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As I mentioned in yesterday's Mailbag, one question we received nearly brought the entire staff to blows. That question? The top 10 games of all time, of course.

And if that question wasn't hard enough to answer on its own, just wait until you see the rules imposed on us...

Remember: Send your own questions, comments, and diabolical metagames to letters@bitmob.com (subject: "Mailbag") to be included in a future edition of the Mailbag!

At PAX East, Stephen Totilo of Kotaku and N'Gai Croal held a panel on a "game" called "Canon Fodder," which sought to determine once and for all the top 10 games of all time. They asked some well known industry folks to contribute, and I'd love to hear your take on the final list:

1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
2. Super Mario 64
3. Metal Gear Solid
4. Chrono Trigger
5. Portal
6. Half-Life
7. World of Warcraft
8. StarCraft
9. Super Metroid
10. Tetris

With this list, you can do one of two actions: (1) Swap the spots of any two games on the list or (2) remove one game from the list and substitute in your own.

-Byung J. Park

Brett: Since we're all gamers here, we couldn't resist the challenge of a game about games. I passed Byung's list and instructions to the staff, and the resulting email thread spanned 34 messages. Here is that thread:

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If you want to break into the business, it's going to take some work. The Tutorial is a series of articles about games-writing intended to better prepare you for what's ahead -- or help you figure out if it's even for you.

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Look at all the stuff flying around at the beginning of this Alan Wake trailer and imagine the Twister game that never was.

Video Blips:

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Editor's note: Can you trust email from the future? I'm willing to bet that universal dislike for Nickleback has a high probability of occurrence. Maybe Activision should have released Guitar Hero: Pickle instead. Are you listening, Kotick? This is your chance to save your job! -Rob

Somehow -- don't ask me -- I received the following article in my email inbox. The date was some 10 years hence (a  year when jokes about how well people see run rampant across the interwebs) and covers a company making all the wrong calls from a public-relations standpoint. Enjoy....

Where are they now?
April 10th, 2020
Associated Press Writers

Onlookers spotted Bobby Kotick, ex-CEO and president of video game publisher Activision, last week at his car-wash job in Seattle, Washington. Although it seems amazing, this man once controlled the biggest franchise in the business, a position now held by mega-corporation 2K Square Enix EA Micro-Ubi-Soft, Inc.

How did such a high-ranking official destroy a company once known for such innovative titles as Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Guitar Hero, and Call of Duty, and then fall so far and so fast himself?

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I'm not proud to admit that I owned numerous Tiger handhelds. From Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest to the terrible Power Rangers ones, I feel like I had them all. I know for a fact that I had this "beauty" right here [via The Retroist]:

Beauty and the Beast was, as you might expect, absolute crap. My purpose in showing this girly thing to you burly Bitmobbers is to point out the utter ridiculousness of the ad. It's all done up in lavender, and the candle holders are perhaps the worst leftovers from the early '90s I've ever seen. Ads like this are responsible for the lavender and pink color mixture that plagued girl accessories, rooms, and clothing for nearly a decade.

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Sorry for the slight delay since the last Bitmob Mailbag, folks. We used to have intern Mike Minotti vet the letters for us, but it turns out he was using the designated mail-reading time to write rambling essays on the unparalleled greatness of the National Treasure movies. Now I vet the letters myself.

If you'd like your rants, questions, or comments about Mike's passion for National Treasure (yes, it's real) featured in an upcoming edition, drop a note to letters@bitmob.com, subject: “Mailbag."

Dear Bitmob editors,

Is there a word you are partial to that you have not been able to use in any articles because it is too obscure? For example, I enjoy the words “defenestration” and “zarf,” but I haven’t had an opportunity to use them in any of my writing.

-Nick Nordstrom

Brett: First off, "zarf"? Is that a Star Trek character? I pride myself on my vocabulary, but I've got no idea what that means.

I like the rest of your question, however, so upon threat of defenestration I asked the wordsmiths at Bitmob to provide their own favorite obscure words. (Mine is "anathema.")

Demian: I'm also a big defenestration fan. Also, "flense." I name all my rogue characters that.

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That headline caught your eye, didn't it? April Fool's! Oh, wait...

News Blips:

Activision has entered into a 10-year exclusive partnership with Halo developer Bungie. In addition to laying out the publishing terms of a "big action game" on multiple platforms, the deal stipulates that Bungie will continue to fully own their intellectual property. “We chose to partner with Activision on our next IP because of their global reach, multi-platform experience and marketing expertise,” said Harold Ryan, president of Bungie. “From working together over the past nine months on this agreement, it is clear that Activision supports our commitment to giving our fans the best possible gaming experiences.” I wonder where he's been during the past few weeks?

