Two Very Important Pokémon Facts

When you play Pokémon—no, when you just think about Pokémon—there are two very important things to keep in mind. You could say they are the most important things to keep in mind. One: “If you make your pets fight in real life, you’ll be arrested.” Two: “The police also frown on crushing pets into balls.”…

You Know What Atari Classic Breakout Was Missing? Bunnies.

Really that headline works with any game, even games that already have bunnies in them. Coming soon from Atari and Zynga (The A to Z of mobile games—that’s free, marketing people), Super Bunny Breakout Inspired by the superhero Freedom Man, one rabbit embarks on a quest to free his furry friends from an animal testing…

XCOM: Enemy Unknown: The Kotaku Review

XCOM: Enemy Unknown should have been a disaster. It’s a turn-based strategy title, a style of game its publisher said only last year was “just not contemporary“. It’s also a remake of a cult classic 1990’s PC game, beloved by an audience so fickle that a modern version should be the most offensive entertainment product…

Argument Over Video Game Martial Arts Turned into a Real Fist Fight

The Chinese “Golden Week” is normally a very quiet week. For the many Chinese, it’s a week off work to relax. For others, it’s a vacation nightmare because all the tourist destinations are packed with people. Well during this “Golden Week”, two young men from Deyang, Sichuan province thought it was a good idea to…

Epic Trolling with Added Profanity in Beijing

Those who took the Line 5 on the Beijing subway home tonight were greeted with a surprise: big eff yous plastered all over the place. Chinese news site iFeng shows numerous screens and display read, “Wang Peng ni mei” (王鹏你妹) or as ShanghaiIst explains: it’s literally “Wang Peng, your sister”, but that means something like,…

Terrifying Hornets Attack Otaku and Hikers, Sending 11 People to the Hospital

The “Machi Asobi” event (above) in Tokushima, Japan is a gathering of gamers, anime fans, and other otaku. Part of the event is open air, meaning that organizers must contend with things like the weather. That’s expected. This fall, however, they had to deal with something totally unexpected: scary hornets. On Sunday morning, eleven individuals…

Man Loses Job, Spends Seven Months Living In Net Cafe

29-year-old Jiang Tao has been dwelling inside an internet café in prefectural city of Changde in China’s Hunan province for the last seven months. During that time, Jiang pretty much ate and slept at the café leaving the soft glow of his computer monitor only to clean himself up. While it may seem that Jiang…

Defend the Earth with these Earth Defense Force goods, available on the DP3 webshop.

What Protests? Says Foxconn

Foxconn, the assembler of most of our electronic playthings is in the headlines again this week after reports started to appear about a potential strike happening during China’s “Golden Week” holiday last week. Early reports painted a picture of upwards from 3000 to 4000 employees striking at Foxconn’s Zhengzhou plant located in central China’s Hebei…

Japan’s Amazing Drink Can Sculptures Will Melt Your Mind

Makaon has a hobby. She likes to make sculptures of pop culture characters as well as insects, animals, and more. But she doesn’t use clay. She doesn’t use stone. Makaon uses cans. Beer cans, soda cans, cocktail cans, and energy drink cans are her palette, which she uses to create her mind-blowingly wonderful work. Makaon…

Bungie hired a now former Rockstar developer as “a gameplay designer on the sandbox team” for its new project.

The Newest Cute Tekken Statue Unmasked!

Julia Chang is the latest Tekken character to get all cuted up in plastic. Chang is joining the likes of Alisa Bosconovich, among other Tekken characters, as part of Kotobukiya’s bishoujo line. The 1/7 scale Jaycee figure is based on Shunya Yamashita’s illustration and would be out next February for ¥7,140 (US$91). Kotobukiya (via Tomopop)…

Yet Another Face-Eating Attack (Can We Knock Off the Face Eating, Please?)

This Saturday in Foshan City, China, a shirtless man started gnawing on a woman’s face. The woman, surnamed “Pan”, told local media that the man approached her on the street, cornered her, and then began eating her face. “I shouted to him asking what is he doing, but he kept seizing my head and suddenly…

One Piece Wants To Be King of PSP Bundles

When upcoming role-playing game One Piece Romance Dawn goes on sale in Japan this December, it will also get a special PSP bundle. The limited edition pack comes with a special One Piece PSP and a copy of the game. Yours for ¥19,780 (US$251). 特別デザインが施されたPSPとソフトがセットになった「PSP ワンピース ROMANCE DAWN 冒険の夜明け麦わらの一味 EDITION [4Gamer] Kotaku East is your…

Scary New Computer Virus Could Be Responsible for the Nintendo Bomb Threat

“This week, I’m going to blow up Nintendo headquarters.” This anonymous online message appeared on September 10 of this year. Japanese police moved quickly to find out who was responsible for the threat—as well as other threats to blow up Ise Grand Shrine, one of Japan’s most important Shinto shrines. The police in Mie Prefecture…

When Gordon Met Chell, a Post-Apocalyptic Love Story (I Hope)

This is a poster for a short film that’s due out later this week. I’d hope it’s not a romantic comedy, but then, with a name like that you can never be too sure. I almost wish it was. At least a Gordon Freeman rom com would be mercifully quiet Just made this poster for…

I Hope Master Chief Doesn’t Blow up This Halo Ringworld

Kotaku reader Catsy has spent the last three years (on and off) working on this behemoth of a tribute to the Halo universe, rendered entirely in LEGO. It’s a Halo Ringworld, and was shown off over the weekend at BrickCon 2012, where it won “Best Large Planetary Structure in the Space”. Congrats, Catsy! The outer…

Modern Warfare Map Removed After Complaints From Muslim Gamers

Over the weekend, those playing Modern Warfare 2 began to notice that one of the series’ most popular multiplayer maps, Favela, had disappeared. Why? Publishers Activision and developers Infinity Ward took the map off rotation after receiving complaints from Muslim gamers, who had discovered offensive imagery contained within a room of the stage. It’ll return…

Robotic Admiral Ackbar Cosplay Isn’t a Trap, it’s a Masterpiece

This isn’t just an Admiral Ackbar suit. That would be too easy. This Admiral Ackbar cosplay outfit is part-man, part-Mon Calamari and part-robot Artist, sculptor and costume builder Tom Cuthbert is the genius behind (most of) this costume, which features an animatronic suite (installed by Daniel Valdez) in the head to power the Alliance Admiral’s…

Advance Wars Meets the…2012 Presidential Election

If you had to ask me the one thing that would get me interested in the hyper-partisan wasteland that is American politics, I’d have to say Advance Wars Lucky (or unlucky?) for me, then, there’s an Advance Wars clone that’s based on the 2012 Presidential election. No, really. You can play it below. It’s shocking…