Super Mario Maker Community Reveals New Speedrun Playlist With Exciting Race

Twenty eight Super Mario Maker creators have banded together and created an exhaustive series of courses push the game’s speedrun potential. Super Warp World, a community-made speedrun ruleset,brings their levels into an impressive pack full of numerous paths and secrets. The game debuted last night in a blind race and it was awesome. Mario games are popular…

What Made Age Of Empires Great 

Age of Empires is finally back. After twelve long years, Microsoft has finally decided to resurrect one of gaming’s most beloved franchises, and fans are ecstatic. If you’re unfamiliar with the series, Age’s return might not seem like such a big deal. After all, it’s not like strategy fans are lacking options. Starcraft and Company…

The Best Thing About Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle Are The Details

Kingdom Battle is a love letter to Mario and the Mushroom Kingdom, and you see this reverence in nearly every aspect of the game, from mechanics to the animations. Even the flavor text is wonderful. Right now, lots of people are talking about how Luigi dabs when he sends out an explosive sentry: This is…

Destiny 2’s Shiny PC Beta Underlines A Difficult Choice

The PC version of the Destiny 2 beta landed this week, and it’s remarkably slick and pretty. For a certain subset of gamers, a difficult decision looms: PC or console? I already knew that Destiny would be good on PC. I played the PC version months ago andsaid as much. With this week’s beta, thousands…

We’re Making Each Other Play Video Games For 12 Hours

Today on a very special MARATHON LIVE STREAM of Kotaku Splitscreen, Kirk and I will be playing video games for 12 hours. Here’s the catch: they’ll all be video games that we picked for one another—games we’ve never played before. From Splatoon to Suikoden, this will be a packed day full of us playing video…

Pokkén Tournament Match Reignites Debate Over Supposedly Boring Fighting Game Strategies

Winning by any means necessary is a core staple of fighting game competition, but it’s still unsettled whether fighting game pros need to entertain spectators while trying to do so. It’s been an issue in Street Fighter for decades, and top Super Smash Bros. players have even been booed for their controversial approaches to competition.…

Tips For Playing Absolver

Martial arts brawler Absolver drops today, a mix of kung-fu and Souls games from developer SloClap. It’s a deep game that can be pretty hard at times. Here are some tips and tricks that will help you on your road to absolution. Pick a class that suits you. At the outset of Absolver, you can…

Final Fantasy Fighting Game’s Beta Is So Laggy

Dissidia Final Fantasy NT is a fast-paced three-on-three arcade combat game featuring characters from Square Enix’s beloved role-playing franchise, coming to the PlayStation 4 early next year. It’s currently in closed beta, where players are enjoying some spectacular lag. First, take a look at this early practice match against AI competitors. I’m still getting the…

Japan Comes Up With Polite Slang For Twitter Replies

When people in Japan see “FF,” they immediately think Final Fantasy. And for good reason! For decades, “FF” has been shorthand for the iconic role-playing game series. But recently, Twitter users have been using “FF” as a polite way to reply to others. As GetNews reports recently, “FF” refers to “Follow” and “Follower.” It is…

How Anime Art Has Changed: An Explainer

Anime, you’ve changed! To be honest, the look of it is always changing. Styles and fads suit each age, so let’s see how anime has evolved over the past few decades. On 2ch, a commenter uploaded the following image below, which Kotaku has translated into English: I quite like this as it gives a good,…

Robots Want All Our Ice Cream Jobs

It’s not just the factory jobs that robots are taking, but the ice cream ones. For example, look at Yaskawa-kun, a robot that serves soft serve ice cream in a cone. The bastard. Yaskawa-ku has been doing this for years. After putting in a 100 yen coin ($.92), you select what you want via touch…

Nintendo Is Officially Killing Miiverse In Japan 

Nintendo’s Miiverse social network launched on the Wii U in Japan when the console went on sale in the region on December 8, 2012. This November, Nintendo is ending its service in Japan. In an official release, Nintendo announced that Miiverse, along with Wii U Chat and Nintendo TVii, will end on November 8, 2017,…

Joven y Viejo. Havana, Cuba. By Matthew Kirdahy. 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! 

The Best Cosplay From Sri Lanka’s Comic Con

The thirdSri Lankan Comic Con was held on August 26-27 at the SLECC in the country’s largest city, Colombo. Just like last year, there was a lot of great cosplay! Below is a selection of some of the best of it, courtesy of photographer Prasanna Welangoda. You can see more shots of the show at…

Dude Builds Perfect Jumanji Replica

Steven Richter, a man so talented with wood and blades that it’s a little terrifying, felt like creating a “screen accurate” recreation of Jumanji. So he did, and filmed the whole process. And I mean whole process. The entire thing is built from scratch. The magnets are a very nice touch. Please leave all whatyear.gif…

May We All Be As Chill As This Very Chill Cat

HJW is an artist from Korea working in the games business. You can see more of HJW’s work at their ArtStation page To see the images in their native resolution, click on the “expand” button in the top-left corner. Fine Art is a celebration of the work of video game artists, showcasing the best of…