Of all the features in Bionic Commando: Rearmed, other than its fundamental game play, nothing bridges 1988 to 2008 like the game's soundtrack. Its driving, blood-pumping, head-nodding rhythm is instantly recognisable as the music from the NES classic of 20 years ago, and it has won praise from many who have reviewed the game. Simon Viklund, of Stockholm-based developer Grin, did more than personally oversee the soundtrack as the game's creative director. He composed it himself.

It's an unusual combination to find in the development of a game. Both skill sets would be served by Viklund's own personal attachment to Bionic Commando, a love shared by others on the Grin/Capcom team behind the game. Conversations with Ben Judd -- Capcom's producer for both BCR and next year's 3D version of Bionic Commando -- and others close to the project revealed an attention to detail that bordered on obsession.

"At the time I think we just loved what we were doing," Judd said. "We were all fans of Bionic Commando. Some of us have incredibly fond memories when we played it as kids. We didn't want to be lazy. We didn't want to be cheap. We wanted to give this title our best."

Last week, Viklund and I had an in-depth discussion of the music. The talk was less about the mechanics of assembling it -- he's a classically trained musician and adept at several instruments, I'm not -- but more the inspiration and memories behind it. The soundtrack is available for download both at iTunes and sumthingdigital.com (where listeners can also buy the original 8-bit soundtrack, and compare the two). More than just great music, it's the guts of a legitimate remake, of something that honours a classic more than imitates it. And a look inside the minds of those who knew they were toying with nostalgia -- including their own -- for a beloved title, and felt a strong commitment to doing this the right way.

The Behemoth's last game - Alien Hominid - wasn't fun. Looked good, but wasn't fun. It was the gaming equivalent of taking your balls, resting them on a table, picking up a hammer then smashing them over and over and over until you sobbed yourself unconscious. The Behemoth's latest game - Castle Crashers - shares many of Alien Hominid's traits. It's lovingly drawn in 2D, it scrolls sideways, you have to kill everything in sight.

So, should you be reaching for the hammer again?

I was delighted in 2006 when I heard that Line Rider was picked up by a developer and headed to the DS. And almost immediately that short rush of excitement, I was perplexed.

How was anyone going to take such an open, simple design and turn it into a traditional game without totally screwing it up.

Turns out I wasn't the only one worrying about that.

"We knew (Line Rider) was a good platform", said Chris Keenan, producer of Line Rider 2: Unbound for InXile Entertainment.. "We knew there was something we could make a game out of, but we didn't just want to abandon what everyone had been playing around with".

The developers knew they would have to include a freestyle mode in the, but they also wanted to beef up the title by creating both a puzzle mode and a story mode.

"The great thing about Line Rider is its elegant simplicity", Keenan said. "We knew there was so much we could do to it, but we didn't want to ruin it by making it too complex".

So the development called on game creator and Slovenian university student Boštjan Čadež to help with the concept work early on.http://publish.kotaku.com/ged/new
Gawker Media Editor

"He came out for about a month and a half", Keenan said. "We put him up across the street and have him come over every day. He and our lead engineer here, started playing around with the next update of the flash version.

Mount & Blade is like that quirky girl who sits behind you in art class - you don't talk to her because you're afraid the much-hotter girl who sits next to her won't talk to you if she sees you talking to the quirky girl. The much-hotter girl in this case is The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, with its uber-amazing graphics and wide-open story land of medieval fantasy fun. Mount & Blade, like that quirky girl, has very little to do with Oblivion beyond the fact that they're the same gender. It too, is a wide-open adventure for PC, but the similarities stop there as Oblivion persists in creating epic fantasy while Mount & Blade focuses on recreating realistic 14th century life.

Scared off already, huh? Shame on you; the quirky girl always has a great personality.

So last week, I was taking a crap. Bear with me! And often as I do while taking said crap, I was reading, in this instance a comic. It was the latest trade paperback of DMZ, a series by Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli, which tells the story of a near-future US Civil War, where the red states rise up against the blue ones, and the war's frontline sees New York City split in two.

It's a great series, made great not only by the characters and storylines, but the world itself. The bullet-point summary I just gave doesn't do it justice. It's a believable world filled with real, fallible people, who are caught in the middle of a war that nobody really understands and nobody really wants to be a part of.

Anyway, the whole time I've been reading this series, and thinking of the world that Wood and Burchielli have crafted, all I can think of is: there would be a great videogame in this.

