Every classic was once a new IP, they're the life blood of the industry, and yet they're extremely risky propositions for developers and publishers.

We vote on the year's best.

While a lot of you (myself most definitely included!) are waiting for the sequel to Professor Layton and the Curious Village, Japan's already gotten the third installment just this week. Level-5 held a press conference this week to celebrate the launch of Professor Layton and the Last Time Travel in Japan. In the same event, they announced the release date for "Professor Layton: The First Movie": January 1, 2010 in Japan, baby! Where's Studio Ghibli when you need them?

Time magazine interviewed Shigeru Miyamoto, the video game designer who created the Super Mario, Donkey Kong, Legend of Zelda, Star Fox, Nintendogs, and Pikmin series of video games.

And he said some interesting stuff that got us thinking...

Violence in video games. Miyamoto is one smart cookie:

The obvious objective of video games is to entertain people by surprising them with new experiences. Violence is one means of doing that, [though] I look to make people laugh or smile. But the more we have parents playing video games themselves, the more they will understand the interactive world and how to deal with games that have a tremendous amount of violence.

Did you hear that, oh ye lawmakers and anti-gaming lawyers? Video games - like all kinds of art - seek to create an experience. Violence is one way - not necessarily the best way - but it's still one relevant way because adults play video games too.

Miyamoto prefers to entertain us through storytelling, artistic craftsmanship, and humor instead of through gore and gratuitous violence. But even this gentle person is intelligent enough to understand that violence is always part of art.

[If only our lawmakers read Macbeth or A Tale of Two Cities. Heck. If only they learned how to read instead of just relying on the "summaries" that anti-gaming lobbyists send to them!]

Will Legend of Zelda ever be a movie? Miyamoto's answer is a bit disappointing:

I struggle with the Hollywood process.

But it's not all bad news! Miyamoto did say that making a Nintendo game into a movie is an idea that holds a lot of potential. And in the past, Miyamoto has often said that he admires the work of Studio Ghibli (Princess Mononoke, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Howl's Moving Castle).

Who knows, maybe the creative drive will eventually force him to make a movie. We take it as a self-evident fact: Legend of Zelda has *great* Hollywood potential.

Other questions. Time magazine is a mainstream publication, so you can expect the rest of the questions to go over old stuff that you all know by now - how the Wii and DS are trying to change gaming culture, the old "casual gamer" versus "hardcore gamer" debate, and Nintendo's use (and re-use) of old franchises like Mario.

But, as always, if you want to check out the source of our news, just look for the Via or Read link below.

Also, those you may also want to check out Miyamoto's thoughts on retirement and his ideas about the next Legend of Zelda game.