It may be pretty apparent that we kind of love Mega Man here at New York-Tokyo, but when such great things like this come along, it’s hard to stay quiet about it! Capcom has recently announced the release of Mega Man 9 on Nintendo’s WiiWare service, Xbox Live, and Sony’s Playstation Network, but the real news was that the title would be a true old school NES throwback!

Those of us who grew up with the blue bomber will get to relive our fondest memories with full on 8-bit graphics and music! Capcom then went one step further and commissioned artist Gerald de Jesus to make a wonderfully bad retro boxart design for some limited edition t-shirts! Those that owned Mega Man 1 or 2 as a little tyke will know just how great this is.

Mega Man 9 (via Capcom Blog)

By Jesse Mann

Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3 (for Xbox Live Arcade and the Playstation Network) is like video game comfort food. It’s not the best thing out there and probably done better elsewhere, but it’s satisfying because you know exactly what to expect.

It is the first of what is to be a string of modern updates to some of Capcom’s most classic franchises (1942 Joint Strike, Bionic Commando: Rearmed and Super Street Fighter II HD Remix are set to follow later this year) and shows that even when they’re not firing on all cylinders, the company still knows what it takes to give gamers a good time.  More after the jump.

Rhythm Heaven is a DS port of the quirky Japanese classic Rhythm Tengoku for the Gameboy Advance. That title never saw the light of day in the US, but thankfully Nintendo has seen the light and developed the touch friendly version for us tens of millions of DS owners, both in Japan and stateside.

The title involves a series of mini-games that challenge your rhythmic dexterity, pressing buttons and tapping the touch screen in time with some rather unusual visuals and clever electronic beats. The vibe of Rhythm Heaven is not too far removed from another classic handheld game, Wario Ware, and fans of that wonderfully absurd series should lap this one up. Nintendo even posted a gameplay video on their site. Check it.

Rhythm Heaven (via Nintendo.com)

By Jesse Mann

On a hot summer Thursday in June, throngs of eager MGS4 fans spent hours in front of UNIQLO’s flagship SoHo store in wait for a glimpse of the creator of the famed Metal Gear Solid franchise, Hideo Kojima. As part of the MGS4 world tour, Kojima Productions and Konami made a stop at the UNIQLO store to promote limited edition MGS4 t-shirts, and to promote the highly anticipated game.

Catering to the fans, Kojima and voice actress Yumi Kikuchi dedicated 2 hours to signing over 300 pieces of fan memorabilia; including everything from the original Metal Gear cartridge for the NES to a bag of wasabi-flavored Doritos! Kojima, being very humble and gracious, penned his signature and shook each patrons hand. Yumi Kikuchi was as equally kind, smiling and thanking each fan to pass through. For those lucky enough to make it, it was a very rewarding experience.

If you missed the event, be sure to check out NYT’s own photo gallery after the jump!

You may remember our posting from some time back about Kali’s veiled tribute to Mega Man 3 on Big Dada, and now another indie MC named Random has made an entire album in homage to the the blue bomber. Entitled Mega Ran, Random takes loops from some of the most beloved tunes from the original Mega Man Series, and adds some pretty beefy production underneath clever and endearing rhymes. It’s clear this guy has some major love for Capcom’s classic series, and even Capcom themselves have thrown their support behind this guy! Having given him an official license to promote his work, it’s now available for sale on iTunes and CDBaby.

Random’s “Mega Ran” is Blowing Up (via Capcom Blog)

By Jesse Mann

For those of you who are not familiar with Sandy O, Sandra Day O’Connor is an American jurist and was also the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court. Since the average American apparently can’t even name the three branches of the United States government, many may not know her. But they will soon. You know why? Sandy is going to change the face of entertainment and politics; by creating the most politically and socially concentrated video game ever.

On June 4th 2008, Sandy had spoken at the Digital Games For Social Change summit regarding the opportunity to open up the average Americans to explore social / political issues through video games. Alongside video game education advocate James Paul Gee of the University of Wisconsin, Sandy is planning to release Our Court by next fall.

No real information has been released yet but you can imagine that it will be something along the lines of Final Fantasy meets Judge Judy – replacing the monsters and battles with laws and cases. But who knows, maybe Sandy will include some surprises here and there; like a First Amendment case in which a magical unicorn is being accused of promoting illegal elixir use. Seriously, that would rule. I love unicorns.

Sandra Day O’Connor: Game Designer (via Wired)

By Taeko Saito