New from Play Asia



features
The Wii Remote's easy hands-on control makes playing the game a breeze.
People of any age or education level can play together!
Show off your smarts in multiplayer versus and co-op play modes like Mind Sprint, Mental Marathon, and Brain Quiz.
The better you get at an activity, the harder it becomes!
Send your grades to friends with the Wii's WiFi connection feature, WiiConnect24,

description
Welcome to Big Brain Academy, the only school where you can school your friends and family! How big is your brain? Find out as you test yourself with numerous lightning-fast activities like across several categories.

When you enroll, headmaster Professor Lobe will introduce you to Test mode, challenging you with a bevy of hilarous and exciting brain-teasers. Then, when it's all over, the professor will calculate your brain weight, award you with a grade, and give you an idea of what career track is best suited for your brain weight. Don't worry, it's all in the spirit of fun! ...

New Movies from Play Asia

Welcome to this week's Movie/Music news roundup, containing all new Japanese and Hong Kong Video and Music releases from this week listed at Play-Asia.com. Around 150 new items are covered in this week, including new J-Pop, Anime as well as Japanese, Hong Kong and Western movie releases and much more.

Here's a summary of all new releases that were published between Saturday, June 9th and Friday, June 15th. If some specific item that you are looking for is missing, please don't hesitate to contact our customer service with your request.


J-Pop Music releases (58)
ENKA Music releases (3)
Anime Soundtracks & Drama CDs (2)
Video Game Soundtracks (1)
Hong Kong Version Music releases (7)
Blu-Ray Disc Movies (15)
Hong Kong Version Movie releases (30)
Japanese Movies (7)
Non-Japanese Movies / Japanese Version (52)
Anime DVD releases (3)
J-Pop DVD releases (6)
Misc. Japanese DVD releases (3)
Idol DVD (2) ...

Play Asia has today posted another collection of rare games from retro consoles for you to buy.

Theres far too many to list, check them out here ...

New from SuccessHK



Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer features Marvel Entertainment's legendary super-powered foursome in its second big adventure. In the game and the film, Marvel’s first family of Super Heroes faces its greatest challenge yet as the enigmatic, intergalactic herald, the Silver Surfer, comes to Earth to prepare it for destruction. As the Silver Surfer races around the globe wreaking havoc, the team must unravel the mystery of the Silver Surfer and confront the surprising return of their mortal enemy, Dr. Doom, before all hope is lost! The game is based on both the popular comic book series, as well as the movie sequel, with exclusive plot elements that complement the film. It features all of the foursome’s over-the-top super powers, as well as a unique fusion attack system that allows players to combine forces with one, two or all teammates, in order to execute devastating team attacks against the opposition. In addition to fighting familiar enemies from the Fantastic Four universe, players can unlock alternative costumes, comic covers and more! ...

New from SuccessHK



The Scarface video game creates a gameplay environment that authentically recreates the historical time period of the film, touching on politics, news items and events of the day. As Tony Montana (in an alternate-ending story concept that follows the events of the original movie classic), players will travel through the steamy, often violent streets of Miami, the irie islands of the Florida Keys, the Bahamas and various other locales and will interact with a world full of seedy and dangerous characters to procure information, negotiate business deals, smuggle contraband and avoid rivals and DEA on a mission to rebuild their fallen empire. ...

New from SuccessHK



Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer features Marvel Entertainment's legendary super-powered foursome in its second big adventure. In the game and the film, Marvel’s first family of Super Heroes faces its greatest challenge yet as the enigmatic, intergalactic herald, the Silver Surfer, comes to Earth to prepare it for destruction. As the Silver Surfer races around the globe wreaking havoc, the team must unravel the mystery of the Silver Surfer and confront the surprising return of their mortal enemy, Dr. Doom, before all hope is lost! ...

