You’ll Have a Large Farva and a Liter o’ Fun with Smash Cops Heat

At first I didn’t really get how to drive in Smash Cops Heat. Then Fahey showed me. The gist of it is, you have the authority to drive really stupid. Once you realize that prerogative, the game reveals itself as a chortle-inducing demolition derby going lights-and-sirens through every fire hydrant and phone booth in town.…

Arma 3 has been delayed, and is now slated for a 2013 release. At least we’re still getting DayZ this year… hopefully.

Zynga Launches Mobile Gaming’s Answer to Battlefield Heroes

Available today on iOS and coming soon to Android, The Respawnables is Zynga’s first mobile multiplayer online shooter, bearing a striking resemblance to a pair of popular PC games. Developer Digital Legends worked on the mobile version of Battlefield: Bad Company 2, so drawing a little inspiration from the cartoony free-to-play PC entry in the…

The Story Of Gabe Newell, In One Minute

Brought to you by the same folks who told you everything you need to know about Uncharted in a minute and everything you need to know about Diablo in a minute, here’s Gabe Newell In A Minute. Of course it’d be impossible to sum up all of Newell’s accomplishments in just sixty seconds, but this…

Rockstar Wants to Connect All the Grand Theft Auto Cities In One Big World

Eight-year-old-spoiler: In Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas you can fly to GTA III‘s Liberty City. You can’t explore much of Liberty City but the intent in the 2004 PS2 game was clear: Rockstar’s GTA cities are connected, and players should be able to travel between them. And that’s just what Rockstar wants to let us…

Bubble Safari Goes Mobile, Under the Sea

Suddenly hip to the fact that folks love the hell out of some colored bubble popping, Zynga launches a pair of new games in the seven-month-old Bubble Safari series. Is it still a safari if it’s underwater? First off we’ve got the promised mobile version of the original monkey-powered Bubble Safari, available for free on…

You Can Finally Get a Taste of Rayman Legends in This Week’s Nintendo Download

I really freakin’ loved Rayman Origins when it hit consoles last year. And I loved the Rayman Jungle Run mobile game that showed up on iOS and Android a few months ago. Remember that I raved about the music in those games, too? So, you can probably guess that I’m psyched for Rayman Legends on…

Kotaku Timeline: The Last Guardian

The question whether video games are art has been bothering gamers, journalists and critics alike for a long while. Proponents might say that art is subjective, that anything capable of eliciting a deep emotional response could be considered art. Then, perhaps, there is no greater argument for calling video games art than Team ICO’s work.…

Kotaku Gallery: The Last Guardian

January 24, 2008 click here to return to our last guardian timeline! June 10, 2009 click here to return to our last guardian timeline! June 10, 2009 click here to return to our last guardian timeline! June 10, 2009 click here to return to our last guardian timeline! February 1, 2010 click here to return…

Old Hitman Games to Get HD Treatment

Confirming rumors that emerged this summer, Square-Enix tells us that we can soon expect high-definition re-releases of the earlier games in the Hitman franchise. Both Hitman Trilogy HD and Hitman Trilogy HD Premium Edition are slated to arrive January 29, for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, respectively. The compilations will feature: 3 classic Hitman titles…

How Much Does This Guy Love Street Fighter? More Than You Do, Probably.

Before you decide to snicker at this guy, just know that he’s the reason you’re getting a new Mega Man game. The gentleman channeling Dhalsim is Seow Zong Hui, the pro gamer who also goes by the name “Sonic”. These pictures came up while doing a search for Hui as prep for the interview about…

A U.F.O. Crashed in Japan? Ha, Ha, Ha. That’s Rich.

Earlier this week, there was a report on a couple of English language sites that a U.F.O. crashed in Japan, and the country’s navy released a photo. Maybe you don’t believe in aliens. Maybe you want to believe. Or maybe you just like to be amused. The story originated on website In Other Newz, a…

Two Similar Franchises Become Even More Similar With Simultaneously Announced “Charge” Weapons

Monster Hunter, the franchise that breathed life into the PSP, and arguably one of the biggest reasons that the 3DS outsells the DS in Japan. In the latest incarnation of the series, Monster Hunter 4 players will be able to wield not just one, but two new weapons with which to combat giant predators: The…

Japanese Textbook Gives Sega The Cold Shoulder

Sega. Founded in 1940, the company has come a long way from its origins as a jukebox and slot machine maintenance firm. Until the boom of the PlayStation console, Sega stood alongside Nintendo as one of the Big Two video game console manufacturers. Long after its retreat from the console market back in 2001, Sega…

Japanese Cop Arrested for Illegally Filming a Magical Girl Anime

While it seems like Japanese police are arresting people for breaking the country’s copyright law, now one of their own has been busted… for breaking the country’s copyright law. A 38 year-old police sergeant in Fukushima has been charged after allegedly using his digital camera to illegally capture the latest feature film version of anime…

Here’s What Japanese Gamers Suggest for Holiday Gifts

The Christmas season is upon us once again (as was frightfully apparent from the Christmas songs that started playing sometime around, oh, November 1st… (seriously, at least wait for Thanksgiving to be over)), and soon gifts will be piled under the Christmas tree for all to see and wonder at what goodies are contained within.…

Colin Powell’s Advice for Japanese Youth: Eat Protein

In an interview with Asahi, respected general Colin Powell was asked about Japanese youth—namely those young men who are called “herbivores”. It seems Powell might have taken the term literally. The Japanese phrase is “soushoku-kei” (草食系), and it’s come to refer to a generation of less masculine males who are less interested in pursuing dates…

China’s Pepsi Flavored Potato Chips Actually Make Perfect Sense

Just as cooking with beer works extremely well, cola is used in cooking throughout China—and beyond. Coca-cola is perhaps the most common in China, but Frito-Lay isn’t a division of Coke. It’s a division of PepsiCo. Thus, Pepsi-Cola chicken-flavor Lay’s potato chips. The chips launched earlier this year, and the flavor is less fizzy, more…

Here Are the Next Two Studio Ghibli Anime

Next summer, Studio Ghibli is releasing two films in Japan: Kaze Tachinu (The Wind Rises) and Kaguya-hime no Monogatari (The Tale of Princess Kaguya). Hayao Miyazaki (My Neighbor Totoro, will direct Kaze Tachinu, while Studio Ghibli co-founder Isao Takahata (Grave of the Fireflies) will helm Kaguya-hime no Monogatari, Eiga reports (via tsk06 and ANN). As…

This Japanese Meme Is an Eyeful

Sponsors make television possible. And in Japan, those sponsors dominate the commercial breaks. During each show, they even get one shout out right before a commercial break, with an announcer saying that the program is brought to you by whatever. Normal enough, right? The ensuing meme is anything but. Welcome to the world of “sponsor…