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Things weren't exactly easy. In fact, many stores in Japan didn't even want to carry the product. Sweets that you drink out of a plastic toilet? Eh... But now, Moko Moko Mokoletto is flushed with success. In Japanese "moko moko" (もこもこ) means "fluffy", and the candy's box reads, "Delicious fluffy foam overflowing from a cute, miniature toilet!" Moko Moko Mokoletto comes with a small toilet model you snap together yourself as well as two candy flavors: soda (which kind of tastes like 7up) and cola (which kind of tastes like cola). There are also decals you can put on the toilet to make them look human—like the cars in Cars. Add the powered candy and some water, and within seconds, the commode is bubbling with foam. Growing up in the U.S. during the 1980s, there were numerous "gross" types of sweets, such as gummy boogers or candy snot. Little kids like gross things, and that's exactly who Moko Moko Mokoletto was initially aimed at. According to Trendy, the stores that did carry Moko Moko Mokoletto found that the candy did pretty well. And even shops that were initially reluctant to sell the toilet candy found that the snack delighted kids. Then, last month, a video of Moko Moko Mokoletto went viral on YouTube, garnering over 700,000 page views. On Twitter and on foreign websites, Moko Moko Mokoletto became a hot topic. The candy's maker, Tokyo-based Heart Co., is planning on launching Moko Moko Mokoletto in Hong Kong and is considering ramping up production. Because you can never have too much toilet candy. While the candy itself is interesting, what's more interesting is how Japanese figure collectors have been incorporating the overflowing loo into their humorous tableaus. Cola kind of looks like doody, and that's no load of crap. 便器の中の泡を食べる玩菓が、世界的にヒットの兆し!? [Trendy] Photos: えりるのありのままに起こったことを書くブログ robo_z, emustim, サスケ To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter @Brian_Ashcraft. Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.

Amazon Japan has harnessed (hired?) goats to manicure the grounds at its distribution center in Gifu Prefecture. And the most interesting part? Amazon isn't even the first internet company to do this! According to Doshin Web, the goats are being brought in once a week until fall to eat weeds and mow the lawn—with their mouths. This is seen as a more ecological way to keep the grounds in order. That is, if you momentarily forget about methane. Okay. Done! The goats even seem to have employee style identification tags with their photos on them. That might not be an Amazon Japan thing, though. It could just be a goat thing. This is hardly a first! As our colleagues at Gizmodo reported back in 2009, Google also began using goats to keep its headquarters trimmed, free of weeds, and smelling like animal manure. 通販のアマゾン、ヤギに除草委託 [Doshin via 2chまとめよ] To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter @Brian_Ashcraft. Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.

Looks like Final Fantasy VII finally released on Steam. It has achievements, cloud saves, and "character boosters." You can purchase it here.

You've seen that draw the *crag*ing owl meme image, right? It's a parody of a how-to draw book. Japan has a version of that, but instead of the owl, it features Draco Malfoy. You know, from Harry Potter. Harry Potter has been incredibly popular in Japan thanks to the movies and the books' excellent Japanese translations. Draco Malfoy is, in particular, a popular character online, and his image shows up in memes from time to time. Earlier this year, the "How to Draw Malfoy" meme became so popular that an app version of it has now been released. Originally, it started as a tweet (below) on February 20 and has been retweeted over forty thousand times. Why Malfoy? Better yet, why did drawing Malfoy become popular? The reason is due to Malfoy's puntastic name in Japanese, which is "Marufoi" (マルフォイ). Just like in the English-speaking world, how to draw books in Japan often start with "draw a circle". However, the draw Malfoy meme also seems to be inspired by the "How to Draw Doraemon" song that sometimes appears on that anime. Doraemon is a robotic cat from the future and one of Japan's most endearing animated characters. The song, which you can see above, starts with "Draw a circle" or "Maru kaite" (まるかいて). And then goes "chon," which here means make a dot. The song is popular among little kids and has helped a generation become skilled Doraemon artists. For Malfoy, the instructions are a pun on his name, "Marufoi" in Japanese: "Maru kaite foi" or "Draw a circle. Presto!" In this video, you can watch a dude in sunglasses check out the app. Note that small circles mean small Malfoys. As a gag, some created a spin on the Draw Malfoy meme, including an image of an older Malfoy appearing and frightening the young Draco. Ten points for Slytherin! kanimisoaki, Aoisenpuu25, Chessica666, wasabeeef0630, Twicolle, To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter @Brian_Ashcraft. Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.

