DS game NINJA GAIDEN Dragon Sword is on sale. People are buying it! And to encourage those people along, Tecmo's Team NINJA is running a special campaign from March 21st to April 16th, giving away 15 iPod 8GB Nanos to those Japan-based gamers who complete the game with the highest "Karma" score. Nice of Tecmo to give those away. Better yet, nice of Tecmo to trust people not to hack the game. Then again, it is just an 8GB iPod Nano...
Team NINJA Nano [IT Media]

So! I've figured out what kinda contest we're going to run. Well, I didn't, but reader Benjamin did. He said an EGG DECORATING CONTEST would be a good idea. We agree. So who cares if Easter is over, that's it! Decorate an egg (yes, an actual egg), take a pic of it with a Kotaku sign and send it to kotakucontestATgmailDOTcom. Commentland will vote for its favourite finalist. We'll kick this baby off right now, wrap it up on April 4th. Here's the loot. Good luck!

Last time I'm going to spell this out: Paul Robertson's the guy who did Pirate Baby's Cabana Battle Street Fight. Know him now? Yeah. Good times. Anyways, as we noted a little while back (his schedule seemed to slip a little), his latest film, Kings of Power 4 Billion %, is now out. Do be sure to give it a watch (and help his poor little site out by downloading it from one of the bigger, provided mirrors, not directly).
[Kings of Power 4 Billion %]

This Sunday, 24 year-old Masahiro Kanagawa knifed 8 random people at a shopping mall in Ibaraki Prefecture. Seven of the eight were seriously injured, while the eighth (a 27 year-old man) died on the way to the hospital. Kanagawa fatally stabbed a 72 year-old man earlier this month, after deciding not to go through with his original plan: A murder spree at his former elementary school. According to the police, Kanagawa said:

Last September at some drunken TGS party, we got close. Damn close. Dead or Alive creator Tomonobu Itagaki took off his shades, we saw the whites of his eyes. Fumbling, we got out our camera, which conveniently took a BLURRY PHOTO. While picture cameras apparently don't work, video cameras do. And not just any old video cameras, but video cameras used to film Peter Molyneux's Lionhead Studio propaganda. Hit the jump for a closer look at an unmasked Itagaki.

Remember Justin? Course you do. Lucky sod won our "Shop Crecente Til He Drops" competition a few months back, and proceeded to spend $US 2000 on all kinds of fun game-related stuff. One of his purchases was a Rock Band bundle. Cue a life made "totally awesome", right? Not quite. Poor Justin's broken his Rock Band drum pedal, and in the process found himself in a spot of bother with EA's customer service team. It's all a bit complicated, so I'll let Justin explain things himself.

The Street Fighter series is from Capcom, and Capcom loves sequels and spin-offs. They're in Capcom's blue and yellow blood! But, what gives for the decade long gap between Street Fighter III: The New Generation and Street Fighter IV? Says Yoshi Ono, the game's producer:

Easter might be drawing to close, but our memories of Donkey Kong Jesus live on! Here are some more gaming related Last Suppers. The above one is called The Last Supper and features Hollywood thespian and GTA: San Andreas and Kingdom Hearts II voice actor James Woods. According to artist Brandon Bird:

Yeah, broken. Shame. Seems anyone who owns the PS3 version of the game and wants to play online is shit outta luck, with widespread reports flooding into our poor, beleaguered tips box all weekend of problems associated with the game's multiplayer. Chief amongst these is just finding someone to play against, with most users complaining of an inability to connect to servers for a game, though those who can connect aren't out of the woods, with a number of glitches and bugs during online play reported. All in all a big fat mess, really. Ubisoft are aware of the problems, and are asking anyone affected to hit up the game's forums and complain officially and in detail, as "this information will be invaluable in working out and addressing the issues you are experiencing".
Issues [Rainbow Six Boards]

Thank Unreal Tournament III, UTIII mods and a UTIII mod-friendly PS3! These mods were brought to us by the folks at UT.PS3, so kudos to them for cooking them up. Still waiting patiently for the long overdue Mario UTIII mod. Make it happen!

And there's more! And it *might* be real, too!! Earlier, we brought word of Sonic Unleashed screenshots that were unleashed off of SEGA's FTP server. Then this alleged Sonic Unleashed clip hit the internet. Now? This character art and more concept art work. We highly approve of this still-rumored-but-unconfirmed art. Apparently, SONIC TEAM as well as developers in the States and Europe are working on this title together. If this is their work, we appreciate them making Sonic not-sucky again. If it's some random internet fakers, we likewise appreciate them making Sonic not-sucky again.

The wait for more Final Fantasy VII is almost over for North American gamers, as this week's biggest drop is arguably Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII for the PSP. It joins a pair of well known ninja in the week's new releases, which is also heavy on action and real-time strategy. A slew of Wii shovelware hits, excluded from our list of new releases, but there's something for everyone!

Let us know what you're picking up this week in the comments.

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (PSP)
This fanfic fodder prequel to the PS One classic Final Fantasy VII makes its way stateside.

Dark Sector (PS3, Xbox 360)
Sci-fi. Third-person shooter. Black ops. Krull.

Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword (DS)
Team Ninja brings stylus stabbing action to the DS.

Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath (PC)
C&C 3's first expansion features more units, more wrath.

Viking: Battle for Asgard (PS3, Xbox 360)
Sega's other axe-battler is steeped in Nordic mythology.

Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 3 (PS2)
Kid Naruto, radical ninja, in his third fighting adventure.

