Paul Brownlee

Former Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi, 1927-2013 ⊟

Yamauchi took over his grandfather’s hanafuda card company at the age of 22, driving its transformation into a thriving toy maker and then a video game powerhouse. During those transitions, he fostered inimitable talents at Nintendo like Game Boy creator Gunpei Yokoi, famed designer Shigeru Miyamoto, and the firm’s current president Satoru Iwata. 

Just as important, he instilled principles in the company that endure there today a decade after his retirement, emphasizing compelling software over powerful hardware, and pushing his employees to create unique experiences.

"What did Hiroshi Yamauchi care about? He couldn’t stand making the same kind of toy the other guy was making, so whatever you showed him, you knew he was going to ask, ‘How is this different from what everybody else is doing?’ The worst way to answer was to tell him, ‘It’s not different, it’s just a little better.’ He’d be furious. He was very clear on just how foolish that attitude was for a toy company."

- Iwata (excerpt from Osamu Onoue’s Nintendo Magic; image via Bagemu)

Yamauchi passed away today due to complications from pneumonia, just a year after his wife Michiko died. He is survived by his two daughters, Yoko and Fujiko, and his son Katsuhito.

"Currently, the employees of the consumer game business, are working zealously on future releases, and are vigorously looking forward to taking on new challenges," says Atlus' Naoto Hiraoka.

Read A Message From Atlus To Their Fans, Following Their Acquisition By Sega on Siliconera!

Bill Nye turns out to be a pretty amazing dancer -- in this Dancing With the Stars clip, he starts off with a surprisingly coordinated ballroom performance, which is honed to a just terrific performance.

Bill Nye & Tyne - Cha Cha - DWTS 17 (Opening Night)

River City Ransom Underground will take place some 25 years after the original title, with returning main characters Alex and Ryan against back-to-his-old-tricks Slick.

Read River City Ransom Gets An Officially Sanctioned Sequel Through Kickstarter on Siliconera!

Aladdin is my favorite Dinsey animated movie and I also love parodies. So this is an instant classic in my book. OH, they also did a parody of Mulan and I made sure to include that below too.

Hi to all you Playstation.Blog readers! My name’s Jamie; I’m one of the co-owners of d3t Ltd., and I’m very excited to announce Lemmings Touch on the PS Vita.

It’s fantastic to finally be able to talk about Lemmings Touch. d3t has been working on the Lemmings franchise since the Playstation Mobile version, which we were extremely happy with. We always wanted to see what we could do with the Lemmings franchise on a device as capable as PS Vita, so we took on board all of the feedback we received from the Playstation Mobile version and, as you will see when you get hands-on with Lemmings Touch, you guys have helped d3t make it an extraordinarily refined and enjoyable experience.

We’re a 2 year-old team made up of a group of immensely experienced programmers. Over the past two years, we’ve been applying our skills to a wide range of cool stuff. One of the things we love doing is working on new platforms and technologies, and one example was bringing Lemmings to the Playstation Mobile platform. As well as developing games, we also assist other studios with their technology development to help move the industry forward at breakneck speed. We’ve seen and worked on some uber-cool things, but unfortunately if I told you about them, I’d have to…well, you get the picture.

Everyone loves Lemmings, and as the name “Lemmings Touch” suggests, the “touch” aspect is something that we’ve implemented throughout the game, from the menus to the 100 incredible levels with a beautiful touch and swipe interface that’s very intuitive and easy to use.

The mechanic is simple: you select a Lemming and then assign them a role. That IS simple, right? Yep, that’s the idea. But (and it’s a big but), as in all Lemmings games, it’s the levels that can prove difficult!

We’ve spent endless days working on a new presentation of the in-game HUD to make sure you have the perfect interface for Lemmings command and control. A pop-up radial menu frees up screen space so you can spend more time drooling over the magnificent landscapes that have been created to make the most out of that luscious PS Vita screen.

