Nintendo

Squirtle, You and Your Pokémon Friends Are Creepy

Cute? These Pocket Monsters aren’t cute. They’re creepy. But that’s the point: artist Vaughn Pinpin redesigned the first generation of Pokémon starters if they were characters in a Tim Burton movie. The result is brilliant—creepy, but brilliant. Pinpin is planning to re-do the first 151 Pocket Monsters in the Pokédex all dark and quirky like.…

MMORPGs Are Expensive, When You Are a Kid

Kids? They don’t have money. So thirteen bucks might not be much to working adults, but it is when you are a child—a MMORPG playing child, that is. Dragon Quest X is, for the first time in the DQ series, a subscription-based MMORPG. To enable kids the ability to play for two hours at set…

How Nintendo Got The Prettiest Zelda Game of All Looking So Damn Pretty

If you’ve got the capability right now, whether on GameCube, Wii or even PC, go put Wind Waker on. And just look at it. Soak up how a video game released almost a decade ago still looks like it could have come out yesterday. Once you’re done, ask yourself “how did Nintendo do that?”. Then…

A New World Record In Donkey Kong: 1,127,700 Points!

1,127,700 had replaced 1,110,100 as Donkey Kong champion Hank Chien’s newest high score, adding more proof to the idea that the dude simply can’t be stopped. This is, what, the third or fourth time that Chien has beaten his own high score to stay the King of Kong, right? Isn’t this guy a plastic surgeon?…

Three games in this week’s Nintendo Download: Abyss for the 3DS, VectorRacing for DSiWare and Metal Slug X WiiWare.

It Sounds Like Nintendo Wants to Make A Gamer’s Version of Facebook

Maybe we’ve been wrong about Nintendo. Maybe we’ve been wrong to be thinking in terms of Nintendo vs. Apple or Nintendo vs. Microsoft or Sony. Maybe we’ve even been wrong to think Nintendo’s big thing this fall is a new console. After I interviewed Nintendo president Satoru Iwata last week, I’m thinking that the angle…

Super Mario Bros., on The…Atari? Huh?

While the Mario Brothers did make an official appearance on an Atari console, that was the original Mario Bros. arcade game, not a Super Mario Bros. platformer. So this footage you see up top, as good as it looks, isn’t from a real game. It’s a demo made by Atari Age forum member Sprybug, showing…

Why 1990s SNES Games Were so Damn Expensive

It’s easy to forget now, but back in the 1990s, many video games had the same price on the sticker they do today, which when you account for inflation reminds you that they were super expensive But just why did games cost so much? This infographic from a 1995 issue of British magazine Super Play…

Nintendo Confirms the End of the Nintendo Power Era

Yesterday, news broke suddenly that Nintendo Power—one of the oldest game magazines around—would be shutting down. Today, Nintendo confirms that the Future-published magazine is ending this year. Here’s their official statement: Nintendo can confirm that Future US will end the production of Nintendo Power magazine with the last issue slated for December 2012. For Nintendo…

Cliff Bleszinski’s Perfect Eulogy for Nintendo Power

After news broke yesterday that Nintendo Power seems all but doomed as a print publication and may be finished outright, I reached out to the biggest fan of Nintendo Power that I know of: Epic Games’ Cliff Bleszinski. Yes, before he led the creation of Gears of War, worked on Unreal Tournament and became one…

Turn That Old, Silver DS Into a Bright Orange Game Boy

Reader Maarten, from the Bureau voor Gamers, sent us this cool project he and his team recently completed, turning an old Nintendo DS “phat” into what’s basically a more modern model of the Game Boy. It’s not the most complex of hack jobs I’ve ever seen, seeing as all they’ve really done is remove the…

Remembering Nintendo’s Other 1980’s Magazine, The Nintendo Fun Club

Today brought reports that, after a publishing run of 24 years, the famous Nintendo Power magazine is no more. If true, it’s a sadder day than most involving the closing of a game publication, because for many Nintendo Power was more than just a magazine. It was a piece of their childhood. Those who are…

3D Video Games Sound as Good as Dead. Good.

3D was everywhere a year or two ago. Now it’s…nowhere. Not even the 3DS, a handheld designed with the tech as its key selling point, uses it that often anymore. So is the tech dead in the water? It is according to EA, with EA Sports boss Peter Moore telling Eurogamer “3D is certainly not…

A Loving Video Tribute To Nintendo Power

Today came the sad news that Nintendo Power, the magazine that guided many of us through our early video games days, has reportedly been shuttered This video from Patrick Scott Patterson shares a ton of the ads, news segments, and other things we most remember about the beloved, long-running publication. “It’s a bird. It’s a…

Looks Like We’ll Know the Wii U’s American Launch Date and Price by September 13

Nintendo is holding a major Wii U press event in New York City on September 13, hosted by Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime. An invitation sent to select media outlets today promised a day that will let us learn “more about how the Wii U will change the future of gaming and entertainment.” Sure,…

Unintimidated By Apple, Nintendo’s Boss Says The World Still Needs Dedicated Gaming Handhelds

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata can tell you when Nintendo would stop making its own handheld systems. He can tell you, hypothetically, when a line of machines that has gone from Game Boy to DS to 3DS would end and Nintendo’s games would appear on the hardware made by other companies instead. Last week in San…

Is It Possible to Make Pokémon More Adorable? More Beautiful? Yes, It Seems.

Because, let’s face, it: Pokémon are already pretty damn cute. Yet, Japanese artist Ginger Ale is turning up the adorable meter up to ten (eleven?) for this series of Pocket Monster art. Love the pastels, and the whole watercolor look. There’s a nice children’s book vibe going on that really doesn’t exist in the games…

These Awesome Shoes Are What You Get When You Mix Glitter With Gaming

There have been a lot of very neat gaming shoes in the world before, but these ones are my new favorite. Not only because, as flats, they are something I could theoretically actually wear someday, but because they please my inner first-grader with their sparkles. I like shiny things, okay? Clearly, so does this Etsy…

The Nintendo 3DS XL: The Kotaku Review

Who are you? Are you a person who has a 3DS? You should think about upgrading to the 3DS XL. Are you a person who does not have a 3DS at all? You should get one. The $200 3DS XL is a very good gaming machine, possibly the best portable gaming device ever, which, yeah,…

New Super Mario Bros. 2: The Kotaku Review

Now here’s the story of a guy named Mario. It’s an old story. You’ve probably heard it before. Princess is lounging around, minding her own business. Giant turtle jumps out of the sky. Drags her away. Sticks her in a cage and waits for Mario to follow. The specifics might change every now and then—a…