Square Enix Announces Final Fantasy XV: Royal Edition for PS4 and Xbox One [Update]

On March 6, Square Enix is releasing Final Fantasy XV: Royal Edition for Xbox One and PS4. It’s filled with new features, including a new dungeon, a first-person mode and the ability to control the game’s royal boat. Update January 17 – 7:30pm: An earlier version of this story stated that the Final Fantasy XV…

So Far, The Most Inventive-Looking Nintendo 3DS Game Of 2018

This is Baku Tsuri Bar Hunter. It’s for the Nintendo 3DS, and it looks wonderfully peculiar. In English, the title means “Burst of Laughter Fishing Bar Hunter.” If the fishing reel peripheral that encases the Nintendo 3DS wasn’t self-explanatory enough, this is a fishing game. But here’s the catch: You are fishing for barcodes—not, you…

Fire And Smoke. Punta Bianca, Liguria, Italy. By Daniele Pauletto | Flickr  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! 

Artist Turns Household Objects Into Cool Spaceships

Eric Geusz is a freelance artist who also happens to be a software engineer at Northrop Grumman, and he is very good at turning stuff like tongs, a PlayStation controller and a stapler into impressive starship designs. (And yes, I know this is common practice, but it’s still fun for non-artists to see inspiration laid…

Here Are Five Deleted Bloodborne Characters, Working In-Game

It’s one thing to discover all the bits and bobs in Bloodborne that ended up on the cutting room floor. But what are those characters like patched into the game, running around in the flesh? Over the last month the Bloodborne community has found a bunch of content that was either unused or left on…

Video Game Portraits Are Beautiful Works Of Art

Screenshot artist Andy Cull, whose work we featured last month on Kotaku, is part of a group called Infinite Lives. In this post, you’ll find some “screenshots” from their efforts that represent “the best in video game portraiture”, using a game as the foundation to express photographic art through. Cull has tried to “showcase shots…

I Farmed 9999 Coins So My Son Could Have The Stupid Skeleton Outfit From Super Mario Odyssey

This is what love is. Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Except for that one time my 5-year-old son made me farm 9999…

What Is Your Favorite Game Level?

Super Mario Odyssey did a fantastic job melding a nostalgic love for the older retro Mario titles and its more modern 3D games. Its levels are inspired, creatively designed to balance a sense of wonder with a good challenge. Minor Spoiler Alert New Donk City’s Traditional Festival is the perfect example of that. Mario takes…

How One Of Horizon Zero Dawn’s Most Powerful Scenes Connects Aloy’s Childhood With Her Future

I’m blown away by Horizon Zero Dawn’s breathtaking landscapes, dinosaur-mecha battles, and its emotionally powerful story. In my closing article for today’s run as guest editor, I thought I’d get into why I’m loving my time with Horizon Zero Dawn and how I almost skipped over one of the most surprisingly touching moments in the…

I Didn’t Expect To Like Bayonetta 2 So Much

There are moments in Bayonetta 2 that are such a visual feast, I wished I could slow everything down with Witch Time. Fighting an onslaught of demons and angels with hundreds of explosions assaulting the screen, I loved how Bayonetta always keeps her cool. What I didn’t expect was that the convoluted story, with some…

Ninja Gaiden II’s Brilliant Use Of Weather

When I think back on the NES era, the Ninja Gaiden series stands out for having gorgeous cinematics, tough as nails gameplay, and amazing music. The first game had one of the most engaging stories of the 8-bit era. And while the second wasn’t as strong in the narrative department, it introduced a lot of…

The Castlevania Game That Changed Everything

Symphony of the Night took the best elements of the Castlevania series, injected in RPG elements, and created one of the most compelling games for the original Playstation. A platform-adventure action role-playing game, it was developed by Konami and released in 1997 for the original PlayStation. A couple weeks back, Ben asked what our favorite…

The South Korean Horror Game About Terrifying Schools And Strange Romances

A horror game from South Korean developers ROI Games and Gachyon Soft, White Day: A Labyrinth Named School is notable in being one of the few games released in the States I know of that has the Korean War as its backdrop. It also has the reputation for being one of the most terrifying games…

The Melancholy Music Of Nier: Automata’s Apocalypse

The end of the world is here, and I never thought it’d sound so beautiful. Nier: Automata was one of the most intriguing games of 2017. With machines fighting androids over stakes grander than either could imagine, I was riveted by the story and its characters. The music accompanying the journey was sublime, but also…

Ninja Kid Was My Very First Video Game

Good morning Kotaku! I’m Peter Tieryas and I’m your guest editor for MLK Day. Do you remember your very first video game? Back in the 80s, I had long seen the Nintendo at friend’s houses. When I finally got my own console, I was given the choice of picking out any additional game I wanted…

Why So Many Video Game Enemies Are Really Cute

On Christmas, like many people all around the world, I spent some quality time with my siblings hunched around a video game. During a standard run through one of Super Mario 3D World’s many colorful levels, my sister asked if it was weird for Mario to be running around and attacking a bunch of cute…

The Nintendo Switch Had An Incredible Year In Japan

It’s January. A good time to take stock and reflect on 2017. And for the Nintendo Switch in Japan, what a year it was. Throughout 2017, the Switch drew long (and sometimes hellish) lines. Even by the year’s end, when the Switch became more available, it still continued to post strong sales numbers. But, really,…