Chicago’s L Becomes the ‘Luigi’ Train for a Day

I’m not sure Chicago commuters were ready for those huge, hypnotizing eyes when Luigi greeted them on the city’s L train, rebranded as the “Luigi” yesterday to celebrate the character’s 30th year. He spent the day seeing the city, enjoying its deep-dish pizza, and riding its famous elevated rail line. Nintendo documented the day on…

Payday 2: The Kotaku Review

The plan was to play it by the books: mask up, get in, get out. Grab six bags of cash, more if we’re feeling confident. We’d go in through the back, it’s easy to lockpick that door. I’d take point, ’cause I can talk patrolling guards down; no shooting required….but we’ll put silencers on our…

If you’re wondering, the freaky clown masks are not the most terrifying items in Payday 2 — it’s this 2011 issue of Bro! magazine. Dayshot is an image-based feature that runs every morning, showcasing some of the prettiest,funniest game-related screenshots and art that we can find. Send us suggestions if you’ve got them.

This Series is The “Daria” of Anime

Halfway through the spring anime season, I wrote two articles covering nine anime—the five anime you should be watching and the four anime you could skip. Yet, readers berated me for skipping one anime in particular. And it’s a good thing they did as My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU is an extraordinarily witty anime. Good…

These Korean Dota 2 Announcers Are Mind-Blowingly Great

Breaking it! Pummels it! Chop it! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH… Oh goodness, this is amazing. The biggest Dota 2 tournament in the world wasn’t only home to talented players, but also to wonderful eSports announcers. This video of Korean casters, via tipster Sang, features some of the best. This is fantastic stuff, highlighted in a terrific clip that…

This Roulette Table is My Favorite Gundam Battlefield Ever

About a month back, the PlayStation 3 got its newest Gundam video game. But unlike past Gundam video games, this one takes place not in a fictional future full of giant robots but rather in a modern day setting where Gundams are small-scale plastic models. In the game itself, you go to an arcade, put…

This Game Designer’s Desk Is Overrun with Mecha

Ollie Barder, a senior game designer at People Can Fly, really likes mecha. Like, really, really, really likes them. Don’t believe me? Check out his desk. Recently Epic Games visited People Can Fly and were amazed by Barder’s desk—probably amazed that the man can get any work done! Barder tells Kotaku that’s actually “very easy”…

The Cameo Characters Are the Only Special Thing about Onimusha Soul

Late last week we took a look at the scores of famous Capcom characters that have gotten samurai redesigns in the online social game Onimusha Soul. But sadly, while the cameo characters really are cool to look at, everything else in the game just feels run-of-the-mill for a collectible online card game. When you first…

Japanese Arcade Apparently Bans Smartphone Games

There appears to be a local arcade in Japan with one clear rule: If you are caught playing smartphone games, you’ll get kicked out. Spotted by Japanese Twitter user @komathi_eiki, the sign says that social networking titles and portable games are not permitted. Those who are discovered playing either of these will have to leave!…

Lightning Striking This Japanese Train Is Beautiful and Terrifying

Yesterday in Tokyo, a bolt of lightning struck Tokyo’s Odakyu Electric Railway. The incident looks both stunning and scary. Below, you can see footage of the lightning storm. Skip ahead to around the 1:18 mark to see lightning strike the carriage, which caused a power outage. As IT Media points out, minutes after the train…

Here’s Guillermo Del Toro Looking at a Giant Gundam

Movie director Guillermo Del Toro is in Japan to promote Pacific Rim. He had a big day out in Tokyo that was filled with ice cream and giant mecha. It looks like the best day ever. In this clip from Japanese morning television, you can see Del Toro enjoying, as he calls it, “fat otaku…

Project Phoenix, an indie JRPG with a seasoned staff, already hit its Kickstarter goal—no, make that nearly doubled its goal. Congrats!

There’s a Bra Vending Machine in Tokyo

Over the years, Japan has seen an array of interesting and unusual vending machines. And recently, a brassiere dispensing one debuted in Tokyo. Last Friday, Japanese lingerie maker Wacoal rolled out a bra vending machine at its Une Nana Cool branded specialty shop in Shibuya. The vending machine is packed with the popular wireless “Fun…

This Machine-Gunning Raccoon Is My Favorite Movie Ever

Sure, it’s only all of two seconds from footage filmed off a screen from the audience of a comic-Con panel, but Rocket Raccoon is all of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy I needed to see. Leaked all over the place over the past couple of days, the rapidly cobbled together footage from James Gunn’s intergalactic…

A Chrono Cross Musical Performance Made Possible By The Internet

Ah, Chrono Cross. A game with a uniquely beautiful soundtrack And here, Yasunori Mitsuda’s “Radical Dreamers” is brought to life by two performers in two places—songwriter/composer Laura Shigihara and the members of the Japanese band Meine Meinung

Breaking Bad’s Stoned Star Trek Script, Brought To Life

The Breaking Bad premiere was pretty great across the board, but one scene in particular stood out. That scene, of course, being Badger’s bananas Star Trek script, which involved a bored Enterprise crew holding a pie-eating contest… that goes horribly wrong Vulture has, amazingly enough, already created an animated version of Badger’s script: Ha! THey…

If you haven’t been keeping up with screenshot superstar Dead End Thrills, head on over and see what’s new. He’s got some great stuff from Skyrim (like the one up top), as well as some excellent shots that capture the striking look of DMC I dug this one:

What Metroid: The Animated Series Would Look Like

Would you watch an animated series based on Metroid? I sure would. We’ve featured the work of the super talented artist Dave Rapoza in the past, and now he’s taking a shot at animation. This re-imagining of Super Metroid may not be long, but it’s pretty darn cool. When’s the next Metroid game coming out,…

Petition Claims League of Legends Doesn’t Respect Satanists

Normally, games will filter obscene words, or cursing. League of Legends, curiously, filters out the word “Satan”—but not other religious words such as Jesus, Allah, Zeus, Venus and God. In response, a petition urging Riot to stop censoring the word appeared this weekend. “They are blocking Satanists’ right to freedom of religion by preventing them…

There’s A High School of the Dead Mod For… Mount & Blade

Now here’s a pairing I didn’t see coming. I am neither a big reader of the manga High School of the Dead or player of the action-RPG Mount & Blade, but I remain surprised that someone has modded the game to include the general setup of H.S.O.T.D. And yet that’s what this intrepid modder appears…