In this McDonald's ad, the Okinawa-born songstress headbutts herself and then a fighting game version with skirts and spin-kicks. There's even a making-of clip, in case you are dying to know how this marvel was made.

Namie Amuro is one of the biggest female singers in Japan, boasting at least one Top Ten single for 14 straight years.

Check out Amuro back in the day, singing "Don't Wanna Cry" and sporting a dangerous skirt slit.

Customers who bring their DS units to McDonalds can download items and original content as well as play others via WiFi. Besides Pokémon mini-games and character downloads (Jirachi, anyone?), there are also McDonalds quizzes and even a McDonalds manga service.

Happy Meals [McDonalds, via Go Nintendo]

"I don't know who is to blame," Mr Easterbrook says. "The issue of obesity is complex and is absolutely one our society is facing, there's no denial about that, but if you break it down I think there's an education piece: how can we better communicate to individuals the importance of a balanced diet and taking care of themselves? Then there's a lifestyle element: there's fewer green spaces and kids are sat home playing computer games on the TV when in the past they'd have been burning off energy outside.

Plus the people are eating complete shit. Added that last bit myself. Of course he does have a point. I haven't participated in any organized outdoor activities since I learned to forge my mother's name back in high school. Eating completely worthless McDonald's crap constantly can only be countered by arduous physical activity, and despite reports to the contrary, playing with your Wii doesn't count.

When it comes to the question of obesity, here is my opinion. You can eat right and play video games all day long and still be relatively slim. You can eat horrible, grease-soaked garbage and exercise regularly and still maintain a nice figure. You can't do both.

Big Macs and healthy profits - how the fast food giant fought back [Times Online via MCV]

Upon entering I ordered my memory soaked breakfast and looked around to see a McDonalds branded Gamecube gaming station in the middle of the restaurant. Now, once again I never eat fast food so for all I know this could be a staple of McDs everywhere, but this was the first I'd seen of it. It had four separate sides, each emblazoned with a different McDonalds character including my favorite unclassifiable purple blob, Grimace. I got a little closer hoping to see what kind of games they had and maybe even play a round of something. Unfortunately it was all turned off so I started taking photos of it for posterity. Looking through my lens at the controllers I saw a site that made me reconsider that McMuffin.

The controller was the filthiest thing I had ever seen. Now, bear in mind that I had been in a myriad of truck stop bathrooms in my journey across the country, but these controllers were the worst by far. Just looking at them made me go immediately wash my hands about six times. Back in the U-haul I prayed that they payed closer attention to cleaning the rest of the place than they did to that game station as I bit into my surprisingly tasty greasy breakfast.

So, word of warning for all you intrepid traveling gamers: if you decide it would be a good idea to play some games on a McDonald's game station, check that controller before you touch it or at least carry along a gallon jug of hand sanitizer and a box of wet wipes. You'll need them.

Each game piece will be based on an Atari video game — Asteroids, Centipede, Missile Command, or Star Raiders — and can have a series of rub off spots. If you can match food or Atari game prizes without uncovering a "Zap" spot, you win.

I don't imagine it would be possible to do such a promotion with the more complex, visually realistic games of today. What would you scratch? Weighted companion cubes?

You Deserve an Atari Break Today [Atari Age Magazine, scanned at Atari Museum] [Image]

From now until June 28th and then again from July 19th to 23rd you can download Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery free on Xbox Live Video Marketplace. This boon (or curse depending on how you feel about Austin Powers) comes from the friendly folks at McDonalds as part of their BurgerCon marketing campaign on XBLM. I'm not a huge Austin Powers fan and don't really want to take up room on my hard drive for such a frivolity, but I'm sure for some of you this will undoubtedly be awesomely exciting news.

Speaking of taking up room on your hard drive, I really need to remove that Shadowrun demo, it's taking up valuable space that could be better used for all those fine episodes of Breaking Bonaduce. Flynn De Marco

Free sponsored content aimed at attracting new download customers [Video Business - Thanks, Nathan]

About 25 percent of the WiFi McDonald's gives away at their restaurants is being sucked up by DS gamers, according to Computer World.

While I find that single stat fascinating the story never returns to the whole Nintendo hotspot issue, instead going on and on about WiFi and its use in restaurants.

Funny enough, McDonald's said the impetus for installing the WiFi was so their employees could use wireless handheld devices for taking orders and tracking inventory. Brian Crecente

Forget the burger; soon you'll be ordering McWi-Fi [Computer World]

Way before Burger King got in the video game business, there was the McDonald's PaRappa the Rapper game. Just check out a clip from back with Sony and McDonald's (now B.F.F. with Nintendo) were thick as theives. According to an old GameSpot article, the game was a PS2 demo that contined one-level versions of Ape Escape 2001 and PaRappa the Rapper 2. The game takes place in a McDonald's, complete with McDonald's logos shoehorned in. Yum! Brian Ashcraft

PaRappa Loves Them Tasty Burgers [GameSetWatch]

Even though the quality of the commercial, and video for that matter, suggests that this analog disaster is a relic of the late 1980's, this ad is airing right now in North America. Shocking! There's something about a "Super Mario Challenge" and men in blue body suits. I'm, uh, lovin' it. Brian Ashcraft

Thanks, Stevo

The promotion kicked off yesterday, which, according to my crippling hangover, is perfect timing. I'm off to my local McD's to snag one now—hopefully snagging that Mario Throw and Catch ball—and curb the effects of three too many Tanquerays.

