Capcom:
Firebrand
Strider Hiryu
Phoenix Wright
Vergil
Nemesis
Frank West

Marvel:
Hawkeye
Ghost Rider
Dr Strange
Iron Fist
Rocket Raccoon
Nova

On the Capcom side we’ve got Firebrand, buff shirtless demon of Ghosts and Goblin’s fame. You may recognize him from accidentally clicking on crossover slash art of him and Brooklyn from Gargoyles.

And even more bizarre is the choice of Rocket Raccoon on the Marvel side. Remember him? No, of course you don’t. But he’s here, and that’s kinda really fucking awesome.

The rest of the Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 roster is various levels of awesome/boring as well. Phoenix Wright is an incredible choice, but Ghost Rider, Nova, and Iron Fist? Meh.

Best Motion Picture
Alpha and Omega
How to Train Your Dragon
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole
Toy Story 3
The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Editor’s Choice: You gotta go with How to Train Your Dragon on this one, right? Granted, Toy Story 3 is a far superior film, but it’s not a furry film. The other three films in the category are nowhere near as good, despite what certain dragons keep trying to tell me.

Best Dramatic Short Work or Series
Adventure Time With Finn and Jake
“Foxy Bingo”
Mongrels
“Orangina Naturally”
The Regular Show
Wallace & Gromit’s World of Invention

Editor’s Choice: Honestly as long as anything but Foxy Bingo and the Orangina campaign win, I’d be fine. Yes, I know what fox was a dancing machine, and yes, god yes, that gay cougar is hot, but there is no way in hell the fandom should give an award to commercials for gambling and sugar water when some of the smartest written shows on television are in the same category.

Best Novel
Basecraft Cirrostratus by Justin Lamar
Descent by Phil Guesz
Otters in Space by Mary Lowd
Save the Day by DJ Fahl
The Seventh Chakra by Kevin Frane
Shadow of the Father by Kyell Gold

Editor’s Choice: Wow, this is an exciting year for novels, and I can see it being a close race. That said, I’ve got to go with The Seventh Chakra. It’s definitely the most ambitious novel on the list, and Frane pulled off an exciting original thriller, and one of the most unique novels I’ve read from the fandom.

Best Short Fiction
Bridges by Kyell Gold
“False Dawn” by Kyell Gold
“Felis ex Machina” by EO Costello
“Gerty and the Doesn’t-Smell-Like-a-Melon” by Mary E Lowd
The Peculiar Quandary of Simon Canopus Artyle by Kevin Frane

Editor’s Choice: I’m leaning towards Bridges in this category. It was one of those experiments that did something new, even if it was a bit… superfluous. It’s hard to argue the literary merits of writing the same spit-roasting scene three times, but hey, there it is. That said, Simon Canopus also has a cool experimental writing feel to is, as the Cupcake branded books tend to have.

Best Other Literary Work
Furpiled #4 by Leo Magna
Different Worlds, Different Skins edited by Will A Sanborn
Iron Claw Bestiary by Chris Goodwin
i.s.o. #1 by Vince Suzukawa
Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary by Dave Sedaris

Editor’s Choice: In any other situation I’d automatically say Dave Sedaris, but his latest book is actually one of his weakest, so go for one of the fandom made choices. Furpiled and i.s.o. both are cool for slice of life stuff, and the Iron Claw Bestiary is something that nerds tell me is pretty cool.

Best Graphic Story
Concession by Immelmann
Furthia High by QuetzaDrake
Cruelty by Rukis
Lackadaisy by Tracy J. Butler
Twokinds by Tim Fischbach

Editor’s Choice: Lackadaisy. No question. The others are good, but don;t really compare, except maybe Cruelty for it’s potential. Rukis has the art talent, and if she can tighten up her storytelling I can easily see her winning this award in the future, but not this year.

Best Comic Strip
“Broken Plot Device” by Lis Boriss
“Faux Pas” by Robert and Margaret Carspecken
“Little Tales” by Genesis Eve Whitmore
“Housepets!” by Rick Griffin
“Sandra and Woo” by Powree and Oliver Knörzer

Editor’s Choice: Everyone’s got a favorite, just pick one. They’re all good.

