Currently doing the internet rounds in Japan, this video shows a karate bout in Russia that ends with one swift finish. Have a look. Epic karate knockout of the 2013 Shinkyokushinkai karate [klasavec@YouTube] Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune…

Western Earthbound Fans Spam the Japanese Mother 2 MiiVerse Demanding a Western Release

This Sunday, I spent about an hour delving through the past 24 hours of messages on the Mother 2 MiiVerse page that went live last week as part of the Mother 2 (Earthbound) re-release on the Japanese Wii U virtual console. And what surprised me as I looked through the message board was the amount…

Kaze Tachinu (The Wind Rises), the latest Studio Ghibli film, will be out July 20 in Japan, it was announced today. [IT Media]

It’s Face-Off For Real, And Goodness, It’s So Creepy

“The RealFace” (yes, the) is a highly realistic mask. Its maker, Japan-based Real-f, says the mask can be a “memorial portrait” for friends and family. What do I say? It’s creepy. It’s creepy because The RealFace is so damn realistic-looking. The mask is made by taking facial impressions and photos. From that, Real-f can reproduce…

Earthbound Invades the Japanese Wii U with Tons of Little Extras

As part of the Famicon’s (Nintendo Entertainment System’s) 30th anniversary in Japan, Nintendo has been releasing various retro titles on the Wii U for the insanely low price of 30 yen ($0.32) The first title released this way was the NES classic Balloon Fighter. The following game was Fire Emblem: Monsho no Nazo, the first…

Square Enix’s Yoichi Wada Is Stepping Down [Update]

Today, it was announced that Square Enix president Yoichi Wada is stepping down. He will no longer be serving as Square Enix’s Representative Director. Yousuke Matsuda, who joined Square in 2001, will take over Wada’s role in running the company. The reason given for Wada’s demotion was “a management reorganization”. According to Japanese website 4Gamer,…

Japanese Schoolgirls Bring Manga Style Martial Arts To Life for Fun

What looks like a Japanese manga come to life is really a bunch of schoolgirls having fun with friends. Or is it? Dun dun dun. These photos recently appeared on 2ch, Japan’s largest bulletin board, under the heading, “Schoolgirls Nowadays lol”. While some 2ch users humorously pointed out that this was the martial art technique…

Songstress Donna Burke, who has an array of game and anime themes on her resume, is holding a concert in Tokyo on April 13. More info here.

All the Final Fantasy XIII Digital Cuddling You Can Handle

Final Fantasy XIII has sexual tension. Ditto for its sequel, Final Fantasy XIII-2. Some apparently thought the tension wasn’t palpable enough. So they took things into their own hands. Digitally. Over on DeviantArt, several talented digital artists have their visions of Final Fantasy XIII pairings—some of which you might agree with and some of which…

Iron Man 3 Isn’t Called Iron Patriot 3, But At Least The Latter Gets His Own Amazing Action Figure

He’s a supporting character, second fiddle to Downey Jnr.’s gold-riddled heroics, but when it comes to flag-waving robot suit ass-kicking, nobody does it more American than Don Cheadle’s Iron Patriot. Hot Toys is releasing this figure based on the suit, and while it’ll miss the theatrical release of the movie (it’s out in May, while…

A Gorgeous Game That Lets You Explore The Titanic. Right Up Until, You Know, It Sinks.

Back in 2011, we showed you footage of a project some fans were putting together, in which the entire RMS Titanic was being recreated using the same engine that powers Crysis 3. Inside and out. That project is now back with a more substantial goal in mind, with the team behind it launching an Indiegogo…

Why Do We Play Games?

It’s a valid question. I mean, as the guy says, we don’t need to. We just…do it. And make it harder of our own free will, by adding rules and stuff. Games are weird Why Do We Play Games? [Vsauce]

Turns Out Video Game Retailers Do A Pretty Good Job Of Not Selling Adult Games To Kids

Last year, the Federal Trade Commission ran a nationwide undercover shopping sting, aimed at testing various retailers’ compliance with age ratings for media products. Kids aged 13-16, without the supervision of an adult, were asked to try and buy things like unrated DVDs, explicit albums and M-rated video games. For all the crap that game…

As we’ve just seen, 3D printers are pretty great for hobbyists and DIY toy-makers. But because the machines can make practically anything, they can make, well, practically anything. Including assault rifles. Which is going to be a problem. 3D Printed Guns [Vice]

Brave Man Invites GlaDOS Into His Home And Onto His Ceiling

When dragonator wanted a new lamp for the roof, he didn’t go and buy one. He made a giant, supremely impressive GlaDOS one. As you do. Built using a 3D printer, as you can see, it barely qualifies as a “lamp” anymore at all. “Elaborate roof sculpture that happens to also illuminate” might be more…

Oh Hai There

British artist Shaun Mooney, who cut his teeth at Traveller’s Tales handheld division working on LEGO games, now works at Atomhawk Design, one of the world’s top creative studios and a team we’ve featured before here on Fine Art His work has appeared in recent games like Guardians of Middle Earth, and he also contributed…

Enjoy Vice City All Over Again As A Fantastic Grand Theft Auto IV “Mod”

It’s been too long since we last saw Vice City Rage in action. Too damn long. An ambitious project aimed at “porting” Rockstar’s classic 2002 game to the more modern Grand Theft Auto IV engine, it may still be looking a little basic in terms of textures, but that modern lighting, physics and handling are…

Soundodger is like a shoot-em-up where you can’t actually shoot back. And it’s entirely generated by the music. Bullet hell? More like music hell. (via Indiegames)

BioShock Infinite Cosplay Is As Impressive As The Actual Game

Last year, cosplayer Anna Moleva did such a good job role-playing as BioShock Infinite’s Elizabeth that developers Irrational Games offered her a job marketing the game If you were wondering what comes next, here’s the end result, from a photo shoot that took place back in Janury. It’s a strange world we’re living in, but…

I Didn’t Mean to Kill You, Beautiful Xenosaga Statue

Of all theGathering statues from e2406.com I’vereviewed, I was most looking forward to their gorgeous 20-inch rendition of Xenosaga‘s T-elos. Some role-players prefer Kos-Mos, but my heart was always with this dark-and-deadly Mary Magdalene cyborg. In the game she nearly took down the entire party all by her lonesome. I took her out with a…