Nintendo

“The truth is we were doing prototype tests of Pikmin for the DS and 3DS, but it turned into unit management with only the touch pen, and no matter what it just didn’t seem like Pikmin.” Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto to 4Gamer, on their early plans to develop Pikmin 3 for handhelds instead of the Wii…

Super Mario Recreations of Famous Surrealist Paintings Are Magnifique

Three years ago, Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto told me that he had the work of Surrealist painter Rene Magritte floating around his head when he was crafting the few first Super Mario games. It makes sense when you think about it. There’s a certain mind/eye trickery in the Mario games that definitely has its roots…

Remember, Mario Kart’s Arcade Version Lets You Drive A Tank

For around a decade now, while it’s been a smash hit on consoles, Mario Kart has also been an arcade racer, thanks to a partnership between Nintendo and Namco Bandai. The latest version of the game, Mario Kart Arcade GP DX is out this week in Japan, and this clip shows what it looks like…

Here’s more of Platinum’s Wii U superhero game The Wonderful 101 in action. I don’t know what the hell is going on half the time, but I do know that I’d very much like to play this game.

A Bunch of People Got Tricked Into Thinking Mario & Luigi Are Gay. Um.

Here’s something that sure escalated quickly: neoGAF user sphinx noticed that at current, there are an absurd number of Spanish websites that report some variation of the idea that Mario and Luigi are gay. Upon further inspection, it seems like it’s dozens of sites who believe this. So, uh, how did that happen? You’d think…

The original Kid Icarus flies onto the Wii U’s Virtual Console in the latest Nintendo Download. There’s also Picross e2 and Chain Blaster, too. Check out the full list of games that will be digitally available in the coming week right here

Guy Proposed By Modding Contra, But She Had To Finish It First. Ouch.

Veteran gamer EquinnoxX documented how he modified an old Contra cartridge with a proposal message to his girlfriend at the end of the game. Knowing that Contra is not necessarily the easiest game to beat, it feels like a somewhat cruel—but nevertheless fantastic—way to do it. He posted a huge gallery and shared some interesting…

The Next Super Smash Bros. Won’t Have a Story Mode or Cutscenes

Hey, remember Super Smash Bros. Brawl? Remember the Subspace Emissary adventure mode? Did you see the CG cutscenes? Well, thanks to spoilers, you won’t have any of those in the upcoming Super Smash Bros. for the Wii U and 3DS. In his bi-weekly column in Weekly Famitsu, Super Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai revealed some…

Inside Japan’s Pleasure Hotels

Trysts. Young lovers. Parents who want to get away. “Love Hotels” offer short stays and some truly off-the-wall rooms. Love Hotels, or “rabuho” (ラブホ) for short, began in Osaka during the late 1960s. Japan’s version of the “no-tell motel”, they became big business, and even Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi opened one. At that time, the…

This Is What It Looks Like When Celebrities Play Wii U

Celebrities: They’re just like us! They have bad hair days. They hate waiting in line at the DMV. And just like us, they stand around looking uncomfortable when they play Wii U at conventions. Nintendo today sent over a bunch of celeb photos from the San Diego Comic Con last weekend, and some of them…

Mario Needs To Stop Dwelling On The Past

Mario is a man we’ve become well accustomed to, we’ve followed his escapades for decades now. But despite bringing us new experiences he seems to harp on the past an awful lot. The good news is, Mario, today is the first day of the rest of your life. Music: Danse Morialta Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Wish…

This Ridiculous Pokémon Load Time Is Fake

There’s a new Pokémon game. It’s called Pokémon X/Y and recently gameplay was showed off on Japanese television. Don’t worry; the game doesn’t appear to have ridiculously long load times. The above GIF is a fake! This is gameplay footage that has been given a long “Now Loading…” screen. As several Kotaku commenters have pointed…

Apparently, Nintendo Is Refusing Japanese Indie Developers

Japan has a small, yet thriving indie game community. But does Nintendo want any part of it? Nintendo is trying to be more welcoming towards indie games than it has been in the past. At this year’s Game Developers Conference, Nintendo revealed Unity for Wii U and Nintendo Web Framework. These tools should make the…

Playing Earthbound For The First Time? Tell Us What You Think.

Earthbound is officially out on the Wii U’s virtual console as of last Thursday, and now a whole new generation of gamers gets to experience Nintendo’s quirky role-playing game for the first time. Are you one of those gamers? Are you playing Earthbound for the first time? Post your thoughts, opinions, questions, etc. (Free tip:…

This LEGO Nintendo Could Almost Pass For The Real Thing

We’ve featured LEGO recreations of Nintendo hardware on Kotaku before, but I’ve never seen anything quite this authentic. Built by Flickr user weltall1028, this baby is the splitting image of a real Nintendo Entertainment System, right on down to the little man inside your console who tells the games where to go. More pics below:

Nintendo Ads Show the Differences Between the U.S. and Japan

Pikmin 3 is already out in Japan. It’s headed to the U.S. on August 4. The game is the same, but the Pikmin 3 commercials couldn’t be more different. Let’s have a look. Here is the Japanese commercial for Pikmin 3. In the ad, actress Juri Ueno watches a Red Pikmin carry a cherry. She…

I Had To Play Animal Crossing ‘Wrong’ To Get It Right

For a good long while, I couldn’t get into Animal Crossing: New Leaf Oh, I got it, sure. I saw the appeal. I watched as almost every single person in my Twitter feed freaked right the hell out about the game, chronicling their every move, joking about crushing on Reese and trash-taking during the first…

Pikmin 3‘s Credits are the Cutest Thing You’ll Hear All Day

Sure, the ending themes of the last two Pikmin games are fun little orchestral themes that you can hum along to; but the credits for Pikmin 3 take it one step further… [Credit Spoilers Incoming!] …By having a full choir of Pikmin singing along. It’s probably the cutest thing you’ll see all day. Check out…

There’s An Insane Loophole That Lets People Play ROMs On An iPhone

Unlike, say, Android, Apple is pretty strict in how it polices its online store, outlawing any app that lets people play emulated (read: usually illegal copies of old games) titles on their iOS device. But it can do little to stop this one. Riley Testut has built a program called GBA4iOS, a Game Boy Advance…

When He Was Nine, This Guy Made A Terrific “Game Boy” Out Of Paper

Reddit user Juankestein has shared images of a “Game Boy” he built when he was 9. Which is a fancy name for something he made out of paper. It’s awesome. To mimic the scrolling effect of a 2D platformer, he’s made levels on long rolls of paper, which as crude as it sounds isn’t that…