Motion sensors, 3-D games grab limelight at Tokyo Game Show

Source: Japan Times

Japan's biggest video game show kicked off Thursday at the Makuhari Messe convention center in Chiba, with motion-sensor game systems and three-dimensional display images drawing the most attention.

At the four-day Tokyo Game Show, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. and Microsoft Corp. presented game systems that let users control the action with their entire bodies, in an apparent response to Nintendo's Wii hand-held motion-sensor controller.

At the Sony booth, many tried out a wireless remote controller, PlayStation Move, that detects the user's movements via both a hand-held sensor and a camera.

PS Move, which is played on the PlayStation 3, enables users to "get in the space of the video game and play intuitively," said Hiroshi Kawano, SCE Japan president, who added that Sony aims to attract novice gamers. The controller goes on sale in October.

Microsoft Corp. is also stealing the limelight with its newest motion control system, called Kinect, for the firm's Xbox 360 game console. The system goes on sale in November.

Unlike Wii and PS Move, the Kinect sensor system for the Xbox 360 machine doesn't require a hand-held controller. A camera, depth sensor and multiarray microphone set up in front of the users detect the movements and location of the players, and match the characters' actions in the video game.

So I went onto youtube and found some trailers for new games.
I won't embed them as it will reduce the quality of game in the small space that I have here. So here are the links. Which games do you like?

Michael Jackson: The Experience
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifyz_f_m5hs

Marvel vs Capcom 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhfecdbLDWY

Grand Turismo 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bw0e0nObeZM

EA Sports MMA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsaryUnsIKw

MegaMan Universe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGB72UwdCV0

Resident Evil 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOF6-LsZbKA

Final Fantasy XIV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHHS6jJjVjs

Castlevania: Lord of Shadows
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmvwvAMFYWs

Violinist plays Mario in real-time

Amazing! :)

Super Mario says...

Make your own Mario message!

Yu-Gi-Oh! Sets Guinness Record

Source: Anime News Network

Konami Digital Entertainment has announced on Friday that Guinness World Records has recognized Yu-Gi-Oh! as the best-selling trading card game to date with over 22,587,728,173 cards sold as of April 2009. The game entered the record books on July 7. The official announcement was made at the 7th annual Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game World Championship in Tokyo. Kazuki Takahashi drew the original manga from 1996 to 2004, and the card game first shipped in 1999 and eventually spread to over 45 countries. Konami had applied for the record back in 2006, when "only" 15.8 billion cards had been sold.

That's alot of cards. I have some old ones lying around I think. From when I bought them for my niece. I wonder if they're worth anything :)

Asian Ripoff LXII - Kiss From A Rose

Artist: Angela Aki
Language: Japanese

Back to the video genre for this one :)


Youtube Link

A really good cover of an awesome song.

No more rambunctious cuddling games for you, Japan

Source: Kotaku

First Japanese rape games were "banned". Then, they were unbanned — rather, they were never officially banned. Now? Now, they're banned. Like, for real.

The country's Ethics Organization of Computer Software held an emergency meeting today in which nearly 100 representatives from various erotic game companies concluded that the manufacturer and sale of rape-type games should cease. This was not a government decision or even a legal one, but instead a self-policing policy on the part of the EOCS.

None of the representatives thought it was out of line to ban these types of games, and many felt this was the only way to rectify any problems caused by these types of games. Do know: a vote was not taken at this meeting, for whatever that is worth.

.....more

Good! I'm usually against banning anything but these games are pretty extreme. I don't have problem with sex or porn but these video games promote a crime and can psychological influence men to objectify real women in public as objects in a video game. Very disrespectful.

Whatever happened to simple video games... like Frogger!

Japanese Game: Dream C Club

Source: Kotaku

Dream C Club from D3 Publisher is a hostess game that lets players get drunk in-game and watch dancing girls. Here is one of those dancing girls.

So far, the game has only been announced for Japan, and it's recently been given a release date: August 27.

As we previously pointed out, Dream C Club features a drinking system called "IIS," which has players control their drinking using the Xbox 360 controller's analog stick and try to get the hostess shitfaced so she'll talk about personal things she normally wouldn't. "IIS" stands for "Interactive Inshu System" with "inshu" being Japanese for "drinking alcohol."