In a previous instalment of Fine Art, we highlighted the work of Ninja Theory's Alessandro Taini. So it's cool today to get the chance to show off another of the studio's talented artists, Dan Baker. Having previously worked for studios like Free Radical and Blitz Games, Baker has been at Ninja Theory since 2009. You can see more of Dan's work at his personal site. To see the larger pics in all their glory (or, if they’re big enough, so you can save them as wallpaper), click on the “expand” button in the bottom-right corner. Fine Art is a celebration of the work of video game artists, showcasing the best of both their professional and personal portfolios. If you're in the business and have some concept, environment, promotional or character art you'd like to share, drop us a line!

It's Fourth of July Eve, so we celebrate freedom by playing random video games!

In select circumstances, until earlier today, the Zynga game Coasterville told users to email a certain address @themepark.com if something went wrong. The problem is, that email address didn't belong to a Zynga employee. Instead, it belonged to Eric Mueller, who owns the domain themepark.com, which he uses for his web design firm. Now, Eric doesn't work for Zynga. He tells us he's never played a Zynga game in his life. But the mix-up has for the past few months left Eric in the role of impromptu customer service assistant, with frustrated Coasterville players emailing him for help with their problems. A position he's taken to with aplomb. See, rather than ignore the emails, Eric ran with it. When Zynga didn't reply to his messages pointing out the error, he started doing their job for them. Here's a selection of his responses to Coasterville players, most of whom had no idea he wasn't an actual Zynga employee, and who went along with his seemingly helpful requests. Hi [removed], I apologize for the delay. I've been talking to our engineering department and they're saying that message should have worked for the server. Can you try posting it again but in all-capital letters? So you would post "I LOVE POODLES AND NOODLES" on five friend's Facebook walls. I'm assured by the engineers that this will do the job. ——- Regarding the golden treasure chest, I see what you mean; I don't have any record here that shows you clicked "show me" to open the chest. Can you try clicking it five times, very slowly? Usually that sets it to definitely recognize that it has been opened. Click, pause for a few seconds, and repeat that 4 more times. Regarding the dino skull, it's the same situation. Try the slow clicks. Finally, regarding the Majestic Castle landmark bonus, that's a tricky one. You can try the slow-click technique for that but I'm not sure it'll work. I talked to the engineers and they suggested holding down the M, E, and H keys, and while you have all three keys held down, try clicking the button then. This is a cheat code that can "force" the button to activate. ——- This is actually a known issue with the Coasterville server, and I have a solution from our engineering team. It is a little bit strange, but here's how it works. You need to go to 5 of your Facebook friends and post this message on their wall: "I love brown bears, folding chairs and little curly hairs!" I know that seems odd :-) but the engineers have assured me that by connecting that message with your friends on their Facebook walls, then the game will see the message and it will cause it to avoid the problems that you've had. It has something to do with how the server was set up, and posting that message triggers special key words that are embedded in the game and assure the game's integrity. When the game sees those key words, it will know the server is configured properly and should be able to proceed without any other errors. (As a side effect, I am also being told that can also help the games load faster, too.) It doesn't matter which five friends you pick, and they don't need to be playing any of our games. The system just needs to see those keywords on five walls. Sadly, after we contacted Zynga to confirm the loophole - which they tell us was "rare", and only occurred on "select internal server error screens" - they went and closed it, ending what for Eric has been equal parts ordeal/good time. As for those affected by his "customer service", well...you could argue it was pretty mean, but the thought of a Zynga gamer trying to hit "meh" over and over is too funny to get worried about.

The second "Molyjam" will be going down this weekend at a ton of locations around the world. If you're interested in joining up and making a weird, amazing game, head on over to their site and find a spot near you.

