Splatoon 2’s Competitive Scene Has A Strong Showing During E3

An invitational was hosted yesterday on Nintendo’s E3 stream for Splatoon 2, featuring four teams competing for a sweet silver squid trophy. Surprisingly, it was a strong showing for the game’s competitive aspirations. E3 has had no shortage of “esports” presentations, from Electronic Arts showing off Star Wars: Battlefront II with a commentated live match…

Undertale‘s Japanese Localization Is Causing A Fan Frenzy

American indie game Undertale is finally getting an official Japanese release. Good for all the hardcore Japanese fans the game has! Its localization is already causing quite a stir. Namely, the way laid-back skeleton character Sans refers to himself. In English, we use the personal pronoun “I” to refer to ourselves. However, Japanese has an…

New Gran Turismo Racing Wheel Only Costs $800

Thrustmaster’s forthcoming T-GT high-end racing that will be available when Gran Turismo Sport hits later this fall. It will be expensive. According to 4Gamer, GT Planet and TjrSim, the wheel is priced at US＄799.99 plus tax. You get the wheel set up, a three-pedal set, and the power supply that looks like a turbo charger.…

Gotanda Crossing. Tokyo, Japan. By Thomas Ito. 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 Great Cosplay Pool Party

Every June, without fail, the tropical surrounds of the Kalahari Resort in Sandusky, Ohio play host to Colossalcon, and some of the best cosplay of the year. Why Ohio, of all places? It’s got something to do with the fact Colossalcon combines thousands of cosplayers, a swimming pool, expensive cameras and the first days of…

Splatoon 2‘s Salmon Run Is A Fun Horde Mode

I splatted and swam through a quick session of Splatoon 2‘s new co-op mode today. I played in a quartet, and this might be how I play Splatoon multiplayer when the sequel launches in July. Salmon Run puts 2-4 players on a platform out in the middle of dangerous waters. Players work as a team…

Sony Has A Weak Excuse For Not Allowing Cross-Platform Play

Minecraft owners can soon play across Xbox One, Switch and PC. Rocket League owners will soon be able to play across Xbox One, Switch and PC. There’s a console missing from that equation, and Sony’s explanation for why that’s the case is not good. In an interview with Eurogamer, PlayStation global sales and marketing head…

Super Mario Odyssey’s Outfits Are A Nice Throwback

Here’s something you might not have noticed watching Super Mario Odyssey’s new trailer: many of those outfits Mario is wearing are based on his appearance in old/obscure Nintendo games. Cute touch! If you’re wondering where they’re all from, clockwise from top-left they’re Picross 2 (1996), Mario x Qix (1990, Game Boy), Yoshi’s Cookie (1993) and…

This Is Not A Drill

Garfield GO is a real video game. Here is the press release: Hello, Just wanted to let you know that our new game — Garfield GO — is now live! Garfield GO is a brand new augmented reality treasure hunt game, featuring everyone’s favorite lasagna-loving cat!  If you enjoy playing Pokemon Go, Munzee, or other…

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Getting Some Good New Stuff

Remember, as fun as it is, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is still a work in progress, so lots of things are going to not just change, but be added to the game as well. Stuff like climbing, vaulting and weather. The climbing looks incredibly useful! The vaulting looks like something that is going to glitch out a…

If you missed it, Kotaku video producer Tim Rogers gave us a tour of the Nintendo E3 booth, the PlayStation E3 booth, and the Sega E3 booth. More to come tomorrow! And if you haven’t seen it yet, here is Tim’s hilarious recap of yesterday’s PlayStation conference:

Why Today’s Metroid Announcements Are Such A Big Deal

Nintendo announced two Metroid titles today: Metroid Prime 4 and a 3DS remake of the 1991 Game Boy classic Metroid II: Return of Samus, to be called Metroid: Samus Returns. Metroid superfans haven’t been waiting as long as Beyond Good & Evil fans, but this is still a coup. Best of all, the war between…

Nine Cool Things I Noticed While Playing Assassin’s Creed Origins

I played Assassin’s Creed Origins for an hour yesterday, with one of the game’s level designers at my side pointing out cool stuff. Combat is now based on hitboxes, meaning you don’t automatically close the gap when attacking… you need to close in and strike accurately. Climbing either is faster or at least feels faster.…

Here’s Destiny 2 Running At 60fps On PC 

When I played Destiny 2 last month, the most striking difference wasn’t anything about the game itself. It was how it felt to play it on PC. Today Nvidia posted a video that shows what the game looks like on PC in 4K resolution, running at 60fps. This won’t be of interest to anyone but…

E3 Day Three Podcast: Nintendo, Super Mario Odyssey

Jason and I continue our Kotaku Splitscreen E3 coverage with Nintendo’s morning announcements. Were two Metroid games enough to energize an otherwise low-key E3? Is Super Mario Odyssey as weird and ambitious as it looks? (The answer to both, basically, is yes.) Listen here: This is our third E3 episode—check out our day-one reactions to…