Sega may not be into making consoles anymore, but look! Zippo has gone and picked up the slack for them. Sort of. Check these out - Zippo has rolled out two new designs for us gamers: the old Sega consoles now bring a different kind of heat into your lifestyle.

No matter which side of the fence you were on when the Sony PSX, Sega Saturn, and Nintendo 64 battled it out in the fifth-generation console war, you have to respect Nintendo and Rare's classic FPS GoldenEye 007. It's hailed as one of the genre's all-time greatest, and for good reason. You may not have realized it, but Microsoft Xbox 360 owners may have come close to getting it back via XBLA. It's too bad the game was apparently canceled. Find out why in the full article.

 Waiting for Sega releases in Europe? January has a lot of goodies in the bag for everyone. Condemned 2 (Xbox 360, PS3), Superstar Tennis, Viking: Battle of Asgard (Xbox 360, PS3), and NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams are all coming soon. See the detailed version to find out when these will drop and what else is inbound.

After running into the montage of Legend of Zelda commercials Skullkid700 put together which has been popular recently, we felt the urge to look back and enjoy other amusing Japanese video game TV spots that can only come from the ingenious Japanese minds. With all the laughs these ads give, it's only fair to share to you guys so nobody misses out on the great stuff they watch in the land of the rising sun. If you're ready for hilarious commercials, brace for impact and check the videos out at the full article!

Ah, Castlevania. That's one gaming franchise that never ceases to shine. It's always good getting more news about the epic game series, and when it's coming from Castlevania's Koji Igarashi himself, it's all the more better. 1up managed to sneak in an interview with Igarashi, or IGA, and they talked about their current Castlevania project Dracula X Chronicles, as well as possible futures for Castlevania in other consoles.

PSP's Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles - based on a much earlier Rondo of Blood - is just about finished, with the US version already approved while they're still waiting to get approval for the Europe and Japanese versions.

As for the Symphony of the Night added into Dracula X Chronicles, IGA said that some content was changed in the PSP version compared to the downloadable SotN from PlayStation Network and Xbox Live: voice acting was improved (yes!), and they made drastic improvements to Maria's sprite compared to the Sega Saturn version. Michiru Yamane, music composer for the Castlevania series, composed a new song for the SotN credit track.

As for future Castlevanias, one of the things that is definite is that we'll have another title for the DS, and they're also thinking about the possibility of some whip-cracking action on the Wii, but there's a small problem. According to IGA,

As for a Wii version, I still think people would be exhausted if they had to swing it as a whip the entire time, but I am coming around to the idea -- I like the concept in theory, but I'd just have to make sure it could be done without players getting all tired.

Cracking whips around all day does sound a tad tiring and painful in the long run.

The Castlevania team, in the meantime, are thinking whether to go "traditional" and release games for the Xbox 360 and PS3. As to what "traditional" means to them, it doesn't necessarily mean the old-school 2D gaming. Said IGA,

Those are two steps for us, actually. Step 1 is figuring out the gameplay and step 2 is the graphics. We are still discussing step 1, so until we have the gameplay figured out I won't be able to say whether or not it will be 2D or 3D.

Those who want new downloadable Castlevania games won't have much hope to hold on to, however. IGA said that prices of downloadable games are quite too low to support the things that they want to do in the game, and will also result in low-fidelity games.

That's definitely so much info to chew on! But you can bet we'll have more as updates come our way. Stay tuned!

Culdcept Saga may be new to a lot of eyes and ears here, but the franchise has actually been around for more than a decade. The original Culdcept games were developed for the first PlayStation, the PlayStation 2, the Sega Saturn and the Sega Dreamcast. So what is it exactly? Picture Monopoly with magical elements for a next-gen platform and you're on to a good start.

The almost-trivial storyline is typical enough not to deviate your attention from the quirky fun. You have a powerful queen and a young boy who must fight to bring peace to the land using magical cards in battle. With gameplay driven by dice rolls and moving around the game board, it'll be easy enough to figure out the rest.

If you're still lost on how the whole thing works, we've got these screenshots to help you visualize. Culdcept Saga isn't exactly a title that'll cause a stampede on the Xbox 360 turf, but it's a welcome addition in a platform dominated by M-rated stuff. Enjoy!

More Culdcept Saga screens coming your way after the jump!

It's the start of a new year and we find two big rumors floating around the net, surprising us out from the left field. They might not be as big for some of our readers, but for those who have played the concerned video games before (both of which come from the Sega Saturn), the prospect of a possible new installment/remake/sequel to the said games is exciting enough. These rumors were already hinted at before, but for them to suddenly resurface right now comes as a bit of a shock.

A list of Japan releases came up at G-rev and soon enough, Siliconera sniffed it out with translations of the games. The first is Treasure's Radiant Silvergun 3 as part of the side-scrolling shooter series that came out originally for the Sega Saturn. It's on the Xbox 360 list, and pretty much possible since we already heard of Treasure supposedly working on a shoot-'em-up title for the 360.

