The session description reveals that Boom Blox, the first of the Spielberg games and designed for the Wii, was created by a small team that developed dozens of playable prototypes, ultimately resulting in "a fully cohesive, premium family game for the Wii." The con takes place the third week of February, so hopefully we'll see more of Boom Blox before then.

Director's Cut: Worlds are Colliding [GDC]

When Nintendo's own maestro Koji Kondo took to the stage at this years GDC in March it was a packed house. During the hour-long presentation Kondo talked about the importance of sound and music in games from Super Mario to the Legend of Zelda.

Reader Joe says that the lecture was "interesting, engaging, and a lot of fun." So he was surprised to find, while searching for pictures of himself in the audience, that Shigeru Miyamoto wasn't quite as titillated.

Yep, that's him, sitting five or so rows back apparently sleeping. Hey, that flight from Japan can be a bitch, I don't blame him. Brian Crecente

Photos by GDC

According to the invite, "Home is ramping up for its debut, and we're inviting you to sign up for a very special beta test. Space is extremely limited." SCEA warns that "Not everyone who signs up will be accepted" but if you are, they'll notify you via e-mail.

Now, off I go to frantically refresh my Gmail inbox while I wait for my invite.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in, but know that Kevin U. beat you all to the punch. Michael McWhertor

I snap a few shots of the venue's lobby, noting the beautiful stained glass window that will go largely unnoticed by the hordes of fans that will soon fill the hall. Their focus will most likely be on the Guitar Hero II competition and the souvenir table set up beside it, or the Dream Authentics arcade machine that will be playing host to a Space Invaders competition once things get rolling. And the gates, of course. The gates behind which even now some of the greatest names in video game music were practicing for tonight's performance. The gates through which I would soon be passing through with my shiny backstage pass.

Yeah, About That Pass

After poking around a bit and watching The Video Game Pianist Martin Leung kick a little ass at Space Invaders, I take a seat on a bench across from an attractive blonde woman to try and give my contact at the show another call. She had said to hit up her cell when I arrived so she could hook me up with my ticket and pass, but two calls had already gone unanswered. I dial the number...and watch as the woman across from me pulls her cellphone from her pocket, looks at the screen, hits the disconnect button and puts the phone away. In my ear the ringing stops. I raise an eyebrow and cock my head a little, catching the woman's eye.

"Oh my god, did you just call me?"

It seems I share an area code with her family, and she thought I was her sister calling. As I often get mistaken for people's female siblings, I accept it. After spending a week at GDC being mistaken for McWhertor and catching the disappointed looks on developer's faces as they realize that Crecente isn't coming, being mistaken for a woman is almost a step up.

After a meeting with the Dream Authentics folks to discuss their home arcade machines, I am guided over to the gate, which is swung open by the hand of an elderly gentleman in an usher uniform. In the back of my mind I am playing out the circumstances that led to this frail gentleman earning the post of guarding the main security point for the whole concert. The phrase, "Watch the gate, grandpa" comes to mind.

The Nob Hill Masonic Center is your basic circular concert hall. The relatively small stage is surrounded on three sides with bi-level seating. As I am escorted inside I notice that almost several people walking about with green Video Games Live all access passes hanging from their necks. "Shouldn't I have one of those?" I ask my escorts, only to be told not to worry about it. Should be fine now. There are a few other members of the press sitting in the audience - all with green passes mind you - so I wander over to them, pull out my trusty camera and increasingly ratty notebook, and focus my attention on the stage.

Rehearsal - Once more with feeling!

One-Winged Angel. Why is it always One-Winged Angel? As my attention shifts stageward I recognize the distinctive chanting of everyone's favorite Aeris-killer's theme song. A song that follows me like the plague, inevitably showing up on any MP3 player I own despite my never actually actively putting it there. Sephiroth is such a bad ass that his song kills some poor other tune on my hard drive and takes its place.

Tommy Tallarico and VertexGuy, the amazing guitar player, flank the stage on electric guitars as the chorus chants and the symphony plays. The guitars add a raw power to a song I've seen performed live before at the Dear Friends concert in Atlanta, but without the video playing in the background it loses something for me. Square Enix won't let Video Games Live display images from their games, so there shall be no menacing Sephiroth standing amidst flames and smirking this night.

It's-A-Him, Mario!

As the symphony continues to rehearse...Metal Gear Solid, Medal of Honor, music from Sonic...some folks set up a camera and begin an interview right beside where I am sitting. Holy crap, it's Mario! More specifically the voice of Mario, Charles Martinet. I try and snap a few quick pictures, then curse as I realize the tracking light on my new camera is still on. If you by chance watch an interview with Martinet and see him bathed in an eerie amber light several times as he is trying to speak, that was me. Luckily I don't think they notice.

Martinet is a real character, and he loves his job. Any other man would have gotten sick of people asking him to do the Mario voice, but not our man Charles. He revels in the character, and when I finally get a chance to take a photo of him away from the interviewers, he not only poses, but also lets out a triumphant "Woo-hoo!"

After taking the picture I sit back down. Koji Kondo should be coming out to practice at any minute, and I was going to get a chance to see him!

"Anyone without a green badge needs to leave the auditorium now!"

Or possibly not.

As the legendary Koji Kondo prepares to take the stage, I am asked in no uncertain terms to make myself scarce. Fuming slightly, I head for the lobby, determined to find a shiny green all access pass of my own.

