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The Sweetest Game of Tetris You’ll Ever Un-Play
For decades now the world has been obsessed with the stacking of tetrominos, passionately rotating and placing odd geometric shapes in a never-ending quest for the perfectly-packed screen. We have to learn to let go. Dream of Pixels can help. Dawn of Play’s Dream of Pixels is an ingenious take on the classic Tetris formula.…
By Mike Fahey -
This Week’s iPhone Charts: Battle of the Facebook Ports
In an odd bit of unintentional coordination last week, Zynga and King.com both launched mobile versions of their hit Facebook games on iOS on the very same day. This gives us a chance to answer a question with this week’s charts: Who’s players are more into mobile, Ruby Blast‘s or Candy Crush‘s? Judging by the…
By Mike Fahey -
One of the Greatest Mobile Music Games Goes Free-to-Play
Experimenting with new ways to make folks pay for their iOS games, Square Enix releases Groove Coaster Zero, injecting new songs and adapting a free-to-play model to Reisuke Ishida’s original musical masterpiece Groove Coaster Zero takes the fine selection of tracks from the original game, drops in a selection of new free and premium tunes…
By Mike Fahey -
Skylanders Battlegrounds and the Best iPad Peripheral a Collector Can Have
Since the release of Skylanders Cloud Patrol for iOS last year, fans of Activision’s toys-meet-games franchise have been clamoring for a more direct way to interact with their precious plastic playmates than entering in a cold, impersonal numeric code. Tomorrow’s release of Skylanders Battlegrounds finally gets a Bluetooth summoning portal into players hands, along with…
By Mike Fahey -
Culture
Burger King’s Gingerbread Cookie Shake: The Angry Snacktaku Non-Review
One of my favorite flavors in the entire world is the warm and spicy snap of gingerbread. The taste instantly transports me back to my childhood, to the warm glow of Christmas lights, the scent of pine and the safe feeling of being surrounded by people that love me. People unlike the folks working at…
By Mike Fahey -
Culture
Free Wii U With $5,000 Box of Twinkies? Now There’s a Bargain.
Why spend a ridiculous amount of cash on one thing that’s not as scarce as people think it is when you can get two in one stupid eBay auction? Sent to us by reader Chris, this timely twofer combines the joy of milking a potential Christmas Wii U shortage with the chance that Hostess will…
By Mike Fahey -
Heroes & Castles Wades Into Castle Defense, Sword Swinging
Coming next month from the makers of N.Y. Zombies, Heroes & Castles is a strategy action role-playing game that drops the player into the meatier portions of a raging war. The strategy portion of Heroes & Castles sees players building fortifications, recruiting units and managing castle finances. Once the fighting starts, however, it’s into the…
By Mike Fahey -
Introducing Kotaku Social and Kotaku Mobile
There are more gamers in the world today than ever before, but the vast majority isn’t turning to the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 or Wii U for their interactive entertainment fix. They’re logging into Facebook or opening up their smart phone’s app store. These new, readily accessible gaming platforms have given birth to a new…
By Mike Fahey -
Chillingo Gives Thanks for Mobile Gamers by Setting Some of Its Best Games Free
Based in the UK, mobile game publisher Chillingo has no real reason to celebrate the American holiday of Thanksgiving, but if that celebration means free copies of Totem Runner and Puzzle Craft then I’m willing to play along. Besides, we’re going to need something to do that doesn’t involve moving about or looking over our…
By Mike Fahey -
This Week’s Facebook Winners and Losers: Moving to the Big City
Out with the relatively old and in with the new, that’s the theme of this week’s list of Facebook games losers and winners, as Zynga’s latest ‘Ville title grows and its next-to-latest shrinks. It’s almost winter, a time when folks living on drafty farms suddenly wish they were someplace where they never had to leave…
By Mike Fahey -
Skylanders Giants Has a Little Something Extra on the Wii U
The Wii U version of Skylanders Giants doesn’t look noticeably better or worse than the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 version. It plays exactly the same as well—the Skylander toys are placed on the USB-connected portal, they come to life in the game, adventure ensues. For the Wii U version of Skylanders Giants, the Wii…
By Mike Fahey -
Nintendo’s Miiverse Dreams of a Civilized, Spoiler-Free Online Community
Welcome to the Miiverse, the online community launching today with the midnight release of Nintendo’s Wii U, but before you can access it, you must read through the Miiverse Code of Conduct, portions of which may have been paraphrased from Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. Let’s stroll through it, shall we? Welcome to the Miiverse,…
By Mike Fahey -
Culture
Snackopalypse 2012: Hostess Products Disappear from Store Shelves, Internet Price Gouging Begins
This morning I reported on the closing on Hostess Brands Inc., the company that’s been keeping America in Twinkies, Ho-Hos and Ding Dongs for 82 years. I suggested readers rush to the store and buy all of the Hostess snacks they could before they disappeared. If you didn’t heed that advice, it may already be…
By Mike Fahey -
GREE Closes OpenFeint, Gives Game Developers a Month to Avoid a Potential “Poor Player Experience”
Before Apple had Game Center it had OpenFeint, a gaming network that brought a cohesive online experience to countless iPhone, iPad and eventually Android games. Some of us may have opted to miss out on its fun features, but for many game developers it was a priceless tool. Come December 14, OpenFeint will be no…
By Mike Fahey -
Stan Lee’s The Week in Gaming Apps
Legendary comic book creator Stan Lee only had his hand in one of the five Gaming Apps of the Day this week, but I’m pretty sure the rest of them were probably his idea at some point anyway. It was a great week for gaming apps, with the exception of Monday. Apparently somebody didn’t get…
By Mike Fahey -
This Week’s iPad Charts: All That Matters is LostWinds 2 is Free
Yes yes, Angry Birds Star Wars is great, everybody loves it, it kills everything it touches, whatever. Have you played LostWinds? The sequel is free right now. You should go grab it. Come back and read this later. You’re probably busy playing the game now, so I’ll keep this week’s spiel brief. Angry Birds Star…
By Mike Fahey -
Hardcore Social: Combat Racing Meets Portal in Carnage Racing
Last month Runescape creator Jagex promised to bring fast-paced combat racing to Facebook. What they’ve actually delivered in Carnage Racing is better than that, and it’s all thanks to portals. The game call it phase shifting. I call it portals. As you do laps around the various tracks in Jagex’s social racer, performing tricks and…
By Mike Fahey -
Nothing Says Happy Thanksgiving Like Shoving Hot Coffee Up a Live Turkey’s Behind
No one told the folks over at IndiePub that you’re supposed to kill the turkey before shoving your entire kitchen into it. Turkey Stuffin’, now available for Android and iOS, is definitely stupid, possibly fun. You’ve got a turkey. You’ve got ingredients falling along the left side. Some are food items, like cranberry sauce, butter…
By Mike Fahey
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