You, dear reader, have the next three weeks to snag yourself some Mario toys because on September 21, this promotion is over.

Oh yeah, more pics of the toys after the jump. I'll ask my local McDonalds counter zombie how and when each will show up. Michael McWhertor

On an extremely slow news day, I give you this bouncing little McDonald's commercial featuring Mario and Mario toys. I bet you can find as many "acrobatic little goombas" on eBay as you could possibly want. Thanks, Siliconera.

In continuing Mario-in-league-with-fatness news, Kotaku Scout Lyle sends in the following heads-up:

Hey, I just got my little sister a happy meal from McDonald's when she informed me that the next line of happy meal toys was going to be "Mario and Friends." I asked her where she saw this and she showed me the bottom of the little happy meal box, thought people would want to know, thanks!

No, Lyle. Thank you. Eliza Gauger

A Sonic the Hedgehog Happy Meal? This poster from McDonald's Spain indicates such. The ad promotes six mini Game&Watch-type portables that boasts sound and color. I just swung by the Spanish Mickey D's page and saw that the current give-away are characters from the Pixar flick Cars. Have these Sega toys already been given out? Because they do look blissfully happy.

(Oh, and the juxtaposition of "happy meal" and the drawing of the small, sad crossed-out child is artistic genius.) Brian Ashcraft

More Here [El Blog de Manu]

Water Cooler Games has an interesting story up about the whole thing, as does Alice over at Wonderland. Whether or not these guys work for McDonald's, they sure has hell spoke at the International Serious Games Event.

From Wonderland:

... a buddy was at the very conference, and sent in his copious notes, which I've repro'd here. It makes for amazing reading:

"Just come from a talk at the International Serious Games Event in Birmingham, where we saw the Strategic Communications manager for McDonald's describe a training game McDonald's have been using that reveals exactly how damaging their business practices are, and how he's spreading the word about this until he gets fired."

Water Cooler conjectures that the convention, desperate for corporate speakers, got Punk'd itself, giving time and a stage to an anti-McDonald's group posing as the real thing.

We're not certain yet, but pretty sure that the conference got Punk'd. The panel this was presented on had a bunch of other corporations, super prestigious ones like NCR and Bob Stone, and my friend Elina Koivisto from Nokia, who I know is legit. They were probably desperate for corporate speakers to draw a corporate crowd. Who wouldn't sign McDonald's on if they offered?

I smell a lawsuit. Brian Crecente

McDonald's Interactive announced today at the International Serious Games Event that it was through working for a corporation that cares more about fattening up its chattel than long-term survival.

Their reasoning is both sound and admirable. The whole story is laid out at the website, and I dearly hope that when it was delivered at the conference today, it received a standing ovation.

Scientists believe that to avoid ever-more-likely calamity, we must reduce our emissions by 70% very quickly. Since governments won't do that without popular pressure, helping to generate revolt is the only responsible choice, the only true CSR.

The most interesting bit about the whole thing is how they reached this decision by watching young McD's executives play their build-the-fast-food-corporation simulation. The eager young bucks consistently made simulated in-game environmental and sociological decisions that resulted in the end of the world.

First one to melt the ice caps gets a tiny pie.

Godspeed, McD Interactive. Get yourself a real name and get the hell out of there. Eliza Gauger

Read press release and entire story of the simulations here. (No seriously, go do it) [McDonald's Interactive]

Eds. Note: This appears to be a hoax by an Italian anti-McDonalds group. Read more about it our smart shopping sister site the Consumerist.

One of the Kotaku faithful pinged this image to me late last night. He found it at McDonald's China while surfing the web. Is there really a McNes out there? And which Kotaku reader in China is getting a McNes and sending it to Detroit?

Thanks Nam

Kotaku reader Noah from Infendo hopped on over to the Chicago McDonald's this morning to be there when the big white hand and little yellow one flicked the switch for in-store DS WiFi. It sounded like a very creepy sight and Mario looked PISSED!

Nintendo McDonald's WiFi Launch [Infendo]

Nintendo released some more details about their upcoming WiFi DS service today. The only new thing seems to be some more detail about how you connect to the service outside your home.

While we ve already reported that gamers can go to any of the 6,000 Wayport-enabled McDonald s in the country to play for free on their DS, we ve never known how else you can connect to DS WiFi.

I assumed that you could just hit up any WiFi spot and use the service if you were able to access it. Not so, my friend, not so. It looks like you will also have to lug along a WiFi-enabled laptop and Nintendo s own WiFi USB Connector. I shit you not.

This is from the official press release:

When visiting other pay-service Wi-Fi hotspots, such as those at coffee shops or airports, players can use a laptop computer and the Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector to access Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. The Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector provides a conduit to play games via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection by enabling the Nintendo DS to share an Internet connection established by a laptop running Windows XP (regular Internet access fees may apply at pay-service hotspots).

Weird, huh? And a bit disappointing I might add.