Tim Rogers

Dragon Quest XI: The Kotaku Review

Dragon Quest XI is the best game in the 32-year-old series. It wasn’t until watching a rough cut of my 36-minute video review of the game on my television at midnight on Sunday night that I decided to make this declaration. I had grappled with saying it in the script I wrote for the purpose…

Iconoclasts, a 2D action adventure inspired by Metroid Fusion and Metal Slug, is now out on Switch. We interviewed the game’s sole developer, Joakim Sandberg, back in January. It’s one of our favorite games of the year. Now it can be one of yours, too!

20XX Is A Procedural Mega Man X And It Feels Perfect

Batterystaple Games and Fire Hose Games must agree with me that Mega Man X is the best Mega Man game, because their 20xx is an obvious tribute. 20XX perfectly recreates the feeling of Mega Man X, and generously adds all the procedural elements (scheduled challenges, permadeath, a progression system, loot) that players want out of…

Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition: The Kotaku Video Review

Hyrule Warriors came out for the Nintendo Wii U in 2014. It came out for the Nintendo 3DS in 2016. In 2018, Nintendo finally looked “Hyrule Warriors” up in the dictionary. That’s my joke about the word “definitive”! Don’t worry. I, uh, I won’t make another one, much as I would like to. A Musou…

Kotaku XP: Red Dead Redemption 2, The Avengers, Fork Knife

It’s Kotaku XP, our weekly video discussion of hot Kotaku topics! This week we talk about “Fork Knife,” how to know you need a PlayStation 4 Pro, Red Dead Redemption 2‘s new trailer, a physics-based dating simulator, and the new Avengers film’s connections to God of War and My Hero Academia! We tried a slightly…

Drake, Jake, God Of War And More: The Week’s Hot Game Stories

God of War gets judged, sad news from Overwatch League, PlayStation 5 rumors, and more on Kotaku XP, our weekly video roundup of what the heck is going on with games and the people who play them. This week, Drake played Fortnite again, and people loved it again. This week, Jake Paul played Fortnite again,…

Kotaku XP: Spider-Man, Spyro And Some Much-Needed Patches

We’ve got an Overwatch League faux pas, a big week for Insomniac fans, some posture advice, the next footnote in the history of the war against loot boxes, and even more on Kotaku XP, our weekly video roundup of what the heck is going on with games and the people who play them. This week,…

Frustrated Teens And Docks Bricking Switches: The Week’s Hot Game Topics

We’ve got a streamer faux pas, disillusioned teens, docks bricking Switches, Carmen Sandiego, Dragon Quest, and more on Kotaku XP, our weekly video roundup of what the heck is going on with games and the people who play them. Consider it Kotaku Cliff’s Notes. Watching Gita Jackson and I talk is probably sufficient studying for…

Minit Is A Zelda-Like Where You Die Every 60 Seconds

In Minit, you play as a Q*Berty-Tamagotchi-lookin’ walking-duck-face person-character-thing who finds a cursed sword. The curse of this sword is such that you will die every minute. Despite this, the game manages to be many hours long. How does it do this? Well, it’s clever. I made a video about how clever it is. In…

PUBG Bots And Pirate Crew Problems:  The Week’s Hottest Game Topics

We’ve got Fortnite, PUBG, Luigi’s wiener, Star Wars, and more on this week’s video news roundup. There are a couple jokes in here. I’ll leave it to you to decide which of my words are jokes and which are just creatively worded facts. In Kotaku XP, Gita Jackson and I discuss the top Kotaku stories…

Sea Of Thieves Is Better If You Also Use It As A Chat Room

I recently played the Xbox One’s new game Sea of Thieves for several hours with my colleague Paul Tamayo. I had never played the game, though I love pirates and boats so much that I felt like I’ve been playing it all my life. The game is as much a chat room as it is…

We Played An Hour Of The New God Of War And Really Liked It

On a snowy day last week, in a fancy hotel suite in Manhattan I controlled Kratos in his newest PlayStation adventure. The new God of War is out in a month, yet the public has seen very little of it. The game is a drastic stylistic departure from the previous games in the series, so…

Video Game News Of The Week, March 16, 2018

How many times more than twice will we mention Fortnite on this week’s Kotaku XP? Click “play” to find out! In Kotaku XP, Gita Jackson and I discuss 10 Kotaku stories for around 30 seconds each. I did not get a haircut yet. I promise I will do so very soon. I’m waiting until I…

Vermintide II Is The Best Four-Player Co-op Since Left 4 Dead

Despite having played literally thousands of video games in my life, I had not played Warhammer: Vermintide, so I was unprepared for how sweet its sequel is. In a way, my lack of preparation is appropriate to the theme of Warhammer: Vermintide II, in which a rodentine horde of rat men called the Skaven pop…

Kotaku XP: Nintendo Direct, Call of Duty, The Division 2

Last week we started a new weekly series called Kotaku XP. Being the first episode, it technically wasn’t “weekly” yet. Well, it’s exactly one week later. Surprise! It’s the second episode. We are officially weekly. In Kotaku XP, Gita Jackson and I discuss 10 Kotaku stories for around 30 seconds each. This week, we got…

My Very Realistic Suggestions For Making The Chrono Trigger PC Port Better

Square Enix suddenly released Chrono Trigger on Steam last week. Several seconds later, fans around the world discovered it was a port of the mobile version of the game. I, too, was disappointed. I made this video with some suggestions on how they could make it better. The port currently sits at a “Mostly Negative”…

Introducing Kotaku XP, Our Weekly Video News Show

Hello! We are going to be doing a weekly news video show from now on. This is the first episode. The name is Kotaku XP. What does that mean? I can’t just tell you. It means whatever you want it to mean. Every week, we’ll pick 10 Kotaku posts. Gita Jackson or myself will talk…

Turok: Dinosaur Hunter Is Goofier Than A Cotton Candy Sandwich

Nightdive Studios is releasing remasters of Turok: Dinosaur Hunter and Turok 2: Seeds of Evil for the Xbox One on March 2. I played these remasters. They run beautifully. I made a video about Turok, and what’s so weird and good about it. I love Turok. I have fond memories of playing through the first…

Kirby developer HAL Laboratory’s first mobile game, Part Time UFO, was released yesterday in the West. It’s on iOS and Android. It’s $3.99. Everything about it is delightful. It is so full of HAL’s charm and polish that I felt a full $3.99’s worth of fun in the tutorial level alone.

Final Fantasy VII Is Going To Kill Me

This is the ninth episode of my ongoing video series scrutinizing the tiniest, most minuscule, most arguably insignificant differences of tone and nuance between the Japanese original script and the official English translation of the 1997 role-playing game Final Fantasy VII As in previous episodes, we’ll unearth scraps of evidence that Aeris and her “first…