The Epic Quest for the Magical All Access Pass

"Hey, they just kicked me out for not having a pass!"

"Oh sorry. Here, take mine."

Thus ends the epic quest for the magical all access pass.

Once More Into The Breach

One my way back inside I run into the ever colorful Game Jew, who neatly sums up my entire experience at GDC this year by asking when Crecente was going to show up, and then looking really disappointed when I tell him he wouldn't be. Apparently he was eager to sing to Brian's testicles in public, and when it comes right down to it, who isn't?

The distraction costs me dearly. I enter the auditorium only to find that Koji Kondo is just wrapping things up, surrounded by members of the press who didn't have to play through an extremely short RPG to get their passes. It takes reflexes honed through years of dodging whirling blades while his music played in the background, but I manage to snap a shot of him before he is ushered off the stage.

Seeing Double

With a sigh I take my seat, going over my notes as The Video Game Pianist sits down at the piano for a little warm up. I find myself getting a lost in the music, only to be roused by yet another interview being set up right beside me in the aisle. Oddly enough, it's Mario interviewing...Mario?

Sure, Game Jew is a short Jewish man dressed as an Italian plumber, and Charles Martinet is an older man with white hair wearing bright red shoes, but beyond that the similarities are uncanny. You can find the clip of the interview mixed in with some other bits here.

After all that excitement I needed a little air, so I wander out into the lobby, where the crowd is beginning to gather. Sonic the Hedgehog is entertaining the crowd. Excuse the blurry picture, but the little blue bugger is the fastest game character alive.

The PMS clan is also on hand, doing something that probably has nothing to do with hotness, yet nonetheless is infused with it by association. I snap a pic, feel dirty for doing it, and head back inside the auditorium to hide for a bit.

Koji Kondo Signs Some Stuff...Not For Me

The team from Advance Media Network was milling about all throughout the rehearsal, and as I return to my seat their director of public relations pops in from backstage, carrying a Wii and a look of unabashed joy on his face. The Wii, it turns out, is the prize for the costume contest to be held before the show starts, and they just got Koji Kondo to sign it for them. Some lucky cosplayer will be very happy this evening. Not only did Sean get the Wii signed, but also a little something for himself.

Lucky bastard, though I suppose it all balances out considering AMN did sacrifice one of their media guys, Victor Torres, to fill out the Sonic costume that was parading through the lobby earlier. Apparently he was the only person they could find with the right build for the suit. A true Cinderella story, only instead of a glass slipper it was a giant foam hedgehog costume.

The Glamorous Backstage Pass Lifestyle

I don't think I've ever had a backstage pass to anything. Even productions I've been in myself. Like discussing how scary Adam Sessler is when he's drunk, backstage was a place I just didn't go. It isn't until I catch a wonderful scent that I work up the courage to wander back there. What is that smell? The smell of a good story? The scent of intrigue? No, my friends.

It was the smell of free pizza.

GDC has conditioned me to have a reaction to free food that borders on Pavlovian, so like a cartoon toucan I follow my nose...it always knows, you see. Past the door to the left of the stage into what was sure to be a glorious...hallway.

Backstage at the Nob Hill Masonic Center is pretty much a hallway with a few tiny rooms off of it. Not nearly as exciting as I would have imagined. I begin to think I never was allowed backstage before to save me from the disappointment. There is, however, plenty of free pizza, along with Charles Martinet, who seems to have an uncanny power to be everywhere at once. When I got back to my room later in the evening I was surprised and just a bit disappointed that he wasn't there, ready to cheer me up with a random "Woo-hoo!"

While the voice of Mario munches on a slice of pizza (with mushrooms!), I discuss the excitement of being backstage with some of the guys from Nintendo World Report, recently renamed from Planet Gamecube for obvious reasons. A guard getting ready for the Metal Gear Solid portion of the program wanders by, and I snap a quick shot of him posing with Martinet. Note the glowing exclamation point above his head...pure genius there. It's actually retractable, popping up via mechanical trigger.

The Video Game Pianist wanders up to the pizza table, only to find himself accosted by giant members of the press, like this one, for instance:

Please ignore the shirt. General consensus between friends, family, and colleagues has already indicated to me that the shirt was a really bad idea. I picked it up at the Big and Tall store near the convention hall earlier in the week. Apparently their plan is to make big men stand out more, to keep them from sneaking up on people.

Soon the pizza is gone, and the performers are preparing to take the stage. Time to go pick up my ticket and get seated!

There Is No Ticket

A brief foray outside finds me teamed up with frequent Kotaku contributor Collette Bennett, and having her around makes it a little easier to cope with the fact that we don't have tickets.

Apparently Tommy Tallarico wanted 70 tickets for guests from the venue, and they gave him only 30, which were eaten up quickly by guests like Koji and his entourage. Several members of the press actually purchased their own tickets, which I would have done had I not been told there was one waiting for me.

Our sponsors tell us not to worry. All we have to do is wait till everyone else is seated, and then grab some spare seats. Needless to say, I do not wind up in the front row. Indeed the front row seems like a distant dream as I take my seat in the upper tier of the balcony, and nothing helps you relax and enjoy a concert like the fear of someone sidling up to you with a ticket in hand, looking confused. Thanks to this happy fun ticket snafu I miss the majority of the costume contest, in which a Kingdom Hearts cosplayer walks away with a Wii.

