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Konami announced yesterday that Upper Deck had been forced to settle with the company after allegedly printing hundreds of thousands of faked Yu-Gi-Oh! cards in China and bringing them stateside. On any other day, this news would just be kind of funny, but it's elevated by attorney for Upper Deck Richard Howell who said "At this point, Upper Deck doesn't have a lot of Life Points. We're talking about behavior that, from a defense attorney's standpoint, I can't defend and I am not going to defend. I'm here defending a counterfeiter. And now I have to deal with that issue."

That's right: Life Points. Dude learned enough about Yu-Gi-Oh! to drop Yu-Gi-Oh! references. Man, that's the kind of lawyer you want to have. ... Unless, we guess, you're Upper Deck, in which case, it seems like you probably could have chosen a guy that didn't tell people how guilty you were.

Konami announced its financial results for its Q3 and the nine-month period ending December 31, 2009. The publisher's net revenues for the period were ¥190.9 billion, down 18.4% from the same period in 2008 -- despite breakout success in Japan with the DS dating sim Love Plus, "strong sales" of Dance Dance Revolution and "game content for overseas consumption, such as Saw."

What was missing from 2009 was, of course, the megahit Metal Gear Solid 4. "Due to the absence of major titles, such as last year's Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, however," the publisher said in its financial results release (PDF), "the overall sales fell this quarter as compared to the same period the previous year." Should Konami succeed in releasing Peace Walker, 2010 should look a bit happier. We're still shocked to see one of the biggest game companies ever become this reliant on a single franchise.

Source: Consolidated Financial Results for the Nine Months Ended December 31, 2009 [PDF]

Listen, Kojima knows that he disappointed a lot of people by delaying the release of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker in Japan, and believe us, he feels bad about it. In fact, we'd argue that he's probably being just a bit too hard on himself. Writing on the Kojima Productions blog (as translated by Andriasang) Kojima wrote, "I always preach to the staff, 'You must not have a delay after a release date has been announced. There is no greater crime as a game developer.'"

We appreciate the sentiment, but we think Mr. Kojima might have temporarily forgotten some other heinous crimes: box puzzles; not having "Continue" as the first menu option; letting the game timer run while it's paused; horse armor; limited installs; ruining the A.I. director; and being on Facebook.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is slowing its gait just a bit. Originally slated for release in Japan on March 18, the game is now expected on April 29, as displayed on its official site. In a statement announcing the delay, Konami said the extra development time was needed to ensure customer satisfaction. At least fans can now play Piece Walker while they wait.

Whatever the issue is with the development, it appears not be affectimg the localization process, as the release dates for the rest of the world (May 25 for North America, May 27 for most of Europe, and May 28 for the UK) have yet to change.

[Via Kotaku]

After years of waiting, Castlevania: Rondo of Blood has been officially confirmed for a Virtual Console release in North America. A Hudson representative told Siliconera that the game was indeed bound for release on the Wii Shop, over a year after it was released as a download in Japan.

Hudson (and/or Konami) must have spent all that time implementing the English translation used in the PSP release, right? Nope! The Hudson rep said that "it will not be released in English, however." You'll just have to do your very best to understand how to whip a Medusa head in Japanese.

In an interview conducted last summer with Castlevania: Lords of Shadow producer David Cox, we found out that the much loved Castlevania: Symphony of the Night music composer Michiru Yamane wouldn't be joining the team at Konami to compose the upcoming game. What was unclear at the time, however, was who exactly would be assigned the task of creating the game's score. David Cox explained to Joystiq this morning that Oscar Araujo, a Spanish symphonist, has been granted that burden.

"Our composer for this game is Oscar Araujo who is a Spanish composer. He is creating a very epic yet sad and melancholy score that perfectly suits the game and emotion that we are aiming for." While Cox added that he's "a big fan of Yamane-san's work," he admitted that her music wouldn't have been a great fit for Mercury Steam's take on the Castlevania series. It certainly doesn't hurt that, according to Cox, she's no longer an employee of Konami. "Yamane-san left Konami quite some time ago as I understand it. She is currently working freelance, though I am not 100% sure.

"Yamane-san has a style that fits perfectly to the previous Castlevania games but this game is very different to those more recent 'vania's in style and direction. I don't think I would be doing her any favours by including her music in the game." He also pointed out that we'll understand his point more clearly when we "eventually get to see the game." With any luck, that'll be sooner rather than later.

