Here’s The Video That Convinced Microsoft To Pay For Mark of the Ninja

You might wonder why Microsoft decided to publish Mark of the Ninja, an independently-developed 2D stealth game that looks and plays like very few other games out there. Today Kotaku can reveal the pitch video that Ninja developers Klei Entertainment showed Microsoft in late 2010 to get them to fund the game. You can watch…

My Favorite New Wii U Stat

I asked the Activision guy who was playing Call of Duty: Black Ops II at the Nintendo World Store to roleplay with me for a moment. He’d be the gamer. I’d be the person coming into the living room saying I needed the TV. This is how I discovered my new favorite Wii U stat.…

At Big Questions Online, game developer/author Jane McGonigal runs down the many ways gaming can be good for you

In Episode Four, Telltale’s The Walking Dead Shambles Assuredly Toward The Finish Line

It’s no accident that Telltale’s The Walking Dead game refers to its five-episode run as a “season.” The whole thing is structured quite a bit like a season of television, with the accompanying peaks and valleys. And so it’s perhaps not a huge surprise after the operatic highs of the spectacular third episode, episode four,…

There is Now an Official Temple Run Store. It Sells All the Temple Run Things.

CafePress and Imangi Studios take an endless run at fan’s wallets with the launch of the official Temple Run merchandise store, packed with shirts, bags and other apparel that will identify you to others prone to rubbing their mobile device for long periods of time and then shouting “Dammit!” Temple Run has been downloaded more…

The Past, Pandaria Present, and Future of World of Warcraft

Reactions to World of Warcraft‘s newest expansion, Mists of Pandaria have been more or less positive, overall—but the expansion has sold fewer copies, and those more slowly, than WoW‘s previous expansion, Cataclysm. WoW, while still a popular and beloved juggernaut among MMORPGs, is aging, and the world of gaming in which it competes has changed.…

The Year’s Two Biggest Dance Games Are Now Out. Time For A Dance-Off.

Before I officially hung up my pointe shoes by their pink ribbons, I was a dancer. I practiced ballet, tap, pointe, and jazz. I did all this for 10 years. You could say I like dancing. So when video games adopted my love for dancing and actually made good use of emerging motion control technology,…

FarmVille Haunted Hollow Chapter 5 Goals: Everything You Need to Know

The next series of goals in the Haunted Hollow saga in FarmVille has now launched, bringing us into Chapter 5. This chapter allows us to win items like decorations, animals and trees for our new farm, and we’re here with a guide on finishing them off, thanks to Zynga. Ent-Ertaining Guests Get 6 Fey Dusts…

The Reason This Game Was Rejected From The App Store Is ‘Nonsense’

Super Hexagon creator Terry Cavanagh wanted to release his free game Don’t Look Back on the iOS store. It was reviewed by Apple’s people today. Then rejected, according to Cavanagh. Here’s what the developer tweeted this afternoon: Here’s the screenshot he linked: So remember, it’s totally okay to clone Mario or Torchlight or Canabalt or…

Looks Like Assassin’s Creed III’s Multiplayer Is Getting Some Cool Upgrades

Man, Ubisoft’s marketing teams sure aren’t afraid of running up some purple language in this new multiplayer trailer for Assassin’s Creed III. “Masterwork of Carnage.” “Blood-stained cotton fields.” That kind of thing. Nevertheless, the competitive online options appear to be getting some much-needed refinements in this month’s AC threequel. And the new Anvil engine makes…

Truly ‘Adult’ Video Games

A funny thing happened at a showcase for new PlayStation games last week. A rep for Sony was showing me the PS3’s slick new online store, flicked through some of the new classifications for games on the store, each of which has a number next to them indicating how many games fit that category and……

Ask a Photographer About Shooting in a Back-Alley Arcade

Some folks go to San Francisco for the food or the fog. Photographer Ryan Russell went for the gaming. As part of Gizmodo’s Intel-Inspired Ultrabook™ Shooting Challenge, Ryan dropped by Frisco’s legendary Southtown Arcade, where he used his lens and his ultra-responsive Ultrabook™ to immortalize a remarkably cordial and totally legal underground fight club. Anyway,…

Beneath Max McMann’s Stupid Grin is an Incredibly Intelligent Courtroom Comedy

Last week I argued that Devil’s Attorney, a courtroom battler for iOS and Android, could never be more entertaining than its over-the-top inspirational 80’s theme song. Chalk up another win for Max McMann. I made an assumption. I assumed that any mobile game that went to such great lengths to play up its wacky 80’s…

This Week’s iPhone Charts: Bad Piggies Gangnam Style

We used to track the iPhone charts, back in the day. Each week we’d gather the pertinent data, update figures, calculate gains and losses—it got to be a tremendous hassle. Now we’re bringing the charts back bigger, better and more of a hassle than ever before. I am a glutton for punishment, so today marks…

Watch Me Try to Do What Lara Croft Does in Tomb Raider

Everyone who’s played a Tomb Raider game knows that Lara Croft’s pistols are her most iconic and trusty weapons. Always filled with ammo, always ready to mow down the rabid wolves, Yeti and human thugs who get in her way. But the new Tomb Raider reboot doesn’t start players off with guns. Instead, your first…

New Skyrim Patch Suggests That DLC Will Bring The Game Back To Morrowind

Skyrim‘s next DLC could be taking us back to the world of Morrowind, the third game in Bethesda’s popular RPG series. Eagle-eyed Elder Scrolls fans have dug through the files for patch 1.8, which Bethesda released yesterday for PC, and found all sorts of clues that could hint at future content for the game. One…

Some Unconventional Uses For The Awesome Vehicle In Borderlands 2‘s New DLC

Borderlands 2‘s first campaign add-on—Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate’s Booty—releases today. It’s good But maybe the best thing about the DLC is the new vehicle it comes with: the hovering sand skiff. Randy Pitchford teased some sort of Star Wars references in the upcoming DLCs during our live Q&A. Once you see the sand skiff,…

Terrific Mass Effect Cosplay May or May Not Survive This Fight

It helps that the model, Matt Smith, looks pretty Shepard-ish to begin with. But let’s be real, it’s the costume, gun and make-up that really helps sell this. Mass Effect 3 [Zonbi, via Cosplay Blog]

Borderlands 2: Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate’s Booty: The Kotaku Review

There’s a hidden oasis in Pandora that you never knew about, with palm trees and crystal clear water that I want to die in (which, incidentally, probably happened a few times). Captain Scarlett and her Pirate’s Booty is the first in a series of planned campaign add-ons for Borderlands 2. It introduces funny new characters,…

Tokitowa is Like Playing an Anime

Tokitowa is a new JRPG filled with time travel, multiple personality disorder, talking dragons, ghost towns, assassins, comedy, and cake—lots and lots of cake. Its creators have called it an “Anime RPG” as it uses 2D sprites for all the characters and enemies which are then superimposed on a 3D world. In battle, Tokitowa plays…