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Kinect Modders Recreate Big’s Giant Piano Scene, Without the Piano
FAO Schwarz and giant pianos combined to provide a touching moment in the movie Big in 1988. Xbox 360’s Kinect and modders combined to recreate that scene without a real piano more than 20 years later. Heart and Soul? Nailed. Chopsticks? Let’s see it. [Thanks Rob]
By Brian Crecente Published December 14, 2010 -
The History of Switzerland As Told By a Secret Gamer
This isn’t really how Switzerland came about, though wouldn’t it be great if it were. Instead it’s an amusing mishmosh of legends and cliche with a dash of Mario added in for flavor. That’s right, about 30 seconds in, William Tell does a Mario and saves the princess from a castle, complete with question blocks…
By Brian Crecente Published December 14, 2010 -
Papa Smurf Is Not Amused By Your Sweatshop Tactics
Last week famed indie-developer Jenova Chen explained how to cheat your way through iGame Smurf Village. This week Papa Smurf caught wind of the underhandedness. He was not amused. Sometime after our article ran about Smurfing your way to a perfect Smurf village on the iPhone or iPad, Capcom got wise and released a new…
By Brian Crecente Published December 14, 2010 -
Samsung Brings Six Free Mini-Games to Kinect Sports
Kinect gamers get a free download pack for Kinect Sports today courtesy of Samsung. The Samsung Party Pack adds six new mini-games and three mascots to the motion-gaming sports title. The mini games are super striker, Pinvaders, Rapid Runner, Target Smash, Fruit Splatter and King of the Ring. The mascots, crazy mascots according to Rare,…
By Brian Crecente Published December 14, 2010 -
Pick Up Braid and Four Other Amazing Games For A Song
Starting right now you can pick up Braid, Cortex Command, Machinarium, Osmos, Revenge of the Titans for the Mac, Windows or Linux for exactly whatever the hell you want to pay, and it’s for a good cause. That’s right, Wolfire’s pay-what-you-want, donate-to-charity indie gaming bundle returns today with the Humble Indie Bundle 2. This year…
By Brian Crecente Published December 14, 2010 -
Microsoft Imagines a World Without iPhones, PS3s, Wii
The Microsoft Store is like a Bizarro World version of an Apple Store. Where Apple is stark, a single room of chrome and white, Microsoft is meant to be warm, a single room of earth tones and wood. Where Apple has more than 300 locations world wide, Microsoft has just seven. During a recent visit…
By Brian Crecente Published December 14, 2010 -
Mess
What you missed Uh-Oh, Guillermo Del Toro’s Insane Is A ‘Trilogy’ The Waffle Game That Changed Their Lives On Kotaku’s Compromised Commenting Accounts Indie Mega Hit Minecraft Gets Inevitable Merchandise The End Of Brotherhood And The Future Of Assassin’s Creed When Sprites Explode (It’s Very Colorful) Who Is Batman’s New Enemy, Hugo Strange? Dungeon Hunter…
By Brian Crecente Published December 13, 2010 -
iTunes Chart Toppers: It Slices, It Dices
Epic’s amazing Infinity Blade dominates the iPhone and iPad charts this week. Rightfully so. Here’s the full list of games for both platforms: iPhone Position Title Price Weeks Last Week 1 Infinity Blade (Epic) $5.99 1 — 2 Angry Birds (Clickgamer.com) $0.99 30 1 3 Angry Birds Seasons (Rovio) $0.99 1 — 4 Smurfs’ Village…
By Brian Crecente Published December 13, 2010 -
Dungeon Hunter 2 Scratches Your Diablo Itch
Gameloft’s Dungeon Hunter 2 brings more of what made the original Diablo-clone so much fun to play with the addition of online multiplayer and plenty more dungeons to crawl. I’ve only just started playing Dungeon Hunter 2, but it already looks like the two things I liked least about the original have returned: The generic…
By Brian Crecente Published December 13, 2010 -
When Sprites Explode (It’s Very Colorful)
Supersonyk created this mammoth sprite Photoshop more than four years ago. YES, FOUR! But I didn’t see it until this weekend thanks to reader Yan. Now, identify all of the game characters. And…. go! Sprites Explosion
By Brian Crecente Published December 13, 2010 -
Indie Mega Hit Minecraft Gets Inevitable Merchandise
