Slashdot Mirror

jjp9999 writes "Video game developer and novelist Tim Rogers exposes the underbelly of free-to-play games that use real-world currency. They're not trying to entertain you — they're trying to get you hooked. Every minute you play is being analyzed by men in suits reeling you into a cycle of addiction so they can keep you coming for more, and hopefully opening your wallet to buy premium points here and there. To do this, they intentionally give you an hour's worth of gameplay dragged out over the course of a week to keep it on your mind, dropping coins here and there for you to pick up, and playing on your own sense of work and profit to keep you coming back."

InsertCredit and some of the other game-journo sites out there took issue with the Game Career Guide's How to Be a Game Journalist feature. So, they've responded with their own opinions. There are 12 entries in total, each with a refreshingly cynical approach to what they do. From Tim Edwards' post: "So what do I do? I'm deputy editor of PC Gamer. Half my day is spent on the phone — talking to the PR reps that act as the gatekeepers to games industry and talking to our freelancers who write up to half of the magazine. With them, I'll commission copy, talk through their work, chase up any late text or missing elements. Meanwhile, I'll talk through pages with our art team — because magazine journalism is 50% writing, 50% making the words look pretty. 50% more of my time is spent talking through mag strategy: what's to be our next big review, how the flat-plan is shaping up, what we should put in the next issue. And my final 50% is spent working on copy — writing or re-writing. And yes, I'm well aware that there are many halves to a whole."

Famitsu, the premiere Japanese videogame magazine, evidently really likes Final Fantasy XII. From the Insert Credit post: "Meanwhile, Final Fantasy XII has scored a perfect score of 40 -- all four reviewers scoring it 10 out of 10 -- from Japanese gaming bible Famitsu. It joins the club of five perfect-scoring games, one of which is a fighting game with a sequel that's better (Soul Calibur), two of which are Zelda games (Ocarina of Time and Wind Waker), and two of which (Nintendogs and Vagrant Story) didn't even make it onto Famitsu readers' top 100 list."

cafeman writes "This was a really hard review to write. It's been a long time since I've read a book that was so fascinating on the first reading and yet raised so many questions on the second and third. Books on the history of gaming are relatively few -- Joystick Nation, High Score, Game Over, Masters of Doom and The Ultimate History of Video Games, the major works on the topic, all focus on the West. Finding out more about the history of gaming in Japan is harder. Suffice to say that if you're interested in game trivia, Japanese console gaming industry history, or the Eastern cultural drivers behind game design and communication, you owe it to yourself to get Power Up. Why was the book so frustrating? That's an interesting question, one that I've since put a lot of thought into. Much to the annoyance of my wife, I might add." Read on for the rest of cafeman's review. Power Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life author Chris Kohler pages 312 publisher Brady Games rating 8 reviewer Cafeman ISBN 0744004241 summary An overview of the influence Japanese video games have had on the global industry.

This book is packed with information. For a book of only around 300 pages, Chris Kohler does an amazing job of maintaining the information flow without making it too dense. Unfortunately, this is the book's biggest weakness -- he does such a good job of including so much interesting information, his principal thesis gets lost.

The premise of the book appears pretty simple. Chris Kohler believes that Japanese video games have had a greater influence on Western game design, game promotion, and culture than previously recognized. He asks and tries to answer three questions (in his words):

• What makes video games designed in Japan so phenomenally popular all over the world?
• How did the Japanese pioneer cinematic techniques in video games, raising the medium to an art form?
• How have these ideas so completely permeated the gaming world, not to mention our mainstream psyche?

To answer these questions, Chris identifies four key factors that distinguished Japanese game development -- the use of narrative, character abstraction, cinematic sequences, and control. To demonstrate the first three, he draws on specific arcade and console examples from the late '70s and early '80s to contrast Western design against Eastern. From there, he explores the relationship between (and complexities of) control and immersion by examining hardware development and the storytelling to provide context within games. He uses Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto's use of industrial and game design to illustrate the importance of control in the immersive game play experience.

