Posts Filed Under: kotaku

We worked with the amazing artist, Jason Chan, to create this design for our friends at Kotaku.

Diving into the deep end of moe anthropomorphism, Kotaku-tan is comprised solely of references familiar to longtime Kotaku readers.

We’re really happy with the way she turned out, thanks in part to a ridiculous 13-screen printing process we used for the shirts. Kotaku-tan is available now in black, asphalt, and natural organic.

Meat Bun is sponsoring the the 2009 Kotaku E3 Party, and we want you there.  We are going to lower your inhibitions by plying you with free drinks (while our poor little credit card holds up), then Happy Hour kicks in, Yo!  Kinda like the feeling when VTEC kicks in…

Soon you’ll be chatting away, hitting on Leigh Alexander (or Mike depending on how you swing).  You’ll be feeling so damn good you might even almost miss the new yet-to-be-released deluxe Meat Bun shirts available.  But you will most definitely notice the music stylings of our good friend, Mike Z., a.k.a Special Attack.

The Golden Gopher is a swank spot worth the trip alone.  Add some tasty libations on our dime, and you ain’t got no excuse to miss this.  So head downtown on May 31st and we’ll see you there.

They finally made it.

Unfortunately, the ‘they’ in the sentence above does not refer to Aperture Science (or the Japanese).  Instead cosplayer “emilyskeith” is the proud owner of one of the finest pieces of simulated technology I have ever seen.

I even believe Chris Cunningham shed a tear in awe when he saw it.

Real Portal Gun Won’t Leave You Tasting Blood [Kotaku]

So, yeah, Ed Boon just came over, and we played some MK vs. DC.

While Mike had to be all professional like, and take notes for Kotaku and shit, I got to chat about Noob Saibot. Ed got a big kick out of that. “Sadly, [Noob Saibot] is taking a break this round out.” You can tell Ed Boon is a real gamer. He’s the kind of guy you want hanging around your living room, hogging the controller, and getting pissed when he can’t pull off a Fatality after he beats you. (Mike then offered him a move sheet.)

But what’s even better is the fact that you can ask Ed about hidden characters in Mortal Kombat, and instead of pulling some rumor out of his butt like all your friends do, he actually knows. “I was in a KFC in Illinois, when I thought ‘Oh, we can just do a green palette-swap [for Reptile]. Then I drove back to the office and did it in an hour. I thought to myself, no one’s ever gonna find this. Two weeks later, you guys found everything. There was an arcade I went to later and they had a sign above their Mortal Kombat cabinet, ‘Find the Reptile Man and win a prize!’”

Mike then recounted our own experience trying to unlock Reptile in the original MK. We were going to college in Pittsburgh, and after reading about the existence of Reptile for the first time at Eide’s Entertainment, we rushed over to the super shady Grey Hound bus station across the street to give it a go. I kept the homeless guy trying to sell us drugs at bay while Mike executed a Fatality, obtained a double flawless victory, and never hit block during the winning round on the Pit stage.

MK vs. DC brought that feeling back. I found myself really enjoying the story mode. Having Ed Boon personally explain the plot difficulties for having The Flash fight Batman, though enjoyable, wasn’t necessary. Midway came up with a fairly elegant solution for why the two “good guys” would be brutalizing each other. And the transition from story cinematic to playable fight sequence was handled with equal finesse. But the game doesn’t take itself too seriously. Amidst the confetti for pulling off a difficult combo in one of the training modes, I half expected Dan Forden to pop out and exclaim “Toasty!”

As things were winding up, I asked Ed if he still kept in touch with George Gomez. He said he did, so I gave Ed an Auto Hunter shirt to pass along to George. George, if you’re reading this, Spy Hunter is still one of my favorite games of all time, and I will own a sitdown cabinet one day. Hope you like the shirt!

Previous rumors aside, Mike figured out a way to swindle Kotaku into flying him out to TGS again this year.  I was informed too late to book my own travel arrangements, so I’m completely depressed holding down the fort here in LA.  To make the best of it, I’ve found some local things that may pacify my yearning to be checked into the Cerulean Tower with the rest of the Kotaku crew.

I visited Waraku on Abbot Kinney Blvd. this afternoon.   Not quite the same as shopping in Ginza or Takeshita-dori in Harajuku, but it is definitely a taste.

Speaking about taste, we have an oddly flavored candy, newly introduced in the States, that would give any bizzaro-candy in Japan a run for its money (who am I kidding?  Japan makes burger shaped chocolate-filled cookies called EveryBurger.)  The item I’m referring to is Ice Breakers Iced Tea Lemon flavored mints.  It’s like mainlining a spoonful of Lipton Iced Tea mix.

And with a couple clicks, I was perusing some homegrown videogame cosplay that will tide me over til I get back out to TGS (or Mike posts some of his pic’s).  This anonymous 4chan’er is creating quite simply a masterpiece with his version of Tyrael.

I’ll be hanging out on Sawtelle Blvd. a lot this week, drowning my sorrows in sake if anyone wants to join me.

There’s no feeling that can match watching the integer count of one’s “friends” increment by one at the social networking service of your choice. Therefore, we highly recommend that you become our MySpace friend. Or, if you’d prefer to become a Facebook associate, we can offer that, too. We’ll keep you updated on all our product updates, sales, special events, self-centered surveys, what have you — social network style. We’ll probably even keep you well stocked in Blingee-d comments, because we like you so much.

I’m off to Leipzig for Games Convention. Blow by blows will happen at Kotaku, but pictures of trash cans that look like Master Chief may very well show up here.