Evolved from a PSN title to a disc-based release, Sony's newest PS3 game, Tokyo Jungle has caught the attention of many with its interesting urban environment, animal survival concept. But does this title bring gameplay equal to its unique narrative base or does it never completely manage to escape its budget title roots?

Good — Great Concept for a Game

Tokyo Jungle is based around one single question: What would happen if one day humanity disappeared and Tokyo was left to the animals? From the eyes of a lowly Pomeranian to those of the king of the dinosaurs, Tokyo Jungle shows you the largest city in the world devoid of human life. Following the animals left behind, you experience not only their individual stories in this new urban jungle, but also uncover the mystery of humanity's disappearance piece by piece. It's a compelling premise for a game, and Tokyo Jungle handles the dual narrative quite well.

Good — Goals to Keep it Interesting

While there is a 14 mission story mode, you'll be spending most of your time with Tokyo Jungle in survival mode (for reasons we'll get into later). The point of the mode is, just as you may have guessed, to pick an animal and survive as long as possible. To prevent this from becoming monotonous (given how many times you will play this mode) you are given a set of random objectives to accomplish in each ten minute chunk you survive. The challenges reward you with stat bonuses and occasionally unlock clothing or even a new playable animal. The other animals and food present in each area randomly change every ten minutes as well insuring that no playthrough will be identical to any other—even if you're playing the same animal.

Mixed — Large Amount of Animals; They All Play the Same

Tokyo Jungle touts an amazing lineup of 52 animals—more if you count those animals with several unlockable skins. You can be everything from a deer to an elephant on the herbivore side and everything from a Pomeranian to a T-Rex on the carnivore side. Sadly though, herbivore or carnivore, all animals play basically the same. The only meaningful difference is size and thus how much damage you do. Therefore unlocking animals simply moves you up the food chain, nothing more.

Mixed — A Wide World

The world of Tokyo Jungle is wide and varied, covering the area between Shibuya station and Yoyogi Park—and even the subways and sewers below. The random missions you complete in survival mode will lead you to all of these areas eventually, but sadly, you always begin in the exact same area with every animal. And as I hinted above, you will be playing survival mode many times before you beat the game because…

Bad — Everything Must be Unlocked in Survival Mode, Even the Story

When you start the game, you don't even have the first story mission unlocked. You must enter survival mode and collect the three data reports scattered across the world map. Once you collect these and die (quitting to the menu doesn't save your progress), the first story mission will unlock. You will have to do this a grand total of 14 times to unlock the whole story. Of course, some of the reports are in areas that will require something a bit stronger than a deer or Pomeranian (the only two animals unlocked at the start) so you need to stick around in survival mode long enough each time to unlock the next level of animal.

But even after you unlock the next animal in the food chain, you can't actually use it. First you must pay for it using the points you collected in survival mode by completing challenges and simply staying alive. Clothes (which act as armor and weapons) can also be purchased using points. So really, each time you go into survival mode, you need to try to survive as long as possible or you will be destroyed by the sudden difficulty spike at the end of the game.

Bad — A Sudden Difficulty Spike to Pad the Game

Without going into spoilers, the location of the final four data reports is infested with enemies far stronger than any animal sans the dinosaurs—which are, of course, the final unlock. I was about 3/4 through the carnivore unlocks and had had no difficulty issues with the game until this point. Yet, suddenly I was unable to progress. Rather than play the five or more extra hours minimum it would take to unlock the dinosaurs, I took the fastest character I had—the cheetah—and kept trying to sneak/run past the enemies. After about the fifth try (and 2nd hour) the area was sparsely populated enough for me to succeed. I have no doubt that this was total luck and the game was trying to force me to play survival until I unlocked the dinosaurs. All it made me want to do, however, is never play the game again.

Bad — Metal Gear This is Not

In the story mode, there are several stealth missions. They are frankly terrible. This is not because they are poorly designed but rather because they lack proper check points. Each stealth level has perhaps one checkpoint in its entirety and since being seen automatically ends the mission, you'll spend an inordinate amount of time doing the same section over and over. Between the repetition and the loading times, it becomes far more frustrating than fun.

Final Thoughts

Tokyo Jungle is a real mixed bag. Here in Japan it was released as a semi budget title—costing about half the price of most PS3 titles—but I am on the fence about whether it was worth the money. For everything unique or enjoyable, there seems to be something uninspired or monotonous. While it's true "the more I played it, the more I enjoyed it," (especially the pseudo Lion King segment), the final stealth level and sudden, eye-rolling difficulty spike brutally murdered the fun, leaving nothing but a corpse full of hate. If grinding for unlocks is something you find enjoyable, then this is probably a game you will enjoy. If you were looking forward to the story and messing around with a bunch of different animals, it's safer to give this one a pass.

