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This game bites! Working out your frustration by chewing on your video game controllers

If you only started playing video games in the last 10 years, you may not know how good you’ve got it. These days, every system includes a hard drive to save your progress, and with most games offering frequent opportunities to do so or doing it on your behalf, even the worst screw-up isn’t going to lose you more than 15 minutes or so of progress. With dozens of online FAQs and YouTube demonstrations for the most popular titles, there’s no need to waste time getting killed by the same boss over and over again.

But back in the day, things were different. Before every home had multiple Internet-capable devices, gamers were completely on their own whenever they entered a new stage, and death usually meant going all the way back to the beginning of the level, if not the entire game. How did old school gamers deal with this kind of frustration?

In the case of one of our Japanese correspondents by biting the controller.

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Tokyo Game Show floor map revealed, Battlefield 4 confirmed as playable on PlayStation 4

Tokyo Game Show floor map revealed, Battlefield 4 confirmed as playable on PlayStation 4

In less than one week’s time, the doors of the Makurai Messe convention centre will be opened and Tokyo Game Show 2013 will begin. RocketNews24 will of course be heading along to play a few games on your behalf and bring you some of the most original and quirky news we can lay our eyes and ears on (we were warned about touching last year), and during a little research session this afternoon we stumbled upon none other than the official exhibitor map for Tokyo Game Show 2013, which was released earlier today.

Needless to say, the exhibitor list is positively enormous, with hundreds of booths filling eight halls (plus a separate area dedicated to indies and cosplay) with gaming goodness to be drooled over. Not only that, but Electronics Arts Japan has confirmed that forthcoming first-person shooter Battlefield 4 will also be playable on PlayStation 4 at the event.

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Sony explains decision to delay PlayStation 4 in its homeland, Japanese gamers not happy

It’s been two days since Sony delivered the shocking news that its newest console, PlayStation 4, won’t be launching in Japan until February 2014, despite the fact that it will go on sale in America, Europe and Australia this November. Now that the dust has settled and Sony has had chance to make some further clarifying statements via press releases and on its PlayStation Blog, Japan’s gamers have a much better idea of what to expect when the console eventually rolls out in its homeland.

Sony’s main reason for delaying the highly anticipated console, it maintains, is in order to provide a stronger software lineup when it eventually launches. Comments from Japanese gamers, however, suggest that they are neither convinced that this is the real reason for the delay, nor especially happy about being sent to the back of the queue.

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Crossover coming between Tetris and beloved Sega puzzle series Puyo Puyo?

Every now and again, a video game comes along that’s such a big hit that it creates its own, oftentimes oddly specific, genre. Super Mario Bros. begat a plethora of titles where characters run from left to right and jump on platforms. Street Fighter created a wave of games in which martial artists always settle their battles in best two out of three fashion, even if many of them are supposedly fighting to the death. And from Tetris, the category of “arranging things as they fall from the sky” was born.

Most of the puzzle games attempting to cash in on Tetris’ success, such as Columns, Dr. Mario, and Baku Baku Animal, didn’t make anywhere near as much of a splash. The lone exception is Puyo Puyo, originally from developer Compile. Puyo Puyo has been going strong for over 20 years, and its current caretaker, Sega, has plans to kick things up another notch, according to some cryptic messages from the franchise’s official Twitter account.

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Best job ever? Japanese man makes 1 million yen for three months of gaming

For all you fellow gamers out there, both hardcore and casual, how many hours have you wasted away powering up the pixels on your computer screens and game consoles? How many paychecks have disappeared into the latest expansion packs? How many hours of sleep have been lost to an addiction to online multi-players? Society doesn’t always understand, but we know it’s worth the time and the money when we get the fierce gratification of overcoming an in-game challenge. If we could, I’m sure many of us would love to make a living off of the lives we lead in the virtual world.

For one Japanese man, referred to by his handle name, Moru-chan, that dream is a reality. Moru-chan spends approximately 12 hours a day doing nothing but gaming for a paycheck of one million yen (US$10,043)! He’s earning this money by basically living out three months of his life in the online world of fantasy role-playing game, ArcheAge. RocketNews24 has the scoop here in an exclusive interview with this very lucky man at the one-room apartment provided to him by his company.

