Club Nintendo UK? Rubbish, aren't they? Sure, their setup's not as good as Japan's. And sure, they may require your blood, sweat and tears to accompany your Star Points before they send you anything decent. But when they do send something. Well. Sometimes it's just magnificent. Like this 13" gold (not real gold) Link & Epona statue Kotakuite Dan just earned himself. The cost? A terrible one:

It cost 15,000 stars, which probably took me about 4-5 years of saving (you used to get 5 stars for a daily visit and I had amassed about 4000 stars this way, the rest was from game registrations at 250 a pop).

For a game that has gotten so much hype for so long, Super Smash Bros. Brawl has a lot to live up to. A lot. Not to mention pushed back release dates and rushed shipments. This is the game many Wii owners have been waiting for. But does it live up to those expectations? Yes, yes it does. This afternoon I played through a couple hours of the retail copy. In short: People who enjoyed previous Smash Bros. games certainly won't be disappointed.

Remember Miburi & Teburi? OK if you don't. You might have forced it from even the darkest recesses of your memory. Conversely, you may treasure that memory, and have been waiting months for this trailer! Seeing as this a crossword puzzler by Sega, and looks...unique, I'm not sure what's less likely: that this will ever see a Western release, or that those two dudes in leather are actually interested in that girl.

The UK Toy Fair, the nation's biggest...toy fair, is going on right now in London. And as you'd expect, scattered amongst the movie, TV and comic tie-ins is some gaming stuff, much of which we're seeing for the first time. Like a Force FX Master Sword. And Corgi's impressive (in quality and quantity) line of Mario figures. And some Halo stuff, like replica battle rifles and vehicles for the McFarlane line of figures. Above is a choice selection, Action-Figure.com have a big gallery up if you'd like to see more.
2008 UK Toy Fair [Action-Figure]

Yesterday, news, today, screens. The lovely smoke, and jungle, and weapon effects, they're all improvements. But Rico? He's degressed. Just Cause 1's Rico was swarthy, and we loved him for it. This guy, he's all clean-cut. Where's the hair? The swagger? The fiery, latino passion?

The video was but a tease. You don't know true browser-based good timery until you go play some Velociraptor Safari for yourself. Which you can now do, what with the game out and all. To recap: you drive around, in a jeep, running down raptors. Succeed, you get a slo-mo money shot. That is all. But that's all you should need.
Velociraptor Safari

For those living under rocks, Super Smash Bros. Brawl went on sale today. (Devil May Cry 4, too!) Not all stores in Japan were doing pre-reserves. Know what that means? LINES. In front of the Akihabara Yodobashi Camera, there were a hundred people lined up by 9:00am. The line grew to something like 500 people an hour later. Meanwhile, at the Yodobashi Camera, the first in line got there at midnight. By 6:00am, the line grew to thirty people and mushroomed to 300 people by 9:00am.

I rolled up to the Yodobashi Camera in Osaka's Umeda and picked up a copy easily. There was a line of people and most seemed to be picking up SSBB. There appeared to be lots of copies available — Yodobashi is a big store, so that's expected. Wouldn't be surprised if they sold out by the end of the day or sometime tomorrow. We're hearing chatter that many smaller stores are totally sold out and that it's harder to secure a copy in Tokyo.
Yodobashi Camera Shinjuku
Yodobashi Camera Akiba [Famitsu]

The latest Official Xbox Magazine lays out Rock Band's DLC for the month of March. Sadly, and this is getting more than a little annoying, there's still no album downloads. What we do get is a bunch of guitar-happy tracks from the likes of Metallica, Iron Maiden, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Black Sabbath. All of which are bands the game already features. And half of those are covers. Oh well.

March 4 - Thrash Pack
At The Gates: Blinded By Fear
Evile: Thrashes
The Haunted: Shadow World

March 11
Bad Company: Shooting Star (COVER)
Lynyrd Skynyrd: Simple Man
The Police: Message in a Bottle

March 18 - NIN Pack
Nine Inch Nails: March of the Pigs
Nine Inch Nails: The Collector
Nine Inch Nails: The Perfect Drug

March 25 - Metal Pack
Iron Maiden: Wrathchild (COVER)
Black Sabbath: Supernaut (COVER)
Metallica: Fuel

Look, metal is great, don't get me wrong. But "Fuel"? And more Iron Maiden and Sabbath covers? Some metal-based variety (Slayer, Mastodon, Anthrax) would be swell about now, thanks.
[thanks everyone who sent this in!]

