- Kotaku East
Yes, This Is Bruce Willis Made Out of Chocolate
As part of a promotion for A Good Day to Die Hard, a life-sized chocolate statue of John McClane (née Bruce Willis) was wheeled out for a press conference this evening in Japan. The flick opens on February 14, which is Valentine’s Day—hence the chocolate. Shame the statue doesn’t really look like Bruce Willis. But…
By Brian Ashcraft Published February 12, 2013 - Kotaku East
This Modern Japanese Ruin Would Make a Fascinating Computer Game
“Haikyo” (廃墟) means “ruins” or “abandoned building” in English. Previously, a haikyo and the story it told provided inspiration for an indie game. This latest discovery could, too. Website Tokyo Times explored a huge abandoned house that belonged to a wealthy Japanese politician. The house was built from concrete in 1928. Two years later, the…
By Brian Ashcraft Published February 12, 2013 -
Kotaku EastThis Man Really Loves Ramen Noodle Soup
Meet Steven Jo. The guy loves ramen noodle soup. So. Damn. Much. Check out more of Steven Jo’s music on his YouTube channel Ramen Noodle Soup! [StevenJoTV@YouTube via BuzzFeed] Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from…
By Brian Ashcraft Published February 12, 2013 - Kotaku East
Japanese Politicians Make the Best Zombies
Zombies make everything better. They really do. Even Japanese politics. Spotted at the recent Wonder Festival figure event, here is a collection of “Zombie Politician Busts.” The small statues are of Japanese political bigwigs, former PMs Yukio Hatoyama and Naoto Kan, power broker Ichiro Ozawa, and politician Azuma Koshiishi The busts are an interesting commentary…
By Brian Ashcraft Published February 12, 2013 - Kotaku East
How a PS3 Game Launched Japan’s Newest Sex Symbol
These days, it seems like you cannot turn on the TV in Japan without seeing her. Her name is Mitsu Dan. She’s currently Japan’s biggest sex symbol, appearing in racy TV shows and even racier movies and photo spreads. But before rocketing to fame last fall, she was just another pin-up model, and her biggest…
By Brian Ashcraft Published February 12, 2013 - Kotaku East
Beware of Fake Pokémon Scans
This Pokémon trainer art does resemble the male trainer in very real Pokémon X/Y screens. But it is not a real Japanese magazine scan. It looks like one, but it’s so fake. Here’s why. For example, here it gives “atarashishii” as the reading for the Japanese word for “new”, which is “atarashii” (新しい). This mistake…
By Brian Ashcraft Published February 12, 2013 -
Kotaku EastOn the Wii U, Monster Hunter Looks Better Than Ever
No one can doubt that Monster Hunter is a phenomenal success in Japan. One iteration or another has been on every major console of the last generation (sans the Nintendo DS). So it is no surprise that when the Wii U launched in Japan, it had a Monster Hunter to go along with it: Monster…
By Richard Eisenbeis Published February 12, 2013 -
Kotaku EastWatch North Korean TV Announce The Nuclear Test
Earlier today in Asia, North Korea carried out its third nuclear test. The country’s central news station in Pyongyang announced the news. As ShanghaiIst points out, the anchor isn’t nearly as excited as the one telling us about last December’s rocket launch broadcast. Maybe because it’s their third nuclear test rodeo. For more coverage, check…
By Brian Ashcraft Published February 12, 2013 - Uncategorized
Your Lame Childhood Toys Are, With A Flourish, Suddenly Badass
Optimus Prime, Raphael, guys like that, they never needed any help looking tough. But if you cast your eyes over all the toys from the 80s and 90s, boy, some of them looked pretty awful. Uninspiring. Cheap. That’s not how you remembered them! You remembered them being full of life, vibrant characters capable of doing…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 12, 2013 - Uncategorized
There’s A Normal Brothers In Arms Game Coming
Brothers In Arms: Furious Four was a weird departure from Gearbox’s venerable WW2 series, so weird that it ended up being spun off into its own thing, leaving the BiA franchise behind altogether. Which you’d think would leave it back where we’ve been for a while—with no proper Brothers in Arms game on the horizon—but…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 12, 2013 -
UncategorizedDrunk Dudes Make Video Game Award Shows A Little Awkward
I was on the other side of the planet from the actual DICE awards show, and didn’t catch all the stream, so I missed this last week. Shame. The best part of any awards show are normally the parts where a drunk guy wanders onto the stage and things get weird. To his credit (anyone…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 12, 2013 -
UncategorizedSee Minecraft Running On A Computer That Costs $35
I realise that one reason for Minecraft’s success is that it can run on older/weaker computers, but this is crazy What you’re seeing here is Mojang’s world-builder running on the Raspberry Pi, a tiny hobbyist computer that’s little more than a glorified chipboard, and which costs only $35. The version of the game has been…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 12, 2013 - Uncategorized
Here’s One Developer Who Doesn’t Fight Piracy. He Embraces It.
