Ethan Gach

The Week In Games: Come On Baby Light My Pyre

The creators of Bastion and Transistor are coming out with their latest and it shows how times have changed. We likened it last fall to a “mystical sports RPG.” Unlike Supergiant Games’ previous focus on story and exploration, Pyre shifts the focus to arena style-showdowns. Which I’m looking forward to, personally. An esport you play…

The Hunt For An SNES Classic Is Already A Mess

A lot of people just want to preorder a damn SNES Classic. But nothing’s ever easy with Nintendo The SNES Classic isn’t scheduled to come out for another few months but everyone is already furiously trying secure a preorder. As a result, when Walmart appeared be accepting them late Friday night, people swamped the site…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Sonic Crossover

Did you hear? Sonic the Hedgehog got picked up by comic book publisher IDW. That means it’s only a matter of time until the furry blue runner’s first really weird crossover. The new partnership was revealed last week after Sega announced Sonic comics would no longer be coming via Archie. Naturally, everyone’s wandering what this…

‘Dicks Out 4 Winston’ And Other Signs At The Overwatch World Cup Qualifiers

If you’re headed to one of the Overwatch World Cup qualifiers and thinking of bringing that letter ‘D’ and a white picket fence scrawled on poster board, don’t. After all, Overwatch is a game built on around bizarre characters that encourage a sometimes frightening level of fandom. Nothing demonstrates that more clearly than taking a…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: The Last Of Hot Dogs, Winners!

One of the greatest video game openings of all time made somehow even better. Last week’s contest was to take the dancing hot dog and dump him into your favorite gaming locales. The enthusiasm seemed to be somewhat lacking and for a hot second I thought maybe I’d introduced one of the worst prompts in…

Bandai Namco Shows Off New Trailer And Gameplay For Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time

The publisher revealed some new information as well as some gameplay for the upcoming anime adaptation during a live stream even last night. As reported by Gematsu, the stream announced, among other things, that the characters Akko Kagari, Lotte Yanson, and Sucy Manbavaran will all be playable in the game. In addition, Little Witch Academia:…

Sunday Comics: A Super Lasting Longer Than Four Hours

Welcome to Kotaku’s Sunday Comics, your weekly roundup of the best webcomics that usually occurs on Sunday except when it doesn’t. The images enlarge if you click on the magnifying glass icon. Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira. Published July 22. Read more of Nerf NOW!! Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published July 17. Read more…

It turns out there’s a code to unlock Shin Akuma in Ultra Street Fighter II. Revealed by Capcom at this year’s SDCC, you can play as the character’s demon form by entering the following series of button presses while on the character select screen. Choose Ryu, highlight color 1, then press cancel. Choose Ken, highlight…

Geralt Must Eat Or Die In New Witcher 3 Mod

As if The Witcher 3 didn’t already have enough stuff to keep track of, a recent mod adds hunger, dehydration, and sleep as new challenges to be managed. The mod,spotted by PC Gamer, is called Primal Needs and it’s quite extensive, not just making Geralt more sloppy in battle if he fails to get some…

Pro Smash Bros. Melee Fox Player Is Merciless 

Nobody likes getting trapped in the corner. The Pokémon Stadium level had moved into its sheer rock wall phase when Justin “Plup” McGrath decided to knock off another one of David “R2DLiu” Liu’s lives without breaking a sweat. Nobody wants to meet one of the best Melee players around (Plup finished fifth at Evo) so…

Video Comparison Shows How Kingdom Hearts III‘s Toy Story Measures Up To The Original Movie

Immediately after it was revealed that Toy Story would be coming to Kingdom Hearts III, people started comparing the game versions of characters like Woody and Rex to Toy Story movie ones. A new Digital Foundry report shows just how faithfully the game appears to recreate them based on the latest trailer. Toy Story came…

Track: Raisins | Artist: Ryo Kawasak | Album: Juice Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

The Weekend In Esports: DreamHack Atlanta, Counter-Strike Finals In Poland, And More

With Evo now in the rear-view mirror, the focus this weekend shifts to the Poland for a major Counter-Strike tournament and Atlanta for the latest DreamHack LAN. Below you’ll find where and when you can catch all the weekend’s biggest events in competitive gaming. Let us know what you’ll be watching in the comments or…

Record Breaking Portal Speedrun Is Even Better With Classical Music

A sub-eleven minute run of the original Portal is a big deal for the game’s speedrunning community, but the accomplishment is even better when viewed listening to Franz Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2. BiiWiX set the game’s new 10:58 world record for inbounds this week with a dramatic escape from the Aperture Science that ultimately…

American Truck Simulator To Close Major Highway For As Long As It Stays Closed In Real Life

Some games focus on escapism while others seek to render the world with some semblance of digital realism. American Truck Simulator falls in the second category, which is why in its next update the game will be closing players’ access to California’s coastal Highway 1 for a portion near Big Sur. That’s because a landslide…

Crash Bandicoot Remaster Trilogy Gets Long Lost Level As DLC

Stormy Ascent was a level in the first Crash game that originally got scrapped because it was ultimately considered too difficult. During a panel at San Diego Comic-Con, Vicarious Visions revealed that the lost level would be available as a free download via the PlayStation Store. Taylor Kurosaki said in a conversation with N. Sane…

Here’s Our First Look At Call Of Duty: WWII‘s Zombie Mode

Activision showed off the trailer for the zombie mode in Call of Duty: WWII at a San Diego Comic-Con panel this afternoon and, surprise, there are a lot of Nazi zombies! The zombie mode will include an original story that features the voice acting talents of Dr. Who’s David Tennant and Daredevil’s Elodie Young, among…

Smash Bros. Fan Game Takes The Characters Back To Their 8-Bit And 16-Bit Roots

Super CLASH Bros is rough and unfinished, but look and sounds alone will win you over. In the game, created by Jeremy Eden, up to four players can choose from a roster that includes Mario, Mega Man, Knuckles and others, and battle one another in a fever dream of retro nostalgia. Unlike other Smash Bros.-inspired…

The Destiny 2 Beta’s Toughest Boss Is A Sci-Fi Turbine 

Ever since the Vault of Glass raid, Bungie has reserved its right to torture players with platforming puzzles that are a lot harder than they look. Near the end of the Destiny 2 beta’s “Homecoming” mission you have to take down the shields on a Cabal ship. Shields run on generators, so naturally this meant…

These Shoes Have Mega Man On Them And Somehow Don’t Look Terrible 

Ubiq, a high-end footwear store based out of Philly, is collaborating with Capcom on some video game-themed kicks that look a little more stylish and reserved than your average Mega Man sneakers Long gone are the days of scrounging through Hot Topic for anything with a Triforce or Mario face on it. Uniqlo put together…