Stop Calling Games ‘Metroidvania’

Let’s talk about one of my least favorite words in the video game lexicon: metroidvania. A portmanteau combining the video game titles Metroid and Castlevania, it takes two made-up video game titles that are pretty cool and evocative on their own and inelegantly mashes them into something worse. And now, that word is one we…

Cuphead Developers Delay DLC, Cite Desire To Make Games In A Healthier Way

Fans of tough-as-nails animated shoot-’em-up Cuphead have been waiting since 2018 for Delicious Last Course, a DLC expansion with a whiff of finality about it. Unfortunately, they’re going to have to wait a little longer, because it’s been delayed to 2020. The developers offered a commitment to quality and a focus on sustainable development practices…

The Division 2 Is Testing Some Much-Requested Features

There’s going to be a lot less to complain about regarding The Division 2 if a batch of features going live in a test build this week make it into the proper game later this month. Ubisoft’s impressive but contentious shooter appears to be getting flashlights (much requested!), badly needed buffs for gadget skills, and…

Seeing A Video Game Instruction Manual In 2019 Makes Me So Happy

No matter how good or bad sexy pinball game Senran Kagura Peach Ball turns out, I will always remember it for the kindness of providing me a tiny manual in these days of physical video game instruction scarcity. My love of video game manuals is well-documented. Years ago, during the launch of the Wii U,…

The Randomly Generated Art Made By My Dwarf Fortress Dwarves Is Terrible

One of my favorite parts of playing Dwarf Fortress is the randomly generated legendary artifacts that my dwarves make. Usually, they’re epic pieces of armor or furniture or crafts that are decorated in brilliant gems and images from the dwarves’ memories. In the game I was playing yesterday, the dwarves kept giving me dumb pieces…

WILL: A Wonderful World: The Kotaku Review

When I booted up the Switch port of WILL: A Wonderful World, the game told me about its autosave function. Then I saw this, set next to a red megaphone icon: “This game includes occasional **** plots. When shocked or surprised please scream loudly and disturb your neighbors.” The stars could refer to anything—botched assassinations,…

Greed Is Good In Gwent‘s New Novigrad Expansion

Gwent’s latest expansion, Novigrad, launched on Friday, and I’ve been playing almost nonstop since. After months away from the Witcher 3-inspired card game, I’ve fallen for Gwent all over again. The Novigrad expansion adds a new theme and mechanics that draw on what I love about the source material, and it also helps the game…

Shenmue III Developers Offer Refunds To Kickstarter Backers Angry About Epic Store Exclusivity

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Fans are upset that an upcoming new game is an Epic Games Store exclusive, and the developers have to react. This time it’s Shenmue III, whose creators said today that any Kickstarter backers displeased with the state of things will be able to get a refund. Last…

Super Mario Maker 2 Creation Tips From A Nintendo Icon And A Level Design Guru

Need advice for Super Mario Maker 2? The game’s producer Takashi Tezuka has five helpful tips, and Chris Totten, the author of An Architectural Approach to Level Design, has ten more. Here are Tezuka’s tips, straight from the guy who produced Super Mario Maker 2 as well as had a hand in so many iconic…

Dotombori. Osaka, Japan. By Jeremy Weiss. JPGs is a photo peek into wherever gamers might find interesting. If you’re a photographer and have images you want to share, drop us a line!

Beautiful Paintings Of Pokemon’s Kanto Region

Games artist Simone Mändlhas been doing a big series of paintings all about Pokemon. Specifically, the landscapes (and cityscapes) of the Kanto region. They’re taking something we normally only see in a top-down game or a cartoon series and breathing life into them, and I cannot get enough of them. You can see more of…

Mordhau’s Developers Are On Some Bullshit [Update]

Mordhau is a very good medieval brawler, but it’s also attracted its fair share of assholes since release. That’s nothing out of the ordinary, a lot of games do, but Mordhau’s problem is that it’s not just retaining them, but catering to their assholey whims. As PC Gamer report in this story about the game’s…

Twitch’s New Subscriber-Only Streams Might Violate Game Publishers’ Terms Of Service

Last week, Twitch announced a new feature that’s already proven divisive: subscriber-only streams. True to their name, they’re like regular streams, but only people who’ve subscribed (with real money) to a particular streamer are able to watch them. It’s an option that many streamers say they won’t be using, for fear of dividing their audiences.…

Final Fantasy XIV Shadowbringers Log Two: Great Dancing, Bad Rabbits

When the early access period for Final Fantasy XIV’s Shadowbringers expansion went live on Friday, I did two things. I unlocked the new Dancer job and switched my character to Viera, the game’s new rabbit-eared race. I regret one of those choices. After three days of play, I’m finally venturing into Shadowbringers’ colorful new zones,…

In case you missed our stream earlier of Super Mario Maker 2, here’s me playing some levels that some of you made! Feel free to keep tweeting them at me too. Follow us on Twitch for more streams.

Black Ops 4’s Blackout Mode Is Starting To Feel Pay-To-Win

New DLC weapons added to Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 have its Blackout battle royale mode feeling a little bit more like a pay-to-win game. I really like Blackout, Black Ops 4‘s answer to Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds and Fortnite. The gameplay is so smooth that I’ve had trouble diving back into PUBG and H1Z1,…

Dr Disrespect Apologizes For E3 Bathroom Stream ‘On Behalf Of The Dr Disrespect Brand’

Three weeks ago, Guy “Dr Disrespect” Beahm live-streamed himself walking into an E3 bathroom and, ultimately, walked out without a Twitch channel or an E3 badge. In the immediate aftermath of the incident, he didn’t seem to be taking his suspension very seriously, despite the fact that he may well have broken the law by…