Culture

It’s Easier To Appreciate Classical Music When My High Score Depends On It 

The holiday season is an excellent time to listen to soothing classical music. You know what’s better than listening? Playing it in Pianista for the Nintendo Switch, the classical version of DJMax. It’s like an involuntary music appreciation class. When I say Pianista: The Legendary Virtuoso is the classical version of DJMax, what I mean…

The Art Of Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse

Yeah, this is a movie and not a video game, but a lot of people who worked on the film have been doing loads of stuff in video games recently (or came from video games). Plus, pretty much everything here looks incredible and amazing, so indulge me. Below is a range of art made during…

The 64DD Was One Of Nintendo’s Oddest Experiments

Switch Online is Nintendo’s first paid online gaming service, right? Nope. In 1999, Nintendo added the Internet to its Nintendo 64 hardware, by way of a disk drive add-on called the 64DD. It’s one of the company’s most interesting failures. Yes, it’s time once again for Complete In Box, our show that takes a look…

The Terrible Movie That Spawned Two Video Games

On September 20th, 2002, the movie Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever, starring Antonio Banderas and Lucy Liu, was released in theaters. It was a box office failure and hated by critics—in fact, it is the worst reviewed film in Rotten Tomatoes history, sitting at 0% with 116 reviews. But this poorly-reviewed action film received a well-reviewed…

I Love Smash Ultimate’s Much-Maligned World Of Light

While most of the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate players on our staff are busy beating the living crap out of friends, family and random strangers, I’m having fun making my way through the game’s World of Light adventure mode. While our review called the side mode “unnecessarily involved,” juggling stats, skill points and power-ups is…

Track: Lullaby Of Woe (Witcher 3) | Artist: Myrkur | Album: N/A Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

Some Of The Best Cosplay From 2018

As the craft continues to grow, and its professionals become more professional, it feels like each year as we look back at the best cosplay from the last 12 months it gets harder and harder to pick standout examples from the crowd. Everything has just got so good But this annual roundup has to draw…

Switch’s New NES Controllers Do More Than You Might Think

Nintendo has shipped out its first batch of classic-style NES controllers for Switch. I got a pair today, and I found them to be much more useful than I originally imagined they would be, in surprising ways. The Nintendo Entertainment System controllers are only available if you’re a member of Nintendo Switch Online, the paid…

 I Just Unlocked A 2016 Nintendo Game In The Silliest Way Possible

I was recently reminded that Nintendo’s “My Nintendo” rewards program has a single reward that I want. I’ve wanted for two years, actually. I figured it was about time I claimed it, and if I had to click on a bunch of websites along the way, so be it. My goal was to unlock a…

The Week In Games: Donut Watch

This week we’ve got Firewatch coming to the Switch, Cook Serve Delicious 2 hitting the PS4, and lots of other interesting games that you might not know about yet. We’re skating right into the end of the year now, and that means that releases are really slowing up. While there are some interesting ports coming…

The characters of Granblue Fantasy will duke it out next year in an Arc System Works-developed PS4 game. It’s called Granblue Fantasy Versus. Check out the game’s English language site here

The Art Of Hitman 2

Hitman 2 came out of nowhere to be one of my absolute games of the year, so it’s a pleasure to be showcasing a whole ton of art that went into the game’s production. Below you’ll see a range of pieces from both inside IO (and Sumo Digital) and from other third parties, with each…

Bury Me In These 1980s Nintendo Pyjamas

The 1989 Sears Wish Book contained many treats and treasures, but none more beautiful than this collection of official Nintendo clothing. Uploaded by TanookiKuribo for the always excellent VideoGameArt & Tidbits, there’s also a range of kid’s sweats and track pants, including a Zelda onesie that I am retrospectively very upset I never got to…

Track: Heavy Days | Artist: Grumbling Fur | Album: Furfour Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

Speedrunning Turns Alpha Protocol Into A Very Fast Spy Thriller

The new world record for playing Alpha Protocol really fast in New Game+ is 1:39:15, and it was accomplished by TemA in a lightnight-quick speedrun of the weird RPG. Released by Obsidian back in 2010, Alpha Protocol is a truly unique spy thriller role-playing game that has you traveling the globe, managing relationships with allies…

‘Shop Contest: Watch Out In Firewatch

Firewatch is out for the Nintendo Switch next week, and they could have added anything to the game. There could be new secrets in the game! We’re speculating about Firewatch secrets in this week’s ‘Shop Contest. If you haven’t played Firewatch before, you should know that it is spooky. There’s some mysteries. There are disembodied…

How The Game Awards’ Big Announcements Came Together

How does a surprise Game Awards announcement come together? Host Geoff Keighley joins this week’s Kotaku Splitscreen to discuss. First up, we’ve got a very special surprise announcement for fans of the show. Then we talk about the games we’ve been playing, including Celeste, Obra Dinn, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (33:28). Then Keighley joins…

Sunday Comics: Hammer Doctor

Hello! It’s time for Kotaku’s Sunday Comics, your weekly roundup of the best webcomics. The images enlarge if you click on the magnifying glass icon. Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. From the archive, originally ublished December 2017. Read more of Awkward Zombie Corpse Run by Alex Di Stasi. Published December 13. Read more of Corpse…

‘Shop Contest: Katamari Rolls Everywhere, Winners!

Katamari Damacy Rerolled is out on Switch now, and it’s had me thinking about where that big, weird ball is gonna roll next. I asked you all to show me what’s getting rolled up next. There’s nothing better than a big ole ball of trash running around the video game universe. Despite the fact that…

This Week in the Business: Have Those Opinions

QUOTE | “I know a lot of people are going to have some strong opinions about that. Cool. Have those opinions.” – Coffee Stain Studios community manager Jace Varlet explains why the company ditched a planned Steam launch for its first-person building game Satisfactory and will now release it exclusively on Epic Games Store QUOTE…