Apparently the kids love this "High School Musical" thing.

In fact, they love it so much so that it has spurred a series of video games, the first of which was added to the Rhythm Games Track Finder last week.

The 12 songs of "High School Musical Makin' The Cut" for the Nintendo DS made their way into to the database, and coincidently, they're all performed by the" High School Musical" cast.

Also added were two upcoming track packs for "Guitar Hero III." The Modern Metal Pack features a total of three tracks by The Deftones, Thrice and Avenged Sevenfold. We also dropped in a threesome by those rowdy sons of Boston, The Dropkick Murphys. The tracks "Famous for Nothing," "Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya" and "(F)lannigan's Ball" will be hitting your Xbox 360 and PS3 just in time , so that you can spend your St. Patrick's Day pretending you're Irish in front of your TV. And the best part -- it'll be free.

For all this week's updates, see the list below:

• Flow: Urban Dance Uprising (PS2) 50 Songs Added
• Guitar Hero III (Xbox 360, PS3) 6 Songs Added (Deftones' "Hole in the Earth," Avenged Sevenfold's "Almost Easy," Thrice's "The Arsonist" The Dropkick Murphys' "Famous for Nothing," "Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya," "(F)lannigan's Ball")
• High School Musical Makin' The Cut (NDS) 12 Songs Added

We aren't sure what's up with this week's "Rock Band" announcement (it's already three days late). Hopefully they're putting the final touches on "Still Alive."

San Francisco -- After making three "LEGO Star Wars" games, you'd think Traveller's Tales would have it down pat by now.

But lightsabers and Batarangs aren't quite the same thing.

"LEGO Batman: The Videogame" producer Loz Doyle told me at the Game Developers Conference last month that the team is still working on what the Wii version's control scheme will be like. "We've been messing around with the different ways we can do the Batarang," he said. "We don't want people throwing their Wii-motes out the window. I can just imagine mothers calling us up. We are working on it."

So while I didn't a chance to see the Wii version of the game, Doyle gladly demo-ed the Xbox 360 version for me in a W Hotel suite, a block away from GDC.

With Doyle having worked on all three incarnations of the "LEGO Star Wars" games, I wondered what it was like for him to transition to a new IP. "It was quite strange at first because I've been doing 'Star Wars' since 2003 or something, so then I had to switch to a completely different universe and different characters," he said. However, Doyle and co. were allowed more creative freedom this time around, since the games aren't strictly based on movies like "LEGO Star Wars" was.

The game is broken up into 18 levels, with three different story arcs (six levels per story arc) featuring the standard two-player, drop-in/out cooperative play (online co-op play is available for the Xbox 360 and PS3). The stories were penned by Traveller's Tales, with approval from Warner Bros. and DC Comics after they were written. "It seemed only natural that the over-arching story was a big breakout from Arkham Asylum," Doyle said. "Once they broke out from Arkham Asylum, they break off into three groups, which enables us to have three stories that aren't linked to each other."

They weren't inspired by any one medium: "I think everyone on the team has at some point watched all the films, the TV series, the animated series, read the comics," he said. "We've got some massive Batman fans up at Traveller's Tales, so that was really useful. But yeah, I don't think we took particular inspiration from a specific film or TV show, it's more that we kind of looked at a character, and we built the story up based on how that character would behave."

While I didn't get my hands on the controller, I did bombard Doyle with questions as he played through some early levels. Read on...

Read more...

While GDC may have been able to keep most of us quite busy last week, we were able to add a couple more games to the Rhythm Games Track Finder. This week the Track Finder receives some updates from a pop diva, a crazy MC, as well as some of the best tracks yet for "Rock Band."

While many of you may not have gotten around to playing "Briney's Dance Beat," it was, in fact, a rhythm game that featured some of her music. With the addition of "Dance Beat" to the Track Finder, it brings Britney's rhythm game appearances to a total of nine different games. She sure does get around.

We also added in the tracks for "MC Groovz Dance Craze," a Gamecube exclusive that hit stores back in 2004. The reviews weren't that great, but it does feature one of the greatest songs ever by a rapper-turned-actor: "Parents Just Don't Understand" by the Fresh Prince. I wonder if Will Smith even knows he made an appearance in the Mad Catz game?

Nine Inch Nails make a return to "Rock Band" this week with two of their greatest songs ever recorded, and a third that's almost as good. "The Perfect Drug," which originally appeared on the "Lost Highway" movie soundtrack, may be a bit unfamiliar to those that aren’t NIN fans, but it should be completely worth the download, as it should offer some of the hardest guitar tracks yet. One other little song was announced and added for "Rock Band" last week. Some of you may have heard of it, "Still Alive" from "Portal." (That addition got it’s own little mini-update.)

The whole breakdown is below. Please let us know if you have any requests. We can try to work them into next week's Rhythm Game Track Finder update.

