Sega Confirms Yakuza 3 for the U.S

We'd already heard from insiders that Yakuza 3 would be making the trip to U.S. retailers, and now skeptics can rest easy; Sega has officially confirmed Yakuza 3 for a Stateside release.

Sega's assistant community manager Aaron Webber posted a notice on the official PlayStation blog this morning announcing the game's localization. As many have predicted, this Yakuza sequel will stick with the original Japanese voice actors rather than going the expensive -- and ultimately less realistic -- route of hiring English voiceover talent. Subtitles aren't so bad, right?

PlayStation 3 owners in the States will finally be able to play Yakuza 3 in March.

New Super Mario Bros, Wii Games

New Wii Games, Super Smash Bros. Brawl was one of Nintendo's tent-pole releases in 2008, and the game sold like gangbusters upon its January debut in Japan. The heavily anticipated Wii-exclusive multiplayer brawler shifted nearly 820,000 units within the first week of availability in Japan. As hefty a tally as that may be, Super Smash Bros. Brawl's opening performance has been bested in Japan by Nintendo's arguably most anticipated release of 2009, New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

Famitsu publisher and stat-tracking firm Enterbrain reports today that New Super Mario Bros. Wii sold 936,734 between December 3-6, the game's first week of availability. Translated by GameSpot, Famitsu's report indicates that the game's opening performance is the best for a Wii title in Japan since the console launched in the region in December 2006.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii received a warm critical reception upon its release in North America on November 15. Nintendo has yet to announce sales figures for the multiplayer-centric platformer in the US, though the NPD Group is expected to release its November US retail report later this week.

According to Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter, the game's US haul will eclipse that seen in Japan. In a note to investors today, Pachter estimated that New Super Mario Bros. Wii sold 1.2 million units in the US during the four-week period ended November 28.

Game News - PSP Minis Rumored to be Playable on PS3 Soon

PSP News, It wouldn't be terribly surprising to hear that you haven't yet played a PSP Mini. After all, they don't seem to be getting much attention, and most haven't fallen in that impulse buy price range that has made many games on Apple's App Store into such huge sellers. The fact that Sony has done very little to promote the release of Minis each week isn't helping matters, either.

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But according to various sources that spoke with Joystiq, Sony may be exploring a way to increase the number of people with access to Minis by making them playable on PlayStation 3. And this isn't some long term plan -- according to multiple sources, the change will be made this month, possibly "before Christmas."

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Furthermore, you'll play be able to play all existing Minis (and as Joystiq noted, presumably any and all future releases) with improved resolutions on your PS3. It's unclear, however, if you'll have to buy PS3 and PSP versions of the games independently of one another, or if one purchase will give you access on both systems. If that turns out to be the case, that could help to mitigate the higher-than-expected prices of Minis. Selling a game that you can play on two platforms, like you can with PSone Classics, would be a pretty nice bonus for anyone who owns both a PS3 and PSP.

Kenka Bancho - Badass Rumble Review - PSP Game

PSP Game Review - A Bancho is a fighter, someone who fights for honor, respect, and admiration. That is what you are in the Atlus game Kenka Bancho: Badass Rumble. Talk trash, fight and be an overall badass in this trek through the prefectures of Japan. But does this game have what it takes to be the biggest Bancho of them all?

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The game starts you out by having you make your own Bancho. You are given the option of which prefecture to represent, your school name, and your character name, although these options never affect the gameplay. The story revolves around you, a high school badass whose class is going on a field trip. On this trip, you start your mission to become the biggest, baddest bancho in Japan. The story is moved along with cutscenes between you and your classmates, and sleeping at the local inn passes time by one day. The Inn also acts as your base of operations, giving you access to edit and customize whatever you need.

To reach the top, you must search out the other banchos and take them out, proving that you are the toughest. To find the other banchos, you must first seek out the peons roaming around the different prefectures. Once you find a group of them, you can either initiate a stare down with one or just go right into kicking the crap out of them. After a stare down, you will be shown some trash talk that you need to remember. You will then need to pick the correct button to match the three parts of the trash talk in the order they were said in. If this is done correctly, you will land the first strike, and the fight is on. After the fight, you will find yen, items, and most importantly, itineraries, on the ground. These itineraries can be used to see the schedule of fellow banchos to better track them down.

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With so much emphasis on fighting in the game, one would hope that the fighting would be well fleshed out, but sadly it’s not. The fighting feels very slow and robotic and facing off against multiple enemies can be a chore. You have a light and strong attack, with the ability to hold down each attack for a more powerful version. You can also grab enemies, throw them, jump on them and pick up weapons to use in fights. As you fight through the game and defeat other banchos, you will earn yourself new peons to use in battle. Only one can be called up and used at a time, though none of them are that great and end up getting in the way more than they help.

You must pay attention to your heart and your spirit after these fights. As a bancho, you want your heart to stay happy and manly, and with a high spirit your attacks do more. If you find your spirit low, you can hold O and X to recharge it. Through these fights you also gain banchosity to use to upgrade your character’s speed, attack, defense, HP and endurance. With each level you gain, you will also learn new moves that you can assign to your character and make your attacks more powerful.

