Little old, I know, but there's been some new additions since the original, so bear with me. These are a bunch of nerdcore raps by Turbo. Turbo loves him some Street Fighter II. Turbo also loves him some Balrog. Maybe a little too much. Above, Balrog's tale of SFII bonus stages, while you can click through for odes to both Vega and Chun Li.

What's it like working for Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto? Ask Super Mario Galaxy director Yoshiaki Koizumi (pictured), who's also worked on Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine and Ocarina of Time, among others. Koizumi says:

Mr Miyamoto is known for taking lots of time to create the best player experience. His demands are numerous and exacting, but I actually really like that. He's effortless in explaining what he wants... We get along well together, and time files by when we're working. Before we know it, sometimes, it's 2am.

Whoah. Stop. The. Press. Ignore the continued success of Burnout Paradise, ignore the continued, malingering presence of Nintendo's top-sellers, and cast your eyes to #8. Donkey Kong: Jet Race. A former GameCube game, designed for use for (and sadly no longer compatible with) Nintnedo's bongo controllers. And hey, I'm sure it's a good-ish game in its own right. But when stuff like that starts cracking the top 10, you know Britain has the WII FEVER, and has it bad.

1) Wii Play
2) Burnout Paradise (360)
3) Burnout Paradise (PS3)
4) Mario & Sonic At The Olympics (Wii)
5) Brain Training
6) More Brain Training
7) Call of Duty 4 (360)
8) Donkey Kong: Jet Race (Wii)
9) New Super Mario Bros
10) Carnival: Funfair Games (Wii)

[charts courtesy of ChartTrack] [Pic]

No man on earth can immortalise a classic comic book character better than Alex Ross. Little surprise, then, that when fantasy artist Douglas Shuler (who's worked on a ton of Magic: The Gathering cards) wanted to pay homage to his City of Heroes buddies, he left his own style at the door and came up with this. I am now officially kicking myself for not having played City of Heroes and befriended Mr. Shuler when I had the chance.
Massive LONESTAR Poster (3D Poser) [Official Forums, via Game|Life]

Not happy with the Wii-mote? Motus Corporation is working on a Wii-motesque controller for consoles and PCs. Dubbed the "Darwin," the controller has better and more realistic control says the manufacturer thanks to greater gyroscope and accelerometer complexity. The company has built super realistic controllers for golfers to practice their swing, and this background gives an edge says Motus. Apparently, the Darwin aligns itself with magnetic north and knows where it is in space. The Darwin will be out later this year and retailing in the $US 79 ~ $US 99 ballpark.
Darwin Controller [Giz]

My love-hate relationship with this game is, if you're a regular reader, well-documented on this site. Most SingStars, I hate. But the PS2's SingStar 90s? I...well, "love" is too strong a word, but I have played it, on more than one occasion (who am I to resist Technotronic?). And I was playing it last August, when it was released in Europe and Australia. Deciding late is better than never, Sony will be releasing the game in the US on March 18, with a number of changes made to the tracklist. Gone from the PAL version are EMF, All-Saints, the B-52s and Lisa Loeb, and in come Colour Me Badd, En Vogue, Hootie & the Blowfish, Santana (with Rob Thomas) and - amazingly - Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun" and Nirvana's "Lithium".

And like that, the just announced Satin Silver PS3 is getting a bundle! The 40GB PLAYSTATION 3 is being packed with upcoming PS3 exclusive Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzan! (aka Yakuza 3). Retailing for ¥47,040 ($US 441), the bundle is limited to only a thousand units and doesn't appear to include the DualShock 3, however. It does include dragon stickers, and who doesn't like dragon stickers? Bundle hits March 6th as does Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzan!.
Ryu Ga Pack [Dengeki Online]

Market researchers Screen Digest have just published the findings of a study they ran on the state of console games. While the full report is purchase-only (got $US 795 handy?), for cheapskates like us they've thrown up the basic gist of the research for free. Among the key findings were the fact Sega have the most current-gen releases on the market, the total number of Wii games will overtake the 360's roster this quarter and that American and British developers were "by far" the most productive, with Japanese and Canadian studios trailing distantly in their wake (this most likely being a study of the US market, not the global or Japanese ones).
Console Games Publishing Q1 08 No. 2 [Screen Digest, thanks Rico!] [Pic]