Best Magazine
Anthropomorphic Dreams Podcast by Will A. Sanborn
Heat #7 published by Sofawolf
New Fables Summer 2010 edited by Tim Susman
South Fur Lands edited by Bernard Doove
Tales of the Tai-Pan Universe edited by Gene Breshears

Editor’s Choice: I’m tempted to say go for Anthro Dreams because it might spur an entire Podcast category next year (God knows there are enough of them to warrant it). But there are so many great stories in New Fables that I can’t snub it. Go with that.

Best Published Illustration
Big Red: Lady Sings the Blues by Richard Bartrop
Cenotaph by Susan Rankin-Pollard
The Seventh Chakra by Kamui
Shadow of the Father by Sara Palmer
New Fables Summer 2010 by Mary Mouse

Editor’s Choice: All of these illustrations are fantastic and every one of them is deserving of the award. These are some of the best talent the fandom has to offer. Personally, Kamui’s The Seventh Chakra is one of the most eye catching covers I’ve seen. It also has an array of symbolism that tie it in with the book. Plus it’s bright fucking yellow.

Best Game
Disney Epic Mickey
Furry Basketball Association
Rocket Knight
Sam & Max: Season 3, Episode 1: The Penal Zone
Sonic Colors

Editor’s Choice: There’s only one game on here that is done by the fandom, for the fandom. I don’t care if you like basketball, or like roleplaying, the Furry Basketball Association is a beast that is fueled by talented and dedicated players. Add on to that, it’s fun to follow even if you’re not participating. That’s way cooler than an XBLA game about a franchise everyone forgot about.

Voting for the Ursa Majors ends April 17. Visit the official site to cast your vote.

The pack includes 60 mix-and-match costume pieces, covering Feline, Avian, Minotaur, and Wolf designs. Based on screens and art, the felines and avians include multiple species.

New emotes allow you to not only hiss, but sniff at other players. We don’t suppose “scritch” or “yiff” are included as actions.

There are other new features like additional auras and a Beast Run Travel Power.

And did we mention a Three Wolf Howl t-shirt featuring some buff and busty anthro wolves? Yeah, your furry superhero can pretend to wear shirts ironically while secretly loving them.

The City of Heroes Animal Pack will be available from the NCSoft Story for £5.99 or EUR 8.99.

Dino D-Day answers that much debated question, “What if Hitler went all Jurassic Park on this shit and we had to blow a dilophosaurus’ tiny brain out?”

Dino D-Day releases on the Steam service for PC on March 1, 2011.

Amaterasu, star of the critically acclaimed and fan loved PS2 and Wii game Okami was officially revealed on Marvel’s website, and is being announced during Capcom’s MvC3 panel.

In Okami and the upcoming Nintendo DS game Okamiden, the wolf god uses the power of nature to defeat enemies. Capcom hasn’t shown Amaterasu in action yet, but we’re pretty psyched (can everybody say “Please be overpowered so I can kick everyone’s ass with a wolf”?)

Marvel also announced Thor, which brings the total character count so far to 16.

Known characters so far: Chun-Li, Trish, Doctor Doom, Super-Skrull, Chris Redfield, The Hulk, Dante, Captain America, Felicia, Wolverine, Morrigan, Deadpool, Iron Man, and Ryu.

Marvel vs Capcom 3 is set to release Q2 2011.

Best Novel: Out of Position by Kyell Gold
Best Motion Picture: Avatar, directed by James Cameron
Best Graphic Story: Concession by Immelmann
Best Magazine: Heat #6, published by Sofawolf Press
Best Other Literary Work: Draw Furries: How to Create Anthropomorphic and Fantasy Animals by Lindsay Cibos and Jared Hodges
Best Comic Strip: Housepets! by Rick Griffin
Best Published Illustration: Out of Position Cover by Blotch
Best Short Fiction: “Drifting” by Kyell Gold
Best Short Subject or Series: The Penguins of Madagascar, produced by Dreamworks Animation
Best Game: Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time, for the PS3, developed by Insomniac Games

With two more awards under his belt, Kyell Gold has passed Stan Sakai as the recipient of the most UMAs.

