This Doki Doki Majo Shinpan Duo Cover Is Not Correct

There it is, have a look, the cutest bus in Tokyo. To promote DS game Kawaii Koneko ("Cute Kitten"), the above bus was wrapped in cavity inducing sacchrine. The pet sim went on sale way back in January and lets players pick from eight different breeds like Russian Blue and American Shorthair. The bus ad features cutesy Japanese celebrity person Becky. See that old dude flagging down that pink bus? His teeth hurt.

Pic of Becky, a cat and part of a wheel after the jump.

7 Reasons Why There Will Be A Redesigned DS

No announcement has been made by Nintendo and everything reported online is pure speculation and rumour. Our hardware development team always work on the next product after we launch one hardware. It is usual that a new model will be brought to the market when we can not offer new ideas with the current model, but we think Nintendo DS is not at that stage yet, and we'd like to keep offering all sorts of suggestions to enrich the lives of people who own a Nintendo DS.

Oh Sega. What, you don't know that the mere premise of teaching people English by having them type zombies to death guarantees sales? It does. So while the flash demo you've provided of one of the game's cheesy tutorial levels (the real typing of the dead comes later) is greatly appreciated, it's not really needed. Thanks anyway, though!

English Of The Dead Demo [Sega, via Siliconera]

In 1999, moviegoers were thrilled by Brendan Fraser in The Mummy. In 2001 they were titillated by The Mummy Returns. A year later they kinda scratched their heads at The Scorpion King, but this year the filmmakers are off The Rock and things are back to normal with The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, and Sierra is busy developing the blockbuster game to go along with the blockbuster film. Developed by Eurocom Studios for the Wii, PS2, and Nintendo DS, the game will place payers in the roles of Rick O'Connell and his son Alex in their quest to defeat the servants of the Dragon Emperor, portrayed by Jet Li. The third-person action will consist of hand-to-hand combat, gun play, and platforming, and looks from the screenshots to be very much like Tomb Raider without the breasts, which is exactly what The Mummy franchise is all about! Look for the game on or around the movie release this August.

Crash Bandicoot Producer Talks Mind Over Mutant

The First Doctor Who Console Game Looks Like This

You guys should probably sit down for this.

At the UK Daily Mail, an exasperated mother has written an excoriating screed, blaming the Nintendo DS for making her children "turn into monsters":

Hand over the Nintendo and without any effort, you have a window of about two hours of peace, with your child doing something quietly constructive.

Except, it's not. What is constructive about playing football on a tiny screen, or washing a virtual dog, or watching a hideous pink pony trot around a pink palace decorated with shells?

Fighting to get onto the machine was bad enough, but it was worse when they were forcibly dragged from it.

Our Nintendo had taken the guise of a small but toxic drug which, little by little, was poisoning my children.

Hey, developers: next time PR walk in and say "let's do a developer diary", say "No. No, get the fuck out". They're BORING. We want to see gameplay, we want to see....oh, is this Sonic Chronicles? And it's in French, without subtitles, so we can make up our own words, pretend they're saying naughty things about Tails? Oh, go on then. Just this one more time.
[via Nintendo Everything]

Iwata Answers: More Wii Storage, Software, Public DS Play

Gamers frustrated with the lack of storage on the Wii may have a glimmer of hope, if we're reading Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata right. He endured the usual end of quarter question barrage from the financial community recently, revealing many a hint about the company's plans for the Wii and Nintendo DS. When asked by a storage capacity frustrated party about the Wii's meager internal memory, Iwata admitted that fans may have a right to complain.

"Because this small number of people are none other than the most avid players," Iwata said "we know we have to review the best possible solution to eliminate their inconvenience." USB hard drive support? That'd be nice! For more details from Iwata's Q&A, hit the jump.

"Non-Games Are For Non-Gamers"

Activision released the tracklist for its DS title Guitar Hero: On Tour. It's more than 25 songs, though the tracklist only includes 15 of them. Hit the jump for the list:

Good old Crash Bandicoot, he takes a licking and keeps on ticking. And tick he will in his next game, for the Xbox 360, PS2, PSP and PSP. It is a follow up to Crash of the Titans and this time the story takes form in a spoof of the iPhone. A techno device has hit Crash's world that everyone wants and MUST get their hands on. What they don't know is, this device is being used to control their minds by nefarious forces. The only one who seems to not be affected by the device is Crash who must use his powers to save the day.

