The Xbox Has Brand New Avatars

Remember Microsoft’s Avatars, those wobbly caricatures that danced around the Xbox 360’s dashboard? They’ve been sidelined ever since the release of the Xbox One, but that doesn’t mean the company has given up on them. They’re being overhauled in the Fall, given not just a new look, but loads of new features as well, from…

Virtual Reality Mario Kart Looks Like It Could End Friendships Forever

Namco Bandai’s VR ZONE amusement center in Shinjukudoesn’t just have a Neon Genesis game. It also has virtual reality Mario Kart. And Dragon Ball Z If you’re wondering how/why this is happening, remember that Namco Bandai has released a few arcade versions of Mario Kart, the latest of which—Mario Kart Arcade GP DX, which this…

E3 2017: A Cringe Compilation

Video games do not have the decades of experience that, say, sports has when it comes to live television. So when everyone gets together for an event like E3, the broadcast entertainment you enjoy at home doesn’t always go according to plan. Here, as is becoming tradition, is bigMooney06‘s roundup of those moments when the…

What Beyond Good & Evil 2 Is Now, And What Its Creators Dream It Can Be

“This is day zero of Beyond Good & Evil 2,” Michel Ancel told me on Monday. As he spoke, he was playing an early version of a game people have been expecting for nearly a decade, but that he says has only actually been in development for a few years. On Monday afternoon out here…

Mod Brings Super Mario Odyssey’s Hat Powers To Super Mario 64

Boy, that was fast. Only a day after Mario’s new bodily-possession-via-hat powers were revealed in Super Mario Odyssey’s E3 trailer, modder Kaze Emanuar has released a download that will let you do the same thing in Super Mario 64 And not just enemies! As you can see, it also works on objects like the birds…

Small Fire Interrupts E3 Spider-Man Panel

Earlier this week, Insomniac were hosting an E3 panel about their new Spider-Man game. The show ended up being postponed, though, when audience members noticed that there was a small fire up on stage blowing smoke across the stage. Turns out that one of the lights above the stage had caught fire, and so all…

E3 2017: The Winners & Losers

You did not come here for a nuanced discussion of the positives inherent in every E3 press conference, and the love we all share for this medium. You came here for blood, and it is blood you shall receive. While E3 is supposed to be a place where the video game industry’s biggest players present…

The Agony And Ecstasy Of Waiting In Line To Play Mario At E3

Kotaku video producer Tim Rogers had one mission at E3: play Super Mario Odyssey. The problem? The lines at the Nintendo booth were incredibly long and vague. Watch as Tim does his best to not lose his mind at E3. So close, yet so far… RIP Tim.

Sonic Forces Impressions: Great When It Sticks To Its Roots

Sonic Forces is more than just a Deviant original character creation kit, it is also a genuine Sonic game with loops and platforms. I played three stages from the game and found it fun and fast but also a bit clumsy. Building off the strong model set in Sonic Generations, Forces has a few different…

Popular GTA V Modding Tool Shuts Down, Community Explodes [UPDATE]

The creators of Open IV, one of the most popular modding tools for GTA V, are shutting their services down. They claim they have received a cease and desist from Take-Two Interactive after nearly 10 years of operation. The news comes as a shock to the PC Grand Theft Auto community, who use OpenIV to…

That’s One Way To Start Working On Zelda

Super Mario Odyssey producer Yoshiaki Koizumi held an AMA on the Nintendo Switch Reddit today. He answered questions about the game, its music and even hot dogs (not a sandwich), but the most interesting response came when he was asked how he got into game design.

E3 Day Four Podcast: Luke Smith On Destiny 2

The press conferences may be over, but E3 2017 is still going strong. Today on Kotaku Splitscreen, Jason sits down with two game directors: Destiny 2‘s Luke Smith and Days Gone’s John Garvin. Listen here: (Quick technical note: If you subscribe to our show, for some reason a five minute version of this episode initially…

Ashly Burch ‘Heartbroken’ She Won’t Play Chloe In Life Is Strange Prequel

As the longest strike in Screen Actors Guild history chugs on, video game voice actors are making painful career sacrifices to show solidarity with their union. 234 days into the strike, after Microsoft announced Life Is Strange: Before The Storm, fans immediately sussed out that award-winning voice actress and SAG-AFTRA member Ashly Burch will not…

Tim Rogers is back! Today in LA, our newest video producer gives you a tour of the Xbox E3 booth, the Ubisoft E3 booth, and the Square Enix booth. More to come later today.

The Sole Pokken Pro Won The E3 Pokken Tournament Invitational, Unsurprisingly

Nintendo’s Pokken Tournament DX invitational tournament at E3 this afternoon served as a way to signpost the game’s upcoming re-release on the Nintendo Switch. But instead of featuring a roster of Pokken pros, the E3 competition featured several popular YouTubers, as well as top fighting game players who specialize in other games. Allister Singh, the…

Women Play Video Games

Hello! I’ve come here today to explain something that apparently still needs explaining: Women play video games. I know, it’s a radical concept. (As plenty of you are doubtless aware, it is not a radical concept.) Yet here in the year 2017, it’s apparently still really easy to assume that despite the fact that A)…

I Can’t Stop Listening To The Mario Odyssey Theme Song

Metroid Prime 4? Shadow of the Colossus? I don’t know. For my money, the best thing announced at E3 is the Super Mario Odyssey theme song. You heard an abbreviated version of it during the Super Mario Odyssey trailer: a big brass band-backed swing vocal performance, a woman belting out earnest lines about jumping and…

Attack on Titan Inspired Action Game Looks Dope

Extinction is a fast-paced game where you parkour and maneuver through the air, trying to dismember giants with your blade. Instead of titans, you’ve got ogres. Naturally, these beasts hate humans and you’re the only thing standing in their way. Developer Derek Neal gives us a short walkthrough of some pre-alpha extinction footage below. While…