411mania gives a rundown on this week's game releases. Highlights include The Chase: Felix Meets Felicity, DJ Max Fever, and Ninja Blade.

The Chase: Felix Meets Felicity
"Despite still being in pre-alpha, the glimpse that I got of The Chase at last year's E3 was already looking pretty good. Unfortunately, more high-profile 2D platformers like Mega Man 9, Bionic Commando, and Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia were getting most of the attention. So, it's understandable that this game was overlooked."

DJ Max Fever
"What's surprising is that PM Studios decided not to follow in Konami's footsteps by bastardizing the series with crappy songs from 2nd-tier US bands that nobody has ever heard of. Granted, most of the people who pick this up will not have heard of any of its songs either, but one of the game's main strengths is its song selection, and changing what works would kill the series before it has a chance to plant its feet."

Ninja Blade
"Ninja Blade is a 'Cinematic Action' game developed by the people who brought us the Otogi series"
"It looks to be a cross between Ninja Gaiden, Shinobi, Heavenly Sword, God of War, and Onimusha."
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Ninja Theory has just purchased a license of morpheme for use in their future titles. Gamers can expect to see this technology being used in their future titles.
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Word is development of Heavenly Sword 2 has been canned as the title's "no longer seen as commercially viable" says a Kotaku report. The game is said to have been axed after six months of development at the Sony Cambridge Studios. We contacted Sony UK for comment, but was issued a firm "no comment". ... » Read More

Ripten's Patrick Steen writes:

"There was always hope Heavenly Sword would give birth to a sequel that was "bigger and better than ever before." At least that's what we thought when we received a batch of new concept art from Ninja Theory.

Not only were our hopes dashed, but they've now been pummeled into believing there will never be a Heavenly Sword sequel. Nariko is dead."
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Ninja Theory, the development studio behind Heavenly Sword, has announced that their next game will be appearing on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

"It's a brutal environment out there for an independent, particularly considering the size of the games that we're developing," said Ninja Theory co-founder Nina Kristensen.

"Yes, our new game is going to be PS3 and Xbox 360," Kristensen said. "We have actually signed it but we're not announcing to who at the moment."

Looks like they've lined up a publisher and will indeed be going multi-platform.
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The Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3 have brought HD gaming into the mainstream. After years of High-Def in the living room being a hazy concept that really only affected A/V aficionados, the more technologically inclined, and the affluent, these videogame machines have made HD Gaming as simple and affordable as "plug n' play." But as with any consumer device, the hardware, for all its potential, is just that - untapped potential. What really brings out the true worth of the machine is the software that goes into it, and how it utilizes the power built into its system architecture.
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Ninja Theory, the UK-based developer behind PS3 hit Heavenly Sword (and Kung Fu Chaos), has updated its website to tease us about what its next project will be. A Heavenly Sword sequel or something completely different? "Right now we're working on an exciting new concept that has got everyone we talk to buzzing," reads the website. "We can't say a lot except that it's going to be great to work on and should be even better to play! It'll take all ... » Read More

Perhaps you didn't notice, but more than a few PS3 titles got recent and very unexpected updates... and some could potentially hurt the system.

-- 12/31/2007, Ben Dutka
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Here are the winners and runners-up for all the categories:

Game of the Year: BioShock
Runners-up: Rock Band, Mass Effect, Super Mario Galaxy, The Orange Box

Most Innovative: Rock Band
Runners-up: Portal, Assassin's Creed, Crush, Super Paper Mario

Best Writing: Mass Effect
Runners-up: BioShock, Portal, Assassin's Creed, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

Best Adrenaline Rush: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Runners-up: God of War II, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, Project Gotham Racing 4, Halo 3

Best Jiggle Factor: Heavenly Sword
Runners-up: Ninja Gaiden Sigma, Conan, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Anniversary

Guiltiest Pleasure: LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga
Runners-up: Stranglehold, Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords, Overlord, Mario Strikers Charged

Best Portable Game: The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
Runners-up: Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords, Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow, Silent Hill: Origins, Dead Head Fred

Worst Game: Vampire Rain
Runners-up: Jackass: The Game, Lair, Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s, The Eye of Judgment, Hour of Victory

[ Judges: Scott Alexander, Damon Brown, John Gaudiosi, Scott Jones, Marc Saltzman, Scott Stein and Scott Steinberg ]
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On the official Heavenly Sword and Warhawk sites, they have provided a link to a website who sells official limited edition Heavenly Sword and Warhawk PLAYSTATION 3 skins to customize your PLAYSTATION 3 console. Hopefully Sony and 3rd party developers will make more skins like these for gamers! Maybe that's why the 40GB PS3s have the PLAYSTATION 3 logo painted on instead of engraved like previous older models?
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Missing from the NPD November sales charts is Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, which only managed 117,000 sales. To be fair, Uncharted did have a better first-month than Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction (74,500 units), Warhawk (58,600 units) and Lair (46,500 units), but still fell behind Heavenly Sword's debut sales (139,000 units) in September.
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Ripten:

"Ninja Theory, the developers that brought us Heavenly Sword, are moving forward in the creation of their next game. Something exciting is in the cooking pot and the hinting makes us giddy."
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Mario Party DS sold a further 116,000 copies during the week ended November 18 to retain the top spot in Japan.

The feat follows unit sales of almost a quarter of a million in its debut week, and is enough to beat the latest Resident Evil title to the Japanese software summit.

Wii exclusive The Umbrella Chronicles, the first of five new entries to make the top ten, debuts at No2. It supplants Shin Sangoku Musou 5, which drops one place to No3.

