The Original Grand Theft Auto iPhone Clone Returns with Payback 2

Back in 2009 James Daniels released Payback for the iPhone, a game that was essentially a knock-off of the original isometric Grand Theft Auto. Now Payback is back, switching focus from solo slaughter to multiplayer mayhem. The darker, shinier Payback 2 slices up the open-world gameplay of the original game into a series of eight…

Burrow Your Way into the Worms Facebook Beta

Team17’s battling invertebrates hunger for the blood of a billion Facebook users. The original Lumbricus terrestris-based trajectory shooter is going social, and it craves your beta testing prowess. With bite-sized real-time multiplayer battles, weapons drawn from the span of the series’ 17-year history and an array of stylish hats, Worms for Facebook is a different…

A Debate of a Different Sort, About The State of Video Games in 2012

Over in The New York Times, where you can see more and more contributions by Kotaku writers, Yahoo News deputy editor Chris Suellentrop and I just had a debate—or maybe, more accurately, a conversation—about video games. We’d been asked by the editors there about the state of gaming, about signs of financial struggles at nearly…

If you’re looking for a challenge, you can now pick up the remake of oldie-but-goodie La Mulana from GoG.

New Super Mario Bros 2 DLC and Real-World Pokémon Hunting Descend Onto the Nintendo Download This Week

Used to be that Nintendo and downloadable content were two terms that you almost never saw together. But that changes in a big way this week as the company rolls out the first wave of add-on coin packs for New Super Mario Bros 2 on the 3DS There’s also Pokémon Dream Radar, a downloadable augmented…

The Pinball Duo Transforms the iPad Into an Incredibly Limited Pinball Machine

From the creators of the Gameloft-exclusive Duo Gamer and the Atari Arcade controller comes the Duo Pinball, a plastic frame that adds side buttons, a plunger and a lot of bulk to the Apple iPad. It’s the sort of controller only a pinball video game addict could love. I’m Mike Fahey, and I’m a video…

Medal of Honor Warfighter’s Open Beta Starts Tomorrow, But Only on Xbox Live

If you’re all excited about EA’s upcoming multinational FPS, then tomorrow’s your lucky day. The open beta for Medal of Honor Warfighter comes exclusively to Xbox 360 tomorrow, bringing with it a new game mode called Hotspot. Hotspot requires co-op teams to scurry back and forth across the map to defend or lay siege to…

Confessions Of A Teenage Xbox Hacker

In some ways Juvi is just an average eighteen-year-old. He speaks in short, brusque sentences. He works as an artist at a tattoo parlor. He was born in the U.K., but he now shares a loft with his girlfriend in Spain. He spends a lot of time on the Internet, and he sometimes says mean…

This is, Apparently, the World’s Tallest LEGO Vampire

It’s a stupid record, I know, since competition in the category can’t be exactly fierce, but this is still a cool time-lapse video of a ten-foot LEGO vampire being built in New Orleans’ Jackson Square.

The PS Vita Hacking Scene Suffers a Major Setback

From dedicated memory cards to required internet connection to move files, Sony has taken extra precautionary measures with the PS Vita to prevent the hacking of its hand-held console. This is understandable, considering what happened with the PS3 and PSP. So when a new exploit was released that would allow users to play pirated PSP…

There’s a Huge Chocolate Bar in Osaka. You Cannot Eat It.

Osaka is filled with places to visit. But if you are in town, make sure you stop by the Meiji factory and marvel at the biggest chocolate bar you’ll ever see. Just don’t try to eat it. Located in Osaka’s Takatsuki, the factory boasts the largest plastic billboard in the world. It’s even in the…

Black Ops II Won’t Be So Gross in Japan

Whenever Call of Duty games are released in Japan, they always seem to get in-game violence edited or censored somehow. Call of Duty: Black Ops II is no exception. Today, Square Enix explained the edits: “The heads and limbs of soldiers under attack by heavy weapons on the battlefield are amended.” So probably toned down…

In Japan, It’s Not “If” You Will Get a Wii U, But “Which”

So, the Wii U will be lining the shelves in a couple of months (November 18th for the US, 30th for Europe and Australia, and December 8th for Japan). With all the perks of the Wii plus increase capabilities and the new Wii U Game Pad, the new console is sure to be the talk…

Report: Star Wars: The Old Republic‘s lead designer has apparently left BioWare.

Extreme Cosplay Photography Is SO EXTREME

A recent geek gathering in Guangzhou, China brought out the cosplayers—as well as the photographers to take photos of said cosplayers. Photos of the event are circulating on Chinese social networking sites. This EXTREME cosplay photography, it seems, happened, with three dudes getting up close and personal, while trying to get the best shot. Not…

Something About This New Cross-Platform Game Doesn’t Sound New To Me…

Toukiden was one of the titles announced for both the PSP and PS Vita at last month’s SCEJ (Sony Computer Entertainment Japan) Press Conference. A couple of the title’s biggest selling points are that it is being developed as a collaborative project between SCEJ and Tecmo Koei, and that the game will have cross-platform capabilities…

The Power Rangers Don’t Hate Dubstep. They Dance to It.

You might think surely this is some sort of joke. Even the title of this YouTube video “Power Rangers Dubstep” seems like a hilarious gag. Then, there’s the breakdancing—in Power Rangers outfits. They even doing the robot. Hilarious! As the video’s YouTube page explains: Watch as the Samurai Rangers show off their dance floor powers…

One Piece Creator Teams Up for Crazy Expensive Merchandise

One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda is joining forces with S.T. Dupont for a bevy of swank pens and lighters. They cost a lot of money. Oda did the design work, which is a Sleeping Mermaid motif. According to sister site Kotaku Japan, the goods will go on sale this December and can be divided into…

3DS game Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan is headed to North America in early 2013, said Atlus.

The Wild and Wonderful World of Japanese Scarecrows

Across Japan, it’s harvest time. In September, the rice turns a golden hue. The color—my favorite—is koganeiro (黄金色). Scarecrows stand watch over the rice fields. Most scarecrows in Japan are rather pedestrian—what you’d think a scarecrow would and should look like. Then, there the ones that don’t look anything like scarecrows, taking their look from…