The Sims, In The Style of Pokémon

YouTuber Hat-Loving Gamer has imagined and animated a life simulation game based in the Pokémon world. So, yes, think The Sims meets Pocket Monsters. It has aesthetics of old Game Boy Pokémon games. Too bad we didn’t have this back then! A game with unhappy Pokémon, glitchy tiles and that cool custom UI would have…

Online Game Bug Leads to Death Threats and an Arrest

Sometimes video games have glitches. They might make you upset. They allegedly caused one player in Japan to make scary threats. According to Yahoo! News Japan, a 40-year-old man in Okayama, Japan, is in police custody after allegedly sending threats to Tecmo Koei via the company’s online contact form. Threats apparently included such remarks as…

Vita Game Gives Honest Criticism of the Japanese Game Market

Games can often offer social commentary on things from politics to opinion to simple observation on the state of the world. Sometimes they’ll even go meta, using a video game to talk about video games. Falcom’s latest action RPG, Tokyo Xanadu does just that. In the game, Tokyo Xanadu, in between points in the plot,…

Star Wars Turned into a Giant Sand Sculpture

One hundred and sixty tons of Japanese sand were needed to make this. That’s a lot of sand. To break that down, sixteen ten ton trucks were needed to haul the sand, and a hundred tons of water were used to create the sculpture, which is located in Tottori Prefecture, Japan. The region is famous…

Japan’s Red Cross Wants Nerd Blood

Donating blood is important. It can save lives! In an effort to get blood from healthy, younger members of society, the Japanese Red Cross has a not-so-secret weapon: Anime characters. For the past few years, anime characters or anime-like characters have appeared in blood donation posters. [Photo: Gifu Red Cross] The Japanese Red Cross also…

One Piece‘s Creator Is Working As Hard As Ever

Back in 2012, Kotaku reported how One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda barely got any sleep. Fast forward to 2015. Oda is showing no sign of slowing down. Previously, Oda said he was getting around three hours of sleep on average with zero holidays. According to a recent magazine article (via 2ch), which details Oda’s schedule,…

Doraemon Visits South Korea. Seoul, South Korea. By Lexi. JPGs is a photo peek into wherever gamers might find interesting. If you’re a photographer and have images you want to share, drop us a line!

The New Team Fortress 2 Update Has Some Great Easter Eggs

Team Fortress 2’s loooooooong-awaited alien-themed “Invasion” update is finally out, and it’s all about aliens and, er, Dishonored. Yes, the Bethesda stealth game. Invasion has been in the works for over a year, with Valve and members of the community (the latter being largely responsible for the update’s maps and cosmetic items) dropping hints like…

Rock Band 4: The Kotaku Review

It’s a good time for Rock Band 4 (as made famous by Rock Band, Rock Band 2, Rock Band 3, LEGO Rock Band, The Beatles: Rock Band and Green Day: Rock Band.) That’s a lot of Rock Band to take in over the span of the four years between the 2007 release of the original…

Star Wars: Imperial Assault: The Kotaku Review

Imperial Assault is a board game that was released in late 2014. I only got around to playing it over the weekend, and I already count those months between as wasted Having made a ton of money off their excellent X-Wing game before moving onto capital ship battles, Imperial Assault is Fantasy Flight’s shot at…

What The Hell Is Going On With Call of Duty On Xbox One?

Until a few days ago, it was possible to digitally pre-order Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 for Xbox One through Xbox Live or Amazon. That’s no longer the case, though nobody can explain why. Seriously, I asked Activision and Microsoft what’s going on, but their statements don’t make any sense. ICXM first noticed these…

The StarCraft Medic’s New Lines In Heroes Of The Storm Are Less Flirty

Blizzard’s new MOBA Heroes of the Storm is a work of Smash Bros.-style fan fiction that mashes together characters from all the developer’s different universes. Or more accurately: it adapts them. The most noticeable change they made to the iconic StarCraft Terran unit, the medic, is her voice, of all things. Like all of the…

Watch Me Play The Star Wars Battlefront’s Beta’s Best Mode

Walker Assault on Hoth is the most epic thing available in the Battlefront demo—and today, I’m going to show it to you first-hand. Join me during a livestream that starts at 6:05PM EST/3:05PM PST right here—I’ll be answering questions about the demo, and potentially giving out some extra codes in between matches. It’ll be fun!…

Street Fighter Replaces Giant Jesus Statue With… Soccer Trophy?

Cristo Redentor, the giant statue of Jesus that towers above the city of Rio de Janeiro, is one of the world’s great landmarks. It won’t be appearing in Street Fighter V, though, after Capcom decided to swap it out and replace it with…a monstrous replica of what sure looks like the FIFA World Cup trophy.…

How to Be a Video Game Snob

My favorite film critic, A.O. Scott of the New York Times, is trying to reclaim the word “snob” for people of discernment. “If the words nerd and geek can be rehabilitated—if legions of misunderstood enthusiasts can march from the margins of respectability to the heart of the mainstream—then why not snob as well?” he pleaded…

Major Changes in Today’s Amazing Spider-Man Comic

We all know Spider-Man, right? He’s a guy from Queens named Peter Parker, who got bitten by a radioactive spider and became CEO of a multimillion dollar company. He owns a car that can drive upside down, too. Yep, good ol’ Spidey. A few months ago, Marvel announced a new direction for their flagship character.…

The World’s Best League Of Legends Player Knows No Mercy

The Korean eSports star Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok is so good at League of Legends that fans have taken to calling him “God.” The honorific makes a lot of sense, given how wrathful the pro player just showed himself to be. In this short clip that recently went viral on the League of Legends subreddit, an…