Back at the start of the year, we all had the urge to go out and fight some monsters when we saw Hollywood blacksmith Tony Swatton recreate the massive sword wielded by Final Fantasy VII’s Sephiroth. Of course, Sephiroth is just one member of the gigantic collective cast of the long-running video game franchise. With so many more iconic weapons to choose from, it was only a matter of time until craftsmen went to work on armaments from the other games in the series, and next up is a real-life version of Squall’s gunblade from Final Fantasy VIII.
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I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that a lot of our readers have fond memories of the glory days of the Nintendo Entertainment System. As nostalgic as the iconic piece of 8-bit hardware is for North American and European gamers, though, it’s even more so for Japanese fans, who got the equivalent Famicom years before the NES launched overseas.
Japanese humor website CuRAZY recently stopped to take a look back at all the time they spent with a tiny red controller in hand during their formative years, putting together this video of 13 Famicom experiences pretty much every Japanese gamer had.
Dedicated collectors will pay vast sums of money for boxed, mint-condition gaming hardware or rare game cartridges. But with so many millions of units having been produced over the years, the sad truth is that much of the gaming gear we once adored or spent months saving up to buy now sits broken, gathering dust on a shelf somewhere.
So why not turn this old junk into something more useful? Recently shared by Japanese news site Naver Matome, these six creative uses for old gaming hardware range from the simple-but-effective to genuinely impressive, and may just inspire you to dust off that NES your brother spilt Coke over all those years ago.
Square Enix began streaming a video on Thursday of Kingdom Hearts series director Tetsuya Nomura drawing Sora to promote the release of the Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX game. The game shipped for the PlayStation 3 in Japan on Thursday.
Earlier this year, we stopped by Artnia, the café run by video game publisher Square Enix, to munch on buster sword chocolates and drink material cocktails. Just as you’d expect from the company behind some of Japan’s biggest RPG franchises, though, there’s now an upgraded sequel, the Eorzea Café, with an even larger menu of Final Fantasy themed foods.
Led by our sense of adventure and gnawing appetite, we journeyed to the strange and wonderful land of Tokyo’s Akihabara to check it out.
Heads up, gamers and audiophiles! Datel Japan has just announced that its latest gaming hardware-themed accessory, dubbed the “Retro GB earphone mic”, will go on sale next month. And it is truly a thing of tremendous, geeky beauty.
Resident Evil 4 director Shinji Mikami’s upcoming survival horror title Psycho Break (The Evil Within in the West) is now just a couple of weeks away from release, and its makers have just announced a pair of limited edition PlayStation 4 consoles featuring the game’s title and an image of the insane asylum in which it is set.
Today in the most unsurprising non-news possibly ever: Yes, Japan is working on yet another creepy, borderline pedophilic virtual reality “game” where you interact in new, sleazy ways with a possibly underage girl.
This time, the new program in question is an Oculus Rift (the newer DK2, of course) game where the goal is to blow into a microphone and upturn virtual reality hottie Hatsune Miku’s skirt with your comically powerful virtual breath.
It might not be the most obvious choice for a Hollywood blockbuster, but ’80s classic Tetris will be getting a movie adaptation “sometime in the near future”, the Wall Street Journal reports. And Larry Kasanoff, chief executive of Threshold Entertainment, says the film will be a “sci-fi epic”!
Threshold Entertainment is the movie company behind Mortal Kombat, and they’ll be working together with The Tetris Company to develop a sci-fi film based on the classic game. “Everyone knows that Tetris is one of the best known, most beloved brands in the world,” Kasanoff said. “What everyone doesn’t know yet is this epic sci-fi story that we’re going to tell. That’s what’s really exciting.”
A few weeks ago, we told you about Village Vanguard’s launch of Slime Curry, a rather curious blue foodstuff inspired by the bad-guy blobs of the Dragon Quest series. Not content with just informing you of its existence, one of the Japanese reporters at our sister site Pouch bravely volunteered to try the curry for herself and report back if she survived. Here’s what she had to say.
If there’s one thing that makes video gaming even more fun than it already is, it’s appropriate snack food. And while we’d never normally suggest that chocolate and controllers could possibly be a good combination (seriously, greasy controllers are a big no-no), we can safely say that you won’t find a more appropriate gaming fuel accompaniment than a plate of tiny, edible classic controllers.
With just a few weeks to go until its launch in Japan, Nintendo has begun streaming an introductory ad for its new, analogue nub-toting 3DS.
Check out the video in full after the jump.
There are few things in life more competitive than Super Smash Brothers (and, like, hot dog eating contests with hamsters). So, even though you can now Smash Brothers on the go with the new 3DS version, truly competitive players don’t want to settle for the 3DS’s inferior, cramped D-pad and button layout.
A clever Japanese Twitter user recently openly dreamed of a better way to Smash Brothers on his 3DS by connecting an old-school Gamecube controller to the portable handheld and, shockingly, another even more genius Twitter user responded with a real-life prototype he made with plentiful engineering skills, his own two hands, and what appears to be a bunch of fresh spaghetti.
On our visit to the Tokyo Game Show, it seemed like just about every flat surface outside and around Makuhari Messe, the event’s venue, was plastered with ads for upcoming horror title Psycho Break. Inside nearby Keihin Makuhari Station, though, there was a different advertising blitz going on.
Adorning the train station’s walls was a series of posters showing nothing but legs. We’re sure they caught the eyes of plenty of male attendees, but just what the heck are they advertising?
As you’ve no doubt already heard, the annual Tokyo Game Show is currently underway at the Makuhari Messe exhibition centre in Chiba Prefecture (yup, just like Tokyo Disneyland, TGS isn’t actually in Tokyo…).
It’s fair to say this year’s show is a little smaller than in years gone by, but there’s still plenty to see and do. If, however, you’re one of the millions of poor souls who can’t simply hop on a train to check it out, or only ever have a chance to see the show on its much busier public days, we have a little treat for you today: three minutes of video and a whole host of photos taken at Tokyo Game Show by our very own staff.
Good morning from Tokyo! We’re here at the Makuhari Messe exhibition centre bright and early to stand in line to play video games all day. Because we love you.
If you happen to be at the show today or are even in the area, be sure to give us a wave if you see us rocking our RocketNews24 press passes. If you’re new to the game show, we should warn you: despite the enormous number of ads for upcoming horror title Psycho Break, there are actually other games due to be exhibited at this year’s TGS…
You have to hand it to Nintendo. While behemoth publishers like EA and Activision are constantly badmouthed for releasing sequel upon sequel, year after year, the house that made Mario somehow not only still commands tremendous respect from its fans, but, if sales data released earlier today is any indication, manages to make stacks of cash by releasing updated versions of games many of us first started playing more than a decade ago.
As much as I enjoy its larger screen, I’ve always found the overall design of Nintendo’s 3DSLL (XL in the West) a little off-putting. Compared to its sleeker, smaller brother, the LL somehow looks a little cheap and toy-like to my eyes, and I was disappointed to see that the newer model New 3DSLL would retain the same look as the existing model, albeit with differently coloured face buttons.
Thankfully, a new pair of protective cases has just arrived that will not only hide that chunky little portable’s somewhat awkward exterior, but give the console a giant dose of unnecessary cuteness. Presenting: the Bunny Cover from accessory makers CYBER Gadget.
A newly uncovered patent filed by The Pokémon Company, the branch of Nintendo responsible for the fantastically popular pocket monster franchise, hints that a new handheld device which brings Pokémon-style battles and contactless technology together may be in the works.