After eight weeks on top, Nintendo's Mario Kart Wii was ousted from the top spot in Media Create's software chart list by Sega's Pro Yakyuu Team o Tsukurou! On the flip side, the PlayStation Portable is still enjoying a comfortable lead against its other hardware rivals. You can read the hard numbers to both the hardware and software charts in Japan by clicking on the "read more" link found below.

While giving way to Sylvain White as the director for the Castlevania movie adaptation, Paul W.S. Anderson remains part of the project as a producer. In a recent interview, Anderson shared that the Castlevania movie's shooting will likely begin in a couple of months.

This is because they want the script to be done before the impending writer's strike. "I'm hoping to get a script for it in two or three weeks. And I'm hoping it's great. Sylvain White is directing it, and we're hoping to kind of make it a pre-strike movie. So it kind of shoots in the next couple months," said Anderson.

It was reported a while ago that Rogue Pictures wanted a complete overhaul to the Castlevania script. According to earlier reports, the previous plot of the planned Castlevania movie revolved around a knight from Transylvania hiding from the Turkish Army in Dracula's castle.

The video game franchise Castlevania from Konami first appeared in 1986 on the platform Famicom Disk System.

There's an interesting survey conducted by small online research firm WhatJapanThinks regarding the preferred consoles by Japanese kids. The population consisted of around 1,165 elementary school students and the results are quite intriguing and interesting:

• Nintendo DS 82.2%
• Nintendo Gameboy Advance 39.8%
• Sony PlayStation 1, 2 or 3 37.4%
• Nintendo Wii 35.3%
• Nintendo Gamecube 31.4%
• Nintendo Gameboy, Gameboy Micro 19.8%
• Nintendo 64 15.2%
• Nintendo Super Famicom (SNES) 15.1%
• Nintendo Famicom (NES) 11.9%
• Sony PlayStation Portable 10.5%
• Microsoft Xbox 5.8%
• Sega Saturn 5.1%
• Sega Dreamcast 4.8%
• Other 16.4%

Take note that this survey is not reflective of the whole Japanese market and is just true on a certain market segment. Nonetheless, like we said, the results are quite interesting.

It may be billed as a sound novel, but Sega and Chunsoft's Imabikisou is most definitely not getting left behind in the visuals department. The game centers on a mysterious killer drug called "Vision" and boasts photo-realistic imagery and CGI scenes. Check out the new screenshots of the game below courtesy of Famitsu.

   
 

Imabikisou is the latest incarnation of the "sound novel" genre pioneered by Chunsoft in the Super Famicom era. It's reportedly 60% done, so hopefully we'll get more news about this title soon. Chances that this will see a stateside release range from slim to none, though, but hey, maybe we'll get lucky. This title looks like a pretty good offering.

 

Chunsoft's a company known for its work on the sound novel genre, which it pioneered with Otogirisou back on the Super Famicom. They were followed up by games like Machi and Kamaitachi no Yoru. Yes, you've probably never heard of these games, but they do command a following in their home country, and each sound novel sold over 200,000 units.

The latest "sound novel" from Chunsoft is Imabikisou and it is set to grace the Sony PlayStation 3. What's been revealed about the sound novel's storyline so far is that it revolves around a drug called "Vision". The said drug is apparently responsible for a series of mysterious deaths, and you, as the game's main character, have to flee the curse of the drug, confront the drug at its source (a strange flower in a spooky mansion) and solve the mystery.

The "game" has several big horror names behind it. Included in the staff are folks like Yukinori Kitajima, Osamu Makino, and Hajime Katou, all big horror folks in Japan. This latest incarnation of the sound novel is set to take advantage of the PS3's graphical capabilities by incorporating real-life footage, creepy sounds, and CG effects.

Hopefully, playing, er reading, er watching through this novel won't be as creepy as watching a VHS tape that has a ring in it. Imabikisou is set to be released this fall.

Quick factoid before the video: did you know that the NES, the Nintendo Entertainment System, was named as such, because Nintendo back then worried about the negative connotations that the term "family" has in the US?

Family being negative? What? Let me explain. The Famicom was named as such in Japan because back then - much like the Wii is now - the little white and red console was marketed as a family thing; a game system where the whole family can play on. Nintendo was worried that the Famicom would be a bad name to use in the US, especially since in the US, families (back then) don't play games together.

If I go on to describe the great lengths that Nintendo went through to disguise the NES as a toy instead of videogames console, then I'll probably bore you. (Surprising that more than a decade later Nintendo is marketing the Wii as if it was an international Famicom) Point is, different folks from different areas of the world see things differently. Which is the point of the HSBC commercial below.

Also, the GTA video in this commercial looks a bit weird... GTA 4? Nah.. That's just probably us...

Regardless, this is a nice celebration of the fact that video games are so mainstream, that even HSBC, The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, are referencing them. We now wonder how a certain ace-attorney would react to this advert?

If you managed to get your hands on an extremely rare "pre-release" - by pre-release we mean demo samples given only to game distributors and journalists - Chrono Trigger ROM for the Super Famicom, would you sell it on eBay? Would you?

Apparently, eBay seller jqf69er (his eBay store is called SQUAREworx) will. He's selling his for only US$ 274.95. Admit it, as much as you'd say, "No, I'd never sell it if I had it," you're very glad that people like jqf69er - people who are willing to sell gaming treasures - exist. Where else are you guys going to get your swag?

The guy is also selling a Final Fantasy VII Aerith chrome statue, a Cid Highwind Zippo Lighter, and an extremely rare Final Fantasy VI Tina chrome statue.

Here's to hoping that a port of it will show up for the Virtual Console, or XBLA, or even the PS Store; that the Blue Dragon trio will let Square make a remake/sequel;and here's to hoping that the trio will still be involved.

Yeah, we're suffering from turn-based nostalgia.