Not all Pokémon are created equally. Some are very powerful. Some look badass. Some are adorable. And some simple suck. Game site 1up has put together a list of the five worst Pocket Monsters. Here's a quick rundown:

5. Unown - The "Gimmick" Pokémon



4. Beautifly - The "Generic Copy" Pokémon



3. Luvdisc - The "Filler Underclass" Pokémon



2. Probopass - The "Clever Design Gone Terribly Wrong" Pokémon



1. Mr. Mime - The "What Were They Thinking?" Pokémon

Click the link below for a full rundown on why these Pocket Monsters were selected. Surely with all those Pokémon that have been spawned, there must be more crap ones.
Top 5 Lamest Pokemon [1up]

In the last Japanese history seminar of my first year of graduate school, we shifted gears from the economic and political legacy of the immediate post-war period to slightly more current topics - the 'afterlives of area studies,' the fate of post-colonialism in a world weary of po-co, and ... Pokémon and Neon Genesis Evangelion. I was at once delighted and disappointed to see respected academics tackling questions of "popular culture" that we often shy away from, at least in the context of "history" books. After we broke for coffee and reconvened, we launched into our discussion of some of the essays included in Japan After Japan: Social and Culture Life from the Recessionary 1990s to the Present. "Any thoughts on 'Pokémon Capitalism at the Millennium'?" my professor queried. Most eyes were on me, the 'gamer/game writer.' "Well, I thought it was an interesting essay," I started. "And it's nice to see gaming centre stage like this, but ..."

There's always a 'but.' The thing that struck me most about Anne Allison's otherwise interesting essay was for me -- a "gamer" and someone who writes about games -- was that she clearly had little experience with games themselves. As it turned out, she was apparently inspired to look into the Pokémon phenomenon after her children started playing; beyond purchasing and observing, she herself had no experience with gaming. My criticisms weren't aimed at her thinking or writing or research, per se - no, my quibble was with nit-picky details that didn't quite ring true.

Let's get this out of the way right now: Bionic Commando Rearmed isn't a "reimagining" of Capcom's 1988 classic. It's not "based on" the characters or premise, it's not a sequel, it's not a prequel. This is the original Bionic Commando, albeit with a freshly-applied coat of paint, and it brings to the 360, PS3 and PC all the pros and cons that go along with that.

So. Considering this is a remake of a twenty year-old game, is it worth all this fuss? Worth your time? Your money?

I'm posting this because it's been something that's been bugging me for a while, particularly when I'm talking about my job to people who aren't that big on games. People who just presume that because I play a lot of games, I love all games, and cock an eyebrow when I respond "eh, 3D fighters, I hate that shit". Writing on Edge, Steve Poole asks:

Do you know anyone who likes books and likes all kinds of books, from popular exegeses of quantum mechanics to Mills & Boon romances? Do many people like all genres of film, or all genres of music? It's very rare. We ought to consider it a tribute to the increasing breadth and maturity of the videogame medium that there are people who only play hyper-realistic FPSes, or games featuring talking fluffy animals.

Well put. Chances are, you're no more a "gamer" than you are a "reader". Time for a change in your self-labelling, "gamers"! Suggestions for amendments below, right after you read the entirety of Poole's great piece.

Loving, Hating Videogames [Edge]

Since playing through Metal Gear Solid IV, I've gone through a dozen eggs a week. I never used to eat this many eggs, but there I am, nearly every morning, cracking open fresh ones into a hot frying pan, pausing to watch the egg white turn from translucent to opaque, humming a little song to myself. Hell, I never really ate eggs sunny side up before the damn game came out. I was a scramblin' man. Quick, easy, no fuss. What has this stupid game done to me?

Is this an isolated case, or have you folks ever found yourself eating, drinking, or doing things a certain way after seeing it in a game? I'm not talking purchasing large baskets of Axe deodourant due to an in-game ad here - we've all done that. I'm talking more subtle things here. Going on a fresh fruit kick after a Pac-Man marathon, or getting really into curry after watching the marathon curry cutscene in Xenosaga II? How much power do video games have over our daily habits? If only we had a comments section in which to discuss such things.

Let's just say we shant be getting any job offers to be Michael Pachter's trusted aide, as our incorrect guesses about what we thought we'd see at E3 this year grossly outnumbered our correct ones. In our defence, we cast a wide net with our E3 '08 predictions, with some clearly outrageous bets that were ground more in fantasy than reality. Plus, E3 sucked.

While we were surprised to see a lack of X-waggle and to learn that Kid Icarus was a no-show, that Duffy performance clearly came out of nowhere. Hit the jump for the final tally and keep your eyes peeled for the winner — and possible tie-breaker — of our E3 Fantasy Betting Pool contest. Woot!