Minecraft just started down the road toward becoming a real live video game over the weekend, when it got a beta date, but it’s already raking in the cash and now it even has official t-shirts. ThinkGeek is now selling two officially-licensed Minecraft shirts. The Minecraft Union shirt, pictured below, reminds us of the tenants…
By Brian Crecente Published December 13, 2010 -
On Kotaku’s Compromised Commenting Accounts
Some time over the weekend a group compromised Gawker Media’s servers, resulting in a security breach at all of the Gawker sites, including this one. Editors and tech are here for all the Q&A you can handle about what happened. If you have not yet changed your account password, please stop here and click through…
By Brian Crecente Published December 13, 2010 -
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Shatters All Previous Warcraft Records
The latest expansion pack for World of Warcraft crushed the last 24-hour sales record set by the massively popular, massively online computer game, selling 3.3 million copies in a single day. “We had to bring Azeroth to the brink of destruction in Cataclysm, but the result was our best expansion yet,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO…
By Brian Crecente Published December 13, 2010 -
Anti-Defamation League Slams ‘Fun” Holocaust Video Game As Horrific And Inappropriate
A video game that depicts an uprising in a Nazi death camp has drawn harsh criticism from the Anti-Defamation League, which told Kotaku that the Holocaust should be off-limits for video games. Earlier this week Sonderkommando Revolt, a video game set amidst a violent prisoner uprising at the Auschwitz death camp, came to light. The…
By Brian Crecente Published December 11, 2010 -
Kotaku’s 2010 Game of the Year
As the year wraps up and the last of the big games roll out it’s time to start our debate, the debate about what was the single greatest game of the year. As we did last year, this year we’ve decided to pick a few finalists among us and then debate their merits. These are…
By Brian Crecente Published December 10, 2010 -
An Office Tour
Date: 12/10/2010 Time: 17:00 Location: New York City If you didn’t have the time to read Kotaku today, here’s your five-minute glimpse. Who Steals Video Game Consoles From Children With Cancer? [Update] A Two-Year-Old Teaches Us How To Play Angry Birds Sharp Shooter Offers Killzone 3 a $40 Crutch How One Developer Cheated His Way…
By Brian Crecente Published December 10, 2010 -
Video Game Empowers Players To Talk Smack with Gay Stereotypes
Players losing in Heroes of Newerth 2.0 may find that they’ve had their “cherry popped” or taken part in a “three way” if the person they’re playing against purchased the PC game’s “flamboyant” audio pack. [Updated with comment.] The pack replaces the regular announcer’s voice with a lisping effete man’s voice. The phrases used in…
By Brian Crecente Published December 10, 2010 -
How One Developer Cheated His Way To The Perfect Smurf Village and Why
Jenova Chen is the designer of genre-bending, artfully crafted games Cloud, FlOw and Flower. He’s the co-founder of ThatGameCompany and the recipient of a master’s degree from the University of Southern California’s Interactive Media Division. He’s also a cheater. At least when it comes to Capcom’s iTune Farmville knock-off game Smurfs’ Village. But unlike me,…
By Brian Crecente Published December 10, 2010 -
Sharp Shooter Offers Killzone 3 a $40 Crutch
Plastic rifle stock tucked into my shoulder, Killzone 3 suddenly feels like a much more active game, a shooter I need to play standing, face-to-face with my enemies. The Sharp Shooter is molded-plastic housing for the Playstation 3 Move’s controller and navigation controller. The Move controller snaps into the barrel of the plastic gun, its…
By Brian Crecente Published December 10, 2010 -
When Quarters Attack Things Get Magical
Before you scrutinize this video, sit back and absorb it. Take it for what it is said to be: An unbelievable stop-action ode to video games made entirely of quarters. Once you’ve enjoyed it feel free to decide whether this is entirely digital, entire a product of sore knees and many quarters or something in…
By Brian Crecente Published December 10, 2010
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