The early rumblings are true. Today, Sony announced that starting March 19th, Japan will see a budget PS3 series called "PLAYSTATION 3 the Best." Games include Folkore, Resistance, Ninja Gaiden Sigma, Mobile Suit Gundam: Target in Sight and Ridge Racer 7. Each title will retail for ¥3,619 ($US 34). No word whether this greatest hits line is Japan only.
PS3 Best [PlayStation Japan]

Guess having a black and white PS3 wasn't enough for Japan. Sony have announced that, on March 6, Japan will get a "Satin Silver" PS3. Retailing for ¥39,980 ($US 374), it's the standard 40GB setup, and of course the bundled DualShock 3 SIXAXIS will be in silver as well. Looks pretty classy! I've got the satin silver PS2, and it's stood the test of time quite well. Only thing left to do now is for Western fans of colour variation to wonder out loud why Japan's on its third colour scheme while we're still (for the mean time) on our first. Presser follows.

UPDATE - That controller pictured above isn't actually a DualShock 3! For some reason, despite releasing the silver version of their updated controller on the same day, Sony are not including a DualShock 3 with the new console. No, instead it'll come with an already-outdated SIXAXIS. If they want a silver DS3 to match their silver PS3, Japanese consumers are going to have to fork out an additional ¥5500 ($US 50). Blergh.

For those who want to beta test Nintendo games in Japan, listen up: Nintendo is looking for folks to beta what's rumoured to be Mario Kart Wii. Working hours are Monday to Friday, 10am to 5pm. There's only an hour break for lunch, and the salary starts at ¥900 ($US 8.40) per hour with the possibility of a raise. Travel expenses and health insurance are covered as well. The trial period last two weeks, while the actual gig could last up to six months. Interested parties should be aware that the testing will be done at Nintendo's Kyoto Research Center. Not too shabby, this.
Nintendo Part Time Gig [Nintendo.co.jp]

The BBC's Watchdog program is upset with Brain Training. Very upset! Host Nicky Campbell has criticised the game and accused it of "discrimination", after hearing testimony from folks who can't be understood by the game thanks to their strong accents. That'd be northerners, Scots, Northern Irish, and Welsh, then. In other words, nearly half the population of the United Kingdom. My advice: learn to deal with the disappointment, and move on. Many Americans and Australians, and in particular New Zealanders and South Africans, are all in the same boat, and our lives aren't lying in ruins just yet.
Brain Training discriminates against Northerners, says Watchdog [CVG] [Pic]

The Game Developers Association of Australia will be hosting a private function for CEOs and investors during this year's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. The aim of the event is to provide high-level decision makers the chance to get involved in the Oz games industry, and if we can make it tantalising enough, ink a few deals.
Says GDAA CEO Greg Bondar:

GDC is a world class event and an important event on the Australian game developers’ calendar and GDAA will be making the point to all international investors, publishers and game developers that making games is a serious business in Australia.

A press release-looking thing after the jump.

The latest Command & Conquer Battlecast, the official, full-of-ham video podcast of the series, has teased fans with news of a new product announcement, due in two weeks time. One that will give you "one more reason to cheer". It can't be a C&C3 expansion, that's already underway. It can't be Tiberium, because that's well out of the bag. Which when you look at the Command & Conquer universe leaves us with... Red Alert! Yes, the best damn games in the series. EA, if this is indeed the case, and you're making another Red Alert game, so help me God, you'd better get Kari Wuhrer on the phone.

PS - Yes, it could - hypothetically - be another Generals game, but they said it was a reason to cheer, not bitch about why they weren't making another Red Alert.
Commandier & Conquerier [Rock, Paper, Shotgun] [Img]

Publisher THQ finally has a new Chief Financial Officer. Good for THQ. The awesomely named Colin Slade (not pictured) will take over the open CFO slot. Says Slade:

THQ is a terrific company with a strong financial foundation and I am excited to play a part in driving the company's continued growth, With my prior experience in the technology industry, I understand the complexities of developing software in a rapidly changing environment and I look forward to working with Brian and the rest of THQ's management team to maximise opportunities as we move forward.

As you've no doubt heard by now, Devil May Cry 4 has a mandatory install. One which, upon insertion of the game disc, takes 22-25 minutes to complete. And oh how you complained. Some for no reason other than to whine, but others, with a bit more of a point, wondering why it was again they preferred console games to PC games. Well, Capcom have swiftly responded, informing you that while the game's installing you get 22-25 minutes worth of story primers and concept art, as well as the handy reminder that, well...the human body requires sustenance to survive:

If you don't want to watch the "Previously, on Devil May Cry..." portion of the install process, go make a sandwich and grab a soda, then come on back. You're going to be spending some serious time with this game, and we don't want you going hungry. Low blood sugar will make you dizzy and you'll need to be focused like an Alan Parsons Project to defeat the enemies in this game.