There are also new ways to play, as we have a range of new objects you can interact with. These new objects include cannons and trampolines that you need to aim by touching and manipulating them on-screen, platforms you can slide to transport Lemmings, objects you can lift up and down to create new paths, and buttons that Lemmings have to press to bring other areas of the levels into play. All of these are, again, directly controlled by your fingertips.

As well as the revamp to the control scheme, we’ve also created some brand new, shiny environments specifically for the new touch objects. Candy Land, for example, is a wonderful world full of sugary treats. You might see some Lemmings stuffing their faces in these levels, but they’re only doing it to save their fellow friends — honestly it’s not just greed! And then space levels see the Lemmings encountering UFO’s and rockets. In space, no one can hear the Lemmings scream!

There’s also a twist: not all Lemmings are quite what they seem. Stay tuned for future announcements and we will reveal more!

That’s all for now. We’ll share more about this fantastic experience, and I’m sure you guys will love it… a Lemmings game has never played and looked as good as this. Never, ever, ever before.

With a small build, dainty crown, and a sword too big too wield, Aurora is an unlikely heroine for an adventure. And yet how perfect a character, and champion, for Ubisoft’s upcoming JRPG tribute, Child of Light. This dazzling array of fantasy aims to open the gates to the world of JRPGs for all gamers, welcoming both long-time enthusiasts and complete newcomers. It’s disarmingly beautiful, lacquered in charm, complexly elegant, and even a little haunting. It’s scheduled for launch sometime in 2014, on PS3 and PS4.

Aurora, our star of the show, is a petite fairy of a girl, and daughter to a duke from Austria. She finds herself in a mysterious land called Lemuria, enjoying the company of an agile little flame named Igniculus. Her adventures to defeat the Black Queen will take her through a host of mystic environs in search of answers and, more importantly, home.

Child of Light is built with the same engine that powers Ubisoft’s recent Rayman games: the dazzling UbiArt Framework. This means Child of light is built with layer upon layer of breathtaking, HD artwork. The characters and scenery move and leap like a painting made real. The designers looked to many things for inspiration for this visual spectacle, including the elaborate lighting and set pieces of classical opera.

As Aurora navigates the world with Igniculus alongside her, she’ll face a variety of puzzles and meet a whole cast of interesting characters. In true JRPG fashion, the story plays out with dialogue between our little hero and her companions. In Child of Light’s case, however, all the dialogue is written in rhyme, leading to some genuinely adorable exchanges.

When Aurora enters battle, we’re treated to an exhilarating fly through of the arena before the camera settles on our hero and her adversaries. Battles operate in a turn-based system, with a cast meter dicting the turn order of each character on screen. The meter is divided into two sections: a longer, blue “wait” section, then a short, red “cast” section at the end. Each character is represented by a small icon that slides along the meter as they ready themselves.

The key to battling in Child of Light is to time your attacks properly. Attacking an enemy that’s in the red cast section will interrupt its attack, sending it all the way back to the beginning of the meter. When Aurora and her friends have their turn, time stands still, and an elegant menu opens with a host of different options, like attacking, casting spells, using items, and other familiar JRPG goodies.

Complementing this turn system is a relationship of elements that encourage players to select the right elemental spells for the right enemies, scrambling ever towards that extra damage bonus earned when you cast one elemental spell against a foul creature aligned with the opposite element.

Aurora needn’t face the dangers of combat alone, however. Igniculus can offer assistance in the form of slowing enemies down as they charge up on attack, adding a touch of strategy to the timing game.

Igniculus, in fact, can serve as the vessel for a second player, providing both battle and explorative support during Aurora’s adventure. This cooperative mode works incredibly well in its early stages, even with the second player taking a passive role. This will enable significant others, siblings, or just a casual observer, to enjoy the fun without the need for him or her to have extensive knowledge of the action. Though knowledge always helps! A well-played Igniculus can often make the difference between victory and defeat.

