You may not be familiar with the name Cave unless you have a love for “shmups”, or shoot-em-ups if you will.  These are games where one lone ship faces off against some sort of armada, with big boss enemies to back them up.  The Japanese developer has been working on these types of game for some time, including releases like DeathSmiles (both 1 and 2) and Dodonpachi Resurrection.  Its latest, Akai Katana, is definitely one that deserves to join the ranks, and, thankfully, Rising Star Games has saw fit to give the game a discounted American release.  Wise choice.

CCP Games and Nexon have expanded the science fiction MMO game EVE Online to Japan as part of its preparation for the launch of the PlayStation 3 exclusive DUST 514 later this year. The new localized version of EVE Online has entered the world’s 4th largest gaming market with CCP’s own in-house localization system and with Nexon as its pre-eminent local marketing partner. Japan joins EVE Online’s growing localized selection alongside English, Chinese, German, and Russian-based game clients. In addition to full language support, the launch features a full range of core game services in Japanese including local billing, customer support, an official Japanese EVE site, forums and more.

2011 brought a lot of sequels our way.  Some were necessary improvements to formula, while others had us scratching our heads wondering what was up.  (NOTE: Resistance 3.)  Anyway, we've decided to count down our top ten favorite retail games (a downloadable list is coming very soon), along with a few honorable mentions for good measure.  You might be shocked to see what takes number one.

Naughty Dog may have turned the page on its smashing Uncharted franchise, but the Sony-owned studio is still working -  hand-in-hand with new steward Bend Studio - to bring you a prequel to the trilogy.

The development team at Cave have found an awesome new venue for its quirky game library -- Apple devices.  It's released a handful of shooter and action games thus far, including Deathsmiles, Dodonpachi Resurrection and Espgaluda 2, and for a price that wouldn't cost you an arm and a leg to boot (unlike the region free Xbox 360 games).  Those shooters have created a new market for the team, so they're still pumping out games for it.  This week, another "shmup" joins the pack, Mushihimesama -- also known as the easier-to-pronounce Bug Princess.

For months, avid RPG gamers have been pushing Operation Rainfall, a project to bring three elusive role-playing games to the Nintendo Wii.  Those games, Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story and Pandora's Tower, have had a huge amount of success in Japan, but with Nintendo trying to focus on the Wii U, many thought that the games would never get a fair shake here.  Well, today, we were reminded just what that effort can bring sometimes, as Nintendo has officially confirmed the release of Xenoblade in the US next April!

In this day and age, it's nice to have some extra goodies to pass around in the game industry, whether it's a collectible figure with an Uncharted 3: Collector's Edition, a Modern Warfare 3 Hardened Edition (c'mon, you want it) or a Gears of War 3 Marcus Fenix statue.  But sometimes the hardware itself takes precedence, especially if it's a limited edition design.  And lucky Nintendo fans will be getting that in Europe come November 25th.

Apple has sold over four million of its new iPhone 4S, just three days after its launch on October 14. In addition, more than 25 million customers are already using iOS 5, the world’s most advanced mobile operating system, in the first five days of its release, and more than 20 million customers have signed up for iCloud, a breakthrough set of free cloud services that automatically and wirelessly store your content in iCloud and push it to all your devices. iPhone 4S is available today in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the UK, and will be available in 22 more countries on October 28 and more than 70 countries by the end of the year.

Gotta love special edition controllers, whether they're the Gears of War 3 Microsoft Xbox 360 pad or the cool baseball-colored PlayStation 3 controller.  There's something about owning just the right model when it comes to the game at hand.  Sony, recognizing this, is releasing a couple more specially made controllers for its PlayStation 3...in Japan at least...for two titles that are sure to get fans riled up.  The only question now is when they get a release in the rest of the world.

NeverDead, Konami's upcoming third-person shooter, has a new trailer as we come ever closer to this year's Tokyo Game Show. The trailer features some new cinematic footage, scenes of an entire city falling to ruin, and some of the game's colossal bosses. Better yet, the Japanese voice acting in the trailer is almost as impressive as the destruction. Read on to see the new trailer.

A lot of hype has been built around The Last Guardian due to Team Ico's previous successes in ICO and Shadow of the Colossus. After its reveal in 2009, it seemed that the developer was on the path of making another memorable game, featuring a young boy struggling to survive while befriending a griffin. However, beyond the game's delay until 2012, we haven't heard or seen much of the game since, leaving people to wonder if the game would be completed at all. That notion can be put to rest, as it was announced earlier today that the ICO & Shadow of the Colossus Collection will feature new footage of the upcoming PS3 title.

After waiting twelve years to play Persona 2: Innocent Sin, American Persona fans deserve a little something for their patience, don't you think? Atlus agrees, which is why they've just announced the soundtrack that will accompany the game should fans pre-order it. More info after the jump.