Ah, Level 5. I like those guys. I'd like them to make more games. Less portable ones would be nice. Oh, and U.S. releases would be fantastic. You know. Just whatever. If you're listening.

They are working on some Wii and PlayStation 3 games, though. Akihiro Hino, Level 5's president, said that his company has some PS3 and Wii titles in development at a company meeting. Of course, no names of titles were given. We'll have to wait until later this year. Maybe they'll have something at the 2010 Tokyo Game Show to put in their inexplicably large show floor booth.

We know that a sequel to White Knight Chronicles is coming to the PS3. Other than that, it's anyone's guess.

Speaking of White Knight Chronicles, I'm currently playing it for a Destructoid review. I didn't love it at first, but it has grown on me. Nothing fancy, but I'm enjoying it. Look for our review soon.

Level 5 Developing Unannounced PlayStation 3 And Wii Titles [Siliconera]

Dream Chronicles started out as a PC game, but now it's coming to Xbox's Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network by way of Hudson. It's a surreal mystery dreamscape adventure game. That make any sense? It will when you see it. You play as Faye, who is out in a strange world to find her husband and escape a spell of sleeping that has been cast over the town of Wish.

It's a puzzler/adventure game that won a Zeeby winner for “People’s Choice Award for Best Hidden Object & Adventure Game of 2007” in its PC form. I kind of miss these pre-rendered, puzzle-packed adventures. Looks interesting.

Hudson will be bringing the title to consoles this Spring. Check out our gallery below for some screenshots.

Akira Yamaoka has been all over the news lately. We first told you that he was leaving Konami after many years of working on horror game series Silent Hill. Last week we found out that he's the newest employee of Grasshopper Manufacture, and is already working on a new game for them. Now we hear that the composer is going to be speaking at the 2010 Game Developer's Conference.

In the Audio Track, his panel, "As Long as the Audio is Fun, the Game Will Be Too," Yamaoka will speak from his experience in the game audio field, going back 20 years.

He says:

"People tend not to think about game design and audio design in parallel. I will present my views on audio design in games from a producer's perspective, having had experience in both roles."

It should be noted that he has wasted no time, with the listing naming him Akira Yamaoka of Grasshopper Manufacture Studio.

I'll definitely be there to hear what the man has to say. I hope he talks a bit about his new game.

Akira Yamaoka to Speak at GDC With Grasshopper Manufacture [OSV]

A person in Australia fudged with the wrong game maker. He ripped and uploaded New Super Mario Bros. Wii a week before it was even available in that country. Naturally, he was busted and was taken to court. Now that Federal Court has awarded Nintendo $1.5 million dollars in damages to compensate for loss of revenue.

Speaking of revenue, they've sold 10 million copies of the game.

And Nintendo on why you shouldn't pirate their games:

“Fewer sales of Nintendo’s hardware and software systems means fewer resources that Nintendo, its licensees, developers and publishers have to create and market new video game products which is ultimately to the detriment of video game enthusiasts. When there is a decrease in game development, there is also a decrease in the number of jobs in the industry. The existence of piracy jeopardizes the strength of the video game industry overall.”

Nintendo Awarded $1.5 Million In Piracy Suit [Edge]

The two games that won't ever die come together through a little hackery. Cloud Strife, the spiky haired hero of Square Enix RPG Final Fantasy VII, has been inserted into Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Buster Sword and all. Cool idea, I guess, but the modders must have made sure Cloud had his Generic Materia equipped as it looks like Cloud is wearing a tight-fitting Janitor's worksuit. You can see him in action in the video above?

Me? I've got no opinion. I'll let a commenter from Game Videos do the work:

It's just a slightly modified Ike, and it really doesn't even look like Cloud. Frankly, I don't know why modders waste their time make such lame changes to the game. If you're going to go to all the effort to change the game, then actually do something good.

