Kotaku Originals: Comment is Free, but Stars are Earned

Not to brag, but the biggest change in your life this week had to be the new commenting structure, amirite? Starred or not, editing capabilities means no more humiliating typos or icky oops-was-that-my-out-loud-voice moments. After bestowing such begged-for powers, and others not even demanded, we did our damndest to serve up some stories worthy of…

You Too Can Experience The Dragon Quest IX Launch!

You’ve no doubt heard some blogger or another refer to a Dragon Quest release date as “national holidays in Japan”. This isn’t really true. Today, for example, was not a holiday. It was, however, the release date of Dragon Quest IX for the Nintendo DS. You may have also heard someone or another say that,…

Giant Gundam Statue, Now In PlayStation Home

You know that amazing giant statue of Gundam now standing guard over Odaiba’s Shiokaze Park? It’ll soon be standing guard over PlayStation Home as well. Yes, as part of the series’ 30th anniversary celebrations, from July 11 a digital representation of the big guy will tower over the plaza of the Japanese version of Home.…

Why The Difference In Taste?

Today is *checks calendar* Friday. Did you know that? I didn’t. That’s why I checked the calendar. Good thing I have one! Time to talk, time for Tell us Dammit. No, no, no. Time for TELL US DAMMIT. Here’s how it works: We ask a question, you answer it. Simple and no strings attached! This…

Crummy Wii Accessories Finally Triple-Jump The Shark

Get a load of this. It’s a Wii accessory kit that contains an incredible 38 pieces. 38! Enough to form a shitty white plastic Voltron, Devastator and Predaking, with enough left over to scrape together a Defensor while you’re at it. It’s manufactured by Chinese company Areus, and seems to be their “21 in 1”…

Take A Look At That New Killzone 2 DLC

That new Killzone 2 DLC we told you about yesterday has now been officially announced, and will go by the name of “Napalm & Cordite”. It’ll introduce two new maps, “Suljeva Cliffside” and “Arctower Landing”, along with two new weapons (well, new for multiplayer), the flamethrower and boltgun. The DLC will also be accompanied by…

New Madden 10 Screens: Big Ben, Browns & Baltimore

It’s Friday night, and you know what that means: more Madden 10 screens. These ones are all about the AFC North, home to the Ravens, Browns, Bengals and Super Bowl champs, the Pittsburgh Steelers.

A Week In Comments

Hey, Resident Evil 5 Might Be Possible On Wii After All Comment by: Cygnus_Mal Nominated by: wonder6oy Not on my XBox. Nor my computer. I do not, do not like rail shooters. Not on my Wii Or PS3 Not on a train, or in a plane. Not on a boat, Or with a goat. I…

How About Scribblenauts On Other Platforms, Eh?

Scribblenauts looks awesome. Awesome, that is, if you’ve got a Nintendo DS. But what if you don’t? Then you will read the following statement from 5th Cell’s Marius Fahlbusch and you will cross your fingers and you will hope: VG247: Is there any chance of this ever coming to other platforms? It would work well…

New Michael Jackson Game In The Works

There have been rumors swirling that Michael Jackson was at work on a new view game before he passed away. Those rumors appear confirmed. MJJ Productions, Jackson’s production company, has apparently been working on this unannounced home console title for “several months”. Word has it that the game features both Jackson’s likeness and his recorded…

Warner Bros. Now Owns Midway, Mortal Kombat

Mortal Kombat, This Is Vegas and the Midway trademark, as of today, are owned by Warner Bros., with the media conglomerate having completed the purchase of “substantially all of the assets” of the Chicago headquartered company. Where does that leave Midway? While the name may have changed, a company spokesperson told Kotaku today that “Midway…

Look! People Lining Up For DQIX

With 2 million pre-orders and a rumored 3 million copies shipping, we honestly didn’t expect folks to line-up for Dragon Quest IX. Sleep in! Square Enix hasn’t created a shortage. All the millions who want the game, can get it. But still, low and behold, there were lines earlier this morning in Akihabara. Reader TitillatedOcelot…

New Game Informer Unleashes Rage

id Software hasn’t shown much of its id Tech 5 powered Rage, the post-apocalyptic first-person shooter-slash-racer it announced almost two years ago. That’s about to change, thanks to the newest issue of Game Informer. Rage won’t be out until 2010, according to id’s Tim Hollenshead, meaning this summertime preview of the game will still mean…

Fighting Fantasy DS Preview: Choose Your Own Adventure Makes A Comeback

Fighting Fantasy: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain was a 1982 choose-your-own-adventure book written by now-game developers Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. Now it’s a 2009 DS action role-playing game. Choose-your-own-adventure books were popular in the 1980s. Nowadays, I can only find them at garage sales with a lot of the stat pages missing. I didn’t…

Kodu Game Lab Micro-Review: Baby’s First Game Development Kit

Who says you have to go to college for an expensive game developer’s education? Microsoft Research’s Kodu puts the power of a dev kit right in your hand for a mere $5. Kodu Game Lab isn’t a video game, per se, but a lot of the pre-packaged worlds that come with the Game Lab certainly…

Kansas City

To: Owen From: Crecente Re: Today Trish drove from somewhere in Tennessee to somewhere in Kansas, that’s about 650 miles. What did I do? I sat in the middle row writing features, news and columns. What I didn’t do was give away any schwag because no one asked for any. Hmmm, maybe I should have…

Analyst Sees StarCraft II Inevitably Delayed To 2010

Blizzard set its sights on one “front line release” for 2009, a title that we expected to be StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, the first of three StarCraft II games. One analyst isn’t so sure Blizzard can make it. The day after Activision pushed back sci-fi first person shooter Singularity, Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia…

Notebook Dump: Modern Warfare Wii, Shadow Complex iPhone, And A Sleeping Man

There comes a time in the week to reflect on what got into my reporter’s notebook but didn’t turn into Kotaku blog posts. Shall we? Shadow Complex‘s Apple Debut: On Tuesday, I met Donald and Laura Mustard, the developer and public relations rep couple who showed me the August-scheduled Xbox Live Arcade game Shadow Complex.…

TMNT: Turtles In Time Re-make Knocked Back By ‘Splosion Man

Here’s the bad news: the Xbox Live Arcade remake of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles In Time has been pushed back, now no longer the first entry in Microsoft’s “Summer of Arcade” promotion. Now the good. You’ll be playing Twisted Pixel’s swell-looking Splosion Man much earlier than previously planned, on July 22nd, according to the…

I really don’t see how Mario Kart comparisons are helpful. They will never gain a substantial following of those type of racing fans. That’s like expecting Pikmin fans to like Command and Conquer.