Mike Fahey

Stay Alight Takes Me to a Dark Place

Try as they might, the silly, bug-eyed pollution monsters populating Stay Alight do absolutely nothing to lessen the macabre, melancholy mood of a world littered with forgotten toys and the broken bodies of those that came before. Perhaps I’m just far too used to my trajectory puzzles being cute and cuddly, thanks to Angry Birds…

Here’s the First Episode of Defiance. Don’t Miss the Musical Number.

The televised aspect of SyFy and Trion World’s crossmedia experiment launched last night, giving players of the Defiance MMO a chance to get a little background info without having to rescue any factory workers or deactivate generators. There’s nothing quite like classic country and crazy alien contact lenses. I watched this first episode about a…

Ice Cream Sandwiches: The Snacktaku Review of Doom

I did not need to review the ice cream sandwich. Its merits are readily evident, especially to all of the people that have already left this article to go to their local grocer’s freezer based on the top image alone. So this is less a review and more an exploration of the sheer power of…

No One Can Stop Mr. Crab

Sometimes I buy a game in iTunes simply because it shows up in the new and recommended section of the store. Other times I purchase a game because it looks like it might be incredibly stupid. I bought Mr. Crab for both of these reasons, and after a weekend spent in crustacean circles I’m feeling…

Dear Psy, Please Be My Candy Crush Saga Friend

While the rest of the world spent the weekend studying South Korean superstar Park Jae-sang’s latest video in preparation for their upcoming parody/tribute/stupid thing, Kotaku‘s mobile editor (hi) was inspired to play Candy Crush Saga forever. It’s nice to know I’m not alone in my obsession. It’s right there at :35 of the music video for…

This Week in Gaming Apps Has Nothing to Do With Mass… Dammit, Shepard!

I don’t care if he does endorse Kotaku’s weekly round-up of the gaming apps we played and reviewed, there is absolutely no reason for Commander Shepard to show up in the mosaic image. No, it doesn’t that he had his own mobile game a few years back. That wasn’t even him, it was a rogue…

War of the Fallen is the Right Way to Make a Mobile Card Battler

I’ve been quite vocal in the past about my disdain for the current generation of ‘collectible card games’ blossoming in the wake of Rage of Bahmut‘s success. Games like Aeria Mobile’s Pirate Maidens and Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade offer pretty art without much in the way of depth, simulating rarity to drive sales of booster…

Standing In The Rain In A Trench Coat From The Future

Unrelenting rain drums on the tin roof of the shelter. I huddle from the chill in my standard-issue trench coat, bathed in the cool glow of the data terminal. This is how every adventure game should begin. I guess there’s room for other genres, but there’s something comforting about the cold and dreary future of…

It’s Just Like Playing BioShock Infinite, Only With More Heroic Clicking

Coming this summer to a hobby shop near you, the ultimate struggle for air superiority (or against air superiority?) spills over into WizKids/NECA’s HeroClix universe. I cannot wait to pit old guy in suit against Wolverine. Along with old guy in suit, possibly the most exciting HeroClix figure ever created, just about everyone that matters…

As announced last night for Japan, June 28 will mark the end of the Nintendo Wii’s Forecast, News, Everybody Votes, Check Mii Out and Nintendo Channels in North America, along with an end to WiiConnect24 data exchange with your Wii friends. The Shop Channel and certain automatic Nintendo Forum functions will remain in play. Suddenly…

Hello Kitty Sakura is Justification For Every Frivilous Piece of DLC Ever

There’s a new $2.99 costume pack available for Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 today on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, but that’s not important right now. What’s important is the follow-up outfit for the pink-haired Sakura coming later this month. It’s everything I ever wanted. Perhaps that’s a bit of an overstatement. No, it…

What You Missed in the Mass Effect Comic Books

Everything is better with comic books. This is a universal truth, and it’s doubly universally true for the Mass Effect trilogy. Between digital comics and Dark Horse’s series, Mass Effect series scribe Mac Walters and some excellent artists and writers have added magificent layers of depth to the series you’ll never see unless you read.…

Massive Layoffs Hit EA Mobile Montreal

In the name of “sharpening its focus to provide games for new platforms and mobile,” EA instituted another round of layoffs today, with sources reporting that nearly the entire staff of EA Mobile Montreal have lost their jobs. While EA has confirmed that layoffs have occurred the company has not shared specific information on the…

Dungeon Hunter 4 Takes In-App Purchases to a Diabolical New Low

In the latest installment of Gameloft’s Dungeon Hunter series of Diablo clones, the most effective means of healing your character mid-battle is paying for it. Screw that. The Dungeon Hunter series starter off as one of the best dungeon crawling action role-playing franchises available on mobile platforms. The first game changed my idea of what…

My Little Age of Empires II: World Domination is Magic

With the release of Age of Empires II HD, Ensemble Studios’ classic strategy game is re-capturing the hearts of PC gamers everywhere. Turns out some of those hearts have gotten a tad bit more colorful since 1999. Youtuber Yudhaikeledai has taken the game’s distinctive intro and ponified it. Yudahaikeledai takes pony parodies a step further,…

Defiance MMO Log One: A Little Better Every Time I Play

Last week I posted less-than-favorable launch day impressions of Trion Worlds’ Defiance, the massively multiplayer shooter tie-in to SyFy’s upcoming original series. I bemoaned the lack of PC options, criticized the silly vehicle physics and worried over its lack of general chat functionality. A week later those issues are still present, yet I’ve been playing…

From the Makers of Most of Aliens: Colonial Marines Comes a Much Cooler Shooter

TimeGate, the studio Gearbox tapped to complete the neglectedAliens: Colonial Marines, turns its attention from making the majority of another company’s game to making a Minimum of its own. Damn this looks lovely. Not that shooters have ever been about looks for me. There’s a sweet spot between Unreal and Call of Duty that’s the…

I Came Precariously Close to Hating This Magnificent Mobile Adventure

With a slew of positive iTunes reviews and a couple of pre-release awards under its belt, I was expecting Frogmind’s Badland to be a transcendent mobile gaming experience. I was greatly disappointed, at least for the first 20 minutes. If you had asked me for an honest assessment of Badland during those early moments, I…

Oh Great, Skylanders Happy Meals. Just What I Needed.

You know you’ve made it as a children’s entertainment property when Mike Fahey’s car is filled with empty McDonald’s Happy Meal boxes. Peek inside my 96 Nissan Pathfinder between April 12 and May 2 and that’s exactly what you’ll find, as I spend a month trying to gather all nine of the Skylanders Happy Meal…

Ignore Those Early Negative Ouya Reviews. It Wasn’t Ready.

While the Android-powered Ouya isn’t hitting retail until early June, early backers have received their preview units, and some of them don’t have very positive things to say about the great open source console hope. That’s to be expected as, according to the console maker, the system isn’t review-ready yet. In a statement issued to…