Where The Wild Things Are

If you were wondering what Spike Jonze (director of Being John Malkovich and Adaptation) has been doing with himself, the answer is: this. Where The Wild Things Are, a faithful recreation of the book that has nothing to do with the book. I have no idea how this is going to play out on-screen but I have the very real sense that it works.

Thanks to The Angriest for the heads-up.

Trailers, Trailers, Trailers

- Capcom have announced Lost Planet 2. I'm not sure who, exactly, was clamouring for Lost Planet 2, as the original was pretty dire. Its biggest problems were its clunky controls, horrible scripting and terrible voice acting, so it's pretty funny that to "fix" the franchise they've given it to the Resident Evil 5 producer.

- Bioware have announced Mass Effect 2. You'll recall that the original was my Game of the Year 2007, so I'm pretty hyped about a sequel. I understand you'll be able to port your save game from the first game and continue the same character, so that's pretty awesome. I'm not sure how that squares up with this trailer, though.

- I've been quietly enjoying the rise of "disaster survival" as a new genre of game, and while none of the entries in it have so far been particularly great, I figure it's only a matter of time. Ubisoft's I Am Alive will probably not break the mold, but you never know. (This is actually an old trailer but I figure you probably missed it in the E3 buzz so it's worth digging up now.)

Inglourious Basterds Trailer

If you want to be a serious director, there comes a time when you have to make a movie about Nazis. We can all trust Quentin Tarantino to do his in a tasteful and historically accurate manner, I'm sure.

Above is the trailer for Inglourious "Not A Spelling Error" Basterds, and as someone who's loved a lot more Tarantino than he's hated, I'm quite willing to say: hell, yes.

WTF Theatre Presents: Major Minor's Majestic March

The guys who did Parappa the Rapper are at it again, trying for the WTF Theatre Award For Excellence In The Field Of Sweet Jeebers What The Hell.

If this doesn't sufficiently blow your mind, the Destructoid guys did their own trailer, featuring their own "music". Some might say it is better than the real thing.

Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep Trailer

This is the secret movie included at the end of Japan-only release Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix. It follows on from the Keyblade War teaser which appeared at the end of regular-style Kingdom Hearts 2.

Birth By Sleep is coming to the PSP only and is a prequel to the original games. My love for Kingdom Hearts as a franchise is at war with my dislike for the malformed little portable that I refer to as "the hand-mangler".

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead. Starring Jake Hoffman, Devon Aoki, and "Karate Kid" Ralph Macchio. Because Hamlet is a play in which everyone dies. Or comes back as a vampire.

How did no one tell me this was coming? HOW?

House of the Dead: Overkill - New Trailer

House of the Dead: Overkill trailer. All new, all hilarious. Once again, there is no possible way that the game can be better than its marketing. Although this footage does look as if some of the ad campaign humour has made its way to the actual game, which is a good start.

PixelJunk Eden

PixelJunk Eden is available now on the PlayStation Network; not yet being a PS3 guy, that puts it outside the ambit of games that I can sample.

So instead, for the purposes of giving it as fair a hearing as I can, can I direct your attention to the trailer above, and encourage anyone who's had some time with it to talk about their experiences in the comments section of this post?

PixelJunk Eden is a 2009 Independent Games Festival finalist in two categories, and I have to hand it to PixelJunk, putting the developer's name right there in the title is a great way to build brand recognition.

Blueberry Garden

I'm not aware of any way of actually playing Erik Svedäng's new game Blueberry Garden, as it's still very much in development. Judges at the 2009 Independent Games Festival have presumably had a peek behind the curtain, though, as they've made it a finalist for their Grand Prize, and I'm therefore drawing its existence to your attention in the way that I have a habit of doing.

So feast your eyes. I predict that the above trailer will totally blow your mind - maybe even in a good way - and if you want more details you can possibly find them at Svedäng's blog. May I say, I am totally up for a wider range of games about stacking oversized household objects and making munchkins smooch.

Coraline Trailer

Personally, I'd forgotten that Coraline was still heading for our theatres. It's looking to be a far better attempt to take Neil Gaiman to the big screen than the lacklustre Mirrormask, plus it's great to see Henry Selick finally getting some credit for Nightmare Before Christmas rather than Tim Burton.

Dante's Inferno Trailer

For those who missed this last week, I present the trailer for Dante's Inferno, being created by the team who did Dead Space and being published by EA. It's good to see the deep waters of 14th century religious allegory being tapped by such a taseteful genre as survival horror. Bravo.

