Nintendo

Wear A Damn Mask

I don’t care if you’re in Michigan, Manchester or Melbourne, if you have to leave your home and can’t stay away from other people, wear a mask. It’s not hard! And to help illustrate this, here’s every single Smash Bros. Ultimate character wearing one. And these guys are doing sweaty work. This is courtesy of aliigleed,…

Nintendo Veteran Explains Some Of The Restrictions Around Creating New Paper Mario Characters

Last month, Nintendo revealed that some of Paper Mario: The Origami King’s boss fights would be against office supplies instead of traditional Mario villains, and a new interview sheds some light on why. “Since Paper Mario: Sticker Star, it’s no longer possible to modify Mario characters or to create original characters that touch on the…

Paper Mario: The Origami King: The Kotaku Review

What do Red Koopa Troopas think about as they’re shuffling back and forth all day on top of platforms? Where do Shy Guys go on their days off? Paper Mario is the only series brave enough to answer these burning questions about the inner lives of Mario characters, and it answers them with humor, style,…

Lego officially confirmed the retro NES console and TV sets that leaked yesterday are real, complete with a new trailer showing the crank that makes Mario side-scroll in action. The set is due out August 1 and costs $230.

Rare Copy Of Super Mario Bros. Sells At Auction For Record-Breaking $114,000

A mint-condition sealed copy of the original Super Mario Bros. sold at auction for $114,000 on July 10, setting a new record for the sale of a single collectible video game. The previous record, a private sale for $100,150 in February 2019, was another sealed copy of Super Mario Bros. “How the heck did they…

Looks Like Lego’s Making A Brick-Built NES That Plays Mario On A Retro TV [Update: It’s Real]

Chinese website VJ Gamer (via Resetera) has uploaded a series of photos of what looks like Lego set 71374, a 2,646 brick recreation of a Nintendo Entertainment System complete with controller, cartridge, and a retro TV set that plays Super Mario Bros. when a crank on the side is turned. I’d buy it. While there’s…

When Nintendo Struggles To Manage Expectations

Earlier this evening, while promoting an upcoming gameplay session for the new Paper Mario on Treehouse Live, Nintendo dropped a teaser for “a first reveal and gameplay for a title in a franchise new to developer WayForward”. And people lost their God damn minds. WayForward have a loooong history of making platformers across all kinds…

Over 50 Sexual Misconduct Allegations Have The Super Smash Bros. Community In Turmoil

The competitive community for Nintendo’s popular Super Smash Bros. series has recently been rocked by an overwhelming amount of sexual misconduct allegations. An endless stream of victims—many speaking out against highly-skilled, popular, or otherwise powerful individuals—has come forward to expose the dark underbelly of a scene built around playing an ostensible children’s game. This has…

How Paper Mario: Origami King‘s Puzzle Battles Work

Nintendo’s next big Switch game is Paper Mario: The Origami King, announced less than two months ago via a humble tweet and arriving on July 17. The Paper Mario series’ reputation has been a bit spotty as of late, but Origami King has by and large gotten rid of the more annoying parts of the…

Donkey Kong Country Is Coming To Nintendo Switch Online

OK, we can all stop asking now (for this game, anyway). Nintendo just announced that Donkey Kong Country is coming to the Switch Online’s catalogue of retro games on July 15. It’ll be joined by SNES game Natsume Championship Wrestling, while The Immortal—which you may know more for its box art than the game itself—is…

The Designer Of The NES Dishes The Dirt On Nintendo’s Early Days

When discussing Nintendo’s rise as a digital dreamsmith in the ‘80s, game designers like Shigeru Miyamoto and Gunpei Yokoi get most of the limelight. But it was the hardware designed by Masayuki Uemura that served up their fantasies to millions around the globe. I spent 2019 criss-crossing Japan researching my book Pure Invention: How Japan’s…

Buggy Switch Game Pulled After Using Zelda Music Without Permission

On July 2, open-world game Final Sword was released on the Japanese Nintendo eShop. Players soon noticed something familiar. The background music sounded like “Zelda’s Lullaby.” Have a listen for yourself. Compare to “Zelda’s Lullaby.” According to Automaton, Final Sword has been removed from the eShop after using Zelda music without permission.  HUP Games, Final…

We Are Now Entering The “Animal Crossing Buttplug” Stage Of 2020

A lot of people around the world, especially in the US, are still stuck at home, away from friends and loved ones. Out of this isolation new ways of keeping in touch have emerged, including…buttplugs and vibrators that can sync with Animal Crossing and vibrate whenever the player swings a shovel. As Vice report, Kyle…

Cicadas And Beetles Invade Animal Crossing: New Horizons Today

Today is the beginning of July, when swarms of cicadas, bunches of big beetles, and schools of new fish start showing up on Northern Hemisphere islands in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Nets up, people. Growing up, cicadas were one of the sure signs of summer. The massive bastards would start showing up on trees around…

The Real-Life Go-Karting Company Nintendo Sued Didn’t Meet Crowdfunding Goal

A crowdfunding site was launched in Japan to support the karting company Nintendo sued for intellectual property infringement. The global pandemic has significantly affected the Japanese tourism industry, impacting the rental kart company, which was previously called Maricar. Earlier this year, the company was ordered to pay Nintendo 50 million yen ($458,000) for violating the…

Min Min Kicks Off Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s Second DLC Pass With A Helluva Punch

Min Min ruined my Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and I’m completely fine with it. Before yesterday, my character selection screen was the picture of perfect symmetry—a six-row rectangle featuring mustachioed plumbers, space-faring canines, and one question mark, but mostly just Fire Emblem characters. Now, the screen looks like this: It’s a total affront to the…

Nintendo President Apologizes For Joy-Con Trouble

During a recent financial Q&A, Nintendo finally apologized for issues caused by Joy-Cons but will not comment further due to the current class-action lawsuit. Players have been dealing with what’s called Joy-Con drift as Kotaku previously reported, stating how it was becoming a real problem. Last year, a class-action lawsuit was filed with Nintendo accused of…

If One Nintendo Switch Cooling Fan Isn’t Enough, Here Are Two

Earlier this year, Kotaku introduced a USB-connected fan to help chill things down during Japan’s notoriously hot summers. Now, here’s a USD peripheral is not one, but two fans. How cool is that? This reikyaku (“cooling”) charging grip from Japan’s Thanko. Unlike the single USB-fan, the Switch is housed in a cradle and can recharge…

Universal Studios Japan’s Super Nintendo World Delayed Due To Covid-19

This summer, Universal Studios Japan’s Super Nintendo World was slated to open. As Kotaku has previously reported, the park is coming along nicely. However, due to the novel coronavirus, the Mario-themed area will not open. The state of emergency has been lifted in Japan, and USJ re-opened on June 8. Visitors, however, have been restricted,…

Shakedown: Hawaii Is Being Released On The Wii And Wii U This Summer

The original Nintendo Wii was launched all the way back in 2006. And now, 14 years later, indie developer Vblank Entertainment is releasing Shakedown: Hawaii on the old console and also bringing the game to the WiiU too. The Wii port of Shakedown: Hawaii is being released only in Europe while the Wii U port…