Every year I vote on a number of different game of the year, best of E3, best of whatever awards and every year I run into the same problem: The categories never really work for me. Often it ends up feeling like you're trying to squeeze a round peg into a square hole and hope for the best.

Thing is, I don't really have a solution. Take for instance today's news of the Game Critics' Best of E3 finalists. Check out those categories.

Best Social/Casual/Puzzle Game
Best Online Multiplayer Game
Best Action Game
Best Action/Adventure Game

Heck this year there were even a few that didn't get enough votes to make the cut.

Best Simulation Game, for instance, didn't get enough nominations to make the finalists list, but what would you include in there. Spore? Why not. HAWX, Sure, I suppose. Left 4 Dead? Maybe.

That's the problem, a lot of these categories are very easy to redefine and justify. What if you were making a Best of list for gaming, which categories would you include? Me? I think you need to include one category for each console, because often gamers only own one or two and they want to know which game is best on "their" system. But what about those collection of genres? I find them baffling, but it certainly looks like a lot of people use them. Maybe they just need new names. So what are you waiting for? Get to it.

By John Gaudiosi

SAN DIEGO, CA--Cliff Bleszinski, design director at Epic Games, was the featured speaker on the Comic-Con International "Xbox 360 Gears of War Showcase" panel, over the weekend. Sitting alongside was comic book writer Josh Ortega, who worked with him on the Gears of War 2 story, and New York Times best-selling author Karen Traviss (Star Wars: Republic Commando), whose first of three planned Del Rey novels, Gears of War: The Battle of Aspho Fields, hits store shelves October 28.

Travis received an e-mail from her Del Rey Editor, Keith Clayton, asking if she could do a fast turnaround on a military game tie-in. After asking around and being told that Gears of War was "Traviss town" material, she acquiesced.

"If I don't like something, but I've taken the money, I maintain a tactful British silence if asked for my opinion on it," said Traviss. "I certainly won't lie and gush over it, but I won't talk it down either. So if I say I love something, I love it. And I bloody well love Gears."

Travis, who began her writing career as a journalist, said Gears is the best-looking game that she's ever seen.

We're a blog. But you knew that already. You've been coming here for weeks/months/years. But if you've been paying attention to gaming news (and in particular, the source of some gaming news) over the past 12 months or so, you'll have noticed some other blogs becoming a little more prominent. And they're not news ones, like ours. Not "oh here's a picture of my cat, George, with pants on" ones, either. I'm talking company blogs.

As in, blogs run by video game platform holders, developers and publishers. They're interesting entities! And here's why: blogs came to prominence as an easy way for the average person to throw some stuff up on the internet and get people talking. By their very nature they're informal. So what business do these massive, global corporations have in saddling up and getting into the whole blogging thing?

The answer's not as simple as you think. Yes, there are PR benefits to be had, but that's a cynic's answer, not to mention a shallow one. What kind of PR? Are they tapping new markets? Consolidating existing ones? Trying to make amends for previous PR disasters? And - most importantly - what are they getting out of these blogs besides from PR?

We were flooded by emails today from readers tipping us off about this piece, which for some reason made it to Yahoo News' front page. The story - based off a report conducted by Toward Freedom - suggests that Sony's humble PlayStation 2 "has fuelled a brutal conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo". Huh?

Putting aside the fact Yahoo are a few weeks late on the last time this story did the rounds, and seem to be running the story solely to take delight in linking a gaming console with human rights abuses, the fact the original Toward Freedom article repeatedly points the finger at Sony - and in particular the PlayStation 2 - is more than a little, well, strange.

E3 was a disappointment. But you knew that already. Yet do you know why it was a disappointment? Sure, there are the easy answers. Few new game announcements. Anything Nintendo said or did. But they're just that. Easy answers. There were a lot more things wrong with the show than just those limelight-grabbers. Things that we never want to see at E3 again. Ever.

Australian Gamer has posted a letter one of its readers received from Michael Atkinson, the South Australian Attorney-General against an R18+ rating for games. The letter is in response to the reader's arguments for the new classification.

I encourage you to read Atkinson's entire response so you can formulate your own judgement. I've previously dissected his position at length, and I won't be doing it again here - I'm afraid my head would explode from the sheer ridiculousness of the situation.

What I would like to do is pull out a few key points from his letter and explain why I feel they're "not a good enough reason" to deny an R18+ rating - to use the Attorney-General's own words.

