Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, One Month Later

Smash Ultimate is a living game, and one month later, it’s just starting to walk on two legs. Sure, its launch was explosive, but Smash takes on new meaning as fans’ ideas about it evolve. Who’s top tier in the meta? What’s the wackiest ruleset anyone’s come up with? Will we decide a year from…

Call Of Duty‘s Latest Microtransaction Is A Tiny Red Dot

For a game that’s already taking heat from its player base for the price of its extra cosmetic items, Black Ops 4‘s latest offering seems especially difficult to swallow. A red dot reticle showed up in the Black Ops 4 Black Market on December 25, wearing a price tag of 100 COD Points, or about…

The Stories Behind Assassin’s Creed Mercenaries Are Terrific, But Easily Missed

You don’t need to know the backstory of Shoeless Ogarneos, a mercenary who may try to kill you in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, but the word in the game is that this ancient Greek killer-for-hire only wore bandages on his feet and “liked the red tint they had at the end of each day.” I can…

The Week In Games: Mario Brothers Of Days Past

Not one but two older entries into the Mario Bros. canon resurface this week, because in the world of video games what’s old is eternally new again. And I do hope you like new old games, because otherwise you’re out of luck. In a test of just how many Nintendo fans will buy games they…

Overwatch Fan’s Letter To Jeff Kaplan About Black Women Gets Heartfelt Response

In March 2017, an Overwatch fan wrote to Jeff Kaplan about the lack of black female characters in the game. To her surprise, he wrote back a few months later, saying he hoped that one day diversity would be the norm and promising that there were multiple black characters in the works. “The most important…

Razer Nari Ultimate Head-Vibrating Haptic Gaming Headset: The Kotaku Review

For years, gamers have been seeking ways to feel more connected to their games. The games industry has met that desire with force feedback controllers, flashing lights that synch up with on-screen action and evenfans that blow air to simulate movement. And now there’s Razer’s Nari Ultimate gaming headset, which vibrates my face numb every…

Cooperation Cup’s Brutal Format Makes It Pure Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Bliss

Cooperation Cup, a massive Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike team tournament held in Tokyo every year, stands out from the pack because of its punishing and exciting tournament format. The event got 2019 started right this past weekend with two days of fantastic competition featuring over 500 players, grouped into teams of five for a…

Brock From The Pokémon Anime Might Have A Girlfriend

In the recent Pokémon Sun & Moon episode, Brock is back! And after getting turned down for years, he might finally have a girlfriend. During the show, Brock seems to have hit it off with Olivia. *Brock’s name is Takeshi in Japanese. Like, really hit it off Hope this works out because…

Poop Emoji Reborn As Soft Serve Ice Cream

While poop ice cream isn’t new, here’s the poop emoji turned into soft serve ice cream. As Wired points out, Japanese telecom company KDDI first pushed out the unchi (poop) emoji in September 2000. And this month, IT Media and PR Times are reporting that snack shop SweetXO Good Grief in Tokyo is launching Unchi-kun…

TV Series 24 Is Getting A Japanese Remake

Titled 24 Japan, it’s set for broadcast during the 2020 fiscal year. The drama will be a remake of season 1 but adapted for its new setting. Livedoor is reporting that TV Asahi is handling the remake, which will follow the same real-time format of the American series. TV Asahi negotiated with 20th Century Fox…

Red Carpet Superstar

JungAh Lee is a senior concept artist at Blizzard, and has worked on stuff like Overwatch You can see more of Lee’s work at her ArtStation page

Who wore it better? 2013’s The Last Of Us (left), or 2018’s Some Movie Streaming On Netflix (right)? Thanks @robtrench!

The Best-Reviewed Steam Games Of 2018

More so than perhaps even playing them, Steam is a place where people go to yell about games. Here are the games they yelled most positively about last year. Steam reviews are kind of a mess. The positive/negative binary squelches nuance and doesn’t translate well into an overall percentage score, and the system is easily…