This will be the second video game adaptation of crab fisherman show The Deadliest Catch, with Deadliest Catch: Alaskan Storm having been released just last year on the Xbox 360. Unfortunately, it sucked horribly, and I am not just saying that because it was a reality TV based title. I played it for days, often falling asleep at the controller. Sometimes realistically portraying something in video game form is a bad idea. Hopefully Crave does a better job.

Man vs. Wild is another Discovery Channel show I enjoy, which features survival expert Bear Grylls being air-dropped into all sorts of far-flung locations, forced to survive extreme conditions and drink his own urine. I've only seen a few episodes, so I don't know if he drinks his own urine for sure, but he seems the type of guy who would. Oh wait, here we go - Bear does indeed drink his own urine. Good times.

"The Discovery Channel has captivated millions of viewers by delivering non-stop action and suspense in these unique programs," stated Betsi Gijanto, Executive Vice President, Crave Entertainment. "Man vs. Wild and Deadliest Catch capture man's struggle to survive amidst the perils of nature on land and at sea. This rich content is a perfect concept for videogames."

I agree with Betsi there. The two shows are rife with video game possibilities, as long as they don't screw it up. Look for both games to arrive on "all current video game platforms" in the spring of next year.

It still amazes me that the ESA has an ever-growing roster following the rash of companies leaving last year, but the ESA continues to take smaller publishers into the fold. Just last week they added Trion and XSEED in a double announcement, and now they score a triple play with Crave, KOEI, and Playlogic. Why so many new additions?

"Our growing membership is a reflection of the ESA's valued and successful work on the key public policy issues facing the entertainment software industry," said Michael D. Gallagher, CEO of the ESA. "Crave Entertainment, KOEI and Playlogic are key partners in leading that effort, and I am pleased to welcome them to the ESA."

To put it simply, smaller companies can benefit from the ESA's support, while the larger ones can handle things on their own.

Trion World Network, Inc. isn't familiar to most gamers – because they haven't actually put out any games yet. The company is working on "server-based games and original entertainment" and made a couple of headlines last year for raising $70 million for these mysterious titles.

XSEED Games is way easier to spot. Who could forget the publishers that put Wild Arms and Valhalla Knights into the hands of strategy RPG-starved handheld gamers?

Last year, the ESA seemed to be shrinking by the minute as LucasArts, Crave, NCsoft, Activision, id Software all left the associations possibly over shrinking E3 revenues. In the last few months, however, they seemed to have rallied by scooping up publishers like SouthPeak and Natsume.

Think of corporate associations like giant roller coasters – you're up, then you're down, then you're back up again and possibly doing one of those loopty-loops. Isn't business fun?

And you know, to the best of my knowledge, that's news. Good news, I'd think, because the Wii and PlayStation 2 versions of the collection, full of classic pinball tables like Black Knight, Fun House and Pin*Bot were surprisingly well done. Here's to hoping they expand the list to include other Bally Williams pinball classics.

GameFly shows a June 12th release date for the North American version. We'll bug Crave Entertainment to see if they will admit to being guilty of publishing the thing. Oh, they'll talk. They'll squeal like stuck pigs.

Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection [GameFly via NeoGAF]

GamePolitics, however, did, and asked Crave to deny (or confirm!) whether the bathtime baby in their kids DS game was an undercover missionary for the Muslim faith. Crave's response:

In creating the Nintendo DS game “Baby Pals”, the game developer Brain Toys / InXile used sounds files to simulate the life like baby noises and babbling. The sounds are publicly available for license. It is a recording of a 5 month old baby babbling non-intelligible phrases. In over 200 hours of testing the product, no recognizable English words or phrases were discernable.

The sound in question of this babble may sound like the words night, right or light, but it is only coincidence as the baby recorded was too young to pronounce these words let alone a whole grammatically correct phrase.

We at Crave Entertainment and InXile regret that there was any misinterpretation of the baby noises and in no way have intentionally put any words or phrases into the baby sounds.

We hope this eases any concerns and fans continue to enjoy playing the game.

That record has been set straight. Besides...I always thought it sounded more like "my salami is alright", though as a connoisseur of cured meats I may just be hearing what I want to hear.

Publisher Responds to "Islam is the Light" DS Game Controversy [GamePolitics]

Maas told Kotaku that Crave left the ESA because the company is being sold. Music distribution firm Handleman Company currently owns Crave, after purchasing it for $72 million in 2005.

"Crave’s departure from ESA at this juncture is not a statement against the value provided by our longstanding membership, but rather was motivated by our need to focus on the impending sale of our company," said Maas. We will be re-evaluating our decision, hopefully in the near future. Crave still supports the goals and aims of ESA."

Maas' comments echo the statements of support for the organization's goals stated by other publishers who have left the ESA, a list that now includes Activision, Vivendi, LucasArts and id. Yesterday, the ESA commented on Crave's departure, and today the organization updated its official member list to reflect this most recent exit.

“We can confirm that Crave has decided not to renew its membership in the ESA," said Rich Taylor, the ESA's senior VP of communications and research. "We value each member of our association, but respect their decision. In conversations with Crave, representatives stated that they value their longstanding membership with the ESA and remain committed to the values and goals of the association."

