Find Out Today if Zynga’s New Game Is Actually a Tiny Tower Rip-Off

Zynga’s controversial new mobile game, Dream Heights, is now available for iOS devices. The tower sim gained notoriety well before launch as back in January, the announcement of Dream Heights kicked off another round of the “cloning vs. inspiration” discussion that seems endemic to the social and mobile development space. Zynga faced accusations of blatantly…

WipEout 2048: The Kotaku Review

Racing games on handheld systems can be a tough sell—with a smaller screen and lower hardware horsepower, it can be difficult to convey the sense of speed that makes great racing games great. The new PlayStation Vita handheld seems designed to address the racing genre head-on—its processing power is closer to a current-gen console than…

New Strategy Game Is Half Risk, Half Magic: The Gathering

Part collectible card set, part strategic board game, the upcoming iOS app Monsterology could be another cool addition to the growing sector of the gaming industry that combines physical media with virtual interactivity The concept is neat; you take one of the cards created by developer Nukotoys, flick it against your iPad, and watch it…

Uncharted: Golden Abyss: The Kotaku Review

When Sony unveiled its PlayStation Vita handheld at last year’s E3, Uncharted: Golden Abyss was one of the first things they showed. This sent a clear message: “Our new handheld is a portable current-gen console. To prove it, we’re going to show it running one of our most technically demanding current-gen games.” After all, the…

Now You Can Play World of Warcraft On Your Coffee Table

Publisher Blizzard is partnering with Hasbro’s USAopoly to release World of Warcraft Monopoly and StarCraft Risk, it said today. So now you can take breaks from your World of Warcraft and StarCraft sessions to play World of Warcraft and StarCraft The new version of Monopoly will feature cities and zones from the popular fantasy MMORPG,…

Twisted Metal Toys Are Meant To Be Driven This Recklessly

We met with a company called NKOK at Toy Fair 2012. They had a Twisted Metal toy to show us. This is how they showed it to us.

Blissful Death? No, Blissful iPhone Gaming

There’s a moment when playing Cave shooters, when your eyes glaze over, and you are no longer looking at the ship you are piloting. You start following the bullets, and as you move yourself through space, you just know where you are. It’s a bit like Luke Skywalker feeling the Force flowing through himself. And…

It’s Like Magic. Skylanders Toys Light Up When They’re Near Certain Things.

The next line of Skylanders toys—those figures that can be synced to video games of the same name—include some sort of “light technology.” Whatever. I ran into the guy who runs the Skylanders development studio at the airport last week and mocked that silly bit of hype. They have lights in them, I told him.…

Watch This, Play This To Make Your Monday Better

It’s time to make your Monday better through the magic of video games. We present to you our first daily installment of Watch This, Play This. For 30 minutes, we’ll give you things to… watch or play, all linked to from this page. WATCH: Let’s start with the video up top. A most absurd Skyrim…

Watch This, Play This Begins Now

Stuff to play, stuff to see, here comes Watch This, Play This. Confused? Read this

Little Deviants: The Kotaku Review

The first thing I ever heard about the PlayStation Vita game Little Deviants was that you could touch the Vita’s rear touch panel to poke flat ground in the game into hills. Doing that would cause a spherical deviant who was sitting on the flat ground to roll. Brilliant, I thought! The first thing I…

Why Prolong the Inevitable? A New Dune Game is Life

Is anyone doin’ a new Dune? Commenter Nameloi thinks it’s about time we revisited the sands of Arrakis once more as the video game players of Dune in today’s Speak Up on Kotaku. “I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I…

These Portal, BioShock Toys Look Better In Slow Motion

Team Fortress 2 figures and one hell of a Portal gun help round out this video we shot at the NECA booth during New York Toy Fair this week. You might have seen our teaser screenshots last night, but the video is much cooler, if only because you get to see real-life footage of Assassin’s…

Talk Amongst Yourselves

Let’s take a break from the fire-scarred fields of battle, put our differences aside, and focus on talking about video games in the official Kotaku forum, Talk Amongst Yourselves. Today’s TAYpic from Jimmy_Jazz serves the dual purpose of reminding us which website we are writing or reading while also making us imagine a sweet little…

Super Stardust Delta: The Kotaku Review

The best physical attributes of the PlayStation Vita are the machine’s big screen and twin analog sticks. They are conveniently what Super Stardust Delta uses best to make one of the cheapest launch games for Sony’s new gaming portable one of its best. Super Stardust Delta is a twin-stick shooter of spaceship vs. aliens and…

The 50 Best Video Game Endings of All Time Starts with Resident Evil and Ends with… Black Ops?

More than 13,000 fans voted for their favorite video game ending of all time for the Guinness Book of World Records 2012 Gamer Edition, and this is what they came up with? Call of Duty: Black Ops is the greatest video game ending of all time? Maybe I need to go play it again. Oh…

Vita Game Vid Gallery

Nintendo Gets Its Very Own Video Codec Provider

Mobiclip, the Paris, France-based company responsible for the codec that allows Nintendo handhelds to run high-quality video with little power consumption, quietly became Nintendo’s property last October. Now we’ll never be without video on a Nintendo device again. [Gamasutra]

Just When You Thought You Couldn’t Care Less About Binary Domain, a Multiplayer Trailer Arrives

I’ve not played any of Sega’s upcoming sci-fi shooter Binary Domain, so it could be the best game ever created by human humans for all I know. I’m having an incredibly difficult time mustering any excitement at all for the title, and this new multiplayer trailer isn’t helping at all. I blame Square Enix. Remember…

Paildramon, All Hand-Made and Wearable

STICHED | THE INTERNETS: Via tipster Jinah comes these photos. (Photo: Marie-Emilie Lanteigne | Facebook) Big in Japan, Made in England Music wasn’t what brought singer Emi Evans to Japan. But it’s what made her stay-and what is making her famous. With her work on Dark Souls and Nier, the British-born singer is quickly creating…