Princess Peach has some voice, huh? She should bring some of this singing talent to Wii Music 2.

The Best We Can Be: A Princess Peach Musical [YouTube via Destructoid]

Microsoft may launch a $99 Xbox 360 package attached to a two-year $15 monthly subscription plan, according to a new report.

The Verge says the bundle, which could ship as early as next week, will include a 4GB Xbox 360, Kinect, and an Xbox Live Gold subscription. You'll have to dish out $99 upfront and then $15/month over the next two years, which comes to a total of $459.

Naturally, there's an early termination fee if you break your contract ahead of time. The Verge says Microsoft is positioning this new bundle as a competitor to entertainment services like Apple TV and Roku.

According to the report, this new bundle will only be available at official Microsoft Stores. No word whether it will be available online or brick-and-mortar only.

I've reached out to Microsoft for comment and will update should they respond.

Update: Microsoft's official word is "no comment."

"We haven't made any announcements, and we don't comment on rumor or speculation," a Microsoft spokesman told Kotaku.

$99 Xbox 360 + Kinect bundle launching next week with two-year subscription [The Verge]

If Darth Vader and Captain Kirk ever meet, I hope they will not do so while ice-skating. When Optimus Prime finally crosses paths with Harry Potter, I trust they will not spend their first hour together bowling.

Since 2007, Sonic The Hedgehog and Super Mario the plumber have co-headlined three video games. That's not as cool as it sounds. All they've done in them is compete in the Olympics.

Is this what anyone was waiting for? Is this what anyone imagined during the decades when Mario and Sonic were the mascots of former rivals Nintendo and Sega? Is there anyone who doesn't consider this to be ridiculous? Does no one involved in the creation of Sonic and Mario video games have a better idea?

I recently decided to play through one of these Mario-meets-Sonic games that unpleasantly co-stars the Olympics. I wanted to see what I was missing, and I wanted to determine if the people at Nintendo and Sonic who caretake the Mario and Sonic media empires had lost their minds.

The game I played was Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games. I played the 3DS version which seemed, frankly, more technically impressive than the Wii tie-in games for the Beijing and Vancouver Summer and Winter Olympics, respectively. Also, this one had a fleshed out story mode, which I figured would help me figure out what in the world was going on.

Technically, Mario & Sonic on the 3DS is a good game. It's a collection of standard and oddball sporting challenges which are all brief and amusing to play. These sporting events star characters from across Mario and Sonic's universe of colorful heroes and villains. You can compete against friends or the computer. No problems there.

As a game about Mario and Sonic, however, Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games is a bad joke.

As exhibit A, I present the notes I took while playing the game. Apologies for spoiling the ending of the story mode, except, no... I'm not sorry. Just keep reading:

Who the hell is Espio

Some stupid forgetful bee called Charmy shows up and cannot remember where the bad guys are.

Marathons are water bottle pickups
So are 30k swims
Judo is cool.

Waluigi vs Metal Sonic in a tae kwon doe kicking contest

Wario vs Eggman. Long jump, kayak, rapid fire pistol, handball, tae kwon doe

Fantastic hockey game

Sonic speed walking against Bowser as a final boss battle? Sure

If most of that makes no sense to you or seems like the product of a fever dream, then, congratulations, you have just had the definitive Mario & Sonic experience. In this 3DS game, you're net getting some classic side-scrolling team-up between two former-rivals-turned-friends. You're not seeing what happens when the wielder of the fire flower meets the master of the spin jump. No, you're seeing what happens when Waluigi and Metal Sonic compete in Tae Kwon Doe.

What happens when Sonic the Hedgehog finally crossed paths with Mario's ultimate foe, Bowser, would should be a clash of Batman-vs,-Doctor-Doom proportions? They have a speed-walking contest.

The storyline of Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games is actually an inane, tasteless propaganda piece for the London Olympic Games. Bowser teams with Sonic arch-nemesis Dr. Eggman to prevent the London Olympics from happening. They try to do this by filling London with some sort of nasty fog, which sure seems like the cartoon version of a terrorist attack on the same city that was scarred by terror bombings the day after they were awarded the 2012 games.

