Cats Live Like Humans and Dinosaurs Make Great Pets in This Week’s Nintendo Download

You like to live on the edge of urban animal husbandry. No domesticated felines or canines for you. It’s all ferrets, dingoes and boa constrictors in your often-raided abode. But even those species of barely tame fauna aren’t enough. You want to laugh in extinction’s face. You need… dinosaurs. One of the weirder games in…

Six Things More Online Shooters Should Do

I play lots of online shooters—from esoteric indie ones like Waiting For Horus to popular ones like like Call of Duty. This means I have (possibly crackpot) ideas on how online shooters could improve. While it’s important that different franchises retain what makes them special, there are some things that I think nearly every shooter…

The Most Terrifying Skiing Video Game Ever Arrives on iOS

SkiFree is a simple little skiiing game that was first released in 1991 as part of the Microsoft Windows Entertainment Pack. I got a copy free with a ten-pack of Verbatim 3.5″ floppy disks. It was all good fun until the abominable snowmen started showing up. The primitive pixel monsters in SkiFree were a complete…

The Board Game Inspired By Video Games

There are plenty of video games based on board games. And board games based on video game properties. But a board game genuinely inspired by video games? Please, Rivet Wars, continue. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given this pitch, the game is the brainchild of Ted Terranova, a former developer at Big Huge Games (Rise of Nations) who…

Here’s What (Some) Japanese Developers Are Looking Forward To In 2013

And so this is 2013, and what have we done? Another year over, and a new one’s just begun… Holiday songs aside, 2013 is upon us, and that means reflecting on the past year and looking forward to things to come. This week, Weekly Famitsu asked several Japanese game developers about their plans for 2013.…

The Titles Pokémon X/Y Were Predicted in 2008. Maybe as a Joke.

Think back to 2008. That September, Pokémon Platinum, an enhanced version of Pokémon Diamond/Pearl, hit shops in Japan. Yet, people online made one sort of accurate prediction—and one very accurate prediction. People? Sorry, I meant soothsayers. On Yahoo! Japan’s questions section, someone asked what people thought the next Pocket Monster installment would be titled. Then,…

Let’s Identify The Games In Capcom’s Upcoming Anniversary Collection

Video game maker Capcom is 30 years old. To celebrate their 30th anniversary, the company is looking back to its roots. As a 30th anniversary celebration, Capcom is releasing the Capcom Arcade Cabinet Retro Game Collection: A collection of Capcom games from the 8-bit era. Capcom producer Kenji Kataoka spoke with Japanese game magazine Weekly…

Work for Nintendo and People Will Want To Marry You (Apparently!)

A new Japanese poll of 500 men and women between 20 and 39 years old revealed that the most desirable company a prospective partner could work for was Nintendo. According to website Business Media, Japanese airline ANA came in at second place. Third was (very successful) scale maker Tanita, followed by Google and Apple. Those…

In Japan, Dominos Has Kobe Beef Pizza

To ring in the New Year, Dominos not only has a very special pizza, but a very pricey one. For a limited time, pizza lovers can order a “Kobe Beef Steak” special. A medium costs ¥4,800 (US$55), while a large is ¥5,800 ($66). Sixty-six bucks! The Kobe beef is covered in a simple special sauce,…

I Can’t Stop Gushing Over The Newest Captain America Figure

If you couldn’t tell from my last couple of articles about the Hot Toys Movie Masterpiece figures, I’m a bit of a fan of the collectible figurine. I am also a big fan of the Avengers movie, so I guess it’s understandable that I’ve been giddy about the Movie Masterpiece versions of the characters that…

Sony unveiled a teaser site for a new Vita and PS3 title with the motif “an old dude throwing things”.

Toyota Is Making a Gundam Car. You Can Buy It.

Not to be outdone by Volkswagen, Toyota is slated to sell a nerdy car of its own: a Toyota Auris customized in the image of Gundam character Char Aznable The car was first shown last summer as a concept vehicle. At that time, Toyota said the car would go into production, provided there’s demand. Apparently…

Japan’s Newest McDonald’s Meme Is Delicious on Twitter

Twitter. Bulletin boards. And even internet chats. These are all forums of communication and public record. According to an alleged leaked memo, McDonald’s Japan branch has drawn up a list of things that are okay—and not okay—to say online. But in the process, McDonald’s just spawned a new meme tearing up Twitter among delicious burgers.…

An Important Reminder about Tetsuya Nomura: The Man Has Mad Skills

Tetsuya Nomura wears various hats at Japanese game maker Square Enix. He designs games, he produces them, he directs them—he also designs characters! His artwork is perhaps the most influential of the Final Fantasy series. But it’s sometimes easy to forget his pure artistic talent, and sometimes easier to get lost in his resume, whether…

The Good Mouse And Its Slightly Less Impressive Brother, The Keyboard

It’s a double-feature PC hardware review this evening, as I take a look at not one but two of Roccat’s latest offerings, the ISKU FX kedyboard and the Savu gaming mouse. One, I liked. The other, not so much. THE SPECS ISKU FX Gaming Keyboard 1000Hz polling rate 2m USB cable 5x Macro keys 3x…

There’s An Official Xbox 360 Car Being Sold In Mexico

Because… somebody wills it, Volkswagen’s Mexican branch will soon be selling a limited edition Beetle based on the Xbox 360. With branded stripes down the side and a colour range that (mostly) matches that of Xbox 360 consoles, it’s certainly a thing Strangely, there’s no Xbox 360 integration in the car (sorry, this isn’t Pimp…

Grand Theft… Mario Kart

Malaysian artist Amirul Hafiz looks to Grand Theft Auto V for inspiration in this Mario piece. He’s got the colours almost perfect GRAND THEFT MARIO KART [DeviantArt, via it 8-bit]

One Man’s Artistic Journey From Ubisoft To Pacific Rim

Henry Fong is a former senior character designer at Ubisoft who, after leaving the publisher a few years back, has been working in the motion picture business on projects like Pacific Rim and the upcoming Spider-Man sequel. Fong actually enjoyed two stints at Ubisoft; his first saw him working on series like Assassin’s Creed, Prince…

The 13 Movies That Inspired Vice City’s Perfect 1980s

Rockstar’s 2002 classic Vice City remains so popular today as much for its bottling of mid-80s culture and excess as it does the actual game The game’s soundtrack rightly gets a lot of credit for this, as does the colour palette, but have you ever wondered which movies served as the inspiration for the neon-infused…

Monopoly Thinks It’s A Comic Book, Wants To Kill A Game Piece

Hasbro, perhaps after a sharp blow to the head, have decided a good way to get people interested in Monopoly again is to launch a campaign where one of the game’s iconic pieces is killed off. Not only are they messing with a tradition that didn’t need to be messed with, they’re handling it in…