It’s been a great year for games and as we consider the past year, we would like to pause and reflect on the big stories that rocked NothingButSoftware. A year with upsets, surprises, and plenty of odd stuff; these are our top 5 picks for the most popular NothingButSoftware Stories of 2008.

5.) Maple Story Murder
Simply because it was such an odd story it grew in popularity, and was even given a specific name for the incident “Maple Story Murder.” A story from the land of the rising sun in which a Japanese woman was jailed for deleting another persons character from the MMORPG Maple Story. As ridiculous as it sounds it is true, and it was one of the oddest stories we covered this year!

4.) Mila Kunis WoW Confession
Apparently Mila Kunis is a big World of WarCraft fan, and the WoW community loves it! This story dropped during The Max Payne movie release when Mila’s popularity was already growing and this story boosted it even more, at least with wow fans.

3.) The Little Big Planet Recall
Most Likely the Biggest upset this year was the Little Big Planet Recall. When the release of this title was quickly approaching a sudden world wide recall was issued, because quotes from Islamic text could be heard in the video games background music. Sony decided to play it safe pushing the game back another week until the quotes could be edited out of the background music.

2.) New Street Fighter Chun-Li Pics
Although the New Street Fighter film seems like nothing to write home about, the buzz surrounding this film was quit popular here at NBS.  When the latest photo’s of Kristen Kreuk as Chun-Li were released we did a post on it and it became one of our most popular stories this year.

1.) F.E.A.R. 2 Weirdest Press Release Ever

The oddest story we have covered this year, and most likely our most popular post in history the “F.E.A.R. 2 Press Release.” Although there is a lot of meticulous planning involved in a major press release this one takes the cake. The Entire F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin release was centered around targeting specific Video Game Contributors and sending them creepy unmarked mail, with locations to creepy destinations, to obtain creepy briefcases. Mike Fahey of Kotaku was one of these targets and he had to drive to a storage facility in the middle of the night on thanksgiving to pick up his briefcase. Inside the briefcase was nothing more then promotion material for a F.E.A.R. 2 event in New York, but all the mystery in just obtaining a briefcase of promo material was uber weird.

A new development in the Little Big Planet Recall Saga.

Just in case you have been living in a cave for the past few days here is a quick recap. Sony has had a world wide recall of the platforming title Little Big Planet due for release today, because quotes from the Qur’an can be heard in the background music of the game.  The recall was announced on Friday and Sony released a statement that same day.

In recent news American Muslims have responded to the recall in an interview with EDGE and have stated that they are not offended by the use of the Islamic text in the game, but are offended by restriction of freedom of speech. M. Zuhdi Jasser M.D.; head of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy was quoted as saying “Muslims cannot benefit from freedom of expression and religion and then turn around ask that anytime their sensibilities are offended that the freedom of others be restricted.”

Dr. Jasser also went on to say that Mohammad himself “defended the rights of his enemies to critique him in any way even if it was offensive to his own Islamic sensibility.”

The composer of the offending musical track of interest, has also shared his two cents. He has been stated as saying “it’s quite normal to play music and be inspired by the words of the Prophet Mohammad. It’s my way to attract and inspire people towards Islam.”

Keep in mind Dr. Jasser and the AIFD cannot speak for the entire Islamic world. None the less If the Islamic community as a whole shares the same view as the group than this recall may have never been needed at all. The damage though has already done the game has been recalled and the revised version will be hitting the shelves next week.

For a full interview with Doctor Jasser on this recall mayhem, and the views of the American Islamic Community Hit up this link Edge Interview

Sony is eating dirt today because of a world wide recall of their upcoming Little Big Planet release; the highly anticipated platforming title due for release this Tuesday. Apparently all deliveries have been halted because of references to Islamic text in the games sound track. Gamers are reeling over the news since this is one of the largest recalls in recent history.

Sony was quoted as saying “during the review process prior to the release of Little Big Planet, it has been brought to our attention that one of the background music tracks licensed from a record label for use in the game contains two expressions that can be found in the Qur’an. We have taken immediate action to rectify this and we sincerely apologize for any offense that this may have caused.”

Although this will delay the release of the game, Sony has stated the game will be re-released the week of October 27th.

Here is the skinny from the Sony Blog