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Tgs07: Patapon Impressions
On the PSP screen the silhouette of a small, spear-toting, single-eyed creature jittered and hopped across the screen left to right. To my right a woman dressed all in white smiled and pointed to the portable's square and circle buttons, repeating something in a gentle Japanese voice. The woman looked at the screen, pausing, for effect, before clapping four times in a steady cadence. She pointed again at the buttons and then looked at me.Smile.Clap four times.Pause.Repeat.Ah!I watched the screen, noticing that the woman's pause was timed to a sort of sing-song gibberish coming from the game, the silhouette.After the pause I tapped square, square, square, circle, to the beat of the woman's claps and my character hopped forward a bit on the screen, moving a bit more toward the center of the screen.Pause. Tap, tap, tap, tap.PauseTap, tap, tap, tap.Each time I tapped out the combo the character's pace sped up. And each of the buttons made a specific sound. One was Pata and the other...

Gallery: Eye of Judgment's Retail Display
The Eye of Judgment set up over in the Sony booth is pretty big, there are six tables set up, two of which are set up for playing head-to-head online and the rest are designed to be played side-by-side on a single machine. At one end of the area was a large glass display case with a selection of some of the retails card packs and boxes. I hate to say this, because of all of the required equipment and space, but I'm really looking forward to this game.galleryPost('eojd', 4);

Tgs07: Soul Calibur IV Trailer
Despite a great interview with the director, Soul Calibur IV wasn't playable here at TGS. But fortunately we do have a new trailer to see! The game is looking really sharp and will be a definite addition to my collection. Who can resist shiny armor, sexy fighters and giant weapons? Now I just have to make the big decision: Xbox 360 or PS3...

Tgs07: Tender Press Room Moment: Sleepy Time
Sssshhhhhhhhh.......

Tgs07: Soul Calibur Director Katsutoshi Sasaki on Weapons, Characters and Storyline
Back when I lived in New Orleans, my friends and I would get together on Friday nights and play video games until the wee hours. Eighty percent of the time the evenings were dominated by one game: Soul Calibur 2. My friends would practice during the week, becoming proficient enough with certain characters to come back on the weekend and kick some serious ass. When I heard I would be covering Soul Calibur VI, I was looking forward to checking out the game, but the reality of the situation turned out to be even more exciting: I would be interviewing the series' director, Katsutoshi Sasaki.I started off asking him some general questions about the new title and discovered that like every new release in the franchise that we could expect to see new characters and new weapons. I asked how many we might see and he grinned and said a few words in Japanese and his translator told me "several" but that they weren't saying an exact number at the moment. The game will be appearing on PS3...

Tgs07: Justify Your Xbox Holiday Lineup, Takashi Sensui
newVideoPlayer("TakashiSensui_gawker.flv", 475, 376);We gave Takashi Sensui (Microsoft's General Manager of Xbox) a chance to justify his holiday lineup. And unlike certain tall, bald and highly clonable Sony executives who outright refused, Sensui jumped at the chance to support his company.During our shoot, either our autofocus went wonky or the booze really started kicking in. Sorry about that, but at least our camera didn't puke on Sensui's shoes.

Not Mexican: Sony's Booth Babe Human Wave
At the very beginning and very end of each day of TGS, Sony's army of pretty PlayStation ladies are on parade. Not a confetti and ticker-tape kind of parade. A military kind of parade. The ladies line up, in a terrifyingly straight line, and are barked at by their instructor. They respond enthusiastically, and then commence with the bowing. Imagine a Mexican wave, but instead of Mexicans, it's a hundred Japanese women (note the equal height: these women were not born, they were crafted for this purpose) bowing their heads. Pointless, yes, but also strangely impressive.

Confirmed: Yes, Level 5 Is So The New Square Enix
Doors opened for the second TGS press day at 10 am sharp. Immediately, a huge mob descended on the Level 5 booth, and the wait clocked in at 90 minutes by a few minutes after 10am. (Level 5 is of course the developer behind Professor Layton, Dragon Quest IX and Jeanne D'Arc.) Remember: this is a press day. So if journalists and industry types are willing to wait an hour and a half to get a look at upcoming Level 5 titles Inazuma Eleven and Professor Layton and the Devil's Box, just imagine how brutal the public days will be. Hell! Hit the jump for the mass of people. And what about fellow Japanese RPG maker Square Enix's booth?

