Just a day after some troubling reports surfaced about Square Enix's medieval stealth game, what appears to be a leaked trailer for Thief 4 has appeared on YouTube. The name Eric Wong appears at the beginning of the YouTube post, matching the name of a lighting artist who's worked on CGI trailers for several games, including Deus Ex: Human Revolution for Eidos Montreal. The clip appears to be drawn from cinematics and you can't really suss out any gameplay from the video. Of course, the existence of this doesn't mean that the game isn't in trouble either. What do you think?

It looks like Nintendo's latest Mario game, New Super Mario Bros 2, which is scheduled for release in August, is going for the gold. Literally.

The Mario series has always been adding new costumes for the mustached plumber with every game. The previous announcement that New Super Mario Bros. 2 would include a variation of the Tanooki Suit had people wondering if the game would have more to offer. With their latest trailer, Nintendo is showing a shiny new side of the mushroom scarfing Italian.

By picking up a gold flower, Mario transforms into Gold Mario, the man with the golden touch. By throwing gold fireballs, Mario can transform ordinary blocks into gold coins. Like other costumes, Mario retains this ability until he takes damage. New Super Mario Bros. 2 puts a heavy emphasis on gathering coins throughout the game. Aside from the Gold Mario costume, there is a Gold Block costume. By putting a special block on his head, Mario suddenly becomes a fountain of gold coins. Mario retains all his normal abilities except that his head is a golden block that gold coins are constantly spewing from. Mario remains in the Gold Block costume until he has dropped 100 coins from his head or he takes damage. A third golden feature is Gold Rings that turn enemies into gold for a limited amount of time. Golden enemies drop bonus coins when they are defeated.

Another important feature is the incorporation of co-op play throughout the game. The previous New Mario Bros. allowed for co-op on special stages or for specific minigames. New Super Mario Bros. 2 will allow two players to play together on standard stages as well. A combo attack to damage multiple enemies is possible with two players. For more difficult areas, the game offers a bubble system where one player can encase themselves in an indestructible bubble, keeping them safe from harm while their companion navigates their way through.

The latest chapter in the Mario franchise will be available on the 3DS in August.

ファミ通.com [ファミ通.com]

Via Tumblr Yaoi Fight, here are some signs that your child might be under the influence of the substance commonly known as "The Animes":

•making an account on deviantART.com - While it appears innocent, this website is actually a black market for different types of "The Animes." It contains the highest concentration of animes abusers worldwide.

•changing their typing habits - If your Honors student starts typing sentences that substitute "teh" for "the" or uses asterisks for actions (i.e., *noms on you XD*) or starts adding -chan to the end of names, "The Animes" have most likely gotten to a near-irreversible state that requires years of therapy.

So talk to your kids, before it's too late.

Signs Your Child May Be Under the Influence [Yaoi Fight]

Rain has been hitting Taiwan hard. As Taiwanese people check the weather, they might notice something familiar: that 3D rainfall map sure looks like something out of Neon Genesis Evangelion.

The font and the interface resemble Evangelion style computer graphics in what *looks* to be a clever, viral Eva cross promotion with Taiwan's Next Media (those people behind the news animations) and the folks behind Evangelion. Neat weather map, but shame about the flooding!

Neon Genesis Evangelion is a popular multi-media franchise that debuted in the mid-1990s as an anime. It has since launched video games, toys, and even clothes. Watch the original anime's here.

天氣報告也能很有風格 壹電視3D累積雨量圖 類似EVA福音戰士顏色設計 [Aniarc]

Each Nintendo hardware has its thing: For the Wii, it's motion controls; for the 3DS, it's 3D; and for the Wii U, it's a tablet-like controller. Dubbed the Wii U GamePad, that controller was almost killed off.

"Sometime during that final discussion we almost gave up on the idea of the additional screen," Iwata recently told The Telegraph. "This was due to our concern over the expected high cost, it may not have been feasible to create this and sell it at a reasonable price point for the consumers."

Iwata is likely referring the the final discussion before deciding that this console would have a tablet controller. Regardless, Nintendo figured out how to get the screen in the GamePad and still offer the Wii U a reasonable, yet undisclosed, price. And, thus, the Wii U GamePad has a screen.

Last year, there was concern online in Japan about the Wii U GamePad's screen quality, with some pointing out that it looked "yellow". The Wii U GamePad in the above image doesn't look yellow, so perhaps Nintendo figured out how to get the screen in the controller for a reasonable price and not sacrifice image quality.