Overall 14 DS games, six Wii, four PS3, three PSP, two PS2 and one Xbox 360 title chart.

01. Mario Party DS (DS) - 116,000 / 350,000
02. Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (Wii) - 83,000 / New
03. Shin Sangoku Musou 5 (PS3) - 76,000 / 264,000
04. Pro Yakyuu Famista DS (DS) - 49,000 / New
05. Game Center CX (DS) - 46,000 / New
06. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) - 40,000 / 365,000
07. Heavenly Sword (PS3) - 15,000 / New
08. Final Fantasy Tactics A2 (DS) - 14,000 / 230,000
09. Wii Sports (Wii) - 13,000 / 2,211,000
10. Soukou Kihei Votoms (PS2) - 12,000 / New
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VG Chartz is still compiling weekly data for Japan. Here is an early take on how some of the figures will look for the week ending November 18, 2007. These figures are preliminary and should not to be taken as gospel; they are just an early take on approximately where the market will be for the week. Estimates are in units sold.

Hardware sale estimates:
¿ DS: ~80,000
¿ PSP: 50,000 to 58,000
¿ PS3: 45,000 to 75,000
¿ Wii: 30,000 to 40,000
¿ PS2: 8,000 to 12,000
¿ Xbox 360: 4,000 to 7,000

Wii software sale estimates:
¿ Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (Total): ~100,000
¿ Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (without the Wii Zapper): 63,000 to 70,000
¿ Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (bundled with the Wii Zapper): 25,000 to 30,000
¿ Super Mario Galaxy: 24,000 to 28,000

PS3 software sale estimates:
¿ Dynasty Warriors 6: 56,000 to 64,000
¿ Heavenly Sword: 9,000 to 13,000
¿ Ratchet & Clank Future: 4,000 to 7,000

Xbox 360 software sale estimates:
¿ Dynasty Warriors 6: 10,000 to 13,000

PS2 software sale estimates:
¿ Metropolitan Police 2: 8,000 to 12,000
¿ Armored Calvary Bottom: 6,000 to 10,000
¿ Ar Tonelico: 3,000 to 5,000
¿ Volleyball Worldcup Evolution of Venus: 3,000 to 5,000

PSP software sale estimates:
¿ Monster Hunter Portable 2: 8,000 to 10,000
¿ Covenant Door: 4,000 to 8,000
¿ Akumajou Dracula X Chronicle: 4,000 to 8,000

DS software sale estimates:
¿ Mario Party DS: 110,000 to 130,000
¿ Game Center CX: 40,000 to 48,000
¿ Famitsa DS: 28,000 to 34,000
¿ Drum Master: 24,000 to 28,000
¿ Final Fantasy Tactics A2: 9,000 to 12,000
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Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles sold 70,000 units total on launch day. Here is a breakdown:

¿ Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles without Zapper - 50,000
¿ Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles with Zapper - 20,000
¿ Heavenly Sword - 7,000 (30,000 shipped)
¿ Famitsa DS - 20,000
¿ Game Center CX - 35,000 units (50,000 shipped)
¿ Cooking Mama DS - 2,000 units (30,000 shipped)
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For those who remember the initial reveal of of the PS3 at E3 2005, there were several game trailers that accompanied the announcement. These included Killzone 2, Motorstorm, Tekken 6 and a couple of titles that never made it past the concept stage. There was a lot of controversy surrounding some of these trailers due to perceptions about pre-rendered graphical quality, but while some titles haven't lived up to the level of visual splendor of that first glimpse, one title has actually exceeded its teaser trailer: Heavenly Sword.

September was a tough month to release in with Halo 3 dominating all, but Heavenly Sword did manage to crack the top ten, bringing PS3 owners a satisfying action game. According to the NPD, Heavenly Sword was the best selling PS3 game for the September period. The game even managed to crack the top 10 games of the month, coming in tenth place overall. In total, Heavenly Sword sold 139,000 units during September.

While the sales total itself does not appear that significant, at least compared to some other recent hits, Heavenly Sword's importance is emphasized when you compare its market performance to the results so far for dozens of other PS3 titles. Many PS3 exclusives, such as Ninja Gaiden Sigma, have found difficulty achieving a high level of sales success. While Heavenly Sword wasn't a break away hit, what it sold in a month dominated by Halo 3 is encouraging and a good building point for the PS3 library going forward.
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US Games

* Assassin's Creed
* Kane and Lynch: Dead Men
* Need For Speed: ProStreet
* WWE Smackdown vs RAW
* Beowulf: The Game

EU Games

* Assassin's Creed

Asian Games

* Heavenly Sword
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The music industry's marketplace event MIDEM is bolstering its focus on the games industry with a joint keynote from composes Jesper Kyd and Nitin Sawhney.

Kyd has worked on a number of games titles to produce accompanying orchestral scores, including upcoming game Assassin's Creed. Sawhney, meanwhile, worked on recent PS3 game Heavenly Sword, but is also a famed artist in his own right.
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The official NPD numbers are in for September, and the Xbox 360 swept, even beating out the Nintendo Wii for that month.

We think it has something to do with Halo 3.

Here are the hard Numbers, from industry analysts at the NPD Group:

Hardware

Xbox 360: 527,800
Wii: 501,000
Nintendo DS: 495,800
PlayStation Portable: 284,500
PlayStation 2: 215,000
Playstation 3: 119,400
Game Boy Advance: 75,000
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Australian GfK's weekly software sale charts for All Formats, Xbox 360, PC, PS2, PS3, DS, PSP, and Wii.
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