is Dead has updated with A Surprisingly Dense Week in Comedy, a look at something what awaits you in the wilds of retail, iTunes, TV, and the box office this week. Highlights: Todd Glass' new album, Bruno opens in theaters, and the aforementioned release of Mystery Science Theater 3000 Volume XV on DVD.

Figure of the Day has updated once again! The daily feature on figures you might have but might not-- either way, here's what you've been missing! Spanning from the original Power of the Force series of 1995 to the latest of The Legacy Collection, it's almost like a history lesson!

Everybody and their brother has pictures up of a repainted Disney Label Transformers Convoy Mickey Mouse. The robot element seems to be pumpkin-themed, complete with a jack-o-lantern chest. The figure riding on top seems to be differently colored and we're unclear if they're going for a "Runaway Brain" motif or it's just a somewhat monstrous Mickey.

First up: the premiere episode of Telltale Games' first collaboration with Lucasarts in an official capacity is now available with Tales of Monkey Island: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal. There is also a playable demo for Windows available.

Comedy Is Dead has updated with a look at Maria Bamford's new CD+DVD Unwanted Thoughts Syndrome, a reasonably funny release which includes an entire web series in the package.

have you been reading our side project, Playmoblog? It's the only English-language Playmobil blog updated with any sense of regularity or, quite possibly, at all. We've added some new content for you to enjoy and/or ignore.

Figure of the Day has updated once again! The daily feature on figures you might have but might not-- either way, here's what you've been missing! Spanning from the original Power of the Force series of 1995 to the latest of The Legacy Collection, it's almost like a history lesson!

Online game and toy seller NCSX put up a nifty page today showing off some upcoming wooden puzzle gashapon toys. The KoroKoro Hakushi Wood Puzzle Gashapon is apparently actual wood, and these are replicas of those brian-teasers that your well-off PBS-watching friends had at their houses when you went and visited as a kid rather than, say, a 16-bit game console.

While early test shots looked promising, a look at a slightly pre-release but probably pretty finalish Helix figure on JoeSightings.com's forums is... uh... go and click through to read about her.

Your selection this week on the Live service: Battlefield 1943. The under-represented WWII setting is finally getting its due! It's not like other games were out there, so kudos, EA, on reminding people of this war with such a unique release. Seriously. This isn't something we've seen at all lately, so bless you for it. 1,200 points/$15.

Comedy Is Dead has updated with a video to promote Todd Glass' new album on iTunes and, apparently, his PR company. Click over to Comedy Is Dead to see it, because it's pretty funny.

Ad: New toys have been released, and announced. The Wave 7 assortments of the Legacy Collection of Star Wars are in stock, and pre-orders are up for the Exclusive Cobra Island G.I. Joe Action Figure 7-Packs, which you probably want to see. They're swell.

Figure of the Day has updated once again! The daily feature on figures you might have but might not-- either way, here's what you've been missing! Spanning from the original Power of the Force series of 1995 to the latest of The Legacy Collection, it's almost like a history lesson!

Final Fantasy IV: The After Years is a scam, but the kind of a scam you're going to be happy to buy in to. For $8, you get about 30% of the game-- the rest is in downloadable chunks that come... when they're ready, apparently, as only part of the game is available today.

So what's new this week?

For some reason Microsoft decided that announcing release dates for one short season a year is a big important deal rather than, you know, doing it all the time like they should. Here's this year's roster with (high) prices.

Released on the Xbox 360 a few days ago, you can now get Battlefield 1943 on the PSN service for $14.99, bundled with a theme. Also new is Buzz! Jr. Robo Jam for $4.99 and a demo for Ghostbusters.

A group of games dropped this week. The downloadables are: Samurai Warriors: State of War ($14.99), and Ultimate Board Game Collection ($9.99).

If you're like most people, you don't live in Rhode Island. Here's the truncated specs from the press release:

Galactic Hunter has posted a new Q&A column this week! Be sure to click through and read up on the latest!

The guys at KOToys.com have an extensive gallery of the new Target exclusive Leo Prime, now available in the colors of Beast Wars II Lioconvoy. Meanwhile, The Arker has packaged images confirming that this item continues the Universe line, potentially meaning one of two things: either this item has already been cancelled, or that previous information about the future of Universe out of Hasbro wasn't entirely accurate.

Numerous new G.I. Joe exclusives have been making the rounds, and the best round-up we've seen so far is on the JoeBattleLines.com Forums. Highlights include:

Comedy Is Dead has updated with Road Trip Album Picks: John Mulaney's The Top Part, a genuinely hysterical (and surprisingly clean) look at being black-out drunk, being mistaken for a rapist, and tormenting people in a diner.