After establishing the core concepts of narrative, character abstraction, cinematic sequences, and control, Chris turns to the use of storytelling to create fully developed characters that stimulate emotional responses within the player. To do so, he examines the development of characters and storylines within some of the most famous Japanese RPGs over time, focusing mainly on the Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy series. He also examines music as yet another control mechanism, looking specifically at the history and development of Gitaroo-Man, Parappa the Rappa, and Dance Dance Revolution (all games based on rhythm and music).

To complete the story, Chris then turns to the practical experiences of Westerners Dylan Cuthbert and Giles Goddard in developing the hardware and games for a Japanese games company. The hardware in question was the SuperFX chip, the game Star Fox, and the company Nintendo. By drawing on specific challenges and successes within the project, he highlights the Japanese focus on fun game play and control refinement.

From here, Chris branches off into a collection of tangents describing Japanese gaming culture. He spends a chapter touring Akihabara. He also describes the mentality and business behind Japanese games collectors, ranging from government regulation about when particular games can be released through how to Japan handles games and video rentals. He also examines the perennially popular topic of game translation, including (of course) reference to AYBABTU. More interestingly, he also examines the difficulties of translating language within hardware constraints. He describes a number of case studies showing how some cultural concepts couldn't be translated, how some weren't allowed to be translated, and how some were just badly translated (with unintentional hilarity, much in the same vein as Engrish).

Chris then uses Pokémon, one of the most famous / infamous games to have come out of Japan, to revisit how Japanese games have pervaded the Western psyche. He uses Pokémon as a way of tieing together his arguments into a single example, demonstrating quite powerfully the importance the four key factors had in the creation of a game that appeals to multiple cultures. And, by doing so, he illustrates the influence some Japanese games have had on the world as well as their continuing popularity.

His final chapter forms a more speculative foray into what the future holds for Japanese game design, and by proxy, for the world. He discusses ICO, Blood Omen, and Eternal Darkness, and highlights the continued movement toward fully developed, multidimensional narrative through the use of adult subject matter and emotional connection. His epilogue then ties off the book with a recap of his main points and lays out a number of (briefly described) further research directions and thoughts, such as "How much control is too much?", "Is the Japanese games industry due for a shake-out?", and "Are East-West collaborations the answer?". And, with some reflective thoughts, he ends the book.

Enough of the synopsis; Chris Kohler clearly has a passionate interest in the subject matter. There's no doubt that he's spent lots of time researching the material or that he's highly interested in it. His love of the topic clearly shines through - regardless of whether he's talking about an interview he conducted or a random piece of trivia about the industry, his prose remains engaging, light, and most importantly, clear. His background is in writing reviews, articles, and editorial pieces for publications including Nintendo Official Magazine UK and Wired, and it shows -- he's very clearly used to writing to maintain reader interest.

His knowledge of trivia is also strong -- there are some real gems in this book. For example, I often wondered why Nintendo never marketed their Famicom Disk System outside of Japan. In exploring the challenges of extending the Nintendo's hardware lifecycle, Chris points out the importance of being able to upgrade the console through technology embedded in the cartridges. Rather than having to buy a new console, memory and processor upgrades could be packaged into the cartridge itself, effectively bundling the upgrades with the game. Nintendo realized pretty quickly after releasing the Famicom Disk System that it could offer neither, and so discontinued it at approximately the same time Super Mario 3 was released. Also interesting (but possibly controversial) was that the name "Final Fantasy" came not from Square's belief that it was their final chance at success, but because the head developer, Sakaguchi, planned on quitting Square after finishing it and going back to school. It was thus his "Final Fantasy". The book is peppered with interesting insights like this, and even ignoring his analysis, make purchasing the book worthwhile.

However, not all is roses. Chris's writing, while engaging, is also unfocussed. It's taken my writing this review to clarify exactly what I felt was his chain of logic. While that may be a commentary on my own interpretative abilities, other people who have read his book seem to agree with me. It took me three readings and copious notes to work out what the connecting threads were between chapters, and in turn, between his examples and the main elements of his thesis. Bluntly, the dots are there, but he fails to connect them effectively.

