Don’t Worry: Luigi Will Be Playable in The Next Smash Bros.

It’s the Year of Luigi and Nintendo just revealed that Mario’s skinnier, more scaredy-cat brother will be showing up in the next Smash Bros. game. Screenshots of Luigi facing up against Pit, Mega Man and his more famous brother show the green-shirted sibling looking fierce and a little… nervous? It remains to be seen if…

First Look at the Special One Piece 3DS XL Handhelds

To mark the release of 3DS title One Piece: Unlimited World, Nintendo is rolling out two One Piece branded 3DS XL units for Japan. One is “Luffy Red”, and the other is “Chopper Pink.” Priced at 25,980 yen (around US$260), the units come packed with a download version of the game and will go on…

John Carmack Has New ‘Full-Time’ VR Job, But Is Not Quite Gone From id

Legendary game programmer and Doom co-creator John Carmack is getting a new “full-time” job. He’s going to be working as the head of technology at Oculus VR, the company behind the upstart Rift virtual reality goggles. Is this the end of an era? Possibly, though the situation is a bit confusing. The word from the…

Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright Is Coming To The U.S. In 2014

Nintendo has finally confirmed that the Professor Layton/Phoenix Wright crossover adventure game—which hit Japan in 2012—will come to North America next year. For more on Layton vs. Wright, check out our coverage from Japan

Donkey Kong, Tecmo Bowl and Wario Land 3 are all headed to the 3DS’s Virtual Console, Nintendo said today. Super Mario Bros. 3 is coming to Wii U VC later this year.

Only Wii U Owners Can Dress Up as Mario in Rayman Legends

When it got delayed earlier this year, Rayman Legends became a symbol of the agonizing plight of the Wii U owner. It was cruel to hear a game that folks were holding out for would be going to competing consoles. But now, there’s a little reward for Nintendo loyalists that PS3 and 360 owners won’t…

Stan Lee Needs To Be In Every Video Game Ever

Legendary comic book creator Stan Lee is the master of film cameos, and no stranger to video game appearances either, but it’s not enough. He needs to be in every video game, from Duck Hunt to The Legend of Zelda. I’m not sure how involved Stan Lee really is with the Stan Lee’s World of…

Nintendo Direct launching at 10am Eastern—you can watch it live right here, or stick around on Kotaku as we bring you all the news as it happens.

A Sad Day for StarCraft as One of the Best Players Quits

One of the most iconic and best non-Korean members of the StarCraft II eSports scene, Evil Geniuses’ Stephano thinks it is time to move on. He says he’s not enjoying the game as much as he used to, so he put an end to his career as a StarCraft pro. His last match was played…

What Video Games Actually Sell: Greatness

Video games today are no longer part of the entertainment industry. They’re a new industry, yet one as old as history—the Myth Industry. Games are about greatness. In games, we can become world-saving heroes. In fact, it’s assumed that we will be. It is the very structure of games to place each player into the…

Witness the legendary longbowmen of England, capable of firing intracontinental arrows in Civilization V through the English Channel, right into French territory. 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.

Warts and All, a Look at the South Korean Game Industry

Have you ever wondered about what it’s like in the Korean game industry? Like, the good, the bad, and the very, very ugly? Recently, a poll of over one thousand (1,203 people to be exact) folks working in the Korean game industry was collected in “A Report on Game Industry Professional Working Condition.” The poll…

Chinese Store Displays Are the Best

Toothpaste tanks. Slipper birds. Flowers made from bras. Welcome to the world of Chinese retail, where in-store displays can get wonderfully creative. In the West, there have been a number of impressive soda can displays—and China has seen those, too. But it’s also seen suits of armor made from pots and pans as well as…

Japanese game company 5pb has ateaser site up that reads “Shield Energy.” Make of it what you will.

No Bethesda Games Coming To Wii U Anytime Soon

In a recent interview at QuakeCon, Bethesda’s Pete Hines explained to Joystiq why they’re not bringing any of their upcoming titles—The Elder Scrolls Online, Wolfenstein: The New Order and The Evil Within—to Nintendo’s console in the near future: None of the games we’ve announced are being developed for the Wii U, so it’s guaranteed that…

Well, Project Eternity Looks Pretty Hot

This fresh screenshot the devs at Obsidian released for their upcoming RPG Project Eternity is just too damn awesome. Looks like Planescape: Torment mixed with the first dungeon from Baldur’s Gate 2. And that’s not a bad thing at all! To contact the author of this post, write to: [email protected]

Cramped Or Not, I Want To Live in These Tiny Japanese Houses

Land can come at a premium in Japan, especially in big cities. For urban dwellers, sometimes the only option is to build small. Real small. In Japanese, these cramped abodes are called “narrow homes” (狭小住宅 or “kyoushou jyuutaku”). Typically, they’re built on plots of land that are less than 50 square meters. The notion is…

According to this image, which is apparently from an upcoming Bessatsu Shonen Magazine, popular anime Attack on Titan is getting a 3DS game this year in Japan from Spike Chunsoft. To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter @Brian_Ashcraft Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture,…

Don’t Use Smartphones While Walking, Warns Tokyo Staircase

In Tokyo, mobile phone carrier NTT Docomo just unveiled a huge yellow warning plastered all over a Shinjuku Station staircase. It reads, “Walking while using a smartphone is dangerous.” Under the warning, in parenthesis, it reads, “But those people probably didn’t see this announcement.” Oddly, this kind of reminds me of health warnings you see…

These Bass Players Look Like They’re Petting Dogs, And It’s Amazing

Okay. Yes. Okay. Let’s talk about Bass Dogs. You all probably know that sometimes I like to put some fairly out-there stuff in the nightly off-topic spot. Sometimes that stuff involves music. Sometimes that stuff involves animals. And SOMEtimes, that stuff involves dogs photoshopped into band photos so that it looks like bass players are…