Mercifully we manage to somehow find seats that hat not been sold...either that, or whoever bought them saw me looking pensive and decided not to bother me. Either way, the lights soon dimmed, and the concert finally began.

And We're Off

Tommy Tallarico will not stop moving, resisting every attempt I make to snap a quick photo of him as he introduces the show. Being a relatively small man, he has reserves of energy that larger folks like me utilize to keep us from going extinct, like the dinosaurs. It's a reflection of his great love of the video game music industry, the sheer amount of excitement the man has for this event.

I fully expected the $15 program I bought at the beginning of the concert to contain an actual program of events, allowing me to relax and enjoy the show without having to remember the exact order of performances. Much to my chagrin, the program book does not contain a program. I spent $15 for a glossy picture book, which is why you shouldn't expect the following show highlights to be in any particular order.

Retro-Spective

In the beginning, there was Pong. The show kicks off with a medley of classic gaming, from Pong, to Asteroids, to Defender, and onward. Like a cover band doing a medley of classic rock tunes, the audience reacts to their favorites, hotting and hollering when selections from Ghouls N' Ghosts or Satan's Hollow (a personal favorite) are played. Just quick snippets from each game, but more than enough to whet the appetite of a few hundred game enthusiasts.

Space Invaders Live

No, it isn't Space Invaders via Xbox Live. It's Space Invaders played with motion tracking by a pudgy Legacy of Kain cosplayer wearing a spaceship T-shirt that took at least five minutes to get on.

Metal Gear Solid

I have a confession to make. I've only ever finished the first Metal Gear Solid. I just can't seem to get into the whole stealth action thing. Having said that, it is strange that I find the music from the series so moving. I sit here, watching scenes from the games I have never experienced first hand and I feel nostalgic. The main theme in particular just speaks of the sad resignation of a person who has completely committed themselves to duty above all other things. I could just be talking out of my ass here. The segment is introduced by a pre-recorded Hideo Kojima, who I snapped a totally awesome picture of.

While the music plays, a box inches its way onto the stage, sitting there as the soldier from backstage makes an appearance. He wanders about for a bit, showing off his nifty switchblade exclamation point device, stopping for a moment in front of the box before shrugging and heading offstage. The box sits there through two more numbers before Tommy pops out of it...claiming to have been the only person small enough to fit inside.

Medal of Honor

Another series I haven't messed about with much, for the Medal of Honor sequence they eschewed the normal showing of game footage on the big screen, opting instead to show black and white photos from World War II. Women crying, injured men, families torn apart by war. While it was certainly moving, it felt a bit like a political statement, and I really hate it when I go to a concert and the artists feel like they need to make political statements. Not what I am there for.

Sonic the Hedgehog

Ah yes, this music brings me back. A fine arrangement of Sonic music, showcasing footage from the classic and not so classic titles, from the original game on up to Sonic Heroes, The probably went a few games too far, but at least they stopped before Shadow.

Incidentally, I've decided that I want the Green Hill Zone music to be played at my funeral, and my casket to be interred via a series of looping ramps.

Advent Rising

Tommy of course created the operatic soundtrack for Advent Rising, the ill-fated game written by sci-fi master Orson Scott Card. Whatever faults you might have found with the game, you certainly cannot take away from the beautiful sounds inspired by it. The music and game footage combination was so moving that after the concert Colette asked me about the game, which she had never played.

The saddest thing about Advent Rising was how much I loved the game, and the ending of it, which set us up for a sequel that will never come.

Koji Kondo

The man. the legend. The lounge pianist. Kondo comes out on stage first to tease us, appearing with colorful characters like Zelda, Link, and the ever-present Charles Martinet. When he returns to the stage later in the show, he takes a seat at the piano...which incidentally is behind a lighting fixture that I cannot see around. Thank goodness for the large screen, which allows me a view of Kondo playing through Mario songs with the ease and flair of a guy you might find stroking the ivories in a Vegas bar. The man has style, I'll give him that, but for some reason listening to him play doesn't have the impact on me I first thought it would. I'll go ahead and blame the lousy seats for this one.

VertexGuy

The videos of VertexGuy that appeared on the interwebs awhile back do him no justice. I've found in my explorations of video game music, that game players make some of the best guitarists you're likely to find, and VertexGuy is living proof. Take a look for yourself.

The Video Game Pianist

Martin Leung is, quite simply, a piano god. Hearing him practice earlier gave me just a small taste of the scope of this young man's talent. In the hallway that was backstage I asked him how it felt to play the music of composers like Koji Kondo while actually being in their presence. What I should have done is ask Koji Kondo how it felt to be completely upstaged by a guy not yet old enough to legally drink.

Leung appears on stage twice this evening. First he plays a selection of music from Final Fantasy which literally brings tears to my eyes. Even remembering it now, days after the fact, has me tearing up. His renditions of the songs from a video game series that at times has been so much a part of my life has me seeing those titles in a whole new light. As many others have noted, it makes you want to play the games all over again.