Here it finally is, people—after being teased with a 30 second clip which few people believed would become a full-fledged show, the Swimming Anime is real. In fact, you can watch it right now over at Crunchyroll; they're streaming it starting today. Here's some vague info on the plot, along with some of the people behind the characters—in case you're curious: The plot revolves around a group of five high school boys who are all connected by their love of swimming: Haruka Nanase, Makoto Tachibana, Nagisa Hazuki, Rei Ryugazaki, and Rin Matsuoka. The boys are all voiced by an equally appealing cast of actors, with Nobunaga Shimazaki, known for his roles in Photo Kano and Say “I love you”, as Haruka, Tasuhisa Suzuki, also in Kuroko’s Basketball and Saint Seiya Omega, as Makoto, Tsubasa Yonaga from Chihayafuru and Cardfight!! Vanguard as Nagisa, Daisuke Hirakawa of Tono to Issho and Hiiro no Kakera as Rei, and Mamoru Miyano of Death Note and Steins;Gate fame as Rin. And remember—it's officially titled Free! Iwatobi Swim Club, but in our hearts it'll always be Swimming Anime. And now to see if the show is anywhere near as good as all the stuff the fandom made up back when the Swimming Anime was just a 30 second clip. Watch the first episode here.

You can't mention Super Smash Bros without a discussion erupting about which characters should be in it. It's all in good fun; the characters are the point of the game! But as this video by videogamedunkey highlights, dang if those conversations can't get a bit silly sometimes. I for one would love for "Tetris," "Vice City" and "Mario Brothers" to be in the game. I mean, cmon. C'mon. Smash Bros 4 : Dream Roster [videogamedunkey]

If Red Dead Redemption were a free-to-play social game, it would be pretty horrible, filled with mundane click quests governed by an energy meter, constant pressure to bug your friends to join your posse, and brief spurts of action that amount to little more than timed tapping. It would be The Lone Ranger. First off, if I am playing a game called The Lone Ranger, I'd much prefer to play as the actual guy, instead of the man you see to the left of the legendary hero in the screen above. I suppose I am still a ranger, but without my own personal native American "companion" it's just not quite the same. Despite my status as The Generic Ranger, the game actually starts off on a promising note. There's a stagecoach being attacked by the Get-Along Gang (not their real name), and you and ol' Lonely team up for a bit of head-tapping gun-fighting, followed by a bad-guy shooting gallery. There's enough excitement and explosions to fill an entire trailer. And then the real game begins. You're charged with protecting the town of Colby. This involves performing heroic acts of heroism the likes of which non-heroes can never hope to hero. HEROISM. When you aren't helping the town clean and build things via Mafia Wars-style meter-filling, you can participate in old-fashioned gunfights. These are reflexive speed-tapping affairs, augmented by stats the require players to purchase enough gear to their defense and attack numbers are greater or at least close to their foes, be they other players' avatars or NOC gunmen. Six bullets. Nothing annoys a varmit like shooting them six times. He looks ticked. There's a story woven about all of this heart-stopping action, complete with cutscenes that really show off the game's 3D engine. But mainly there's clicking until your energy runs out, and then waiting for more energy, and that's no way to treat the guy that every now and then interacts with the greatest hero of the Old West. The Lone Ranger Genre: Free-to-Play Social Adventure Developer: Disney Mobile Games Platforms: Android, iOS Price: Free Get The Lone Ranger on iTunes — Coming Soon to Google Play

Playing a game embedded inside another game isn’t a new idea. But few games have done it as simply or as well as http://imgur.com/FsmZZrWBrick Smash. Alan Hazelden’s Breakout homage multiplies the action so that you’re playing 17 bouncing-ball-and-paddle games at once. The end result is hypnotic and brilliant. When I reached him by e-mail, Hazelden said that he started it for a game jam with the theme "game within a game." "This was the first idea that came to mind that didn't involve me having to actually implement more than one different game," he told me. You're timed on how quickly you can clear the whole board and the game keeps track of how many balls come into play. Hazelden told me that he's seen clear times of 0:46 and counts as high as 317 balls. That's an insane amount of reflexes.

I do not know where Ali Spagnola gets her energy, but I'll have what she's having. We first met the musician/artist/writer/all-around-dynamo upon learning of her "power hour" drinking game/album, which came with 60 one-minute tunes, each of which must be accompanied by a shot of beer en route to drunktown. Amid the drinking and the concerts, Spagnola has also translated her skill for small bits of inspiration into painting. For the past six years, she's been taking emails from anyone with requests for paintings, which she would then paint and mail to them for free. She calls the project "Free Paintings." Naturally. She's just passed her 2,000th painting (!) and each one has a wildly different subject. Several of the paintings, she was sure to point out in her email to me, are of the video game-persuasion. She explains the project here: Spagnola's also put together one mondo image of all 2,000 paintings, which you can view here. (Fair warning, it's 10 MB.) If you want a free painting, you can ask for one at her site, and you can also donate, which will help keep the project going. She cautions that the waiting list is in the thousands, so if you request now, you might be waiting a while. But hey, for a personalized painting of Cate Archer's lockpicking barrette? It's worth it.

