Japanese developers have had trouble transitioning to the current generation, and in a interview with Famitsu Weekly (via 1UP), "Metal Gear Solid" creator Hideo Kojima laid out concerns that continued Western domination of games may halt the emergence of new Japanese game designers.

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MTV Multiplayer isn't in Japan for Tokyo Game Show this week, but we have been closely watching the event unfold from the sidelines.

There are already too many games on my desk for me to play, but can you blame me for wanting to play more?

There is never "enough" for the hardcore gamer.

A few games really caught my eye at this year's TGS. Here are my favorites:

#1 -- "White Knight Chronicles" for PlayStation 3

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The rumors were right. At a press conference in Japan tonight, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata revealed the latest iteration of their handheld: the Nintendo DS-i.

At first glance, it doesn't look much different than the already available DS Lite. But there are some major additions to the hardware, including:

* Two 0.3 megapixel (640x480 resolution) cameras, one on the outside, another on the inside
* Larger screens -- they're now 3.25 inches (vs. 3.0 inches)
* SD card slot for memory expansion and plug-n-play with Wii Photo Channel
* Built-in web browser
* Support for the "Nintendo DS Store," which will sell "Nintendo DS Ware," much like the WiiWare service already available on Wii
* Ability to play MP3s via SD cards

The DS-i is also slightly smaller, but form factor came at a price. Nintendo has removed the Game Boy Advance slot, removing compatibility with that device's games. But Nintendo could potentially sell those games through the DS Store.

Nintendo said the DS-i will be available on November 1 in Japan for 18,900 yen (roughly $180 over here) in two colors -- white and grey-black. Unfortunately, the rest of the world won't see the DS-i until 2009.

Nintendo of America is holding a two-day press event in San Francisco starting tomorrow, however. We should know more about the worldwide plans then.

[Image Credit: Watch Impress]

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Earlier today I wrote a post noting how few Japanese-created games and pieces of hardware were nominated for E3 Game Critics Awards this year.

I suggested that, once the winners were announced, Japanese creators might wind up with fewer awards from E3 2008 than from any previous E3.

That's just what happened.

Among the 15 winners announced today only one work from Japan -- Best Fighting game "Street Fighter IV" -- took a top slot. Japanese efforts in the handheld and hardware categories fell short, as did multiple nominee "Resident Evil 5." The awards are determined by tabulating two rounds of votes from 36 game reporters (myself included) who nominate all the titles in contention. I had voted for three Japanese-made works, "Rhythm Heaven" for Best Handheld, "Street Fighter IV" for Best Fighting, and Wii MotionPlus for Best Hardware.

A commenter this morning criticized my original post, saying, accurately, that E3 is an American-run show. Regardless, the numbers are real and a four year decline in awards for Japanese-made product at E3 continues. In the 11 years of Game Critics Awards have been issued, this year's total is Japan's lowest.

I do believe this says something about the games made in Japan, the nature of games shown to Americans and, well... what do you think?

(Full Game Critics Awards winners listed after the jump) Read more...

Japanese game developers, arguably the most influential video game creation community in history, are on the verge of nearly being shut out at this year's E3 Games Critics Awards.

The list of 71 nominations for this year's awards lists only 12 nods to the work of Japanese creators, few of which are likely to take top honors when the winners are announced in the coming days.

The 12 nominees includes multiple nominations for "Resident Evil 5" and a heavy Japanese presence in two categories: three of four nominated best fighting games ("Soul Calibur IV" and two versions of "Street Fighter") as well as two of three nominated best new pieces of hardware (Wii MotionPlus and the "Lips" microphone).

Japanese winners have been on the decline for several years. In 2005, Japanese creators took home six Game Critics Awards. In 2006 that number dropped to four. Last year they claimed just two.

With final judges ballots now in for tabulation from the three dozen reporters selected for judging  -- including mine -- Japanese developers may walk away with the fewest wins across the contest's 15 categories in the Awards' 11-year history. And no Japanese developer or company can hope to win the biggest award, Best of Show, because no work from Japanese creators made the cut to be nominated in the final five. (Contenders are "Fallout 3," "Gears of War 2," "Little Big Planet," "Mirror's Edge," and "Spore" - three games from the U.S., one from England and one from Sweden). Japanese creators had taken the Best of Show three times in years past, all for hardware: GameCube, PSP and Wii.

There are many possible reasons for the lack of Game Critics' commendation for Japanese-created work. Could it be Nintendo's failure to connect with the E3 media? Was Sony holding back Japanese-created content for Tokyo Game Show? Or is there a real decline of Japanese development, something that "Ninja Gaiden" creator Tomonobu Itagaki mentioned off-hand to me as a problem during an interview we had at Game Developer's Conference? He is not the only Japan-based game creator to have expressed that anxiety to me.

E3 and the Game Critics Awards have never been dominated by Japanese games, but looking over the list of nominees and guessing at the expected winners, I find it hard to reach any other conclusion than that Japanese game creators had less impact on this E3 than any in recent memory. If this is a sign of a geographic shift of the gaming industry, I imagine it is one that could make our lives as gamers a bit less rich, a bit less creatively interesting, even for those of us who find a way to import "Rhythm Tengoku Gold" for our subway rides home.

Throughout this year I've been hearing from Japanese game developers who are concerned that their country's gaming reputation, once the leading force in game development, has been surpassed by the work of game creators in America and Europe.

Last night in San Francisco, a handful of top-shelf Japanese developers working under the label Platinum Games announced that they have teamed up with Sega to put Japanese game development back on top.