Capcom have released a salvo of concept art for their upcoming Bionic Commando remake. Two key points should be noted:

1. Those mech and weapon designs are pretty great
2. In one pic, you can clearly see a clawed, hot dog-free Bionic Commando, giving us a tantalising glimpse of a future world in which the hero is free to walk down the street without packs of wild dogs gnawing on his arm.

JJ Hendricks over at Vintage Computer & Gaming has truly outdone himself. Taking whining over the price of games on the Wii's Virtual Console as his cue, he's looked at the average used-copy price of every single game available on the service, and compared them to the price Nintendo are charging on the VC. His findings? Intriguing.

Your whining is ill-informed. When you total the average cost of every pre-owned copy of a game and compare it to the total cost of every Virtual Console game, it's clear that you're not getting ripped off at all. In fact you're usually (NES excepted) saving cash. Especially if you dig TurboGrafx games.

Good news and bad news for Sony today. The good news? Sony's games division actually made money during the last quarter, following cuts to the PS3's production costs and increased software sales. And they're revising their sales target for the PSP upwards, from 10 million to 13 million. The bad news? They've revised their sales target for the PS3 downwards, from 11 million to 9.5. One step backwards, two steps forward! What is this, Sony, some bizarre Paula Abdul video? Cut it out.
Sony Q3 profit up 6 pct on digital camera, games [Reuters]
Sony cuts 07/08 PlayStation 3 sales target to 9.5 mln [Reuters]

In a Dallas Morning News opinion piece titled "The child-man" from the Manhattan Institute's City Journal, writer Kay Hymowitz argues that the today's 18-34 lingers in "a new state of semi-hormonal adolescence." From the article:

With women, you could argue that adulthood is in fact emergent. Single women in their 20s and early 30s are joining an international New Girl Order, hyper-achieving in both school and an increasingly female-friendly workplace, while packing leisure hours with shopping, traveling and dining with friends. Single young males, or SYMs, by contrast, often seem to hang out in a playground of drinking, hooking up, playing Halo 3 and, in many cases, underachieving. With them, adulthood looks as though it's receding.

Back before Super Smash Bros. Brawl was released, footage of Nintendo Co., Ltd. in Kyoto and SSBB developer Sora in Tokyo playing each other online surfaced. The online aspect of the game looked very smooth with no lags whatsoever. I'm assuming it is smooth. Assume because I haven't been able to clock a single online brawl. Hello Xbox Live circa 2002.

Silicon Knights has had it rough. Game Too Human years in development. A legal battle with developer Epic. Like we said, rough. But that can't be that bad — SK is expanding its Niagara, Ontario office. The dev is looking to add 80 new staffers to its team of 165 as part of a plan to rejuvenate Niagara's economy and keeping talented workers in Ontario.

Niagara has always been an industrial city and that's starting to change. We're going to start seeing things in this region that people are not used to.

The folks over at AustralianGamer got the chance to invade the headquarters of Oz developer FuzzyEyes. The studio is currently working on the title Edge of Twilight.

There are photos of the team's work environment (looks like a normal office really) as well as interviews with the head dudes. Here's a quote from the article by lead designer Andy Chrysafidis, where he describes exactly what Twilight is:

It's an action adventure game set in a sort of steampunk-slash-alternate fantasy world that has been divided into two separate realms of day and night. The general story of it revolves around this clash and power struggle between two different races.

One, the Athern who are more industrial, steampunk, and the Lithern, who are the opposite pretty much, the more spiritual race. The player takes the role of Lex, who's this bounty hunter who's a half breed and thus has the ability to shift between day and night, and because of this ability is called on by the Atherns to help them in their struggle against the Lithern.

A Visit to FuzzyEyes [AustralianGamer, via Sumea]

Here's a look at online menu screens Super Smash Bros. Brawl The above green screen shows the Wii connecting to WiiFi. The second screen in the gallery below shows "With Friend" (default) and "With Someone." The next one says "Spectator", "Brawl" and "Team Battle." After that, there's a character roster and a list of battle stages. The last image shows where players wait while searching for challengers.