With the yen you collect in battles, you can purchase new clothes, weapons, and food for your character. The clothes that can be purchased include new shirts, hats, pants, shoes, and more. Different clothes have different amounts of pockets, which affect how many items you can carry. Despite this limitation, if you find something important, the game usually gives you the option to send it to the inn that you are staying at. You also use yen to travel around the city by bus or subway. These are ideal ways of getting around to different prefectures and looking for the perfect fight to boost your level. There are plenty of places to visit, as the game area is rather large, and at times it can be difficult to remember exactly where you should be heading and how to get there. Some areas are not accessible directly by bus or train, so you have to remember where to go, which can be a huge chore.

Along your travels, you will find plenty of civilians walking around. You can either leave these people alone or give them a badass stare. If you do the stare, most of them will panic and run, which can sometimes cause them to drop some extra yen on the ground. Text messages will be sent to you during the day that will provide helpful hints on where you might find other banchos or tips on store locations. Other hints will be given after story fights, where the peons you have defeated will spill juicy hints on their boss’s whereabouts.

The game looks fairly good on the PSP. There are a lot of environments to take in, though not many of the buildings are detailed in each area; only the ones you need seem to stand out. The character models look pretty good on the main characters, but the peons and townspeople are all duplicated many times. Load screens are pretty humorous, as you are treated to Bancho 101 tips, giving you insight into the world of the bancho. Menus are easy to navigate through, and conversations during the game are done through text boxes with mumbles from each character as they are talking.

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Kenka Bancho: Badass Rumble is a fun trip through the lives of a high school bancho. There is plenty of Atlus humor throughout the game, with the best parts coming during the smash talking right before combat. The presentation and comedy in the game is top notch; it’s just too bad that the main parts of the game, exploration and combat, feel incredibly rigid and tedious. If you can look past these shortcomings, however, you should find yourself with plenty to do in a surprisingly deep game. Fans of beat ‘em ups and Atlus may find a gem here, but otherwise this punch may have missed its mark.

Hot games you must play this Christmas

The amazing thing about Christmas is that you finally get some time to play those games you have been reading all about throughout the year nearly over. And 2009 has been a belter for gaming.

Of course, as sensible and mature adult gamers we all know about the "tyranny" of lists. The editorial thought-crime of simplifying and reducing a year's worth of top-notch interactive entertainment into an easy-to-eat, consumer-friendly buyers' guide for daft noobs, narrowing the hundreds of quality games that have been released throughout 2009 down through our own personal taste filters and presenting the top twelve to you on a plate.

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Still, everyone else is at it. So here we go. And sure, we've missed off plenty of great games here (do feel free to tell us which in the comments below). No doubt we'll be getting (yet more) calls from annoyed PRs demanding we explicate our reasoning. Hey ho!

Here are our essential twelve games you really must put some time aside to play this Yule.

1. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (Sony Computer Entertainment – PS3)

Game of the year. End of. The game that we will remember the PlayStation 3 for, much as we remember the PlayStation 2 for Timesplitters 2 and the original PlayStation for Tomb Raider. If you are getting a PS3 this Christmas, then make sure you tell the wife to get it bundled with Uncharted 2. And not Singstar: Take That, which she might be inclined to go for…

Killzone 2, Metal Gear Solid 4 and LittleBigPlanet usually lead discussions of big PS3 exclusives. But Naughty Dog has truly stepped up to the marker with this stunning third-person adventure," noted CVG's Mike Jackson in his review of the game.

"Uncharted 2 shows off a technical prowess and refined artistic composition that's above everything you've ever seen. The locations, set pieces, camera angles and lifelike animation; it takes everything you'd expect from a third-person adventure and does it better. This is how you make a game."

Throaty-voiced protagonist Nathan Drake is the rightful heir to the "PlayStation Hero" crown and Naughty Dog's game rightfully secured 10 out of 10s across the board. What more can we say? Just play it.

2. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Activision – PS3, Xbox 360, PC)

"Sublime in single, co-op and multiplayer. An incredible package," said the guys over on PSM3 Magazine. And it really is hard to disagree.

While some tabloid hacks decided to pick fault with that terrorist scene in the airport, Activision's latest outing in its Call of Duty series will bring out the hidden boy-soldier that lurks in every man.

Again, reviewers were tripping over themselves with superlatives and 10s (or high 90s in the percentile bracket). Even Edge agreed, dishing out a rare 9-out-of-10 and telling us that Modern Warfare 2's multiplayer was "even better than that of its predecessor" and "as fast, unpredictable and exhilarating as anything there's ever been in the genre."

Infinity Ward, TechRadar salutes you. And the thousands of MW2 widows across the land now hate you. Good work, soldiers!

3. Batman: Arkham Asylum (Eidos – PS3, Xbox 360, PC)

What the hell? A superhero game that blew our minds, you say? Lovingly developed in a Kentish Town Studio by Rocksteady Games, this really was a first.

Batman came from almost out of nowhere to quickly become one of our favourite single-player adventures of 2009. If you can afford the rather expensive Nvidia 3D Vision kit, we highly suggest that you play the "Made for 3D" version on PC. In the dark.

