Turns out Mass Effect 3 is controversial. Some people like its DLC, ending and storyline, some don't, and some want to see the entire BioWare team thrown into pools of mud and flogged for days to pay for the things they put in their own game. Franchise executive producer and director Casey Hudson seems to be taking the mixed reactions in stride, and even has some simple, logical reasons behind a few of the supposed scandals, such as Mass Effect 3's day-one DLC, From Ashes.

"I think a lot of the common sense is prevailing," Hudson told Digital Trends. "Initially, it was spun in a direction that suggested that we had taken the lore out of Mass Effect 3 and were holding it inside the DLC only, which now the people who actually have played Mass Effect 3 and the DLC they know that that's not true."

From Ashes is an optional piece of content not integral to the main story, Hudson noted.

"When we finish a game, we finish it many months before it actually hits the shelves and that team goes on to work on something else that in those intervening months represent millions of dollars of development time.... So in this case, we chose to work on a DLC which people really enjoyed for Mass Effect 2 and we also wanted to make sure that people had it as an opportunity to build it into their first play-through if they wanted that as an optional thing."

As for the ending, Hudson said he likes its mystery and interpretation possibilities, and having a reactive ending is better than one that falls flat and fades out. "I didn't want the game to be forgettable, and even right down to the sort of polarizing reaction that the ends have had with people -- debating what the endings mean and what's going to happen next, and what situation are the characters left in -- that to me is part of what's exciting about this story."

Those who have not followed the Mario Party series in recent years could be forgiven for dismissing its 9th console entry as yet another attempt to milk an aging franchise. Hell, even as someone who's been mini-gaming around the Mushroom Kingdom since it required being tethered to an N64, I had trouble mustering enthusiasm for the latest sequel. Allowing that big "9" on the box to mislead you, however, would be a mistake on the level of hiring Bowser as a babysitter.

You see, Mario Party 9 -- the series' first entry in nearly five years -- feels surprisingly more like a thoughtful reboot than a phoned-in rehash.

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Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien is easier than Bit.Trip Runner.

I'm saying this up front because I'm guessing the difficulty in Runner turned some would-be fans away, and I want those people to keep reading. If you liked the simple rhythm-platforming gameplay of Runner but hit a metaphorical wall after hitting so many literal walls, this will be more your speed. I think I got through about 8 stages in a row of fast-moving, autoscrolling, jumping, sliding, kicking gameplay without dying.

In fact, a lot of the game is designed to welcome lapsed or new players. The retro look has been replaced by a polygonal style that co-director Alex Neuse describes as "whimsical," with a rounded, cartoony CommanderVideo and cute creatures bouncing happily to the music. Cutscenes in a Saul Bass art style act as both exemplars of a popular style and, as co-director Mike Roush explained, a "stepping stone between the old style and the new style." bridges between the 2D Bit.Trip look and Runner2's in-game presentation. As an XBLA/PSN title, it's also available to people who couldn't play the WiiWare-based Runner. "So this is like, hey everyone, this is our fun little gameplay thing, rhythm music platformer, and we can all play it," Neuse said.

Even if you're a bad enough dude to enjoy the insane difficulty of Runner 1, there's plenty in the sequel to capture your interest. Like choices.

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THQ has filed a request for "1666" with the US Patent and Trademark Office. Gamespot dug up the trademark, which the site speculates could be in reference to the Great Fire of London.

Of course, other events occurred in 1666, including the Four Days' Battle, one of the longest naval engagements in history. Plus, we could totally go for a fresh take on The Ancient Art of War at Sea.

We were also curious if it's even kosher to trademark a number:

"Why yes, you can. The mark just has to be attached to a product, so even a number can be a mark. It happens all the time with cars (F150, 328i, M3, e55, A4, IS350, etc.) and often with other 'model number' kinds of instances," former Law of the Game columnist and actual lawyer Mark Methenitis explained.

"The important thing to remember is the mark only applies to the list of goods (in the case of 1666, the list is more or less "video games"), so while I couldn't make another game named 1666, I might be able to make a movie and I would certainly be able to make a set of kitchen utensils or a perfume called 1666. Those are a completely different kind of good unlikely to be confused with the game -- or at least I would assume; if the game is about a chef with a perfume fetish, maybe not."

This is the second time a trademark filling by the financially troubled publisher has popped up in recent memory, with "Evolve" showing up a couple weeks ago.

We've known for a while that Kid Icarus: Uprising will play host to hundreds of AR cards but, until now, we've been fuzzy on just how eager 3DS owners would get their hands on them. With the release a little over a week away, Nintendo has announced where and when you can snag some for yourself.