He then returns to the stage later on for an encore performance, and completely blows the crowd away with a medley of Super Mario Bros. music. At one point his fingers are moving so fast across the keys that he looks like he's in one of those artificially sped up time-lapse sequences that were so popular in music videos back in the day. He leaves the crowd completely in awe, earning a standing ovation for his effort. Even more of a standing ovation than Koji Kondo himself. What could possibly follow such a performance?

One Winged Angel

Arguably the most popular piece of video game music ever created, One Winged Angel is, of course, Sephiroth's theme song from Final Fantasy VII. When I saw the Dear Friends concert last year they did this song as an encore, and then came back on and did it again. That's how much people love this song. Despite the lack of gameplay video on the big screen an the somewhat muffled guitars compared to what I heard during rehearsal, it was a completely satisfying end to an evening of wonderful music.

As the performers file off stage after the final bow, I head out into the balcony lobby to see how my chances of getting in on the meet and greet line look.

Seeing as the entire first floor of the auditorium was already waiting, I made a decision not to stick around. After walking all over San Francisco for a week, the last thing I needed to do was stand in line for hours as a legion of fans in front of me stumbled over their tongues to find just the right words of praise to give these legends of the video game music world.

I did, however, manage to meet two of gaming's biggest names this evening, so it wasn't a total loss in that regard.

If you look deep into their eyes, you can see extreme discomfort, and quite possibly a little bit of fear.

A Night to Remember

Video games are more than just something gamers do to pass the time, and an event like Video Games Live serves as proof of that point. That you can separate the music or the art from the context of the game and create something so very satisfying shows the depth of the industry that we all know and love.

These are the thoughts going through my head as I hail one of San Francisco's many suicidal cab drivers for a ride back to my hotel to pack for the long trip home. The driver asks me if I had a good time, and I smile. "One of the best."

As the driver takes one of the city's famous downhill slopes at 45 miles per hour, I can't help but ask, "Have you ever played Crazy Taxi?" Michael Fahey

What we know about Afrika for the PS3: It's got animals. Back at GDC, Sony's Phil Harrison chatted with game site Pro-G about the mysterious title:

The game designers on Afrika are being deliberately coy about the game experience. I know what it is; I've seen it and I know it's going to be a very interesting gaming experience. It's not about killing and it's not about running around the environment shooting elephants and hippopotami — that would be awful. That's not what we're all about. What we're about is taking people to places in a virtual world. So Afrika, I think, is a great example of that.

Notice how he said "hippopotami" and not "hippopotamuses." Totally incorrect, but still, That's why Phil's paid the big bucks! Brian Ashcraft

Harrison Talks Afrika [Pro-G via The Last Boss]

What's way funnier than creating Miis? Putting them in games! From a MTV interview at GDC with Shigeru Miyamoto:

With the popularity of the Miis, they've been having fun just fiddling around with Miis in the Twilight Princess engine. This is something our development teams do all the time once they get done with a game and start thinking about other ideas. It's kind of funny because you can see Miis running around in the [Zelda] world of Hyrule, but there's no telling that would ever actually come to fruition. It's just our team members having fun and taking off some stress after a tough development cycle.

There's also a clip (above) from the interview in which Miyamoto doesn't talk Miis, but Nintendo's success. Click the link below to read what he has to say about playing Mario with one-hand — Apparently a secret desire for many! Brian Ashcraft

Miyamoto Interview [MTV]

In a lengthy report by NintendoWorldReport on Takeshi Shimada's talk at the Game Developer Conference, the middleware dev sorta mentions that his company is looking into the possibility of developing some sort of text-to-speech technology.

He highlighted a development tool called NintendoWare, developed by Nintendo and HAL, that emulates Wii hardware on the PC so that artists can view an accurate representation of their special effects without loading their code onto a Wii development kit. He also noted that his group is working on easy-to-incorporate fur-shading middleware and predictive input (so the game can guess what you're about to do based on prior motion). NCL is also looking into the utility of text-to-speech for Wii.

How weird would that be? My first thought was of Speak and Spell, but of course technology has improved quite a bit since then. Wouldn't it be neat if a game could automatically insert your real name into the dialog or plot in the voice acting? Brian Crecente

Takeshi Shimada's GDC 2007 Presentation [Nintendo World Report, via Definitive Nintendo Revolution Speculation]

Why aren't there more female gaming bloggers?

Don't get me wrong, I know they're out there and most of the ones I know of are quite good. My favorite, by far, is probably Alice Taylor who McWhertor and I are constantly browbeating into posting on Kotaku despite her busy schedule with the BBC and her own blog Wonderland.

And there's, quite famously, Jane Pinckard once from 1Up now with the GDC folks, who I wish would do more stuff on her blog, and Brenda Braithwaite, who's work in the game development community, as a professor and her blog on gaming and sex keeps her quite busy.

So I know they're out there, but why aren't there more of them out there, or more specifically, why aren't they, you know, more out there.

While I think that strong woman writers who cover gaming are not proportional to the number of women playing games, the bigger issue it seems is that there aren't a whole lot of immediately recognizable female writers on the net. I think the ones out there now need to be more vocal perhaps, or maybe I'm just not reading the right sites.

I have, for the past month or so, been trolling around on the net to find a woman to write for Kotaku because I feel very strongly about having a diverse group of writers. I know that people with different ethnic, gender and social backgrounds can offer different perspective; and perspective, insightful perspective is where it's at in blogs.

