The reason why Metal Gear Rising Revengeance was never released in Japan on Xbox 360 can be explained very easily in terms of support

I hear a lot about this recently. Many Japanese Xbox 360 owners wanted to get their hands on a copy of Metal Gear Rising Revengeance, so that they too could get in on the Raiden action. But since that release never came to pass, it left a number of die hard gamers in the dust. So an explanation is in order isn't it? Hideo Kojima himself was asked about the matter recently, and like so many of us wanted, he clarified things into perspective about the lack of support for 360 players. In his podcast he made a statement about the poor sales figures from last year for the 360, and judging from the even poorer sales numbers in Japan for it, a release for Rising Revengeance would likely hurt the sales performance of the new Metal Gear. Kojima added to his statement saying, "And if we did release that [number in Japan], there's was talk that it would be rough on the brand." You can check out Hideo Kojima's blog and there should be a podcast link there with additional information, provided you can translate the page or read Japanese.

Now don't lose hope, that is, if you are a Japanese gamer and an Xbox 360 owner who really wants to take a stab at Rising Revengeance, because you can easily do so. The Western version came equipped with Japanese subtitles, so you do have the option to import a copy for yourself and play it that way. This was a clever move by the creators to avoid a sales loss from a low supported system regionally, while making sure to put a copy of the new game into as many hands as possible. Nice job. Also keep in mind that there has been confirmed to be a near future PC release of Rising Revengeance, so you PC gamers out there will too, be able to get in on the Raiden action assuming you don't possess either a PS3 OR an Xbox 360. Make it possible for everyone to have candy right? Right. No set release date has been mentioned for the PC release, but if you happen to be hanging out on Twitter, it's been asked that you direct all questions about Rising Revengeance to @konami. The request of JP Kellams, who doesn't want to keep being questioned about it over and over. Who can blame him? By the way, check out a long Blade Wolf video below.

Gradius has had more spinoffs than you have toes, but Parodius is one that deserves a second look with this unique and rather odd shooter game

If you hear the word Gradius, the first thing that usually pops into your head is, which one? Not only are there like five Gradius games out there, but a number of parodies and spin offs that I can't even imagine without spending some extra time researching. Don't forget there are even Pachislot games based on the series. Nemesis, Salamander, Xexex, and Otomedius were some prime examples of parody titles that had Gradius written all over them. But one shooter game in the series somewhat stood out from the rest. If you've ever heard the word "Parodius" or yet played it, you've noticed that is boasts some unique qualities that separates it from other shooters. While it plays just like Gradius, the look of it can be measured differently. The graphic style and character designs, as well as the odd bosses, give Parodius a slightly different class than what you might be used to.

Another rather "controversial" Parodius game in the series, was known as Sexy Parodius. When this title was released, it sparked some heat with the rather *revealing* content that it had. Some of the bosses were, actually ladies that were wearing little more than a band aid. These days, you can find multiple ports that were made of Parodius, even for the Virtual Console on your Nintendo Wii, and some mobile devices. There are a total of about 6 in the series, but the last anyone has ever heard of Parodius, was a Pachislot game that was released back in 2010. It hasn't been too long since then, but to me this is one shooter title that deserves another look. Gradius had a rebirth game brought out on the Wii Virtual Console, so it would be nice to see a rebirth for Parodius too, especially an all new game we can enjoy. Check out the long play video of Gokujou Parodius, the Arcade version below for those of you who have never heard or never played this one in the series. The video below that one happens to be the entire soundtrack to it as well. It has some pretty nice music to boot. By the way, did you know that the word Parodius, is a combination of Parody, and Gradius?

Cameos of your favorite Konami characters can be seen through various games like Ganbare Goemon 2, Scribblenauts, and Mitsumete Knight R : Daibouken Hen

The videos below, don't even stop there. One thing Konami is famous for, is putting cameo appearances of their own characters in different games. Ganbare Goemon 2, Mitsumete Knight R : Daibouken Hen, and Scribblenauts are just three examples of games that have characters from other games within them. I'm sure you likely know even more examples than that, so why don't we start with a visual challenge. Mitsumete Knight R : Daibouken Hen is one of the biggest examples I've seen so far that shows off multiple cameos of characters from various Konami games. If you want to see if you can guess most or all of them, do it right now. Otherwise here is a spoiler alert for a list of every single one of them. Taken from the YouTube video post that has them listed of course.

