Old-School RPG Dragon Fantasy: Book II Coming to PS3, Vita

Not too long ago, tiny developer Muteki Corporation created an old-school inspired RPG for PC and iOS called Dragon Fantasy. And its sequel, Dragon Fantasy: Book II, is coming to PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita.

“With the support of SCEA’s Pub Fund,” which supports independent developers looking to bring their wares to PlayStation platforms, Muteki Corporation is toiling away on the 16-bit sequel to its original 8-bit throwback. So gamers who loved SNES RPGs have something to look forward to here.

The ins and outs of Dragon Fantasy: Book II can be found in a lengthy post on the PlayStation Blog. But let’s just say that with discussions surrounding Mode 7 and more, the old-school pedigree of Muteki Corporation is pretty well-established.

Look for more coverage on Dragon Fantasy: Book II for PS3 and Vita in the coming months.

Colin Moriarty is an IGN PlayStation editor. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN and learn just how sad the life of a New York Islanders and New York Jets fan can be.

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PlayStation All-Stars Dream Roster: Mega Man

Ever since PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale was rumored, IGN's been pitching characters that need to be in the game. Well, after the leak, it appears developer SuperBot Entertainment isn't listening. So, IGN's Podcast Beyond is teaming with IGN reader Pandamusk to create videos for the fighters we think need to be in the game.

This week, we're pitching Mega Man.

Who do you think should be in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale? Let us know in the comments below. Plus, check out our past installments...

• Heavy Rain's Ethan Mars
• Crash Bandicoot's Crash Bandicoot
• The Sound Shapes Blob

Greg is the executive editor of IGN PlayStation, cohost of Podcast Beyond and host of Up at Noon. Follow IGN on Twitter, and keep track of Greg's shenanigans on IGN and Twitter. Beyond!

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Walking Dead Episode 3: 'As Soon as Next Week'

If you're anxious to get into The Walking Dead: The Game -- Episode 3: Long Road Ahead, you're not alone. While we let you know the other week that developer Telltale Games was ready to submit the game for approval, we didn't know a release date. We still don't, but Telltale says it could be any day now.

"Episode Three: Long Road Ahead is in submission with our first party partners and we are anxiously awaiting a release date to be confirmed," a Telltale rep said. "We anticipate that this could be as soon as next week, and as soon as we have a confirmation on all platforms, we’ll be letting everyone know as soon as it happens."

So, keep your eyes here on IGN for the final news on the final release date. Until then, check out the new episode of Telltale's Playing Dead, which includes an introduction to Christa and Omid, two new characters coming in Episode 3. They pop up around the 7-minute 30-second mark in the video.

Greg is the executive editor of IGN PlayStation, cohost of Podcast Beyond and host of Up at Noon. Follow IGN on Twitter, and keep track of Greg's shenanigans on IGN and Twitter. Beyond!

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Halo 4 Achievement List Revealed

Halo 4's achievement list has been revealed by developer 343 Industries, offering some slim insight into what tasks we'll undertake in the game.

Beware of spoilers below. There's nothing too soul-shatteringly revelatory, but don't say you haven't been warned.

“

Developing and designing these game-specific challenges might seem simple but is quite a bit more complex once you begin digging into the psychology of a gamer.

The achievements on offer were revealed in an update on Halo Waypoint by community manager Jessica Shea, who also explained some of the reasoning that went into the achievements' design.

"Developing and designing these game-specific challenges might seem simple but is quite a bit more complex once you begin digging into the psychology of a gamer," she shared.

"Our primary goal when creating Halo 4’s achievements was to reward milestones and increase replay value while balancing both difficulty and the breadth of game modes.

"Our secondary goal was to live up to Halo tradition with weird ass names for some of them (hello, The Dongblainer!). While you will only be able to speculate on the exact nature of some of these achievements, here’s a peek at their very basic in-game descriptions."

So, without further ado, the achievements you'll be testing your Spartan training to breaking point to achieve are:

• Dawn - Complete Mission 1 on any difficulty - (10 Points)
• Requiem - Complete Mission 2 on any difficulty - (10 Points)
• Forerunner - Complete Mission 3 on any difficulty - (10 Points)
• Infinity - Complete Mission 4 on any difficulty - (10 Points)
• Reclaimer - Complete Mission 5 on any difficulty - (10 Points)
• Shutdown - Complete Mission 6 on any difficulty - (10 Points)
• Composer - Complete Mission 7 on any difficulty - (10 Points)
• Midnight - Complete Mission 8 on any difficulty - (10 Points)
• Wake up John - Complete the Campaign on Normal or harder - (20 Points)
• I Need a Hero - Complete the Campaign on Heroic or harder - (40 Points)
• The Legend of 117 - Complete the Campaign on Legendary difficulty - (70 Points)
• Lone Wolf Legend - Complete the Campaign solo on Legendary difficulty - (90 Points)
• Skullduggery - Complete any Campaign mission with 3 or more Skulls on Heroic or harder - (15 Points)
• Bropocalypse - Complete any Campaign mission co-operatively on Heroic or harder - (10 Points)
• Bromageddon - Complete the Campaign co-operatively on Heroic or harder - (40 Points)
• Contact the Domain - Find a Terminal in the Campaign - (10 Points)
• Terminus - Find all of the Terminals in the Campaign - (50 Points)
• Digging up the Past - In Mission 1, find and access Chief's record - (20 Points)
• Midnight Launch - In Mission 2, get significant air in the Warthog at midnight - (20 Points)
• This is my Rifle, this is my Gun - In Mission 3, carry a UNSC weapon all the way through on Heroic or harder - (20 Points)
• Bros to the Close - Make it through Mission 4 without one preventable Marine death on Heroic or harder - (20 Points)
• Mortardom - In Mission 5, hijack a Wraith and use it to kill at least four enemy Wraiths on Heroic or harder - (20 Points)
• Explore the Floor - In Mission 6, trick or force a Hunter to fall to his demise - (20 Points)
• Give Him the Stick - In Mission 7 in solo Campaign, take out both Hunters using only the Sticky Detonator - (20 Points)
• Chief, Smash! - In Mission 8, kill 3 Crawlers in one hit with the Gravity Hammer - (20 Points)
• Not Some Recruit Anymore - Rank up your Spartan-IV to SR-5 - (15 Points)
• Movin' on Up - Rank up your Spartan-IV to SR-20 - (30 Points)
• I ♥ Red vs Blue - Win 5 War Games matchmaking matches - (10 Points)
• The Dongblainer - Win 20 War Games matchmaking matches - (30 Points)
• Operation Completion - Complete a Spartan Ops Mission on any difficulty - (15 Points)
• A Legendary Episode - Complete all chapters in Spartan Ops Episode 1 on Legendary difficulty - (40 Points)
• Dedicated to Crimson - Complete all chapters in the first 5 episodes of Spartan Ops on any difficulty - (80 Points)
• Crimson Alone - Complete a Spartan Ops chapter solo on Legendary - (20 Points)
• Roses vs Violets - Find one of the RvB Easter Eggs in Spartan Ops - (20 Points)
• Rescue Ranger - Save at least one Marine in Chapter 3 of Episode 2 of Spartan Ops on Heroic or harder - (20 Points)
• Knight in White Assassination - Assassinate a Knight in any Spartan Ops mission - (20 Points)
• What Power Outage? - Complete Chapter 4, Episode 5 of Spartan Ops without losing a generator on Heroic or harder - (20 Points)
• No Easy Way Out - In Ch 1, Ep 5 of Spartan Ops survive all enemy waves during the defense on Normal or harder - (20 Points)
• The Challenged - Complete a Challenge - (10 Points)
• The Challenger - Complete 25 Challenges - (20 Points)
• Armorer - Change your Spartan's armor in the Spartan Armor card - (5 Points)
• Badge - Change your Emblem in the Spartan ID card - (5 Points)
• PWND - Change your Service Tag in the Spartan ID card - (5 Points)
• What a Poser! - Change your Spartan's pose in the Spartan ID card - (5 Points)
• The Cartographer - Create and save a Custom Map in Forge - (5 Points)
• Game Changer - Create and save a Custom Game type in War Games - (5 Points)
• Snapshot! - Save a Screenshot from the Theater - (5 Points)
• The Director - Save a Film Clip from the Theater - (5 Points)
• Sharing is Caring - Upload a File to your File Share - (5 Points)