They're the people in the shadows. You don't know their names, but you know their words. They localizers, the folks that take games from not only another language, but also another culture and open them up for another audience. "Good translation is tough to quantify", says Tokyo-based localizer Matt Alt. "If it's well done, it sort of disappears. Ideally the person playing the game doesn't even realise they're reading something that wasn't originally written in their native tongue". He runs AltJapan along with his wife (and company president!) Hiroko Yoda run out of a small second story office on Tokyo's westside. And with 99.999 percent of the games AltJapan works on that's true. Well, save for one: Ninja Gaiden II. read more »

Ah, the onward march of technology. Though the fiddly arguments over what "next gen" really means are unceasing, the general trend is that games get bigger, slicker, richer and more lifelike with every passing year.

Soulcalibur's Ivy may be the poster child for this annual augmentation - literally. It seems with each passing year, her endowment multiplies, ushering in each passing technological evolution with more ludicrous, top-heavy jiggle than the era before.

But it'd be unfair to pick on Miss Valentine. After all, unrealistic body types in games are nothing new, a conversation-starter as old as Lara Croft. The fact that "sex sells" and the proliferation of exploitive body types is a cultural pandemic, not simply a video game issue, is the easy way to explain it, but the "easy" way is seldom very enlightening, nor does it help us learn about why we play.

What does it all mean, in an interactive medium where realism, immersion and engagement are the primary goals? Are we seeking idealistic images as avatars for ourselves, to complete the fantasy of power that gaming can provide?

Is this a case where the gaming audience has been misjudged through the ages by marketing teams who assume each and every one of us is a vapidly salivating 15-17 year-old male - until their assumptions have unconsciously shaped our taste?

That burning sensation you're feeling? It's E3 Fever! With just days to go before the event kicks off formally, speculation is running rampant. Publishers are revealing their line-ups, console manufacturer figureheads are getting their last-minute chemical peels and Ubisoft is scrambling to fit all of its Petz offerings in a 100 square foot allocation at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

And we're making our own guesses about what we'll be seeing from Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony at their respective media briefings. Some things, like X-waggle, a new Animal Crossing and another appearance from PlayStation Home are practically guaranteed. But what surprises will companies like EA, Sega, Take-Two and Capcom bring?

We've thought long, hard and then, harder once more, to nail down our best guesses on what we can expect from E3 2008. Hit the jump for our laser precise insight into what we'll be treated to next week.

Nintendo has monster sales and two popular systems on their hands, so what now? Nothing, at least that's what N'Gai Croal, Stephen Totilo and I think. Nintendo doesn't need to shake things up at E3 to continue their success. Totilo mentions Animal Crossing, which fits in well with a winter release. I mention peripherals. Maybe both? I could see Nintendo's answer to Webkinz being a blend of Animal Crossing and stuffed animals. Think of the audience, the endless stuffed animals with unlock codes, the potential for more money printing! Is that's Reggie's big surprise?

You're looking at the summer street carnival in my home stomping grounds of Spanish Harlem, New York, as seen from the top of a great big ferris wheel. I've written before about how many here face challenging economic circumstances, but during the summer, the neighbourhood is quite a lovely community, especially when this carnival is in town. It becomes a favourite hangout, people set up outdoor barbecues nearby, and it's warm, fun times.

There's also a thriving gamer community here, as I've said before - as with the informal "subway survey" that Stephen Totilo shared here during his stint as guest editor, I see a lot of PSPs, primarily. Lots of people are interested in the Wii, though - and it isn't any easier to get one here than it is to score one anyplace else. When I got mine, my local game store had exactly one, and sold it at an especially high price.

So imagine my surprise when I found six Wiis in the wilds of Spanish Harlem - as prizes in one of the carnival games.

I should preface this by saying the idea behind a hybrid class is fantastic. I'm the sort of player that can't stand being pigeon-holed. I like flexibility. To be stuck in the same role for months, even years, in a massively multiplayer online game sounds like torture - the sort you'd endure if someone were to swap your butt with your gonads and force you to sit the same way you always have.

Ouch? You better believe it.

No one likes being sidelined, underpowered or having their class poorly understood by their peers, but these are the issues hybrids have had to endure since the dawn of massively multiplayer games. Is there a solution to the hybrid problem, or should players of classes like the Druid, Paladin and Shaman face the fact that they will never be balanced?

Rock Band 2. Recently hinted at, and now confirmed, I'm sure most of the world is as excited about the sequel as it was when Guitar Hero 2 was announced by Activision.

Well, everyone in the world except Australia. Yes, 7 months on from its US release, we're still waiting for Harmonix's rhythm game to debut here. 7 months on, EA has failed to provide any reason for the delay, or even a vague street date, leaving us to feed desperately on retailer estimates. 7 months on, and resentment continues to build for both publisher EA and developer Harmonix.

EA's silence has forced gamers, once excited about the possibility of playing the game, to either boycott its release or import it from overseas. Desirable options? Not really, but what choice has EA left us?

