Guild01 isn’t like Professor Layton, Dragon Quest IX or any other of Level-5’s recent big-named titles. Rather it’s a budget anthology title sporting not one but four different—and completely unrelated—games by three famous developers (and one comedian). But despite that selling point, Guild01 has completely failed to capture the interest of the Japanese market, selling…
In the wake of this week’s Germany vs. Italy Euro 2012 match-up, there’s one image that’s making the rounds online in Japan: two of Italy’s biggest fans cheering on their team. Italy defeated Germany 2-1, and we’re left mesmerized by the GIF below, courtesy of SB Nation Pipe Dream: Super Mario Bros. Fans Rally Italy…
This year, a Super Sentai (aka Power Rangers) parody series called Unofficial Sentai Akibaranger launched in Japan along with the new “official” series Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters. For decades now, young Japanese boys have grown up with Power Rangers, which gets a new incarnation every year. Unofficial Sentai Akibaranger is from the folks who make the…
Earlier this month, we took an in-depth look at Square Enix’s trading card-based, RTS arcade game, Lord of Vermillion. While arguably the most popular game of this type, it is far from the only one—or the first one, for that matter. Collectible trading card arcade games have covered everything from real world sports to Gundam…
Starting today, Tokyo’s Grand Pacific Le Daiba hotel has three Gundam themed hotel rooms for the Amuro Ray in all of us. Earlier this year, a life-sized Gundam was erected in Tokyo’s Odaiba (again!), and the hotel is hoping to capitalize on the increased Gundam tourism. Rates start at ¥27,000 (US$340), and the above video…
Late last month, a naked man in Miami was fatally shot after he wouldn’t stop chewing on another man’s face. This wasn’t the start of a zombie apocalypse (but, rather, as sister site Jezebel pointed out, mentally ill people without a safety net). And it’s not only something that happened in the US. Yesterday, it…
In Japan, they’re called “fujoshi” (腐女子) or “rotten girls”, and they are into homoerotic “boys love” manga. The trend has spread to neighboring China, where “fujoshi” are called “funu” (腐女). Much of the appeal of boys love in both Japan and China is that the genre allows women to freely explore various roles—whether that is…
According to online research site Nensyu Labo, here is a list of the mean yearly income for the game industry with numbers crunched from public reports filed by the companies: Square Enix Holdings: ¥21,680,000 (US$272,988) Sony: ¥9,230,000 ($116,189) Nintendo: ¥9,140,000 ($115,032) Sega Sammy: ¥8,220,000 ($103,486) Konami: ¥6,780,000 ($85,371) Namco Bandai: ¥6,400,000 ($80,577) Tecmo Koei: ¥6,150,000…
Our glittering game machines and our shiny gadgets aren’t made possible by merely fancy tech and electricity. They are here because minerals called rare earths, which are found in rich sludge and mud. Currently, China controls over 90 percent of the world’s current supply of rare earths. That, however, could change. China’s current dominance is,…
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At the GDC in Taipei held at the Taipei International Conference Center in Taiwan, Motomu Toriyama of Square Enix held a presentation on the development between Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy XIII-2. Toriyama, who held the position of director for both games, took the podium and revealed the inner working of development on Final…
As previously posted, Dead or Alive 5‘s newest character is Rig, a Canadian taekwondo fighter. Above is the first footage of Rig in action. Check it out.
Fit’s is a brand of Lotte chewing gum, and this August, there will be “Slime flavored” gum for you to chomp on. But it’s not really “Slime flavored”. PHEW. “Slime” (スライム or “suraimu”) is used as a pun: “suppai-raimu” (スっぱいライム). “Suppai” (here, スっぱい) means “sour” and “raimu” (ライム) is Japanese for “lime”. The flavor is…
Fighting games featuring characters from other fighting games or completely different genre games is nothing new. Still, the Virtua Fighter characters Sarah Bryant and Akira Yuki appearing in Dead or Alive 5 holds a little more meaning for the creators at Team Ninja than the average guest appearance. In a three-way interview with Weekly Famitsu,…
This week, hacker-activist collective Anonymous allegedly attacked a number of Japanese government sites, such as the Finance Ministry’s site and the Supreme Court’s site, among others. New, strict Japanese copyright law that could imprison people for illegally downloading copyrighted content incited the attack. A website, dubbed AnonPR, claimed to speak for the group and launched…
Gundam is a bit like a Japanese version of Star Trek: It’s an epic sci-fi fantasy series with multiple spin-offs and games (some of which fans don’t like to talk about), a massive fan base, a gargantuan library of technical information, and it all came from an original series that was canceled during its initial…
Taiwanese peripheral maker Thermaltake created this: a gaming mouse with a fan that, and I quote, “blows away your gaming tension and sweat.” Better than just saying “it blows”. Thermaltake’s Element Gaming Mouse Cyclone Edition’s cooling fan is detachable, because, c’mon. The Cyclone Edition is the world’s first pro-gaming mouse with a fan—and probably the…
Raw liver has long been a delicacy in Japan, but after food poisoning worries, the country’s health ministry decided to ban the raw food. This week, liver lovers have been rushing to restaurants to get their last taste. Four of them ended up ended up ill. According The Mainichi Daily News, four women in Fukuoka…
Right now, there’s one type of 3DS handheld you can buy. This summer, a larger 3DS, called the 3DS XL, will be released. So, you’ll have two options. What about a third option? You know, with the add-on extra circle pad already on board? At a Nintendo meeting today, honcho Satoru Iwata (above, blowing crap…
The fighting game community gets a bum rap. Sometimes it’s deserved. Often it’s not. There are good people in the fighting game community. People like Daigo Umehara. People like Osamu Ichikawa. And people like the folks at Shoryuken. Osamu has cerebral palsy, a condition he was diagnosed with when he was one. For his whole…
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