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Mario, Luigi, Link to appear in Capcom’s Monster Hunter 4

Sadly, there are very few ways to make money spontaneously appear in your pockets. We hear animal sacrifices work, but there’s all kinds of ethical complications, plus you need a rock solid alibi when your neighbor comes asking if you know where her poodle went.

But game manufacturer Capcom has found a simpler way that won’t get them arrested: adding Nintendo mascots into their games.

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PlayStation 4 not launching in Japan until 2014

Despite launching in Europe and North America this November, Sony’s next generation console, PlayStation 4, will not launch in its homeland until 2014, it has been revealed.

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Why Puppeteer is one of the grandest romps ever to grace the stage 【Review】

We have to admit we fell quite in love with Puppeteer‘s visual style from the very first moment we saw it. Although essentially a 2-D platformer, the game is presented as a live puppet show, heavily influenced by Japanese Bunraku puppet theatre, with a healthy dose of pantomime thrown in for good measure, and it looked positively spellbinding.

Due to go on sale both on disc and as a digital download via PlayStation Store in North America and Europe this week, the game was in fact released in Japan on September 5, so naturally we rushed out to grab a copy right away. Three days of platforming, applause and magical scissor snipping later, we’re delighted to say that Puppeteer is not just a superb platformer, but one of PlayStation 3’s most inspired titles to date.

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Dream gaming cabinet puts 119 consoles, 75 controllers at your fingertips

In the topsy-turvy world we live in, where console manufacturers are reluctant even to let people bring their last-gen games to their newest hardware, a lot of gamers may be feeling fatigued, longing for the good old days when a pixelated blue hedgehog fighting a fat scientist with a weird fetish for forest creatures was the definition of a triple-A title.

One gamer, at least, was so fed up with the current gen console wars, he decided to ball up basically the entire history of gaming consoles into one sexy rig with 75 distinct controllers jutting out from it as if the cosmic protagonist of Katamari Damacy had rolled it through a vintage game store.

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Nintendo announces new Pokémon cloud-based storage service, X&Y-themed 3DSXL

Wednesday, September 4 will always be remembered as a big day for Pokémon fans. Not only did Nintendo just lift the lid on two swanky Pokémon X & Y-themed 3DSXL portables, but it has become clear that for the first time since the series launched way back in 1996, players will be able to trade their pocket monsters without having to link their consoles together. That’s right, Nintendo will soon be rolling out Pokémon Bank, a cloud-based storage service that allows players to drop and pick up their pokémon whenever they like, wherever they like.

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Fan-made intro to 8-bit Pacific Rim game leaves us itching to press start

The movie Pacific Rim has been getting a lot of love around the actual Asian Pacific Rim recently, with China especially talking about it, though perhaps not for the best reasons. Japan too, being a lover of giant monster movies, has taken to Guillermo del Toro’s work, with praise from game makers Fumito Ueda (Ico, Shadow of the Colossus) and Hideo Kojima (Metal Gear, Zone of Enders) and manga artists Go Nagai (Marzinger Z) and Yoshiyuki Sadamoto (Neon Genesis Evangelion).

Also, in honor of the film a video was posted to YouTube titled “Pacific Rim Main Theme 8bit Arrange” which along with NES-tech rendition of the movie’s main theme gives us a nostalgic intro scene to what could have been a great video game adaptation of Pacific Rim. There are even some cute sprite versions of the Jaegers!

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Rumour: Sony to unveil ‘virtual reality headset’ at Tokyo Game Show 2013

Long-running gaming site CVG revealed earlier today that Japan’s Sony Computer Entertainment is poised to unveil a new “virtual reality headset” at the upcoming Tokyo Game Show, stating that the unit will be the final piece in the company’s PlayStation 4 hardware strategy.

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Artist amazes with Mario and Yoshi water sculptures

It’s one thing to look up into the clouds and see the vague shape of some video game character you recognize or maybe a dinosaur or something. After all, clouds are slow moving and amorphous; you’re bound to see some sort of Rorschach-esque pattern in there. But would you believe that a splash of water might, just for one instant, contain something as awesome as Mario and Yoshi?