Halo 4 will release on Xbox 360 on November 6.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

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Wield Godlike Power in Harold, a Playable Saturday Morning Cartoon

“My goal is to create a downloadable game with the quality of a triple-A game.”

Sure, like I haven’t heard a game developer tell me that a thousand times before. But for Moonspider Studios CEO Loris Malek, he’s taking aim at his goal by somewhat nontraditional gaming means: he’s hired a team of the most talented 2D animators he can find and is creating a Don Bluth cartoon that happens to be playable with a controller.

Yes, animation has been given top priority in Harold, a sidescrolling platformer where you control a veritable doofus. See, you’re a guardian angel’s apprentice, and in order get your people-protecting Master’s degree, as it were, you must complete the final exam in which you steer the clumsy Harold through timed obstacle runs where pratfalls and dangers constantly befall him.

The obstacle course also happens to be a race against other sad-sack mortals, however, so you’re competing with your fellow guardian angel apprentices for the top finish times. As such, you’ll need to egg Harold on with divine bolts of lightning, sabotage other racers, and use your godlike powers to look ahead in the race and clear a path for Harold as he ignorantly runs toward certain death.

And prepping the course for a smooth run is all you need to worry about, big job though it may be, as you don’t actually control Harold’s movements outside of jumping. Like the 2009 LucasArts platformer Lucidity, the stage is constantly advancing and you can’t stop it. Your job is to make sure Harold doesn’t kill himself, thereby causing you to flunk your guardian angel SAT.

Things start simply enough, but before long you’ll be constantly juggling hazards and looking for any shortcut you can in order to shave precious seconds off of Harold’s time. Gators ahead in a river you need to traverse? Give ‘em a holy whack on the noggin with your divine hammer. Is Harold nervously tiptoeing across a teetering plank bridge? Give him a nudge forward by pulling the bridge tight at each end and then release it to rubber-band snap the young man into gear. A total of four worlds – desert, jungle, beach, and snow – house multiple stages each, adding up to a pre-replayability total of about 6-8 hours of gameplay.

And as for those animations? You truly have not seen a video game look like this since…well, ever. “I wanted to make the first game that would look like a Walt Disney movie,” Malek says enthusiastically.

It shows. Film-quality cartoon cutscenes form the introductory sequence, finale, map introductions, and even mid-race moments. Harold is one game where you’re not likely to want to skip any of the cutscenes. Now that would be a divine miracle.

Ryan McCaffrey is the Executive Editor at IGN Xbox. He used to own a DeLorean, which is weird. Follow him on Twitter, on IGN, catch him on Podcast Unlocked, and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.

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No Single-Player for Command & Conquer: Generals 2 at Release

Command & Conquer: Generals 2 will apparently launch without a single-player campaign, according to developer Bioware Victory.

In an interview with PC Gamer, the company's general manager John Van Caneghem explained that “co-operative and competitive” skirmishes would be the main focus of the title initially, with other modes being added later based on community feedback.

“

We decided to choose Generals as the first set of games we build under the universe, but we’ll be expanding after that, like Tiberium and Red Alert as well as some others as well.

Speaking about the potential of a story campaign being one such mode, Van Caneghem said, "It is something we haven’t announced yet how we’re going to do it." He explained that one of the main benefits of the game being online was that it facilitated the easy testing of new play styles, claiming, "As a live service I think the exciting part is you can try things. You can see what the community wants, you can give it a shot, you can put it up for a weekend and see how it goes, develop towards what the fans like."

While he didn't comment on EA's decision to make the game free-to-play, he did reveal that Command & Conquer: Generals 2 will be the first in a new series of online C&C games that explore the series' history.

"We decided to choose Generals as the first set of games we build under the universe, but we’ll be expanding after that, like Tiberium and Red Alert as well as some others as well," he said. "Generals 2 was the first one, and it was one of the biggest sellers, as well as the fanbase has been asking for it for some time."

He rounded up the interview by explaining that Bioware Victory is keen for the upcoming RTS game to break onto the e-sports scene. To this end, alongside multiplayer deathmatch and co-operative modes, Van Caneghem claimed that, "We’re really going to run the gambit of what people enjoy in a multiplayer environment.

"I don’t think we’re making a list of the features yet, but I think you can basically make a list of the assumed ones that you’d need to be an e-sports game, and it’s definitely part of the plan," he added.

