Ash Parrish, Author at Kotaku

Let’s Rank (A Few) Sonic Games

There are a lot of Sonic games. There aren’t too many Sonic games because one can never get enough of the blue streak, but in order to keep this list from spiraling out of control I created a few ground rules. 1. It must be a platformer. Sorry Sonic Team Racing and Sonic Spinball, we…

By Ash Parrish Published January 15, 2021

CultureOdds and Ends

Oh No, He’s Hot

A new trailer for the Nintendo Switch version of Super Mario 3D World arrived earlier today featuring a first look at Bowser in Bowser’s Fury and y’all…damn. Bowser’s hot. Super hot. Bowser-Jr.-ain’t-the-only-one-calling-me-daddy hot. There’s something undeniably sexy about a dangerous creature. Bowser’s hit the gym and gotten bigger and more muscly since last we saw…

By Ash Parrish Published January 12, 2021

CultureKotaku Game Diary

Nier: Automata Dumped Me And I’m Okay With It

I finally finished Nier: Automata and I don’t think I’ll ever play it again. I don’t mean that in an, “Oh thank god the game is over, I am free now,” way that I felt finishing The Last Of Us 2—a game hellbent on holding on to you long after what any normal, non-sadistic storyteller…

By Ash Parrish Published January 11, 2021

CultureOdds and Ends

After A Very Shitty Day, The Mr. Bones Speedrun Helped Me Cope

The speedrunning festival Awesome Games Done Quick is not yet over but the greatest run of the event has already been crowned. There’s a good chance you might not have even seen it. No, I don’t mean Argick’s Sonic Mania run that might have broken the Guiness record for fastest commentating. I’m talking about Lizstar’s…

By Ash Parrish Published January 8, 2021

CultureOdds and Ends

Sonic Speedrunners Go Fast, Break World Records Back-To-Back During AGDQ

The Sonic block of games is mandatory watching in my house for every Games Done Quick event and this year’s block—that took place yesterday—has already claimed GOAT status when not one but two runners achieved world records back-to-back Flying Fox’s earned the first world record for her run of 2013’s Sonic The Hedgehog Android port.…

By Ash Parrish Published January 5, 2021

ReviewsYear in Review

The State Of Diversity In Big Budget Video Games

When I think about diversity in last year’s crop of big-budget games I can see the bright spots. Some of PlayStation’s marquee games, for example, featured some of the most diverse casts I’ve seen with men of color and queer women front and center as main characters. But there’s still work to be done in…

By Ash Parrish Published January 5, 2021

CultureKotaku Game Diary

With Xbox Game Pass I Am Too Powerful

Through a bit of luck, I managed to acquire an Xbox Series S for the holidays. I’ve only had it for about a week now, but the slim, be-speakered machine—and, more specifically, the Game Pass subscription I purchased for it—has utterly changed my gaming life in ways I’m still trying to process. For those of…

By Ash Parrish Published December 30, 2020

Culture

Let’s Talk About How Much Mass Effect 2 Rules

Mass Effect 2. It’s widely regarded as one of the best games of all time, a sweeping space opera that set the standard for modern role-playing games. One of us (Ari Notis) is just now playing it for the first time, ahead of next year’s remastered trilogy. The other (Ash Parrish) basically has a PhD…

Ash Parrish & Ari Notis Published December 28, 2020

CultureOdds and Ends

I Went On Vacation And Ended Up In A Video Game

On a trip to a state park, I’m pretty sure my partner, my dog, and I stumbled into a video game. My own personal isekai Last weekend, my partner Travis and I took my dog and traveled three hours south to the Hocking Hills area of Ohio, where we stayed in a rented cabin for…

By Ash Parrish Published December 25, 2020

ReviewsYear in Review

Ash Parrish’s Top 10 Games Of 2020

Ahh! My first “Top 10 Games” post for Kotaku, so exciting! Arriving here has fundamentally changed my relationship with gaming. I have a lot more time to play a lot more brand-spankin’ new games, versus the slow arrival to already well-beloved titles that was typical of my pre-Kotaku life. So if you see some non-2020…

By Ash Parrish Published December 22, 2020

CultureKotaku Game Diary

Return Of The Obra Dinn Is Scratching My Cyberpunk 2077 Itch

There are a lot of “want to play something cyberpunk without playing Cyberpunk 2077” posts going around and I have an addition to suggest: claims adjuster with a twist simulator Return of the Obra Dinn Wait, let me explain. I’ve played very little of Cyberpunk 2077, confining myself to the character creator and the prologues…

By Ash Parrish Published December 16, 2020

ReviewsMultiplatform

Cyberpunk 2077’s Character Creator: The Kotaku Review

The thing that interested me the most about Cyberpunk 2077 was its character creator. I’m someone who’s spent a lot of her time thinking about character creators and how they work for people who are not cis, white, able bodied, or male. I had hope that Cyberpunk’s creator would meaningfully include the wealth of human…

By Ash Parrish Published December 15, 2020

Culture

What The Hell Is Going On In That Mass Effect Trailer?

I have not been able to stop thinking about the Mass Effect trailer from last night’s Game Awards. After the seemingly definitive end of the Shepard trilogy and the personally unsatisfying Mass Effect: Andromeda, I had given up hope that BioWare could create a new Mass Effect game that I could be excited about. But…

By Ash Parrish Published December 11, 2020

Culture

New Mass Effect Game Very Briefly Teased At Game Awards

A new Mass Effect was teased during the the 2020 Game Awards. Once a critical darling, the future of the Mass Effect franchise fell into doubt after its 2017 entry, Andromeda, shipped in a shoddy state and was poorly received by players and critics. Check out the teaser trailer below. No word on if this…