Everyone’s waiting to see what Suda51 does next. Goichi Suda (a.k.a. Suda51) and his company Grasshopper Manufacturer have been behind some of the most absurd and original games in the past several years. Despite his seemingly niche style, many of Suda’s projects have received plenty of exposure, especially 2012’s Lollipop Chainsaw, an over-the-top zombie splatterfest starring a perky chainsaw-wielding cheerleader as its protagonist. Suda’s next project, Killer is Dead, is a third-person hack-n-slash that, spiritually and aesthetically, picks up where the cult classics Killer7 and No More Heroes left off.

GamesBeat recently had the rare opportunity to sit down with Suda (and his spectacular shoes) and talk about sequels, multiplayer, and more. All answers were through a translator.

GamesBeat: You’ve been really busy over the last several years producing numerous original digital and retail titles. That’s something that’s unfortunately not very common in this sequel- and franchise-happy industry. Why is original intellectual property [IP] important to you and what allows you to do what so many others can’t or won’t?

Goichi Suda: I think it’s simply — that’s just my cycle of creativeness. After I finish a project, I start on another concept. I put the concept sheet together and start talking to other people. It’s just how I work. I don’t really work on the IP that I created before. As a cycle, I create one thing, and then I move on to the next one.

GamesBeat: One of the reasons why constant original products are not very common is money is that new IPs are too risky in the eyes of major publishers like Capcom and Electronic Arts. Suda51 games would probably be a lot riskier for a big publisher to take on. On the business end, how are you able to keep your cycle going?

Suda: I’m not sure there’s a secret to it. My opinion is it’s just that we were lucky enough to get into this position where we get offers from the Japanese publishing side and also in Europe from studios and publishers. It’s just a unique situation that Grasshopper is in. Another thing is we really care about what our fans think about it. We want to make sure that fan base is satisfied. We’re always looking for what they’re looking for and trying to provide them with what they’re seeking.

GamesBeat: Mondo, the main character in Killer is Dead, is pretty well-covered in the press by now. Could you talk about the character of Vivienne (pictured above) a little bit more? What does she bring to the game?

Suda: Vivienne works at the same agency as Mondo. She’s his direct boss. And then Brian — he’s the chief of the agency. Then there’s also another character named Mika, who’s kind of a support staff for Mondo. In the game, you’ll be controlling Mondo and going through the stages, but you’ll see Vivian, Brian, and Mika come out and support him in various situations. It’s not a character that you’ll just see in the cutscenes. You’ll see her in gameplay as well.

GamesBeat: How do those support moves work? Is it maybe like a summon in Final Fantasy or something, where you can use them any time but maybe is a limited resource? Or is it at scripted events?

Suda: Sorry, but we can’t get into the details for that one right now. Let’s just say that they come in at the right time. [Laughs]

GamesBeat: Through several of your past games, you’ve focused on the sword-based gameplay. Do you have any interest in introducing multiplayer into a game? Not necessarily for Killer is Dead, but do you have aspirations of maybe doing an Anarchy Reigns type of game?

Suda: Multiplayer is something that I’ve been looking at and wanting to implement in my games for a long time — for a few years now. We weren’t able to do it for Killer is Dead, but as a gamer, when I play games, if there’s a multiplayer function, I’ll jump in there and try to have fun. It is something that we’ve wanted to try to provide to our fans for a while. We want to look into it in the future.

GamesBeat: Hideo Kojima recently stated that he felt that over the past 25 years, games haven’t really matured that much. That’s something that he’s always striving for, but he feels like he hasn’t really gotten there, and many other mainstream titles definitely haven’t helped push in that direction. What are your thoughts on that sentiment?

Suda: I sort of understand what he’s trying to say. I don’t have a clear vision, but I do feel that there’s something more we can advance to. We’re just not there yet.

GamesBeat: In your own games, is that something you aspire to accomplish?

Suda: Yes, there’s something I’m striving to do every time I create a game. It could be a new experience — just a new type of way to play. Just something new. I think one day, I or somebody else will come up with a brand new way of thinking about gaming, and I think that will be a total game changer in the industry. But every time I’m creating a new game, I’m reaching out and trying to grab something that’s new — that could give some kind of new experience to the users.

GamesBeat: What have you tried to bring that’s new to the hack-n-slash genre? Recently we had DmC, the Devil May Cry remake, and Devil May Cry has always been known for really solid hack-n-slash gameplay mixed with various guns. What do you try to bring when you do a game like Killer is Dead or No More Heroes?

Suda: For this title, I wanted to have different feel. It’s more like a season of a TV show. Each episode has a beginning and an end. Some of them are connected together, and overall, there’s an overarching story. But instead of past titles where everything happens over one night, I just wanted to have something more like daily life — that becomes a season and has a story within it.