Tokyo Jungle was released in Japan on June 7th on the PlayStation 3 and is scheduled for a Western release later this year.

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Tokyo Jungle's Twisted Take on the Lion King

Playing the story mode of Tokyo Jungle, I took control of a lot of different animals: deer, cats, and dogs, just to name a few. I helped a lonely Pomeranian survive in this new human-less world and played both sides of a war between Beagles and Pit Bulls. More »

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In This Urban Jungle, Bears and Gazelles Fight To Survive

Tokyo Jungle is set in a world where humanity has disappeared and the animals of Tokyo battle to find their own niche in the urban environment. The goal of the game is simple: More »

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Early this past March in China's Gushi County, 14 year-old Xiao Qiang told seven year-old Xiao Hua she could play games on his mobile phone. He lured her into a room in an abandoned shoe factory. There, he proceeded to sexually assault her.

After raping Xiao Hua, the boy continued to bully and abuse her until the girl told her parents, who went looking for the teenager and reported the crime.

Xiao Qiang and Xiao Hua are not related, and those are not their real names; due to their ages, the Chinese courts did not use their legal names in the court documents.

Yesterday, the 14 year-old was sentenced to one year of "limited imprisonment", because he had a clean record and he is a minor. "Limited imprisonment" means that he will be reformed and released as opposed to China's other prison sentence: life without parole.

14岁少年以玩手机游戏为饵奸淫7岁幼女 [Sina]

Chances are when you hear "China", you immediately think of communism, Tiananmen Square and Chairman Mao.

Well, those three things don't really scream video games, but in China they are an important part of China's video gaming history. Chairman Mao and his vision of China a red China has influenced a genre of video games in China called the "red game".

Within China this special genre of game often called the "patriotic" or red game. The point of these red games is to entertain, educate, and in more ways than one indoctrinate the players about the virtues of China and the communist party.

Characteristically a red game usually takes place from the World War II era to the Korean War. There are very few that are based on the modern era. The player usually takes control of a cadre in the Chinese army; said character would never be seen bleeding or dying. In fact, in red games the character can never lose, especially to American and Japanese forces. The Japanese are often times painted as villains in red games, especially ones that deal with World War II.

According to Yu Yi, an analyst with Analysys International, red games are a historical part of video gaming in China, but they only makes up a small percent of Chinese games in general.

"The Chinese gaming market is made up of three major categories: the martial arts fantasy, historical fantasy and red games," said Yu. "However with more and more multiplayer online games now, red games are seeing a decline in popularity."

Yu says that the average age of red game players tend to be older than conventional gamers and are more conservative.

"These types of games, just like historical dramas about the revolution, give these older players a sense of nostalgia," said Yu. "It allows them to think back into a simpler time when everyone had a purpose good or bad."

While red games are popular with a small demographic of gamers, the truth is that red games now are mostly kitschy and meant as parody. Companies making iPhone and Android apps use cute versions of the red guard as characters to make their games more China-centric. Yu says that these types of games often lack substance and are looking to just draw the eye.

One of the most high profile red games announced in recent memory is the Glorious Mission, China's own home made FPS. In the Glorious Mission, the players will play as the Chinese army and conduct modern missions, kind of like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare .

Last month, goo Research polled 1,939 Japanese people from ages 15 to 44 about their manga reading habits. Questions ranged from which manga they read to who their favorite character is—they even asked about favorite one-liners. So if manga is your drug of choice, read on to see which are the most popular in Japan right now.

All 1,939 people polled were asked to indicate whether they even like manga or not. Three-fourths of the respondents like or love it; only 6.4% actively dislike it (with the remaining 19.1% being indifferent toward manga). Even then, only 21.8% of those polled claim to never read manga at all.

When it comes to reading location, a majority of both men and women read at home, with home being the most common place women read manga. Men, on the other hand, often also read while commuting, during work breaks, or any other time they have free time outside of the house. (Note: only people who read weekly manga anthologies were asked the preceding question.)

As to what kind of manga the Japanese people polled typically read, the most popular genres for men are sports, comedy, fantasy, and sci-fi. Women also enjoy comedy and fantasy, but enjoy love story and shojou manga even more.

