Actually, that should read "Donald McDonald" as these are Japanese ads, and the character is named "Donald McDonald" and not "Ronald McDonald". A series of Japanese McDonalds ads have been spliced together in order to reproduce the Cave Story theme and give people nightmares.

to hell. Ronald McDonald hell, er, Donald McDonald hell. Whichever.

This is the Cave Story theme — compare with the McDonalds version. Play them both at the same time to give yourself a headache.

Cave Story will be released on WiiWare in North America this May.

Thanks Nightwheel for the tip!

Largely specializing in 2D sprite-based game design, Vanillaware is best known for developing PlayStation 2 title Odin Sphere and Wii game Muramasa: The Demon Blade.

The painting is by George Kamitani, the founder and lead artist of Vanillaware. He is also responsible for helming the company's games. This is art, so perhaps it is Safe For Work?

ヴァニラウェア有限会社 [Official Site]

"Video games are more successful than films," LaBeouf told GamePro. (That's not entirely true as Kotaku proved last fall; however, that is not to deride the success of games like Halo 3, Grand Theft Auto IV and Modern Warfare 2. Video games are still a relatively new medium when compared to cinema or, of course, music and books.)

"It's just a different form of entertainment that's more of a tangible, visceral, emotional experience," adds LaBeouf. "Video games are emotional now. They've become cinematic, but they're filled with feeling, meaning and hope."

And that certainly doesn't mean that video games are unable of eclipsing traditional forms of entertainment — they are already on their way there. And Hollywood actors are starting to get excited about what they can possibly bring to the table.

"As technology — and as these incredible artists that work on video games continue to push the envelope — the entire video game sector will explode," adds LaBeouf. "It's not going to go away. If anything, it will take over."

Shia LaBeouf: Actor, future predictor, eater of bananas.

Hollywood actors describe voice acting in games [GamePro]

The website looks like its about finished with its uploads, a subtle hint to us to get our hat and leave. But before we do, here is a look at the some more Comiket cosplayers you might have missed. Can you name all the characters they are cosplaying as? Can you? Sure there are duplicates, but who knows, they might be able to name all of you.

総勢200人！元ネタ全部言えるかな？コミケコスプレレポ総集編 上着を脱がすのは 強風じゃない！となコスの室温だ！！ まっしろな谷間に･･･真っ青谷間！？ コスプレレポその8 【コミケ77レポ】 [moeyo.com]

Until then, Kotaku has taken upon itself (you're welcome) to come up with a short list of sure-fire ways that the domestic Japanese game industry can grow. Bigger, stronger, faster. Japan definitely will not may not adopt all of our suggestions. But if it adopts a few of them — watch out North America and Europe!

Let's have a look, five ways Japan can stop domestic shrinkage — don't forget, we're not talking about how the Japanese game industry can turn itself around abroad, but at home in The Land of the Rising Sun.

1. Price Cuts: People love price cuts. When the PS3 price dropped last fall in Japan, PlayStation 3 console sales increased 700 percent. Likewise, the Wii and the PSP experienced huge sales spikes when both got price cuts last fall with sales tripling.

2. New Hardware: Time has passed, and "next generation" hardware has become "current generation" hardware. While redesigns have been released (slimmer consoles, tweaked portables), complete redesigns have not been released yet — you know, sequels. No DS2, no PSP2, no PS4 and no Wii2. A hi-def Nintendo Wii, however, would suffice!

3. More Mario, More Dragon Quest, More Final Fantasy — Oh, Pokémon, Too!: A cursory look at 2009's biggest selling software in Japan shows Nintendo and Square Enix are perennially popular with Japanese consumers. While we do not doubt there will be a shortage of Mario, Pocket Monster, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy in 2010, Japanese gamers want sequels, not spin-offs. Japanese game developers need to speed up their production cycle! And if it cannot do that, the country must create a new, sustainable IP — you know, this generation's equivalent of Mario, Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest.

4. Increase Number of Children: The population of Japan is decreasing, graying. More old folks maybe means titles like Brain Age have a market in Japan. But old folks stereotypically are not known to be hardcore gamers or rabid game consumers — children are! One Japanese health minister's telling women they are "baby making machines" does not seem to have done the trick, so perhaps ease immigration? Ha, good one, fat chance!