Sean Hogan, one of the two guys behind the delightful Anodyne, is not Electronic Arts. He’s not Ubisoft, either. Or Activision. He is instead a man who, like Hotline Miami’s Jonatan Soderstrom, isn’t terribly concerned with people pirating his game. Sure, he doesn’t exactly have billions of dollars riding on his multinational business like big…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 12, 2013 - Uncategorized
You Can Play Assassin’s Creed Of The Future. With Guns. Sort Of.
A DLC pack for the oft-forgotten Ghost Recon Online will for the next few weeks make the online PC shooter (technically still in beta) substantially more interesting. Provided you like Assassin’s Creed, that is. And the prospect of Assassins using assault rifles. The pack adds “Abstergo” weapons and a very fetching near-future rendition of the…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 12, 2013 - Uncategorized
Robot George Washington, Dirty Schwarzeneggers and KHAAAAAAN: Toy Fair 2013, Day 2
Scroll ahead. Look at James Tiberius Kirk whuppin’ on Khan Noonien Singh. God, isn’t that just beautiful? God bless Diamond Distributors for making that thing. Diamond also showed off Tomb Raider minimates, Iron Man and War Machine designs from Iron Man 3. But that Kirk vs. Khan set… it’s one of the best things I…
By Evan Narcisse Published February 11, 2013 - Uncategorized
Let’s Rank Nintendo’s Controllers, Best To Worst
I published an innocent little story yesterday about an N64 controller that provoked an unexpected response. You see, I hate the Nintendo 64 controller. All my friends hate it. Everyone I ever gamed on the console with hated it. I figured it was pretty safe to share that dislike. Others, on the internet, disagreed. Some…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 11, 2013 - Uncategorized
Last Night’s The Walking Dead: Not Bad, Not Great
Last night, AMC’s The Walking Dead came back on the air for the second half of its third season. I thought the first half of Season 3 was pretty strong, all things considered, and even liked some of the ways they moved away from the source material. I haven’t always been the biggest fan of…
By Kirk Hamilton Published February 11, 2013 -
UncategorizedWho Does The Harlem Shake Better, Call of Duty Devs Or Battlefield 3 Players? You Decide.
Up above, we’ve got the Harlem Shake as done by 64 people in Battlefield 3, footage brought to us by YouTube user TheHazardCinema. And below, the opponent: Infinity Ward doing the Harlem Shake. Who does it better, though? I’m leaning toward the Battlefield players because it’s so ridiculous to see the characters like that, but…
By Patricia Hernandez Published February 11, 2013 - Uncategorized
Fire Emblem: Awakening‘s Amazing Musical Milieu
We’ve talked plenty about how much we like the new 3DS strategy role-playing game Fire Emblem: Awakening here at Kotaku. Among other things, we like the romance, the permanent death and the even more permanent marriage. And all this despite the fact that no one in the game has feet But while I’ve talked a…
By Kirk Hamilton Published February 11, 2013
