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  The Origins Of Nintendo’s Game & Watch

  Nintendo may have been around for over 100 years, but the Nintendo we know today does video games. And it first hit the handheld gaming big time with its line of Game & Watch units. Here’s how they got their start! A new “Iwata Asks” Q&A on Nintendo’s website goes into great detail on the…

  By Luke Plunkett Published February 10, 2011
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  What The Hell Is Uncharted’s Movie Director Talking About?

  Hollywood is making an Uncharted movie. It could star Mark Wahlberg, Robert DeNiro and even Joe Pesci as a family of treasure hunters. This makes us wonder, has the movie’s unlikely director, David O. Russell, even played Uncharted? “I want the gamers to be happy,” Russell tells IGN, adding that he’s not supposed to talk…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published February 10, 2011
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  Killzone 3 Taps FPS-Loving Japanese Porn Star

  You’ve made a first-person shooter. Who better to hawk it than somebody who really likes first-person shooters. Somebody like Noa. Noa Torigoe, star of adult films like Max Orgasm, Ultimate Gold and The Fuck Fuck Fuck: 10 In Rapid Succession, has been roped in to promote Killzone 3 in Japan. While first-person shooters do have…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published February 10, 2011
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  How FOX News Gets Video Games So Wrong

  Yesterday, FOX News ran a story on Bulletstorm and got pretty much everything wrong. That’s not the real story, though. They real story is how they got everything wrong: they did it on purpose. Yes, we know, it’s FOX News, but still, how the media outlet steadfastly refused to consider both sides of the argument…

  By Luke Plunkett Published February 10, 2011
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  Sony Is Not Allowed To Ask Google For The PS3 Hacker’s Names

  So, some guys cracked the PS3’s copy protection security wide open. One of them is a “celebrity”. The others are complete unknowns. So unknown that Sony can’t find them, meaning it can’t take them to court In an attempt to track them (“them” being the fail0verflow team) down, Sony earlier this week tried to get…

  By Luke Plunkett Published February 10, 2011
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  CultureTotal Recall

  Rest In Peace, Guitar Hero

  Today, publisher Activision put the Guitar Hero franchise on hold. Maybe forever. For a series that once threatened to become the biggest thing video games had ever seen, it was quite an inglorious end. The gallery above will take you, from left to right, on a journey looking at every Guitar Hero game ever released,…

  By Luke Plunkett Published February 10, 2011
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  Halo 5 Is A Microsoft Joke

  A segment on British TV shows Microsoft’s vision for the home of the future. That vision of a Microsoft Home, as demonstrated by a Microsoft official for England’s Channel 4, included an image of a TV displaying an icon for Halo 5. That’s what we call a joke and inevitably, but clearly not announcement of…

  By Stephen Totilo Published February 9, 2011
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  Spider-Man, Doctor Who, Fennel & More

  Tonight’s open thread is brought to you by fennel. Let’s all thank the great bulb for hosting this semi-nightly post where off-topic conversation thrives. After a hard day of dealing with the death of Guitar Hero and the threat of even more Call of Duty, let’s all take a moment to share better, more enlightening…

  By Michael McWhertor Published February 9, 2011
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  Should You Buy A Nintendo DS?

  The Nintendo DS is the most successful portable gaming machine on the planet. More than 100 million of them are out there. Should you get one, or wait for the Nintendo 3DS? [UPDATED for the pre-3DS shopping season.] This is our best advice — updated regularly — about whether or not you should buy a…

  Team Kotaku Published February 9, 2011
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  Nintendo Revives 30-Year-Old Handheld ‘Ball’ For Club Nintendo Members

  Nintendo’s most loyal fans in the United States will be able to get their hands on the company’s Ball, the Club Nintendo exclusive re-release of the 1980 Game & Watch portable. It’s the latest Club Nintendo reward. Club Nintendo of Japan gave out Game & Watch Ball hardware way back in 2009, a recreation of…

  By Michael McWhertor Published February 9, 2011
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  Is This The PlayStation 3’s Super Smash Bros.?