Or, Why Faceless Void Is a Faceless Jerk.

The single biggest request since the Duels of the Planeswalkers series began three games ago has been for fully customizable decks. Before now, players couldn't tweak their land count, but the feature has finally been introduced to the series by way of Magic 2014: Duels of the Planeswalkers.

This feature alone makes Magic 2014 superior to its predecessors, but Stainless Games went further by overhauling the series' campaign mode and adding a new Sealed Deck variant into the mix. Stainless also completely redesigned the HUD elements that appear while in battle, making turn orders and actions much easier to understand at a glance.

Magic 2014 is a careful dissection of the three games preceding it, addressing nearly every issue that has surfaced since the series began.

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We're nearing the end of this console generation—which makes it easy to reminisce about where this generation has taken us. In the graphical department, it's hard to deny how far we've come. Look no further than the Halo franchise, which has had multiple iterations this generation, to see evidence of a visual leap in the last 8 years. Let's take a trip down memory lane, shall we? Here are a few of the Halo games this gen—missing are Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary. That's because those titles don't offer file sharing, and we'll be relying on community screenshots to properly showcase what these games look like. No bullshots or company-created shots here! Halo 3 "KilltacularShot" by olanmills "( ^~^ )" by GUAPO BONI "Standoff..." by CL00K "King of th 004 by Pinkilicious Halo: Reach Join the LSF by SiC Prophet Spitfire by MRCxR3C0N UNMAF by Stay Italian Death Watch by CrappyCriminal Halo 4 Nightcrawler by Apollo Creed 01 its over 9000!!!!! by WHITEGLEN Flood by TOM86 I can jump that far by THOMASR1201 Top image: Halo 4, Frolicking by RECEPTOR 17

Pinball machines and video games (oh, and the movie Aliens) popularized the phrase "Game Over." Those two words are also used at times of political unrest. Google Images turns up plenty of examples. And here's a new one, via Facebook, photographed on July 2 during a laser light show on the side of a government building in Cairo in Tahrir Square. Following days of massive, violent country-wide protests against Mohamed Morsi—the first freely, democratically elected president in the country's history—the Egyptian military stepped in and removed Morsi from power. This is a striking image from the stunning events of the last several days and one we thought would resonate with those of you who play games. Last month, a Turkish reader told us about the more direct influence of Grand Theft Auto in helping to inspire his country's protest movement.

Is this how you talk to people when you play multiplayer games? I don't talk to people like this when I play multiplayer games.

EA believes the next generation of tablet games will have console-quality graphics and explains redesigning games for mobile.

Limbo, The Lone Ranger, a new Marvelous RPG and more have all hit the App Store! Get the full scoop...

Aw man, it's comics Zod? I want chin-beardy Michael Shannon Zod!

Who wants to watch twelve minutes of Bungie's Destiny in action? Anyone? Would you like to watch that demo accompanied by some goofy and highly scripted player-banter? Even better! This demo made its debut at E3 in June, and now Bungie has sent along a video of the whole thing. This was actually the demo that made me interested in Destiny. Borderlands meets Halo? Okay, yeah, I'd like to play that.

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Demon Chic feels like something my teenage niece would make, like an alt-comix zine, photocopied at a Kinko's and stapled over a couple of beers with friends. (I hope you’re not drinking, young lady!) It's rough but the amount of charm and humor pulsing through the mobile game can't be denied. The game from Michael and Christine Frauenhofer features polyamorous, cross-dressing drugged out sorcerers as the good guys, a glammed-out demon lord as the big bad and great, lo-fi buzzed-out rock that sounds like it was recorded in a bedroom. This is what a first game should feel like, full of the urge to get seen and get touched. I’ve played Demon Chic on and off for the last few months and the thing that keeps me coming back is the sense that I’m traveling through someone else’s very specific creative impulses. It’s a feeling that’s all too rare in playing video games. The game's also made me think about how much emphasis is put on polish in the making of video games. Everything the player touches has to be a little slice of perfection says the prevailing wisdom. However, buffing various elements to a high sheen takes some of the idiosyncrasy out of them, leaving you with a heaping pile of bland. No, don't get me wrong: the parts of Demon Chic that need to work—the word-making spell battles and the rest of it—do in fact work. But much of the game feels wonky and weird and that's to the benefit of the overall experience. There were probably a few hangovers and all-nighters logged while making Demon Chic. And to that I say: good job, everyone. Keep that kind of behavior up and put it into your next games.

