Soon where I live in Osaka, Japan will be bathed in cherry blossoms. The plum blossoms are blooming, but the cherry blossoms haven’t quite started yet. The cherry blossoms bloom at differnet times in different parts of the country. I was talking to a fellow ex-pat the other day who said this is his favorite…
The Final Fantasy series as a whole has the best original soundtrack in gaming. While many series have a standout song or two, Final Fantasy has thirteen games—and many spin-off titles—brimming with instantly recognizable tunes. Whether written by Nobuo Uematsu, Masashi Hamauzu, or other composers, these memorable scores have captured the souls of gamers for…
Sega Sammy revealed that its expecting lower than predicted revenue, leading to some in-development games getting cancelled and a corporate reorganization. [Edge]
Namco Bandai’s idol simulator The Idolmaster seems to be getting more than inspiration from an online retailer. The “rare” Idolmaster card for character Megumi Ijuin looks exactly like a photo spotted on Japanese internet retail site Sunflower. Just look at the above comparison. The card is featured in the new social Idolmaster game called Cinderella…
In Tokyo Jungle, animals try to survive and procreate in Japan’s capital. The game has an array of animals (from dogs to dinosaurs), funny outfits, decaying urban sprawl, and apparently panda sex—or rather, panda mounting each other to have panda sex. Tokyo Jungle will be out this June in Japan. Tokyo Jungle [PlayStation]
Above is a quick commercial for Tokyo Disney Resort. It doesn’t look very Disney! There’s a reason for that: Disney roped in Japanese anime studio Madhouse to create this spot. Madhouse is known for Ninja Scroll and Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust It’s interest to see Disney greenlight something that diverges stylistically from its own animation…
Kotaku previously reported that Hironobu Sakaguchi was working on three iOS games. He’s revealed one of them: a surfing game with the temp title Party Wave. Sakaguchi, who lives in Hawaii, is a huge surfer himself. Above is the first concept art for the game. See that expression on the surfer girl’s face? That’s kind…
There’s a set iconography. Costumes or accessories that immediately evoke imagery and associations. For countless idol groups, the go-to iconography is the Japanese schoolgirl and all the youthful associations she entails. Not the Sexy All Sisters. They largely eschew schoolgirls in favor of superheroes, juvenile delinquents, and waitresses. The group was born out of low…
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The Battlestar Valkyrie, Bill Adama’s last command before taking control of the Galactica, isn’t exactly as famous as the show’s namesake, or even the Pegasus. But it looks magnificent in this LEGO recreation. LEGO builder Garry King has, by getting hold of images of the old ship, done a fine job of bringing the dead…
Remember Def Jam Rapstar? The SingStar for…rap? It had promise, but ultimately fizzled on the vine and died without making much of a splash. Now, making things worse, a record company is trying to squeeze the game’s creators for millions EMI is suing both 4mm Games and Terminal Reality, claiming that they used songs in…
First announced last year, Sideshow Collectibles has finally unveiled product images and details about its upcoming Darth Malgus statue from Star Wars: Old Republic Just in case you never saw the guy at a gaming show last year, he stands 88″/2.2m high, and weighs 159lbs/72kg. So, yes, when they say he’s “life size”, they’re not…
Aperture: Lab Ratt is a fan film based on the Portal universe. And, as you’ll see five seconds into this trailer, it’s looking very professional. Proper music, proper outfits, an expensive camera, good lighting…yes, it’s looking lovely. If it helps sell you on the quality behind this flick, it’s being made by the same crew…
French artist Rémy Pontzeele has done these super Mass Effect posters, one each for two of humanity’s less…savoury organisations. There’s one for science villains Cerberus and another for cut-throat mercenaries the Blue Suns. Norzeele [DeviantArt, via Nerdwire]
Consumerist’s always-entertaining “Worst Company in America” showdown is on right now, and a video game company is making a rare appearance alongside the likes of Bank of America and AT&T That company is Electronic Arts, which while being a rookie in the comp has stormed into the semi-finals, blowing past more fancied opponents like Comcast,…
It’s the biggest thing in fantasy, and right now, with the possible exception of The Hunger Games, the biggest thing in entertainment, especially with its second season about to kick off this weekend. So why has George R R Martin’s Game of Thrones series been given such short shrift by video game publishers and developers?…
Artist Larry D Warren Jr., who we recently featured with his giant Zelda painting, is back, this time with a giant Capcom painting including characters from most of the publisher’s most treasured properties. So, yeah, Ryu is there. And Mega Man. And Ryu, Phoenix Wright and Dante. But there are plenty of other lesser-known heroes…
It’s funny, when people think of Prince of Persia games, they think of either the first one, or the ones including and following 2003’s Sands of Time. It’s as though there was a game in there that never existed… That game was 1999’s Prince of Persia 3D The 1989 original, and its 1993 sequel (which…
Jordan Mechner, the creator of the Prince of Persia series, hasn’t had his hands on the source code to the original game for over a decade. Why? Because it had been sitting hidden in his dad’s closet, that’s why. Mechner recently got a call from his dad to tell him that, after cleaning out a…
Hello, Kotaku! Welcome to our Thursday night open thread. Are you as excited as I am for the second season of Game of Thrones? Probably. I hope so, anyway. Here, from around the internet, are some fun things to read and check out and talk about. Some Game of Thrones links may or may not…
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