Corpse Party was a pleasant surprise on PSP -- well, "pleasant" in that it was a good game. There's nothing pleasant about being trapped in an inescapable nightmare dimension of malicious ghosts and dead children. And now it's moving to iOS, at least in Japan, where it will be even more convenient to access the game's unexpectedly disturbing imagery (and random asides about hemorrhoid cream).

Publisher 5pb will release a port of the PC98/PC/PSP game Corpse Party Blood Cover Repeated Fear this Thursday, on February 9. The app will sell for the terrifyingly steep price of 2,200 yen ($29). We're inquiring with American publisher XSEED about a localized (hopefully cheaper) release.

Despite being into awards shows before they were cool, we're hoping you're not above voting for this year's Independent Game Festival "Audience Award." Voting has just kicked off for 2012's entrants, which comprise all finalist games across all IGF 2012 categories (yes, the list once again includes Fez).

Should you choose to cast your favor towards any particular game, you'll want to head to this particularly yellow form and fill things out before February 19. Once you've done as much, we're told a verification email will come through to make sure you're not an evil robot. If you are, in fact, not an evil robot, things should go swimmingly.

We're sure you watched thousands of YouTube videos last year, but we bet only a handful featured flying robots with guns, and just one of those was an explosive multiplayer mech battle built on Unreal Engine 3 -- yeah, that one, right up there. Hawken, the breakout title from indie studio Adhesive Games, is scheduled to launch on Dec. 12, published by Meteor Entertainment.

Hawken will be web-based, free-to-play and feature fast-paced action in short bursts, styled after Call of Duty multiplayer, Adhesive co-founder Khang Le said. Players in Hawken will battle for survival and resources inside flying, rocket-equipped mechs in various regions of a barren industrial wasteland (or heaven, as we call it). Hawken is multiplayer only and will play in a session-based format similar to League of Legends, Le said.

For a further glimpse at Hawken's universe, hit up the video after the break, which displays desert gameplay. If that intrigues you, sign up for the closed beta right here -- get three friends (enemies, strangers) to enlist and guarantee your spot.

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Apple has removed 59 copycat games from its App Store, including Temple Run lookalike Temple Jump, Words with Friends contender Numbers with Friends, Angry Birds clones Tiny Birds and Angry Ninja Birds, and the self explanatory Plant vs. Zombie. All of the offending clones were developed by Anton Sinelnikov.

Temple Jump, specifically, had achieved incredible success on the App Store, surpassing its source material to reach the number 1 spot on the paid Apps list. "This was really upsetting to us and damaging to our brand, because we work really hard to put out very high quality polished games and win the love of our fans," said Natalia Luckyanova, co-founder of Temple Run dev Imangi, during an interview with Gamasutra. "We don't want them to think that we would put out crap to steal a dollar from them."

This App Store raid comes roughly one week after Triple Town developer Spry Fox sued 6Waves LOLAPPS over Yeti Town, another aggressively similar iOS title. We like to imagine Apple Store employees rappelling from the ceiling of a dank, filthy warehouse, shooting iPod Nanos out of high-powered slingshots with extreme prejudice.

We'll be transparent about this: we had to look up the difference between Dodonpachi Blissful Death, the new iOS game announced by shmup developer Cave, and current App Store release Dodonpachi Resurrection. How embarrassing.

It turns out that Blissful Death (known in Japan as Dodonpachi Daioujou) is the direct predecessor to Resurrection, first released in 2002. Cave is bringing the classic bullet-hell shooter to iPhone 4 and above this Thursday, February 9, at a price lower than Cave tends to charge for its iOS releases: $4.99. It comes with multiple difficulty modes, for those of us prone to involuntary phone-smashes.

Do you have the following three items: 1) a Japanese PSN account, 2) a PlayStation Move, and 3) a complete lack of shame (or roommates)? If you meet all three conditions, a special "Valentines Day Demo" of the pheromone shooter Gal Gun awaits you on February 14. Take advantage of the PS3's region free gameplay and easy downloading of import demos! You know, if that's your thing.

First, we suggest seeing if you can get all the way through the new trailer for the self-identified "baka-ge" ("stupid game") without dying of embarrassment.

