Atlus is mastering the art of the delay lately, having pushed back the DS title Class of Heroes to June just a few short days ago. Now it's Steal Princess' turn, being delayed so as to make sure more people purchase it, which seems like a pretty wise decision.

"Releasing a few weeks later gives us more time to familiarize gamers with this creative, original title," stated Tim Pivnicny, VP of Sales and Marketing at Atlus. "Because Steal Princess will be available through fewer sales channels and in smaller quantities than other Atlus releases, finding the optimal launch conditions is critical to ensuring that this daring new release avoids getting lost in an already busy April."

In the meantime, Atlus offers us a glimpse at the lovely mini-poster pack inside every copy, perfect for decorating your favorite mini-wall.

To learn more about Steal Princess, visit the game's official website, preferably before the new May 19th release date, lest they delay it again.

The trailer shows that the new game from The Behemoth, makers of Castle Crashers, appears to be a cooperative platformer.

Due out in 2010, the title, price, platform or details beyond this trailer remain unknown. Whatever it turns out to be, it does look fun. One request though, keep that soundtrack. We need more opera in video games.

It's a trailer. [The Behemoth]

It's not the "something wonderful is about to happy!" message that has people talking, it's the tiny green A button stuck in the bottom right corner of the speech box.

Could it mean that the game is soon to appear on the Xbox 360's arcade? With the Game Developers Conference right around the corner, I imagine we won't have long to find out.

SOMETHING AWESOME THIS WAY COMES [Polytron, via infinite lives]

I often hear longtime platformer fans complain they don't make 'em like they used to, and bemoan the perceived "selling out" of their favorite mascot franchises, when all they want is the great gap-skipping of old that they remember from their younger days.

Most of us were kids during the 3D platformer heyday. So maybe, though, just maybe, if any of those games were to be released today, we'd say they looked like children's games. Brash Entertainment's upcoming Space Chimps film tie-in platformer is a kids' game, and giving it a whirl today was what made me think about days of yore.

It doesn't look too fancy, and it's aimed to be friendly to the younger set. But it sure took me back a bit, which was a surprisingly fun experience.

Space Chimps is hitting Xbox 360, Wii, DS and PS2 on July 15th, just a bit ahead of the film. I was only vaguely aware there was a film - it's summertime, after all, and between Kung-Fu Panda and Wall-E, I asked the rep if Brash was a little bit concerned about the release timing. Why not wait until there's a bit more of a lull in the mascot-led, kid-friendly animated flicks?

"I do think with school out, we'll be in good shape," she told me.

The game's based on the upcoming film, and features animated cutscenes from it, which looked adorable on the Xbox 360. The basic premise is that a pair of NASA chimps, descendants of the very first space monkeys, find themselves on an alien planet, tasked with rescuing its citizens from the rule of an evil overworld.

The Space Chimps game lets you play as either Ham the Third, the male monkey, or Luna, his female cohort, depending on what sequence you're playing through. Ham can brawl and do a sort of diving headbutt, while Luna soon picks up a little lizard buddy (exclusive to the game) who can ride on her sleeve and act as a first-person gun. There are also little exploding red dudes called Plodeys that you can pick up to hurl at walls to open new doors and solve puzzles.

After clearing an area with Ham, by beating up some spear-toting hostile aliens and opening my way forward with a Plodey, I got to navigate Luna through a cavern of rivers and floes. Leaping on chunks of stone as they fell down a waterfall (that was either hot, or poisonous, or just generally hazardous enough to induce death) reminded me of the simplicity of the early 3D platformers - and the frustration, too, which was not necessarily a bad thing.

With Luna, I knocked off the head of a statue and carried it to a button, which would keep the platform I needed from sinking. The whole works was old-school, and nothing real snazzy to look at, but the chimps look cute, the film looks like it could be lots of fun, to the extent that those character flicks always do, and I was surprised at how long I spent playing it.

Maybe I miss my roots? What do you guys think - do you miss the old 3D platformers? Think your current age has anything to do with it? Would you play a "kids' game" if it reminded you of what you used to enjoy?

SEGA Announces 'Crush', A Mind-Bending New Puzzle Game Exclusively For The PSP System

Think Swiftly, Think Unconventionally, Think Crush.

SAN FRANCISCO & LONDON (January 23, 2007) - SEGA of America, Inc. and SEGA Europe, Ltd. today announced that Crush , an inventive new puzzle game for the PSP (PlayStation Portable) system, is currently in development and scheduled for release in Summer 2007. Developed by U.K. based Kuju Brighton, Crush is an exciting new concept which challenges how players traditionally approach games with its intriguing new style of thought-provoking gameplay.

Unique to its genre, Crush introduces a valuable new gaming experience that is wholly suited to the PSP system. Set within a complex, hypnotic 3D world, players will use the game's unique crush mechanic to "crush" the environment and transform it into a more simplified 2D platformer. Once flattened, players will utilize the 2D space to move to new areas to solve otherwise impossible challenges, and unlock secret items that were previously unobtainable in the 3D environment. Players will then "uncrush" the 2D environment and return to the 3D world.

