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2010, The Year Korean Pop Burst Japan

Korean pop isn’t new to the Japanese music scene. It’s been around for years now, but in 2010, it hit big in Japan in a major way. But what does that say about video games? In the early part of the last decade, Korean popstar BoA made a big splash in Japan with her poppy…

All We Need Now Are The Budweiser Clydesdales

To: Luke From: Owen Re: TK We don’t have clydesdales but, honest, we do drag-race AT-ATs down here. What you missed while you were out: Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Make a Move Winners iPhone’s Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light Is a Spectacular Action Shooter Marty McFly’s Actor Infuses His Voice With ‘Artificial Nervousness’ The…

Mega Man Christmas Carol Beats The Dickens Out Of Holiday Boredom

Why didn’t anyone think of this sooner? Mega Man Christmas Carol replaces the robot masters with the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future, plus that poor old bastard Marley. Dr. Light co-stars as an insane Santa Claus running the conspiracy. Mega Man Christmas Carol features no levels, just the boss battles. One question –…

Dating Sim Will Prevent Your Friends From Stealing Your Virtual Love

Project LovePlus, an upcoming Japanese dating simulation from Konami, will use the Nintendo 3DS’ camera to recognize its main user’s face and make sure the virtual girlfriend in the game doesn’t stray to any of his backstabbin’ friends. Famitsu says that, should someone else pick up Project LovePlus, they’ll encounter the “Boyfriend Lock,” which will…

The Week In Games: Boxless Day

We close out 2010 with four releases on download services, headlined by the first extension for Dead Rising 2 – or second, if you count Case Zero, which preceded the game. Monday (Dec. 27) Dead Rising 2: Case West (XBLA) – Frank West returns to the Dead Rising story to battle the shambling hordes with…

Kotaku’s Top 5 List of Top 10 Lists

Each week throws off several new video game lists ranging from the humorous to the trivial. What’s better? A list of those. Here’s a roundup of the rundowns out there. •The 25 Best Co-Op Games [UGO] Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, World of Warcraft, Double Dragon, Rock Band 3 and New Super Mario Bros. Wii…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Make a Move Winners

Sometimes the easiest contest concepts deliver the most complex entries. Such was the case with our Make a Move challenge. Sure, ‘Shopping a controller into someone’s hand is easy, but the base image is where the real genius is found. We narrow the roundup to 20 but when I looked through my candidate pool I…

Activision CEO Sees Call of Duty as a Form of Social Media

Speaking to CNN earlier this week, Activision’s CEO noted that more people play Black Ops, daily, than watch the late night hosts Leno, Letterman and Fallon, combined. No offense, but that would seem to be an easy goal to beat. No, network television isn’t the yardstick Bobby Kotick uses to measure Call of Duty as…

The Moneysaver: You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out

Scut Farkus! What a rotten name! We were trapped. There he stood, between us and the alley. Scut Farkus staring out at us with his yellow eyes. He had yellow eyes! So, help me, God! Yellow eyes! Randy lay there like a slug. It was his only defense. Lord help me that’s my favorite line…

The Next Soulcalibur Is Already Under Development

Namco producer Katsuhiro Harada and the new Soulcalibur director Daishi Odashima confirmed yesterday that the latest offering in the venerable fighting series is under development. That image accompanied a tweet from Odashima saying “SC is back!” on Christmas Eve; Harada followed late last night with “Soul Calibur is back!!” We’ll take that as confirmation. No…

The Week in Review: What Goes Around Comes Around

With just seven days left on the calendar, we’ll soon begin the retrospectives on 2010, but let’s start first with a week in which the news took no holiday. Totilo kicked things off with two profiles of those who drove the games discussion of in ways you may not have noticed: Greg LoPiccolo, of Harmonix,…

GameStop Accepting Nintendo 3DS Preorders

Happy Boxing Day. A little birdie told us that GameStop is now accepting preorders for the Nintendo 3DS, taking a $50 deposit to reserve the device. We confirmed this with a call to our local store, but be sure to check yours. The Nintendo 3DS is due for a March release in North America.

Weekend Talk Amongst Yourselves

Get what you wanted for Christmas? Get what you didn’t want? More importantly, what did you give? If you gave or got a Nintendo 64, welcome to 1996! And to TAY, Kotaku’s official open thread. kaploy9 is the weekend winner of the #taypics derby. There are six chances each week to get your handiwork featured.…

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A Capy Christmas To All & To All A Good Night

Capy, makers of Critter Crunch, Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes and Sword & Sworcery, wish you a happy holidays with plenty of presents puked under the Christmas tree.

iPhone’s Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light Is a Spectacular Action Shooter

I was a big fan of Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light when it came to consoles and, it turns out, I’m just as big a fan of the iPhone version. The game translates surprisingly well, using twin digital thumbsticks to let players control Croft’s movements and in which direction she fires her twin…

Marty McFly’s Actor Infuses His Voice With ‘Artificial Nervousness’

Here’s the demo reel for A.J. LoCascio, whose dead-ringer Marty McFly voice highlights the Back to the Future game now out for PC. LoCascio gets into character by remembering how he’d ask a girl out in high school. “If I was asking out a girl, I would sound too much like Marty and it was…

Who Says The Helghast Can’t Be Festive?

The militaristic enemies of Guerrilla Games’ Killzone series were human once, so of course they celebrate the holidays. We wish the Guerrilla team and its more than a dozen new additions all the best!

Big Monsters! Big Robots! Japan Loves It!

Threequels dominate Japan’s video game sales charts this week with the latest Monster Hunter, the latest Gundam game and the latest soccer RPG from Professor Layton game makers Level 5 sitting atop the list of newest bestsellers. Nothing could dethrone current champ Monster Hunter Portable 3rd for the PSP, which moved another half-million copies to…

Everything Your New iPad Needs Right Now

Well, weren’t you a good boy and/or girl this year! That iPad’s going to be your favorite new toy no matter what, but here’s how to squeeze the most out of it from day one. Step One I’ll assume you’ve successfully removed the iPad from its box, yes? Good. You’re a natural! Now trot on…