via engadgte

Even though Microsoft seems to be dragging its feet when it comes to addressing the EU's anti-trust concerns, the software-giant-cum-console-maker was quick to respond to European Commissioner for Consumer Affairs Meglena Kuneva's inquiry regarding accusations of faulty 360 hardware. Specifically, the commissioner wanted to know the scope of the disc scratching problem brought to light by Dutch program Kassa -- and unsurprisingly, Redmond seemed to allude to 1UP that it was toeing the same party line in Europe as we heard back in April. The bottom line here is that Team Xbox is clearly adamant that there is no widespread problem, and while they seem to be a little more reticent to blame the end user now, your only recourse remains contacting the company and crossing your fingers. ...

via engadget



It looks like those itching to find out exactly how the just-announced GunCon 3 controller for the PlayStation 3 would work need wonder no more, as Japan's Game Watch website appears to have scored the details, although they've since disappeared from the site. Wired's Game Life managed to preserve the key bits, however, which reveal that the controller functions much like a Wiimote, relying on a pair of markers placed on top of the TV that are detected by a camera in the muzzle of the gun. The gun also packs a full range of traditional controls, including six buttons and two analog sticks, although we doubt many will be ditching their SIXAXIS for it. While there's still no official word on a North American release, the gun and Time Crisis 4 will apparently be released in Japan sometime before the end of the year. ...

via gamedaily

In what should come as little shock to you by now, Nintendo dominated the U.S. video game industry for another month. Pokemon led the software charts and the DS topped all hardware, followed by the Wii. Get the details... [Update: Wii sells 338K, PS3 sells just 81K]


Following an April in which software sales were slightly down, in May the video game industry in the U.S. bounced back nicely. Console software was up 31 percent to more than $274 million, and total video game industry sales soared 49 percent to $815.5 million. Year-to-date, video game sales have reached $5 billion, a 47 percent increase over last year's $3.4 billion. A record breaking year would almost seem guaranteed for 2007.


Console hardware was a real driver of growth in May as sales climbed 79 percent to $221.4 million. Overall in hardware, the Nintendo DS (at this point, not surprisingly) took top honors... again. Nintendo sold through 423K units during the month. This was followed by Wii, PSP, PS2, Xbox 360, and then PS3. Unfortunately, NPD could not provide a complete hardware sales breakdown as of press time, but directionally it is interesting to see the PSP outselling the PS2, 360 and PS3.


On the software side, Nintendo's Pokemon Diamond for the DS once again led all titles. The game sold an additional 331.2K units, bringing total sales of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl in the U.S. to well over 2 million thus far. Diamond and Pearl have already sold over 5 million copies in Japan, and the entire Pokemon franchise has sold over 155 million.


Here's the complete top ten list (ranked by units), as provided by NPD.



Pokemon Diamond—DS—Nintendo


Mario Party 8—Wii—Nintendo


Spider-Man 3—PS2—Activision


Pokemon Pearl—DS—Nintendo


Wii Play w/remote—Wii—Nintendo


Forza Motorsport 2—Xbox 360—Microsoft


Guitar Hero II w/guitar—Xbox 360—Activision


Spider-Man 3—Xbox 360—Activision


Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars—Xbox 360—Electronic Arts


Guitar Hero II w/guitar—PS2—Activision


Note: NPD industry analyst Anita Frazier was not available for comment on this month's data.


[UPDATE] More hardware sales numbers are coming in, thanks to Bloomberg. The Wii sold 338K units in May, while the 360 sold a disappointing 155K. The PS3 meanwhile dropped from 82K last month to just 81K sold (81,604 units to be exact, according to SCEA). At least the PSP sold a healthy 221,120 units, according to SCEA. We also found out (via Sony ironically) that the GBA sold 80,554 units and the GameCube sold 10,728 units.


SCEA's Sr. Director, Corporate Communications, Dave Karraker issued us the following statement: "According to NPD data, May 2007 showed a 27.5% increase in total retail dollars generated year-over-year by the PlayStation brand in North America with total sales of $284 million. During the month, sales of PS3 were flat at 81,604 units. PSP witnessed a 39% increase in year-over-year sales thanks in part to the April price drop to $169, as well as our new marketing efforts with the 'Dude Get Your Own' campaign. PSP unit sales for May totaled 221,120. The PS2 also continued to be a strong performer during the month with unit sales of 187,765." ...