Day Note: The Body Rebellion
To: The Japanese ContingentFrom: FaheyIt wasn't until I caught up with Crecente this morning and he said, "You're doing a great job, but i don't want your burning out or getting sick" that my body decided to rebel against my posting marathon. As soon as my brain processed the words my body said, "You know what? Pirate-boy is right. You just got over the flu, you should technically feel like crap." And so today I felt like crap. What I find most disturbing is that my body seems to take orders from Crecente, which has terrifying connotations. Luckily for me, you folks did a kick-ass job of covering the first day of TGS. The sheer amount of information you guys put out was awe-inspiring. What you missed: Possibly Fake But Interesting Guitar Hero III Track ListMicrosoft Chokes Us With 360 StatsI Told You It Was Haiti!Codemasters Pulls McRae AdsFolding Hits PetraflopYou Might Not Remember The BoozecastYour Own Amazing CoverageYou guys have a great day! I'm going to see if I can hit...

Gaming Pets: Dog Swallows Wiimote
A family in Loveland, Colorado took their dog in to see the vet after it had started coughing up blood, which according to several popular veterinary web sites is a pretty bad sign. An X-ray revealed a large mass in the dog's stomach, which the family assumed was an old TV remote they'd been letting the pet chew on. Questionable taste in dog toys aside, the vet induced vomiting and bits of an old TV remote did come out, but only bits. There was something else in there..."The Vet started massaging the dogs belly and it just came flying out of the dog," said Marie Becknell. I knew what it was right away by the color and shape of it. It was my son's video game remote. The dog had swallowed the boy's Nintendo Wii remote controller.This dog had swallowed an entire Wiimote. I know what you're probably thinking. "Wow, that's a pretty talented dog. Can I have its phone number?" No, that's sick, and besides dogs can't talk on the phone. I've tried. Probably just swallow the damn thing....

Clips: Warmonger Destroys Downtown
newVideoPlayer("Warmonger_Aug2007_640x360_gawker.flv", 475, 376);Warmonger, Operation: Downtown Destruction is being released on October 16th for free to PC gamers around the globe. If I were marketing a kick-ass looking FPS featuring levels of destructibility unseen before in the genre, I'd have just stopped at that announcement, but NetDevil seems to think you need some more encouragement. To that end they've released this trailer, featuring things being shot apart and people being blown through floors accompanied by some killing music. If this doesn't convince you to not technically buy it, what will?

Rock: React Brings Guitars For The Holidays
After the warm reception their red and black Reaper model received earlier this year, React is introducing two new models of wireless guitar controllers for the PS2. The blue, green and white number is called the Odyssey and is pretty enough, but The Legacy is the one that has me drooling. Not only does it have a very classy wood grain finish, but it also comes with a pair of wireless foot pedals. One pedal controls star power, while the other acts as a whammy bar. Perfect for those of us who constantly screw themselves up while flailing about to get star power going. Both new models should be available from Best Buy in November. REACT ADDS TWO NEW "HIGH-DESIGN" PS2 GUITAR CONTROLLERS(MINNEAPOLIS, MN) Adding to their current line-up of charismatic guitar controllers, React will introduce their two newest wireless models, The Legacy and the Odyssey, in time for the 2007 holidays. The Odyssey conveys a fresh, vibrant, and modern sensibility and is equally accessible to both male...

Rumor: Leaked Guitar Hero III Track List
Over at Aeropause they've posted what they claim to be the final track list for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. The list contains all 8 tiers complete with boss battles and encores both co-op and solo, as well as an extensive list of bonus songs. It's an excellent list of tunes, and despite mad sad knowledge of music in general, I recognize every track in the main playlist, while outside of The Stone Roses I don't recognize a single band much less song in the bonus tracks. It pains me to see two of my favorite songs, One and Number of the Beast, are way down in tier 8, meaning that I'll be lucky to get to them on easy, nevermind anything higher. Curse my snausage fingers. It'll also be interesting to see how they handle The Devil Went Down To Georgia's fiddlicity, which is a new word I just made up. Use of said word costs a quarter. Hit the jump for the full alleged list. Tier 1:Foghat - Slow RidePoison - Talk Dirty to MePat Benatar - Hit Me With Your Best ShotSocial Distortion...

Xbox Live: Viva Piata: Party Animals Demo
Those wacky pinatas are back and ready to party! Have you got 971MB of hard disk space left on your Xbox 360? If so, the Viva Piata: Party Animals demo is now available to fill both it and your heart with all the joy and rapture living paper statues filled with candy can muster. Enjoy a selection of mini-games and races that will give you just a taste of what you'll be getting once the full game hits late next month. The demo supports 1-4 players, so get together your family and friends and get them all excited to play, only to have their hearts crushed when the demo ends. If anything it's something for all you Halo 3 fans to do until Tuesday, or your eBay copies arrive. Demo: Viva Piata Party Animals [Major Nelson's Blog]

Stats Feed: Today's most popular headlines are DualShock3! ...
Today's most popular headlines are DualShock3! (The Announcement) (The Sequel) (12,637 views today), The Secret Behind Assassin's Creed (9,340) and Metal Gear Online Trailer (9,297).

