The Pokémon anime debuted on Japanese television what seems like ages ago. The year 1996 is a distant memory. But last night, it came flooding back.

As previously mentioned, Ash's Charizard is returning to the Pokémon animated series as a regular character, er, Pocket Monster. What last night's episode illustrated was just how different the Pokémon anime looks all these years later. And does it ever.

Yes, we already know that Pikachu has changed over the years. And yes, Ash Ketchum has changed, too. Heck, Nurse Joy has also changed!

But last night's flashback, which introduced Charizard to a younger generation of anime fans, was more than a simple hi-def touch-up on widescreen televisions. It allowed the show's creators to revisit classic scenes in a new way. Not everything changed, though. Some things did stay the same—or almost the same. It's interesting to see what was tweaked and what wasn't.

Below are some of the comparisons between the original series and the latest one, Pokémon: Best Wishes:

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ポケットモンスターBW シーズン2 第32話 Part1, Part2 [2ch]
おいェ、、、ヒトカゲ捨てた奴美化され過ぎだろ [まゆ]
Ash's Charizard [Bulbapedia]

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At first glance, Edward Kenway—the protagonist of the upcoming Assassin's Creed IV game—looks like your typical leading dude. Stoic, beefy, masculine. Nothing special, right?

Those with more astute observation skills over at Reddit, like zinadello13, noticed that Kenway bears a striking resemblance to Capt. Edward Reynolds from Pirates. As in, the (in)famous porn from 2005 which features references to the more family-friendly Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Pirates is also the most expensive porn film ever made.

Here is Edward Reynolds, who is played by actor Evan Stone:

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Kenway and Stone could practically be related!

Stone has also been featured in classics like "Space Nuts," " Batman XXX: A Porn Parody," "A Mother's Love," and naturally, "Pirates II."

The resemblance is one thing, and sure, that's kind of funny. But the fact that Stone has also played a pirate, and in a porn film no less, makes it hilarious. Also, it's kind of weird that both Stone's character and the new AC protagonist are named "Edward."

Under closer inspection, there is something kind of skeevy about Kenway's appearance, no?

So...is the lead character from Assassin's Creed 4 based on the lead character from Pirates, the best selling porno of all time? [zinadello13]

Yes, yes. Another day, another rap-tribute to a video game. But this one's particularly good. Alabama rapper Kadesh Flow goes beyond "fun and/or goofy" and enters the realm of "real chops." Give it a watch.

(Thanks, Tai!)

One of the best parts of Mass Effect 3's new 'Citadel' add-on—and there are a lot of good parts —comes near the end, when you have an opportunity to spend some quality one-on-one time with each of your companions from throughout the entire series.

I liked all of the interactions that I saw, but this video of the lovely Quarian Tali'Zorah Nar Rayya, shared by GenericHenle, has got to be my favorite. You don't get to see her face, but this is the next best thing.

Tali's actually dead in the game I used to play Citadel, but in my other game, she and my male Shepard had a fling. I'm looking forward to seeing her take his hand and make like The Sound of Music. Special props to Tali's voice actor, Ash Sroka. Way to go all-in.

The head of the studio behind the troubled new SimCity told Kotaku today that efforts to solve the game's server woes will continue aggressively into the weekend.

The statement, from Maxis general manager Lucy Bradshaw, indicates that some people are in fact playing the game but that EA has a long way to go to get things right:

Thousands of players across the world are playing and having a good experience – in fact, more than 700,000 cities have been built by our players in just 24 hours. But many are experiencing server instability and consequently, the rollout in North America has been challenging. It's also now evident that players across Europe and Asia are experiencing the same frustration. Our priority now is to quickly and dramatically increase the number and stability of our servers and, with that, the number of players who can simultaneously access the game. We added servers today, and there will be several more added over the weekend. We're working as hard as possible to make sure everyone gets to experience the amazing game we built in SimCity.

Bradshaw's statement came in response to several specific questions we sent to representatives at EA, the game publisher that contains Maxis. Sadly, as you'll see, some questions, including a query about an offline mode, were not addressed.

1) Despite EA's experience with online games and the precedent of Activision's shaky Diablo III launch for that always-online game, EA's now had an always-online game that players have been struggling to connect to for three days. How did this happen? How was EA not better prepared?

2) EA statements have indicated that server maintenance is ongoing. But as it stands right now you have paying customers who can't play the game they paid for. What is EA doing to make that up to the customers?

3) SimCity uses its online connection to connect player cities and support online challenges, but it seems clear now that some sort of offline mode would appease many fans. Is EA going to enable this option for the game?

4) Part of the anger I see over this is the assumption that this is, ultimately a DRM step that is only hurting valid, paying customers. How does EA see the DRM aspect of this?

5) What changes is EA implementing to keep this from happening again?

