Game developer Hideki Kamiya of Platinum Games and recent Bayonetta fame will field just about any question on Twitter, whether he's well-versed on a topic or not. Something he knows a ton about? Devil May Cry games. Kamiya was the director on the original Devil May Cry back in 2001 and a very good authority on what makes a Devil May Cry game great.

Not surprisingly, fans and foes of the newest game in the Devil May Cry series, the newly-released DmC, want to know his thoughts on it.

It would be so easy for him to ignore these questions or to knock the new game. The man has no love lost for Capcom, the company that has put out all the DMC games. And he's not averse to trash-talking on Twitter. The new DmC isn't even made by a Capcom studio and instead has been crafted by the Heavenly Sword people at Ninja Theory.

But, no way is Kamiya taking the bait. He's not bashing DmC. Instead, he just said this:

And a little later:

Can this story get any happier?

Yes!

Welcome to the all-new, all-improved, all much simpler formatted as to not kill myself every morning weekly app rankings. The ponderous and sloppy image-heavy format has been exchanged for a tasteful table, which makes it much easier to notice things like Minecraft proper and a 2D Minecraft "homage" holding both number two spots in the charts this week.

Minecraft Pocket Edition has been hovering around the second entry in the paid charts forever, so that's not really a surprise. What is a surprise is how quickly The Blockheads, essentially free Minecraft on a 2D plane, rose to meet its inspiration over on the free charts. Debuting just last week to equal parts praise and derision on iTunes, the free price tag and the startling similarities between this building game and the one that made Mojang millions have skyrocketed The Blockheads nearly to the top.

Join me next week, when I relaunch the magic of week-to-week rank tracking, replacing those N/As with numbers that promise to be quite telling indeed.

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Top Paid iPhone Games — 1/15/2013

Rank	Game	Last Week	Change
1.	Angry Birds Star Wars	N/A	N/A
2.	Minecraft Pocket Edition	N/A	N/A
3.	Scribblenauts Remix	N/A	N/A
4.	Plague, Inc.	N/A	N/A
5.	Arms Cartel Global	N/A	N/A
6.	Wipeout	N/A	N/A
7.	Flow Free: Bridges	N/A	N/A
8.	Joe Danger Touch	N/A	N/A
9.	Bad Piggies	N/A	N/A
10.	Bloons TD 5	N/A	N/A

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Top Free iPhone Games — 1/15/2013

Rank	Game	Last Week	Change
1.	Ruzzle	N/A	N/A
2.	The Blockheads	N/A	N/A
3.	Fun Run - Multiplayer Race	N/A	N/A
4.	Subway Surfers	N/A	N/A
5.	Candy Crush Saga	N/A	N/A
6.	A Little War	N/A	N/A
7.	Bingo Vegas	N/A	N/A
8.	Flow Free	N/A	N/A
9.	Hill Climb Racing	N/A	N/A
10.	Icon Pop Quiz	N/A	N/A

Last weekend, 5,834 people convened in Seattle for the world's largest snowball fight.

Set amongst a battlefield of 160,000 tonnes of snow, it doesn't look like any snowball fight I've ever been in. It looks like the beginning of Terminator 2. Only with less skulls.

World's Largest Snowball Fight - Contour Cameras - Snow Day [YouTube]

From Bowser and Dr. Robotnik to M. Bison and Dr. Wiley, gaming has had many iconic villains. But as well known as those villains are, some of the best villains are found in the Final Fantasy series.

When you think of Final Fantasy villains, who immediately comes to mind? If you were playing games in the PlayStation 1 era, no doubt Sephiroth will be the first one you think of. But while he is doubtless the most famous villain of the series, he is far from the greatest villain Final Fantasy has to offer. That dubious honor instead falls to Kefka, the main antagonist of Final Fantasy VI.

[Note: Heavy spoilers from here on out.]

The first time you meet Sephiroth, he kills several floors of people in a skyscraper and then the president of a company. The first time you meet Kefka, however, he is little more than a joke—an ineffective ambassador that no one takes seriously. Yes, he sets a castle on fire. But after his plan fails, he is such a non-threat, you leave him stranded in the desert—paying little attention to his impotent threats of revenge as you ride away.

But this is all to lull you into a false sense of security. For the next time you see Kefka, he kills an entire kingdom by poisoning their water supply. He kills thousands—men, women, and children all killed. He leaves an entire country a graveyard simply because he is bored and wants to go home.

Over the course of the first half of the game, he burns cities, kills his own allies, and commits a second genocide (this time on the magical creatures known as Espers)—and uses you to unwittingly help in that plan.

And then he wins.

That's right, unlike pretty much every game ever made, the bad guy wins in Final Fantasy VI. Kefka becomes god, remakes the world by killing millions (if not billions), and leaves your party beaten, broken, and scattered to the four corners of the post-apocalyptic wasteland he has created. From then on, he just chills on the top of his enormous tower, killing randomly with his god powers whenever it strikes his fancy, just because he can.

