Here they are! The first Super Smash Bros. Brawl commercials straight from Japan. There are three in total so be sure make the jump to check out all three. This one just keeps getting better and better.

I've been chatting back and forth with Justin, our lucky $2,000 shopping bot winner. Turns out he actually lives a few hours from me, so instead of going shopping on my own, packing his stuff up and mailing it to him, we decided to just meet at the store of his choice and do the shopping together. And no, I didn't tell him to by a copy of Cruis'n, but I totally could have.

When he emailed me with the address to the GameStop he wanted to shop at he mentioned that he had called ahead of time to get them to hold some stuff. I just assumed that meant he had $2,000 worth of games and goodies sitting in a pile waiting to be paid for. Not the case.

It was just a few hours ago that I posted about the HD DVD group canceling its CES press conference and now we have more news on the format war front lines. In an article in Variety yesterday, buried amongst the Warner's announcement was one line that was very important to the Blu-Ray cause:

Warner sister company New Line confirmed it will shift allegiance to Blu-ray only as well.

Warner's other companies which include HBO and BBC, still have not announced whether they will make the shift as well, but it seems unlikely that they would go the other way. But, time is of the essence for distributors it seems as Warner CEO Barry Meyer states:

"The window of opportunity for high-definition DVD could be missed if format confusion continues to linger."

One more nail in the HD DVD coffin?

Warner Bros. backs Blu-ray [Variety]

In light of yesterday's announcement that Warner Bros. will be going exclusively Blu-Ray, the HD DVD Promotion Group has canceled it's press conference for this year's CES. The news came in an email sent around to CES attendees yesterday.

"Based on the timing of the Warner Home Video announcement today, we have decided to postpone our CES 2008 press conference scheduled for Sunday, January 6th at 8:30 p.m. in the Wynn Hotel. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

We are currently discussing the potential impact of this announcement with the other HD DVD partner companies and evaluating next steps. We believe the consumer continues to benefit from HD DVD's commitment to quality and affordability - a bar that is critical for the mainstream success of any format.

We'll continue to keep you updated on new developments around HD DVD."

Yeeeeesh. Not that I think the entire format war relies on the decisions of Warner's, but it is one of the largest movie distributors and their choice will serve to start swinging things in Blu-Ray's direction. If a few more prominent companies choose this same option, we could well see an end to the format wars in the not too distant future. Man, am I glad I bought that PS3 when I had the money.

CES HD DVD Event canceled due to Warner announcement [Wesleytech.com]

For those of you attending CES with a hankering for all the Microsoft you can handle, you can now take a look at exactly what they are offering. Along with the Bill Gates helmed keynote speech, a variety of Microsoft related activities will be going on in conference rooms and at the MS booth itself. A total of thirteen panels and conferences will be held covering such subjects as Game Power: Entertainment as Franchise, Hollywood and the Digital Consumer: How Technology, Content and Services Establish the Next Level of Consumer Entertainment Experience and A Tale of Two Supply Chains: Halo 3 and Zune.

Check out all the listings after the jump to start making your schedule now.

Although there is some confusion as to the release date (Gamestop says March 3, IGN says March 11, Rockstar says there is no firm date yet) some details on the new version of Bully are starting to surface. It looks like there will be added content and (for the 360 version) achievements. New content includes four new classes (Biology, Music, Math and Geography), eight new missions, new items, more wardrobe choices, two-player minigames (offline) and new awards. I'm glad to see Rockstar making an effort to improve and add on their already great game unlike some publishers who seem to be happy re-releasing the same games a year or two later on another system with no extras. I'm not going to mention any names, but you know who you are. By the way, Rockstar, I'm still pulling for that boy kissing achievement.

Bully's Scholarly Additions [IGN]

Do you remember those official 6-inch plush companion cubes that sold out on Valve's website faster than you could say, "Boy, I bet I could buy a bunch and sell them for crazy prices on eBay"?

Originally retailing for $29.95, one recent auction just closed for $365 plus $8 to ship. Another is currently bid up to $105 with hours left on the listing. I'm the first to regret not ordering a cube for my own collection, but this Beanie Baby madness has got to stop. It'll give us all a bad name (as well as a vicious reputation within the collectibles circuits).

Unopened Weighted Companion Cube Plush [ebay]

Wow, it hasn't been a good week for the New York Times.

Turns out that New York Times story didn't just mix up the DS and PSP's features, oh and misspell Reggie's name twice, it also screwed up what exactly was downloadable to the Wii as a full-blown game and what was just for demos.

That's right, according to Nintendo, the Wii will NOT be able to transmit or download full DS games. Apparently the New York Times confused DS demos with WiiWare titles. So you can download full on Wii games (which we knew), but only wireless DS demo games (which we also knew).

From Nintendo:

An article about the Nintendo DS video game system in the Dec. 31 Business Day section of the New York Times incorrectly referred to future capabilities of the device. The statement that complete Nintendo DS games will eventually be able to be downloaded into the device via a wireless connection with the company's Wii game console is incorrect. Users can download games to play on Wii, and, in the future, the Nintendo DS will be able to receive demo versions of some DS games from Wii, but not the entire game. The demo will be erased once the Nintendo DS is turned off.

