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Reviews
Totino’s Pizza Rolls: The Snacktaku Review
In 1968 Jeno Paulucci, the creator of the Chun King line of pre-packaged Chinese food, took an egg roll wrapper and stuffed it with pizza toppings. America has had terrible heartburn ever since. Jeno’s Pizza Rolls, now Totino’s Pizza Rolls, have become a staple of snack cuisine around the world, the poster snack for putting…
By Mike Fahey Published September 24, 2012 -
ReviewsBlack Mesa: The Kotaku Review
Fan-made Black Mesa is a remake of Valve’s classic 1998 shooter Half-Life. It’s been in development for around eight years, which is poignant, since it’s been around that long since I’ve played the original. A lot has changed since then. For starters, the project’s original goal slowly became almost untenable as time went by. First…
By Luke Plunkett Published September 20, 2012 -
ReviewsF1 2012: The Kotaku Review
This past week, I haven’t felt as helpless or as vexed behind the wheel since I was 15 years old and trying to divine the magical balance between clutch and gas pedal that actually sent my mother’s BMW 325e forward along our farm’s gravel road. Each time the vehicle shuddered and stalled out, I was…
By Owen Good Published September 19, 2012 -
Reviews
Torchlight II: The Kotaku Review
Click, kill, loot, level up. Click, kill, loot, level up. Loot, sell, re-equip. Rinse, repeat. Your weapons get more powerful as your enemies get more difficult, and the goalposts move, and move, and move. Click, kill, loot, level up. It’s enough to make you wonder why we play video games in the first place. Torchlight…
By Kirk Hamilton Published September 19, 2012 -
ReviewsBorderlands 2: The Kotaku Review
Have you ever been unable to get yourself out of an abusive relationship? Borderlands 2 kicked my ass, lit me on fire, took all my money and I still keep coming back for more. Three years ago Gearbox made a game called Borderlands. It was a colorful, cel-shaded first-person shooter with a few RPG-like qualities…
By Tina Amini Published September 18, 2012 -
ReviewsResident Evil: Retribution: The Kotaku Movie Review
Here’s a not-so-big secret: most Hollywood adaptations of video games are not very good. Why? The reasons are numerous, but the most obvious one is that they’re totally different mediums, and so much is lost in translation. The end result is usually something that leaves neither fans of the games nor those who simply enjoy…
by Matt Hawkins Published September 14, 2012 -
Reviews
Tokyo Jungle: The Kotaku Review
Tokyo Jungle really is a game unlike any other. As a large assortment of different animals, you explore an overgrown and deserted Tokyo, slowly piecing together the mystery of what happened to all the humans. And when I say “a large assortment of different animals,” I refer to everything from deer and wolves to elephants…
By Richard Eisenbeis Published September 13, 2012 -
Reviews
NHL 13: The Kotaku Review
My ice hockey knowledge comes primarily from being an obnoxious and uninformed fan. When Nashville came to San Jose for the 2007 playoffs, I was the guy trying to start the “Child Predators” chant. In Raleigh, before the Carolina Hurricanes arrived, my friends and I would go to IceCaps games and try a stunt called…
By Owen Good Published September 12, 2012 -
ReviewsJet Set Radio: The Kotaku Review
Few games were as revolutionary as Jet Set Radio for the Dreamcast. It completely overturned our expectations of what games could look like, and remained one of the best games to come out for the system. In the video above, I discuss the HD port of Jet Set Radio: How it’s aged as a game,…
By Chris Person Published September 12, 2012 -
ReviewsTekken Tag Tournament 2: The Kotaku Review
Fighting games are prom. Seriously, think about it. All the parties involved get gussied up in their best finery and enter a space that lets them reconcile grudges and/or crushes with as much flair as possible. So the best thing, I’ve found, is to start with the dance that you know how to do. My…
By Evan Narcisse Published September 11, 2012 -
ReviewsHardee’s Memphis BBQ Thickburger: The Snacktaku Review
