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Regular readers of Destructoid will know my long-standing complaints concerning the farcical period betweenSuper Smash Bros. Brawl‘s North American and European/Australian release dates. Despite a range of excuses, Nintendo has finallysettled on a reason— translation is just too difficult. “Every time you go through localization you then have to put it through a test, which involves making sure that you recorded the proper voice, and that the proper voice is being activated with the proper trigger, at the proper time… so it’s not just a case of swapping over some words, it requires some proper extra development processes....

If you say “Ocarina” to most gamers, chances are good that they will imagine a small boy in a green tunic long before they consider the actual musical instrument. The same could be said of pedophiles, but let’s just focus on gamers for the moment. The St. Louis Ocarina Store owes a lot to the reveredLegend of Zeldatitle,Ocarina of Time. When the store opened in 2005, it quickly learned thatZeldafans and Ocarina enthusiasts crossed paths quite considerably, and now hasan entire Web pagededicated toZelda-themed instruments....

Minecraftis simply a bottomless chest of wonders, isn’t it? Just when you think you’ve seen it all, someone pulls a stunt like this. Minecraftvideo group MinecraftA2Z hasposteda stop-motion animation of an original brick Game Boy playing a pixel-perfect recreation ofTetris. Once you are finished admiring this labor of sweat and tears, you can hit the jump and watch a short making-of video. Minecraft Tetris done in stop motion[YouTube] The making of Minecraft tetris stop motion[YouTube]...

Since it seems like we gave Microsoft crap every single time a $15 Xbox LIVE Arcade game was put out — even if the game was worthy of that price — let me take this opportunity to say wow, there sure have been quite a few $10 releases as of late. Good show, gentlemen. This week’s games arePanzer General: Allied AssaultandTower Bloxx Deluxe, and yup, both are going to run you 800 MS Points....

You know the part of the academy awards where you haven’t seen any of the movies and you stop paying attention? Well, those movies have a name and they’re called shorts and this year had some really amazing ones if you ever get a chance to actually seem them. One of the most amazing, in fact the one to win best animated short, wasLogorama. It’s good and with that academy award two talented film makers have gotten their foot into the door of Hollywood film making....

You really wouldn’t imagine it, but according to financial reports, it would appear that several huge publishers are making more money from the PlayStation 3 than they are with the Xbox 360.One writer, who uses the term “bread-winner” far too much, has been checking out some numbers which indicate that the PS3 is now capable of outperforming the 360 in terms of software sales. The writer claims that EA’s financial statement shows that the PS3 accounts for 17% of its total revenue while the 360 only manages 10%....

Courtesy of Geoff “Exclusives Beast” Keighleycomes this first look at Electronic Art’s booth at next week’s E3. This is a render, of course; the real thing features hundreds of people, most of them sweaty. I must say that I think it would be technically possible for EA to have rendered a bunch of sweaty people into this image; have you guys playedFight Night Round 4yet? It should be noted that this is probably onlypartof EA’s booth; they’ve committed to something like 15,000 square feet of space on the show floor....

2K Sports’ exclusive third-party development contract with Major League Baseball hasn’t really paid off for the publisher’s parent company, Take-Two, due to a series of baseball releases that have ranged in quality from half-decent to poor. Last year, developer Visual Concepts delivered the first respectable effort in years,Major League Baseball 2K10— it got most of the fundamentals right, but it still wasn’t quite good enough to give Sony’sMLB 10 The Showany serious competition....

You wouldn’t know it by looking at my credit card bills, but I have never been a member of GameFly. I have, however, racked up a bunch of meager transactions over the years whenever they try to pawn off their excess videogames with crazy sales. Today is another one of those days where GameFly wants the garbage games out of its sight. Quite a few Xbox 360 and Wii titleswere marked downto prices below $10, and hold on a second — some of them aren’t half bad....

Queen’s guitarist Brian May was recently interviewed by Swedish newpaper Daily News as the Queen musical,We Will Rock Youopens in that country this week. In the interview, mention is made at some point about aGuitar Herogame and the band. A Google translation of May’s quote in the article says, “Wehave invented a way to let users participate in the games our concerts,” but May is mum on any other details....

If there’s one thing for me to take away from my time spent onFallout 3, it’s that exploration is one of my favorite things to do in games now that technology is catching up with our imaginations. Combine that with my longing for this generation’s essential western game, and I think I knowthe perfect gamefor me. Those looking forward toRed Dead Redemptionwill be pleased to know thatRockstar is gearing upto send out more info on the game and probably even a trailer in the coming weeks....

You could be forgiven for thinking thatAlan Wakewas a horror game, but Remedy maintains that its spooky torch adventure is not trying to beSilent HillorResident Evil. “To us it’s a thriller,” explains writer Mikko Rautalahti. “We’re not really about the scares as such, I think; it’s not something we’re consciously attempting. Fear is a challenging emotion to induce in video games. Reading the reviews, I’ve been kind of surprised by how many people think it’s a genuinely scary experience....

[RetRose Tinted is a feature I have been running in theDestructoid Community Blogssince February. Its purpose is to re-evaluate games that have had an impact on my gaming life and discern if they hold up to modern scrutiny. I am very proud to be bringing this feature to the front page of Destructoid] My father plays videogames but he isn’t what I’d call a “gamer.” Rather than check out new releases or expand his horizons into games that he might have missed, he finds one title that he likes and then plays it until the program is so outdated that modern hardware won’t run it without my intervention....