GamesBeat: When you guys did the marketing for Lollipop Chainsaw, you actually hired Jessica Nigri, who is a famous cosplayer. And so, you had her representing the game at PAX and various events instead of hiring a booth babe, for example, which is kind of a controversial thing.

Booth babes have become this decisive topic in the industry over the past couple of years. But you and a few other companies have actually tried to hire people that do understand your games and can better represent them. Why is that important to you, and what was your experience working with Jessica like?

Suda: Not only in the U.S., but Jessica’s pretty popular in Japan as well. To have somebody that — she just has this aura that she’s a gamer, and she really enjoys playing games. I think that comes out of her — that she enjoys playing games. Having her made the promotion really effective, especially at PAX last year. The reaction that we got was overwhelming. She’s really easy and fun to work with. In the near future, I think that there will be more of these types of people who are actually gamers. I think we’ll see more of these people, and different companies will start utilizing them as well.

---

GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

---

Hello, and a merry end of 2012 to you all. It’s been a grand year for video games and for those of us who choose to wile away our time playing them. Many of us have already celebrated the finest games of the last 12 months, so now it’s time to dig a little deeper into 2012′s catalog of hits and misses. Here’s where we champion things like dancing, sex, boss machinations, terrible assassins, and great use of taxpayer money in video games.

Onward with haste.

(Polite heads up: I’ve done my best to avoid major spoilers, but as this is a retrospective look at the year gone by, some minor spoilers have tiptoed in. Use the shield of common sense. The final award should not be read by anyone who hasn’t finished Dishonored.)

Worst dancer

Winner: Commander Shepherd (Mass Effect 3)

Video game animation has come a long way in a short time, but we’re still unable to put the sexy into dancing. Despite that, 2012 played host to its fair share of gyrating twits. The gang from Far Cry 3, Marcelo from Max Payne 3, and the dancers from Hitman: Absolution all put forward solid cases, but Commander Shepherd had this one wrapped up way back in March.

Shepherd not only displayed the dance-floor swagger of a beached humpback whale, he also chose to do his dancing while the entire galaxy slipped into the inky abyss. Nice one, S-dog. Your embarrassing dad dance moves almost cost mankind and its best friends everything.

Best (or worst) line of dialogue

Winner: Chap in strip bar (Hitman: Absolution)

I swear to you — this is something I heard. I was playing the strip bar level in Hitman: Absolution, prowling through the drooling masses, when I heard a man cry out from the swarm:

“I’m going to wear your ass like a hat!”

I just don’t have it in me to make that up.

Best use of taxpayer money

Winner: The Chicago Police Department (Hitman: Absolution)

Back in 2010, the Seacrest County Police Department bagged this award for using taxpayer money to fund the manufacture of Lamborghini patrol cars — a crime made worse by the fact that the SCPD didn’t just use them to chase down crooks but also to create roadblocks, which the crooks naturally plowed through at 250 mph.

In 2011, the Steelport Police Department won for what was the equivalent of nuking Steelport from orbit each time the player did a little dance in front of an officer.

So it’s only right that this year’s prize goes to another incompetent police department. Hitman: Absolution’s Chicago PD proved nothing if not dedicated to cleaning up the streets of Chicago. At one point midway through the game, roughly a dozen of Chicago’s finest open fire on Agent 47. It’s a perfectly executed maneuver bar one minor hiccup: the 84 civilians sprawled face down in the wet as a result of misplaced bullets. Oops.

Worst game

Winner: Ninja Gaiden 3

There aren’t many developers who can say they’ve had easier jobs than Team Ninja. Under the guidance of Tomonobu Itagaki, the Japanese developer perfected its fighting formula with the first 3D Ninja Gaiden. For Ninja Gaiden 3, an Itagaki-less Team Ninja took the old formula round the back of the shed and gave it the 12-gauge treatment. In its place arrived a crude and unsatisfying combat system coupled with a grueling cinematic camera that ducked and dived like an 8-year-old recording a distant ship with a handycam while on a dinghy in a monsoon. Oh, and there was a bit where a little girl asked Ryu Hayabusa to be her daddy. Good grief.

How Team Ninja bungled Ninja Gaiden 3 is beyond my comprehension, but it was far and away the worst game I played in 2012.

Best (or worst) scene of a sexual nature

Winner: Lucius (game)

Six-year-old Lucius wanders unsuspecting into a bedroom to catch his uncle playing hide the sausage with the maid. Rather than stop and explain what happens when a man and a woman love each other very much, the two continue at it in full view of Lucius. It’s game over for the player, but not before Lucius gets a good view of his uncle’s throbbing joystick.