According to a recent issue of German gaming mag NMag, upcoming Wii racer Mario Kart Wii will have at least 32 tracks, will feature Baby Peach and Boo as drivers, will use snaking and have controls that are reminiscent of Excite Truck's. Not so! Well, maybe. Nintendo points out:

Nintendo has not announced any further information on Mario Kart. We've spoken to the magazine and it's just pure rumour and speculation on their part.

Yes, that is my green carpeting, and yes, that is a copy of Super Smash Bros. Brawl Check back through the night for impressions!

Never really understood the appeal of Twisted Metal (I find it equal parts garish and boring), but hey, I can understand a lot of people do. Maybe they just dig clowns. If that's you, Twisted Metal creator David Jaffe has posted on his blog a teaser for the upcoming documentary based on the series, The Dark Past. If your fancy is tickled, the whole thing will be available as a bonus with Twisted Metal Head On: Extra Twisted Edition, which should be out in early February.

In-game advertising seems like an easy way to turn a buck, right? Wrong. While advertising is established in magazines and television, games are a great unknown. Activision Blizzard honcho Bobby Kotick says he wouldn't go in that direction himself. "It's early days," according to Kotick. Sony bossman Howard Stringer also remains unconvinced.

Says Stringer:

The [supposed] solution to everything at the moment in the digital space is ad-supported. While advertisers are happy to talk that up, there is a limit to the amount of money available... Young people don't like advertising very much...

Make that, young people don't like bad advertising. If it's done in an innovative, non-intrusive way, in-game advertising could work. I mean, why not?

Questions Raised Over Modern Ads [FT.com via Gamasutra]

I'll ask again. Do you want to take a possible early look at the feature film adaptation of Konami's Castlevania? We have 32 pages worth of the live action film's script, which feature a host of classic franchise characters—Trevor Belmont and Sypha Belnades from Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, Christopher Belmont from the two Game Boy Castlevania entries and Elizabeth Bartley, the succubus from Castlevania: Bloodlines. The portions we were handed weren't dated or credited, so we're unsure at which stage of development these scenes featuring Belmont family member Christopher and castle guard Lucius occur. The film was one of the casualties of the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike, with production of the Sylvain White-directed adaptation halted in December. Spoilers, of course, abound, so if you feel like going into the Castlevania experience fresh, move along.

So Capcom say that retailers are to blame for the PS3 version of Devil May Cry 4 being more expensive than the 360 one, eh? Might be bullshit. While reading local Aussie blog Screen Play this morning, I happened upon a post about prices on Capcom's release schedule. So I went and checked my own Capcom release schedule (posted above) and hey, whaddya know, the recommended retail price for the PS3 version - suggested by Capcom, the publisher - is $10 more than the 360 one (please keep Australian dollar jokes to a minimum). An explanation is breathlessly anticipated.

UPDATE: Capcom have gotten back to us, saying only "We are a wholesale price company. The retailers set their own prices". Which they are: EB Games Australia's listing for the title contains the same discrepancy: $110 for the PS3 version, $100 for the 360. What retailer's going to ignore a suggestion to milk PS3 owners for an extra $10?

To: Ash
From: Crecente
Re: Bring On The Bad Haircut

I spent most of the day (the pleasant bits at least) playing Turok online with some Propaganda folks and planning our GDC coverage. It looks like it's going to be quite a bonanza of interesting information and fun talks. Oh and parties, like three or four of them on Tuesday alone. So crazy. I've got a couple of neat surprises lined up for that week which should be pretty fun. Hopefully the readers will like them.

What you missed:
Man Convicted in Xbox Baby Killing
Hands-On With Skype PSP
Grand Theft Auto IV Wanted Posters Popping Up In Brooklyn
Super Smash Bros. Brawl Leaks Turn To Flood [Updated]
Warhawk 1.3 Brings Custom Paint Jobs, Contest

A new and improved Home is reported to arrive on the PlayStation Network in Spring of this year, GamesIndustry.biz writes today, a taste of which is on hand at Monaco's Imagina 08 exhibition. What's changed? It sounds mostly cosmetic, as a new environment replaces the enclosed apartment, described by GI.biz as a "serene outside space, with plenty of room for people to interact, and tables with fully functional chess and draughts games included."