Universe At War: Earth Assault (Xbox 360)
The RTS harvests a 360 port.

Octomania (Wii)
The waggle puzzler with a Puyo Puyo pedigree.

Harvest Moon DS Cute (DS)
More farming, role-playing fun, with extra cuteness for girls.

To: Ash & Luke
From: Maggie
Subject: Like dogs, they can smell fear

So part of the "fun" part of being a grad student is that we wear two hats. We're still students (with all the paper writing fun that implies), but we also have to muddle our way to teaching competence. I found out yesterday that I'll be making my kinda-sorta teaching debut this spring, being left in charge of a class twice during the quarter. Up until this point, I've just wielded the red grading pen of doom, no lecturing or question answering required. I always imagine undergrads to be much like the Kotaku comments section: they can smell fear and will pounce at the first sign of weakness. I've managed to stick around Kotaku for a year (more or less), so surely showing films and leading the discussion of 60 enthusiastic undergrads won't make me tuck tail and run.

We had a lot of chefs in the Kotaku kitchen this weekend, so here's what you might have missed:

It being Easter and all, we offer up some of the best video game Easter eggs;
An impostor Crecente reviews SSBB;
Ian Bogost thinks Bash and Crecente = Hall & Oates;
What classic literary works would you like to see in game form?

I'm finally on spring break, but my mum is here visiting, so I'll be busy all week seeing a bunch of San Diego I haven't seen yet. Hope y'all have a good week & thanks for helping out this weekend!

Leigh Alexander has another great Aberrant Gamer column up over at GameSetWatch, this one talking about 'fanboyism' and the inherent conflicts that crop up with the review system:

I would like you to briefly indulge me by participating in an exercise. Remove all of the mascots and familiar faces from Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and replace them with original constructs. Notice, if you will, the somewhat clumsy user interface, the high percentage of total content that must be unlocked to be enjoyed, the complete lack of usability of the Wii controls, and the lack of significant graphical or gameplay progression over the previous generation. It's true that even then, you'd have a good game. But would you have a 10 game?

read more »

The AIDS epidemic in China is huge and of serious concern to a lot of people (the best work I've seen to date is the wonderful and heartbreaking To Live Is Better Than To Die, an underground documentary by Chen Weijun on a hushed-up tragedy in Henan), but the Ministry of Education is using computers and 'games' of the quiz variety to fine effect:

Launched by the Ministry of Education and sponsored by the China AIDS Roadmap Tactical Support Project, the contest ran for three months last year, yet its effect continue - the site remains up and nearly 19 million people have logged on.

read more »

I just about died laughing at this lengthy and vitriolic review of the Shenzhen Nanjing bootleg/grey market Titanic 1912. It's long, it's funny, it's worth a read. The quality starts in the first few paragraphs:

I have a hard time imagining what possessed anyone to make this game. The board meeting probably went something like this:

read more »

Commuters arriving at Shinjuku's Kamiigusa Station in Tokyo see this: A large Gundam statue! Kamiigusa is home of Sunrise, Inc., the anime studio behind Gundam (among many other super famous anime series). Makes sense!
Gundam Statue [Yomiuri via alafista]

I love the random stuff that occasionally pops up on Gamasutra, such as this combination how-to on doing winter field recordings and essay on why we need better ambient winter sounds in games. Part lavish love letter to snow and its various states, part practical considerations, Finnish game sound designer Tapio Liukkonen tells us why this stuff is important and why field recordings can trump studio technology:

A teaser site for upcoming Cave shooters Dodonpachi Daioujou Black Label X and Ketsui X have popped up online. There's not much there to look at other than the above and a feeling of bullet hell excitement. Stay tuned!
Dodonpachi and Ketsui [5pb via Arcade Renaissance]

Late last week was the annual "Nipponbashi Street Festa" in Osaka's nerd village "Den-Den Town." The main street Sakaisuji was shut down for foot traffic only and the event featured cosplaying, maids and general geekery. I've been several times in the past. Good fun!
Street Festa Pics Here [Iza via Danny Choo]

Ian Bogost sent along this little gem, created in a moment of procrastinating from writing an article:

With the release of the second series of Eye of Judgment cards right around the corner many players are casting critical eye to their current decks. Building decks in EOJ take a bit of thought and skill if you're going to create something really good so any advice on creating them is certainly welcome. Especially when the guy giving the advice is the game's designer, Yasuke Watanabe. In a recent post on the Playstation blog, Watanabe explains the intricacies of managing mana cost and casting cost when building a deck. While it might seem overly complicated and mathematical at first (which it is to a point), once you grasp on to the concept it's quite a helpful little article. So if you're a EOJ deck builder and really want to get the most out of your mana, this is definitely the post for you.

EYE OF JUDGMENT Tip: How to Build a Deck [Playstation.blog]

Subaru created its own sit-down controller for Gran Turismo 5 Prologue for this year's New York Auto Show. The pod lets you race their new STI on a rally track and bounces around when you hit bumps. Now this is something they should set up at malls across America.

The ultimate game controller [Cnet]

It's Easter Sunday, and all over the country children will be set loose in their backyards, hunting for colorful treats hidden away by mischievous and sometimes sadistic adults. I'm speaking, of course, about Easter eggs, and while here at Kotaku tower we prefer to shop for our Easter treats in bulk after the holiday is over and the prices get slashed, we can still share with our fluffy bunny readers some of the best video game Easter eggs we've come across in our travels. To start us off on our egg hunting adventure, we give you - well...