Super Mario Odyssey’s Designers Added Extra Coins Out Of ‘Respect’ For Their Testers

Sometimes when you’re playing Super Mario Odyssey you’ll find a coin in a weird, hard to reach area and think, “how they hell did they think to put this here?” Yoshiaki Koizumi, one of the producers on the game, recently explained the design process behind these hidden caches of coins. [Correction—12:46, 2/6: A previous version…

Celeste Is Brutal Without Being A Jerk About It

Last weekend, I spent hours chasing after a single elusive strawberry in Celeste. Over and over again, I kept dying to the toxic muck surrounding my collectible prize. Hundreds of wasted lives, an endless number of fuck-ups, a complete halting of progress. There was only failure, but I was stubborn. I was going to get…

The Notorious Board Game That Takes 1,500 Hours To Complete

The thick, black-and-white rulebook packaged with every copy of the 1979 war-game The Campaign For North Africa is full of obtuse decrees, but the tabletop community always had a special appreciation for entry 52.6 – affectionately known as the “macaroni rule.” The Italian troops in World War II were outfitted with noodle rations, and in…

The Good Place Is One Of The Best Shows On Television

The Good Place is one of the funniest shows on television. It also makes me want to be a better person. Explaining The Good Place is difficult because it strives to change its own status quo every episode. The shortest possible explanation is that it’s the story of Eleanor Shellstrop, played by Kristen Bell, who…

In The Game: The Game, It’s You Vs. Pick-Up Artists

Years ago, at an outdoor bar in Brooklyn, my best friend and I were enjoying whiskey drinks when two well-groomed men approached us. Making polite excuses, one told my friend that he needed a woman’s opinion on something. “He’s been dating a girl for three months,” he said, gesturing to his buddy, “and she’s moved…

Not Even Cinnamon Toast Crunch Can Make Shredded Wheat Good

In an effort to make one of the world’s oldest, most boring breakfast cereals slightly more palatable, General Mills has blasted pieces of shredded wheat with a metric f***ton of cinnamon, sugar, chocolate and peanut butter. It doesn’t help. There are few breakfast cereals quite as wholesome as shredded wheat. It’s wheat cooked, tempered, rolled…

Playing Dragon Ball FighterZ With A Piano Controller

This is Greg. He modded a PlayStation 3 Rock Band piano controller so he can use it in games like Dragon Ball FighterZ That’s not only awesome but totally intimidating. Check out these photos from TorontoJoe of Even Matchup Gaming and TFCFanboy420 As pointed out by Event Hubs, you can see Greg playing in the…

Sometimes For Cosplay Photos, Only The Pyramids Will Do

You know, like the actual pyramids. The Great Pyramids of Giza. In Egypt. That’s exactly what Japanese cosplayer Reika did. Hey, if you are cosplaying as Ozymandias from Fate Grand Order, going to Egypt certainly won’t hurt your photos! It will only help. As we’ve seen before, the Great Pyramids make for a great cosplay…

A Man Imitating Monster Hunter: World‘s Character Creation Tools

Twitter user Otakapin does a pretty good impression of the Monster Hunter: World character creation tool. His short clip has already racked up over 1.8 million views. Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to…

Final Fantasy XIV: A Snow Sculpture Reborn 

At this year’s Sapporo Snow Festival, the centerpiece is an enormous Final Fantasy XIV snow sculpture. FFXIV producer Naoki Yoshida appeared on stage, giving a speech during the festival’s opening ceremony. The sculpture is lit up with projection mapping during the evening. This isn’t a first for Final Fantasy. Last year, Final Fantasy VII was…

After Gaming For 20 Hours, Man Could Not Walk

A man in Zhejiang Province, China had to be carried out of a net cafe after losing feeling in his legs following a marathon gaming session. According to QQ (via Newsweek), the man didn’t take a break during a reported twenty-hour gaming session. When he tried to get up to go the restroom, he discovered…

An Amazing Dumpling Shop. Tainan City, Taiwan. By Ross Goodwin. 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! 

Under The Sea (Under The Sea)

Pat Presley was part of the small team of artists who worked on Subnautica, an underwater game that’s very good Below you’ll find some of the art Pat contributed to the project. You can see more of his stuff at his personal site and ArtStation page To see the images in their native resolution, click…

A New Sherlock Holmes-Inspired Anime Is In Production

Steve Ahn, director of the new Voltron series and an asst. director on The Legend Of Korra, has a new animated series in development about two young detectives who solve crimes by their smell and can teleport using selfies. The series is called Blossom Detective Holmes, and is kind of a take on Sherlock Holmes,…

Here’s The First Han Solo Movie Teaser Trailer

The first teaser trailer for the Han Solo movie—out very soon!—was just shown as part of the Super Bowl festivities. Lookin’ sharp, Lando.

Fan Creates Smash Bros. Board Game

Libertalia is a good board game about duelling pirates. It can also, with a bit of fiddling, be turned into a recreation of Super Smash Bros This is Super Smash Brothers: TableTop, by jowhee13, where players assemble teams of Nintendo characters then go at it, hurling items and dealing damage while trying to avoid having…

The Week In Games: Colossi Get A Makeover 

It’s a credit to how far video games have come that there are now so many of them worth remaking and updating. I’ve been skeptical of the Shadow of the Colossus remake since it was announced. Having replayed the original recently, I can say it still holds up, even if the controls are a mess.…

Lydia Is Sworn To Carry Your Skyrim Cosplay Burdens

This is Aussie cosplayer Danielle Debs at RTX in Sydney over the weekend. We see a lot of Dragonborn cosplay around when it comes to Skyrim love, but not nearly enough of the unsung Lydia.

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Shadow Of The Tingle 

The world’s a different place than it was back in 2005. Maybe it’s time we had some new colossus to fight as a result. In celebration of Shadow of the Colossus’s stellar remake coming out this week, I thought it was time for us to think about what new, towering monsters we’d like to see…