The Tokyo Game Show is returning on September 16, and we can hope for some major announcements to be made at the event, or at least some awesome gameplay to be shown. Konami, Level-5, Sega, and Tecmo-Koei have announced their lineups for the show, although it isn’t known which are playable and which will be presented in video form. Some notable familiars are Metal Gear Solid: Rising from Konami and Sonic Colors from Sega, but you can check after the break for the full list.

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Are you ready to lay the smackdown!? Well, before that, get ready to make a decision about which store you’re buying this year’s Smackdown vs. Raw from, because many stores seem to be offering different bonuses. Ranging from different characters to even money off of Pay-Per-View events, it seems like there is something to try to appeal to each Hulkamaniac… or Kanonite… or whatever’s in now. Take a look to see which stores are offering which bonuses on WWE’s newest addition to the Smackdown vs. Raw series.

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God of War: Ghost of Sparta’s box art was revealed earlier today via the Playstation Blog and not surprisingly it has Kratos looking like a badass with the world crumbling behind him. Along with the box art reveal, Sony has also released images of the God of War entertainment pack. They also announced that they will be providing more detailed information for each of the pre-order elements starting next week.

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A lot of exciting stuff has been coming out of Gamescom, including the new Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep trailer.  Before you sit down to watch it though, be sure that you have refreshments handy because it’s seven minutes long.  The trailer features plenty of glimpses of the gameplay, characters and story.

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The team behind Persona 4 from Atlus Japan is working on their very first HD game, and sadly, it’s not Persona 5. They’re working on something a little more… spicy. It’s a much, much more adult game (see the Famitsu scans below if you want to see for yourself), but tagged with a horror action/adventure genre.  The main character might be little familiar to recent adopters of Persona 3 Portable, as he was one of the social links if you played as a female protagonist in the game. (more…)

The Spawn Kill crew has gotten together and mulled over the firey question, “What is your favorite PSN game?” and come to some unique and surprising results. We each selected our favorite PSN game that is available and put it together to form Spawn Kill’s PSN editor’s choice list. Some are critical favorites, some are unstoppable addictions we’ve held inside of us, but all of them are our loves. Check out our list of PSN favorites and let us know what your favorite is!

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European Kingdom Hearts fans are probably excited as hell right now, since they’ll be able to purchase the special edition version of KH: Birth by Sleep on September 10th.  Australians will also be able to purchase the special edition of the game.  The cost of the special edition is £34.99, and comes with a 48-page art book and two art prints, which explains why the box is so big.  If you’re living in North America, what do you get?  Nothing.  Actually, that isn’t true.  If you pre-order the game from Amazon, Gamestop or Best Buy you’ll receive a special art decal for your PSP.

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It’s an issue we’ve touched upon more than once here at Spawn Kill: some games simply require too much of a time investment for most (adult) gamers.  As much as many of us love our RPGs, our time is too divided to devote hundreds of hours to a single title.  Last year, Half-Minute Hero sought to change that by giving everyone the fun, old-school RPG feel, but making it playable in bite-sized 30-second chunks.

Happily, the recent issue of Famitsu revealed that a sequel is in the works, set for a November Japanese release under the humorous title Hero 30 Second.  Although no North American release has yet been mentioned, hopefully XSEED will again publish the title so English speaking fans can enjoy even more fun. (more…)

Atlus really does treat their fans well.  Many associate them with the lavish pre-order bonuses they include with their games, usually without any additional charge, running the gambit from collectible figurines or plushies to art books, soundtracks and more.  And while they are as willing and eager as most other developers/publishers to re-release games (i.e. for a new platform), they almost always are sure to update and add something extra to reward those who might be buying a title for the second (or third) time.  Obviously, Persona 3 Portable is a prime example of this.  Originally released in August 2007, the game was later re-released in a “director’s cut” version (with added content) less than a year later, also for the PlayStation 2.  Now, almost three years to the day after the first game came out, gamers old and new to the title can play it once again in a third iteration, this time for the PSP, with Persona 3 Portable.

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Those of you with an iPhone may be familiar with the quirky title known as Angry Birds (and mentioned briefly in our last podcast), in which you play as some pissed off pigeons trying to save their eggs from a bunch of pigs.  The highly successful title will be coming to PS3, PSP, and DS soon, according to Chillingo Co-Founder John Wee, although details were scarce at this time.  My guess would see this as a possible “minis” title on PSN and DSiware on DS, most likely for more than the current $0.99 App Store price tag.  However, it’s possible that the console versions will have more levels or other bonus features to entice gamers to purchase the game (perhaps some for the second time).

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Today Sony announced that God of War: Ghost of Sparta, the second PSP God of War title, will be releasing on November 2^nd. The upcoming PSP title has won many E3 awards and will take fans through the origins of Kratos. Along with the announcement of the release date, Sony also revealed two pre-order packages that will give fans free DLC at launch and a PSP bundle with a specially designed PSP that will also include Chains of Olympus.

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After more than 20 years, everyone’s favorite moonwalker (may he Rest in Peace)  is finally getting another video game made for him. Ubisoft’s Michael Jackson game, simply titled Michael Jackson: The Experience, is going to be developed for the PSP, DS, Wii, Xbox 360, and PS3. According to Ubisoft, The Experience will utilize the Wii MotionPlus, Kinect, and Move. Get ready to Beat It, Jackson fans.

The Wii version will be similar to Ubisoft’s Just Dance, while the Xbox 360 version is going to project 3D images of the player onto the screen (can we say Michael Jackson costumes?). Both the DS and PSP versions are said to be tap-based games. Not too much has been discussed about the PS3 version yet, but be sure that we will keep you updated as frequently as possible about The King of Pop’s latest video game appearance.

We stepped into the Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep presentation and were surprised to be face to face with none other than Tetsuya Nomura who was sitting there with an entourage of translators.  Both Stephanie and Dave had assumed that we were in for a demo of the game itself just like all of our previous appointments had been thus far. So when we sat down with Nomura, we flipped out our notebooks and prepared to absorb in any juicy information we could pry about the upcoming PSP Kingdom Hearts title, Birth by Sleep.

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Sony’s press conference followed Nintendo’s yesterday, which was a tough act to follow but they really pulled out their big guns.  Heart1lly’s live tweet recaps the PlayStation Move, 3D gaming, Kevin Butler, and lots more.  The press conference was very exciting, but for those of you who may have missed it, here’s the live tweet recap.

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Just yesterday, Hideo Kojima came strolling along the streets of SOHO, New York City in Metal Gear REX touting his Big Boss shirt to celebrate the recent release of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (June 8th) for American fans. Well, maybe they couldn’t fit REX in Koji-san’s helicopter, but he definitely had a nice entourage of bodyguards for any “just in case” crazy New York fan moments. We understand, Kojima.

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