With Cut the Rope and Cut the Rope Experiments, UK developer ZeptoLab created a pair of the most popular games on any mobile platform, along with one of the most beloved mobile mascots, the candy-munching OmNom. If anything can build on that success, it's pudding.

Due out later this month, Pudding Monsters looks to be a game about sticking pudding creatures together in order to form larger, more powerful ones, with the ultimate aim being to save your friend from being devoured by the fridge owner. So it's more of a pudding rebellion than just me sitting about in my pajamas eating a large tub of chocolate pudding. Mildly disappointing, but I'll live.

Eventually the monsters will leave the fridge, striking out into the world at large in a way that's incredibly un-pudding-like. They'll discover new species of pudding creatures, including a green slime monster that leaves a trail behind it as it moves, perhaps a homage to Kroger's Jelly Belly Very Cherry pudding, which does the same thing despite being red.

I can only imagine the pressure ZeptoLab is feeling right now, introducing its first new property since the one that's been downloaded more than 250 million times and launched a merchandising frenzy. Pudding Monsters probably won't unseat Om Nom from his candy throne, but if it's tasty enough it could be deemed worthy of his presence.

Ubisoft's two big holiday releases don't just share numerals and second words starting with "cr". They also both begin, bizarrely, with almost exactly the same quote.

Yes, of all the books, movies, TV shows and historical figures that are out there for developers to lift quotes from, both Far Cry 3 and Assassin's Creed III begin with the following line from Lewis Carroll's classic Alice's Adventures in Wonderland:

In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.

You can see it in action above. In Assassin's Creed, Shaun says it as you're about to open the door to the temple in the game's intro sequence, while in Far Cry 3, it's the first thing you see when you fire up a new singleplayer campaign. Both make sense given their individual context, I guess, even if Shaun's selection feels a little forced and Far Cry 3's intro cuts next to bros downing brews on the beach. And yet...

The games share almost nothing thematically or aesthetically. In fact, about the only things they've got in common are those listed in the opening paragraph. Oh, and... this quote. Sure, it might be some strange branding exercise, but it's more likely both teams thought they were being very clever, then had an "oh shit" moment when checking out the end product of their labelmates. What are the odds!

E.X. Troopers is a spin-off title to Capcom's Lost Planet series—though it may not seem like it at first glance.

Unlike the realistic graphical style of the main series of games, E.X. Troopers is presented entirely in a manga-esque style. The game's cutscenes even come complete with panel frames and written onomatopoeic sound effects. The gameplay, on the other hand, stays mainly in the realm of the third person shooter. You start a mission, head out with your A.I.-controlled partners and capture points, defeat monsters, and collect rare items.

Aside from normal missions, there are also occasional giant robot battles and even a few rail shooting sections.

Outside of the missions, the game plays much more along the lines of an RPG. You move around your military academy base, talking with other students, doing character quests, or upgrading weapons and armor.

E.X. Troopers also sports a coop mode that gradually unlocks as you progress through the main game, giving you additional opportunities to level up and gain rare items.

To see the PS3 version of the game in action, check out the video above.

E.X. Troopers was released in Japan on November 22, 2012, for the PlayStation 3 and Nintendo 3DS. There are no plans for an international release.

You know in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, when Lt. Price and Cpt. MacMillan wear those "ghillie suits"? The camo outfits look like they're wearing grass and foliage. Those come in handy while sneaking about the Russian wilderness. They're less handy when in urban jungle known as Tokyo. Or are they?

Japanese site Rocket News sent one of its reporters out on the street all ghillied up, staying low and moving slowly. Sure, when he's strolling down the street, the dude's pretty easy to find. But what about when he's hiding? Or getting Starbucks? Or taking an elevator?

In the above gallery, see if you can see, well, him. Answers included in case you get stuck. Ha, like that'll happen.

スタバ初心者なのでギリースーツを着て買いに行ってみた [@rocketnews24 via ロケットニュース]

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"This guy is like totally reading a dirty magazine on the train," the high school student's tweet read. Accompanying the tweet was a photo a man, his legs pressed close as he read a magazine. The tweet, and the visible photo of his face set off a flurry of comments online in Japan. This man was not guilty, complained some net users. And they attempted to prove it. Then, they went too far.

The magazine in the man's hands might not be an adult magazine. 2ch commenters seem to have proved that the mag is Kindai Mahjong, which isn't pornography. This is the same mahjong magazine in which pro-gamer Daigo Umehara's manga appears. Excite News reports that the high school girl who tweeted the photo perhaps saw the dating advertisements on the mag's back and confused the publication with a porno rag.

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Besides tracking down the magazine's street date, here's how it was "proven" that this was an issue of Kindai Mahjong and not an adult publication:

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Some on 2ch felt that the schoolgirl's tweet was defamatory. It probably was. What if his boss saw it? His co-workers? He's done nothing wrong, it seems.

Since the photo brought so much attention to this man, 2ch began to snoop about her Twitter. On her page and her friends', 2ch found proof, much of it photographic, of what looked like underage drinking, smoking, and cheating in school—as well as shoplifting. In Japan, Twitter users who do things—legal or illegal—which end up coming back and biting them in the ass are called "bakattaa" (バカッター). It's a word play on "Twitter" and the Japanese for "stupid", which is "baka" (馬鹿 or バカ). Much of what was discovered seemed like that; however, it also seemed like dumb stuff kids do that's a normal part of growing up.

Further snooping turned up the teen's name, her high school, and where her part time job was.

"Aren't you all going overboard? lulz" asked one commenter on 2ch. It was like the teen was running for political office, and 2ch was finding out every single secret (and truth) they could on her, saying it was payback for "violating the right to use someone's likeness". (In Japan, there are laws about privacy that cross over into taking photos without someone's permission.) Yet, the thread was clearly violating this schoolgirl's privacy in perhaps a far more probing and even frightening way.

