First things first, if you haven't checked it out already, go right now and check out the trailer for Crash Dummy vs. the Evil D-Troit, go here and do so now. Note that this is the trailer for the PSP version, but it does a good job of showing off how the game will play.

While you may be wondering why I'm so excited about a PSP title. Well, I came across this quote from Gerhard Schanz of SIC this morning:

You can check out the news here and the game's site here.

Xboxic (one of the best independent xbox sites out there imho) has dug up a very interesting post on the Empire Interactive Forum, where a moderator had this to say:

The fact that they are talking about changing the game at all (the addition of online multiplayer) seems to rule out Nintendo's Virtual Console, but without official confirmation, it's anyone's guess.

So what classic Taito game would you like? For me I'd love to see online co-op enabled Bubble Bobble.

Kotaku has been busy pouring over the 3D realms forums and has found a few interesting quotes from their staff:

Looking through the thread, the most promising quote to me is this one:

It seems to me that if it's just up to MS to give it the OK, then they'd better get on it as I'm sure that Sony, trying to get their own system up and running would be only too happy to see this happen.

You can check the thread here, and the kotaku article here.

While were all eagerly waiting for X06 and the "Major Franchise" it will bring, news of Hexic 2 has been found via Game Informer. In an interview with the magazine, Alexey Pajitnov, the creator of both Hexic and Tetris, stated:

While I never got close to getting all 200 points for the game, I certainly enjoyed the original and would certainly enjoy it with multiplayer.

In an "meeting" with Gamasutra last week, Greg Canessa brought new light on Microsoft's ideas around Asian specific XBLA content and how (short of creating a Japanese account) those of us in the west can play them. It seems that MS is batting around the idea of having an import section on the market place that would allow for developers who might not have the funds to do a full localization the opportunity to tap into the far larger Western market as they will be available in the west in their original language.

Another tidbit that came out was the it seems that Fatal Fury Special will be only available in the east. If this is the case I'm certainly not going to be the only one who hopes that MS adds the new section to the Marketplace.

You can check out the whole article here.

[UPDATED] To clarify that the import section will probably not have games in english.

Microsoft has put out a press release about the "bringing it home" event they are doing for TGS & X06. Included in the press release (available here) was the very interesting quote of:

While there has been tonnes of speculation around the net this morning as to what this is, it's interesting to look at the wording. First it looks like this will be the actual release of the game (otherwise this will be the first time that we've seen a preview video on Live for a XBLA title). Secondly it's a "never before announced" title, which rules out Dig Dug (it was announced at E3 this year). What this leads to is the theory that this game will actually be released on the 27th, the first day of X06.

What the title is, is anyone's guess, but considering all the Virtual Console info that came out last week, I'm betting that nobody will be denying the fact that this will be a "major" release.

In an interview with Gamasutra, Dan Irish, CEO of Threewave briefly mentioned that they are currently working on an XBLA title. While details were scarce, when asked about the market for his game, he stated "I would say… Well, how about a competitor to Nintendogs?"

You can check out the whole article here.

Xbox-Scene.com is reporting that within the September XDK release developers have been able to get a preview of what the dashboard will look like after the fall update. While I for one will be quite happy if this ends up being the case as the current version is a little on the cluttered side. You can check out the article, along with screenshots here.

interesting in the screenshots is the Kameo pack for Uno. With no release date for the pack, one has to wonder if MS is just keeping it in their back pockets in case there are any other last minute delays.

Mark this one down as a rumor for a slow news week, but durring an interview with IGN, the Mega Man series producer Ken Horinouchi had this little tidbit about the boy in blue making his way to XBLA:

While this certainly doesn't mean we'll be seeing it any time soon, it's good to know that they are concidering it.

You can check out the whole interview here.

The Magazine of Online Media, Marketing & Advertising (OMMA) recently posted an article profiling the advertising firm Saatchi & Saatchi, Los Angeles and their ad campaign around the Toyota Yaris. While this certainly wouldn't be the kind of news we post here normally, there was one line in the article the caught our attention:

Unfortunately nobody has been available at Saatchi & Saatchi for comment, but this little tidbit certainly begs a few questions. The first (and possibly most important such question) is if the primary goal of the new game is to promote the Yaris, and get the message out to as many people as possible, then will the game be free?

We'll bring you more as soon as it becomes available.