But despite my digging around and my somewhat overt nosing around at GDC, I was hard-pressed to find the same sort of, for lack of a better term, job pool that I usually find with male writers.

Why is that?

If you're a woman and a gamer, get out there and blog. Raise the flag, let the industry know what you want from games. It's up to you to help change perceptions, because god knows we've had enough Barbie Adventures for a lifetime. Brian Crecente

Game Jew edges into stalking territory at the Game Developers Conference, following Shigeru Miyamoto around GDC until he corners him outside his room at the Video Games Live concert and follows him down the hall singing. Miyamoto, two words: Restraining Order. Just kidding, anyone who sings about my balls is A-OK in my book. Brian Crecente

Watch the Video [GameJew]

Critics darling and Killer 7 producer Goichi Suda talked about artistry and business at last week's GDC. He explained that there are two types of creators: Business-oriented and art-oriented. For business devs, the client's wishes and expectations are priority numero uno. But the arty-types, it's their vision. (Though, Suda does admit that basically all game developers must be business-oriented, because, well, it is a business!) But at the end of the day, he says that he and his company Grasshopper Manufacture hold art in the highest regard thanks to, and we quote, "punk spirit." Not so much anti-authority, but rather, he's talking about doing something different from others. Take Killer 7, which he made with Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami. Suda explains:

There are so many big games and big titles, but most of them are copycat... these games are important, but it's really hard to find a [different kind of] game. ...I really hate doing things that other people do... We need to create that kind of game... I'd like to ask publishers to help us and support us [to make more punk games].

Yeah, 'cause do we really wanna be sedated with pedestrian games? Check out the trailer for Suda's upcoming title here.

Hey! Ho! Let's Go! [Next-Gen]

Having announced that there will be a new Mii Popularity Channel and having created a Mii commercial I think we can safely assume Nintendo understands the new-found power of their Mii. Brian Crecente

Thursday night, between having my balls handed to me at the SCEA Blogger Congress and hanging at the Gamecock party, I stopped by a private little affair hosted by Nintendo.

Held in Machiavelli Room of a nearby restaurant, about a dozen journalists mingled with Nintendo folk, including Beth Llewelyn and Reggie Fils-Aime, and played Wii Sports.

I ended up having my ass handed to me in Bowling by a Game Daily guy, but knew better than to take on Reggie, who was creaming everyone.

About a half hour after I arrived I looked over at spotted David Jaffe, of God of War fame, standing near a Wii chatting with some folks.

I was a little surprised to see him at a Nintendo party, but he said he's a big fan of Nintendo and had the time to swing by. That's the thing about GDC, it's so much more about bigger concepts than party lines.

We had a chance to speak for a bit about the whole Sony/Kotaku thing and while I think he appreciated what happened we ended up getting onto one of the central questions people seem to ask about it: Why did I risk the relationship for the seemingly minor story?

It's a fair question, but one that could only be asked in retrospect. At the time when McWhertor was writing the story the real question wasn't about choosing between my relationship with Sony and running McWhertor's story. It was a question about ethics and integrity.

My choice was to either be told how to do my job by a PR company or to do what I'm paid to do and report the news.

Jaffe, MTV's Stephen Totilo and I also got onto the topic of episodic content. To be fair, Totilo and Jaffe were having a smart conversation about the topic when I sort of interrupted and interjected my ideas. Totilo is on this bent, a pretty smart one, about the consumption of video games and how people aren't as versed in the wide variety of games because they are so time consuming and long.

He thinks, I believe, that it would help if there were more short, smart games out there. While I agree, I'm also a bit afraid of the repercussions. In an ideal world episodic content is a fantastic idea. But once you through the market and publishers into the formula, I could see their successes degregating the traditional, long-form of game development that we enjoy now.

There are plenty of games out there that wouldn't suffer. I think that most games people play, are played to be beaten, not so much experienced. But with some games, it is the experience of playing that is fun. God of War II happens to be a prime example. I'm thoroughly enjoying everyone moment of that game and almost don't want to beat it. I'm not as interested in the destination as the journey and I fear that could become a thing of the past if, no when episodic content takes off. Brian Crecente

Someone just tipped me off to these new Spore videos showing the timeline of a creature's creation from Cell to creature to tribe to city to space.

Cell above the other four on the jump. Brian Crecente

Creature Phase

Tribal phase

Civilization phase

Space phase

One of the more colorful mistakes made concerning who I am over the course of the past week, courtesy of the adorable Theresa Pudenz, public relations rep for Flying Labs Software, as I went inside their top floor room at the W in San Francisco to get my hands on Pirates of the Burning Sea, the upcoming MMO featuring Crecente's ancestors.

I decided to get the big question out of the way first. Where are the ninja? The answer? Possibly on the way. Flying Labs is developing an oriental version of the game for Asian countries, and in the future it could very well be possible to sail your ship to those mysterious waters, where you just know they've gotta have some ninja floating around. I suppose that would make them ninja pirates, the two great tastes that taste great together, perhaps ushering in a new age where ninja feel just the tiniest bit of remorse when dispatching the scurvy sea dogs.

Nah.