Most inane boss machination

Winner: Richard Attenborough (Ninja Gaiden 3)

Ninja Gaiden 3 was an inordinately stupid game with an inordinately stupid antagonist. Gaiden’s mastermind villain had cloned dinosaurs on a jungle island, but unlike Richard Attenborough, Gaiden’s baddie planned to deploy his dinos in a bid to end the world. Fair enough. On the scale of bad ideas, using dinosaurs to destroy Earth falls somewhere between using tissue paper as toilet roll and bringing a blow-up hammer to a knife fight. But by the Gaiden yardstick, it was a relatively spiceless scheme — at least, until the antagonist told Ryu Hayabusa he was also going to sell the dinosaurs to children as pets. Just take that in for a moment.

They say if you put a monkey in a room for all eternity, eventually it will write the complete works of Shakespeare. I say, if you put a monkey in a room for 15 minutes, you’ll get the script to Ninja Gaiden 3 with 82 percent fewer MacGuffins.

Failed assassin

Winner: Agent 47 (Hitman: Absolution)
Runner-up: Ada Wong (Resident Evil 6)

With disguises no longer foolproof and levels roughly the size of a grass snake’s anus, Agent 47 needed a new trick to help him skulk by his enemies. The answer? Taking cues from the Naughty Bear School of Stealth, Agent 47 placed his hand over his face. No, really. Probably the most remarkable thing about 47′s newfangled trick was it worked every time (so long as 47′s magic bar was full). Chicago’s finest, hired goons, and even SWAT patrols were hoodwinked the moment Agent 47 — a bald numpty with an enormous scar etched into the back of his head — raised a hand over his face.

A special mention also goes to Resident Evil 6′s Ada Wong. Ada’s first mission saw her infiltrate a submarine and engage in some light stealth against Killzone’s Helghan soldiers. One of the mission objectives was simply, “Don’t draw attention to yourself.” Thing is, with Ada’s low-cut top and skin-tight leather trousers, not drawing attention proved incredibly tough.

Worst dogs

Winner: Hotline Miami
Runner-up: Mark of the Ninja

I lovingly dubbed Hotline Miami “Disco-Mordor” (for obvious reasons) when I reviewed it back in October. Cutthroat, ungenerous, and bloody excellent, Dennaton’s top-down action hit was one of my favorites of the year. But its pooches … dear lord, its pooches. Miami’s mutts had a lust for human flesh and a knack for rocketing out from just offscreen, making them the most bastard-annoying bastards of the year. Sure, you could don a mask and transform them into abiding canines, but then the pendulum swung the other way, and they were suddenly the victims of your callous hate. You couldn’t win with Hotline Miami’s dogs.

Best couple

Winner: Juliet & Nick (Lollipop Chainsaw)

Lollipop Chainsaw was as unloved as Goichi Suda’s other recent (and probably better) game Shadows of the Damned. While the blow-by-blow bedlam was enjoyable enough on its own, the lead characters were what gave Lollipop Chainsaw its soul. The chitchat between Juliet and her bodiless boyfriend Nick was sharp as they bickered, flirted, and sliced through the carnage with humorous quips. The result? You got the sense you were watching the drama of a genuine relationship amidst all the soaring limbs and gore geysers. Aww.

Bleakest game world

Winner: I Am Alive
Runner-ups: Day Z and Nintendo Land

I Am Alive is an early 2012 Xbox Live Arcade title that severed opinion in spectacular fashion. It may not have been the most polished game of the year, but Ubisoft sure did bleak with panache.

Haverton was a spiteful and uncaring place, painted in stark greys and home only to those robbed of their humanity. During one particularly memorable scene, two men hunched over a fire offered you a hunk of meat. It was an alarmingly selfless gesture from characters caught in a world that had, until that point, offered only sadists, a child, and the dead. If you snooped around a little, though, you soon found cages with human skulls inside them. Haverton was powerful in its wickedness and did a good job of papering over some of I Am Alive’s more prominent flaws.

Wiliest assassin

Winner: Corvo Attano (Dishonored)
Runner-up: Mark (Mark of the Ninja)

It’s been a bumper year for wily bastards in video games, such as Far Cry 3′s Jason Something, Dishonored’s Corvo Attano, and Mark from, err, Mark of the Ninja — not to mention characters from the likes of Lone Survivor and Hotline Miami.

But it’s Dishonored’s disgraced bodyguard and murderer extraordinaire Corvo who scoops the award for King of the Wilies (mind the lone “l” there). Corvo’s knack for teleporting gave him the upper hand over his peers, but even without that advantage, his deep well of tricks and murdering abilities (conjuring rats and slowing time to a standstill were two of the best) meant Corvo was well out in front of the pack. He was presumably loitering in the shadows somewhere like a steampunk Gary Glitter.

Best ego massage

Winner: Dishonored

(SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER)

(YOU HAVE BEEN SPOILER-WARNED)

Games are mostly about empowerment. In Dishonored, Corvo’s cache of party tricks did a sensational job of conferring on the player a gross sense of power. But it was a moment of silence — a transient scene at the end of a level that featured almost no killing — that triggered that feeling better than any other.