First of all, Kid Icarus: Uprising itself will include six randomly chosen cards from a set of 20 possible cards. Second, Club Nintendo members can pick up three cards for free -- i.e. no coins required -- by visiting this website right now. Cards will also be included in the April issues of Game Informer (subscribers only, apparently), Nintendo Power and Best Buy's @Gamer magazine.

GameStop will be giving away cards during Uprising play sessions on April 14 from 1 to 4pm. Those who purchase the game from the Nintendo World store in New York on launch day (March 23) get the Three Sacred Treasures card as a bonus. Finally, Nintendo will be giving away packs of cards at WonderCon, PAX East and during tournaments to be held at GameStops in New York and Los Angeles (two of which have already taken place).

Find details on available cards after the break.

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Obsidian Entertainment reportedly experienced a round of layoffs this week, with the extent of the damage not entirely clear. The company's forums lay out an idea of the body count, with messages on Twitter filling in more details.

"Another project canceled, this time for a future next-gen project and the layoffs impacted that team, plus the existing South Park team," a tipster wrote Joystiq. "Approximately 20-30 people from all disciplines, including one person who started yesterday, as well as one who started last week."

It was around this time last year that Obsidian also let staff go. We've contacted the company for an official statement.

Yes, there's a Super Monkey Ball game on PlayStation Vita, because the Vita is a device capable of playing video games. Sega has officially begun promoting the game in Japan, announcing a June 14 release date in that region, and a Japanese title: Super Monkey Ball Tokumori Asobita! (It's Super Monkey Ball: Banana Splitz over here).

The Vita game features a level editor that allows players to generate new Monkey Ball levels from photos. There's also a weird two-player co-op mode that tethers two Monkey Balls together with a line. Other than that, it's the Monkey Ball you know and loved until you got so frustrated you swore you'd never play again.

The Xbox 360 version of Street Fighter X Tekken is missing the four-player co-op mode (designed to allow you and a friend to team up locally and take on another pair of players online). Assistant producer Tomoaki Ayano explained its absence in a translated statement on Capcom-Unity.

"Throughout the development process, there are times when new features are added (and we added a lot of them!) and there are also times where we have to make tough decisions regarding things to cut," Ayano said. "This was one of those times. This mode is supported in the PlayStation 3 version, however, since we tackled that earlier and found the architecture of their system to be more conducive to implementing it."

Ayano apologized for the omission, and said that information about further game updates would be "coming up soon."

Several high-profile downloadable titles hit the PSN this week, with Journey being the can't-miss experience from thatgamecompany. Our Jordan Mallory was smitten by Journey, calling it a "beautiful, evocative and unequivocally transcendental experience." He may have used such words to describe a burrito he once had, but, in fairness, it was a really fabulous burrito.

If you're looking for a co-op, run-'n'-gun shooter, it's worth trading a Hamilton for Shoot Many Robots. For something a little more cerebral, stealth action puzzler Warp is also available. Head on over the PS Blog for all the details on this week's PSN update.

Soon after launching his debut hit, Braid, on Xbox Live Arcade in 2008, creator Jonathan Blow issued a cheeky walkthrough tip on his personal site. In so many words, it said "suck it up and don't use a walkthrough" – a statement which many saw as reflective of a perceived "my way" attitude to game design.

Others saw it more expectantly, knowing Blow to be a perfectionist and not one to offer hints on his games. He hates games that hold your hand. "Treating the player like a baby all the time, I don't like that," he told me during an interview last week at GDC.

That's why he's designed his latest game, The Witness, to hold your hand just long enough to find the path. "What I do is I work really hard to not condescend the player and to not treat the player like they're stupid, but at the same time to follow good game design practices. This game has to be learnable, and there has to be tutorialization in it, but it's not patronizing tutorialization."

Unlike Braid's more linear pacing, The Witness is designed as an open world – albeit a very small open world – so that difficult puzzles can either be skipped (not all must be solved to reach the end) or passed by for later on. Blow said this was intentionally designed to respect the time of players. "It's more about crafting a small, heavily interconnected jewel that gives people the highest density experience, respecting their time that way. There's not gonna be a lot of walking around through empty lands in this game."

Though the game is looking more complete than ever, The Witness has no set platforms or launch window beyond PC and iOS, and "some time in 2012."

Capcom's Senior VP of planning and business development, Christian Svensson, responded frankly to a few of the company's recent issues at GDC last week, and perhaps most interesting was his complete surrender on the misspelled Resident Evil: Revelations box art.