Over at The Magic Box are some shots from a Japanese launch event for Dragon Quest IX, which many are still baffled at being released on a portable over a full-sized system. Odds are this speaks volumes about the current console generation. Click through to see models, sales people, and tons of customers with their faces blacked out.

Final Fantasy IV: The After Years gets worse with the release of Yang's Tale last week for $3/300 points.

Figure of the Day has updated once again! The daily feature on figures you might have but might not-- either way, here's what you've been missing! Spanning from the original Power of the Force series of 1995 to the latest of The Legacy Collection, it's almost like a history lesson!

Some dude we follow on Twitter turned us on to this really good look at Hasbro's Marvel Handful of Heroes mini figures, which are basically MUSCLE Men, but Marvel.

We're crazy about these . The price, at $17.99? Not so much. But you get white and black space figures, a pirate, a mailman, and a red ninja. Cool!

There are three WiiWare games this week, the most interesting of which sounds like Bplus' Bit Boy!!. In it, you play a box that goes through various generations of gaming, from pre-8-bit to the future of 128-bit worlds. So some games look like an Atari game, and others look more modern. Clever! We'd love to see this applied to other series.

Got a DSi? This week's Brain Challenge sounds suspiciously like work/school. From the site: "Thanks to a complete range of 48 mini-games, Brain Challenge provides an exceptional variety of exercises. Not only can you train your brain for Math but also for 4 other categories: Logic, Focus, Memory and Visual!"

Treasure's legendary shooter is on sale! Regularly 800 points, now it's 400 points for the week. Sounds good, no? You play a ship, you shoot things, and it's a vertical scroller. What more do you need to know?

Comedy Is Dead has updated with This Week in Mildly Pleasant Comedy , a look at something what awaits you in the wilds of retail, iTunes, TV, and the box office this week. Highlights: MTV's The State makes an oft-delayed music-free DVD debut, and the Comedy Central premiere of Michael & Michael Have Issues on your cable machine.

Figure of the Day has updated once again! The daily feature on figures you might have but might not-- either way, here's what you've been missing! Spanning from the original Power of the Force series of 1995 to the latest of The Legacy Collection, it's almost like a history lesson!

A shot from our Twitter feed shows The Terrordrome has 4 new exclusive G.I. Joe mini-vehicles with figures at Target. The highlight? A new, black SNAKE armor, now called "Serpent" armor. Also up for grabs is another motorcycle, a jetpack, and a water-based jetski thing. We're sold on the armor.

Comedy Is Dead has updated with a look at Messing with a Friend, a show you can go see in Chicago like right nowish.

Figure of the Day has updated once again! The daily feature on figures you might have but might not-- either way, here's what you've been missing! Spanning from the original Power of the Force series of 1995 to the latest of The Legacy Collection, it's almost like a history lesson!

Welcome to the most 1980s-friendly week in XBLA history! Two new games for 800 points/$10 a pop are on deck. One is a remake of The Secret of Monkey Island, a LucasFilm Games adventure classic in which you play famous pirate wannabe, Guybrush Threepwood.

A tipster wrote in to share the DPCI and price for the soon-to-be-released Target-exclusive deluxe figure assortment! 087-06-0529, $9.99. Considering basic figures are $7-$8, that sounds quite reasonable. (This includes the Serpent/Snake armor from yesterday, motorcycles, and other figure-with-vehicle sets.)

Over at The Arker, there are vehicle shots of an unreleased (and unannounced) Hoist toy based on the previously released movie Longarm, whom we are told you should replace all parts with. (Anyone? Pete?) Click through for some early no-robo pics.

The new Man-At-Arms figure went up at MattyCollector.com today, and promptly sold out. If you got one, it was $20.

Remember those super high-end and hard-to-find $150 joysticks for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3? Mad Catz did one for each platform for Street Fighter IV and now, many moons later, they're shipping widely and you can probably find them.

Ad: Do you smell what Mr. Spock is cooking? Three scents from Genki Wear are in stock now. You can smell like a Vulcan, a Red Shirt, or Captain Kirk! Or a close facsimile.

Figure of the Day has updated once again! The daily feature on figures you might have but might not-- either way, here's what you've been missing! Spanning from the original Power of the Force series of 1995 to the latest of The Legacy Collection, it's almost like a history lesson!

So what's new this week?

New this week: Namco Museum Essentials! Also, the PSOne game Spec Ops: Ranger Elite.