Chris also fails to completely prove the questions he asks at the start of his work. He develops a strong case for Japanese innovation during the early period of video games, but he doesn't do nearly as good a job applying that argument to the present. Despite a chapter devoted to Pokémon (and its success in Western culture), he fails to build a general case on how Japanese games have influenced Western game design, development, and psyche outside of a few specific examples. These normally involve Western developers who have moved over to Japan specifically to work with Nintendo, or games from Nintendo itself.

And that, in a nutshell, sums up where Chris appears to be coming from. His experiences and anecdotes focus around Nintendo almost exclusively, even to the extent of ignoring other Japanese gaming developments which could have further supported his thesis. Discussion of Dragon Quest I, one of the first attempts at an RPG for the Nintendo Famicom System, goes on for many pages. However, Final Fantasy VII, a Japanese game that arguably made the fantasy RPG mainstream in the West, gets only a page of high-level discussion. For the uninitiated, Dragon Quest was released on the Nintendo Famicom system, while Final Fantasy VII was released on the Sony PlayStation. The Nintendo offering gets all the focus.

In short, if it doesn't have to do with Nintendo, it apparently isn't important. Game companies such as Konami, Namco, and Sega are given cursory acknowledgements. Despite an entire chapter devoted to Japanese RPGs, Phantasy Star (another enduring Japanese RPG that introduced first person navigation on the Sega Master System) never even rates a mention, despite being released a year after the original Final Fantasy. One could argue that he largely ignored it because it was released by Sega, a company founded by an American in Japan. However, given that he spends an entire chapter devoted to two Gaijin in Japan, this seems a little inconsistent.

More problematically, his argument (as opposed to his book) only works if one ignores the rest of the world. While this isn't the time or place to fully explore this, his focus on Japan (and consoles specifically) has meant ignoring key developments. For example, he goes into great detail about character development and the use of narrative elements within Japanese RPGs, but completely ignores what was happening in the West in the years preceding them. The Bard's Tale, Wizardry, and more importantly, Ultima, are all completely ignored. While he makes quite a strong case for Japanese innovation during the early years of game development through games such as Donkey Kong and Super Mario World, he completely ignores all further development and refinement taking place in the U.S. This is especially strange when one considers that he has recently written about such games as Psychonauts and appears to have a reasonable knowledge of US and PC gaming history. While his position that Japanese game design influenced global design in the late '70s is plausible, there's a great deal of evidence to suggest that by the mid '80s the opposite was true and that the U.S. was exploring new designs in gaming in their own right, including introducing some interesting party management complexities. Strangely, while this position is actually hinted at through his quotes from Japanese developers, it is ignored. This is unfortunate, as from a historical perspective, it arguably attributes too much credit to Japanese design.

The book, overall, reads as the first book publication by a person used to writing articles of under a few thousand words -- it's punchy, interesting, and full of facts, but it wanders. That could be because of his past, or it could be because of editorial input. Chris freely admits that the book stems from the dissertation he wrote as part of his Fulbright Fellowship in Japan. It's quite possible that the first draft may have been too academic, and in trying to appeal to a more general audience, his publisher encouraged him to add additional background and "fun facts" about the industry. Either way, the book lacks focus. From an interpretative perspective, its greatest strength is also its greatest weakness -- the sheer volume of interesting information distracts from the main threads of his argument. This lack of focus is painfully obvious in the second half of the book - it reads as a collection of unrelated essays.

Despite these reservations, I really enjoyed this book. While the main thesis of the book is hard to follow, it's still an interesting read with lots of trivia, history, and context. Chris clearly has a love of Japanese culture, and there's a dearth of books on this subject matter that treat it seriously. As a reader, I'm looking forward to Chris's next literary work -- based on this book, I'm already digging up his previous works, and I'll be first in line to buy his next. Facts are one thing, but passion is another, and he's definitely got both. My wife, despite not being interested in games in the slightest, has been taking his book to read on the train to work. I know it doesn't sound like much, but in my house, that's a major compliment. If I could recommend anything for the next work, it would be to get some other like-minded people with a good sense of gaming history to assist with the editing process. It would also be interesting to focus on game design and enjoyment with the intention of integrating both East and West design developments.