According to the report, user feedback changed a good portion of the virtual living space, with a streamlined theater and a wider variety of "apartments" being readied for launch. Sweet. Who else can't wait to virtually walk around and collect some virtual stuff?!

Home: Feedback led to changes [GamesIndustry.biz]

The next update for PlayStation 3 dogfighter Warhawk should appeal the fashion design crowd. It's ushering in a new era of visual customisation for vehicles and foot soldiers, giving budding designers the chance to have their work featured in-game. Sony and Incognito are currently holding a contest, seeking decal design and paint scheme submissions, 70 of which will be included in the upcoming patch. Details are still scarce—but coming "pretty soon," says producer Dylan Jobe—on the rest of what version 1.3 will bring, so stay tuned.

The contest is open to U.S. residents only (blame the lawyers!) and entrants would be wise to read the rules before firing up MS Paint. May we suggest a tasteful blend of tropical pink, chartreuse, white and black? Possibly with a bold "K" for your decal? Just riffing, here.

Warhawk Paint & Insignia Contest! [PlayStation.blog]

Vivendi, of which Blizzard Entertainment is a division, released its 2007 earnings revenues today, revealing that the World of Warcraft publisher raked in $US 1.2 billion (€814 million) in revenue last year. WoW's 10 million large subscriber base contributed the lion's share of the Vivendi Games division's $US 1.5 billion take (€1.018 billion). Blizzard's revenue was up 58% year over year which can be attributed to strong sales of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade and a subscriber boost of 2 million people.

Vivendi pointed to lower earnings from its Sierra label, with sales of Crash of the Titans, Spyro: The Eternal Night, F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate, Timeshift and World in Conflict as "not as strong as the 2006 release slate." Let's hear it for World of Warcraft, ladies and gentlemen!

Vivendi Full Year 2007 Revenues Increase Significantly (PDF) [Vivendi]

Update: We've tracked down the correct image and it looks like it's a choice of either game, not both. So not as good a deal sadly. Thanks to the helpful readers who pointed this out.

If you're in the market for a Playstation 3, tipster Brendan recommends you check out Target. As you can deduce from the image above, the retail chain is offering the console with a bonus controller and copies of Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction and Heavenly Sword for the slightly mad sum of $779.

Now, if Target was bundling Lair and Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire, I'd be vomiting uncontrollably right now, but Tools of Destruction and Heavenly Sword are quality titles you'd most likely pick up anyway. Considering the 40GB PS3 is priced at ~$650, the controller ~$70 and the games ~$100 each, the value is very strong in this one.

[Thanks Brendan!]

The high school hijinx of Rockstar Games' Bully is about to get a resolution boost and loads of additional content for those in the Wii and Xbox 360 console camps. It may not be the prettiest game pressed on a 360 disc, but don't let that deter you from enjoying the open world experience of reliving high school without all the real-world beatings. Bully: Scholarship Edition is due to ship March 4 for anyone who's interested. Pixel-nitpickers may want to eyeball the hi-def version over at GameTrailers for a better idea of what the current-gen port will bring.

Bully Scholarship Edition HD [GameTrailers]

The North American release of the Devil May Cry anime series may have been cancelled by publisher ADV Films, according to a recent report from ICv2. The report, which indicates a broad number of domestic cancellations on ADV's part, including the Devil May Cry series, has since been pulled from the site, but is still available via Google Cache. Despite being cached pages.

One of the best jokes we've heard at the Kotaku offices in a long time was the one in which Final Fantasy game director Motomu Toriyama had "promised" the thirteenth chapter of the series in 2008. Hilarious! Square Enix, on the other hand, wasn't exactly filled with laughter when mistranslations of a recent Famitsu article made their way online. It issued a statement today on chatter that this year would see the release of the ambitious PlayStation 3 RPG, writing that reports on Final Fantasy XIII's ship date were "erroneous and should be disregarded."

As far as a playable FFXIII demo? We're not holding our collective breath on that one either, as the team was hoping for something playable last summer according to reports from Dengeki.

ANNOUNCEMENT REGARDING FINAL FANTASY XIII RELEASE DATE [Square Enix]