Upon walking into the tiny room Sega had Platinum Games crammed into in their closed-door section of the E3 floor, we thought that Bayonetta would be the only title on-hand. Then, our wildest dreams came true and we were graced with what is sure to be a day one purchase for us: Wii title MadWorld.

We're not kidding. You'll want to buy this game.

Platinum Games has a very tiny room located in the back of Sega's closed door area. Within this tiny room is a mountain of gaming goodness, as the former Clover folks had two very solid titles to show off. The first game we got to check out is PS3 and Xbox 360 action adventure title, Bayonetta.

Telltale finally confirmed to GameSpot that Sam & Max's first season is coming to the Wii this fall. Rumors of Sam & Max bringing their freelance form of policing to the Wii began in early 2007 and became pseudo-confirmed this January in a German press release. The game will be a port of the Sam & Max: Season One PC compilation.

Sam & Max for Wii will be published in the US by Dreamcatcher and The Adventure Company. In Europe, JoWood will handle publishing duties of the game, which will have French and German voice acting, with Italian and Spanish subtitles added. No word yet on price for the title, but if it does end up being budget priced (PC was $30), we're very curious to see if this excellent adventure game finds an audience on the Wii.

[Thanks Sam]

We know that most of you are probably familiar with this piece of Atari mythos, but we thought it would be a festive way to celebrate this Easter Sunday. While Robinett's egotistical stunt was definitely ballsy, it doesn't approach some of our favorite secrets throughout gaming history -- like the legendary Secret Cow Level in Diablo II, or the bitchin' audio file hidden on the Symphony of the Night disc. We're curious to know -- what easter egg, hidden in the folds of one of your favorite video games, especially tickled your fancy?

[Thanks, Matthew.]

If any of you didn't get a chance to see the incredible trailer for Gears of War featuring Gary Jules and Michael Andrews' version of the classic Tears for Fears song "Mad World", then you missed out on one of the best video game advertisements to date -- as well as the source for the parody above. Nearly shot for shot, the debut trailer for Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust clowns on Epic's tear-jerking commercial, with obvious nods to John Hughes' classic film, "Ferris Bueller's Day Off".

We don't know whether we should be incensed or amused. On one hand, the whole Happy Madison brand of humor doesn't really appeal to us -- but on the other, we have to admire Sierra's chutzpah for alluding the sleazy series to the 2006 Game of the Year. We can't help but wonder -- could LSL:BOB be the "Scary Movie" of the video game realm?

Game | Life is reporting that the last page of the instruction manual for Professor Layton and the Curious Village, a game we're sure will hit American shores with the force of a malnourished hummingbird, reveals that the sequel (which is already available in Japan) will eventually head to the states. A password entry feature in the first game requires a code from the second game to unlock -- the American instruction manual confirms this, saying that the password "will be revealed in the sequel."

We're giddy like schoolgirls over Professor Layton, but if the first game doesn't sell in the U.S., can they really justify publishing a sequel for our unrefined store shelves? Well, other than the sequel we already have -- the Circuit City exclusive adventures of Professor Lipton, Professor Layton's long lost, yet incredibly refreshing second cousin.

Gamers around the world have been waiting with bated breath for more information on James Patterson's Woman's Murder Club game since it was announced back in December. OK, they haven't really, but maybe they would if they didn't exclusively pay attention only to games that featured guns, breasts or, er, Nintendo characters.

Patterson, one of the world's best-selling authors, is targeting a decidedly different demographic with his first game. "Look, it strikes me that the video game area is an incredibly lucrative niche market," he told the Hollywood Reporter, "one populated by a small number of boys -- and grownup boys -- who like to shoot things and spend a lot of money. But that excludes most of the universe."

Patterson compared his efforts to reach new gamers to those of Nintendo's Wii, calling the game a "chance to widen the boundaries of what people can do on the small screen ... We're going to give people who don't want to shoot things ... who prefer to use their brains ... a chance to solve a really good mystery." With Gabriel Knight's Jane Jensen at the development helm, we're cautiously optimistic that he can actually pull it off.

It's been almost a year now since the rumor of a Wii version of the Sam & Max series surfaced after Telltale Games began searching for a Wii programmer to add to their staff. Now, a German press release for JoWooD Productions' latest creation, a Wii adaptation of the PC adventure title Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None, has all but confirmed a Sam & Max adventure on Nintendo's console, which JoWooD is apparently porting.

A translation of the press release specifically mentions that "Sam & Max will soon be hunting criminals on the Nintendo Wii," though Telltale Games, the developers of the PC adventure, have not yet confirmed their intent to port the game to consoles. However, the press release seems on the level, and based on earlier evidence, we're fairly certain that we'll be seeing everyone's favorite revolver-toting, anthropomorphic dog and hyperkinetic rabbity thing on the Wii in the near future.

