How a Banana Becomes Art

Back in 2011, Keisuke Yamada became an internet sensation. His art was spectacular. It was also bananas. See, Yamada sculpts using bananas—a material which is very tricky to work with because the color and the texture rapidly changes. Yamada must sculpt quickly. This month, Yamada appeared on Japan’s biggest morning program, showing off some of…

Japanese Publisher GungHo Acquires Killer is Dead Developer

Japanese publisher GungHo has recently nabbed Suda51’s Grasshopper Manufacture, known for games such as Killer7, No More Heroes and Lollipop Chainsaw, welcoming it as the fourth in their already impressive lineup of developers that includes, among others, GRAVITY Co. of Ragnarok Online fame. From the press release: TOKYO, JAPAN (January 30, 2013) – GungHo Online…

Nintendo Sells Three Million Wii U Systems, But Expects To Take A Hit

Nintendo sold just over three million Wii U systems worldwide from the system’s November launch through to the end of December, with over 1.3 million of them selling in America. Both Nintendo Land and New Super Mario Bros. U have sold over two million copies. The sales don’t offset some bad news from Nintendo—bad news…

Donate blood in Japan and get Naruto schwag from the Japanese Red Cross.

Someone Made the ‘Gangnam Style’ Video into a Flipbook

You might be burned out on “Gangnam Style”. Even if you are, this deserves your attention. It shows a flipbook of the “Gangnam Style” video. The entire music video. The video was made by Etoilec, who is becoming internet famous for flipbooks. Flipbook STYLE GANGNAM Par Etoilec1 [etoilec1@YouTube via Beijing Cream] Kotaku East is your…

The Chinese government says it’s not considering ending its console ban (via TechInAsia).

Legendary Sega Consoles Turned into Colorful Anime Ladies

In fan art, there is a long, proud history of turning video game consoles into female anime characters. This is not fan art. Sega is releasing a set of downloadable content for its free-to-play PS Vita game Samurai & Dragons. The set of 13 character cards are personifications of Sega’s game consoles. They’re dubbed “Segakko”…

North Korean Gulags Receive Less Than Stellar Reviews

On Google Maps, there are locations of several North Korean prison camps: Gulag 16, Gulag 22, and Chongjin Gulag. Very serious reviews are appearing on Google Plus, and many of them are hardly flattering. This must be worrying as North Korea is apparently opening new interment resorts. No doubt these reviews will hamper expansion plans.…

A Man Who Made Jason Brody (And Master Chief, And A Badass Nord)

Mathieu Aerni is a character artist at Blur Studio, they of amazing video game trailer fame He’s worked on trailers and cinematics for games such as Halo 4, Far Cry 3, The Elder Scrolls Online, Lord of the Rings: War in the North and Dishonored Over the years he’s also worked on a number of…

Kids Play Call Of Duty, Get Raided By Police

Swedish newspaper Sydsvenskan (via The Local) is reporting that over the weekend, a group of kids playing Call of Duty got a little more than they bargained for when they got all excited about the game. When one of the teenagers was killed in a round, he jokingly fell to the ground and started screaming…

After 35 Years, Star Wars Action Figures Might Actually Be Growing Up

For such a massive series, the standard Star Wars action figures have never exactly set the world on fire. The originals had a range of movement last seen at the Nuremberg Rally, and subsequent ones haven’t improved much. For 2013, though—and perhaps spurred on by Star Wars‘ fresh ownership—Hasbro has pulled out all the stops,…

Sweet Mother Of Dragons, Get A Load Of King’s Landing Recreated In Minecraft

We’ve seen some amazing Game of Thrones stuff from the people at Westeroscraft in the past, but these latest shots of King’s Landing just may take the cake. Check ’em out: Good lord. You can practically smell the place. Those images come from Imgur via reddit and pretty much everyone on Twitter. You can find…

Now Kids Are Building Incredible Iron Man Costumes

Jackson lives in Billings, MT. He built this Iron Man costume from scratch. He’s 16 years old. While normally we’d simply applaud that and post some pics, a local film production crew have made this short documentary on Jackson and the suit, filling us in on how he made it and showing him giving a…

Weirdly, This is Probably A Behind-The-Scenes Video Of A Planned Prince Of Persia Reboot

Bizarrely, within the same 24-hour period that Ubisoft says the Prince of Persia series is “paused”, footage has emerged of a project that sure seems like a Prince of Persia reboot. You’ve seen it before, back in August, but this production video says that the project’s name is Osiris, adding to suspicions the game—whatever it…

One Of The World’s Greatest Actors Hated Working With George Lucas

Terence Stamp is one of our age’s great actors. The guy has been everyone from Dracula to General Zod, and been in everything from Young Guns to Halo 3 (he was the Prophet of Truth). One of his most notable roles in recent decades, though, was as Supreme Chancellor Valorum in Star Wars: Episode I.…

It’s Tough Feeling Bad About These Awesome Diablo III Figures

Diablo III statues too expensive? Build your own. That’s what Samo Kramberger has done, crafting three custom pieces based on Diablo III’s barbarian, monk and demon hunter. The detail on the barbarian’s outfit and accessories is amazing, even if his face is a little upsetting. The demon hunter and monk, though, are just about perfect.…

Xbox Live is green across the board. Resume your deathmatching and Netflixing.

Yep, It’s A Slingshot That Shoots Chainsaws

Sound like something that you’d only see in a video game? Well, thanks to the maniac YouTube weaponcrafter Joreg Sprave, it’s also something that exists in real life. Granted, it’s a javelin with a very small chainsaw on the end, but I don’t think that distinction would matter if you caught one of these suckers…

SimCity’s Expensive Version Is $80, But…

Normally, the deluxe edition of a game withholds a few things, but EA seem to be going all-out with SimCity, throwing so much extra junk at the more expensive version (it’s $20 more than the regular) that they’re basically saying “you are scum for buying the normal version and your friends will view you accordingly”.…

Xbox Live is currently down. Microsoft says they’re looking into the problem.