While the trailer for Hudson's Calling had an element of camp to it, I'm willing to believe it could provide some creepy moments. After all, you do play as a generally defenseless characters, which always seems to provide more intensity in games than it does it films.

That said, I'm not much into the whole J-Horror scene. Never have been, for one reason or another. And this game looks mad J-Horror. So no, I can't say that Calling is especially high up on my radar, and it's sounding like many of you feel the same way about it.

To keep on the sunny side, here's one compliment: the box art looks pretty intriguing. Since that's the main goal of cover art, mission accompli--hold on. I can't get over how out of place the Hudson logo looks on the box. It's so damned adorable.

Last week, a survey leaked to Kotaku suggested that Tampa Bay Rays third baseman Evan Longoria would be on the cover of 2K Sports' Major League Baseball 2K10. 2K sent out a press release earlier today to make it official, but we now know that the four covers that the survey included were mere mock-ups. Six different box art designs, available for your viewing in the gallery below, accompanied the press release; you can vote for your favorite at 2ksports.com/vote. (They did the same thing for NBA 2K10.)

Longoria, like MLB 2K9 cover athlete Tim Lincecum, is one of baseball's most quickly rising stars; he made the AL All-Star team in his first two years in the league, and he recently won his first Gold Glove and Silver Slugger awards. And he isn't related to Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria.

Which cover do you guys like? I prefer the one pictured above. MLB 2K10 will be out in March for the PS3, 360, Wii, PS2, PSP, and PC. Cover voting will be open for two weeks, until noon EST on December 8th.

Tis' the season for gift giving. With some many great games released this year, finding the perfect gift for that gamer in your life (or for yourself, you selfish jerk!) can be quite a task.

That's where we come in. Destructoid staff writers were asked to make a few holiday, game-related gift picks, either based on personal choice or simply in the spirit of giving. The results were wide and varied, as each staff member's tastes and gaming experiences, uh, vary widely. We're quite an eclectic bunch, that's for sure. 

Hit the jump to see what made the list, and we hope to ignite some gift-giving sparks for you this holiday.

If there is one thing that people can't seem to agree on in the world of MMOs, it's how games that are designed to be played forever should fund themselves.

There are plenty of models out there, like subscriptions, micro-transactions, advertisements, but all of them seem to have their different issues. When we spoke to Jeff Strain about his new MMO company, Undead Labs, and his upcoming zombie MMO, we brought this up.

He had some interesting things to say about why paying a monthly or annual subscription fee is the best way to go.

So, I recently got to play a beta of Super Meat Boy, and it was awesome. I haven't played a game with this much impending death in a long time. So far, it seems the Super Meat Boy world is pretty much made up of five things; you, the walls, the floor, giant buzz-saws, and cute little bunnies (who frequently jump into the buzz saws).

Oh, and blood. Lots and lots of blood.

From the looks of it, the game's first boss will do well to keep with the game's bloody, saw-filled feel. From the looks of it, the thing is basically a giant chainsaw with feet. Why hasn't this been done before? It's such an obviously good idea; a chainsaw with feet. Here is it, 2009, and this is the first time I've seen one.

Want to simulate the feeling of fighting this boss right now? Well, you can start by making chainsaw-sounds with your mouth while squirting ketchup all over your computer monitor. If that's not enough, you could listen to the actual theme music for the boss, which can be found right here. If you really wanted to go for it, I guess you could do all three. Just don't let anybody catch you while you're at it. They might think you're weird. 

[via Meat Boy's Twitter]

We had a bunch of awesome Naruto prizes courtesy of Tomy Corporation to giveaway to some Naruto fans last week. We wanted to give them to real Naruto fans so we asked you all to show us how much of a Naruto fan you really are.

Congratulations to TocanRider, Kaaru1990, danielwjenkins, worldagainstjose and chicken008. They'll each be getting a copy of Naruto Shippuden: Clash of Ninja Revolution 3 for the Wii, a t-shirt, headband and Naruto chopsticks. Congratulations also go out to Erica Berkowitz who will be getting all of the above prizes PLUS  the exclusive one-of-a-kind framed poster featuring Anbu Kakashi from Naruto Shippuden: Clash of Ninja Revolution 3.

For more free stuff, check out our Blip Festival 2009 contest where you can win tickets to the concert.

It’s Monday morning. Aside from meaning that I need a lot more coffee, fat strippers, and protein to operate than on a normal day of the week, it means a whole new host of Nintendo digital downloads are available for purchase across the publisher’s various platforms. Get excited or something.

This week we see the release of BIT.TRIP.VOID, an important videogame as noted by its profuse punctuation and all capitalization, and the venerable Super Mario Kart.

But that’s not all -- Nintendo continues to hack Electroplankton into even smaller chunks for download via DSiware, and several other developers have various releases across all three platforms. Check below the fold for a cute, short list of all the available titles and don’t forget to tell us what you’re downloading this beautiful, need-more-protein-and-coffee Monday morning.

Here's a pet peeve of mine; people with a rose-tinting deification of Ocarina of Time. For me, that game, along with Mario 64, will always symbolize a personal low-point for my feeling of connection to videogames as a whole. Of course, I understand why people love both of those games, and it's totally understandable that they'd be a lot of people's favorites, but to unequivocally say that either of those games are "the best" in their respective series is just poppycock.

It's nice to hear that Eiji Aonuma, current overseer of the Legend of Zelda series, seems to agree with me. According to a recent interview (translated from Japanese to Spanish to English, so take it with a grain of salt), Aonuma feels that "If you play Ocarina of Time nowadays, you notice that it’s not that good. Sometimes it doesn’t move as fast as it should, graphics aren’t as beautiful as they should be; there are some confusing parts… Any present Zelda is technically superior."

