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.

Five Things You Need To Know About Champions Online

Last night, Cryptic Studios held an event that was all about the player versus player combat in its upcoming massively multiplayer online superhero game, Champions Online. The basic need-to-know info about this game is this: it’s City of Heroes, only bigger and better. And, no, Marvel and/or DC Comics won’t be suing anybody anytime soon…

Novel, Write Thyself

The fiction of a video game’s universe is fertile ground for novels, sprouting dozens of books annually that tap into gaming’s beloved and unknown back stories. Few though have had to tell a story in a universe almost completely controlled by the gamers themselves, the very people most likely to read those novels. That’s what…

Valve Brings Left 4 Dead 2 To Comic-Con, Reveals “Swamp Fever”

Electronic Arts and Valve will be revealing all-new Left 4 Dead 2 content at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, including the new campaign “Swamp Fever,” darkly pictured above. Where and when can you play it? The “where” is the EA Gaming Lounge Presented by Xbox 360 at the Hilton San Diego Gaslamp Quarter Hotel. The…

The Girl At The Video Game Store

To celebrate the 1,000th episode of G4’s Attack of the Show, Nerf Herder front man Parry Gripp composed this stirring ode to the brave women of video game retail. While I know Parry from his time with Nerf Herder, with songs like “New Jersey Girl” and “Van Halen” holding special places in my heart, the…

Half-Minute Hero Preview: Don’t Blink And Miss It

This was the most pleasant surprise of my week. Half-Minute Hero is a PSP game that rested unattended at a New York City event for XSeed games that I attended last night. It was an assuming oddity in the corner, running on the console that doesn’t have many games that people are talking about these…

Japanese Hardware Sales News Is Good News For Nintendo

Thanks to a few chart-topping hits—Wii Sports Resort and Tomodachi Collection—the Wii and Nintendo DS had a good week in Japan, each platform seeing a boost in weekly hardware sales. The same goes for the PSP. Actually, it was a pretty good week for everyone, as hardware sales were up all over—with the exception of…

Monster Hunter DLC For The Cat Lover In You

A brand new download quest has appeared for Monster Hunter Freedom Unite, perfect for both those who love cats to death and those who just beat them to death. Fur will fly, items will be stole, paws will…paw, and yes – there will be belly rubs if I have anything to say about it. A…

People Played Real Plane Crash Web Game 4.6 Million Times

Hero On The Hudson, a gameplay-light web game about Captain “Sully” Sullenberger’s successful landing of an Airbus A320 on the Hudson River, is just one popular game based on that stuff most commercial video games don’t deal with: current events. The LA Times’ Ben Fritz (formerly blogging about games for Variety) recently visited San Francisco-based…

Rock Band Weekly Updates Now In Three Part Harmony

MTV Games has accomplished what we once thought impossible, releasing a single, catch-all notification about downloadable track updates to Rock Band for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PSP and Wii. Brace for massive lists! Not only do we get the regular Friday update on what’s new and forthcoming for the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions…

Louisiana Cuts Game Developers A Break

The state that once passed the Thompson Game Law became a great deal more developer friendly today, as Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal signs extensive tax credits for game development into law. The Louisiana Digital Media Act, sponsored by Senator Ann Duplessis, grants a 25% credit to game developers for digital interactive media expenditures, as well…

One Weird Wii Control Scheme

Imagine, if you will, a flying game called Sky Crawlers controlled by Wii remote and nunchuck. Guess the control scheme. You probably guessed wrong. To control an airplane in a Wii game, I have held the Wii Remote like a paper airplane. I have held it like a flashlight, dipping and raising it to orient…

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

Thank God it’s Friday. This has been a hell of a week, one I hope to forget with the help of thousands of Terran Marines dying at the claws of my Zerg swarm in a few games of StarCraft. I foolishly purchased a digital copy of the game via the Blizzard Online Store a few…

Play Street Fighter II CE In Your Web Browser

Celebrating the release of Street Fighter IV for the PC, Capcom and GameTap parent Metaboli have teamed up to deliver Street Fighter II Championship Edition to your browser window. It might not be the best adaptation of the classic fighting game, but it does the trick, allowing you to put your keyboard-controlled fighting skills to…

The Saboteur Impressions: A New Way To Kill Nazis

There is a game that will let you shoot Nazis, fire rockets at zeppelins, hang out in a brothel, climb the Eiffel Tower, oh, and try to maintain your career as a race car driver during all this. Sound good? Novelty is not a predictor of quality. So, really, who knows how good EA’s holiday…