Culture

Track: Incinerate | Artist: Sonic Youth | Album: Rather Ripped Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

Sparkle. Tokyo, Japan. By Davide Sasso |Instagram JPGs is a photo peek into wherever gamers might find interesting. If you’re a photographer and have images you want to share, drop us a line! 

Nintendo’s Adorable 8-Bit Robot Fighting Game Is Now Playable On Switch

As usual with Nintendo’s classic game services, Switch Online’s NES app now has more games in Japan than it does in the rest of the world. While today’s worldwide update included Blaster Master and Zelda II, Japan also got a very cool fighting game called Joy Mech Fight. Fortunately, since Switch is region-free, anyone with…

Bright Memory Is An Ambitious Shooter Made By One Guy

Bright Memory’s trailer first caught my attention when the game’s sci-fi soldier main character, Shelia, force-pushed a wolf monster into the air, energy-lassoed her way up alongside it, sliced it to ribbons with a sword, froze it in a time bubble, and then sliced it to more ribbons—because at that point, why not? Good news:…

Last Drinks

Enforcer 12 is a character designer and concept artist from China. You can see more of Enforcer 12’s work at their ArtStation page and personal site

YIIK Is A Throwback 90s RPG I Just Can’t Get Into

Alex, the protagonist of YIIK: A Postmodern RPG, is a burned out liberal arts major who returns home after graduating college just as the year 2000 is looming. The player explores his small town of Frankton, stumbles upon a stray cat in the woods, and is soon plunged into a rabbit hole of creepypasta-inspired mysteries…

Track: Nakidashi sou da yo | Artist: Radwimps featuring Aimyon | Album: ANTI ANTI GENERATION Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

From Dusk till Dawn. Cantipla, Philippines. By Martin Tan. JPGs is a photo peek into wherever gamers might find interesting. If you’re a photographer and have images you want to share, drop us a line! 

Tokyo Streets

Thomas Dubois is an architect from France who also dabbles as a creative director and concept artist. You can see more of Thomas’ work at his ArtStation page

The Smash player and streamer who got suspended from Twitch for drinking too much recently returned by chugging a beer. Clad in a kimono, Joseph “Mango” Marquez stabbed the can open with a knife before proclaiming that he’ll continue to be himself, and that he refuses to be “another fake streamer.” Later, he took an…

Longtime Twitch Streamer Summit1g Tops Ninja’s Subscriber Count

Jaryd “Summit1g” Lazar is no newcomer to Twitch. The mostly retired Counter-Strike pro has been one of the platform’s most recognizable faces since 2012, but over the past few weeks, he’s worked his way into Twitch’s highest echelon. According to third-party analytics site Twitchstats, Summit now has more subscribers than any other streamer—including the platform’s…

Fortnite’s New Update Adds Some Ice-Related Mysteries

Fortnite’s latest update brought scoped revolvers, brought back the ability to re-deploy gliders, and added new mysteries that players are already unravelling. Patch 7.20 dropped this morning, a day after Fortnite development studio Epic announced that it would let players re-deploy their gliders, a contentious feature that was removed from the game in November. It…

Let’s Hear It For Really Good Role-Playing Game Battle Music

I’ve got a song stuck in my head that’s somehow not getting old. A colleague recently wrote about a new Mario & Luigi remake, I dusted off an unfinished older Mario & Luigi game, and next thing I know, I’m on the subway and… am I bobbing my head to some boss battle music? Why,…

Track: The Pure and the Damned | Artist: Oneohtrix Point Never | Album: Good Time Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

The Wedding. Kyoto, Japan. By Leonis Caeli | Instagram | 500px JPGs is a photo peek into wherever gamers might find interesting. If you’re a photographer and have images you want to share, drop us a line! 

Bike Girl

Malcolm Wopé is a concept artist from South Africa. You can see more of Malcolm’s work at his ArtStation page

Valve Outlines Its Plans For Steam In 2019

As part of a lengthy 2018-in-review post published today, Valve outlined improvements it made to Steam in 2018, then broke out its internal corporate crystal ball for a glimpse into the future. If all goes according to plan, it’s gonna be a big year for Steam. But this is Valve, a company whose main contribution…

Dota 2 Custom Mode Is Either One Of Steam’s Top Games Or A Glitch

Before it became the megalith players know, love, and dedicate entire lifetimes to mastering, Dota was just a popular mod of other games like Warcraft 3. Perhaps, in a handful of years, we’ll be speaking similarly of Dota 2 mod Auto Chess—that is, if it really is as popular as it seems to be. Over…

Super Nintendo Game Names Are Buried In The Switch Online NES App

Switch Online’s NES classics app now has titles and descriptions for 22 Super Nintendo games buried in its code, according to dataminers who have looked at the program. That’s a welcome glimmer of hope for anyone hoping to play Super Mario World on their Switch, but it doesn’t necessarily mean those games will show up…

I Hit Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’s Original Level Cap Before Seeing Half The Map

Every time I play Ubisoft’s gargantuan Assassin’s Creed Odyssey I’m astounded at how much of it I have left. I’m also left startled by how different an experience I seem to have had from many other players I’ve heard some people complain that Odyssey is a grind, that they level too slowly, and that they’re…