The Best Nintendo Stuff We Saw at Toy Fair

Every year, it seems like more and high-end merch from Nintendo lands on the shelves of Toy Fair. Once again, Kotaku hit the annual trade show in New York City and, this year, we might have seen some of the most beautiful sculpted versions of the company’s characters yet. Look at these figures of Link…

A Journey Through Bootleg Pokémon Games

JonTron has made a career out of playing terrible games so you don’t have to. Which is great, because how else were we going to sit through these awful, bootleg Pokémon titles and crack jokes? This is practically charity. Spanning several Nintendo consoles and handhelds, there have been quite a few awful cash-ins on the…

Heavy Rain Creator Inducted Into Order Founded by Napoleon

Here’s something odd: David Cage, the maker of Beyond: Two Souls and Heavy Rain, now has something in common with Marcel Marceau, Jacques Cousteau and Alexis de Tocqueville: all are members of France’s Legion d’honneur, an award akin to being knighted in the United Kingdom. Le Figaro reported this weekend that Cage, 44, (pictured) the…

Fans Fight To Bring Virtue’s Last Reward Back To Life

Last week, in a heartbreaking series of tweets, game director Kotaro Uchikoshi wrote that he hasn’t been able to greenlight the third planned game in his Zero Escape series. The numbers just haven’t worked out. Those words might mean nothing to you, but Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward, released in 2012 for the 3DS and…

Today’s selection of articles from Kotaku‘s reader-run community: Quality Can’t Be Measured By The Length Of A Game • How Broken Age Uses Its Dual Narrative • Six More Winter 2014 Anime Worth Watching TAY Classic—TAY Open Forum—Beginner’s Guide To TAY Follow them here.

What DayZ Players Say Before They Die

Losing your character in DayZ can be really depressing sometimes, especially if you are fully geared. So playing smart and carefully choosing your last words can save your life. Here’s YouTuber Beeshke and his collection of footage of other players, trying to save their lives—without much success. The moral of the story? Don’t trust anyone…

Transformers ‘Fan Built Bot’ Is One Plane-Looking Lady

Last year Hasbro asked the Transformers fan collective to help create a “Fan Built Bot” by voting on a vehicle mode, color scheme, faction, personality and signature weapon. The end result is Windblade, a female Autobot jet plane samurai. She’s so much fan fiction come-to-life. Hasbro has been slowly revealing Windblade since voting ended last…

Booker with his skyhook from Bioshock Infinite, redrawn by Jenny thorne on DeviantART Looks really cool, just like a cell from a 90s cartoon. Here’s a bonus from the same artist. Fun looking Payday 2 jennyisdrawing [DeviantART] Dayshot is an image-based feature that runs every morning, showcasing some of the prettiest, funniest game-related screenshots and…

Flappy Bird Proficiency Required for Game Developer Job in China

Now…I’m not too sure I understand the whole Flappy Bird thing. I haven’t played the game, so while I might be in the dark, for potential employees of one Chinese game company, Flappy Bird knowledge might just be the way into a job. According to China News, an odd online job listing appeared online in…

Cease And Desist! Toei Animation Looks To Tackle Chinese Bootleggers

Toei Animation, the Japanese animation powerhouse behind some of our (and hopefully your) favourite animations, has started to investigate and send out cease and desist notices to Chinese companies for copyright infringement. Reported by Chinese gaming website Gamelook, Toei has reached out to a few Chinese gaming companies asking them to take down games that…

Okay, I Want This Arcade Game for My Living Room

Or my bedroom. Or the den. Or the dining room. Wherever, this huge cabinet can fit. It doesn’t matter. Steel Chronicle: Ganesh is an upcoming arcade game from Konami. The cabinet, which features huge screens inside, is very, very large. It also has feedback and a sound system to help immerse you even more. The…

China’s Communist Mouthpiece Wants Less Sex in Gaming

Sex sells. It’s a cheap and simple ploy that video game marketers have used for years. The Chinese game industry is no different. In recent years, famous Japanese adult film stars have been tapped to represent and market games to consumers, but now, one of the country’s biggest newspapers has come out against sex in…

Official Ghostbusters LEGO Was Worth Waiting 30 Years

From fan project to commercial reality, it’s been a hell of a ride for Brent Waller’s LEGO Ghostbusters, one that’s coming to an end now that the official set has been unveiled. Due in June, and priced at $50, it’ll include an improved Ecto-1 model and four minifigs, of whom Egon is easily the highlight.