By far the favorite manga among the men and women polled is One Piece—followed by Dragon Ball, Slam Dunk, and Naruto for men and Slam Dunk, Kimi ni Todoke, and NANA, for women. Unsurprisingly then, the most popular character for both genders is Monkey D. Luffy (One Piece). In fact, of the top five characters, three are from One Piece (though which three vary between men and women). The most popular non-One Piece character is Goku (Dragon Ball) for men and Sakuragi Hanamichi (Slam Dunk) for women.

Lastly, as for the most popular one-liner, it isn't Luffy's "I'll be king of the pirates" or Detective Conan's "One Truth Prevails!" Even my favorite "You are already dead" from Fist of the North Star comes in second. No, the most popular single line comes from Slam Dunk: "If you give up, the game is already over."

So there you have it. Now you know what manga are big in Japan, which genres are popular, and who the most popular characters are. And what should we take away from all this information? I'm going with: Japanese people love One Piece.

If you want to see more, head on over to 世論What Japan Thinks to see the full results of the survey in English (Part 1/Part 2).

マンガに関する調査 [gooランキング]

If you collect Japanese toy cars, you're well aware of the Pikachu toy car. This wasn't a one off dealio.

Japanese toy maker Takara Tomy is running a campaign this summer with Toyota dealers to give away Pokémon mini toy cars as part of a promotion with the new Pocket Monsters feature film.

This month and next, there are three cars up for grabs: a Pokémon Toyota Alphard mini-van, an Oshawott Toyota Porte and a Pikachu Toyota Porte. Go ahead, try to catch 'em all.

Recently, real versions of the cars were on display. Have a look.

ポケモンのピカチュウカーとミジュマルカーが可愛すぎます【東京おもちゃショー2012】 [Cliccar]

Last year, Kotaku profiled the male and female photographers behind Doorknob Girl, a collection of photos featuring young women licking doorknobs. The NSFW photos, which are now available in book forum, sexualize an object that most view as innocuous: the doorknob. But this wasn't a first.

Over a decade ago, an underground manga artist named Kon Dom (昆童虫, with "Dom" being his surname) drew a short manga called Keyhole (鍵穴 or "kagiana") about a doorknob that comes to life. Written by a guy who uses the pen name "Kon Dom" (geddit?), you can quickly surmise that the manga ventures into adults only territory.

Perhaps in large part due to Doorknob Girl's success, a Japanese adult movie company remade Kon Dom's manga into a live-action film, which stars Kokomi Naruse and is out later this month.

Keyhole was not a mainstream manga by any means, and Kon Dom is not a well-known manga artist. But this recent doorknob fetish means that he's once again working on Keyhole, retitled as I'm a Doorknob (あたし、ドアノブ), and happy about the upcoming live-action version.

"It's been over ten years since I first released this manga," Kon Dom blogged, "and there to be people who notice it this year, I am truly grateful."

あたしドアノブ [針穴日記]

According to a population study done by Nanjing Normal University and published by Tencent, over 33% of Chinese junior high students in the Nanjing area are willing to go hungry in the morning so that they can purchase items for online games.

In their study, Nanjing University surveyed over 1,200 junior high, high school, and college students on their regular living habits. Led by Professor Huang Rulong the Nanjing University study looked at the various living habits of students. The purpose was to find out if any social and living habits are adversely affecting student health both physically and psychologically.

After six months of investigating, Huang's report showed that generally most students don't eat breakfast.

"At least 13 percent of high school students surveyed said they don't eat breakfast," said Huang. "These are students in the peak growth period, and did not eat breakfast, which is very detrimental to their health."

Digging deeper into the reasoning why the children didn't eat breakfast, Huang found that some students received breakfast money from their parents but chose to save it so that they maybe able to purchase gear for online games.

One child interviewed by Tencent named Li Haoyu, said that his father would give him 10 RMB ($1.15 US) daily for breakfast. Instead of buying breakfast, Li said he would save the money to purchase equipment for his game characters. Li says he often goes to school hungry.

Another portion of the survey dealt with sleep deprivation and Huang's survey showed that not only are many high school students not eating breakfast, a lot are also sleep deprived. Due to their heavy academic work load and the immense preparation needed for the Chinese College Entrance Exam many Chinese students also suffer from a lack of sleep.

Despite all of this amount of data accumulated by the Nanjing Normal University, Professor Huang's only advice to students and parents is that they should make their child eat breakfast. He doesn't provide a solution to the whole not eating breakfast to buy games thing. His only advice is for the kids to eat .

