Wii U’s Video Chat Looks Like, Well, Video Chat

Tonight, Nintendo showed off how video chat works on the Wii U. The feature takes advantage of the GamePad’s camera, and, um, it seems to look pretty much like video chat. Though, it does have the added ability of letting you draw hearts on Reggie’s face. Nintendo Direct [任天堂]

How the Wii U Handles Comments

In Nintendo’s Miiverse, players can register new friends and follow them. (There is also a direct messaging function.) But since everyone is talking about video games in the Miiverse, you might accidentally read a spoiler. Good news: Spoilers can be hidden. The MiiVerse is designed to quickly hide common spoilers through an automatic setting. You…

Important Details About the New Nintendo Network ID

One of the big changes for the Wii U is the Nintendo Network. Instead of Friend Codes, the Nintendo Network uses the Nintendo Network ID. But before you get started, users must create a User Account. For each Wii U console, it’s possible to create up to 12 User Accounts. Then, after that, you create…

When You Turn On Your Wii U, You’ll See This: WaraWara Plaza

Previously, Nintendo showed what it called “Mii WaraWara”. It’s a redesigned Wii Plaza, with Miis clustered around games and leaving messages. Today, Nintendo announced that the final English name for this feature is WaraWara Plaza. “Warawara” (わらわら) is Japanese for “bustling”. In the WaraWara Plaza, you can see what other games people are playing—and talking…

Exclusive Concept Art of the Upcoming Production I.G Short, Kick-Heart

Production I.G, the studio behind the Ghost in the Shell anime, recently launched a Kickstarter for a short anime titled Kick-Heart. The Kickstarter was a success, showing that, like video games, Japanese anime can also find news ways of getting funding. Here is some concept art for the anime, courtesy of Production I.G. Have a…

A Cute Girl Who Watches You? There’s an App for That.

Like it when a cute girl watches you? “This isn’t some weird metaphor,” explains comedian Kendo Kobayashi. Rather, do you like it when a cute girl watches over you? Watching Cute Girl is a new iTunes app that features a young lady watching you. She’s supposed to keep you company if you are, for example,…

Why This Japanese Town Is So Damn Happy Obama Won

When Barack Obama was sworn in for his first term, a small Japanese town was overjoyed. Women danced the hula at the local temple, and the town readied a slew of I Love Obama t-shirts, stickers and flags. Why was this small town of 30,000 people who could not vote in the U.S. presidential election…

Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida won’t commit to a 2013 release for The Last Guardian. How about 2014? 2015? 2016?!

Whack a Dick at This Japanese Arcade

You know the classic arcade game Whac-A-Mole, right? Using a mallet, the goal is to whack moles as they pop up. In Japan, the game is called “Mogura Tataki” (もぐらたたき), which means, well, Whac-A-Mole. It’s the same game. Spotted in a local arcade in Japan, this Whac-A-Mole game, however, doesn’t seem to feature moles. It…

We Might be Looking at the Next Generation of…Indie RPGs

If you saw a screenshot of Sui Generis, you’d think, hey, look, it’s another Diablo clone. But take a look at it moving. Those physics! Developers Bare Mettle say the game is an “open world RPG for the PC”, featuring “Advanced AI and a hugely interactive game world” and “lifelike battles in which your wits…

Kids Visit Gabe Newell For His Birthday, Give Him DLC as Present

It was Valve boss Gabe Newell’s birthday on November 3, and to mark the occasion, some kids from 4chan’s /v/ (the board’s video games group) went and paid him a visit in the flesh. In addition to giving him a giant card (which they do every year), and getting the chance to wish him a…

One of The Great Artists of Our Time Now Has a Video Game

Roger Dean is one of the greatest pop artists of the 20th century, his work memorable amongst both music fans and gamers alike So it’s both weird and welcome that, this being 2012, we’ve finally got a game devoted entirely to his work, and not just using it for a cover, or logo, or arcade…

A Very Serious, Very Excellent Assassin’s Creed III Music Video

So, you guys remember Lindsey Sterling, right? She takes her video game music very seriously. As you’re about to see in this Assassin’s Creed clip that’s like a cosplaying music video. Assassin’s Creed III- Lindsey Stirling [Lindsey Sterling]

An Intro Remake That’s From Another World

Hey, it’s rickonami, back with another HD remake of a famous video game intro. Last time we saw him, he was messing with some classic console games, but his latest is a little closer to my heart. It’s a reinterpretation of the intro to 1991’s Another World, which in case you weren’t gaming (or were…

The Dark, Troubled Thoughts of Cat Payne

The litter was calling me, like granulated pieces of my broken past. But pooping on the floor was all I had left. They’d taken everything else from me, that night my world came crashing down. A knife in the dark, a cold table. My manhood, gone, along with the rest of the garbage. Her scent…

Of Course, James Earl Jones Was Darth Vader and Mufasa

When Star Wars and Disney inevitably meet, whether it be in a Kingdom Hearts game or something else designed to print money, it won’t look like this. Pity. It should at least sound like this. Eclectic Method – Disney Wars [Eclectic Method]

Halo 4’s Cortana Could Have Looked a Little Crazier

So much of Halo 4, like the rest of the series, is busy. Lots of action, lots of colours, lots of stuff all over the screen. So this concept art from the game is a refreshing break, stripping things back to let us see the game’s enemies and locations on nothing but a field of…

There’s a new Uncharted game coming. Expect something social or mobile.

Guys, Freddie Prinze Is Sorry He Offended Hardcore Anime Fans

Freddie Prinze, former teen heartthrob now mysteriously gnarly grown dude, is on the marketing trail for the Mass Effect anime flick Paragon Lost (he voiced James Vega in Mass Effect 3 and reprises the role in the movie). In an interview recently, he used the terms Japanime and Japanimation. Which, as he explains, is kinda…

This Kinect Patent is Terrifying, Wants to Charge You For License Violation

A patent filed by Microsoft last year, but only made public last week, wants to turn your Xbox 360’s Kinect into an instrument via which large companies can monitor your media usage and, if you’re found to be in violation of something, charge you for it. And no, I am not making that up. The…