We forgot Final Fantasy Agito XIII! He's character designer for that, too.

In the most recent issue of Famitsu, Nomura reveals that he is working on two unannounced titles. He gives some updates, saying that they are working to bring up the quality so that the difference between real time and pre-renders in the upcoming Final Fantasy Versus XIII is seamless. He also says that development for Agito is going favorably.

"There is a still yet unannounced title that I am working on sooner than thought," he says. Voice recording for this title has begun.

"It's not a brand new title, but there is one more unannounced title."

[Pic]

Enterbrain puts Final Fantasy XIII sales at over 1.5 million over the course of the game's first four days on Japanese store shelves, selling through a major portion of the reported 1.8 million copies shipped. About 1.1 million of those are apparently from day one sales.

The boon to the PlayStation 3? Some 240,000 plus consoles sold in one week, including that fancy Lightning Edition PS3 released alongside the exclusive-in-Japan role-playing game. That's a considerable spike, as the previous week's figures, according to sales tracker Media Create, shows some 75,000 PlayStation 3s sold in Japan the week before FF13 hit.

ファイナルファンタジー13、発売初週で実売150万本　PS3本体も週間24万台販売＝PS3歴代1位 [Yahoo! JP]

Because Dead or Alive: Paradise is a lot like Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball, only without all that volleyball, giving extra attention to the gambling, mini-games and relationship management aspects of the Team Ninja series. And it's probably a port of the game of the same name released for Japanese cell phones in late 2006. Expect to see the DOA girls in bikinis, doing bikini-appropriate things.

From what we've seen, the entire line-up of Dead or Alive ladies is here, as is Tecmo's short-skirted and similarly stacked gambling mascot Rio. If you found the Dead or Alive Xtreme series "fun" this is probably going to be right up your alley.

Game site Siliconera has looked at "top tier" Famitsu review scores over the past decade — scores between 36 and 40. Scores below are not factored into this chart. It does indicate several trends, including a spike in games getting a "36" as well as games getting a "40".

Make of it what you will.

An Analysis Of Top Tier Famitsu Review Scores This Decade [Siliconera]

Famitsu has four reviewers rate games on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the best for a cumulative 40/40 score. Famitsu praised the game's cut scenes as well as the battle system and the high level of strategy it offers. Interestingly, one Famitsu reviewer noted how up until the mid-way point of the game, the story seemed be linear and that it didn't offer any new "gimmicks" in its story telling.

Here is how the other FF title stack up in the eyes of Famitsu:

Final Fantasy I - 35
Final Fantasy II - 35
Final Fantasy III - 36
Final Fantasy Ⅳ - 36
Final Fantasy V - 34
Final Fantasy VI - 37
Final Fantasy VII - 38
Final Fantasy VIII - 37
Final Fantasy IX - 38
Final Fantasy X - 39
Final Fantasy XI - 38
Final Fantasy XII- 40
Final Fantasy XIII - 39

The newest issue of Famitsu weighs in on Infinity Ward's blockbuster, crippling it with a mere 39 out of 40, one point shy of greatness. While potentially disappointing, it puts the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game in good company. Famitsu has also deemed games like Super Mario 64, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Okami, Grand Theft Auto IV, Resident Evil (for GameCube!) and many more worthy of 39/40 praise.

Sadly, though, Modern Warfare 2 won't join the ranks of 2009's other "perfects" which include New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Bayonetta, Dragon Quest IX and Monster Hunter Tri. And Final Fantasy XIII, we presume. Probably safe to save Square Enix a second spot on the list.

Titled Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask, the game features an overhaul of the game system. The "miracle mask" is connected somehow to the mask worn by bad guy Death Call in Professor Layton and the Devil's Flute. The game's art seems to be set in a carnival.

Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask is scheduled for release in Japan sometime in fall 2010.

The portable moved 103,524 units in Japan.

In comparison, the DSi sold approximately 170,000 units in its first two days on sale in Japan. In its first day on sale in The Land of the Rising Sun, the PSPgo sold approximately 28,000 units.

ニンテンドーＤＳｉ　ＬＬ：２日間で１０万４０００台　ＤＳｉには及ばず　エンターブレイン調べ(まんたんウェブ) - 毎日ｊｐ(毎日新聞) [Mainichi]

The publication has stated that just moving Mario around is amusing, co-op play is fun and single player is a good time as well.

Critics score games on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the best score. The four scores are then tallied, and 40 is perfecto.
Today, only eleven, well, now twelve games have been awarded the perfect score. The latest is multi-platform title Bayonetta. Multi-platform Bayonetta is the first game to appear on the Xbox 360 to receive this score.

