Owen Good

Twin Galaxies is Taking High Scores Again—for a Fee

Twin Galaxies, the arbiter of video game records for more than three decades, and the authority Guinness World Records uses to certify video game high scores, changed hands last fall. It’s now owned by two arcades, one in Denver and the other in New Jersey. In a six-month transition period since, Twin Galaxies wasn’t accepting…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Ding

This week, the premiere date for the final season of Breaking Bad was announced (it’s Aug. 11), and that’s timely enough to for a mashup I’ve always wanted to see: Héctor Salamanca and video games. For those not in the know, (no spoilers) Héctor is a paralyzed, mute former cartel don who communicates by ringing…

Only two Sega Plutos ever were made—it was a prototype console made in the late 1990s—and the owner of this one just put it up for auction on GameGavel. High bid is currently $7,600.

Sunday Comics: Pull My Finger

Welcome to Kotaku‘s Sunday Comics, your weekly roundup of the best features, chosen by our readership. The features enlarge if you click on the magnifying glass icon in the lower right corner of each image Brentalfloss the Comic by Brent Black, Andrew Dobson and Dan Roth. Published April 18. Read more of Brentalfloss the Comic…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Le Chateau What-If, the Winners

My attempt at crowd-sourcing an image for this ridiculous crime story netted a dozen worthy candidates, led by overall No. 1 Abrahim Ladha. A cliffhanger awaits you, for The ‘Shop is the Cemetery of the Chateau d’If! 3Diego_Herrera Abrahim Ladha Americao Luke arniejolt arniejolt iceman09 metalliccookies resdog rv88 snufkin snufkin the-bearded-merchant toolsoldier uscg_pa

No, His Mom Isn’t Making Him Apologize to You on Xbox Live

Much as we’d all like to think this is true at face value, it isn’t. It’s a proto-meme, bubbling under the surface of the Internet for a few years. It popped up again this weekend. If you receive this message, you’re being double-victimized. First, some a-hole unfurls a homophobic slur at you in Call of…

Have you voted on Madden‘s cover enough already? Help Tecmo Super Bowl‘s de facto world championship pick its pun name for next year’s tournament. Remember when Chris Berman was funny? These are much better My favorites: The Unbearable Lightness of BJ Tolliver, Schroeders of the Lost Ark, Creedence Atwater Revival, The Mandarich Candidate and Total…

This blatantly obvious viral marketing video from 2K Games means we’ll soon be hearing about ‘The Bureau,” whether that is the title or the subtitle of the “XCOM Shooter.”

After Four Years, an Industry Scourge Loses His Edge

One of the unhappiest stories I’ve ever followed has come to a proper conclusion. When Tim Langdell got a great video game removed from the iTunes store because its title was Edge, I went ballistic. In hindsight, that was rash. But piece by piece, over the past four years his bogus, parasitic operation has been…

IGN‘s “Top Games to Play on 4/20” is pretty damn hilarious. Go check it out.

Goodwill Hunter Who Found Rare Game is Selling It to Pay Student Loans

The woman who purchased from a Goodwill store one of the rarest collectible video games in the world—valued by some at $15,000—says her heart “raced the whole time” as she found it, bought it, and walked out of the store. “I recognized the game immediately but verified the title online before I purchased it,” the…

Iron Man 3 on a Budget Gives Shell-Head a Much-Needed Haircut

Iron Man has one more movie left before they reboot the franchise and shit out another three. My hopes are not high for Iron Man 3, in other words. But as our friends from Table 8 Productions point out, (we featured The Avengers on a Budget one year ago) it’s all about managing expectations. Because…

Disney Plans to Release a Star Wars Film Every Year Beginning in 2015

At CinemaCon today, Disney revealed plans to release new Star Wars films each summer beginning in 2015. The plan isn’t to go Episode VII, VIII, IX in three years but, rather, to run spinoff films in-between the major “episode releases” every two or three years. This is consistent with earlier reports of plans for spinoff…

Poker Night‘s Platform Unlockables Are OK—Except for the PS3’s

If you’re going to do a crossover video game, then unlockables are as mandatory as inside-joke dialogue. And if you’re bringing the Xbox 360 and PS3 to the Poker Night franchise alongside the PC, then you’ve got to do something specific for each platform. So, here are some Team Fortress skins for you, Mac player.…

Earthbound, a New Zelda & More: See All of the Latest Nintendo Direct

In case you missed the first broadcast, or want to cycle back to make sure you heard something right—there were a lot of games, some with release dates, some without them—here’s the full 37 minute Nintendo Direct that the company put out this morning for North America. Highlights include a 3DS Legend of Zelda set…

Animal Crossing 3DS XL Bundle Comes to North America June 9.

Nintendo says a new 3DS XL Bundle, featuring Animal Crossing: New Leaf will be available in North America on June 9 for $219.99. It comes preloaded with a copy of Animal Crossing (An earlier version of this post erroneously listed the bundle and the game’s release date.)

Mario & Donkey Kong: Minis on the Move, a collection of puzzles and minigames, will be available for the 3DS from the Nintendo eShop on May 11.

Mario & Luigi: Dream Team Comes Out Aug. 11

Mario & Luigi Dream Team, for Nintendo 3DS, arrives Aug. 11. In the game, Mario travels between the real world and a dream world to, yet again, rescue a kidnapped Princess Peach. Co-op puzzles and a legion of Luigis—that can be rolled up Katamari-style to bowl over enemies—also are featured.

Wii U Left Out of Another Major Sports Release with FIFA 14

The first details on FIFA 14 point to continued refinement of the gameplay in EA Sports’ top-selling, critically acclaimed football franchise. But what wasn’t announced also is noteworthy. FIFA 14 is, so far, slated to release for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC—with “additional platforms” to be announced later. That most likely means a…

The Dallas Morning News reports that Pat Summerall, the CBS broadcaster who was the longtime play-by-play voice of EA Sports’ Madden NFL series, has died. He was 82.