Konami has revealed the solution to the puzzle that is "Piece Walker," and it's ... more puzzles. The "Piece Walker" teased last month on the Kojima Productions page is an "online jigsaw puzzle battle" game. Of course, being Kojima Productions, there's still more counting down to be done even after the reveal of the game. It'll be available tomorrow at 3PM "Japan Time" (1AM EST).

The "online battle" part makes it sound like it'll be a competitive multiplayer ... jigsaw puzzle game, and we're sure you'll get some kind of bonus for successful play, like wallpapers or something. At the very least, it's a way to stare at Snake's steely visage before Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker's March release.

[Thanks, Matthew Floratos!]

XBLA eschews strategic and cube-borne violence this week in favor of some simple, peaceful wordplay. Specifically, the only game to hit Xbox Live Arcade this week is KrissX, which, despite our secret hopes and dreams, has nothing to do with the greatest hip-hop duo of all time. No, instead, it's a crossword puzzle game that tasks players with swapping letters and spelling words. It's also surprisingly delightful. Check out the latest episode of XBLA in Brief and see if KrissX deserves your 800 ($10).

Shortcut: Download the trial version of KrissX [via Xbox.com]

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We always suspected we had nothing in common with Silent Hill: Shattered Memories developer Climax. We crave Coke, they prefer Pepsi. We swoon for Daniel Craig, they say George Lazenby is the best. We say tomato, they say ... well, that one works better when you say it out loud. Finally, though, we've found something we agree on: We both want them to make another Silent Hill game.

Speaking with the UK's Official Nintendo Magazine, lead designer Sam Barlow said, "For us we felt we've put our stamp on the series with Shattered Memories so we'd love the opportunity to do another one. So everybody go and buy it!"

He's absolutely right, you should do that this moment. ... Hey! That's more common ground already.

[Via Nintendo Everything]

It's not a good sign when Xbox know-it-all Major Nelson admits in his This Week on Arcade post that "information on the game is light, so here is what I was able to find." However, we can't blame him -- we'd never heard of KrissX, this week's new XBLA game, before today either.

Apparently, the Blitz Games-developed, Konami-published puzzler tasks players with solving crosswords and unscrambling "over 3,500 jumbled words that will test your trivia knowledge and expand your own daily vocabulary." We're automatically apprehensive about games that try to sneak some education into our entertainment regimen -- we'll have to wait and see if KrissX is actually fun enough to deserve our 800 ($10).

Sadly, we don't think the game has anything in common with Kriss Kross' other ludological outing. Someday, friends. Someday.

Most prominent figures in the video game industry usually recoil when they're given all the credit for coming up with the idea for one of their studio's games. The same apparently can't be said for Hideo Kojima -- according to CVG, the mind behind Metal Gear Solid recently explained the origins of some of the concepts in Peace Walker during an interview with Official PlayStation Magazine: "Well it's strange, but not so many ideas come from the other staff," Kojima humbly stated.

The idiosyncratic developer also pointed out, "Co-op Ring, Love Box - the names and the ideas come from myself," later adding "I am taking charge of the overall game design." We're pretty excited by this fact. It sounds like more than any other Metal Gear game that came before it, Peace Walker will be a direct window into Kojima's convoluted thinkmeat.

We hope you didn't have anything planned for the next hour or so, because we've got quite the mission and you're the only person who can get the job done. See, Konami deployed a bounty of new screens (63 in all) for Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and we can't possibly get through them all.

There are some multiplayer screens, art of various characters and equipment shots, and even a few screens of Peace Walker's progressive recruitment system we've dubbed "the smart balloon." As if we weren't frightened enough by stranger danger, now we have to know that the military has had auto-piloting balloons that can whisk us off to "re-education" centers at will since the '70s. It's just a video game, right, guys? Right?

If given one adjective to describe Metal Gear Solid's eyepatched protagonist, Solid Snake, most people would probably use the word "stealthy." While appropriate, we prefer to think of him as "efficient" -- after all, if he wastes his precious rations, tranquilizer darts or porno mags, he's just as good as dead.

If you want to be like Snake in every aspect of your life, we suggest adopting his efficiency when purchasing video games. You could start with the Metal Gear Solid PSP bundle which includes Portable Ops, Portable Ops Plus and MGS: Digital Graphic Novel for the reasonable price of $29.99. With that, you won't waste any time adding a bunch of games to an intangible check-out cart. Just one thing -- boom -- and then you're ready to do other Snake-ish things. Like blowing up tankers! Or swallowing gravel.