Command & Conquer: Generals 2 will release as a free-to-play title on PC sometime in 2013, but you can register your interest for the beta now.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant and once almost died trying to build a home-made Tesla Coil. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

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Dance Central 3 is the Time (Machine) of Your Life

Challengers come and go and market environments change, but Boston-area developer Harmonix Music Systems endures – and even thrives. Whether it’s the rise and fall of the plastic-instrument craze (Rock Band remains standing – supported by weekly DLC and a new Xbox Live Arcade game called Rock Band Blitz – while Guitar Hero is ashes), or the battle to capitalize on motion controls that’s currently being fought by the sublime Dance Central, the studio has a knack for keeping the beat going no matter what. And perhaps no game better exemplifies that than Dance Central 3, which manages to spit and polish the Kinect’s best experience to a level we didn’t think possible. We got the full scoop on what’s new, and there’s a lot to share.

First is the story – yes, story – that threads Dance Central 3’s campaign. You’re a new recruit invited to a mysterious underground dance party that turns out to be the secret headquarters for DCI – Dance Central Intelligence – “the city’s first and last line against dance crimes.” The evil Dr. Tan returns from DC2, and he wants to end your dance party…permanently. It’s up to you to prove yourself worthy of the agency’s trust by dancing to LMFAO, then time-travel back to the 1970s using DCI’s convenient time machine. Once there, you’ll need to find all the power moves hidden in the ‘70s songs, then assemble those together to form a Dance Craze. In this decade, it’s The Hustle. In subsequent decades (‘80s, ‘90s, and ‘00s – all with era-appropriate music, of course), it’ll be a different craze, like the YMCA, da Butt, or the Dougie.

Along the way you’ll earn experience points that unlock different outfits, among other things, but the game’s Party modes are what have been given the most attention.

• Party Time is meant for social gatherings. Accessibility is a big focus here in that all you have to do is high-five a second player in order to start the game. No need to worry about unique gestures that might confuse your non-Kinect-owning partygoers. Once you start playing, the game will automatically spit new songs and game modes at you in the spirit of keeping the party going. Furthermore, the new Beginner mode features a dynamic difficulty setting that will automatically scale the game up or down in order to keep you dancing instead of failing. Or, conversely, ramp things up if you’ve got the moves.

• Crew Throwdown pits two teams of four against each other in one-on-one, two-on-two, or even asymmetric head-to-head battles. And yes, you’ll be able to take a photo of yourself with your crewmates.
• Make Your Move is essentially the dance equivalent of H.O.R.S.E. Kinect actually records a move you create (you’ll need to repeat it three times so that the game can properly create a flash card for it), then challenges your opponent to dance it. Trade moves back and forth until they all get strung together randomly. Whoever dances ‘em best wins. “You get to decide how hard it is,” says Dance Central 3 lead designer Matt Boch.

• Strike a Pose is where you’re most likely to pull a muscle and injure yourself, as the game will flash up random poses you’ll have to quickly match. (Dance Central 3 is “the most dangerous game on Xbox,” jokes Harmonix’s John Drake). Be fast and accurate and you’ll earn up to an 8x score combo and crush your competitor.
• Fitness mode is about the only one Harmonix isn’t saying much about yet, though we did extract a few details out of them. Besides being able to create your own custom fitness playlists, you’ll have the power to set your own personal goals. The idea, Harmonix says, is to minimize downtime and make sure you’re always moving.

Just as before, all of your previous Dance Central songs – both disc-based and DLC – will import into DC3 and its 45 tracks, putting the total potential song list at well over 150. Better still, all of the old tunes will get upgraded automatically to work with DC3’s new game modes. Kinect voice control is back too, making it easier to navigate through the menus and songs. As if we needed any other incentives to get up and dance.

Ryan McCaffrey is the Executive Editor at IGN Xbox. He used to own a DeLorean, which is weird. Follow him on Twitter, on IGN, catch him on Podcast Unlocked, and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.

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Darksiders II Review

Darksiders II represents the latest offering from developer Vigil Games, a direct follow-up to the 2010 original. Much like its predecessor, Darksiders II provides some solid action, albeit nestled amid a somewhat flawed experience. It’s also possibly the most derivative game ever made - borrowing adventure and puzzle elements from The Legend of Zelda, action from God of War, platforming from Prince of Persia, and tone from some hellfire version of Lord of the Rings. That’s not necessarily a bad thing - an amalgamation of such incredible franchises could have resulted in the game to end all games. The thing is, if you’re going to so blatantly derive material from such well-known properties, you better nail it. While Darksiders II provides a lengthy and entertaining experience for action adventure fans to sink their teeth into, in the end it never comes close to reaching the heights of the various franchises it so freely borrows from.

Darksiders II further fleshes out the story of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse introduced in the first title - this time with War’s brother, Death, at the helm. Death believes that War has been wrongfully convicted of destroying mankind, and seeks to restore humanity to clear his brother’s name. The narrative is pretty entertaining, if not severely overdramatic. Though it should please anyone solely in the market for ‘epic,’ it lacks any trace of subtlety and often comes off as sophomoric. Given that the end result of any plot advancement is inevitably that Death needs to gather three of something and thrash some skeletons, hearing the characters go on about the old ways and soul judgement just feels a bit silly. However, if a healthy dose of ridiculous doesn’t faze you, the contrived reasons for Death’s various escapades through heaven, hell and everywhere in between do provide an amusing backdrop for his quest.

The majority of the adventure comprises rather standard action fare - Death wields both a fast primary weapon and a slow but powerful secondary weapon, and you chain together moves to slash your way through the various enemies.  There are also a few special abilities you gain along the way - like the ability to summon demon lords to do your bidding or to split your soul in two to solve dungeon puzzles. The game plays fine with a mouse and keyboard, but it’s best if you have a controller - this is clearly how the game was meant to be played, and in any case tracking down the menu to remap keys is a huge pain. The game also doesn’t allow for hot-swapping between controller and keyboard/mouse controls, so you’ll have to reboot if you want to switch.

The action segments are enjoyable enough - inasmuch as it’s hard to make slicing up undead baddies unenjoyable. Still, it’s disappointing that most of the enemies require next to no strategy to overcome. When you do come across an enemy that requires strategy to best, the joy of slaying it is truly satisfying - but these occurrences are few and far between. Most of the time, the answer is just to wait for the enemy to make their move, dodge, then attack. It’s still fun, because dodging and attacking are fun things to do in an action game, but it does get irritatingly repetitive after several hours of the same old song and dance.

