If you ever feel blue and need a pick me up, watch this. That’s saccharine pop/techno group Perfume singing about Nintendo DS game Denestsu no Stafy 4, which is the first game in Nintendo published Stafy series to have 3D graphics. Tons more upbeat Perfume clips after the jump!
We’ve heard their competitor’s takes on the monthly NPD figures, now hear Nintendo’s. For the first time since, oh, forever, they weren’t at the summit of the hardware chart. How are things, then, at Nintendo HQ? They a little rattled? Nope. It’s gun metaphors a-go-go from Reggie: The Wii went up against the self-proclaimed ‘biggest entertainment launch ever’ and we emerged with our best month of the year.
They fired their bullet and our gun is loaded and ready to fire throughout the holidays.
Guns, bullets, firing, loaded…not one of your finest, Reggie. Little…messy. Suggestive, even.
Professor Layton and the Curious Village was supposed to be playable at E for All. It was. Wired’s Chris Kohler sadly reports that the localised version of the popular Japanese puzzle game was nowhere to be seen. Nintendo confirmed that it had been yanked from the E For All line-up. It was previously announced that the DS title slipped to 2008, and Nintendo’s decision to pull the game at E for All shouldn’t come as a surprise. Sucks, though.
No Layton [Game|Life]
The US Dollar, it’s not looking so hot right now. Something about people not being sensible when purchasing property. End result is that a lot of foreign markets are seeing some issues when it comes to pricing. Like Canada! The mighty Canadian dollar has recently pulled level with the US dollar, meaning one Canadian dollar gets you…one US dollar. Pity game prices don’t reflect that: most games and hardware in Canada are still accounting for the old exchange rate. Which means Canadians be gettin’ ripped off by about 5-10%.
Downloadable games get no respect. Ask God of War creator David Jaffe. He’s currently shifted his focus from huge titles like GoW to smaller games like Calling All Cars. And there’s a difference between those big games and small games. And that difference is… Let’s let Jaffe explain:
You know, these smaller games are interesting. They sort of merit an appreciative nod at worst and like you said, a grassroots fan base at best. But there hasn’t been a game on either system yet that I think has really been able to compete with the noise of big games like say Grand Turismo or Heavenly Sword or God of War or whatever. And so I think until that happens, until we as the makers and creators of smaller games are able to find a way to bust through the noise of the bigger games, then that will continue to happen. Looking at the movies, you rarely hear about an independent film over the roar of the big summer movies. But every now and then an indie film is so good and so compelling and so interesting that it does become what people are talking about, and that is the thing that gets the push and the cover of Entertainment Weekly, when “Blair Witch” gets on there or something like that.
Jaffe’s totally right. There have been some smaller games that have raised interest like Geometry Wars, but we’re still waiting for that Blair Witch moment. You know, where they dominate the sales charts and capture the public imagination. Jaffe Part III [Level Up]
Wondering what Kieren Perkins has been up to all these years? Training for a Wii commercial, that’s what. Starting from October 21, you can catch the Olympic swimming star doing his best impersonation of an inebriated monkey with a Wiimote, right on your TV! Also putting in the effort to look like a complete goof is rowing champ James Tomkins.
An additional, yet sadly unfunny, photo awaits you after the jump.
Ace Combat 6 is out this week. To celebrate, we’re giving away, guessed it, Ace Combat 6 stuff! We’ve got a bundle of goodies that includes: • Glossy, photo-quality screenshots autographed by the game’s producer and director • Ace Combat 6 Xbox 360 faceplates • The AC6 Flightstick set So what’s the contest? Paper airplanes! That’s right, to win this bundle you’ve gotta fold, cut, glue bits of paper together in hopes of creating a truly gnarly paper jet plane. They don’t have to actually fly, but hey, if they do, that’s a major plus. Be sure to snap a pic of your creation with something that says “Kotaku” and send it to kotakucontestATgmailDOTcom. Add “Ace Combat 6 Contest” to your subject line. Deadline is October 25th. GOOD LUCK!!
This being Friday, there’s new things on both the Australian and European Virtual Console. Stuff like Gate of Thunder, our first Turbografx-CD game. And Castlevania II. And last, but certainly not least, World Heroes. Oh yes. The most underrated 2D fighter of the early 90s is back, yo, and you can bet my Friday afternoon is going to be spent realising it’s not even half as good as I remember it to be.
Frank Miller’s Sin City graphic novels? Excellent. Sin City movie? Great. Sin City game? We’ll see. Jackass: The Game publisher Red Mile Entertainment is creating the tentatively titled Sin City: The Game and announced that it has brought in 20 year game vet Flint Dille, who won “Story of the Year” for The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape to Butcher Bay and Dead to Rights, to shape up the game’s story and overall production. Dille and Frank Miller actually go way back. Heck, the storyteller in 300 is even named “Dillos” after the scribe. Says Dille:
Frank and I met during what I call our ‘professional adolescence’ when he was doing the Dark Knight and I was doing the Transformers cartoon series, and we’ve been great friends ever since… Frank and I have been having a party coming up with nasty stuff for the game. In true Sin City fashion, some old characters will return, new characters will appear and — without giving anything away — probably die horribly. It’s great to be working with the Red Mile team on this project: They clearly share Frank’s and my commitment to bringing a new and true Sin City to interactive life.
You know, this could actually work. Let’s hope it actually does. Dille for Sin City Game [Money via Joystick]
Got a dummy Japanese PSN account? Might want to get one. The Gran Turismo 5 Prologue demo (yes, we know, a demo of a demo) will be turning up in Japan on October 20. Thing is, it will only be available until November 11, so don’t dilly dally. Course the whole thing will be in Japanese, but cars are cars, they use accelerators and brakes there, just like everywhere else. Sure you can work it out. Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Demo [IGN]
