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According to Siliconera, yes. And if you just clicked that link and found it dead, you can either take that as confirmation that someone let the cat out of the bag, or that this is some kind of misunderstanding.

Before the page conveniently disappeared, Siliconera reported that Cave’s horizontal gothic lolita shooter, DeathSmiles, was  currently undergoing localization by a well-known (but unnamed) publisher for release in North America. If true, this is pretty big news for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, because Cave isn’t exactly known for sending their games outside of Japan, (the closest we’ve ever come being the region-free release of Mushihime-sama Futari Ver 1.5), and this is a very unexpected move for them.

Secondly, because what I believe to be the best horizontal shmup in years is quite possibly on its way to North American retailers, for use on a North American 360. I’ve contacted Cave for comment, so we’ll see how that goes. In the meantime, keep your eyes peeled for news on this and we’ll bring you the latest as we get it. Hit the jump for a video of the game in action.

DeathSmiles magically gets stateside release [Siliconera, link no worky]

Yes please.

We now have direct confirmation of a disruptor in our midst; one who has acquired an almost messianic reputation in the minds of certain citizens. His figure is synonymous with the darkest urges of asshattery, nonsense, and Fridaying.

Some of the worst excesses of the 160 McNuggets Incident have been laid directly at his feet. And yet, unsophisticated minds continue to imbue him with romantic power, giving him such dangerous poetic labels as the One Free Fridayer, the Opener of the Ramune bottle when you can’t figure out the marble thingy.

Let me remind all citizens of the dangers of magical thinking. We have scarcely begun to climb from the dark pit of our species’ evolution. Let us not slide backward into oblivion, just as we have finally begun to see the light. If you see this so-called Free Fridayer, buy him a beer. Civic deeds do not go unrewarded. And contrariwise, complicity with his cause will not go unpunished. Be wise. Be safe. Be ready to MAGfest.

As you may (should) know by now, MAGfest 8 is this weekend. The 8th annual Music and Gaming festival starts rocking Alexandria, Virginia on January 1st, with 4 days of non-stop gaming and live music, and the festivities start early on New Year’s Eve with a massive pre-show party.

On hand for the event will be Double Ice Backfire, Brentalfloss, VIRT, and Renard among others. The crew has secured the entire hotel for the evening, and have decided to throw a Goldeneye-themed bash to get everyone primed for MAGfest the next day. Pre-registering gets you priority in line, but you can still get in if you’re just showing up for a badge at the door on Thursday.

The event proper starts the following day with an expected attendance of 1700, and wil feature guests like Sid Meier and Duke Nukem voice actor Jon St. John, filmmakers like the fellas behind There Will Be Brawl and The Angry Video Game Nerd, to name but a few. Not to mention the countless musical performances by guys like The OneUps, Armcannon, Metroid Metal and Select Start, as well as DJ and chiptune sets by artists like Destructoid’s own Zen Albatross.

It’s gonna be four solid days of music and gaming madness, and much of it will be open 24 hours. Dale, Adam Dork and I will be there too, along with a ton of Destructoid community members, so if you’re in the Baltimore/DC/Virginia area, come join us as we kick off the new decade in style. Head over to the offical MAGfest site for details, and we hope to see you there!

Here it is. After two weeks of demystifying a program I’ve never used before, followed by a two-day fistfight trying to convert the video, I am proud, thrilled, horrified, ashamed and (insert a dozen other emotions here) to bring you the very first episode of The Journalism Show, featuring Geraldo Beedog.

This was an unspeakable amount of work, so I hope it turned out okay. Let me know what you think of it. Massive and infinite thanks go out to our very own Ashley Davis, whose kindness and help made it possible to free the video from the prison of my hard drive so that you could actually see it.

Please accept this nonsense as my humble Christmas gift to the Destructoid community.

Is it FRIDAY already? That’s madness. The past week has gone by pretty fast for me. As you may or may not know, I started work on a silly little cartoon featuring Senor Beedog, and that’s pretty much all I’ve done for the past eight days or so.

