A Look Back on China’s Most Beloved Video Game Console

Even before the ban on mainstream game consoles in 2000, the Chinese have been playing old school video games on third party machines. One of these machines, aptly named the “The Little Tyrant (小霸王)” garners particularly fond memories—memories of a time when things were simpler and gaming was a fun family affair. The Tyrant, a…

Behold, Some of Japan’s Dirtiest Rooms

There’s a stereotype that all Japanese people are very clean and neat. This stereotype is just not true. Some folks in Japan keep a clean house, but some roost in pigsties. And, yes, many of those folks are female. See, in Japan, that’s the other stereotype: that guys’ rooms are usually messy, with discarded instant…

The developers behind Dynasty Warriors 8 apologized for all the game’s bugs and are investigating.

Thief Steals Fake iPhone, Is Caught While Returning It

Pickpocketing is a major issue in a lot of places, and China is no different. Crack open any Chinese travel guide and there will be whole sections dedicated to techniques to prevent pickpocketing—however, there doesn’t seem to be any guides on what to do when reverse pickpocketing occurs. In Yiwu, Zhejiang province, police were called…

This Japanese Sword Will Amaze You

Last summer, a Japanese sword exhibit that featured Neon Genesis Evangelion-inspired blades was held in Okayama Prefecture. This weekend on Twitter, a friend of one of the traditional craftsmen who participated in the event apparently said he created a short sword to leave something behind, whether it’s this Asuka carving or whatever, so that it…

Be Excited About Assassin’s Creed IV. And Be Skeptical.

We’ve been here before. It’s time to tell you about a new Assassin’s Creed This part went oh-so-well a year ago. Many of you were enthusiastic back then about a new character, a new continent and a new era. Many of you were not as enthusiastic in the fall, when you played the resulting game,…

Report: Shenmue Creator Still Wants To Do Shenmue III

Back in 2010, Shenmue creator Yu Suzuki said he wanted to do Shenmue III. Now, in 2013, he reportedly told a French journalist that he still wants to do Shenmue III. But this time, he’s apparently thinking about doing a Kickstarter for the game. Progress! According to Sebastien-Abdelhamid at Canal Street, Suzuki is also keen…

If You’re Going to Deface Your School Books, Do It Well. Like This.

Doodling in your text books is bad! I do not recommend it. At all. However, let’s say you have to doodle in your text—like, if you don’t, you get in trouble. Then, by all means, please deface the book in the most entertaining way possible. Above, you can see Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-sen getting the…

No Shame In Being Slightly Afraid Of A Gaming Room Full Of Giant Space Guns (And Swords)

Props builder and Kotaku reader Andrew Cook just put the finishing touches on his new gaming room. Those touches were mostly “hanging up his terrific and enormous replica video game weapons on the wall.” Taken mostly from Halo and Mass Effect, they’re certainly a cut above your standard “free posters from GameStop” style of room…

X-Wing Bed Gives Boy The Coolest Childhood On Record

When I was a kid, I dreamed of flying an X-Wing. Somehow. I would have pretended to turn my bed into one, but my bed was rectangular and made of wood. Not good enough. This kid’s bed is good enough. While the actual bed part sits on the ground, suspended above it—for both playing and…

Splinter Cell Short Film Looks Just Like A Splinter Cell Video Game

Teaming up with some stunt performers, the film crew at Warialasky have made this amazing Splinter Cell video that shoots real actors as though this was gameplay footage. Because this is a third-person game, that makes it a lot more impressive than it is the flood of similar videos for first-person shooters you see on…

If The World Ever Needed Minecraft 2, Hopefully It’d Look This Nice

There’s a certain charm to Minecraft’s default visuals, but it can also be argued that without help the game looks like ass. When you see jaw-dropping screens from the game, like these Game of Thrones pics, those slick graphics come courtesy of tricks like rendering, where what were once basic blocky tiles are passed over…

A History Of Adventure Games, Told Through Awesome Art

Artist Jón Kristinsson runs a site called Point n’ Clicking, where he posts images of famous adventure game characters (or casts). Some are recent, some are old, some are very old, but all are fantastic, capturing the spirit and tone of the games they’re paying homage to. Some highlights below, but you really check out…

Cyberpunk Might Hit You With Other Languages, Which You’ll Need To Translate In-Game

Developers CD Projekt RED are considering something for the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 that I really hope makes it into the final game: the idea of having people in the game all speak their native tongue. An example given by CD Projekt RED’s Sebastian Stepien is that, even if the game’s set to “English,” if you…

Call of Duty Co-Creator Jason West Has Left His New Studio [UPDATE]

Jason West, a co-creator of Call of Duty and co-founder of video game studio Respawn Entertainment, has left the company he helped found, two sources have informed Kotaku. The departure was amicable. West, who left because of family issues, has been gone since last May, according to one reliable source who asked not to be…

America’s “Real” Metal Gear Can Now Throw Bricks

The team at Boston Dynamics have nudged me one step closer to moving to a desert island with this new footage of its very Metal Gear-like BigDog throwing cinder blocks. It was scary enough when the thing could run faster than Usain Bolt. Now that we know it can throw a brick through your window…

The Best Of Last Week’s Cosplay: Hitman, Dark Link, Mononoke & Freakin’ Wind Waker

For all the controversy Hitman: Absolution’s “sexy nun” trailer generated, it’s nice to see three cosplayers find a way to have a little fun with the characters. It’s also nice seeing people make exquisite Wind Waker costumes because, well, there is no higher calling in life, cosplay or not, than making exquisite Wind Waker-based things.…

Good times being editor again this weekend, Kotaku! Hopefully you’ll see me again someday. Praise the sun!

Blurring The Lines Between Single Player And Multiplayer Is A Good Thing

In the future, there may not be any more single-player games—but that doesn’t mean what we seem to think it does every time some big publisher opens its big mouth and tells us that single-player games are dead. Epic, story-driven campaigns aren’t going away; it’s just that new forms of multiplayer are evolving in tandem…

SNL Proves That Racism Won’t Die, Even After The Undead Apocalypse

Poor Kevin Hart. All he wanted to do when he hosted SNL this weekend was eat “white people brains” and do the dance from “Thriller.” Instead he got shot. It’s a messed up world we live in, especially once the dead start walking. (Apologies to anyone outside the U.S. who can’t watch this—blame Hulu. I’m…