You Gotta Catch All These Pokémon Trainers! (No, Really, You Do)

Pocket Monsters isn’t only about monsters. It’s also about those Monster Ball packing characters. You know, trainers Over the generations, there have been a host of Pokémon trainers. Some of them have become iconic—such as Ash Ketchum, Misty, and Hilda. Being iconic in gaming means there are countless numbers of folks who enjoy dressing up…

PS Vita Rip-Off Appears at China’s Biggest Gaming Expo

Even though the actual PS Vita was at the recent China Joy gaming convention in Shanghai, a Vita inspired copy was there, too. From iReadyGo, the Much 3G is an Android-powered handheld that sure looks like the PS Vita (though, it seems to be missing rear-touch and proper analog sticks). Tech company iReadyGo even had…

An upcoming patch will enable gamers to play Dragon’s Dogma on a new Easy mode. How about a patch for the boring bits?

Hanging Out with Darth Vader Sure Seems Fun

Camping. Skateboarding. Getting your hair done. If you’re a looking for a buddy, Darth Vader is the Sith Lord you want. Vader appears in the Samsung Galaxy spots for Japanese mobile carrier Docomo. Debuting last fall, the commercial is part of the “Walk with You” series of commercials that turns celebrities in personified cell phones…

Naruto, All Freakishly Tall and with Breasts

Nana-chan ningyou (“Nana-chan doll”) is a huge female mannequin in front of Nagoya’s Meitetsu Department Store. Since 1973, she’s towered over shoppers in a variety of seasonal and promotional outfits. Recently, Nana-chan donned Naruto gear as part of a campaign for the new Naruto animated film, Road to Ninja: Naruto the Movie, giving Nagoya the…

The Upcoming Final Fantasy XIII Lightning Title Will Be Revealed Next Month

As previously hinted, Square Enix will be revealing the latest entry in its Final Fantasy XIII “Lightning Saga” at the upcoming Final Fantasy anniversary event in Tokyo’s Shibuya on September 1. Square Enix’s Yoshinori Kitase confirmed to Famitsu that work on the latest entry in the Lightning Saga has “just begun”. At the Final Fantasy…

A Chinese Arcade Cabinet Built for RPGs

Side-scrolling role-playing game Zhan Hun (roughly, “Soul Decapitation”) made an appearance at the recent China Joy gaming convention in arcade form. The wuxia game is a single player role-playing title set in ancient China, and its arcade demo cabinet was outfitted with buttons and a joystick for those who like arcade controls as well as…

This Is Not Fried Chicken. You Cannot Eat It.

Your mouth might water. Your stomach might growl. You might want to reach out and shove these chicken wings into your mouth. But you cannot for two reasons: One, they exist on the internet, and two, they’re not actually fried chicken. They’re fake. In Japan, plastic food is called “shokuhin sample” (食品サンプル) or “food sample”.…

A Tribute to Old Games (and Life!)

Swedish artist KJ Andersson pays a strangely powerful tribute to Ernest Kline’s “When I was a Kid“. I say strange because, you know. For all the cheery retro graphics on display, cutting just those two lines out and sticking them front and centre reminds me a little too much of my own mortality. Embroidery [kjandersson,…

Here’s How to Play Crytek’s New Online Shooter (That You’re Not Really Supposed to be Playing Yet)

Crysis developers Crytek (or, at least, their Kiev satellite studio) have been working on Warface, a multiplayer shooter for the PC that while looking entirely unremarkable also boasts visuals that look bloody amazing The game’s actually playable right now, and what’s more it’s free! But there’s a catch: it’s only live in Russia, and the…

Concept Art From Guild Wars, Halo and Beyond

Meet Thomas Scholes. Well, meet his art. An illustrator and concept artist who has worked at 343 Studios, ArenaNet and Disney, he’s now a freelancer who can draw some of the nicest pieces of environment art around. In the gallery below you’ll see examples of his work on games like Halo 4 and Guild Wars…

GameStop’s Trade-In Program, the 1993 Edition

Here’s a flyer for Electronics Boutique’s (now part of GameStop) fledgling trade-in scheme, which not only warns you that the program could end at any time (oh no!), but demands you bring the instructions in. No manual, no trade-in. Compared to the “sure we’ll take any old piece of shit” policy the company has now,…

The Only Game Where You’ll Find James Bond, Capcom and Rob Lowe in the One Place

You don’t need me to tell you how awful most FMV games from the 1990s were. But amidst the wreckage of bad racing games and even worse adventure games, I have a soft spot for Fox Hunt. Mostly because, over 15 years later, I can only now appreciate how batshit crazy the whole thing was.…

Return of the Jedi LEGO Has a Freakin’ Sarlacc Pit

There’s been a lot of great Star Wars LEGO over the years, but these two new sets, both based on the opening of Return of the Jedi, are my new favourites. The first set is Jabba’s Palace ($120). It not only has a moving throne platform, for trapping Luke beneath while he sticks bones in…

Online Game Suspected of Causing Teen to Shoot at, Stab a “Friend”

An unspecified online game is suspected of leading to a stabbing and attempted shooting in Oakley, California, with a 17 year-old boy now in police custody following the incident. On Monday afternoon the arrested teen and a 20 year-old man – reportedly a “family friend” – had been playing the mystery game together online when…

DSi Coming in Two New, Rather Fetching Colour Schemes

While the 3DS is the flagship handheld at the moment, Nintendo hasn’t forgotten about the DSi, with plans to release two new colours for the device “as early as this week”. The two colours are “Matte Red” and “Matte Blue”. A sneaky Olympic-themed marketing move? They’ve only been announced for the North American market at…

Air Force Dad Surprises Son by Coming Home as a Jedi Knight

Col. Rob Kiebler spent 14 months away from his family serving with the US Air Force, both training and on a tour of Afghanistan. He recently returned home, and having not seen his son for over a year, wanted to really surprise him. Adorable. What just about brought the tears down for me, though, was…

There Are Many Places Cats Do Not Belong

I’m not Kirk. I don’t look a thing like him. I can’t even play Kirk on TV. He’s a jazz saxophonist. I’m a classical French horn player. I mean, really. We’re just worlds apart. But what I can do is bring you evening nonsense. Despite the fact that Guybrush—an on-topic cat—has taken over my mouse…

Batman’s Morgan Freeman & Catwoman Look Almost as Good as 3D Models as They do in Real Life

Say what you will about the in-game graphics (which look pretty good for a phone game!), this 3D character art for the Dark Knight Rises game is incredible The work of artists Uri So and Shenggang Dong, both from Redsteam (another of whose artists we’ve looked at Kotaku previously), they’re nestled right at the depths…

The Daring Adventures of LEGO Steve and the Creeper Explosion

Not a day after I get my hands on the official LEGO Minecraft set and this exciting stop-motion video has appeared, bringing the tiniest Creepers on the planet to terrifying life. Who shall save LEGO Steve? The first in a series of animated Minecraft LEGO shorts from YouTube user ForlornCreature sets up an odd alliance…