This Beautiful Voice Belongs in a Ghibli Movie

If you’ve seen the wonderful Ghibli anime Whisper of the Heart (and if you have not, you should), you’ll know that the it features John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” throughout. The Japanese version of that tune is fantastic. The lyrics are different, of course, but they’re still wonderful and rousing. So is this…

Nyan Cat Runs Amok in Project Diva f!

There were many things I expected when I picked up Hatsune Miku: Project Diva f: Vocaloid songs, Miku in tons of crazy costumes, the ability to make “Call Me Maybe” into a playable level, new touch screen controls, and a major graphical overhaul—as the series takes the leap from the PSP to Vita. What I…

The Z.O.E. Premium Bundle Is Pretty Damn Big

The upcoming HD version of Zone of the Enders is getting a “Premium Package”. It’s enormous and heavy. Don’t believe me? Compare below! The game and this jumbo-sized collector’s edition will be out in October. 重いw, 並べてみたw [@Kojima_Hideo] Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan,…

The Geekiest Humidifier I’ve Ever Seen

And, let me tell you, I’ve been looking! So here you go, the Neon Genesis Evangelion humidifier, which is based on the iconic anime of the same name. It features Eva Unit 01 standing atop NERV head1quarters in Evangelion and looks more like a diorama and less like a humidifier. It also looks completely bonkers.…

Dragon Quest X Wii U will appear at the Tokyo Game Show as part of a stage demo.

This Game Looks Nothing Like Pokémon

Nope. Nothing like it at all. It’s totally different. No way could anyone call Little Masters a Pokémon rip-off. Just look at it. See? Totally different. Recently released on iOS, Little Masters is a game in which you caught monsters, train them, and have them fight. Know why they call the game “Little Masters”? Because…

The Time Jeremy Lin Escaped in a Hello Kitty Mask

Being super famous is difficult. Just ask Jeremy Lin! That dude is super famous—in the US and especially in Asia. This video shows how the hoopster escaped Linsanity while in Taipei: by wearing a Hello Kitty mask. Cool video, but there’s something Lin couldn’t escape: all those Nike logos! A Late Night Escape in Taipei…

Check out more footage of Demon Training (Nintendo’s new Brain Age) here. Lotsa math and floating heads.

Way Before “Gangnam Style”, Gangnam Was Very Different

This summer, the K-pop single “Gangnam Style” hasn’t only been popular in its native South Korea, but it has also captured the imagination of those outside the country. Gangnam is a ritzy area of Seoul and the term “Gangnam style” obviously refers to that district. However, Gangnam wasn’t always galloping horse dances, tennis courts, and…

Maybe Zynga’s Not Such a Bad Place To Work After All…

Zynga, the home to games like Farmville, doesn’t seem to be the greatest place on Earth to work. It’s not entirely awful, though. Here’s a new multiplayer gaming setup built into the company’s cafeteria. That’s sixteen screens. Is it enough to make me want to work there? Hell no. Is it enough to make me…

These Real Soldiers Are Being Trained On Amazing Video Games

The use of glorified video games to train military personnel is nothing new, but traditionally, it’s been pretty stodgy stuff, not really the kind of thing casual users would be particularly jealous of. This stuff, though, I am jealous of. Laser Shot is a company that specialises in providing military training gear to clients like…

Watch as Dead Keyboards Become Portraits of Celebrities

My last keyboard that broke, I gave it to my kid. It’s now being used for tea parties. The one before that ended up straight in the bin. How wasteful I’m being! Instead of disposing of dead hardware, I could have been recycling it all this time, turning the keys into awesome portraits of celebrities…

When The Future of Video Games Was…Tape Decks

This is a commercial for Hitachi’s H2 model of the MSX, Microsoft’s unsung hero of Japan’s gaming past. The soothing tones, the brilliant whites, the computer-generated animal…this is the future, people. The distant, star-gazing future! Where video games are so advanced they’re sold not on discs, or downloaded over communications networks, but put on cassette…

Miyamoto’s Worst Game Idea Ever. Or Maybe The Best. Not Sure.

In 1989, Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto sat down with Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii for an interview. The two spoke about practically everything, from game design to their latest titles (like Link to the Past) to the future, but what I found most interesting was the pair’s ideas on making games about teaching. Both had…

This Old-School RPG Might Give You One More Reason To Buy A Vita

Here’s another look at Dragon Fantasy Book II, out for PlayStation 3 and Vita early next year. As you can see, it’s very SNESish. Gotta love that fake Mode 7

Star Wars, Dead Space, Transformers, This is Some of the Best Nerd Art on the Planet

Ryan Church is about as close to the top of the concept art world as you can get. He’s worked on Star Wars movies. He’s working on the new Star Trek movies. He’s worked on Avatar, Transformers and John Carter. In addition to all that movie stuff, though, he’s also found time to lend a…

We Are One Step Closer To Real Metal Gears

Continuing a process that began back in the 1960s, the United States has this week taken us one step closer to a world in which Metal Gears cease to be science fiction and start being part of the military’s everyday life. Boston Dynamics, whose military robots even look like Metal Gears, this week released video…

Eidos Developer Fired Over Murder Comments

Blake Marsh spent four years working for Eidos Montreal, the team behind Deus Ex: Human Revolution. He was fired this week. Not for anything he did while on the job, but for stuff he said on Facebook. As the latest reminder that anyone with a full-time job had best watch what they say on a…

The Best Crime Show No One Watched

Remember Terriers? Man, that show was great. (Too bad about the terrible name.) In the annals of dead-before-their-time TV shows, Terriers is right up there with Firefly, for my money. And hey, as it turns out, both of those shows had amazing flashback episodes written by Mr. Tim Minear! Yeah, the guy who wrote “Out…

That Harry Potter-like Spellbook for PlayStation Move Is On Sale in November

Wonderbook; The Book of Spells, the not-really-Harry-Potter-but-endorsed-by-J.K.-Rowling-so-you-think-it-is bundle of game and hardware, is gonna hit shelves in November, Sony said earlier today. Sony’s selling it in two forms: The Wonderbook: Book of Spells Move Bundle, for $79.99, which comes with the game, a peripheral, and the PlayStation Eye camera and Move controller that makes the…