5. Robots: Traditionally, the West has viewed the robots as evil — a threat to humanity. Just look how robots are portrayed in films like Metropolis or Terminator. They're a modern day Frankenstein. In Japan, however, robots are not evil, they are your friend. Whether it be robot boys like Tetsuwan Atom or robot cats like Doraemon, Japan loves robots. And if Japan can build Teddy Bear robots to carry people, than surely it can build robots to buy its video games.

[Pic]

A makeover like the one provided by Filip Victor. It adds HDR lighting, new models, new textures, an upgrade to the Orange Box engine (Valve performed their own tweaks for the 2007 re-release of the game on Xbox 360) and even some new Steam achievements to the ageing PC version of the original Half-Life 2.

You can see examples of the improvements made in the clip above (though be advised, you'll want to kill the sound). If you like what you see, you can find instructions on how to download the mod below.

Hl2 Pc Achivements & HDR Released [Steam, via Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

David Scherer (pictured), an honors student at Austin Peay (student section chant: "Let's Go Peay!" True story.) logged his 40th hour, 21st consecutive minute playing GTA IV at 4:22 a.m. U.S. Eastern today, and according to WTVF-TV of Nashville, was still playing at 6:30 a.m. Scherer proudly noted he had actually completed more of the game than Chirantan Patnaik, 26, and took one less piss break than Patnaik's four. I don't know that I take fewer than three piss breaks in four hours, much less 40.

In Patnaik's favor, he's probably richer. Scherer said his marathon was inspired to raise money for his swim team to build an indoor pool. Maybe he can wager for some of Patnaik's personal equity.

Clarksville Student Breaks Video Game World Record [WTVF-TV via The Kartel; image by WTVF-TV]

Surprise! This is actually a story about rational people. He put the orc, which he'd owned for six years, up for adoption. "Dee means more to me, so he had to go," said Robert Cushnie, a 42-year-old telecommunications manager.

Seems Cushnie had acquired the statue when a games store shut down. He married his wife in February, but she, standing 5-3 was mildly repulsed, if not intimidated, by the six-foot orc. The statue is now with an elderly couple, whose 16-year-old granddaughter adores it.

Oh by the way, the Cushnies are still moving to Canada, Dee's country of origin. See? Happily ever after. We can do that here, too.

It's Him Orc Me [The Scottish Sun, via HBG]

[Image via GizmoWatch; it's not the statue in question, but close.]

It consists of Mario, Zelda, Mega Man, Kirby, Square Enix, Donkey Kong and Pac-Man. There's a chair, too.

Video Game Memorabilia Museum [Figure.fm via DannyChoo]

Seizing upon a rare moment's peace, a bored GameStop employee came up with this. Which is not only an amazingly life-like portrait of the band circa 2010, but also has a blurb Activision should just copy, paste and run with on every future Guitar Hero game.

Amazing custom ‘Guitar Hero: Van Halen' game case spotted at Game Stop [Albotas]

Put together by Conor O'Kane, who also did the excellent Harpooned, BTG!'s premise is simple. If a game "crosses the line", you can ban it.

Ban This Game! [via Kotaku AU]

Take Africa, for example. For years, the continent - and, let's not forget, the continent's inhabitants - had been largely ignored by an industry focused on aliens (space), fast cars (race tracks) and Nazis (rural France).

Yet in a six month period over 2008-09, two major, high profile games (sorry, Afrika) weren't just set in Africa, they were really set in Africa. With real Africans and everything.

Those games were Resident Evil 5 and Far Cry 2. Sure, one did a better job of depicting the continent's complex political and racial situation than the other (hint: it was the game not made by Capcom), but at the end of the day, both titles had put Africa on the radar.

Crytek's games - the first Far Cry and Crysis - have done something similar, the German developers carving their own niche on sunny tropical beaches while other FPS teams continue to set games in mud under grey skies. The same goes for New York City, both Grand Theft Auto IV and Prototype replicating the Big Apple in their own special way.

It's like Yoda said. Always two, there are.

So what will gaming's next hot destination be? It can't be any of the above locations, they're old hat. It has to be somewhere not only new, and fresh, but interesting. Somewhere that, like Far Cry 2 and GTAIV, is as big a part of game's appeal as the mechanics and characters themselves.

Here are some of my ideas; feel free to chime in with your own in the comments section.

AUSTRALIA - Bias, perhaps, but hear me out; the world's smallest continent is also one of the most varied, with deserts, rainforests and everything in between. It's sparsely populated (so there's less work for developers), has great weather (blue skies are always fun) and a history of open roads and lawlessness (in case anyone is thinking of a Borderlands sequel/clone).

