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  Namco Bandai Is Ripping Off a Japanese Clothing Store?

  Namco Bandai’s idol simulator The Idolmaster seems to be getting more than inspiration from an online retailer. The “rare” Idolmaster card for character Megumi Ijuin looks exactly like a photo spotted on Japanese internet retail site Sunflower. Just look at the above comparison. The card is featured in the new social Idolmaster game called Cinderella…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published March 30, 2012
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  Kotaku East

  Cruel Costumes or Not, Tokyo Jungle Looks Great, Features Panda Sex

  In Tokyo Jungle, animals try to survive and procreate in Japan’s capital. The game has an array of animals (from dogs to dinosaurs), funny outfits, decaying urban sprawl, and apparently panda sex—or rather, panda mounting each other to have panda sex. Tokyo Jungle will be out this June in Japan. Tokyo Jungle [PlayStation]

  By Brian Ashcraft Published March 30, 2012
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  Kotaku East

  The Animation for this Disney Commercial Doesn’t Look Very Disney

  Above is a quick commercial for Tokyo Disney Resort. It doesn’t look very Disney! There’s a reason for that: Disney roped in Japanese anime studio Madhouse to create this spot. Madhouse is known for Ninja Scroll and Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust It’s interest to see Disney greenlight something that diverges stylistically from its own animation…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published March 30, 2012
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  Final Fantasy Creator Hard at Work on a Surfing Game. For iOS.

  Kotaku previously reported that Hironobu Sakaguchi was working on three iOS games. He’s revealed one of them: a surfing game with the temp title Party Wave. Sakaguchi, who lives in Hawaii, is a huge surfer himself. Above is the first concept art for the game. See that expression on the surfer girl’s face? That’s kind…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published March 30, 2012
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  Kotaku East

  The Colorful, Crazy, and Curvy World of the Sexy All Sisters

  There’s a set iconography. Costumes or accessories that immediately evoke imagery and associations. For countless idol groups, the go-to iconography is the Japanese schoolgirl and all the youthful associations she entails. Not the Sexy All Sisters. They largely eschew schoolgirls in favor of superheroes, juvenile delinquents, and waitresses. The group was born out of low…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published March 30, 2012
• Kotaku East

  Kotaku East Starts Now!

  Kotaku East runs from 4am to 8am Eastern. For more info about Kotaku East click here

  By Brian Ashcraft Published March 30, 2012
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  This Incredible Battlestar LEGO Model is Ten Feet Long

  The Battlestar Valkyrie, Bill Adama’s last command before taking control of the Galactica, isn’t exactly as famous as the show’s namesake, or even the Pegasus. But it looks magnificent in this LEGO recreation. LEGO builder Garry King has, by getting hold of images of the old ship, done a fine job of bringing the dead…

  By Luke Plunkett Published March 30, 2012
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  Failed Rap Game Might Owe Record Company Millions

  Remember Def Jam Rapstar? The SingStar for…rap? It had promise, but ultimately fizzled on the vine and died without making much of a splash. Now, making things worse, a record company is trying to squeeze the game’s creators for millions EMI is suing both 4mm Games and Terminal Reality, claiming that they used songs in…

  By Luke Plunkett Published March 30, 2012
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  A Star Wars: Old Republic Figure That Stands Seven Feet Tall, Costs $6000

  First announced last year, Sideshow Collectibles has finally unveiled product images and details about its upcoming Darth Malgus statue from Star Wars: Old Republic Just in case you never saw the guy at a gaming show last year, he stands 88″/2.2m high, and weighs 159lbs/72kg. So, yes, when they say he’s “life size”, they’re not…

  By Luke Plunkett Published March 30, 2012
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  Uncategorized

  This Portal Movie May not be Official, but it Still Looks Awesome

  Aperture: Lab Ratt is a fan film based on the Portal universe. And, as you’ll see five seconds into this trailer, it’s looking very professional. Proper music, proper outfits, an expensive camera, good lighting…yes, it’s looking lovely. If it helps sell you on the quality behind this flick, it’s being made by the same crew…

  By Luke Plunkett Published March 30, 2012
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  Cerberus Wants YOU!

