But does he want to make sequels to those old titles?

"I don't have the rights to any of the IPs that I've made," Kamiya told Game Informer. "They belong to the companies that publish them, and they're a business so they have a right to exploit those IPs as they want.... However, to be completely honest, I'd love to do them myself."

Kamiya said he was interested in making an Okami sequel, but isn't anymore now that Capcom is making another Okami title, Okamiden.

"Once someone else touches a world that you yourself created it stops being yours," Kamiya explained. "There is no point in making a sequel when the world doesn't belong to you."

Viewtiful Joe is probably all he's got left, Kamiya noted. "That story is incomplete so I'd like to finish it someday," he added. "But that would probably be the most difficult one to do." Yeah, especially because Capcom owns the IP.

Kamiya Wants To Return To Viewtiful Joe, Not Okami - News [GI]

What some have been referring to as "the next Power Rangers console game to be released after Power Rangers: Dino Thunder", I will forever remember as the one game at Comic Con that disappointed me most.

After waiting in an extremely short line—no player stood taller than 4 feet—I got an opportunity to get my hands on the warm DualShock still sticky from juice box run-off for a chance to take out whatever enemy it is the Power Rangers normally battle.

Getting a grip on the Power Rangers mythos wasn't an easy task, but seemed essential to understanding my pink ranger's motivation to hit stuff. My research consisted of eavesdropping on a conversation between what appeared to be a grown man and Disney Interactive rep, both of whom seemed to know a lot about the show. It is just a TV show, right? One that's about punching and kicking things? Armed with that knowledge, I was ready to have at it.

Having watched my 6 and 7-year old peers struggle to play the game's co-operative mode, I began to fantasize about playing an undiscovered gem of a 2.5D brawler. Could this be the next Viewtiful Joe? It was cel-shaded after all. Plus, I just assumed that these children, barely able to wrap their longest digits around to the L1 and R1 buttons, simply didn't understand what I envisioned to be a deep fighting system.

There was wall-jumping, gun play, finishing moves, speed dodging and what appeared to be solid fisticuffs. Power Rangers: Super Legends also had what seemed like plenty of item collecting bonuses, with hidden power ups and collectibles that would take expert platforming skills to reach. I simply couldn't wait to be the one to dust off this diamond in the rough.

After dispatching a handful of bad guys, it became clear that the nuances of the fighting engine would take some time to unravel. Would it take timing? Creative button combinations? Pressing X more? It certainly wasn't challenging, so I experimented.

Yet I failed to truly enjoy myself.

With a few dozen (hundred?) brawls under my pink ranger's belt, I couldn't quite grasp what I had initially presumed to be so enjoyable about the title. Was I missing something? The graphics were clean, the animation fluid, the mechanics potentially workable—so why did Power Rangers: Super Legends not succeed in maintaining my interest through countless rounds of karate kicking, gun blasting and crate smashing?

Turns out the game actually just sucks.

Dust off that box covered with Animal Crossing stickers, it's time to remember at the top ten games you loved (in my case) a year ago. But for all of you out there in Kotaku-land who already sold your box to buy something newer and shinier, this should make you reconsider picking one up at the next garage sale you crash.

I've already been inspired to find that infectious Mario Sunshine soundtrack. Kim Phu

Screw Attack's Gamecube Farewell [Gametrailers]

He was about as blunt as one could be. Here's the Q&A.

When you looked over the games that came from Clover Studios, why do you think that audiences didn't respond to those games, Okami and Viewtiful Joe in particular, which got excellent reviews?

Perhaps I might get into trouble if I say this in front of people from the mass media. Games are not a work of art. It's actually a product. If we think of it as a work of art, then... when we think about Picasso and Van Gogh's paintings, the end result is beauty, so it doesn't matter if you sell it or not. However for games, it's a product. It is a commodity. The producer has to think about that.

Okami and Viewtiful Joe, I think, are wonderful games and because they are wonderful games I think, the job of the director was fantastic. But the producer didn't do his work. The producers work is to make the team make good games and then sell those games. The producer has to do the promotion. They have to think about the promotion. The producer has to take those good games and think about how to deliver it to as many users as possible. Certainly to get good reviews is part of his job. However, the producer has to make sure the game sells [on par with the review]. I think the producer dropped the ball there. Capcom said they would do it, but Clover said "Oh, we'll do it ourselves." And I think this was a failure.

Great directors may exist in great numbers, however, if you don't have a good producer it won't lead to sales. And I think this Clover Studios example is a really good example of that.

Daaaamn! Who knew Keiji could be so harsh? Let's hope Clover producer Atsushi Inaba has better sales success at his new venture Seeds. Michael McWhertor

The saddest entry on the list though, in my opinion, is the Viewtiful Joe franchise. After an amazingly creative debut, my enthusiasm for the character and the gameplay plummeted at record speeds.