Every review needs a rating, no matter how illogical or unfair. If you're looking for something that provides some history around the Japanese gaming industry, gives a lot of very interesting facts, and entertains while doing so, I'd give this book an eight, possibly even a nine out of ten. As an academic work, looking at defining and developing an argument based on logic, research, and balanced discussion, I'd have to give it four out of ten. His argument is there (regardless of whether you agree with it or not), as are the supporting facts, but they're so lost in the noise as to be hidden. On a more editorial note, his thesis, while starting strong, grows progressively weaker due to a selective focus on Japan exclusively. While I recognize that this selective focus was intentional, I feel that it undermines his arguments due the breadth of his statements about the influence of Japanese design on the West. Even so, I'd highly recommend the book, and I can guarantee I'll be pre-ordering his next when it's published.

You can purchase Power Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Thanks to Insert Credit for its brief news that Enterbrain's "RPG Maker XP has been released [for Japanese PC users]. Lots of features added, lots taken away. You can download the [Japanese-language] demo, or check what's new on Zepy's page, since he went into a bit of detail about it." An in-game screenshot and several example pages show a complex 2D RPG creation utilty, and Zepy elaborates: "This time you can finally have high resolution/full colour graphics! And Ogg sound! No limit to character and map chip sizes! You can directly program your own scripts... with the triple map layers, you can have cloud or fog overlays!" Although the console RPG Maker series has been released in the West by Agetec, the PC version has yet to be officially translated and released.

Thanks to Insert Credit for pointing to a Namako Team story revealing new Japanese 'visual novel' DVDs coming to the West via publisher Hirameki. Insert Credit explains: "Hirameki has been slowly releasing English-language ports of Japanese dating sims in the US. They play basically the same on a PC, DVD player, PS2 or Xbox [using Dragon's Lair style branching narrative], which is the appeal of the format." The new "Summer 2004"-due DVD releases include the wonderfully named Tea Society Of A Witch, as well as Hourglass Summer, apparently "A summer vacation that crosses the boundaries of space and time."

Thanks to Insert Credit for its feature discussing making real-life 'pixelbead' sculptures out of classic 2D videogame sprites, strictly for fun. The author explains the "process of recreating a sprite or any other form of pixel-art with beads" by using a pegboard, noting: "Do keep in mind that recreating pixel-art this way gets the best results on low-color art. 4 to 8 color characters (NES quality) generally look a lot better than the mess 16-bit (Snes, GBA, MD/Genesis etc.) characters often are", also explaining you'll need to "make your beads melt and fuse" with an iron and ironing paper to get to the finished result. The piece shows '3D' Metroids and a large variety of Mega Man characters as examples of this arts-and-crafts incursion into videogaming - elsewhere, the more expensive but more malleable PixelBlocks have also been used to "make your own 2D and 3D pixel art objects."

Thanks to Insert Credit for its feature discussing making real-life 'pixelbead' sculptures out of classic 2D videogame sprites, strictly for fun. The author explains the "process of recreating a sprite or any other form of pixel-art with beads" by using a pegboard, noting: "Do keep in mind that recreating pixel-art this way gets the best results on low-color art. 4 to 8 color characters (NES quality) generally look a lot better than the mess 16-bit (Snes, GBA, MD/Genesis etc.) characters often are", also explaining you'll need to "make your beads melt and fuse" with an iron and ironing paper to get to the finished result. The piece shows '3D' Metroids and a large variety of Mega Man characters as examples of this arts-and-crafts incursion into videogaming - elsewhere, the more expensive but more malleable PixelBlocks have also been used to "make your own 2D and 3D pixel art objects."

