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Vote for the russian "Street Fighter" that bears around the world fear and respect .

Machinarium is finally clanking its away to North America's PlayStation Network, releasing on Tuesday October 9 for $9.99. Amanita Design also tells us a Vita version of the puzzler is currently in development, but the Czech studio has "no idea when it will be released."

According to Amanita Design, the European version released last month was downloaded by over 100,000 players, which equates to a lot of people seeing a robot eat traffic cones.

We've waited years to play VBlank's Retro City Rampage, and our wait ends next week. The developer informed us tonight that the PS3, Vita, and PC versions of Retro City Rampage will launch October 9 in North America.

Your $14.99 purchase gets you a copy of the game on both PlayStation platforms; the PC version retails for the same price, and will be available from Steam, GOG, or VBlank's own website (which dispenses both a DRM-free download and your choice of a Steam or GOG key).

The European Vita and PS3 release will also happen this month, developer Brian Provinciano told us. The WiiWare and XBLA versions are coming later in 2012.

The PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale team has been very careful to treat the game's many franchises with respect, said director Omar Kendall in an interview with Polygon. "We take this very seriously, and sometimes the IP holders know best, and obviously we want to present the characters in the best way for the developers and the fans," he said, after noting that Irrational creative director Ken Levine wrote the dialogue for the Big Daddy / Little Sister character. According to Kendall, Levine "wrote every line of script and dialogue" for the pair.

The same care went into every character, with each studio getting "complete, 100 percent approval" on its characters, he said. That includes characters owned by Sony studios, like Nathan Drake, the star of Naughty Dog's Uncharted series.

As for Levine's script, we're presuming it includes several instances of "Mr. Bubbles" and "MMMRRUUUNGGHHH!"

#hacking From dedicated memory cards to required internet connection to move files, Sony has taken extra precautionary measures with the PS Vita to prevent the hacking of its hand-held console. This is understandable, considering what happened with the PS3 and PSP. So when a new exploit was released that would allow users to play pirated PSP games on their PS Vitas, it seemed like a victory for the hackers over Sony. But in truth, it was a blow to the hacker community with almost Shakespearean drama in the background. More »

#toukiden Toukiden was one of the titles announced for both the PSP and PS Vita at last month's SCEJ (Sony Computer Entertainment Japan) Press Conference. A couple of the title's biggest selling points are that it is being developed as a collaborative project between SCEJ and Tecmo Koei, and that the game will have cross-platform capabilities between the PSP and the PS Vita. But just what is the game about? More »

When the folks at EA Tiburon told us they were "committed to post-launch support" of Madden 13 back in August, we weren't told just how often the game would see that support. As it turns out, the next update is scheduled to release October 16, about a month after the previous update.

This update, the third one for Madden 13, fixes some gameplay and presentation issues while focusing on the game's career mode. Connected Careers mode is getting some noteworthy updates this month with the addition of player editing for online leagues, the ability to use custom rosters offline, and the option to change offensive and defensive coaching schemes. Aside from new features, Connected Careers is also receiving a number of fixes for some of its glaring issues, including a fix for the online mode's broken accelerated clock.

The Bit.Trip series continues its strange, out of order journey to PC and Mac. Following successful releases of the first game in the series (Beat) and the fourth (Runner), Bit.Trip Core is available today on Steam for PC and Mac. It's $9.99 alone, or $11.99 with a downloadable soundtrack.

The chronological second game in the pixelated series uses nothing but a D-pad (or, we suppose, keys to represent four directions on a D-pad), and involves deceptively simple rhythm gameplay. All you have to do is press a direction when a dot reaches the middle of the screen.

Of course, it's a Bit.Trip game, so you'll be screaming and wailing at that "simple" gameplay within a few minutes. In a fun way.

Sony has launched its PlayStation Mobile store in true PlayStation Mobile fashion: in total secrecy in the middle of the night. The PlayStation Mobile store is now selling cross-platform games across PlayStation Certified devices (including the Vita and a few Android phones and tablets) in the "US, Canada, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and Australia," according to developer Vlambeer, with more countries on the way.

In short, of course, this means Super Crate Box is now available on your Vita. On the Vita, the store is surprisingly easy to find (see above); if you're on an Android phone, you'll have a few more steps to deal with. In any case, there's now an easier way to develop games for publication on Sony devices.

#playstationmobile Sony's mobile gaming push goes live today, making the PlayStation Vita much more attractive and justifying the purchase of PlayStation Certified Android devices with 21 bite-sized games. Let's see what's in store! More »

#virtueslastreward Have you played Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors? If not, you really should. It's a wonderful visual novel-slash-point-and-click adventure with a tendency to make your brain explode, and I recommend that everyone take the time to experience it. More »

Today kicks off Sony's Day 1 Digital initiative, which sees some of the holiday's most high-profile games available as day-one downloads on PlayStation Network. Resident Evil 6 and NBA 2K13 are the first two games available as day one downloads in October.