I had originally hoped to finish it by the end of the month, but once I got started, I got so sucked into my work that now it’s looking more like the end of the weekend; at least for the art and animation. As soon as i figure out what Beedog’s voice should sound like and do all the audio, it should be pretty much ready.

So yeah. That’s happening. Big thanks to everybody who’s been looking forward to this silly nonsense and showing so much support. I really appreciate all your kind words and I hope it meets your expectations. If everything keeps going smoothly, you might get the first episode as a Christmas present.

This is literally the first thing of this nature I’ve ever tried to do, and I have a whopping seven days’ experience in Adobe Flash. So I can’t promise it’ll be any good. I can, however, promise that it will be utterly ridiculous.

That’s what I’m doing this weekend. What about you?

And now, the Muppets.

Is it FRIDAY already? That’s madness. The past week has gone by pretty fast for me. As you may or may not know, I started work on a silly little cartoon featuring Senor Beedog, and that’s pretty much all I’ve done for the past eight days or so.

I had originally hoped to finish it by the end of the month, but once I got started, I got so sucked into my work that now it’s looking more like the end of the weekend; at least for the art and animation. As soon as i figure out what Beedog’s voice should sound like and do all the audio, it should be pretty much ready.

So yeah. That’s happening. Big thanks to everybody who’s been looking forward to this silly nonsense and showing so much support. I really appreciate all your kind words and I hope it meets your expectations. If everything keeps going smoothly, you might get the first episode as a Christmas present.

This is literally the first thing of this nature I’ve ever tried to do, and I have a whopping seven days’ experience in Adobe Flash. So I can’t promise it’ll be any good. I can, however, promise that it will be utterly ridiculous.

That’s what I’m doing this weekend. What about you?

And now, the Muppets.

Granddaddies of the genre itself, Konami is set to bring a new and original rhythm game to the DS, titled Utacchi. The name is a mashup of the Japanese word for song, “uta,” and the distinctly less Japanese word for touch, “touch.”

Despite having its own product page, very little is known about the game thus far, as few details are given in its description beyond noting that it’s played by touching things in synch with music.

However, drawing conclusions based on absolutely nothing but the logo image above, I am going to guess that this is a game in which an evil, sparkling squid monster with the head of a frog is eating people’s hearts, and you must use the power of music to put a stop to his reign of terror. And if turns out that it’s not, then I’m off to file a copyright, because that sounds awesome.

[Via Andriasang]

Today, Sony announced that Q-Games’ PixelJunk Shooter — the fourth in its PlayStation Network PixelJunk series — would be released on December 10. While you’ll have to wait until then to play it (and to read my review), here’s a short taste of what to expect. 

What you’re seeing is me navigating the game’s first level, “Into the Abyss,” solo. (You can play with up to one friend locally.) The controls and concept, like previous PixelJunk games, are simple. The left analog stick moves the ship, with the right analog directing your missiles, which are fired by pressing down R1 or R2. Holding down the fire buttons will charged up a series of homing missiles, in case you want to do some real damage. 

The other half of the gameplay puzzle involves using L1 or L2 to throw out a grappling hook that can be used to pick and rescue up the game’s workers, diamonds, and more. Oh, and there is that little matter of the lava and the water… watch carefully to see how that works, as it’s key to proper PixelJunk shooting. 

Check back on Thursday, December 10 for my full review of PixelJunk Shooter. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a giant lava spider to kill…

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…ohhh, I’m sorry. One second. HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA… ha..ha… sorry I’m going to get to the post any second now… HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH… It’s just…did you see when the fought with trash bags? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAH…ok, ok I’m done. No more… HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH… they’re called upon to another dimension by…HAHAHAHAH… by a Jawbone… HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH…flaming fists!

Oh…goodness…hold on…lemme catch my breathe. I’m OK now. I’m not gonna laugh anymore. Let’s talk about how slow the fights look or check out Sean Farris’s face after his name… HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA… appears. Sorry, I can’t help it. Oh, Gordon Chan I’m going to have to put a lot of faith in you to go see this one. It’s just… HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA… damn it! You know, what Hamza can tell you more about it. I’ve have to go dry my eyes.