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【TGS 2012】 Sega Invades Tokyo Game Show with Monster Bag, Dominates Show

Sep 23, 2012 by Philip Kendall
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“Swaaaaag!”

Although it’s often easy to forget, what with all those games to be played and women in skimpy costumes to pretend not to be staring at, Tokyo Game Show, like every other trade show of its kind, is really all about one thing for the companies attending- advertising and self-promotion.

So when the games have been played, the doors have been closed and the booth girls are just lifeless still images on an otaku’s hard-disk, what remains? Why, of course, the freebies! The swag that seems like an amazing idea until you ride the train home with it and realise that, outside of the event setting with every other guy carrying the same junk, you look faintly ridiculous.

And TGS had it by the bucket-load.

But Sega, the house that built Sonic the Hedgehog and dozens of other gaming greats, pulled out all the stops this year, and, proving that size really does matter, absolutely dominated the show. Read More

iPhone iOS6 Map Takes Our Reporter on a Quest for the Pachinko Gundam Train Station

Sep 23, 2012 by Michelle
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Apple users from all over the world have been discovering new and exciting destinations and brand new locations of well known landmarks thanks to iPhone’s newest iOS 6 mapping service. The Washington monument has been moved a few miles away and is now near the Potomac River, London is currently located in Ontario, and the birth place of Shakespeare, Stratford-upon-Avon, no longer exists. Also, Helsinki station is now a park and Airfield Garden, once a working farm in Ireland, has been transformed into an airport.

Japan, just like the rest of the world, is not immune to Apple’s amazing ability to destroy beloved landmarks and erect fabulous new destinations.

Checking out the iOS6 operating system’s new map, our reporter discovered a new station on Tokyo’s busiest train line, the Chuo Line. Filled with excitement and curiosity, our reporter embarked on a quest in search of “Pachinko Gundam Station.”

Pachinko, Japan’s noisy silver ball-filled answer to the slot machine, and Gundam, kickass giant robot, have teamed up to create an epic train riding experience (or so we were led to believe by Apple). Read More

Beer Helps Keep Muscles Strong in Old Age… If You Drink 83 Litres a Day

Sep 22, 2012 by Master Blaster
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A research team from Tokushima University discovered that a substance found in hops can prevent the deterioration of muscle tissue. The breaking down of muscles in old age is a leading cause of elderly people being confined to a bed.

This is great news if only a beer or two would do the trick. Unfortunately, to harness the anti-aging effects of ale you’d have to drink enough to kill you several times over.

Sep 22, 2012 by Steven
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This year’s Tokyo Game Show was the first major gaming event I’ve ever been to, and honestly, I don’t even consider myself a “gamer.”

Sure games a formative part of my childhood, but the last home console I owned was a GameCube and now my gaming activity is limited to quick bouts of Team Fortress 2. And since Valve wasn’t at the show, there weren’t really any titles I was interested in checking out from the beginning.

So I spent most of the show wandering from booth to booth with very little to no knowledge of what each game was about, eventually deciding to allocate my precious time among the numerous titles in the only way that seemed fair: visiting the booths with the cutest girls.

Interestingly enough, this strategy led me to one of the two games that gave me my most enjoyable Tokyo Game Show experiences: EX Troopers.

Sep 22, 2012 by Michelle
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Apple stores in Japan were the first to sell the iPhone 5 anywhere outside of the United States. Many Japanese, eager to be one of the first in the world to get their hands on Apple’s hottest new product, began lining up on Sunday, five days before Apple stores were scheduled to start selling the iPhone 5 on September 21. The line in Ginza, a popular up-scale shopping district in Tokyo, stretched several city blocks. In Nagoya, 400 people were waiting in line at noon on Friday, four hours after iPhone 5 sales had begun.

Apple store employees and those waiting in line at the Apple store in Ginza enthusiastically counted down from ten to announce the beginning of iPhone 5 sales. One man even sprayed beer into the crowd. Amidst all of the excitement of the iPhone 5 sales, two iPhone 5 cosplayers were seen in the crowd.

Sep 22, 2012 by Master Blaster
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Burger King is currently celebrating their 5th year in Japan. But in an already saturated fast food market the famous American chain is a little late to the game.

So, in an effort to truly stand out from the crowd, Burger King Japan has designed fast food’s first black hamburger. Dubbed the Kuro Burger (lit. Black Burger), it will go on sale for a limited time starting 28 September.

Sep 22, 2012 by Michelle
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You, Me, And a Tanuki is a weekly featured blog run by Michelle, a Californian who is currently one of only two foreigners living in Chibu, a tiny fishing village on one of the Oki islands in Japan. Check back every Saturday for a new post or read more on her website here!

No peanuts, no cracker jacks, but a whole lot of other interesting food was available at the Hiroshima Carps baseball game in Hiroshima, Japan.

Sep 22, 2012 by Steven
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Over 200 companies from 19 countries are said to be operating booths at this year’s Tokyo Game Show, but visitors to the four-day long event may notice that one major world power turned out to be a no-show.

Sep 22, 2012 by Master Blaster
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A student from a private integrated junior high/ high school in Tokyo filed a complaint with the Tokyo Metropolitan Police as a victim of bullying. It was later learned that the 15 year-old high school student was allegedly advised by his principal not to go to the police on threat of not being able to enter high school.

The boy and his mother claim that he was sworn to silence as a condition of his graduating from middle school. However, as the bullying continued into high school he decided to go to the police.

Sep 22, 2012 by Steven
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People keep asking me what games I played at the Tokyo Game Show, but no one seems to know what I’m talking about when I say “the game where hot girls smile and pose when you point a camera at them.” That has to be a game, right? I can’t think of any explanation for them not spitting in my face other than it all being some grand AR photography game. Maybe it just hasn’t been localized yet.