There’s much more of Child of Light still waiting in secret. But what Ubisoft chose to reveal has showcased Child of Light’s remarkable personality and tremendous potential. Aurora and Igniculus make a lovely pair, and Aurora herself seems more than capable of winning our admiration with her few-sizes-too-big sword and courageous spirit.

I'd not heard of the Hobonichi Techo day planner until I read this interview with the publisher. An English version is coming out soon and I want one.

[I]n Japan there is one planner that for some years has been gathering a huge following. The Hobonichi Techo. (Techo — pronounced “tetch-oh” — means “handbook”.) One thing that makes it unique is that it is produced by the web media site Hobo Nikkan Itoi Shinbun (or Hobonichi), but more than anything it is the sense of affection and camaraderie it has created amongst its users that has lifted it above the rest: “I use a Hobonichi Techo.” “So do I.” “Me too!” So the conversation goes.

And now, from this autumn, the English version of the Techo, the Hobonichi Planner, is due to go on sale worldwide. Tom Vincent sat down with the editor-in-chief of Hobo Nikkan Itoi Shinbun and the person who created the Hobonichi Techo, Shigesato Itoi, to learn all about how the planner came to be.

Hobonichi Planner going global — PingMag talks to Shigesato Itoi

Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate fits into an awkward niche somewhere between on-rails exploration augmented by quick-time events and stealthy, strategic combat.

Read Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate Wasn’t Very Metroid-like When I Played It on Siliconera!

Wake up to a new PS Vita, Vita TV ⊟

Sony isn’t stopping its efforts to revitalize the PS Vita at just marking down the system; it’s introducing a new model. Releasing in Japan on October 10, the PS Vita 2000 is 20 percent thinner and 15 percent lighter than the original model, priced at ¥18,980 ($190) for the WiFi edition and ¥19,929 ($200) for the WiFi/3G version — that’s around $15-25 cheaper than the current hardware. We don’t have any news about an international release yet.

The screen isn’t bigger as previously rumored; it’s the same size and resolution, 5 inches and 960x544, but the OLED display is now an LCD screen. Sony claims that recent progress in LCD tech in enables the cheaper screens to offer comparable quality images. The PS Vita 2000 also now offers 1 more hour of battery life and 1GB of built-in memory.

During its press conference this morning, Sony also unveiled PS Vita TV, a small Ouya-like device that hooks up to your TV and plays a selection of retail or digital games from the handheld (supports PS1 and PSP titles) with a PlayStation 3 controller. Here’s a Japanese list of games compatible with the set-top box — presumably this list will grow if Sony or third-party are able to fix the issues (touchscreen-related for most of them, I imagine) keeping other titles from getting on there.

The PS Vita TV can also remote play PlayStation 4, which is pretty neat if, say, you have a PS4 sitting in a different room connected to another TV. Sony will release the microconsole in Japan as a standalone device for ¥9,480 ($95), and with a ¥14,980 ($150) bundle that includes 8GB of memory and a DualShock3 controller. The company suggested it will bring the PS Vita TV to the West some time after its Japanese launch.

There were also Japanese software announcements: Kadokawa’s PS3/PS4/PS Vita SRPG Natural Doctrine, Tri-Ace’s Phantasy Star Nova coming out next year, Keiji Inafune’s Soul Sacrifice Delta (an enhanced version of the previous game) releasing in March, Tecmo’s first Deception game in nearly a decade, Kagero: Darkside Princess. Oh, and to help you make room for all that software on your PS Vita, Sony is putting out a new 64GB memory card for a ridiculous ¥10,000 ($100).

Oh, and Square Enix is also releasing a limited edition PS Vita 2000 for the Final Fantasy X and X-2 HD remasters. Here are some PS Vita 2000 videos!

Now all we need are some U.S. announcements!

BUY PS Vita, upcoming games

Namco Bandai will be conducting a closed beta for Dark Souls II this fall on the PlayStation 3. This morning, the publisher announced further details regarding the beta program.

Read Sign Up For The Dark Souls II Beta Now [Update] on Siliconera!