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Cosplaying In The Streets of Osaka
Girls in stockings. Girls in wigs. Girls in frilly dresses. Over the weekend, the cosplaying hoard took to the streets of Osaka’s Den-Den Town in the annual Nipponbashi Street Festival. The main drag, Sakai-suji, was closed to traffic so cosplayers and people with cameras could mill about, pose and snap photos. It was, for a…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 22, 2010 - Uncategorized
Fable Designer On Not Getting Avatar (And Then Getting It)
Peter Molyneux, the game designer behind the Fable franchise, was invited on the set of Hollywood motion picture Avatar. He didn’t quite “get it”. “I went on the set of Avatar three times and thought, ‘Good grief, he’s got the same problem I have,'” Molyneux told the Times. “All I saw the first time was…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 22, 2010 - Uncategorized
Nintendo And McDonalds: A Short History
The king of fast-food. The biggest Japanese video game company. Nintendo and McDonald’s have been in cahoots for years The recent news that McDonald’s is using the Nintendo DS to quickly train new part-time employees is just the latest in a long, long line of Nintendo-McDonald’s tie-ups. This collaboration helps McDonald’s cuts training time in…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 22, 2010 -
UncategorizedGeometry Wars: The Movie
Alex Kobbs, creator of LEGO “film” Battle of the Brick, is a busy man, for not only is he making a stop-motion movie based on Halo, he’s just made one based on XBLA shooter Geometry Wars as well. Called Geometry – Everything you need to know!, it’s the tale of what happens when you sit…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 22, 2010 - Uncategorized
Giant Gundam Returns With Giant Beam Saber
Ready to slice you up! After being erected this past summer in Tokyo’s Odaiba, the life-sized Gundam statue is returning. With an beam saber. The huge 18-meter statue will be once again erected in the city of Shizuoka this July – specifically, the east exit of Japan Rail Higashi-Shizuoka Station. The beam saber even lights…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 22, 2010 - Uncategorized
Mass Effect 2 Characters Get New Wardrobe Options
Let’s see, let’s see…do I clothe Mass Effect 2 nutjob Jack in tattoos and some packing tape? Or do I go the Kanye West route, and opt for sci-fi sunglasses and jeans? Decisions, decisions. Tomorrow, Bioware will release yet another piece of downloadable content for role-playing masterpiece Mass Effect 2, this time consisting of new…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 22, 2010 - Uncategorized
Brazilian Kratos Has Magnificently Painted Man Boobs
To mark the official launch of God of War III, Brazil did it in style — complete with Kratos cosplay. What sells this dress-up of the God of War III protagonist isn’t just the bald head or the muscles, but the fantastic make-up job. Bravo! Midnight Kratos @ SP: Eu fui! [Hadouken]
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 22, 2010 - Uncategorized
Swiss Government Cracking Down On Violent Game Sales
According to a report on Gamesmarkt, Switzerland’s National Council has just passed a pair of bills that seek to restrict the sale of violent video games within the country. The first, put forward by Evi Allemann, of the Socialist Party, wants to stop the manufacture, advertisement, importation and sale of any game that promotes as…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 22, 2010 -
UncategorizedNo More Neon Genesis Evangelion News Reading
Launched in June 2009, The Misato Katsuragi News Project had Neon Gensis Evangelion character Misato read the news. As Kotaku posted previously, the news program runs on software that collects news from real-life news (politics, the economy, sports and, yes, the anime industry). A Cellius voice synthesis engine is used to have Misato read said…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 22, 2010 - Uncategorized
Get Inside The Real-Life Yakuza
With the release of Sega’s Yakuza 3 going down well with many, let’s take a look at the actual Yakuza, Japan’s “mafia”, and see just how powerful – and accepted – they are in contemporary society. American author and journalist Jake Adelstein knows more about the Yakuza than most Westerners, having studied them closely for…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 22, 2010 - Uncategorized
Mario Creator Has Never Called Video Games “Art”
Are video games art? Or are they entertainment? Let’s see what Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda. Last week, Miyamoto was in London to receive a British Academy of Film and Television Arts Fellowship at the GAME British Academy Video Games Award, reports the Associated Press. “It’s a great…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 22, 2010 - Uncategorized
Mario Papercraft? More Like Paper Mario
Here we were, getting a little over the practice of folding pieces of paper into figures resembling video game characters, when Ignatius’ Mario piece blows our socks into the 22nd century. Depicting Mario’s trademark pose from Wii fighting game Super Smash Bros. Brawl, it looks like something that the average person just wouldn’t have the…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 22, 2010 - Uncategorized
Five Health Care Games to Make You Healthy (Or Get You Sick)
In the United States, health care has passed. Some people are pleased, some are not and others are even indifferent. So let’s talk about video games! To mark the occasion, here are five doctor-type games. SimHealth From the folks who gave us SimCity and The Sims, SimHealth: The National Health Care Simulation was released in…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 22, 2010 - Uncategorized
Xbox 360 Console Spammed With Child Pornography
A couple from Dublin, Ireland had to call the cops last week when their Xbox 360 console was spammed with images of child pornography. With their real names withheld due to the nature of the case, “Amy” said her boyfriend had been playing a game when a message from another user popped up. Upon opening…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 22, 2010 -
UncategorizedAwkward: Zelda Music On Reality TV Show
There’s a big TV show called America’s Got Talent. Britain’s Got Talent, too. Even Norway has it, and we like Norway’s the best, as it’s the only one with uncomfortable live renditions of a song from Ocarina of Time. The real action begins at 2:20 in the clip above, but if you’d like to sit…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 22, 2010 - Uncategorized
Kotaku: Census 2010 Closes Tonight
Just a reminder that if you’d like to take part in our Census 2010, which is polling users about their video gaming likes, dislikes and secret feelings, you’ve only got a few hours left. The polls should be closing at around midnight Sunday, MT. We’d have loved to leave them open for a bit longer,…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 21, 2010 - Uncategorized
Not Owen
To: Luke From: Not-Owen Luke, I am not Owen, though I do sometimes watch sports. Not much sports, but I do like boxing. I caught the replay of the last Pacquiao fight this morning, and boy was it dull. My wife has been trying to watch some NCAA men’s basketball tournament this weekend, but I’ve…
By Stephen Totilo Published March 21, 2010 - Uncategorized
People Watching Me Discuss Video Game Journalism
“Members of the gaming press are always working. For instance, that picture I took at the beginning of the panel? I’ve already uploaded it and posted it on Kotaku.” The audience at my MomoCon panel on game journalism. Nice-looking bunch!
By Mike Fahey Published March 21, 2010 - CultureSplitscreen
ModNation Racers Has Four-Player Splitscreen Possibly Thanks To You
post What’s the point of a beta test for a video game these days, other than to drum up publicity? The makers of upcoming PlayStation 3 game ModNation Racers say it got them to add a feature. During the Game Developers Conference earlier this month, game producer Dan Sochan told Kotaku that the public beta…
By Stephen Totilo Published March 21, 2010