- Reviews
Small Worlds Micro-Review: A Fine 20 Minutes
Why would Kotaku review a game that you could start and finish quicker than dinner? To make sure you play it. Small games don’t often get a lot of critical attention. Nor do free ones. But don’t ignore the work of David Shute, who made a game called Small Worlds that is small and free…
By Stephen Totilo Published December 3, 2009 - Uncategorized
Star in Your Own N64 Freakout Kid Video
GameStop’s holiday promo puts you in the feeted jammies of the infamous Nintendo 64 Freakout Kid. Or puts your face over his. Anyway, the point is they expect you to react this way to any gift bought from their store. Come on, say it with me now, kids: “Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories? Used?…
By Owen Good Published December 3, 2009 - Uncategorized
Mass Effect 2 Expands To 2 Discs, Sometimes 3
The sheer number of foxy blue alien women in Mass Effect 2 has pushed the limits of the DVD format’s storage capabilities. As a result, BioWare is spreading the Xbox 360 and PC game across two discs. While that won’t mean that much to owners of the PC version—it’s a two-disc install—poor Xbox 360 owners…
By Michael McWhertor Published December 3, 2009 - Uncategorized
Grand Theft Auto Doesn’t Need Annual Sequels, Says Take-Two
Annual iterations to reliable blockbuster games—like Call of Duty—would likely go a long way to improving Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two Interactive‘s bottom line. But execs for the publisher don’t believe GTA is in need of annual sequels. “In any non-GTA year, should we just assume you’re not going to make money?” an investment analyst…
By Michael McWhertor Published December 3, 2009 - Uncategorized
How Do You Eulogize A Video Game Character?
Those of you following along with Telltales Games’ episodic adventure, Tales of Monkey Island, knew this was coming. The rest of you may want to sit down. Guybrush Threepwood, that lovable swashbuckler with an addiction to item-hoarding, has gone to the big pirate ship in the sky. Or Davey Jones’ Locker — or whatever nautical…
By AJ Glasser Published December 3, 2009 - Uncategorized
Cosplay Suggestion
To: Ashcraft From: Totilo Re: Are You A Cosplayer? Ash, I once cos-played as a vampire, but some other guy got in the way of the one picture of me doing it. Why is it that when you run into a wall in a video game your character usually keeps running? Why hasn’t that been…
By Stephen Totilo Published December 3, 2009 - Uncategorized
PlayStation Store Update: Finite Climax Action
PlayStation 3 owners can see what the Bayonetta buzz is about with the North American release of the game’s demo, which joins Call of Duty: Classic in this week’s PlayStation Store update. If they have an Xbox 360, they can also download the Xbox 360 version of that Bayonetta demo, letting them compare, contrast and…
By Michael McWhertor Published December 3, 2009 - Uncategorized
Debit Your Way to that Next EA Sports Purchase
EA Sports and VISA have teamed up to put out a reloadable debit card whose purchases rack up “rewards points” redeemable toward video game purchases. Wait, what if you use it to buy an EA Sports game? The prepaid card, announced Wednesday, “is a perfect marriage of encouraging responsible spending while providing a unique reward…
By Owen Good Published December 3, 2009 - Uncategorized
Muscle March Buffs Up WiiWare Next Year
Namco Bandai’s incredibly bizarre Muscle March, the WiiWare game featuring posing races between buff, bikini-clad bodybuilders and bears, is coming to North American next year, believe it or not. This English-language trailer should aid in the believability of it all. Really, there’s nothing I can add to this trailer. I’ll shut up so you can…
By Michael McWhertor Published December 3, 2009 - Uncategorized
Professor Layton Schools Competitors On Sales, Nintendo Conquers Chart
Level 5’s latest Professor Layton puzzle-adventure, Layton Kyouju to Majin no Fue, debuts at the top of Japan’s video game software sales charts, another 300,000 Nintendo DS games added to the series’ impressive sales. Professor Layton and his apprentice Luke didn’t have much in the way of competition this week, with cute railroad sim Momotaro…
By Michael McWhertor Published December 3, 2009 -
UncategorizedMega Man Done Deathmatch Style
A modder has put “Doom and Mega Man into a blender” to “spew out a fun new way to blast your buddies online.” Mega Man: 8-Bit Deathmatch seeks to recreate the original game’s levels and weapons in a 3D environment. The mod’s levels employ 8-bit textures and sprites. “Mega Man will jump high and take…
By Owen Good Published December 3, 2009 - Uncategorized
Borderlands An “Important, Long-Term Franchise” For Take-Two
With developer Gearbox Software calling a Borderlands sequel a “no-brainer” and the title called out as one of the few bright spots on publisher Take-Two Interactive‘s earnings sheet, more talk of more Borderlands shouldn’t surprise you. Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick said during today’s quarterly earnings update that the role-playing shooter, which had a “successful launch,”…
By Michael McWhertor Published December 3, 2009 - Uncategorized
Frankenreview: Tony Hawk Ride
It’s a bit late for a Frankenreview of Tony Hawk Ride, but it’s interesting to see a ratings chart that starts so low and ends so high. Tony Hawk Ride is the latest installment of the storied Tony Hawk skateboarding video game franchise, given new life by developer Robomodo with the inclusion of a plastic…
By Mike Fahey Published December 3, 2009 - Uncategorized
The Saboteur is “Feckin’ Hard”
The Saboteur might be in France, but its maximum-strength difficulty is all Irish, reflecting the nationality of its protagonist. Although – help me out here, United Kingdomians, I thought “fookin'” would be the onomatopoeic for the Emerald Isle’s f-word adjectival. Anyway, you can see that the bastard-ass difficulty is “feckin’ hard” according to that screenshot.…
By Owen Good Published December 3, 2009 - Uncategorized
Take-Two Delays Max Payne 3 Again, Blames Baseball For Bad Quarter
Originally planned to hit this “winter” then moved to the first half of next year, Rockstar Games‘ third Max Payne title won’t hit until August 2010 at the earliest, publisher Take-Two Interactive announced today. The rest of Take-Two’s slate, including BioShock 2, Red Dead Redemption and Mafia II appear to be sticking to their regularly…
By Michael McWhertor Published December 3, 2009 - Uncategorized
THQ Makes A Move Into Montreal
The game industry job market in Quebec gets another shot in the arm today, as THQ announces plans to open a massive development studio in Montreal, with plans to create more than 400 new jobs over the next five years. THQ’s Montreal Studio, planned to open in 2010, will represent the company’s largest development facility,…
By Mike Fahey Published December 3, 2009 - Uncategorized
Meet Media Molecule’s Little Big VGA Award, The Vector Monkey
When Spike TV‘s telegenic hosts hand out awards at this year’s VGAs show next week, this, the Vector Monkey as designed by LittleBigPlanet developers Media Molecule, is what winners will walk away with. Yes, Megan Fox, this could be yours! How did Media Molecule get wrapped up in the Spike TV Video Game Award statuette…
By Michael McWhertor Published December 3, 2009 -
UncategorizedThe King Of Kong Becomes ‘Bones’ Murder Mystery Fodder
This week’s episode of crime procedural Bones tells the tale of Billy and Steve, competitive gamers vying for the “perfect score” on a classic arcade game. But unlike documentary The King of Kong, one of these gamers winds up… murdered! And unlike The King of Kong, gamers Billy Gabel and Steve Rifton—the less fortunate of…
By Michael McWhertor Published December 3, 2009