* Goemon (ゴエモン) and Ebisumaru (エビス丸), of the "Gambare Goemon" series
* Vic Viper (ビッグバイパー) and a Moai head, of the Gradius series
* Shiori Fujisaki (藤崎詩織) and Saki Nijino (虹野沙希), of the Tokimeki Memorial series
* Twinbee (ツインビー) and Madoka (マドカ), of the Twinbee series
* Takosuke (タコスケ) and Koitsu (コイツ), of the Parodius series
* Kewne (キューン), of Azure Dreams
* Powerpro-kun, (パワプロくん), of the Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu series
* Alucard (アルカード), of Castlevania : Symphony of the Night
* The Main Protagonist, of Suikoden 1.

Are you back from the visual challenge yet? Cool. The second is really a no brainer at all. Even if you have never heard of the Ganbare Goemon series, then surely you have heard of Castlevania. For real, it's Goemon versus Dracula! They even included a small segment of Castlevania music just as Dracula emerges from a bat.

The third video shouldn't be too hard to guess. You may have heard of the game Scribblenauts. This is a cute Konami game that has multiple cameos of characters within its game as well. They are old Solid Snake and Big Boss, Alucard from the Castlevania series, and finally Ganbare Goemon once again. Goemon is also known as Mystical Ninja to some parts of the world. There are a number of other examples just waiting for you to check out. YouTube is a breeding ground for them obviously. So which cameo video is your favorite? Personally I'm quite a fan of the Ganbare Goemon series. I just wish they would get translated or released again with English text. Give me your feedback if you like in the comment section below. Cheers.

These cute Konami girls love football so much, they show it by demonstrating their soccer abilities with it both indoor and outdoor

I could watch these cute girls all day long. Three lovely Konami girls showing what they can do with the game they adore the most, football, or known in some parts of the world as soccer. Two of these great videos take place outside, while one is done in her own kitchen. Also, here is a really sweet part you're going to enjoy the heck out of. They actually placed a "GoPro" camera inside the soccer ball, so you can see movement from a "football point of view" angle. These girls just love the game of football so much, they don't seem to skip a beat when it comes to showing what they can do with it. I had a good laugh when the top video of the girl stopped when her cell phone rang, and then she answered it and ran off somewhere. The laughs and cuteness don't even stop there.

The second video is more of a trip when it comes to showing off a bit. This girl not only does everything the first one did, she even goes to the refrigerator while the football is on the back of her neck, then takes a drink out, goes over to the couch and continues her kicking rampage. Talk about coordination and control, she has both to boot. The bottom one is no exception either. After showing her endurance and skill with a ball, she's even doing it with socks that seem to go all the way up to the knees. Then a bus pulls up that has the words "Football Club" on the side of it, and she gets on and takes off. Gee I wonder where she's going? Football practice no doubt. Anyway, these videos were all released by Konami and are simply called "Daily football juggling movie of a girl madly in love with football." They are basically here to promote their All-Stars league, and do so in a really nice way.

There are also a couple of cool looking related sites for you to check out as well. Although both of them are completely in Japanese, but you can use Google Translate to figure them out if you wish. They also have some more images of those cute girls below you can see there. The first one has those and is found here, while the second has some event information and can be found here. Also, let me know which football girl is your favorite in the comment section below. Mine is most likely the top one. Nice performance I must say.

Metal Gear Artwork Studio lands a favorite pick with Yoji Shinkawa choosing best female design, and Revolver Ocelot taking prize for best male design

Many participants have joined, and for good reason too. The idea is to indulge in your creative prowess for your Metal Gear artwork abilities to see who is number one when it comes to character designs. In the end of course, only one winner remains, as was with Fahd Khn's Meryl. This winner was chose by none other than Yoji Shinkawa for best female character design competition winner. As you can see from the drawing below, it's no wonder this person took the prize for this particular drawing. Way to go Fahd. I also want to give sincere thanks and appreciation to all of those who chose to take place in the contest with their own drawings. Every contribution is worth a good look. Some look better than others, but every contribution in the end is a welcome one. Metal Gear art is something that's not taken lightly with the fan base out there.

So onto the best male character design. That one is simple enough. You folks remember the big and bad Revolver Ocelot right? Of course you do. Francesco Botti takes the competition home with his design for best male character, and it's no wonder considering how great it looks in the image you can see below. As stated before, there were quite a number of others in the contest, many of which had great design work and effort put into their drawings. But as with every contest, in the end there can be only one champion. Still, you the viewer are entitled to your own opinion about who should have won the contest for both male and female designs. As always, I welcome your feedback in the comment section below. Tell me which design you think should have taken first place above all others? Also tell me what you think about the two drawings that did take the first place prize. The videos below show some real time footage of others doing their stuff for Raiden and design for The Phantom Pain.