Sawaki Takeyasu, the director and artist behind El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron, is working on a new title called The Lost Child.

The past few years produced a huge amount of great games and a surprisingly decent amount of them have well-developed characters that are hard to forget. And, of course, some of them look really attractive.

I really like weird games. Cubivore. Katamari Damacy. Guitarooman. As a gamer, some of my favourite experiences are the weirdest ones out there. When I go to the store or preorder games, I preferentially choose the weird ones; the runts of the litter, the ones that people don't play that often.

Japanese video-sharing site NicoNico Douga is well known for having its own unique net culture and memes. One of the most interesting of these is the "tekaki" style of video. "Tekaki", literally meaning "hand-drawn", refers to a type of video where a popular clip -- usually an anime or video game opening -- is altered to portray a different game or anime altogether. This is done by tracing the original source frame by frame, making the desired alterations, and then reanimating it.

Ugh. El Shaddai, that crazy game in which you have God on speed dial, is returning -- but as a Japanese social game spin-off. Um, neat? GameSpot via Eurogamer]

In El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron you are guided by a pre-fall Lucifer who carries a phone with God on his speed dial.

The end of 2011 brings with it an implicit deadline for those inescapable year-end wrap-ups. Yet, the Paper of Record doesn't really pony up a traditional countdown-to-the-best list.

In a little over five minutes, I can show you why people who play the strangely named video game El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron rave about its graphics.

With a striking art style and a story based off of an ancient Jewish religious work, Ignition's El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron is the sort of game that could go in any direction review-wise. As it turns out, it did.

Fashionable action game El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron was supposed to hit the PS3 and Xbox 360 next week in North America. Now it's due August 16, September 9 in Europe. "Don't worry," says publisher UTV Igntion. "Everything's fine."

UTV Ignition's gorgeous action game doesn't come out until July 26, but you can play it right now in the form of a downloadable demo for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It's like getting an E3 present!

Lucifer is charming in what is probably his biggest video game appearance of the year. He's a pal. He's smooth. He calls God on a cell phone. He wears fashionable jeans.

In upcoming action game El Shaddai, a pre-fall Lucifer guides players. He's got God on speed dial and looks cool. Now, he's big-headed and "cute". Oh dear.

In action game El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron​, hero Enoch and guardian angel Lucifel don some heavenly denim. You can buy those same jeans — well, you could before the internet went bananas.

For better or worse, a fan made an El Shaddai toy. As seen on はちま起稿.

It's trendy now for Japanese games to try to appease Western tastes. El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron does not care about what's in.

Action game El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron might have a wordy title, but Japan is totally enamoured with the game's hero Enoch and his flowing locks. You could say Japan has a crush. Time for a meme!