And, after being scolded by another commenter:

No crap I couldn't do it. That's hardly the point. The point is why bother wasting so much time on something that's this lame or half assed. There are plenty of things that I can do extremely well, but I don't waste my time and talents doing stupid things.

I love that I work on the internet.

Hackers put Cloud Strife in Super Smash Bros. Brawl [GoNintendo]

Famed videogame composer Nobuo Uematsu is an awesome guy to talk to and hang out with. Seriously, meeting with him was one of the highlights of my writing/blogging career. The guy that made Final Fantasy sound like Final Fantasy is coming to a Boston-based anime convention in April.

Uematsu will attend as an invited guest to Anime Boston 2010, set to go down on April 2-4th at the Hynes Convention Center and Sheraton Hotel. Go with your copy of Lost Odyssey in hand and be prepared to elbow your way through the crowd.

Also in attendance, and in the same category of game music, is Video Game Orchestra. The Boston-based group will be there to perform game tunes, this year appearing with a 90-person ensemble.

Any of you in the Boston area thinking of going? I would.

Anime Boston 2010 Books Nobuo Uematsu and the Video Game Orchestra [OSV]

You might have heard that the BioShock 2 ending is up on YouTube. No,  I'm not going to link to it. That's a dick thing to do, and is almost as bad as putting it up in the first place. I did, however, point it out to 2K. Of course, they already knew about it, and as you'd expect, were not impressed in the slightest.

"We know that we can only control that so much."

"It's been [up] a couple of times, said 2K Marin's Creative Director Jordan Thomas. We've already had our legal guys take it down a few times. It's inevitable. In a couple of days, it won't matter anymore anyway."

I said that I intended to "play the sh*t out of it" to prevent spoilage, and was told that this would be "a smart move."

"We just have to trust that people have individual disciplines," said Thomas. "If they're going to look at the ending of a game they haven't played yet, we can't do much to stop them."

Not to worry too much if you did accidentally see it, though:

"People have no context at all for what's going on, really, so it really won't make much sense."

I'm not used to a first-person shooter's soundtrack rocking my world. Role-playing games, platformers and others? Sure. But FPS? You hardly ever see that. And when you do, people sit up to take notice.

When it comes to BioShock, I'm still in...shock at how effective the musical score was. The combination of Garry Schyman's eerily beautiful score and the selections from the old tunes from the musical theater era made for one of the most memorable soundtracks ever, FPS or not.

I'm pleased to say that gamers can expect to be moved/freaked out even more in BioShock 2. The developers and composer worked to dive even deeper into the abyss with a new score that is likely to make you pee in your pants a little bit.

Speaking with BioShock 2's Audio Lead, Michael Kamper, and 2K Marin's Creative Director, Jordan Thomas, I got so excited about the new score that they were laughing at me. When they weren't laughing at me, they dished up a gold mine on the score of BioShock 2, detailing just about everything you can expect from tomorrow's release, all without ruining any story elements. If you're anything like me, you'll come away extremely excited about the game after reading this interview.

This is just about as bad as a Prinny accidentally exploding right in the middle of your party.

Nippon Ichi's financial earnings were released, and it looks that the Japanese game company is running about as well as a peg-legged penguin. It seems that operating profit is  tdown 97.5 percent for the first nine months of this financial year. Their closing price was ¥36,200 on Friday. After the financials got out, it dropped ¥7,000 as many jumped ship. With that 20% drop, the JASDAQ froze the price. Yikes.

I love Nippon Ichi, so I hate to hear this. What's the deal? I hate to say it, but I'm thinking that they're going port and sequel crazy lately, and that's not resonating with Japanese fans as much as NI hoped it would. Here's to hoping that they pull out.

Nippon Ichi Software, This Can't Be Good (Part II) [Kotaku]

Hip-Hop star, producer, entrepreneur and self-professed nerd Pharrell Williams shows off his latest bling acquisition. Normally we wouldn't care. We really don't this time either, but I'll admit that if I had the cash, I'd probably wear the Super Mario-themed bling he's showing off in these pictures.

