Personality Has Become A Vital Esports Skill

Esports commentator and host Alex “Golden Boy” Mendez started out hosting Call of Duty tournaments in hotel ballrooms in 2011 and covering esports for websites like Kotaku. Now, he hosts esports events in stadiums for thousands, as well as esports matches for TV broadcasts. On this bonus episode of Kotaku Splitscreen, I interviewed Mendez on the…

The Best Sandwiches Japan Has To Offer

Some Japanese sandwiches are terrible. Others are okay or even very good. However, these Japanese sandwiches are world-class. Go into your typical Japanese supermarket, and there simply isn’t a wide variety of bread, sliced cheese, meats and condiments. Department stores and fancy groceries are bound to have more variety, but your typical Japanese supermarket doesn’t…

China’s Official Studio Ghibli Posters Are Excellent

This month, Spirited Away will finally be officially released in Chinese movie theaters eighteen years after the movie first came out in Japan. To promote the release, artist Zao Dao created some truly wonderful posters. Via 2ch, have a look: Last year, My Neighbor Totoro was released in China, which was thirty years after the…

Naruto-Themed Ride At Japanese Amusement Park

Amusement park Fuji-Q Highland is opening the closest we’ll see to a Naruto-land, filled with attractions based on the popular ninja anime and manga. According to Kyodo, the Naruto-themed area is nearly 28,000 square feet and will feature attractions like an indoor ride in which guests wear 3D glasses and shoot targets (pictured). There will…

Matsumoto Castle. Matsumoto, Japan. By ShuYung Wu. 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!

Piece Of Junk

Ismail Inceoglu is a concept artist and illustrator from Bulgaria. You can see more of Ismail’s work at his ArtStation page

Square Enix Doesn’t Know Where Some Of Its Old Games Are

Square Enix, one of the largest video game publishers on the planet, is interested in getting its entire back catalogue of games together so it can sell/stream them to you online. But there’s just this one tiny problem: some of the older games are missing. In an interview with Game Informer this week at E3,…

Secret Shenmue Punch Hidden In Game Code Found 20 Years Later

It’s been twenty years since Shenmue was first released, and for all the millions of times it’s been played and completed in that time, it’s taken until 2019 for somebody to find that there’s a homage to Street Fighter hidden in the game’s code. Via Shenmue fan site PhantomRiverStone, Japanese gamer nullpo posted the first…

How Is The Original Contra Still So Got Damn Good

Contra Anniversary Collection surprise launched earlier this week, and with it came the first official rerelease of the Nintendo Entertainment System version of Contra in a long while. And I have to ask: How is it that this game is still so freaking good? I try my best to not wear my rose-colored glasses when…

Valve’s Auto Chess Game Is Called Dota Underlords, Open Beta Next Week

A few weeks ago, Valve announced that it’d be making its own version of the massively popular Dota 2 mod Auto Chess. Today, it revealed that it’s called Dota Underlords, and it’ll go into open beta in “approximately” one week. And if you’ve purchased the Dota 2 International Battle Pass, you can already start playing…

The Witcher 3 On Switch Runs 720p Docked, 540p Handheld

The Witcher 3 getting a Switch port is excellent news, as long as players are prepared for a version of the game that looks nowhere near as good as its console and PC cousins. Tweeted on Tuesday and confirmed to Kotaku by CD Projekt Red today, the Switch version of Geralt’s adventure runs a step…

A Firefighting Game That Makes Fun Of The Gig Economy

Embr’s house groaned as fire licked away at its supports. Collapse was imminent. With a panicking resident slung over my shoulder, I sprinted for a second story window. Outside were three other residents I’d rescued. I took solace in the fact that, no matter what happened next, I’d done some good here. I jumped, and…

Forza Horizon 4’s Lego Expansion Is Gleefully Absurd

Lego is awesome. Driving the super realistic vehicles of Forza Horizon 4 is awesome. Driving the super realistic vehicles of Forza Horizon 4 through a brick-dotted landscape in the game’s Lego Speed Champions expansion increases the awesomeness exponentially. A couple of years back there was a Hot Wheels expansion pack for Forza Horizon 3. It…

The Genesis Mini Is A Beautiful, Tiny Time Machine

Putting your hands on the controller for the Sega Genesis Mini is like traveling back in time, mushy D-pad and all. The Sega Genesis that I had growing up was actually my older brother’s. He wouldn’t let me touch it unless he wanted to play Sonic 2 or NBA Jam in our shared bedroom in…

An RPG Where You Solve Puzzles By Bending Time

Cris Tales is a JRPG-inspired game that was announced on Monday during the E3 2019 PC Gaming Show. After spending some time with its free demo, I’m excited to see what’s next. Coming to consoles and PC in 2020, Cris Tales stars a young girl named Crisbell, a resident of an orphanage who discovers she’s…

Hollow Knight: Silksong Is Drawing Crowds At E3 For Good Reason

There’s been a long line of people queuing up at Nintendo’s booth every day here at E3 to play the sequel to Hollow Knight on the Switch. These people have good taste. Hollow Knight was a great modern execution of classic Metroid-style 2D exploration and combat, set in gorgeous, mostly subterranean areas. Its sequel, Silksong,…

Empire Of Sin Is The Gangster Game Brenda Romero Always Wanted To Make

Empire of Sin, a complex tactics game about running a mob empire in Prohibition-era Chicago, is the game Brenda Romero always wanted to make. When you talk to John Romero, the renowned creator of Doom and now part of the husband-and-wife team Romero Games, he gushes about Empire of Sin. It’s a complex web of…

Hori’s Grip Controller Turns The Switch Into An Absolute Unit [Update]

The Nintendo Switch in handheld mode is essentially a game controller cut in half with a display wedged in the middle. Hori’s Daemon X Machina Grip controller, launching in September in Japan, is a more literal interpretation of the concept. Update: And now there’s a North American Amazon listing for it. The Grip controller is…