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Kotaku EastThis Girly Commercial Is Grossing People Out
Late last week, a new candy commercial featuring girl group AKB48 began broadcasting on Japanese television. In the commercial, young idols passed the chewy Puccho candy via mouth-to-mouth. Online in Japan, there were the typical, “Oh, this turns me on” or “I want to join in” type of comments, but also harsh criticism, too. “I’d…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 19, 2012 - Kotaku East
Thieves Had No Place To Run, Except for an Internet Cafe
Two young men in Yueqing, Zhejiang Province China, were taken in by police earlier last week for pick-pocketing. The two young men in question, Xiao Pan and Xiao Bing, are only 17 and 14 years-old respectively. Xiao Pan had ran away from home and had been living on the streets for a while, surviving by…
By Eric Jou Published March 19, 2012 - Kotaku East
From Chun-Li to Final Fantasy, This Lady Gets Thumbs-Up
Meet Mei Wei. She’s one of China’s top coplayers (or “coser” as they’re called there). She appears in Chinese cosplay mags, at game promotions, and at event after event. Mei Wei’s image appeared on the flier for China Joy’s cosplay event; China Joy, of course, is the country’s biggest game event. Hailing from Tianjin, she’s…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 19, 2012 - Kotaku East
Why Come to China? One Foreign Game Developer Responds.
Game development in China is no longer just a domestic thing. Foreign power houses such as EA, Zynga, and Ubisoft have major studios working on big titles in China. However, many of their best console titles won’t reach Chinese players until either the game is released in PC in Chinese or pirated by Chinese hackers.…
By Eric Jou Published March 19, 2012 - Kotaku East
Would You Sniff this Gundam? It Smells Wonderful.
There’s been giant Gundams built in Japan from metal and screws—as well as whatever the hell China used for its knock-off. Now, it’s South Korea’s turn. This Gundam, dubbed “Surface Gundam”, was created for a Korean art exhibit, making it not only one of the best looking large Mobile Suit creations, but best smelling. お花で作られたガンダムがなんだか独特の雰囲気…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 19, 2012 - Kotaku East
The Wonderful and Seedy World of Chinese Arcades
Hot, loud, flashy, and incredibly smoky. These are some of the best ways to describe the sensation of walking into an arcade in China. And when walking in during peak hours, the lines to play the latest fighting games usually snake across cabinets. It’s interesting to see that China still has a flourishing arcade industry…
By Eric Jou Published March 19, 2012 - Kotaku East
Let’s Try Guessing Her Hair Color
Project A14, the newest of the Alchemy-based Atelier series game was just announced by Gust. The Japanese role-playing game is to be released on the PS3 platform in June. The newest title will have a whole new world, heroine, and system along with renewed designs based on the game’s theme, which is “The promise starts.”…
By Toshitaka Tachibana Published March 19, 2012 - Kotaku East
The Greatest Manga Screw-Up of 2012?
If not the greatest, this has to be one of the greatest you’ll see this year. The most recent issue of Comic Yurihime offered up a doozy of a printing error. On page 173, one of the characters of Yuru Yuri exclaimed, “These clothes are so cute,” while reading the magazine. The magazine was blank.…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 19, 2012 - Kotaku East
I Love the Power Glove Space Suit. It’s so Bad.
Leave it to Japanese musician Verbal from hip-hop group M-Flo to take Power Glove to the next level. In the latest issue of rock and fashion mag EyesCream, Verbal talks about his forthcoming album and poses in a spiffy, custom-made Reebok astronaut outfit with dual-wielding Power Gloves, just begging for some cosmic Rad Racer action.…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 19, 2012 - Kotaku East
Inappropriate 3DS Game Gets Inappropriate Art
Nintendo 3DS game Senran Kagura featured large breasts because the game’s creator really wanted to see boobs in 3D. With that as a starting point, you can already imagine what sort of illustrations the game can inspire. You don’t have to! A recent exhibition showed a collection of 57 Senran Kagura illustrations from 50 artists.…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 19, 2012 - Kotaku East
Nintendo Says Japanese Newspaper Is Making Crap Up. Again.
Late last week, respected Japanese newspaper Nikkei (and seemingly Nintendo’s nemesis of late) reported that the Kyoto-based game maker would be launching the 3DS in South Korea next month. That launch would be followed by a release in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Mainland China. According to the Nikkei piece (viewable here), Nintendo now looks at…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 19, 2012 - Kotaku East
Video Games Killing Off Violent Japanese Biker Gangs?
In the past, the mainstream media’s M.O. has been: If there’s a shooting, blame video games; if kids are having problems, blame video games; if someone farts, blame video games. Like heavy metal and rap music before it, video games are an easy—and often, misunderstood—target. Yet, a recent report fingers video games (among other things)…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 19, 2012 -
UncategorizedBattlefield 3 Goes Back in Time, High-Fives Contra
Just in case you ever thought Battlefield 3 would be better with sound effects from Contra and the NES version of Top Gun (and music from Batman), here you go. Battlefield 3, with sound effects from Contra and the NES version of Top Gun It’s amazing how, once the joke wears off, you notice it…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 19, 2012 - Uncategorized
When Star Wars Meets High Fashion, AT-AT Drivers Ride French Bicycles
Artist John Woo throws together two very unlikely things – high fashion and the characters of Star Wars – in his “He Wears It” series of prints and images. Don’t let the name fool you, there are ladies as well. And some characters from outside the Star Wars universe, like the T-1000. But mostly, it’s…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 19, 2012 -
UncategorizedBe the Humans, or the Giant Shark Monster
Omegalodon is a simple little arcade action game for the PC that gives you an easy choice: either control an enormous shark monster as it smashes through a city, or control the humans trying to stop it. Adding a little strategy to proceedings is the ability of the humans to jump in a wide range…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 19, 2012 - Uncategorized
Mass Effect 3’s Multiplayer Stats are Missing One
There’s the usual hours logged and enemies killed in this multiplayer stats report from BioWare, but the most interesting – percentage of players only playing in the first place because they felt they were forced to – seems to have been left out. Which may sound awfully ungrateful, but as robust as it is –…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 19, 2012 - Uncategorized
The Skyrim Tourism Board Wants you to Visit Winterhold
Not that Skyrim really needed a tourism board, since millions of people have been spending entire weeks in the place lately, but if it did, you’d hope its efforts would look this classy. These posters were done by artist Dean Walton, and if they look familiar that’s because he did a similar series for Zelda…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 19, 2012 -
UncategorizedBit.Trip Runner’s Sequel Just Keeps on Running
The ridiculously good Bit.Trip Runner has a sequel, of sorts, on the way. It’s not part of the Bit.Trip series, though, so it’s simply called Runner 2. Which about sums up what’s going on. Note that, as good as this already looks, it’s a “super sneaky peek” at pre-alpha code, which you’ll eventually realise with…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 18, 2012 -
UncategorizedFirst-Person Grand Theft Auto is Kicking Everyone’s Bananas
While this clip showing Grand Theft Auto from a first-person perspective is a little slower – and less explosive – than you’re probably accustomed to, it at least gets the spirit of the series less scripted moments right. Except for those hands. Not really sure what’s going on there.
By Luke Plunkett Published March 18, 2012