Brian Ashcraft

Tekken Developer: The South Korean Ratings Board Is Awful

Today, leaked photos of Tekken 7: Fated Retribution, the upcoming arcade update, circulated online in South Korea as well as online in the West. As tipster Sang points out, one of the photos was tweeted to Katsuhiro Harada, with the Twitter user writing that the image was circulating in South Korea. Harada, who oversees Tekken,…

Fried Pikachu Sounds Delicious

In South Korea, you can eat lots of delicious food. Bulgogi, bibimbap, fried Pikachu. Wait, what? Actually, it’s fried pork shaped like Pikachu. People aren’t actually killing real Pikachus for you to eat! Afternoon News reports that online you can order cutlets that are shaped like the iconic Pocket Monster. [Photo: G-Market] In Korean, “Pikachu”…

Reminder: The Basic Wii U Sucks

The Wii U itself is terrific. Great console. But whatever you do, do not buy the 8GB version. This week’s Smash Bros. patch and DLC provided a reminder that its lack of storage space stinks. This week’s update addednew characters Bayonetta and Corrin as well as a new stage, new tracks and other tweaks. (You…

Pikachu Tries Picking Up a Lady, Fails

In Great Detective Pikachu: The Bird of a New Duo, our titular sleuth is able to talk. But not everyone can understand him, including the women he tries to pick up on the street. The game’s intro starts with a dream sequence and then cuts to Pikachu in Rhyme City. When he talks to people,…

Platinum Games: ‘Making Only Original Titles Is Very Difficult’

If anyone would know that, it’s Platinum Games. Whether it’s Bayonetta or even Anarchy Reigns, the studio has churned out a string of original titles over the past decade. That isn’t easy. In the most recent Weekly Famitsu, the magazine celebrates the studio’s tenth year anniversary. Platinum Games talks about how things have changed over…

Ash from Pokémon Is Superhuman 

As far as Pokémon trainers go, Ash isn’t that potent. As far as little kids go, he is superhuman. The ten-year-old isn’t only strong for a little boy, he’d be strong for a grown man. As Kotaku previously pointed out, this is because Ash is insanely strong. To recap: Ash picks up Pignite, who weighs…

How To Become a Manga Editor

Do you dream of making manga? Make those dreams reality. Because there’s more to making manga than drawing and writing. Here’s how people in Japan help shape the characters and stories you know and love by getting jobs as manga editors. Recently, Mami at website Tofugu visited Shueisha, the publisher of Weekly Shonen Jump and…

Dragon Ball, The Super Huge Snow Sculpture

Tomorrow in Sapporo, Japan, the annual snow festival gets underway. One of the main centerpieces is an enormous Dragon Ball Super snow sculpture. Tons, literally tons, of snow were used to create this frosty relief. Below, via the event’s official site, you can see how heavy equipment moved the snow around. [Image: SnowFes] [Image: SnowFes]…

Caught in the Rain. Tokyo, Japan. By Hayden Zahn. 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!

The Future of Nintendo’s New Healthcare Platform Isn’t Certain

Back in 2014, Nintendo announced it would be releasing a new health-based platform sometime between 2015 and 2016. Well, it’s 2016, so where is it? Not ready, says Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima. It might never be. According to Asahi, it’s possible that the platform could be abandoned. The newspaper reports that Kimishima told investors, “It’s…

The World of Pokémon Gets Dark as Hell

Don’t worry! While Aipom might look dead, this Pokémon has only been knocked out in the newly released Great Detective Pikachu. That red stuff? Ketchup. Squashed tomato or not, damn, this looks grim. Photos: Brian Ashcraft | Kotaku To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter@Brian_Ashcraft Kotaku East…

The Biggest Selling Amiibos of 2015, Ranked By Region

Wonder what the most popular Amiibo in Japan is? What people are buying in Europe? Or in the United States? Nintendo releasedthe 2015 sales rankings for the top ten Amiibos in those three regions. Let’s see how they stack up during that calendar year. Japan 1. Inkling Girl (Splatoon) 2. Ika (Splatoon) 3. Inkling Boy…

Night in Ginza. Tokyo, Japan. By Walter Kim. 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!

Today, Nintendo announced pre-registration for Miitomo, Nintendo’s upcoming smartphone app, begins on February 17. It will be released the middle of next month in eight languages (Japanese, English, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, French, and Russian) and in sixteen regions around the world (the U.S., Canada, the UK, Ireland, France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Luxemborg, Spain, Italy, the…

Track: Where? | Artist: Yoru no Honki Dance | Album: Dance Time Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to – and gaming to – at the moment.

How Pikachu Has Changed Over the Years

You might know that Pikachu in the Pocket Monster anime now looks, well, like a changed Pokémon. But this isn’t the only instance of different Pikachus. Recently on 2ch, there was a thread about how characters change and one user posted the following image to show the difference between Pikachu variations. (The image, however, has…

The Official Anime Versions of Harry Potter Characters

These are not fan art. You are looking at the official anime-style drawings of many of the major Harry Potter characters. As Get News reports, Warner Bros. Japan has officially licensed these illustrations for a series of Harry Potter goods that will go on sale within the country. So far, the designs have been limited…

Eight-Year-Old Boy Apologizes to Nintendo

While some might argue that it’s often Nintendo who should be saying sorry to fans (ha!), one eight-year-old boy in Japan wrote the company an apology after spilling water all over his 3DS. Japanese Twitter user Illilrecounted how the boy had put the Nintendo handheld in his bag with his thermos, but didn’t put the…

Yucky Sounding Desserts from Japan

Would you like some beef with your parfait? What about some raw tuna? Pork? From February 9, an Italian restaurant in Osaka called Del Sole is serving up parfait ice cream desserts with slices of kuro (black) wagyu. It’s part of the restaurant’s special Valentine Day’s menu. According to Entabe, the concept behind the dessert…

Damn, Nintendo Is Selling Lots of Amiibos

People sure do like buying (and collecting) Amiibos. Proof of that: In its latest sales figures, Nintendo announced it’s sold 20.50 million Amiibo figures and another 21.5 million Amiibo cards. In February 2015, Nintendo announced that it had shipped 10.5 million Amiibos worldwide. That’s an impressive number, but the current sales figures are even more…