Odds and Ends Archives - Page 54 of 74

Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl‘s Graphics Compared To The Original Games’

Late last week, Nintendo announced remakes of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl. The original games were released in 2007 on the Nintendo DS, while the remakes will be out on the Switch this year. Plus, the new versions will not be developed by Game Freak, but rather, ILCA (the games’ original director, Junichi Masuda, will be…

By Brian Ashcraft Published March 1, 2021

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I Love The Roku Screensaver

The past six months (or more) have been a whirlwind of shit news, terrible events, and moments of pure absurdity and horror. It’s been bad, is what I’m saying. Because of this, I often get lost doomscrolling on Twitter or reading another horrible news story about something dreadful. Meanwhile, my patient Roku TV quietly clicks…

By Zack Zwiezen Published February 28, 2021

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Someone Recreated The Entire First Act Of Hamilton In Animal Crossing

Hamilton is one of the most popular musicals in the world. Animal Crossing is one of the most popular games around right now. I guess it only makes sense that someone would combine them, but I didn’t expect it to be so damn good. Somehow, all of us at Kotaku missed this when creator Guitar_Knight14…

By Zack Zwiezen Published February 28, 2021

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Happy 25th Birthday, Pokémon

Dear Pokémon, Ah, my beloved game series. Happy birthday! Man, 25, huh. That’s a big one. It seems like yesterday you were just a little Red and Green version, entertaining gamers of all ages with your signature mix of 151 adorable monsters and your compelling take on rock-paper-scissors. But look at you now—from 151 to…

By Ari Notis Published February 27, 2021

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Fight Sans Undertale Right In Your Browser

Sans is unique in that he’s the most popular character in Undertale while also providing one of the most frustrating boss fights the game has to offer. If you’d like to relive the experience of wrapping up a Genocide run without playing through the whole game again, this “Bad Time Simulator” lets you face the…

By Ian Walker Published February 26, 2021

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Deathloop’s Sultry ‘Déjà Vu’ Will Be My Summer Anthem

Outside of Square Enix announcing a new story DLC for Final Fantasy VII Remake, yesterday’s PlayStation State of Play event was kinda a dud. But there was a notable exception: Deathloop’s new original song “Déjà Vu.” Deathloop, an upcoming game from Prey developers Arkane Studios, is Hitman meets Groundhog’s Day in which you play Colt,…

By Ash Parrish Published February 26, 2021

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Hmm, That New Pokémon Game Sure Looks A Lot Like Breath Of The Wild

Today during a Nintendo livestream we got our first look at Pokémon Legends: Arceus, a new open-world Pokémon game. Almost instantly after it was revealed folks on the internet began comparing it to Breath of the Wild. In fact, one particular shot in the new trailer caught the eyes of many fans for how similar…

By Zack Zwiezen Published February 26, 2021

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Giant Motor Gives PC Enough Rumble To Shake The Very Heavens

Jatin Patel is an iOS developer who works on big, silly projects for his YouTube channel. His latest million-dollar idea was to connect a giant, 2,880 rpm induction motor to his DualShock, magnifying the controller’s comparatively pitiful rumble to extraordinary proportions. I mean, it only makes sense. As you can see in the video, all…

By Ian Walker Published February 24, 2021

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From This Day Forth, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk Shall Be Known As Jet Set Radio 2

Fans have been asking Sega for decades now to make a Jet Set Radio sequel, and since the company seemingly isn’t interested, some fans are stepping in to do it themselves. I’ve already written about Bomb Rush Cyberfunk on the site, but that was when the developers only had a teaser trailer, which merely hinted…

By Luke Plunkett Published February 24, 2021

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Shucks Howdy, It’s The Cowboy Bebop Intro With Smash Characters

I feel like anything I write will do a disservice to this incredible video, so I’ll let it speak for itself. Hell yeah.