To review, here are the previous 40/40 games:
1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998)

2. Soulcalibur (1999)

3. Vagrant Story (2000)

4. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (2003)

5. Nintendogs (2005)

6. Final Fantasy XII (2006)

7. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008)

8. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (2008)

9. 428 (2008)

10. Dragon Quest IX (2009)

11. Monster Hunter Tri (2009)
12. Bayonetta (2009)

To recap: No games in 2001, 2002, 2004 or 2007 got a 40/40, but three games in 2008 and four games in 2009 have been awarded the magic number. What's next, five 40/40 games in 2010? Six in 2011?

OH WAIT. Final Fantasy XIII comes out this year in Japan — whatever will Famitsu do?

And that's about all we know at this stage, other than a supposed title, No More Heroes: Heroes Paradise.

But we can't say that No More Heroes making the high-definition transition from the Wii to the PS3/360 is much of a surprise. Grasshopper lead Goichi Suda has previously expressed his interest in bringing Travis Touchdown and crew to other consoles.

And, considering Suda's interest in Project Natal—and presumably Sony's PS3 motion controller—the No More Heroes franchise seems like a no-brainer kind of port.

Or maybe Suda and crew were motivated by No More Heroes' Japanese publisher Marvelous Entertainment, which has expressed its disappointment with domestic sales on Nintendo's console, hinting at the possibility of up-res ports of its moderately selling Wii games.

We'll know for sure later this week, when Famitsu would likely reveal more.

UPDATE - The game is indeed in the latest issue of Famitsu, which reveals that it's due out in Japan on February 25. Some new stuff being added for the platform jump include Japanese voice-acting and a game mode where the ladies aren't wearing too many clothes.

You can check out some images from the game below.

The latest issue of Famitsu confirms the car wrecking bonus stages in Super Street Fighter IV. There's also a barrel bonus stage, too.

Other details about the game include info about online play:

• Team Battle is from 2-on-2 up to 4-on-4.
• Replay Channel allows players to watch match, well, replays.
• Endless Battle allows up to 8 players to compete in a knock-out tournament.

There are plans to include a "Tournament Mode" as an additional download.

BAYONETTA Witch of Vigrid features high quality pix of Bayonetta in action taken with a high quality camera. Priced at ¥2,100 (US$23), the book is slated for October 22 in Japan.

Witch of Vigirid is published by Enterbrain, which also publishes Famitsu. This week, Famitsu awarded the game a perfect 40/40 score for the Xbox 360 version.

絶頂感がブッ続く「ベヨネッタ」の写真集 [アキバBlog]

See, those "perfect" Famitsu scores are generally granted very infrequently—although that frequency has definitely increased over the years. Bayonetta was noteworthy for being the first multi-platform game to be awarded that score. It would also set a record for the number of 40 out of 40 scores awarded in one year, assuming that Final Fantasy XIII will, out of courtesy, achieve the same.

Now we know it's also the first time a game has been awarded a 40 and a 38 by the mag, according to what appear to be shots of Famitsu's review section from 2channel.

How so? Well, that quartet of 10s awarded by the Famitsu editorial staff is only for the Xbox 360 version. The PlayStation 3 port handled by SEGA, clearly lagging behind its more perfect sibling, was granted a 38 out of 40 from Famitsu. That's obviously still quite good, if you put any weight into magazine review scores. But it's sure to lead to some squabbling from the console camps people have aligned themselves with.

Don't worry about it too much. Just call it another reason to get the Xbox 360 version, if you have the means.

Today, only eleven, well, now twelve games have been awarded the perfect score. The latest is multi-platform title Bayonetta. Multi-platform Bayonetta is the first game to appear on the Xbox 360 to receive this score.

To review, here are the previous 40/40 games:

1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998)
2. Soulcalibur (1999)
3. Vagrant Story (2000)
4. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (2003)
5. Nintendogs (2005)
6. Final Fantasy XII (2006)
7. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008)
8. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (2008)
9. 428 (2008)
10. Dragon Quest IX (2009)
11. Monster Hunter Tri (2009)

So no games in 2001, 2002, 2004 or 2007 got a 40/40, but three games in 2008 and three games in 2009 have? Either Famitsu thinks games are getting better or is giving out more perfect scores. Discuss!

And for those who care, Final Fantasy X was released in 2001, Resident Evil was released in 2002, Dragon Quest VIII and Gran Turismo 4 were released in 2004, and so on and so forth.

Once the actual scan of the score has hit online, we will add it to this post.

Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth will colorize and modernize the 20-year-old outing of Christopher Belmont in his quest to kill Dracula for Konami's third downloadable retro "ReBirth" effort. According to NeoGAF poster Duckroll, details from Famitsu indicate "new enemies, new traps, and other improvements in each stage" will be added to Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth, along with rearranged music.