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The Nintendo family is expecting! Too bad Twitter knew about the 2DS since 2011

Following its announcement last week, Nintendo’s newest hardware, the 2DS, has been causing quite a stir among gaming fans worldwide. Opinions have been flying left and right, some positive and some negative, for this kid-friendly device. Is it a waste of time and energy making a product that’s a downgrade from that which already exists? Or is this a good solution for parents who want to buy their young children an affordable, portable gadget?

But before all this domestic kerfuffle, one gifted Twitter user can now say that he predicted this very predicament a full two years before the new hardware was even a twinkle in the eye of its developer.

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Inevitable massive headache adds to challenge of Street Fighter II Virtual Boy port

The Virtual Boy was a product ahead of its time. The 3D effect from the ill-fated Nintendo console was pretty cool and the graphics engine could do some amazing things back in 1995; although the bright crimson red would leave your vision awash in a berserker rage effect for several minutes after playing.

Virtual Boy’s only drawback, and what ultimately left it doomed for failure, was its tendency to cause huge headaches after more than a few minutes of play. One Western Virtual Boy fan, though, apparently decided that he enjoyed the extra challenge of trying to pull off complicated combos while virtual icicles are being shoved into his eye sockets and, nearly 20 years after the console’s debut, ported classic fighting game Street Fighter II to the Virtual Boy:

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Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle limited edition boxset in our sweaty little hands!

It’s finally here, the video game that anime and manga fans have been drooling over for months: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle. And better yet, our resident manga fan and gamer extraordinaire Kuzo managed to grab us one of the “Gold Experience Box” sets, which comes with a heap of limited edition Jojo merchandise.

Join us after the jump as we rip into this box of delights!

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Nintendo announces new “2DS” portable, Wii U deluxe gets a price cut

Early this morning, Nintendo of America announced that it will be bringing a new model of its Nintendo DS portable games console to the market. Meet the 2DS! 

The console will play all 3DS games and comes complete with the exact same features, except of course the top 3-D screen. Nintendo also revealed that its premium Wii U console will be getting a price cut.

Full details after the jump.

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Pay-to-win mobile game sensation Puzzle & Dragons coming to Nintendo 3DS in kid-friendly form

Despite having been downloaded more than a million times in North America, GungHo Online Entertainment’s RPG/puzzle blend Puzzle & Dragons, or Pazudora as it’s more commonly known in its native Japan, is still considered something of a niche title in the Western world. The game combines elements of traditional tile-matching puzzle games such as Puyo Puyo and online favourite Bejeweled with the trading and stat-building elements of classic Japanese RPGs, topped off with a sprinkle of Pokémon-esque companion monsters to collect and trade.

The game is currently one of Japan’s most played mobile games and is almost entirely responsible for its makers’ US$763 million of total sales in the first half of 2013 alone, with more than 17 million active players in Japan today. Following on from this success, a 3DS version of the game was recently announced and is due to go on sale on December 12 this year. Reports suggest, however, that the 3DS version will be slightly different in order to protect younger gamers from the microtransaction system that the game has become synonymous with.

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Monster Hunter Rathalos cake available for pre-order, comes with Epitaph Knife and 49 res points

So you’ve slain the mighty King of the Sky Rathalos in one or all of the Monster Hunter series of games, and you probably felt pretty satisfied the first time you did it. But something was missing, wasn’t it? Being simply a mere video game you couldn’t feast on the dragon’s meat like a true hunter should.

Now website Premium Bandai and cake maker Chara Shoku Net are offering monster hunters a chance to live that dream with the King of the Sky Rathalos Cake which comes with a knife in the likeness of the Epitaph Blade.

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Sony launching major offensive at PAX Prime show, bringing 39 playable games, freebies

The PAX (Penny Arcade Expo) Prime 2013 video game trade show kicks off at Seattle’s Washington State Convention Center this weekend, with all the big names in gaming (yes, even Nintendo!) turning up to flaunt their wares and give gamers the chance to play upcoming titles as well as get some hands-on time with their newest hardware. Sony, however, appears to be taking this opportunity to throw its weight around and recently published the absolutely enormous list of games they’re taking to the show, which goes some way to explaining why the company is commandeering most of the south-west corner of the show floor.

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