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New Dead or Alive beach volleyball game full of the busty ninjas, steel drums fans love 【Video】

Casey Baseel
Oct 16, 2015
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After Sega got the 3-D fighting video game craze rolling with Virtua Fighter in 1993, latecomers had to do something to differentiate their own games in the genre. Namco added accessible controls for its Tekken series, Tamsoft spruced up its Toshinden, and Tecmo added attack reversals to Dead or Alive. Oh, and also large, heaving breasts.

Over the years the supersized busts of Dead or Alive have sort of become the tail that wags the dog, or the bouncing bosoms that lead the torso and shoulders. So after releasing Dead or Alive 5 Last Round, the third upgrade to the fifth game in the main series, publisher Koei Tecmo is taking a break from the fighting and doubling down on the eye candy with a new beach volleyball game, Dead or Alive Xtreme 3, starring its female martial artists, and the first gameplay video has just been released.

Giant collection of 16-bit Nintendo cover art is ultimate coffee table book for old school gamers

Casey Baseel
Oct 15, 2015

Thanks to modern Internet marketing, it’s unlikely that anyone buys a video game without first having seen multiple gameplay videos of it as various stages of production. Gamers didn’t used to have access to so much information, though. In the 16-bit era, the less developed video game journalism sector meant that only major releases would get spreads in print magazines, and for some niche titles the only available visual preview came on the box itself.

As a result, the cover artwork played a huge role in catching customers’ eyes and conveying the mood and style of the game. Like classic movie posters, the best examples are works of art, and many of them are now being assembled in the upcoming book Super Famicom: The Box Art Collection.

Hold it! New Ace Attorney game will feature BOTH Phoenix Wright and Apollo Justice… again

Evie Nyan
Oct 14, 2015

The Ace Attorney series, known in Japan as “Gyakuten Saiban” (turnabout trial) has established itself as a major player in the interactive visual novel market with five mainstream titles and a variety of cool side-stories and spin-offs like Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.

The games, while undeniably Japanese in origin right down to the legal framework, have proved extremely popular in the west thanks to some inventive localisation work which has helped smooth down some of those cultural rough edges. Thus, instead of Ryuichi Naruhodo and Odoroki Hosuke, we’re more familiar with their westernised counterparts Phoenix Wright and Apollo Justice. And now the upcoming sixth instalment in the main franchise is set to feature both of these protagonists together in a dual lead role!

Korean criminals take a page from Metal Gear with cardboard box burglaries 【Video】

Casey Baseel
Oct 14, 2015

After a vague yet indiscreet falling out with video game publisher Konami, it seems likely that Hideo Kojima, creator of the Metal Gear franchise, won’t be working at the company for much longer. As one of the most famous and respected names in the industry, though, we’re sure Kojima will be able to find employment at one of Konami’s many rivals who are licking their lips in anticipation of landing such a prized free agent.

However, we’re not so sure about the future financial well-being of the characters Kojima has created. This video seems to suggest that Metal Gear protagonist Snake has resorted to a life of crime, as multiple burglaries have taken place in Korea with the culprit using Snake’s trademark infiltration technique of disguising himself with a cardboard box.

Yo-Kai Watch debuts abroad: characters get name changes but songs retain their epic nature【Video】

KK Miller
Oct 14, 2015

Level-5, the game developer behind hits such as Ni no Kuni, Professor Layton and the mega-popular Yo-Kai Watch, are no strangers to success. They’ve even turned their mega-hit Yo-Kai Watch into an ongoing 90-episode anime series. Since then, the popularity of the show, the game and the characters has really risen, especially Jibanyan, who has surpassed Pikachu in popularity. It was only a matter of time before this huge hit would dip a toe into international waters, and on Disney XD it finally happened.

A TV show about spirits based on Japanese folklore would probably have needed a few adjustments when screened for a Western audience, so we were wondering, what did they decide to name their main character in the English version?

Hardcore gamer refuses to let game save die, leaves his Super NES on for almost two decades

Preston Phro
Oct 13, 2015

Umihara Kawase was released for the Super Famicom (Super NES in the west) in December, 1994, just over two decades ago. It was a popular game that has spawned a number of sequels for a variety of platforms and has won its fair share of fans, including many who loved the original cartridge game. Unfortunately, some cartridge games from the 90s featured a fatal flaw in their storage: the batteries keeping players’ saves alive eventually dies.