  French artist Rémy Pontzeele has done these super Mass Effect posters, one each for two of humanity’s less…savoury organisations. There’s one for science villains Cerberus and another for cut-throat mercenaries the Blue Suns. Norzeele [DeviantArt, via Nerdwire]

  By Luke Plunkett Published March 30, 2012
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  EA is a “Worst Company in America” Semi-Finalist!

  Consumerist’s always-entertaining “Worst Company in America” showdown is on right now, and a video game company is making a rare appearance alongside the likes of Bank of America and AT&T That company is Electronic Arts, which while being a rookie in the comp has stormed into the semi-finals, blowing past more fancied opponents like Comcast,…

  By Luke Plunkett Published March 30, 2012
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  Westeros Deserves Better From The Game of Thrones Video Games

  It’s the biggest thing in fantasy, and right now, with the possible exception of The Hunger Games, the biggest thing in entertainment, especially with its second season about to kick off this weekend. So why has George R R Martin’s Game of Thrones series been given such short shrift by video game publishers and developers?…

  By Luke Plunkett Published March 30, 2012
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  Giant Painting is a Capcom Fan’s Delight

  Artist Larry D Warren Jr., who we recently featured with his giant Zelda painting, is back, this time with a giant Capcom painting including characters from most of the publisher’s most treasured properties. So, yeah, Ryu is there. And Mega Man. And Ryu, Phoenix Wright and Dante. But there are plenty of other lesser-known heroes…

  By Luke Plunkett Published March 30, 2012
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  CultureTotal Recall

  The Ugly Duckling of the Prince of Persia Series

  It’s funny, when people think of Prince of Persia games, they think of either the first one, or the ones including and following 2003’s Sands of Time. It’s as though there was a game in there that never existed… That game was 1999’s Prince of Persia 3D The 1989 original, and its 1993 sequel (which…

  By Luke Plunkett Published March 29, 2012
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  Prince of Persia’s Source Code Found in Dad’s Closet

  Jordan Mechner, the creator of the Prince of Persia series, hasn’t had his hands on the source code to the original game for over a decade. Why? Because it had been sitting hidden in his dad’s closet, that’s why. Mechner recently got a call from his dad to tell him that, after cleaning out a…

  By Luke Plunkett Published March 29, 2012
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  Come Here, Cersei Lannister; Go Away, Cersei Lannister

  Hello, Kotaku! Welcome to our Thursday night open thread. Are you as excited as I am for the second season of Game of Thrones? Probably. I hope so, anyway. Here, from around the internet, are some fun things to read and check out and talk about. Some Game of Thrones links may or may not…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published March 29, 2012
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  Uncategorized

  Hunger Games Stud Can’t Shake Off the Super Mario Theme

  At the end of a nearly 13 minute interview, Peter Travers, the eminent film critic from Rolling Stone asks Josh Hutcherson, who plays Peeta in current box office smash The Hunger Games to sing the song currently on his mind. OK, Hutcherson says, just one problem: The song has no lyrics. For some reason, the…

  By Owen Good Published March 29, 2012
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  BioWare Gives All 400 Protest Cupcakes to Charity

  As promised, 400 cupcakes commissioned as a protest against the conclusion of the Mass Effect trilogy arrived at developer BioWare’s offices today. They were not, however, gobbled up by BioWare employees. Writing on the company’s forums, Chris Priestley says that while “we appreciate creative and thoughtful” acts of feedback, “we decided ultimately the reason that…

  By Luke Plunkett Published March 29, 2012
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  Draw Something Gets Better When It’s Draw Batman

  Some players of Draw Something are exceptionally good at it, creating little digital masterpieces for their play partners’ benefit. Then there are players like me, who have the audacity to consider their orange-ish, vaguely four-pronged blobs a reasonable representation of a tiger. And then there’s what happens when a cartoonist by trade, Mathew Digges, starts…

  By Kate Cox Published March 29, 2012