Owen Good

Balloon Trip Breeze Brings Back Memories of the NES’ Balloon Fight

What I recall of Balloon Fight on the Nintendo Entertainment System was whaling on one button or the other to maintain altitude, to the point of thumb cramps. Balloon Trip Breeze, the Wii U’s obvious homage to the NES classic, relies on the use of a stylus with the Wii U GamePad’s touchscreen, as Kotaku‘s…

Draw Up Some Crazy Plays in the Dirt with the Wii U’s GamePad in Madden NFL 13

The basic pass routes in American football are, off the top of my head, the post, the slant, the square-out, the streak, the hook and the wheel. Here, Kotaku‘s Jason Schreier introduces us to the Curli-Cue, the Zag-Zig-Zag, the One-Oar-In-the-Water and the Field Sobriety Test, all of which were improvised routes using the touchscreen feature…

Why, Yes, That Is an NHL Goal Horn You Hear in Fart Cat

Hockey fans might think they’re hearing a familiar sound in Fart Cat, the rude-and-crude mobile game that released last week, when they finish off a level and the titular feline floats an air biscuit into the basket. And they’d be correct. That is the bleat of the same horn the St. Louis Blues use to…

NBA Live 13 is, Basically, Delayed, Although This Trailer Suggests It Hasn’t Been Canceled

NBA Live 13 is effectively delayed indefinitely. While EA Sports may say the game isn’t, technically, delayed because it was never given a release date, the publisher today acknowledged many had expected it to release Oct. 2 alongside competitor NBA 2K13, and said it’s giving the NBA Live development team more time to shore up…

If Madden‘s Any Measure the NFL’s Bandwagon Teams are the 49ers and Eagles

Through the first week of play in real life of the NFL, some 81.5 million games have been played in Madden NFL, according to this video commissioned by EA Sports. The teams taken online most so far are the San Francisco 49ers and the Philadelphia Eagles (rated No. 5 and No. 3, respectively, as “teams…

Take a Good Look at the New Enemies of Halo 4

Looking at this 10 minute video from 343 Industries, makers of the upcoming Halo 4, it’s clear that the mark of Forerunner technology is in something like a break action shotgun that, like, actually breaks apart and re-forms as it is reloaded. You see the same kind of telekinetic influence in other concepts of the…

NHL 13: The Kotaku Review

My ice hockey knowledge comes primarily from being an obnoxious and uninformed fan. When Nashville came to San Jose for the 2007 playoffs, I was the guy trying to start the “Child Predators” chant. In Raleigh, before the Carolina Hurricanes arrived, my friends and I would go to IceCaps games and try a stunt called…

Separated At Birth: Lee Van Cleef and Peter Moore?

The Master, and the Dreamcast/EA Sports/EA master. Separated at Birth is pure conjecture. It is not even half-assed genealogical research. Any resemblances are purely coincidental, no matter how hilarious.

The Week In Games: … And a Fight Broke Out

Unless you’re looking to dance with a basketball, this week’s big releases involve a two-person tango with fists: Tekken Tag Tournament 2 or NHL 13, your choice. Tuesday •NHL 13 (PS3, 360) •Tekken Tag Tournament 2 (PS3 360) •Double Dragon: Neon (PSN) •Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier – Raven Strike (XBLA, PSN) •Transformers: Fall…

Madden‘s Loss of Fantasy Exposes the Reality of Sports Video Games

No one I know seriously plays “Mascot Mashup” in NCAA Football, except for maybe the six-year-old son of a good friend from Oregon, who enjoys slamming the “GoDucks” into 11 of his dad’s Stanford Trees. About the most I ever hear about the mode each year from EA Sports is when a developer jokes that…

These are the Six Playing Pieces of Street Fighter: Monopoly

Vega’s mask, Hadouken, Chun-Li’s wrist cuff, M. Bison, Ryu, and Blanka are take the place of the steam iron, Scottish terrier, top hat, thimble et al. in the specially commissioned Street Fighter: Monopoly version of the board game. Capcom-Unity members chose the six pieces by poll, and they’re included with the game made by USAopoly.…

What to Do When Your Game Accidentally Releases Early? Call It a Beta Test.

Middle Manager of Justice, the latest zany game coming from Double Fine (previewed here by Kirk Hamilton) was one of the most downloaded titles on the iTunes App Store when it released on Tuesday. It just wasn’t supposed to release on Tuesday. While the studio has since pulled the app, it elected to make lemonade…

Madden has 38 “Clutch” Players, but What the Hell Does That Mean, Really?

The NFL is kicking off (checks watch) oh, about nowish. Time for a new season of wins and losses, touchdowns and fumbles, and nonstop clichés from analysts and commentators. One such word is “clutch,” a word that seems to define a top performer in a pinch, but has no real objective measure. It’s an attribute…

Happy 13th Anniversary (of your western release) Dreamcast. Gone, but never forgotten.

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Horsing Around

This week Konami went up-down-left-right-WTF-start when it made you a PlayStation Home offer you couldn’t refuse—horse heads. For, like, no discernible reason other than it’s some crap you can slap on your Home avatar. Lacking any good purpose, we’re going to ask you to invent one, in this week’s Kotaku ‘Shop Contest. Source Image: Konami…

EA Sports Rolls Out Red Carpet for a School Barred From the NCAA 13 Club

The mistaken exclusion of South Alabama, a newcomer to college football’s top division this year, from NCAA Football 13 left EA Sports wiping a crateful of egg from its face back in June. Both USA and the embarrassed label would have to stew for another year, until NCAA 14, before the problem could be solved.…

Sunday Comics: YODO, Too.

Welcome to your Sunday read of the week’s best in web comics. Make sure to click on the expand button in the bottom right to enlarge each comic. Virtual Shackles by Jeremy Vinar and Mike Fahmie published Sept. 3.—Read more of Virtual Shackles Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich published Sept. 3.—Read more of Awkward Zombie…

The Minnesota Vikings’ Chris Kluwe—a World of Warcraft enthusiast—has the right perspective on today’s NFL opener

Talk Amongst Yourselves is where you should go to talk about games, life, and weedeaters that start on the first pull.

Kotaku Shop Contest: Art Restoration—The Winners

All of the art world is abuzz over Caveman Jesus, the kindhearted but totally incompetent “restoration” of a fresco in a Spanish church. Well, if the highway to Hell is paved with good intentions, we’re the road striping crew. So come in and check out Mona Croft, Grand Theft Nighthawks, Hitman Gothic and overall winner…