Microsoft and Enterbrain, the company that publishes Famitsu, are holding a contest for XNA developers where 3,600,000 yen ($40,000) in cash prizes will be awarded.

We asked Yuichi Murasawa, Director, and Yoshinori Kamei, Producer, how the project got started and what they think about the comparisons to Puzzle Quest.

Square Enix + Peggle. This potentially awesome combination was on the table when Square Enix decided to work with casual games creator PopCap.

When Microsoft announced Konami as the new publisher for Ninety-Nine Nights II no plans were announced for North America. However, it appears Konami will publish it here and two other Xbox 360 titles.

She was absent from King of Fighters XII, but SNK hasn’t forgotten about their bouncy ninja.

A little title called Soredemo, Watashi wa Aishiteiru (Even So, I Love You) stirred up discussion when it was pulled off Xbox Indie Games due to inappropriate content. The visual novel is back online now, after an edit.

Sparkster, following in the footsteps of other forgotten mascots, is coming back in a downloadable 2.5D platformer game.

Zeno Clash is a first person beat ‘em up sort of like Namco’s Breakdown, but with strange looking monsters.

Gyromancer, Square Enix’s take on Puzzle Quest, wasn’t developed by Square Enix. Leading casual games developer PopCap Games designed Gyromancer which borrows Bejeweled Twist’s “twist”.

Back in January, I played a gem of a game on the PC called Defense Grid. It’s a tower defense grid with a futuristic setting which has players defending some version of Earth against an onslaught of aliens. Now the game is out on the Xbox marketplace.