Digital distribution is the future in the UK -- for the sake of a lot of jobs, it had better be. UK game industry trade organization TIGA issued a new census report today, revealing a heavy focus on downloadable or social games.

71% of UK game company startups between 2008 and 2011 are "focused exclusively on network gaming," the report indicates. Taking all of the UK industry in consideration (not just new companies), 67% work on digitally distributed games.

"For too long developers have laboured under the traditional 'give your IP away, never see royalties' model," said TIGA Self-Publishing Committee Patrick O'Luanaigh. "So TIGA strongly supports the trend towards online gaming and self-publishing. Online gaming can deliver greater company stability and revenue sustainability for studios. This is because studios can circumvent traditional publisher business models and build relationships directly with customers. Network gaming businesses can create original games, retain their IP and attain greater financial stability."

We suspect this boost in digital gaming involves two major factors: the rise of iOS and Android games, and the end of large UK game companies like Bizarre Creations.

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While regaling Chinese Final Fantasy fans with tales of upcoming downloadable content headed to Final Fantasy XIII-2 during the Taipei Game Show, Square Enix producer Shinji Hashimoto also took time to answer fan questions about various FF projects. One such question directed at Hashimoto wondered if the upcoming PlayStation 3 and Vita re-rerelease of Final Fantasy X would be a "remake" (like the recent re-release of Halo: Combat Evolved) or a "remaster" (like last fall's Ico/Shadow of the Colossus collection).

Hashimoto left little space for interpretation of his answer, directly stating it is a "remaster." He also pointed out that "the screen is much prettier than the original," though we're unable to corroborate that just yet as the game hasn't even been mentioned since its announcement last fall at Tokyo Game Show 2011, let alone shown.

We've followed up with Square's US reps to see when we might hear more about the upcoming Vita and PS3 remaster, but aren't holding our breath for new info.

[Image credit: GNN.Gamer.tw]

Surprise hit Dungeon Defenders has sold a million units across Xbox Live, PSN and Steam, the game's publisher told us in a recent interview. The well-received co-op tower defense action game launched on October 19, 2011, and has kept a steady sales beat going on Steam with deep discounts and consistent support.

"It is tremendously successful franchise," Reverb Publishing CEO Doug Kennedy said. "We have lots of plans to support it both with DLC and additional add-ons for the franchise."

There are still three more packs planned across all platforms in addition to "The Lost Eternia Shards: Mistymire Forest" DLC. On Steam, there is also the current and future Holiday DLC, the New Heroes Pack, the Barbarian character, Assault Mission Pack, Nightmare Mode and more, which will not make its way to consoles. due to "technical and business" concerns.

Before deciding on the post-apocalyptic survival adventure The Last of Us, Naughty Dog considered putting its team to work on a game starring a more familiar duo: Jak & Daxter. According to a Game Informer interview (quoted by VG247), Naughty Dog looked into a new Jak & Daxter game on PS3. "I don't know if this is going to make [fans] happy or sad," but we did explore the idea fairly extensively," company co-president Evan Wells said. "Something that we talked about early on was, 'Lets go back and apply what we've learned with the Uncharted games to Jak & Daxter.'"

Wells and the team realized, however, that an experimental Jak game wouldn't satisfy the fans, and working on a game like its predecessors wouldn't satisfy Naughty Dog. "We would end up limiting the direction that the company had this passion for while simultaneously not creating the game that fans wanted," he said. "We just realised we were going to just do everybody a disservice. So at that point, the conversations started to move in a new direction."

Wells suggested the possibility that the Uncharted team could work on the series. "I guess there's a possibility the Uncharted team could move on to Jak & Daxter. "It's still up in the air, but I wouldn't think that's going to happen because I think we'd run into all of the same problems with that team that we did with this team."

Sanctum 2, the sequel to Coffee Stain Studios' hybrid tower defense and first-person co-op shooter, is expected to launch sometime next year Joystiq can exclusively reveal. The first Sanctum, which has sold over 300,000 units on Steam, was a PC-exclusive title. The sequel is planned for PC and "digital console platforms," with Xbox Live and PSN specifically mentioned.