Anyone can grab some colored Post-It Notes and bust out some impromptu pixel art. It takes real skill to transform 97 mini Rubik's Cubes into a pixel-perfect Mega Man. Impressed? Wait until you see his Pokemon. YouTube user and Rubik's Cube expert Kyudan2 has been quietly busting out these incredibly impressive works of puzzle art for months now. Up until now, his focus has mainly been in recreating Pokemon sprites, like the simple Ash and Pikachu from Pokemon Yellow... ... to more complex Pocket Monsters such as Togepi, rendered here in 99 cubes. Amazing work. Kyudan2 has more in his YouTube channel, and plans new vids on a regular basis, so go subscribe the living heck out of him.

Here’s what’s going on Talk Among Yourselves, our reader-written blog: Zarnyx chimes in with another edition of Gil Toss and explains how she bought a real-life sculpt of her Rock Band avatar. Odin updates Ani-Club with recaps of Ouran High School Host Club. And you can always go join the voices talking about video games and life in TAY Classic and in the TAY: Open Forum.

Namely, with explosions, cursing, and Vice President Keith David.

2K Marin drops by to show off the Bureau's chiseled chins, turtlenecks, and all the taction the '60s will allow.

"Twenty year-old Katie Lawrence lives her life as a human doll," the Barcroft TV announcer says. "Katie is obsessed with Lolita fashion." Katie Lawrence, however, begs to differ. On June 27, Barcroft TV uploaded a video called "Real Life Human Doll". The two minute clip follows a young woman named Katie Lawrence. It shows her putting on make-up, talking about Japanese fashion, going into London's Camden Town and shopping at Sai Sai. The video's YouTube description reads: Blonde Katie Lawrence lives every day as a human doll - spending three hours each day perfecting the look. The 18-year-old, from Camberwell, London, dresses in petticoats and pastel colours and admits to being obsessed with looking like a doll. But even though Katie attracts unwanted attention - she's happy to stand out from the crowd. The video was picked up by numerous mainstream British outlets. It also found its way onto 2ch, Japan's largest bulletin board. The angle was the same: Katie Lawrence is a human doll. The video isn't true, Lawrence now alleges. According to Lawrence, the video misrepresents her. "I have never felt so disrespected in my entire life," she wrote on her Facebook page. Lawrence's friend Holly (aka Hollitaima), who also appeared in the Barcroft TV, called the video "warped" and "bastardized" in a response video. "There was absolutely no [prior] discussion about trying to look like a human doll," said Holly. You can watch that below. Katie Lawrence works as an alternative model and make-up artist under the name Iska Ithil. Her popular Facebook page has over thirty thousand likes, and a quick search shows that while she has dressed in Lolita fashion, she doesn't appear to be obsessed with it. The vast majority of her photos are alternative model shots, not Lolita pics. Even though Lawrence incorporates elements of Lolita fashion, she is also incorporating elements of many other styles and subcultures, whether that's punk, cyberpunk, goth, and so on. Her look is eclectic. "I'm just so pissed off at the company that asked me to do it," Lawrence wrote on her Facebook. "The more we did together, the more I realised that they wanted me to be someone else. They wanted me to take out my piercings, they wanted me to pretend I was a Lolita, they wanted me to say ridiculous false things about my lifestyle, and just so they can send it to hideous right-wing publications for sensationalist articles. All I can do is pretend it never happened and hope that people around me understand that it's bullshit." People aren't forgetting it happened. They're hoping to change what happened. On YouTube, the "Real Life Human Doll" video's comment section is buzzing with complaints, with people demanding that the video be taken down. In the video's comments, Barcroft TV has since written, "It seems some of you disagree with the title of this film. We're happy to change it. What do you suggest?" "I suggest you delete this video and all subsequent articles entirely and issue a formal apology for the blatant misrepresentation, lies and slander you have perpetuated about this young model," wrote YouTube user ohmyitsguy. "Your business practices are highly unethical, deceptive and absolutely deplorable. The title of the article isn't the issue here." Kotaku reached out to both Katie Lawrence and Barcroft TV, but did not receive a reply from either prior to publication. Real Life Human Doll [YouTube] Iska Ithil [Facebook] To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter @Brian_Ashcraft.