Thanks to Insert Credit for its feature discussing making real-life 'pixelbead' sculptures out of classic 2D videogame sprites, strictly for fun. The author explains the "process of recreating a sprite or any other form of pixel-art with beads" by using a pegboard, noting: "Do keep in mind that recreating pixel-art this way gets the best results on low-color art. 4 to 8 color characters (NES quality) generally look a lot better than the mess 16-bit (Snes, GBA, MD/Genesis etc.) characters often are", also explaining you'll need to "make your beads melt and fuse" with an iron and ironing paper to get to the finished result. The piece shows '3D' Metroids and a large variety of Mega Man characters as examples of this arts-and-crafts incursion into videogaming - elsewhere, the more expensive but more malleable PixelBlocks have also been used to "make your own 2D and 3D pixel art objects."

Thanks to The Magic Box for relaying the unconfirmed rumor that "Capcom is planning to release the popular court simulation game Gyakuten Saiban for Game Boy Advance in US later this year, as they have applied for a [trademark] for the title in US." Searching the USPTO database certainly reveals a U.S.-specific "Trademark 78416207... [filed] May 10th, 2004" by Capcom for the Japanese courtroom adventure title with intriguing handheld gameplay, which is helpfully explained in a recent InsertCredit review: "Listen to witnesses speak; at the right time, use the L button to question them... [which] may reveal holes in their stories... Point to the right pieces of evidence at the right times (hey! you can see the victim's watch in that picture with the bottle of pills!), and look really good to the judge as the witness stutters out a confession." Although the game's release is distinctly unconfirmed, would you buy this title if Capcom opted to translate it?

Thanks to Insert Credit for its in-depth report on SNK's forthcoming PS2 title, King Of Fighters: Maximum Impact, as "the first 3D fighter of SNK's new age" is rated from preview builds, with the author arguing "it would be considered a respectable contender against Dead or Alive 2 and Soul Calibur." Elsewhere, UK company Vektorlogic are bucking the death of the MVS arcade hardware, and are announcing multiple new MVS-compatible arcade cartridges, including an arcade version of Super Bubble Pop. Finally, and sadly, prolific Neo Geo (and other) FAQ writer Chris MacDonald, aka Kao Megura, has recently passed away, according to forum messages posted by his brother.

Thanks to Insert Credit for its interview with SNK USA's Ben Herman, conducted at E3 last week, in which he "addressed the rumor that Sony had forced the company into making [multiple games in one compilation] pack-ins for their 2D [PlayStation 2] titles." Herman noted that, apparently, "pack-ins were indeed his plan all along... but acknowledged that Sony was definitely more receptive to the pack-in idea than the single package. SvC Chaos and Metal Slug 3 stand alone discs were not approved, for instance." Thus, "The Xbox exclusives in the US market (the aforementioned SvC Chaos and Metal Slug 3) only came about because of Sony's rejection", and Xbox exclusivity won't be repeated in the near future. There's also a longer interview with Ben Herman posted at the MMCafe forums in which he confirms that "Samurai Shodown V and Samurai Shodown V: Special... [are] approved for the PS2."

Thanks to Insert Credit for pointing to the freely downloadable PC shoot-em-up Every Extend, advertising "The Ultimate UCHU-Action From STG" - over at fansite Doujinaroni, there's an interview with the creator, Omega (scroll down for Frenchlish version) rating the game as "a real drug", and when asked about the hidden boss' name, ABA, says "I show my respect for [TUMIKI Fighters creator Kenta 'ABA' Cho, previously featured on Slashdot Games] so I use his name in my game."

Thanks to Insert Credit for its GDC 2004 in-depth feature, in which last week's Game Developer's Conference is alternatively analyzed, from basic impressions ("the GDC's show floor was even more low-key than last year, with few real surprises") through lectures on game criticism ("Certainly it was a bit dry, and filled with references to Foucault and Baudrillard... But it was an excellent discussion of the pitfalls and potential methodologies of extraditing oneself from the trenches of the 'technical review'"), through American Idol 'star' William Hung's appearance caterwauling to PS2 music game SingStar ("even if you have a record deal; even if you don't quite understand your fame; even if thousands of women profess to want to be your wife -- Mom is still Mom.")