"Crush introduces a fascinating new gameplay perspective on the PSP that encourages players to stretch their imagination in a whole new way," said Scott A. Steinberg, Vice President of Marketing, SEGA of America, Inc. "The spatial concept of the crushing mechanic is something truly unique that encourages users to think back and forth between 3D and 2D objects and environments to engage different parts of their brain, and see beyond what is literally in front them."

Designed for a wide and varied audience, Crush tells the story of Dan, a man with a lifetime of unresolved issues and bottled up emotions that has turned him into a nervous insomniac who is too tired to turn his life around. Desperate for a cure, he turns to hypnosis. It is during this state that he is given one last chance to sort through the wreckage of his past, before he loses the last thing he has - his sanity.

Crush is scheduled for release in Summer 2007. For assets, screenshots, and a video of the crush mechanic, please visit http://segapr.segaamerica.com. For more information, please visit www.sega.com/crush.

About SEGA of America, Inc.
SEGA of America, Inc. is the American Publishing arm of Tokyo, Japan-based SEGA Corporation, a worldwide leader in interactive entertainment both inside and outside the home. The company develops, publishes and distributes interactive entertainment software products for a variety of hardware platforms including PC, wireless devices, and those manufactured by Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. The SEGA of America Web Site is located at www.SEGA.com.

About SEGA Europe Ltd.
SEGA Europe Ltd. is the European Publishing arm of Tokyo, Japan-based SEGA Corporation, and a worldwide leader in interactive entertainment both inside and outside the home. The company develops, publishes and distributes interactive entertainment software products for a variety of hardware platforms including PC, wireless devices, and those manufactured by Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. The SEGA Europe Ltd. Web site is located at www.sega-europe.com.

Details are scarce for us English-only readers, but it appears that Wario will have a total of seven "disguises" that will help him progress through levels. These disguises appear to be enabled by using the stylus to draw things—like SCUBA helmets for underwater zones, for example.

As the resident Wario uber-fanboy at Kotaku, I'm desperately trying to contain my enthusiasm for this game. However, I humbly and sincerely request that you check out the latest shots over at Jeux France. It may not have the art style that I prefer, but, for crying out loud, it's WARIO. Michael McWhertor

Wario the Thief: more images

Last time we posted about the sublime freeware platformer Cave Story and its upcoming migration to the PSP, many of you called me out, claiming that this project by Variant Interactive was widely known to be an unauthorized port. Pixel had apparently decried it. I was so swayed by the collective voice that I urged none of you to buy it.

Christopher Boyer, CEO of Variant Interactive, was wounded to the quick and sent me an email, explaining the situation:

f I might, I'd like to clear up what amounts to speculation from Wikipedia and a couple of folks on Livejournal. The ugliness started with a kid who I suppose is a regular in some Cave Story fan community on Livejournal.com, who sent Pixel an email, or posted on his BBS (one of the two, I'm not sure at this point) about the PSP version. Pixel, who does not speak English, didn't quite catch the gist of what he was saying and told him he didn't know what the kid was talking about. This kid took it to mean that Pixel had never heard of us or what we were doing. Hence the drama bomb.

The truth of the situation is that I've personally been in contact with Pixel, both one-on-one with my mediocre Japanese skills, and through a wonderful translator for the big stuff (and pretty much everything, at this point) since early 2005.

We are clearing each and every step with Pixel before we move forward on just about anything, and are about to wrap up an early build for him to preview and put his OK stamp on.

This is excellent news, and Christopher insisted that they were actually going to be sending Pixel a good chunk of change for the port.

Even more clarification, after the jump...

I was slightly less optimistic, though, about Christopher's bomb-shell announcement that Cave Story for the PSP was going to feature a complete graphical overhaul:

Primarily, the game is intended to be exactly what it is, with a facelift, as the main goal is to get Cave Story to a wider audience and share that experience. (The facelift, sadly, is a necessity for this - not everyone is into the retro look and feel, and a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down, so to speak.) We are absolutely planning other ways to expand the gameplay and make it a worthwhile purchase for old fans and soon-to-be-fans alike.

I asked him to clarify his intentions of giving a facelift to only some of the most beautiful and lovingly wrought pixel art to grace gaming in the last 15 years. Christopher soothed some of those fears:

It's like this. You and I both love Cave Story as it is. Piles of people love Cave Story as it is. We love its charming 8-Bit look and retro style and feel. And I'm sure you'd agree that the more people who can play Pixel's masterpiece, the better right?

But, not everyone will pick up on the game's oldskool flavor, precisely because it looks and sounds dated. What we are simply doing, with the main game mode, is bringing it to modern day standards, so more people will be interested in playing the game who aren't or haven't been into the indie game scene. That is what I mean when I say we are giving the game a facelift. We do intend to make it possible for people to play the game exactly as it was originally created as well, for those who want the original game exactly as it was, too. I don't want to rob anyone of that experience.

As much as I think these people who won't pick up on the game's "oldskool flavor" are dogs who should be shot in the gutters, this actually seems like the ideal solution. Those who'd like to play the game in a graphically updated version, full of buxom babes, he-man cyborgs and blood-splattering Uzis can do so. But those who simply want a portable and faithful version of, well, the most charming platformer ever made will have that option too. And expanding gameplay? Sounds like a good reason to pick up what's already a free game. Florian Eckhardt

Ubisoft Confirms Rayman 4 [1UP]