Hey, You’ve Got Nausicaä in My Final Fantasy IX

Since the Final Fantasy games have been so incredibly influential, it’s interesting to see where FF‘s designers have looked for their own inspiration. It’s no secret that Final Fantasy has apparently been influenced by Studio Ghibli. The Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind manga, for example, most likely inspired Final Fantasy‘s Chocobo—those big yellow…

The Foxconn factory that assembles the iPhone 5 is back online. Riots recently broke out apparently over labor tensions.

First Details on New Jiggly Ninja Game include Inevitable Destructible Outfits

When game designer Kenichiro Takaki thought about what he wanted to see in 3D on the Nintendo 3DS, one thing (er, two things?) came to mind. The result was Senran Kagura. Now the curvy ninja game is making its way to the PS Vita as Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus – Young Girls’ Proof This week’s…

Japan Has a Thunderbirds Cafe, and It’s Freakin’ Amazing

Retro British TV lives on in Tokyo. Iconic program Thunderbirds has its own official cafe, which serves up salute and Thunderbirds fandom. The food doesn’t exactly look spectacular, but the inside of the restaurant definitely does. Inside, there are rare items from the show as well as replica Thunderbird vehicles on display. Episodes are on…

What’s Better than Giant Bugs? Giant Live Action Bugs!

B-movie director Minoru Kawasaki, known for masterpieces like Executive Koala, directed a live action commercial to promote Earth Defense Force 3: Portable for the PS Vita. It stars pin-up model Risa Yoshiki, and you can watch it above. 地球防衛軍3 PORTABLE THE COMMERCIAL [SonyJp@YouTube] Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the…

The Guns, The Hair, and the Dudes of Resident Evil

Resident Evil is wall-to-wall memorable characters. Fans haven’t only fallen in love with the female protagonists. They also adore the men of Resident Evil And why wouldn’t they? The guys are cool, decked in nice threads with rad hair. And then there’s the swank paramilitary gear, too. Fancy! Last week, Kotaku took a look at…

Norwegian Retailer Has a Fantasy Wii U Launch Lineup

Norwegian retailer CDON has, as it should, a page up ready for people order Wii U games. It’s also got something most other retailers don’t: listings for games many Nintendo fans can only dream of. Among the known and incoming games like Tank!Tank!Tank! and New Super Mario Bros. U, there are listings for games that…

The Spy Hunter Movie is Still Being Made, Gets New Director

According to a report on Vulture, Zombieland Director Ruben Fleischer is now at the helm of the Spy Hunter movie, a project which has been on and off more times than a freakin’ light switch He’ll be directing and executive producing. Or, at least, he will be for six months before he disappears and we…

Ferrets as Famous Video Game Characters. It’s Way Better Than You Think.

Russian artist Amales has been featured here on Kotaku before. For her ferrets. But boy, in the time since, she’s been busy Not only is she fleshing out the rest of the cast of the Mass Effect series, but she’s also featuring other animorphic transformations like Diablo III’s Monk and Dead Space’s Isaac. I know,…

The Battle of Hoth Recreated in Minecraft, as an Incredible Animated Short

In December, reader Grahame made one of the coolest Minecraft videos I’ve ever seen, recreating Star Wars’ famous “trench run”. He’s outdone himself now, though, with this animated rendition of Empire Strikes Back’s Battle of Hoth. It took him two months just to build the “set”, and six days to film it and get it…

Ambitious Homeworld Mod Might Just be The Most Perfect Space Game Ever

Ask anyone who likes strategy video games and spaceships what their favourite title of all time is and, if they don’t say Homeworld, they’re either lying or are seven years old. So! For the grown-ups and truth-tellers among you, take a look at this. It’s the latest update for Complex, an ambitious Homeworld 2 mod…

This is Quite a Trailer You’ve Got Here, Resident Evil 6

I’m not going to get excited about this game. The sad faces I make every time I think of Resident Evil 5 have made sure of that. But “surprisingly enthused”? I can do that.

Your PC Needs to be *This* Tall to Play Assassin’s Creed III

Ubisoft just released the specs for the PC version of Assassin’s Creed III. Note they’ve only released the minimum specs…anyone looking for recommended, you’ll just have to compare your system to these in your head and make an educated guess! Supported OS: Windows Vista (SP2) / Windows 7 (SP1) / Windows 8 Processor: 2.66 GHz…

Some of The Concept Art Behind Borderlands 2

Lorin Wood works at Gearbox. Last week, Gearbox released Borderlands 2. This is Kotaku’s concept art showcase feature. You can see where this is going. Aside from his Borderlands stuff, Wood has also worked on Colonial Marines, while outside of Gearbox, he’s worked for companies like Disney, Lucasfilm and 20th Century Fox. You can see…

League of Legends Attacked By Small Group of Jerk Players

League of Legends is one of the biggest games in the world. Which means it also attracts some of the biggest assholes in the world as well, who despite being active players of the game, have banded together to try and bring it down. Developers Riot Games have caught ” a handful of players…attacking our…

Read EA’s Aggressive Warning Letter to a Former Employee [UPDATE]

Like any other big company, there are probably good sides to working at EA, and there are probably bad sides. Here’s one of the bad sides: the publisher keeps track of former employees, and sends them threatening letters when it’s worried those former employees will start spilling company secrets. Below you’ll see correspondence sent by…

When Liquid Nitrogen Meets 1,500 Ping Pong Balls

If you’ve ever wanted to see more than a thousand ping pong balls detonated by a bottle of liquid nitrogen, have I got a surprise for you! This video of Plymouth University’s professor Roy Lowry uploaded by Techietickets shows just what happens when a garbage can full of ping pong balls gets… angry. Update: Well…

Turns Out Bayonetta on PS3 Was a Massive Failure

I quite enjoyed Bayonetta, but then, I played it on Xbox 360. The PS3 version on the other hand had more than a few problems. So many, in fact, that creators Platinum Games say the game was the studio’s “biggest failure”. “The biggest failure for Platinum so far, the one that really sticks in my…

Whoah, System Shock 2 and Thief 2 Just got Surprise Patches

Surprise! Out of almost thin air, a pair of unofficial patches have been released for PC classics System Shock 2 and Thief 2 that not only allow the games to be safely played on modern hardware (and operating systems), but look great while they’re doing it. Their origins are a bit of a mystery; they…

Your Cable Company Wants To Try To Be Your Next Console

Despite the rather dramatic meltdown of OnLive earlier this year, “cloud gaming” remains one of the go-to buzzwords for the future of game delivery. With so many American internet service providers capping data or providing slow and/or unreliable bandwidth, a fully-streaming future has seemed likely to take a while to catch on. A recent Bloomberg…