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Should A Game Demo Work In A Pirate-Themed Nightclub?
If something goes wrong when you, a video game producer, try to show a trio of Kotaku writers a DS game, should you blamed the pirate-themed nightclub you’re standing in? Or should you blame a questionable staple of game design? These questions popped into my head last week in Tokyo. Koichi Yamaguchi was the game…
By Stephen Totilo Published October 2, 2009 -
Know The Likes And Dislikes Of Your Tecmo/Koei Producers
One guy likes buying toilet paper. Another says he never drives on the same road twice. But were you also wondering which Tecmo producer can walk like a zombie? This two-sided document was handed to reporters who attended a Tecmo-Koei event in Tokyo last week. Video game producers from the recently-merged company mingled with press…
By Stephen Totilo Published October 2, 2009 -
Ace Attorney Devs Want Mia Fey For The Defense, No Console Spin-Offs
Two of the top men at Capcom responsible for making interactive murder investigations funny know which fake lawyer they’d hire and why their games should only be on handhelds. They also talked about their new game. “Young Mia Fey,” Motohide Eshiro was telling me through a translator without hesitation last week at the Capcom media…
By Stephen Totilo Published October 2, 2009 -
Old News ’03: UMD Is The Way To Go
There’s no room for you in the PSPgo, UMD. But, yes, Sony used to say you were awesome. That started six years ago. You are reading Kotaku’s once-weekly (sort of) journey back to yesteryear. This week, I wanted to commemorate the launch of the PSPgo with a look at the piece of technology not being…
By Stephen Totilo Published October 1, 2009 -
Classy Furniture For Gamers, For $1000 And Up
Way back in early September during the Penny Arcade Expo, Kotaku alumnus Adam Barenblat and I met Robert Gifford, a man who thinks gamers of all kinds deserve to have nice gaming furniture. Stuff not to be embarrassed of. For more on Gifford’s products, check out the Geek Chic website. As you can hear in…
By Stephen Totilo Published October 1, 2009 -
No Graphical Complaints From This Wii Developer [UPDATE]
Ryozo Tsujimoto told me he had no complaints about the horsepower of the Wii, when I interviewed him last week. He’s the producer on the game Capcom is marketing as “the most beautiful game on the Wii.” NOTE: The screenshot that originally appeared atop this post — which I’ve now moved to the bottom —…
By Stephen Totilo Published October 1, 2009 -
40 Hours? 100 Hours? How A Game Developer Determines RPG Duration
One of the creators of White Knight Chronicles, the upcoming PlayStation 3 role-playing game, just wanted to know how long their game was. “So, that was the point of the question,” Yoshiaki Kusuda said through a translator, laughing. Not really. Level 5, the studio behind White Knight Chronicles, is an RPG juggernaut in Japan. They…
By Stephen Totilo Published October 1, 2009 -
Reviews
Dead Space Extraction Review: Frighteningly Good
Surprising in more good ways than bad, Dead Space Extraction is the Wii Sports Tennis of so-called hardcore games on the Wii. What they’d tell you in a catalog is that Dead Space Extraction is the Wii prequel to last year’s PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 sci-fi horror hit Dead Space. They’d write that it…
By Stephen Totilo Published October 1, 2009 -
Talk Amongst Yourselves
The October TAY needed something Halloween-ish for its lead image. Reader PuffyTail suggested Henry Fuseli’s The Nightmare. That’s scary enough for me. Carry on and comment about games right here. Confused about commenting on Kotaku? Read our FAQ.
By Stephen Totilo Published October 1, 2009 -
This Week In Video Game Comics
This week, Kotaku brings you not only the current week’s worth of new gaming-based comics hitting shops… but last week’s too. Double the comics for no extra price. Click the thumbnails for more details. Halo Helljumper #3… Written by Peter David. Drawn by Eric Nguyen Summary Via Publisher Marvel Comics: Mysteries deepen as the Helljumpers’…
By Stephen Totilo Published September 30, 2009 -
PixelJunk Shooter Impressions: An Improving Flow
Few games that I’ve seen benefit as much from being seen in video, as opposed to in stills, as PixelJunk Shooter. So before reading further, interested parties should watch the following — then read the words that follow. Let’s look at the official Tokyo Game Show trailer for the game, via GameTrailers.com… OK. See how…
By Stephen Totilo Published September 30, 2009 -
Red Steel 2 Impressions: What 2006 Promised
My second hands-on with Red Steel 2, this time in Tokyo, confirmed to me that Ubisoft’s first-person Wii sequel is the kind of Wii game that, back in 2006, I thought we would be playing more of. It is a game that will be as fun as the motions needed to control it. If arm-swinging…
By Stephen Totilo Published September 30, 2009 -
Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep Impressions: My Kind Of Junk Food
Having bailed on Kingdom Hearts 2 after reaching the Steamboat Willy stage, I may have finally found the KH game to bring me back. It was available to preview last week in Tokyo. Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep is, according to the wonderfully pithy Square-Enix TGS press kit, a game that lets us “Turn back…
By Stephen Totilo Published September 30, 2009 -
The Slightly Late Shadow Of The Colossus Concept Sketch Gallery
While looking through Sony’s PlayStation image archive for my story on Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, I found some development sketches for the latter game that I’d never seen. I had to share. Sorry this is four years late.
By Stephen Totilo Published September 29, 2009 -
What In The World EA Is Doing In Japan
What’s EA doing in Japan? Making partnerships. Putting out games. And determining that Dead Space Extraction suits the market. But Brutal Legend does not. About a week ago, give or take a jet-lag-lost half-day I was at an EA event in Tokyo participating in such ancient Japanese traditions as playing Dante’s Inferno and killing some…
By Stephen Totilo Published September 29, 2009 -
Kojima: Maybe A Foreign Studio Should Re-Make Metal Gear
One last bit from Kotaku’s Hideo Kojima interview of last week. The gentleman asking questions for Kotaku Japan asked Kojima about remaking the original Metal Gear. Too busy, the developer said. But… “It doesn’t have to be me who makes it,” he said, noting he may not enough years in his life to get to…
By Stephen Totilo Published September 29, 2009 -
NieR Gestalt Impressions: Bewildered In A Hallway
Nier Gestalt‘s protagonist may be the perfect hero for his game. He looks tired and a bit confused. After a 40 minute wait on a line at last week’s Tokyo Game Show, I played a five minute demo of Square-Enix and Cavia’s 2010 third-person action role playing game, NieR Gestalt. I was unimpressed. The demo…
By Stephen Totilo Published September 29, 2009 -
If The Phoenix Wright Crew Was In A Fighting Game….
Never mind the recently announced expansion to the Street Fighter roster. What if, I asked some Capcom developers last week, the company put its video game lawyers into a fighting game? Who would enter, and what would their moves be? I was speaking two the two top men behind Ace Attorney Investigations in their last…
By Stephen Totilo Published September 29, 2009
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