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The Amazing Hair Salon That Doubles as a Retro Game Store
Bobby Ågren runs a store in Copenhagen, Denmark called Ruben & Bobby. It’s a hair salon. Oh, and it also sells old video game systems, old video games and old toys. Making it a hair salon/game store/cultural museum. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of those before. Especially one run by someone as awesome…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 24, 2012 -
Using Strap-On Joysticks to Fight With Fake Dicks
That’s not a crass headline. It is quite literal. There’s an indie game (not a video game, a literal game) called Swordfight. It asks players to buy old joysticks, strap them to their crotch using an S&M harness (complete with cuffs!) and, well, sword fight A circuit board hidden within registers “hits”. Photographs of people…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 23, 2012 -
Take a Look at Some Cancelled PS3 Exclusives
Martin Binfield, a former artist at Sony Cambridge Studio, has recently posted a showreel of his work, and contained within are glimpses of some games we never actually got to see. Games like binned PS3 exclusives Heavenly Sword 2, and Eight Days Eight Days was cancelled a long, long time ago, while Heavenly Sword 2…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 23, 2012 -
SSX‘s Tricky-Themed DLC Hits on May 1st
Fans of EA’s extreme snowboarding series were miffed that more homage wasn’t paid to the Tricky era of the SSX franchise when this year’s reboot came out a few weeks back. (All right, era may be pushing it since it was only one game…) No afros, no fireworks, no disco lights. “What the hell, EA?”…
By Evan Narcisse Published April 23, 2012 -
Beautiful Things Happen When 151 Artists Take on 151 Pokémon
Back in January I told you about the Pokémon Battle Royale, an exhibit at the Light Grey Art Lab in Minneapolis, Minnesota featuring 151 artist, each tasked with portraying one of the initial 151 Pokémon. Now we have the results of that experiment, and they are glorious The exhibit opened on April 20 to an…
By Mike Fahey Published April 23, 2012 -
Even The Library of Congress Has a Hard Time Preserving Old Games
Game designers and enthusiasts have, for many years, faced the challenges of preserving history in a digital medium. Source code and original designs for a project get lost over time, or data storage methods change and degrade. Gamers, though, aren’t the only ones facing those challenges. Professional preservationists have their hands full trying to maintain…
By Kate Cox Published April 23, 2012 -
Judge Thinks Xbox 360 Infringes on Multiple Patents
A story that’s been brewing since 2010 just took an interesting turn: a judge from the US International Trade Commission agrees that Microsoft’s Xbox 360 infringes upon five patents held by Motorola, mostly related to video codecs. Note this is just a preliminary ruling, and it’ll take more decisive court action before anything drastic happens.…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 23, 2012 -
This Portal Cover Vid Is Pretty Entertaining
The song (a cover of Jonathan Coulton’s now-infamous “Still Alive”) is well done, too. Don’t turn it off after the first few squeaky seconds. It gets better. I swear. Bonus points if you spot the Duck Hunt dog. And the Skyrim giant. Professor Shyguy – Still Alive (Portal Cover) [YouTube]
By Jason Schreier Published April 23, 2012 -
Play Lots Of Video Games, Get Better At School
Turns out video games aren’t all that bad. CNN says so. They’ve got a story on 23-year-old Trace Curry, a student who goes to Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio. Curry studies aviation. He’s in a program that teaches him how to pilot unmanned aerial vehicles. And he’s doing quite well, which he says is…
By Jason Schreier Published April 23, 2012 -
MIT Students Turn Campus Building Into Playable Tetris Game
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has a long (long) history of student “hacks,” harmless but clever pranks. Several tend to show up in any given year. Previous reasonably recent favorites (of mine) include turning a building into The One Ring, flying Nyan Cat through a lobby, and an upside-down lounge The students’ newest adventure brought…
By Kate Cox Published April 23, 2012 -
Unlikely Fan Fiction Crossover Battle: It’s Why Tails is Fighting the Murlocs That Matters
Sometimes it’s not the battle that really matters, but rather the events leading up to the battle. For instance, in 1monkeyfromhell’s “The Winter of Tails”, Sonic’s sidekick is on the run because everyone he knows has been murdered in horrible ways. Ouch. Cream the Rabbit? Raped and murdered by “some bizarre creature”. Knuckles the Echidna?…
By Mike Fahey Published April 23, 2012 -
Winning Mario Party 9 by Doing Absolutely Nothing
How hard is it to win Mario Party 9 against computer opponents? If you set the AI difficulty to easy, you don’t even need to touch the controller. This video might be a month and a half old, but I’ve been watching it and laughing all morning, so I’d say that’s worth something. YouTube user…
By Mike Fahey Published April 23, 2012 -
Nintendo’s President, Steven Spielberg, and the Dead Eyes of a Serial Killer
In a transcript for a never-before-seen installment of Iwata Asks unearthed by Nintendo Gamer, the president of Nintendo explains to legendary director Steven Spielberg why it would not be acceptable to put Mario in the fridge. Here at Kotaku we’ve become big fans of Nintendo Gamer‘s Iwata Asks parody series, riffing on Nintendo’s own interview…
By Mike Fahey Published April 23, 2012 -
The Dorkly Weekly: Pokémon Hypno-Therapy
There are Pokémon that breathe fire; Pokémon that shoot electricity; there are Pokémon that warp the very fabric of reality. And then there’s the Pokémon that opens for comedy acts at Cerulean City’s Chuckle Hut. Psychic Pokémon have their uses, but I can’t recall one of them that I’ve actually wanted to keep in my…
By Mike Fahey Published April 23, 2012 -
Great Moments in Video Game Humor: Devil May Laugh His Ass Off
One could liken a video game boss fight to a pair of actors on a stage engaged in a heated argument, trading overblown barbs instead of blows. In Devil May Cry 4, Dante and Angus take that comparison and run with it. The Devil May Cry series is known for its over-the-top action and tongue-barely-in-cheek…
By Mike Fahey Published April 23, 2012 -
The Star of the Next Call of Duty Could Be This Machine-Gun Quadcopter
The sun sets every day. And it rises, too. You can depend on things like that. Just like the yellow gas giant we orbit around, you can also depend on a new Call of Duty game coming out this year. No surprise there, right? But what kinds of terrible, death-dealing technology will it feature, you…
By Evan Narcisse Published April 23, 2012