How Yoshi’s Island Got Its Beautiful, Hand-Drawn Look

Prior to her interview at E3 this week with Splatoon 2 producer Hisashi Nogami, Kotaku’s Cecilia D’Anastasio asked me if there was anything I wanted to know. “Yeah,” I said. “Ask how Yoshi’s Island got its hand-drawn style.” Nogami, you see, was credited as a character designer on that legendary 1995 Super Nintendo game, which…

Poor Waluigi, Nintendo Is So Cruel

It’s early Friday morning. E3 is over. Yet, I still cannot stop thinking about how Nintendo treats Waluigi. Super Smash Bros. Ultimatewas announced with the tagline “Everyone Is Here.” Kotaku previously posted how the internet reacted, but the one that continues to linger is how Waluigi has been wronged. Again. Now, Waluigi is in the…

Live-Action Anime Adaptations Might Be Getting Better

There’s a Jin-Roh movie. It’s based on the 1999 anime version of Mamoru Oshii’s Kerberos manga. And damn, it looks pretty good! The movie was announced back in 2012 and is slated for release this summer in South Korea. No word yet on an international release. Kim Jee-woon, who helmed The Last Stand with Arnold…

Twitch’s E3 Stream Punks Skate 4 Fans

Skate fans were hoping for a Skate 4 announcement at E3 this week, and when it didn’t come, folks were bummed. Anyone watching Twitch’s official coverage of the show earlier tonight, though, were treated to a few moments of delicious hope…before having it snatched cruelly away once again. As they wrapped up today’s show, the…

I Feel Sorry For Sports Games During E3

The kind of person reading this website probably thinks E3 is for you, the F5ing obsessive keen for Cyberpunk and The Last Of Us Part II, but for millions of fans around the world it’s about little more than the first good look at the only game they’ll be playing seriously for the next 12…

Twitch Partners Feeling Burned After Affiliates Receive Features That Took Them Years To Earn

There are Twitch streamers, and then there are Twitch streamers. The platform has tiers: hobbyists, affiliates, and partners. The latter two titles must be earned through lots of successful streaming, and they come with perks that directly impact streamers’ ability to make a living. Now, with the gulf between affiliates and partners closing, tensions are…

Take-Two’s E3 Booth Has No Red Dead And Is Incredibly Chill

The Take-Two booth at E3 makes all other publishers look sweaty and sloppy. No insult to the others, really, because they’re just doing what game publishers do. They’ve got their games and their logos and their trailers and lines of people wanting to play stuff. Take Two’s got four walls of serenity. Compare that top…

Team Sonic Racing Could Be A Lot Weirder

There’s a new Sonic racing game coming, one that ostensibly brings an element of teamwork to the action. So why did I feel like I was the only one pulling any weight, during my demo? There is no “I” in team, but there is one in “Team Sonic.” In Team Sonic Racing, set to arrive…

The World Cup Is Here, And You Can Play It All In FIFA 18

THE WORLD CUP IS HERE AND I GOT THE FEVER BABY. IT’S A MONTH OF FOOTBALL WITH 64 MATCHES AND WHAT EVEN ARE VIDEO GAMES WHO CARES. Hi. I’m Luke Plunkett, Senior Editor at Kotaku.com, and that’s pretty much me this entire month, at least any time I’m away from the keyboard. In previous World…

Call of Duty Fans In Uproar Over Black Ops 4‘s Season Pass

Activision is changing the way that DLC will work for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, and fans are not thrilled. On June 11, Activision announced that Black Ops 4‘s DLC would be delivered via what it calls the “Black Ops Pass.” While the full details haven’t been revealed, the paid DLC pass will still…

The Battlefield Subreddit Has Officially Had It With ‘Historical Accuracy’ Complaints

Battlefield V will have women. When this was revealed during the game’s announcement stream last month, most people said “oh neat” and got on with their lives. A vocal handful, however, found this offensively out of place in their “historically accurate” series about ramping tanks over horses. Weeks later, they still haven’t stopped complaining about…

Podcast: Let’s Talk About Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Did you know Nintendo just unveiled a new Smash Bros. game for Switch, and that it features every fighter in the history of the series? You say you did know that? Oh, okay. At E3 in Los Angeles, my colleague Jason Schreier sat down with Kotaku senior reporter (and Smash expert) Cecilia D’Anastasio to talk…

The Best Video Game Fashion From E3 2018

This year’s E3 looks were all about one thing: cool jackets. The game offerings at E3 this year were kind of slim. While I saw a lot of things I was excited about, it seemed like too few games are actually going to be playable soon, and many of them are hypothetical at best. The…

Splatoon 2’s Octo Expansion is live now for Switch. For anyone who enjoyed the original campaign, this one seems to take some of the game’s fun mechanics and turn them into focused Mario-style levels. Play as the new “Agent 8” through 80 in single-player missions and unlock the choice to play as a male or…