Starting next week, Kotaku will begin streaming new episodes of Retro Game Master, the Japanese TV series that forces comedian Shinya Arino to play Japan's most popular video games, largely from the 8-bit and 16-bit era, in marathon gaming sessions.


Kotaku's parent company, Gawker Media, has licensed the series, originally known as Game Center CX, and will air fresh episodes in English on Thursday nights. Game Center CX has produced 15 seasons of gaming content, with Arino playing through dozens of Famicom, Super Famicom, PC Engine and Mega Drive games.

The show also spawned two original games, one of which, Retro Game Challenge for the Nintendo DS, came to North America.


Retro Game Master will be featured exclusively on Kotaku every Thursday night, posting at 8pm EST, starting June 23, 2011.

The official announcement from Gawker and A Bigger Boat is below, complete with the most elaborate description of what Kotaku is.