What most restaurants label a BBQ hamburger is generally a normal hamburger with some sort of barbecue sauce added, maybe some crispy onion straws. Hardee’s (or Carl’s Jr. on the west coast) breaks from this formula with the Memphis BBQ Thickburger, a black angus burger with barbecue sauce, crispy fried onion straws and actual BBQ…
By Mike Fahey Published September 10, 2012 -
ReviewsMark of the Ninja: The Kotaku Review
Most people might take their stealth tips from Solid Snake or Sam Fisher. Me, I’m more in tune with, uh, the Kool-Aid man. Seriously. Just burst into the room in the most reckless way possible and “problem solve” by shooting people up close in the face—that’s how I do things. Patience, finesse and furtiveness aren’t…
By Patricia Hernandez Published September 7, 2012 -
Reviews
The Macross Do You Remember Love? Remaster is Beautiful Beyond Belief
While comparatively unknown in the West, Macross: Do You Remember Love? was one of the most important anime of the 1980s in Japan and was one of the most ambitious hand-drawn animation projects of all time. A remake of an already popular TV series, the film bled into the main stream with the success of…
By Richard Eisenbeis Published August 31, 2012 -
Reviews
Digital Storm’s Budget Gaming PC Doesn’t Sacrifice Power for a Reasonable Price
Digital Storm is a boutique gaming PC maker that I’ve traditionally associated with putting together mind-blowing systems that cost more than the vehicle I drive. So when they announced a new line of affordable gaming rigs starting at only $799, I was taken aback. What could the company that’s built the “world’s most advanced PC”…
By Mike Fahey Published August 29, 2012 -
ReviewsMass Effect 3: Leviathan: The Kotaku Review
The Mass Effect games we play in the future could be so different from the ones we’ve been playing for the last seven years. That is one of the messages of Leviathan, the second single-player expansion to Mass Effect 3, the first since launch day. Here is a short, well-made $10 adventure set in the…
By Stephen Totilo Published August 28, 2012 -
Reviews
The Live Action Rurouni Kenshin Movie is a Nearly Perfect Film Adaptation
Rurouni Kenshin (sometimes known by the title Samurai X) is a manga and anime series that grew to great popularity around the turn of the millennium in both Japan and America. Half-fighting and half-romance, Kenshin is a historical fiction set in the years after Japan’s final civil war and dissolution of the samurai caste. It…
By Richard Eisenbeis Published August 28, 2012 -
Reviews
Little Debbie Swiss Cake Rolls: The Snacktaku Review
Hostess has the name. Tastykake has the heritage. Those two giants in the snack cake game have dominated the hearts and mouths of preservative-infused baked goods since the invention of “creme”. But, as the dead Jedi says, there is another. Forged in the heart of Chattanooga, Tennessee, Little Debbie is a Southern tradition, as sacred…
By Mike Fahey Published August 27, 2012 -
ReviewsRock Band Blitz: The Kotaku Review
Let’s say there’s a spectrum. On the one end, hunched in a leather jacket and stubbing out a cigarette on its boot heel, is Music. On the other end, peering over its sunglasses at a strobe-lit LCD, sits Video Games. All music games exist somewhere on that spectrum. It has been fascinating, inspiring, and a…
By Kirk Hamilton Published August 27, 2012 -
ReviewsMadden NFL 13: The Kotaku Review
The question is asked every year and yet it seems irrelevant for a franchise with no competition: “Is this the best Madden ever?” It’s a high and a low bar at the same time. Of course it should be the best Madden ever. They had a year to update and improve the last one, after…
By Owen Good Published August 24, 2012 -
Reviews
This Chewing Gum Sounds More Disgusting Than It Is
Ask any certified snackologist, and they’ll tell you: Yes, coffee has successfully been integrated into countless snacks and sweets. But this chewing gum isn’t just coffee flavored. That would be old hat to a snackster like me. We’ve been there. Oh no, this is coffee jelly flavored chewing gum. But does this desert favorite work…
By Brian Ashcraft Published August 22, 2012