"It's embarrassing. I can't really sugarcoat it," he admitted to Game Informer, saying that multiple departments were responsible for checking it, and that procedures had since been updated to make sure it doesn't happen again. "There are only about 90,000 units that have the misprint. If you've got it and it's shrink-wrapped, that's a new special edition, that's our new strategy," Svensson joked.

Svensson declined to comment on the abrupt cancellation of Mega Man Legends 3, and offered a "never say never" on a US release of Ace Attorney Investigations 2. Asura's Wrath sales, according to Svensson, "went about almost exactly how we thought it would."

And Svensson also bends the knee a little bit concerning the announcement of Resident Evil 6 and its proximity to other Resident Evil titles, but is unapologetic about making that title the biggest in the series yet. "The plan is the biggest Resident Evil game ever. We're not messing around," said Svensson. The plan is working, too, because "pre-orders for Resident Evil 6 are off to a fantastic start. The best start a Resident Evil game has ever had."

Toys are wasted on the children. Their small, undeveloped brains clearly don't have the faculties to appreciate the creativity and power of LEGOs. No kid could create the awesome transforming LEGO Game Boy and Tetris cartridge seen above.

The duo are named Domaster and Tetrawing, the result of about a month's effort. Inside the Game Boy, you can actually see two LEGO AA batteries -- a nice touch, if we may say so. To check out some additional shots of the models, hit up the source link below.

[Thanks, G W.]

Indie Royale's St. Patrick's Day bundle is semi-blind -- but don't worry, it's more like one of those trips to the eye doctor where you leave wearing giant, ugly, flimsy plastic sunglasses and are told to not look directly at the sun for the afternoon. It gets better, is what we're saying.

Indie Royale has opened pre-orders, at a $4 minimum, for four slightly mysterious titles in its St. Patrick's Day bundle, the actual day of which is Saturday, March 17. If you plan on being even a tad sober any time on Saturday, the games are teased as follows:

"An explosive FPS with a future-leaning setting," "next up the flagpole is a jaunty Windows and Mac adventure game," "a brainy Steam-enabled Windows and Mac title 'dispensing' RTS action," "an acclaimed satirical platformer, plus a bonus DRM-free Windows RPG overhead shooter from the same creator."

Pre-orders and those who pay over the minimum once the bundle is released will get O.S.T.: Original Soundtrack from Daniel Capo.

Majesco only smells one thing when it takes a whiff of Zumba Fitness lady's pits: Sweet, sweet cash! The publisher reported net revenues of $66.2 million for the first quarter ending January 31, up 37 percent from the $48.5 million in the same period a year ago. Profit for the quarter was $7.7 million, up from $6.8 million a year ago.

"Zumba Fitness 2 for the Nintendo Wii got off to a great start, and we are equally excited about Zumba Fitness Rush, which was just released in February, exclusive to the Kinect platform," said CEO Jesse Sutton. "We were also pleased with the performance of several other titles from this past holiday season including Cooking Mama 4: Kitchen Magic on the 3DS, and Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked on Kinect, Wii and DS."

Yes, yes, be "pleased" about the rest, but look at all the Zumba money! In January the company announced the Zumba Fitness franchise had sold over 6 million units, with Zumba Fitness 2 surpassing a million in sales. The series continues to be a staple on the UK charts.

You've got the comics, you watch the show every week and you're counting down the minutes until you can play Telltale's game. Well, listen up, The Walking Dead fans: another game is coming ... to Facebook.

AMC and social games publisher RockYou have teamed up to offer The Walking Dead Social Game, in development at Eyes Wide Games. The gameplay is built from two major activities: setting up and maintaining base camps, and sending out scouts to scavenge for supplies. There's also some combat, naturally.

As you can see in the screen above, it's quite the colorful game. Inside Social Games has more screens, and the Facebook page has a few videos showing off some of the characters from the show.

XSEED is beginning to publish PC games for Steam, starting with a pair of Ys remakes. Ys: The Oath in Felghana will be available for purchase on March 19 for $14.99. It's coming out a while after the PSP version here, but in Japan this PC release predated the PSP by about five years.

Perhaps even more exciting is Ys Origin, a prequel game that never got an official English release. XSEED plans to put that out on Steam at a later date.

If you've never played an Ys game before, think old-school Zelda with more storyline. And even though Felghana is technically the third game in the storyline, you won't be lost if you jump in there. Basically, all you need to know is that Adol Christin is a really nice guy who will solve everyone's problems and kill everyone's monsters.

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