Pc Gaming: The Easy Company Reveals Motorm4x, Themselves
A number of Czech-based development vets today announced that their new game studio, The Easy Company, exists. No really, that's how they put it. They've been around for the past 14 months or so as the devs, former employees of Illusion Softworks, worked on their first title. That title is Motorm4x, an offroad racing game that allows players to explore large outdoor terrains in various 4WD vehicles with a simulated GPS as your guide. While this first title is for the PC, the studio has plans to develop for consoles as well. It's kind of nice to see a development studio announced with an actual game to show, isn't it? galleryPost('mm820', 4);Czech industry veterans announce Prague-studio, debuts with off-road racer MOTORM4XPrague, Czech Republic (September 20th, 2007) A number of Czech-based game development veterans today announced the existence of The Easy Company s.r.o., a Prague-based studio committed to creating ground-breaking technology and games for PC and consoles. The...

Clips: New Halo 3 Vidoc - Cinema Paradiso
Here I thought I was going to get away with a day of no Halo 3 news, but Bungie went and released their latest vidoc explains the why and how of the saved films feature, which I've a feeling is going to be the most entertaining feature of Halo 3 for me along with Forge. Seeing as I suck at multiplayer, I'll just spend my time in the game trying to setting myself up to die humorously while recording it for posterity's sake.

Rumor: Leaked Guitar Hero II Track List
Over at Aeropause they've posted what they claim to be the final track list for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. The list contains all 8 tiers complete with boss battles and encores both co-op and solo, as well as an extensive list of bonus songs. It's an excellent list of tunes, and despite mad sad knowledge of music in general, I recognize every track in the main playlist, while outside of The Stone Roses I don't recognize a single band much less song in the bonus tracks. It pains me to see two of my favorite songs, One and Number of the Beast, are way down in tier 8, meaning that I'll be lucky to get to them on easy, nevermind anything higher. Curse my snausage fingers. It'll also be interesting to see how they handle The Devil Went Down To Georgia's fiddlicity, which is a new word I just made up. Use of said word costs a quarter. Hit the jump for the full alleged list. Tier 1:Foghat - Slow RidePoison - Talk Dirty to MePat Benatar - Hit Me With Your Best ShotSocial Distortion...

Psn: PlayStation Store Update - Cocoreccho!
The PlayStation store updated today with a ton of new demos, trailers, and a whole new game that Kotaku's Michael McWhertor called "unbearably unenjoyable". That unfettered praise was of course for LocoRoco Cocoreccho!, the butterfly-powered LocoRoco game that is now available on the PSN for $6.99, a low price indeed for possible...suckage. *sighs* On top of the new game, there are demos galore, with Skate, NBA Live 08, Stuntman: Ignition and Sega Rally Revo all ready to be slowly downloaded for your demoing enjoyment. Top it off with a heaping helping of trailers from games like Devil May Cry, Ratchet and Clank, and GT% Prologue and you've got a lot less hard disk space than you did before. Enjoy!

Almost Confirmed: That's Haiti in Your Resident Evil 5
Remember that Resident Evil 5-is-racist brouhaha? The E3 trailer showed large numbers of black zombies getting killed, which set off a firestorm of controversy. Killing black zombies? Masked racism, critics say. According to our well-placed insider, there is a reason for that: Resident Evil 5 takes place in Haiti, zombism's spiritual home. Speculation was that it took place in either Africa or Carribean. And yes, according to our insider, the setting is apparently Haiti. Makes sense!

Art: Bioshock Ported To Etch-A-Sketch
Finally 2K has seen fit to port Bioshock to the world's most affordable games console, joining Street Fighter as one of the premier titles available for the Etch-A-Sketch console. If fact, if you look closely you'll see that the game is actually running on the portable version of the system, which is a miraculous feat of programming if you ask me. Bioshock [The Etch-A-Sketchist- Thanks Bernardo!]

Tgs07: Child-Sized Doki Doki Pillow
Biggest let-down of the 21st century? The fact Doki Doki Majo Shinpan promised a whole lot of witch/boy-touching then turned out to be a bit rubbish. Shame. Still. Cheer up! If you've beaten the game and still can't get that touching urge out of your system, you can get this from SNK's TGS booth. The Doki Doki Majo Shinpan "touching pillow" (not the actual product title). It's as big as, eerily, a child, and even boasts a variant model: a pyjamas version. Or that could just be the other side. So creepy.