Bowser and Eggman's evil fog machines generate mean versions of Sonic, Mario and their supporting casts. These mean version cross paths with Mario, Sonic and their normal versions of their pals and rogues. When these paths cross, the good guys and the bad guys square off to settle their differences by... competing in events at the London 2012 Olympic Games, which, if you're following this closely, you'll realize, haven't happend because Bowser and Eggman are trying to stop them from even starting. It's a paradox or something.

The priority in this game appears to be pumping up how great both the Olympics and London are, not how great Mario and Sonic are. We get to see and play in many great Olympic events, and we get to see all these pre-event clashes between good guys and bad guys at landmark sites around London. Naturally, whenever our characters go to these sites, they have to talk about how great these locations are. Yes, game creators, London's museums are awesome, but who cares?

Mario and Sonic fans, chew on the fact that there is a game that lets Bowser share screen time with Knuckles...

... that lets Donkey Kong meet Tails...

...that puts Metal Sonic, Eggman, Wario and Waluigi in the same scene together...

...that allows Toad to chat with Omochao...

And yet all these Mario and Sonic all-stars do is rave about London's sites, compete in the hurdles, kayaking, or other Olympic events. They don't run from left to right. They don't squash bad guys. They don't jump on platforms. They do nothing that fans ever loved them for.

When Nintendo and Sega first revealed that they were doing a Mario and Sonic crossover game, cynics could have expected some sort of safe, equal-time game that never gave either character more screen time, never dared to—I don't know—suggest that Sonic was faster than Mario or that Bowser could fry Eggman with his breath. They could have expected a boring, timid creation that might sell well but tap into nothing that was wonderful about these characters. But could the cynics have imagined three of these games?

Sonic has also crossed paths with Mario and the rest of Nintendo's major heroes in the Wii's Super Smash Bros. Brawl. That game, at least, showcases Sonic's best moves and lets him fight against or alongside Nintendo's icons. But that game's just a brawler. It's not an adventure. It's not the dream team-up either.

It's sad what's become—or not become—of these Mario and Sonic team-ups. Sadder still if you play through the story mode of Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games at get to this one brief moment in the middle of one of the game's many dull cut-scenes. In this scene, Sonic and Mario have to destroy one of the nefarious London fog machines. They don't challenge the machine to a discuss competition. They don't compete with it in the 100m-dash.

Mario crushes it with a butt stomp.

Sonic attacks it with a spin dash homing attack.

There it is. Perfectly done. An aberrant glimpse at a much better idea.

The iOS version of Rock Band could expire on May 31, according to an image, originally posted on Reddit, that has been circulating the Internet today.

The Rock Band app, which sells for $4.99 on iTunes, purportedly says it will no longer work at the end of this month. As of this writing, iTunes has no warning or indication that the application has an expiration date.

In response to Kotaku's request for comment, a representative from developer Harmonix said they don't know why the app gave that notification.

"EA Mobile is responsible for the publishing and hosting of Rock Band on iOS," a Harmonix representative said. "We're reaching out to them to better understand what's happening with the app."

Earlier this year, EA pulled its Tetris iPad app off the iTunes store in favor of a new, enhanced version that customers would have to buy again to get its added updates, such as enhanced resolution for the new iPad.

We've reached out to EA Mobile for comment and will update should we hear anything.

Wtf!? "Thanks", EA! [Reddit — thanks, Steve!]

Welcome to Kotaku's official forum, known affectionately as Talk Amongst Yourselves. This is the place where we gather on a daily basis to discuss all things video game and existential. Want to talk about new games, old games, games that aren't even out yet? Knock yourselves out!

The first TAYpic to riff on the "Rich and Poor" artwork puts the "pain" in "painting." Or is it Payne-ting? Rockstar's drug-addled cop gets a bread-tastic re-working by Metronome49. Screaming Guy's gonna be really mad when he re-spawns. Then again, he's always mad.

