FINAL FANTASY XIII（PS3）Trailer
FINAL FANTASY Versus XIII（PS3）Trailer
FINAL FANTASY Agito XIII（Mobile）Trailer
KINGDOM HEARTS Coded（Mobile）Trailer
KINGDOM HEARTS 358/2 Days（DS）Trailer/Playable Demo
KINGDOM HEARTS Birth by Sleep（PSP）Trailer/Playable Demo
DISSIDIA FINAL FANTASY（PSP）Trailer/Playable Demo
The 3rd Birthday（Mobile）Trailer
Sigma Harmonics（DS）Trailer/Playable Demo
FINAL FANTASY VII ADVENT CHILDREN COMPLETE（Movie／Blu-ray）Trailer

Best part? Knowing how Square Enix rolls, photograph of the demo trailers will be strictly prohibited, and the trailers for the big titles will mostly likely be shown in "closed theaters." So! If you want to see them, be prepared to wait in line for like an hour. Make sure you bring your memory cap so you don't forget the experience! Does Square Enix know how to party or does Square Enix know how to party.

Square Enix Party Info [Famitsu]

...it's a replacement for someone who had a Razr before. They still want their content but there's no distribution platform in place so there's a negative impact on the industry... These devices are capable and powerful. They'll be great in the long term but it will take some time as people adapt to devices.

There's no doubt in my mind that we will be playing more games on mobile devices. What those mobile devices will be, and what they're capable of is still very much up for grabs.

They're changing as fast as the early computer games industry changed, if not faster. My one wish for that is that mobile phones were made with some sympathy for games to be played on them, because they're not, and that must be immensely frustrating for people developing for them.

It's down to some very simple things - these clicky buttons are useless for playing games, and it's down to some other stuff, display drivers and hardware chips obviously. But even if you had simple buttons that would help a lot...

It's just very clunky at the moment, and every time I try and play a mobile game I end up wanting a PSP, or DS.

Like most big action movies, the fourth Die Hard film, called Live Free or Die Hard, will see a game version — A mobile game version. The motion picture's plot centers around a plot to take down America's computer infrastructure that will threaten the country's economy. It's up to John McClane, who is neither a computer expert nor an economist, to save the day. (And since star Bruce Willis is now really, really old, the movie should be really, really exciting.) French mobile publisher Gameloft snagged the exclusive movie rights, and the game will have players take on the role of John McClane. There are 13 levels that include fight, car chases and mini-puzzle games. Just like in the movie! Brian Ashcraft

Bruno's New Movie Gets Phone Game [Reuters]

Going to the pub? Snogging in public?! If you're a foreign exchange student, stuff like that can be new, exciting, different — But mostly exciting. Says University of Portsmouth games expert Nipan Maniar:

I found some aspects of British culture very novel, and certainly things such as interacting socially with others, say, in a pub were very different to what I was used to in my own culture in India.

So Nipan decided to help. He developed a cell phone game designed to help international students find their bearings in the UK. The game can also guide students through boring things like registrations and finding a bank. Necessary sure, but not nearly as interesting as boozing and making out. Brian Ashcraft

Mobile Game Teaches Students About British Culture [Games Blog]

Makes sense! Yesterday, we posted that DoCoMo was releasing Wii-like motion sensor cell phones. And today, we've got word that the first game for it will be *surprise* a Gundam game. Wow, just wow.

For ¥105 a month (US 88¢), players are, well, Gundam as they battle their way through various scenarios. When they encounter enemies, players must slash their phone "vigorously" like a weapon. The phone's camera works out real world angles and velocities, deciding whether or not the in-game robot has been killed. And the title of this wonder? You are Gundam. Go figure. Brian Ashcraft

Gundam Game [Digital World Tokyo]

Raising children is easy. If I can do it — Better yet, if Crecente can do it, anyone can. Even Tiffany! Come On Baby, which is hitting UK cell phones soon-ish, is Cooking Mama, but with children and no knifes. The game stars buxom Tiffany, who has just started up her own nursery. Players must change diapers, feed babies and boiling milk to turn her nursery into a "five star baby motel." The game's publisher Ozura proclaims it is:

The world's first mobile infant game.

