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Yakuza Movie

Jumping on the huge success of Ryu Ga Gotoku (Yakuza in the U.S.) in Japan, Sega turned the PS2 game into a full-fledged theatrical release with the help of Toei, a major Japanese motion picture company. The movie hit theaters in early March and will soon make it to DVD.

It follows the exact same story as the events portrayed in the game, which is pretty rare in many game-to-film productions. Kazuma Kiryu, a legendary gangster, comes home after a 10-year prison sentence to find his whole world turned upside down. He’s been forsaken by his clan and his best friend wants him dead. Along the way, he meets Haruka, a little girl searching for her mother. He soon discovers that she is also being hunted down by the Yakuza and vows to protect her at all costs.

Although Yakuza didn’t get the attention it deserved in the West, the game was seen as a big comeback statement in Japan for the once-mighty game maker. The sequel, Ryu Ga Gotoku 2, was released in December in Japan and has already sold over half a million copies across the nation. I’m assuming that Yakuza 2 will be released over here sometime this year, but I would be surprised if Sega spends all that money again on a Hollywood voice cast like it did with the first game.

GTA Hits The Road

Apparently it’s just fine for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas ads to be plastered all over vehicles in Japan. Capcom is releasing the game for the Japanese market, and the company has rolled its GTA campaign onto the streets of Tokyo with bus wrap and truck side ads. In the U.S., several cities ordered Rockstar to yank its GTA: Vice City Stories ads from public buses. The words “grand theft auto” plastered on the side of public transportation vehicles were deemed extremely inappropriate and dangerous. In relatively safe Japan, however, carjacking is seen as something that only happens in Hollywood movies.

Cool Blue Dragon Goods

Although Mistwalker’s Xbox 360 RPG Blue Dragon didn’t quite live up to the sales that Microsoft hoped for (Gears of War is actually outselling the game in Japan), Japanese companies never disappoint when it comes to offering special goods to loyal fans! The official Blue Dragon Zippo lighter, mug set and Tshirts all went up for sale on Bandai Network’s Lalabit Market Web site recently. The key selling point, of course, was the awesome design of the ever-popular anime creator, Akira Toriyama (Dragon Ball, Dragon Quest). Each 10,000 yen (about $83) Zippo lighter had a serial number etched into the side to show its incredible rarity. Blue Dragon for the Xbox 360 is scheduled for a June release here in the U.S.

Okami Plushie

Amaterasu, the canine sun god in Capcom’s cult-hit PS2 game Okami, arrives as a plush toy for rabid fans of the game! It’s actually a pretty big stuffed animal, measuring 16 inches long and eight inches high. Capcom plans to sell it through its Japanese retail Web site (e-capcom) sometime this spring for about 4,000 yen (around $33).

Capcom is also selling small Okami-themed prayer charms, or omamori. Omamori are usually bought at temples and are inscribed with various prayers, such as good fortune in school, work, love and—most popular of all—traffic safety. Since these Okami talismans have nothing written on them, we can only assume that they’re for prayers to bring back Clover Studios.

More Gundam Goods

Gundam fans in Japan can totally spice up their rooms with all kinds of wacky trinkets, thanks to Banpresto’s long line of Gundam goods. Some of the recent Gundam items we’ve seen border on the ridiculous, like these stick-on Char Aznable Red Zaku antennas. Now you can make any red object in your house a Zaku! Or take a look at the Zaku Hand cellphone holder. Good luck prying the phone from those fingers when it starts ringing! Also available are the Gundam and Zaku music player speaker heads. Connect your MP3 player to these noggins and hear the music blast out from their ears! All of these items can be found in various crane games in arcades across Japan.

Kutaragi Heads New Studio

After being promoted, or rather relocated, from his daily operations as director of everything PlayStation at Sony, Ken Kutaragi has been selected to lead a new studio that combines the talents of both Sony Computer Entertainment and Bandai Namco. The new company, called Cellius, will focus on creating game content for any hardware running on Sony’s Cell Broadband Engine (Cell/B.E.) processor, which includes personal computers and mobile phones. The PS3 also runs on the Cell processor, and although no official announcement has been made, it’s pretty much assumed that Cellius will eventually make PS3 games…especially since Isao Nakamura, creator of Namco’s Ridge Racer series, will also be a key decision maker at the company.

Katamari Damacy Goes Online

Bandai Namco has given the rights to Windysoft, a small and obscure Korean game developer, to create Katamari Damacy Online. It’s not clear whether the game will be available nationwide or even in Japan for that matter; so far it looks like it will be for the Korean market only.

The game will introduce some brand-new gameplay features, like the “House System” where users can fill up their own islands with different objects they rolled up in the game world. A standard versus mode—similar to the ones found in We Love Katamari for the PS2 and Me and My Katamari for the PSP—will also be featured in the game. Oddly enough, there is no word on what platform Katamari Damacy Online will appear on, but the assumption is that it will be for the PC and/or mobile phones.

Crane Game Mater

If you’re having trouble catching those Gundam goods or Super Mario figures at your local UFO catcher or other crane game, then watch and learn from the master! Yuka Nakajima, also known as the Crane Game Tatsujin (Master), recently appeared on Japanese TV and showed the world her insane crane-game skills. Nakajima-san, a regular Japanese mother of two kids, got caught up in trying to catch her favorite toy bear in a crane game three years ago and decided to dedicate herself to mastering the art of the claw. Today she claims that there is nothing she can’t catch!

Check out one of her techniques called the “Gap Hook”, where she lowers one side of the claw into a gap in the packaging, allowing her to get a tight grip on the box and lift it easily.

Another one of her techniques is “String Catch.” She has the crane press down onto the plush toy so she can artfully maneuver the hook upwards to hook onto the small string. She says too many people try to grab the entire toy with the crane, when it’s a lot easier to grab it by the string.

Similar to “String Catch,” “Hole Hook” involves putting the claw into the packaging’s hook hole to get a tighter grip on the entire item.

Using the same “Hole Hook” theory, she manages to grab two items at once! Yuka Nakajima has been appearing at many game conventions lately and has been dubbed the “Crane Game Queen.” She claims that she goes to arcades at least three times a week and helps strangers try to catch their favorite toys!