The title includes plenty of the platforming levels that Crash is famous for, but also includes a more free roaming aspect than previous games. Crash uses an arsenal of powers including a new dodge move and combo attacks as well as capturing enemy powers that can be used later. These powers can be used not only to defeat other enemies but also to solve the various environmental puzzles that you are confronted with. There is a limit to the number of enemy powers that you can carry at one time however, so be sure to stock up wisely. And don't be discouraged if you can't figure out a level right away and be sure to remember that there are multiple ways to solve every puzzle. Often the key is matching your enemy powers with your environments. Crash will include a co-p mode where an additional player can add in as Crash's sexy friend Co-Co. No online mode is in place yet but it is something that is being considered.

While the graphics looked great and it was definitely a new game in many respects, this ultimately seemed like more of the same to me. I can see this game appealing to the younger set or die hard Crash Bandicoot fans (?) but more than likely most regular gamers will find it a bit typical. Of course I could be wrong and this could be the title that brings Crash back to his former glory. Then who will be laughing out of the other side of his face?

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Spyro franchise, Sierra and Estranges Libellules are teaming up to bring you The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon. This title will complete the trilogy of Spyro games that includes A New Beginning and The Eternal Night. Spyro has long been considered a kids game and while it is still being marketed to a younger audience, the franchise has definitely grown up.

The first thing I noticed was the graphical upgrade. For a cartoony style game, the backgrounds and character models looked really nice. The water rushing by in a nearby river was particularly well done. Once I stopped gazing a the backgrounds, it was time to take a look at Spyro himself. His character model has matured with the franchise and he looks a bit more like a teenager than a baby dragon. This game also marks a new power for Spyro: flight. In previous games, Spyro could only sort of hover and glide a short distance, but now he has the full power of flying at his fingertips. Joining Spyro in his adventures is Cynder, a rather goth like female dragon who was formerly an enemy in the last game. You can play as both characters by switching back and forth with a button press or bring a friend along to play in co-op mode.

The Ghostbusters game is still early in it's development so we didn't get to see a whole lot of it at Sierra's Spring Event but what we did see was mighty impressive. First we were shown a little sample of what the Infernal Engine is capable of. The setting was the New York Public Library reading room which should be familiar to any Ghostbusters fan. The fully rendered backgrounds were gorgeous and we watched as a thousand boxes were moved about the room simultaneously, objects were sliced using the Proton Pack and slime tethers were used to link objects together and hang them from the ceiling. The whole time this demonstration was happening, more and more objects were being dropped into the environment to show exactly how much this hearty engine could handle. More boxes, people and even cars fell from the ceiling, filling the room with thousands of objects without a hiccup in the frame rate or a slowing down of the action. At one point a monster was created using hundreds of books that came flying of the library shelves only to be taken down, book by book by the power of the Proton Pack.

Soon we moved to an outside street scene where we observed some of the amazing crowd technology that will be employed in the game, particularly in a Thanksgiving Day parade that we unfortunately didn't get to see previewed. I will say though that the crowd technology in Ghostbusters is the best I have ever seen. With a camera perched high above an intersection, we were able to see fifteen hundred people at once, all moving with their own individual AI, moving aside if they bumped into each other and never passing through or getting stuck all jittery in a corner. We came down to ground level and were shown some crowd reactions which were also impressive. Some ran screaming into the night while others gave you a wide berth to do your ghostbusting and yet even others stayed around to watch.

It wasn't the game mechanics or story that first piqued my interest in Teenage Zombies: Invasion of the Alien Brain Thingys, it was that really neat art style, the art style epitomized by the game's box cover. I loved the way it looked, something about its blend of comic style and malevolent silhouettes intrigued me. I figured that if nothing else, the game would be fun to look at, if not play. Heck, it's a Zombie side-scroller for the DS and there are brains. What could go wrong?

Hit the jump to find out.

Our earnings projection for the year is not based on hardware price cuts, and I don't think we are going to need them.