You can do funny things with pictures, right? Want everyone on this fine web forum to see? Here's what you do. Post your masterpieces in the #TAYpics thread. Don't forget to keep your image in a 16x9 ratio if you want a slice of Talk Amongst Yourselves glory. Grab the base image here. Don't forget to keep your image in a 16x9 ratio if you want a slice of TAY glory. The best ones will be featured in future installments of Talk Amongst Yourselves.

Beautiful PSP role-playing game Grand Knights History might not make it to U.S. shores after all. Publisher XSEED has axed plans to localize the Vanillaware-developed RPG, it said in a statement this morning, citing a lack of "development resources."

Although another publisher could theoretically swoop in and pick up U.S. localization rights for Grand Knights History, that doesn't seem too likely.

You might recognize Vanillaware as the studio behind critically acclaimed PlayStation 2 game Odin Sphere. Grand Knights History also did quite well for the developer, topping charts in Japan when it was released there in 2011.

This news may or may not be related to the sudden publisher change on Vanillaware's last project, Dragon's Crown, which will be out next year for PlayStation 3 and Vita.

Grand Knights History won't be published by XSEED, 'development resources' noted [Joystiq]

Now that's a question that you'll only hear in a video game trailer. Or at least I hope you only hear it in a video game trailer. I bet Hitman: Absolution's Agent 47 gets that all the time.

He's in line at Wendy's, ordering a Frosty. They ask him if he wants fries with that (of course), is this for here or to go (for here, he likes the atmosphere), and whether he's a silent assassin or wants to kill everyone in his way (up to you). Then he looks up at the Wendy's cashier and realizes that it's himself.

You know what the first gameplay trailer for Hitman: Absolution needs? No, not wigs. Okay, wigs would be pretty cool. No, it needs a Frosty and some salty fries.

Maybe that's just me.

"You have to make games for someone you love," says William, "because that way you can imagine who you're making it for.

"You can imagine the smiles the game will bring to their face; you can imagine the good times that people you care about can have with your game."

William Ho, Design Director at United Front Games, is making LittleBigPlanet Karting for someone he loves.

We're in the Penthouse at the Andaz Hotel in Los Angeles. William Ho is in the midst of introducing LittleBigPlanet Karting to the press. He says he loves three things: the first is Kart Racers, second is LittleBigPlanet and… the third, conveniently, is the combination of those two things.

But that's just rhetoric – William Ho's first real love was cars.

"I've always loved them," he laughs. "Even when I was a kid I loved cars."

And, of course, he loved video games. Video games about cars.

"I played every system when I was a kid, all the way back to the VIC 20," says William. "I played all of the classic racing games - games like Spy Hunter, Jump and Bump - all of those games are part of my DNA. I really love that age, and I'm inspired by that age - when anyone could pick up and play a game, with no instructions at all, and enjoy it right away! There's something cool about that."

It's easy, especially in the wake of Sony's PlayStation All-Stars announcement to treat the announcement of LittleBigPlanet Karting with cynicism. Sony, of course, has attempted to hijack this sub-genre with games in the past – but there's something about LittleBigPlanet that works seamlessly with the idea of a kart racer.

It could be a strange type of nostalgia, the idea of reclaiming the lost memories of childhood – racing frantically on bicycles, trying to build your own Kart with pram wheels. Kart racers don't have any claim to realism - they're about surrendering to your own childlike imagination and accepting a primitive set of rules.

And the same could be said about LittleBigPlanet.

"I think Kart racers appeal to the kid in everyone," says William. "There's a universality to driving around in a go kart in fantastic places - and there's a universality to the materials in LittleBigPlanet.

"Who, when they were a little kid, didn't play with construction paper, cardboard, felt and cloth - cutting it, piecing it together. Sticking things together, acting out scenarios – that's LittleBigPlanet. To have that in a modern game taps into all those base memories and those base instincts, those notions of imaginations without boundaries. We didn't care when we were little kids; we weren't self conscious back then…"

"With LittleBigPlanet and LittleBigPlanet Karting, maybe we should be able to express ourselves like we did as children," continues William. "It should feel like revisiting that childhood."

