Every Friend Recruited for Bubble Galaxy with Buddies is Clean Drinking Water for Burkina Faso

Scopely’s latest “with Buddies” game hits the iTunes app store today, bringing with it a flood of clean drinking water for a developing country. The developer has partnered with charity:water to donate a gallon of water to the West African country of Burkina Faso for every friend you nag to play. Bubble Galaxy with Buddies…

Skylanders Completists, One of These New Wii Bundles Knows What You Want

Nintendo may have an all-new console coming out in justa few weeks, but that’s not going to stop them from tempting folks to pick up a Wii any way they can. The company just announced two new bundles for their aging hardware, one of which is designed to get rabid toy collectors like Kotaku‘s own…

The Nintendo Anime of my Dreams

Seeing as my anime preferences fall within the boundaries of “giant metal death machines”, and not “girls with enormous cute faces”, I haven’t enjoyed much Japanese animation in the last decade or so. But so help me I would watch this show. Especially if it was about the girls’ attempts to rescue a couple of…

Capcom thinks the Wii U could let it make a “unique Resident Evil game”. How about a scary one?

Why Japan Should Thank Nintendo. And Why It Shouldn’t.

Spend any time on Japanese websites, blogs, and forums, and you’ll eventually see it: ありがとう任天堂. It means “Arigato Nintendo” or “Thank you Nintendo”. “Arigato Nintendo” is a meme in Japan. It first appeared on popular Japanese game site Sinobi in 2009 in a piece that detailed the staggering first day sales of New Super Mario…

This Might Be the Best iPhone Theft Story Ever

A 27 year-old Taiwanese man surnamed Luo befriended a woman surnamed Lin, 21, a resident of New Taipei City. They met in an internet chatroom. And she allegedly made off with his phone. But there’s a twist. According to NOWnews website (via Global Times), Lin visited Hsinchu, a city in northern Taiwan, where Luo lives.…

How a Naked Japanese Man Launched Endless Photoshops

This March, a NSFW thread popped up on 2ch, the country’s largest bulletin board. The thread’s title was “Let’s Gather All the Nude Art Model Pics by Searching Google!”, and it featured an array of nude art models. But something funny happened. An internet superstar was discovered. The original thread from March seems to have…

Nintendo Says the 3DS Is Doing “Weaker” in the West Than Expected

Nintendo really turned things around for the 3DS. For a while, due to a variety of reasons (some out of Nintendo’s control), things did not look good for the handheld. Now, there are a bunch of games, and the 3DS is really starting to come into its own. That doesn’t mean it’s meeting Nintendo’s lofty…

In a recent Japanese magazine interview, Nippon Ichi confirmed that prep work on Disgaea 5 is starting.

World of Warcraft Outfits Look Lovely in Red as well as Purple

Tasha from South Korean cosplay collective Spiral Cats is back with a slew of new cosplay. She and her team are among the best cosplayers in Asia—and the world. Their outfits, in particular, are stellar. Here, via her Facebook page, Tasha tries her hand at World of Warcraft‘s Alexstrasza and Sylvanas Earlier this summer, she…

Lethal Resident Evil Enemies, Eating French Fries and Hanging Out

In Resident Evil, Tyrants are mass-produced bio-weapons. They’re scary! In Akihabara, they’re the bald dudes staring at their fries. Which isn’t so scary. It’s actually kind of cute. To promote the Resident Evil CG flick Resident Evil: Damnation, a trio of T-103 Tyrants roamed the streets, rode public transportation, took escalators, posed for pictures, and…

The Result of Nintendo’s Investigation into Underage Foxconn Workers

From the sound of it, kids as young as 14 could have assembled the Wii U. Last week, Nintendo issued a statement to Kotaku, saying it was looking into the matter. Today, Nintendo offered Kotaku an update on the results of its investigation. According to Charlie Scibetta, Nintendo of America’s senior director of Corporate Communications,…

Weird Nintendo Swag Lets You Make Your Own Mario Moustache

Not that Nintendo needs to really sell the Wii U right now, since the first shipment is guaranteed to sell out on name alone, but they’re selling it anyway. Part of that sell is this random piece of retailer swag that…lets you…make your own Mario moustache? Shaped like a Wii U, you put the goop…

The Only Way to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse is With an Official Zombie Survival Kit

Obviously fearing for the safety of himself and his loved ones, designer Sam Proctor has done the CDC’s work for them and come up with this idea for a zombie apocalypse survival kit. Small enough to stash somewhere handy, it contains only the bare essentials: a mask, access cards to safe zones, a flare gun…

This year’s Independent Games Festival will feature 589 games, a new record. Check ’em out here

Capturing the Coolness of California Arcades in the Early 80s

Between 1981 and 1982, renowned photographer Ira Nowinski hiked all over the Bay Area, taking hundreds of photos of arcades. In all, he snapped around 700 images, and in awesome news for retro gaming fans many of them are now available for viewing, courtesy of their acquisition by Stanford University’s library (and Edge). Once you’re…

It’s The Hobbit’s First TV Trailer

Still not excited for The Hobbit, which opens in December? Maybe the movie’s first TV spot will do the trick. I can’t believe it’s been nine years since we had a Tolkien/Jackson joint debut in a theatre. That’s too damn long.

This Guy Has Been Luke Skywalker More Times Than Mark Hamill

Sure, he’s done amazing work behind a microphone over the last few decades, but let’s be honest. For most people, Mark Hamill is Luke Skywalker. At least, he is in three motion pictures and stuff like a Christmas special he would probably rather forget For over a decade, you’ve probably seen – or at least…

Unity of Command: The Kotaku Review

“You will not find it difficult to prove that battles, campaigns, and even wars have been won or lost primarily because of logistics.” – General Dwight D. Eisenhower Ike knew a thing or two about the machinations of war. He knows a lot more about it than most video game developers, whose efforts to replicate…

Tomb Raider’s Box Art Resists The Obvious Temptation

We normally only show an upcoming game’s cover if one of us takes a liking to it. So, yeah, I quite like Tomb Raider’s box art! Which doesn’t surprise me, seeing as I’m a fan of the game’s art direction in general (“Uncharted in bad weather”), but with a prominent female lead there was still…