Mike Fahey

Happy 25th Birthday, Super Famicom And Friends

On November 21, 1990, Nintendo Japan released three amazing things—the first F-Zero, Super Mario World and a console to play them on. It was a very good day. Releasing a new video game console with only two games to play is unheard of these days (instead we get two GOOD games and a bunch of…

Transformers Fans Have A Very Big Decision To Make

Trypticon. Omega Supreme. Scorponok—three of the biggest Transformers toys ever made. Hasbro wants to bring one of them back, and it’s up to fans to decide. This is not going to be easy. Following up on 2015’s hugely successfulCombiner Wars line, Hasbro has massive plans for the Transformers Generations Titans Return in 2016. We’ve got…

Let’s See Which Sort Of Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon Says I Am

Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon was released yesterday, and as with all entries in the dungeon crawling series it kicks off with a personality test to determine which Pokemon best suits the player. Let’s see who I am! The game opens on the title screen, which features the logo floating over whatever your 3DS camera is…

Star Wars: Battlefront Helped Me Understand How The Empire Lost On Endor

How could a powerful military force like the Empire lose to a scruffy band of rebel scum and a handful of teddy bears? I’m thinking it has something to do with the Imperial dress code. While I’ve only been playing the release version of Star Wars: Battlefront since yesterday, I’ve played enough to dread the…

Let’s Play A Round Of Paladins, Where Overwatch Meets Hearthstone 

Launching into closed beta today, Hi-Rez Studios’ Paladins is a hero-based shooter like Overwatch, but its collectible card-based in-game leveling system is something else. Here’s how a match of Paladins plays out. Players pick a character out of the eight currently available (no doubling up) and spawn in their base. The match begins with the…

The final stop before the Smite World Championships in January, the Smite Super Regionals kick off today in Atlanta, with teams from Europe and North America competing for spot in the big show. Preshow for day one kicks off at 1:30 Eastern. Catch all the actionon Twitch.

Two Classic Cartoon Secrets Discovered In LEGO Dimensions

The release of the Doctor Who level pack for LEGO Dimensions unlocked some wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey cartoon secrets in the game. What good is having a time machine if you can’t travel back to the stone age or forward to Earth’s flying car future? I’ve barely had time to play LEGO Dimensions since the Doctor Who…

The Spiritual Successor to DJMax Doesn’t Screw Around

Fans of Korea’s DJMax series have certain expectations of their rhythm games. They want complexity. They crave challenge. Their music genre preference is all over the place. Superbeat: Xonic gives us exactly what we want. When DJMax development studio Pentavision merged with GameOn Studios a few years back, a group of folks left to create…

It’s A Pretty Great Snoopy Game, Charlie Brown

Snoopy’s imagination adventures may have ruined the Peanuts comic strip, but they’re the perfect fodder for a solid movie tie-in platformer. Thought it shares the movie’s 3D look, The Peanuts Movie: Snoopy’s Grand Adventure doesn’t have much to do with Charlie Brown and friends’ big-screen debut. The kids are playing hide and seek, and Snoopy…

You Finally Got Me Amiibo, But Your Animal Crossing Board Game Is A Bore

Up until last Friday I possessed a grand total of two Amiibo figures. Now I own nine, and I’m eagerly awaiting the release of more. It’s too bad the game they’re attached to is a snooze-festival. How much did I not care about Amiibo figures prior to this past weekend? So much so that I…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Cloud-Based Gaming

Final Fantasy VII’s Cloud beingannounced for Super Smash Bros. got me thinking—what other games could benefit from the addition of stoic little Clouds? That’s right, this week you’re all the evil anti-Bob Ross. There are plenty of games out there. Surely some of the ones you’ve played don’t have Cloud in them but might benefit…

The Week In Games: Everyone’s Just Going To Keep Playing Fallout 4 Anyway

Last week saw only a handful of new releases as publishers got out of the way of Fallout 4. They probably could have skipped this week too. While I plan of getting my Star Wars: Battlefront on in some form or fashion, neither it nor Fallout 4 shall be my primary focus this week. Instead…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Fallout 4 Adventures: The Winners!

Remember last week, before Fallout 4 came out, when I asked our readers to envision where their newly-emerged Vault Dweller might go? No? Well there was a time before Fallout 4 came out (I think), and according to this week’s winner it was a happy little time. Combining two of the best things ever, Wormri…

Sunday Comics: Check The Fridge

Welcome to Kotaku’s Sunday Comics, your weekly roundup of the best webcomics. The images enlarge if you click on the magnifying glass icon. Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira. Published November 14. Read more of Nerf NOW!! Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published November 9. Read more of Awkward Zombie Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and…

Custom Transformers Devastation Optimus Prime Figure Imitates Art

This is not a screenshot. It is not a piece of two dimensional fan art. This is a fan-modded Optimus Prime action figure. Seriously. Though some folks took issue with its length, Transformers: Devastation turned out to be a rather solid video game. It was also inspirational, at least for figure modder LEK Custom Toys…

Let’s Share Live-Streaming Setups

With so many people either streaming live video game play to the web or consuming it, trying to determine the best equipment for your broadcasting needs can be daunting and confusing. What we need are examples. Because if there’s one thing the internet has told me, if a handful of websites and Google searches doesn’t…

No Real Cats Are Harmed In The First Five Minutes Of The Purring Quest 

A classic tale of boy meets girl, boy loses girl, cat does something other than sit around licking itself and sleeping. Spanish independent developer Valhalla Cats seems to be quite familiar with animals of the feline variety.They’ve got a cat on their website, and a portion of the proceeds of all the games they make…

Call Of Duty: Black Ops III: The Kotaku Review

There are too many Call of Duty games. Let me clarify that statement: There are too many Call of Duty games in Call of Duty: Black Ops III. In my initial impressions of the single-player experience of the latest installment of Activision’s annual military shooter series, I celebrated what Treyarch had achieved with an extra…

Pokémon Theme Becomes Late Night Drinking Companion

Twenty years from now we’ll finda scruffy Ash Ketchum in a dimly-lit bar, nursing a bottle of scotch while this song plays in the background. Last yearScott Bradlee’sPostmodern Jukebox did a pretty good rendition of the classic Pokemon theme song as an R&B slow jam. Today’s jazz arrangement, featuring the powerful and sultry voice of…

How To Play Final Fantasy XIV‘s New Strategy Mini-Game, Lord Of Verminion

Step one: Watch what I do here. Step two: Avoid doing any of that. Today’s update 3.1 for Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward brought a slew of fresh content to Square Enix’s MMORPG, but nothing quite as exciting to me as the chance to take all of the pets I’ve collected since the game relaunched and…