[via Evil Avatar]

Following up on his recent look at difficulty in game design, Gamasutra's John Harris is at it again, this time offering an ample look at what he calls 'open world games' -- titles, according to Harris, where a player is dropped into a larger world and left to figure things out on his or her own. Like his difficult games feature, the lion's share of the article is spent looking at specific examples of games he feels fit this mold, from arcade and 8-bit classics to more contemporary examples like the Grand Theft Auto series.

Interestingly, despite GTA's inclusion in the list, Harris concedes that most of the article is spent talking about older games, an observation for which he makes no apology. According to Harris, older games feature "more elemental designs," meaning they don't get all caught up in trying to be more than just a game. Even so, the list is pretty random, with nods to titles such as Cadash, Crazy Taxi, and even Warren Robinett's Atari 2600 classic Adventure, while MMOs go strangely ignored. This last bit seems more peculiar given that that author himself spends time writing scripts for Second Life, but it is an interesting read nonetheless.

[Disclaimer: I wrote for Gamasutra from March 2006 to August 2007.]

If you're the sort that hungers for the golden age of the adventure game, you may find what you're looking for in Fate by Numbers, a free, episodic FMV adventure that had its first episode released recently. The futuristic noir is not just unique because of its genre but also for the way it came to fruition, the end result of a graduate school project. We asked director Paul van der Meer to tell us a bit more about how he and his team created their game for just a hair over $2,000.

First off, maybe you can tell us a bit about the inception of the game, how did this all get started?

The game was made by four students. Rudi Nagelhout (programming), Roy Heijdra (video composite), Winne Willems (producing) and me (game design). We started thinking about the game in our third year of our study, called Communication and Multimedia Design (Breda, the Netherlands). It's a creative study that combines technology with art and creativity.

We knew we had to make a personal project at the end of it. But we thought we could make something bigger when we combined our forces. We couldn't do a film, since it wasn't a film school. But we're also gamers and we love games like Gabriel Knight, Monkey Island, Broken Sword and Blade Runner. We also liked FMV adventures and wondered if we could do something similar.

Released on Blu-ray just a few weeks ago, a DS incarnation of the classic arcade/Laserdisc adventure Dragon's Lair has been announced by Digital Leisure. At first we thought the two would go together as well as peanuts and bubblegum, but after reading what developer Wizardry Engineering is doing to make the game fit the system, we might have to reconsider.

Dragon's Lair DS will be playable on one screen or split across two, holding the DS like a book. Touch screen control will be implemented, and there's even talk of voice recognition (blue ... BLUE!!!) and rumble pak support. Hey, if it worked on Game Boy Color, it should go over fine on the DS.

[Via DS Fanboy

Scheduled for release later this year, Insecticide could make an interesting adventure, as seen in its new backstory trailer. Insecticide is in the first crop of Gamecock titles strutting to market. This PC and DS game is created by Crackpot Entertainment, which boasts adventure game veterans with ties to the classic LucasArts hits.

We're still unclear about the actual gameplay -- the companies involved say it'll be in that classic vein -- but the game's style already has our hopes high. See the video, and count the legs after the break.

A new patch by Efraim Siounis for the freeware platform adventure Cave Story lets you play as one of nine different characters from the game. Simply grab the pbm file from Efraim's site, rename it to "MyChar.pbm", and drop it in the /data directory under the Cave Story folder. When you start the game all main character sprites will be magically switched. Currently you can play as Curly, Toroko, Jenka, Sue, King, Crown, Booster, or a dog. It doesn't change the game much, but you'll have something new to stare at as you discover another excuse to play through the game ... again.

Before it settled down to crank out Star Wars games, LucasArts had quite a reputation for adventure games. Memories of The Secret of Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion still haunt our minds, so when a project comes along that reminds us of those games, we discover hidden gymnastic talents we didn't know we had. A Vampyre Story from Autumn Moon Entertainment mirrors the LucasArts adventure style in both presentation and gameplay.

One look at the screenshots and Bill Tiller's artwork has you hooked We'll call it "delightfully macabre", and it's ... well, it's good. Vampyre Story stars Mona de Laffite, a vampiress who finds herself sharing an adventure with her bat companion Froderick. Expect the usual point-and-click adventure gameplay with vampiric abilities built into the game's puzzles. And don't be surprised if there's a little humor sprinkled throughout the game.

A Vampyre Story has a publisher but no release date yet. Read the full preview at CVG for more info.

With less than two weeks before its Japanese release, Nintendo has opened the official website for The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. Treasures hidden within include several new videos that show off basic gameplay and Link's touchscreen control. To promote laziness (and so you don't have to sludge through squiggly Japanese menu screens) we've embedded the videos below. For an extra dose of Zelda fun, try playing all three at the same time!

[Via DS Fanboy]