On top of the Day 1 Digital promotion, PSN users can pre-order Assassin's Creed 3 and snag a pair of Sega PSN games today: Sonic Adventure 2 and NiGHTS into DREAMS. More PSOne Classics are available on PS Vita today, including several Square Enix and Capcom games like Parasite Eve, Chrono Trigger, Resident Evil 2 and many more. Finally, a Silent Hill: Book of Memories demo is available for PS Vita owners.

The full list of this week's content, hit up the PlayStation Blog.

The Art of Video Games exhibit just concluded its run at The Smithsonian and the final number of visitors is in: 686,406. The exhibit ran for six months, from March 16 - September 30, so that's well over 100,000 people per month critiquing the art from such games as BioShock, Diablo 2, Donkey Kong, Fallout 3, Goldeneye 007, Doom 2, Minecraft, Jet Set Radio Future, Shadow of Colossus, Star Fox: Assault, Zaxxon and tons more, all chosen by fans via some smooth Smithsonian voting.

For reference, 686,406 people is slightly more than the entire country of Montenegro, more than six Grenadas, or 617,765 dollar-store items in Grenada (10 percent sales tax).

While it hasn't confirmed any concrete plans to do so, Sony would at least entertain the idea of bundling the PlayStation Vita together with the PlayStation 3. Sony would "have nothing against [a bundle] whatsoever," Fergal Gara, managing director of PlayStation UK recently told CVG. Fergal added that it could conceivably happen as early as this Christmas, if Sony wanted.

Such a bundle would be a natural candidate for games that feature crossplay functionality, he said, and could also include PlayStation Plus, which now functions across both devices. With Sony trying very hard to push the interconnectivity between Vita and PS3, a bundle would certainly make sense, and it sounds like Sony (at least in the UK) isn't opposed to the idea.

Should the concept come to fruition, the only question is whether or not consumers feel the same way.

Hey, have you heard about this PSN thing? Between PSN Play, Day 1 Digital, various PS Plus bonuses, and this new offer, Sony really, really wants you to try PSN.

Today, Sony announced a deal that gets you $20 back in credit if you spend $100 on PSN in October. It's the perfect time to put such an offer out, as it interacts nicely with the Day 1 Digital deal. Buy two games from that program (some of which are already 10% off for PS Plus) and there's your $100. You can then put that $20 toward, say, Spelunker HD. Or anything else on PSN.

The credit will be emailed to you in November, and sent to you as an XMB message if you're using a PS3.

Delve into horror this week with Resident Evil 6...

Choose your platform to jump to a specific release list:

'Abe's Oddysee HD' is now Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee - New 'n' Tasty, and it has a new and tasty release window of Q4 2013. Last month, Just Add Water asked fans to come up with a new name for the 2.5D remake, and this weekend the British studio revealed the winning title in a Eurogamer Expo talk. New 'n' Tasty is landing on Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Network (for PS3 and Vita) late next year, and on PC later on.

Just Add Water revealed that the 2009 re-releases of Abe's Oddysee and Abe's Exodus sold 750,000 units across PC, PS3, and Vita downloads. By those figures, the updated version of the 1997 classic may be a popular item on XBLA and PSN menus in a year's time.

#oddworld As of this August, we had only seen one screen of the HD remake of cult favorite Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee. But Oddworld Inhabitants unveiled pre-alpha footage of the work-in-progress at Eurogamer Expo this weekend. Along with a look at the game, it was announced that the remake's official name is Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee - New 'N' Tasty and that the game will be available on the PS3, PlayStation Vita and Xbox Live Arcade. Man, just looking at the shiny new coat of paint on an old classic is making me nostalgic. And very impatient. More »

#theweekingames Consoles see two big releases this week, Resident Evil 6 from Capcom and NBA 2K13 from 2K Sports. That leaves little room for other big stars. More »

#vita Why is the PlayStation Vita floundering? One reason is that people just weren't interested in developing games for it. At least that's what Sony boss Shuhei Yoshida believes. More »

#psn Microsoft refuses to say how many people subscribe to Xbox Live Gold, and Sony still won't say how many people use PlayStation Plus—the premium PS3 service I've said is far and away better than Gold. More »

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale doesn't just mix up characters in the playable roster: the stages are weird combinations of Sony franchises interacting in unexpected ways. The video above showcases some of these combinations, including God of War/Patapon, Jak and Daxter/Hot Shots Golf, and Novastorm/Kileak the DNA Imperative.