Youtube Link

Ugh what kind of singing voice is that? Guys? Is there really a point to playing a game where the object is to get the girl to sing to you?

Muscle Men, Bikinis, WTF

Source: Kotaku

If you watch only one clip today, watch this one.

Namco is bringing its bodybuilders-running-through-buildings arcade game Muscle Koushinkyoku (lit. "Muscle March") to the Japanese WiiWare Channel.

The one-to-four player game will be released on May 26 for 800 Wii Points.

The9 prepping WoW-clone World of Fight

Source: WoW Insider

You have to give Chinese company The9 a bit of credit. The loss of such the publishing rights to World of Warcraft would have destroyed lesser companies, it just made them teeter on the brink of bankruptcy. Now they're back -- with World of Fight.

The teaser site went up earlier in the week and reeks of WoW in a way that only Chinese knock-offs can. At the moment we know next to nothing about the game but we can certainly guess. The domain name (www.wofchina.com) is suspiciously similar to the one for World of Warcraft (www.wowchina.com) but with one letter changed. Just look at that font, remind you of anything?

It's not a stretch to bet that The9 are hoping to attract people who associated them with WoW, but I'm pretty sure Blizzard won't be too happy to see their former publisher in Asia trying to promote a game so similar. We'll certainly keep you updated as I'm quite keen to see what World of Fight looks like.

World of Warcraft's Chinese publisher lost the rights to produce WoW in China. So did they give up?

NO!

They just decided to make a knock off! :D

Goodbye World of Warcraft ... hello "World of Fight"!

Marvelous Entertainment Asks 17 Percent Of Workforce To Quit

Here's your retirement guide!

Source: Kotaku

Japanese anime, music and game company Marvelous Entertainment has asking for a number of its employees to retire. The exact number, according to Marvelous, is "in the range of 20" workers (about 17 percent).

Those who voluntarily retire between March 23 and April 3 will receive a special severance payment. Their retirement would commence on April 30.

This is the latest measure from Marvelous to curb costs. After this year's earning were down compared to last, the company reduced bonuses and cancelled large scale publicity events and overseas musical performances.

Marvelous Entertainment has released Harvest Moon titles and No More Heroes, among other titles.

A sign of the times isn't it. Even video games are in recession!

Chinese WoW provider The9 faces bankruptcy in wake of Wrath woes

Source: WoW Insider

We told you a few days back that Wrath of the Lich King has had a tough time getting approved in China due to the government's strict censorship laws, but now there's even more bad news for Chinese WoW players. As Sister site Massively reports, The9 has told JLM Pacific Epoch that they will face bankruptcy if the expansion is not green-lighted soon. The Government agency responsible for the decision says that they must balance the needs of the9 with the need to root out "unhealthy" content from the game.

Now I've never played WoW so I'm uneducated. What in WoW would need to be censored?

It's a fantasy world isn't it? It's a world where people go around doing quests and gaining XP and killing stuff to improve their characters? What needs to be censored?

Russell Peters - Asians and DDR

Youtube Link

Hilarious! I love it when he does the Cantonese accent. Yes it's stereotypical but funny as hell. I wish more comedians or all races could do skits about all races.
Peters, an Indian guy, doing Chinese jokes could be seen a racist, but because he's coloured as well, he can do it but a white guy can't? I would love to see a white comedian do this exact same skit and see what the reaction is.

Asian Ripoff X - Video Game Edition

We've made it to TEN!

For Asian Ripoff X here are the ten worst video game renditions of popular songs. I realize that the sound chip wasn't great in the 80s but this stuff is awful!

#10 Family Feud (SNES)



#9 Raiders of the Lost Ark (SNES)



#8 Back To The Future (NES)



#7 Jeopardy (NES)



#6 Addams Family (NES)



#5 Michael Jackson (SEGA)



#4 Ghostbusters (NES)



#3 James Bond (SEGA)



#2 Star Wars (NES)



And by far the worst you'll ever see! Promise this will make you cry.

#1 ET (Atari)



Hope you're not deaf now! :)