I'm sick of Rock Band updates that don't appeal to me (recent news of Faith No More notwithstanding). Sick of boring, repetitive songs from big-name bands. Sick of the number of songs offered that, you know...fail to do as advertised: namely rock. So I figured I'd go one better than the usual "oh I wish it had more Iron Maiden" I see in every Rock Band post comments section and put this together. Here, then, is my totally biased, totally objective, totally exhaustive list of tracks that could and should be featured in future Rock Band DLC updates.

The main prerequisite for making this list? The song had to rock. And in the case of the ones that don't necessarily rock (B.B. King, for example), they're there to break things up, like Guitar Hero I did so successfully with Stevie Ray Vaughn and Bowie. Also, I tried (and failed) to go for artists not previously featured in either Guitar Hero or Rock Band, and artists that may be a little less known than the big-label, big-name bands that we normally get 3-4 times a month. Finally, I tried (and again failed...with individual explanations below) to make sure every song was varied and interesting to play, not just listen to.

It would be safe to call Daxter *the* PSP game. First released in 2006, it's been bundled with the handheld twice: With the Ceramic White unit and the new silver Slim & Lite PSP. Now, developer Ready At Dawn announces that December was one of the game's strongest months and that the game has sold 2 million copies of Daxter worldwide. From Ready At Dawn's website:

Daxter has been an incredible success for us, especially considering it was our very first game as a company.

Best Buy doesn't lie, as the threat of the Devil May Cry anime's cancellation truly has ended. An anonymous employee has provided us with photos of the new ADV Films discs in hand, complete with Best Buy price tags and manufacturer labels, definitive proof that the publisher has made good on its release. We wrote last week that the Capcom licensed series was one of many ADV titles whose future was in doubt after the publisher dropped dozens of upcoming releases from its web site, but it appears DMC is good to go. Thanks for the heads up, anonymous.

To: Ash
From: Crecente
Re: The Revenge of the Washing Machine II, Electric Boogaloo

Tristan's First Grade class has been studying presidents this week. Each of the kids need to take their turn standing in front of the rest of the class delivering a short speech about a different president. Tristan picked James Madison, fourth president of the United States and a man, who my wife tells me, adored ice cream.

I asked Tristan how things went and he said very well. He told me the second best speech in the class (his, apparently was the best) was about our first president: "General Grievous Washington." A man, I suspect, who had both wooden teeth and four light sabers. Can you imagine the looks on the faces of the British when they came face-to-face with the general of the continental army? No wonder we won.

What you missed:
SuperVillain Working on Two Wii Games
Child Man Meet Man Teen
Jim Ward Depature Sparks DICE Shuffle
New PS3 Bundle Coming To Australia
A Woman Not Bashing Video Games? Impossible!
Pure Energy: A Critical Look At Energy Drinks
PixelJunk Monsters Impressions
GameSpot Loses One More Editor
NVIDIA Buying AGEIA for Bouncy PhysX Tech
Gearbox Hints At Something Huge
Pursuit Force: Extreme Justice Impressions
The Super Mario Galaxy Miracle
PS3 Folding@Home Hits 1M Users
Dead Rising 2 Rumoured To Be In The Works, But Not At Capcom

We know Civilization Revolution has been canned for the Wii. We just didn't know why. Do now! Speaking with MTV's Patrick Klepek, Firaxis programmer Scott Lewis has revealed that, because the game was originally planned for the PS3 & 360 - with Wii and DS versions a money-making afterthought - the team couldn't find the time or resources to scrape up the new art assets and code a Wii version would have required (the PS3 & 360 are sharing assets, as well as being the lead platforms, while the DS version is cheap as chips to develop). That's not to say the project's entirely dead, though, as Lewis says the Wii version may be revived if the other versions do well.
Why 2K Games Pulled The Plug On The Wii's 'Civilization Revolution' [MTV]

Just days prior to the one-year anniversary of the launch of Myst Online: Uru Live, the publisher responsible for bringing Cyan Worlds' MMO to the masses (well... ) has announced its termination. GameTap's Vice President of Content and Creative Director Ricardo Sanchez broke the bad news to fans on the game's official forums, writing that the MMO has 60 days to live, at which point the game servers will be shut down and tears will begin to shed.

