Brian Ashcraft

This PS Vita Might Rip Out Your Spine

PS Vita game Soul Sacrifice, which lets you rip out your spine and wield Excalibur, finally has a release date in Japan: March 7. But that’s not all. The game is also getting a special bundle, complete with a special Soul Sacrifice emblazoned Vita. Priced at ¥29,980, the bundle comes with an original Soul Sacrifice…

Crazy Pokémon Fan Breaks Up Sports Game

Sports games are no strangers to fans running on the field. Sometimes those individuals are drunk. Sometimes they’re just naked—or naked and drunk. Rarely, if ever, are they wearing a Pikachu backpack and truly awful jeans. As pointed out by Yahoo and ESPN, a fan with questionable fashion sense raced on the field early in…

All the Bullet Hell You Can Handle in One Box Set

Cave, famous for its maniac shooting games, is releasing an Xbox 360 box set for its shoot’em up fans. Called “Cave Shooting Collection”, the box set comes with ten classy Cave titles: Espgaluda 2: Black Label, DeathSmiles, DeathSmiles II X, Do-Don-Pachi Dai-Fukkatsu, Do-Don-Pachi Dai-Fukkatsu: Black Label, Muchi Muchi Pork & Pink Sweets, Akai Katana Shin,…

Remember the nude U.S. Naval officer who peed in a manga cafe? He got off without prosecution. At least he got off.

I’m Frying My Eyes, So Let’s See If These Gaming Glasses Can Stop That

I stare at a screen. A lot. All day. And when I finish, I stare at a screen some more. Seriously, this cannot be good for my eyes. You might have the same worry! You might not, because A). You don’t stare at a monitor or a TV all day or B). Don’t really care…

The New Iron Chef‘s Bad Ratings Blamed on Unappetizing Food

During its heyday, Iron Chef had celebrities like Mother creator Shigesato Itoi on to taste its delicious looking and interesting meals. The show was a smash hit. And now, it has returned to Japanese television after a 13-year hiatus. And nobody’s watching. According to J-Cast, online and in weekly magazines, people have been saying that…

This Mecha Sure Knows Its Audience (and Fan Service)

Virtual On mecha Fei-Yen is getting yet another plastic model. It’s called “TF-14 A/M+ Fei-Yen [Final 14 Special] Vivid Cinderella”. Try saying that twice fast. The kit comes with customizable pieces—weapons and boobs—for both version of Fei-Yen, whether that’s the TF-14+, which is named “Vivid Heart”, or the TF-14 M+ version, which is named “Cinderella…

Here Are All the Japanese Game Boy Advance Games. At Once.

If you’ve ever wondered what all 795 Japanese Game Boy Advance cartridges would look like lined up, wonder no more. And if you’ve ever wondered how much all those carts would cost, then do likewise! Someone has put a complete Japanese GBA game collection up on eBay for a cool US$5,800. Free shipping, though. There’s…

Teen Wanted To Be An Anime Character, So He Burned Trash

A 13 year-old in Fukuoka was recently picked up for a misdemeanor: he was burning garbage with a lighter at two trash collection spots, Yahoo! Japan reports. When asked why he was doing this, the kid replied that he wanted to see what how it was to handle fire “like an anime hero.” The article…

It’s Like Facebook or Twitter, But for Japanese Geeks

Meet Wonder! As social networking sites go, it’s pretty darn nerdy. Cosplay, figurines, mecha, anime drawings—you name it, Wonder! seems to have it. Just launched by Yahoo! Japan, the site does have a decidedly otaku (geek) focus and an unnecessary exclamation point. Wonder! is image heavy, which I personally prefer for social networking sites (and…

I Had No Idea Japanese Melons Could Be So Damn Terrifying

There are local characters in Japan called “yura kyara” (“weak” or “laid back” characters). They often promote local businesses or produce. And being Japanese characters, they’re generally cute. So to promote Yubari melons, which are generally seen as being “cute” as well as often expensive, you’d think the yura kyara would be cute. You’d be…

Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima doesn’t want to be “the Metal Gear guy”. So, maybe make something else?

This Desktop Design for Gaming Addicts Would “Ruin” Humanity

Sometimes you settle in for some PC gaming or web surfing. And you just don’t get up. You can feel your bum go numb and the chair meld into your skin. Surely, you know the feeling. If so, maybe the above internet-produced desktop design would appeal to you. And if it appealed to enough people,…

Want to use your PlayStation 2 controller to play Wii or Wii U games? There’s a peripheral for that

You Cannot Stop This Manga Artist with Threats of Death and Destruction

For months now, Japanese manga artist Tadatoshi Fujimaki has been dealing with repeated threats. There is a vendetta against him, which has produced numerous threatening letters containing suspicious chemicals. As previously detailed, the threats are apparently from one angry individual who seems intent on stopping Fujimaki from promoting his manga Kuroko’s Basketball. The threats are…

Unicorn Lair in North Korea? Surely, the Communist Government Is Kidding, Right?

Unicorns are the stuff of, I dunno, unicorns. They’re fantasy! This isn’t the 1600s, and we know better. But in North Korea, which sometimes seems like it’s stuck in the 1600s, the government’s central news agency is running a story about a unicorn lair. That’s correct, a lair where a unicorn lived. Here is the…

The Lightning Returns Logo Took a Very Long Time to Design

Some things can be finished quickly. Some things take time. The Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII logo, it seems, took time. A lot of time. On the game’s official Twitter, someone from the Square Enix publicity department said “it took an exceedingly amount of time to arrive at the design”. Creating it was a long…

One Piece Is Still One Cruel Mistress

Eiichiro Oda writes and draws the biggest selling manga of all time, One Piece. Oda didn’t do that by sitting around on his ass. Well, actually he did, because he works from a desk. But he sure didn’t make One Piece so successful by lollygagging around. In a recent manga interview, Oda was asked about…

Forget the Haters, Japan *Hearts* Call of Duty

The conventional wisdom has always been Japan loves role-playing games and dislikes first-person shooters. First-person shooters, pundits said, were popular only with Western gamers. The pundits and conventional wisdom, it seems, are wrong. In its debut week, Call of Duty: Black Ops II on the PS3 is the second best selling game in Japan, moving…

Here’s Dirty Bomb, A New Multiplayer Shooter From The Folks Behind Brink

Via VG247, here’s a first look at Dirty Bomb, an upcoming PC first-person shooter from Splash Damage, the developers of last year’s Brink, with what looks to be a nuclear twist. Dirty Bomb Splash Damage Trailers [VG247]