Good lord, that's four mistakes in one story, five if you include the correction to the correction they had to run. A new record?

See Correction Number 3 [NYT]

We are constantly inundated with stories of games getting their release dates bumped back, but rarely if ever do we hear about something releasing early. In a statement to IGN yesterday, Ubisoft announced that Suda 51's No More Heroes will be coming to the Wii a little over a month early. Originally slated to release Feb. 29, the quirky cel-shaded cousin of Killer 7 is now set to hit store shelves on Jan. 22. The original release date would have pitted No More Heroes against heavy hitter Super Smash Bros. Brawl, so was this a shrewd marketing move on Ubisofts's part, or merely a coincidence?

No More Heroes Ships Early [IGN]

Color me puzzled. Why would anyone, and I mean anyone, want to port a horrid, mostly unseen coin-op rail shooter from 2004 to the Wii?

Maybe Konami thinks the kitsch factor will outweigh what will soon officially be the worst graphics on the Wii console. That's right this makes Cruisi'n look like a Playstation 2 game. I'd blame the horrid graphics on the Wii, but I've seen the arcade game and they were just as bad on the 2004 coin-op, maybe worse.

A take-off of the original, digitized-photo meets sub-par graphics rail shooter Area 51, Target: Terror will be compatible with the Wii Zapper and has players take on the role of an elite counter-terrorist agent taking down a wave of terrorists, all of whom happen to wear sunglasses or bandannas. The original game actually featured a level at the Denver Airport, but it was so horribly generic I couldn't convince my editors at the Rocky to do a story about it.

Target: Terror will also include mini-games and is due out in the first quarter of 08. Two more screens after the jump.

Oh, how I wish I had seen the original press release for Happy MMO's ELF Online. The sketchy translation both in-game and on their website leads me to believe the press release must have been a true gem. It's clearly a game that's not taking itself too seriously (running into a "wet nurse for newbie"? A "baby mode"?), and Jeff Freeman has a funny look at gameplay and environment in ELF Online. Considering the number of free to play Chinese MMOs that take themselves way too seriously, it's almost refreshing (though perhaps hiring some starving ex-pat to provide translation services wouldn't be such a bad idea):

All the quests that I completed were all of the kill 5 of this, kill 10 of that, collect 4 of these by killing 4 or more of those sorts, excluding quests sending me from one NPC to another. Stock MMO quests.

One other quest some might consider an exception, was the become-a-soldier-quest itself, after killing 7 of something, being required to swear that my little guy would fight to the death for the Imaginary Goddess.

But most people wouldn't consider that an exception, and would instead say, "What now? I didn't really read it." Stock MMO players.

One of my wishes for 2008? That gems like this and Shanda press releases continuing flowing freely from China.

How I Spent My Vacation: Elfing [via Worlds In Motion]

In another "win" for "consumers" Warner Bros. Entertainment announced today that it would be going exclusively Blu-ray for hi-definition movie releases as of May 2008. This point in the W column for fans of the Sony-backed, PlayStation 3-approved format will probably help in calming those still basking in the furious red glow of rage born of Paramount's decision to go HD-DVD only. Consider that HD disc format war "stalemate" now over, Sir Stringer!

The reason for Warner's new Blu-ray allegiance? According to WB CEO Barry Meyer, "The window of opportunity for high-definition DVD could be missed if format confusion continues to linger." He's seconded by President of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group Kevin Tsujihara, who says in press release form "A two-format landscape has led to consumer confusion and indifference toward high definition, which has kept the technology from reaching mass adoption..." Confusion, as you can see, is the cause.

That's right, PlayStation 3 backers, the upcoming hi-definition release of Catwoman is all yours. Print out your commemorative press release, which you'll find after the jump.

That's what the latest issue of EGM says in its Quarterman rumors section, indicating that an unnamed "first party sequel" is already in development for whatever console Microsoft has planned after the Xbox 360. That could mean a next-gen—yes, that next-gen—Halo, Perfect Dark or Viva Pinata is just a few years off, as is the next step in the Xbox hardware cycle. Seems a bit early, doesn't it, given that the 360 is only two years and change old? Given that the Xbox and Xbox 360 were born just four years apart, it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility—and these games do take quite a bit of time to cobble together—but we doubt that another short lifecycle on the current generation box would sit well with gamers.

Microsoft Already Working on Game For Next Xbox? [1UP]

It's official: I'm now 100% behind the new art direction. I'm not hating on the old style, I've just...grown to accept and love the new designs for what they are. So when you consider I was already 100% behind any and all further Advance Wars DS games, you can see I'm in a mathematically-impossible position of support for this game.

PQ Crash dropped us a line to point out that The Seattle Post-Intelligencer's playoff preview for the upcoming Seahawks' this weekend. The spread shows quarterback Matt Hasselbeck transformed into an 8-bit sprite in a landscape ripped from a Super Mario Bros. title.