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  It Only Takes 30 Games and 80 Movies to Get the Full Kingdom Hearts Experience

  Does playing every game in the Kingdom Hearts series qualify you as a true fan? Commenter zombie711 thinks it might be a little more involved than that in today’s Speak Up on Kotaku. I love the Kingdom Hearts series. It remains today to be my favorite series of all time. What I don’t like is…

  By Mike Fahey Published January 3, 2012
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  Check Out The First Pages of Detective Comics #5

  Gruesome things have been happening in the recently rebooted Detective Comics. How gruesome, you ask? [Spoilers if you haven’t been reading.] The Joker’s had his his face removed. Hapless citizens of Gotham have gotten cut to pieces and sewn back together, courtesy of a new villain called The Dollmaker. It’s been a grotesquely violent run…

  By Evan Narcisse Published January 3, 2012
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  Talk Amongst Yourselves

  It’s January. It’s a new year. And we need a new lead image for Talk Amongst Yourselves. Please submit your favorite old, public domain painting to our #TAYpics thread. I’ll pick a winner, which will then be the image all of you can Photoshop to your heart’s content for the rest of the month. The…

  By Stephen Totilo Published January 3, 2012
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  The Shenmue Game Nobody Wanted Is Dead

  Shenmue III, the unfulfilled third entry in the Shenmue saga, is the game fans really want. Fans did not get that game. Instead, they got Shenmue Town. Nobody wanted Shenmue Town. And now, it’s dead. Shenmue Town was a social networking take on the Shenmue adventure games. It was released in winter 2010 for Yahoo!…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published January 3, 2012
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  New Mario Party and Pokemon Games Hitting the *ahem* 4 Million-Selling Nintendo 3DS [Update]

  Nintendo tipped the world off to its coming software line-up last month, but it seems like they left a few aces up their sleeves as far as what’s coming to the 3DS. In an announcement crowing about the 4 million 3DS units the company’s sold in the United States since launch, Nintendo also declared that…

  By Evan Narcisse Published January 3, 2012
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  Town Life

  Town Life | It’s worn a little thin by 2012, but boy, wasn’t Animal Crossing something? By トキワラ Forcing Old Atari Game Boxes to Tell the Truth Rarely was there ever a greater discrepancy between actual graphics and box art design than during the Atari era. You’d get these amazingly evocative, painted box arts for…

  By Luke Plunkett Published January 3, 2012
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  Xbox Live Couldn’t Handle a UFC Match

  The Xbox 360 getting UFC matches seemed like a good idea at the time. Pity Xbox Live couldn’t actually cope with all the people trying to watch one. Last Friday, UFC 141 was slated to appear on Xbox Live’s fancy TV service. It was such a big deal that Microsoft gave away 30,000 coupons so…

  By Luke Plunkett Published January 3, 2012
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  Kinect and the Wii Help This Robot Pet a Cat

  It’s…it’s like the entire internet, rolled up into a single story. A software engineer by the name of Taylor Veltrop has managed to work out a way to get a Nao robot to react to his movements via both Kinect and a Wii Remote. His setup also includes a treadmill and a head-mounted display: the…

  By Luke Plunkett Published January 3, 2012
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  The Zelda Timeline Has Now Been Fixed

  Nintendo recently released an official timeline for The Legend of Zelda series, and despite providing closure for some, it provided problems for others. For the latter, here is a much more plausible fix. It may not carry the official, canonical seal Nintendo’s version does, but Zac Gorman’s interpretation will probably sound a lot more believable…

  By Luke Plunkett Published January 3, 2012
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  The Melvins: Honey Bucket

  You want to talk about institutions in the world of rock, you talk about The Melvins. Originally hailing from Washington State, formed in 1983 and instrumental in the formation of some guys called Nirvana, the band isn’t just still around in 2012, they’re as relevant and revered as ever. This is Honey Bucket. It’s from…

  By Luke Plunkett Published January 3, 2012
• Culture

  The Kickass Mechs, Guns and Soldiers of a…Gameloft artist?

