Some Japanese kids have been going bananas on mobile phone games, racking up insane bills by virtual crap. The country’s six major social game operators decided this week to limit the amount players under 18 can spend to ¥10,000 (US$124). Players under 15 will be capped at ¥5,000 ($62). Even with these spending caps, this…
Daigo Umehara recently released a book called “勝ち続ける意志力” (The Will to Keep Winning), in which he gives sage advice from his experiences as the world’s most successful player in major Street Fighter tournaments. He also gives some personal stories from his upbringing as a gamer and a loner. One such story involves the meaning of…
Everybody has a hobby. Some people enjoy listening to records. Others collect baseball cards. If you read Kotaku, chances are that your hobby is video games. But Professor Sakai’s? Japanese blogs have recently been pointing to Sakai’s website, dubbing it “way too frightening” and “creepy”. The site shows off his collection of “realistic” love dolls.…
In professional Korean gaming, they don’t get much bigger than Lim Yo-Hwan, aka “BoxeR”. His fan club has a million members, he has big time endorsements, and he is dating famed actress Kim Ga-yeon. He’s known as the “The Terran Emperor.” But all that has come with a price: e-sports have taken their toll. Earlier…
Holy crap is Sadako scary! Coming in through you television with that mess of long hair. She’s the stuff of nightmares—also the stuff of first pitches. To promote the the upcoming Ring spin-off flick, Sadako (Samara Morgan in the America remakes) threw out the first pitch at a Nippon Ham Fighters versus Chiba Lotte Marines…
In March, Sega announced that their upcoming MMORPG, Phantasy Star Online 2 will be smart phone compatible and free to play. In a recent interview with Weekly Famitsu, Phantasy Star series producer, Satoshi Sakai, talked about Sega’s somewhat ballsy decision. Apparently, the decision to make Phantasy Star Online 2 free to play came about very…
Yohio, the 16 year-old Swedish musician, finally made his Japan debut. Yohio has dressed as a Gothic Lolita for the past few years, and his anime inspired looks earned him Japanese fans. This week Yohio has been appearing on Japan’s biggest morning shows to promote his Japanese language mini album, which is now on sale.…
Shinji Mikami, best known for creating Resident Evil, is gearing up work on a brand new survival horror game with his new studio Tango Gameworks. It’s codenamed “Zwei”. The image above is very early concept art for the title. With Zwei, Mikami is supposedly committed to making a “pure” survival horror game. “A true ‘survival…
Even though the PS Vita could really use a Monster Hunter game, the next spin-off installment in Capcom’s monster hit series is PSP bound. In Japan, Monster Hunter has been key in the PSP’s success. Like Monster Hunter Diary: Poka Poka Airu Village, the game is a spin-off and features those fictional cat people. The…
Quick! What’s the first thing you notice? The lady? Or the knife she’s carrying? According to this manga on mental health, positive people notice the lady, because they like to have fun! Negative people notice the knife. They are so not fun. Boo. But what if you’re simply not interested in ladies? Not everyone is!…
Hey, you like Sengoku Basara? You know, those samurai games Capcom makes that are wildly popular in Japan and aren’t exactly historically accurate? Well, good news. And bad news. The good news? Capcom is making two new Sengoku Basara games. The bad news? They are a card-based mobile phone game and a browser game. Oh.…
In China, workers’ rights kind of suck! So when the folks who make your game consoles and electronics want to protest, they take to the roof and threaten to kill themselves. Lovely. Earlier this month in Shenzhen, while the world was watching how their iPads really got made, a group of approximately twenty Foxconn laborers…
In front of (almost) every single KFC in Japan, there is a life-sized Colonel Sanders statue. And for the past few springs, the Colonel Sanders in Akihabara has been covered in samurai armor to mark May 5, the Boy’s Day celebration. In late April and early May, families with sons display miniature armor in their…
Whenever a new game or demo hits, Japanese gamers love to fire up the character creator and see which celebrities they can reproduce. So when the Dragon’s Dogma demo hit, that’s exactly what they did. In the above gallery, you can see an array of celebrities—from real life ones to in-games ones. In some, the…
In puzzle game Dancing Eyes, the goal is to cut out swatches of cloth from young girls’ clothing. Namco planned to do a hi-def remake of the game, but now, it seems the Tokyo-based game company has cold feet. The upcoming issue of Japanese game mag Famitsu reveals that Namco decided to pull the plug…
Folks in China are apparently putting their iPhones under their nostrils and giving them a good old sniff. What do they smell? Pineapples. Yum. Many Chinese are saying the iPhone’s headphone jack smells like pineapple while charging. Online, thread after thread confirms the odor, with some even claiming that the iPhone emits whiffs of peach,…
In Japan, the Power Rangers are called “Super Sentai”. For decades, they have entertained kids, especially young boys. But young boys grow up and become interested in other things. Like booze. Never fear! Former Power Ranger actor Masaru Shishido is here to save the day with cheesy memorabilia and alcohol. Phew! In Tokyo’s Tachikawa, Shishido…
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Girl’s RPG Cinderellife is the newest 3DS title from Professor Layton creator Level-5. Marketed as a “girl’s RPG,” Cinderellife is the story of a plain girl coming to live in the big city for the first time. Before long, she is working in a Japanese hostess club and dreaming of finding true love amongst her…
Love Like Aliens is a short six-minuted animated film inspired by the work of Japanese artist Hajime Sorayama. Have a look at the film’s trailer. “In the silent film era, images were created first with music performed at the screenings and in the music video era, music was created first. What we’ve done with sonic…
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