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Utada Hikaru beguiles Tetris foes

Japanese pop star vanquishes 26 of 30 opponents playing Nintendo's puzzler Tetris DS at a promo event over the weekend.

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Utada Hikaru, the Japanese pop star best known to gamers for her songs from the Kingdom Hearts franchise, trumped 26 of 30 Tetris challengers in a Nintendo-sponsored event over the weekend in Japan.

J-pop chanteuse Utada Hikaru.
J-pop chanteuse Utada Hikaru.

Nintendo hosted an event called The Tetris Battle at the Tokyo International Forum on Saturday, according to Japanese Web site ITmedia. Members of the Club Nintendo fan club who won a Nintendo promotional contest each challenged the Japanese pop icon in a round of Tetris DS.

Utada--a self-proclaimed Tetris aficionado since the age of 5--lost her first two games, but she rebounded, winning 26 of her next 28 bouts. She also defeated a Nintendo developer in an exhibition match. The 23-year-old singer blamed the unfamiliar Nintendo DS system she used at the event for her slow start. Before her winning streak began, a shocked Utada reportedly exclaimed, "Are you serious?... This is impossible!"

Besides Tetris, Utada has other ties to video games. She contributed the single "Easy Breezy" for the first Nintendo DS advertising campaign in Japan and sang the theme songs "Simple and Clean" and "Passion" for Square Enix's action role-players Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II, respectively.

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mavs_dirk41

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shes divorced

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15385bic

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lol - to the guys - she's married - but yeah i love her songs - my favourite is "first love". and a gal that loves gaming? ^_^ - yep - she's awesome

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V-Nine

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... has anyone listened to the songs backwards? The results are most convincing.

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CitizenOne

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I love teh hikki! For those wanting to see the video coverage of this, see my video section. ;)

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helluvagood

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utada is teh ownage

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strawberryheart

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This woman is possibly the worlds greatest singer. And now....Tetris player too....who would have guessed. Her songs uplift and sooth the very soul. God Bless you Utada!!!!

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Coone-baby

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God, I love her!!!!!!!!!!

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titiembe

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yeah i am a big fan. she can pawn in tetris i watched the entire thing on internet god that was awesome. and my fav games and songs are kingdom hearts and the simple and clean/sanctuary. she's awesome still!!!

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cocomacoco

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Utada hikaru's best is Automatic, i never guessed she was good at tetris though, if you want to know i'm a true fan, i happen to have 2 dvds of her and a Cd with her best singles, she rocks, like Fly Me to the Moon, wow/!

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flurryofdancing

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go utada!

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Versus_XIII

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Way to go!

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hvnscld77

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lol wow impressive

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VitoMysterio619

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woot damn that girl is good at tetris

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littletimmy81

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good for her, she shows japanese pop stars that the best they can get out of their lives is beating some horny nerds at a tetris fiesta and i'm sure that doesnt affect her carrear what so ever (that was sarcasm for all you stupid people out there)

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rect0o

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She's like the perfect woman! =P

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rect0o

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She's like the perfect woman! =P

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supergoku203

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OMG I love Utada and her new album Ultra Blue. Everybody I know has it.

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annetjeeeeh

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I love her songs and i think she's a great artist

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Ponsardin

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I say "Button", you say "Mashing"! Indeed, a Tetris aficionado...

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ffmusicdj

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Aaahahaha That is awesome!

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Kbs64

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Where can I get her Number? She's a total babe..lol. I didn't know she also say the Kingdom Heart songs.. She has an amazing voice :-) Power to my Asian People..haha

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scubastevewilco

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lol

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metroid_dragon

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very cute.

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shockwave04

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I swear to god thats my flashlight lol

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Digital-Devil

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In Japan she is one of the biggest singers, which is why it is easy to find her

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ElementalFire

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Cute.

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genfactor

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After I bought her greatest hits collection I've been a fan. I'm glad that she is popular enough to find on itunes and allofmp3.com. The japanese version of the song is called Passions and the english version is called sanctuary, but yess they are the same song, just in different languages.

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ZERO-UNIT

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boring

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Xeroshift

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she good...

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PelekotansDream

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That sarcasm com? Just kidding. But I think its great also.

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comthitnuong

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thats great....

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cesarotromundo

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I love the song "Santuary" that song is the best... i even have it on my ipod.. thats the only song that i got from a soundtrack on my ipod!

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Game-o_O

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I have both versions of Simple & clean, are you sure the KHII was called Passion? I beat the game last night and that's not what it named it in the credits ;o. It was something like "Sanctuary" ;).

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neohakusho

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Utada's a great artist for gaming.. now becoming a gamer herself?! She's amazing :D

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TintedChimes

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Her songs use to be good but they're okay now, how is this news? I thought they were going to announce a new game endorsed by her or something.

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SOLIDUS_SNAKE

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thats hawt

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venus577

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Haha, another reason why Utada is currently my favorite artist.

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sofy

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やった! Go Go 宇多田 !

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Jeansama

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They have a video somewhere of her whooping someone... it was so awesome. XD

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chrisdojo

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power to the chix i suppose. i know a few girls that are good at tetris/dr. mario......guess lots of girls are 'puzzle gamers'

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ewjim

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Uta.......da...... SHE'S LOOKING GREAT! :)

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SaitouZero

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[This message was deleted at the request of the original poster]

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SaitouZero

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I recently added the music videos to "Hikari" and "Passion" (the songs from KH1&2) to my Gamespot videos so check em out if you wanna see her in action.

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thedarkoracle

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Too bad she's married already. Well, that's another guy that must be wiped off the face of the planet, nyahahaha. :D

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wenbin09

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majority of japanese are good gamers.. no surprise..

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Digital-Devil

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Wow i am impressed I like First Love in english myself, Simple And Clean should have been on the CD Her English CD isn't BAD...BUT it is NOWHERE near her Jpop CD's

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SaitouZero

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Digital Devil: ...um I wasn't aiming that at you, I was talking to the guy who posted the article. I also wanna mention that she's pretty much american too, she was born and raised in New York. Her music career actually started in the US as Cubic U at the age of 13. It's after that didn't work out that she went back to Japan and tried to make it there (and succeed incredibly). In 2004 she tried to make a comeback in the US with the release of Exodus but Def Jam, the label publishing the CD wanted to make her into an R&B, hip-hop singer and even though some of the songs on the CD were produced by some really talented people like Timbaland it just didn't sound right. Also they didn't even put "Simple and Clean" on the CD which could easily have helped the album sell way more. She should just have translated a bunch of her jpop songs into english, it would have been way better for her. I would have loved an english version of "Sakura Drops".

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Reetesh

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A Celebrity and A GOOD gamer :D what a Nice combination:D and i LOOVE the KH songs.

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Digital-Devil

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Point i was tryin to make is, people say girls can't play Honestly yes they can, i dont see why people say they can't

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