Something’s Not Right Between Nintendo And Amazon, But Neither Side Is Talking

You can buy a Nintendo 3DS at GameStop. You can buy one at Best Buy. Target. Wal-Mart. You can buy it from pretty much anywhere—except for the world’s biggest online retailer. For at least the past year, retail titan Amazon.com has not sold Nintendo hardware. There are Amazon listings for the DS and Wii and…

Which New Pokemon Game Should I Play?

I have a dilemma. Here in the office I have Pokemon Black 2 and Pokemon White 2. One will go to Mike Fahey for review. One will go to my 3DS for playing (and JRPG columning). But I can’t decide which to keep. So I’m letting you guys decide. Vote right here: Should I play…

You Won’t Survive FTL‘s Space Mission, But You’ll Remember It

I could have quit. I could have made my defeat happen quicker, less painfully. But cliche or not, the captain goes down with the ship. The rules don’t change just because we’re in space. So I watched my crew dutifully tend to my systems, keeping the ship running as best they could. We knew we…

They Bleed Pixels is a Pleasurably Painful Way to Break In Steam’s Big Picture Mode

The day Valve announced the availability of the television-friendly Big Picture Mode for Steam I hooked up my laptop to the PC, dug out my Bluetooth game controller, and began downloading Transformers: Fall of Cybertron. I soon realized that download would take forever, and grabbed a 319 megabyte copy of Spooky Squid Games‘ beat-em up/platformer…

When I Was A Teenager, I Kept This Myst “Journal”

I’m coming back to PC gaming, so I’m thinking a lot these days about the PC games I used to play. Back in the day, I played Myst, of course. I think everyone in the early ’90s tried it. A month or so ago I was rummaging through my childhood bedroom and found the official…

Guild Wars 2, Log Four: Ten-and-a-Half Lessons I Learned From My Adventures

In my weekly summaries of Guild Wars 2, I’ve looked at exploration, combat, and crafting. I’ve been chasing vistas, leveling slowly, and getting sucked into events as they pop up around me. I’ve even been cautiously exploring the big, boisterous, overwhelming experience that is world vs world PvP. In total, I’ve learned a lot of…

Ryu and Ken Each Get a Trailer for This Great Street Fighter Fan Film

No hadoukens get thrown in these teasers for an upcoming short based on Capcom’s legendary fighting game. But they do a great job of showcasing the single-mindedness of Ryu and Ken. You can feel the building tension in each clip and eagerly anticipate its release when the two martial artists clash. I personally prefer the…

Torchlight II: The Kotaku Review

Click, kill, loot, level up. Click, kill, loot, level up. Loot, sell, re-equip. Rinse, repeat. Your weapons get more powerful as your enemies get more difficult, and the goalposts move, and move, and move. Click, kill, loot, level up. It’s enough to make you wonder why we play video games in the first place. Torchlight…

Two Gaming Companies Find True Love On Twitter

Big gaming distribution deals happen in the back rooms of E3. They happen in big metal skyscrapers and sterile board rooms in New York City and San Francisco. And sometimes they happen by exchanging pictures on Twitter. This morning, the folks behind digital distribution website GOG.com tweeted at game developers Obsidian (whose Kickstartered game Project…

You can go vote for Kingdom Rush, one of the best games on iOS, to be accepted for release on Steam.

A Mysterious Borderlands 2 Side-Project, The Future of Contra and Other Gaming Secrets

Editor’s Note: The mysterious person known as Superannuation has dug through the depths of the Internet and uncovered some interesting facts. Today’s batch gives you some insight to the status of a Contra reboot, the future of Riot Games, and what could be future Borderlands 2 DLC. A handful of CVs from current and former…

Black Ops II Brings Zombies Back to Call of Duty

Recent rumors had the undead returning to Treyarch’s upcoming installment of Activision’s hit shooter series. This trailer confirms the presence of zombies and teases a bit about how they’ll be integrated in Black Ops II‘s near-future sci-fi setting.

Your Local News Anchors Are Already Clueless About the Wii U

Over the last week, local news anchors have been struggling to describe the Wii U and been struggling just as hard to make funny jokes about it while seeming completely natural. Here are some lowlights. Enjoy!

The Tilt-tastic GridBlock Might Be the Best Thing That’s Ever Happened to an Accelerometer

I’m not generally a big fan of tilt-control in my mobile games. Over the past few years only one mobile game that used the accelerometer as its primary means of control has really grabbed me, and that’s One Man Left’s Tilt to Live. 2K Play’s GridBlock makes it two. Gridblock is a game about matching…

Why the Tekken Team Isn’t Developing the New Smash Bros.

While Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai is helming the upcoming Smash Bros. titles, Namco Bandai is developing the games. But does that mean the Tekken team will be making the games? When asked by Kotaku whether or not the Tekken team was involved with the new Smash Bros., Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada stressed this: “Sakurai…

The Artorias of the Abyss DLC for Dark Souls will bring the hit RPG’s PC-only content to PS3 and Xbox 360 on Oct. 23.

Can You Spot All The Gaming References In Today’s Impressively Expansive xkcd Comic?

Today’s xkcd comic is…huge. Enormous. Seriously, the thing goes on for pages. It must have taken creator Randall Munroe forever to draw it all out. But hidden in the huge map of the world as he sees it are a bunch of gaming references, like Mario up top. Or Oregon Trail below, which brings me…

Tales Studio Getting Absorbed By Namco Bandai Wasn’t Such A Bad Thing After All

In 2011, there were rumblings that the Tales Studio, responsible for the Tales of series, was in trouble. Their numbers were looking rather grim, and then came the news that Namco Bandai would be absorbing the Tales Team into their company. Fans worried that this would be the end of the JRPG series maker. It…

This Wii U Ninja Gaiden Trailer Begins With a Sexy Massage and Ends in a Blood Bath

And that’s really what the Ninja Gaiden series is all about, isn’t it? In this trailer for the Ayane-riffic Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge for the Wii U, someone actually says “What the hell’s a girl flying in here for?” Maybe she’s here to punch up the script?

Just When You Think You Can’t Be More Excited For The Hobbit, This New Trailer Comes Along

Wow. Wow. Peter Jackson and crew have totally nailed that inimitable blend of grand and whimsy that makes The Hobbit such a wonderful book. Part one of the Hobbit trilogy comes out December 14. I’ll be waiting in line at midnight. Hobbit ears on.