Sephiroth? He killed a party member, burned down a town, and tried (and failed) to drop a meteor on a city. Evil? Sure. But it's like comparing a candle to a forest fire.

But what the most important thing is in all this is how you, the player, react to Kefka and all that he's done. You hate him. Just pure, unmitigated hatred. There is no other possible reaction you could have toward him.

You can feel sorry for a bad guy like Sephiroth—he is a fallen hero. He is a person who desperately searched for his place in the world and the meaning of his birth. Finding the answer to these questions, unfortunately, drove him insane and left him bent on destroying the entire world.

Kefka has no deep tragic backstory. Kefka is just a psychotic asshole. While Sephiroth has good in him, or at least did in the past, Kefka has not a single solitary redeeming virtue. Like the Joker in The Dark Knight, Kefka is a man who just wants to see the world burn.
But when it all comes down to it, what makes Kefka such a great villain is more than just the hate he garners. He transcends from a villain you hate into a villain you love to hate. Every time you fight him or otherwise spoil his plans, your level of satisfaction—your elation at victory—is far beyond what you feel when defeating villains in other games. And it is the way he plays on your emotions that makes him the greatest video game villain of all time.

This March, a new Zone of the Enders figure will be released, and perhaps will find a spot on your desk. Z.O.E., of course, is the sci-fi mecha series from Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima.

The figure is of Z.O.E. mecha Ardjet, which is piloted by Ken Marinaris from Z.O.E.: The 2nd Runner.

It's priced at ¥4,480 (US$50), and it's pink. You like pink, don't cha?

女性型オービタルフレームが遂にリボルテック化！！ [あみあみ]

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In 2007 Japanese director Miike Takashi made a live-action film adaptation of the first game in the Yakuza series: Yakuza: Like A Dragon. Despite living in Japan and being a fan of Miike's work, I had never really gotten around to seeing the movie even in the five years since it came out. But with the newly released Yakuza 5 staring at me ominously from my bookshelf, I thought it would be a good idea to get a refresher in Yakuza lore by popping in the DVD.

I was more than a little excited going in to this film because, after all, I have called Miike's adaptation of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney the greatest video game movie ever made. But there was no small part of me that worried it would be one of his more ultra-violent movies, akin to Ichi the Killer (of which the gore was just too much for me). But Like a Dragon turned out to be neither a lighthearted criminal drama like Ace Attorney nor an ultra-violent gorefest like Ichi. Rather it was simply one of the most enjoyable black comedies I have ever seen. [Note: Minor spoilers ahead.]

Good — A Black Comedy

Black comedy is a hard thing to get right. You have to balance dark settings with funny situations without going too far and alienating your audience. Finding this sweet spot is something Like a Dragon does very well. One entire plot line, for example, revolves around a pair of bank robbers who arrive to find the bank has already been cleared out of cash. So they find themselves with a bank full of hostages but no loot to make the confrontation with the police worth their while. Over the rest of the film, we are treated to scenes of the robbers arguing about their code names, dealing with wearing knitted ski-masks on the hottest day of the year, and being awkwardly yet genuinely thanked by the hostages for the expensive gourmet food they ordered as a hostage demand for everyone to eat.

Good — Brings the Game into the Movie

The dark comedy nature of the film allows for some of the game's signature elements to be brought into this surrealist yakuza-filled world. Baseballs being used as a lethal weapons (along with any item laying around really), energy drinks that give you the strength to fight despite bullet wounds, massive random yakuza street brawls erupting at random, and complex international conspiracies fit perfectly into the world Miike has created. The movie even hits a mind-bending "meta" note with a surprise cameo by the game's creator Toshiro Nagoshi.

Good — Five Stories, Great Pacing

Like a Dragon is really five stories in one. The first one follows former yakuza Kiryu and young girl Haruka as they hunt for Haruka's mother. The second follows two teens who randomly embark on a robbery spree. The third is the story of a Korean assassin preparing for a hit, while the fourth follows Goro, an insane, one-eyed yakuza who is on a boredom-induced killing spree while he's looking for Kiryu. The last plotline, as already mentioned, follows two masked robbers in a bank job gone horribly wrong.

As the movie goes along, we continuously switch between these plotlines, insuring that the film never drags. But more than that, the most enjoyable thing about the film is watching the various plotlines collide in unexpected (and often downright hilarious) ways.

Bad — The Last 15 Minutes Make Zero Sense

It's unfortunate, then, that the movie completely falls apart as it reaches its climax. Up until this point, the movie is rather solid. We know what all the characters are doing and—most importantly—why they are doing it. Then, two new characters appear. One fights Kiryu in the film's final fight scene—though for no readily apparent reason as their goals do not conflict in any way. The other claims to be two characters at once without explaining why or how this came to be. Worse yet you can't even tell if her statement is meant to be taken literally or not. Even when she states her goal, we are left with two questions. 1) "Why?" and 2) "Why does your goal have to be completed in this way?" Thus, when the credits began to roll, I was left wondering just what the hell I had watched.

