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  The Super Mario…Sisters?

  Super Mario…Sisters? | Beth Turnsek flips the Mushroom Kingdom on its head. Nice pants, Prince Peach. Ocean Marketting Jackass Earns $10 Discount for All Pre-Orders In a statement just released, N-Control, maker of the “Avenger” accessory linked to the infamous marketer Paul Christoforo, has promised a $10 discount coupon for all who pre-ordered the device,…

  By Luke Plunkett Published December 29, 2011
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  The World’s Biggest Games Show Isn’t In Germany. Not Any More.

  For a few years now, Germany’s GamesCom event has boasted it’s the largest public gaming show on Earth, with attendance figures besting those of the former champion, the Tokyo Game Show. Well, both those events just got taken down a peg. At the Asia Game Show in Hong Kong last week, 472,000 people went through…

  By Luke Plunkett Published December 29, 2011
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  New Zelda Toys Look Lovely

  While we’re still waiting for proper, new Zelda action figures, Japan keeps getting Gashapon (capsule toy) pieces, continuing with this new line celebrating three very distinct eras of the franchise. There are six figures in all, with a Link and a Zelda from each.Ocarina of Time (the childhood characters), Phantom Hourglass (so, Wind Waker) and…

  By Luke Plunkett Published December 29, 2011
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  Red Fang: Wires

  Beards, pop and rock n’ roll. That’s Red Fang in a nutshell. Formed in 2005, and coming out of Portland, Oregon, Red Fang have put out two albums, and are currently signed to metal specialists Relapse. You can bang your head if you like, but what’s great about these guys is the poppy flavour running…

  By Luke Plunkett Published December 29, 2011
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  Rock Band Now Has a Twenty-Minute Song

  Because Rock Band’s existing library just isn’t punishing enough, Harmonix will be releasing Rush’s epic 2112 as downloadable content for the game over the next week. The thing here is that, while the song is split into seven “acts”, and available as separate tracks accordingly, if you buy the complete song pack you’ll get the…

  By Luke Plunkett Published December 29, 2011
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  Man Hacks Skylanders, Gets Nasty Letter From Activision

  To pass the time, hacker Brandon Wilson – who normally messes around with graphics calculators – decided a few months back he’d take a look under the hood of Activision’s Skylanders action figures, see what makes them tick. After playing around with the figure’s RFID bases, he collected his research and stored it in a…

  By Luke Plunkett Published December 29, 2011
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  Sonic 4: Episode 2 is Already Changing Stuff

  After a decidedly lukewarm reception to the first instalment in its planned episodic series, Sega is already wheeling out the changes for Sonic 4: Episode 2 For starters, you’ve already got a sidekick. Tails will be in the game. As for bad guys, Metal Sonic will also be in the game. Sega also says that,…

  By Luke Plunkett Published December 29, 2011
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  Culture

  Game Artists Create Their Ultimate Characters

  Every year, give or take a few months, the best video game artists from around the world get together and submit entries in a competition called Dominance War. The aim is to create the ultimate character. Not replicate someone else’s, but come up with their own, then model and render it (or in some cases…

  By Luke Plunkett Published December 29, 2011
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  How to Cook Your Own Grand Theft Auto Burger

  Grand Theft Auto’s famous Cluckin’ Bell chain of restaurants have a mainstay menu item called the Fowl Burger. Looking like a filthy chicken burger, costing only $1 and regenerating health makes them magical. So magical it’s worth trying to prepare your own, in the real world. Website Gourmet Gaming, who we’ve featured before, have the…

  By Luke Plunkett Published December 29, 2011
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  This Man is Keeping the Spirit of WipeOut’s Original Look Alive

  Xander Davis is a game industry artist and graphic design fan, who after seeing the recent feature we ran on WipeOut and The Designers Republic dropped us a line. In addition to his industry stuff (he’s working on Darksiders II at the moment), Davis is setting up his own site called Alternareal, which he calls…