They hope to do it with:

• A bloody black-and-white early 2009 Wii game called "Madworld," that comes from a lead creator on "Resident Evil 4"
• A 2009 DS sci-fi spaceship-managing role-playing game called "Infinite Line" from a philosophical designer who helped make "Steel Battalion"
• A guns-on-her-hands-and-feet, witches-vs.-angels Xbox 360/PS3 2009 game called "Bayonetta" from the creator of "Devil May Cry"
• And a mystery game from Capcom pioneer Shinji Mikami.

They're calling it a comeback for Japanese gaming, and they're not afraid to tell me what they think has gone very wrong with the development scene in their company.

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"Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver" is one of my favorite games.

So when "Afro Samurai" senior designer David Robinson said he not only credits some design decisions for the anime-based hack 'n slash "Afro Samurai" to "Soul Reaver," but he also worked on "Soul Reaver," I was excited.

"Afro is largely built on the flavor of Soul Reaver -- the dark brooding story, the anti-hero character," said Robinson. "A lot of the constructs come from how beautiful that game was."

I'm sold! But I was curious how "Afro Samurai" came to be, as it's a new step for Namco Bandai. It's coming from the Japanese publisher's first wholly-owned studio in the United States. Robinson's been working on "Afro Samurai" for just under two years, and he started with just a staff of five.

Now, they're up to more than 40, as development nears the final lap. I probed Robinson about working with Samuel L. Jackson, who has done voices for the anime and the game.

So what was it like being part of Namco's first American team?

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San Francisco -- With "Wii Fit" already out in Japan but still months away from release in Europe and the U.S., throngs of GDC attendees lined up to attend a talk by one of its developers yesterday afternoon.

Takao Sawano, Deputy GM in Entertainment Analysis and Development at Nintendo, talked about his work developing the Wii Balance Board peripheral for "Wii Fit" in a session titled, "'Wii Fit': Creating a Brand New Interface for the Home Console."

The hundreds of people in the audience listened attentively as Sawano-san spoke in his native tongue (English speakers used headsets connected to a translator). He talked about how "Wii Fit" came to be in the first place, the features of the software and the possible future implementation of the Wii Balance Board as a new controller.

As simple as the design looks, creating "Wii Fit" was not an easy process. When Sawano-san was tasked with creating the hardware for Shigeru Miyamoto's vision, he thought, "We'll sell a few, but there's no way that this will become a hit product." However, after overcoming major design challenges with the Wii Balance Board, over 1.4 million units have been sold in Japan since its December 1 release.

Some highlights from the talk include:

• Miyamoto had planned "Wii Fit" long before the Wii's launch.

• Early prototypes of the Wii Balance board included rumble and a connection to the Wii remote.

• The program includes a Body Test, where you can measure BMI, weight and your "Wii Fit" age quickly and easily without inserting the disc. After the first time the game is inserted it will install the "Wii Fit" channel via the game disc.

• In the Aerobics section, you can choose running courses that don't require use the Wii Balance Board; instead the player holds the Wii remote in hand or in pocket and runs in place. You can be joined by another person with a second Wii remote. New content will be added "to keep players coming back for more."

• Also in Aerobics, players can change to the TV and the speaker in the Wii remote still counts for you as you exercise and watch TV.

• "Wii Fit" is slated for release in Europe on April 25 and in North America on May 19.

Read on for the details...

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Nostalgia frequently clouds my judgment whenever I'm talking about old games. I love them, I collect them, I generally hold them in higher regard than most new games that are released. But, even I'll admit, sometimes I'm wrong. Some games just don’t hold up against the test of time, and going back and playing them is just a test of my patience.

One of the most consistent game publishers back in the day was Taito. Just hearing the name should bring back memories of dragons, legends, renegades and elevators for some older gamers. They brought to life some of the greatest games and characters ever to be seen. While their name may still appear on new games, they may never reach the height of popularity that they enjoyed in the 1980s. And since Taito was acquired by Square Enix in 2005 they are no longer their own company.

One of the titles that their name has appeared on recently was a mini-game collection, released in the States by Majesco, called "Furu Furu Park." This particular collection of mini-games cultivates some of the most well known Taito properties and repurposes them into a mini-game collection for the Wii. I was curious to see how the re-imagined versions of some of my favorite games of all time worked as "party games." So I played both the "Furu Furu Park" versions of these games, as well as the originals and put them to the test to see if nostalgia would win out against "innovation."

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There really is no better way to spend a Saturday night in the city than dragging my girlfriend around New York's Lower East Side looking for video game toys.

While she may have gotten little out of the experience, I was able to find this great little collection of "The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess" action figures. I try my best to stay up on Japanese gaming toys as they are released, at least for import, but I hadn't seen these come up at all, so I had to make them mine.

My haul included four 4" posable figures: Link, Princess Zelda, the Usurper King Zant and a Wolf Link/ Midna combo. The set ran me $30 at J1toys.com (the store's name is actually a web address - it's so late 90's). While, they might not the highest quality, they are all really well done. They appear to be officially licensed from Nintendo by Yujin, and are part of the SR Series (the rest of the little booklet that came with the set is in Japanese). As an added bonus, the Link figure can hold his sword and shield in either hand, and you can have the figure represent your preferred version of the game.

They have a high level of detail for all of the characters will look great collecting dust on my shelf with my multitude of other game-related toys and tchotchkes, only to be taken down and played with when I feel like acting out the final GameCube "Zelda" game.

Hit the jump for a full gallery of images of the figures.

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