A trio of games dropped this week. The downloadables are: Holy Invasion of Privacy Badman ($19.99), Myst ($14.99), and Unbound Saga ($14.99).

Galactic Hunter has posted a new Q&A column this week! Be sure to click through and read up on the latest!

The guys at Hatena.ne.jp (or whatever) have an extensive gallery of the new Japanese release of Devastator in the smaller class. Unlike the big toy, each limb has 3 modes, and there are 7 vehicles rather than 6. It's coming to the USA next year, but why wait to get a look at Minstator?

If you're like us, you've missed a ton of leaks in recent month for upcoming exclusives in thus line. A pity. So here's some of what we missed.

Comedy Is Dead has updated with Road Trip Album Picks: Doug Benson's "Professional Humoredian", bits of which you may have already heard if you've seen his many appearances on TV and the internets. Do check it out.

Ad: Are you ready for Comic-Con? If not, pretty much all of the Entertainment Earth exclusives are available for home delivery-- but if you go to the show, there are all sorts of specials and extras!

Figure of the Day has updated once again! The daily feature on figures you might have but might not-- either way, here's what you've been missing! Spanning from the original Power of the Force series of 1995 to the latest of The Legacy Collection, it's almost like a history lesson!

Synergy! Not very good synergy, but still. To celebrate Comic-Con, Wal-Mart's exclusive wave of Legends is hitting San Diego very soon. So if you're out and about, keep your eyes open for it. Here's the scoop straight from our PR friend in Hasbro:

Remember how hard it was to get fight pads and fight sticks a few months ago? Well, to continue with tradition, Mad Catz revealed some extremely limited Comic-Con exclusive PS3 and Xbox 360 hardware, under 500 of each, only at the show. Good luck getting these!

The guys at Cobra Island mirrored images of four new figures-- take a gander at Storm Shadow in a parka, a new Ripcord, the Desert-Viper, and yet another Duke!

There are three WiiWare games this week: 5 Spots Party, Battle Poker, and Square-Enix' My Life as a Darklord for $5, $8, and $10 respectively.

Got a DSi? This week's Art Style: ZENGAGE sounds somewhat interesting. From the site: "Gameplay in Art Style: ZENGAGE revolves around sliding cells (squares) to match colors with cores (beads) located on the board. Clear each stage by matching all of the cores and cells."

For this week only, the Jedi Temple Mission Pack DLC is on sale for gold members of the Xbox Live service. Normally $10/800 points, it's now $5/400 points. Enjoy!

Comedy Is Dead has updated with GIANT SIZE Weekly Comedy San Diego Comic-Con Edition , a look at all the stuff on TV and at the big convention this week. Spoiler alert: there's a ton of stuff for you to check out, so if you want to have a fun week be sure to dig this post. Also notable: a Zach Galifinakis comedy Visioneers is coming to DVD this week. Will it be good? From the man who coined the phrase "So I named my balls Belle and Sebastian," we certainly hope so.

Figure of the Day has updated once again! The daily feature on figures you might have but might not-- either way, here's what you've been missing! Spanning from the original Power of the Force series of 1995 to the latest of The Legacy Collection, it's almost like a history lesson!

The guys at HISSTank.com got some early images from Comic-Con, including several new figures, a few new vehicles, and some environmental pieces. Yes, from Hasbro. One looks like some sort of a Cobra checkpoint, and we're quite taken with it. The new Dragonfly is also shown.

Over at TFW2005.com also got some good intel from the Hasbro booth. Most of it has been seen before with new Robot Heroes, Human Alliance toys, and even some G1-ish Universe items. If you were at Botcon 2009, you may have seen most of these.

This week's free and as far as we can tell, totally legal album download: Weezer - The 8-bit Album. Making the rounds on the blogorama, this tribute to Weezer features a number of released and unreleased Weezer tracks as interpreted on old electronic hardware, specifically the NES and GameBoy. 14 songs spanning the bulk of their career, including the legendary lost Songs from the Black Hole album, can be yours. "Blast Off!," sadly, is not one of them but you will find blippy covers of "Buddy Holly," "El Scorcho," "Hash Pipe," and others that sound pretty close to how we assume they would sound in a MegaMan stage.

Due to the restrictions placed on us by technology, our day job, and the desire to not implode, 16bit.com front page updates may be limited through the next day or three. As such, please do check out our official-ass Twitter feed and Flickr feed for news as we are capable of posting it, which should be often. (It's complicated.)

Galactic Hunter has posted a new Q&A column this week! Be sure to click through and read up on the latest!