(Yes, of course I'm going to buy it. Which part of survival horror didn't you understand?)

The Wrestler - Trailer

Holy crap, it's the biography of every wrestler ever. Mickey Rourke is channelling some powerful washed-up wrestling zeitgeist there.

The problem with "drama" cinema is it's so hard to tell the moving masterworks from the dreary slogs based entirely on the trailer.

Awful Trailer For Awful Dragonball Movie

Oh sweet Jeebers no.

New Ghostbusters Trailer

I challenge you to watch the new Ghostbusters trailer without smiling. I just... I challenge you.

It's so authentically actually the Ghostbusters. Original actors and everything. Recognisable faces, recognisable animations, recognisable cheesy ghosts. I'm not even sure I want to play the game - I just want to sit back and watch a spookily-young-again Bill Murray delivering line after line of dialogue.

This is probably one of those cases where the trailer is infinitely better than the game, but we can live in hope.

New Alan Wake Trailer

Alan Wake has been skirting on the verge of vaporware for quite some time now, but it seems like the folks at developer Remedy (Max Payne) plus the mighty publisher-wheels of Microsoft have got the thing back on track. Seen here is the new trailer, which is five flavours of awesome, and reminds me why I absolutely loved the idea of this thing when I first heard about it. Back in 2005.

Do you know where the trailer comes from? The Finnish Max Payne convention. That's right: they have a convention. Ignoring the horrible movie which never happened I love Max Payne and now I have yet another reason to envy the Finnish.

No More Heroes 2 Trailer

Okay, sure, the No More Heroes extended ending finished with a "To Be Continued", but no-one thought they were actually serious.

Joke's on us, apparently. Travis Touchdown is back for No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle, which looks to be just as wholly ridiculous as the original.

Go figure.

Prince of Persia Trailer

The world owes Valve and Jonathon Coulter a debt. Ever since the runaway success of Portal and its excellent closing music "Still Alive", it's like the game industry woke up and realised that a killer theme song is worth a year of development.

Here we have the Tokyo Game Show trailer for the new Prince of Persia, and by golly it's a thing to see. There is no possible way that playing this game can be more enjoyable than watching the trailers for it. A quick search has failed to turn up the artist / track info for the music but if anyone knows it drop me a comment and I'll update.

Also - and I've had some experience with the previous games - this still feels less like Prince of Persia than it does a free-running version of Ico. I'm intrigued. Intensely intrigued.

UPDATE: The artist is Sia, the track is "Breathe Me", and you can hear it in full on YouTube (link). Thanks Chris!

Mirror's Edge Theme

Anyone want to hear the theme from upcoming EA/DICE free-running title Mirror's Edge? Here it is: "Still Alive" by Lisa Miskovsky, set to a fan footage compilation. Nothing to do with the similarly titled, and somewhat more awesome, theme from Portal.

Hey - how weird is it that EA are making original intellectual property that I actually want to play?

Professor Layton 3 Trailer

So this is the Japanese trailer for DS puzzle title Professor Layton 3, also known as Professor Layton and the Last Time Travel. It's theoretically intended to bring the Professor Layton trilogy to a close, and there certainly seems to be plenty of exciting plot in the works. Even if none of that plot will have anything to do with the gameplay. It gets me all excited to go toe-to-toe with another 150 puzzles that I've seen a million times before.

Anyway, that's a great trailer and all, but do you know what would be even better? An English language version of Professor Layton 2. Japan's had it for almost a year.

The Music of Simlish

Katy Perry doing her song Hot N Cold in Simlish as part of the trailer for Sims 2: Apartment Life. For those not in the know, Simlish is the fake language used in the Sims games, which helps give them their international appeal or somesuch. I'm not sold on Ms Perry as a particularly wonderful human being but this is one fine, fine trailer. Almost makes me want to play The Sims again.

While we're on the subject of Simlish-meets-singing, I thought I might direct your attention to some other gems of game-related re-recording that you may or may not have been aware of. By and large they don't run to my tastes in music but almost anything can become listenable in Simlish. Check 'em out:

Black Eyed Peas - Let's Get Retarded

Lily Allen - Smile

Pussycat Dolls - Don'tcha

The Veronicas - When It All Falls Apart

Datarock - Fa-Fa-Fa

They Might Be Giants - Take Out The Trash