Several feet to my left in the MTV Newsroom the camera crew is setting up for a shoot. One guy is trying to describe Spore to another guy. "You start as a little thing and then become a bigger thing...." He's struggling. The other guy wants to know if you can be a planet. Clearly they need to read my blog more.

Ah, the confusions of non-hardcore gamers. I'm reminded that a few weeks ago a friend approaches me asking about another game. He wants to buy it. He can't remember the name and calls it "that game with the walking man and the shapes and stuff". It took me a while to figure out which game he was talking about.

People just can't remember the names of games, it seems. Not if they're regular folks who don't eat and drink this stuff. I know someone who calls the Burnout games Crash 'Em Up and refers to Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney as Ace Wright: Phoenix Attorney — which I think sounds better.

Isolated phenomenon? Or is this re-naming and mis-describing of games something you've encountered too?

Your guest editor would like to share with Kotaku some of his favourite things in gaming.

Near the top of that list is a chart of mythological creatures, graphed in terms of badass-ness. It was used to make a point about the Pegasus-riding part of God of War II.

The chart is the work of Chris Zukowski, the funniest FAQ writer I've ever encountered and proprietor of the Game Intestine. The site hasn't been updated in a while, but it's the place to go if you're playing Final Fantasy XII, Assassin's Creed, or a number of other games he's written up.

Some FAQs just tell you what to do. Zukowski's walkthroughs do that and make fun of everything ridiculous in the game along the way. I highly recommend his site the next time you're stuck or in need of a laugh. Read his FAQs. (Full disclosure: Zukowski once saved several hours of my life by telling me when to abandon FFXII)

Full badarse chart after the jump:

I got a call from an Electronic Arts representative yesterday asking me about my coverage plans for Battlefield: Bad Company. I'm busy, and, right now I don't have any.

Honestly, it's possible that seeing so much of the game at so many press events played a part in that.

I try to be curious about everything, but seeing a game — even a good one — so many times can kill the buzz for me.

I've heard other reporters say the same thing about the long-hyped Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway. To be fair, I'd grown weary of the many Spore demos, but I've re-warmed to the game after recent showings (two private demos in the last month — I'm not bragging, just making a point about how it gets around to the press.)

On the other hand, I was asked by a Microsoft representative yesterday what I was most interested in seeing at E3. I said, from a reporter's standpoint: Nintendo's line-up. Because I don't know anything about it.

Nintendo's been shortening its hype cycle. Some developers have called for a shortened cycle too. We gaming reporters certainly need to ask ourselves if long hype cycles are affecting our coverage. My question is if it's affecting gamers as well.

Would you rather know about a game for a shorter period of time?

Once a month or so, N'Gai Croal and I debate a video game. Usually we do it well after a game's been released. We call our exchanges Vs. Mode, co-publish them on both of our blogs, and hope that people have enough bathroom time to read them.

The latest debate concluded this morning. It's all about Grand Theft Auto IV. We talked about bringing our A game for this one. Or at least we would have if we spoke in sports metaphors. It's full of spoilers... about the game's moral quandaries, its ending and other stuff. So beware.

But if you're looking to see him have a go at me for preferring San Andreas to GTA IV and if you're interested in stuff like this...

In my last column, I defended Grand Theft Auto IV from allegations of sexism, based on my opinion that it treats everyone distastefully. It provides a sandbox experience, I said, that allows players the opportunity to explore the underbelly of humanity and themselves, reflecting their own worst impulses back at them.

I was pleased that the article provoked thoughtful, in-depth discussion about the treatment of race, gender and other social issues in games, but in debunking a single individual's attack on Grand Theft Auto, my intention was not to provide a blanket pass to games that permit (and arguably, in this case, promote) antisocial behaviour. So I was more pleased at the commenters who criticised the virulence of my GTA IV defence than I was at those who agreed with me (though, hey, who doesn't like to be agreed with?).

Trying to shoehorn an RTS like Command & Conquer onto a console is one thing, but Civilisation? The fanciest bottle of good booze on PC strategy gaming's top shelf? It's an impossible task, some will say. Or one that even if it is possible, just shouldn't be done. Under any circumstances. Lest the ensuing offspring (see Civ II on the PS1) be such a crime of nature, such an abomination, that the good Lord himself descend from the heavens and strike down all involved in its creation.

That's what die-hard, myopic fans of the PC series will tell you, at any rate. And as one of those myself - having lost what must be thousands of hours to the series over the years - when a copy of Civilization Revolution for the PlayStation 3 turned up at my door, I greeted it with not just a signature, but a healthy dose of scepticism.