Not much else is known about the game type, but the first game was more of an interactive rhythm game with classical music, making this game a possible sequel. The picture at right is from the first game released in 2007.

[via Siliconera]

Being a huge fan of the Ace Combat series, I was left curious when Bandai-Namco first announced Skies of Incursion for the iPhone during the Tokyo Game Show, as the game looked rather awkward to play, but I chalked it up to the early development build.

This morning, Bandai-Namco announced the forthcoming release of the game for the iPhone, following an unexplained delay as the game was originally planned for release last month. The game is being develooped in-house by the Project Ace team and uses the iPhone/iPod touch gyroscopic sensors and touch screen for control.

Pricing and availability info isn’t up yet but it shouldn’t be too long before its available.

The 1965 Yusei Shonen Papi anime series, known in the US as Prince Planet is now available on Hulu and YouTube. The MGM Prince Planet adaptation is up on both portals with 5 remastered episodes currently available out of the total 52 episode run.

[via AnimeNation Anime News Blog]

On Sunday June 9th, 2008 Kato was arrested after stabbing 17 people, killing 7 in what is known as the Akihabara Rampage, setting off a media firestorm when it was discovered that he played video games, with Japanese media latching on to the video game and violence connection, as the Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 video game was released on the same day and it was discovered that he drew multiple characters from Namco-Bandai’s Tales of Destiny.

Read More for the full message being sent to Xbox 360 users with banned consoles.

- What does this mean for you and what can you do about it?
Firstly, and most obviously, you cannot connect to Xbox Live on this console any more. This means no more game updates (aka title updates), XBLA games, marketplace content, netflix/sky player and so on. There is no way around this, all online capabilities are now disabled PERMANENTLY.

In all likelihood, your gamertag has NOT BEEN BANNED. When your gamertag gets banned, Microsoft sends you an email detailing why, if you have not recieved this email then your profile should be ok, to a certain extent.

Hard Drive installs are now disabled on the banned console. This means any disk-based games you have will no longer play off of the hard drive. If you attempt to play a game, it will tell you that it was installed on a different 360 and needs to be deleted/installed again. When you delete the game and attempt to install it, you are given a message telling you that it is not supported. There is no way to fix this, that functionality is simply gone from the banned 360.

The hard drive itself is left untouched – you can place it in another 360, even an unbanned one, and it will still work just fine. You do NOT need to reformat it to regain any kind of functionality. Any installed games will need to be reinstalled for the console you want to play them on. This is normal behaviour and happens when swapping HDDs on unbanned/legit 360’s.

Windows Media Centre functionality is disabled. It is still possible to stream video/music content via the video library.

Your Gamertag may be corrupted. This does not mean your gamertag has been banned, you can recover it using any live-capable 360, however ANY ACHIVEMENTS YOU HAVE EARNED SINCE BEING BANNED WILL BE LOST. Your gamertag will be corrupted EVERY SINGLE TIME it is used on a banned console. This means you cannot use your banned console to play backups offline just to get achievements – it wont work, the second you put your profile back on a good 360, it will be corrupted and all progress lost. There is no way around this.

The same applies to game saves – if you access a game save on a banned 360, it too will be corrupted when accessed on a legit/unbanned 360! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! There is no way around this, either.

Your XBLA games and DLC will still be valid, however to play them on a different 360 you will need to be signed into Xbox Live. This is normal behaviour on unbanned/legit 360’s as well. They may be corrupted and have to be re-downloaded if you attempt to access them on a banned 360. You can transfer all of your downloaded content to a new 360 here: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/systemuse/xbox360/licensemigration/default.htm however note that you can only do it once every 12 months.

So, in summary:
Your Banned 360:
* Cannot go on Xbox Live
* Cannot install games to the HDD
* Cannot use Windows Media Centre extender
* Cannot be used to get achievements from backups without corrupting your profile

You cannot do anything about this, short of buying a new 360.

There may be more functionality disabled than mentioned here, things are still being discovered.

- So what caused my ban?
There are MANY theories as to what is causing so many consoles to get banned this time, however as of yet there is nothing concrete, just a lot of circumstantial evidence and speculation. Please do not add to this, a full investigation is under-way.

Consumer advocacy issues notwithstanding, this demonstrates how far Microsoft is willing to go to keep people from using their console, usually claiming that it is fighting piracy and cheating in online games when there is no substantial proof of the activity.

Update: Below is a video found demonstrate how to check if the console has been banned:

Housuke was so impressed by it that he created a rubber band powered toy plane to reproduce the flying intimate apparel, stating that he hopes to meet the expectations of the show’s fans, but cannot disclose any concrete plans regarding the commercial aspect.

[via MAL]

Japanese manga authors Bow Ditama and Tamiki Wakaki have opined on the state of manga in Japan and the future direction of the medium.

Wakaki, an author affiliated with Shonen Sunday has expressed concern over the perceived decline of the industry in its current form thanks to the uniformity of the anthologies, the rigorous treatment of new artists leading to high turnover and the rigid reliance on erotic/parody/bishonen/bishoujo manga stories to drive manga sales instead of nurturing new artists and encouraging experimentation, citing Japan’s low birth rate as a wake up call to publishers to change their ways.

Author Bow Ditama is conversely more optimistic about the situation, citing subculture magazines, ‘deep’ manga magazines and work as an assistant to a professional as a means for aspiring authors to eke out a living if they are uninterested in drawing stories in the four staple tropes.

Ditama also mentions the increasing popularity of online assistants or assisstants who work remotely and submit manuscripts to their master electronically, rather than being physically present in the traditional manner as another way to break into the field.

The cover was illustrated to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the publication and is indicative of the artist’s work, previously seen in the anime series Last Exile and Shangri-La while his collected works in the robot, rule, and futurhythm books demonstrate his fusion of Art Deco elements mixed with futurism.

[via Sankaku Complex (18+)]

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex – Tachikoma na Hibi will launch in the January issue of Kodansha’s Monthly Young Magazine on December 9th in Japan.

The manga is based off of the spinoff series of bonus anime shorts recounts the stories of the Tachikoma AI tanks from the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex anime series, with the second manga simply titled Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex which will launch in the 2009.02 issue of Weekly Young Magazine also published by Kodansha next month on December 14.