When the young William Ho wasn't dropping quarters into Jump and Bump, he was terrorising the streets with his buddy, pretending to be the highway patrol from CHiPs. His buddy was Jon, he was Ponch.

"When you're a kid you imagine with your box cars, you imagine with your pedals," he says.

"And there's no reason why we couldn't place the ChiPs scenario into LittleBigPlanet Karting! Everyone has their own vivid memories to be inspired by. I think there's going to be that common thread, people are going to be like, ‘I recognise that. That rings true to me'."

William hopes that creation will be a huge part of the LittleBigPlanet Karting user experience. Much like UGC's last title, ModNation Racers, LittleBigPlanet Karting will allow players to customise their karts, their Sackboy and, of course, create their own tracks. LittleBigPlanet Karting will provide more options for creation than any other racer ever conceived.

And in many ways that makes sense – LittleBigPlanet is about appealing to our inner child, reinvigorating that creative spirit. It's about abandoning our normal rules of what makes sense and letting our imaginations take control.

"When I was young I used to play with my Matchbox cars," remembers William.

"My father was a cook in a kitchen, and I would hang out there - I would take the soup cans off the shelf and take my Matchbox cars and drive them around. It was like a makeshift racecourse! That to me was so satisfying."

William hopes LittleBigPlanet will embody that same spirit.

"I've been playing Kart games for decades now, literally decades," says William. "It seems so long ago…"

William Ho is making LittleBigPlanet Karting to satisfy a lifetime of creative curiosity; he's making it in the spirit of the kid who played CHiPs and made makeshift tracks with cans of crushed tomatoes – but most of all he's making it for someone he loves.

William loves karting games, but his early memories of those first steps into are intertwined with memories of his sister – who he played with constantly, competed with, threw green shells at. In a lot of ways LittleBigPlanet Karting is for her.

"When Kart racing came along I was like, wow, this is a game I can play over and over again," says William. "This is a game I can play with my sister.

"And I'd be lying if I said there wasn't a part of me that was making this game for my sister and me to enjoy all over again, to help us relive those memories."

Yesterday the High Court ruled that infamous torrent site The Pirate Bay must be blocked from access by all UK internet providers due to copyright infringement issues. "The galaxy's most resilient BitTorrent site" responded with a call to arms and a way around the oncoming ban.

With torrent and file sharing sites under heavy fire around the world, The Pirate Bay (once ORG, now SE) remains the world's largest torrent magnet file resource, providing easy access to television shows, movies, music, books and, for registered users, pornography. This tends to make the people involved with the creation and distribution of such products incredibly angry.

The Pirate Bay doesn't host any copyright infringing materials. Indeed, in response to the February High Court ruling that threatened to bring about this very ban, the site switched to hosting magnet files, essentially links to torrent files hosted elsewhere.

Lawmakers and entertainment executives can't fight elsewhere, however, and so users' portal to elsewhere is the target.

So UK internet service providers will have to block access to website, but as with many things on the internet, there are ways around the problem. Ways detailed in a post on The Pirate Bay's website in response to yesterday's ruling.

As usual there are easy ways to circumvent the block. Use a VPN service to be anonymous and get an uncensored internet access, you should do this anyhow. Or use TOR, I2P or some other darknet with access to the internets. Change your DNS settings with OpenDNS. Or use googles DNS servers... we could go on...

But they don't. Instead they leave users with a warning and a call to arms.

But don't forget that we can't allow this shit to happen. Next time they're coming for something else. And yes, there will be a next time if we don't stop them. Write to your ISP and tell them to appeal the case. Write to your local MPs and tell them that this is not allowed. Make sure your voice is heard. Remember, we're all the pirate bay, and we must stand united against the censorship from our opponents!

There has to be a way to regulate the internet without destroying it. Current world authorities don't understand the issues well enough to act; old methods don't apply. Perhaps the next generation will be a little more savvy, if we make it that far.

TPB gets censored in the UK [The Pirate Bay via Games Industry]