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Did you hear? Mega man is now selling cell phones! Ah the beauties of living in a country where intellectual property is so rarely enforced. I spotted this little treasure in a mall’s cell phone kiosk earlier this week, this cute little rip-off is calling himself kit-boy and would like to tell you about unlimited data cell phone plans. Dr. Light must be running short on money as he’s apparently pawned off Mega man’s I mean Kit-boy’s blaster.

You know, it was a bit awkward back when Halo came out and suddenly every jock and any other obnoxious non-gamer was talking about his 1337 pwning skillz, but we got through that. We learned to accept that games are not just for the hardcore. Now we snicker at how the extra casual gamer is getting their first taste of game addiction on FarmVille but there’s a safe distance there between FarmVille and real games, right?

Well I believe that distance’s about to get a lot shorter come March. 3G Studios is bringing an actual honest to goodness 3D first person shooter to Facebook. It’s called Brave Arms and it’s promising to be the very first “social shooter”. If you thought having Nick The Jock call you a n00b wait until your aunt Greta starts yelling BOOM, HEADSHOT at you.

[Joystiq]

Success!! After nearly two days of sporadic downtime we’re back online and running on a new server. We’re leaner and meaner than ever before. While we go ahead and work out a few minor kinks feel free to poke around in case you can find something that’s broken. Also let us know if you notice the site loading faster.

Thanks for flying DDN!

After years of rumors and a constant cycle of disappointment Sega has finally gone ahead and done the right thing. No, not produce more Space Channel 5. We’re talking about making an honest to goodness 2D Sonic plataformer. Yes, you read that right. Sonic is back and this time it’s the real Sonic, not some crappy fetish-catering monstrosity.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 will apparently be episodic and you can expect the first episode this summer on WiiWare, Xbox Live Arcade and PSN. It’s taken them 16 years to come up with this first episode, let’s just hope the next one comes out before that other long overdue episode. Yeah Valve, I’m looking at you! Where’s my episode 3, Valve?!

[HellForge]

We’ve seen a revival of the Cosplay Sells phenomenon in the past few weeks, and let me tell you, it’s not over just yet! Cosplay does sell, even medicine! Like this ad where a metallic football player tackles down some pollen before it can get to your nose.

Cosplay sells, but in this case it works on a much better level; while the western world sells medicine with images of supportive families and hollow 3D blue bodies with glowing red areas, the Japanese are going all out with violence. Let me tell you, next time I have a cold, the first lab to show me an ad with a 60ft tall mecha reigning hell over the virus gets my money.

[Japan Probe]

Team Teamwork, the people behind the Zelda hip-hop mashup The Ocarina of Rhyme are back once again and this time it’s all about mana, chocobos and one winged angels. Vinyl fantasy 7 mixes some of the most memorable Final Fantasy 7 tunes with some pretty neat hip-hop tunes (the cool kids still say neat, right?).

You can download the full album or listen to it online, prices start at $0, which is a pretty good bargain. My favorite is M.O.P.’s Ante Up mixed to the battle theme but I suggest you give them all a listen.

What game would you like Team Teamwork to mashup next? My vote’s for Megaman, or maybe Chrono Trigger.

[Vinyl Fantasy 7]

Holy fucking shi… Ok, no. Before you get all excited and start making sweet love to your battered old Dreamcast let me tell you this is not what you think it is. Yes, it is a new Sega console, no it’s not really a Sega console.

This is the Sega Zone and it’s a hybrid halfway stuck between ‘crappy x-mas-gift from your aunt’ and ‘Must have retro device’. It’s a Sega licensed console preloaded with 50 classic Sega console games. It feels like a knockoff because the thing looks cheap and it comes with wireless controllers that look suspiciously similar to the Wiimote. It feels like a must have retro gadget because it has an actual cartridge slot, and you can pop in your old games.

[Pocket Lint]

It’s actually a pretty nice deal, though at over 50 pounds and only available in the UK, it starts too lose its shine. Perhaps your British aunt will give it to you this Christmas… then again their TVs are PAL. Oh god damn it, this has so many hurdles it really does feel like a Sega console.

As we come to a close of the first month of 2010, January seems to have flown me by. We seemed to have a lot of news breaking about film crossovers. One these days you might be luck enough to see DDN create a fan film. We’re always taking in our chat channel, you should join us.

Here’s what got you talking the most:

Korea Says Your Virtual Currency Is As Good As Gold
Korea’s supreme court ruled virtual goods have a real world value, what does this mean here in reality? Khaim says: Up next: the virtual global downturn, extensive money laundering GTA style or similar, virtual inflation, and how the fuck are they going to back such virtual currency.

Not Even Trying Anymore: Tekken Movie Trailer
Tekken the movie proves studios just don’t care anymore about what they produce when making a game adaptation. Desfunk says: STRAIGHT.TO.DVD… it might as well be.
Not gonna lie though… i’m still gonna watch it :p Sadly this is true for all of us, that’s why they keep doing it.

The Hero Of Time: Nintendo Takes Fan Made Movie Offline
We posted a valiant effort of what a fan film can be, although most of us didn’t seem to like it all that much. Nintendo felt they didn’t want anyones interpretation except their own and pulled the plug. If you still want to watch it, our stream is still active.

James Cameron Talks More About Battle Angel Alita
One of my favorite anime is Battle Angel. So news of Avatar director Cameron wanting to make a big budget release perked my ears up. Jashugan says: James you MUUUUUUST make a Battle Angel Movie!!!
*flails*

Dr Phil Takes On FarmVille Addiction
As a Texan myself, I hate it when this guy talks. He winds up butchering most of my “back home” sayings. Link makes a wonderful point: It’s exciting to see people who once upon a time yelled at me for playing videogames now hooked to this crap :P
Oh, sweet delicious irony.

And there you have it. January’s most frequented posts. In February we have Valentine’s gearing up. Let’s see what new ground we’ll break.

Here’s the First Corollary to Cosplay Sells: When humans cosplaying as animals doesn’t work, have an animal cosplay a human. Like this ad for a hotel booking service in Japan with a cat cosplaying as a salary man. Damn it, Japan! You’ve got this down to a science, now I want to book a room I’ll never use. This gives me a great idea though… be right back, trying to put a tie on my cat. This cant go wrong, can it?

Hat tip to Ben!

[Japan Probe]

It was two years ago when we found out about Miteru Dake, a series of videos of women simply staring at a camera aimed at helping Japanese men overcome shyness. But really we all know it’s for guys who get their kicks out of having women stare them down.

Well Japan might not be know for it’s gender equality, but weird fetishes are the great equalizer and so now there’s Miteru Dake For Lady a DVD filled with videos of men staring at the camera. Ladies, do you enjoy this, or is it as stupid as the other version?

Also, would the universe collapse were I to place 2 screens facing each other playing both versions of these?

[Boing Boing]