One of the touted selling points of Darksiders II is that it’s far bigger than its predecessor - with a map that’s more than twice as big and a campaign that’s about three times longer than the original adventure. Unfortunately, in this case, bigger definitely isn’t better. The freedom Darksiders II offers is something to behold - you’re able to journey around huge areas as you please, slashing enemies and seeking out treasure and loot drops to your heart’s content. But the bloated environments are simply too barren and often devoid of anything interesting to do or see. Since so little is done to vary up the gameplay, the pacing drags and the length of the adventure feels more like a chore than a bonus.

The main problem is that the bulk of the adventure is repetitive. While it’s completely possible to reuse game mechanics throughout a campaign and still keep it feeling fresh, Darksiders II doesn’t achieve this. You’ll find yourself climbing wooden ledges and pegs, setting off bombs, and rolling balls over and over again in exactly same way, instilling a gnawing sense of deja vu. If these mechanics were employed in varied and clever ways, that would be one thing - but they’re not. I found myself rarely challenged by any puzzle I came across, and was often astonished that I was once again expected to repeat the same menial task I had just completed in the previous dungeon, or even in the previous room.

This is no place for a horse.

On the bright side, Darksiders II does offer up some truly epic boss fights to vary up the repetition, ones that will put your skills to the test and are truly exciting to overcome. You’ll fight all kinds of epic demons - ones that can regenerate, ones that are about 100 times your size, and ones that are just plain brutal in their assault patterns. The bosses are one of the highlights of the experience, offering a glimpse of what Darksiders II could have been had the entire quest been as varied and balanced as these memorable battles. 

As for gamers who don’t like fetch quests - this game is not for you. Seriously, the entire game is a fetch quest. All you do is run from area to area, fetching three of these, then three of these, then two of these, then three more of these with combat in between. As someone who honestly doesn’t mind a healthy dose of fetching in their games, Darksiders II still pushed my limits. You end up fetching so much and for so long that the majority of the game feels pretty pointless by the end. Can’t anyone in these various realms do their own errands, for crying out loud?

In truth, the game would have benefitted from being a skosh smaller and a lot more focused. In this way, the original game beats its sequel, as a more linear adventure that keeps the action coming befits this franchise’s intense style of gameplay. After all, there is a limit to how long you can run through similar environments and solve similar puzzles in order to appease your bloodlust for smashing things with cool weapons.

One of the game’s stronger elements is its art design and voice direction. It’s incredible that you can grow so fond of a main character who literally never emotes, as he’s wearing a skull mask for the entirety of the adventure. Death’s awesome voicework doesn't hurt either - hearing him growl at the Makers or deliver lines like, “This is no place for a Horse,” or “You find something for a change,” is inexplicably enjoyable. Even though he’s pretty impossible to relate to - being the embodiment of death and all - his design and presentation still do a great job of making him someone you want to see to his journey’s end.

While too many of the environments in Darksiders II are shockingly similar, some of them are well thought out and epic to behold, as are many of the characters and enemies found within. The visual presentation in this version of Darksiders II also fares better than its console counterparts, though the graphics options are bare minimum compared to other PC games. They get the job done, but don’t allow for the minor tweaks and alterations that PC gamers love. The good news is that the game runs much smoother as a result - gone are the framerate issues of the other versions, replaced by a silky smooth experience. The downside is that while the graphics are good, they’re not great. Things could look crisper, and there are still some shockingly bad textures underscoring the inspired art design. Considering the lack of customization and clumsy menus, this PC version comes off as a somewhat lazy port - but hey, at least it’s far less choppy.

I bet his shoulders are freezing.

A frustrating detractor to Darksiders II is the sheer amount of random glitches you’ll encounter along the way - ones that can’t be accounted for and appear and disappear for seemingly no reason at all. Seeing Death floating above the ground or over thin air is not uncommon, nor is pressing B to perform an action command only for nothing to happen until a few button presses later. Other random glitches I encountered include the inability to discard boots, ally AI that just stands in the corner staring at the wall, a Primary Quest icon that leads you in the wrong direction (then shift positions when you check the in-menu map), and an absence of music and sound effects until the game was reset - and that’s just to name a few. Most of these glitches only last for a short while, then disappear never to surface again. Others, like a targeting system that rarely seems to target the closest enemy or a camera that is often pointing in an inopportune direction, are quite persistent. Sadly, they’re things you’ll just have to learn to cope with if you hope to see Death’s journey to its conclusion. 

The funny thing is, despite its lengthy list of flaws and failures, Darksiders II still manages to offer an enjoyable experience. Despite its lack of variety, the combat is still satisfying to engage in, especially when you run across a behemoth of a boss. And even though there’s not enough to do in them, running around such huge environments is still incredible. Certain abilities you amass along the way - like the Deathgrip or the summoning ability - are terribly fun to play with, and make for some really cool dungeon moments (like dashing across a wall and Deathgripping at the last moment to reach the other side). It’s also worth noting that the game picks up considerably towards the end, finally finding its stride for the last few dungeons. The puzzles get more creative, the enemies and environments more varied - it’s just a shame it takes about 30 or so hours to get to this point.

Possibly the best part of the adventure, something that all action RPG games could learn from, is its implementation of RPG elements such as equipment and customization. Weapons found on the field can be instantly equipped or sent to your inventory with a single button press. Furthermore, each piece of equipment’s stats are displayed when you walk near it, as well as how it will raise or lower your own stats should you equip it. This makes fast decision making a breeze, and greatly increases the joy of seeking out the best armor to equip Death with. Every weapon or bit of armor you equip also changes Death’s appearance, which is a cool touch in making character customization feel more personal. The concept of cursed artillery, which you can ‘feed’ other items to, is also a great way to make the underpowered loot you come across feel like less of a waste. The way equipment is handled in Darksiders II is a true revolution in RPG gameplay, and one of the most solid parts of the experience.

Calling on Death’s bird, Dust, to show you the general direction you should go, and the deeply engrained Fast Travel system (which lets you instantly warp back to certain areas on the fly) are also great innovations for the genre. It’s a true shame the game’s impressive contributions are so severely undermined by its sheer amount of flaws and glitches.

