All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

With millions of copies sold, Level-5's Professor Layton franchise is an unquestionable hit. Already, the property has spawned one feature-length film, and is expanding to its fifth game in Japan. (The Unwound Future, which was released two weeks ago in America, is the third game in the series.) Who could have predicted the runaway success of the series? Not even Level-5's president, Akihiro Hino, could have seen it coming.

In an exclusive interview, Hino told us that "I obviously didn't imagine the series would achieve the success it has." But, he attributes the franchise's achievements to Level-5's goal to "make an adventure game that anyone could play." Given the popularity of the games, Hino finds it unsurprising that a number of copycats have since followed, such as Puzzle Agent and Blue Toad Murder Files. "Doesn't it follow that if a game gets popular enough, similar games will start to appear?," he asked us.

Nintendo eventually picked up the publishing rights for a North American release, which posed a number of challenges for the localization team. Hino admits that the first game was developed "without much consideration" for international audiences. As such, "we have had to alter and even remove certain puzzles," Hino explained to us. "The reason is usually due to their use of Japanese, or because a puzzle or joke would work in some regions but not in others. Ways of thinking, language, culture, and even religion differ from region to region, so we remove puzzles we feel wouldn't work, and try to replace them with puzzles that players from that market will enjoy."

Innovative social games company joins strategic list of U.S. investments centered around DeNA's "X-device" "X-border" strategy.

"Great people don't really want to work there," says Bobby Kotick.

The beta ends.

"Great people don't really want to work there," says Bobby Kotick.

"Great people don't really want to work there," says Bobby Kotick.

"Great people don't really want to work there," says Bobby Kotick.

#gameface The subject of photographer Jason Michael Smith's Nintendo Time! series might need some controller wearing tips. More »

With a regular software update framework in place, Nintendo would have no problem patching out a recently discovered, game-breaking bug in Metroid: Other M. Unfortunately, such a system doesn't really exist, leaving the company to adopt a more ... unique approach to solving the problem. Nintendo is asking people living in Japan who have experienced the bug to send the SD card or Wii console with their game save on it to its Kyoto-based service center.

We've contacted Nintendo of America to see if it's come up with a more practical -- or any -- approach to fixing the issue. As it stands right now, homebrewers had a fix ready to go about a week ago, and that's ... well, that's just silly.

#igaming The iPad really saw a takeover of free-to-play, but pay-to-win games this week. Famrville, We City, City Story, Farm Story. iPad owners are crazy about em'. More »

Big week for ModNation! It’s not everyday that the creator of the biggest racing franchise EVER takes another racing game for a spin … and has a good time doing it! On top of that Air Raid is available to all tomorrow on the PSN!

Be on a look out for more great MNR news tomorrow right here on the PS.Blog!

Artist Spotlight: Kazunori Yamauchi, Creator/Producer of Gran Turismo

Kazunori Yamauchi, the legend behind the Gran Turismo franchise, has a passion for racing, a passion that has led to over 56 Million copies of Gran Turismo shipped to date. As he prepares to launch his greatest creation yet (Gran Turismo 5 hits shelves November 2nd!) he took a moment to tell us what drives him and his team, shares memories of creating his first game, and what he thinks about racing … ModNation style!

Take Flight with Air Raid this week!

Whether he’s soaring through the skies off jumps or shooting Hydra missiles at his latest opponent, Air Raid will not stop at nothing to win the race. Once in the crosshairs of his one-of-a-kind Fighter Plane Kart, you better say your prayers! Available as a separate Mod ($.99), Kart ($.99), or as a bundle ($1.75). Get several parts and accessories for you to create with in the Mod and Kart Studios.

Mod of the Week

Mod Name: Geisha Kokeshi Autumn
Creator: cherryrae

I’ve been to Japan and I own a few kokeshi dolls. This Mod definitely captures that spirit, and the Autumn colors are gorgeous. Nicely done!

Kart of the Week

Kart Name: True Lowrider
Creator: Joker_Six_T_Nine

This truck is pimp-a-licious. Old school flavor with excellent attention to detail on the paint job. All win.

Tracks of the Week

Track Name: BOSS Gardens
Created by: CIV_BOSS

I liked this track after just looking at a few of the screen shots. Once I downloaded and raced it, I fell in love. It’s lush and green, and it’s designed really well. CIV_BOSS used narrow segments of track very well, and the item pod placement is really clever. A few laps in, I learned how a few key drifting lines, and it was all good after that. Good work, BOSS.

Track Name: The Megaplex
Created by: OakBiscuits

OakBiscuits says that this track was a go at an indoor warehouse racetrack, and this track absolutely hit the mark. It REALLY feels like an indoor Karting track. Well, it’s quite a bit ore exciting than any indoor Karting track I’ve ever seen, but you get the idea, right? I give this track a two word review: Awe. Some.

