Little Debbie Swiss Cake Rolls: The Snacktaku Review

Hostess has the name. Tastykake has the heritage. Those two giants in the snack cake game have dominated the hearts and mouths of preservative-infused baked goods since the invention of “creme”. But, as the dead Jedi says, there is another. Forged in the heart of Chattanooga, Tennessee, Little Debbie is a Southern tradition, as sacred…

The World Ends With You Is Actually A Pretty Good Port

Look, nothing justifies what Square Enix did. Setting up a weekly countdown that everyone giddily expects will be a sequel to beloved DS game The World Ends With You only to reveal that it’s actually a $20 iOS port? Indefensible. But I bought the iPad port of The World Ends With You today, and after…

The History Of Tyria Is Written Into Every Square Inch Of Guild Wars 2

I jumped into Guild Wars 2 on Saturday afternoon, re-creating for myself the Human thief I’d been missing since the first beta weekend back in May. But then I remembered my earlier promise to myself: I needed to step outside of my comfort zone. That’s where the Asura engineer came from. Engineers aren’t too far…

In the Guitar Hero That Never Got Made, People Can’t Even Remember Rock ‘n’ Roll

Quick question: does anyone remember the plot of Guitar Hero III? Does anyone remember if it had one? You might remember that Slash, Axl Rose and Bret Michaels showed up in the threequel, which was the first game in the franchise after it moved to Activision. But that’s about all that was memorable about Guitar…

Source: Gaming Accessory-Maker Says Nintendo Will Launch the Wii U on November 18 [UPDATE 4]

The official release date for the Wii U may have just leaked today during a presentation by gaming accessory-maker PDP at a GameStop managers’ conference in Texas. A rep for PDP was showing the company’s fall line-up at the conference and wrapped their presentation by saying the peripherals would be available just ahead of the…

Rock Band Blitz: The Kotaku Review

Let’s say there’s a spectrum. On the one end, hunched in a leather jacket and stubbing out a cigarette on its boot heel, is Music. On the other end, peering over its sunglasses at a strobe-lit LCD, sits Video Games. All music games exist somewhere on that spectrum. It has been fascinating, inspiring, and a…

Sometimes Fan-Made Trailers Are Even Better Than The Official Ones

Well, at the very least, this fan-made The Secret World trailer is impressive in and of itself. But this isn’t the first time we’ve seen a fan take content from a game and create a fantastically appropriate trailer, sometimes to greater success than the game’s own developers. I’m on the fence about whether or not…

EVE Online and Dust 514 are now linked together via EVE‘s Singularity test server. Watch out for the ISK black hole!

Somebody Has Already Hit Level 80 In Guild Wars 2

According to a report at MMO Culture, a French gamer named Surfeuze has already hit the Guild Wars 2 level cap of 80. (See the lower-left of the screenshot above.) Yep: Someone has maxed out a character before the game has even been officially released. Surfeuze pulled off this feat largely through crafting, using guild-provided…

We Certainly Didn’t Expect To Get A Super Nintendo Cartridge In The Mail Last Week

That Super Nintendo box isn’t real. Neither is the cartridge. I can see how you might be confused: when we got this package in the mail last week, it looked more than authentic enough to trigger some emotional reactions from those of us at Team Kotaku who spent our formative years with Nintendo’s 16-bit gaming…

In a Shocking Twist, This Game Stars Normal-Looking People. Some Of Them Are Even Old.

“This needs to be a subtle art style to go with a subtle game,” Chris Hecker told me during our latest conversation about one of the contenders for World’s Most Interesting Video Game. All Hecker and I were ostensibly doing was talking about the first look he was giving me at the characters in Spy…

An iPhone Game That Splits Your Fingers as Well as Your Brain

After nearly five years with an iPhone in my pocket, I bought an Android phone last week. A HTC One XL. It’s a glorious phone, and I had been looking forward to providing a little more Android coverage on GAOTD, but seeing as I’ve gotten side-tracked playing old Lucasarts adventure games on the thing, I…

17 Things About Resident Evil 6 That You Should Know

It’s not that scary. Its first campaign might be its worst. But after making a bad impression when I played it back in May, Resident Evil 6 is now a game I’m looking forward to a lot. What changed? Oh, I played it for about seven hours this weekend. I think it should be obvious…

Skyrim‘s Dawnguard: ‘We’re Vampire ****ers’

Unnecessary Censorship never fails to make me laugh. “You’ve not only earned your payment, but my **** as well. And believe me, friend, that does not come easily.” (Thanks, Mathue!)

15 Minutes of Lost Planet 3 Footage Introduce New Enemies and Cover Combat

Capcom’s trying out a few different things in Lost Planet 3, which is a prequel to the previous two games in their outer-space action series. The chunk of gameplay above comes from a live demo done at Gamescom 2012 and shows off some of the new Akrid creatures you’ll be battling, as well as the…

My Computer Sucks, Your Character Name is Stupid, and Other Lessons Learned From the Guild Wars 2 Head Start [Update]

Guild Wars 2 went live this weekend for the kajillionty people that managed to wrangle their way into the early start. I am among these people, and I’ve learned some important things about the game, its players, and my own technological shortcomings over the past 48 hours. Update — I have fixed my computer, as…

This Looper 8-Bit Game Trailer Shouldn’t Exist But I’m Glad It Does

As far as I know, there’s no video game tethered to Rian Johnson’s upcoming sci-fi thriller. That’s a shame, as Looper sports exactly the kind of fictional universe I’d like to expanded on in playable form. So, good for me then, that filmmaker Deepak Chetty did the next best thing by making a retro-styled trailer…

Born from a Dead Island Mod, This Game Looks Hellish

It all started with a weapon mod. Techland programmer Marcin Zygadlo created a Dead Island mod that started turning heads in the studio. “It was a proof that chopping monsters frozen by magic spells using two-handed swords is brutally fun and addictive,” Techland dev Marcin Kruczkiewicz blogs. The mod made such an impression that Techland…

This Is Perhaps the Nerdiest Car in Japan

Perhaps! There are lots of nerdy cars, but damn, this is pretty nerdy. This Toyota Auris has been customized in the image of Gundam character Char Aznable. The concept car was shown at a recent hobby event outside Tokyo. When asked if this concept car would ever see production, Toyoto told The Mainichi, “If there…

Strange Beams of Light Zapping Japan or iPhone Glitch? YOU PICK!

During these last few weeks of August, the weather has been strange in Japan. Seemingly every evening, it’s been raining with lightning storms. Several folks have snapped photos of lightning striking. The result is truly odd. The photos show beams of light. Online in Japan, people are saying the images look like something out of…