While most gamers finally give up and waved goodbye to their progress, lost to the ravages of time, one hardcore fan has refused to lose his save and has simply left his console plugged in and switched on for the last 20 years!

PlayStation Japan’s Pro Evolution ad is actually pretty cool 【Video】

Cara Clegg
Oct 13, 2015

Japanese ads frequently miss the mark, often being overly bizarre or simply cringe-inducing, but sometimes the marketing gurus hit the back of the net, as with this latest TV spot from PlayStation Japan.

Nintendo’s Super Mario becomes Super Jerk thanks to figure defect

Casey Baseel
Oct 13, 2015

Recently, we’ve been seeing what appear to be cracks in Nintendo’s outer image as a smiley, pure-hearted, “I’m OK, you’re OK” kind of company. First, we saw that the company’s official Line account is still holding a grudge against Sony for the industry-changing success of its PlayStation console. Now, some fans have found that their new figures of presumable nice guys Mario and Luigi reveal the Nintendo stars to be smirking, gloating jerks.

Pikachu and other old-school grass, fire, and water Pokémon become silver and gold necklaces

Casey Baseel
Oct 13, 2015

While each new installment of the Pokémon franchise introduces a new batch of charismatic Pocket Monsters, the original adorable combatants have been faithfully serving their Pokémon Masters for close to 20 years now. We’re sure a couple of long-time fans have formed a special bond with their first Pokémon, and you can now proudly display a symbol of your devotion with these silver and gold necklaces featuring the old-school grass, fire, and water Pokémon (and of course Pikachu too).

Player recreates Pokémon Red video game within Minecraft

Aleisha Riboldi
Oct 12, 2015

It seems that there is nothing you can’t create within Minecraft. For the uninitiated, Minecraft is a video game where players create things out of blocks in a 3D cube world. It is self-described on the game’s website as “a game about breaking and placing blocks. At first, people built structures to protect against nocturnal monsters, but as the game grew players worked together to create wonderful, imaginative things.” One genius player has gone to the extreme by recreating the video game Pokémon Red within Minecraft. It doesn’t get any meta than that.

Fan theory suggests the Pokémon world has a super dark history 【Video】

Mike
Oct 11, 2015

When you think Pokémon, you tend to think cutesy creatures fist-fighting and zapping each other with lightning until one of the creatures is “knocked out.” Also, you may think of widespread, real-world epileptic seizures and perhaps the moral complications of a world in which the local fauna are pitted against each other in fighting leagues, used as slave labor and also happily eaten, despite their astonishing intelligence, but maybe that’s a story for another day.

What you probably don’t associate with the series is a devastating intercultural war that has wiped out nearly the entire adult population, yet there appears to be some rather compelling evidence that that’s exactly what happened in the Pokémon world directly before the adventures of the first game…

Super Mario Maker level recreates intense Vocaloid hit with carefully positioned music blocks

Cara Clegg
Oct 10, 2015

Nintendo fans have been hard at work these past few weeks churning out all kinds of creative levels in Super Mario Maker for the Wii U. Even if you don’t have a copy of the game yourself, if you’re a fan of Mario you’ve no doubt had fun watching videos showcasing the mad-cap levels people have come up with and the rages of gamers trying to beat the hardest courses.

The level we’re showcasing today, however, focuses on not what an insanely tricky course looks like, but what you can do with music in the game by bringing Vocaloid into the Mario world.

The softest way to defeat your enemies: New plush hadokens are available for preorder!【Video】

Preston Phro
Oct 10, 2015

We doubt there’s anyone who’s ever played (or even heard of) Street Fighter that hasn’t wished they could throw their own “hadoken” fireballs. Even if Ryu isn’t your favorite fighter, you have to admit, his special projectile move is nothing short of awesome. It looks awesome, sounds awesome, and is awesome to use!

While we still haven’t perfected our ki-energy-throwing technology, we do have good news for all you hadoken-lovers! You can now preorder this 12-inch plush hadoken to beat up all your enemies with, one soft projectile at a time!

Kid faithfully emulates classic arcade game Xevious out of paper in arts and crafts class

Master Blaster
Oct 8, 2015

In these days of modern video games, people seem to be losing sight of what gaming is all about. In all the glitz and glamour of motion control and Hollywood actors lending their voices and likeness to games, it sometimes feels like we’ve forgotten that games are meant to be incredibly difficult, repetitive tasks performed for an arbitrary and intangible reward system of “points.”