Thanks to Insert Credit for its GDC 2004 in-depth feature, in which last week's Game Developer's Conference is alternatively analyzed, from basic impressions ("the GDC's show floor was even more low-key than last year, with few real surprises") through lectures on game criticism ("Certainly it was a bit dry, and filled with references to Foucault and Baudrillard... But it was an excellent discussion of the pitfalls and potential methodologies of extraditing oneself from the trenches of the 'technical review'"), through American Idol 'star' William Hung's appearance caterwauling to PS2 music game SingStar ("even if you have a record deal; even if you don't quite understand your fame; even if thousands of women profess to want to be your wife -- Mom is still Mom.")

Thanks to Insert Credit for its GDC 2004 in-depth feature, in which last week's Game Developer's Conference is alternatively analyzed, from basic impressions ("the GDC's show floor was even more low-key than last year, with few real surprises") through lectures on game criticism ("Certainly it was a bit dry, and filled with references to Foucault and Baudrillard... But it was an excellent discussion of the pitfalls and potential methodologies of extraditing oneself from the trenches of the 'technical review'"), through American Idol 'star' William Hung's appearance caterwauling to PS2 music game SingStar ("even if you have a record deal; even if you don't quite understand your fame; even if thousands of women profess to want to be your wife -- Mom is still Mom.")

Thanks to Insert Credit for their news story noting: "Some intrepid fellows have taken it upon themselves to construct an unofficial Phantasy Star Online Dreamcast server." Since the official servers closed last year, those wanting to play on DC were out of luck, but a DXBNet forum post notes that an early V2-only test server is public. In the same forums, an earlier FAQ explains: "There's... a [Code Breaker] code that will modify [the server name] where you log-in to", although it's clear that development is still early, and "the server is still under heavy maintenance."

Thanks to InsertCredit for their article covering a recent game-related lecture at an Entertainment Law and Business conference. One of the more interesting discussions covered is how game companies should develop their games. A representative from Electronic Arts indicated they do "...most of their work in-house these days. This increases consistency, but he admits that this method can put something of a damper on creativity. So they've got what they call EAPs (Electronic Arts Properties), wherein they work with/invest in games made by other companies, and then distribute them as their own." On the other hand, an Activision executive claims that "...developers prefer to be left to their own devices, counter-culture individuals that they are. So Activision prefers to purchase them entirely, allowing them to exist undisturbed. He says that in this way, they can develop the games they want to develop, and not have to deal with any of the bureaucracy." But which approach really creates the best games?

Thanks to IGN Pocket for their hands-on impressions of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, in which they discuss the tactical RPG GameBoy Advance title due out September 8th, and mention "The release of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance is pretty historical, as it's the first [U.S.] Square game released on a Nintendo system since the company decided to pull the plug on Nintendo development back in the N64 days." Also discussed is the shrewd opening act, where there are "...a group of kids on a school's playground during wintertime, as a snowball fight breaks out... it's a very clever implementation of a training mission." Nintendo are pushing FFTA with an enticing bundle deal, although final English-language reviews, excepting this 'well-researched' one, are still pending.

Michael_Blessed writes "The most incisive critique of games journalism currently out there. I would say that as I participated, but there's some real illuminating stuff in there. And it's all true - I should know, being a games 'journalist' myself." It's a whole long series - read all 11 parts.

Thanks to InsertCredit.com for their lengthy, semi-gonzo, spoiler-containing feature on the evolving nature of game end sequences. They ask "Why should an ending be a time to 'relax'? Why should an ending be something long, and complicated? Why should an action game, really, even have a final 'boss'? Do we need these conventions anymore?", while charting classic game endings from Donkey Kong and Super Mario Bros. through Metroid Prime. They finish things up with the top 11 game endings of all-time, from "an alcoholic cartoon squirrel" to "the collapsing Death Egg."