(LAST WARNING)

It came after Corvo had weaseled his way into a fancy dress party disguised as himself (in what was basically the best Hitman level all year). Having hidden in plain sight and satisfied the mission objectives, Corvo left the party, but not before scrawling his name in the guest book.

It was a sensational “screw you” to all the guards who had made your getting there awkward. Your wits, not your trigger finger, had got the better of Dunwall’s finest. A real moment of class.

---

GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

---

If 2012 has shown us one thing, it’s that video game development is truly in the “crossover era.” GamesBeat’s 2012 Game of the Year, The Walking Dead, was first available as a downloadable title, not a retail release. Other downloadables, such as indie-developed darlings Journey and Faster Than Light, garnered plenty of votes as well. And in our staff’s and contributor’s top games of the year lists, we even see mobile releases — like Fieldrunners 2.

Gaming has changed, and it’s nice to see that it’s more than just big-budget console and PC titles that have earned Game of the Year attention. Here are the top games as chosen by GamesBeat staffers and contributors. Let us know what you think about our picks in the comments — especially if you feel we’ve left something off our lists!

Editor-in-chief Dan “Shoe” Hsu

XCOM: Enemy Unknown
Platforms: PC, Xbox 360, PS3
Publisher: 2K Games
Developer: Firaxis Games

Little green men — yesteryear’s poster boys for mysterious invaders from outer space — are about as menacing as Oompa Loompas armed with toy guns. XCOM’s little gray men, however, are scary as hell. It’s not the ashen skin, bulbous eyes, or creepy-crawly walk. It’s what these Sectoids represent: a greater threat that we are simply not equipped to handle.

In the strategy game XCOM: Enemy Unknown, we mere humans bring dull knives to plasma gunfights. And just when we start to catch up in weapon technology, the bug-eyed bastards bring bigger guns and meaner friends. These jerks even cheat with mysterious mind-control powers. Meanwhile, we’re barely keeping the checkbook balanced between research, manufacturing, facility construction, aircraft, and an ever-decreasing budget due to world nations pulling out of the program if you can’t keep them safe (and you can never keep them all safe).

It all adds up to an incredibly exciting and stressful experience. Each decision — whether it’s which tree to hide your assault trooper behind or which whiny country gets your last airspace-monitoring satellite — feels monumental and permanent. Humanity’s existence is at stake, and we just want to make it to the next month, when a few more pennies come rolling in and a few more traumatized soldiers get out of sick bay.

It’s a desperate fight. And boy will we celebrate when those little gray men are dead.

Shoe’s other picks for best games of 2012: Fieldrunners 2, Dishonored, Journey, Fez

Lead writer Dean Takahasi

The Unfinished Swan
Platform: PlayStation 3 (PlayStation Network)
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America
Developer: Giant Sparrow

The Unfinished Swan is one of the most creative titles yet for the PlayStation Network. It’s an interactive fairy tale where you lob blobs of black paint at a white screen. As you do so, you uncover part of a 3D space hidden within the white scene. Uncovering each scene is a mind-bending task, as you have to navigate perplexing puzzles. You explore the unknown, and as you do so, you uncover a new segment in a fairy tale about a boy who loses his mother. It is a touching story that will remind of you of the zany Alice in Wonderland. Ian Dallas, the game creator, feels that a child who is abandoned is like an unfinished work of art. But just when you think that the game has become predictable, it changes. In some ways, the story seems unfinished. But the title is a wonderful first effort for Giant Sparrow, a new studio bankrolled by Sony.

Dean’s other picks for the best games of 2012: Halo 4, Far Cry 3, Journey, Call of Duty: Black Ops II

Culture editor Sebastian Haley

Hotline Miami
Platform: PC
Publisher: Developer Digital
Developer: Dennaton Games

Indie sensation Hotline Miami is best described as the film Drive, but in a retro, pixelated and somehow even more violent form, with subtle hints of Rockstar’s Manhunt sprinkled on top. The short-but-sickeningly sweet levels allow you to carefully orchestrate your symphony of murder and mayhem, filling the floors with maimed corpses and spraying the walls with crimson, all while its surreal, Miami Vice-inspired soundtrack beats in the back of your mind. Basically, if you own a Wii or like looking at livestreams of kittens, this is not your kind of game.

Sebastian’s other picks for best games of 2012: Trials Evolution, Far Cry 3, The Darkness II, Final Fantasy XIII-2

Staff writer Jeff Grubb

Mark of the Ninja
Platform: Xbox 360 (Xbox Live Arcade), PC
Publisher: Microsoft Studios
Developer: Klei Entertainment

For these Game of the Year summaries, we’re supposed to look above and beyond the individual parts of a game. We’re supposed to write about why it is important, but in the case of Mark of the Ninja, it’s those parts that make it so special. Developer Klei’s 2D stealth action game for Xbox Live Arcade and PC is a master class in well-executed gameplay mechanics. Whether it’s a soundwave that ripples off your ninja’s feet to indicate how much noise he’s making or a vision cone that indicates where an enemy is looking, Mark of the Ninja is constantly communicating with the player. It then provides the player with a great controlling character to poke and prod the world with.