I don't know of the jewel or precious metal content of these Star and Mushroom pendants he's wearing, but I'm sure they're high. The dude is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, so having customs made are probably nothing to him. I'm guessing they're Mario Kart inspired bling, judging from his Billionaire Boys Club blog post.

Pharrell, what I'm saying is that I acknowledge the nerd cred that these represent.

Pharrell s’offre des pendentifs Super Mario Kart Bling-Bling [Nowhereelse]

It's only fair, right?

While my list of ten things I loved about the import version of Final Fantasy XIII was quite easy to make, this counterpoint was a bit more difficult. I didn't want to nitpick, but I did want to have an even ten to match up. To tell the truth, I could have gone on for a lot more than ten entries on the "loved" list, while this one was more of a stretch.

I want to be clear: I hope this list of negatives adds no weight to some of the unnecessarily negative and cynical write-ups of the game that are out there. No, Final Fantasy XIII was not all puppies and roses, but it was a fantastic game that I have no issue recommending to any RPG fan. I think that too many spoiled late-20s and early to mid 30-something gamers are just set in their cynical ways, and are too hardened and internet-ruined to enjoy games anymore. These are not the people you should be listening to for game recommendations. Heh, that's funny coming from a Destructoid writer.

It's just wanted to be fair and point out some of the not-so-great things about the title, but those reading this list first should definitely refer back to our other more positive list. If you've ever liked a Final Fantasy, you'll dig this one.

That said, on with the gripes.

"Oh, it's monster. Nyah! Oh, yeah!"

Oh, Steve.

I've been having a pretty crap day up until "Steve" came along (thanks to our beloved Aaron Linde). I'm behind schedule, stressed out, and getting nowhere with work today. But then this probably intoxicated Japanese man narrated his playthrough of Game Boy classic Mario Land on Japanese video site Nico Nico Douga, which has since become a hit on YouTube.

His choppy English over the three stages of Mario Land are so funny that I ended up crying from laughing. He has a lot to say, and not all of it makes sense. He gets quite passionate about "bad monsters" that he somehow ties to breaking windows in a house. My favorite part is where an ill-timed jump ruins the payout of a coin box.

"One coin? Facke you," he says.

I'm always constantly reworking my list of the top ten people I'd love to hang out with. "Steve" now ranks very high.

Steve, you are a bat-to boy, but you're the best.

We heard that the BioShock 2 soundtrack was coming earlier, but now we have an official date and tracklist.

A press release confirms that the return to Rapture again features jazz and pop classics from the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. Surely you remember being creeped out by the old timey tunes in the original. There's more of that, which is great news. The digital soundtrack will be hitting iTunes and the like on February 9th, the same day the game launches.

Want a head start? Today you can listen to music from the soundtrack and other selections inspired by Bioshock 2 on Rapture Radio, where they’re broadcasting live from the Kashmir Restaurant and counting down the days until New Year’s Eve, 1959. I've been listening this in morning. It's practically making me salivate for the game release.

Below the jump you'll find the tracklistings for both the Standard and Deluxe editions of the soundtrack. I'll be speaking with 2K later today on BioShock 2's soundtrack, so let me know if you have any questions.

Just as quick as game music and rap mash-up collection Vinyl Fantasy 7 came, it went. It was beat down by the man. Team Teamwork followed up their last, Ocarina of Rhyme, with this new Final Fantasy-themed project.

Early this month, their official website went down. They were hit with a cease and desist. That was fine, as the band had a Bandcamp account. But that didn't last long either, as Bandcamp hit them with the cease-and-desist thing. Tim Jacques, the brain behind Team Teamwork, had to pull it all down to save ass.

No worries, though. This is the internet. Nothing dies on the internet. I can still pull down the Fensler Films when I feel the need. You can find this too. I looked. It's there. It's worth the download.

Vinyl Fantasy 7 Released, Cease-and-Desisted, But Still Floating Around [OSV]