Real-World Team Executives in Madden Signal the Return of Owner Mode

Monday, Madden‘s publicity operation notified writers that its “playbooks”—the weeks in which they discuss features of the upcoming game—begin this week. In it, “Connected Careers,” the mode introduced last year, was rebranded as “Connected Franchise.” A GameStop listing sheds a little more light on what that could mean. It means, I think, that in addition…

Watch A Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Kick a Bad Guy in the Nuts

I was there from the beginning of the TMNT phenomenon, back when Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird were riffing off of Frank Miller’s Ronin and Dave Sim’s Cereberus comics. I don’t remember Mike, Don, Raph and Leo having junk punts as part of their martial arts repertoires. Granted, they very well could have. Like most…

Heads-Up Displays And User Interfaces In Anime Are Awesome

After premiering last year, Evangelion 3.33 You Can (Not) Redo, the third of four films in the Rebuild of Evangelion tetralogy, gets its Blu-ray release today in Japan. While that’s good news—over-the-top mecha action is always good news—it also makes a good opportunity to revisit some classics. Besides the mecha craziness, whether it’s 80s space…

The Amusing Messages to Gamers Tucked in Monaco‘s Credits

Are you planning to steal the wonderful new co-op heist game Monaco? Please consider the above message. It appears in the $15 game’s credits. (UPDATE: Though it’s not actually directed at pirates!) Pirating games is a dubious past-time as is, but if there was a spectrum of games that might be kind-of-sort-of not scummy to…

Play Star Trek With a Friend or Be Lonely and Disappointed

“I’m really hurting here,” exclaimed the dashing and courageous Captain James T. Kirk, bruised and bloody on the cold metal floor of the space station, phaser gripped tight in his shaking hand. “That’s the logical result of charging face-first into a fortified turret, you stupid son-of-a-bitch,” I replied in a calm, measured tone. My Spock…

That Huge Anime Inspired Hamburger Looks Gross

Today in Japan, fast food chain Lotteria launched its ridiculous nine-patty hamburger, which was inspired by anime Evangelion: 3.33 You Can (Not) Redo. While the promotional photo showed a proud hamburger, the real deal is…yeah Dubbed the “Q-Story Cheese Burger”, it’s priced at the equivalent of US$12.86. Here are various pics collected via Twitter: まいく,…

Nintendo’s Own Stats Show That the World Just Isn’t That Into Wii U

In the first three months of this year, Nintendo sold a mere 200,000 Wii U’s in North America. Microsoft sold more Xbox 360’s than that in March alone. But, uh, that’s the good news? In Japan, since January, Nintendo sold 90,000 Wii U systems. And in the rest of the world? 110,000. These numbers come…

An Iron Man 3 Poster You Will Never Forget

In Taiwan, Iron Man 3 isn’t the only super hero movie debuting this spring. There’s another one. HK: Hentai Kamen is opening soon in Taiwan. This is why, according to Wow! News, internet users in Taiwan have whipped up this unforgettable Iron Man 3 and HK collaboration by combining movie posters as a gesture of…support.…

“The XCOM universe is expanding,” boasts a recently added post on 2K Games’ official blog. It seems we can expect more information on the continually delayed XCOM shooter soon—a welcome change after the complete silence following the sudden disappearance of the game earlier this month.

The Most Expensive Wii U System On Sale in Japan

A good rule of thumb is that if something needs to be wheeled in, it’s probably expensive. This is the JoySound Festa. It’s an on-demand karaoke system from Xing, a Japanese karaoke company (no, it’s not from Nintendo per se!). According to Sankei, the set-up uses the Wii U’s software, the Wii U GamePad, and…

The occasionally odd, always scary open-world horror game, Deadly Premonition, is getting an updated Director’s Cut release for the PS3 in a week. Up top is a glimpse of what it will look like.

In Japan, Saying “Thanks” with Mustard Is Possible But Not Recommended

Let’s say you eat out in Japan. And let’s say, the food is really good. Ditto for the service. How do you express your gratitude? Well, there’s always mustard… The phrase “Mustard Thanks” (“masutaado sankusu” or マスタードサンクス) started popping up increasingly online in Japan this past February and March. It supposedly refers to writing a…

The live-action Kiki’s Delivery Service movie rumor is true. Shimizu Takashi of The Grudge fame is directing, and 16 year-old Fuka Koshiba was picked out of 500 hopefuls to star as Kiki, Yomiuri reports. It is her feature film debut.

This Is Just a Middle-Aged Man Dressed as a Japanese Schoolgirl

He’s called the “Sailor Suit Old Man.” And he’s called that for good reason, too. Whenever you see Hideaki Kobayashi on the weekend, he’s dressed as a Japanese schoolgirl. Recently, Japanese sites and Twitter users in Tokyo have spotted an old guy dressed in a sailor style school uniform—a truly unusual sight to behold. People…

Satoru Iwata is taking over control of Nintendo of America. Its current CEO, Tatsumi Kimishima, will be moving to Kyoto to work as a managing director for Nintendo Japan, while Iwata will assume the role of Global President. So… a global president, direct to you! (Sorry.)

Iron Man Figure Takes Steroids, Thinks It Can Fight Megatron

I’ve been staying away from Iron Man 3 trailers, as I stay away from most trailers these days, because I like to enjoy the best parts of a movie when I actually see the movie for the first time, thank you. So I missed the apparent point in this upcoming flick where Tony Stark changes…

Bummer, That Awesome Cyberpunk Game/Trailer Is Dead In The Water

Prepare for sadness. Stealer, that amazing trailer for a 2D cyberpunk game that wasn’t even really a proper game yet, won’t ever be a proper game. The devs (well, dev) have pulled the plug. “I lost the interest in development of this game, sorry” the project’s creator has written on the TIGSource forums. “Tried several…

Deus Ex Bedroom Is A Human (Sleeping) Revolution

Sethers15 is the lucky person who gets to sleep and game in this room every day now. The very lucky person. When I first saw it, when Mark from Kotaku AU just showed me the pictures, I said “these are the most boring Deus Ex screenshots I’ve ever seen”. So, yeah, a good job has…

NES Title Screens That Are Almost Better Than The Games Themselves

Sometimes I think the internet was invented just for sites like NES Title Screens. Places where you can make a cup of tea, sit down and just click through images that are equal parts fantastic art and pure nostalgia. Well, maybe not quite equal. Some of these title screen splashes are often for Japanese games…

Oh Boy, Heavenly Sword Is Getting A Movie Too

Yeah yeah, Ratchet & Clank is getting a movie. Good news for fans of the series, but more exciting for me is word that as part of the same deal, 2007 brawler Heavenly Sword is getting a movie made as well. A straight-to-home project, it’s “a CG-animated film”, which might be cheaper but is also…