Are you blown away by what an amazing year in games 2007 has been? So are the peeps at Slate, and they’ve decided to take action on their feelings by forming the first year-end “Gaming Club” to discuss everything from the games that have revolutionized the industry to the things in gaming that desperately need to change. Could be good, right? But if you have to listen to multiple douchebags babble on the topic, it could be the most boring thing since playingYaris....

DS gameSola to Robo ~ Sore Kara CODA e~(that’sSola and Robo) is being shown off in this first promotional trailer, straight from Japan. The CyberConnect2 developed RPG will be released in October in Japan, but the art and animation shown off in this video will get you ready. Ready for dog people, that is. Some of the character designs are cool, but I’m not going to say that I like them enough for you to place me in the yiffer category....

At today’s PlayStation Meeting 2011 event in Tokyo, the big announcement was obviously the reveal of theNext Generation Portabledevice. But that’s not all that Sony had up their sleeve. Addressing the ever-growing market for mobile gaming, they have also announced PlayStation Suite, a new development framework for mobile games. Kaz Hirai referred to it as a “cross-platform endeavor” attempting to expand the boundaries of the PlayStation brand to mobile devices outside of Sony’s dedicated gaming handhelds....

For those of you itching to experience the world ofSoul Caliburwith extra waggle, please find enclosed a batch of sixteen shiny new screens from Namco Bandai’s spin-off adventure game. While some might be skeptical ofSoul Calibur Legends, the fact that these screens contain both a dragon and a floating Egyptian sarcophagus of death is enough to convince me that this game is worth keeping an eye on. There are not enough floating death sarcophagi in videogames today....

A bunch of smaller sales are taking place on Steam right now. First, there’s theKalypso Strategy Pack— purchasable as a bundle or individually — which ends later today. Given the company in question, we’re talking stuff likeTropico,Patrician, andCommandos. Decent games at laughably low prices. And then there’s a weekend sale on the revampedSerious Samgames.Serious Sam HD: The First Encounteris a mere $3.74, whileThe Second Counteris only $4.99. I bought the eff out of that first one....

With a number of successfulCooking Mamagames already on the market and another title in the oven (Gardening Mama), Mama sure does get around. But it doesn’t stop in the kitchen or in the garden — it looks like Mama might be getting some animal friends in the near future. On November 11, Taito Japan filed fortrademark of “Pet Shop Mama”in relation to software and all manner of other things potentially videogame-related....

You know how every so often Steam throws one of those promotions that’s so out of control, you essentially have to take part even if you have no plans to play the game in question for weeks or even months after the fact? Yeah, this is one of those situations. For $4.99, you can get all five chapters fromTales of Monkey Island. What’s more, your purchase includes both the Mac and PC versions....

Bouncy-boobed fighterDead or Aliveis getting another sequel. Announced just recently during the Tokyo Game Show, Koei Tecmo has unveiledDead or Alive 5. Yay for breasts! According to the publisher,Dead or Alive‘s mantra is “Fighting Entertainment,” which reminds me of professional wrestling calling itself “Sports Entertainment.” No idea what the buzz-term means right now, but I’m sure that tits are involved. The game’s due out in 2012 for both the Xbox 360 and PS3....

OK, so here’s the deal: the above is video footage ofNoby Noby Boy(courtesy of Gamevideos.com) taken from a trailer that was being played in Sony’s theater on the floor of Tokyo Game Show.So what is it? Well, it’s the new game designed byKatamari Damacycreator Keita Takahashi. We searched far and wide for a playable build of the game here in Tokyo and have come up with nothing. We asked around, trying to find out just what the game was about, and because no one really speaks our language (or no one was willing to talk), that was a dead end....

Nothing says “Holiday Joy” like sitting alone on a windy precipice drinking scotch until the idea of throwing yourself off and ending your miserable, lonely existence is palatable … with the possible exception of Sony shovelling barrels of freeGran Turismointo your stocking! Wereported earlieron Sony’s sudden turn for the generous, and everyone was giddy and happy with visions of sugar plums and Audis dancing in their heads. That lasted up until the moment Sony started allowing people to download....

The Destructor-Toid is STILL terrorizing the city! By the time anyone does anything to stop it, will there even be a city left to save? Most of Destructoid’s heroes are underground, trapped with insane troll zombies! The streets are filled with sentient consoles! The Burch siblings 360 seems to have red ringed! Yashoki is somehow a witch! Is there no hope for Destructoid City? Is this truly the end? Who is the cause of all this?...

The last time I was talking about a Square Enix non-Final FantasyRPG, it wasInfinite Undiscovery. The game was bloody rubbish, too. With the taste of that game still bitter in my mouth, its publisher has a chance to redeem itself tomorrow withThe Last Remnant, a game which our very own Dale Northplayed at TGSand was quite satisfied with. Whether or not the game manages to impress us all remains to be seen, but while we wait to find out, here are some videos....

Earthworm Jim One thing that is great about videogames is designers can pretty much do anything they want within the virtual world they create. While, of course, there is a general audience they want to please, videogame designers don’t feel the same kind of pressure to appeaseeveryoneas much as, say, a movie producer or television executive do. In a way, the more absurd the videogame the better! This concept applies even more toretro games....