This is incredibly valuable experience to prepare young minds for entering the workforce, but thanks to free-roaming environments and checkpoints-a-plenty, we’ve gone from a generation of Mr. Do!‘s to bunch of Mr. Don’t!‘s.

But this nine-year-old kid, whose art class project based on a classic arcade shooter is shown above, gets it. And mark my words, he will become the future leader of this nation.

These fan-drawn fused Pokémon are so cool we wish they were really in the game

KK Miller
Oct 7, 2015

When Pokémon graced our tiny Game Boy screens back in 1996 (or, depending on where you’re from, 1998 or 1999), we all thought that nothing could be better than these beautifully crafted 151 animal-like Pocket Monsters. But then a second generation of games came out and suddenly we were graced with 100 new Pokémon who pledged their loyalty and undying love to us, their trainers. Now in 2015, there are 721 different Poké-friends to collect and train and we couldn’t be happier with them…unless we could take two of our favorites and fuse them together, that is!

The concept may have been done before, but each artist brings their own personal fliar and the results are always fascinating. What makes the following combinations unique is that sometimes there are not two but three Pokémon fused together!

Japanese restaurant makes awesome anime and game character pancake art, takes requests 【Videos】

Casey Baseel
Oct 1, 2015

Even if you’re not ordinarily a very artistic person, we bet you get a spark of inspiration when you’ve got a pancake on your plate. Who hasn’t drawn a doodle or sketched a smiley face in maple syrup, or at least initialed their flapjacks with the sticky, tasty condiment?

After all, tasty as they may be, pancakes look pretty dull if you don’t add any decoration…unless you’re dining at this restaurant in Japan where the pancakes come pre-decorated with images of Pikachu, Mario, and dozens of other anime and video game characters.

Free Zen-like mobile game about broken pots contains the wisdom of ancient Japanese philosophy

Cara Clegg
Sep 30, 2015

Do you think putting together broken bits of pottery sounds like fun? No, me neither. And I’d never imagine something that’s so tedious in real life would make a good basis for a game. However, that’s the theme behind this free Android app which draws upon an ancient Japanese philosophy and, after reading some reviews, I was convinced that I had to give it a go myself.

Get a taste of the Mushroom Kingdom this New Year with a Super Mario Bros. themed bento box

Scott Wilson
Sep 29, 2015

At the beginning of October, most of us outside Japan are thinking about Halloween and Christmas. But inside Japan, something different is cooking. Now is the time that Japanese retailers start taking orders for osechi, a New Year’s bento box full of traditional and tasty Japanese foods.

But this year, one Japanese retailer has decided to put a spin-jump on things. They’re offering a Super Mario Bros.-themed osechi bento box to take your New Year’s Day dinner to a new level and impress all your family and friends. What’s inside this Bowser-sized box of goodies? Read on to find out!

Yakuza 6 to feature baddest Yakuza film dude of all time: Japanese actor Beat Takeshi 【Video】

Evie Nyan
Sep 29, 2015

Japanese actor and director “Beat” Takeshi Kitano is an instantly recognisable face over here in Japan, but westerners might be more familiar with him in his role as sadistic homeroom teacher Kitano in Battle Royale, or perhaps as the host of the madcap 1980s Japanese game show Takeshi’s Castle.

But it turns out that ol’ Beat is no longer just the face of Japanese TV and gritty movies, as he has recently joined a long line of celebrities lending their voices and images to video games. Check out Beat Takeshi’s appearance in the upcoming Sega game, Yakuza 6, in the following trailer.

Japanese gamer beats insanely hard Mario course, goes insane with joy and breaks down in tears

Casey Baseel
Sep 29, 2015

Well, that didn’t take long. It was just a couple of days ago that we took a look at Mario Maker user PangeaPanga’s course titled Pit of Panga: P-Break and shook our heads in awe at its diabolical difficulty. While it’s true that Nintendo doesn’t allow you to upload Mario Maker levels unless you can prove they’re beatable, we wouldn’t have been surprised if no one other than PangeaPanga himself was able to clear his creation.

But in less than a week, the hardest of the hard-core have risen to the challenge, and while this video of a Japanese gamer finishing the level is a display of some impressive platforming skills, what really makes it worthwhile is the surge of adrenalin that sends him shouting his victory to the heavens, and how it leaves his body in pain and his psyche tattered as he breaks down in tears of joy at his gaming accomplishment.