Watch the trailer for Lord of Vermillion III, Square Enix’s latest entry in its card-based arcade game series.

Naming Your Son “Pikachu” Will Get Him Girls. Wait, What?

Selecting names ain’t easy—especially in Japan. Some Japanese parents consult with fortune tellers in hopes of picking a name that will bring their child good luck. One soothsayer has one. That name is Pikachu. Kotaku previously covered why Pikachu is a terrible name for Japanese children. Today, a fortune teller tells us why it’s a…

In This New Mario Kart, You Can Drive a Tank

Later this year, Nintendo and Bandai-Namco will release a new Mario Kart game, Mario Kart Arcade GP GX, in arcades across Japan. Today at the JAEPO arcade game expo, Kotaku East was able to get some hands-on time with the game. Mario Kart Arcade GP GX will feature at least one new character (Don from…

The Dreamcast, the Saturn, and the Genesis Have Returned! (…as Laptop Computers…)

Sega is back in the game console business! Well, sorta. Okay, not really. But this is pretty cool anyway. The Tokyo-based gaming company is licensing out its iconic consoles to be branded on laptop computers. The result is several Sega-themed notebooks: there’s the basic Sega motif, the Genesis Model, the Saturn version, and the Dreamcast…

A Beautiful GIF Of My Most Hated Video Game Enemy

Look, I know if there was a list of the top 100 toughest bosses in video gaming, Minish Cap’s Vaati wouldn’t make the cut. There are NES games, or games that end in “Souls”, that are way harder than any handheld adventure Nintendo has ever conjured for Link. But for me, for some reason, I…

The Last Barfighter Is An Arcade Game That Literally Pours The Winner A Beer

This is The Last Barfighter. It’s a 2D arcade fighting game. It looks pretty awful, but that’s OK. The point here isn’t to simply enjoy a video game. It’s to beat your opponent so you get beer The video above explains it all. Players insert their cups, they fight, and the winner’s cup is filled…

Meteorite Explodes Over Russia, Crazy Footage Looks Like A Disaster Movie

A meteorite has exploded over central Russia, resulting in some absolutely nutso footage. The first video above shows the moment the meteorite streaks across the sky before exploding, while the subsequent videos give you an idea how loud the thing was, before showing you the amazing trail left behind. If ever there was a time…

The World, Or At Least What’s Left Of It, Is Yours

Nivanh Chanthara is a French concept artist who works at Beenox, a studio that’s worked on a bunch of games for Activision over the last few years. His latest project is an “unrevealed” AAA project. Before that, though, he did some work in animation, getting his start on the Iron Man: Armored Adventures series. You…

Watch Capcom Get Sound Effects By Recording Some Very Angry Zoo Animals

If there was a list of the most underappreciated fields in the video game industry, surely sound design would be up near the top. Despite creating and capturing one of a game’s most crucial aspects, you never really hear from the men and women working in the field, and you rarely get a chance to…

You Can Preorder This Game Before You Even Know What It Is

Indie developer 11 Bit Studios has quite the deal for you: if you preorder their game now, you’ll get 50% off the final price. That’d be quite the saving, if we actually knew a damn thing about the game. But we don’t. The deal “is for those brave souls who are willing to jump into…

All This Beautiful Landscape Needs Is An Actual RPG To Play It With

Unigine are a busy little company. They make games, like 2012 RTS Oil Rush. They make PC benchmark tools. And they also make engines. We’re looking at a combination of the latter two here today, as this video takes us on a sweeping tour of an enormous, 64 square-kilometre wooded landscape that looks just perfect…

Maybe Mods Can Improve Aliens: Colonial Marines On PC

No other version of Aliens: Colonial Marines is as disappointing as the PC edition, seeing as it ships with such limited support for even the most basic level of visual flair gamers on the platform are accustomed to. Seeking to fix that, though, as they always do, are modders, who in only a few days…

No One Dies Harder Than John McClane

This weekend, a new Die Hard movie comes out. I’m just going on a hunch here, but I’m guessing that it will continue the series’ ever-downward spiral since the nearly flawless original movie came out in 1988. But that doesn’t mean it’s not fun to talk about Die Hard. We can only hope that Guyz…

Grown Man Turns Living Room Into Enormous, Incredible Battle Of Hoth Diorama

So, Barry here likes Star Wars. A lot. So much so that he’s sacrificed an entire room of his house to recreate Empire Strikes Back’s Battle of Hoth, in a diorama that would make even Industrial Light & Magic proud. It’s a completely static piece; the explosions and smoke you see don’t move, despite how…

If Something Awful Happens, Someone Will Make An Awful Game About It. Chris Dorner Is Just The Latest.

When a tragedy or major event occurs, you can bet on a few key things happening. People will grieve. The newsreel will spin. Twitter will blow up. The Onion will satirize. The blogosphere will write. And of course, thanks to the blessings of accessible game development: someone will make a game. Unfortunately, recent happenings with…

And Then, For A Moment, Remember Me Turned Into The Running Man

One of the oddest parts of Remember Me, which I checked out on Tuesday and liked, was this bit at the very end of my hour-long demo. As Nilin made her way through the game’s second level, the malls and apartments were all playing ads for this famous bounty-hunter dude who, surprise surprise, turns up…

The Heroes And Villains Of Fire Emblem Wish You Happy Valentine’s Day

It’s Valentine’s Day, and so lots of video game companies are putting out goofy cards to celebrate. But what about Fire Emblem: Awakening, one of the most romantic games in recent memory? What would Fire Emblem Valentines look like? Cute, it turns out. The Nintendo 3DS Facebook Page has shared some fun Valentines based on…

Watch Golden Axe Get Ripped to Shreds in 9:27

Raise your hands if you spent a whoooole lot of time playing Golden Axe on your Sega Genesis. I sure did and never in my wildest dreams did I think it could be finished in under ten minutes. That’s exactly what Jason ‘honorableJay’ Feeney does in this speedrun video hosted at Speed Demos Archive. Feeney…

A Heartwarming Valentine’s Day Song From Chell To Her Companion Cube

Portal may not seem like the most romantic game ever, seeing as how it’s populated with a bunch of robots and only a single human character. But even all these years later, people still haven’t gotten over protagonist Chell and her doomed relationship with the heart-decorated Companion Cube. The folks at Random Encounters Entertainment (not…

One Redditor writes an interesting—and funny—post about what it’s like to develop for consoles