Satoru Iwata interview: Nintendo rivals are already copying the Wii U [The Telegraph via VG247]

The Idolm@ster series is well renowned for its cute virtual idols and ability to suck money out of fans' wallets with pricy DLC and slot machine-like tactics. Next up, snack wafers that let you make literal phone calls to your favorite virtual idols.

The Idolm@aster Wafers 2 are small, plain, rectangular chocolate sandwich wafer snacks, but the real motivator for people to get them, and more importantly spend money on them are the special cards included in each package. Each snack comes with one of 42 different cards and a special serial number. People can use the serial numbers to sign up at a designated website. They are then assigned one of the idols (at random) and are shown that idol's schedule for the day. They can then phone their assigned idol at any time for one day. Apparently voice recognition software is used so that people can hold virtual conversations with their assigned idols. The idols will apparently respond differently with how you answer their questions. The conversations also vary depending on the idol's schedule and the time the call is made.

This is not the first time that the developers at Namco Bandai have had characters from The Idolm@ster reach out to the real world. The original arcade game included a feature that allowed players to register their cell phone email addresses with the game which allowed them to receive emails from the idols they were training. (And also apparently led to people to essentially be summoned by their virtual idols to arcades to play the game.) The use of voice recognition software is an intriguing new touch, however, and fans are already flocking to reserve boxes of snacks.

The Namco Bandai website is taking reservations for the snacks in boxes of 20 for ¥2,100 (US$26.47), not including the phone bill. No price yet for individual packages will most likely be sold at convenience stores and designated Namco Bandai shops. The Idolm@aster Wafers 2 are currently scheduled for release in July, and the interactive phone feature will be available until the end of November. I'm tempted to get some just to test the limits of this voice recognition software…

(For those who are wondering, the first The Idolm@ster Wafers included codes that only allowed people to download voice samples.)

アイドルマスターウエハース２（20個入） [プレミアムバンダイ]

Yesterday, news broke that Japanese police took an 11 year-old girl into protective custody for violating the country's computer laws. Today, it's a 16 year-old.

Allegedly, the teenager is a self-styled hacker who illegally accessed another individual's online game server and also wrote three gamers' IDs and passwords on an internet forum. For that, Japanese police arrested him.

The recent crackdown comes as the country's law was revised to make it illegal to post people's IDs and passwords online without permission.

他人のＩＤなど公開の１６歳逮捕…提供罪初適用 [Yahoo! Japan]

Earth Defense Force 3: Portable is bringing its giant bugs to the PS Vita for huge insect shooting fun with four player online co-op. The game will be out this fall in Japan. Have a look.

In Iron Girl, our metal heroine fights a group of outlaws known as the "Crazy Dogs" and could be the "Iron Savoir" foretold by the prophets.

Adult film actress Kirara Asuka stars as Iron Girl. The flick also features Rina Akiyama from Kamen Rider Den-O. She might be familiar to Metal Gear Solid 3 players as she appeared in-game on a pin-up poster.

Iron Girl beats up Japanese theaters this summer.

"Iron Girl" Action Film Trailer Starring Kirara Asuka [JEFusion]

It's hard to believe it's been 20 years since Kirby first appeared on the Nintendo Gameboy. I still remember the first time I saw that cute pink (Well, sort of cream-colored with black outlines on the Gameboy) innocent-looking little marshmallow suck a bird down his gullet and swallow it whole. Since then, the Kirby series has become one of Nintendo's flag ship franchises with 16 titles and guest appearances in numerous other games.

Now, 20 years after the series' initial release, Nintendo has announced that they will be releasing the Kirby's Dream Collection: Special Edition for the Wii. The game will feature 6 Kirby games: Kirby's Dream Land, Kirby's Adventure, Kirby's Dream Land 2, Kirby Super Star, Kirby's Dream Land 3, and Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards. The game will be released in Japan on July 19th and the US in September. The Japanese release will include a booklet covering the 20 year history of the gluttonous little pink sphere as well as a soundtrack disc that will include many of the classic memorable Kirby tunes. No news on what goodies are planned for the US release.

Game-wise there will be some challenge stages included, but otherwise, no other original content has been announced. Still, the games included are all great classics for any fan of the series, and indeed, 6 games is pretty generous a collection. (Plus it'll be a chance for people to check out the hidden naked "lady"…)

『星のカービィ 20周年スペシャルパック』気になる収録タイトルが判明 [インサイド]