"Arkham Asylum is not your typical licensed game," agreed CVG's Andy Robinson. "For one, it's bloody brilliant. Rocksteady Studios has caught us totally by surprise with an expertly crafted, supremely polished single-player game that really is up there with the best. "Its production values rival Gears of War. Its attention to detail is almost unmatched outside of the very best first-party console exclusives. Batman: Arkham Asylum is simply a shockingly good action romp in a cape and utility belt."

4. Metroid Prime Trilogy (Nintendo)

While not strictly a "new" game, this is the Wii title we intend to spend the most time with this Christmas holiday. The Metroid Prime trilogy, Miyamoto's game design at its finest, lovingly updated and presented in a three-in-one box set.

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Official Nintendo Magazine noted that the two older games, which were already immense as stand-alone titles, had "been given the enhanced controls that made Metroid Prime 3: Corruption such a fluid and fast-paced shooter."

In addition to the traditional seasonal gluttony, returning to Metroid Prime 2: Echoes ("in many ways the Empire Strikes Back of the series") is perhaps what we are most excited about this Christmas. Perhaps the one true "gamer's game" of 2009.

5. LEGO Rock Band (Warner – PS3, Xbox 360, Wii)

Oh, come on! Lighten up. You really do need to buy a couple of games that you can play with the kids this holiday. After all, Christmas is about them, too. It's not all about you taking some time out to disappear into your war-drenched fantasy adventure-land.

And we've got some important news for you. The kids like LEGO more than they like heavy metal or The Beatles. We've put them down in front of the new Guitar Hero 5, Beatles Rock Band and LEGO Rock Band in a recent scientific study. And the surprising result was that we also preferred to play with LEGO versions of Blur, Bowie and others than the real (virtual) thing.

Gamesradar.com concurred, telling us that, "seeing LEGO versions of an emaciated Iggy Pop, a moustache-emblazoned Freddie Mercury, a pretty boy-era David Bowie, and even the guys from Blur bash out their hits amidst a visual rock-n-roll cacophony of plastic toy bricks and rampant silliness offers far more enjoyment then we might first care to admit.

"Successfully combining two very distinct and well-known franchises, LEGO Rock Band goes a long way towards making the rhythm game genre more palatable to a truly all-ages audience."

6. Empire: Total War (Sega – PC)

So PC gaming is dying on its arse is it? No, it's not. Go away for a week and play Sega's Empire: Total War and then we'll talk, because this beautiful strategy game is by far the game of the year for fans of the genre.

It is, as PC Gamer scribe Jim Rossingnol put it, "the grandest, most spectacular work of strategy gaming on the PC… I challenge you to play Empire and not be impressed, or even fundamentally changed by the experience. This is one of the most playable, and therefore important and accomplished, games ever created."

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Big words, Mr Rossingnol, but correct ones. If you have ever dabbled with strategy games or harboured thoughts of creating your own fantastical European empire then this is a deep delight.

Total War looks beautiful and is also fiendishly clever and historically accurate. Developers The Creative Assembly have made what is the most enjoyable PC game of 2009, without dumbing down one bit. A triumph.

New game: A different kind of rhythm game, Beat It!

Glu mobile attempts to shake up the rhythm game genre with a new iPhone offering that's part music challenge, and part puzzle game.

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Positioned as a "fresh take" on music games by publisher Glu Mobile, Beat It! (iTunes link) has players listening to a track, and then attempting to recreate it by laying down blocks in a matrix to mimic the pattern. The game starts off very simply with an elementary kick drum pattern, but with each successive level new sounds are introduced until the player is required to recreate quite complex multi-part rhythms with different drums and sound effects.

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Unlike other music games it does not rely on any licensed music to keep things interesting. What it does have that sets it apart is a unique pixel-art graphical style that evolves into more and more complex scenes with each successive level. As the game begins it shows a lone drummer tapping away on a rooftop, and as the levels unfold the streets become filled with dancing party-goers, musicians, and monkey DJs. Oh yes, we said monkey DJs.

News - Street Date for Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker for PSP

Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc., announced that May 25, 2010 is the official street date for Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, on the PSP in North America.

Full-Scale Sequel to Metal Gear Solid 3 - Features New Game System and Original Story by Hideo Kojima Available Next Year

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Developed by legendary Hideo Kojima - the mastermind behind the most successful video game tactical-espionage series of all time - this latest PSP system installment picks up where Metal Gear Solid 3 for the PlayStation 2 leaves off as players take control of the famed Naked Snake. Taking place in 1974, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker features original game design, story and scenario by Hideo Kojima. Scheduled to launch in 2010, the game takes the series in an exciting new direction with its incredible visuals and its unique new game system designed specifically with the PSP in mind.

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"Featuring an original story created by legendary game designer, Hideo Kojima, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is a title that has serious sales potential," said David Daniels, Director of Marketing for Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. "Kojima Productions has pushed the limits of the PSP system and we cannot wait to unveil their latest addition to the Metal Gear franchise to gamers this coming May."

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, is being developed exclusively for the PSP.