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  Nintendo-Powered Museum Closes Its Doors

  I often get emails from readers, asking where they should go while visiting Japan. There are the obvious answers like Akihabara or Den-Den Town. But one place I usually recommend, a Nintendo-funded museum in Kyoto, is closing its doors. For the time being, at least. Dubbed Shigureden, it sits in Arashiyama, a quaint Kyoto village…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published February 22, 2011
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  This Slick Minecraft Documentary Needs Your Help

  2 Player Productions, the world’s finest purveyors of video game documentaries, are in a bind. Having filmed a short documentary on Minecraft, they now want to make a much longer one. But they need your help. Making professional films isn’t cheap or easy, and the team need money to get the project off the ground.…

  By Luke Plunkett Published February 22, 2011
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  Celebrate Zelda’s Birthday With This Stunning Painting

  Japanese artist ag+ has commemorated the 25th anniversary of the release of the original Legend of Zelda in the best possible way: with one of the most amazing pieces of fan art you will ever see. If Nintendo had a chapel and (bear with me) that chapel had an ornately-painted ceiling, this would surely be…

  By Luke Plunkett Published February 22, 2011
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  CultureTotal Recall

  Remembering Possibly The Worst Thing Zelda Ever Did

  Nearly every single Legend of Zelda video game is revered, if not as an all-time classic, then at least as a pretty good/good/great game. The franchise’s one major departure onto TV screens? It was not good. Not at all While Mario was turned into a big Hollywood movie and Metroid was long rumoured to be…

  By Luke Plunkett Published February 22, 2011
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  Hirsutes With The Parachute Fruits

  Welcome back to the workweek, Kotaku readers. How are you loving that new scroll bar? This is the place where we can talk about our fondness for UI changes, video games, or any other thing that crosses the mind. I’ve got a dog full of something that needs to be taken, outside, so unless you…

  By Michael McWhertor Published February 21, 2011
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  How The Great Gatsby Became A Long Lost NES Game

  The Great Gatsby—the “NES” version, that is—started its strange life as a single screen shot, a pixelated recreation of Francis Cugat’s iconic cover art for F. Scott Fitzgerald’s great American novel. “It was just too funny,” says The Great Gatsby NES lead developer Charlie Hoey of that artwork “all NESified and blocky with PRESS START…

  By Michael McWhertor Published February 21, 2011
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  Looks Like More Mass Effect 2 Is Coming With ‘Arrival’

  Plans for even more downloadable content for Mass Effect 2 is hardly surprising, given BioWare’s extended post-launch support for the role-playing game. Somewhat surprising is how we’ve learned about Arrival, via a patch for the PlayStation 3 version. Kotaku reader Vamplosion spotted something strange after updating his copy of Mass Effect 2: three new PlayStation…

  By Michael McWhertor Published February 21, 2011
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  Blockbuster Is Up For Sale

  Bankrupt movie and video game rental chain Blockbuster has put itself up for sale. Cost to you is just $290 million for the business.

  By Michael McWhertor Published February 21, 2011
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  Well Hellooooo PC Gaming

  I got my boutique-built gaming computer in the mail today. It was a monster, packed in a wooden crate and ensconced in a sheath of black cloth. It worked for almost four hours before I ran into my first issue…. sigh. (Don’t worry, I think it’s a static issue I’m having with USB ports.) Can…

  By Brian Crecente Published February 21, 2011
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  Xenogears, A PlayStation Great, Becomes A PSone Classic

  Well, we can’t say we didn’t see it coming, but the arrival of PlayStation role-playing game classic Xenogears as a downloadable PSone Classic is still welcome news. The official PlayStation.blog heralds the release of Square Enix’s turn-based RPG on the North American PlayStation Store tomorrow.