"Sanctum has been a huge success on Steam for Coffee Stain Studios, and bringing the next version to console players as well as the PC market is a great next step to share this unique experience," said Ted Lange, executive producer for Reverb Publishing. "We all have logged quite a few hours with Sanctum and can definitively say that what Coffee Stain has in store for Sanctum 2 will blow the minds of Sanctum fans and new gamers alike."

Beyond revealing the title to us, along with a release year, details are still tight on Sanctum 2. Doug Kennedy, CEO of Reverb Publishing, told us, "The team is diligently working to get the title ready."

Update: After receiving updated information, altered 2012 launch window to 2013.

Update 2: Sanctum is $3.39 on Steam today.

Three new titles entered Chart-Track's UK sales top ten last week, led by Final Fantasy XIII-2. Sneaking the silver was the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection, which includes MGS2: Sons of Liberty (2002), MGS3: Snake Eater (2005) and MGS: Peacewalker (2010). Rounding out the top three is Battlefield 3, up two spots, as FIFA 12 slides from first to fourth.

Another new addition to the top ten, SoulCalibur 5, premieres in fifth. Chart-Track notes that the prior SoulCalibur debuted in the top spot back in August of 2008.

The solid debut last week of 3DS action horror title Resident Evil: Revelations finds the game retreating from sixth to 19 on the latest chart. Wander past the break for the UK top ten.

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PlayStation Vita firmware version 1.60 is set to drop on February 8 (as least in Japan), and it'll bring several major features when it arrives. Among those features are standards like GPS tracking via a newly added Maps application, the ability to capture video, and the release of a support application for Mac OS X. It can also now serve mixed vanilla/chocolate froyo swirl. Finally!

Additionally, the update will banish mentions of the the phrase "PlayStation Network" from various services and replace it with the newly renamed "Sony Entertainment Network" branding. Considering that the PSP is still supported by Sony but has yet to receive any form of Mac support for content management, we're gonna go ahead and call this a big step forward.

By now, Super Bowl XLVI has finished and the victor has emerged victorious, their glimmering rings reflecting a light of shame into the hearts and souls of the defeated. This article was written much earlier in the day, however, so I'm going to use this as an opportunity to flex my fortune telling muscle and predict the outcome. You have my absolute word that this post will not be altered or edited in any way prior to it being posted.

If I'm right, you owe me 50 bucks. If I'm wrong, and frankly when has that ever happened, I'll record an acoustic cover version of any song the commenters decide on, and post it as next week's hardware sales post. Ready?

Based on the fact that Venus is in Pisces until February 8 and Mercury won't be in retrograde for another 35 days, I'm going to call the NY Giants as tonight's winners.

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One of our goals here at Joystiq is to notify you as soon as we possibly can about awesome things. It's something we've been doing for quite some time and now we've got something new and neat to inform you about: The Cat That Got The Milk.

No, we're not talking about that junkyard cat you're certain stole that half gallon of milk from your fridge (how would it carry the container?) but a new indie game that lasts around 10 to 15 minutes. And the best part is it's free -- all you have to do is go over to the website and download it for OSX or Windows.

As you can see in the video above, it's all quite simple: you use the up and down arrows to navigate a beautiful and abstract world that's meant to show us what cats see every day. Also, cats are apparently, like, high all of the damn time. Catnip must be a helluva drug!

With all the hubbub lately over SoulCalibur 5's recent release and the impending punches contained within next month's Street Fighter X Tekken, its easy to lose track of more obsure upcoming releases like Phantom Breaker. The 360 exclusive fighter, developed by 5pb of Japan and localized for North American audiences by 7sixty, now has an English website and a new trailer to go with it, as seen above.

7sixty is also giving away two limited edition Phantom Breaker-themed Fusion Sapphire arcade sticks from boutique custom shop eightarc. Considering that only those deeply mired in the intricacies of the fighting game community know of eightarc's existence, this contest at least shows that 7sixty knows how to do its homework, if nothing else. You can enter for your chance to win either on the game's official site, or at its Facebook page.