  Gameloft has a pretty poor reputation around these parts, much of it very richly-deserved, but that doesn’t mean the mobile gaming specialists are entirely without merit. In 2009 Gameloft founded Redsteam, a studio that specialises in pre-production art. Its purpose is two-fold: while it creates art for Gameloft titles, it also aims to “grow in…

  By Luke Plunkett Published January 3, 2012
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  Don’t Expect Any More Zelda Games Looking Like Skyward Sword

  When Ocarina of Time was released, the next game in the series re-used its art design. When Wind Waker was released, it spawned a number of handheld and multiplayer games borrowing its cel-shaded look. Even Twilight Princess’ art style turned up more than once, even if the second outing was for a crossbow game. Skyward…

  By Luke Plunkett Published January 3, 2012
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  Half-Life 2 Movie Posters Make You Wish for a Half-Life 2 Movie

  If you’ve ever wanted to see a live-action Half-Life 2 movie, these mock posters are only going to make you want to see one a lot more. They’re the work of British graphic designer Sean Keenan, and are, for the most part, wonderfully tasteful and subdued. He’s based them on the posters for Chris Nolan’s…

  By Luke Plunkett Published January 3, 2012
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  Turn Your Minecraft Creations Into Actual Sculptures

  There’s a new program available called Mineways, which uses open-source (read: free) software to let people turn their Minecraft creations into real-world objects. We’ve seen services like this provided before, mostly for avatar recreation, but this looks way cooler, both because the software is free and because it lets you build anything from the game.…

  By Luke Plunkett Published January 3, 2012
• CultureTotal Recall

  Forcing Old Atari Game Boxes to Tell the Truth

  Rarely was there ever a greater discrepancy between actual graphics and box art design than during the Atari era. You’d get these amazingly evocative, painted box arts for a game about…blocks. Not cool. Mighty God King seeks to rectify this by taking the box art and changing the game’s name to better reflect what’s being…

  By Luke Plunkett Published January 3, 2012
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  The Great Fallout Legal Battle is Over

  The legal stoush between Bethesda and Interplay over the rights to certain aspects of the Fallout universe, which has been dragging on for years, has finally been settled, according to a report on Fallout fansite Duck & Cover While the actual details of the settlement are yet to be released – they’re expected to be…

  By Luke Plunkett Published January 2, 2012
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  All of the Best Video Game Music of 2011

  It’s been a lot of fun cataloguing and recognizing the best video game music of the year. We’ve gone from AAA blockbusters to indie games, sweeping melodies to ambient synths, heroic themes to dread-soaked atmospherics. Some of the games built music into their gameworlds, while others brought in full orchestras and still others used the…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published January 2, 2012
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  The 2011 Video Game Year in Review

  We love video games here at Kotaku. We love them so much. We think they had a good year in 2011, although it was a pretty weird year. We had the PlayStation Network going down. We got a 3DS and, at least in Japan, a Vita. We got Minecraft and Duke Nukem Forever and even…

  Kotaku Staff Published January 2, 2012
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  Portal 2 Takes Kotaku’s 2011 Game of the Year Award for Science, You Monster

  After several weeks of debate, discussion, and deliberation, Kotaku‘s 2011 Game of the Year Award came down to a simple vote, and the majority voted for science. We voted for Wheatley, the delightfully ditzy but well-meaning artificial intelligence that unwittingly guided us to our potential doom. We voted for GLaDOS, the power-hungry robot with a…

  By Mike Fahey Published January 2, 2012
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  Is the PS Vita A Device Ahead of Its Time or Behind It?

  With its big, bright screen, ability to sense touch and motion, and controls that mimic a home game console’s, Sony’s Playstation Vita delivers the sort of gaming that approaches what you might expect to experience in your den. But is that what gamers still want? I’ve spent the past week with a PS Vita, enjoying…

  By Brian Crecente Published January 2, 2012