Final Thoughts

Inexplicable ending aside, I quite enjoyed Yakuza: Like a Dragon. It was an excellent black comedy. And while it obviously strayed more than a little from the source material, I think it fit the feeling of the game more than a super-serious adaptation would have. If you like black comedy or the Yakuza game series, you should definitely give this movie a try.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon was released in North America on February 23, 2010.

Sakura-Saki Inagaki isn't your typical comedian. She dresses as Asuka Langley from Neon Genesis Evangelion. She isn't only a cosplaying entertainer. She's a cosplaying entertainer who doesn't want you to smoke drugs.

For the past few years, the Osaka Pharmaceutical Association has printed and distributed pamphlets depicting Inagaki, crossing her arms in an "X", the Japanese symbol for "no" or "bad", and the catchphrase: "No good, absolutely. Cannabis." ("Dame, zettai. Taima." or ダメ、ゼッタイ. 大麻.) There is also a website, which gives info about various illegal drugs.

The pamphlets are public service announcements, and they are distributed in hospitals, government buildings, and pharmacies. Last fall, a new campaign was launched that focused on "dappou herbs", which are synthetic drugs that have become an issue in the last year—perhaps more so than marijuana.

Marijuana use is more accepted in the West than in Japan. While in recent years, the U.S. has taken a far more progressive attitude towards marijuana, recognizing its medicinal properties, Japan has not and has some of the toughest laws in the world against the drug. Ironically, Japan's strict anti-marijuana laws were imposed by the U.S. after World War II, Japan Today points out. The drug is very much stigmatized in the country, and if Japanese celebrities are caught with pot, it can end their career.

Inagaki has always been a fascinating comedian, because her entire schtick is partly based on her cosplaying. She wasn't a cosplayer at first, but was asked to create an act for otaku (geeks). She appears on Osaka TV show Rokemitsu, dressed as Langley.

In the past, Inagaki has often gone to the Japanese countryside (she's now going through Europe), where she obviously stands out. At the most base level, the gag is that she's a fish out of water. Most locals don't quite know what to make of her, nor do they get the Eva inside jokes!

Having her appear in an anti-drug campaign is incredibly post modern: she isn't Asuka Langley, but a cosplaying comedian dressed as Langley, who doesn't want you to smoke illicit substances. The target of the campaign is young people who might smoke marijuana or other herbs. If they don't know Inagaki, they might know Eva. If they know Evangelion, they might smoke marijuana. KIDDING. (Well, sorta.)

Inagaki's continued inclusion in the campaign is a testament to her own popularity in Osaka as well as the geek power of Evangelion and Evangelion cosplay.

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After four main games and two spin-offs, you probably have a pretty good idea of what to expect from Yakuza 5: weapon-filled brawling action across Japan's major metropolitan areas. While brutal and cinematic, the brawling aspect is only the smallest part of what you can do in Yakuza 5.

Many side activities return from past games such as the series' infamous hostess clubs. And new activities include hitting up a local Sega arcade for some Taiko Drum Master or Virtua Fighter 2, tweeting about the strange events you see on the streets between story missions, or running around with a ramen cart. You can even take a break from the cityscape to go hunting.

But perhaps the oddest new gameplay aspect comes from Kiryu's new job as a taxi driver. You can either take random passengers from place to place in a mini-game where you are judged by how smooth the ride is and how well you follow traffic laws—making it pretty much the polar opposite of Crazy Taxi—or perform street races in your taxi cab.

To see how Yakuza 5 looks in action, check out the video above.

Yakuza 5 was released in Japan on December 6, 2012, for the PlayStation 3. There is currently no word on a Western release.

Over 120 fake iPhone 4 and 4s handsets were confiscated in the Amur region of Russia. According to website English Russia, the country usually bulldozes pirated discs. This time, authorities decided to bulldoze the phones.

A Chinese national brought the handsets into Russia, but did not have proof that they were genuine. He was fined the equivalent of US$65, and the bulldozer crushed the loot in front of court witnesses.

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The remaining debris was incinerated.

Severe Destruction of Counterfeit iPhones [English Russia]

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Cat cosplay is a thing. We've proven this over and over and over. So don't be totally surprised by this! Be amazed. At once, the above photo is both totally adorable and completely badass. Nice sculpting work, too.

In case you are wondering, the grapefruit is what's called in English a pomelo. It's a large citrus fruit. How large? Large enough to put on a cat's head.

Awesome, Awesome, Awesome [Geektrooper via GeeksAreSexy via Obvious Winner]

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