Well, congratulations. Have a cigar. Brian Ashcraft

New Mobile Games [The Guardian]

Hunt for fake monkeys with integrated GPS. Bandai's Java-based Chimpan GPS for DoCoMo phones with satellite-navigation has players run the application and then physically search for the simian target. Players using phones without GPS log-in and act as assistants, apparently. That sounds boring! Game costs ¥315 (US $2.66) , but memories of wondering city streets looking for fake monkeys are priceless. Brian Ashcraft

Monkey Hunt Game [Digital World Tokyo]

Worst part of cell phone gaming? The controls. Face it, punching out an email is hard enough, let alone shooting up a hoarde of baddies. That tiny d-pad just doesn't cut it. A Russian company Industrial Design hopes to make cell phone game better, way better. Called the "CompactAnalog Thumbstick," it's a retractable joystick that pops up when pushed. Otherwise, it phone retains its traditional d-pad. Sadly, this is not a real product as of yet, but just a concept. A good one at that. Brian Ashcraft

Pop-Up Joystick [Boy Genius Report]

A final tally of what games for what systems will be on display at the Tokyo Game Show. Number one and two? PC (127 games) and cell phones (125). The rest of the list in order is: PlayStation 2 (100 games), Nintendo DS (52), PSP (33), Xbox 360 (20), PLAYSTATION 3 (18), Wii (5), Game Boy Advance (2), Xbox (1), Nintendo GameCube (1) and PlayStation (1). Granted, Nintendo will not be appearing at TGS, and those are only third-party GC titles, but still. The Wii isn't even out yet, and the GameCube has already ended up in Xbox and PSX territory pretty quick! Brian Ashcraft

More Here [Famitsu] Thanks, t s!

It's no secret that the best thing about Nokia's empty, desolate N-Gage booth at E3 was that perfect for cutting through the crowds. The company is gung-ho about their upcoming cell phone fighter One—Who's Next? I didn't check out their stuff at E3 that much (see booth cutting comment above), but the images floating around online are impressive. Nokia says the game clip is real time, but is it really real time or just real time? —Brian Ashcraft

More Here [Digital Legends] Thanks, Torokun!

Earlier this week, we reported on the slew of Brain Age knock-offs headed our way. Barry O'Neill, CEO of the Dublin-based Upstart Games, emailed us to let us know his company had been "sitting on" a cell phone brain game that predates Brain Age by about two years. Originally called Right Brain Paradise, the game was released by G-mode in Japan. Upstart's English version is titled IQ Academy and will be on in major US and European carries this July. We sent questions to Mr. O'Neill, regarding the upcoming title, the brain game craze and skiing in Nintendo's wake.

The game was released back in Japan in 2003, making it one of the first brain games. Why was the title developed?

G-mode has a strong casual and female gaming audience, and I know that they conduct extensive research amongst their subscribers to ensure that their product development strategy matches the audience profile. The first game in the series was released as Right Brain Paradise in March 03 on i-Mode.

Why has Upstart waited so long to launch the game?

It's been a matter of timing in relation to what mobile carrier requirements are. We've been securing releases for Japanese games in international markets for almost three years now. Generally the trend (and the devices) in Japan is one to two years ahead of the west. Casual and "one button" games have been big sellers in Japan for the last three or four years, but only in the last six to twelve months have we seen active interest in these titles for western distribution. Some titles that have done well for us in the past have been "classic" titles - these we're actually well out of date in the Japanese market by the time they were peaking in the West.

What's the relationship between G-mode and Upstart?

Upstart has been working with G-mode distributing titles such as Topolon, and their Sudoku title (branded as Vodafone Sudoku) for some time. With G-mode, and with our other Japanese partners such as FromSoftware and SCEJ, the role is deeper that a typical distributor/publisher relationship. There's a significant investment made by us in localizing, culturalizing and then porting the games to Western handsets. Im most cases we have to literally rebuild the entire game from the ground up.

Did G-mode approach Upstart or vice versa?

We'd been aware of each other for some time, and cemented a relationship early last year. Upstart is very active in the Japanese market, and G-mode has had good traction in the west. The very first Vodafone live! handset launched in Europe included a pre-installed G-mode title. Upstart's knowledge of the Japanese market or specifically, transitioning games from the Japanese market to western markets meant that there was good fit between the companies, especially when it came to getting G-mode titles out in the US.

Did G-mode encourage Upstart to hold the game?

As Japan's no.1 mobile games publisher, G-mode has a huge library of titles spanning many genres. We zeroed in on the casual titles at an early stage, Sudoku was an obvious one and we successfully launched that and Topolon in January. Amongst the other titles which we knew were superb, but a little early for Western markets was the "Left Brain Paradise" range, which had sold almost 2M units since launch. This had been put in front of a number of western carriers, but at that time carries seemed to be more focused on replicating the console experience on mobile. The launch of the Nintendo's brian titles in the west coincided with a growing realization amongst carriers that simpler games were needed to break through the "hardcore" market, and extend the reach of mobile games to regular non-gaming consumers.

