When Japanese Game Titles Go From English to …English?

The Evil Within was released across the world in the past few weeks. However, in Japan, its country of origin, it has a different English title: Psycho Break. Of course, this is far from the first time a Japanese game with an English title has been renamed after it has left Japan. Perhaps the most…

Wasabi Toothpaste Sounds Like a Painful Way to Brush

When you hear wasabi, you probably think of sashimi or sushi. Maybe add toothpaste to that list as well? No, let’s not do that. This month, Japanese retailer Village Vanguard is rolling out wasabi-flavored toothpaste. The toothpaste smells like wasabi, it has a wasabi-like texture, and most importantly, it tastes like wasabi. If you’ve ever…

This App Will Help You Improve Your Japanese

I’ve mentioned a few games in the past to help you improve your Japanese language ability. However, when it comes to learning all aspects of Japanese, KanjiBox is the best study tool I have found. KanjiBox is an iOS app designed to teach Japanese Kanji and Kana (letters) as well as vocabulary. Moreover, it is…

Porco Rosso Sunglasses, Yours for $480

Studio Ghibli is teaming up with Japan’s Washin Optical for official Porco Rosso sunglasses. They’re kind of expensive. The glasses come in two variations. There is the “Period Piece Model,” which is made like sunglasses were in the 1920s and 30s, which is when the anime takes place. The lenses are made from glass, while…

PS4’s New Share Play Feature Actually Works

Having seen PS4’s newShare Play in action, the response from a room of journalists was firstly “it actually works,” closely followed by “how are people going to abuse this?” This post originally appeared on Kotaku UK The idea behind Share Play, the most prominent feature of Sony’s soon to arrive and feature-packed Firmware 2.0, is…

Indie RPG Is An Apocalyptic Sausage Fest

Lisa takes place in a bizarre, unpleasant world without women. There are grotesquely elongated spider men, writhing flesh pile people, and giant intestine walls, though. So that’s something. Luke wrote about the game, subtitled “The Painful RPG,” back when it was on Kickstarter a year ago. Since then it’s made quite a bit of progress,…

You like Earthbound? The cool people at Fangamer are running a Kickstarter for a bunch of stuff including an Earthbound handbook, an album and a documentary. Back it here

Official Civilization LEGO Doesn’t Include Nukes (Or Pottery)

It’s not a smug Gandhi, or a Great Library, but this new project on LEGO’s Ideas platform is nevertheless an official piece of Civilization LEGO. It just needs some votes to help turn it into a real thing you can buy. Unlike most other submissions to Ideas, which come from fans, this actually comes from…

The End Of The World Doesn’t Always Have To Be Brown

Submerged is an exploration adventure from ex-BioShock devs that takes place in the technology-spattered ruins of a place that’s seen better (and less water-logged) days. If you ask me, though, it looks almost… pleasant? Don’t know about you, but I’d hang out there. I love it when a single shot/gif of a game can make…

Valkyria Chronicles Is Coming To PC!

The original Valkyria Chronicles, a gorgeousstrategy/RPG for the PS3, is getting a late (but very welcome) port to the PC. Sega just confirmed it via Twitter, with more info to come. If you never played it, know that for all its flaws (it got tough), this was a strategy game with a ton of personality…

New Minecraft LEGO Kinda Misses The Point Of LEGO

While there have always been jokes about Minecraft LEGO – the toys have done much of what the game does for decades without its help, thanks – this new set takes things to a whole new level of “wha huh?”. It’s called a Minecraft Crafting Box. It’s a box full of LEGO pieces. The box…