Sony is being sued by a California PS3 owner over its decision to drop secondary operating system support. A firmware update released on April 1 removed the ability to install other operating systems -- such as Linux -- onto the console. The suit contends that "Sony's decision to force users to disable the Other OS function was based on its own interest and was made at the expense of its customers," blaming Sony's continual battle with piracy and hacking as the impetus of the change. Anthony Ventura, the lawsuit's plaintiff, is asking for over $5 million in compensation. Wait -- A. Ventura? Alrighty then! [Kotaku]

Speaking with GamePro, God of War 3 director Stig Asmussen shared the different ideas previous directors had for the story's finale. Series creator David Jaffe envisioned Kratos' total destruction of Greek mythology (with Norse mythology "right around the corner"), whereas God of War 2 director Cory Barlog wanted Kratos to assume a Death-like role, complete with two whirling sickles as blades. And this is why David Jaffe is awesome: Apart from his typically vocal rants, his ideas are completely over the top.

Young kids and early teenagers are increasingly picking up handheld game systems, according to a report by the NPD Group. Sixty-five percent of households that contain a child aged from four to 14 years old own a video game console, of which 44 percent are portable -- an eight percent increase from a previous study in 2005. Only HDTVs and cell phones surpass consoles for intended purchases, with a large chunk (37 percent) of a recent hardware sales figure caused by purchases for kids. Wallet-draining TVs? Cell phones with iron-clad contracts? What happened to buying a simple toy firetruck? [IndustryGamers]

Got any hot news tips? Send 'em over to tips@bitmob.com.

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We've taken the video game preview back.

The Bitmob community waited in the bushes and ambushed the video game press. On pain of death, we took our prize, and like Robin Hood and his merry men, we're giving it all back.

We asked you to write about your most-anticipated games of 2010, and the results are in! (More after the break.)

Red Dead Redemption -- Scheduled Release: May 18
"He's wanted: dead or alive. I say dead. Nothin' worse than hauling a bounty back, slung over the back of my horse, kicking and hollering the entire way. I prefer them quiet and dead and soon to make me temporarily rich. The way it should be. Let this be quick. I long for the cold steel of that rifle. The burning of whiskey in my gut. The brief companionship of a scarlet lady." -- Michael Bradley (read the full article)

"I am a product of watching TV in the 80s. When nothing was on television, I watched syndicated western left-overs from previous decades. The reason Red Dead Redemption is my most anticipated game of the year is that it fulfills my childhood fantasies with an adult story line." -- Nick Berger (read the full article)

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When embarking on your latest spacefaring escapade, be sure to pack a helpful amount of bear-strength pepper spray for those pesky mutants!

Video Blips:

• In Dead Space 2, no one can hear you scream. Then again, I don't think any sound will get past that oversized grille of a helmet. [GameVideos]

Continue after the break for a look at the destructive add-on pack for Just Cause 2, an Air Force pilot doing the time warp again in Singularity, and a short walkthrough of Top Gun for the iPad.

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Editor's note: Brendan sees a lot of untapped potential in Sony's PSP Go. I'm not sure it's quite the panacea he thinks it is, but he definitely convinced me that Sony is grossly mishandling the product. -James

The PlayStation brand has atrophied. A last-place console, a last-place handheld, and many questionable decisions define PlayStation this generation. It’s time to fix that.

Sony has a weapon so secret that they don’t even realize what it is, and it could turn the tide in their favor if they just started using it. I'm talking about the PSP. The device is as unremarkable as its library of games, but the PSP could be Sony’s game changer. All they have to do is use it and put an end to this innovation stagnation.

1) Kill the 3000 and roll with the Go

While the PSP Go isn’t a next-generation PSP, it is the successor to the PSP 3000. Sony should treat it as such and discontinue the PSP 3000. 

The problem with the PSP Go isn’t that it’s smaller or lacks a UMD drive; the problem is that it’s $80 dollars more than its tech-identical brother. When a hardware manufacturer releases a slim-branded model of anything, the pricing goes down, not up.  That’s basic, video-game economics. Trying to inflate the price because it's a new gadget only works when you are actually selling a new gadget. Sony isn’t.

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I'm a pretty big Mega Man nut, so believe me when I tell you that it's hard to find decent Blue Bomber plushie. The solution? Make your own! That's what ShinyGirafarig did, and she made a tutorial on the process for others [via Capcom Unity]:

Scissors required. Heh. I made a funny. ShinyGirafarig also made plushies of some of the Mega Man 9 and 10 Robot Masters. You can see those after the jump.

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Time for more incredibly rare pieces of video game memorabilia hitting eBay. This time it is a so-called Nintendo Virtual Boy TV, a tester unit that plays Virtual Boy games on a television screen. Sounds too good to be true, doesn't it?

The device supposedly only works on PAL sets. You needn't worry if you don't have one of those just lying around the house -- the likelihood of this machine selling any time soon is slim. The seller is asking for $50,000 out of the gate; although, he'll also consider offers from potential buyers.

My offer: $5, because I have to spend the rest of the money on a PAL setup. 

You can monitor the auction here and check out the action screenshots. 

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