Brian Ashcraft

United Nations Calls For Explicit Japanese Game Ban

In the wake of the Rapelay controversy, the United Nations‘s Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women is urging for the ban of explicit games and anime. The committee is suggesting Japan to ban “the sale of video games or cartoons involving rape and sexual violence against women which normalize and promote sexual violence…

Okami As A Cell Phone Strap

Okami on the Wii has not been released in Japan yet. It will be this October. Those who order the game via Capcom’s online store will get this adorable, ceramic cell phone strap. First come, first served.

7-Eleven: Next Famitsu Will Contain “Okamiden”

That mysterious Capcom “Okamiden” trademark is set to get a little less mysterious next week. According to 7-11, the next issue of game mag Famitsu will be covering Okamiden. Okamiden is thought to be a sequel to PS2 game Okami. As game site Siliconera points out, 7-Eleven previously pointed out that Hideo Kojima’s cloud teaser…

King of Fighters XII Figures Fight Fight Fight

When you think of SNK figures, you think of curvy Mai Shiranui figures. These are not Mai Shiranui figures! Rather, we’ve got 22cm statues of KOFXII‘s Elizabeth Blanctorche and Mature. Both are priced at ¥10,500 (US$112). Both are out September 20. Both are not Mai Shiranui. Volks KOFXII 1/6 Elizabeth Blanctorche resin kit and Volks…

New FFXIII Screens Show Different Angle of Glasses Lady

That’s Lieutenant Colonel Jihl Nabaat, Final Fantasy XIII‘s icy queen commander of the Holy Army. Famitsu has new screens of her, silver-haired Yaag Rosch, FFXIII heroine and her summon Odin in horsey Gestalt form. Final Fantasy XIII is headed for the PS3 in Japan this winter.

Scary Drawing Lady Sketches Her Room

Everybody remembers Yu Kobayashi, right? The game and anime voice actress who illustrated that nightmare drawing of the character she voiced in Wii title Arc Rise Fantasia. That drawing right up there? Yu Kobayashi did not draw that. Aki Toyosaki did. Besides lending her talents to anime K-On!, she did voice work for PS3 soul…

Comparing PS3 Tales of Vesperia Ads to Xbox 360 Ones

Games might be multi-platform, but that doesn’t mean they’re the same. Namco Bandai is adding extra content and characters to the PS3 version of role-playing-game Tales of Vesperia. Comparing screens of the various platforms offers insight into hardware power, sure, but comparing ad campaigns shows how game companies spin their sales. So above, the PS3…

Which Girls Are In Yakuza 4? Well, A Porn Star Is…

Japanese game maker is making a new Ryu Ga Gotoku (aka Yakuza in the West) and held a cattle call for those females hoping to appear in the game. There were 1,500 applicants, and semi-finalists appeared in an online poll, including curvy pin-up model Chiri Arikawa and porn star Rio, star of blue movies like…

Amazon Germany Lists 250GB Xbox 360

Online retail listings are largely a joke. A place where the hopes and dreams of unicorns are placed. Online retail listings on Amazon Germany, however, are something else altogether. In late July, Amazon Germany leaked listed a “PlayStation 3 Konsole slim”. We got a PS3 Slim. Maybe this was a lucky guess, but Amazon Germany…

More Level-5 Soccer Anime

Like soccer cartoons? Good for you. Japanese game developer Level-5 (Dragon Quest VIII, Professor Layton franchise) has spun its soccer role-playing-game Inazuma Eleven into an anime. That anime has aired its first season, and according to Level-5, it will continue for a second season. There is also a manga based on the title. The DS…

Firm or Soft: Which Is It?

To: Crecente From: Bashcraft Last week, we bought a bed. And yesterday, just like that, it arrived. Amazing how that works. For the last couple of years, we haven’t had a bed — our last apartment was so damn small that we had to sleep on mats in the living room! And since we moved…

Devil Kings In Snack Food Form

How popular is Sengoku Basara (AKA Devil Kings in the West) in Japan? Popular enough to merit snack chips. Featuring characters of Sengoku Basara Battle Heroes, the crispy chips come in four flavors: Mustard miso, crab, seaweed and cow tongue. Tasty! They’re priced at ¥315 (US$3.30) for a bag and available from this month across…

Talent Agency: Hans Zimmer Is Scoring Modern Warfare 2 [Update]

Hans Zimmer. Check the composer of big Hollywood films, and you’re bound to find his name. He’s scored movies as diverse as the smash hit The Lion King soundtrack and his Badlands inspired True Romance score. Most recently, Zimmer has scored Frost/Nixon and The Dark Knight. According to Zimmer’s agency, the Gorfaine/Schwartz Agency, the composer…

UK Gets Xbox 360 Price Cut And Price Hike

It’s not only the US that is seeing an Xbox 360 price drop, but the UK, too. Starting tomorrow, the Xbox 360 Elite 120GB will be priced at £199.99 (US$324). The new price is a £30 drop from the current retail price, and the the Xbox 360 Pro will be phased out in the United…

Gundam Large And In STONE

Another giant Gundam statue. Sure, it’s not as big as the 1/1 scale Gundam — this mobile suit is 4 meters and weighs 10 tons. Recently hitting the Japanese internet, this Gundam was created 2 years ago by a Japanese stone cutter in Yasu City, Saga Prefecture. See those stones in the background? Those are…

How Borderlands Will Handle Cheaters

There are cheaters. There are always cheaters. Borderlands developer Gearbox Software has a plan to get ’em. “We’re going to wait and see what the cheaters do, and then we’ll attack them,” says Gearbox honcho Randy Pitchford. “It’s the only way to fight them, they’ll be there no matter what we do. The console versions…

This Guilty Gear Statue Will Make You Dizzy

Don’t worry. Dizzy from fighter Guilty Gear XX Accent Core isn’t cold. She has thick skin. Thick plastic skin, that is. This is the Queen’s Gate version of Dizzy. Queen’s Gate is a spin-off of Queen’s Blade, a Lost Worlds style “combat picture book game” and has been published in Japan for the last couple…

The Xbox 360 Controller In Tasty Bento Form

As seen on Hawty McBloggy.

Do You Know Who’s Doing The Japanese TV Theme For Bayonetta? We Do

Songstress MiChi will be lending her tune “Something” to the Bayonetta television campaign. She won’t actually be lending her song. We imagine she’ll get paid by SEGA — with money even! This is the first TV theme for MiChi, who was worried about which tune should be used to help match the mode of the…

How Accurate Are These TV Ladies’ In-Game Counterparts?

In Japan, female TV anchors are not just anchors, they are idols. Worship away! Adored by males for being classier and more grown-up than your typical pop star (they also know stuff about sports and other stuff), the most popular anchors transcend news-reading and can even become actresses and appear in countless commercials. Itching to…