Nintendo

Toad’s Performance Of ‘Shallow’ Should Win A Grammy

Noted vocalist Toad has finally released his long-awaited version of “Shallow,” the Oscar-winning duet from Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, and it is truly the height of vocal performance. If you’ve already written a piece about the top songs of the decade, talk about bad timing! Toad, of course, is a big Gaga fan himself,…

Pokémon Sword and Shield: The Kotaku Review

Roughly 10 hours into Pokémon Shield, I stepped into a stadium packed with screaming fans to face off against ghost-type gym leader Allister, a shy and awkward mask-wearing kid. I reliably made it through three of the four Pokémon on his team before getting my shit completely wrecked by his last monster. Even without Dynamaxing,…

People Are Putting Mai Shiranui In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Since Nintendo isn’t including King of Fighters character Mai Shiranui in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, fans have started adding Mai any way they can. As previously reported, director Masahiro Sakurai said Mai would not be added to the game because, as he explained, “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is for good boys and girls of many…

Nintendo’s Ambulance Game Is Giving Me Some Serious Dreamcast Vibes

All I could think as I played through a few levels of The Stretchers, Nintendo’s new eShop-exclusive Switch game, is that it feels like a Sega Dreamcast game I somehow forgot to play back in 1999. It’s got that low-poly, bright-colored aesthetic, a tiny little open city in which wreaking cartoonish havoc is acceptable, and…

Like Real Fitness, Ring Fit Adventure Is Great But Tough To Stick With

For a wonderful stretch of days in late October, every short workout I did with Nintendo’s Ring Fit Adventure revealed it to be a better game. Then I just stopped playing. These are the best and worst things that can come from a video game combined with exercise. First, the good stuff… I reviewed Ring…

Super Mario 64 Land, An Enormous Fan-Made Mario Game, Is Out Now

Superstar Mario modder Kaze Emanuar, whose work we’ve featured here a ton, has a huge new project out today: Super Mario 64 Land, an all-new Mario game based on Super Mario 64 that adds new levels, new bosses, new powerups and new music. There’s a catch—it’s technically a mod for Super Mario 64, not a…

Someone Mashed Buttons So Fast They Broke Mario Party 4 (Update)

Some folks are just really good at mashing buttons. And everyone has their own technique. Maybe you use two fingers. Maybe you hold the controller weird. Odds are though, you aren’t as good at mashing buttons as Ludwig Ahgren, who mashed so fast and so hard in a Mario Party 4 minigame, Domination, that he…

The Best Level In Luigi’s Mansion 3 Lets You Help Or Betray A Friendly Ghost

Luigi’s Mansion 3 is, weirdly, set in a large hotel. Each floor of this hotel is a differently themed level, some more ordinary than others. For example, early floors feature kitchens and hotel rooms, while later floors feature deserts and pirate ships. But the best floor and level in Luigi’s Mansion 3 is one where…

Mario Maker Contest: Too Many Thwomps, Winners!

Last week I challenged you fine Kotaku readers to create some courses in Mario Maker 2 and load them up with Thwomps. I was curious how far you all would take the challenge. I discovered some of you really, REALLY like Thwomps. In many ways, I asked for my own punishment this week. Thwomps lend…

Nintendo Just Released A Wacky Ambulance Game

A new Nintendo-published game, The Stretchers, just came out on the Nintendo eShop. It’s a co-op game where you and a friend load people onto an ambulance and take them to a hospital, and it looks very silly. The Stretchers comes from the same people that made Little Nightmares, Tarsier Studios, and it manages to…

Universal Studios Japan’s Super Nintendo World Is Coming Together

Super Nintendo World won’t open at Universal Studios Japan until next spring. But recent snapshots show how construction is coming along. It looks like this area of the theme park will be impressive and noticeable. Twitter user L.C.A. Studios has been documenting progress. It’s possible to see the Super Mario flagpole from different parts of…

The Internet Reacts To Mai Shiranui’s No-Show In Smash

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate received a huge dose of SNK today with the release of Fatal Fury protagonist Terry Bogard as a playable character, a King of Fighters-themed stage featuring cameos from characters like Kyo Kusanagi and Iori Yagami, and 50 new pieces of music from the studio’s extensive history. One popular fighter that won’t…

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s Latest Fighter, Terry, Goes Live Today

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s latest DLC fighter goes live today. SNK’s Terry Bogard arrives with a unique stage with special ring-out rules and a host of guest characters—though not Mai Shiranui, because as director Masahiro Sakurai put it in today’s live stream, “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is for good boys and girls of many different…

Nintendo has sold over ten million Switch consoles (including Switch Lite) in Japan as of November 3. On November 15, Pokémon Sword and Shield will be released, so yes, that number will go up! 

People Are Attempting Ring Fit Adventure Speedruns, Sweatily

Humankind has always set about the daunting task of pushing past its boundaries, whether physical or otherwise. Now the gauntlet has been thrown for the next grueling task facing gamers: Ring Fit Adventure speedruns. Armed with water, towels, and a frankly excellent attitude, gamers have taken on the challenge to solve a core conundrum: How…

Luigi’s Mansion 3 Is An Eerie Delight, From The Lobby To The Penthouse

Why is Luigi still scared of ghosts? After all, it was nearly 20 years ago that he Hoovered up an entire building full of poltergeists in the original Luigi’s Mansion. Then he cleared out six haunted houses in 2013’s Dark Moon. As he enters a massive spook-infested hotel in this month’s Luigi’s Mansion 3, one…

Nintendo Switch Sales Up 50 Percent

The Nintendo Switch is doing quite well. According to the company’s most recent financials, sales jumped 50 percent from July to September when compared to the same period last year. As Bloomberg reports, Nintendo sold 4.8 million Switch consoles during this period. Out of those were 1.95 million Switch Lites. Game sales also increased 48…

Nintendo has updated life-to-date sales numbers for its hardware. The Switch, for example, has sold 41.67 million units worldwide as of September 30. That’s up from the previous total released in June of 36.87 million. The 3DS’s total sales have reached 75.45 million, which is up from the 75.28 million announced in June.

Japanese Government Honors Shigeru Miyamoto As Person of Cultural Merit

Each year, the Japanese government honors people for their important cultural contributions. Included in this year’s Person of Cultural Merit honorees is Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto. Congrats! Those awarded the merit come from a variety of fields including the arts, music, science, and academia. Twenty individuals were named as Person of Cultural Merit recipients, including Miyamoto.…

The Most Expensive Pokémon Card On Earth Sold For $224,500 [Update]

One of the rarest Pokémon cards in existence went up for auction last week at New York-based Weiss and sold for $195,000. It is now officially the most expensive Pokémon card in existence. It’s a “Pikachu Illustrator” card, a promo given out to winners of a comic contest that was held in Japan in 1997-98.…