Okay, we made one of those up.

PlayStation Network has been hitting its stride over the last three months, posting its highest "transactional sales" quarter yet in its six years of existence. In layman's terms that means more people purchased content directly through PSN from April through June of this year than ever before in the service's history.

Jack Buser, Senior Director of PlayStation digital platforms at SCEA, told Joystiq this all started back at E3 with the announcement of the Instant Game Collection, and that "membership sales in PS Plus almost doubled" during the week of E3. Since the launch of the Instant Game Collection, five games have managed to dominate in total downloads: inFamous 2, LittleBigPlanet 2, Just Cause 2, Ratchet & Clank All 4 One and Gotham City Imposters.

Buser couldn't dive into what he called "the nuts and bolts" of PSN's performance (see: specific numbers) but did assure me the service is growing and becoming a more integral facet of Sony's approach. He also talked at length about PSN Day 1 Digital, which we'll have for you in a separate piece available later.

Whenever we hear the music in this Need for Speed: Most Wanted trailer, we think of that sequence from the opening ceremony of the Olympics. No, not the one with James Bond and the Queen. Man, that's all anyone remembers - although that one really was bonkers. Assigning 007 on such a formal mission? It would never happen.

Sony is working on a PS Vita Remote Play patch for Tokyo Jungle. Sony Worldwide Studios chief Shuhei Yoshida tweeted that North American and European PS3 owners can expect a patch to let them play the game remotely on Vita systems, but he didn't disclose a date.

Sony released a patch for Tokyo Jungle in Japan earlier this month, with Yoshida then indicating that the North American and European releases would have Remote Play functionality built in. The game , however, came yesterday to PSN without it.

Earlier this month Yoshida teased a Remote Play patch for Ico on Twitter, then the next day the patch went live. Whether or not Tokyo Jungle players can expect a similar timeframe, only Yoshida knows. And other people working at Sony, we presume.

During the Tokyo Game Show this year, we asked some of Japan's biggest game industry figures what they felt is the most important game to them (outside of games they've actually created). For Keiji Inafune, creator of the Mega Man series and the brainnnnnz behind the upcoming zombie action game, Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z, that fundamental game is The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past for the Super Nintendo. As important games go, we'd agree that Link to the Past is definitely on the list (and handily available on Virtual Console).

Meanwhile, Hiroshi Kawano, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Japan, picked Crash Bandicoot, which was conveniently (perhaps too conveniently) just released as a PSOne Classic for the PlayStation Vita. While it may not be the game many would have picked, it certainly has a memorable spot in PlayStation history, especially considering its developer, Naughty Dog, went on to create the phenomenal Uncharted series.

#earthdefenseforce B-movie director Minoru Kawasaki, known for masterpieces like Executive Koala, directed a live action commercial to promote Earth Defense Force 3: Portable for the PS Vita. It stars pin-up model Risa Yoshiki, and you can watch it above. More »

Back in early 2001, my last year of high school was laced with an addiction: I just couldn't stop playing Phantasy Star Online. I know, it's not exactly the sort of thing worthy of an after-school special or a heart-warming episode of Blossom. Still, I churned away many, many hours with friends - some I knew personally, others I'd only met online - slaying dragons with my Lavis Cannon and grinding my HuCast all the way up to level 100.

Playing Phantasy Star Online 2 on the PlayStation Vita and Android at the Tokyo Game Show instantly evoked those old memories and, honestly, it's a little terrifying. As someone who works from home, the fact that a game like this could always be within arm's reach is deeply worrying.

Welcome to Living in the Past, a weekly column about what's new in old games. Now get off our lawn.
Last year, Hudson snuck a selection of Turbografx-16 games onto the PlayStation Store, playable on both PS3 and PSP. It's a very small selection in North America at just ten games (this is the first caveat of many I'll mention), but it includes some of the best on the platform, like Bonk's Adventure, Alien Crush, Neutopia, and not China Warrior.

I feel it's my duty to periodically remind people of the availability of Turbografx-16 games, so now that there's another platform that can play them, namely the PlayStation Vita, I'm taking advantage of the opportunity. These downloads work on both home systems (PS3) and portable systems (PSP and Vita), allowing you to experience the cutting-edge cross-compatibility that these games enjoyed over 20 years ago between the Turbografx-16 and the TurboExpress handheld.

I guess I should bring up all the other caveats before we get too excited.

#review Few games beg for physical contact like LittleBigPlanet does. The series is known for its miniaturized, Gondryesque diorama worlds, where fuzzy Beanie Baby-like characters carom off of cloth-covered wheels and cubes like so much bric-a-brac in a shoebox. Any sane player would immediately want to reach out and touch the screen. More »