Culture

Kids Shouldn’t Play Games About Jerking Off

NSFW: If you’re a parent — or even just an all-round concerned citizen — and think games featuring cartoon violence and mild cussing is bad, spare a thought for me. One of the first ever games I played was about jerking off. In 1984, and at the age of four, my father (rightly) realised that…

Sunday Comics

Welcome to your Sunday read of the week’s best in web comics. Make sure to click on the expand button in the bottom right to enlarge each comic. Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich published Jan. 31 – Read more of Awkward Zombie Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira published Feb. 3 – Read more of Nerf…

Microsoft’s First Console Adventure Was A Lesson In Failure

Like most other things associated with Sega’s ill-fated Dreamcast console, it’s been largely forgotten that the ahead-of-its-time machine featured the first ever console appearance (at least in terms of the console itself) for a company by the name of Microsoft. While Microsoft would of course enter the console business properly with the Xbox in 2001,…

Nintendo And The Soviet Union Got Along Just Fine

In today’s day and age, if people want to see a whole bunch of Nintendo characters appearing in the same game, they can play Smash Bros. In the 1980s, they could play…Tetris. The kind of canon-smashing forces that in the 21st century can pit Link against Mario and Kirby against Pikachu simply weren’t around during…

When Activision Met The Wonder Years

Normally, the sequel to a popular video game remains largely the same as the preceding title (or titles). If the first one was a shooter, the second one is a shooter. In 1993, however, one series did things a little differently. That series was Zork, a pioneering succession of text adventure games for the PC…

Sega Tried Kinect Once, And It Didn’t Go So Well

Microsoft’s Kinect is currently the talk of the town. With its full-body, no-controller input, people are finding that for the first time they can play a video game without needing a controller. Those people obviously weren’t around in 1993. If they had been, they’d know that Kinect is actually the second attempt from a major…

Sunday Comics

Nintendo And Sony Didn’t Invent 3D Gaming, You Know

With the PS3 able to play games in 3D and Nintendo about to launch a 3D handheld, it’s easy to get carried away with the “latest big thing” in gaming. And forget we had 3D games the 1980s Yes, long before Sony added 3D capabilities to the PS3 and Nintendo unveiled the 3DS, several companies…

The Best Way To Stop Game Piracy Is With Silly Pirate Heads

Video game piracy is seen by the industry as a dire problem, so much so that many PC games these days are burdened with digital rights management (or DRM) systems. They suck. Pirate heads are way better. Today, DRM is a contentious issue in the world of PC gaming. Several high-profile titles in recent years,…

Sunday Comics

Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich published Jan. 17 – Read more of Awkward Zombie Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira published Jan. 18 – Read more of Nerf NOW!! Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik published Jan. 21 – Read more of Penny Arcade Manly Guys Doing Manly Things by Kelly Turnbull published Jan.…

Before They Were Game Of The Year Finalists…

We have four finalists in our 2010 Game Of The Year awards. All worthy contenders, but as has been pointed out, all are also either sequels or continuations of older series. So let’s take a look at how far they’ve come. In case you’re only just joining us, the four games nominated by Kotaku editors…

The Day The Mario Bros. Saved George Bush, Democracy And America

Despite the majority of their adventures taking place in the mythical Mushroom Kingdom, for one day in 1990, the Mario Bros. forgot about saving a princess and had to save the President of the United States instead. Between 1989 and 1990, Nintendo had two different Super Mario Bros. cartoons made, as part of the same…

Nothing Sega Has Done To Sonic Is This Horrific

You may have seen these cheap LCD games offered as McDonalds Happy Meal toys before. They’ve been run in several territories around the world. But you’ve never seen them advertised like they were in Pakistan. Back in 2004, what must surely be one of the world’s least popular McDonalds outlets tried a unique method of…

Sunday Comics

Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich published Jan. 10 – Read more of Awkward Zombie Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira published Jan. 10 – Read more of Nerf NOW!! Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik published Jan. 10 – Read more of Penny Arcade Manly Guys Doing Manly Things by Kelly Turnbull published Jan.…

Remember When Box Art Gave You Nightmares?

And yes, before you ask, it’s a real game

Sunday Comics

Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich published Jan. 3 – Read more of Awkward Zombie Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira published Jan. 4 – Read more of Nerf NOW!! Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik published Jan. 3 – Read more of Penny Arcade Manly Guys Doing Manly Things by Kelly Turnbull published Jan.…

Well, Game Previews Have Certainly Changed

As seen on The Retroist

Sunday Comics

Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich published Dec. 27 – Read more of Awkward Zombie Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira published Dec. 28 – Read more of Nerf NOW!! Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik published Dec. 27 – Read more of Penny Arcade Manly Guys Doing Manly Things by Kelly Turnbull published Dec.…

See 100% Of Quake In Under An Hour

Blazing your way through the original Quake from 1996 in less than 60 minutes might not impress hardened speed run enthusiasts, but what about doing so while also nailing 100% completion in Quake on its hardest difficulty? That’s what the Quake Done Quick team has done in this speed run that’s almost too fast, burning…

Sunday Comics

Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira published Dec. 23 – Read more of Nerf NOW!! Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik published Dec. 20 – Read more of Penny Arcade Manly Guys Doing Manly Things by Kelly Turnbull published Dec. 20 – Read more of Manly Guys Doing Manly Things Rooster Teeth by Griffon…