* Nintendo claims hardcore gamers will flock to the DSi first

* “Lost” creator J.J. Abrams wants to make a “Zork”-like adventure game

* LucasArts reveals the must-do list for “Fracture”

* Blizzard revealed the latest class for “Diablo III”: wizard

* Stephen spoke with Quincy Jones III about DJ music game “Scratch”

* Find out what I like (and don’t like) about the new Xbox 360 dashboard

* Find out what the newly announced “Tomb Raider: Underworld” downloadable content means for PlayStation 3 users

* We premiered a new trailer for “Far Cry 2″

* Microsoft claims “Halo 3: Recon” will have bonuses for “Halo 3″ players. Also, check out the box art!

* We premiered the first look at the Slash figure from “Guitar Hero III”

* I share some of my favorite games that have come out of Tokyo Game Show

* Saturday Night Live mocked “Guitar Hero” during their Thursday special

* Get jealous — Stephen already has “LittleBigPlanet”

* Photo and video sharing could be applications in the new Xbox Live

* Tracey John walked through Blizzard and took tons of pictures

* Watch a professional DS cook with a DS at Nintendo’s fall summit

* We clarified whether all the “Guitar Hero: World Tour” will be a two-week Xbox 360 exclusive later this month

* Microsoft explains why silver XBL users can’t use the Netflix service

* Microsoft talked about the comparisons to Miis

* “Fracture” and this fall’s slate of NBA games are passed on this week

* The director of the original “Street Fighter” movie talked about the frustrations in making the original

* Soulja Boy revealed his gamertag, so we took a look at his playing habits

* Bethesda and Lionhead duke it out (in words) over how to handle informing gamers of good and evil

* Funcom talked about some of the problems with the launch of “Age of Conan”

* Find out what the first day was like for a new Nintendo employee

* WiiWare title “Tetris Party” will let you drop blocks with your…body?

* “Ten Pin Ally 2″ and others get their box art scrutinized

* “Age of Conan” was featured for laughs on CBS sitcom “The Big Bang Theory”

* I believe “Fallout 3″ could change my mind about open-world games

* Tracey John discovered a company that wants to help gamers make money

* I revealed my five favorite games at the Nintendo conference — “Cave Story,” “Henry Hatsworth,” “Wii Music,” “MadWorld,” and “Tetris Party”

* Some surprising facts about the “Star Wars: The Force Unleashed” downloadable content

* A personal demo helped change Stephen’s mind on the prospects of Home

• Terrans - Wings of Liberty
• Zerg - Heart of the Swarm
• Protoss - Legacy of the Void

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TOKYO -- Most everyone I've talked to at Tokyo Game Show has been making fun of Let's Tap, the new game from Sonic the Hedgehogcreator Yuji Naka.

Okay, fair enough. Let's Tapis billed as "a game even penguins can play." It's the accessible, simple nature of the Wii taken to the extreme. You don't ever touch the Wiimote. Instead, you set the controller on a cardboard box -- which will be included with the game when it ships in Japan this year -- and then tap the box. The vibrations of the box make the controller's motion sensors kick in.

Yes, this is crazy, but the game isn't actually bad.

Let's Tapwill include a variety of mini-games. At Tokyo Game Show, the game -- hidden in the back of the show, way in the back of Sega's booth -- featured one mode, a race between two players. I and a booth babe each manned our own cardboard boxes and tapped away. Lightly tapping the box with our fingertips caused our characters to run forward. A harder tap to the box -- nothing that jostled the controller too much, just a light slap with the hand -- made our little guys jump over hurdles, or across gaps in the race course. It was an engaging game -- the challenge was in learning the timing, tapping and slapping the box at the appropriate times to get the character through the race without running into danger.

So, is the Let's Tapbox a gimmick? From what I've seen so far, absolutely. Sega didn't show how it would create any new sorts of gameplay that you couldn't do with a controller, and its sole purpose seems to be to add a novel kind of interaction between player and game. That's not to say it won't be fun to tap a cardboard box for, like, a couple of days. Or after a couple of drinks. And by removing even more barriers to entry, Let's Tapcould get even more people playing Wii. But I don't think it'll ever overcome its own inherent silliness.

Images: Wired.com

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• Four new characters revealed for Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe

Usually I can’t hope to receive a boxed copy of a new game more than a week prior to it hitting store shelves. But so far I’ve received “Star Wars: The Force Unleashed,” “Fracture,” “Dead Space,” and, today, October 21’s “Little Big Planet” all in their store-ready shrink-wrapped boxes well before their release dates.

I have a few tidbits to share based on the box and the manual, but, first, do I think this fall trend is good because I can brag about having the game before you?

No, I think it’s good because… it suggests that these games aren’t being developed down to the wire. Instead it seems they are getting completed under a more sensible schedule that allows them to get passed to the press in a finished form that provides ample time for informed reviews and impressions.

Reviews of “LBP” based on the boxed copies I and other reporters are receiving today are prohibited until October 14, but I can surely give you some impressions of…. well… the box. And the manual. (I’m in Manhattan but my PS3 is in Brooklyn, a subway ride away.)

What can I tell you from the box? That the game plays in 720P, supports 1-4 players online and requires 600MB of harddrive space. That’s not terribly exciting.

Anything cool in the manual? No mention of the Solid Snake and “Final Fantasy VII” add-on content nor of there being a paid marketplace. But there is a nice note from the manual-writer about how to behave in this game when playing online:

We want to create a big, happy family — and that means the we all need to respect each other’s feelings. So, as tempting as it is, please refrain from being rude! No swearing, no rude drawings and nothing that would offend your granny.

One other thing. The letter that came with my copy of “LBP” notes that the game’s servers won’t go live until October 21, the game’s official release date. So if you manage to get your own early copy, don’t expect to be able to see and share other players’ levels yet. Make your own. Or play the ones on the disc.

And, of course, make sure that the reviews you read on 10/14 either acknowledge that the game wasn’t test online or show some sign that the reviewer used the online features that were available in the game’s beta.

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I asked if the game was disc-based or downloadable (I hadn’t seen the box art yet) and heard back from a Microsoft spokesperson that the game is disc-based.

I asked how much it would cost and was told that would be announced later.

And I asked if ‘Halo 3 Recon” consumers would be required to own a copy of “Halo 3“?

This is the response to that last question, from a Microsoft spokesperson: “No. ‘Halo 3: Recon’ is a standalone expansion of ‘Halo 3′ that can be enjoyed by everyone – even those who have not played or completed the original. However, there are several bonuses and surprises to be found in “Halo 3: Recon” for those who played and completed the original game.”

There are two ways to interpret that. One: the mere practice of experiencing the adventure of “Halo 3″ will make the events of “Recon” more meaningful to players of the new game. Two: “Recon” could detect whether you have a “Halo 3″ game save and unlock bonus content because of it. It’s happened for other sequels. The “Ratchet & Clank” games on the PS2 could detect that you’d played previous games in the series and arm you character with weapons you earned in those previous games.

I asked the Microsoft spokesperson which of those interpretations would be correct. Are they talking knowing-the-story-better bonuses or actual unlocked-content bonuses? They’re not saying.

If you’re a “Halo” fan, which way do you think it should go? Should “Halo 3″ gamers get special unlocks in “Halo 3: Recon”?