Long-time Japgeek site Insert Credit (home to GSW co-editor bsheffield!) has posted an excellent in-depth analysis of Mitchell's puzzle game Polarium, which also includes a spectacularly frank interview with Mitchell president Roy Ozaki.

The extremely entertaining Ozaki comments, regarding how Nintendo ended up publishing Polarium for DS: "Basically, I'm lazy. I never went to Nintendo. A Nintendo director came to us through Capcom. We were showing him another game and, he spotted Chokkan Hitofude [Polarium]. It was fate - it controls us all. We weren't making it for the DS until we were asked."

Ozaki is also spectacularly outspoken on the recently GSW-mentioned similarities between his company's Puzzloop and PopCap's Zuma, commenting: "My lawyers in Japan are supposed to be on this. Progress is slow because if we do court battle in US, we would be at a disadvantage. You know the Americans and their mentality. We will be up against American jurors. You know how biased they are towards Oriental companies. PopCap Games' lawyer replied my mail and the one from my lawyers' office. In essence, they don't give a sh*t."

He concludes angrily: "I think they knew what they were doing from the start and they are bad businessmen... Ripping off someonelse's idea is bad; they don't belong in the game business. In a few months, you will see what I am doing. I am not a lawyer so we will do battle in a different court." That would be the court of hard knocks, then?