The second surprise title appeared on the Wii list, and the reason why we're surprised is because the last we heard of this rumor was way back early of last year when the Wii was still called Revolution. And to think, at that time, the rumor was based on hearsay of a drunken conversation. G-rev has listed a NiGHTS Into Dreams game from Sega, but whether or not this is a remake of the original game for Sega Saturn, nothing has been confirmed yet.

It's only the first few days of January, and things are starting to heat up already. Will these rumors be doused to ash and coals? We'll keep you guys posted!

Perhaps a few of our readers are aware of the Japanese developer Treasure, a company formed in 1992 by ex-Konami employees. Since then, it has risen to fame not only in it's home country, but has also developed a cult following among hardcore gamers in the West. It was this studio that created the timeless Gunstar Heroes on the Genesis (and it's GBA follow-up).

More recently, however, the developer has been critically lauded for their series of shoot 'em ups, starting with Radiant Silvergun on the Sega Saturn, and continued with the indirect sequel Ikaruga for the Dreamcast and GameCube. Not surprisingly, many fans are awaiting a third game that will masterfully bring the trilogy to a close. If Play Magazine is to be believed, they may get their wish fulfilled soon - the most recent issue states:

"Treasure Shooter"

The best for last? Perhaps, friends, perhaps. Right before press time, Treasure dropped a bomb in the form of an "original shooting game" announcement...and that can mean only one thing: RS3. Always planned as a trilogy, the Radiant Silvergun/Ikaruga (known in preproduction as "RS2") series will receive it's final installment on Xbox 360. Watch this space for more information.

Developer: Treasure
Publisher: Undetermined
Release date: Unknown

Treasure's decision to develop for the Xbox 360 is quite puzzling - we all know the console is being virtually ignored in Japan. Nonetheless, as games like Geometry Wars are more than successful, Microsoft easily proved that the Xbox 360 is suitable for arcade 2D shooting action as much as for next-gen 3D marvels. So while it's not even safe to say the game in development is indeed Radiant Silvergun 3, let's keep our fingers crossed - because almost everything Treasure touches turns out to be one fantastic work.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, the 13th installment of the Castlevania series and is a direct sequel to Demon Castle Dracula X: Rondo of Blood for the NEC PC Engine, is making its way to the Xbox 360. To go down to the specifics, it will be available on Xbox Live Arcade. This development has burst the planned PS1 titles that would soon be heading to the PSP via emulation, maybe Konami didn't hear that and jumped the gun too soon.

The game, which was a massive hit during its PSOne days, would also be joined in XBLA by other Konami titles such as Frogger, Contra, Super Contra, Track & Field, Time Pilot, and Scramble. This development was said to be reported in the September issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly.

Apparently, the PSOne version of the game will appear in XBLA, not the Sega Saturn Version.  Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (SOTN) would allegedly have a tentative Q1 2007 release on XBLA.

Twistedsymphony spent two and a half months to get a Sega Saturn controller working on his Xbox 360. Now why, you ask, will he "waste" as much time getting an old gamepad working on a next-generation console? Because upcoming Xbox Live Arcade titles Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 are best played with a good 2D gamepad. Aah...now aren't you glad twistedsymphony was able to finish the project before either games come out?

V1 Prototype of the Sat-2-360 Controller Adapter connects to the Saturn controller using a cut-up cable extender, which was wired to a pin header in the same order as the controller socket. Then the adapter goes to a Microchip PIC16F690, where the "joypad protocol is decoded into a parallel output". The hardworking twistedsymphony gives us a summary of what else was done to make the Saturn controller adaptable:

I was able to do ever button but the "Start" button due to the PIC chip being one I/O port shy of what I needed, being the least integral to gameplay that was the button that got the axe. Once the data is in Parallel form you could easily adapt the Saturn controller to just about anything you wanted to.

Truly amazing. However, a flexible Saturn gamepad does not necessarily mean it's flexible enough for use with the 360. Since twistedsymphony was using a wireless 360 controller, the Sat-2-360 project presented a "challenge". To help reduce the pin count of the next-gen console's encoder chip, Microsoft implemented an "interesting" button matrix - making the buttons non-compatible with a logic high/logic low interface. How did twistedsymphony worked around this? He shares:

Without the equipment to properly analyze the controller to work with this unique system I simply used an array of Analog Switches that emulated a button press on the 360 controller. This proved to work well.

Now the outputs of the analog switches were wired to another custom pin header and into a ribbon cable that connects to the right points in the 360 controller. For easier construction, twistedsymphony "chose points that were easier to solder to as opposed to points that were apparent as to what they attached to".

The result? A working wireless, battery-operated adapter that allows a Sega Saturn controller to work on a Xbox 360. Awed? Still finding it hard to believe? Here's a video that shows that the feat has been done:

If you want to get more info on how to replicate twistedsymphony's accomplishment, just click here.