What are the differences between the original version and IQ Academy?

The first volume of IQ Academy has a range of challenges selected from Volumes one and two of Left Brain Paradise. There's a number of Kanji based challenges in the original LBP titles that clearly wouldn't translate to western markets. IQ Academy is essentially a new game.

How will launching the game around Brain Age improve downloads?

We're expecting strong downloads from the title. Carrier enthusiasm and welcome for the title has been hugely encouraging. We believe we're first to market with mobile title of this type, and leading the market can result in category ownership - look at Jamdat's success with Jamdat Bowling, Gameloft's dominance of the action adventure genre, and to a limited extent our first successes with the US launch of Konami's Frogger on mobile.

Do you find Nintendo's success encouraging?

Yes. Very. Definitely there's a "Halo-effect" resulting from Nintendo's title, and therefore the interest in this type of title has grown significantly from a carrier perspective. Consumer awareness has also increased, especially amongst an older non-gamer audience is much higher.

Do the Brain Age comparisons bother you?

It doesn't bother us too much, the games have different target devices, and we're happy that we can bring this type of game to a very wide mobile audience. It riles me a bit if an assumption is made that we're ripping off an idea - I don't know if anyone can claim a first here. I remember playing shareware IQ games on the Amiga in the 80's.

How can IQ Academy separate itself from the upcoming flood of knock-off brain titles?

Being first to market on mobile will help. We've additional volumes lined up for future release, and we expect that this type of title will come into its own on mobile. After all there's a couple of billion mobile phones out there, so the potential reach is huge. Additionally we'll implementing a feature on Sprint in the US called game lobby, whereby overall scores and also individual scores for each task set will be ranked by player. You'll be able to challenge your friends or compare with the global player list. This adds a wider competitive experience to the game.

In a nutshell, what's cool about the game?

I think the really intuitive control mechanism works very well. Each question or task posed to you has up to four possible answers. Its a simple matter of pressing a direction key to select the answer. It makes for really fast paced play, which is essential to build your IQ score. The challenges range from simple "true/false" scenarios, to counting, time telling, and spatial challenges. I especially like the task in the volume two where you have count how much money you have by adding up the change presented on screen at a glance of the coins.

How are players rated?

Accuracy and speed are the basic measurements for internal scoring, but each challenge is weighted, and an overall score is determined. This is given to the player, along with a level achievement ranking such as "Pre-school", "University", "Professor" etc. Sadly I'm still at kindergarten level...

Are brain games here to stay? Or is this just a fad?

Definitely here to stay but I'd say we'll see a fad phase over the next 12 months and then a stable level of activity. I think we have a critical mass of people who aren't hardcore gamers, but are aware and accepting of video games now, however the content is only just starting to catch up. Look at Sony's successes with titles like SingStar and Buzz. Not everyone wants to play first-person action titles, or RPGs. As gamers have gotten older, and the gender divide more balanced the core games industry hasn't really responded with the breadth of content that other entertainment media such as film would have. The popularity of online game services on Yahoo and MSN largely lies with this casual demographic, and there is a lot to be learned from this example.

Brain games on a console: What do you think?

I think that for the audience which these games will most appeal to, its not really a runner. Consoles often use the main family screen, have a complicated controller and require something of a boot up, so are better suited to longer solitary (online or offline) gaming sessions. One thing that could work though would be a local multiplayer brain game, like Buzz, where players could compete with multiple custom controllers.

Why are brain games popular?

They're accessible to a wide audience, have a gradual learning curve and especially in Nintendo's case with the pen input, but also with the familiarity of the mobile phone, they have an interface known to most people. Of course people love to test themselves too. The appeal is similar to that of an IQ test, or a crossword or Sudoku. In some ways with regular games, it's "How good am I at that?" With brain games, it's more "How good am I?"

More Here [Upstart Games]

Seriously, sometimes I just couldn't make this stuff up. Gameloft has teamed up with Paris Hilton Entertainment Inc to develop, publish and distribute a line of cell phone games based on the rich airhead and her drug-fueled shenannegans.

The best part of this whole dealio is that the press release includes a quote from Paris Hilton in which she uses her own name. I love when people speak about themselves in the third person.

"I'm excited to collaborate with Gameloft to bring the Paris Hilton brand and the glamour of young Hollywood to the cell phones of all my fans around the world," said Paris Hilton. "My phone has become an all in one entertainment device and mobile games are an integral part of that. Mobile gaming is really hot right now and I'm excited to be part of this project."

Cool, now you won't need a bottle of cheap wine and a camcorder to play with Paris.