Culture

Top Smash Player Uses Fake Name In Online Tournament

The fighting game community’s shift to online competition in the wake of the covid-19 pandemic has increased the scene’s vulnerability to problems that rarely proved serious in the past. Super Smash Bros. Melee tournament organizers learned this firsthand when a top player using a fake name threw their plans into disarray. Rona Rumble, an online…

Massive Nintendo Leak Reportedly Includes Wii Source Code, Developer Materials, And N64 Test ROMs

What appears to be an unprecedented trove of information related to several past Nintendo consoles was leaked to the internet starting last Friday. Many of the thousands of leaked files concern Nintendo’s 2006 Wii console, including detailed design documents and even seemingly its source code. Such information would be of great interest to emulation enthusiasts,…

It Took You Cowards Long Enough To Add Yaddle To A Video Game

In 1999, our galaxy received a gift: a wise Jedi Master named Yaddle. This Jedi Master was a female member of Yoda’s species. She never appeared in any video games, but that’s going to change when LEGO Star Wars The Skywalker Saga releases later this year. Finally. Yaddleappeared in a few scenes in the first…

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Update Adds New Game Plus, Combat Challenges

Today is a made-up Star Wars holiday, but the new update for Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is in fact very real. The free patch adds a new game plus mode, combat challenges, additional cosmetics, and a slew of upgraded accessibility options. Where many games allow you to carry over abilities into a second playthrough,…

I Don’t Want To Finish Final Fantasy VII Remake

When this time of imposed social isolation began, I had a theory: In the absence of real human connection, some people would find themselves growing more attached than usual to video game characters. Well, dear reader, It Happened To Me. For the past handful of weeks, I—like a great many members of the zeitgeist-chasing gamer…

How’s It Going?: Reset Edition

Welcome to another week, and welcome back to our daily open thread. Social distancing is starting—or continuing—to wear on me. Nothing’s really changed where I live, but the string of days stuck at home is starting to take its toll. My apartment, particularly my couch, looks lived in in a way no amount of cleaning…

The Week In Games: This Tuesday We Riot

The revolution will be televised and also portable. Tonight We Riot releases this week on Switch. Tonight We Riot looks great. In a time when it feels like governments and large corporations are ruining the world and treating people like crap, it might be nice to have a game where you can rise up and…

Deemo II Gets A Beautiful Animated Concept Video

A girl with flowers growing on her head and a mysterious translucent white being embark on an adventure to find a fantasy kingdom in a gorgeous new concept video for the sequel to Rayark’s touching piano-powered rhythm game, Deemo. Through music and cutscenes, the original Deemo told the story of a young girl dealing with…

Track: Protecting The Hive | Artist: Belle and Sebastian | Album: N/A

SonicFox Got Not One But Two New Fursuits

Dominique “SonicFox” McLean has made a name for themselves as a fighting game great. Back in 2018, Kotaku first profiled the esports competitor, who has become famous for their excellent play and their now iconic fursuit. SonicFox is adding not one but two new suits to their line-up of fur-covered wear. As Inven Global reports,…

Track: Evil Eye | Artist: Fu Manchu | Album: The Action Is Go

You Go First

Ken Niimura is a cartoonist and illustrator (and co-creator of I Kill Giants) currently based in Tokyo. We actually featured some of Ken’s stuff a few years back, but that was was in the Before Times. Now that weeks feel like years, years are like decades, and so it’s time to check out what Ken…

Hackers Are Likely Responsible For The Last Of Us Part II Leak

Last weekend’s shocking leak of footage from The Last Of Us Part II was likely committed by hackers who exploited a security vulnerability in prior Naughty Dog games, according to a person who said they were familiar with the hack. Kotaku has confirmed some of the details with a second source who is familiar with…

Counter-Strike Players Charged By Police Over Match-Fixing Allegations

Victoria Police has charged five Australians over deliberately losing and simultaneously betting in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive matches, the first charges of their kind in Australia. The charges stemmed from an investigation by Victoria Police’s Sporting Integrity Intelligence Unit last year, which resulted in six arrests. Five men in Victoria have been charged as a result…

Chinese Exoskeleton Is Basically Death Stranding Cosplay

A Chinese food delivery company has been testing an exoskeleton its couriers could wear which would allow them to carry a lot more stuff. And while they’re at it look like the world’s most expensive Death Stranding cosplayers. The suits are made by ULS Robotics, a firm that specialises in the research of exoskeletons to…

2004’s Star Wars Battlefront Gets Its Official Online Multiplayer Back

As EA begin to wind down support for the latest Battlefront game, a surprise update has brought back online multiplayer for the original Star Wars: Battlefront, released back in 2004. On Friday, both the Steam and GOG versions of the classic multiplayer shooter—which loads of people still prefer to the more modern takes on the…

Track: Cash Machine | Artist: DRAM | Album: Big Baby DRAM 

‘Shop Contest: National Paranormal Day

Boo! Did I scare you!? Sorry. Well, there won’t be any more scares in this post. Today is, according to countless websites that track this stuff, National Paranormal Day. Let’s have some fun, with ghosts, aliens, and ghouls! Your challenge this week: Create images featuring paranormal monsters, aliens, and creatures from video games. You can…

How’s It Going?: Good News Edition

Hello, hi, welcome. Take a seat and we will start the open thread momentarily. I just need to finddd…the… buttonnnn…AHH! Here we go. The open thread is…LIVE! For those of you who care anddon’t follow me on Twitter, I became a full-time writer for Kotaku last week. This is some good news in a time…

Even After A Large Increase Due To Half-Life: Alyx, Less Than 2% Of Steam Users Own VR Headsets

Half-Life: Alyx helped lead a large surge of new VR headsets being connected to Steam, according to data from Valve. However, the percentage of Steam users who own VR headsets is still hovering at around 1.9%. According to a recent hardware survey from Valve, the first since Alyx was released on Steam back in late…