-
Reviews
Playing Around With Batman: Arkham Asylum’s Wonderful Toys
There were normal action figures based on Batman: Arkham Asylum. They came out a while ago, and they were fine. These premium figures, though, are brand new. So we’re taking a look at them. And by taking a look, I mean I’m going to sit in my kitchen and play with them. If you’re wondeing…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 16, 2012 -
ReviewsRhythm Heaven Fever: The Kotaku Review
The door closes behind you with an ominous click. It’s bright in here—too bright. Before you can get your wits about you, your host begins to speak. “We hope you’ll enjoy finding your own rhythm,” she says, all smiles. “So have fun and enjoy all the game has to offer.” With that, she leaves the…
By Kirk Hamilton Published February 15, 2012 -
Reviews
Razer Blade: The Kotaku Review
When I see the term ‘gaming laptop’, the first word that comes to mind is ‘performance’. And when I hear of a gaming laptop with a price tag of nearly $2,800, I imagine a system that can readily outperform any less expensive machine. That’s just the way I’ve traditionally evaluated a gaming system — I…
By Mike Fahey Published February 15, 2012 -
ReviewsGotham City Impostors: The Kotaku Review
Batman’s had lots of sidekicks over the years. Imps from other dimensions, mask-wearing dogs and his own kill-crazy offspring have leapt from the shadows with the DC Comics superhero. He’s trained them, scolded them and in case of Ace the Bat-hound, probably picked up their poop while out on patrol. But there’s been a tacit…
By Evan Narcisse Published February 14, 2012 -
ReviewsAce Attorney Is the Best Video Game Movie Ever (Take That, Hollywood!)
Gyakuten Saiban—the movie based on Capcom’s visual novel series, Ace Attorney—was released in Japan to sold-out theaters this past weekend. Staying closer to the source material than any video game movie before it, does this film prove that games can successfully be adapted into movies or does it reiterate the idea that games and movies…
By Richard Eisenbeis Published February 14, 2012 -
ReviewsWipEout 2048: The Kotaku Review
Racing games on handheld systems can be a tough sell—with a smaller screen and lower hardware horsepower, it can be difficult to convey the sense of speed that makes great racing games great. The new PlayStation Vita handheld seems designed to address the racing genre head-on—its processing power is closer to a current-gen console than…
By Kirk Hamilton Published February 13, 2012 -
ReviewsUncharted: Golden Abyss: The Kotaku Review
When Sony unveiled its PlayStation Vita handheld at last year’s E3, Uncharted: Golden Abyss was one of the first things they showed. This sent a clear message: “Our new handheld is a portable current-gen console. To prove it, we’re going to show it running one of our most technically demanding current-gen games.” After all, the…
By Kirk Hamilton Published February 13, 2012 -
ReviewsLittle Deviants: The Kotaku Review
The first thing I ever heard about the PlayStation Vita game Little Deviants was that you could touch the Vita’s rear touch panel to poke flat ground in the game into hills. Doing that would cause a spherical deviant who was sitting on the flat ground to roll. Brilliant, I thought! The first thing I…
By Stephen Totilo Published February 13, 2012 -
ReviewsSuper Stardust Delta: The Kotaku Review
The best physical attributes of the PlayStation Vita are the machine’s big screen and twin analog sticks. They are conveniently what Super Stardust Delta uses best to make one of the cheapest launch games for Sony’s new gaming portable one of its best. Super Stardust Delta is a twin-stick shooter of spaceship vs. aliens and…
By Stephen Totilo Published February 13, 2012 -
Reviews
Dear Esther: The Kotaku Review
Dear Esther is a terrible video game. Which would be a problem if Dear Esther was a video game. What began in 2008 as a mod for Half-Life 2 has, after years of picking up first buzz and then critical acclaim, transformed in 2012 into a full-blown commercial release, with all the updated visuals and…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 13, 2012 -
ReviewsNeverDead: The Kotaku Review
At E3 in June, I watched Konami’s Shinta Nojiri play NeverDead and struggle to reassemble his dismembered, immortal hero just to dispatch what looked like the game’s run-of-the-mill enemies. These people have a real problem on their hands, I thought to myself, if they think that’s anyone’s idea of fun. For nearly two years we’ve…
By Owen Good Published February 9, 2012 -
Reviews
The Darkness II: The Kotaku Review
The first Darkness game was released in 2007. With some original ideas for the genre and a setting that wasn’t space or a war, it was a surprise hit, and people still say nice things about it today. The second Darkness game was released in 2012. It’s…well…yes. While The Darkness was developed by Starbreeze, who…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 8, 2012 -
ReviewsKingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning: The Kotaku Review
The lead designer of The Elder Scrolls III and IV, a New York Times bestselling fantasy author, and one of comics’ most notable creators walk into a development studio to create an action role-playing game based on an entirely original fantasy world. Stop me if you’ve heard this one. Former major league baseball pitcher Curt…
By Mike Fahey Published February 7, 2012 -
Reviews
This Magic Box Transforms Your Electrical Outlets into Internet Connections
Over the course of several years I’ve painstakingly migrated all of my gaming and electronics equipment into a single area, an impassable tangle of wires and blinking lights, all in the name of making sure I had a stable, wired connection at all times. Once I got everything just right, Diamond Multimedia sent me the…
By Mike Fahey Published February 2, 2012 -
ReviewsSoulCalibur V : The Kotaku Review
Soul Calibur V, like almost all fighting games nowadays, finds itself having to serve multiple purposes for a broad and fragmented user base. Fighting games demand investment if you’re actually trying to excel at them. You’ve got to pick a character that speaks to you and then master enough moves to be competent and diverse.…
By Evan Narcisse Published January 31, 2012 -
ReviewsFinal Fantasy XIII-2: The Kotaku Review
In an epic tale of time-traveling heroism, Square Enix travels two years into the future to rectify the mistakes it made with Final Fantasy XIII. Have they found redemption with Final Fantasy XIII-2, or is history doomed to repeat itself? What ever happened to Lightning? Something horrible has happened to the main character of 2010’s…
By Mike Fahey Published January 30, 2012 -
ReviewsResident Evil Revelations: The Kotaku Review
Resident Evil: Revelations is a wonderful surprise. It benefits both from the low expectations set by the previous, shallow Resident Evil on the Nintendo 3DS and from the fact that it is a very good Resident Evil It also benefits from being, perhaps, the game that makes the most of Nintendo’s year-old handheld. That a…
By Stephen Totilo Published January 26, 2012 -
Reviews
You Can Take This Wheel for More than One 3DS Game
We’re a little late reviewing Hori’s official Mario Kart 7 Wheel peripheral, but I’m somewhat glad we are, thanks to some of the non-racing games I played with it on a whim. If this was just a piece of plastic meant for one game, the wheel is a $13 novelty at best, a luxury at…
By Owen Good Published January 25, 2012 -
Reviews
Wired for Great Sound, Just Not for Convenience
Making a consumer recommendation on a video game is rather simple: new ones typically cost $60, so the question is whether the thing is worth that. Hardware and peripherals are a bit trickier as a manufacturer can pile on features and conveniences, jacking up the price but, inevitably, making a recommendable luxury. Truth is, not…
By Owen Good Published January 19, 2012 -
Reviews
Star Wars: The Old Republic: The Kotaku Review
While dozens of video games have strived to capture the hearts of Star Wars fans through previously untold tales of epic space fantasy, BioWare’s massively multiplayer Star Wars: The Old Republic is the first that’s attempted to tell eight stories to thousands of people at the same time. From the early days of video games…
By Mike Fahey Published January 16, 2012