  PlayStation Move Heroes, a game we played last year, is the first PlayStation game to bring lots of characters from Sony games together. Nintendo does this kind of thing all the time with Super Smash Bros, Mario Kart and various Mario sports games. Sony usually keeps its icons separate. They’re crossing their franchise lines with…

  By Stephen Totilo Published February 9, 2011
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  Never-Before-Seen Footage of the Alien Puppets in James Cameron’s The Abyss

  We’ve got an video clip from FX legend Steve Johnson’s archives featuring the angelic underwater alien puppets of James Cameron’s The Abyss. Watch the footage now. [io9]

  By Stephen Totilo Published February 9, 2011
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  A Motion Control Master Shows The NES’s U-Force Wasn’t So Useless

  We recently took issue with Brøderbund’s video game controller that required no physical contact, the U-Force. This forgettable, flaky Nintendo Entertainment System controller, almost universally despised, has been mastered by one man, who uses his U-Force with rare mastery. That man is Joe McKenna, maybe the best U-Force practitioner we’ve ever seen. His sister, Karen,…

  By Michael McWhertor Published February 9, 2011
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  Rare Love For Mortal Kombat’s Purple Rain

  The underrated fighter Rain shows what he’s got in this excellent Mortal Kombat fan art illustration by Luciano Fleitas. Finish him! Bring it by Luciano Fleitas / demitrybelmont (deviantART) Need your daily fill of geek eye candy? If so, head over to Justin Page’s Rampaged Reality and get your fix. Republished with permission.

  By Michael McWhertor Published February 9, 2011
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  Follicle Follies, Railing With Gears and I Played Duke Nukem

  The DICE conference kicked off today, though I spent much of my morning in the room writing and working through design issues. I hope you had a chance to check out my hands-on impressions of Duke Nukem Forever. Despite the shallow nature of the game, I kinda want to play through the rest of it.…

  By Brian Crecente Published February 9, 2011
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  The Last Story Gives Up First For More Legal Drama In Japan

  The Wii’s original role-playing game The Last Story has been knocked from its first place perch in Japan by the legal powers of Capcom’s Gyakuten Kenji 2, the latest game in the portable Ace Attorney series. The combined powers of Miles Edgeworth, Macross, White Knight Chronicles and Dragon Ball made for a top ten full…

  By Michael McWhertor Published February 9, 2011
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  Black Ops’ First Strike Hits PS3 In March, Coming To PC Too

  The first map pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops, dubbed First Strike, will be released for the PlayStation 3 and PC on March 3. It hit the Xbox 360 on February 1 and includes four maps, one zombie level. [CORRECTION: There’s no PC date yet, only a confirmation that it’ll be on that platform…

  By Stephen Totilo Published February 9, 2011
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  D.C. Universe Online MMO Log: Turning Heel

  After three weeks of fighting crime, I decided to fight for crime in D.C. Universe Online, starting anew as a villain under the tutelage of one Lex Luthor. Kotaku’s MMO reviews are a multi-part process. Rather than deliver day one reviews based on beta gameplay, we play the game for four weeks before issuing our…

  By Owen Good Published February 9, 2011
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  Call Of Duty For China Is Free To Play

  The people who publish Call of Duty have been talking about their plans to bring more players into the online multiplayer fold, specifically targeting Asian players. Today, Activision finally divulged some details on its Chinese Call of Duty plans. Activision plans to follow the model made successful by countless MMOs and first-person shooters targeted at…

  By Michael McWhertor Published February 9, 2011
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  Magic: The Gathering Taps Into PlayStation Home

  What happens when the world’s most addictive collectible card game meets the world’s least addictive virtual world? Find out tomorrow, when Magic: The Gathering enters PlayStation Home. Wizards of the Coast teams up with Sony to bring the creatures and scenery of Magic: The Gathering to PlayStation Home. Fans will be able to explore a…

  By Mike Fahey Published February 9, 2011