Statistics: Xbox 360 By The Numbers
With Halo 3 just around the corner, Microsoft has released a boatload of statistics regarding the state of Xbox Live and the 360, perhaps as a way to take a snapshot of beofre and after the game's gigantic launch week. The stats cover everything from Xbox Live play hours (3.2 billion, or 376,000 years), Xbox Live content downloads (over 290 million), games sold per console (6.3 on average), and just oodles more. The most interesting thing to me is that before this console generation, most of these stats didn't even apply to gaming consoles, so aside from being a big opportunity for Microsoft to pat themselves on their backs, it's an interesting look at how the face of console gaming has changed over the past few years. Hit the jump for all the numbers! Xbox 360 and Xbox LIVE Momentum Facts 'n StatsLeadership: Xbox 360 and Xbox LIVE are leading the charge into the future of gaming and entertainment, bringing the best games, an active community and a growing catalogue of high...

Tgs07: Metal Gear Online Trailer
newVideoPlayer("mgo_tgs2007_gawker.flv", 475, 276);In one word: catapults. In two words: human catapults.

Boom: Triple Bomberman Land In January
Hot off the success of Bomberman Live on Xbox Live Arcade, Hudson is bringing the Bomberman Land triple threat in January with Bomberman Land for the Wii and PSP and Bomberman Land Touch! 2 for the Nintendo DS. Solve puzzles and quests in single-player mode, play 40-50 mini-games, or make some friends blow up real good in the Battle Pack Mode, which promises classic Bomberman action. The DS and PSP versions will both support single cartridge play, while the Wii version obviously won't. In fact the Wii version only supports 1-4 players locally, so until they get some online action going I'll stick to the 360 for my Bomberman fix. Hudson Entertainment Blasts Bomberman Land Onto WiiTM Nintendo DSTM And PSP SystemExperience Triple The Fun With 3 Full Fledged Game ModesREDWOOD CITY, Calif - September 20, 2007 - Hudson Entertainment, the North American publishing arm of Hudson Soft, today announced Bomberman Land, the award-winning series, is coming to the Wii and PSP (PlayStationPortable...

Tgs07: LittleBigPlanet Impressions
I really liked the way they let you play LittleBigPlanet at the PLAYSTATION 3 booth: 3 at a time you sat down and played 4-players with your game guide (well, booth babe, if you prefer that terminology). This setup really let you experience the multi-player component of the game, and it's a blast. When one player couldn't make it to our platform, we went and helped him out with the obstacle, and that feeling of being a team stayed throughout. The character designs are cute -- made even more cute by the comments from our "game guide" -- and the levels are just gorgeous. Why aren't we getting this kind of art direction from XBLA?

PS3: Folding@Home Achieves Petaflop
As mentioned by Kaz in his TGS keynote, the power of the PS3 has carried the Folding@home project to a milestone never before reached on a distributed computing network - the petaflop...one quadrillion floating point operations per second. It would take everyone in the world doing 75,000 calculations in a second to achieve similar results, so the milestone is pretty massive. "The recent inclusion of PS3 as part of the Folding@home program has afforded our research group with computing power that goes far beyond what we initially hoped," said Vijay Pande, Associate Professor of Chemistry at Stanford University and Folding@home project lead. "Thanks to PS3, we are now essentially able to fast-forward several aspects of our research by a decade, which will greatly help us make more discoveries and advancements in our studies of several different diseases."The PlayStation 3. Blu-ray player. Video game console. Humanitarian. PLAYSTATION3 Helps Folding@home Become The First Distributed...

Tgs07: Tokyo Game Show MGS4 Trailer
newVideoPlayer("MGS4TGS_gawker.flv", 475, 276);My personal read of this new trailer? Apocalypse Now. (With monkeys and barrel pooping.) Yeah, it's some crazy shit. Literally.

Sequel And Wii Desire: Doki Doki Majo Producer Dishes
What SNK used to be know for? Fighters and Metal Slug. Witch-touching adventure game Doki Doki Majo Shinpan has changed that. The title has been a sleeper hit. SNK isn't forsaking the fighters, but is branching out. This February, the Osaka-based developer opened an Akihabara development branch. Doki Doki Majo Shinpan was originally conceived as an adventure cell phone game, but later shifted to the DS and subsequently reworked. "I was inspired by the touch panel, and it was a good fit," says producer Yoshiyasu Matsushita. The game was unveiled at last year's TGS and snowballed. Just before release, the game posted higher on the Amazon Japan charts than The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. The game has launched a line of products that range from pillows to coffee mugs. "The reaction really surprised me," Matsushita says. "I wasn't expecting that. I was trying to make an adventure game." What about a possible English localization? "I don't know if it would suit American or...

