The latest issue of Famitsu Xbox 360 has an interview with voice actress Yuna Inamura, known for her work in anime like SoltyRei and Darker than Black. The interview isn't pretty much what you'd expect! Though, she does talk about living in Osaka as a kid and going to Takarazuka Revue.

The unintentionally hilarious part isn't anything she says in the interview. Oh, no. It's the picture she drew for Famitsu.com. The name of the "new" character is "Xbo-Kun".

A Most Bold Approach to Oregon Trail

I usually try to wrap up Saturdays with some laughs so, here's this and two other funny pics I found through the week. On their own, maybe not worth a post but together, hey, it's the weekend, so here's a funnies page for you to spread on the living room floor.

Remember, if you're a Madden gamer and want in on the KFC (Kotaku Football Conference), that announcement will be at 1 pm MDT (3 pm Eastern, noon Pacific)

Possible Explanations for This Dumbass Sears Ad

Look closely (full size on the jump). Reader Ian S. found this back-to-college ad for Sears in his local paper. Looking at this guy's set up, I'm betting the propmaster for this ad shoot is someone so out of it he refers to consoles generically not as "Nintendo" but as "the Sega." Because that's Solid Snake on the screen, and a 360 controller in our hip gamer friend's hands. So here are my thoughts for what might be going on.

1) Newton's Dirty Little Secret: It's a Sixaxis.
2) Check Out This Rad PS3 Casemod for Your Xbox 360!
3)'Intense' Driving Motion Controls Introduced to Metal Gear Solid 4 Cutscenes
4) MGS4 Now Supports Guitar Hero: Aerosmith Peripherals (lower right)
4) Sony Confounded by Standard DVD Players Kept as Heirlooms (console, under the small speakers)

I'm sure you've got your own ideas. Put 'em in the comments.

Japanese Retailer Teases Xbox 360 Final Fantasy XIII

Yes, yes, we know. Square Enix has confirmed Final Fantasy XIII on the PS3 for Japan only. While it's multi-platform in North America and Europe, there's been no official announcement of the Xbox 360 getting that title there. That doesn't stop this Japanese retailer from teasing the possibility of an Xbox 360 version of the game being released. A prophecy of things to come or merely wishful thinking? YOU DECIDE.

No, wait. SQUARE ENIX DECIDES. Hit the jump for a close-up of the store made box art.

Watercooler Games saw this earlier in the week and gave a detailed deconstruction of how a Free the Falklands! concept would be graphically impossible on the Atari 2600. I took one look and knew it was satire because one of the writers for this site, Jason Torchinsky, is a comedian and a name I remember as the editorial cartoonist of The Daily Tar Heel back when I was at N.C. State's Technician in the early 1990s.

But play along, because it's funny. Why look, his site, the Van Gogh-Goghs, have unearthed from some New Mexico landfill documented evidence of 11 scrapped projects for the Atari 2600! The casualties included such licensing/adaptations as Bosom Buddies (a cross between Kaboom! and Donkey Kong, and Kramer vs. Kramer (like Pong with children). My favorite, because I like poop jokes, is Gunther Gebel-Williams' Cage Cleaner. The bogus rationale for the bogus game sounds like pure pre-video-game-crash self-b.s.ing: "You can't blow up asteroids in real life, but you sure as [expletive deleted] can clean up [expletive deleted]."

The Best Atari 2600 Games You Never Heard Of [The Van Gogh-Goghs, via Water Cooler Games]

Forgive Dad, He Knows Not What He Does

So do the proud consoles die ... crucified, not on a cross of gold, but on a humble backyard poplar in Mechanicsville, Va.

Reader Daniel S. sent us this is from iReport — the "citizen journalism" site CNN launched. Citizen Journalist Mom said Citizen Journalist Dad "repeatedly warned" Citizen Journalists Jr., III, and IV about "their behavior" (I guess that doesn't mean rocket-jumping, PIT maneuvers, or killing hookers) while playing the Xbox. Left unsaid, but if I know dads, there was probably some tired-of-it-all ultimatum along the lines of "I'm gonna nail the goddamn thing to a tree." And when their antisocial act-outs continued, he followed through.

A Gallery of Madden Glitch Goodness

Ah, football and August — fresh cut grass, training camp, two-a-days, puking, pre-season football, the release of Madden and, about 3 seconds after that, the reports of the first Madden glitches. Unlike last year's bugfest, it's been reasonably quiet so far. But paging through YouTube on Friday I found a plethora of classic, often hilarious Madden glitches, plus one of him perhaps subconsciously drawing a wiener on the telestrator in real life.

We lead off with the Madden Ambulance Montage (love that title card) above. You can watch the health care professionals (oath: "First, do harm.") in John Madden Football '92 cut a path of destruction through the uninjured players on their way to pick up the crumpled halfback — with slo-mo replay, too. Many more clips after the jump.

