Culture

How Hades Speedrunners Clear The Game In Under Eight Minutes

Supergiant Games' roguelike has been mastered by speedrunners

Final Fantasy XIV’s Glorious Rak’tika Greatwood Song Takes Me Back In An Instant

Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today we take shelter from Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers’ everlasting daylight under the canopy of twisted trees in the Rak’tika Greatwood. Under the watchful eye and skillful ear of sound director Masayoshi Soken (interview), hundreds of…

Track: New World Coming (darkDARK Remix) | Artist: Nina Simone | Album: New World Coming 

Gone Fishin’

Khan Kotjan is a freelance artist from Poland. You can see more of Kotjan’s stuff at their ArtStation page

Nintendo Goes After Adult TikTok Influencer Over Pokémon Branding

Pokeprincxss, a TikTok user with 1.9 million followers, has been forced to change her name and pay back some of her earnings after Nintendo issued a cease and desist. As first reported by Gamerant, Pokeprincxss—now known as Digitalprincxss—was recently contacted by Nintendo not long after her attempts to trademark her own username. She was told…

Football Player Changes His Name To “Goku”

Joan Román, a 27 year-old footballer formerly on the books at both Manchester City and Barcelona, has officially changed his name to Goku. Yes, like Dragon Ball Goku, who currently plays in Poland for Miedź Legnica, seems to have made the change a few weeks back, but given the relative obscurity of the league he’s…

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Take On Gods In Smite’s Latest Battle Pass

In action MOBA Smite, gods and creatures from various mythological pantheons battle each other in an all-out war for divine supremacy. Next month, the four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles join that battle. I’m sure they’ll do just fine against Odin, Bastet, King Arthur, and Cthulhu. Partnering once more with Nickelodeon, who lent developer Hi-Rez Studios…

Fall Guys’ Crossover With Sonic The Hedgehog Is, Uh, Something Else

Despite the horrorshow that’s supposedly hiding beneath its contestants’ bean-shaped facades, Fall Guys is a pretty cute game with some neat costumes. I’m not quite sure how I feel about the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog crossover, though. Fall Guys will get a Sonic-themed costume on October 14, Mediatonic and Sega announced during a joint stream…

Crackdown 2 Developer Is Now Called Rockstar Dundee

According to documents filed on the UK’s Companies House registrar, Crackdown 2 developer Ruffian Games is now operating as Rockstar Dundee and has become part of the large stable of worldwide Rockstar studios. As first reported by TheGamer, Ruffian Games became Rockstar Dundee on October 6, with Rockstar’s parent company, Take-Two Interactive, taking ownership of…

New Guilty Gear Character Is Wildly Normal

Over the weekend, Arc System Works announced a new character for Guilty Gear Strive. She isn’t Zappa, but she’s pretty neat nonetheless. Giovanna is overwhelmingly normal, especially for a Guilty Gear character. Apart from a ghost dog with what appears to be a retweet symbol on its head, she’s just, like, a normal lady with…

Pet Fish Discovers Glitch In Pokémon Sapphire

A YouTuber’s pet betta fish accidentally stumbled into a rock duplication glitch in Pokémon Sapphire that doesn’t appear to have been previously reported. Lala, who belongs to Japanese YouTuber Mutekimaru, was wandering around the 2002 Game Boy Advance game’s Seafloor cavern when it made the discovery. The fish was pushing boulders around with the help…

Genshin Impact will get a series of updates and events over the next several months, its developers announced over the weekend. The game’s post-launch future begins with a version 1.1 update and Unreconciled Stars event in November.

Star Wars: Squadrons Players Want Star Wars: Squadrons Players To Stop Ramming Ships

Crashing spaceships into each other is fun, but some Star Wars: Squadrons players would rather you focus on completing the mission than recreating your childhood fantasies. Star Wars: Squadrons features large fleet battles between small fighters, mid-ranged frigates, and large capital ships. It has its problems, but the game is full of small touches in…

The Week In Games: Mario Kart In Your Living Room

You’ve played Mario Kart on your phone, on a GameBoy, on a home console at even at a local arcade. Now, you can play Mario Kart using weird plastic toys in your living room and annoy your cats at the same time. I have no interest in ever playing Mario Kart Live, but I’m extremely…

There’s Nothing Fishy About Darius Gaiden’s Incredible Space Opera

Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today we’re going to get a taste of Zuntata, Taito’s legendary in-house music team, by way of one of its most distinctive talents. Taito’s long-running, horizontal shmup series Darius has always been a little strange, depicting…

Rapper Logic Just Paid Over $183,000 For A Pokémon Charizard Card

Late last week, a gem-mint first-edition shadowless holographic Charizard #4 from 199 sold for $183,812 at Iconic Auctions. With the twenty percent buyer’s premium, the grand total was over $220,000. This is the highest price ever paid for this Charizard card. And it was paid by retired rapper Logic. The card was graded gem mint…

Track: The Pink Phantom | Artist: Gorillaz featuring Elton John | Album: Song Machine Season One: Strange Timez

Good Morning

Arno Hau is a freelance artist from China. You can see more of Arno’s stuff at their ArtStation page

Kingdom Come: Deliverance Is Being Turned Into A TV Series Or Movie

One of those two things, whatever, they don’t even know, aside from the fact that developers Warhorse and a former Netflix executive’s new company want to do something with the earnest if janky medieval RPG. I reviewed the game in 2018and found that while it was mostly a shambles, it did have some charms and…

UFC Fighter Knocks Out Opponent With Sweet Tekken Move

The best sports highlight from the weekend was easily from Joaquin Buckley in the UFC, who hit Impa Kasanganay in the face with a spinning kick and knocked him the fuck out. If you’ve already seen it and thought “that’s straight out of a fighting game”, you are correct! If you haven’t seen it, here…