Morrigan. Dontcha just lurrrrrve her? Considering there hasn't been a new DarkStalkers game in years, it's amazing to me how popular Morrigan and Felicia remain with gamers and anime-heads alike. But I guess near-porn statues like this go pretty far in explaining their ongoing popularity.This PVC statue from Max Factor will set Japanese pervs back $130 when it is released in July. Fire up your hentai import search engines posthaste!

Thanks, Kotaku, for pointing this piece out!

This is why you prolly are still not seeing Battlestar Galactica in HD where you live.

Watch the video above, and forever mourn the early loss of Bruce Lee. PS: it's fake and an ad for a Chinese mobile, but is still superbitchin'. Rekkaken!

Diifii unleashes another YouTube epic, filled with gleeful hyperbole, flailing hands, gameplay video and the occasional muppet. This time, our intrepid Big Smile Reviewer digs into the bosses of Maximo: Army of Zin and he likes what he sees. Watching this clip made me remember how great the two Maximo games were. Man, we need to dig him back up and give him a next gen spin.

Why doesn't anyone at IGN, 1up or Gamespot have a third of this energy or enthusiasm about games?

I believe that Capcom has possibly the most talented pool of game designers on the planet. Keep in mind that I get paid to talk pretty about Capcom for a living as you read that sentence, but also note that I joined up with this company (twice!) because, as a gamer, I love 90% of the games that Capcom has ever published*. There are many reasons that Capcom inspires love from so many gamers on such a consistent basis, but it always comes back to the people who actually make the games. Since Day One and throughout the company's 25 year history, Capcom has been able to hire and inspire the right creative types, be it artists like Ikeno-san, Akiman or Bengus, or design geniuses like Inafune-san, Mikami-san, Kobayashi-san or Ben Judd.

James Mielke over at the good airship EGM/1up spent some time in Japan back in the late spring, conducting interviews with a wide range of super-creative Japanese game developers, artists and composers. Most of his work turned up in a stellar feature article in the September issue of EGM, and has since rolled out to 1up.com. Milkman shot us a series of Qs for three of Capcom's current top developers -- Keiji Inafune, Jun Takeuchi and Ryozo Tsujimoto -- and the As we received from the three of them in turn totally blew my mind.  In all my years of facilitating interviews between media and game developers, I have never, ever seen or heard such great, thoughful answers come back. All three of our guys spoke their minds, made critical assesments of the games industry in general and Japanese game development in particular, talked about creating games with universal appeal and even exposed some of their secret sauce for making the hotness that Capcom is known for.

It's rare for Japanese developers to speak their minds in totally open and honest ways; Japanese business culture and etiquette usually boxes developers into making very low-key, almost apologetic responses, usually capped with heart-breaking entreaties to please enjoy their game or to forgive any potential errors. If you're interested in why this mode of communication is so prevalent in just about any non-Itagaki Japanese interview you'll ever read/see, check out this book. In the meantime, enjoy these thought-provoking responses from Capcom.

Inafune-san

Tsujimoto-san

Currently there is a bit of a SNAFU on 1up, and they've accidentally misplaced Takeuchi-san's responses. I'll update this entry when his interview is posted.

Special shout-out to Capcom Japan marketing staffers Kanda, Yoko, and Emi as well as CEI's Keeper of Secrets^TMand International Problem Solver Kaori for not only making these interviews happen but also providing awesome translation.

* Once again, Auto Modelista and Final Fight Streetwise blow the curve.