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She Tried To Make Good Video Games For Girls, Whatever That Meant 
The Story Of Doodle Jump: Brotherly Love And Digital Snacks What we know about Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto: He plays the banjo, has a pet dog, likes gardening. Those are the typical insights we usually get about the Super Mario Bros.
What we know about pachinko: It’s a form of gambling that’s just barely legal in Japan. Instead of winning cash, players win metal balls. (If players won cash, pachinko would actually be gambling.) The players then “sell” these metal balls to a separate shop typically next to the pachinko parlor. Thus, players can actually “win” money in a round about, yet legal way. Do realise that while those noisy pachinko parlors aren’t exactly the most reputable places, a cross section of society does spin those metal balls.
In an interview with Nintendo honcho Satoru Iwata, Shigeru Miyamoto divulges:
Quick, you’re an opinion columnist and you have nothing to write about. What should you do? That’s right, drone on about how grown man-children playing video games is infantilising them. On the Times Online, the opinionated Kate Muir does just that! She writes: I assumed that, after adolescence, young men put away childish things and played amateur football, got amusingly drunk, instigated punch-ups, watched Big Brother or ineffectually pursued women. Yet here were men holding down serious careers by day, but infantalised by night in a virtual world.
Out of all the things that video games have been accused of, infantilising men is hands down the most bizarre. Talk about grasping at straws! Xboxes Are Toys [Times Online via CVG]
Companion cube jokes: totally overplayed. WoW: totally overdone. Yet somehow, throwing the two together under the umbrella of Valentines Day (or, to be more precise, the “Love Is In The Air”) celebrations warms the very cockles of my heart. Don’t ask me why. It just does. And don’t ask about my cockles, either. The companion cube cannot remain through the testing [WoW Insider]
Late last week, we introduced the “MAXIMUM RISKY” tag. Questions appeared: Where did the “Hot Tears of Shame” one go? Why did it leave us? Does it hate us now? Don’t get us wrong, we love the “Hot Tears of Shame” tag, but we had to retire it. While we popularised the phrase, it was originally coined by writer Patrick Macias for his podcast. We’re gianormous fans of Macias and have featured him and his books several times on Kotaku: here, here, here and here. Heck, I even write for his magazine Otaku USA and just finished up a piece for him last month. Macias doesn’t cover games at all, but “Hot Tears of Shame” was our homage to him and the quirky Japan reporting he’s done.
Spare a thought for the videogame bad guy. Sure, he’s a badass on-screen, but what happens when the final boss grows tired of all the killing and fancies a career change? Something more relaxing, something more befitting someone of his gentle nature, something more rewarding? This is what happens. Mauvais Rôle: a videogame villain reinvents himself [Boing-Boing]
Figurine maker Kotobukiya has done a fine job with Master Chief. Its badass Master Chief from last summer was pretty great as were its blue and red Spartans. And it’s latest Master Chief? Ditto on pretty great. The Halo 3 statue features changeable hands and weapons. It lists for around $US 90 and goes on sale this June. And the one is, well, pretty great, too. Master Chief Field of Battle [Hobby Search Thanks, Markus!]
This weekend, the AOU 2008 expo goes down in Tokyo. Seeing as this is only the world’s #1 arcade gaming show, you can bet some big-name games will be paraded around. Like King of Fighters XII, which will be shown publicly for the first time, albeit in video form (it sadly won’t be playable). Little is known about this latest installment in the series, though it should be coming to the US in 2009 on both PS3 and 360. We’ve also heard that the game will be neither 2D nor 3D.
EA’s purchase of BioWare was great for EA, less great for Microsoft. Why? Because it leaves their flagship RPG series, Mass Effect, in potential platform limbo. Sure, the first game will always be a 360 exclusive, but couldn’t the rest of the series easily go multiplatform? Not if Microsoft can help it. Shane Kim told MTV’s Stephen Totilo: SK: …We really care about our relationship with EA. BioWare’s been a good partner for us. We’re very happy with the success of “Mass Effect” and we want that to continue. From a platform perspective, is it the most important that Microsoft Games Studios publishes it or [rather]that it’s exclusive to the platform? That’s the way we have to think about it.”
MTV: And it’s still a trilogy, all three parts slated for the 360?
SK: As far as we’re concerned, absolutely Wonder if it is as far as BioWare’s concerned? Microsoft’s Shane Kim On ‘Fable 2,’ Why Marvel MMO Was Canceled And More [MTV]
Last week, we posted Princess Peach and Zelda’s Super Smash Bros. Brawl upskirts. That was risky. Now, we bring you this compromising Peach SSBB shot that isn’t just risky, it’s MAXIMUM RISKY. You’ve been warned!
Thanks, rhoddi!