Crave becomes the fifth publisher to leave the association, now down to 24 member companies. Activision and Vivendi broke ties with the ESA in a highly-publicized exit, and LucasArts and id soon followed. Speculation holds that the rising cost of membership dues might have played a role in these departures, after the ESA spent $5 million dollars to move E3 last year, while displeasure with the ESA's current leadership and a debate over the necessity of E3 have also been rumored to play a role.

We've contacted Crave, and have yet to receive comment.

Basically Napoleon Dynamite for the DS is a collection of ND-themed mini-games. There seemed to be plenty of choices to make on the screen I was presented with, and I poked around a bit before being guided back to one specifically. The game is a really early build, so one only a few were actually functioning, one of which was a dance game.

A bizarre Napoleon paper doll figure with an extra large head took his place atop a stage as some generic music began to play. The music very well could have been a placeholder, and really in this sort of crazy madcap dance-rhythm mini-game it comes second to the gameplay. The gameplay, unfortunately, was pretty basic. Various symbols representing arrows and buttons scroll across the screen and you have to hit them as they pass through a box in the middle to make mutant paper Jon Heder dance. As you succeed you fill up a meter that lets you unleash a super move of some sort, but in a game like this on the small PSP screen you really need to focus on the symbols going by rather than the effects of sais symbols. It left me feeling very bleh.

Maybe it'll be different for big fans of the movie...I mean they did tell me that a liger would definitely be making an appearance, but for me, if the mini-game they decided to showcase is any example, this just seems like a generic collection of mini0games with Napoleon Dynamite pasted on. Paste on Kraft Macaroni and Cheese characters and you have a loving tribute to America's second-favorite broke food. Paste on Batman and you've got...well, the best Batman game ever, but that's beside the point. I may not be a Napoleon Dynamite fan, but I am sure they deserve something more than filler like this.

To get an idea of why I say this, grab your Wiimote and nunchuck attachment. Now hold them with your hands about as far apart as your average pinball table. Pull the trigger buttons, imagining the left and right flippers kicking up. That's how pinball is played, and that's how Willliams plays on the Wii. Such a simple mechanic works wonders in recreating the feel of actually playing at a pinball table. I'd daresay you could even craft a little mount for them to recreate the feeling of resting your thumbs on the glass of the machine, which could even help a little bit considering shaking your controllers acts like smacking the machine, possibly tilting the game if you shake it too hard.

Pinot was recreated in painstaking detail, with the original bells and whistles intact. The gentleman showing me the game explained that Williams has been very hands-on with this project, testing the game at every juncture and coming back with little changes and tweaks to make sure that every table included in the collection was as authentic as video game pinball can get. I'd daresay they're doing a bang-up job so far.

If you're a quarter of the pinball fan I am and own a Wii then you'd be doing yourself a favor to keep an eye out for Pinball Hall Fame: The William's Collection. While I am sure the PSP and PS2 versions will be at least passable, the Wii version of the game looks to bring all new levels of realism to the world of video game pinball.

I'm just in stitches remembering all the hilarious catch phrases and wacky mannerisms of that lovable anti-hero and I don't think I'll ever tire of his antics. If you can find some way to force feed me this underdog hilarity like some I'm a fattened foie gras goose, make it happen, Crave. More Napoleon Dynamite, please!

Ugh. Michael McWhertor

Gosh! Napoleon Dynamite Explodes Onto PSP System and Nintendo DS

Newport Beach, Calif.- May 09, 2007 Crave Entertainment, a leading publisher of console videogames, announced today that it will publish the first videogame based on the wildly popular Fox Searchlight motion picture Napoleon Dynamite.

Napoleon Dynamite quickly gained cult-classic status with its quirky look at life in rural Idaho. Teens and adults alike love the movie's colorful characters and offbeat take on teenage awkwardness. Napoleon Dynamite catchphrases (Vote for Pedro!) have become pop-culture fixtures, with references to the movie popping up everywhere from T-shirts to ice- cream flavors.

Crave's upcoming release will feature favorite Napoleon Dynamite characters including Kip, Uncle Rico, Pedro, Tina the llama, and of course, Napoleon himself. "Napoleon Dynamite is one of the great cult classics of the past decade," said Mark Burke, senior vice president of product planning and business development at Crave Entertainment. "It's one of those films that has great memorable lines and characters, and we expect that fans of the movie will really like the game."

About Crave Entertainment

Based in Newport Beach, California, Crave Entertainment is a subsidiary of Handleman Company. Crave, a publisher of videogame entertainment products creates games for the major console platforms including PSP (PlayStation Portable) system, Nintendo DS(tm), Game Boy Advance, Nintendo GameCube(tm), Wii (tm), the PlayStation game console, PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system, the Xbox video game system from Microsoft and the Xbox 360(tm) video game and entertainment system from Microsoft. For more information about Crave Entertainment, please visit www.cravegames.com.