Tgs07: TGS Boozecast: Episode I: Don't Call It A Podcast
No, we're not planning on becoming regular podcasters, but we were drinking, decided to continue to drink, then found ourselves strangely attracted to my Olympus digital voice recorder. It just happened. Our podcasting etiquette sucks, we talk over each other, and we can't stay on topic to save our lives, but essentially we figured "Why the hell not?" Honestly, though, we had so much fun we're doing it again tonight. While drinking. A lot.

Clips: AKB 48 Causes Mass Adoration During TGS Concert
newVideoPlayer("MOV01280_gawker.flv", 475, 376);Ashcraft warned us of the evils of Tokyo idol group AKB48 (AKA Akihabara 48), but I wasn't convinced until I was faced with the gaggle of twenty-something hotties today in a live concert they performed in a booth.Attracted by the sound of women singing I was lured into the enclosed booth. Inside was a pretty large open faced fronted by a stage that was at least twenty feet above the crowd. On the stage were, initially, four women singing pop songs and dancing around.After getting caught video taping (apparently that's no-no) I put the camera away and was about to leave when a swarm of woman took the stage with the four already there. I spent the next twenty minutes or so in a kind of stupor watching them frolic and sing. It wasn't really anything sexy, just painfully cutesy... and hypnotic. By the end of the show grown men were waggling their hands about, limp-wristed, and throwing up their back feet in imitation of the girls'...

: Rumbling Ratchet Is Rad
Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction is fun, plain and simple. I got a hands on play session -- which meant hands on the new DUALSHOCK3 -- and had an absolute blast going through the demo level. The action is all there, everything looks as close to Pixar animation is we've seen in a new-gen game, and the controller rrrrrrumbles like it should!Even though we only get to try out one level, it does offer a nice variety of play styles that I imagine is representative of what you'll end up doing throughout the game. Regular 3rd perspective action, jumping high, really high, to new level areas, overhead perspective -- with great animation, although you have no control -- some good grinding, and then even a short nod to the SIXAXIS as you freefall and need to avoid hitting speeding vehicles. It's what we want from a Ratchet game, with just the right amount of newness, and shine, to prevent it from feeling stale.

Tgs07: Dark Sector Impressions
I had about 15 minutes to play around with D3 Publisher's Dark Sector today and while I loved having the ability to arbitrarily and capriciously lop off limbs and heads with a Krull-like throwing blade, the shaky controls and spastic graphics just killed the game for me.When not in motion, or under any taxing special effects, the graphics aren't really that bad. In fact, I initially kind of liked the look of the game. But once I started taking fire and jumping stuff, things nose-dived. In one scene I dropped down from a ledge, at the request of the game, and the animation showed my character float out off the ledge and then drop straight down, his legs never really bending. When explosions hit near the character the entire screen turns red, I don't mean like a red tint or a blood effect, I mean an ugly red that blanks out the entire screen.Even if I was willing to put the graphic issues aside, the aiming also left me pretty cold. I actually spent a bulk of my time trying to...

Colin Mcrae: Codemasters Cancels DiRT TV Ads
With Colin McRae's passing this past weekend, speculation arouse as to how Codemasters would handle the venerable rally game series named after the racing legend. While the future of the series is still in question, the are handling the PS3 release of DiRT with the utmost respect, canceling a series of television ads for the game despite the fact that the title launches tomorrow in the UK. "With consideration to and in agreement with McRae's family, there was a stop put on the TV ads that were planned to run on Sky channels at the weekend and through this week," said a spokesperson for Codemasters.Well done, Codemasters. In a world where half the time such an event would be seen as a PR win, you showed some real class. Bravo. Codemasters pulls Colin McRae ad campaign [GamesIndustry.biz]

Cash Gaming: Virtual Golf, Real Money
SkillGround is a site where you can play original video games for cash money and prizes, and they've just added another game to their arsenal. UTour Golf is a realistic online golf game that will allow players to play in golf tournaments or head to head for cash winnings - or just for fun, but what's the point of that? Knowing the ferocious competitive streak in my golfer friends, this is going to cost them a lot of money. Players will be able to chat, track stats, and join games based on their skills, from Rookie to Legend. "UTour Golf will change the landscape of online gaming by bringing a pro golf simulation with cash play to the mass market. The game looks and feels like the real thing, and is designed to be intuitive for players of all skill levels - everyone can play and anyone can win," said Jon Walsh, CEO of Groove Media Inc.The game is in it's beta release now at www.utourGolf.com. All the fun of real golf with none of the walking with a stick in your hand. UTOUR GOLF...

