Bandai Namco

The Latest Pac-Man Game Breaks The Rules

You touch a ghost unaffected by a Power Pellet, and you die. That’s how it was. That’s how it should always be. This is madness, Pac-Man Championship Edition 2. It’s just the sort of madness fans of the first Pac-Man Championship Edition game should get a kick out of. Touch a ghost once, bounce off.…

Really Digging This New Pac-Man Design

Giving one of the world’s most iconic video game characters a makeover for his latest mobile game, Bandai Namco have created a Pac-Man that really works with today’s more minimalist cartoon sensibilities. Or he’s just really damn cute. The game is Pac-Man Pop, available today on iOS and Android, which is a free-to-play bubble shooter…

A mysterious Bandai Namco teaser site has popped up online. There’s a clock, some flames, and small text at the bottom that says PC and mobile content. Hrm.

Single-Celled Organisms Playing Microscopic Pac-Man

If you’re going to study the behavior patterns of unicellular protozoans and predatory pseudocoelomates in a microscopic 3D environment, you might as well have a little fun with it. Researchers at the University College Southeast Norway led by Professor Erik Andrew Johannessen of the Institute of Micro and Nano System Technology, created the “Mikroskopisk Pacman”…

Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 Announced, Coming This Year

Last year’s Dragon Ball Xenoverse is getting a sequel. Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 will arrive this year on PS4, Xbox One, and PC, publisher Bandai Namco said today. Bandai says we’ll see more from the new DBZ game at E3 in June. Here’s the full press release: SANTA CLARA, Calif., (May 17, 2016) – BANDAI…

Fan Spent Two Years Animating His Journey Through Dark Souls II

Just in time for Dark Souls 3, Jameserton, a really dedicated fan, finished his animation about his painful journey through Dark Souls 2 and all its locations and bosses. It took him nearly two years, but that’s no surprise. All the jokes are on point and the voice acting’s very well done. Pretty funny couple…

Becoming A Mimic In Dark Souls III Is A Good Way To Confuse Invaders

Mimics are just the worst in Dark Souls III. So, role-playing as one during invasions is a fantastic way to have some fun and troll invaders. The rules are simple: After dressing up as a Mimic (more or less), wait patiently guarding loot. If the invader approaches and takes the item or attacks, you have…

Hunter’s Dream From Bloodborne, Remade In Unreal Engine

Childhood classics aren’t the only games with fan-made re-imaginations in Unreal Engine 4. Newer ones can get one too every now and then. And Bloodborne is a fantastic-looking game that deserves an homage like this. Artist Simon Barle recreated Hunter’s Dream, the central hub of the game. While Bloodborne’s graphics were excellent, the dark, dreadful…

Dark Souls III PC Benchmarks: Mind The Frame Rate Cap

Dark Souls III is arguably the biggest game to launch this month and with few other major releases there probably isn’t much of an argument to be had, especially since the main competition wound up being a steaming pile (Quantum Break). As with Dark Souls II, the third iteration has made its way to PC…

Sailor Moon And The Curse Of The Candy Crush Saga

Released this week for iOS and Android, Sailor Moon Drops is everything you every wanted in a Sailor Moon game, as long as everything you wanted was a Candy Crush Saga clone. Sailor Moon holds a special place in my heart, having been one of the things my wife and I bonded over when we…

Namco Teases ‘Big’ Dark Souls 3 News, Turns Out To Be Crappy Merch

When Bandai Namco’s Twitter promised “big” Dark Souls news was coming today, it could have been anything. A Dark Souls movie? Details on the game’s DLC? A remastered Dark Souls? Nope! Turns out it’s a really lame clothing line. Here’s how Bandai Namco set things up yesterday: And here’s what it ended up being: It’s…

Bandai Namco has publicly acknowledged some Dark Souls 3 players have bought the international version of the game, but they don’t seem thrilled about it. The company says it’s “incomplete” because multiplayer is not turned on, and a day one patch will “deliver further optimization of the game.”

Pokken Tournament‘s Shadow Mewtwo Has An Infinite Blockstun Problem

The simple two-move combination being performed is this GIF? Shadow Mewtwo can do that all day in Pokken Tournament. That’s bad. Demonstratedon Twitter and captured on video by YouTube’s Shofu, the one-two punch of Shadow Mewtwo’s backward-Y ranged attack and the transformative power of its Miracle Eye move combine to form an endless attack combo…

Tales of Zestiria the X, the upcoming Tales TV anime, will begin broadcast this summer in Japan.

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,…

Watch Dark Souls III Come To Life with Chalkboard Art

A few years ago, Kotaku first reported how Japanese students were covering their classrooms’ chalkboards with incredible art. Now one of those former students is doing that for Dark Souls III Here we see a sped up clip of young artist Rena Rena, who’s now around 20, doing chalk art to promote Dark Souls III’s…

Tales of Link, the all-star mobile branch of Bandai Namco’s beloved Japanese roleplaying game series, is coming to the U.S. next month. Fans can preregister for the game on iOS and Android to score a free “Wild Girl” Sophie.

Because You Can Never Have Too Many Digimon, Here’s Seven More

In appreciation for all the fans that picked up copies of the excellent Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth, Bandai Namco is releasing seven new trainable Digimon for free on March 10. New additions include Rosemon and six less important ones. I kid, I kid. I love all Digimon equally, even if they are named Ravemon. Rose…

A Ten-Minute Tour Of Pokkén Tournament Wii U

The Wii U version of Namco Bandai’s Pokémon fighting game has landed at Kotaku, along with strict time constraints on how much video we can share. So here’s quick look at training, fighting, customization and Amiibo unlocks of Pokkén Tournament. Before review day arrives we are able to share 30 minutes of direct feed (non-streamed)…

Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth: The Kotaku Review

Cyber Sleuth is the most fun I’ve had with Digimon in a long time, though my idea of ‘fun with Digimon’ is quite specific. It’s been nearly 19 years since Bandai launched Digital Monster toys, a more ‘masculine’ counterpart to the wildly popular Tamagotchi. In 1999 we met the DigiDestined in Digimon Adventure, the first…