It’s not rare that a game makes you feel like a badass, but with Klei’s game it’s not about how powerful you are — it’s about how in tune with the environment your character is. You have so much visual and aural information that every moment is an opportunity for experimentation. You can spend 10 minutes laying out a detailed plan that involves deadly traps, or you can play the entire game without a sword.

In video games, we don’t usually get a lot of new ideas, we just get different takes on old ideas. Stealth is an old idea at this point, but Mark of the Ninja distinguishes itself by executing the concept better than any other game before it.

Jeff’s other picks for best games of 2012: The Walking Dead, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Trials Evolution, FTL: Faster Than Light

Copy editor Jason Wilson

FTL: Faster Than Light
Platform: PC, Mac, Linux
Publisher: Subset Games
Developer: Subset Games

I’m low on fuel. My crew raced around my starship like a colony of ants, hastily putting out fires as doors opened to the cold vacuum of space. The Rebels are closing in on me. Do I take a chance and see if I can gain more fuel in the next nebular cloud, or do I make a mad dash for the next sector and hope to find friendly forces instead of angry adversaries? These are just some of the choices the player faces in FTL: Faster Than Light, the indie roguelike that’s swept upon a number of Game of the Year lists in 2012 (including ours!). What makes FTL so compelling to players is that a take on Civilization’s “one more turn” addictive nature — but instead of furthering your game, you’re driven to see if your next attempt takes you closer to escaping the pursuing Rebel forces. And it’s this that makes FTL one of the most interesting, fascinating, and, yes, best games of 2012.

Jason’s other picks for best games of 2012: The Walking Dead, Crusader Kings II, Torchlight II, Dragon’s Dogma

Contributor Rus McLaughlin

Far Cry 3
Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PC
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal

Something visceral. Something primal. Most shooters don’t have these. They settle you into a safe, comfortable role. Veteran soldier. Seasoned cop. Career criminal. A hero … or an antihero. But Far Cry 3 makes you run blind through the jungle while murderous pirates hunt you like a piece of prey. You’re just a terrified kid. Never held a gun before. Never seen anyone die before. Now you’re covered in your own brother’s blood and getting high off the giddy thrill of mere survival. Then you’re turned lose to roam two amazingly rich, open-world islands where you can really start enjoying yourself, slowly and cautiously picking your tormentors apart. Before you know it, the elation you get from destroying a criminal empire hardens into a different kind of drug: revenge.

That’s when Far Cry 3 surpasses the standard shooter fare. An aimless twentysomething becomes a killer of killers, as feared as the insane warlords he wants dead. Between coolly tense stealth play and straight-up gunfights, you become the predator, stalking intruders in your jungle and murdering them at will. It all culminates in a moment where you must decide just how much you enjoy that particular power fantasy. Enough to abandon your humanity? Maybe.

Far Cry 3 goes there. Solid gameplay — minus a weak-tea multiplayer — and incredibly detailed environments lift it far enough, but its secret weapon lies in how it takes you into that dark, primal place. And then it dares you to ignore your basic animal instincts.

Rus’s other picks for best games of 2012: The Walking Dead, Fez, Halo 4, Journey

Contributing editor Rob Savillo

Contributor Rob LeFebvre

---

GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

---

If you follow VentureBeat but don’t regularly check our GamesBeat site, here’s a list of the best games stories we ran over the last seven days that you may have missed.

This week, Sony buys online streaming service Gaikai and drops OnLive support, Disney spends millions to protect children playing Club Penguin, and the mystery around iOS game Pretty Pet Salon is revealed.

You’ll also find reviews for The Walking Dead Episode 2 and Spelunky.

GamesBeat:

GamesBeat 2012 features more than 80 of the game industry’s best and brightest

The road ahead in gaming: Welcome to the Crossover Era

Apple’s crackdown on app-ranking manipulation: Confused developers caught in the dragnet

The DeanBeat: Even Grand Theft Auto V won’t save 2012 retail game sales

Blizzard recognizes Diablo III’s lack of endgame content

Six years in the making, epic sci-fi MMO Taikodom is finally set for beta-testing (exclusive)

Free-to-play pioneer K2 Network merges with Reloaded Games (exclusive interview)

And the grenade’s red glare: Call of Duty downloadable content is half off

Buffy Summers, eat your heart out: Juliet may be our generation’s Slayer

‘Give us something BIG!’: 10 of the best live-action video game trailers

3 unexpected questions from Nintendo’s shareholder meeting

Big Fish Games bets on the cloud with a cross-platform casual gaming service

Three things you need to know about gamification

Nintendo: Online subscriptions ‘aren’t always the best‘

You can interview for a job by playing Diablo III

Aggressive expansion: How Hero Academy came to embrace China and Steam (interview)

Poker site CEO arrested on new Ponzi scheme charges

Activision-Blizzard partners with Tencent to take Call of Duty Online to China

What happened to the horror in survival-horror?