PS3: Folding@home Achieves Petraflop
As mentioned by Kaz in his TGS keynote, the power of the PS3 has carried the Folding@home project to a milestone never before reached on a distributed computing network - the petraflop...one quadrillion floating point operations per second. It would take everyone in the world doing 75,000 calculations in a second to achieve similar results, so the milestone is pretty massive. "The recent inclusion of PS3 as part of the Folding@home program has afforded our research group with computing power that goes far beyond what we initially hoped," said Vijay Pande, Associate Professor of Chemistry at Stanford University and Folding@home project lead. "Thanks to PS3, we are now essentially able to fast-forward several aspects of our research by a decade, which will greatly help us make more discoveries and advancements in our studies of several different diseases."The PlayStation 3. Blu-ray player. Video game console. Humanitarian. PLAYSTATION3 Helps Folding@home Become The First Distributed...

Tgs07: So Far
We're officially just one day into the Tokyo Game Show and already we have more content than anyone would ever want to read. For those of you trying to keep up or just into scanning headlines here's the list so far:Our Q? Entertainment MeetingFree Genki Rockets Lumines Skins ComingFlynn Pwns Rez HDEver Extended Extra Extreme ImpressionsJustify Your Game: Rez HDMiz on Rez 2, Wii Space Channel and Al GoreLumines Live Holiday Pack DetailsMiz Wants Ever Extend Extra Extreme on PSNOur Little Trip to Q EntertainmentRez HD ImpressionsFirst Ever Hands-On Impressions of Rez HDThe Day Before TGSKotaku TGS Party Lips On ImpressionsKotaku TGS Party: The Pictures, The BlackmailSo We're at Konami Pre TGS PresserLiveblogging the Konami Pre-TGS Press ConferenceRein Talks About His Suite (Not the Brown One)Wipeout HD Hands On ImpressionsNo Major Nelson, All CrecenteKonami's Bag of SchwagLocoRoco CocoReccho Hands on Impressions BetaJustify Your Game LittleBigPlanetMore PS3 Titles Coming from...

Mobile: Konami Mobile's Contra 4 Character Contest
Marking the 20th anniversary of the series, Contra 4 is coming to a mobile device near you this fall - and you can be a part of it! Konami Mobile is holding a Contra 4 character design contest, which calls on fans to design a new character that "demonstrates the true meaning of the classic Contra game," which if I recall correctly is either 'Aliens suck' or 'The scatter shot supersedes friendship.' Submit a winning entry between now and October 1st and you have a chance at getting your character in the game, along with a game credit and a Contra 20th Anniversary designer's award, with the top 20 designs getting a credit and a t-shirt. You'll have to beat me, of course. I'm thinking camo pants, a tank top, a headband, and combat boots. I can't lose!KONAMI MOBILE CELEBRATES CONTRA 20TH ANNIVERSARY WITH NEW GAME CHARACTER DESIGN CONTESTWinning Entry to Be Featured in New Contra 4 Mobile Game Due Out This Fall EL SEGUNDO, Calif. - September 19, 2007 - Konami Digital Entertainment,...

Tgs07: The Merchandise
After an appointment in a nearby hotel, I came back into convention center and after seeing a door that said "re-entry only", slipped inside. As I got down to the bottom of the stairs I noticed things that looked a little different. This certainly wasn't the show floor I had left a half an hour before. Upon looking around I realized I had been dumped off into the merchandise room and snce I am rather fond of that sort of thing I figured I'd stick around and take some pictures. I mainly stuck to the Capcom and Square booths, both of which were filled to the brim with things to make my bank account shrink. Check out the gallery below for a bountiful bevy of action figures, statuettes, jewelery and t-shirts. I think I'm going to become the official Kotaku merchandise photographer after this trip. now if I can only figure our how to get them to let me expense my toy purchases...galleryPost('tgsmerch', 4, 'TGS Merchandise');

Tgs07: Project Gotham Racing 4 Impressions
PGR4 is a lot like PGR2. As in, you won't notice the difference from the predecessor at first glance, but spend some time with it and the little things, the things that make all the difference when you have to do them a million billion times, add up. Nothing feels new, but everything feels tweaked. Graphics are also looking a little tarted up, though sadly the course I was thrown onto was blessed with a lovely summer's day, so no, I didn't get to see the new weather effects.

