Sometimes when we do an interview, for one reason or another we sit on them until we’re ready to unveil them to the world. Take our last interview with Game Republic founder, Yoshiki Okamoto, the man better known as one of the co-creators of the Street Fighter franchise (and a slew of classic Capcom franchises, like 1942), but who in recent years has been responsible for fan favorites like Genji, Folklore, and the latest Dragon Ball game, Dragon Ball Origins. We tossed that interview around for almost a year before we finally put it online. This time around, however, we’re a little more timely with our latest Okamoto interview, which we conducted less than a couple months ago at Tokyo Game Show. It’s great catching up to this guy, though. He’s an energetic, animated, hilarious person to talk to, and despite his refreshing honesty, he never comes off as cocky, but sincere in his passion for making games. We took some time out of our busy TGS schedule to shoot over to Game Republic’s offices to settle in with Okamoto, to catch up with him, and to see how he and Game Republic have been doing. What follows includes some potentially controversial subject material (spoilers!), but bear in mind that it was all tongue-in-cheek and said in good spirits. That said, to keep things in context, understand that this interview was conducted before Brash Entertainment went belly up, and shortly before Dragon Ball Origins was released. Also, the chat veers from game-related stuff into some seriously off-topic tangents, like marital advice. Despite this, we’ve decided to keep the entire, delirious interview intact, so, consider yourself warned. Note: Accompanying 1UP is translator, Hiroko Minamoto. 1UP: What have you been up to since we last spoke? That was at last year’s Tokyo Game Show. [Editor's note: TGS '07] How have you been keeping busy with Game Republic? Yoshiki Okamoto: For a while I’ve wanted to work on a game based on the Dragon Ball anime license. So I’m in the middle of talks right now with Bandai to put that game together.

One of the more curious news stories of the past year was Tecmo’s decision to merge with Koei, after denying interest from Square Enix. While the merger seems to be set to go forward next year, Bloomberg reports that one major Tecmo shareholder isn’t satisfied with the plan. Effissimo Capital Management Pte, a Singapore-based investment advisory company that owns 17.6 percent of Tecmo (the second largest shareholder), says they haven’t seen enough information about how the merger would benefit Tecmo investors. "We have not had sufficient information from the company to make a judgment on the merger, such as the feasibility of their plan to raise shareholder value," said Effissimo director Takashi Kosaka, in a statement presented to Japan’s Ministry of Finance earlier this week. When contacted by Bloomberg, a Tecmo spokesperson confirmed they also received the statement, and insisted they have explained to investors why they chose to merge with Koei. This coincides with information 1UP learned earlier this month from sources who said many internal Tecmo executives have also quietly rebelled at the Koei merger. Currently, the companies plan to form the Tecmo Koei Holdings company on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in April, so it’ll be interesting to see how those plans turn out going forward.

In a candid Famitsu interview this week, Hideo Kojima divulges the fact that he is directing not just one, but two games concurrently. The title that will be announced first is being made in a style similar to the way his team has worked in the past, while the second will be produced by a restructured Kojima Productions with the overseas market firmly in mind. Kojima likens Western game development to Hollywood, with its products being made for the entire world, and reveals that his team is currently receiving “a makeover from the ground up.” His goal for Kojima Productions: A software house that can compete with the best of the best from America and Europe.

What could Kojima’s two new titles be? We have no idea, but recent reports suggest Kojima has been visiting various Western FPS developers with several of his key staff. He may simply be doing so to gain insight on how Western developers structure and manage their teams, but an FPS made with the West in mind might not seem so surprising coming from the worldly Kojima.

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While at first it seemed to put the film on the fast track to production, the Writers Guild of America strike late last year instead ended up delaying Paul W.S. Anderson’s planned adaptation of Castlevania. Now, the looming threat of a Screen Actors Guild strike seems to be doing the same, as producer Paul W.S. Anderson told IGN that the possibility of a delay due to a strike has "derailed" the project indefinitely. "This year has been unbelievably chaotic for the film industry with the writers strike followed by the perpetual threat of a SAG strike. It’s one thing if you’re making a huge movie where you have $200 million and you say, ‘Oh, [expletive] it. There’s a SAG strike. We’ll just wait.’ For other movies it’s very difficult to go into production if there’s a threat that you’ll have to close down," Anderson explained. "Not many movies can afford to take the hit of putting the cast and crew on hiatus for months while the strikes gets resolved. So I think in terms of anything we’re developing there won’t be any sort of priority until the SAG strike is resolved." Anderson, who has previously directed such sterling game-to-film adaptations as Mortal Kombat and Resident Evil, was this time only set to produce the Castlevania film, with Sylvain White (Stomp the Yard) set to direct.

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Turns out all of Nintendo’s "Train Your Brain!" hoopla may not be hoopla after all. Reuters reports that a new study shows older adults who played a videogame for a month demonstrated improved scores on tests of their cognitive functions, including memory, reasoning, and multi-tasking. But here’s some not-so-good news for Nintendo: The game they played was not, as you might initially expect, Brain Age. The study included 40 adults in their 60’s and 70’s, with half of them randomly assigned to play Rise of Nations — a PC real-time strategy game from 2003 — for a month, with the other half getting no play time at all. The results: Those assigned to the game showed noticeable gains when given memory, reasoning, and multi-tasking tests. According to Dr. Arthur F. Kramer, a professor of psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, this is the first published study that showed playing a game can improve the cognitive skills of older adults, and he warned not to read too much into the findings — although he did call the study "very promising." Kramer said further research will be needed to see if the positive effects persist over time, and whether other similar strategy games would be equally beneficial to play.

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If you haven’t heard of Scribblenauts yet, join us on this week’s 1UP FM to help fix this hideous flaw in your existence. This new DS title from 5th Cell may look modest, but like the developer’s previous handheld games — the innovative if slightly disappointing Drawn to Life and the tragically overlooked Lock’s Quest — Scribblenauts brings a wholly unique and creative twist with its gameplay. Co-host Nick Suttner and I talk to creative designer Miah Slaczka and lead designer Matt Cox to find out just how deep their promise about the game containing any word we can imagine goes. And though there may not be enough worth-mentioning releases this week to have a proper Shelf Life, we’ve still got a tightly packed show besides the feature. 1UP Community Manager Tina Sanchez is out sick, so everybody’s favorite Anthony Gallegos drops in for what Nick has dubbed the "Malebag." To top things off, the full crew of Anthony, Ryan O’Donnell, Matt Chandronait, and Alice Liang gather for our final edition of Backlog focusing on Beyond Good and Evil. We talk about our experiences in the final areas of the game, ponder at the shocking cliffhanger ending, and speculate on what could be in store in the recently announced sequel. Hit up the 1UP FM blog for exact time stamps for each segment. You know you want it. Download the new episode now by clicking here or subscribe to our podcast feed via iTunes to catch the show every Monday. After this jam-packed episode, we’re taking off for some holiday relaxation, but don’t miss us too much. We’ll be back next week with the bonus 1UP FM Holiday Special, where we’ll take a look into the future and discuss the games we’re most excited about for 2009. What will be our top picks? You’ll need to listen next week to find out!