Thanks to InsertCredit.com for their lengthy, semi-gonzo, spoiler-containing feature on the evolving nature of game end sequences. They ask "Why should an ending be a time to 'relax'? Why should an ending be something long, and complicated? Why should an action game, really, even have a final 'boss'? Do we need these conventions anymore?", while charting classic game endings from Donkey Kong and Super Mario Bros. through Metroid Prime. They finish things up with the top 11 game endings of all-time, from "an alcoholic cartoon squirrel" to "the collapsing Death Egg."

Thanks to InsertCredit.com for their feature reviewing a selection of crazed Asian bootleg NES fighting games. The introduction explains: "In the days when Street Fighter II was the king of all games, you could make a killing by making a halfway decent Famicom port of it. And apparently you could still make money even if the game wasn't anywhere near halfway decent.." The expose checks out such completely unlicensed titles as Fighter 12 Peoples Street VI, Kart Fighter (using the characters from Super Mario Kart), Mortal Kombat 3 Special 56 Peoples, and even Tekken 2, rating each messily hacked-together game, many of them produced as recently as the late '90s, "...on a scale of negative one to negative ten."

Thanks to InsertCredit.com for their brief summary of the ever-more-complicated question - is Sega's Shenmue III in production? The site condenses: "Nov. 2001 - AM2 confirms production of Shenmue III is underway... Mar. 2002 - Shin Izakawa, new Shenmue series producer, says Shenmue II XBOX sales will determine release of Shenmue III... Jan. 2003 - Yu Suzuki reveals Shenmue III game designs, expresses desire to make it movie rather than game... July 2003 - Websites report that AM2 confirms Shenmue III will be released, but not where, when or on what. Minor controversy and buzz ensues." GamePro also has a good summary of recent rumors, most of which have either been unattributable or mistranslated. But clearly, Shenmue III was planned at one point - maybe we'll finally find out if it's still being developed at the next Tokyo Game Show?

Thanks to InsertCredit for their feature discussing the player-inputted choice for character names in videogames. They discuss some of the joys of DIY character naming ("Some people will buy an RPG, only to name the characters after their favorite profane words"), as well some more unlikely pleasures ("I became obsessed with buying used Final Fantasy VI cartridges for 100 yen at a certain game shop in Akihabara, just to see what all the characters had been named.") Taking a lead from this distinctly unconventional article, what names have Slashdot Games readers entered for characters in their favorite RPGs, and why?

Thanks to InsertCredit.com for posting a translated interview with Seed9 president Gun Kim about his Korean company's success in Japan with their extremely bizarre dating sim, Tomak: Save The Earth. The Playstation 2 version of this PC game, which was instructively previewed by The GIA back in 2001, "..is a combination life/love simulation starring a girl's head in a flowerpot." The object of your affection can appear contented, glum, or even ecstatic, and The GIA also ran an earlier interview with Gun Kim, in which he explains possible inspiration: "..maybe I was looking at the plant pot and our graphic designer in the office when I got the idea." Seed9 are also responsible for the retro and fun Tomak 2D shmup for the Korean GP32 handheld.

Thanks to InsertCredit.com for posting a translated interview with Seed9 president Gun Kim about his Korean company's success in Japan with their extremely bizarre dating sim, Tomak: Save The Earth. The Playstation 2 version of this PC game, which was instructively previewed by The GIA back in 2001, "..is a combination life/love simulation starring a girl's head in a flowerpot." The object of your affection can appear contented, glum, or even ecstatic, and The GIA also ran an earlier interview with Gun Kim, in which he explains possible inspiration: "..maybe I was looking at the plant pot and our graphic designer in the office when I got the idea." Seed9 are also responsible for the retro and fun Tomak 2D shmup for the Korean GP32 handheld.

The Japanese arcade beta-test is in progress for SNK Vs. Capcom Chaos, the latest Playmore/SNK 2D fighting game, featuring both the Street Fighter and King Of Fighters characters, plus a whole host of guest stars from places as obscure as Samurai Shodown 64 and Red Earth/Warzard. There's now some good-looking videos of the beta-test up at the unofficial SNK-Capcom.com site, and an excellent hands-on impressions piece was posted at Insert Credit earlier in the week. Behind the frothing otaku, the Insert Credit article does sow some doubts, though: "..three years - probably more - in development or at least planning, and all they have to show for it is a standard Street Fighter engine with a predictable character roster"?

