While Konami is gearing up for the big release of Metal Gear Solid 4 — the sole reason I will be at Best Buy way, way too early on Thursday — they may also have another MGS project in the works. Ripten recently received a tip that the original PS1 game could be ported over to the Xbox Live Arcade. The classic stealth game may even have a subsequent release on the PSN. Of course, such a transition is not going to be without its share of problems.

Obviously, there are some logistical issues going along with this announcement, not least of which is the question of size limitations. Microsoft may soon be raising the XBLA file limit to 35oMB, but that still may not be enough for MGS1, considering it spanned more than one disc originally. On the other hand though, Microsoft did publish the PC version of the game; and Konami managed to keep all of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night down to 95MB. We’ll have to see. What I’d really like though would be Konami to take Twin Snakes, Substance, and Subsistence and cram them onto one big, fat Blu-Ray to keep me warm through the winter.

Via Ripten

As someone who has written about videogames for years, I know as well as anyone the annoyance of spell check. Whether it’s Word, Firefox, or whatever else, spell check has been the bane of my existence for the last seven years. Everything from “videogame” to “Shigeru Miyamoto” to “Ikaruga,” it’s a constant struggle for anyone in the biz. (I actually type in plain old Notepad now, just out of spite.)

Imagine, if you would, what any article about videogames would look like if spell check was to be believed. GamesRadar went through the trouble of actually seeing what kind of world we’d love in if that were the case. The results? Horrifying.

There would be no Castlevania – only Televangelist. No Katamari Damacy — just Catamaran Intimacy. No Pikmin – just Minibike, as depicted above.

What other examples can you come up with?

I am beginning to think that Capcom and Ubisoft have a lot in common when it comes to two of their most popular franchises. Both are apparently willing to whore out RE – like Castlevania – and Prince of Persia until they have exhausted all options – all in pursuit of the almighty dollar no matter how detrimental it may be to the game.

Case in point, not only is Ubisoft unleashing this Fall the very interesting retooling of the PoP franchise with Prodigy, but they are also planning on releasing another Prince of Persia title to coincide with the upcoming movie release next summer.

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot made reference to a movie tie-in for the series at Ubidays and you can expect both to hit around the same time. While the film was written by PoP creator Jordan Mechner, it stars an very strange choice in Jake Gyllenhaal in a retelling of Prince of Persia: Sands of Time.

Any gamer on the planet can tell you that a game/movie title usually flat out sucks, so I am curious as to how this one is going to turn out since most Prince of Persia games were pretty decent offerings. Please note that I said “most”.

Thanks: Shacknews

Konami has released a new trailer for the next DS installment in the Castlevania franchise. As you can see, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia looks like every other Castlevania game from the past few years, which all look like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Of course, that’s not really a bad thing, and it actually makes sense since this game takes place right after the PS1 classic. This new game will have you playing as Shanoa, one of several people who have come together to fight Dracula’s minions. As usual, this means you’ll run around dank castles destroying monsters, collecting spells and abilities, and re-affirming that 2D side-scrollers aren’t dead yet.

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia will be the tenth 2D Castlevania game that developer Kori Igarashi has worked on, and even with 11 games in the franchise under his belt, he’s still going strong. But the challenge is as great as ever, he told MTV Multiplayer.

“Making a quality 2D game is really tough,” he said. “The reason why it’s tough is that even though I’ve been doing it for a long time, each time I do it I have to do it better. Fans expect something more. Just to keep them happy and to meet my own expectations, I have to try that much harder.”

He explained that he has a passion for the franchise, and that he’s “definitely excited to do each iteration of the game — and also my team. A lot of people came to Konami because they’re huge fans of Castlevania. That’s another inspiration to keep on going, and it is a passion, definitely.”

While I can understand not being tired with the series, how Igarashi or anyone else in a similar position can continue to come up with new ideas blows my mind. I have trouble coming up with new ideas within the course of a single paragraph, so this really, uh, blows my mind.

Crystal Sky, the production company behind the Tekken movie and the recently announced Castlevania has secured $200 million worth of financing for five of their films. The other films include “Pac-man” (??) “Losing My Virginity,” and a sequel to John Woo’s “Hard Boiled”. Crystal Sky also controls the rights to Brad Thor’s bestselling novels, as well as the toy and comic book licenses Bratz, Deathlok and Ghost Rider.