Enter Captain Duck Ass

I was expecting maybe a speech or a demo before hand, but the Flying Labs guys put me in the captain's chair immediately, walking me through character creation. You choose from one of four nationalities...British, Spanish, French, and Pirate (yes dammit, it is a nationality.) You then pick a class and begin creating your character. I of course choose the pirate race, and as tempting as it was to create a female character, I went with a man. the costume choices implemented currently are very impressive, and soon I had a swarthy looking fellow in a fancy longcoat and a feathered hat, ready for action. To spice things up a bit I made his coat pink, and his hat purple. The random name generator christened me Marcel Ducasset, but the devs and I both knew that this was the man destined to be known as Captain Duck Ass.

The Legend of Duck Ass Begins

Bravely we ventured forth into the tutorial, where Duck Ass finds himself aboard a ship imperiled. We are under attack, and in grave danger of going down for the count. I, of course, dashed into the fray, accepting a quest from a man with a question mark above his head and then going above decks to take care of the invading pirate (just one) while several other shipmates tried to look busy. Combat isn't simple point and click attacking. Each combatant has a balance bar beneath them, and if you knock their balance off you get an opening to attack. This is fleshed out further in the game, where opening moves come into play. These are moves you use to knock your opponent off balance before going in for the kill. My enemy quickly dispatched, it was time to assume the mantle of Captain and take the battle to the water!

Duck Ass's First Kill

Now we entered the ship to ship combat view, a playing field where two or more enemies square off. I discovered that there are two ship portions of the game. The navigation view, which allows you to travel the Carribean at a fairly nice clip, and the battle view, which shows more ship detail and slows things down for battle. It reminds me a great deal of Sid Meier's Pirates, which all in all is a good thing. Captain Duck Ass takes a little while to get used to the WASD ship controls, which factor in wind to movement, adding a bit of strategy to ship on ship battles. Basically a ship has a cone on either side which is their targetablearea. You manuever the enemy into your cone, and fire, wait for your lazy crew to reload, and then fire again. Soon the enemy ship was vanquished, and it was time board and give their crew a patented Duck Ass-kicking.

Two NPCs companions spawned with the mighty captain as we boarded the obviously doomed ship...a lovely lady name of Rose and the stout and stalwart coxswain, which the gentleman walking me through the tutorial didn't pronounce nearly as funny as I felt he should have. Both fought bravely beside me, or rather in front of me, as I had already begun imagining how Captain Duck Ass would react to combat in real life...cautiously. They both bravely died in service to their captain, leaving enough of the last to villains for me to make a good show of killing them off dramatically. The encounter ended, I scuttle their ship, collect me booty, and head off to the land beyond the tutorial.

Land-Ho...or Sea Pimpin' Ain't Easy

While today the Bahamas are a popular vacation spot known for sandy beaches and cabana boys, in the 1700s they were only a newbie zone, known for starter quests and skill trainers. The atmosphere is amazing in the small port town I begin in, though several times Captain Duck Ass is distracted by inconsiderate people with more or better feathers in their hats than he has. One fellow on the docks has six feathers - three on each side. Preposterous. I must have it.

Anyway, my guide wanted me to head for a spot at the other end of the town to train, but I had a few things to take care of first, like listening to the British soldiers in cages on the side of the street whine about their sad fate, and figuring out how to switch from run to walk., the sign of a true roleplayer. Eventually Duck Ass makes it to the nefarious scoundrel Skill Trainer, so named for the skills he trains. Skills are broken into eight or possibly nine categories per class, with five ranks in each, allowing for customization as you grow in power. At level one there isn't much to choose from, so the devs have set up a quest that allows me to try out the advanced techniques available to my particular fighting style - dirty fighting.

Now You're Messin With a Son of a Bitch

Advanced combat works like this. You have your opening skills, which throw the enemy off balance, like parry. Once you parry, you can unleash your basic attacks, like slashing or delivering a spinning area attack. As you fight, a meter fills...almost like a combo meter for a World of Warcraft rogue...allowing you to unleash special attacks, and even devastating finishing moves. By far my most favorite moves in the game are the distraction techniques, integral to any dirty fighter's repertoire. Things like foot stomp, sand in the face, and grenade really drive home the point that Captain Duck Ass is no one to turn your back on.

To test out these newfound powers I was directed to a quest, in which the Mighty Duck Ass is to search a deserted island for possible signs that the Mayans are on the move. The Mayans are an ancient culture from South American, and much like the Phoenicians, rotten bastards. Now it's on.

Captain Duck Ass and the Lost City of Gold

If it were up to me, Duck Ass would have delegated the responsibility to some lesser deckhands and sat on the deck sunning himself for awhile, but the hand of fate instead cast him on a deserted island. Behind him the open sea and his sailing ship could be seen in the distance. Oh well. Secure in the knowledge that nothing ever happens on deserted islands, I journeyed forth.

The good captain made his way deeper into the jungle covering the island, noting that there were an awful lot of lit torches for a deserted island, and that sacrificed pirate atop that altar was highly suspicious indeed. While the flavor text wasn't in place, the story writer for the game was behind me, reciting the foreboding details of the dead pirate in a suitably foreboding voice. Duck Ass investigated, coming to the conclusion that this poor man must have fallen from the sky, patted him down for valuables and then wandered off towards the giant Mayan temple in the distance. His job was to discover proof that the Mayans were about, and that was probably a good place to start.

