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You Can Now Play The Littlest Metroid Game Of Them All
Three guys have made the cutest little Metroid game you’ve ever seen. And if you like the cuteness they’re peddling, you can go download a “tech demo” and play it yourself. “Minitoid” is a homage to the classic Nintendo series made by programmer Tokinsom, artist Betatronic and composer Jamie Billings. It’s not Metroid as you…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 5, 2011 -
CultureTotal Recall
How A Company Went From Rocking Horses To Pac-Man
Continuing on from recent looks at the unlikely beginnings of companies like Nintendo and Sega, let’s today see where Namco – now part of Namco Bandai – got its start. Here’s a hint: it certainly wasn’t making video games. No, like Nintendo and Sega, Namco began long before the commercial electronic video game had been…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 5, 2011 -
Want To Help Build A Digital Library Of Old Video Game Magazines?
Kevin “Game Mag Weasel” Gifford has a plan. He’s sitting on a motherload of old (like, pre-2000) video game magazines and wants to know if anyone’s got the means to scan them all. Make a digital “library” of sorts. If you can help, head here for details
By Luke Plunkett Published April 4, 2011 -
Lara Croft Gets Wet, Snake Takes A Smoke Break And Vader Mourns A Tragic Loss
Between Anime Conji 2011 being held a week ago, Wondercon 2011 and the Supernova conventions going down in Australia, there’s been a ton of great cosplay on display in recent days. So let’s take a look at some of the best of it! In this week’s round-up, there’s an aquatic Lara Croft, an energetic football…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 4, 2011 -
Street Fighter’s Cammy Gets An Unofficial Makeover
Cammy, a Lara Croft rival for “Most Beloved British Video Game Character Of All Time”, is looking a little old-fashioned in the 2000’s. I think it’s the boots. Time, then, for a change. Russian artist Bogdan Gabelko drew this redesign of the iconic character for a recent competition. There’s two pictures on show: one a…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 4, 2011 -
Get A Behind-The-Scenes Look At The New Twisted Metal
Twisted Metal series creator David Jaffe has posted some photos on his blog, giving us a behind-the-scenes look at the filming of the new Twisted Metal’s live-action cutscenes. If you’re not a Twisted Metal fan, these likely won’t make sense at all! If you are, though, you’ll see glimpses of costumes and characters you haven’t…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 4, 2011 -
There’s A New Mech Fighting Arcade Game
Developed by Konami, Steel Chronicle is a multiplayer mech combat game that’s currently – and rather quietly – having some location testing done in Japan. The game is a shooter of sorts, with a viewpoint sat close behind the player’s mech, while you’re tasked with mowing down waves of invading alien bugs. The action is…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 4, 2011 -
Oh, Turns Out You CAN Run Gmail Using Kinect
Last week, Google thought it’d be funny to have an April Fool’s gag based on Kinect powering, of all things, Gmail. Well, turns out you can actually do that. A research team at USC already has Kinect running Google’s email service, and as you’ll see in this slightly stupid video (it’s keeping things in the…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 4, 2011 -
Video Games Say The Darnedest Things
While the video games of today are (usually) professional enough to hire proper writers to handle localisation and translation duties, it wasn’t always that way. Take the 1980s and early 1990s, for example. Lots of games turned up in the West from Japan. And some of them got a little…lost in translation. You may have…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 4, 2011 -
Anonymous Targets Sony, Warns Of Penises Stuck In Hornets Nests
Militant hacker group Anonymous has launched a campaign against Sony, citing the Japanese company’s “unforgivable offense against free speech and internet freedom” after it took legal action against a pair of hackers. As you’d expect from the group, its statements are neither polite nor subtle. It says Sony has “abused the judicial system in an…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 4, 2011 -
CultureTotal Recall
Meet The Four Americans Who Built Sega
Nintendo and Sega. Hardware rivals for decades, and even today they remain the archetype Japanese video game companies. Only, Sega isn’t entirely Japanese. It was founded by some American guys. While Nintendo, with its history in trading cards and love hotels, is as Japanese as they come, Sega’s history can actually be traced back to…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 4, 2011 -
These Final Fantasy Ladies Look Ready For A Fight
Watch, as Final Fantasy XIII comes to life before your very eyes. This pair were snapped by Belgian cosplay photographer kn8e at the Anime Conji 2011 get-together, which was held last weekend in San Diego. There’s some great work in those costumes, from the boots to the sword, but it’s the hair colour I like…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 1, 2011 -
The Complete History Of An Under-Appreciated Games Developer
You may know Volition as the developers behind the Saints Row and Red Faction games. But its history is actually a lot longer, and more illustrious, than that. A film crew from Game Informer has, during the course of some studio visits, got a little sidetracked and catalogued the entire history of the developer, from…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 1, 2011 -
The Ultimate Field Guide For LEGO Nerds [Update]
I like LEGO. Do you like LEGO? Bet you do. So let’s all wish we could find a way to justify spending $80 on this glorious hardcover book and…wait a minute. $80 isn’t so bad! This is LEGO Collector – 2. Premium Edition, which is a very fancy way of saying it’s a catalogue depicting…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 1, 2011 -
This Morrigan Painting Could Have Beaten The Nazis
Darkstalker’s Morrigan goes all classic 1940’s pin-up in this amazing piece by Kazeki. Normally, the fighting game’s most iconic character is shown as being a little, well, slutty. Thankfully, that’s definitely not the case here. Succubus by Kazeki
By Luke Plunkett Published April 1, 2011 -
An Old Game About Fighting Robots Makes A Comeback
In 1996, brilliant British developers The Bitmap Brothers released “Z”, a real-time strategy game that featured drunken, belligerent robots shooting the crap out of each other. It was, I remember, tough to control, but it was also funny as hell. At least, I remember my 16 year-old self thinking it was funny as hell. How…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 1, 2011 -
Sometimes, Kinect Just Wants To Make Things Look Pretty
Microsoft’s Kinect is normally spoken of in terms of its practical applications. Let’s take a break from that, and use its “thousand points of light” as the basis for a beautiful photographic exhibit. Photographer Audrey Penven has put together a collection called “Dancing with Invisible Light”, which drops a number of her subjects in the…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 1, 2011 -
WARNING: It’s April 1
Good morning, Kotaku. It’s April 1. April Fools Day. A day when the internet becomes a wasteland of bad jokes and annoying fake news. So wherever you tread today, be cautious. And if it’s any consolation, we won’t be trying to trick you. Seriously.
By Luke Plunkett Published April 1, 2011
Luke Plunkett
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