Brian Ashcraft

The First Nintendo Switch Sales Numbers For Japan

The Nintendo Switch has sold an estimated 330,637 units in its first three days on sale in Japan. That’s according to Famitsu, which adds that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild sold an estimated 190,060 copies in the country. That figure is retail only and does not include downloads.  These early figures are…

Windmills. Kinderdijk, Netherlands. By Todd Belcher. JPGs is a photo peek into wherever gamers might find interesting. If you’re a photographer and have images you want to share, drop us a line!  

Track: Regret | Artist: New Order | Album: Republic  Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to – and gaming to – at the moment.

The Nintendo Switch is getting a fight stick. Japanese peripheral maker Hori will release a Hayabusa stick for the Switch. Details to come at a later date, and no word yet on an international release.

Gintama Movie Actors Compared With The Anime 

If the point was to find actors who looked like the anime characters, then I guess the filmmakers did that! Via Twitter user Nanazawa, here are how the real-life actors stack up to their anime counterparts.  The Gintama movie opens this July in Japan. Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you…

Godzilla Resurgence won Best Picture at this year’s Japan Academy Prize awards, beating out Your Name. In case you missed them, check out Kotaku’s Godzilla Resurgence review here and our Your Name impressions here. 

In Japan, “Meat Cakes” Are A Thing

Who said cakes have do be made of sugar and spice and crap like that? Behold, meat cakes. As noted on Matome Naver and Sankei News, “meat cakes” (肉ケーキ or “niku keeki”) first started catching on a few years back. Now, they’re appearing more and more at yakiniku (grilled meat) restaurants across the country. See,…

Peace in the City. Kagoshima, Japan. By Luke Flynn JPGs is a photo peek into wherever gamers might find interesting. If you’re a photographer and have images you want to share, drop us a line! 

Track: Beautiful Ones | Artist: Suede | Album: Coming Up  Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to – and gaming to – at the moment.

Looks Like A Pornstar Is In The Nintendo Switch

In Japan, there is an infamous gay porno called A Midsummer Night’s Lewd Dream. The flick has spawned seemingly endless memes online in Japan. It appears like one of its stars is in the Nintendo Switch’s Photo Album set-up screen. As Know Your Meme explains, A Midsummer’s Night Lewd Dream has often long been ridiculed…

Switch Owners Are Still Reporting Joy-Con Connectivity Issues [UPDATE: Nintendo comments]

Some Nintendo Switch owners continue to say the console’s left Joy-Con controller has sync problems. Even after the console’s first system update, they’re left wondering what they can do for a fix. The issue appears to occur while playing in TV mode and when the controller’s signal is interrupted, such as when another person stands…

The Red Panda. Tierpark Berlin, Germany. By Ramón Avendaño Arechavala. JPGs is a photo peek into wherever gamers might find interesting. If you’re a photographer and have images you want to share, drop us a line!

People Line Up For The Nintendo Switch In Japan

It’s March 3 in Japan. The Nintendo Switch is officially on sale, and in some locations, there are the lines to prove it. Because of online sales, it’s increasingly hard to predict how a console will do by checking out launch day lines. That being said, folks came out in Tokyo to line up for…

Japanese Dude Really Wants You To Buy His Tea

There might be no better green tea ambassador in the world than this guy. This is Akihiro Kita. He appeared in this clip a few years ago, but it’s once again making the internet rounds. You might think, well, he’s just being selling because of he’s speaking English. Maybe! But he’s fun in Japanese, too.…

Isao Yamazaki, owner of the world’s most impressive Nintendo collection, talked about his favorite items and the company’s history with website Tofugu. You can read the interview here. 

The New Pokémon Movie Shows How Ash And Pikachu Became Friends 

Last December, we first got a look at upcoming Pokémon The Movie: I Choose You! The teaser made it seem like the flick was a reboot. The latest trailer confirms it, showing how Ash and Pikachu teamed up. Their relationship doesn’t start out so great, but Pikachu eventually warms to Ash. (That is, even after…

Ferry to Miyajima. Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. By Thomas Ito | Facebook | Instagram JPGs is a photo peek into wherever gamers might find interesting. If you’re a photographer and have images you want to share, drop us a line!

VR Machine Powered By…One Strong Dude 

Most VR machines I’ve seen recently are elaborate and high-tech (here and here, for example). This one, however, is different Via Toychan, the man on the platform is watching a VR rollercoaster simulator, which is made realer thanks to some analog elbow grease. Well, it’s probably more responsive than your typical VR set up. Kotaku…

Cheering Up Twitter, One Cheap Cosplay At A Time

Thought Thailand had the market cornered on amazingly inexpensive and creatively odd cosplay? Nope! Japan has a contender of its own. Meet Takaya In the past few months, his low cost cosplays have started get traction on Twitter, sometimes getting thousands of retweets. Here are some of Takaya’s best costumes—many of which seem to result…

Lucky Japanese Nintendo Fans Accidentally Got The Switch Early

The Nintendo Switch will be released on March 3 worldwide. Today, however, is March 1. Yet, a couple lucky folks in Japan apparently got their consoles delivered two days early. Via Splatoon Nawabari, here is a Switch that was sent out early. As the label says, it was slated to be delivered on March 3,…