Tgs07: Most Awesomest Controller Ever
Wandering the already teeming halls of Tokyo Game Show Thursday I stumbled upon what can only be described by abusing the English language: A broom video game controller that you actually ride to play.The demo was in Japanese, as was the pamphlet, but it looked as if you played by sitting on a small bicycle seat, dangling your legs down on either side of the broomstick mounted beneath it. The player apparently leans forward to get a hold of the controller and a better view of the screen. According to the pamphlet for Online Mega's Parse Rorunpe you can also tilt the seat forward and backwards 10 degrees. I'm not sure if this is for controlling the game or just so you can pretend you're riding a pony instead of the most awesomest controller ever. Oh and they're are witches, though I'm pretty sure the game doesn't feature any touching. Don't tell Ash.galleryPost('broomcontroller', 4);

No More Heroes: Ubisoft Picks Up No More Heroes For U.S. Release
Grasshopper Manufacture's No More Heroes may not have Halo 3 or Grand Theft Auto IV hype behind it, but we're certainly looking forward to Goichi Suda's next. Fortunately, for us English speakers, IGN reveals that the game finally has a Western publisher who's brave enough to take on the Wii follow up to Killer 7. Ubisoft have stepped up to the plate to bring No More Heroes stateside. The even better news? Travis Touchdown and his cel-shaded mates will be coming to the West in February of 2008.Killer.America Has No More Heroes [IGN]

Tgs07: Winning Eleven/Pro Evo Impressions
I know, Metal Gear was important, so I did that first, but there was one game on this showroom floor I wanted to play above all others. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008. Or, you know, Winning Eleven 2008. Either or. Anyway, hey, current-gen Pro Evo, nice to see you. Was expecting you last year, but late's better than never. Especially when you're this fantastic.The current iteration is what last year's should have been. Player animation and models have been greatly improved, tackles and contact are now much more realistic and the whole thing's a lot more polished, with stuff like new incidental animation and a new front-end.Course, for anyone who doesn't regularly follow this, none of that will matter. It'll look like Pro Evo. But for fans, especially fans disappointed with last year's 360 effort, I'd advise you to prepare for good times.

Tgs07: Magic Club's Console Stickers Makes Things Pretty
galleryPost('magicclub', 4); Guanqiao was showing off their line of prettifying console stickers on the show floor. The stickers come in either pre-designed packs for any of the current consoles or portable, or you can design your own art. I wasn't super impressed with the DS Lite stickers, but the Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3 stuff looked kinda zupear koole.

Tgs07: Guns On Time Crisis 4 and Guncon 3
In a sentence, if you like the Time Crisis series, you will like Time Crisis 4, since it doesn't deviate wildly from the tried-and-true. This is a bit disappointing in the graphics department, considering it marks the series' PS3 debut—they're nicer, for sure, but not wholly updated. The biggest (and best) change comes from the GunCon 3 in its dual-fisted goodness, which felt quite natural and quite nice, actually, and improved our gun-waving endurance. Closeup of the GC 3 post-jump.

Clips: DualShock3! (The Announcement) (The Sequel)
newVideoPlayer("DualShock3_gawker.flv", 475, 376);I wonder if Kaz called EA and was like, "What the fuck, guys? I mean, what the fuck?"

Tgs07: CESA Announces 2007 Japan Game Awards Winners
The 2007 winners of the Japan Game Awards, sponsored by Japan's Computer Entertainment Software Association, have been announced, with Wii Sports and Monster Hunter Portable 2nd for the PSP picking up the Grand Award. Wii Sports brings it home for winning over "new demographic sectors, particularly women and seniors" while the Monster Hunter gets props for the other end of the spectrum as a "social phenomenon among junior high and high school students." Check out the full list after the jump—a handful of 360 titles even made the cut, picking up both Global Awards.Grand Award Wii Sports, Monster Hunter Portable 2nd (PSP)Award for Excellence Wii Sports, Okami, Gundam Musou (PS3), Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker (DS), New Super Mario Bros., Blue Dragon, Pokemon Diamond/Pearl, Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops, Monster Hunter Portable 2nd, Ryu ga gotoku (PS2), Professor Layton and the Curious Village (DS), Lost Planet: Extreme ConditionBest...

Tgs07: Tender Booth Babe Moment (Ambassadors)
Competition among game companies is as fierce here as it is anywhere in the world...except for the Booth Babes, they're not just supportive, they're fans. This giggling trio took turns posing with each, two at a time, as the odd woman out snapped pics.