During all of this, the teen deleted her Twitter account and is probably steering clear of the internet. Excite News, one of Japan's biggest news sites, recounted the incident just days ago, so this isn't exactly something one can escape—especially with her photos and tweets saved somewhere online.

The internet is a powerful being. Sometimes it helps clear the wrongly accused. Sometimes itself does the accusing, rightly or wrongly.

女子高生「電車内なのに真顔でエロ本よんでる人がいる^ ^」 [Excite News]

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The latest entry in Kotobukiya's bishoujo line of cute figures is Emili "Lili" de Rochefort. She joins Julia Chang, Alisa Bosconovich, among others in the bishoujo line.

The figurine will be out next April in Japan. If this is your thing, there's more in the above gallery.

TEKKEN美少女 リリ (フィギュア) [Hobby Search]

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Female characters wearing large headphones is a trope in Japanese anime. The headphones make the characters' heads look smaller, thus, by anime standards, appear "cuter". Tropes aside, the headphones are often based on real products. But which ones?

In the past few years, on anime sites, music sites, and anime music sites, audiophiles and casual listeners alike have been trying to nail down the real world versions of the various headphones they spot.

That's why on Japanese forum 2ch, net users marveled out how a "foreigner" worked hard to compile a detailed list of the actual types of headphones that appeared in various anime and video games. (The 2ch thread didn't cite the source, so if you know which thread this image originally appeared on, let us know so we can credit.)

Check out the real world versions in the gallery above—also check out how expensive they are. Manaka Takane from Konami's Love Plus love simulator is sporting Sennheiser headphones that cost well over a thousand bucks.

外人『日本のゲーム＆アニメキャラが使ってるヘッドホン特定したわ』 [へちま速報]

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In Japan, there are tons of adult movies based on video games and anime. A good way to judge the popularity of a game or a cartoon is to see if it's inspiring blue movie adaptations.

Is new anime Sword Art Online popular in Japan? Well, as porn star Hibiki Otsuki has revealed, she is starring in an X-rated version of it, slated for next spring... And that's actually a pretty nice outfit.

In case you missed them, here are Kotaku's impressions of Sword Art Online (the anime, not the adult video.)

衣装はソ◯ド◯ート・オ◯ラ◯ン( ^ω^ )TMAさんから3月頃に発売予定！ [@hibiki0221]

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This year has been a great year to be a Macross fan. To celebrate the franchise's 30th Anniversary, there has been a new movie, concerts, a TV documentary, and the release of the anime classic Macross: Do You Remember Love? on Blu-ray. Yet, the best may be yet to come in the form of the upcoming Macross 30: The Voice that Connects the Galaxy for the PlayStation 3.

Macross 30 is an action-RPG that follows in the framework of the Macross PSP trilogy of games—Macross Ace Frontier, Macross Ultimate Frontier, and Macross Triangle Frontier. In other words, the game is somewhere between a third person shooter and a flight sim. That's not to say, though, that it looks to be nothing but a PSP HD reskin. There are more than a few new features, such as the ability to freely fly around the world between missions or do various different side quests like hunter guild quests or Valkyrie races.

The game also has an original story and includes playable units and characters from Superdimensional Fortress Macross, Macross Plus, Macross 7, Macross Zero and Macross Frontier. Voice actors from several of the featured series have returned to the studio to record new lines especially for this game.

Like with the Do You Remember Love? Blu-ray collector's edition, the Macross 30 collector's edition will come with a myriad of extras. These range from new units in the game, to character artwork, to "making of" featurettes.

While Macross 30 is not the first Macross game on the PlayStation 3 (as Blu-ray extras games were included on the disc with each of the last three Macross movie releases), it is the first full-length PS3 game in the franchise's history. Will it end up being as good as it looks? Stay tuned to Kotaku East to find out.

Macross 30: The Voice that Connects the Galaxy will be released on February 28, 2013, for the PlayStation 3 in Japan. There are no plans for an international release.

Perhaps you don't have a job. Or maybe you want a new challenge, but you don't know what you want to do with your life. If you are under 45 years old, you don't drink, you don't smoke, you don't use perfume, and you don't have nasal problems, there's a career waiting for you in China: Fart smelling.

Called "wen pishi" (聞屁師 or "fart sniffing master") in Chinese, the career isn't exactly well known in China, either. Recently, it's been introduced via newspaper reports as well as a show on Jiangsu Satellite TV called Fei De Will Watch (pictured).

These specialists work at traditional Chinese medicine hospitals and help detect gastro illness through flatulence, reports People's Daily. Chinese traditional medicine offers a more holistic approach; you can read more about how it differs from Western medicine in this University of Pennsylvania piece.

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Maybe like how dogs can smell early stages of lung cancer, trained humans can also sniff out serious stomach diseases via farts. The nose is one amazing instrument.

So for example, foul smelling poots might mean the bowels are infected, while other, stronger scents might even mean there is internal bleeding. Serious stuff! It's even more serious when you consider that China accounts for half of the world's stomach cancer deaths, which might be based on diet or even might be genetic.

However, this is not an exact science, and sometimes further tests are necessary. But the specialists can often reveal how something is wrong with a person's body or diet. And how much do these trained toot huffers make? They can make around the equivalent of US$50,000. That's quite a good salary in China, and enough to tell yourself it's not smelly anal oxide you are sniffing, but simply gas.

职业闻屁师年薪30万引争议 疑为嗅辨员一种 [People's Daily]

おならの匂いを嗅ぎ分けるプロ　健康状態チェックに、採用条件は厳しい [Xinhua]

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