Aha! There, at the apex of the temple, was a shiny object set in stone, perfect for prying out and using as a quest objective, and wouldn't you know it, as soon as the captain pried it loose, Mayans appeared! Baseless savages with terrifying masks, rushing in to protect their artifact. Captain Duck Ass drew his swords, and bravely hid behind a pillar.

The devs and PR folks in the room burst out laughing. Apparently no one they'd walked through this mission had taken the more discreet route, which is always the better part of valor.

After dodging around a bit more i finally decided to take on the natives. I did die once, but soon got the hang of the combat system to the point where during the final battle against four Mayans I took out two with my first attack, swiftly dispatching their companions. Fueled by triumph and shaking his booty, the good Captain Duck Ass waved his pimp hat in the air and sailed off to the east, where according to the map a giant octopus awaited him. Note that the devs tinkered with the idea of putting a fake giant octopus out there just in case for curious folks like me, but they were kinda busy creating a giant pirate MMO.

Large Scale World Control PVP

Just to touch on what is probably the most intriguing feature of Pirates of the Burning Sea, the port control PVP aspect could take the MMO world by storm. Each of the four factions control several forts in the Caribbean. Owning a port allows members of that faction to build structures and harvest resources used in crafting items, along with various other benefits. Each port has an unrest level, which can be increased by members of other factions running missions or sinking their ships. Once the unrest level reaches the boiling point, large scale conflict breaks out.

This leads to a three day PVP battle around the port, where players of all factions can come and join in the fray. After three days, the top twenty-five members of each faction are pulled into a massive battle to determine who owns the port.

The beauty of the system is that even if you don't want to fight other players you can still run missions to contribute to the unrest points of any particular harbor.

Periodically the world will return to its default state. it wasn't uncommon for a port in those days to receive orders from Europe to relinquish control back to the original owner, so i isn't that far-fetched a concept. Once this reset occurs the faction with the most points (bit cloudy on this bit) is crowned the server victory, with all members of the faction receiving commendations good for buying powerful temporary items. The losers get a handicap in the form of free points towards the next round.

On PVP

Last but not least, here is how world PVP will work. Battles being fought will be displayed on the large travel map in the form of light-colored curcles. As you travel you'll be able to mouse over these circles and see what factions are fighting, the levels of the combatants, etc. If your peeps are fighting and you are of the appropriate level, you can choose to join in the battle, racing to your compatriots rescue. What starts as a one on one fight can easily escalate into a full-blown naval war. It sounds glorious.

Till We Meet Again, Captain Duck Ass

Despite my obvious ninja leanings, after actually playing Pirates of the Burning Sea I can safely say that this isn't the last we've seen of the good captain. Closed beta is starting soon, and the team hopes to have the game out by June. Originally the plan was to have the game available on Steam, the overwhelming response and excitement surrounding the title have prompted Flying Laps to look into a box release, in which case I gladly offer up my character from the test run as the cover model. Nothing says buy me like a man with long curly hair and a goatee wearing a pink and purple pirate pimp ensemble. Michael Fahey

So what's in store for the next LocoRoco? Don't be surprised if it turns out to be a PLAYSTATION 3 title. As everyone and their mother noticed, during the PlayStation Home Hall of Fame demonstration, the only game not already confirmed for the PS3 to be represented by a trophy was, of course, LocoRoco.

On top of that, series creator Tsutomu Kouno, after doubly confirming a sequel, said during yesterday's GDC snoozefest session "I would like to use a new way of playing the game for the next version of LocoRoco." But after refusing to confirm on what platform it would appear, added "I'm not going to betray your expectations." Good enough to say "confirmed"? No. Good enough for a Kotaku rumor with a question marked title? You bet.

We'll put a fiver on LocoRoco HD showing up in the PlayStation Store with SIXAXIS motion control this year. Any takers? (Please note that bets will not be honored.) Michael McWhertor

When Gamecock invited me to their coming out party at GDC this year I hearkened back to their days as Gathering of Developers and knew the party would be something to behold: I was not disappointed.

Shortly after 8 p.m. the doors opened at The Regency Center and we were escorted upstairs to the top floor, a place once used as a Masonic Temple to perform secret rituals. The entrance room was wood paneled and had a small fire going in a large fireplace.

The building and room was about 100 years old we were told, and their were stories of untimely deaths and perhaps a ghost or two.

The main party unraveled in the floor's central room with the help of a traveling band of Burning Man performers.

The cavernous room had walls of walnut and red felt, a blood red carpet and at one end a stage filled with a fantastic scene made of canvas and copper, paint and more than a bit of hell.

In the three-layered scene that stretched along the full length of the wall devils, serpents and the damned peopled the subterranean bowels of some piece of the underworld.

The music, performed by clown bass players, clown drummers and a clown keyboardist, throbbed, shaking the walls and floor of the former Masonic Lodge.

A whore circus of psychotic clown prostitutes cavorted in the room. Women in brassy blonde wigs, Crow make-up and fishnet stockings wiggled and Go-Go-ed on top of tables. A woman with white make-up and a red nose and dressed in candy cane leggings and an American flag shirt, tap danced loudly atop a piano resting in the center of the floor. Nearby a woman in bunny ears and a pink tutu quietly sipped a Martini. Above another woman dangled and swung from a trapeze.