Only a mad man could love Spelunky (review)

The Walking Dead Episode 2: Starved for Help turns the gore up to 11 (review)

Sony buys Gaikai game streaming service for $380M

VentureBeat:

GamesBeat’s Evolution 2012 viewing guide

Gamevil boosts its multimillion-dollar investment of mobile-game developers (exclusive)

Disney spends millions to keep Club Penguin’s young audience safe

GameFounders now nurturing games in Europe with an accelerator

On the move: Mobile gamers now outnumber PC players in China

EA goes after CityVille with today’s launch of SimCity Social

PlayPhone quadruples its mobile social gaming network users in six months

Report: $99 Android-based game console Ouya on the way

Meet our all-star GamesBeat 2012 moderators

Kuato aims to teach kids programming through games

The mystery of why Pretty Pet Salon was banned from the App Store and then returned

Gamers spend $3.4B on all types of games in Q1

Disney and others bring disruption to movie-licensed games

How Sony could disrupt its console rivals — and itself — with its Gaikai acquisition

Zynga ‘unleashes’ bigwig Mark Pincus after big product unveiling

GamesBeat 2012 is VentureBeat’s fourth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. This year we’re calling on speakers from the hottest mobile, social, PC, and console companies to debate new ways to stay on pace with changing consumer tastes and platforms. Join 500+ execs, investors, analysts, entrepreneurs, and press as we explore the gaming industry’s latest trends and newest monetization opportunities. The event takes place July 10-11 in San Francisco, and you can get your tickets here.

When the world first learned about Grasshopper Manufacture’s peppy action game Lollipop Chainsaw last year, more than one person connected the dots back to Buffy Summers, the Chosen One and all-around blonde bombshell who could deliver a roundhouse kick straight to your heart. Both are platinum beauties. Both enjoy decapitation and high school cheerleading. Both slay the undead. For Juliet, it’s zombies. For Buffy, it’s vampires and anything without a soul.

But Buffy came first, debuting on film in 1992 and later television, and she set an example far different than the one Juliet Starling embodies in Lollipop Chainsaw. Through show creator Joss Whedon’s feminist sensibilities, Buffy becomes more than a dream girlfriend — she plays sister to one, friend to many, and a role model to countless others. Sure, she chewed on a lollipop and wore miniskirts like Juliet (think back to Season One), but appearances do not make two characters evenly matched. Buffy deals with real death — the kind that wounds so deeply you don’t carry your boyfriend’s head around with you and use him to smack foes. She sacrifices herself for the good of the world and always comes back fighting.

For Juliet Starling to be a force as noble and unstoppable as Buffy Summers, she has to do a lot more than look hot in a tight outfit. She has to make us care about the difference between good and evil and show us that saving the world takes more than a chainsaw and someone bold or stupid enough to wield it. It takes a hero — and, in this case, a girl to inspire us, impassion us, and make us forget about gender and blonde jokes.

So, does Juliet amount to more than pom poms and glitter, or is she just another pretty face?

“Juliet is sweet and strong,” says Tara Strong, the voice of Juliet in Lollipop Chainsaw. “She has a real teenage quality in her, being hard on herself for having a ‘big butt’ and things like that. But then she can chainsaw someone in half…She’s the ultimate brave heroine, with a ton of fun girlie attributes. She always looks good, even when she gets splattered with blood.”

The problem is it seems nearly impossible to talk about Juliet’s redeeming personality and charm without mentioning her looks. Even the game’s developers focused less on Juliet’s brains than they did the zombies’, instead giving her a closet full of costumes and signing two cosplayers, one American and one Japanese, to play her in promotions.

Then the “Special Edition” live-action trailer hit the web in May.

In the video, marketing executive Ken Portman invites three of the game’s most “loyal and enthusiastic fans” to preview the special edition of Lollipop Chainsaw. He offers the teenage boys a chance to actually get their hands on a life-sized Juliet (cosplayer Jessica Nigri) and make her do whatever they dream up.

The most “enthusiastic” of the three starts counting the ways he’s going to play with Juliet after taking her home. His blatant sexual perversion, hardly decipherable through a storm of expletives, even makes his friends uncomfortable — not to mention Juliet herself. But she’s only a doll and does what they tell her to with a reassuring smile. It’s no small wonder the commercial (and its mildly less suggestive “Zom-Be-Gone” video counterpart) caused a stir in gaming communities.

Buffy fans may recall a handful of episodes involving a sex doll version of Ms. Summers (Season 5, Episode 18, “Intervention”) that one character had commissioned because he couldn’t satisfy his desire and love for the real version.

