What We Loved (And Didn’t Love) About The Castlevania Anime

Netflix’s Castlevania animated series released over the weekend and has plenty of demon killing, testicle jokes, magic and blood. But how does it hold up as a complete package? I sat down with my coworker Mike Fahey to talk about all the good and all the bad. SPOILERS AHEAD Heather Alexandra, Kotaku: Netflix’s Castlevania series…

The Best Speedruns From SGDQ 2017

A lot of people played video games very quickly last week, raising $1.7 million for charity in the process. All of the speedruns at Summer Games Done Quick 2017 were entertaining, but if you don’t have time to catch up on them all, here were some of my favorites. Final Fantasy VII (starts at 11:15)…

KFC Opens A Healthy New Restaurant In China 

This is K Pro. It recently opened in Hangzhou, China, and it’s the first KFC salad spin-off restaurant of its kind. According to That’s Mag, it serves fresh smoked salmon, shrimp, salads, and sandwiches with grilled, not fried, chicken.  Via Sohu and WX Wenku, here is a look inside. (You can see more here and…

New Pokémon Movie Rewrites History, Ditches Brock And Misty

The upcoming Pokémon movie is a re-telling of the Indigo League stories, with two glaring omissions. Warning: This article has spoilers. Namely, the absence of Brock and Misty, who were two of Ash’s first cohorts in original anime. Both might be Ash’s most well-known friends, with Misty even appearing in the first episode I Choose…

Check Out This Nintendo Switch Keyboard

With upcoming massively multiplayer online role-playing game Dragon Quest X coming to the Nintendo Switch this September in Japan, peripheral makers are readying Switch friendly keyboards. This Cyber Gadget one is something else. No idea if it’s actually any good, but it certainly does bring back memories of this Game Cube keyboard controller. The keyboard…

Sunset. Boracay, Philippines. By Martin Tan. 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!

Australian Qualifies For Quake Tournament With 200+ Ping

Quake is a hard enough game as is, and that’s with a good connection. Now imagine playing in an international qualifier for a $1 million tournament on 200+ ping. That’s the path that Daniel “dandaking” De Sousa walked on the weekend, carving his way through several Americans to qualify for the North American regional finals.…

“Morally Indefensible” Fallout 4 Commercial Leads To Lawsuit

Singer Dion DiMucci, best known for 60s hits like Runaround Sue and The Wanderer, is taking the parent company of Fallout 4 developer Bethesda to court over the use of one of his songs in a commercial, which he found “repugnant”. The commercial in question is this one, which features DiMucci’s The Wanderer playing over…

Symmetra Is Overpowered In Real Life

Here’s a video of someone cosplaying as Symmetra’s microwave attack, which not only features some very good Symmetra cosplay, but also a cameo from the character’s voice actor, Anjali Bhimani. Symmetra is Utahime, while the microwave is D Piddy

The Week In Games: Ivalice Homecoming 

Eleven years later, fans will once again be able to return to Final Fantasy XII’s vast, MMO-inspired fields and dungeons in HD and with a lot less jagged edges. You wouldn’t know it from this list, but the series twelfth outing was actually pretty phenomenal. Final Fantasy has always tried to do two completely incompatible…

Fan-Made Mega Man Game Will Let You Create Your Own Levels

There’s a trailer out for a fan project called Mega Maker that aims to do what Nintendo’s Super Mario Maker did for Capcom’s little blue bomber. It’s aimed for release on July 15, if it somehow doesn’t get shutdown before then. The project uses assets collected from Mega Man 1 through 6 and boasts over…

Quake‘s Rocket Jumps And Railguns Are Still Satisfying In 2017

Ah, the sights and sounds. Rocket jumps and railguns, even that grimacing marine, bringing me right back to those good ol’ days of Quake Quake Champions may still be in the throes of open beta, but qualifiers for the 2017 World Championships are running throughout the day, where the modern Quake best compete to earn…

Bidding War Over The Player’s Name In Earthbound Speedrun Goes Down To The Wire

This year’s Summer Games Done Quick speedrunning marathon finished with Earthbound. In part a charity event raising funds for Doctors Without Borders, viewers were allowed to bid on naming stuff at the beginning of the game. Ness’s favorite thing, for instance, was almost Bepis, beat out just barely by R.N.G. instead thanks to $25.12. The…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Christie On Vacation, Winners!

Last week I asked you to take Governor Chris Christie on vacation, and man does that guy get around. Pleasance13’s entry didn’t just take Christie to another beach or alternate universe, it took him inside a game that refused to release until it was something entirely different. I’d be about as likely to play something…

The Coolest Techniques From Arms‘ First Major Tournament

Nintendo’s shiny new Switch fighter had its first major outing this weekend at 2GGC’s Arms Saga, where 50 entrants showed up to throw hands (or controllers, depending on your preferred playstyle). The top eight play was tense and diverse, with many different approaches and fighters. Two Byte & Barq players made the playoffs, and Spring…