Round-Up: Karaoke Blues, Brandy's Sci-Fi Adventures, Mother 3 Finally Official

Today's round-up includes news on Taito's Japanese mobile karaoke service expanding to the PSP, R&B singer Brandy Norwood's upcoming game, and a final release date set for Nintendo's Mother 3, as well as the latest GameSetWatch posts, plus today's product news and Gamasutra job postings. -Taito's downloadable karaoke service, previously available exclusively for mobile phones, is headed for the PSP in Japan. Starting today, PSP owners can download individual karaoke videos for 105 yen (about $0.91) a song, through Sony's official download service, P-TV, according to an IGN report. Unlike Konami's Karaoke Revolution, Taito's karaoke videos are non-interactive. Additionally, the videos can only be viewed for a maximum of fifteen days. Taito claims that over 10,000 songs will be available on the service by summertime. -Los Angeles-based Matty/Markus Games has announced that R&B star Brandy "Brandy" Norwood has been contracted to star in an upcoming "sci-fi/action game" to ship in 2007. The release will coincide with a soundtrack album by Brandy herself, a strategy similar to that used for another upcoming Matty/Markus production, the as-of-yet untitled mature-themed PSP street racing title starring The Game. Matty/Markus co-founder Matty Rich says that the game is aimed toward the alienated female market, who seek "an alternative to the typical female caricatures games often feature," says the Hollywood Reporter report. "The success of games like Tomb Raider has shown that there's a need for strong female characters," said Rich. -Mother creator and Japanese voice actor Shigesato Itoi has announced on his website that Mother 3, the Game Boy Advance sequel to EarthBound originally announced for the Nintendo 64 some ten years ago, has finally been given a release date. The game will be released in Japan on April 20 of this year. "Since it's Game Boy Advance software," said Itoi, via a translation on Mother fan site Starmen.net, "that naturally means that you'll also be able to play it on the Nintendo DS that everyone's so crazy about these days." No American release has been announced, nor has any media been revealed, but with a release date so close, we're left to assume that the game is close to completion. -The latest posts on Gamasutra sister weblog GameSetWatch include good news for Little Big Adventure fans, the exciting tale of the jellyfish versus the Xbox, a touch-screen hack for the Game Boy Color, and commentary on brain training games. -Also posted today: product news featuring Ex-Machina's new mobile game multiplayer products, alongside the latest job postings on Gamasutra, including positions from Stormfront Studios, Blizzard Entertainment, Rainbow Studios, LucasArts, Pseudo Interactive, Champlain College, and Factor 5.