Following our first day coverage, we’ve put together a collection our favorite cosplay and booth babe photos from day 2 of the event below. While they may not be as stimulating as the gloops girls, they still do a great job at adding some feminine charm to the party—even if they are just computer-generated images.

Check the photos after the jump!

Sep 22, 2012 by Master Blaster
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The other day I was smoking a cigar while driving my Hummer with a gun rack in the back when I saw a pretty young lady walking along. I asked if she’d like to head down to the shooting range, but she replied “no thanks, micropenis!”

Taken aback, I screamed, “How did you know?!”

“Ancient Chinese secret,” she said with a wink.

Sep 22, 2012 by Master Blaster
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An unusual discovery was made by a Chinese manga fan while reading through old issues of Dragon Ball. In a panel following one with Cell hovering over a village, a resident can be seen with the distinctive straw hat and tank top commonly associated with Monkey D. Luffy of One Piece fame. How come no one noticed it until now?

Sep 22, 2012 by Steven
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Social and mobile games are enjoying a strong presence at this year’s Tokyo Game Show, with social game giants GREE and gloops occupying some of the largest exhibit spaces in the venue.

But it’s not just Japanese companies throwing their weight around on the mobile floorspace: Korean online game developer WeMade Entertainment, known in Asia for their popular MMO series The Legend of Mir, is showing six new Japanese-language titles for iOS and Android devices to build anticipation for their full-scale entrance into the Japanese mobile game market later this year.

Bored of the repetitive tap-based social card games, I decided to spend some time with WeMade to see if the Korean developer was bringing anything new to the table.

Sep 21, 2012 by Michelle
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McDonald’s, the American classic, is a familiar fast food restaurant that is known all over the world. The golden arches appear in 119 different countries, giving rise to some interesting regional burgers.

Known as “maku-donarudo” or “maku” for short, the McDonald’s franchise can be found in 3,598 locations throughout Japan. With such a big presence, many Japanese have a favorite maku burger.

The following is a list of the top ten McDonald’s sandwiches in Japan, based on the results of an internet poll. Voters had from September 11 until midnight on September 16 to choose their favorite McDonald’s burger and a total of 207,948 votes were cast.

Sep 21, 2012 by Michelle
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Bright pink polka dots, zebra print, and purple stripes are printed on these oblong objects. They look so showy and colorful, but what could they be? A handkerchief? A fancy sponge?

Believe it or not, these colorful circles are roll cakes (rolled sponge cake and cream filling), and yes, they are edible. They’re so cute and tiny we could eat a hundred of them, but the sad realization that we can’t sit around all day snacking on these beautiful pastries without gaining some junk in the trunk has got us down. At 271 yen (US $3.47) for one mini roll cake, these little guys will slim down your wallet while expanding your waist.

You can find these sweets at irina, a bakery that specializes in roll cakes. Our reporter visited irina’s Ginza store to check out these amazing little pastries.

Sep 21, 2012 by Philip Kendall
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Within the first 30 minutes of wandering around Makuhari Messe, the enormous event hall that hosts the Tokyo Game Show and many others, one thing became clear: there are a lot of models wearing fluffy fake ears this year.

Cat, pixie, rabbit, devil- you name it, they’re on a scantily-clad woman’s head. Anime and manga fans will no doubt shrug this off as perfectly normal for an event of this kind, but of all my Tokyo Game Show visits, this year is by far the most ear-filled… (lots more pics after the jump) Read More

Why Foreign Guys in Japan Get So Many Girls

Sep 21, 2012 by Philip Kendall
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Let’s be honest; there are a lot of distinctly average-looking foreign guys living in Japan dating jaw-droppingly beautiful Japanese girls. We’ve all witnessed it- a woman who could play the female lead in the next James Bond movie, walking down the street with a guy who, if we searched for him in the same movie’s end credits, would more likely appear as something along the lines of “man in post office # 3”.

Were the same couple to be seen out and about in the guy’s home town, pretty much everyone would be looking from her to him, then back to her again and whispering to their friends “Wow, that guy’s punching above his weight….”

Shallow? Yes. Narrow minded? Definitely. But no matter how much we remind ourselves that it’s what’s on the inside that counts, there’s no denying the fact that human beings, flawed as we are, make a lot of decisions based on appearances. And when Johnny Average gets to date Princess Zelda (I’m a nerd, remember?), heads turn.

How do they do it? Read More

【TGS 2012】 Futuristic 3D Headset Arrives, Brings the Pain and Embarrassing Red Marks

Sep 21, 2012 by Philip Kendall
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As a life-long gamer, I love it when new videogame-related technology arrives. And when it’s tech that looks like the virtual reality headsets of the future that were teased during my 1980s childhood, I just about lose my head out of excitement.

Sony’s newest “Personal 3D Viewer” head-mounted display, however, almost makes me wish I didn’t have a head to lose. Or a forehead, at least… Read More

【TGS 2012】Cosplay and Booth Babe Photo Round-Up, Day 1

Sep 21, 2012 by Steven
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If you haven’t gotten the memo, RocketNews24 is at Tokyo Game Show this year and we’ve been busy taking lots of photos of pretty girls in colorful outfits.

With the first day over, we’ve decided to unload a batch of our favorite cosplay and babe booth photos for your viewing pleasure. We’ll be back tomorrow and Saturday with camera in hand, and who knows, we may even write about games at some point too!

Check the photos after the jump!

Sep 20, 2012 by Steven
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I had never heard of Japanese social game developer gloops before attending Tokyo Game Show.

And even after spending a considerable amount of time at their booth, I still have absolutely no idea what their games are about because let’s be honest: how could you stay focused on a screen when you’re surrounded by the exposed chests and unbuttoned shorts of the gloops booth babes?