Robot Children, Here Are Your Backpacks

Every Japanese grade schooler lugs around a big leather backpack called a “randoseru” (ランドセル). They’re sturdy and pricey, because they’re supposed last all six years of primary school. Girls usually get red or pink randoseru, while boys get black or blue. Robots? Well, they get randoseru from retail chain Nitori—complete with a six year warranty!…

How Dragon Quest X Could Forever Change the Gaming Landscape in Japan

MMORPGs are far from popular in Japan, especially when compared to the West. There have been a few MMO successes—e.g. Phantasy Star Online and Final Fantasy XI—but the MMO market is so small in general that even MMO juggernaut World of Warcraft has never been released here. On one level, this is because most MMOs…

Japan’s Ugliest Console Game Delayed. Again.

There are three things you can count on: Death, taxes, and Daisenryaku Perfect: Ruler of the Battlefield being delayed. A real Japanese game studio with a real office and real desks and real computers is developing this absolutely crappy-looking game. The game is slated to be released on the Xbox 360 and the PS3 for…

A Bastion for Bigots and Shameless Racists

Yesterday in London (early this morning in Japan), the US women’s soccer team played against Japan for Olympic gold. It was a squeaker, but America won 2-1. While the Associated Press interviewed Japanese fans who said things like, “Given that the United States is such a good team, the result is not surprising” or that…

Steampunk Xbox 360 Pad is Queen Victoria’s Controller of Choice

Reader Devin has turned a regular ol’ Xbox 360 controller into something a little fancier: this steampunk pad, which not only coats the controller in a rusty finish but adds a lot of neat touches like new buttons. I like the little screws replacing the “start” and “select” buttons the best, but the toxic green…

This PC Game Has Some of the Best Robots (And Boss Fights) I’ve Ever Seen

Intrusion 2 is an indie platformer for the PC that, at first glance, looks like a game of Scribblenauts where someone typed “big guns” and “giant robots” then the ability to enter anything else just disappeared. Which is just fine. Because Intrusion 2 is splendid the way it is, thanks. It’s got great robot design,…

The Only Thing Cooler Than a LEGO Batmobile is a Motorised LEGO Batmobile

Genius human Peer Kreuger has built these LEGO replicas of vehicles from The Dark Knight Rises, which not only look just like their on-screen counterparts, but act like them as well. The motorised Bat doesn’t really fly, it’s far too heavy for that, but faking it makes for a nice touch in the surprisingly professional…

Warframe, The Next Game From The Darkness II’s Developers, Looks Interesting

In case you missed it last time, Warframe is a “cooperative 3rd-person action free-to-play game” from Digital Extremes, the team behind The Darkness II. I’m still sceptical, because free-to-play shooters require a balance only a select few developers can manage, but for something with an art style that looks this cool, I’ll keep an open…

What a Video Game Olympics Could Look Like

Earlier this week, Stephen wondered if video games could ever be considered as an Olympic sport. He meant the medium as a whole, but if they ever did make it, they’d need specific events. Which is where artist Jay Lee Walsh steps in. Designed to look like retro Olympics posters, these pieces take common video…

You Can’t Really Sell a Console Showing Humans Trapped in a Glass Box

I get it. The GameCube was a cube. So you can show stuff happening inside a cube. It’s an advertising brief that writes itself. But for every awesome shot in this old Nintendo commercial – like samurai doing battle, or the world’s only Tie Interceptor living in captivity – there’s something silly. Unnecessary. A little…

What is This Weirdly Sexual Mario Image I Don’t Even Um OK

The live-action Mario movie is like a giant scab on your knee. It’s gross, and an eyesore, yet for whatever reason many of us just can’t resist picking at it. Most of the time that invokes painful memories, but not today. Today it’ll provoke some different, much stranger emotions. Witness Golden’s Super Mario Bros. The…

Commander Shepard’s $350 Statue Looks Lonely Without Tiny Plastic Space Hamsters

Sideshow Collectibles will next year be releasing a $350 statue based on Mass Effect’s Commander Shepard. The default male Shepard, in case you hadn’t somehow already seen the image up top (or the glimpse we caught of him at this year’s Comic-Con). Standing 19″ tall, and including an omni-tool and assault rifle, you can pre-order…

Prom Couple Ditch Corsage For Minecraft Swords

Seeing as the boutonnière I wore to my “prom” (we call them “formals” down here) pierced my jacket then flesh and went straight for my heart, I’m 100% down with alternatives to small fake flowers adorned atop enormous metal spikes. Like these Minecraft swords. Tacky, perhaps, but much safer. My friend and I decided we…

This Halo Concept Art is so Old it’s Drawn on Paper

Lovers of Halo (or of art in the most traditional sense) should dig these images from artist Eddie Smith, who over the years has worked on several games in the epic sci-fi saga. The more recent the games are, the more modern the art, but my favourites are Smith’s pieces for the first two Halos,…

Skyward Sword‘s Golden Nunchuk Comes to North America

Late last year Nintendo made a gold Nunchuk, matching the golden Wii remote for The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, available for Club Nintendo members in Japan. The company’s now decided that North American members can pick up one, too. You’ll need a balance of 900 coins in Club Nintendo’s rewards program to claim it.…

Crysis 3 Will Make me Upgrade my PC, if This Beautiful Trailer is Anything to go on

This clip, which is masquerading as a Crysis 3 trailer but is really a showreel for the game’s engine, is beautiful. It claims to be running in real-time, and to have been captured from Crysis 3 the game, not Crysis 3 the tech demo. Unless it’s a clip full of lies, this would have to…

Grand Theft Auto’s Liberty City Has Been Buried in Sand, And it Looks Incredible

While most Grand Theft Auto IV mods do little more than add a stupid character to the game or mess with the visuals, this mod – called Desert Storm – does something way more drastic. It covers the city in sand. Like, it buries the entire city in the stuff. In a very Spec Ops/Dubai…

The Only Thing I Listened To All Day Was This Chiptune Album

Benjamin Pena, also known as Producer Snafu, has put together an exciting chiptune album. In a way, it’s kind of a mess. It’s got beats all over the place, sometimes within a single track. He jumps from sweet to panicky in the span of just a few seconds. But you know what? I kind of…

That Time The Slenderman Turned Up In A Skrillex Video

Slenderman, that terrifying faceless ghoul in a suit, has been around for a good long while before that stripped-down, scary video game Slender hopped into the public eye. He’s a long-standing meme going back years, and he’s turned up everywhere from the YouTube Series Marble Hornets to.. well, to a Skrillex video from last year.…

Mod tools are coming to The Witcher 2, developers CD Projekt announced today. More details to come at GamesCom.