  By Michael McWhertor Published February 21, 2011
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  Historic New York Arcade Closure Is ‘Rumor Started By A Moron’, Though It’s Kinda True

  The phone has been ringing repeatedly today at New York’s Chinatown Fair, a beloved arcade in downtown New York, thanks to word on Facebook that the place was shutting down. Not true, not really, well … probably not really. “That was a rumor started by a moron,” Chinatown Fair manager Valentino Ventura told Kotaku on…

  By Stephen Totilo Published February 21, 2011
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  The Uncharted Movie Director Explains The Method To His Madness

  The director of The Fighter and I ♥ Huckabees is hard at work on transforming Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune into a movie, much to the chagrin of some fans of the PlayStation 3 game. What does David O. Russell have to say to his early haters? Slashfilm took that question (“How does it feel to be…

  By Michael McWhertor Published February 21, 2011
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  The Hacker Who Stole Half-Life 2 Is ‘Very Sorry’

  In 2003, Axel Gembe got his hands on the game everybody wanted, Valve’s Half-Life 2. He hacked into the developer’s network and swiped the game’s source code—which eventually wound up on the internet. These days, Gembe says he’s “very sorry” about that. The German hacker’s actions were in-part responsible for the highly anticipated Half-Life sequel’s…

  By Michael McWhertor Published February 21, 2011
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  The Mushroom Kingdom, Hyrule & Castlevania In Mini-Ecosystem Form

  Pixel artist Jude Buffum mixes terrariums with the familiar flora and fauna of Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda and Castlevania, illustrating what’s required to keep a Hylian fairy and Piranha Plant alive at home. Buffum’s prints are available at his online shop and at next week’s Game Over IV show at Giant Robot…

  By Michael McWhertor Published February 21, 2011
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  You Are This Japanese Dancing Queen’s Only Hope

  Cat-eared Japanese idol Toshi loves to dance, but she’s forgotten how to walk. Only your mastery of physics and bullets can get her to the dance floor before she dies a horrible, dance-less death. Or just shoot her. Your choice. If anyone is surprised that I’m checking out an iPad / iPhone game that uses…

  By Mike Fahey Published February 21, 2011
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  Final Fantasy X Was Less Complex Than It Seemed

  I played Final Fantasy X all the way up to the end boss and loved upgrading my characters by activating nodes in the game’s massive, complicated sphere grid. Little did I know that the sphere grid was really a group of primarily straight lines that masquerade as something more convoluted. FFX is an attractive game…

  By Stephen Totilo Published February 21, 2011
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  This Is What Dead Island (The Game) Looks Like

  Last week, the makers of zombie action game Dead Island released an unforgettable trailer for their upcoming game. They also released new screen shots of this undead paradise and they look pretty damn good too. Developer Techland has a lot to live up to, based on the excitement surrounding their cinematic trailer, but these new…

  By Michael McWhertor Published February 21, 2011
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  How Realistic Is Video Game Drunkenness?

  I’m just going to come right out and say it: I love drunk video game characters. The slurred speech, the blurred vision, the ragdoll physics as they fall backwards down a flight of stairs which somehow never results in paralyzing spinal fractures – I’d much rather nurse a digital person back to sobriety than my…

  Lisa Foiles Published February 21, 2011
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  The Scott Pilgrim Video Game Could Have Been A Big Adventure

  When comic book series Scott Pilgrim came to video game form last year—as Ubisoft’s Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game—it played like an old-school beat ’em up, with pixelated style. But it could have been a very different adventure. According to the comic’s creator, Bryan Lee O’Malley, episodic adventure game makers Telltale Games proposed…

  By Michael McWhertor Published February 21, 2011
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  Command & Conquer Reborn Under The Flag Of Victory

  The brief appearance of a staging site for the new home of Command & Conquer on the web revealed that the beloved real-time strategy franchise will be born again under a brand-new EA development studio, Jon Van Caneghem’s Victory Games. While the current Command & Conquer homepage is still online and fully-functional, a new site…

  By Mike Fahey Published February 21, 2011