调查称40%中学生不好好吃早饭 省钱买游戏装备 [Tencent]

Trading card games are big in Japan—from Yu-Gi-Oh! to Pokémon to Magic: The Gathering. And given the popularity of video games also, it's really not surprising that videogame makers figured out how to combine the two. Today, outside of fighting games and medal games, these card/video games are the most popular thing you'll see in your average Japanese arcade.

So back in 2008, with the rise of these trading card-based arcade games, Square Enix set about making their own. The result was Lord of Vermilion. Four years and two major updates later, it is still going strong.

While other trading card games focus on a single existing property (e.g., Gundam or World Cup Soccer), Lord of Vermilion features characters from Final Fantasy, Romancing Saga, Magic: The Gathering, King of Fighters, Nier, Black Rock Shooter, BlazBlue, and several other series—in addition to its many original characters.

I had long wanted to try out this game. However, as with any collectible trading card game, getting into Lord of Vermilion can be quite expensive—not to mention confusing. Luckily, I had a friend with a box of extra cards willing to teach me to play.

You start by choosing your party. Each character card has a point cost and your entire party can be no more than 90 points. In addition, only four cards can be in play at any time.

When the game begins, it plays more like an RTS than anything else. You place the four cards you want to use on the field—my party included Final Fantasy VI's Kefka and Magic: The Gathering's Serra Angel—and the placement of the cards reflects their position on the field. You move your party via a joystick and you turn them by turning the cards themselves. To attack, all you need to do is face the enemy.

From that point on, the game is basically a "capture the point" type game. You try to destroy your opponent's three arcana stones while he or she tries to do the same to yours. Then, every three stages, you face a boss fight instead.

Of course, there's more to the game than that—with reinforcements, special skills, equipment, smash attacks, special summons, and a host of tactics and strategies—but the core of the game is that simple.

Lord of Vermilion sports online versus play as well as a robust single player campaign—and win or lose—the game dispenses a new card for your deck each time you play.

I really enjoyed my time with Lord of Vermilion and had to fight the urge to go to a card shop and buy myself all the cards for a Final Fantasy deck. It's a complex game that felt more like a game of League of Legends where I controlled four characters rather than one. Getting a starter deck only takes about 500 yen (about six dollars), and even with beginner cards, the easy difficulty levels are beatable. So if you have the money, access to a machine, and at least a little Japanese language ability, I recommend giving Lord of Vermilion a try.

To see my deck in action, check out the video above.

Lord of Vermilion was released in Japanese arcades on November 7, 2008. The latest update, Lord of Vermilion Re:2 was released on July 26, 2011.

Children ages three and under should not be allowed near touch screen devices such as tablet computers and smartphones, say Chinese doctors in Guangzhou. According a recent study done in Guangzhou, the doctors found that children are adversely affected by touch screen devices.

The study states that the children can develop "severe" eye problems ranging from astigmatism, amblyopia (lazy eye), myopia among others.

Citing the common practice nowadays that Chinese parents often resort to giving their children mobile devices such as tablet computers and smartphones to keep them quiet, the doctors in Guangzhou recommend keeping young children away from said devices.

However parents reading Kotaku, please take this with a grain of salt. The study held in Guangzhou was done with only forty children. Additionally, only 30 percent of the forty (that's 12), of the kids showed any eye and vision problems. The biggest shock throughout the whole story is that the major cause of the issues, was not video games, I repeat not video games.

Instead, the majority of eye problems were blamed on parents looking to silence their children and educational software that run on mobile devices.

The majority of the original Chinese article is just a lot of common sense packaged with a sensationalized study. Children should read with a healthy distance between their faces and their books, screen time should be kept to a minimal, and they shouldn't rub their eyes with their dirty grubby little hands.

All things said in done, at least this is one time video games weren't blamed for something terrible.

平板危害不小 医生建议3岁以下儿童远离 [Tencent]

According to the South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, roughly sixty percent of game items for sale were acquired via bots. In online games, these programs allow players to hunt and collect items without controlling them directly. And soon, these programs will be outlawed.

The Korea Times reports that the country has decided to ban the commercial trade of game items. The law, which will go into affect later this year, will also prohibit players from using bots. The Korean government believes that these programs are responsible for online gaming's negative reputation.

Those players who violate the law can face up to five years in prison and a 50 million won (US$43,000).

"The main purpose of the games is for entertainment and should be used for academic and other good purposes," said Kim Kap-soo, head of the ministry's content policy division. The government also feels that the virtual item trade has caused problems in Korea and that a solution is therefore necessary.

More details about the new law are expected next month.

Korea prohibits trade of online game items [The Korea Times]