Four Discs: Lost Odyssey, Lights Out
This picture was taken with the lights off. Or when the lights flickered on. I forget. With a room full of cameramen, boom mics, a giant plasma TV and a hot hot Xbox 360, the breaker in the fancy Microsoft hotel room conked out. The 20 or 25 minute Lost Odyssey demo that Hironobu Sakaguchi played through looked gorgeous as usual with the in-game stuff being real time. The combat system features timing based attacks, which are used by holding down the right trigger and letting go at a precise moment. Sakaguchi pointed out that the cut-scene cinematics are pre-rendered, however. The rational? "It's easier to make the spectacular scenes as a pre-rendered movie," Sakaguchi points out. When asked if he could make a totally real time RPG by the next generation, Sakaguchi responded:We could do it all in real time [on the Xbox 360].And how many discs will Lost Odyssey ship on? Four. Yes, four.

Clips: PSP Remote Play Demo Turns Us On (OK, just our PS3's)
newVideoPlayer("RemoteDemo_gawker.flv", 475, 376);More fun with bad vocal translation! Here's the full PSP Remote Play demo from the stage of TGS. It's not as flashy as their Leipzig GPS and voice chat presentation, but turning on and off your PS3 from anywhere in the world is, in all honesty, probably more useful. I've said this before, but I'm getting pumped seeing Sony finally kicking some ass.

Tgs07: Three More Kingdom Hearts Games
Get ready Kingdom Hearts fans. Square Enix announced today at TGS that they're working on three new Kingdom heart titles. Each with awful titles. Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep is a new PSP adventure. Kingdom Hearts: Coded is a mobile game. Note that there are about a million mobile games on show here. Last one is Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days, a co-operative (think Crystal Chronicles) DS game. Can you HANDLE that much Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts fans?

Tgs07: Tender Booth Babe Moment (Exhaustion)
Getting ogled by a gaggle of camera-toting press and fanboys—some of whom are super creepy—isn't the easiest job in the world. This model apparently got a little overwhelmed and needed a time out. We're feeling the same way, minus the gross pseudo-stalking aspect.

Tgs07: Kaz Hirai on the Future of PSP
newVideoPlayer("PSPremoteFuture_gawker.flv", 475, 376);After demonstrating the new Remote Play features on stage (turning on and off your PS3), Kaz Hirai ran through Sony's future plans of PS3/PSP integration. He was short on details, but from the looks of it we'll be able to remotely multiplay 3 PSPs on one PS3. Sweetness.

Tgs07: Exploded Consoles
galleryPost('explodedconsoles', 4); There's a little "museum" located just inside the hall, near the exit that leads to the press room, that has "exploded" consoles on display under a glass case. They've got a dismantled Xbox 360, PS3, DS Lite and PSP. While it's kinda cool to check out, I think I would have preferred to see someone smash open the consoles like eggs.

: Microsoft Needs a New Template
OK, so it's not just Halo 3 -- please, someone get Microsoft a new template for their door signs.

: The Secret Behind Assassin's Creed
Just what is the secret behind the high-tech interface found throughout Assassin's Creed? Sorry, still no official details, but there is something to that modern-looking HUD, and according to Jade Raymond, all will be revealed within the first 5 minutes of play.The session I attended consisted of Jade walking us through a new level in the later part of the game, where your goal is to assassinate William de Montfort, who's been causing no end of trouble to Richard the Lionhart. The level followed the assassin as he first tries to sneak up to his prey. The action doesn't end once the kill is done though. Maybe even more of a challenge is then escaping the area, which consists of a high-speed chase while trying to get out of the eyesight of surrounding guards (you get alerted through that high-tech interface). One part we haven't seen in these demos is that investigation is big part of the game -- that's how you get to the point where you're ready to assassinate, and that means...

Tgs07: Ace Combat 6 Hands-On Impressions, Round 2
It's been two months since our last hands on with this 360 exclusive—and most of the initial impressions hold up. It still looks really nice. Without bothering to read any of the control mappings or recent experience with the series, it was really easy to pick up and start swooping & shooting—the controls were a bit tight for my taste, though. That said, overall it made for a solid, fun experience, even for someone who doesn't play the aerial combat genre with real regularity.

Tgs07: Devil May Cry 4 Impressions
Just played some Devil May Cry 4 on PS3, and two things struck me. The first? Despite a sign advertising the fact I was holding a Dualshock 3, I was not holding a Dualshock 3. It was a Sixaxis. Disappointing! Second thing was that this game is gorgeous. But old-fashioned. Quaint, even. Best way to sum it up is that, despite the fact he's barely in it, it's just like Dante. Been around for a while, appeals (dependably) to a certain gaming demographic and is very, very, very pretty.