It was the sort of scene that seemed destined to end with half of the crowd turning into vampires and the other half being consumed at midnight. But it went until 4 a.m. and the worst thing that happened was that we ran out of booze. Brian Crecente

There was this moment, just seconds after I sat down between Phil Harrison and David Karraker, when the entire table of bloggers, PR people and developers at Sony's Blogger Congress were quiet.

Then Dylan Jobe, Warhawk game director for Incognito, spoke up.

"Before we get started, I have something for Brian."

I noticed Jobe had a small box on the table in front of him. He is a big fan of Kotaku and was impressed with what the site did last week over the whole Sony Home dealio.

So he said he wanted to give me a present to thank me. Opening the box he revealed: A set of brass balls. Brian Crecente

I snap the picture and sadly return to my seat all the way in the back of the meeting room, but I'm lucky enough to have a chair to sit in. When I arrived at the venue the line was stretching far off into the hallway, and I was sure I was going to be turned away before I even got to the door.

I put on my special headset and listen to the music playing on it as Aonuma gets ready to speak. Since he will deliver the session in Japanese, us non-speakers have to listen to a woman over the headset who translates on the fly.

He begins by speaking about his hopes for Wind Waker. Despite critical acclaim the game did not perform as well as he had hoped in North America, and things were even worse in Japan. A phenomenon was occurring there which he calls gamer drift...gamers losing interest in games. They needed a new way to play games. Something that would bring back the old gamers, while reaching a whole new market. While the team was already working on Wind Waker 2, they found that toon-shading wasn't popular with the fans, while 3D gameplay that hadn't changed much since Ocarina of Time would get boring for older players while at the same time confusing the newer ones.

One answer they tried was connectivity. He explains that while connectivity had played a part in Wind Waker and other games, no other game had fully taken advantage of linking the GBA together with the Gamecube. Enter Four Swords. He was very hopeful for the success of the game, but it turns out people weren't happy with having to buy four GBA systems, and to the outsider the process seemed overcomplicated. Suppose the entire internet could have told him that, but even big time developers have their vision clouded sometimes.

Wind Waker had alienated their teen demographic and Japan needed a new way to play to get over the gamer drift, so Aonuma decided that he should create a game to cater to the North American audience since Japan was still uncertain. He decided to make a realistic Zelda game, announcing it at E3 2004. He was worried the staff working on Wind Waker 2 would be upset at the different direction, but they loved the idea.

Aonuma announced the game at E3 04, with a release target of 2005. People were intrigued, excited, overwhelmed, ecstatic, orgasmic, and several other adjectives.

Now he shows some footage from the prototype of Zelda DS, which would eventually go on to become The Phantom Hourglass. Originally the 3D portion was on the top, but the controls didn't really work. Moving right along.

He explains that he wanted to play with the concept of transformation. Light and dark, good and evil. Inspired by the bit in Link to the Past where Link becomes a bunny, he decides to explore the wild and heroic...link will become a wolf!

Aonuma left the game in the hands of the team and went to work on The Minish Cap, the game that brought Japan back and made the worries about gamer drift fade. Awww, he says that he had put himself so fully into the Minish cap in order to avoid the fear of not coming up with innovative gameplay for the adult Zelda.

In 2005 the response to the wolf Link was overwhelming, but there was still no real innovation. Time to break out the Miis!

Miyamoto said that the 'Revolution' would be the key to innovating the game, but Eiji says hewas torn...he didn't want to alienate the Gamecube users, and making different versions would push the game to 2006. Iwata had the answer.

Huzzah!

He says that since the hardware between the Gamecube and the Wii were not all that different, transferring the code was a snap. Now he details the control issues...the trial and error used to make the game feel right. He says that control was a problem with the E3 2006 demo, and his reactions when Miyamoto told him weren't all that positive.

Still, controls were ironed out. A new way of targeting, sword strokes with the wiimote taken out, then returned with a complete mirroring of the game's maps to make the right-handed sword holding make sense. Brilliant move there. Much better than trying to rework the entire character with only several months of development left.

Finally they did internal playtesting...he says that even the women in the office could play it, meaning it had to be good. Not sure what he is implying there ladies. He said it, not me.

The game finally came, and the rest is history.

He says he suffered a lot during the development process, but he says creation is about suffering...you must learn from your pain.

Now he talks for a bit about The Phantom Hourglass, explaining the multiplayer aspect. One player plays Link, the other plays three phantoms trying to stop him from collecting gems. The gems are of varying sizes and weights, which effect how fast or slow Link moves towards the base. He can only see the phantoms on the map when he is holding a gem, and they cannot see him in his base or a safe zone. Looks...interesting. Not exactly fun, but interesting. When one player loses the sides are swapped. Hmm.

And now his final parting words. It's about his family...his wife, and his 5 year old son. Dammit, what is it about you fathers putting your five year old sons into everything you do? Not to name names, but here and here and here.

Aww, his wife never plays games, and his son wanted a wiimote...not the Wii, but the wiimote, because he saw it on TV and it looked cool. His son loved Wii sports, and then played Zelda. Then one day he comes home to find his wife playing the game with his son.

And that wraps the whole thing up into a lovely package. Eiji Aonuma struggled for years to come up with something that would be special enough for fans and new gamers to enjoy, and is paid off by discovering his non-gaming wife playing the game he created with his son. What a heartwarming tale, with a storybook ending. And they all lived happily ever after. Michael Fahey