On October 30, 2008, the land of the rising sun will be treated to a fictional Bosnian with a blazing gun. In other words, the localized version of Rockstar’s GTA 4 will be released in Japan just before Halloween, or as the Japanese call it, “Bad American Cosplay Day”. Full press release after the jump.

One of the most popular games from E3, and one of the most anticipated titles for the PS3, Media Molecule’s LittleBigPlanet, has finally received a release date — in Japan. According to the Sony Computer Entertainment Japan website (via MCV), the fully customizable, side-scrolling adventure is set for a release date of October 30th. For [...]

Apparently it means no worries…for the rest of your days. Well Sony, we are worried!  We still don’t know if Hakuna Matata is coming to the US and Europe!

If you had this song stuck in your head all week, I can’t really blame you. Thus, I have translated it. It’s pretty much exactly as kooky as we thought. Hit the jump for English lyrics, Japanese lyrics, and what the hell, even some romaji. I fully expect YouTube karaoke now, though…

It appears that the recently released (in Japan) Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzan! is a side story to the Ryu ga Gotoku series, known as Yakuza in North America. The true third part in the series is on its way— and sooner than you’d think. Ryu ga Gotoku was a gamble. It was expensive and attempted [...]

Out of many of the video games out there, the Shin Megami Tensei games do a wonderful job at being mature without being gratuitous. Rather than padding out the game with over the top mature content, such as jiggling boobs or excess violence, they fill their games with genuinely disturbing material. Many of the things [...]

Sony wants you to buy a PlayStation 3 for Metal Gear Solid 4, so they’re trying to make it as easy as possible. Aside from the bundles already announced in Japan and North America, Sony is adding three more to tempt Japanese gamers. Come see the pretty colors!

Konami have had a lot of trouble with the Metal Gear Online Beta, from wrong codes, to mysterious Konami and Gamer ID’s.  Events have gone from bad to worse, with their servers being unable to hack the influx of players.  The Beta is delayed indefinitely in the US and Europe, and has been officially delayed [...]

Mario Kart has dropped in Japan, with modest lines waiting to greet the next iteration of go-cart racing at the Shibuya Bic Camera. Supply didn’t seem to be a problem, with several large boxes still waiting to be emptied once the lines had subsided, which meant that everybody walked away happy.

Expect this game to put the PSP at the top next week. Is anybody else impressed that the Wii has managed to hang with gaming’s portable darlings for so long? Neither of Nintendo’s next-generation competitors have managed to even come close.

Tables continue to be turned this week as the formerly dead-in-the-water PSP fended off all contenders for this week’s sales crown. Most people will point out that the PSP was never exactly a failure, it just hasn’t had the monstrous success that the DS has enjoyed.

Cave announced a new shoot-’em-up arcade title—DoDonPachi Dai Fukkatsu—at this year’s AOU show in Japan just a few weeks ago. At the time, the announcement rekindled my desire to see these great niche titles find new life and popularity on the current generation of consoles. News out of Japan seems to indicate that hope for [...]

Sales of the Xbox 360 in Japan have been struggling, so Microsoft is looking to lower the price for its Arcade version to boost sales, according to the Associated Press. The price will be cut 20 percent, from 34,800 yen ($325) to 27,800 yen ($260).

Japan’s first day sales of Devil May Cry 4 are in. Predictably the Playstation 3 version outsells its Xbox 360 counterpart almost 5-1. Don’t expect the same to happen in the US, or even Europe.

Odd, and entirely true; Square Enix put a trailer for the new installment of their much-loved series online – and then tried to prevent fans from getting to it.