Britney's Dance Beat (PS2) 5 Songs Added
MC Groovz Dance Craze (Gamecube) 28 Songs Added
Rock Band - (Xbox 360, PS3) 4 Songs Added - ("March of the Pigs," "The Perfect Drug" and "The Collector" by Nine Inch Nails and "Still Alive" by Jonathan Coulton)

So that's why Phil Harrison wasn't doing interviews at GDC.

Sony announced today that Harrison, head of worldwide studios for Sony Computer Entertainment, will be leaving the company he's been a part of since 1992 at the end of this week.

Kaz Hirai, current head of Sony Computer Entertainment, will now assume Harrison's role.

Quotes from today's press release:

"As one of the founding members of SCE, Phil played a key role in the development and growth of the PlayStation business and our industry," said Kazuo Hirai. "It is sad to see him departing from SCE, but I wish to express my gratitude for his many invaluable contributions and also wish Phil the very best of luck in his future endeavors."

"The past 15 years at Sony Computer Entertainment has been the defining journey of my life so far," said Phil Harrison. "I am grateful to all the PlayStation family for their incredible support, guidance and friendship. It has been a privilege to serve as part of the team and be inspired by them on a daily basis. I am so proud of everything PlayStation has achieved and will continue to support its future in every way I can."

On a personal note, I will miss chatting with Phil about all things Sony. Furthermore, a friend of my wife's recently mistook Phil for me, because when you do a Google image search for my name, you get... THIS.

GamesIndustry.biz reports that Harrison may wind up at Atari to boost that struggling company. I've reached out to Atari for comment.

And finally, two of my favorite interviews with Phil:

• E3 2007 (Quick and on video)
• End of year 2006 (Long... a 64-minute interview)

This week's Rhythm Game Track Finder update includes the most updated information out there and, this week, offers songs from some of the oldest games yet.

We went so far back that we included perhaps the most important and influential game for the genre, the original "Dance Dance Revolution." While it may not have been the very first rhythm based game, it definitely was the game that really helped bring the genre into the mainstream. It took dance pads out of the arcades and put them in your living rooms.

We also dropped in our first (and possibly only) Dreamcast track list for that cute little maraca-shaking monkey Samba. That should get everyone ready for his upcoming Wii sequel.

To sum up this week's updates: MTV's Rhythm Game Track Finder - it's where new rhythm games come to meet their predecessors.   

The full list of updates is below. If there are any games that you would like to see in the database that we don’t currently have, just let us know and we'll get them in there.

Dance Dance Revolution (PS1) 27 Songs Added
Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore (PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii) 40 Songs Added
Rock Band (Xbox 360, PS3) 3 Songs Added (The Clash - "Complete Control," The Police - "Truth Hits Everybody." The Ramones - "Teenage Lobotomy")
Samba de Amigo (Dreamcast) 23 Songs Added
SingStar 90's (PS2) 30 Songs Added

As always, check trackfinder.mtv.com to search for your favorite songs and bands in the world’s biggest rhythm games.

"God of War" and "Twisted Metal" creator David Jaffe didn't grow up a rap guy. But now he's listening to a lot of it, especially the more aggressive stuff of the 90s.

Why?

Consider it emotional research for Jaffe's next game at his studio Eat Sleep Play. Late last week he told me that "Come Sail Away" from Styx was his unlikely soundtrack of inspiration for "God of War." Now he's on an N.W.A and Public Enemy bender.

I joked that that must mean he was asked to help out on the new "Saint's Row."

Completely wrong, he said.

Instead, he caught me by surprise by delivering an unusual theory about how video games should relate to music (hint: he says "NBA Street" gets it very, very wrong). In the process, he talked about why "Shadow of the Colossus" didn't make him cry, what game developers could learn from Martin Scorsese, and --because it's what must happen at least once a day in any true gamer's life in 2008 -- we chatted some "Endless Ocean."

How do you give gamers the feeling of a rap song without putting a rap song in a game? Read on for one of my favorite chats with a game developer so far this year.

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What we learned in "Calling All Cars" is that right now on console we're not interested in doing what we thought we were going to be doing entirely as a company.
-- David Jaffe, San Diego, January 31, 2008

David Jaffe would keep making PS2 games if he could. He's done with $10 PS3 games. And he's got some ideas for PC. And he's not making a Nintendo or Xbox game any time soon. Those are his plans.

So if David Jaffe was on your fantasy game development team, which console would you assign him to?

He has overseen hit PlayStation 2 games, and made a return to the platform this week with his new studio Eat Sleep Play's "Twisted Metal: Head On: Extra Twisted Edition." But he's also already dabbled in small downloadable PS3 games, with "Calling All Cars," flirted with PSP development, and now that he's not a Sony employee anymore, maybe he could start making games for the Wii or Xbox 360?

Jaffe and I talked through the possibilities last week, as he confirmed that Eat Sleep Play just started development a few weeks ago with the first of three contracted PS3 titles -- coming late 2009 at the earliest -- and that he won't be making games for any other console any time soon. "We would love to be with Sony as long as they'll have us," he told me from his home in San Diego. "We have no interest in going anywhere else."