Last week Microsoft totally published 'Splosion Man, where "Able to 'splode himself at will, Splosion Man launches his way through levels, an uncontainable force." How about that? BOOM!

Xevoz was one of the niftiest introductions in 2004, but died a quick death in the deadly wild that is retail. Word of numerous toys for the future got out, but were never revealed or released until now. At Comic-Con, Hasbro sold a book called "insight: Photography and Dioramas by Gianna Lopergolo" which focuses on Hasbro's really excellent product shutterbuggery. What's really shocking, though, is that it includes images of the never-before-seen Rockahuna as well as the Ursa Khan and Glacier Scout 2-pack. Of interest, the Glacier Scout is a total knock on the design of Lion-O from Thundercats. A full review of the book will follow, we will say if you didn't get it, there's a lot of weird developmental pictures of stuff you may never have seen. (We haven't.)

Comedy Is Dead has updated with Road Trip Album Picks: Dr. Demento's 20th Anniversary Collection, which compiles some of the greatest novelty tracks of all time. And some aren't so great. If you aren't familiar with the world of the comedy record, pre-Internet, you owe it to yourself to hear it.

Due to the fact we feel like we're going to die, Comic-Con specific coverage starts tomorrow. Don't worry, you didn't miss too much, but there's some awesome stuff to share. While you're waiting, check out our groovy Flickr gallery. 910 images and counting! We're not feeling so hot, so yeah, more later.

Figure of the Day has updated once again! The daily feature on figures you might have but might not-- either way, here's what you've been missing! Spanning from the original Power of the Force series of 1995 to the latest of The Legacy Collection, it's almost like a history lesson!

Because we're lazy, here's a list of our top findings from this year's Comic-Con International. We could go on and on, but you wouldn't read it.

There are three WiiWare games this week, the most interesting of which sounds like Tales of Monkey Island: Chapter 1. The first in a series, it's $10/1,000 points and brings back that point-and-clickness you love so much.

Got a DSi? Choke on Sudoku Student, for $2/200 points. Or better, don't.

Comedy Is Dead has updated with This Week in Comedy: Scott Baio Edition , a look at all the DVDs, CDs, and movies you can aspire to laugh at this week.

Figure of the Day has updated once again! The daily feature on figures you might have but might not-- either way, here's what you've been missing! Spanning from the original Power of the Force series of 1995 to the latest of The Legacy Collection, it's almost like a history lesson!

Comedy Is Dead has updated with a review of Doug Benson's upcoming CD Unbalanced Load, which required us to kill someone to get it. Did they die for a worthy cause? Click over to Comedy Is Dead to find out.

While we haven't yet confirmed this, word is floating around that Diamond Select Toys will be producing Battle Beasts Minimates figures! Wow! Minimate Headquarters has more.

Your game this week on the Live service: Marvel vs. Capcom 2, at one point a very expensive Dreamcast title. Now you can get it cheaper! It doesn't have much new, but for an arcade classic, it's arguably a bargain at 1,200 points/$15.

After numbers and letters, aging but amusing band They Might Be Giants has announced Here Comes Science, which has the best title we've heard all year. The CD+DVD comes out this September 1. In case you wanted to buy it, you know, for your kids.

Ad: New toys have been released, and announced. The Wave 7 assortments of the Legacy Collection of Star Wars are in stock, and pre-orders are up for the Exclusive Cobra Island G.I. Joe Action Figure 7-Packs, which you probably want to see. They're swell.

Figure of the Day has updated once again! The daily feature on figures you might have but might not-- either way, here's what you've been missing! Spanning from the original Power of the Force series of 1995 to the latest of The Legacy Collection, it's almost like a history lesson!

So what's new this week?

It had to happen! Next year's specials include a newly sculpted body of a bikini lady, but that's just one of many sets revealed on PlaymoDB.org. Click through to read all about these, plus a new ancient temple theme with big ol' lizards!

This week's big (hahaha) release is Fat Princess, a team-based strategy game of sorts involving fat chicks and kidnapping. Also, castles. What could go wrong? It's $14.99. Also new is the second Watchmen game episode and the PSone game Spec Ops: Airborne Commando.

A group of games dropped this week. The downloadables are: Brave Story: New Traveler ($14.99), and Pocket Pool ($9.99), and Strikers 1945 Plus ($11.99).

Check it out kids, 920 pictures from San Diego! See toys, bobble heads, celebrities (Margot Kidder pictured), and much more! We're quite proud.

We just picked up a LEGO Indiana Jones Jungle Cutter at Target for under $10. Your mileage may vary. Happy hunting!