Why We Love Secret of Mana

Today’s announcement of a Secret of Mana remake (out February 15, 2018 for PS4, Vita, and Steam) was welcome news to at least two of us here at Kotaku. To explain why Square’s classic action-role-playing game is so special, we had an impromptu VGCHAT. Jason Schreier: This morning Square Enix announced a brand new, pipin’…

Crypt Of The Necrodancer Developer Announces Sci-Fi City-Builder

Crypt of the Necrodancer developer Brace Yourself Games just announced its upcoming title, Industries of Titan. And it’s very different from what we’ve come to know the studio for. Industries of Titan will be an “industrial city building sim/strategy game, set on Saturn’s moon Titan,” according to the developer. Players can design industrial cities, which…

Philips 40-Inch 4K Curved Monitor Review: Giving Up The Ghost

A 40-inch ultra HD curved LCD monitor with the ability to display up to four full HD inputs simultaneously, Philips’ BDM4037UW seems like the perfect large monitor for a multi-platform gamer. And it would be, if not for a couple small missteps and one large stumble. The “MultiView” feature, as Philips calls it, is what…

Madden 18‘s New Story Mode Is Actually Pretty Touching

Madden NFL 18 has a story mode, a first for a Madden game. Called “Longshot,” it follows the career of fictional would-be quarterback Devin Wade. Unlike Madden 18’s Ultimate Team mode, which allows you to feel like an all-powerful football god who can make record-setting numbers of touchdowns per game, Longshot isn’t about winning. Instead,…

Sandbox Lego building game or marketing tool? Why not both? In honor of the September 22 release of The Lego Ninjago Movie, Lego Worlds is adding a bunch of Ninjago characters and building sets as free DLC next month.

Japan Has Ice Cream Shaped Like Katana 

The city of Seki in Gifu Prefecture has long been famous for sword-making and high-quality kitchen cutlery. Now, as Togech points out, it’s becoming famous for ice cream katana. The basic idea was from a high school student, and according to Asahi Digital, the city’s youth made that a reality. A local Japanese confectionary chef…

Japan’s YouTuber Academy Teaches Kids How To Be Better YouTubers 

Earlier this year, insurance company Sony Life conducted a poll, asking junior high schoolers what they wanted to be when they grew up. For boys, the third most popular choice was YouTuber. Number one was IT engineer/programmer, while number two was game creator. For girls, YouTuber was the 10th most popular choice. That might explain…

Shibuya at Night. Tokyo, Japan. By Jorge Mena. 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! 

Secret of Mana Remake Announced For PS4, Vita And Steam

Square Enix is remaking Secret of Mana. The beloved role-playing game will be released in North America on February 15, 2018. In August 1993, the game was originally released as Seiken Densetsu 2 in Japan on the Super Famicom (SNES), but sold outside Japan as Secret of Mana Earlier this summer, a Mana collection with…

Former Valve Writer Posts Possible Half-Life 2: Episode 3 Plot Summary

Former Valve writer Marc Laidlaw has posted a fictional letter on his site that sure reads like a possible plot summary for Half-Life 2: Episode 3 Laidlaw joined Valve in the 1990s, and announced his departure from the company in January 2016. In that time he worked on the story for Half-Life 1, Half-Life 2…

Now Yakuza 2 Is Getting A HD Remake

Yakuza Kiwami, a HD remake of the first game in the series, is out in the West next week. And when you’re done with it you can start getting ready for a HD remake of its sequel, Yakuza 2 A preorder listing for the game (originally released in 2006) has turned up on Taiwan’s PlayStation…

Seven Magnificent Cowboys

Erikas Perl is the boss of Goodname, a studio in Lithuania that does art for games, movies and animation. You can see more of Goodname’s work at their company site, and check out more of Perl’s stuffat his ArtStation page To see the images in their native resolution, click on the “expand” button in the…

Oh Man Zlatan Has A Video Game And It Looks Perfectly Zlatan

Zlatan Ibrahimovic, a gift from the heavens to the game of football, has a new video game out. And there’s not a blade of green grass in sight. Instead, it’s a sci-fi sports game where Zlatan is picked up by aliens to serve as Earth’s champion in a galactic Driftball tournament. And everyone he races…

Four Years Of Incredible New York Comic Con Cosplay

Photographer Andrew Boyle has been going to the New York Comic Con for years, and has decided to do something with the hundreds of images he’s taken of cosplayers over that time: put them in a very fancy coffee table book. It’s called Heroes & Villains, and while there are some snippets of text here…

Clear Cases For The Nintendo Switch Look Very Nice

Remember when Nintendo used to make everything, from the N64 to the Game Boy Advance, in a clear case? They don’t really do it anymore, but you can pretend they do with these replacement Nintendo Switch cases. They’ve started turning up on retailers like Aliexpress (via Go Nintendo), and look pretty damn great. They’re not…

Popular Battlegrounds Streamer Apologizes For Getting YouTubers’ Embarrassing Video Of Him Taken Down

For weeks, one of the most popular PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds streamers, Grimmmz, has been getting tormented not with guns or frying pans, but with car horns. Yesterday, some players gloated about “stream honking” him and posted a video as proof. Upon seeing this, Grimmmz lost his cool and got the video taken down. He quickly came…

Geralt’s Ass Is Chiseled

Today on Highlight Reel we have lucky shots, butts of stone, teleportation, lucky shots, bike flips and much more! Watch the video then talk about your favorite highlight in the comments below. Be sure to check out, like, and share the original videos via the links below. Subscribe to Kotaku on YouTube for more! For…