Chris Kohler

Splatoon 2‘s ‘Octo Expansion’ Is Full Of Short, Challenging Single-Player Levels

Fans of single-player Splatoon should know that a whole lot more of it will be landing on Switch very soon in this summer’s “Octo Expansion.” The $19.99 DLC will finally let you play as an Octoling, a species previously encountered in the games as enemies (or as a TV show host), in online multiplayer matches.…

Hands On With Kingdom Hearts III, Finally

I did it—I played Kingdom Hearts III, or the finely-polished vertical slice of it that Square Enix is willing to show off, anyway. What I found was in no way surprising: It’s another mashup of Disney movies and Final Fantasy tropes sure to delight fans of either, but doesn’t seem like it’ll solve any of…

The People Behind Hyrule Warriors Have Two Dream Projects: Mario And Star Wars

If the president of Koei Tecmo had his way, the next couple of Warriors games would be Star Wars and Mario. You can’t fault the man’s taste. Koei Tecmo occupies a uniquely strong position in the Japanese video game market, thanks in large part to the evolution of its Dynasty Warriors series into a sort…

Hey, remember this puzzle from last Friday? If you’re still stumped and want to know the answer, click through and I’ll tell you. So the first (and probably easiest for Kotaku readers) logical deduction you’ll have to make is that this is a list of different characters from the Mega Man games. Most people made…

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon is an 8-bit style spinoff of Koji Igarashi’s upcoming not-Castlevania. It’s out on May 24 for PS4, Xbox One, Vita, Switch, and Steam. This “bonus game” has a very Castlevania III look to its design, allowing you to switch between characters like not-Simon, not-Alucard, et alia.

Happy Friday! Here’s a puzzle to do while you’re pretending to work. Use the comments if you want to collaborate, but avoid them if you’d rather work it out yourself! If you’re still stumped, we’ll reveal the answer on Monday.

Nintendo Can Do So Much Better Than Virtual Console

Virtual Console is no more, but that doesn’t mean that Switch won’t become the best place to play classic games. It’ll just be done in a different way than what Nintendo’s tried in the past. And that’s a good thing, because Virtual Console kinda sucked. Now, by “Virtual Console kinda sucked” I do not mean…

Colossal Vintage Game Collection, 35 Years In The Making, Will Be Auctioned This Month

Tri-State Area game collectors may want to take out a second mortgage. The ultimate nerd basement, stacked to the rafters with classic video games and computers, will be put up on the auction block in New Jersey on May 31. This is no mere hobbyist’s garage stash. Page through the photos taken by auctioneer Bodnar’s…

Everything We Know About Nintendo’s Next President

Nintendo’s next president likes Golf Story, lived in Germany for 11 years, and has a famous dad. Last week, as it reported its (stellar) results for the previous fiscal year, Nintendo announced that its current president Tatsumi Kimishima, who assumed office in 2015 following the death of Satoru Iwata, would step down and be replaced…

God Of War: The Kotaku Review

There’s a telling scene very early on in the new God of War, in the denouement of an exhausting battle sequence that ends with Kratos and his young son Atreus taking down a massive troll. Dad’s done most of the work, with the arrows fired from Atreus’s bow only contributing a bit of damage to…

Two Guys Making New Sega CD Jewel Cases Are In An Accidental War

To a collector of classic video games, there’s no sight sadder than a shattered Sega jewel case. If you ever owned a Sega CD or a Sega Saturn, you know the packaging those totally ‘90s CD-ROM games came in: A double-tall, double-thick plastic jewel case, with ample room for a large manual and multiple discs.…

The Original Arcade Punch-Out Plays Great On Switch

Punch-Out came out on Switch today! No, not Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out. Not the Wii Punch-Out, either. The one that started them all, the granddaddy of Nintendo’s boxing series: the 1984 arcade version of Punch-Out. It’s worth playing if you love the series, but just be aware that it’s pretty rough around the edges by today’s…

The Latest Twist On Monopoly Is… Mario Kart

Goodbye, Boardwalk; hello, Rainbow Road. Hasbro’s latest twist on Monopoly is a Mario Kart theme. And like last year’s Monopoly Gamer, it’s no simple reskin of the classic game. Available today via GameStop and at other retailers on June 1, Monopoly Gamer: Mario Kart is, at its core, still about circling around a square board,…

The original arcade Punch-Out!! is heading to Switch on March 30. That’s when it’ll release on the Japanese eShop, anyway, which anyone can access. It’ll probably end up on other eShops around the same time as part of Nintendo and Hamster’s Arcade Archives. I’m excited!

We Played A Mystery Game While Trapped In A Coffin

The Alt.Ctrl.GDC exhibit at Game Developers Conference shows off a selection of games that use wild, weird, sometimes gigantic control schemes. Nathan Grayson and I took a tour of the booth this week, which all culminated in me getting inside an actual coffin. Well, an IKEA dresser on its side painted black. But still. You…

PixelJunk Monsters 2 Is Coming, And It Looks Gorgeous

PixelJunk Monsters 2, the sequel to Q-Games’ 2008 tower defense game, is coming May 25 to PlayStation 4, Steam, and Switch—and it looks gorgeous. Kotaku got a brief demo of the game at Game Developers Conference yesterday at the booth of its publisher, Spike Chunsoft. If you think the visual style looks nice in screenshots,…

After Atari was acquired by Warner in the 1980s, the new chief executive it installed called the game designers “a bunch of high-strung prima donnas” in an interview. Atari’s designers retaliated with this shirt. On display at GDC Retro Play this week.

So Of Course I Had To Put Rumbling Joy-Cons On My Feet To Play Lumines

Ever since the days of Rez, Tetsuya Mizuguchi has always wanted you to not just play his games, but feel them, too. Should I have expected Lumines Remastered on Switch to be any different? Should I not have assumed I’d be taking my shoes off and putting Joy-Cons on my feet? Mizuguchi and rumble packs…

Switch’s Success Means A Changing Nintendo

Once the red-headed stepchild of the Nintendo family, indie games have now established themselves as one of the main reasons to pick up a Switch. At the forefront of Nintendo’s efforts to shore up indie support on its platforms is Damon Baker, Nintendo’s senior manager of publisher and developer relations. Next to Nintendo of America…

The shittiest kidnap van I’ve ever seen was doing laps around GDC all today. I guess if you want to kidnap kids you spray-paint “Free Candy” on the van but this is what you do if you want to lure in tech bros? When it fills up do they drive them straight to Burning Man?