Culture

Jonas Neubauer, Legendary Tetris Player, Dies At 39

Legendary Tetris player Jonas Neubauer has died, according to a statement on his Twitter account, after a “sudden medical emergency.” He passed away on January 4, at the age of 39. Neubauer was one of the all-time great Tetris players, winning seven Classic Tetris World Championships from 2010 to 2017. As he told Kotaku in…

Mod Puts Gilmore Girls In Fire Emblem

Okay, I’ll admit that my only exposure to the show is listening to it in the background while my sister binge-watched it years back, but this mod that adds elements of Gilmore Girls to Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones is just too incredible for words. It’s the little things that make this project, created by…

I Love Everything About The PS5 DualSense Except The Home Button

Since the PS3, DualShock controllers have had a nice, round home button nestled between the analog sticks that you can easily press to quickly return to the console’s main menu. The PS5’s DualSense changes that. I hate it. Instead of a small acrylic lump with a PlayStation logo on it, the DualSense’s home button is…

A Final Fantasy XIV Player Paid It Forward By Giving Me Money For New Clothes

Speaking to people online can be fraught with miscommunication, but a recent interaction in Final Fantasy XIV made my week. A much more experienced player, out of nowhere, dropped a few thousand gil in my pockets to upgrade my wardrobe. I started playing Final Fantasy XIV on the last day of my holiday break after…

After A Very Shitty Day, The Mr. Bones Speedrun Helped Me Cope

The speedrunning festival Awesome Games Done Quick is not yet over but the greatest run of the event has already been crowned. There’s a good chance you might not have even seen it. No, I don’t mean Argick’s Sonic Mania run that might have broken the Guiness record for fastest commentating. I’m talking about Lizstar’s…

Waluigi Will Never Be In Smash, And Other 2021 Predictions

A new year is here, and surprise! It’s already extremely bad—just like the last one. But maybe better things lie ahead. Or, you know, at the very least, we might get ambushed by some cool video games in addition to all the bad news bears that will inevitably emerge from the shadows to batter us…

Twitch Will Have A Different Pogchamp Emote Every 24 Hours From Now On

Earlier this week, Twitch removed its extremely popular Pogchamp emote, which is used to express excitement in chat, after the face of the emote, Ryan “Gootecks” Gutierrez, encouraged further “civil unrest” after the insurrection at the Capitol Building. Now, just two days later, it’s replaced Gutierrez’s likeness with an elaborate plan that is, honestly, pretty…

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

The weekend is for decompressing after an incredibly trying week. Riding a dog and hunting some monsters sounds like it might do the trick. I am not a Monster Hunter player, but after everything that’s happened this past week, I crave human interaction and the Switch demo for Monster Hunter Rise looks like it’ll do…

The Fastest Hat In All The West

This week we check in some old Fallout 3 questions, rebuild Nancy Pelosi’s garage door, go snowboarding in The Witcher 3, assassinate people in VR, play a canceled Tomb Raider game, and reach for the sky. Great Kotaku Content From The Past Week Try to think about how you would even BEGIN to explain this…

Tech Company Imagines The Nintendo Switch As A Fully Functioning PC

The Nintendo Switch is great, but it would be even better if it could also work like any other computer tablet. Chinese tech manufacturer Lenovo tried to show off what that dream would actually look like with its new prototype: the LaVie Mini. Revealed ahead of this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the LaVie Mini…

$250 Pokémon Plush Is Also A Nightmare Bed

Oh hey, here’s a giant new Gengar plush, I wonder what happens when you roll its tongue out and oh no. Selling for $250, it’s pretty cool as an enormous plush, if collecting those is your thing. This is more than just a cuddly toy, though, as Gengar’s trademark tongue rolls out and is kind…

PlayStation Store Pricing Error Lists Greedfall At £10,000

Greedfall is one of three games available to PlayStation Plus subscribers this month, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at social media. Screenshots shared on Reddit and Twitter throughout the week show that some sort of pricing error has listed the role-playing game at £10,000 rather than its regular price. While the bug seems…

Witcher 3 Mod Gives Geralt A Snowboard

This is VGX Snowboarder, a Witcher 3 mod that lets Geralt climb to the top of a snowy peak and then shred his way back down. Made by Feregorn, it adds a snowboard to Geralt’s inventory, and it works pretty well! Rounding out the whole thing is the addition of some goggles, that you can…

Announced last year, the English-language version of Ask Iwata—a collection of the former Nintendo President’s popular Q&A sessions with developers—will be out on April 13. 

Artist Claims Official Super Nintendo World Website Is Using His Fan Art

A new website for Nintendo’s upcoming Japanese theme park Super Nintendo World went live yesterday. It featured new details and a virtual tour of the video game wonderland ahead of its February 4 opening. It also used an image of Mario for its loading screen that appears to have been created not by Nintendo, but…

SNK Devs Once Put Goku In King Of Fighters 98

In the latest installment of Polygon’s ongoing deep dive series on the making of classic fighting games, veteran developer Toyohisa Tanabe revealed that his team at SNK was experimenting with crossovers as far back as King of Fighters 98 “The team ended up making a build of King of Fighters 98 with Ryu and Ken…

There’s A First-Person Mortal Kombat 11 Mod, For Some Reason

Have you ever wanted to play Mortal Kombat 11 in first-person? Probably not. But, regardless, there’s now a mod that lets you do just that. As spotted by DSOGaming, MK11Hook is a PC mod created by Ermaccer that adds some new features to Mortal Kombat 11, including the ability to change the game’s speed and…

Twitch Suspends Donald Trump’s Channel To Prevent Him From Inciting ‘Further Violence’

In the wake of yesterday’s violent, conspiracy-fueled insurrection at the Capitol Building, Twitch has elected to indefinitely suspend Donald Trump’s Twitch account. In an email to Kotaku, a Twitch spokesperson explained the company’s rationale. “In light of yesterday’s shocking attack on the Capitol, we have disabled President Trump’s Twitch channel,” the spokesperson wrote. “Given the…

Hitman 3 Trailer Shows Off The Trilogy In Irresistibly Goofy VR

The Hitman series does a great job walking a fine line between very serious murder heisting and utterly ridiculous physics simulator. This juxtaposition is on perfectly display in the new Hitman 3 trailer showing off the game’s VR mode. For those not content to meddle in the lives of strangers in third-person, Hitman 3, as…

Fall Guys are about to become Doom Guys when the new cross-over costumes go live starting January 12. The outfits will transform players’s beans into Doom Slayer, Cacodemons, or Tyrants, so you can feel extra bad-ass or demonic while falling to your doom.