“Do I think that as a plotline it was somehow antiwoman?” says Lily Rothman, whose essay about the television show appears in the recent Joss Whedon: The Complete Companion from Titan Books. “Not really. There was never any implication, that I remember, that the bot could hold a candle to the real Buffy. If anything, it just shows how much more there is to the character beyond fighting and sex.”

After seeing the Lollipop Chainsaw live-action trailer, Rothman compares and contrasts Juliet and Buffy, looking beyond what she calls “superficial similarities” and pointing out the differences.

“Buffy isn’t fighting for a man, even though there are instances in which she does,” Rothman says. “She fights because it’s her destiny. She also doesn’t do it alone. And while she sometimes wore revealing outfits, mostly way-’90s thigh-high boots and miniskirts, she didn’t dress or act in that sort of way. This video game seems designed very much for the male gaze.”

Is there more to Juliet than “fighting and sex?” Did developer Grasshopper Manufacture mold a girl out of plastic parts, or did they create her with real flesh, blood, and bone?

Lollipop Chainsaw story writer and Hollywood filmmaker (Slither, Super) James Gunn believes the latter. Similar to Buffy’s destiny as the Slayer, Juliet has “been trained to kill since she was a baby,” he says. “I think we’d all have a different perspective on the world if that was our situation.”

Back in January, Gunn told IGN that Juliet has “an innocence about her that’s completely unique.” In relation to Juliet, who dresses in skimpy outfits and appears in life-size doll commercials, what does that mean?

Pages: 1 2

[UPDATE: Walmart has replaced the original product description with text copied directly from Blizzard. Luckily, I took a picture (below).]

Walmart.com’s hilariously uninformed and grammatically unsound product description for Diablo III has been spreading across the Internet today. The unfortunate blurb on the store’s website includes such head-scratching comments as “The Diablo III PC/Mac Game revolves around an interesting plot which will keep you spell bound. while you are playing” and “Bring home the PC video game to solve the mysteries of the mighty Barbarians.”

To be fair, anyone who knows how ridiculous that description is has already decided whether or not they’re buying the game on Tuesday, and people who don’t know what Diablo is probably shouldn’t be looking to that site for their purchasing decisions. The Internet likes to have its fun, though, so I think it would be in Walmart’s best interests to start writing up every product this way. I’ll get them started with my own made-up descriptions for some of the biggest releases coming out this year.

Max Payne 3

Max Payne 3 is an action-shooter game for the Xbox 360/PlayStation 3/PC. It is a game where you shoot guys and take Max Payne’s trademark pain killers. Fight your way through an engrossing action pulp action story and take Max Payne to such exotic locales as New York, Rio de Janeiro, and stadium. Keep fighting for revenge no matter what! gets in your way.

Max Payne 3 Xbox360/Playstation 3/PC Game:

• Fight through legions of enemies as the legendary Max Payne
• Max Payne’s hair changes dynamically to fit the story
• Use guns and take cover to engage in action.

Lollipop Chainsaw

Fight many zombies as iconic character Juliet in this Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 game Lollipop Chain Saw. Juliet knows about zombies because she studied really hard. She is in high school. Take your trusty chainsaw and best friend head to work on the evil foes to destroy their plot and solve their mind-bending puzzles. There will be only one cheerleader left at the end of this awful night, and you’d better believe it’s going to be this one.

Lollipop Chainsaw  Xbox360/Playstation 3 Game:

• Fight zombies with kicks and pom-poms and, as always, the sharpest chainsaw in the world
• Dress up in cute outfits to gain magical powers and abilities
• Engage in hardcore coop mode with your best friend, Head.

Resident Evil 6

Zombies are back in the latest chapter of the epic surviving horror classic series. Series heroes Leon F. Kennedy and Chris Redfield join forces for the first time to fight the dreaded “C Virus” once again in a crazy post-apocalyptic wasteland. This horror game continues to prove how dangerous zombies are, and it’s up to you to beat them down for good on the Xbox 360 and/or Playstation 3.

Resident Evil 6 Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 Game:

• Fight zombies! More zombies you ask? Yes, way more
• Unleash powerful weapons like Pistol and Shotgun, that only the most elite players can master.

Assassin’s Creed III

It has been a few years, but The Assassin is back on the Xbox 360 and PlaySation 3. In this action-stealth-city game, The Assassin travels back in time to stop anti-American forces before they can stop the future from happening. You don’t have to have played the other games to understand this one. Many people will be killed if they get in The Assassin’s way on his quest of vengeance and justice.

Assassin’s Creed III Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 Game:

• Return to the Amnious, the mysterious source of The Assassin’s power
• Ride on horses for the first time since the last game
• Play the single player game in engaging multiplayer battles that add many features like Stealth Kills and Hiding.

The fun doesn’t have to stop here; you can see plenty of actual “highlights” from Walmart’s game section here.