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Soul Sacrifice Reveals the Brutal Cost of Ultimate Power

You wouldn’t think it to watch the trailer, but Keiji Inafune insists that Soul Sacrifice has strong autobiographical overtones. While the veteran developer readily admits that he’s never had to go quite so far as to stick his hand down his throat and pull his spinal column out through his mouth and brandish it as a sword, Inafune reveals that he struck upon the theme of sacrifice while reflecting on the career decisions that have brought him to his current role as an independent developer, after years of towing the company line at Capcom.

“I’ve always wanted to do a dark fantasy, but the concept of the sacrifice came up when I left my former job and looked back on my life and rethought the choices I’d made to get to that position,” explains Inafune. “I realised that I’d made sacrifices to get to that point and that made me think of the sacrifices that are necessary in life and the path that those sacrifices create.”

However, unlike Inafune, the decisions taken and sacrifices made by the player throughout this Vita-exclusive action-RPG will not lead to the founding of an independent video game company. Instead, they will influence how much power the customisable protagonist is able to wield and, ultimately, how noble or corrupt a sorcerer they will become.

“

The concept of the sacrifice came up when I left my former job and looked back on my life and rethought the choices I’d made.

The sacrifices are not just of a personal nature, though. While the wince-inducing sacrifice of a hand or eyeball will grant access to spells of varying destructive power, the most common choice to be made is with regard to the hostile denizens of Souls Sacrifice’s twisted worlds.

Once defeated, the broken creatures can either be offered in sacrifice, a process from which great power can be derived, or laid to rest, thus freeing their tortured souls. It’s a question that’s not unlike the harvest/rescue mechanic posed by Bioshock’s Little Sisters, but where those otherwise innocent infants were victims of Rapture’s peculiar ecosystem, the grotesque, once-human antagonists of Soul Sacrifice are creations of their own making, contorted by avaricious over-use of the same power afforded to the player.

Inafune hopes that the emotional kicker in this instance will come from the delivery method of the back story for each genus of creature. Instead of a static screen or entry in a bestiary that can be easily ignored, a tale of woe is spun via short sentences of text overlaid on the action as the player engages the beast in mortal combat. Subsequent encounters with bloated harpies or deformed minotaurs reveal more of the story of each and at the end of the fight the once aggressive assailant will become a pitiful shade of its former self and beg to be released from its torment. Whichever way the player leans in deciding the fallen creature’s fate will affect not only the power they can harness, but their path through the game, as different levels will open up depending on the choices made. The levels here are represented as chapters in a book that recounts the tales of former sorcerers, read and relived by the protagonist while their corporal body sits imprisoned in a cell.

“

It’s not as simple as making a choice one way and then making another choice the other way five times in a row

“It’s not as simple as making a choice one way and then making another choice the other way five times in a row; it’s not that mathematical,” explains Inafune. “Every time you’re given a different back story and so the more you find out about the monsters that you’re defeating, the more you might feel sorry for them.”

This constant requirement to re-examine your motivations extends to other players, too. Soul Sacrifice features ad hoc four-player co-op in which alliances with friends or strangers can be forged and broken as each player weighs-up the benefits of having other players fighting alongside them against the potential power to be harnessed by sacrificing them for their own ends, a process that the sacrificial victim has little say in – except perhaps to offer pleas to the other players over voice chat.

“There will be different rewards if you are sacrificed, but really what I want to illustrate is the emotional aspects of whether you are the one being sacrificed or are sacrificing another, such as feelings of guilt and different motivations that would lead you to do that,” highlights Inafune.

The headline gore and gristle of Soul Sacrifice might have already ensured it will be forever referred to as “that game where you pull your spine out through your mouth”, but its customisable protagonist, varied spell set and ample replay options suggest there’s more to its DNA that wanton, bloody violence; it appears that a tale of unlikely hope and irrepressible despair lurks beneath its adult-rated, mutilated facade.

Soul Sacrifice launches next spring exclusively for Vita, pricing details have not yet been revealed but in all likelihood it won’t cost an arm and a leg. Perhaps just an eye and a foot.

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Hybrid Review

The doom and gloom of brutal sci-fi warfare may be a far cry from the bubbly color and cutesy sheen of developer 5th Cell’s most famous franchise, Scribblenauts, yet the studio’s creative touch doesn't shine as brightly in its new divergent online-only multiplayer shooter -- at least not on the surface. Hybrid masks its highly innovative third-person combat with generic factions, standard weapons, and a presentation that's been cribbed many times before. But underneath all of that lies some of the craziest, most unique multiplayer mayhem I've hopped into in a long time.

Hybrid's three-on-three matches have teams of alien and human combatants gunning the hell out of one another across a medley of stark futuristic battlefields. While many of the weapons, play modes, and settings feel all too familiar, the bizarre way battles play out makes for a completely fresh, thrilling experience. Instead of running around freely on foot, everyone is stuck fighting from behind cover for most of the game. The only way to move around the map is to zip between fortified positions by picking another patch of nearby cover and making a wild, jetpack-aided beeline to safety. It's way cooler than it sounds. A lot can happen in the time it takes to rocket between locations, and the unpredictable ting of danger that comes with each commitment you make adds to the excitement.

Once you hit the air, you automatically fly to your selected destination, freeing up your focus to spray bullets at foes in any direction as you move. There's some built-in maneuverability to let you dodge and boost as you go, and selecting a different cover spot within view lets you change course on the fly. You can also tap a button to make a split-second retreat if things get too gnarly up ahead, which happens often. You could get blasted out of the sky in mid-flight or wind up landing face-to-face with a foe waiting for you on the opposite side of the barrier you just flew to. Firefights flow at a crazy pace, forcing you to keep a close eye on enemy positions and pull off turn-on-a-dime moves to stay alive.

Midair jetpack-fueled duels add chaos to Hybrid's cover-based shooting.

Successful kill streaks up the ante by letting you summon multiple tiers of AI-controlled robot drones to aid in battle, ranging from massive well-armed bots that pack a mean punch to heat-seeking ninja droids that emit a horrifying screech as they zoom in to insta-kill a single foe. In addition, unlockable special abilities and perks make leveling up feel satisfying and add nice depth to combat, since they expand your death-dealing repertoire with fun extras like teleportation, a self-destruct sequence, drone hacking grenades, increased firepower. You can only equip one cool-down ability and one persistent perk at a time, but there's a staggering amount of room for strategic variety.

