Nintendo

The Man Who Wrote Earthbound

A few weeks ago, Marcus Lindblom logged onto TwitchTV. He found someone playing Earthbound, and he watched them stream for a while. Every time they smiled in the right place or laughed at the right joke, he felt a jolt of vindication. Validation. Eighteen years later, he could finally see people enjoying his work. This…

Nintendo Finally Fixed Mario Maker‘s 100 Mario Challenge

I’ve been trying to beat Mario Maker’s 100 Mario Challenge on Expert ever since the game came out last September. It’s brutal. But only today was I able to pull it off, and there’s a reason for that: Nintendo’s made it easier. Starting with the most recent patch, Nintendo introduced super expert, another difficulty tier…

Rumored NX Photos Show A Controller Without Buttons [UPDATE: It’s Fake]

A series of new photos, posted two different places and purporting to show the controller for Nintendo’s next console, reveal a controller without buttons, one that’s shaped like a football. Update – 10:39am, March 25: It was a hoax, as we noted it might have been. Sorry for wasting your time. Original story follows. I…

Drama Ensues As Fire Emblem Fates Fan Translation Gets Canceled, Then Uncanceled

The team behind a nine-month-old fan translation of Fire Emblem Fates disbanded yesterday, appearing to cancel their project in the process. That decision prompted disappointment and anger, but there are reports a new team has picked up the project. I profiled this translation group a little while back, a group of fans both interested in…

In Japan, Nintendo is trying to trademark its iconic “coin sound” from Super Mario. It’s hard to believe that they haven’t already!

Nintendo Denies It’s Ending Wii U Production Anytime Soon

Respected Japanese newspaper Nikkei published a rumor this morning that the Wii U will soon be ceasing production to make way for the upcoming NX. Nintendo is now denying that report. Nikkei reports Wii U production will apparently end before the year is out. The reasons Nikkei gives are a lack of popularity compared to…

How’s Miitomo doing? Nintendo reports that in the first three days that the app launched in Japan, Miitomo racked up over a million users. In case you missed it, check out Kotaku’s Miitomo walkthrough.

Nintendo Deletes Every Stage By Prominent Mario Maker Speedrunner

Nintendo has a real problem on its hands with Mario Maker. Left and right, creators are seeing their levels removed from the online servers without an explanation. David “GrandPOObear” Hunt, a speedrunner who makes a living streaming games, is the latest victim. All of his levels have vanished. (We last featured Hunt after he pulled…

(Maybe) Your First Look At Pokémon Go

John Hanke, CEO of Pokémon Go developers Niantic, gave a talk at SXSW Gaming over the weekend on the future of AR (Augmented Reality) games. Shortly afterwards, this video showed up. Of course, with no official video of the talk available (or a transcript), we can’t be 100% sure that this is something actually shown…

Pokken Tournament: The Kotaku Review

If you’ve ever wished your Pokemon battles could be more exciting than a pair of Pokemon taking turns making battle animations at each other, Pokken Tournament is your game. This post originally appeared 3/15/16. Basic Pokemon battles haven’t evolved much over the past two decades. The combatants have gotten prettier, the attack animations more elaborate,…

‘Dickbutt’, ‘Shitlord’ and Other Naughty Words Your Character Can Say in Nintendo’s First Mobile Game

Miitomo is brand new, marking the first time that the House of Mario is entering the brave new world of mobile gaming. The game currently has a big rookie mistake: you can swear like the rudest teenager ever in it. Let’s hear how my Mii sounds with a mouth full of filth. Nintendo has a…

A Quick Tour of Miitomo, Nintendo’s First Mobile App

Three years ago, the very idea of Nintendo creating an experience solely targeted at smartphone users seemed like an outlier, bizarro-world possibility. Today, Nintendo released Miitomo in Japan for iOS and Android devices. Here’s what it looks like. Miitomo’s debut is only limited to Japanese storefronts right now, meaning that you’ll need a Japanese iTunes…

The Total Sales for Pokémon Are Staggering 

This year marks Pokémon’s 20th anniversary. Starting in 1996, when Pokémon Red and Blue launched in Japan, the world has purchased millions of Pokémon games and its spin-offs. Over 279 million, that is. Think about that number for a moment. Dual releases aside, it’s incredible. According to Famitsu, that’s the latest global sales figure for…

A Beautiful, Animated Tribute To Satoru Iwata

There are lots of awards and drinks and congratulations going on at the Game Developers Choice Awards tonight, but proceedings were stopped dead in their tracks for a few minutes during a most touching tribute tolate Nintendo President Satoru Iwata It was made by Raber Umphenour,Shawne Benson and Braid artist David Hellman, with some help…

Nintendo Just Made A Maddening Change To Mario Maker‘s P-Switch

When Nintendo updated Super Mario Maker last week, it secretly tweaked the way P-Switches work in the game. It’s causing headaches for everyone. Traditionally, the P-Switch is used to swap solid blocks into coins and vice versa. But more complicated stages have found uses familiar to anyone who’s ventured into kaizo-style levels or the expert…

Terra and co. entering the coal mining town of Narshe for the first time. Orioto’s fan-art captures the moment from Final Fantasy VI’s intro perfectly and brings back some good memories. Dayshot is an image-based feature showcasing some of the prettiest, funniest game-related screenshots and art we can find. Send us suggestions if you’ve got…

Nintendo Still Won’t Explain Why They’re Deleting People’s Mario Maker Levels

Nintendo is still deleting levels from Super Mario Maker’s online community for mysterious reasons. The latest victim? Mario’s youngest fans, apparently. BakeToRise, a Mario Maker creator and father of a designer-in-training daughter, posted a distressing story on reddit today. His daughter spent three hours putting together a level called Maria Cake Yoshi. After receiving a…

Mario And Luigi At The 2016 Kids’ Choice Awards

Nintendo’s favorite son and his brother or whatever took the stage at last night’s Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards, followed by a live-action Super Mario Bros. bit featuring that Goodburger guy. Mario was as animated as ever. Luigi sounded a bit tired. Together they passed it on over to Kel Mitchell, who is essentially the Luigi…

Magikarp’s Stage On The Pokémon Fighting Game Is Pure Fire

Magikarp isn’t a fighter in Pokkén Tournament, but damn if it’s not stealing the show anyway. So, there’s a stage in the Pokémon fighting game called “Magikarp Festival,” which you can see below in GameXplain’s video. You’ll note that the stage takes place on a fishing boat, and you can see Magikarp floppin’ about everywhere.…

Nintendo announced that Miitomo, its upcoming smartphone app, will be released in Japan on March 17 (the exact time is TBA). The last day to pre-register is March 16. For those in Japan, there’s still time!