Video games that rely on a lot of physics-driven character animations tend to have some pretty funny glitches. Last week, we shared a selection of the most awesome classic sport game glitches, so it only made sense to do a follow-up, featuring skateboarding games.

Lots of animated stuff here, it might take a few seconds to load.

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Don't forget to submit your gifs from these glitched-out games (there are a lot more that's for sure) in the comments below.

sources: Liftedwing, Adapadapa, RoosterTeeth, trykkestar's montage, Bloopers Glitches & Silly Stuff, HelixSnake's compilations, TheRikVK's montage

Everybody's sick of this SimCity disaster. Everybody!

Even Chris Kluwe, a punter for the Minnesota Vikings and big gamer, has taken to Twitter to say some... colorful things about SimCity, and about EA's decision not to let people play the game offline.

Behold:

Gotta love a guy who isn't afraid to speak his mind.

Who was expecting the relaunch of 1990s comics imprint Valiant Comics to be one of the best things to happen to Wednesdays in a good long time? Oh, you were? And you? And you? Okay, good. The reborn publisher's managed to attract great talent who have delivered sharp updates to the Valiant universe and its metahumans.

Now they've got their first crossover coming and to commemorate the occasion, they're doing retro game-inspired variant covers and releasing a free mobile game for iOS and Android devices. Releasing in mid-April, Harbinger Wars: Battle for Las Vegas is developed by Storm City Games.

It will be a free download available on all iOS and Android platforms. Further levels, weapons and characters will available as in-app purchases; they will be released in tandem with each new issue of the Harbinger Wars mini-series. The primary playable characters will be Bloodshot and Peter Stanchek (from Harbinger) and both will have access to a variety of weapons and abilities.

So, if you're already reading Bloodshot, Archer & Armstrong or Harbinger on a smart gadget, in a few weeks you'll be able to control those characters as they wreck shop in virtual world. Head over to Valiant for more info.

This panel tells you all you need to know about Age of Ultron #1. The staging in the panel immediately communicate a desperate tenison and exhaustion of the characters in the scene. You don't even really need the dialogue but it does let you know that the Avengers in this scene are former allies who aren't on the best of terms anymore.

This first issue is the kick-off to the kind of superhero comic event that I tend to hate, full of needless tie-in issues and bloated promises of "everything changed forever!" But the execution by Brian Michael Bendis and Bryan Hitch have won me over to the point where I'll be checking in on the main spine of the Age of Ultron crossover.

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Best Reason to Walk into a Comic Shop This Week: Sex #1

Like Kotaku bossman Stephen Totilo, I do almost all of my comics reading digitally now. But I love writer Joe Casey for his oddball, deconstructed takes on superhero genre convention. He doesn't always hit home runs but his explorations let me look at cape-and-tights stuff from new angles. His new Image comic focuses on the life of a retired costumed vigilante who's trying to figure out how to do all the stuff he never did while fighting crime. Like getting laid. But, because Apple cracks down on sexually explicit content, you won't see it in Image Comics' featured list if you go to this week's comics on the publisher's iOS app. Thankfully, instructions on getting Sex onto your iDevice are right here.

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What about you? What sequences or covers from this week's comics made your eyeballs happy? Share ‘em in the comments below.

First, Bravoman appeared in Japanese arcades in the late ‘80s. Then, the obscure Namco character showed up in a TurboGrafx port two years later. As of last year, he wound up launching the ShiftyLook line of webcomics dedicated to characters from old-school Namco Bandai games.

Now, the stretchy-limbed hero is making the jump to an animated web series. Kotaku can give you the first look at the Bravoman cartoon in this 30-second clip, which shows the salaryman-turned-superhero weathering the overzealous help of his mentor in a stylishly animated teaser. The art chores are being handled by the highly respected Udon Studios collective and the series' voice cast boasts some heavyweights from the world and animation, too. The cartoon comes out this Spring. The official press release has full details:

NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc., a subsidiary of NAMCO BANDAI Holdings Inc. announced today the voice cast, musical lineup and more for its upcoming cartoon Bravoman: Super-Unequaled Hero of Excellence. Emmy Award winner Rob Paulsen (Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain) as Bravoman, Alpha Man, additional voices, Annie Award nominee Dee Bradley Baker (Clone Wars, American Dad) as Doctor Bomb, Anti-Bravo, additional voices and Romi Dames (Winx Club, Hannah Montana) as Waya Hime, additional voices will bring the world of Bravoman to life when the cartoon releases Spring 2013. For the latest information, visit ShiftyLook.com.

"Bravoman is one of our most popular web comics, and we are excited, grateful and humbled that such an amazing group of actors has come together for the cartoon," said Rob Pereyda, Producer and Editor-in-Chief of ShiftyLook. "It is through the passion and dedication of this voice cast that Bravoman and his world have come to life, and through their efforts and commitment that the rest of us have been inspired to make Bravoman something special for all to enjoy."