This Week’s iPhone Charts: Minecraft With Guns Wins the Day

Riding high atop the paid iPhone charts this week, CraftedBattle is a Minecraft-style first-person shooter map editor. Build a map, fill it with bots, and fire away. In the number two paid spot this week, actual Minecraft What a strange little title to rise to the top of the paid iPhone charts. It doesn’t even…

This Karaoke Game Has More Than a Few Game Tunes (Can You Name Them?)

Calling Karaoke “popular” in Japan is like calling water “wet.” Places where you can rent your own Karaoke room (for small or large groups) cover Japan’s metropolitan landscape and nearly every bar has an aging Karaoke machine that sees nightly use. So of course, Karaoke video games are nothing new. However, most Karaoke games only…

Even You Could’ve Easily Won This Arcade Game Tournament

Suck at music games? But still want to win tournaments to impress friends and relatives? Well, you might’ve just missed your chance. A Taito arcade in Tokyo’s Takadanobaba recently held a Pop’n Music competition. The event was canned, because nobody showed up. So sad! The tweet from Taito read: “Since there were zero participants at…

Yamato 2199 is a Beautifully Retold Classic (And It’s Only Half Done)

Before there was Macross, before there was Gundam, there was Yamato. Space Battleship Yamato (called Star Blazers in the West) is the original space opera anime and a cornerstone of anime popular culture in Japan. Now, nearly 40 years after its original television debut, a 26-episode remake of the original series is being aired in…

The PS Vita Wanking Game Is a Surprise Hit

Card-based PS Vita game Monster Monpiece features monster girls and inappropriate gameplay. In Japan, the game appears to be a monster hit. I cannot understand why! Compile Heart, the folks behind the title, announced on January 26 that the game’s first run of 27,000 copies is already out of stock and that many stores in…

Yamato 2199 is a Bold New Way to Make an Anime

Space Battleship Yamato (Starblazers in the West) is one of the cornerstones of anime. Created by Yoshinobu Nishizaki and the legendary Leiji Matsumoto (Galaxy Express 999, Captain Harlock, Daft Punk’s Interstella 5555), it is the original space opera anime and has had a prominent place in Japanese popular culture for nearly 40 years. With the…

Naruto Is Way More Handsome Than You Think

This is Naruto from…Naruto. He is a ramen-eating ninja with whisker marks on his face. What if he didn’t have those whisker marks? What would he look like? According to 2ch, Japan’s largest bulletin board, he’d look pretty damn handsome. Here are a handful of fan images of Naruto, sans whisker marks and head protector.…

This Woman Cosplays Policenauts Like You Won’t Believe

Omi Gibson, the queen of Metal Gear cosplay, turned her talents towards classic adventure game Policenauts. And, wow, she nails it. Just look at how she brings Jonathan Ingram to life. Forget her costume, it’s those facial expressions that really sell this cosplay. Initially released in 1994, Policenauts was designed by Metal Gear creator, Hideo…

After the Internet Drops Out, Chinese Gamer Allegedly Goes on a Deadly Rampage

While playing his favorite online game at a local internet cafe, a gamer named “Zhao” repeatedly suffered internet disconnections. According to QQ Games (via Tech in Asia), Zhao apparently got incensed and went to the home of the net cafe owner. There, things reportedly escalated. And got awful. The net cafe owner, who was surnamed…

Remember, Your Game Console Might Be a Cockroach Hotel

As many gamers can tell you, bugs can be a problem. No, like bugs—real bugs. Roaches. Gross, you say. That would be correct. But this is a friendly reminder that bug infested consoles are very much a thing This problem is not new. But during this console generation, there have been forum threads seeking advice…

Beautiful Worlds Just Waiting For A Video Game Adaptation

I like Populous. I like Reprisal. I like pretty things, which means I also really like the polygonal art of Timothy J. Reynolds. He says his style evolved from “a healthy dose of legos and cartoons” he grew up on as a kid, but I see the isometric viewpoints and 3D structure and all I…

The Humble MIDI Is 30 Years Old

The Musical Instrument Digital Interface, or MIDI, turns 30 this week. While it’s used across devices and mediums, for a long time it was crucial to your experience with video games, as it was a popular way of getting electronic music stored on game cartridges and discs, especially in the 1990s. Everyone will have their…

A Very Animated Look At Halo 4

This clip, seemingly done for Spartan Ops, was done by Planet Jump animation studio for the launch of Halo 4 last year. Part-animated clip, part-motion comic, its got an anime style and helps explain, at least partially, why the Covenant are hanging around the game. Better than the game manages, anyway. The short was directed…

A Final Fantasy Statue So Good I’d Stick It In A Gallery And Charge People Money To Look

Sadly, this isn’t something you can buy. It’s a garage kit, which means it’s basically a home-made piece, so the astonishing detail you’re seeing here is a one-of-a-kind. As something so beautiful deserves to be. It’s Ultima, a summon from Final Fantasy XII, and the impressive statue stands an enormous 20″ tall. I’ve included some…

Well, At Least Mike Tyson Will Like Dead Space 3’s Launch Trailer

There are songs that work in video game trailers because they’re great. There are others that work because they’re ironic. This is neither. It’s a hilarious disaster.

Dreaming Of A Wii U That Can Also Play 3DS Games

Nintendo actually used to make stuff like this. I had an add-on for my GameCube, for example, that let me play Game Boy Advance titles through the console on my TV. They were good times, but sadly, times that have been short since the release of the Wii, which failed to receive a similar add-on…

This Sure Is A Homemade Star Trek: Into Darkness Trailer

From the guys who brought you that homemade version of the Man of Steel trailer comes this latest adventure in sweding, applied to the trailer for J.J. “TrekWars” Abrams’ upcoming Star Trek: Into Darkness. Highlight for me: the guys trying to vocally re-create the Inception horn. I actually rewatched Abrams’ Star Trek yesterday. I think…

It’s Not Made By Nintendo or Sony, But This Handheld System Looks Promising

JXD S7300 HD Gamepad2. It doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, does it? But the name might be the only thing I can see wrong with this new handheld system, designed entirely around the idea of playing classic old video games. Based on Android 4.1, the JXD S7300 HD Gamepad2 comes with a range of…

This interesting article explores what happens when you apply real-world city planning to the new SimCity

Sony is teasing… something. What? Hard to say. Could be something terrible. Or something cool. What do you think?