The Amiibo Problem

I do not think it is possible to like the entirety of a corporation. Take Nintendo, for example. I like the part of Nintendo that makes Zelda games and, with less alacrity, Metroid games. I do not very much like the part of Nintendo that loves to sell plastic. And, boy, does Nintendo love to…

Splatoon Demo Available Now, But You Can Only Play At Certain Times

You know what? Splatoon is looking pretty great, and I can’t wait to try out the demo (which really sounds like a server stress test) in the next few days. As part of a Nintendo Direct for the May release, Nintendo revealed a bunch of news: Most importantly, a “global testfire” demo is available to…

Why World of Warcraft Lost So Many Subscribers

World of Warcraft subscriptions are down from 10 million to 7.1 million, Blizzard said during a financial earnings call yesterday. A record amount of people unsubscribed in the first three months of this year. This drop is particularly unusual because it happened right after a huge increase in subscribers. MMO-Champion’s graph shows the timeline well:…

German Medieval Ruins Recreated In Unreal Engine 4

Using drones and various techniques, mobile developer David Finsterwalder constructed an awesome virtual version of the German castle Hohenrechberg in Unreal Engine 4. It was designed to be a virtual sightseeing experience using VR headsets. But looking at the size of it, something like this would be the perfect map for medieval death matches. Here’s…

Snake is about to infiltrate Camp Omega in pixel artist Catherine’s beautiful giffy recreation of Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes’ opening. Dayshot is an image-based feature that runs every morning, showcasing some of the prettiest, funniest game-related screenshots and art we can find. Send us suggestions if you’ve got them. To contact the author…

Nintendo Is Coming to Universal Studios Theme Parks

Think Nintendo Land, but real. Today, Nintendo announced it is bringing its games and characters to Universal theme parks. “The immersive experiences will include major attractions at Universal’s theme parks and will feature Nintendo’s most famous characters and games,” stated an official release. To be clear, this isn’t a full-on Nintendo theme park. Rather, Universal…

The Second Parasyte Movie Isn’t Terrible

Despite my feelings for the first movie, I had to see it all through to the end. I used to laugh at peoples’ overreactions to live-action adaptations. And then I heard they were making a two-part, live-action adaptation to one of my most favorite manga series ever, Parasyte And then I saw the trailer And…

This Isn’t a Manga Drawing

This may look like a black and white manga drawing. But no, it’s a three-dimensional figure with a custom paint job. Previously, Kotaku profiled Japanese figure maker mumumuno53 (here and here). Those earlier works were in living color, but his latest effort evokes black and white. From nearly every angle, the custom paint job makes…

Not A Good Day’s Hunting, Then

Yuri Shwedoff is an artist who works for Game Insight, a studio based in Moscow. Don’t look at this stuff if you want to feel warm and fuzzy and happy like you’ve just lay down in a box of puppies beneath two rainbows. Do look at it if you want to see great art. You…

The Video Games That Come Full Circle

I remember the precise moment when I fell in love with Dark Souls. Prior to this moment I was enjoying the game. I was engaged. Trundling through the world with my shield held high, encountering increasingly difficult enemies, adjusting. Dying. In the process of understanding why Dark Souls was so intoxicating. I was desperate for…