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Culture
The Deadly Japanese Food That Kills At New Year’s
During the New Year holidays, Japanese people traditionally eat mochi, which is typically translated as “rice cakes” and is incredibly dangerous for older folks. In the West, people might know mochi ice cream, which uses thin pieces of mochi, but in Japan during the New Year’s holidays, people might put bigger (and stickier) pieces of…
By Brian Ashcraft Published January 4, 2019 -
CultureThe Eternal Castle [Remastered] is a new game based on an old game lost to time. As a kid, one of its creators fell in love with a label-less game he found in his dad’s office, but then it broke. Eternal Castle is an homage to “what could be remembered” about that game, as well…
By Nathan Grayson Published January 3, 2019 -
CultureSplitscreen
Why I Now Have To Play All Of Bloodborne To Completion
Starting this weekend, I will be picking up the PlayStation 4 game Bloodborne and starting a new playthrough. For the next few months, I will be finishing it. I don’t really want to, but I must. For Kotaku Splitscreen It’s not that I don’t like Bloodborne. I played through the first few bosses when it…
By Jason Schreier Published January 3, 2019 -
Culture
The Fighting Game Capcom Tried To Get Pulled From Arcades
Capcom once filed suit in an attempt to get Fighter’s History pulled from arcades. And today, you can play it on Switch! So, clearly, the lawsuit didn’t work out. The explosion of the fighting game genre after the release of Street Fighter II in 1991 raised some legal questions. The avalanche of one-on-one martial arts…
By Chris Kohler Published January 3, 2019 -
CultureKotaku Game DiaryThe Sims Is Teaching Me To Appreciate Architecture
When I was in the suburbs with my family over the holiday, I saw my old hometown with new eyes. It has some fantastic architecture—lots of old Colonials and some fancy Victorians. Part of my change of heart has to do with getting older and no longer being resentful of growing up in a small…
By Gita Jackson Published January 3, 2019 -
CultureBright Memory is a shooter/action game made primarily by solo developer Zeng Xiancheng in his spare time. Despite that, it looks nearly as over-the-top as some triple-A games, marrying shooting and swordplay to movement that’s akin to what would happen if a Kung-Fu flick took place entirely inside a tornado. It’s coming to Steam early…
By Nathan Grayson Published January 2, 2019 -
CultureKotaku Game Diary
I Unexpectedly Made A Lot Of Money Telling Fortunes In Final Fantasy XIV
Lately I’ve spent a lot of time in Final Fantasy XIV, Square Enix’s most recent massive multiplayer entry into the legendary game series. Often that means running dungeons for loot or fighting difficult bosses. Yesterday, it meant accidentally becoming a paid fortune teller in one of the game’s bustling metropolises. There are numerous servers to…
By Heather Alexandra Published January 2, 2019 -
Culture
It’s Much More Fun To Play Phantasy Star On Switch
Over my holiday vacation, I played all the way through Phantasy Star, Sega’s classic 1987 Master System role-playing game. I did this by way of playing the new Sega Ages release of the game for Switch—and now that I’m finished, I realize that I’d never have played it any other way. RPGs for 8-bit game…
By Chris Kohler Published January 1, 2019 -
CultureFortnite‘s New Year’s Eve Event Catches Some Players By Surprise
It’s starting to be 2019 around the world, and Fortnite’s in-game New Year’s party has begun. Some players were surprised to see a New Year’s ball drop when it wasn’t New Year’s in their time zone. Hints of an in-game Fortnite event for New Year’s leaked earlier in December, but now we get to see…
By Riley MacLeod Published December 31, 2018 -
CultureKotaku Game Diary
Don’t Miss Out On CrossCode, An Excellent Action-RPG
What I love about CrossCode, an action-RPG that came out on Steam earlier this year, isn’t just that it’s charming as heck and feels great to play. No, what I love about CrossCode is that it’s secretly a puzzle game. Don’t miss out on this one, folks. CrossCode, which I started playing last week after…
By Jason Schreier Published December 31, 2018 -
CultureTop Speedrunner Outlines Perfect Dark‘s Wildest Skips
Rare’s 2000 shooter Perfect Dark is a classic game, building upon Goldeneye 007’s frame to create a more robust shooting experience. Speedrunners are good at finding the cracks in even the best games, and one runner has collected some of the game’s biggest skips and breakthroughs into a video, showing how some of the trickiest…
By Heather Alexandra Published December 31, 2018 -
Culture
The Week In Games: Human Boxing
Another light week at the end of the year, but some neat games are showing up on the Switch. Developers are clearly avoiding the post-holiday release window, and it shows, but Switch owners who are into smaller games are still getting an interesting trickle of stuff to check out. Some highlights are obviously The Aquatic…
By Cameron Kunzelman Published December 30, 2018 -
CulturePortal Speedrun Breaks The Game And My Brain
A speedrunner named Can’t Even has achieved the new world record for the “Out of Bounds” category in Portal by zipping through the game in a blistering 7:07, toppling their own previous record of 7:12. The run is pretty astonishing. The basic play of this Portal speedrun category involves getting the camera out of bounds…
By Cameron Kunzelman Published December 30, 2018 -
CultureSplitscreen
Every Game Kotaku Splitscreen Played In 2018, Part Two
It is now time for part two ofKotaku Splitscreen’s Game of the Year discussions. Except we don’t really want to pick a Game of the Year. We want to pick every Game of the Year. This week, Kirk, Maddy, and I close out 2018 by talking about all the games we played this year from…
By Jason Schreier Published December 30, 2018 -
Culture
Sunday Comics: Palace Mouse
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. Published December 24. Read more of Awkward Zombie Corpse Run by Alex Di Stasi. Published December 27. Read more of Corpse Run Double XP by…
By Cameron Kunzelman Published December 30, 2018
