The virus is spreading and Japan is about to be overrun by zombies...in a manner of speaking. The newly-launched Resident Evil 5 (PS3, Xbox 360) took the Japanese gaming scene by storm from March 2nd to the 8th. Figures inside.

It's not perfect, but it's something at least. Someone sent us word of Bryan Livingston's (aka Lone Coder's) XNASharpNES, a Nintendo Entertainment System emulator for the Xbox 360.

Before you get your hopes up, we'll let you know some things that might temper your enthusiasm. First off, this isn't a hack. Rather, it's a conversion of Jonathan Turner's SharpNES program that runs using XNA. Second, it's still got a lot of kinks to work out, as XNASharpNES doesn't run at full speed and has no rom loading menu.

Lastly, and perhaps least exciting for everyone here to hear, is that you'll still have to pay to get it to work:

This requires a creators club account which runs $99 a year or $49 for four months. You'll also need Visual C# Studio Express which is free.

It's probably not something you guys would want to download just yet, so we'll just link to his site. Still, you have to admire the work it took to get this far, and someone's bound to find some use for this emulator conversion. For now at least, it's still another XNA app that's got a lot of future potential.

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Update:

Version 2's already out, fixing some issues with the previous version and giving it additional functions. The new version still lacks sound, but the new features listed in Lone Coder's changelog should make up for it:

• Second controller fixed (Yea for Luigi fans!).
  
• Made thumbstick work as an alternate control.
  
• Battery saves are stored to disk (Be sure to exit the emu or it won't save).
• Crude rom navigation.
  
• Emu remembers which rom was last loaded and will load it up.
  
• Emu runs at full speed when not being debugged
• Minor performance improvements
  

Now, we've got some talent right here. As an assignment for school, the artist Jeff C. had to do something that he's never done before, and then create a piece of art based on that experience. So what he did was line up for a Wii and then sit down with Illustrator afterwards.

Though the experience was a Wii launch, the piece pretty much summarizes the launch for the PS3 as well, and perhaps even the Xbox 360 launch back in 2005.

Looking at this piece of art, it seems that Crash Bandicoot and Wario have made it to the front of the line and got their consoles early, while our favorite Street Fighters, along with Cloud, got pelted with eggs while they slept in their sleeping bags and tent (at least it wasn't pellets from a BB gun).

Meanwhile, Otacon's sleeping bag is making my head spin, while Black Mage and Kirby are probably nuking it out on ad-hoc mode on their DS Lites. You might also notice that Mario and Luigi may have taken too long saving Princess Toadstool and the rest of the Mushroom Kingdom, that's why they ended up at the back of the line. Awww.

In any case, with a piece of work like this, we'd love to have the artist paint this on our office wall as a mural, or at least turn it into a frame which would pretty much summarize and commemorate the year 2006 in the world of video games. Oh, and this guy had better get an "A+" for this...

Uh-oh. It looks like game publisher THQ is in the same deep water as Activision. A few days ago, we reported that Activision's stocks might get delisted from the NASDAQ exchange after the company failed to file its quarterly earnings statement. Now, it seems that THQ is going down the same dirty road.

Yesterday, a New York law firm announced that they are filing a class-action lawsuit against THQ. Why? The law firm is accusing that some board members and executives of the game publishing giant has improperly backdated their stock options. This caused THQ to investigate their stock option grants. That investigation has gotta be a tedious process as THQ also failed to file their second quarter financial results.

NASDAQ can't let that pass and they have served a written warning to THQ. But THQ isn't taking things sitting down as they are seeking a hearing before the NASDAQ Listing Qualification Panel that would allow 'em to remain listed for some time.

But then again, receiving NASDAQ warning letters isn't uncommon in the hussle-buzzle stock market world. What is sad in this scenario is that the company is affected not by the games under their belt but by executives in snazzy suits who couldn't differentiate Mario from Luigi. Harsh as that may sound, that's life for you. THQ games include Avatar: The Last Airbender, Cars, Juiced and WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2007 among many others.

Thanks for the tip, Badam!