  By Luke Plunkett Published December 29, 2011
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  These Might Have Been the 50 Most Torrented Things On the Internet In 2011

  Torrent site Kat.ph has opened its databases to the download specialists at TorrentFreak, sharing with them the 50 most commonly searched terms for torrent downloads in 2011. While it’s not perfect, and doesn’t include other major Torrent indexes like Pirate Bay, it’s as good as we’re going to get, and with Kat.ph one of the…

  By Luke Plunkett Published December 29, 2011
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  The Best Video Game Trailers Of 2011

  With an onus on spectacle and selling you on a mood, instead of a stage or actual footage, video game trailers have become an artform unto themselves. That being the case, we thought we would, as usual, look back on some of the year’s best. These aren’t necessarily the trailers for the best games (though…

  By Luke Plunkett Published December 29, 2011
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  Ocean Marketting Jackass Earns $10 Discount for All Pre-Orders

  In a statement just released, N-Control, maker of the “Avenger” accessory linked to the infamous marketer Paul Christoforo, has promised a $10 discount coupon for all who pre-ordered the device, as an apology for Christoforo’s conduct toward a customer, which drew the wrath of the global video gaming community earlier this week. N-Control’s lengthy statement…

  By Owen Good Published December 28, 2011
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  Instead Of Pepper-Spray, They Should Call it Gingerbread-Spray

  Greetings, Kotaku cadets, and welcome to a mid-week open thread. It’s a down week for us, and there hasn’t been too much new news. Did you get any good games over the holidays? Did you get anyone else any good games? Are you looking forward to 2012, or dreading it? Can you believe that we…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published December 28, 2011
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  An MVP Graces MLB 2K12‘s Cover

  Adam Larson, the artist behind the three custom covers for NBA 2K12, has also supplied the base art of the Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander for the cover of MLB 2K12 2K Sports released the game’s official pack shot yesterday. Verlander, whose 24 victories, 250 strikeouts and 2.40 earned run average led the American League…

  By Owen Good Published December 28, 2011
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  Area Man Selects Skyrim as The Onion‘s Game of the Year

  The people who brought you such fantastic headlines as “Burrito Eaten As If Someone In The Room Wasn’t Crying” and “Brief Reprieve From Mariah Carey’s Christmas Song Comes To Resounding End” have selected their Game of The Year, and it’s not ironic at all: Bethesda’s Skyrim has edged out the competition to take top honors.…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published December 28, 2011
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  Valve on Half-Life 3 Rumors: ‘This is the Community Trolling the Community’

  Every popular video game has its following of wishful thinkers, wannabe designers, and straight-up trolls. None has more hard at work on the next title than Half Life 3. And they’ve been very busy lately. There is, of course, this total fakey-fake-mcfakerson website, a goldmine of cognitive dissonance that’s not even registered to Valve. Then…

  By Owen Good Published December 28, 2011
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  The Best Game Music of 2011: Bastion

  Bastion snuck up on me—I had heard a lot of friends and fellow critics hyping it after seeing it at PAX East and GDC, but I didn’t actually play it until it was released. For the first hour or so, I wasn’t sold, but as the story snowballed and the levels stretched out, I fell…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published December 28, 2011
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  Midweek Moneysaver: A Feast of Leftovers

  This Wednesday edition of Kotaku’s The Moneysaver catches all the offers, promotions and bargains that can’t wait until the weekend. The Midweek Moneysaver is brought to you by Dealzon. Software • ICO and Shadow of Colossus Collection (PS3) is $19.99 from Kmart. Next best is $38. [Dealzon] • New low on Call of Duty: Modern…

  dealzon Published December 28, 2011
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  Unwinnable

  Holiday Bonus Stage | An Unwinnable Christmas Card, as seen in the envelope I opened in my house this afternoon. Nintendo To Host New Year’s Eve Video Telethon on Your 3DS Nintendo plans to kick off a two day video New Year’s telethon starting the last day of the year and running until the morning…

  By Brian Crecente Published December 28, 2011