Brisk one-off matches offer intense bursts of trigger-happy bliss on their own, but the fact they also play into a larger persistent global meta-game is what makes blasting from one battle to the next so addicting. Since you're recruited for one of the two warring factions from the get-go, every round you fight in a given territory earns points for your side and helps level-up your base in that region. Capturing territories takes a lot of joint effort but rewards your faction precious dark matter orbs that push you closer to winning the war. The meta-game is well underway, though there's plenty of contested territory left to capture before the season wraps up with a winner and everything is reset.

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Uncharted 3's Tournament Mode, New DLC

Been looking for a reason to get back into Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception multiplayer? Developer Naughty Dog is giving you more than 140 reasons to do it.

Today, patch 1.13 arrives for the multiplayer mode for IGN's PS3 Game of the Year 2011. It brings a number of additions -- a new mode, 137 pieces of downloadable content, and 50 Trophies -- and we were lucky enough to talk to developer Naughty Dog's Robert Cogburn about them.

THE TOURNAMENT SYSTEM

The biggest 1.13 addition is that of the Tournament System. Each week, you're awarded 10 tickets you can use to enter Team Deathmatch, Three-Team Deathmatch or Hardcore tournaments. However, these aren't tournament brackets like you might be expecting. Instead, you redeem one of your tickets before a match begins and then your individual performance earns you points in the tournament standings -- if your team wins; players on the losing team are awarded zero points.

When the week ends, the points are tallied and you find out where you stand. Do well enough, and you'll be placed in one of the three reward tiers. Players who earn one of these three distinctions are awarded in-game items (costume pieces for bragging rights) or weapons (skinned weapons with mod slots) to use for next week's tournament. Hit the gold tier six times, and you'll be awarded a special skin to rub in your opponents' faces.

"I'm really interested to see the type of gloating that's going to occur from this in our community," Cogburn said. "There's going to be a lot of trashtalking."

If you burn through your weekly allotment of 10 tickets and want more, you can buy them from the PlayStation Store. And fear not -- the number of points earned decreases based on party size (so no rolling groups of badasses) and you can never lose points.

137 PIECES OF DLC

Starting August 14th, 137 new pieces of downloadable content will start rolling out for Uncharted 3's multiplayer. You can unlock this content in game by earning levels in the game, completing treasure sets or simply purchasing it from the PlayStation Store. Yes, microtransactions have come to Uncharted.

"The microtransaction stuff is sort of Naughty Dog's way of testing the waters with these ideas and sort of seeing how this is going to pan out for us," Cogburn said. "Because these are inevitably, I believe, systems we're going to have to have in place. We kind of see Uncharted 3 right now as a way for us to see how we're going to internally do this stuff."

However, the DLC isn't just for show -- well, the taunts and emblems are, but the new hats like the buffalo helmet actually augment stats. Each head item comes with a unique pro and con, so you might be able to reload faster, but your health regeneration might be slower.

BLOCK MESH MAPS

“

As long as people keep logging on to play our game, we'll keep supporting it.

Since Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Naughty Dog has been using The Lab, a multiplayer option where the developers have players try new modes and multiplayer ideas. Once patch 1.13 is live, the stage will be set for Naughty Dog to add new "block mesh maps" to The Lab. Every Uncharted level starts as a block mesh map -- a basic geometric shape with no art and simple color -- before becoming a full-blown map. These original creations will be blocky arenas that have been designed to provide "some wild and distinct multiplayer gameplay."

"The thing that's pretty awesome about this system that we created for this patch is that these block mesh maps can be updated in real time," Cogburn said. "So the idea is we'll upload a map that people will be able to play for two weeks, we'll play it for, say, a week, get some feedback from people in the community, and then we'll be able to actually change the geometry in that map when people log back in to play it."

TROPHIES

Patch 1.13 also brings about the much desired Uncharted 3 multiplayer Trophies. There are 50 in total -- three Silver and seven Bronze for each DLC map pack. Check out our Uncharted 3 Wiki for the full listing.

THE FUTURE

It's not every day that a game as old as Uncharted 3 gets such a massive update, but Cogburn said that the team is far from done -- especially considering how the Drake's Deception community is still so active.

"As this goes out and we address any problems that come up with this system we'll be introducing a number of other things coming out for Uncharted 3 multiplayer that people should be pretty excited about," Cogburn said. "As long as people keep logging on to play our game, we'll keep supporting it."

Greg is the executive editor of IGN PlayStation, cohost of Podcast Beyond and host of Up at Noon. Follow IGN on Twitter, and keep track of Greg's shenanigans on IGN and Twitter. Beyond!

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Ultima Forever: A Link to the Past

Ultima Forever is an interesting experiment for EA. Based on Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar – a game first released in 1985 and an RPG classic, developer BioWare Mythic is bringing Forever to both PC and iPad, with players able to move from one to the other as they choose. And the real kicker? It’s free-to-play too.

Anthony Gallegos had the first details a few weeks ago, but for those of you craving more on this interesting project, we've done a follow-up Q&A with executive producer Jeff Skalski.

IGN: What's exciting to you about going free-to-play with this title?

Jeff Skalski: The amount of players who will be able to experience Ultima Forever and perhaps even their first Ultima game. For those reading, you have no reason not to jump in and have a look!

IGN: What parts of the game will be free and what will be available for purchase?

Jeff Skalski: You’ll find no lightning bolts here, so keep playing to your heart’s content. I never wanted to kick players out of our game and say, “Hey, come back in 3 hours. Goodbye.” The game is wide open. You’ll need to level up to take on new challenges, but all of that can be earned by just playing the game. As for what’s available to purchase, quite a bit actually. You can buy new vanity gear to stand out in the crowd, or even a new weapon that has those stats you’ve been hunting for. Need a few more healing pots or a little more inventory space, we got you covered. Want early access to your favourite classes’ abilities? We’ll even let you snag those too. The only one thing we won’t sell is virtue. You have to earn that! ;)

IGN: Cross-platform play is a great idea, but can you tell us a little about the challenges of creating a single game that caters to the strengths of two very different platforms/control systems?

Jeff Skalski: Great question, no doubt it’s been hard, but so exciting in the end. We went for depth in gameplay with U4E. Not a one night affair experience. It is an online RPG adventure game at its core, so we just made sure when it came to controls, interface design, and combat pacing that we first thought of the touch consumer and then how would that play best with a more traditional experience such as a keyboard and mouse. These conversations happened in parallel and will continue as we continue to grow and build out U4E.