Read on for an appropriately jaded look at the best games that have simply worn out their welcome. Michael McWhertor

The Top 7... series run into the ground [Games Radar]

Backwards compatibility is a tricky thing. Seems so simple: Make the new machine so it can play old games. But, alas, difficult. According to one reader, the Nintendo Wii joins the ranks of the Xbox 360 and the PS3 as yet another console that can't quite get its BC on.

Kotakuite Chris writes:

I popped Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour into my Wii. It started loading my saved data off the memory card, but stopped in the middle of it, and displayed this message: "An error has occured. Please turn the power off and refer to the Nintendo GameCube instruction booklet for more information."

I tried switching memory cards, and got the same message. I tried having no memory card inserted, and after selecting to continue without saving, got the same message. I plugged my GameCube back in, and tried the same thing with the same disc, and it all worked perfectly fine.

Chris says GC titles Smash Bros. and Viewtiful Joe come up kosher on the Wii. Anyone else having BC issues or just this dude? Brian Ashcraft

Sick of hearing about how Capcom smothered Clover Studios with a giant throw pillow and left the arty studio for dead in a dumpster out by the airport? Me neither! Gamasutra's Brandon Sheffield has an insightful interview with Atsushi Inaba from way back at TGS, way back when there was still a Clover Studios. While the word has always been that Clover was a word play on "creativity lover," Inaba points out:

Well we thought pretty hard about it, and it comes from Mikami's name and mine. It takes the 'mi' from his name, meaning three, and the 'ba' from my name, meaning leaf. Put those together and it's 'three leaves,' so even though the logo is a four-leaf clover, the idea actually comes from what plant would have three leaves.

An unlucky clover at that. Brian Ashcraft

Interview with Inaba [Gamasutra]

As of today, the studio behind Viewtiful Joe, Okami and God Hand is no more. Clover Studio was shuttered by main shareholder Capcom. At a Board of Directors' meeting was held, and it was decided that Clover should dissolved. The reason? According to the Capcom IR release:

Clover Studio Co., Ltd. has met the goal of developing unique and creative original home video game software, however, in view of promoting a business strategy that concentrates management resources on a selected business to enhance the efficiency of the development power of the entire Capcom group, the dissolution of Clover Studio Co., Ltd. has been raised and passed at a Board of Directors' meeting.

The studio was established on July 1, 2004 and takes its name, "clover," from an abbreviation of "creativity lover." Under president and CEO Atsushi Inaba and Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami, the studio turned out a handful of inventive titles that were anything but mainstream. Sales, unfortunately, reflected that, and Capcom management took action. It's okay to love creativity, just don't expect it to turn a profit. Clover Studio will be officially liquidated March 2007. Brian Ashcraft

Read The Depressing Release [Capcom, Thanks Torokun!]

Some of the titles on hand and announced for release this year include:

Dead Rising (Xbox 360)
Lost Planet (Xbox 360)
Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting (Xbox Live Arcade)
Okami (PS2)
Street Fighter Alpha Anthology (PS2) including Super Gem Fighter!!
Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins (PSP)
Mega Man Powered Up (PSP)
Power Stone Collection (PSP)
Capcom Puzzle World (PSP)
... and so much more!

Check out more Capcom Gamers Day Coverage at Gamespot , 1UP, Gamespy

Jeux France has an interview up with the Capcom team that worked on Viewful Joe. The interview is mildly interesting (perhaps only because my French sucks?), but the pictures that accompany the text are fantastic. Capcom, it seems, was kosher with a buncha journos snooping around their Osaka offices with a digicam. Or perhaps, they're just finding out right about now. More glimpses behind the curtain after the jump.

Umeda in Osaka [Jeux-France]

Two new Viewtiful Joe titles hit stores today. Viewtiful Red Hot Rumble for the GameCube continues the run of the successful franchise, but this time adds multiplayer smack-downs to the list of features. Viewtoful Double Trouble hits the DS with the same Cel-shading that made the franchise so unforgettable. While the game adds Joe s little sister Jasmine to the mix, the big change is the use of the touchscreen. Here s a break down of some of the touchy features:

o Scratch Shake the world with this power to have items fall from the sky and crash onto the heads of enemies
o Split Split the touch screen in half and slide the top section left or right
o Slide Swap the top screen and touch screen to stop an enemy in its tracks
o Touch While performing a Slide, use Touch to move around objects

Looks like the Warner Brothers have signed up for some Viewtiful Joe goodness. The Kids WB announced today that they have ordered 26 episodes of the cartoon based on the video game. The network will air the show on Saturdays starting this fall and I predict it will suck major ass.

"Viewtiful Joe" Comes to Kids WB This Fall [Toon Zone, thanks Chrono]