Hopefully, North American and European Wii owners will get access to the WiiWare title as soon as our Japanese counterparts. Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth is priced at 1000 Wii Points.

Hardware sales are down 15.1 percent, and game software sales are down 7.5 percent.

The hardware sales for the period were:

Nintendo DS (DS Lite, DSi, etc)
First Half Fiscal 2009: 1,698,818 units
Life-to-date: 27,851,784 units

PSP
First Half Fiscal 2009: 813,604 units
Life-to-date: 12,618,193 units

Wii
First Half Fiscal 2009: 594,398 units
Life-to-date: 8,547,552 units

PlayStation 3
First Half Fiscal 2009: 581,676 units
Life-to-date: 3,591,071 units

Xbox 360
First Half Fiscal 2009: 137,059 units
Life-to-date: 1,138,250 units

The top five selling games were Dragon Quest IX (3.92 million copies), Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver (2.06 million), Wii Sports Resort (1.19 million), Tomodachi Collection (1.15 million) and Monster Hunter 3 (908,693 copies).

This data is from the period beginning March 31, 2009 and ending September 28, 2009.

2009年度上半期のゲーム市場規模は前年度同期比10.5パーセント減 [ファミ通.com]

The survey polled 800 Americans on things like video games and anime and manga.

Website Umaguruma.com translated the published article — hat tip for that!

Favorite Game
10. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
7. Persona 4
7. Shadow of the Colossus
7. The Legend of Zelda
5. Final Fantasy IX
5. Final Fantasy
4. Chrono Trigger
3. Metal Gear Solid
2. Kingdom Hearts
1. Final Fantasy VII

Comments
"Chrono Trigger is an RPG that stands the test of time; I thoroughly enjoy playing it, even now!" — Nick Colucci, 27
"Disgaea is a weird and wild game that I really enjoyed playing. The replay value is so great with all the multiple endings and insane levels your characters can reach." — Anonymous
"Xenogears was the first JRPG I ever played. I love it so much I even got a gear tatoo on my shoulder." — Adam Dunphy, 26

Favorite Game Creator or Company
10. Goichi Suda
9. SEGA
8. Tetsuya Nomura
7. Shigeru Miyamoto
6. KONAMI
5. Hideo Kojima
4. Atlus
3. Capcom
2. Nintendo
1. Square Enix

Comments
"I got 'SNK' and 'Team Ninja' tatoos on my body." — B.N., 24
"Tomohiro Nishikado, the man who made Space Invaders." — Anonymous, 24
"Katamari Damacy, made Keita Takahashi, is always my first choice when I want to play something really fun." — Zac Bentz, 32

Below are replies to the question "What would you like to see sold in the US?"

"Why... why won't Nintendo release Mother 3 in America?!" — Ivan Yang, 16
"I want to play Ryu Ga Gotoku 3." — Joshua Miller, 30
"Release Siren 2 in America!" — Zac Bentz, 32
"Fragile: Farewell Ruins of the Moon for the Wii has great atmosphere and music." — Clay Leatherwood, 24

Manga and anime data in the link below.

The Great American Otaku Survey [馬車]

Look, that's what Enterbrain prez Hirokazu Hamamura said at today's Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan, according to Bloomberg Japan and by way of Andriasang. And it doesn't seem unreasonable, considering the PlayStation 3 just sold 150,000-plus units in a week on the strength of a price drop and the release of yet another Gundam game.

Square Enix and Sony's plans for a PS3 bundle with Final Fantasy XIII packed in is sure to help that number, which, for the record, would represent about 15% of the PS3's sales to date in Japan.

Final Fantasy XIII will ship on December 17th in Japan, a date just recently confirmed by PlayStation overlord Kaz Hirai. Whether Hamamura believes that will all happen in the calendar year 2009, we're not sure, but that might be pushing it.

Enterbrain Prez Expects PS3 Surge From Final Fantasy XIII [Andriasang]

Otaku USA's otaku-in-chief Patrick Macias stated at the time, "We want all foreign otaku to rise forth and fill out our 'Foreign Otaku' survey below. The results will be published this summer in an issue of Weekly Famitsu, and (because we're big-hearted and foolish) we'll follow up on the Otaku USA website with appropriate post-game analysis."

The idea was to help provide an insight into non-Japanese otaku.

Well........ Said article is hitting this week's Famitsu. If you answered the survey, that's your raw data! Now in Japanese! In Famitsu!

Will be interesting to see if there is a difference between Japanese and non-Japanese otaku.

OTAKU USA x FAMITSU: "Otaku World Culture" explosion [An Eternal Thought in the Mind of Godzilla]