Best part? It's criminally under-represented in games, making any game set in Australia - regardless of the tone or time period - truly unique.

MONGOLIA - Know what was most interesting about Uncharted 2? The way it took you to Nepal, an area you'd probably never been in a game before. Well, Mongolia is kind of like Nepal, only instead of snow, you could have plains, and yurts, and horses, and throat singing.

ICELAND - Know what's weird about Iceland? There's no trees. Well, there are some trees, but not like there is anywhere else that's not a desert. And there's your appeal; it's like a desert, only instead of sand, there's grass, and fishing villages, and - timeline dependant - vikings.

KOREA - Korea stands poised this decade to be like Japan was in the 80's; a fascinating, vibrant Asian powerhouse. But just like the war that shares the nation's name, developers seem to have forgotten Korea even exists, with any and all Asian settings focused on China and Japan. Something set in present-day Seoul would be a nice touch.

Note I'm talking locations only, not themes. And by themes I mean "World War Two", or "Zombies". We'll get to those later in the week!

By the way, can you tell that's a hooker? It's a hooker. Look how she's dressed.

Peter Uses Grand Theft Auto as a Driving Tutorial on Family Guy [Gawker.TV]

Gamasutra ran a great interview last week with the creative director of Hamagami/Carroll, a packaging company that's designed the game boxes for titles like Quake Wars, Warhammer Online and Modern Warfare 2.

Hamagami/Carroll's Justin Carroll says that the process isn't as quick or as easy as you'd think; the company spent two years designing the box for Quake Wars, which he says is necessary because "packaging communicates a deeper story about the game", and that "You can't bullshit a core audience".

Good reading on an under-appreciated part of the creative design process. You can check it out below.

Interview: What's In A Box? Game Packaging Unpacked [Gamasutra]

Spring 2009 looked promising with otaku heroine and Japanese popstar Shoko Nakagawa getting her own Xbox 360. But within months, she gave away some of her Xbox 360 titles.

Gamers started to notice that Xbox 360 titles (or their spin-offs) started making their way to other platforms like the PS3. Combined with a history of hardware issues, the Xbox 360 began to look less appealing when compared to the PS3, which had started gaining momentum.

The retail rot set in.

Either stores began posting signs stating they would not buy back used consoles made before August 2007 (above) or completely stopped buying back Xbox 360s.

One retail shop put stickers with cute Christmas trees that read "Great for a Christmas Gift" on the PS3 and the Wii, but not the Xbox 360.

When listing used hardware that the store below would buy back, the Xbox 360 was ignored, left out.

In late December, major retailer Yodobashi Camera no longer offered extended warranties for the Xbox 360. It was the only console for which Yodobashi Camera did not offer an extended warranty.

The problem here isn't so much what Japanese gamers think of the Xbox 360, but what Japanese retailers think.

Western titles such as Modern Warfare 2 (first person shooters are becoming trendy of sorts in Japan) have helped the console weather the storm. While the near future looks equally bleak, Microsoft does have an ace up its green sleeve with its Natal motion controller. Initial media reaction in Japan has been positive and if sold and packaged right, Natal could definitely breathe new life into Xbox Japan.

Xbox360衰退の歴史　「こくないで、敗戦しても最良機」 [はちま起稿]

Reader Justin was on the scene to capture the moment with his camera. Thanks Justin!

Robert Bowling from Modern Warfare 2 developer Infinity Ward ponders fist bump etiquette.

Teenage girls do not freak out over Brutal Legend designer Tim Schafer, but Twilight.

Warhawk director and current LightBox Interactive president Dylan Jobe notes an important distinction. So noted.

Microsoft's Larry Hryb mentions Christmas and decorations in same sentence. Christmas 2010 confirmed!

His guido name might be "The Landscape", but his club nickname is "Dude Huge".

See any interesting, insightful or funny tweets from gaming's elite? Email us your favorite or send us Twitter usernames for us to follow.

[via Boing Boing]

The special "Kotaku Cut" of Kyle and Ashley's day at the altar gives a closer look at many of the Zelda-inspired aspects previously unpublished—including the Triforce-esque engagement ring, the invitations and the Link tunic color scheme chosen for the bridesmaids' dresses. Because I know that if there's one thing the Kotaku readership loves to chat about, it's bridal wear.

Things get a little awkward when Ganon shows up, drunk, but Kyle handles it with grace. Thanks again, Kyle!