RobotBling has produced a tribute to Gunpei Yokoi, probably the biggest influence on Nintendo as a company, predating even Miyamoto’s genius creations.

This entry largely deals with Game & Watch LCD games, though it also has some interesting tid-bits on Yokoi himself, and Nintendo’s early history. A second installment is promised, and I eagerly look forward to it.

Although this was made by the creators of Soul Calibur and Tekken, this game is more like Power Stone meets Def Jam Vendetta than either of those two titles. You play as Brad Hawk, an out-of-town mercenary recruited to help stop a gang war. You’ll play through over 90 levels and recruit new fighters to your cause. This game boasts a line up of over 60 characters (among them Paul and Law from Tekken), many of which are unlockable. Multiplayer modes for up to four players help up the replay value. Although it’s simplified compared to Tekken, the fighting engine is actually deeper than most brawlers. You can perform counters, weapon strilkes, and even team up with another fighter to preform an assist. This may not be the deepest fighter you’ve played, but it’s definently fun to play, especially when you have friends over.

I know you all know about Final Fight, Captain Commando, and maybe even Alien vs Predator, but whatchu know about King of Dragons, The Punisher or even the two Dungeons and Dragons games? Sit back and let me tell you of the secret history of one of the masters of the brawler.

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Not too long ago, news hit the Castlevania fan community that Paul S. Anderson would be directing a live-action adaption of one of the longest running gaming series to date. And, we all wept. Or at least I did. However, it looks like there might be an alternative in the works – a Castlevania animated movie.

It seems that Project 51 Productions Ltd. has aquired worldwide animated rights from Konami Entertainment to the Castlevania franchise. Representing Project 51 in the deal were Rick Privman and Yumiko Miyano from JEA and Eric Gardner from Panacea Entertainment. Their announced first project is an animated movie based on Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse; with Award winning comic book writer Warren Ellis writing the script and Eisner Award winning artist James Jean slated to be the art director. To enlighten the casual gamer, Dracula’s Curse was the third and last of the NES Castlevania games released in 1990, and has been argued by fans as being the best of the original trilogy, if not the series. Set 100 years before the original game, it follows the quest of Trevor Belmont to defeat Count Dracula before his curse spreads throughout the land of Warakiya, Transylvania.

No planned release dates have been announced as of yet, but the project seems to hold some promise despite being in the early stages of production. A production blog has been set up to track details of the flick as it developes – http://www.castlevaniadraculascurse.com/

1up.com‘s Luke Smith and Kathleen Sanders spoke at length with Sony’s David Jaffe on his new game Calling All Cars in this week’s 1up Show. After all the talk of the downloadable PS3 game, the focus shifted toward what Sony is doing wrong, what Nintendo is doing wrong, and what Microsoft is doing wrong. 1up is making a reputation for throwing out tough questions, but I think Jaffe deserves some credit for answering them and being so candid. Few within the industry openly praise the competition or slam their own employer like he does, but the root of it seems to be he is a regular gamer like us, he just happens to have access to the process. The 20 minute interview is posted above.

The Onimusha series was rumored to have started off as an N64 Resident Evil game with samurai instead of Zombies. Obviously it managed to make a life of its own on the PS2 (along with the enhanced Xbox version of the original). Around the time of this release, there were 2 prior games, a Game Boy Advance strategy spin off, and a Smash Brothers-esque PS2 spin-off. A sequel was released last year which is also garnering critical acclaim.

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With the turn of the new year having come and gone, Midway games has alot to celebrate. Its newest title of one of the greatest fighting franchise in gaming history, Mortal Kombat: Armageddon has achieved many award-winning goals like it’s predecessors before it. In reaching the mark 1 million copies sold just last week, and a port to the Wii system by April of this year to join its releases on the PS2 and Xbox systems, the Mortal Kombat name has certainly a lot to boast about.

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Before creating the Playstation, Sony was a 3rd party developer known as Sony Imagesoft. The company’s primary purpose was to develop games for the 16 and cd-based systems of the time. Besides a bunch of crappy licenced games, they put out a few gems, one of them is thie little-known SNES title Skyblazer. It took bits and pieces of other games such as Castlevania, Zelda, and Mega Man and combined them with a Southern Asian-inspired atmosphere to create an identity all on it’s own. While you play as the typical hero in the typical “save the princess” story, the gameplay differences make up for what the plot lacks in originality tenfold. You move on an overworld map, which soon gives you choices in which way to go next. As you progress through the game, you’ll gain new abilities, almost like an RPG. Mode 7 flight stages and some cool boss battles also help break up the action. With Sony Imagesoft being absorbed into 989 studios, there is zero chance of it coming to virtual console, so be prepared to spend some bucks on Ebay hunting this down.