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Putting The Strip In Akiba’s Trip
Set in Tokyo geek mecca Akihabara, Akiba’s Trip is crawling with vampires who are dressed as geekdom’s typical inhabitants. It’s up to 18 year-old kid to figure out why his friend has gone missing and save the area from those pesky vampires. How to kill them? Strip off their clothes. See, their clothes protect them…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 28, 2011 -
New Grasshopper Game To Leap Out For Quake Charity
Grasshopper Manufacture, the studio behind No More Heroes, is about to release a new iOS game called Frog Minutes. All proceeds from the upcoming game will go to the Japanese Red Cross, the company says in an official release. Frog Minutes will be released this Wednesday.
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 28, 2011 -
These Video Game Masterpieces Are Nothing But Text
What if, instead of action figures and comic books, our favourite video games inspired classic, dog-eared works of literature instead? These images by A. J. Hateley show us just such a scenario, taking some fairly random games – a little Half-Life 2 here, a little Deadly Premonition there – and basing torn old books on…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 28, 2011 -
It’s Master Chief vs Samus In A 16-Bit Battle To The Death
The long-in-development Card Sagas Wars, a super-deformed fighting game based on the MUGEN engine, is a place where fighting game dreams come true. In this case, for those who have dreamed of seeing Master Chief take on Samus, Raving Rabbids and…Tingle? MUGEN is a free 2D fighting game engine (and originally a customisable 2D fighting…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 28, 2011 -
Take A (Virtual) Seat In The Crowd At A Korean StarCraft Tournament
This is Eemma, a Swedish student with a camera. And if you’ve ever wanted to know what it’s like to go and see professional StarCraft players face off in Seoul, she’s your gal! Shot in a quaint “virtual tourist” style, this isn’t a video showing you what the matches were like. What strategies were used.…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 28, 2011 -
Little Kid Tricked Out Of His PSP
Twenty-six year old Takanori Osanai didn’t have a job. He didn’t have a permanent address. But he apparently had a plan to steal PSPs. “My goal was to sell the PSP I swindled away,” Osanai told authorities in Omiya in Saitama Prefecture, which is outside Tokyo. On March 23 at around 2:15pm, Osanai approached a…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 28, 2011 -
Dynasty Warriors Studio Vandalized With “Shit Game” Graffiti
Koei, the Yokohama-based game company best known for Dynasty Warriors, was recently vandalized. The studio’s offices were graffitied with red spray paint. “Shit game”, “die”, “garbage” and “divine retribution” were spray painted on the front of the building. There is speculation online that the graffiti is related to the most recent Dynasty Warriors. However, Japanese…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 28, 2011 -
Handcuff Yourself For Extra Battery Life
The Universal Gadget Wrist Charger sports a 1,500mAh 5.5V rechargeable lithium ion battery that comes with nine different adapters to charge a whole host of portable devices like the iPhone, the PSP, the DS Lite and the DSi/3DS. The bracelet has LED lights to gauge battery life and weighs only 82 grams. It can be…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 28, 2011 -
If This Is The Future Of Space Games, Sign Me Up
For all its political intrigue and gorgeous player models, EVE Online is still, like all other MMOs, a little stale. This concept trailer shows how developers CCP are planning on spicing things up a little. To complement the EVE Online MMO, a first-person shooter called Dust 514 is due for release sometime in the next…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 28, 2011 -
Even Street Fighters (And Tekken!) Are Helping Japan’s Quake Victims
In a cute piece of national solidarity, Osaka-based Capcom has released a pair of supportive wallpapers for Japanese (and other!) fans to help parts of Japan get back on their feet following the devastating earthquake and tsunami.
By Luke Plunkett Published March 28, 2011 -
3DS Turns Up Used In Spades
While the West is just getting the Nintendo 3DS, which went on sale over the weekend, the console has been available in Japan since February 26. As evident by this story, used 3DS handhelds are not in short supply. All of these used 3DS handhelds are available slightly cheaper than the price for new units.…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 28, 2011 -
First PlayStation Phone Is “Buggy”, Has Partial UK Launch Delay
The Xperia Play, Sony Ericsson’s first mobile platform making use of the PlayStation Suite, has seen part of its UK release delayed after a telcom provider found several bugs in the phone’s software. “We’ve been testing the phone non-stop for several weeks,” says O2’s lead tester Stuart Hibberd, “and have found some bugs in the…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 28, 2011 -
The First 3D Pin-Up Photos For The Nintendo 3DS
If the success of Julie Watai’s 3D photos are any indication, this could be the start of something big. Watai, who is a photographer herself as well as a pin-up model under the name “Ai Amano”, decided to offer 3D cheesecake photos as a free download. In the first two days they were available, the…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 28, 2011 -
China Gets 3D Street Fighter For Arcades
Taiwanese arcade distributor Wahlap Technologies will be releasing in the Chinese market something of a novelty: a Street Fighter IV arcade cabinet that lets you play the game in 3D. This isn’t the existing 3DS version of Super Street Fighter cleaned up and re-released. In fact, it’s not Super Street Fighter IV at all. What…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 28, 2011 -
Will Japan’s Earthquake Impact The Tokyo Game Show?
The streets of Tokyo are darker these days. It’s not only rolling blackouts, but restaurants, convenience stores and electronics shops are turning off their signs at night in hopes to conserve electricity. The goal in conserving electricity is to divert it to the power grids in northeastern Japan that need it most. There are a…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 28, 2011 -
The Man Who Already Broke His Brand New Nintendo 3DS
Over the weekend, the Nintendo 3DS finally went on sale in the West. Kotaku reader Alastair saved for months to get his own Aqua Blue 3DS. Then, he totally ruined it. “Within a couple of hours of opening the box I managed to spill metal polish on the desk on which the new handheld was…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 28, 2011 -
Is The 3DS Suffering From A “Black Screen Of Death”?
Now that the 3DS is in the hands of customers across the Western world, people are finally playing the thing in large numbers. Large enough, it seems, to have found a “black screen of death” error affecting the handheld. It doesn’t seem terribly widespread, so don’t panic. But those who have encountered the error have…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 28, 2011 -
Mortal Kombat’s Final Roster Leaked
If you think looking at a character select screen for a fighter is a spoiler, move right along. If you’d like to see what looks like the final roster for the upcoming Mortal Kombat reboot, though, please continue! There is of course no way to verify the select screen at this time. If you’re working…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 28, 2011