Myst fans will be glad to read, however, that "Cyan is still a very valued partner of GameTap, we are on excellent terms, and we look forward to continuing our relationship in the future." Stay strong, Mysties.

Myst Online: Uru Live Season 2 Status [Myst Online Forums]

We won't dare put a date on Fable 2, but we now have a developer-sourced impression of what the Peter Molyneux-led role-playing game's achievements will look like. Mike West, lead scripter at Lionhead Studios, explains in a recent blog posting just how the team has determined the set of Xbox Live Achievements that will be incorporating into Fable 2, praising and poo-pooing how his peers handled the task.

Sony's attempt to penetrate the handheld market has been, comparatively, pretty darn successful. Sony expects to ship some 13 million PSPs by the end of fiscal year 2007, alongside 54.9 million pieces of software. Even though numbers are going up for the PlayStation Portable, Sony wants to make it more attractive to developers.

Today, Sony subsidiary SN Systems cut the price of PSP development kits and support in half, making PSP development more appealing to those looking out for their bottom lines. That also means we may in for a new batch of lower budget games, making it even more competitive against the Nintendo DS.

PSP dev costs halved [Develop]

SCEA's Playstation 3 Folding@home project, which went live back on March 22, recently topped one million user, meaning that about 3,000 PS3 users have registered for Folding@home a day since they software went live on the console.

"Since partnering with SCEI, we have seen our research capabilities increase by leaps and bounds through the continued participation of Folding@home users," said Vijay Pande, Associate Professor of Chemistry at Stanford University and Folding@home project lead. "Now we have over one million PS3 users registered for Folding@home, allowing us to address questions previously considered impossible to tackle computationally, with the goal of finding cures to some of the world's most life-threatening diseases. We are grateful for the extraordinary worldwide participation by PS3 and PC users around the globe."

Thanks to all of those PS3 owners willing to tie their console to the network, and pay the resulting electric bill, PS3 users make up about 74 percent of the total teraflop computing power of the Folding@home project.

Well done Sony, well done. Oh, speaking of well done, Team Kotaku is currently ranked number 106 at folding@home. If you haven't signed up (for Folding@home) and own a PS3, you really should.

The latest issue of EGM should be hitting subscriber mailboxes any day now, but 1UP has an early look at the month's rumour round up from the enigmatic Quarterman. One of the biggest unconfirmed stories is that Capcom is indeed readying a sequel to Xbox 360 zombie fest Dead Rising. A Western developer is rumoured to have taken the development reins, one based in the Los Angeles area. Capcom has certainly warmed up to developers outside of Japan, as development on Okami, Bionic Commando and Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix has been outsourced westward.

Other enticing rumor tidbits: a forthcoming announcement from Team Ico, plus ports of Everyday Shooter and God of War: Chains of Olympus. I'm going to check the mailbox one more time. Things often get jammed in there. *checks* Damn it!!

Rumors: Dead Rising 2, God of War PS2 [1UP]

Put your headphones on for this one, as GamerHelp collects the top five batshit insane gaming freak outs ever to be caught on video. You may have seen some of them, including the chocolate milk demanding brat who verbally berated his mom via Xbox Live, but they're all worth watching again. The above, featuring a Halo fan who drops more f-bombs than a 2 Live Crew double album says it best when he says "$#!%! Shut the @!#?@! up! Who the @!#?@! is driving that Warthog? Bull$#!%!! *girly screech* @!#?@! you! @!#?@! you! Waaaaaagggghh!! Noooo!" Packed to the gills with NSFW language, regardless of your native tongue.

The 5 Greatest Gamer Temper Tantrums [GamerHelp via Digg]

Those of you who have been following the site regularly probably know that my wife isn't a gamer. In fact she's slightly an anti-gamer, but she puts up with me. She doesn't, however, ever have any interest in playing games, or watching myself or my son play games, or even talking about games. So we don't, at least around her. And it's really not a big deal. I have plenty of other things going on in my life, so gaming doesn't have to be a part of every bit of it.

Over the weekend Tristan and I decided to play through more of Super Mario Galaxy. About 30 minutes into our session, my wife wandered down to fix herself a drink at the bar. Then she sort of wandered over to the couch where we were sitting to play. Then she sat down!

What the hell? I thought, but tried not to show my surprise. The last thing I wanted to do was have her walk off.