Chris Kohler

In Space Channel 5 and Dragon Quest VR, The Hero Is You

When I was in sixth grade, my best friend at the time penned a short story for a school assignment that was titled “The Video Game That Sucked Me Into It.” We did not have the lingo of “self-insert fanfiction” or “Mary Sue” at the time—I’m pretty sure neither of us even had an America…

Professor Layton On Mobile Could Really Use A Stylus (Or An iPad)

The first game in the Professor Layton series, 2007’s Curious Village, is now out in a beautiful HD version for smart devices. It’s a nice way to revisit this excellent puzzle game, but trying to play something designed to use with the Nintendo DS precision stylus on a phone with a finger can be annoying.…

Curry I Ate In Japan, Ranked

If you know anything about me, it’s that I love Japanese curry. At a party at last week’s Tokyo Game Show, a friend introduced me to someone by way of pointing out that if you Google, in Japanese, “the foreigner who loves curry,” an article I wrote in 2008 was the top hit. He then…

AtGames will release a “Legends Flashback” console on October 1, with 50 console and arcade games including Mega Man 1 and 2, Super SFII, Joe & Mac, Bad Dudes, and, weirdly, the Famicom version of Tetris. It’ll have HDMI out, save states, and rewind.

Japanese Publishers Should Go Bigger At Tokyo Game Show

Another Tokyo Game Show has come and gone, and Kotaku’s Brian Ashcraft and I were both there to see the sights, play some games, and score some merch. Now that it’s all over, we have some thoughts. Chris Kohler: Brian, we’ve just returned from our annual hangout at Tokyo Game Show—me to America, you to…

Wandered into an Akihabara store last night and had an amazing score: Nintendo’s 1970s electro-mechanical Duck Hunt toy! This was what inspired the NES game. The store, notorious for its high standards, had it marked at 3000 yen ($27) because it was missing the battery cover.

I mean, you can’t go to Japan and not order their national dish (corn mayonnaise pizza)!

From Software’s VR Game Builds An Entrancing World

Sure, sure, everybody’s excited about Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, but let us not forget about From Software’s other upcoming game, which comes out on November 6: Déraciné, a slow-paced adventure game set in a boarding school. I played it at Tokyo Game Show, and now I can’t wait to play more. The kids at the…

The Coolest Stuff For Sale At Tokyo Game Show 2018

Real video game professionals know that Tokyo Game Show isn’t just about trying out new games, it’s also about loading up on expensive game-themed merchandise. There’s a startling array of awesome licensed goods here for you to blow your paycheck on; here are the best of this year. SNK has a pair of beautiful embroidered…

And that’s it for my day one of TGS! I’m going to go be on the 8-4 Play podcast tonight, so watch for that to be released in the coming days. Tomorrow, I’ll be playing lots of PlayStation VR.

Just walked by the Hamster booth to see them taking about Arcade Archives: Excitebike, which is out tomorrow on Switch!

So many celebrity sightings at TGS! 

The Chocobo, As Drawn By Final Fantasy‘s Creators

At the Square Enix Music booth at this year’s Tokyo Game Show, there’s a display of original Chocobo artwork done by the creators of various Final Fantasy games. Some of these creators aren’t visual artists by trade, so the results are a little interesting. Above, it’s composer Nobuo Uematsu’s take on the classic flightless bird.…

Kacho!

Massive ads for Dragalia Lost, the new mobile game from Nintendo, line the walkway to the train leading to the Tokyo Game Show venue. It’s out on September 27.

Strategy guide for the original Metroid, spotted in Akihabara.

Do you know your Totoros? (Spotted at the Kiddy Land toy store in Harajuku.)

Bayonetta 3 development is “on course,” Platinum Games’ Hideki Kamiya and Atsushi Inaba said at a stage event last night in Tokyo. They joked that it was unusual for things to go so smoothly: “We’re actually in sync for once.”

This Bootleg Game Changed Street Fighter History

Walking up and down the floors of the massive multi-level arcades in Akihabara can trigger some unexpected nostalgic responses, but I certainly wasn’t expecting this one. “Whoa, look at that title screen!” I said to Brian Ashcraft as we walked past. “It’s Rainbow Edition!” “It’s what?” “Here, I’m gonna play this, but get ready to…

This very rare, very early Japanese game history book published in 1988 is currently for sale in Akihabara for about $200. Check out that young Miyamoto mugshot!