Website: http://www.cravegames.com

About NAPOLEON DYNAMITE

Napoleon Dynamite is a new kind of hero, complete with a tight 'fro, sweet moon boots and skills that can't be topped. Napoleon spends his days drawing mythical beasts, duking it out with his brother Kip and avoiding his scheming Uncle Rico. When two new friends enter Napoleon's life - shy Deb and mustachioed Pedro - the trio launches a campaign to elect Pedro for class president and make the student body's wildest dreams come true. But if Pedro is to beat stuck-up Summer, Napoleon will have to unleash his secret weapon...

A runaway comedy hit at the Sundance Film Festival and named Best Feature Film at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival, NAPOLEON DYNAMITE marks the feature film debut of an original new voice, director Jared Hess, who himself grew up in Preston, Idaho, and left his studies at Brigham Young University to make the film. NAPOLEON DYNAMITE is written by Jared and his wife, Jerusha Hess, and produced by Jeremy Coon, Chris Wyatt and Sean C. Covel. The comic cast includes Jon Heder, Jon Gries, Aaron Ruell, Efren Ramirez, Tina Majorino, Diedrich Bader and Haylie Duff.

ABOUT FOX LICENSING & MERCHANDISING A recognized pioneer in the industry, Twentieth Century Fox Licensing and Merchandising licenses and markets its world-renowned proprietary library on behalf of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Twentieth Television and Fox Broadcasting Company, as well as third party lines. The division is aligned with Twentieth Century Fox Television, one of the top suppliers of primetime entertainment programming to the broadcast networks.

Crave Entertainment's upcoming Crayola game will lead players on a colorful romp to find hidden treasure. Armed only with a treasure map and Crayola crayons, players can draw and color their way through challenging obstacles and exciting mini-games to complete quests and discover the treasure.

Crave Brings Crayola to DS [gamelife]

"Dave Mirra BMX Challenge will be the first BMX game for Wii," said Jim Flaharty, senior vice president of Crave Studios. "The immersive Wii controls combined with the thrill of BMX racing will make Dave Mirra BMX Challenge a real treat for action sports fans."

Crave Entertainment Announces Dave Mirra BMX Challenge for Wii

Newport Beach, Calif.— Mar 13, 2007 Crave Entertainment, a leading publisher of console videogames, today announced Dave Mirra BMX Challenge for Wii.

The Dave Mirra video game franchise has sold more than 2 million units across all platforms, and the latest installment is sure to please fans with its arcade-like feel and diverse play. Dave Mirra BMX Challenge for the Wii video game system features, 12 different environments and 13 bikes to choose from. Each unique environment includes two race paths, and can be played in race or trick-oriented modes. Player characters are customizable, and BMX legend Dave is the featured rider. Dave Mirra BMX Challenge for Wii will feature several control options utilizing the unique Wii Remote and Nunchuk controllers.

"Dave Mirra BMX Challenge will be the first BMX game for Wii," said Jim Flaharty, senior vice president of Crave Studios. "The immersive Wii controls combined with the thrill of BMX racing will make Dave Mirra BMX Challenge a real treat for action sports fans."

Dave Mirra is listed as one of the most recognizable names in sports today, an honor he shares with the likes of Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods. He currently holds more Gold Medals than any other competitor in the history of the X Games. Dave has "placed" in more than 50 action sports competitions, such as "Action Sports Athlete of the Year" at the 2005 ESPYs, and a gold medal in Bike Park at the 2005 X Games.

Dave Mirra BMX Challenge for the WiiTM will be available June 2007 at a price point of $29.99, and is currently available for PSP (PlayStation Portable) system.

About Crave Entertainment

Based in Newport Beach, California, Crave Entertainment is a subsidiary of Handleman Company. Crave, a publisher of videogame entertainment products creates games for the major console platforms including PSP (PlayStation Portable) system, Nintendo DSTM, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo GameCubeTM, Wii TM, the PlayStation game console, PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system, the Xbox video game system from Microsoft and the Xbox 360TM video game and entertainment system from Microsoft. For more information about Crave Entertainment, please visit www.cravegames.com.

Yes, it's coming to the PSP and PS2, but motion control is going to make this game.

The scary thing is that the press release for the Crave Entertainment game doesn't say a word about whether motion controls will be supported. They'd have to be, right? Right?

Brunswick Pro Bowling will give players a detailed, realistic bowling-center experience, complete with authentic sights and sounds, and official Brunswick bowling gear. Brunswick Pro Bowling will be highly customizable, allowing players to choose everything from their character's appearance and accessories to ball styles.

In Career Mode, players work their way from amateur to professional by competing in a year's worth of bowling tournaments. Ten authentic bowling centers, modeled after actual Brunswick locations, will set the scene. Up to four players can face off in Multiplayer Mode, and Quick Play Mode allows for a fast round of bowling.
Other Brunswick Pro Bowling features include:

Realistic physics engine simulates real-time changing lane conditions and accounts for momentum and spin.
Unlockable content includes a variety of Brunswick balls, additional bowling centers, equipment and apparel.
Players in career mode will face rivals, who seek out and challenge them throughout their careers.
PSP system version will include ad hoc wireless multiplayer mode and additional character customization options.

Please tell me they are including motion control. Brian Crecente