GamesBeat 2012 is VentureBeat’s fourth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. This year we’re calling on speakers from the hottest mobile, social, PC, and console companies to debate new ways to stay on pace with changing consumer tastes and platforms. Join 500+ execs, investors, analysts, entrepreneurs, and press as we explore the gaming industry’s latest trends and newest monetization opportunities. The event takes place July 10-11 in San Francisco, and you can get your early-bird tickets here.

---

GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

---

Well, wonder no more.

While newly announced intellectual properties like Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us and Epic Games’ Fortnite don’t make the list because they currently have no release date information, there are still plenty of promising new IPs set to hit store shelves in 2012. Here are ten brand new titles worth keeping an eye on.

Asura’s Wrath
Developer: CyberConnect2
Publisher: Capcom
Platforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Release Date: Feb. 21, 2012

Asura was once a revered deity before he was betrayed by his fellow gods, banished from the realm of Shinkoku, and stripped of all his powers. Twelve thousand years later, he is awakened by a mysterious voice and, consumed by vengeance, he sets out on a quest for revenge against his betrayers. Asura’s Wrath, Capcom’s latest beat ‘em up, will be told through episodic gameplay similar to a TV drama series, blending Asian mythology with sci-fi.

Capcom says Asura’s Wrath will deliver a fresh take on the action genre by combining intense combat with a seamless player-controlled narrative. Through a mix of range attacks and close quarter action, Asura will face off against numerous unique enemies, including planetary sized bosses, that Capcom says will continually challenge your expectations.

Dishonored
Developer: Arkane Studios
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Release Date: Q2 2012

Dishonored is an all-new first person action game currently under development at Arkane Studios. It’s the studio’s first project since being acquired by ZeniMax, the owner of Bethesda, in 2010. Overseeing the project are co-directors Raphael Colantonio, former lead designer on Arx Fatalis, and Harvey Smith, former lead designer on Deus Ex.

In Dishonored, you take on the role of Corvo, a legendary bodyguard falsely imprisoned for the murder of the Empress, in an industrialized retro-future game world designed by Half-Life 2 Art Director Viktor Antonov. Using a mix of assassination and stealth, you will have to unravel the conspiracy behind the murder and hunt down those responsible. You will have numerous powers and tools to accomplish your tasks, and Arkane says each encounter will play out based on hundreds of different factors.

I Am Alive
Developer: Darkworks (2008-2010), Ubisoft Shanghai (2010-2011)
Publisher: Ubisoft
Platforms: PlayStation 3 (PSN), Xbox 360 (XBLA)
Release Date: Q1 2012

Publisher Ubisoft says I Am Alive is an action/adventure game engineered to create a convincing post-disaster world in which players are faced with thought-provoking choices. The game follows a man’s journey to find his wife and daughter in his hometown, Haventon, one year after a cataclysmic “Event” wipes out most of the human race. The mystery of the Event is an important part of the experience, the publisher says, and you will have to figure it out for yourself based on what you see and what others tell you.

Stamina and resource management will be key to surviving I Am Alive’s post-apocalyptic world. There are no supernatural threats. Instead, you will have to brave deadly dust clouds and scale enormous buildings to search for supplies while using a unique combat system that requires you to utilize intimidation against your foes.

Journey
Developer: thatgamecompany
Publisher: Sony
Platforms: PlayStation 3 (PSN)
Release Date: Spring 2012

thatgamecompany, the studio behind flOw and Flower, is known for challenging traditional gaming conventions and Journey is their vision of a unique online adventure experience. After awakening in an unknown world, you will walk, glide, and fly through an awe-inspiring, interactive landscape and discover the history of an ancient civilization. The game encourages exploration without violence and seeks to “de-empower” you, making you feel tiny and helpless in a vast world.

Journey’s approach to online gaming sounds similar to that of Demon’s Souls or Dark Souls, in that you will occasionally be able to explore your surroundings with fellow travelers who cross your path. By traveling together, you will be able to re-shape the experience in a way that the developer hopes will be authentic, emotional, and memorable. Here’s our interview with Journey co-creator Jenova Chen.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
Developer: 38 Studios, Big Huge Games
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Release Date: Feb. 7, 2012

38 Studios is the creative enterprise of former MLB pitcher Curt Schilling, who also happens to be an avid gamer. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is the studio’s first project and it has already generated buzz simply because of the names attached to it. Ken Rolston, former lead designer of classic role-playing games The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is leading the project, while New York Times best-selling fantasy author R.A. Salvatore is creating the lore and game world and Spawn creator Todd McFarlane is in charge of the art direction.

38 Studios says Reckoning will have the open-world exploration, vast narrative, and character customization fans expect from the genre, as well as fast-paced, graphically stimulating action and fluid controls. If God of War and Fable had a baby, it would probably look a lot like Reckoning, and expectations are high for this brand new IP.

Pages: 1 2