The full list of nominees can be viewed on the Ursa Major Awards official website.

(Click for a bigger image)

From left to right it’s Tsutaja, the Grass-type car insurance mascot Pokemon. Pokabu, the Fire-type pig/rabbit that may be training to be a sumo wrestler, or just likes wearing a mawashi. And Mijjumara a Water-type Pokemon made of concentrated preciousness.

The image comes from a leaked copy of CoroCoro magazine, which is the reputable source of Pokemon scoops in Japan (they had the scoop on the previous new Pokemon Zorua and Zoroark.

For the record, Lovejoy will be naming his Zorua KyellGold and his Mijumara KMHirosaki and will force them into the Daycare Center until they somehow make an Egg with each other.

Also, since this news has been on the Internet for all of six minutes, the fandom has of course already completely ruined everything.

This is actually a pretty big year for the awards, in the sense that someone as important as me is actually familiar with most of the nominees.

In the Best Motion Picture category I’m really curious to see if people will pick the best film on the list (which is Up by the way, don’t fucking kid yourself), or if Avatar or even The Fantastic Mr Fox takes it.

I’m pleased to see that two of the novels I listed in my Year in Review feature are nominated for Best Novel. Out of Position is a definite front runner, but David Benedictus’ revival of Winnie the Pooh in Return to the Hundred Acre Woods is a great story (though I’m not sure it’s even near 40,000 words). Also of note is Cheetah’s Win by Phil Geusz, which I read as part of Roar Volume 2 a little while back. Oh and who stuck a Patricia Briggs novel in there? I know that a hot were-coyote mechanic chick marrying the alpha werewolf and fighting a vampire queen sounds awesome– wait, no it doesn’t!

The Short Fiction category is stuffed full of great entries, all of which deserve the award. I really enjoyed “Moonthief” by Not Tube, it was one of my favorite entries in X.

I’m going to glaze over these next few categories (Housepets! is cute though).

Best Magazine is another category full of great entries. I wish I had read all five, but Anthro, Heat, and New Fables are all great magazines.

Best Published Illustration really needs to have the damn illustrations on display. Here, let me fix that for you:
“Gaia’s Strange Seedlike Brood (Homage to Lynn Margulis)” by Patrick Farley
”It’s Beautiful” by Jailbird
”Jazmyn” by Sara Palmer
”New Coyote” by Kenket
”Out of Position” by Blotch

I think the winner is pretty obvious.

How is it that only one of the video games on my Year in Review feature got nominated for Best Game? And why the fuck is G-Force on there? I swear to god, furries, you would probably vote Settlers of Catan as best game every damn year if they let you.

Now remember kids. Nobody wins unless you get out there and vote. And for those of you that think your vote won’t count, remember that the Ursa Majors have an abysmally low amount of participation, so just a few Livejournal entries and you too might one day tie Stan Sakai’s record for most awards.

Yeah, it’s Lady Gaga, bitches!

Remember when Eric Cartman sang “Poker Face” on South Park last year? Well the internet went nuts for it, and despite the fact that Gaga’s music doesn’t seem to translate to Rock Band at all, developer Harmonix did it anyway.

The four tracks available for download next week are “Bad Romance”, “Poker Face”, “Monster” and “Just Dance”. Also includes is the aforementioned Eric Cartman version of “Poker Face” which is great for those of us that sing like that anyway. MTV has said this is just the first of multiple DLC packs from Gaga (Can we get some “Boys Boys Boys” up in this shiz?).

Harmonix is currently showing off their upcoming titles Rock Band: Green Day at the Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco. We’ll be checking that out, and we’ll see if we can belt out some “Bad Romance” in front of drunken game developers.

Apparently those half dozen 2D Sonic games on the Game Boy Advance, DS, and PSP don’t count.

SEGA released a teaser trailer that conveniently skips all those years between 1994 and now when Sonic started sucking hardcore.

Sonic 4 will be an episodic downloadable title for all the major consoles. SEGA hasn’t said how many levels will be featured in each episode.

The best part of this whole deal is that the game is that Sonic is the only playable character. Kiss my ass, tertiary characters!