Nevertheless, Jaffe had some surprising things to say about his future on PS2, PS3 and PC, including a complete about-face on what he thought Eat Sleep Play was really going to be focusing on.

Read on and see what you think of his plans.

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Are there great car chases in movie history? Sure.

Are there great car chases in gaming history? I'm not so sure.

Last week I went to some experts, the makers of "Pursuit Force: Extreme Justice" on the PSP, to get some answers. The "Pursuit Force" games are very much about car chases -- plus the act of jumping from one car to the next during a high-speed chase, and/or clinging to the hood of a car while shooting the bad guy sitting in the driver's seat.

The developers and I wound up exchanging notes about car chases, the influence of that Indiana Jones truck scene on the "Pursuit Force" games and some other stuff that I'll tell you all about later this week.

But let's start today with a list: Five Great Video Game Car Chases. These selections were provided by Chris Whiteside, Lead Designer of "Pursuit Force: Extreme Justice," Big Big Studios.

(This is official stuff, folks. How do I know this? Because when I printed out Whiteside's e-mailed answers to me, they printed out on paper formatted as official "Pursuit Force" letterhead.)

Whiteside begins in very sensible fashion by agreeing with my premise and being classy enough not to mention his own new game's  excellent car chase through a golf course or its boat race against water pollution...

"There aren’t a huge amount of memorable car chases in games for me, and this was one of the main reasons behind creating 'Pursuit Force.'

"But there have been some really good ones," he writes:

Read more...

(Below is the beginning of my latest GameFile column. For the full thing, check out MTVNews.com)

David Jaffe, outspoken video game creator, is known for many things. He was the lead creator of "God of War." Among gamers, he's famous for that. He is outspoken and curses more in his interviews than most game designers. That's one of his calling cards.

But does the world truly appreciate David Jaffe's mastery of analogies and comparisons? In an interview with GameFile last week, Jaffe peppered his discussion of "Twisted Metal: Head-On: Extra Twisted Edition" — which may or may not include the work of six game developers who died in a plane crash — with a smattering of comparisons you typically just don't hear from a game developer trying to get people excited about his game.

"The George Bush of Video Games"

Before "God of War," Jaffe made his name making "Twisted Metal" games. The point of the PlayStation series was simple: a multiplayer game featuring cars armed with guns and missiles. "It's loud," Jaffe told GameFile. "It's obnoxious. It's violent. There's not a lot of subtlety to it." It hasn't gone over well with non-Americans, selling the bulk of the series' 8 million copies in the U.S. and, according to Jaffe, befuddling non-Americans in Sony who don't really get it. "It crashes and burns everywhere it goes outside of America," Jaffe said. "It's the George Bush of video games."

"The 'Full House' of Video Games"

The "Twisted Metal" series is popular. It's popular enough to have spawned nine games, including this new one, which combines the content of a PSP "Twisted Metal" released in 2005 along with so-called "Lost Levels" and a lot of bonus content. The bonus material includes a section that lets players walk around on foot in a sort of prison/ virtual museum as "Twisted Metal" antihero Sweet Tooth, an angry clown who drives a heavily armed ice cream truck. The bonus material also includes a documentary about the history of the series. In that video, as he did in the interview, Jaffe admits that the popular "Twisted Metal" isn't discussed by, well, just about anyone. "It's like we've never really been, for the most part, a critics'-darling title," he told GameFile. "It almost kind of always felt to me [that] in terms of just the respect the title got, it almost felt to me like sort of the 'Full House' of video games. Tons of people watched it, but nobody likes to really talk about watching it."

Check out the rest of this column at MTVNews.com

With last week's Rhythm Game Track Finder update we went for quantity, adding 218 songs to the database, but this week we went for quality, adding a few surprise games to the list.

A couple of non-"Rock Band" MTV titles finally make their appearance (at alice's suggestion), and we get a visit from some crazy rabbids and add some of the songs that they sing. We also have this week's obligatory DDR game, in the form of "Dance Dance Revolution: Disney Channel." There's just a whole lot of DDR titles out there, and someday we how to have them all.

Dance Dance Revolution: Disney Channel (PS2) 25 songs added
EyeToy: Groove (PS2) 28 songs added
MTV Music Generator 2 (PS2) 9 songs added
MTV Music Generator 3: This is the Remix (PS2) 10 songs added
Rayman Raving Rabbids (Wii, PS2, Xbox 360) 7 songs added
Rock Band (Xbox 360, PS3) 3 songs added (The B-52's "Roam," Kiss' "Calling Dr. Love" and Faith No More's "We Care A Lot")

If there are any games that we are still missing, let us know, and we’ll get them added. As always, check trackfinder.mtv.com to search for your favorite songs and bands in the world’s biggest rhythm games.