IGN: Ultima Forever is a "reimagining of the original rich world". Is this more a thematic reimagining, or will you be basing the new game on the same locations, characters and enemies?

Jeff Skalski: For those familiar with the ’85 classic Ultima IV, no doubt you’ll recognize certain NPCs, locations and some of the key moments you took in proving you were an Avatar. There will also be things new for you to explore and experience. We took liberty to make changes as needed, such as going from single player to multiplayer, and turn based to real time combat. The story has been fast forwarded 21 years and a new leader has taken the throne. Past friends have aged, but new friends are waiting to be met.

IGN: Will players once again be playing only as a human?

Jeff Skalski: Yes, we will have Human only classes. We are currently targeting two at launch with the remaining six releasing every few months afterwards.

The two classes that will be available at launch, we presume.

IGN: Players are now used to creating characters that can be good, evil or somewhere in between. How do you think they'll respond to the central goal of this game, which is to be virtuous?

Jeff Skalski: I hope they find it refreshing and engaging. It’s good to go back and remember your roots. Ultima IV did so much for the RPG genre. It inspired so many franchises still enjoyed today. I hope Ultima Forever puts that back into the forefront of gamers who never got to experience the original.

IGN: Can you give us some examples of quests or gameplay based on specific virtues?

Jeff Skalski: It starts from the moment you create your character. The gypsy will look at you and pose her questions. Your answers will dictate your starting virtue levels and the color of your first set of gear. (For those new to Ultima, each of the 8 virtues is tied to a specific color.) All throughout the rest of the game you’ll stumble across NPCs with moral quandaries seeking advice, but most importantly how you treat other real players will influence your virtue gain.

Concept art of the gypsy.

IGN: Can you give us some examples of difficult moral choices the player may have to make?

Jeff Skalski: While travelling through town a woman stops you and asks if you can go find her husband. He’s been missing for 6 days and has not returned from his last adventure to a nearby cave. You accept the quest and go exploring. While travelling through the caves you stumble across a corpse of a fallen warrior and upon searching it you uncover it was this woman’s husband, but also in his pockets is a letter from his mistress. You return to the woman, now widow, and are given a choice. Do you hand the letter over to the woman and tell her, “Your husband has died, but no worries; he was a lying bastard who was cheating on you anyways.” (Honesty) or rip the letter behind your back and tell her, “Your husband died an honorable death. I’m sorry for your loss.” (Compassion) Neither answer is wrong or right, but it’s your choice to decide what virtues you lean towards and ultimately the path you’ll take to prove worthy of Avatarhood.

IGN: Will the multiplayer be co-op only, or will there be PVP as well? How many players can quest together?

Jeff Skalski: Multiplayer will be co-op only, but it doesn’t mean you can’t have a little fun with your group while playing. i.e. Activating a trap at the wrong moment. ;) As for the group size, it’s a total of four.

IGN: Can you tell me a little about the game's combat system?

Jeff Skalski: Sure, think Legend of the Zelda: Link to the Past, but you have 4-5 abilities instead of just swing. Our combat is positional based, and by flanking or hitting an enemy from behind you increase your chance to crit.

So what do you think? Are you looking forward to Ultima Forever? Let us know in the comments. Oh, and anyone interested in taking part in the upcoming closed beta can sign up at the official website.

Cam Shea is the senior editor at IGN Australia. You can follow him here on IGN, and why not join the IGN AU Facebook community? 

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Kairosoft: Much More than Just Game Dev Story

Japanese mobile game developer Kairosoft burst onto the U.S. scene in late 2010 with the smash-hit sim Game Dev Story. The title allows gamers to grow their own game development studio from a tiny indie making puzzle and trivia games for PCs into a massive operation capable of releasing its own game console.

The game’s not-so-subtle jabs at the real-world game industry made it an instant cult-classic with core gamers. To succeed players have to choose the right company to make consoles for – “Senga” and “Intendro” are two early-game choices. Players also must smartly match their game’s theme with the proper genre. I personally had a string of smash-hit motion-controlled romance games called “Love Touch” towards the end of my Game Dev Story career.

Game Dev Story was the company’s first U.S. title and remains its biggest success. Kairosoft’s story extends back far further, however.

Nearly 20 Years of Sims

The truth is that Kairosoft is a much older company than most people think it is. The studio was formed in 1996 and its small team of nine has been making simple simulation games, first for PC and later for mobile phones, ever since.

Kairosoft has released a steady string of sim titles onto the iOS App Store and Google Play Store since Game Dev Story became such a smash hit – 14 titles in just 22 months.  But the truth is that many of these titles, while new to English-speaking audiences, aren’t new at all.

In the late 90s and early 2000s Japanese mobile phones were significantly more powerful than the brick-like Nokia handsets that were popular in the United States and Europe. Apple’s iPhone and high-end Android handsets have since closed the gap, but Japanese consumers enjoyed full-color, game-capable phones far earlier than the Western world.

Can your team make the next big hit?

Most Kairosoft’s sims that hit the App Store are ports of these original mobile games. Anyone that owns Game Dev Story can dive into the options menu to turn “pad on.” This will activate a round virtual game pad that hints at how Kairosoft’s games are played on lower-end phones that don’t feature a touch screen.

New games or old, many English-speaking gamers can’t get enough of Kairosoft’s breezy blend of simple strategy & simulation. The company is often criticized for its titles being too similar to one another. It’s not an unfair complaint – many Kairosoft games feel very homogeneous. Still, after spending enough time away many gamers find themselves developing the well-known “Kairosoft itch” and want to come back for more.

When the mood strikes, which items in the studio's ever-growing library of titles are worth your dough? IGN has your back. We’ve broken down and ranked all of Kairosoft’s English-language iOS releases below. Now you can buy the best and skip the rest.

Kairosoft iPhone Power-Rankings

Mega Mall Story (IGN Review)  (Buy) 

Game Dev Story may be Kairosoft’s most-popular game, but it isn’t the company’s best. That honor goes to Mega Mall Story. The game features a huge volume of stores to unlock, keeping your mall varied and fresh all the way to the game’s conclusion. The endgame, traditionally the weak spot in Kairosoft games, is strengthened thanks to a few very expensive late-game investments and hard-to-achieve secret goals.