We Hope This Isn't The Scout's New Weapon

Apparently the Team Fortress 2 class updates aren't coming hard and fast enough for some players — and our tipsters who inhabit portions of the internet we'd rather deny exist. Someone's taken the liberty of creating their own aluminum bat replacement with something a bit floppier. Regardless of Valve's speediness in updating the weapons load-outs of characters like the Scout, we're not so sure this whole "whacking enemies with a giant black dildo" thing is going to catch on. Of course, in the event of a dildo, we'll deny ownership of TF2.

The so called "Thor Bat" (?) can be seen in NSFW action in the clip after the jump.

The Middleman Gets Its Violent Coin-Op On

Here's an exclusive sneak look at tonight's episode of ABC Family's The Middleman. To bring everyone up to speed: The scene features the show's heroine Wendy Watson and her new boyfriend Tyler, who's completely in the dark about her job fighting aliens and bad dudes. But! They're both totally into zombie films and video games. Oh, and Nolan Bushnell gets name dropped. Tipper Gore, too. And the Dalai Lama.

TF2: The Dark Snipe

This picture (full size on the jump) is so massive its going to collapse on itself and form a black hole of win. The image is taken from the TF2 "Meet the Spy Sniper" trailer (at 0:28). It was the clear winner in a one-upsmanship photoshop contest at the Facepunch Studios Forums, about two weeks ago. (Warning, some of the other pics are pretty tasteless.)

Alright, commence with your lines/puns from "The Dark Knight." I'm the only guy in America who hasn't seen it. We had to see frickin "Stepbrothers" instead when a bunch of friends went out last week.

Who is Next on the Sniper's Hitlist? [Facepunch Studios Forums, via Ubercharged]

How GameFly is Like Your Psycho Ex

I don't get these notices because, wisely, I didn't opt in for the mailing list spam like this guy at The -Minus World. And he acknowledges that he could just as easily unsubscribe, but it's much more fun to cast GameFly's obsessive spam engine in the role of psychotic stalky ex. Especially when you can send yourself a message that says "You better not be fucking Netflix" and take a screenshot of that to illustrate the point. Oh, not to mention: "We've Received: A Restraining Order." You can see the descent into madness in four well-done screen shots of his inbox.

Gamefly Needs To Stop Acting Like A Psycho Ex-Girlfriend [The -Minus World]

Child vs. Crane Game

Video of kid climbing inside claw game [Boing Boing]

Nerds Get Slaughtered In 'LAN Party Massacre'

As a fan of the massacre film genre — I was raised on mass unsuspecting teen killing flicks like Chopping Mall, Happy Birthday To Me and Slumber Party Massacre — I may just have a soft spot for the schtick of seeing a dozen kids die in increasingly brutal yet comedic ways. That's why I'm not giving up on LAN Party Massacre, due to be released in 2009, self-described as a "comedy/horror slash film" that's a "direct parody of video game culture, but a classic slasher film at heart."

It might be the little touches, like the F5 Energy Drink that sponsors the doomed titular LAN party or the film's featured pro gamer "Mort@lity," or maybe I'm just watching the teaser trailer with blood tinted glasses.

LAN Party Massacre is obviously gory, so if you start to feel queasy when prosthetic throats are ripped out of spokesmodels, you may want to pass on the trailer at the official site.

LAN Party Massacre Official Site [thanks, Ryan!]

Chances of Having Sex Gaming Graph...

The above graph was made by some dude (NOT ME) to show a correlation between the hours he spent playing video games and the chances of him having sex with his wife. As you can see, playing video games over an hour causes this fellow's odds of getting some to nosedive south. And more than two hours causes those same odds to hit near impossible.

But, as game blog Hawty McBloggy points out, maybe this guy's chances look more like this:

So of course I took a look at my roommate situation and saw that Michael Fahey and I were going to be bunk mates for the next few days. No more than a minute later I get this hysterical laugh from Owen on instant message. "Adam, good luck trying to sleep BWA HA HA HA" he says. I was dumbfounded. There was no way I could have possibly been prepared for what was in store.

My E3 dreams were shattered when it came time to go to sleep. The great thing about being the Kotaku video intern (at the time) was that I got to capture all of the wonderful Hallmark moments. Video, after the jump

Viva Pinata 2: Believe

This video response to the famous Halo 3 Believe commercials looks way too polished to be homebrew to me, but the buzz is that someone created it with Burger King toys. Either way, it's fantastic. Is it just me or does it look like Horstachio just dropped a load of candy in fear at the end?

[Thanks for all of the tips]

Rapper Nas Shows Rush How Tom Sawyer Is Done

Wow, Nas sure can hammer home that solo in Tom Sawyer, but next time I want to see him trying to sing it. Poor Rush, I hope they don't see this video.