By Ian Walker Published February 23, 2021

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Final Fantasy Got It Right With Two Black Fathers

Lately, dads have become the video game industry’s pet trope. There are a ton of games that have won a lot of awards about trying, failing, and in very few cases, succeeding at being a dad. But that trend largely excludes Black fathers (with one extremely notable exception), since the video game industry generally ignores…

By Ash Parrish Published February 23, 2021

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Internet Unites For Amazing Mii Channel Song Jam Session

Composer, musician, and YouTuber Alex Moukala let loose a funky, bass-tastic remix of the Nintendo Wii’s Mii Channel theme music on Twitter yesterday and then invited other artists to do the same. The result is an impromptu jam session full of super-talented people showing their love for one of gaming’s quirkiest songs. Moukala, whose music…

By Ethan Gach Published February 23, 2021

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Hacker Rewrites Crappy SNES Racer To Improve Its Framerate Sevenfold

Brazilian software engineer Vitor Vilela has, for almost a decade, sung the praises of Nintendo’s SA-1 enhancement chip, but never before have the benefits of the souped-up Super Nintendo processor been more obvious than when applied to Race Drivin’, the lackluster 1992 SNES port of Atari Games’ 3D arcade racer that originally ran at a…

By Ian Walker Published February 22, 2021

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Destiny 2 Players Are Jumping Off Cliffs To Avoid Playing Trials Of Osiris

It happened to me: I was looking for groups on the Destiny 2 app to play Trials of Osiris with, joined one, and then found myself jumping off a clif for the next few minutes in a tribute to just how unfun the game’s competitive PVP loot grind can be. Trials of Osiris was lauded…

By Ethan Gach Published February 22, 2021

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I Was Wrong About An Award-Winning Final Fantasy Author

Back in 2014, I wrote about author M.J. Gallagher’s attempts to turn the Final Fantasy series into a giant novel, and said, “It’s not going to win many literary prizes.” I am here today to eat some shit. After completing two of the three volumes (the third is still coming) of his Final Fantasy VII…

By Luke Plunkett Published February 21, 2021

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Guilty Gear Strive Already Has An Infinite

A beta version of the upcoming Guilty Gear Strive is currently being explored by the fighting game community and, surprise surprise, someone has already discovered an infinite combo. The wildly normal Giovanna is a newcomer to the Guilty Gear universe, but she and her ghostly wolf are making their presence known with a simple loop…

By Ian Walker Published February 19, 2021

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Final Fantasy VII Has Been Upscaled To HD Using AI

If you want to play Final Fantasy VII in HD on your PC you could wait for the remake to get ported, or you could play the original game using this mod that employs artificial intelligence to upscale its visuals. While I’ve written about witchcrafty efforts like this previously—with this game, even!—this latest effort by…

By Luke Plunkett Published February 18, 2021

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A Princess Charm Game Would Be Great, Thanks

During yesterday’s Nintendo Direct presentation, Mario Kart Live developer Velan Studios revealed its next game, Knockout City. But all I really care about is the spunky (and wholly unrelated) little princess that was used to market it. Knockout City publisher EA decided to fill the multiplayer dodgeball game’s reveal trailer with clichéd CG characters that…

By Ian Walker Published February 18, 2021

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Yep, Splatoon Is Set After A Climate Apocalypse

Splatoon 3’s reveal yesterday took many folks by surprise, both because there was little indication beforehand that the aquatic shooter would get a third installment and because of the presence of an upside-down Eiffel Tower in the trailer. No, your eyes weren’t deceiving you: Splatoon is set on Earth, thousands of years after the world…

By Ian Walker Published February 18, 2021

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In Bugsnax, Grumpuses Used To Be Frogs With Thicc Butts

Bugsnax developer Young Horses shared some early design concepts for its what-if-we-ate-the-Pokémon-instead, body-horror game, and they are as out there as you’re probably hoping. Starting on the more mild but technically ambitious front, the developers original experimented with making the Grumpus’ relationships more dynamic and fungible: Procedurally generated relationships between Grumpuses could’ve been interesting! It…

By Ash Parrish Published February 18, 2021