Yakuza + Zombies = Yay or Nay?

The wildly popular (in Japan) game series Yakuza is getting a new installment and... wait for it... zombies! Yep, that's about the level of enthusiasm I had when I heard this news. Now the Yakuza series is one of my favorite set of games ever, I absolutely adore them. The absolutely bizarre (yet able to be incredibly serious) story is a main platform of the series and I suppose zombies are strange.

Yakuza: Of The End, takes the fun beat 'em up gameplay of the former games and adds the undead hoards. Yakuza producer Masayoshi Kikuchi is reassuring in the fact that a zombie apocalypse doesn't equal the end of the Yakuza franchise and that in fact it was his idea to add the undead to the game series.

"We don't want to stop the Yakuza franchise. In terms of making entertainment, we're deadly serious," Kikuchi said of the bizarre addition. "We want to have the ability to branch out and create new game experiences [with Yakuza.] We've done it in the past with Yakuza Kenzan, a samurai themed game. Making differently themed games is our challenge to create new types of entertainment."

The series lead Toshihiro Nagoshi commented a while back that the protagonist Kazuma Kiryu would at one point travel into outer space and fight zombies. At least one of these is true.

"For all we know, Kiriyu might become a kindergarten teacher in the next game," Kikuchi joked.

"We want to continually challenge [ourselves] to make improvements to the series," he added. "We want to spread the Yakuza franchise into different genres." Kikuchi hasn't said if "Of The End" will be part of the stories cannon or not.

Now as I stated the Yakuza games are among my favorite of all time, even so though I feel we may be reaching the drowning point with zombies. Now I love zombies as well, the original "Night of the Living Dead" holds a special place in my heart for helping shape who I am today, but I do feel that (at least in video games) we are becoming over saturated. It seems that every game coming out needs to include zombies weather it makes sense or not. Games like Dead Rising or Left 4 Dead are fine, I can get behind those but things like the CoD Nazi Zombies (which apparently I stand alone for in hating it) or Infection mode in the Halo series or countless other game have no reason to add the shuffling spooks.

So what do you people think, are there too many zombies? When is enough, enough? While you all ponder this I'll go back to counting the days until Yakuza 4 gets it's U.S. release.

Source: Kotaku

Master Chief in Halo Reach. What wha?!?!

So in one of the coolest easter eggs ever to grace a video game it turns out that Master Chief is in Halo Reach. If you know where to look, now I've played through the game twice (review coming later today) and still never saw this. The clever guys over at Rooster Teeth though, well look for yourself.

Dead Rising: Case West Announced

With the screaming success of Dead Rising Case Zero (500k downloads) Capcom has announced that another downloadable adventure is in the works. Dead Rising: Case West is about Chuck Greene working with the hero from the original Dead Rising Frank West and if anyone knows anything about zombies it's Mr. West. He's covered wars ya know. 

This DLC will be the epilogue for the main game and as long there are no boss battles on a tank I will be a happy zombie. This announcement came after Capcom purchased DR: C0/DR2 developer Blue Castle Games who will soon become Capcom Games Vancouver. Case West like Zero will be exclusive to the 360 and there is nothing yet of if it will be a permanent exclusive and there is no release date yet but Dead Rising 2 will hold people over until their beloved photojournalist returns. My only question now is if or when Isabella will return. In the meantime here's the teaser from TGS.

Ninja Gaiden 3 Revealed

Earlier today Tecmo Koei revealed the existence of Ninja Gaiden 3 at a behind close doors event. Videogamer.com was at said event during the announcement and manage to snap a picture of a teaser image made for the game. According to Videogamer.com the image represents how the centric character "Ryu Hayabusa" will have to face personal demons as well as show his more human side. No current release date or platform(s) have been announced.

 Source: Videogamer.com

Team ICO Collection Revealed

Two of the greatest games in video game history are getting the God Of War treatment. "ICO" and "Shadow of the Colossus" are getting remastered and re-released on the PS3 and is continuing Sony's trend of re-releasing their 1st party hits of the last generation in magnificent and glorious HD. God Of War kick started the party while the Sly Cooper series will ship in October. I personally never played ICO and Shadows but this offer may be too good to refuse. More information will be announced at TGS later this week and the next game from Team Ico "The Last Guardian" will be shown. Below is the box art from Swedish retailer Webhallen.com