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing out Insert Credit's new feature on how to navigate Japanese videogame stores. This in-depth article talks about some of the best ways to get rare Japanese systems and games inexpensively at the massive gaming stores in Tokyo and Osaka, covering some of the pitfalls ("..keep in mind that âimport gamesâ(TM) written on a sign outside a store means overpriced US games"), and the weird situations you can get into ("..even the big [stores] have whole hentai [software] floors.. try bringing a girl up with you, and the entirety of the clientele will FREAK THE HELL OUT.")

Thanks to InsertCredit for pointing out a new article on The Black Moon Project regarding the lost Philips CD-I game, Super Mario's Wacky Worlds. This appears to have been in development by Novalogic (better known for the Comanche helicopter sims at the time) in 1992 and 1993. The article has info and screenshots from the partially finished prototype, which was intended to be an adaptation of Super Mario World for the CD-I with new levels and gameplay. What a genuinely odd find.

US conversions of Japanese games can either be beautifully done or amateurishly botched. And the 2D shoot-'em-up (aka shmup) genre has seen both over the past few weeks. First, there's been Atari's conversion of Treasure's vertical 2D shmup for Gamecube, Ikaruga, which has been generally hailed as 'a great thing', with the preservation of turn-to-vertical mode (play with your TV on its side to exactly replicate the arcade version!) and even an online score ranking system. On the other hand, the budget US release of vertical shooter Mobile Light Force 2 (actually Shikigami) from XS Games has prompted howls of derision from the hardcore fans, with a bizarre Charlie's Angels-aping cover that has nothing to do with the game, and vertical mode and cut-scenes removed. But then, the game is still fundamentally intact - so how much should these import changes matter if you can snag the game cheap? Opinions, as always, welcome.

Brandon Sheffield writes "The GPI is the next evolution of GP32. It uses the same graphics and sound processor as the GP32, but they have added 16 Megs of internal memory, which is used for downloading and running applications. The GPI operates with a Linux OS: Kernel 2.4. It has built in CDMA (wireless internet application), Voice Call (cellphone service via Korean giant KTF), and pack-in software. That includes at this time; web browser, PIMS (personal information management system), Email client, instant messaging service, flash and multimedia player (including Divx), image viewer, text viewer/editor program (aka word processor) and MP3 player. It's backlit, uses SMCs for storage, and will be connected to a wireless network of KTF'fs design. For more info on the GP32 and GPI, visit the only native English speaking site with full coverage."

Brandon Sheffield writes "The GPI is the next evolution of GP32. It uses the same graphics and sound processor as the GP32, but they have added 16 Megs of internal memory, which is used for downloading and running applications. The GPI operates with a Linux OS: Kernel 2.4. It has built in CDMA (wireless internet application), Voice Call (cellphone service via Korean giant KTF), and pack-in software. That includes at this time; web browser, PIMS (personal information management system), Email client, instant messaging service, flash and multimedia player (including Divx), image viewer, text viewer/editor program (aka word processor) and MP3 player. It's backlit, uses SMCs for storage, and will be connected to a wireless network of KTF'fs design. For more info on the GP32 and GPI, visit the only native English speaking site with full coverage."

Brandon Sheffield writes "The GPI is the next evolution of GP32. It uses the same graphics and sound processor as the GP32, but they have added 16 Megs of internal memory, which is used for downloading and running applications. The GPI operates with a Linux OS: Kernel 2.4. It has built in CDMA (wireless internet application), Voice Call (cellphone service via Korean giant KTF), and pack-in software. That includes at this time; web browser, PIMS (personal information management system), Email client, instant messaging service, flash and multimedia player (including Divx), image viewer, text viewer/editor program (aka word processor) and MP3 player. It's backlit, uses SMCs for storage, and will be connected to a wireless network of KTF'fs design. For more info on the GP32 and GPI, visit the only native English speaking site with full coverage."