Kotaku

Good news! Mario Party DS' success probably means there will be future Mario Party games! Thanks, God. We appreciate you answering our prayers. What didn't hold up as expected was Shin Sangoku Musou 5, also known as Dynasty Warriors 6, which certainly didn't sell as well as Mario Party and Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles. Still, it's a fairly solid week for the underdog PlayStation 3, which charted with the aforementioned, Hot Shots Golf 5, Ratchet & Clank Future, and newcomer Heavenly Sword. Plus, folks bought Game Center CX. Good for them!

The following stuff sold pretty well in Japan for the week of November 12th to the 18th.

01. Mario Party DS (DS) - 116,000 / 350,000
02. Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (Wii) - 83,000 / NEW
03. Shin Sangoku Musou 5 (PS3) - 76,000 / 264,000
04. Pro Yakyuu Famista DS DS (DS) - 49,000 / NEW
05. Game Center CX (DS) - 46,000 / NEW
06. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) - 40,000 / 365,000
07. Heavenly Sword (PS3) - 15,000 / NEW
08. Final Fantasy Tactics A2 (DS) - 14,000 / 230,000
09. Wii Sports (Wii) - 13,000 / 2,211,000
10. Soukou Kihei Votoms (PS2) - 12,000 / NEW

We are already looking into the issue, and rest assured, are working to offer a possible solution to our fans.

There's not an auteur, not the fiction that movie people tell themselves about the movie occurring in the director's head, and it being your job as someone who's witnessing that on the screen to connect with that vision. That's a terrible way to think about videogames, because they're a collaboration. You've got this lead actor and they don't have a copy of the script, but if they're not having a great time then it doesn't matter what you thought you were doing. All that matters is your ability to engage with him. You have to focus on collaboration, you have to focus on this sharing of authoring the performance with gamers.

The National Institute of Media and Family and its partners have released a portion of their findings from a study of 60 U.S. retailers, showing that 46% of minors who attempted to purchase an M-rated game were successful doing so. Gamespot writes that the organization's annual report card on its Annual Sting Operation findings is due next month, a report I'm sure at least one of our commenters is looking forward to.

The findings from the NIMF report preview were similar to the Federal Trade Commission's report from earlier this year, showing that some 42% percent of underage buyers were able to get their hands on a Mature-rated game. That report showed a decrease from 69% from 2003, part of a downward trend, but clearly illustrative of a program that needs a great deal of improvement.

Violent, pro-drug games reportedly sold to minors [San Diego Union-Tribune - via Gamespot]

The UMD business is still good for us and our publishers. It's still a burgeoning market, and we're still selling a large number of PSPs on a weekly basis, so there are a large number of new people coming into the market.

To: Ash
From: Simon
RE: Don't Eat At Empty Sushi Restaurants

Oh dear - the 'Sushi Incident of 2007' sounds unfortunate, but it might just be your imagination, and you didn't really eat any improperly prepared fugu. Or are your lips getting numb? I kid, of course.

As with most of the rest of the Kotaku editors, my day has been spent trying to get work done and not play Rock Band - something I've managed fairly well. However, when creating my first character for the game last night, I ran into some interesting style decisions over the insanely dynamic Rock Band character maker.

My first attempt at a guitarist was guided by my wife, who ended up picking a dark-colored pompadour hairstyle and a cleanshaven, rock-styled look. Add to that the requisite clothing, and 'Hol' ended up looking a bit like Morrissey - or at least one of his bequiffed backing band.

I was OK with that, but most of the songs in the game require a bit more scuzz than that, so after she wandered away, I switched 'Hol' to shaven-headed, and switched out the lip coloring to darker - hey presto, an instant Smashing Pumpkins look. Cooler? Nah, just different, and so easy to change, too. I wonder what bands our dutiful Kotaku readers are styling their characters after?

What you missed today:
Frankenreview, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (PS3)
Kill The Silent Protagonist?
Ten Years Ago: Lionhead's Peter Molyneux, Demis Hassabis
Unreal Tournament III PS3 Goes Gold, Saves Christmas

Valve just let us know that a demo for Half-Life 2: Episode Two will be available via Xbox Live tomorrow, November 22. The developer also specifies that it's the first demo to be available from The Orange Box, hinting that those with a lack of orange in their library may have an opportunity to get hands-on with demos for Portal and Team Fortress 2. Hope those without the game enjoy it, but how much more convincing do you need that this is one of the best releases of the year? Seriously!

The gang at Sony and Sony Ericsson are almost definitely working on some sort of PlayStation branded phone. It might even be announced in February. At least, that's what we've been led to believe, despite SCEE boss David Reeves smokescreen denial of its existence. Now, Sony Computer Entertainment co-COO Jim Ryan is telling the Economic Times that it's "definitely plausible", indicating that the company is pursuing the idea actively. He calls a console phone convergence "hugely intellectually seductive."

Ryan curiously says "PlayStation almost enjoys cult status" amongst the 200 million-plus who have purchase PlayStation consoles, envisioning a product that is primarily a gaming device and secondarily a phone.

Sony to introduce Playstation phone [Economic Times via CVG]

How does the Guitar Hero III X-plorer guitar controller fare when faced with the whirring blades of the BlendTec Total Blender? I won't spoil it, but know that it doesn't hold up too well to a Pete Townshending. For a blender that costs as much as a PlayStation 3 it had better fuck this thing up.

The third of my Guest Editor-impelled picks for great indie games you might have missed, following Venture Arctic and Deadly Rooms Of Death, is for Grubby Games' indie/casual puzzle title Professor Fizzwizzle and the Molten Mystery.

Created by the small Canadian-based studio, the puzzle-based 2D platform game was recently reviewed on indie site GameTunnel, who explain handily of the gameplay: "Your goal is simply to guide the kindly professor and inventor through levels from one teleporter to another teleporter. Along the way you'll need to ensure that the Professor can cross all manner of gaps and blockades and dangerous bat-bots that bar his passage."

So it's logic puzzles in a cute family-friendly manner? Yep, and you just don't see this kind of thing from the mainstream any more - also worth noting there's a prequel and the Katamari vs. Breakout fun of Fizzball also in the company's line-up - neet.

Professor Fizzwizzle and the Molten Mystery [Grubby Games]

Oh, goodie. I've yet to take my Rock Band gear out of the box, but plenty of you have and are now experiencing hardware problems with the included Fender Stratocaster controller. The majority of the problems reported on the official Rock Band community forums indicate that the controller's "down strum" simply won't register or will double register notes after a few hours of playing. Some are reporting bad hardware right out of the box, but general user feedback indicates a progressive issue.

Official response on the forums has been that users experiencing hardware problems should recheck their connections and restart the game. If Rock Band hardware is still failing, users are being directed to EA's warranty page, to request a replacement controller. Good luck and godspeed, replacement guitars.

The OFFICIAL "One of my Instruments is Already Broken" Thread [Rock Band Forums - thanks, All!]
Rock Band Warranty [EA]