Mario

Shirtless Mario Leads To Widespread Pandemonium

"everyone was so horny to play as naked link they didn't consider the consequences. now we have naked mario. i hope you're happy."

“Is it political? Is it a PC thing?” Fox News’ Steve Doocy asked of a recent profile that sent Mario’s job as a plumber down the drain. The removal of his working class status, his grab bag of millionaire playboy hobbies, his elevation into the highest echelons of the Hollywood elite—how did we not see…

Mario Is Officially No Longer A Plumber

According to Mario’s newly updated, official Japanese-language profile, the iconic character isn’t working as a plumber. This shouldn’t be a total surprise, because the character seems to do everything but plumbing. But doesn’t going down Warp Pipes count? Doesn’t appear so! Here is how the recently uploaded Mario profile explains the character: All around sporty,…

227 Artists Remade An Episode Of Super Mario World’s Cartoon

This is The Mama Luigi Project, a year-long effort to bring together over 200 artists so that they could completely reanimate one of the most famous episodes of the Super Mario World TV series: Mama Luigi. 255 scenes had to be done, with almost every single one of them featuring a different art and animation…

Dark Souls to Super Mario World: Highlights From Our 12-Hour Stream

Yesterday, my colleague Jason Schreier and I spent 12 hours sitting on my couch and streaming video games. We ate some pizza, sang some songs, and beat some bosses. It was fun. Each of us picked three games for the other one to play. Jason had me play Suikoden 2, Super Mario RPG, and Super…

Super Mario Maker Community Reveals New Speedrun Playlist With Exciting Race

Twenty eight Super Mario Maker creators have banded together and created an exhaustive series of courses push the game’s speedrun potential. Super Warp World, a community-made speedrun ruleset,brings their levels into an impressive pack full of numerous paths and secrets. The game debuted last night in a blind race and it was awesome. Mario games are popular…

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle: The Kotaku Review

Mario’s power as an icon is defined by his versatility. The plumber doesn’t just jump: he fights, he drives, he plays sports, he parties. He does it all, really, without ever looking out of place. And yet earlier in the year, the announcement of a Mario and Rabbids mash-up was met by some skepticism on…

Earthworm Jim’s Mean-Spirited Satire Doesn’t Hold Up

Earthworm Jim first released on the Sega Genesis today in 1994. The strange side scroller married offbeat humor and experimental level design. The result was a hodgepodge of a game that was frustrating but engaging. Developed by Shiny Entertainment, Earthworm Jim positions itself largely as a work of satire seeking to upend various side scrolling…

Oh God This Waluigi Cosplay

This is how Mick Ignis went to Comic Con this year. I will not sleep easily tonight. He had some make-up help from Cig Nuetron, who was looking just as awful/amazing as Wario (while that’s Rannie Rodil as Mario & Luigi’s Princess Shroob):

Just As You Thought, Nintendo Is Doing Really Well

During the Wii U years, things didn’t always look so good. This time last year, Nintendo was losing more money than expected. But now, Nintendo has the Switch, and it’s doing just fine, thank you. According to Reuters, the 16.21 billion yen ($144.95 million) operating profit for the April to June period surpassed an 11.55…

The Worst Way To Meet Miyamoto

For a certain type of video game enthusiast, getting to meet Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto is the ultimate dream. You rehearse in your head what you’re going to say. You hope you don’t blow it. In 1997, game music composer Grant Kirkhope had, shall we say, a suboptimal experience meeting Nintendo’s game design guru. This…

Nintendo-Themed Jordans Are About As 1989 As It Gets

Johnny Barry’s Freaker Sneaks, who earlier this year did a custom run of Jordan IV’s in a SNES colourway, are back with a handful of very expensive NES Jordans. They cost $1250 a pair, and in addition to the NES colour scheme they’ve also got some extra features like Mario labels, a cartridge-shaped Jordan tag…

Look At This Bad Mario Puzzle

Nintendo has released a one thousand piece Mario puzzle, and there’s something wrong with it. Can you guess? More than half the pieces in this box are the same exact color. Has anyone who worked on this actually seen a puzzle before? I’m no puzzle expert, but that seems like a recipe for a bad…

Touring Super Mario Odyssey‘s New Donk City

We recently played more Super Mario Odyssey and enjoyed the sights and sounds of New Donk City. If you want to learn about the city that never leaps, sit down to watch this informative travelogue before making a trip there when Odyssey releases on October 27th.  Transcript: If you’re looking to get away for a…

During our recent playthrough of Super Mario Odyssey’s demo, we found the saddest man in New Donk City. We’ll have more sights and sounds to share in the coming days.

Here’s A Closer Look At That Nuclear Bunker Filled With Mario Murals

Foxtrot-01 is one of several Minuteman Missile Launch Sites, a series of facilities dedicated to launching inter-continental nukes in the event that the U.S. comes under attack. It’s also filled with Mario murals. The bunker’s fascination with Mario first surfaced (as far as I can tell) back in 2014 after it was pointed out in…

Super Mario Postage Stamps Coming To Japan 

Today in Japan, the country’s postal service is releasingan official set of Super Mario stamps. This is not the first Mario stamp set to be released in Japan, as another one came out a few years back. As Famitsu notes, one set is 820 yen ($7.30) and most certainly will 1Up any letter. Kotaku East…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: A Little Mario In All Of Us, Winners!

The ‘Shop Contest is back, and the first one in a few months is now complete. Unfortunately, the results have shattered my confidence in Super Mario Odyssey unless it gets some standalone DLC devoted to just how weird Mario and Cappy can get. But congrats to this week’s winner: Pleasance13. Maybe if Mario finally possessed…

Hololens Super Mario Bros. Looks Dangerously Fun

Designer Abhishek Singh created a first-person augmented reality version of Super Mario Bros.’ first level, which is very cool. Then he dressed up as Mario to test out his creation in New York City’s Central Park. That’s the dangerous bit. On one hand, Singh’s AR game does a great job of demonstrating the potential of…

Japanese Airport Cosplays As Nintendo Advertisement

Travellers arriving at Kansai International Airport in Osaka will soon be greeted by Nintendo characters plastered all over the place. Starting June 23, Nintendo is setting up what it’s calling the “Nintendo Check In” at the airpot’s Terminal 1 with Switch, 3DS, and smart device titles. The airport is also slipping on some huge Nintendo…