Hot Lap Roster For This Week

We keep it coming with some nice Community tracks for Hot Lap this week:

Monday: BOSS Gardens, by CIV_BOSS
Tuesday: The Megaplex, by OakBiscuits
Wednesday: City Underwater Ruin, by PH1LThy31
Thursday: Lost Ruins Run, by PH1LThy31
Friday: Mount In & Out v2, by Freewill001
Saturday: Paradise Fortress, by PH1LThy31
Sunday: Caverns Run, by PH1LThy31

See you at the ModSpot!

#clips Take a look at the tools players will have at their disposal to create more than 200 multiplayer game combinations in GoldenEye 007for the Wii. More »

Last week's GOG.com stunt was nothing short of confounding. For reasons (at the time) unknown, Good Old Games shut its virtual doors and offered little information regarding its future, leaving customers to wonder what would happen to their ability to re-download purchased games. This was after a tweet from the company's official account obliquely stated, "Sometimes it's really hard being DRM-free ... hard to keep things the way they are and keep management and publishers happy."

When the site relaunched less than a week later and revealed the hoax for what it was, after days of ... less descriptive explanations as to what was going on, fans and customers were understandably upset. GOG publicly apologized last Wednesday on Twitter, saying "We really are sorry to those who felt deceived. It was done with the best of intentions, hopefully we can make it up to you." After all that, we asked GOG managing director Guillaume Rambourg what in the world happened.

First and foremost, he said that last week's temporary closure of GOG was inevitable for the site's relaunch. "98% of the code of our website was rewritten to be able to welcome more users and deliver a better experience, which required a major change in our backend and as a matter of fact, taking down our platform for a few days," Rambourg explained. He told us that management was faced with two options: make an "official 'boring' statement" or take "a more creative route." As evidenced by the past week, it's pretty clear management chose the latter.

And even though the reaction hasn't been 100 percent positive, Rambourg said he'd do the same thing all over again given the chance.

The smash hit iPhone adventure looks sharp on the DSi.

'John Daly's ProStroke Golf' coming to PlayStation 3 October 5th and Xbox 360 October 19th.

#television The studio behind Wallace and Gromit takes a walk on the wacky wild side, as a job listing reveals that Aardman Animation is working on a live-action television show starring Ubisoft's Raving Rabbids. More »

It's a light week on the Wii and DSi Shops, with two each for DSiWare and WiiWare, and none for the Virtual Console. The highlight on Wii is Target Toss Pro: Lawn Darts -- if only because it explains why Target Toss Pro: Bags had the awkward title it did and not, like, Bag Toss or something simple. It's a series!

DSiWare has Zenonia, a port of an iPhone action RPG that sounds like it might actually be pretty good, especially with buttons.

Studio creating brand-new project.

Studio creating brand-new project.

Studio creating brand-new project.

This time out you're the hunted. Check out a report from inside the beta.

Studio creating brand-new project.

#wellplayed Humor in video games can be a brutally serious thing. More »

Ubisoft's Raving Rabbids franchise is ready to jump from video games to television. A report from Bleeding Cool reveals that Aardman Animation -- best known for the Wallace & Gromit franchise -- is looking for animators to work on a TV adaptation of the Rayman spin-off. According to the job call, the show will offer a mixture of live-action footage and computer-generated animation.

Apparently, Aardman already has a working relationship with the Rabbids franchise, having already produced a number of CG shorts to promote the upcoming Raving Rabbids Travel in Time. Ubisoft has shared its video game properties with other mediums in the past, with the Assassin's Creed series recently spawning some short films and an upcoming line of comic books.

#microsoft Sprint and T-Mobile join Chevrolet in using Microsoft's innovative new Kinect controller to advertise to gamers in innovative new ways. More »

The short, brutal life of APB (and developer Realtime Words) recently ended, with consumers seemingly unable to reclaim whatever investment they put into the MMO. However, despite not receiving refunds, consumers are reportedly obtaining compensation in other ways.

Gamasutra and Dtoid both report that players have been offered a discount or free game after contacting EA's support line. According to the administrators behind Realtime Worlds' bankruptcy, consumers should contact the retailers from which they purchased the game in order to pursue "entitlement to any refund."

#downloadables Gamevil's role-playing game Zenonia is an excellent iPhone title, its one significant flaw being the lack of a real directional pad. With the DSiWare release of Zenonia, that problem gets solved. More »

#breaking Video gaming's best known funny men are back together again under one roof, having a "hell of a lot of fun," making jokes and, perhaps, even developing a game or two. More »

Tale of Tales celebrate first awards for The Path with discount.

An eBay user by the name of rifaavalon recently tipped us off to an item of interest that's currently on his storefront: An SNES retail display unit. This relic comes with an illuminated case, a monitor, a console and two built-in controllers -- but no games. (We're sure you have some lying around.)