Game Dev Story (IGN Review)  (Buy) 

Kairosoft’s original hit remains one of the company’s best titles. There is less pure gameplay and decision-making in Game Dev than most Kairosoft titles – you won’t be hunting for combos or worrying about building placement. But the game makes up for these deficiencies with a much faster pace (there is always something to do) and a great sense of video game humor. It’s too much fun attending Game Dev’s version of E3 and hiring a celebrity to hang out in your booth attracting fans, or creating a hit franchise of Pirate Adventure games.

Dungeon Village (IGN Review)  (Buy)  

Like Game Dev Story, Dungeon Village is more fun than it probably should be thanks to its great theme. The game gives players the opportunity to build up their own RPG town. The more inns and shops you construct, the better equipped traveling adventurers will be. This allows them to defeat more monsters and bring back more loot to spend in town. It’s a great cycle. Plenty of RPG-style loot to collect is just the icing on the cake.

Pocket Academy (IGN Info)  (Buy) 

Pocket Academy is often overlooked due to its theme. How much fun could it be building and running a private school? Crazy-fun, it turns out. Most Kairosoft games seem complex at first glance but are actually fairly simple beneath the surface. Pocket Academy is one of the few Kairosoft games with true depth. Hiring the right teachers, giving students the right career advice and building just the right mix of facilities gives gamers more decisions to make than most of Kairosoft’s sims.

Epic Astro Story (IGN Info)  (Buy) 

Epic Astro Story is a great concept for the Kairosoft “simple sim” treatment: pioneer an untamed planet in the distant future, clean out its hostile citizens and build up thriving trade with neighboring aliens to bring in the dough. For the most part the concept works brilliantly. There’s even light RPG combat mechanics. A few balance issues are the only issue holding Epic Astro back from brilliance and top-tier placement. It’s simply too easy to achieve every goal once a gamer figures out the title's ins and outs.

Pocket League Story (IGN Review)  (Buy) 

Pocket League Story is similar to Game Dev, in that players manage the progress of a small group of people (this time a soccer team), instead of developing an empty space with stores and decorations like most Kairosoft titles. These stat-management titles are usually simpler and more passive, with less choices for gamers to make. Game Dev succeeds thanks to its clever nods to video game history – something that Pocket League lacks. Passively watching dozens of soccer matches unfold also grows tiresome. Still, it’s very compelling to nurture a team of scrubs into World Cup champs, and Pocket League is very well-balanced, ensuring only very careful players will reach the Gold on their first loop through.

Hot Springs Story (IGN Review)  (Buy) 

Hot Springs Story is the first Kairosoft game on this chart that’s hard to recommend wholeheartedly. Taking a tiny spa and growing it into a massive, award-winning business (complete with restaurants, message chairs and of course male and female hot springs) is fun, but it doesn’t feel as epic or clever as most Kairosoft titles. It’s also more repetitive than Kairosoft’s greats. To succeed you’ll have to place the same few decorations and stores over and over – there is less variety than a title like Mega Mall.

Venture Towns (IGN Review)  (Buy) 

Venture Towns was supposed to be a match made in heaven: take Kairosoft’s tried and true breezy sim/strategy and marry it with the most classic of sim genres: the city builder! The results aren’t bad – just disappointing. Venture Towns has some good ideas but never quite recovers from its slow pace. Players spend more time waiting around for money to accumulate than actually playing. The generic theme also works against Venture Towns in some ways. Running a hot springs or private school might feel strange, but they’re also more memorable than developing a generic town.

Grand Prix Story (IGN Review)  (Buy) 

In Grand Prix Story players must create the best racing team possible by managing staff, carefully upgrading cars and spending research points to unlock new parts. Like Pocket League Story, Grand Prix is a bit on the basic side. There are no buildings to construct or stores to arrange. But Pocket League has the advantage of a universally-loved and understood goal: reach the World Cup. Only major gear-heads will be as excited about competing in an ever-escalating set of races.

Oh! Edo Towns (IGN Review)  (Buy) 

Oh! Edo Towns tasks players with building up a town in Japan’s Edo Period (1603 – 1868). It suffers from the same pacing problems found in Venture Towns, with the added disadvantage of a significant cultural gap to overcome. Like other Kairosoft titles, the basic strategy is to construct complimentary shops next to one another. But what is the logical thing to build next to a Straw Hat Shop, or a Public Bath?

Even with these problems and its placement at the bottom of the list, Oh! Edo Towns is still a lot of fun. It’s easy to get caught up in that all-too-familiar “Just one more month”  cycle that all Kairosoft games feature so strongly. Your next building or expansion is always just around the corner, making the game very hard to put down. Oh! Edo Towns isn’t bad. It’s just the most skippable title among a library of very strong releases.

Bonus #1: Android Hits

Kairosoft often alternates iOS and Android releases, showing each platform an equal amount of love. All Kairosoft titles eventually hit both platforms but some games can remain exclusive to either Google or Apple’s platforms for many months. So iOS gamers looking for a sneak peek of what’s to come should look at what’s already available on Android:

Pocket Clothier - (Buy)

Run your own clothing shop! Coordinate fashions, position mannequins and do everything else in your power to grow from a tiny corner shop into a world-class boutique.

The Sushi Spinnery - (Buy)

Manage and grow a revolving sushi restaurant! Set the menu, pick your amenities and pick the perfect décor.

World Cruise Story - (Buy)

Captain a luxury cruise liner! Develop entertainment options including casinos and restaurants, deck-out your ship, create lavish suites and travel to all the right ports to succeed.

Cafeteria Nipponica - (Buy)

Run your own restaurant! Find ingredients, discover recipes, hire your crew and set the correct ambiance.

Bonus #2: Untranslated Games

Kairosoft’s Japanese website gives us a hint of what we can expect from the company in the coming months. Titles that have not yet been translated into English include games that allow players to run an arcade, run a video game retail store, become a manga artist, and plenty more.

Only Kairosoft knows for certain what is in store for U.S. audiences - the company is notoriously hard for the English-speaking games press to get in touch with. But it's a sure bet that the small studio has plenty more pixel-filled simulation goodness on the way.

Which Kairosoft games are your favorites? What idea would you like to see Kairosoft tackle next? Leave a note in the comments below and let us know.

Justin is Editor of IGN Wireless. He has been reviewing cell phone games since the dark days of Java flip phones. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN.

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