Variety is reporting that Crystal Sky Pictures made the deal with Grosvenor Park for the five movies mentioned above and Steven Paul, head of Crystal Sky stated:

“This financing is helping us in our expansion plans to green light films more quickly. We’re now one of the few companies to have a big budget with which to develop our slate.”

Good lord. A Pac-man movie? Seriously? I shudder at what it could actually consist of script wise, let alone the thought of what it will look like – green screen with actors or animated.

Jonathan, one of our wonderful writers here at Gaming Today, provided what he thinks the new Pac-man movie should be about, and I think he is on to something: An action thriller where Pac-man’s a hard-nosed cop who plays by his own rules and has a dot-eating problem that he developed after his wife died. The ghosts would be the dot-smuggling gang he has to take down at the end, and he has issues with his Chief: “You’re a loose cannon, Pac-Man!” “You want my badge, Chief? You can have it, you damn wakka wakka!”

God, I really hope that is the route they go.

Via: Variety

Konami today announced Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia exclusively for Nintendo DS which will introduce the all-new “Glyph” attack system which allows players to use special attack combinations as they attempt to defeat Dracula and his horde. Also new to the series are the outdoor locales ranging from forests to the ocean, giving players the chance to explore outside of Dracula’s Castle.

In Order of Ecclesia, players take the role of a member of the Ecclesia, an organization that has sworn to defeat the evil forces of Dracula. By using the Glyph attack system, players can unleash more than 100 different combinations to battle Dracula’s minions throughout 20 explorable areas. Utilizing Wi-Fi , players can choose to compete head-to-head, or trade items and equipment they have found while exploring the environments. Multiple endings that can be unlocked depending on how the player completes the game adds to the game with plenty of exploration, combat and items to discover.

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia is planned for release in the Fall 2008.

Via: Press Release

The gaming site Jeaux France has posted some scans for the upcoming Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia. Because they are so blurry and full of Japanese characters I decided not to post them on here and have instead supplied you with the link.

Over on Destructoid, which I got this lovely bit of info from, has provided a link to a cool Castlevania game-name generator, which most of you may already know about but I am just seeing it for the first time – and I found it to be hilarious. My Castlevania name game? Castlevania: Polka of Testicular Cancer. Gotta love that.

Thanks: Destructoid

Not content with Castlevania:Order of Ecclesia coming to the DS, Konami has filed another trademark for our favorite vampire franchise.

Over on the lovely and boring USPTO site, you will find that Castlevania: Judgment was filed for trademark on April 11th. Whether this one will be for the DS as well or for a full fledged console remains to be seen, but I am sure we will find out once they apply for a rating through the ESRB.

Here is the trademark info in all of its boring glory, just like last time.

Word Mark: CASTLEVANIA JUDGMENT
Goods and Services: IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038.
G & S: Video game software, video game programs, computer game software, computer game programs, electronic game programs
IC 041. US 100 101 107. G & S: Entertainment services, namely, providing on-line video games; providing information to game players about the ranking of their scores of games
Standard Characters Claimed
Mark Drawing Code: (4) STANDARD CHARACTER MARK
Serial Number: 77446112
Filing Date: April 11, 2008
Current Filing Basis:1B
Original Filing Basis:1B
Owner: (APPLICANT) Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd. CORPORATION JAPAN 9-7-2, Akasaka, Minato-ku Tokyo JAPAN
Attorney of Record: Jeffrey H. Kaufman
Type of Mark:TRADEMARK. SERVICE MARK
Register: PRINCIPAL
Live/Dead Indicator: LIVE

Thanks: Aeropause

This week’s GameTap Thursday will add three new games for subscribers: Alien Shooter Vengeance, Dark Matter, Dracula Twins. (All together now: who, what, and huh?) Only subscribers will be able to access those games, as well as last week’s major addition, the Sam & Max Season Two Finale.

In the world of freebies, one new game is being added to GameTap’s free play service. X2 The Threat will now be free for all to play, so long as it remains on the free play list, which still includes Tomb Raider Legend and the ever-excellent Psychonauts.

You’ll also be able to find coverage of Nintendo’s Media Summit on GameTap TV, and a new Castlevania Retrospective will be added to the Games channel.

All in all, not really a substantial update in terms of games, but that’s excusable with new Sam & Max content so fresh in our minds.