How Peanuts Used Lucy and Schroeder To Explore Dysfunctional Relationships

Lucy’s relationship to Schroeder was unfulfilling. She craved emotional validation from the one character who was least equipped to provide it. It was both humorous and sad—a contradictory message that Charles Schulz’s Peanuts conveyed so well. This piece originally appeared 5/2/18. Lucy debuted as a toddler in 1952. Schulz declined to reprint these early strips…

A Game About Dating That Instagram-Famous Egg

In early January, an anonymous Instagram user posted a picture of an egg, trying to get other people to like it in order to beat Kylie Jenner’s world record of 18 million likes. They succeeded. And now you can date the egg in a video game. World Record Egg is a short dating simulator on…

FIFA 19’s Latest Update Fixes Overpowered Goal Shooting

Four months after launch, EA has released an update to make some of FIFA 19’s intriguing new shot-taking abilities more realistic and less broken. FIFA comes out every year, and every year the team at EA Vancouver tries to make it worth buying again. For FIFA 19, a feature was added to entice fans called…

Bloodborne Has Clicked For Me (And It Only Took Four Years)

A few weeks ago, I was cursing former Kotaku jerk Kirk Hamilton for forcing me to play through all of Bloodborne. Now, I’m fearing the old blood just like the rest of you. First, a bit of background: I bought From Software’s PlayStation 4-exclusive action game when it first came out back in March 2015.…

Hitman 2 has a limited-time event, the Snow Festival, on the Hokkaido map from January 22-Feb 12. It includes a new mission and target. There’s also a free trial of the level for the course of the event.

Man Arrested For Allegedly Selling A Customized Anime Figure In Japan 

A 39-year-old man has been arrested in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan for allegedly customizing and selling an unauthorized customized anime figure. According to The Sankei Shimbun and Mainichi (via ANN), the man allegedly took the head from a Love Live figure of character Nico Yazawa and put it on the body of a Darjeeling figure from…

Pokémon Cosplay Has Gotten Easier For Cats

Now there are officially licensed Pokémon hats for your cats. Cute, right? The only trick is getting your cat to wear one! Each Pocket Monster hat is priced at 400 yen ($3.66). They are very, very cute. Here and here are the different cat hats for Pocket Monster cosplay. They are sold via capsule toy…

The Japanese Whisky Shortage Won’t Stop [Update]

Earlier this year, Suntory announced that it was pulling Hakushu 12 and Hibiki 17 off the market. Now the Kirin Distillery is yanking one of the best Japanese whisky deals from shelves: Kirin Sanroku Cask Aged Spirit. Update January 22 – 6:00am: The Japanese whisky shortage won’t stop! According to Asahi News, sales of Suntory’s…

Hacking 101

Cristiano Rinaldi is a concept and digital artist from Italy. You can see more of Cristiano’s work at his ArtStation page

What Made Pikmin Special

The Pikmin series was one of those bold moves by Nintendo that seemed to be going in a different direction than anything else in the gaming industry. It didn’t pay off quite as successfully as the herd-defiant Brain Age, Wii or Nintendo Switch, to name three of the company’s more radical creations, but it did…

Games Played A Big Role In Polar Exploration

Earlier this month, I went to Norway to live out my bizarre lifelong dream of turning a birthday in the Arctic Circle. I did a ton of cool stuff—drove a dogsled, met some awesome people, jumped in a very cold sea, and ate a reindeer hotdog (it was delicious). I also went to a polar…

Video Game Menu Music Gets Its Own Tribute Album

The music we listen to as we play our favorite games is nice, but what about the music we hear when we aren’t playing? The Materia Collectivecommunity celebrates the music of the start screen with Menu: An Homage To Game Title Themes, a 52 track remix album featuring music from Final Fantasy, The Witcher, Mario…