Xenoblade Chronicles director Tetsuya Takahashi always has big ideas, but he’s a bit like a Japanese Peter Molyneux in many ways—he’s developed a habit of biting off a bit more than he can chew. Thankfully, he hasn’t let those experiences affect his grand visions—he’s still thinking as big as ever when it comes to his game worlds. Instead of merely piloting a giant robot like in Xenogears, Xenoblade sees you walking across an absolutely gargantuan titan for the entire game. READ MORE

At a Junction Point event earlier this week in Austin, Texas, company president and creative director Warren Spector had an unexpected, shocking revelation for the gaming industry. No, it wasn’t the fact that Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two exists—that, as Spector joked, was one of the worst-kept secrets in the industry. Instead, the big shocker was the fact that, in Spector's words, Epic Mickey 2 will be the “first musical comedy game in the history of videogames.” READ MORE

As a gamer who grew up with the intense ninja action of Ninja Gaiden on the NES, I’ve got to admit that it’s bothered me a bit that controversial developer Tomonobu Itagaki has become synonymous with the franchise in recent years. After all, the series existed long before Itagaki’s arrival at Tecmo—he was still in college when the original trilogy released. So, I wasn't merely convinced that the series could work without Itagaki—I was actively looking forward to Ninja Gaiden without him. READ MORE

A few short years ago, RPGs like Tales of Graces f were, if not commonplace, certainly nothing out of the ordinary. But then a certain Great Recession hit, and companies suddenly became averse to investing a localization budget into games that weren’t guaranteed sellers. Can Namco Bandai’s venerable Tales RPG franchise find an audience in this new gaming economy? READ MORE

“We’ve shirked duties. A bit. We can admit it.” So proclaims that madcap monarch with the bulge of gold, the King of All Cosmos, as Touch My Katamari’s wacked-out tale of introspection, self-improvement, and redemption begins. READ MORE

“C’mon, man—who cares about the story in a fighting game?!” Those are words I’ve heard repeatedly when I’ve tried to defend my oft-ridiculed stance that I play Soul Calibur for the story. I’ll admit that’s a slight exaggeration—I’ve been a huge fan of the venerable weapons-based fighting franchise’s sword-on-sword action itself for 15 years now, first slicing my way through Soul Edge in arcades and on the PS1. READ MORE

There haven’t been too many times when I’ve outright written off a franchise I grew up with—but I came very close to writing off the Final Fantasy series after Final Fantasy XIII. READ MORE

With the highly anticipated release of Ninja Gaiden 3 right around the corner, EGM had a chance to sit down and talk with Team Ninja Studio Head Yosuke Hayashi about everything from the direction the series is taking to the shake-ups that have gone on at Team Ninja. READ MORE

Is this finally the Final Fantasy XIII we wanted all along? Check out our preview to find out! READ MORE

Over the past few months, we’ve seen hints of the new-look Ryu Hayabusa in Ninja Gaiden 3—the so-called “Japanese dark hero” that Team Ninja promises to unleash in the wake of the outspoken Tomonobu Itagaki’s 2008 departure. But the developer recently unveiled a new element in this shinobi slasher: competitive multiplayer ninja action. READ MORE

The EGM staff gives their picks for the best games of 2011, as well as our personalized off-topic awards. For this installment, it's EGM Associate Editor Andrew Fitch. READ MORE

Platinum Games is known for intense, over-the-top mayhem with games like Bayonetta and MadWorld. But why did Hideo Kojima think the minds at Platinum—who made names for themselves at their previous place of employ at Clover Studio with God Hand and Okami—were the right choice to get Metal Gear Rising's development back on track? READ MORE

At Tokyo Game Show, I found a Japan that seemed ashamed of its own identity. READ MORE

Does a video game based off a movie based off a European comic book stand a chance here across the Atlantic or is just another future bargain bin bottom feeder waiting to be ignored by the masses? READ MORE

It’s exceedingly appropriate that this week’s EGMi: The Digital Magazine highlights our favorite arcade classics, because Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One would be right at home at Chuck E. Cheese’s circa 1992 alongside Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time, The Simpsons, and X-Men. Few games in the two decades since have truly captured the hectic, nonstop, free-for-all multiplayer destruction of those experiences, but All 4 One offers the same teamwork, camaraderie, and competitiveness—all that’s missing is a disturbing animatronic rat peering menacingly from above. READ MORE

My tastes may trend toward anime-infused RPGs, but whether it's the space duels in Star Fox on the N64, the legendary humans-vs.-Kilrathi matchups in Wing Commander on the PC, or the cartoony jet action of Airforce Delta Strike on the PS2, I’ve always loved a good dogfight. And I’ve certainly enjoyed the Ace Combat series in the past—Namco Bandai’s formerly distinctively Japanese dogfighter that’s now taking a more realistic, Western-inspired bent along the lines of Call of Duty. So, how does this new Ace Combat stack up? READ MORE

When you build your game around a novel core mechanic, you’d better make damn sure it’s easy to grasp, simple to learn, and fun to keep using. Bionic Commando’s famous grappling arm is probably the most famous example—even though the game’s lack of a jump button forced players to rethink the way they navigated the traditional side-scrolling platformer back on the NES, it felt intuitive enough that swinging through levels eventually became second nature. READ MORE

My friend Todd and I have a little game we play whenever there’s a goal in a real-life soccer match we’re watching: Do we classify it as a “Pro Evo goal” or a “FIFA goal”? There’s a definite difference, you see. Pro Evo goals are beautiful, fluid moments of inspiration that flow seamlessly into the natural course of a match—true-to-life bolts of genius that strike out of nowhere. FIFA goals, on the other hand, look like generic runs into the penalty area, punctuated by shots just past the keeper. So could FIFA finally level the playing field? READ MORE

At one point in my life, I was a master of the Resident Evil series’ legendarily clunky “tank controls”—the esoteric, inverted maneuvers that led many to give up, frustrated, within minutes of getting munched on by their first zombies. But what others found confounding, I found logical at the time; the controls even managed to regularly invade my sleep. But could they stand up to a decade long test of time? READ MORE

Steel Battalion’s developers say their almost cartoonish appeal to American patriotism isn’t specifically designed to appeal to the West—a theme so common at this year's TGS that it’s frankly hard to believe it isn’t intentional, given the rate at which Japanese developers seem to be dropping the anime aesthetic for Tolkien-esque wizards and grizzled American military men. READ MORE