Hear hear, Aonumu-san. Personally, I feel that every 3D Zelda since OoT has been a big improvement over the series' original outing into the third dimension. I still prefer Zelda in 2D, but if I have to play a "newer" one, I'd rather it be Majora's Mask, Wind Waker, or Twilight Princess.

For more on Aonuma's take on Zelda past and present, and the rumors of an OoT remake, hit the link below.

[via Gonintendo]

Yes, I said dance, because the game is about dancing, acting, love, and piloting transforming steam-powered psychic robots. For Chrissakes, your squad is called the New York Combat Revue!

Anyway, NIS America sent us a load of screenshots for Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love. Being the resident fanboy, it was my duty to make you look at them. So look at them.

The screens mostly show off the ARMS (for "Active Real-time Machine System") battle mechanics, and display how amazingly moderately the graphics have held up in the five-odd years since the original release. As you can see the bar below represents the character's action points. Action point costs can depend on the team's battle stance. Offensive stances make it cheaper to charge super moves but more expensive to defend, and so on.

So far the only interface being shown is from the PS2 release, so we don't know yet what's going to be changed for the Wii version. I'm pretty sure that both versions will still have that picture of a girl bifurcating a robot with a sword while riding a horse. Sold.

Oh, and the official site has been updated with more character profiles, screens and wallpaper. They've also provided a nice, detailed explanation of the game's LIPS ("Live & Interactive Picture System") dialog mechanics.

Check the gallery for hot picture action, and get under the cut to watch the game's intro.

One of the best Super Nintendo games ever, Super Mario Kart, will be hitting the Virtual Console this Monday. The classic racing game will cost you 800 Wii points.

Later this holiday season, we can expect a couple of more classics to hit the Virtual Console store. First up will be Pilotwings for the SNES and towards the end of the year, Super Smash Bros 64 will also finally be available.

So yeah, good games! Not to say that everything as of late has been crap, but it's annoying that Nintendo takes their sweet time to release the games people are dying for. Anyone excited for any of these upcoming re-releases?

Well, are you? We want you to take a picture of yourself in front of whatever Naruto product you own. Whether it be clothing, DVDs, videogames -- even taking a picture of yourself in front of a computer screen with something from Naruto on it is fine. Whatever picture you take, it must have something Naruto related in the image and there has to be some kind of sign or image that says Destructoid.com. No photo editing is allowed unless you want to create an animated gif.

You have until Sunday, November 22 11:59PM CST to submit your photo in the comments below. Contest is open to US residents only. We'll be picking the six biggest Naruto fans who will each be receiving this prize pack courtesy of Tomy Corporation:

One copy of Naruto Shippuden: Clash of Ninja Revolution 3 (Wii), one limited edition Naruto Shippuden Clash of Ninja Revolution 3 T-shirt, one Naruto Headband and Naruto chopsticks. The grand prize winner will also be scoring himself an exclusive one-of-a-kind framed poster featuring Anbu Kakashi, the final unlockable character in Clash of Ninja Revolution 3 which is out in stores this week for the Wii.

Make sure you use BBCode when submitting your photo ([img]picturename.jpg[/img] and that the image is no wider than 620 pixels. Good luck!

When I first heard that Capcom's next Resident Evil game was going to be a sequel to the Wii-exclusive Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, I was pretty disappointed. Umbrella Chronicles actually turned out to be great -- much better than I thought it would be -- but still, nothing about the game demanded a sequel. However, that's what we've got, like it or not, so instead of b*tching about what The Darkside Chronicles isn't (namely, a new RE4: Wii Edition-style masterpiece), let's focus on what the game is: an on-rails shooter specifically designed for the home console market.

Will The Darkside Chronicles live up to the expectations of Resident Evil fans? More importantly, does it work to deliver enough punch to satisfy the home console gamer despite the fact that the action is on rails?

Hit the jump to find out.

Black Friday and all its horror will soon be upon us, and the Internet has gotten its talons on GameStop's list of ludicrous offers. The list is absolutely huge, some great bundles such as a PS3 with God of War: Collection and LittleBigPlanet for $299, and tens of dollars to be saved on all sorts of games.

While we're here, how many of you are planning to venture out and brave the crowds of braying imbeciles next week? Is the lure of cheap stuff you've never needed enough to make you part of the dignity-sucking problem, or are you going to be like me and hide under a pile of coats until it all goes away?

While you answer, hit the jump for the list of GameStop chicanery.

I think what most pleases me about the release of the "family friendly" LEGO Rock Band, it's that it opens up the platform to all kinds of pop nonsense we might not have ordinarily seen. By "nonsense," I mean stuff I have been secretly flooding Harmonix with requests for. 

Take Kelly Clarkson for instance -- girl can sing. Next week, "Miss Independent" comes to Rock Band, along with songs from "Sure, I'll put an exclamation point in my name" P!nk and Go-Go's.

Single tracks ($1.99/160 MS Points/200 Wii Points per track)

• Go-Go's "Our Lips Are Sealed" +
• Kelly Clarkson - "Miss Independent" +
• P!nk - "Who Knew" +

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers Live Anthology Pack 01 ($9.99/800 MS Points for the pack; $1.99/160 MS Points/200 Wii Points per track)

• "A Think About You (live)" +
• "American Girl (live)" 
• "Even the Losers (live)"
• "Here Comes My Girl (live") +
• "Mary Jane's Last Dance (live)"
• "Refugee (live)" +

_{(The "+" indicates the tracks is available available on both the Rock Band and the LEGO Rock Band music stores)}

Kelly Clarkson plus six live Tom Petty tracks? Time to stock up on MS Points. (Yes, you can make fun of me in the comments.)